News Articles

Excerpts of Key News Articles in Major Media

Below are highly revealing excerpts of key news articles from the media suggesting major
cover-ups and corruption. Links are provided to the full news articles for verification. If any link
fails to function, read this webpage. These news articles are listed by order of importance. You
can also explore the articles listed by order of the date of the news article or by the date posted.
By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can and will build a brighter future.

Note: Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news articles on dozens of
engaging topics. And read excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever
published.

U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba

2001-05-01, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662
In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent
people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against
Cuba. Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible
assassination of Cuban migrs, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking
planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The plans
were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into
supporting a war to oust Cuba's ... Fidel Castro. America's top military brass even contemplated
causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and
blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national
indignation." The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were
presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they
apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.
The Joint Chiefs even proposed using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first
attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba. Should the rocket
explode and kill Glenn, they wrote, "the objective is to provide irrevocable proof that the fault
lies with the Communists." The scary thing is none of this stuff comes out until 40 years after.
Note: Why was ABC the only major news source to report on this highly revealing story? Read the
shocking declassified documents on Operation Northwoods. Many military and political leaders
look at the world as a grand chessboard. Sacrificing pawns (innocent civilians) is sometimes

necessary to capture the queen. Explore revealing news articles on military corruption. Then check
out eye-opening 9/11 news articles.

Former U.S. Air Force Officers Recount Experiences With UFOs at

Nuclear Missile Bases
2010-10-27, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/airmen-govt-clean-ufos/story?id=11738715
The U.S. government's official line may be that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) don't pose a
national security threat, but a group of former Air Force officers gathered Monday in the nation's
capital to tell a different story. During a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington,
D.C., seven former Air Force officers once stationed at nuclear bases around the country said that
not only have UFOs visited Air Force bases, some have succeeded in disabling nuclear missiles
stationed there. "I want the government to acknowledge that this phenomenon exists," said Robert
Salas, a former U.S. Air Force Nuclear Launch Officer. Salas said he doesn't think the UFOs he
claims to have encountered had any offensive intent, but he believes they wanted to leave
an impression. "They wanted to shine a light on our nuclear weapons and just send us a
message," he said. "My interpretation is the message is get rid of them because it's going
to mean our destruction." Other former officers recounted similar stories of unexplained moving
lights and odd-shaped flying objects during their time in the service. Leslie Kean, an investigative
journalist and author of the new book "UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on
the Record," said thousands of pages of documentation support the officers' accounts. She spent
the last 10 years researching UFOs and combing through thousands of pages of declassified
government material. Kean said that one declassified document that she researched for her book,
relating to the Salas incident, said, "the fact that no apparent reason for the loss of the 10 missiles
can easily be identified is a cause for grave concern to this headquarters."
Note: Watch CNN coverage of this most fascinating testimony. This is not the first time
government and military witnesses have testified at the National Press Club about a major coverup of UFOs. Watch 22 witnesses testifying to remarkable personal stories in May 2001. A twopage written summary presents amazing UFO testimony from top officials. And don't miss these
fascinating news articles on UFOs. What may be the best UFO documentary ever made, Out of
the Blue, is also available for free viewing.

Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group

2005-09-29, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4290944.stm
How much influence do private networks of the rich and powerful have on government policies and
international relations? One group, the Bilderberg, has often attracted speculation that it
forms a shadowy global government. Every year since 1954 [they have brought] together about
120 leading business people and politicians. At this year's meeting in Germany, the audience

included the heads of the World Bank and European Central Bank, Chairmen or Chief Executives
from Nokia, BP, Unilever, DaimlerChrysler and Pepsi ... editors from five major newspapers,
members of parliament, ministers, European commissioners ... and the queen of the Netherlands.
The chairman ... is 73-year-old Viscount Etienne Davignon. In an extremely rare interview, he
played down the importance of Bilderberg. "I don't think (we are) a global ruling class because I
don't think a global ruling class exists." Will Hutton ... who attended a Bilderberg meeting in 1997,
says people take part in these networks in order to influence the way the world works, to create
what he calls "the international common sense". And that "common sense" is one which supports
the interests of Bilderberg's main participants. For Bilderberg's critics the fact that there is almost
no publicity about the annual meetings is proof that they are up to no good. Bilderberg meetings
often feature future political leaders shortly before they become household names. Bill
Clinton went in 1991 while still governor of Arkansas, Tony Blair was there two years later
while still an opposition MP. All the recent presidents of the European Commission attended
Bilderberg meetings before they were appointed. Informal and private networks like Bilderberg
have helped to oil the wheels of global politics and globalisation for the past half a century.
Note: Why is this meeting of top world leaders kept so secret? Why, until a few years ago, was
there virtually no reporting on this influential group in the major media? Thankfully, the alternative
media has had some good articles. And a Google search can be highly informative. Explore many
other revealing major media news articles on powerful secret societies. And for those interested,
check out reliable, eye-opening information covering the big picture of how and why these secret
societies are using government-sponsored mind control programs to achieve their agenda.

The War On Waste

2002-01-29, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
On Sept. 10 [2001], Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists,
"the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy." He said money wasted by the
military poses a serious threat. Rumsfeld promised change but the next daySept. 11the world
changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been
forgotten. Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48
billion in new defense spending." More money for the Pentagon ... while its own auditors admit the
military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends. "According to some estimates we
cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillionthat's $8,000 for
every man, woman and child in America. A former Marine turned whistle-blower is risking his
job by speaking out ... about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's
balance sheets. Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service ... tried to follow the
money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records. "The director looked at me and
said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback. My supervisor asking me why I care
about doing a good job," said Minnery. He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the
problem. The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's
allegations.

Note: To see the CBS video clip of this shocking admission, click here. For another key clip, click
here. For other media articles revealing major corruption, click here. Even though originally not
reported because of the trauma of 9/11, why wasn't this news broadcast far and wide later? Why
isn't it making media headlines now? For other revealing news articles on military corruption, click
here.

[9/11] Hijack 'suspects' alive and well

2001-09-23, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1559151.stm
Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the [9/11] suicide attacks on Washington and
New York has turned up alive and well. The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having
carried out the attacks are now in doubt. Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men
that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre
on 11 September. His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on
television around the world. He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks. He
has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities. He acknowledges that he attended
flight training school at Daytona Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed
Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring. But, he says, he left the United States in
September last year [and] became a pilot with Saudi Arabian airlines. Abdulaziz Al Omari,
another of the Flight 11 hijack suspects ... says he is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and that he
lost his passport while studying in Denver. Meanwhile ... a London-based Arabic daily says it has
interviewed Saeed Alghamdi. He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that
crashed in Pennsylvania. And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may
also be alive. FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of
the suicide hijackers is in doubt.
Note: The deceptions in the official story of 9/11 are nowhere more clearly shown than in this
important story. The FBI never revised its list of alleged hijackers, and these four are all later
listed in the official 9/11 Commission report as the hijackers. Click here and scroll down a
little over half way to see their photos in the official report. For more on this, click here. For an
abundance of reliable information suggesting a major 9/11 cover-up, click here. For other revealing
news articles on 9/11, click here.

Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of

Representatives
1979-07-00, United States National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/summary.html
Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations in the Assassination of President John F.
Kennedy in Dallas, Tex., November 22, 1963. Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high
probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not

preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President. The committee believes, on the
basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably
assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee is unable to identify the other gunman
or the extent of the conspiracy. The [original] investigation into the possibility of conspiracy in the
assassination was inadequate. The conclusions of the investigations were arrived at in good faith,
but presented in a fashion that was too definitive. The Department of Justice failed to exercise
initiative in supervising and directing the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the
assassination. The Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to investigate adequately the
possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President. The Central Intelligence Agency
was deficient in its collection and sharing of information both prior to and subsequent to the
assassination. The Warren Commission failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a
conspiracy to assassinate the President.
Note: This same US Congressional report, on the subject of the Martin Luther King, Jr.
assassination, states that "The committee believes, on the basis of the circumstantial evidence
available to it, that there is a likelihood that James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King as
a result of a conspiracy." Why hasn't this information been widely reported and become public
knowledge? For a possible answer, click here. For other revealing news articles on assassinations,
click here.

It only takes $26 to hack a voting machine

2011-09-28, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44706301/ns/technology_and_science-security
Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have developed a hack that, for
about $26 and an 8th-grade science education, can remotely manipulate the electronic voting
machines used by millions of voters all across the U.S. The researchers ... performed their proofof-concept hack on a Diebold Accuvote TS electronic voting machine, a type of touchscreen Direct
Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system that is widely used for government elections. Diebold's
voting-machine business is now owned by the Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose evoting machines are used in about 22 states. Roger Johnston and Jon Warner from Argonne
National Laboratory's Vulnerability Assessment Team demonstrate three different ways an attacker
could tamper with, and remotely take full control, of the e-voting machine simply by attaching what
they call a piece of "alien electronics" into the machine's circuit board. The electronic hacking
tool consists of a $1.29 microprocessor and a circuit board that costs about $8. Together
with the $15 remote control, which enabled the researchers to modify votes from up to a
half-mile away, the whole hack runs about $26.
Note: Why isn't this making news headlines? For more on this critical development, click here. For
many other news articles on serious problems with elections, click here.

How can it be that you pay more to the IRS than General Electric?
2010-04-01, Forbes magazine
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corpora...
Some of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate than you do-that is, if they pay taxes at all. The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the
conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam.
In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion. How did this happen? It's complicated. GE in effect
consists of two divisions: General Electric Capital and everything else. The everything else--maker
of engines, power plants, TV shows and the like--would have paid a 22% tax rate if it was a
standalone company. It's GE Capital that keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years,
GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. (posting a $6.5
billion loss in 2009), and make lots of money overseas (a $4.3 billion gain). Not only do the
U.S. losses balance out the overseas gains, but GE can defer taxes on that overseas
income indefinitely. It's the tax benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason why
multinationals end up with lower tax rates than the rest of us.
Note: Can you believe that GE not only pays no taxes, they actually get credit from the US
government? They ship US jobs overseas and then reap huge tax benefits as a result. What's
wrong with this picture? For a wealth of media news articles on the hidden manipulations of major
financial corporations, click here.

BlackLight's physics-defying promise: Cheap power from water

2008-07-02, CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/01/smallbusiness/blacklight.fsb/index.htm
Imagine being able to convert water into a boundless source of cheap energy. That's what
BlackLight Power, a 25-employee firm in Cranbury, N.J., says it can do. The only problem: Most
scientists say that company's technology violates the basic laws of physics. Such skepticism
doesn't daunt Dr. Randell Mills, a Harvard-trained physician and founder of BlackLight, who
recently claimed that he has created a working fuel cell using the world's most pervasive element:
the hydrogen found in water. Mills says he has a market-ready product: a fuel cell that produces a
chemical reaction to alter hydrogen atoms. The fuel cell releases heat that turns water into steam,
which drives electric turbines. The working models in his lab generate 50 kilowatts of electricity enough to power six or seven houses. But these, Mills says, can be scaled [up] to drive a large,
electric power plant. The inventor claims this electricity will cost less than 2 cents per
kilowatt-hour, which compares to a national average of 8.9 cents. Mills developed the
patented cocktail that enables the reaction - a solid fuel made of hydrogen and a sodium hydride
catalyst - only a year ago. (He recently posted instructions on the company's Web site,
blacklightpower.com). Now that the device is ready for commercialization, he says, BlackLight is
negotiating with several utilities and architecture and engineering firms. The business, Mills says,

has attracted $60 million in funding from wealthy individuals, investment firms ... and it is
no longer seeking money. BlackLight's board of directors reads like a Who's Who of finance and
energy leaders.
Note: For two New York Times articles showing the viability of this amazing technology, click here
and here. And for the latest on this exciting technology, click here. For many other exciting major
media news articles on new energy inventions, click here.

Political ties to a secretive religious group

2008-04-03, MSNBC News
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/03/857959.aspx
For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has been a Washington institution. Every
president has attended the breakfast since Eisenhower. Besides the presidents ... the one
constant presence at the National Prayer Breakfast has been Douglas Coe. Although hes not an
ordained minister, the 79-year-old Coe is the most important religious leader you've never seen or
heard. Scores of senators in both parties ... go to small weekly Senate prayer groups that
Coe attends, [including] senators John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Observers who have investigated Coes group, called The Fellowship Foundation, [describe] a
secretive organization. Coe repeatedly urges a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Its a
commitment Coe compares to the blind devotion that Adolph Hitler demanded. "Hitler,
Goebbels and Himmler. Think of the immense power these three men had. Coe also quoted
Jesus and said: One of the things [Jesus] said is 'If any man comes to me and does not hate his
father, mother, brother, sister, his own life, he can't be a disciple." Writer Jeff Sharlet ... lived
among Coe's followers six years ago, and came out troubled by their secrecy and rhetoric. We
were being taught the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin and Mao. Hitlers genocide wasnt really
an issue for them. It was the strength that he emulated, said Sharlet, who ... has now written
about The Fellowship, also known to insiders as The Family, in [a] book called The Family: The
Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
Note: This article strangely has been removed from the MSNBC website, though you can still
access it using the Internet Archive. Watch the incredible four-minute NBC video clip showing Coe
praising a communist Red Guard member for cutting the head off his mother at this link. For more
on Coe's powerful links to Congress and corruption, see the MSNBC article available here. And for
powerful inside information from a mind programmer who claims to have escaped from "the
family," and another who says he is from a very high level there, click here and here. To develop
an understanding of the bigger picture behind all of this, click here.

A New Way to Fight Cancer?

2007-01-23, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2007/02/22/a-new-way-to-fight-cancer.html

There are no magic bullets in the fight against cancer: that's the first thing every responsible
scientist mentions when discussing a possible new treatment, no matter how promising. If there
were a magic bullet, though, it might be something like dichloroacetate, or DCA, a drug that kills
cancer cells by exploiting a fundamental weakness found in a wide range of solid tumors. So far,
though, it kills them just in test tubes and in rats infected with human cancer cells; it has never
been tested against cancer in living human beings. DCA ... is an existing drug whose side effects
are well-studied and relatively tolerable. Also, it's a small molecule that might be able to cross the
blood-brain barrier to reach otherwise intractable brain tumors. Within days after a technical paper
on DCA appeared in the journal Cancer Cell last week, the lead author, Dr. Evangelos Michelakis
of the University of Alberta, was deluged with calls and e-mails from prospective patientsto
whom he can say only, Hang in there. DCA is a remarkably simple molecule. It acts in the body to
promote the activity of the mitochondria. Researchers have assumed that the mitochondria in
cancer cells were irreparably damaged. But Michelakis wondered if that was really true. With his
colleagues he used DCA to turn back on the mitochondria in cancer cellswhich promptly died.
One of the great things about DCA is that it's a simple compound, in the public domain, and
could be produced for pennies a dose. But that's also a problem, because big drug
companies are unlikely to spend a billion dollars or so on large-scale clinical trials for a
compound they can't patent.
Note: For a 2010 follow-up by Dr. Michelakis with promising results, click here and watch a 10minute video at this link. For the DCA website, click here. Thank you Newsweek for this important
article. Why haven't any other mass media reported this major story? Why aren't many millions of
dollars being poured into research? Notice even Newsweek acknowledges the drug
companies are not interested in finding a cure for cancer if they can't make a profit from it.
Some suspect the drug companies have even suppressed cancer cures found in the past. For one
amazing example of this, click here. More on DCA available here.

Free-hug man speaks out

2006-09-28, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/freehug-man-speaks-out/2006/09/28/1159337257...
The man behind the latest YouTube sensation has spoken out for the first time about his global
cuddling controversy. Serial hugger Juan Mann describes the free hugs he hands out...as fast-food
emotion. His cuddling campaign received an international dose of publicity today, after a clip
showing his public displays of affection won a coveted front page spot on the video sharing
website. An American television audience of millions also watched him at work, when the video
was broadcast on the prime-time breakfast program Good Morning America yesterday. Today, the
hugger was at it again, brandishing his "free hugs" sign in the busy pedestrian thoroughfare, and
having quite a few people take him up on his offer. "It's a way to make people smile," Mann said.
"For every person who gets a hug, you see five walk past with a smile on their face." But his efforts
to spread the love became a little too popular for some people's liking, according to a blurb on the
YouTube video, which said: "As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and
officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED." Undeterred, Mann collected more than

10,000 signatures on a petition he presented to the City of Sydney council. Demands for a
halt to the hugs petered out shortly after, and the end of the clip shows Mann hugging an official.
City worker Elly Mitchell, who handed out a few free hugs on her lunch break today, said she was
inspired to organise [an] event after seeing the video online. "We're going to hug the city," Ms
Mitchell said.
Note: If you haven't seen this powerfully inspiring four-minute video clip, join the over 10 million
who have by clicking here. The free hugs movement is rapidly spreading around the world! Click
here and here to see more. For several other short, deeply inspiring videos, click here.

US plans to fight the net revealed

2006-01-27, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4655196.stm
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for
"information operations". The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap".
It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the
Freedom of Information Act. Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense,
Donald Rumsfeld, signed it. The operations described in the document include a surprising range
of military activities: public affairs officers who brief journalists, psychological operations troops
who try to manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer network attack specialists
who seek to destroy enemy networks. The military's psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding
its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans. "Psyops messages will
often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public.
Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will 'fight the net' as it
would an enemy weapons system," it reads. The document recommends that the United States
should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum". US
forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging
communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the
electromagnetic spectrum". The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved by
the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously indeed in the
Pentagon.
Note: For other revealing news articles on military corruption, click here. For other revealing news
articles on government corruption, click here.

'Bonesmen' for president

2004-03-10, MSNBC News
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4500423

Pres. Bush and John Kerry were both members of the secret organization. Skull and
Bones dates to 1832. It was in fact a reaction to a secret society, the Masons. Founder William
Huntington Russell thought of his little enclave as sort of anti-Masons and as a home for the
wealthy and the powerful ... who would do anything for another Bonesman. Each year, 15 young
undergraduate seniors are tapped for membership. Members of Skull and Bones gather on High
Street in the Yale campus at the tomb. New members, the neophytes, are expected to do things
like lie in coffins, wrestle in mud, kiss a skull, and confess their sexual histories in front of the group
to bond themselves together. Once youre in, youre in: Skull and Bones is for life. There are a lot
of [famous] Bonesmen ... Henry Luce, who created TIME magazine; Harold Stanley, founder of
Morgan Stanley; William F. Buckley; Averell Harriman, long-time governor of New York. And then
there are the presidents: William Howard Taft, whose father, Alphonso, had helped found
the group; George Herbert Walker Bush, whose father, Prescott, was a Bonesman and a
senator; the current President Bush. [And there's] John Kerry, Bonesman class of 66. His wife
Teresa Kerrys first husband, John Heinz ... was Skull and Bones. Both Bush and Kerry refused to
answer Meet the Press host Tim Russert when asked about the organization. Alexandra Robbins,
author of Secrets of the Tombs" [said] "The sole purpose of Skull and Bones is to get members
into positions of power and then to have those members hire other members to prominent
positions, which is something that President Bush has done."
Note: For a highly revealing, four-minute CNN News clip on Skull and Bones, click here. For other
major media video clips reporting on this powerful secret society, click here. Many have claimed
that secret societies have not had much influence on world politics. This article and videos raises
many serious questions about this. For those interested in exploring reliable information covering
the big picture of how and why these secret societies are using government-sponsored mind
control programs to achieve their agenda, click here. And for other revealing media news articles
on powerful secret societies, click here.

Alleged [9/11] Hijackers May Have Trained At U.S. Bases

2001-09-14, Newsweek Magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/2001/09/14/alleged-hijackers-may-have-trained-at-u-s-...
U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of
the planes that were used in [the 9/11] terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military
installations in the 1990s. Three of the alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers
licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. -- known as the
"Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation," according to a high-ranking U.S. Navy source. Another of
the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in
Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received
language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air
Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source. The five men
were on a list of 19 people identified as hijackers by the FBI on [September 14]. The three foreign
nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were
among the four men who allegedly commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. That flight [ended in]

rural Pennsylvania. The third man who may have trained in Pensacola, Ahmed Alghamdi, allegedly
helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Military records show that the three used as their address 10 Radford Boulevard, a base roadway
on which residences for foreign-military flight trainees are located.
Note: For more on this vitally important news, see the Washington Post news article available here
and the Los Angeles Times news article here. Several of the alleged hijackers also contacted US
media shortly after 9/11 to report that they were alive and were not on the hijacked planes. See the
BBC News and Times of London news articles on this. Yet the 9/11 Commission Report lists these
men as the official hijackers at this link. So what's really going on here? For many other major
media news articles suggesting that rogue elements of government were involved in 9/11, click
here. For our reliable 9/11 Information Center, click here.

When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing

1999-02-01, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm
"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United
States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner. At least the
voice sounds amazingly like him. But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology
developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Psychological operations ...
PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments,
militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives. Covert operators kicked
around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing
other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was
for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world. The tape war never proceeded ... but the
"strategic" PSYOPS scheming didn't die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of
Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the
feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that
appeared to float in the air. A super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very
technology for PSYOPS application. The "Holographic Projector" is described in a classified Air
Force document as a system to "project information power from space ... for special operations
deception missions."
Note: If the above link fails, click here. If you want to understand some of the many hidden
capabilities of the U.S. military, this article is a must read. For other revealing news articles on the
use of these "nonlethal" weapons, click here.

C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Human Behavior

1977-07-21, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1FFC3E59157493C3AB178CD85...

The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a 14-year program to find ways to "control
human behavior" through the use of chemical, biological and radiological material,
according to agency documents made public today by John Marks. The documents ... suggested
broader experimentation on unwitting humans by the intelligence agency or its paid
researchers than had been publicly known before. Mr. Marks distributed 20 documents that
described the following incidents, among others: In 1956, the C.I.A. contracted with a private
physician to test "bulbocapnine," a drug that can cause stupor or induce a catatonic state, on
monkeys and "convicts incarcerated at" an unnamed state penitentiary. A letter from an unnamed
C.I.A. official in 1949 discussed ways of killing people without leaving a trace. "I believe that there
are two chemical substances which would be most useful in that they would leave no characteristic
pathological findings," the letter said. In 1952, two Russian agents who were "suspected of being
doubled" were interrogated using "narcohypnotic" methods. The two men were given sodium
pentothal and a stimulant. One interrogation produced a "remarkable" regression, the papers said,
during which "the subject actually relived certain past activities of his life. The subject totally
accepted Mr. [name deleted] as an old and trusted and beloved personal friend whom the subject
had known in years past in Georgia, U.S.S.R." The C.I.A. conducted secret medical experiments
from 1949 through 1963 under the code names Bluebird, Artichoke, MK Ultra and MK Delta.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For a one-minute video clip showing Congressional
testimony on a dart gun which causes a heart attack without leaving any evidence, click here. For
lots more reliable, verifiable information suggesting a major cover-up of government mind control
programs, click here. For other revealing news articles on mind control, click here.

Hypnotic Experimentation and Research

1954-02-10, Declassified CIA Document (Verify using note below)
http://www.WantToKnow.info/mind_control/foia_mind_control/190691_assassins_pr...
A posthypnotic of the night before (pointed finger, you will sleep) was enacted. Misses [deleted]
and [deleted] immediately progressed to a deep hypnotic state with no further suggestion. Miss
[deleted] was then instructed (having previously expressed a fear of firearms in any fashion) that
she would use every method at her disposal to awaken Miss [deleted] (now in a deep hypnotic
sleep) and failing this, she would pick up a pistol nearby and fire it at Miss [deleted]. She was
instructed that her rage would be so great that she would not hesitate to kill [deleted] for failing to
awaken. Miss [deleted] carried out these suggestions to the letter including firing the (unloaded)
gun at [deleted] and then proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. Both were awakened and
expressed complete amnesia for the entire sequence. Miss [deleted] was again handed the
gun, which she refused (in an awakened state) to pick up or accept from the operator. She
expressed absolute denial that the foregoing sequence had happened.
Note: This text is quoted from page 1 of declassified CIA document MORI ID 190691. To verify the
statement in the text, make a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request as described here, or
directly view a scanned copy online here. To access thousands of pages of declassified CIA mind

control documents online, click here. For lots more reliable information on this crucial topic, click
here. For many revealing news articles on mind control, click here.

Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I.

2012-04-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along...
[We've] been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years or so it has seemed. A
would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb
synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh,
N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was
hatched in Massachusetts. But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose
undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4
explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects navely played
their parts until they were arrested. When an Oregon college student ... thought of using a car
bomb to attack a festive Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Portland, the F.B.I. provided a van
loaded with six 55-gallon drums of inert material, harmless blasting caps, a detonator cord and a
gallon of diesel fuel. An undercover F.B.I. agent even did the driving, with Mr. Mohamud in the
passenger seat. To trigger the bomb the student punched a number into a cellphone and got no
boom, only a bust. Typically, the stings initially target suspects for pure speech comments to an
informer outside a mosque, angry postings on Web sites, e-mails with radicals overseas then
woo them into relationships with informers, who are often convicted felons [or] F.B.I. agents posing
as members of Al Qaeda or other groups. This is legal, but is it legitimate? Without the F.B.I.,
would the culprits commit violence on their own? Is cultivating potential terrorists the best use of
the manpower designed to find the real ones?
Note: Read the entire article to find out just how far the FBI will go to entrap incompetent
individuals. To read a New York Times article showing that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
involved similar entrapment, only the bomber was not stopped by knowing FBI agents, click here.
More on that available here. For reports on other crazy cases of FBI entrapment, click here and
here. For reliable, verifiable information suggesting 9/11 may have been facilitated in some way
click here.

Massive Pentagon Child Pornography Accusations Not Investigated

2011-01-06, CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/06/acd.02.html
The Pentagon porn story began in 2006. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] child
pornography sting operation called Project Flicker produced payment records of about 5,200
people, many of whom provided Army or fleet zip codes or military e-mail addresses.
Subsequently, the Pentagon's investigative branch, DCIS, began going through the ICE list to
identify who actually was a DOD employee. The investigation, however, only ran for eight months,

and only cross-checked some 3,500 names for Pentagon ties. According to DCIS documents
revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request, out of that 3,500, investigators uncovered 264
employees or contractors, including staffers for the secretary of defense. Nine people had top
security clearances. But only about 20 percent of those 264 people were completely
investigated. Fewer still were prosecuted. After about eight months, the entire probe was
halted. It left about 1,700 names totally unchecked, 1,700 alleged kiddie porn customers, an
unknown number of whom may still work in some capacity for the Defense Department. Late last
summer, after investigations by "The Boston Globe" and Yahoo! News revealed the figures, a
Pentagon spokesman promised to reopen the investigation, conceding that DCIS had stopped due
to lack of resources. DCIS says it is now revisiting all 5,200 names. They have now identified 302
employees or staffers. [Yet] of the 302 people confirmed as DOD personnel or contractors,
only 70 of them were actually investigated.
Note: To see the CNN video clip of this important news, click here. Isn't it interesting that the
Pentagon, with it's huge budget, claims the investigation was stopped due to "lack of resources." If
you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to the highest
levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of
Silence," available here.

Predator Priests Shuffled Around Globe

2010-04-14, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/14/world/main6397279.shtml
There he was, five decades later, the priest who had raped Joe Callander in Massachusetts. The
photo in the Roman Catholic newsletter showed him with a smile across his wrinkled face, nearnaked Amazon Indian children in his arms and at his feet. The Rev. Mario Pezzotti was working
with children and supervising other priests in Brazil. It's not an isolated example. In an
investigation spanning 21 countries across six continents, The Associated Press found 30 cases of
priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad. Some escaped police
investigations. Many had access to children in another country, and some abused again. A priest
who admitted to abuse in Los Angeles went to the Philippines, where U.S. church officials mailed
him checks and advised him not to reveal their source. A priest in Canada was convicted of sexual
abuse and then moved to France, where he was convicted of abuse again in 2005. Another priest
was moved back and forth between Ireland and England, despite being diagnosed as a pederast,
a man who commits sodomy with boys. "The pattern is if a priest gets into trouble and it's
close to becoming a scandal or if the law might get involved, they send them to the
missions abroad," said Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and critic of what he says is a
practice of international transfers of accused and admitted priest child abusers. "Anything to
avoid a scandal."
Note: This is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to understand how pedophile rings have
infiltrated the highest levels of government, don't miss the powerful Discovery Channel
documentary on this available here.

A New Look at the 9-11 Commission

2009-09-11, Time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1921659,00.html
Former New Jersey attorney general John Farmer served as senior counsel to the 9/11
Commission, tasked with investigating the government response to the attacks. His new book,
The Ground Truth, picks up where the commission left off taking a deeper look at the
government's ... response to the attacks and exposing officials determined to hide their failings
from the inquiry. Farmer uses newly released transcripts and recordings to cast doubt on the
official version of events. He spoke with TIME. [Time:] Why do you think officials tried to obscure
[the truth about 9/11]? [Farmer:] It's almost a culture of concealment. You have someone like
Sandy Berger ... taking rather extreme measures to remove documents from the National Archives
and hide them at a construction site where he could retrieve them later and destroy them. There
were interviews made at the FAA's New York center the night of 9/11 and those tapes were
destroyed. The CIA tapes of the interrogations were destroyed. The story of 9/11 itself, to
put it mildly, was distorted and was completely different from the way things happened. If
what the government is telling you isn't true, then the truth could be anything. I think there is
evidence that the truth wasn't told and that at least some of that was deliberate.
Note: Many respected scholars, officials and professionals have questioned the 9/11
Commission's report. Click here and here to read some of their statements. For lots more reliable,
verifiable information from the major media questioning the 9/11 Commission's report, click here
and here.

Merck Created Hit List to 'Destroy,' 'Neutralize' or 'Discredit' Dissenting

Doctors
2009-05-06, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/merck-created-hit-list-to-destroy-neutralize-or-d...
Merck made a "hit list" of doctors who criticized Vioxx, according to testimony in a Vioxx class
action case in Australia. According to The Australian, Merck emails from 1999 showed company
execs complaining about doctors who disliked using Vioxx. The list, emailed between Merck
employees, contained doctors' names with the labels "neutralise," "neutralised" or
"discredit" next to them. One email said: We may need to seek them out and destroy them
where they live. The plaintiffs' lawyer gave this assessment: "It gives you the dark side of the use
of key opinion leaders and thought leaders. If (they) say things you don't like to hear, you have to
neutralise them." The court was told that James Fries, professor of medicine at Stanford
University, wrote to the then Merck head Ray Gilmartin in October 2000 to complain about the
treatment of some of his researchers who had criticised the drug. "Even worse were allegations
of Merck damage control by intimidation," he wrote. "This has happened to at least eight
(clinical) investigators. I was mildly threatened myself, but I never have spoken or written on these
issues." The allegations come on the heels of revelations that Merck created a fake medical

journal -- the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine -- in which to publish studies about
Vioxx; had pop songs commissioned about Vioxx to inspire its staff, and paid ghostwriters to draft
articles about the drug.
Note: FDA analysts estimated that Vioxx caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks, 30 to
40 percent of which were probably fatal, in the five years the drug was on the market. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Where'd the Bailout Money Go? Shhhh, It's a Secret

2008-12-22, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,470824,00.html
It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money
going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they
can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. "We've lent
some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing
it,"' said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in
emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." The
Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money
and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is
being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific
answers. "We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for
Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars. The answers
highlight the secrecy surrounding the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which earmarked $700
billionabout the size of the Netherlands' economyto help rescue the financial industry. There
has been no accounting of how banks spend that money. "It is entirely appropriate for the
American people to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent in private industry," said
Elizabeth Warren, the top congressional watchdog overseeing the financial bailout. But, at least for
now, there's no way for taxpayers to find that out.
Note: For more key information that the bankers don't want you to know, click here. For many
revealing reports from reliable sources on the realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.

How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?

2008-07-25, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtml
They're some of the most trusted voices in the defense of vaccine safety: the American Academy
of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two, and pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit. But CBS News has found these
three have something more in common - strong financial ties to the industry whose products they
promote and defend. The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for

conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters. The
totals are kept secret, but public documents reveal bits and pieces. A $342,000 payment from
Wyeth, maker of the pneumococcal vaccine - which makes $2 billion a year in sales. A $433,000
contribution from Merck, the same year the academy endorsed Merck's HPV vaccine - which
made $1.5 billion a year in sales. Every Child By Two, a group that promotes early immunization
for all children, admits the group takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell us
how much. Then there's Paul Offit, perhaps the most widely-quoted defender of vaccine
safety. He's gone so far as to say babies can tolerate "10,000 vaccines at once." In fact, he's
a vaccine industry insider. Offit holds in a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's
Hospital, funded by Merck. He holds the patent on an anti-diarrhea vaccine he developed
with Merck. And future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash.
Note: For an excellent report endorsed by dozens of respected doctors and nurses on the serious
risks and dangers of vaccines, click here. And read an excellent list of questions related to the
usefulness of vaccines that are almost never raised by the major media. This US government
webpage states, "Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in
1989, 3,981 compensation awards have been made. More than $2.8 billion in compensation
awards has been paid to petitioners."

Roswell Truth Debated

2008-07-04, CNN Larry King Live
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/04/lkl.01.html
LARRY KING: On July 8th, 1947, Colonel William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the 509th
Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field released a press statement that a flying saucer had
crashed ... and that the Army had recovered the disk within hours. A second press release was
issued claiming that it was nothing more than a weather balloon. Carlene Green['s] father was
stationed [there]. GREEN: He said, "Don't let anybody tell you that the incident at Roswell did not
happen. I was there. I saw the spacecraft." They were told, don't talk about it. SCHMITT: [They]
threatened physical violence if they should ever talk about this. KING: Frankie Rowe. Her father
was a fireman in Roswell. [He] reported to his family that in addition to a crashed saucer, he saw
two full body bags and one living little person. ROWE: He said that they tried to help it. KING: We
are now joined by ... Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo XIV astronaut, sixth man to walk on the
moon. MITCHELL: All of my experience comes from what I call the old timers. Because I
lived in the area ... and because I was an astronaut, some of them wanted to get it off their chest
before they passed on. I eventually went to the Pentagon and asked for a meeting with the
Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A vice admiral said ... I don't know about that
but I'm going to find out. [He] called a few weeks later and said he had found the source of the
black budget funding for this project and that he was going to subsequently investigate. [Yet he
was later] told, I'm sorry, admiral, you do not have need to know here. We knew many of the
people, including the ranch where this was discovered, and in spite of all of the security
oaths, etc, the talk in the community was ... that it was an alien craft.

Note: For video clips of this CNN report, click here. For more detailed, fascinating testimony on the
existence of UFOs from Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, click here. For our
resource-filled UFO Information Center, click here. For other revealing news articles on UFOs,
click here.

UFOS: Are They for Real?

2007-11-09, CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0711/09/lkl.01.html
LARRY KING, HOST: Our panel here in Los Angeles, Fife Symington, the former governor of
Arizona, who in 1997 ridiculed an infamous UFO sighting by thousands of people in the state and
later admitted that he himself saw a craft. James Fox, the filmmaker who is the executive producer
of the award-winning feature length documentary "Out of the Blue" -- the definitive investigation of
the UFO phenomenon. Colonel Chuck Halt [USAF] the deputy base commander of Bentwaters
Woodbridge, a U.S. military base in Suffolk, England. Sergeant Jim Penniston ... a security
supervisor at that base in 1980. He says he sat with a UFO on the ground for 45 minutes before it
hovered above him and shot into the air at an unearthly speed. SYMINGTON: I was a skeptic
[until] I saw a wedge-shaped craft of enormous proportions fly over ... Phoenix. KING: Colonel Halt
[what] did you see? HALT: We noticed three objects. They were illuminated with multiple lights and
were moving at high speed in sharp, angular patterns. One of them approached us at very high
speed and sent down a beam ... at our feet. SGT. JIM PENNISTON: I was there. We discovered a
craft of unknown origin ... on the ground. We touched it, walked around it, photographed it. KING:
Added to [our panel] is John Callahan, the former division chief of accidents and investigations
branch of the FAA. In 1986 a Japanese pilot said he saw twin cylinders flying in formation within
500 feet of his air cargo jet. He claimed the object was the size of two aircraft carriers and it
followed him for over 30 minutes. KING: After this incident, you said [the] FAA administrator
held a briefing. CALLAHAN: When we got all done with our briefing ... the CIA man stood up
and said, this event never happened, we were never here, you're all sworn to secrecy and
we are confiscating all of this data.
Note: To watch the full video of this discussion, click here. For what may be the best UFO
documentary ever made, watch Out of the Blue, available for free viewing at this link. For lots more
fascinating information suggesting there may have been a major cover-up of the UFO
phenomenon, follow the links in the article above and see our UFO Information Center, which is
filled with reliable, verifiable information on this important topic.

Media as lapdog
2007-04-27, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-palast27apr27,0,5178561.story

In an e-mail uncovered and released by the House Judiciary Committee last month, Tim
Griffin, once Karl Rove's right-hand man, gloated that "no [U.S.] national press picked up" a
BBC Television story reporting that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to
challenge the votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election. Griffin wasn't
exactly right. The Los Angeles Times did run a follow-up article. But ... most of the major U.S.
newspapers and the vast majority of television news programs ignored the story even though it
came at a critical moment just weeks before the election. In fact, not one U.S. newsperson even
bothered to ask me or the BBC for the data and research we had painstakingly done. The truth is, I
knew that a story like this one would never be reported in my own country [the U.S.], because
investigative reporting ... is dying. Again and again, I see this pattern repeated. Back in December
2000, I received two computer disks from the office of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
Analysis of the data ... indicated that Harris' office had purged thousands of African Americans
from Florida's voter rolls as "felons." Florida now admits that many of these voters were not in fact
felons. Nevertheless, the blacklisting helped cost Al Gore the White House. I reported on the
phony felon purge in Britain's Guardian and Observer and on the BBC while Gore was still in the
race, while the count was still on. Yet the story of the Florida purge never appeared in the U.S.
daily papers or on television ... until months later, that is, after the Supreme Court had decided the
election.
Note: The American-born author of this article, BBC reporter Greg Palast, has repeatedly exposed
major corruption in the British media, yet the U.S. press often ignores his well-researched stories.
For possibly the most amazing story he wrote which got virtually no U.S. media coverage, click
here.

Patents Over Patients

2007-04-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01moss.html
We could make faster progress against cancer by changing the way drugs are developed. In the
current system, if a promising compound cant be patented, it is highly unlikely ever to make
it to market no matter how well it performs in the laboratory. The development of new
cancer drugs is crippled as a result. The reason for this problem is that bringing a new drug to
market is extremely expensive. In 2001, the estimated cost was $802 million; today it is
approximately $1 billion. To ensure a healthy return on such staggering investments, drug
companies seek to formulate new drugs in a way that guarantees watertight patents. In the
meantime, cancer patients miss out on treatments that may be highly effective and less expensive
to boot. In 2004, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that an off-the-shelf compound called 3bromopyruvate could arrest the growth of liver cancer in rats. The results were dramatic; moreover,
the investigators estimated that the cost to treat patients would be around 70 cents per day. Yet,
three years later, no major drug company has shown interest in developing this drug. The hormone
melatonin, sold as an inexpensive food supplement in the United States, has repeatedly been
shown to slow the growth of various cancers when used in conjunction with conventional
treatments. Early this year, another readily available industrial chemical, dichloroacetate, was

found by researchers at the University of Alberta to shrink tumors in laboratory animals by up to 75

percent. However ... dichloroacetate is not patentable, and the lead researcher is concerned that it
may be difficult to find funding from private investors to test the chemical. Potential anticancer
drugs should be judged on their scientific merit, not on their patentability.
Note: To explore several cancer cures which have shown dramatic potential, yet are not being
studied for lack of funds due to inability to patent the process, click here. Why are these very
promising treatments not being fast-tracked as the expensive AIDS drugs were? For a top MD's
revealing comments on this, click here. And for why the media won't feature these promising
cancer treatments in headlines, click here.

CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals

2007-00-00, U.S. Department of Energy Website
https://web.archive.org/web/20070703043857/http://hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety...
In December 1974, the New York Times reported that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic
activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens during the 1960s. That report prompted
investigations by both Congress (in the form of the Church Committee) and a presidential
commission (known as the Rockefeller Commission) into the domestic activities of the CIA, the
FBI, and intelligence-related agencies of the military. Congressional hearings and the
Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the
DOD had conducted experiments on both cognizant and unwitting human subjects as part
of an extensive program to influence and control human behavior through the use of
psychoactive drugs (such as LSD and mescaline) and other chemical, biological, and
psychological means. They also revealed that at least one subject had died after administration
of LSD. Frank Olson, an Army scientist, was given LSD without his knowledge or consent in 1953
as part of a CIA experiment and apparently committed suicide a week later. Subsequent reports
would show that another person ... died as a result of a secret Army experiment involving
mescaline. The CIA program, known principally by the codename MKULTRA, began in 1950 and
was motivated largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mindcontrol techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea. Most of the MKULTRA records were
deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then-Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms.
Note: This highly revealing article on a U.S. government website shows that the CIA was actively
involved in mind control projects. For an excellent summary based on thousands of pages of
declassified CIA documents showing the secret creation of unknowing assassins or "Manchurian
Candidates," click here.

The Disbelievers
2006-09-08, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR20060907016...

A recent Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll of 1,010 Americans found that 36 percent suspect
the U.S. government promoted the attacks or intentionally sat on its hands. Sixteen percent
believe explosives brought down the towers. A Zogby International poll of New York City residents
two years ago found 49.3 percent believed the government "consciously failed to act." The loose
agglomeration known as the "9/11 Truth Movement" has stopped looking for truth from the
government. The academic wing is led by [Prof. David Ray] Griffin, who founded the Center
for a Postmodern World at Claremont University; James Fetzer, a tenured philosopher at
the University of Minnesota; and Daniel Orr, the retired chairman of the economics
department at the University of Illinois. The movement's de facto minister of engineering is
Steven Jones, a tenured physics professor at Brigham Young University, who's ... concluded that
the collapse of the twin towers is best explained as controlled demolition. Catherine Austin Fitts
served as assistant secretary of housing in the first President Bush's administration. [Robert]
Bowman was chief of advanced space programs under presidents Ford and Carter. Fitts and
Bowman agree that the "most unbelievable conspiracy" theory is the one retailed by the
government. It was a year before David Ray Griffin, an eminent liberal theologian and philosopher,
began his stroll down the path of disbelief. He wondered why ... military jets failed to intercept even
one airliner. He read the 9/11 Commission report with a swell of anger. Contradictions were
ignored and no military or civilian official was reprimanded. Griffin's book, "The New Pearl Harbor"
... never reviewed in a major U.S. newspaper, sold more than 100,000 copies and became a
movement founding stone.
Note: If the above link fails, click here.

9/11 Commission Heads: We Still Don't Know the Whole Truth of 9/11
2006-08-09, CNN News
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0608/09/ldt.01.html
A shocking new book by the 9/11 Commission co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton
says Americans still don't know the whole truth about their government's initial response to
those terrorist attacks that day. [The book] outlines repeated misstatements by the
Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration. Fog of war ... could not explain why all of the
after-action reports, accident investigations, and public testimony by FAA and NORAD officials
advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue. Untrue -- the military's original timeline of United
Flight 93. Equally untrue, the government's timeline for American Flight 77 and details about
fighter jets scrambled to intercept it. DOD did not accurately report to the 9/11 Commission on the
response to the September 11, 2001 hijackings. So far, government investigators stopped short of
calling all of these inaccuracies lies. If all of the after-action reports are untrue, for whatever
reason, that's a lie. Incompetence and ineptitude on the part of this government ... in the weeks
leading up to 9/11 are established. The fact that the government would permit deception ... the fact
that they would continue and perpetuate the lie suggests that we need a full investigation of what
is going on and what is demonstrably an incompetent and at worst deceitful federal government.

Sept. 11 panel considered Pentagon probe

2006-08-05, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14191255/
The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon
and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation
into possible deception, the panel's chairmen say in a new book. Republican Thomas Kean
and Democrat Lee Hamilton also say in "Without Precedent" that their panel was too soft in
questioning former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and that the 20-month investigation may
have suffered for it. The book...recounts obstacles the authors say were thrown up by the Bush
administration, internal disputes over President Bush's use of the attacks as a reason for invading
Iraq, and the way the final report avoided questioning whether U.S. policy in the Middle East may
have contributed to the attacks. "Fog of war...could not explain why all of the after-action reports,
accident investigations and public testimony by FAA and NORAD officials advanced an account of
9/11 that was untrue," the book states. The questioning of Giuliani was considered by Kean and
Hamilton "a low point" in the commission's examination of witnesses during public hearings. "We
did not ask tough questions, nor did we get all of the information we needed to put on the public
record." In their book, which goes on sale Aug. 15, Kean and Hamilton recap obstacles they say
the panel faced in putting out a credible report in a presidential election year, including fights for
access to government documents and an effort to reach unanimity.

The Lowdown on Sweet?

2006-02-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12sweet.html?ex=12974004...
When Dr. Morando Soffritti ... saw the results of his team's seven-year study on aspartame, he
knew he was about to be injected into a bitter controversy over this sweetener. Aspartame is sold
under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet
Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid. Hundreds of millions of people consume
it worldwide. Dr. Soffritti ... oversees 180 scientists and researchers in 30 countries. Dr. Soffritti's
study concluded that [aspartame] was associated with unusually high rates of lymphomas,
leukemias and other cancers. The study ... involved 1,900 laboratory rats and cost $1 million.
Soffritti said he was inspired to look at aspartame because of what he calls "inadequacies" in the
cancer studies done by Searle in the 1970's. Others have also challenged Searle's studies. Years
before the F.D.A. approved aspartame, the agency had serious concerns about the
accuracy and credibility of Searle's aspartame studies. From 1977 to 1985 -- during much of
the approval process -- Searle was headed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, who is now the secretary
of defense. Searle was acquired by Monsanto in 1985. Dr. Soffritti said ... more research and open
debate were needed on whether aspartame was a carcinogen. "It is very important to have
scientists who are independent and not funded by industry looking at this."

Note: If you want to understand the influence of big money on your health, this article is well worth
reading. Our Health Information Center Health Information Center has lots more. And for an
excellent, incredibly eye-opening documentary on aspartame that will raise more questions about
diet soft drinks, click here.

FAA Received Alert About 9/11 Hijacker

2006-01-07, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91659&page=2
Federal aviation authorities were alerted in early 2001 that an Arizona flight school believed one of
the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers lacked the English and flying skills necessary for the commercial
pilot's license he already held. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector even sat next to the
hijacker, Hani Hanjour, in one of the Arizona classes, checked records to ensure Hanjour's 1999
pilot's license was legitimate but concluded no other action was warranted. Hanjour is believed to
have piloted the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The operations manager for
the now-defunct JetTech flight school in Phoenix said she called the FAA inspector that
oversaw her school three times in January and February 2001 to express her concerns
about Hanjour. "I couldn't believe he had a commercial license of any kind with the skills
that he had," said Peggy Chevrette, the JetTech manager. She also has been interviewed by
the FBI. Marilyn Ladner, a vice president for the Pan Am International Flight Academy that owned
JetTech before it closed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, said the flight school expressed its concerns
and believes the FAA official observed Hanjour's weaknesses firsthand. The Arizona school's alert
is the latest revelation about the extent of information the government possessed before Sept. 11
Note: This article fails to mention the key fact the Hanjour is officially listed as the hijacker
pilot who executed an extremely sophisticated 330-degree diving turn to crash the plane
into the Pentagon (see official report at this link). Yet this article claims his flight instructor said his
skills were so poor she couldn't believe he had any pilot's license. How can that be? For more
information suggesting Hanjour was assisted by U.S. authorities in obtaining his license, click here.
And why has the Pentagon only released a few of the many dozens of security camera videos they
have of the 9/11 Pentagon crash? And these few show nothing conclusive. For lots more reliable
information questioning what really happened on 9/11, click here.

Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence

2006-01-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/opinion/01publiceditor.html?ex=1293771600&e...
The New York Times's explanation of its decision to report, after what it said was a one-year delay,
that the National Security Agency is eavesdropping domestically without court-approved warrants
was woefully inadequate. And I have had unusual difficulty getting a better explanation for readers,
despite the paper's repeated pledges of greater transparency. For the first time since I became
public editor, the executive editor and the publisher have declined to respond to my requests for

information about news-related decision-making. My queries concerned the timing of the exclusive
Dec. 16 article about President Bush's secret decision in the months after 9/11 to authorize the
warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in the United States. I e-mailed a list of 28 questions to
Bill Keller, the executive editor [of the New York Times], on Dec. 19, three days after the article
appeared. He promptly declined to respond to them. I then sent the same questions to Arthur
Sulzberger Jr., the publisher, who also declined to respond. They held out no hope for a fuller
explanation in the future. The top Times people involved in the final decisions [are] refusing
to talk and urging everyone else to remain silent.

U.S. Suppressed Footage of Hiroshima for Decades

2005-08-03, New York Times/Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-media-anniversary.html
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, U.S. authorities
seized and suppressed film shot in the bombed cities by U.S. military crews and Japanese
newsreel teams to prevent Americans from seeing the full extent of devastation wrought by
the new weapons. It remained hidden until the early 1980s and has never been fully aired.
"Although there are clearly huge differences with Iraq, there are also some similarities," said
Mitchell, co-author of "Hiroshima in America" and editor of Editor & Publisher. "The chief similarity
is that Americans are still being kept at a distance from images of death, whether of their own
soldiers or Iraqi civilians." The Los Angeles Times released a survey of six months of media
coverage of the Iraq war in six prominent U.S. newspapers and two news magazines -- a period
during which 559 coalition forces, the vast majority American, were killed. It found they had run
almost no photographs of Americans killed in action. "So much of the media is owned by big
corporations and they would much rather focus on making money than setting themselves
up for criticism from the White House and Congress," said Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN
correspondent. In 1945, U.S. policymakers wanted to be able to continue to develop and test
atomic and eventually nuclear weapons without an outcry of public opinion. "They succeeded but
the subject is still a raw nerve."
Note: As this highly revealing Reuters article was removed from both the New York Times and the
Reuters websites, click here to view it in its entirely on one of the few alternative news websites to
report it. And to go much deeper into how the devastating effects of the bomb were covered up by
various entities within government, click here.

A coverup for a cause of Autism?

2005-06-22, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8243264/ns/msnbc-morning_joe/t/coverup-cause-autism
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Host: Six out of every 1,000 kids get it, and nobody knows exactly why.
But my next guest says ... part of the blame ... needs to fall on government. And it has to do with a
drug called thimerosal. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a senior attorney for the Natural Resources

Defense [Council]. Let's talk tonight about thimerosal. There are a lot of people out there ... very
concerned about the impact of this drug, which is found in vaccines, and how it causes autism.
Talk about that. ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: That's right. Thimerosal is a preservative that was put
in vaccines back in the 1930s. Almost immediately after it was put in, autism cases began to
appear. Autism had never been known before. It was unknown to science. Then the vaccines were
increased in 1989 by the CDC and by a couple of other government agencies. What happened
was the vaccine schedule was increased. We went up from receiving about 10 vaccines in our
generation to these kids receive 24 vaccines. And they all had this thimerosal in them, this
mercury. And nobody bothered to do an analysis of what the cumulative impact of all that
mercury was doing to kids. As it turns out, we are injecting our children with 400 times the
amount of mercury that FDA or EPA considers safe. A child on his first day that he is born
is injected with a hepatitis B shot. Under EPA guidelines, he would have to be 275 pounds
to safely absorb that shot. What happened was that, in 1988, one in every 2,500 American
children had autism. Today, one in every 166 children have autism.
Note: For an excellent article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. revealing the severe manipulations around
vaccines, click here. For a seven-minute video clip of the above interview, click here. For lots more
on autism and vaccines from reliable, verifiable sources, click here

Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

2005-01-11, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/opinion/oe-scheer11
Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and wellorganized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist? To even raise the question amid all the
officially inspired hysteria is heretical. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's
leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this. "The Power of Nightmares: The
Rise of the Politics of Fear" ... argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the
threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by
politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned ... around the world." Why have we
heard so much frightening talk about "dirty bombs" when experts say it is panic rather than
radioactivity that would kill people? Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet
the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan,
when British and U.S. military forces later found no such thing? The film ... directly challenges
the conventional wisdom by making a powerful case that the Bush administration, led by a
tight-knit cabal of Machiavellian neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a
unified international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet empire in order to push a
political agenda. "The nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to
strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this Al Qaeda organization, from the
mountains of Afghanistan to the 'sleeper cells' in America, the British and Americans are chasing a
phantom enemy."

Note: If above link fails, click here. This highly revealing film by one of Britain's most respected
documentary makers is available for free viewing on the Internet. For the link and lots more on this
amazingly revealing documentary, click here. For an excellent review of the film in one of the
U.K.'s leading newspapers, click here.

Lockheed and the Future of Warfare

2004-11-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/business/yourmoney/28lock.html?ex=125938440...
Lockheed Martin doesn't run the United States. But it does help run a breathtakingly big part of it.
Lockheed ... has built a formidable information-technology empire that now stretches from the
Pentagon to the post office. It sorts your mail and totals your taxes. It cuts Social Security checks
and counts the United States census. It runs space flights and monitors air traffic. Lockheed ... is
best known for its weapons. But in the post-9/11 world, Lockheed has become more than just the
biggest corporate cog in what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. It is
increasingly putting its stamp on the nation's military policies. Former Lockheed executives,
lobbyists and lawyers hold crucial posts at the White House and the Pentagon, picking weapons
and setting policies. War and crisis have been good for business. The company's stock has tripled
in the last four years. Lockheed is creating robot soldiers and neural software - "intelligent agents"
- to do their work. Israel spends much of the $1.8 billion in annual military aid from the United
States to buy F-16 warplanes from Lockheed. Its own executives say the concentration of power
among military contractors is more intense than in any other sector of business outside banking.
AND, after 9/11 ... cost is essentially irrelevant. Former Lockheed executives serve on the
Defense Policy Board ... and the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which help make
military and intelligence policy and pick weapons for future battles. Lockheed's board
includes E. C. Aldridge Jr. ... the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. To say that "war and crisis have been good for business" is
quite an understatement. To read what one of the most highly decorated generals had to say about
this, click here.

The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket

2004-10-19, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/oct/19/opinion/oe-scheer19
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the
election, and this one names names. "It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level
people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an
intelligence official who has read the report told me. [The] release of the report, which represents
an exhaustive 17-month investigation by an 11-member team within the agency, has been
"stalled." First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former
Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was

appointed CIA chief. The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than the
earlier bipartisan reports produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. 11 commission and Congress.
"The report found very senior-level officials responsible." By law, the only legitimate reason
the CIA director has for holding back such a report is national security. None of this should surprise
us given the Bush administration's great determination since 9/11 to resist any serious
investigation. The president fought against the creation of the Sept. 11 commission, for example,
agreeing only after enormous political pressure was applied by a grass-roots movement led by the
families of those slain. And then Bush refused to testify to the commission under oath. Instead
he deigned only to chat with the commission members, with Vice President Dick Cheney present,
in a White House meeting in which commission members were not allowed to take notes.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For other reliable information on the 9/11 cover-up, click
here.

A dangerous dose
2004-09-05, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2004/09/05/a_dangerous_dose
Marcia Angell [is] a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School [and one of the] former editors
of The New England Journal of Medicine. Her new book, "The Truth About the Drug Companies,"
is a sober, clear-eyed attack on the excesses of drug company power. How does the drug industry
deceive us? It plies attending physicians with expense-paid junkets to St. Croix and Key West,
Fla., where they are given honoraria and consulting fees to listen to promotional presentations. It
promotes new or little-known diseases such as "social anxiety disorder" and "premenstrual
dysphoric disorder" as a way of selling the drugs that treat them. It sets up phony front groups
disguised as "patient advocacy organizations." It hires ghostwriters to produce misleading scientific
articles and then pays academic physicians to sign on as authors. It sends paid lackeys and shills
out onto the academic lecture circuit to ''educate" doctors about a drug's unapproved uses. It hires
multinational PR firms to trumpet dubious studies as scientific breakthroughs while burying the
studies that are likely to harm sales. It buys up the results of publicly funded research. It maintains
a political chokehold on the American public by donating more money to political campaigns than
any other industry in the country. For many years the drug industry has reaped the highest profit
margins of any industry in America. In 2002, the top 10 American drug companies had profit
margins of 17 percent; Pfizer, the largest, had profit margins of 26 percent. So staggeringly
profitable is the drug industry that in 2002 the combined profits for the top 10 drug
companies in the Fortune 500 were greater than those of all the other 490 companies
combined.
Note: For an excellent 10-page summary of this revealing book written by the esteemed author,
click here. For additional reliable information on the health cover-up, click here.

Connections And Then Some

2003-03-14, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A25...
The Carlyle Group [is] an investment house famous as one of the most well-connected companies
anywhere. Former president George H.W. Bush is a Carlyle adviser. Former British prime minister
John Major heads its European arm. Former secretary of state James Baker is senior counselor,
former White House budget chief Richard Darman is a partner, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt
is senior adviser -- the list goes on. Those associations have brought Carlyle enormous success.
The Washington-based merchant bank controls nearly $14 billion in investments, making it the
largest private equity manager in the world. It buys and sells whole companies the way some firms
trade shares of stock. But the connections also have cost Carlyle. It has developed a reputation as
the CIA of the business world -- omnipresent, powerful, a little sinister. Media outlets from the
Village Voice to BusinessWeek have depicted Carlyle as manipulating the levers of government
from shadowy back rooms. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) even suggested that
Carlyle's and Bush's ties to the Middle East made them somehow complicitous in the Sept. 11
terror attacks. It didn't help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the
news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a
brother of Osama bin Laden. Former president Bush, a fellow investor, had been with him at
the conference the previous day. Bush['s] primary function is to give speeches for Carlyle that
attract wealthy foreigners in places where the former president is especially revered, such as Asia.
The company has rewarded its faithful with a 36 percent average annual rate of return.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. To understand the amazingly powerful role of this lowprofile, yet extremely wealthy and influential group, click here to view free a 48-minute
documentary shown on Dutch national TV which clearly depicts the depths of corruption and deceit
at the highest levels of government. You will be thankful that you watched this highly educational
film.

Defence redefined means securing cheap energy

2002-12-26, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/25/1040511092926.html
As troops and equipment pour into the Gulf for a looming war with Iraq, United States military
thinkers admit that "defence" means protecting ... cheap oil. As far back as 1975, Henry Kissinger,
then secretary of state, said America was prepared to wage war over oil. Separate plans
advocating US conquest of Saudi oilfields were published in the '70s. So it should come as little
surprise that ... four months before the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York - a
battle plan for Afghanistan was already being reviewed by the US Command that would
carry it out after September 11. Military strategists were highlighting the energy wealth of the
Caspian Sea and Central Asia and its importance to America's "security". The Indian media and
Jane's Intelligence Review reported that the US was fighting covert battles against the Taliban,
months before the "war on terrorism" was declared. Over several months beginning in April last
year a series of military and governmental policy documents was released that sought to legitimise

the use of US military force in the pursuit of oil and gas. A spring 2001 article by Jeffrey Record in
the War College's journal, Parameters, argued the legitimacy of "shooting in the Persian Gulf on
behalf of lower gas prices". Mr Record [is] a former staff member of the Senate armed services
committee (and an apparent favourite of the Council on Foreign Relations). [He] advocated the
acceptability of presidential subterfuge in the promotion of a conflict. Mr Record explicitly
urged painting over the US's actual reasons for warfare with a nobly high-minded veneer,
seeing such as a necessity for mobilising public support for a conflict.
Note: This highly revealing report on the military planning of wars for oil is well worth reading in its
entirety, at the link above. For lots more on major deception and manipulation around the event of
9/11, click here.

Human Guinea Pigs: At Your Own Risk

2002-04-22, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1002263,00.html
Over the past three years, more than 60 institutions, including several of the world's most
prestigious research centers, have been criticized by the U.S. government for failing to protect
human subjects adequately. As recently as 1974 individual scientists and their financial backers
could decide for themselves what constituted ethical research. Most of the time their judgment was
sound, but there were plenty of appalling exceptions. In the 1950s Army doctors gave LSD to
soldiers without telling them what it was. In 1963 researchers injected prisoners and
terminally ill patients with live cancer cells to test their immune responses; they were told
only that it was a "skin test." In the 1950s mentally retarded children at Willowbrook, a state
institution in New York, were deliberately infected with hepatitis so that scientists could work on an
experimental vaccine. And in perhaps the most infamous case on record, doctors at Georgia's
Tuskegee Institute, starting in the 1930s, deliberately withheld treatment from syphilis-infected
African-American men for 40 years to monitor the course of the disease. Financial conflicts of
interest can extend not only to the institutions but also to the researchers themselves. Jesse
Gelsinger's death in the University of Pennsylvania's gene-therapy trial in 1999 seemed especially
scandalous [because] James Wilson, the principal investigator in the study, held a 30% equity
stake in Genovo, which owned the rights to license the drug Wilson was studying; the university
owned 3.2% of the company. When Targeted Genetics Corp. acquired Genovo, Wilson reportedly
earned $13.5 million and Penn $1.4 million.
Note: For a powerful, reliable list of astounding incidents in which government and medical
professionals used humans as guinea pigs over the past hundred years and continuing to the
present, click here. Links are provided to reliable sources for verification. For key facts on
government mind control programs, click here.

Pipeline politics taint U.S. war

2002-03-18, Chicago Tribune

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-03-18/news/0203180046_1_caspian-talib...
Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia
mostly are about oil. An article in the Guardian of London headlined, A pro-western regime in
Kabul should give the U.S. an Afghan route for Caspian oil, foreshadowed the kind of skeptical
coverage the U.S. war now receives in many countries. Author George Monbiot ... wrote that the
U.S. oil company Unocal Corp. had been negotiating with the Taliban since 1995 to build "oil and
gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan and into Pakistani ports on the Arabian
sea." Unocal pulled out of the deal after the 1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania were linked to terrorists based in Afghanistan. The terrorist acts of Sept. 11, though
tragic, provided the Bush administration a [pretext] to invade Afghanistan, oust the recalcitrant
Taliban and, coincidentally, smooth the way for the pipeline. To make things even smoother, the
U.S. engineered the rise to power of two former Unocal employees: Hamid Karzai, the new
interim president of Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalizad, the Bush administrations
Afghanistan envoy. [Uri] Averny, a former member of the Israeli Knesset ... argues that the war
on terrorism provides a perfect pretext for Americas imperial interests. If one looks at the map
of the big American bases created for the war, one is struck by the fact that they are
completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean. No
wonder the rest of the world is a bit skeptical about our war on evildoers.
Note: Why do so few people know that these two top officials of Afghanistan were once paid by an
American oil company? For important reports from major media sources on the realities of the "war
on terror," click here.

Vaccine virus 'cancer link'

2002-03-08, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1860042.stm
A monkey virus found in early versions of a vaccine against polio may be linked to a
common type of cancer, suggest scientists. Batches of polio vaccine tainted with "simian
virus 40" (SV40) were given between 1955 and 1963. This was because monkey kidney cells
were used in the [vaccine's] production process. It is [now] conceded that SV40 was present in
the early vaccine - and the latest research, published in the Lancet journal, has linked it to nonHodgkin's lymphoma. This is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which has a role in the body's fight
against infection, and affects mainly the over 40s. The researchers looked at hundreds of tumours
taken from various cancer patients, and compared them with 68 samples taken from nonHodgkin's patients. They found genetic "footprints" of the virus in 43% of the non-Hodgkin's tumour
cells.
Note: This information was uncovered years ago by Merck's top vaccine expert, Maurice Hilleman,
who acknowledged that he unintentionally imported the AIDS virus to the US. See the shocking
video of his testimony available here. For lots of reliable information raising serious questions
about the dangers of vaccines, click here and here.

Experts Urging Broader Inquiry In Towers' Fall

2001-12-25, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A11FB3E550C768EDDAB0994D94...
Saying that the current investigation into how and why the twin towers fell on Sept. 11 is
inadequate, some of the nation's leading structural engineers and fire-safety experts are calling for
a new, independent and better-financed inquiry that could produce the kinds of conclusions vital for
skyscrapers and future buildings nationwide. Experts critical of the current effort ... point out
that the current team of 20 or so investigators has no subpoena power and little staff
support and has even been unable to obtain basic information like detailed blueprints of the
buildings that collapsed. Some structural engineers have said that one serious mistake has
already been made ... the decision to rapidly recycle the steel columns, beams and trusses that
held up the buildings. Interviews with a handful of members of the team, which includes some of
the nation's most respected engineers, also uncovered complaints that they had at various times
been shackled with bureaucratic restrictions that prevented them from interviewing witnesses,
examining the disaster site and requesting crucial information like recorded distress calls to the
police and fire departments. Members have been threatened with dismissal for speaking to
the press.
Note: Our website has over 30 full articles posted from the New York Times. This is the only article
for which the Times threatened to sue us if we didn't remove it. We were allowed to replace it
with this short summary. For more on this, click here. For a two-page summary of many more
major media news articles suggesting a major cover-up of 9/11, click here.

Engineers Suspect Diesel Fuel in Collapse of 7 World Trade Center

2001-11-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/nyregion/29TOWE.html?pagewanted=all
Almost lost in the chaos of the collapse of the World Trade Center is a mystery that under
normal circumstances would probably have captured the attention of the city and the world.
That mystery is the collapse of a nearby 47-story, two-million-square-foot building.
Engineers and other experts ... were for weeks still stunned by what had happened to 7 World
Trade Center. [They] struggle to explain the collapse. That building had housed, among other
things, the mayor's emergency command bunker. It tumbled to its knees shortly after 5:20 on the
ugly evening of Sept. 11. Experts said no building like it, a modern, steel-reinforced high-rise, had
ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire, and engineers have been trying to figure out
exactly what happened and whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the
country. "Even though Building 7 didn't get much attention in the media immediately, within the
structural engineering community, it's considered to be much more important to understand," said
William F. Baker, a partner in charge of structural engineering at the architectural firm Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill. "They say, 'We know what happened at 1 and 2, but why did 7 come
down?'" Jonathan Barnett, a professor of fire protection engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic
Institute, said a definitive answer to the question of what happened in 7 World Trade Center is

perhaps the most important question facing investigators. "It's just like when you investigate a
plane crash. If we find a weakness in the building or a deficiency in the building that causes that
collapse, we then want to find that weakness in other buildings and fix it."
Note: Though this articles blames the collapse on a diesel fuel fire, over 2,000 architects and
engineers say this is impossible. A New York Times article states that some of the I-beams at WTC
7, "once five-eighths of an inch thick, had vaporized." For powerful evidence presented by experts
that World Trade Center 7 was brought down by explosives, click here. And don't miss the PBS
special, "9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out", in which 40 whistle-blowing architects and
engineers present astounding evidence of controlled demolition at World Trade Center 7.

'We've Hit The Targets'

2001-09-13, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2001/09/12/we-ve-hit-the-targets.html
Could the [9/11] bombers have been stopped? NEWSWEEK has learned that while U.S.
intelligence received no specific warning, the state of alert had been high during the past two
weeks, and a particularly urgent warning may have been received the night before the [9/11]
attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to cancel a trip. Why that same information was
not available to the 266 people who died aboard the four hijacked commercial aircraft may become
a hot topic on the Hill.
Note: This most astounding information is buried in this long article. Yet it is repeated in a
Newsweek article 11 days later (9/24/2001), which states, "On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has
learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next
morning, apparently because of security concerns." It was again buried in a longer article, yet the
author felt it important enough to include. Why was there no follow up? WantToKnow.info's Fred
Burks has a reliable deep cover CIA contact who says he was informed just hours before the
attacks that there was going to be a major attack on Washington on 9/11. For an abundance of
reliable verifiable information suggesting a major cover-up around 9/11, click here and here.

Group Calls for Disclosure of UFO Info

2001-05-10, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98572
A group of about 20 former government workers, many of them military and security officials ...
stepped forward on Wednesday to say they had witnessed evidence of aliens and unidentified
flying objects and called for congressional hearings about such sightings. "These testimonies
establish once and for all that we are not alone," said Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure
Project, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to disclosing alleged alien sightings. Greer,
who organized the program at the National Press Club in Washington, argued that the United
States and other governments have known about UFOs for at least 50 years and have been

keeping the information secret. Greer said there were some 400 witnesses who claim to have
firsthand experience with UFO sightings or alien evidence, and are willing to testify before
Congress. Among them is Daniel Sheehan, a well-known Washington lawyer who is acting
as counsel for members of Greer's group. Sheehan told reporters that during the Carter
administration he found out about government-held UFO information that then-CIA Director
George Bush, father of the current president, would not release. Sheehan said he was then led
into the National Archives, where he was shown photographs of captured UFOs, complete with
what appeared to be alien writing symbols. Former Air Force Maj. George Filer III told reporters
that when he was at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, an alien craft came down, and an
alien got out and was shot by a military policeman. "Our security police went out there and found
him at the end of the runway dead," Filer said.
Note: To watch a video of this most intriguing program, click here. An MD and former hospital ER
director, Dr. Steven Greer has videotaped interviews with over 100 military and government
witnesses who had personal experiences with the UFO cover-up. To order these mind-boggling
videos, click here. For lots more reliable, verifiable information on this intriguing topic, click here.

Echelon spy network revealed

1999-11-03, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/503224.stm
Imagine a global spying network that can eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail,
anywhere on the planet. It sounds like science fiction, but it's true. Two of the chief protagonists Britain and America - officially deny its existence. But the BBC has confirmation from the
Australian Government that such a network really does exist. The base is linked directly to the
headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Mead in Maryland, and it is also
linked to a series of other listening posts scattered across the world, like Britain's own GCHQ. The
power of the network, codenamed Echelon, is astounding. Every international telephone call,
fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of
voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages. The
network is so secret that the British and American Governments refuse to admit that
Echelon even exists. But another ally, Australia, has decided not to be so coy. The man who
oversees Australia's security services, Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Bill Blick, has
confirmed to the BBC that their Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) does form part of the network.
Asked if they are then passed on to countries like Britain and America, he said: "They might be in
certain circumstances." They are looking for evidence of international crime, like terrorism. But the
system is so widespread all sorts of private communications, often of a sensitive commercial
nature, are hoovered up and analysed.
Note that this is a 1999 article. The capability to monitor all communications has existed for a
long time. For a powerful, well documented 20-page paper in the Federal Communications Law
Journal providing strong evidence that this program is unconstitutional, click here.

Sidney Gottlieb, 80, Dies; Took LSD to C.I.A.

1999-03-10, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70A13FA355B0C738DDDA...
Sidney Gottlieb, who presided over the Central Intelligence Agency's cold-war efforts to control the
human mind and provided the agency poisons to kill Fidel Castro, died on Sunday. He ... spent his
later years caring for dying patients ... and fighting lawsuits from survivors of his secret tests. He
will always be remembered as the Government chemist who dosed Americans with psychedelics
in the name of national security. Mr. Gottlieb joined the C.I.A. in 1951. Two years later, the agency
established MKUltra and Mr. Gottlieb was running it. He served two decades as the senior scientist
presiding over some of the C.I.A.'s darkest secrets. The first of these were the LSD experiments.
Mr. Gottlieb was fascinated by the drug [and] took it hundreds of times. In the 1950's and early
1960's, the agency gave mind-altering drugs to hundreds of unsuspecting Americans in an effort to
explore the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. In one case, a mental patient in
Kentucky was dosed with LSD continuously for 174 days. Other experiments involved agency
employees, military officers and college students. In all, the agency conducted 149 separate
mind-control experiments, and as many as 25 involved unwitting subjects. At least one
participant died, others went mad, and still others suffered psychological damage after
participating in the project, known as MK Ultra. The C.I.A. ... deliberately destroyed most of
the MKUltra records in 1973. Mr. Gottlieb was also involved in the C.I.A.'s assassination plots.
[He] developed a poison handkerchief to kill an Iraqi colonel, an array of toxic gifts to be delivered
to Fidel Castro, and a poison dart to kill a leftist leader in the Congo.

Mind-Control Studies Had Origins in Trial of Mindszenty

1977-08-02, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E11F83A5B167493C0A91783D85...
It may be difficult for Americans to comprehend the frame of mind of the men who ... started the
Central Intelligence Agency's effort to manipulate human behavior. The C.I.A. leaders were certain
the Communists had embarked on a campaign to control men's minds and they were determined
to find a defense, setting out in earnest the next year1950with Project Bluebird, which evolved
into Project Artichoke, then became MK-ULTRA - MK-DELTA. With each code name change, they
broadened their sweep, until there remained virtually no avenue of human behavior control they
were not exploring. There was an "urgent need," the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies argued,
to develop "effective and practical techniques" to "render an individual subservient to an imposed
will or control." The C.I.A. men ... acknowledged among themselves that much of what they were
setting out to do was "unethical," bordered on the illegal and would be repugnant to the American
people. "Precautions must be taken," one agency official wrote in an internal memo, "not
only to protect the operation from exposure to enemy forces, but also to conceal these
activities from the American public in general." They wanted to be able to get away with
murder without leaving a trace. In attempts to develop ways to administer lethal and mind-

altering drugs surreptitiously through clothing as thick as a leather jacket, they tried out small spray
guns and pencil-like injectors. They studied the writing of the psychologist who worked with Adolf
Hitler, wondered about the use of the "occult" and of "black psychiatry."
Note: To see a free copy of this highly revealing New York Times article, click here. For lots more
reliable, verifiable information suggesting a major cover-up of government mind control programs,
click here.

INTELLIGENCE: Of Dart Guns and Poisons

1975-09-09, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913459,00.html
For nearly nine months the congressional investigations of the Central Intelligence Agency have
been conducted behind closed doors. In the old Senate caucus room the ten members of the
select Senate committee were questioning CIA officials, including Director William Colby and the
deputy director for science and technology, Sayre Stevens, about 11 gm. of shellfish toxin and 8
mg. of cobra venom discovered last May in a CIA storeroom. Colby revealed that the agency in
1952 began a supersecret research program, code-named M.K. Naomi, partly to find
countermeasures to chemical and biological weapons that might be used by the Russian KGB. CIA
researchers ... came up with an array of James Bond weaponry that could use the shellfish toxin
and other poisons as ammunition. To illustrate his testimony, Colby handed a pistol to Committee
Chairman Frank Church. Resembling a Colt .45 equipped with a fat telescopic sight, the gun
fires a toxin-tipped dart, almost silently and accurately up to 250 ft. Moreover, the dart is so
tinythe width of a human hair and a quarter of an inch longas to be almost indetectable,
and the poison leaves no trace in a victim's body. Charles Senseney, an engineer for the
Defense Department, told the Senators that he had devised dart launchers that were disguised as
walking canes and umbrellas.
Note: This silent, lethal dart gun causes what looks like a natural heart attack. If this sophisticated
assassination technology was available back in 1975, what kind of secret weapons do you think
they have now? To watch an incredible one-minute video clip on this dart gun, click here. To
watch the full, highly revealing Warner Brothers documentary Secrets of the CIA, click here. For
other riveting major media articles along these lines, click here.

For Terrorist Fearmongers, Its Always the Scariest Time Ever

2015-06-02, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/02/fear-mongers-always-scariest-ti...
For the fearmongers in the West and their allies, its always the scariest time ever. In February,
former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell, arguing for renewal of the Patriot Act, warned that the
lone wolf terrorist threat to the United States has never been greater. In January, an anonymous
senior aide to U.K. Prime Minister ... argued for a new snooper bill by saying that the terrorist

threat has never been greater. In mid-2014, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron himself raised the
threat level to severe and announced: Britain faces the greatest and deepest terror threat in the
countrys history. Throughout the Bush years ... officials raised their color-coded terror alerts and
issued similar warnings so many times that it became a running joke. Years later, the face of that
joke, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, admitted he was pressured to issue warnings for
political gain. Here we are 14 years after 9/11, and its still always the worst threat ever in all
of history. If we always face the greatest threat ever, then one of two things is true: 1)
fearmongers serially exaggerate the threat for self-interested reasons, or 2) the threat is always
getting more severe, year after year which might mean we should evaluate the wisdom of
terrorism policies that constantly make the problem worse. Whatever else is true, the people
who should have the least credibility on the planet are [those] who have spent the last 15
years exploiting the terror threat in order to terrorize the American population into doing
what they want.
Note: Read an excellent essay by a top US general exposing how war is a racket. For more along
these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about corruption in the
intelligence community and the manipulation of public perception.

Five big banks agree to pay more than $5 billion to settle regulatory
charges
2015-05-20, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/five-big-banks-agree-to-pay-more-than-...
Five of the worlds largest banks have agreed to pay more than $5 billion in fines to settle charges
made by regulatory agencies and the Justice Department that the banks had acted in concert to
manipulate international interest and foreign currency exchange rates. Attorney General Loretta
E. Lynch said the banks had engaged in brazenly illegal behavior on a near-daily basis.
The scale of the price-fixing scandal is hard to grasp. It touched ... almost every company and
individual in the financial markets. By tweaking global benchmarks used to set foreign exchange
and interest rates for a staggering number of transactions a day, the banks over several years
bilked billions of dollars of extra profits by altering rates in their favor. Critics complained that the
Justice Department had failed to prosecute any additional individuals. Wall Street watchdog group
Better Markets called it a slap on the wrist, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in an email: Thats not accountability for Wall Street. Its business as usual, and it stinks. Barclays,
along with JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Citigroup, will plead guilty
to conspiring to manipulate the price of U.S. currency and euros, authorities said. JPMorgan
Chase said it had agreed to plead guilty to a single antitrust violation and pay a fine of $550
million. Under the resolution with the Fed, the firm will pay a fine of $342 million. The bank said it
had previously set aside reserves for these settlements.
Note: When it comes to international banking, it appears that almost everything is rigged. For
more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about the
systemically corrupt financial industry.

FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades

2015-04-18, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/fbi-overstated-forensic-hair-matche...
The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in
an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered
evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. Of
28 examiners with the FBI Laboratorys microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic
matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far,
according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence
Project, which are assisting the government with the countrys largest post-conviction review of
questioned forensic evidence. The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death.
Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the
government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions. The admissions mark a
watershed in one of the countrys largest forensic scandals, highlighting the failure of the nations
courts for decades to keep bogus scientific information from juries, legal analysts said. The
question now, they said, is how state authorities and the courts will respond to findings that confirm
long-suspected problems with subjective, pattern-based forensic techniques like hair and bitemark comparisons that have contributed to wrongful convictions in more than one-quarter of
329 DNA-exoneration cases since 1989.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on the
threats to civil liberties posed by government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Flu vaccine paradox adds to public health debate

2015-01-16, CBC News (Canada's public broadcasting system)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/flu-vaccine-paradox-adds-to-public-health-debat...
People who receive flu vaccines year after year can sometimes show reduced protection, an effect
that Canadian infectious disease specialists say muddies public health messages for annual flu
vaccine campaigns. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, researchers at the B.C. Centre for
Disease Control originally thought seasonal flu shots from 2008 might offer extra
protection. They were puzzled to find instead, seasonal flu vaccination almost doubled the
risk of infection with pandemic flu. Dr. Danuta Skowronski and her colleagues went on to do five
more studies during the summer that showed the same effect in people and in ferrets, which are
considered the best animal model of flu. What was originally called "the Canadian problem" has
since been found in a randomized control trial by researchers in Hong Kong ... Japan and the U.S.
Researchers in several countries have found a blunting or "interference" effect between previous
seasonal vaccines and reduced levels of vaccine protection in later years. "People do not have a
good explanation for why," said Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control at
Toronto's University Health Network. "We have kind of hyped this vaccine so much for so long we
are starting to believe our own hype. Really, what we should be doing is looking for better

vaccines," Gardam said. In the meantime, public health officials who aim to protect people from flu
complications need to grapple with the imperfections of a vaccine given every year to a moving
target of strains.
Note: Healthcare workers in New York protested the government mandate that they be given this
vaccine, from which drug companies made billions of dollars. For more, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing news articles about the mysterious and profitable avian and swine flu panics and
questioning the effectiveness of many other vaccines.

The coming era of unlimited and free clean energy

2014-09-19, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/09/19/the-coming-era-...
In the 1980s, leading consultants were skeptical about cellular phones. The handsets were heavy,
batteries didnt last long, coverage was patchy, and the cost per minute was exorbitant. The
experts are saying the same about solar energy now. They say that solar is inefficient, too
expensive to install, and unreliable, and will fail without government subsidies. They too are wrong.
Solar will be as ubiquitous as cellular phones are. Futurist Ray Kurzweil notes that solar power
has been doubling every two years for the past 30 years as costs have been dropping.
He says solar energy is only six doublings or less than 14 years away from meeting
100 percent of todays energy needs. By Kurzweils estimates, inexpensive renewable
sources will provide more energy than the world needs in less than 20 years. In places such
as Germany, Spain, Portugal, Australia, and the Southwest United States, residential-scale solar
production has already reached grid parity with average residential electricity prices. In other
words, it costs no more in the long term to install solar panels than to buy electricity from utility
companies. The prices of solar panels have fallen 75 percent in the past five years alone and will
fall much further as the technologies to create them improve and scale of production increases. By
2020, solar energy will be price-competitive with energy generated from fossil fuels on an
unsubsidized basis in most parts of the world. Within the next decade, it will cost a fraction of what
fossil fuel-based alternatives do. Despite the skepticism of experts and criticism by naysayers,
there is little doubt that we are heading into an era of unlimited and almost free clean energy.
Note: This article also points out how some big energy companies and the Koch brothers are
lobbying to stop alternative technologies from flowering. Read through a rich collection of energy
news articles with inspiring and revealing news on energy developments. And explore a treasure
trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference.

Thousands of teenage girls enduring debilitating illnesses after routine

school cancer vaccination
2014-05-31, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/thousands-of-teen...
When Caron Ryalls was asked to sign consent forms so that her then 13-year-old daughter, Emily,
could be vaccinated against cervical cancer, she assumed it was the best way to protect Emilys
long-term health. Emily soon suffered side effects. The symptoms grew increasingly worse after
the second and third injections, Emily, now 17, said. One time I couldnt move anything on one
side of my body. I didnt know what was happening. Emily is one of the thousands of teenage
girls who have endured debilitating illnesses following the routine immunisation. She is yet
to recover. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) [has] received
almost 22,000 spontaneous suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports [over the last 10
years] in 13 routine immunisation categories. In the HPV category alone, ADRs numbered 8,228,
of which 2,587 were classified as serious. The agency estimates it receives [only] about 10 per
cent of all reports. Last year, Japan withdrew its recommendation for the HPV vaccine because of
reported side effects. In an article published last week in the Springer journal Clinical
Rheumatology, Dr Manuel Martinez-Lavin ... said these illnesses are more frequent after HPV
vaccination. He wrote: Seemingly inexplicit adverse reactions have been described after the
injection of the newer vaccines vs human papillomavirus (HPV). Adverse reactions appear to
be more frequent after HPV vaccination when compared to other type of immunisations.
Note: Read powerful evidence that some vaccines are not safe nor effective. Remember that big
Pharma makes billions in profit from vaccines.

John Paul's Legacy Stained by Sex Abuse Scandal

2014-04-21, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/john-pauls-legacy-stained-sex-abuse-sc...
The sexual abuse scandal that festered under [Pope John Paul's] watch remains a stain on his
legacy. Pope Francis has inherited John Paul's most notorious failure on the sex abuse front the
Legion of Christ order, which John Paul and his top advisers held up as a model. The Legion
admitted that its late founder sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children. Yet the
Legion's 2009 admission about the Rev. Marcial Maciel's double life was by no means news to the
Vatican. Documents from the archives of the Vatican's then-Sacred Congregation for Religious
show how a succession of papacies ... simply turned a blind eye to credible reports that
Maciel was a con artist, drug addict, pedophile and religious fraud. The documents show
the Holy See was well aware of Maciel's drug abuse, sexual abuse and financial
improprieties as early as 1956, when it ordered an initial investigation and suspended him
for two years to kick a morphine habit. Maciel's fraud, one of the greatest scandals of the 20thcentury Catholic Church, raises uncomfortable questions for today's Vatican about how so many
people could have been duped for so long. [This] brings into question how the church's own
structure, values and priorities enabled a cult-like order to grow from within and how far
accountability for all the harm done should go. It begs the question of whether the order has really
been purged of the abuses that allowed generations of priests to subject themselves to blind
obedience to a false prophet.

Note: It is all too clear that a succession of popes and cardinals of the Catholic church were well
aware of these severe child sex abuse scandals for decades, yet took no serious steps to stop the
harm being inflicted on innocent children. To learn how child sex-abuse rings lead to top levels of
both political and religious leadership around the world, watch the powerful Discovery Channel
documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link and read the astounding news reports available
here.

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and

Destroy Reputations
2014-02-24, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
Western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with
extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. Today, [The Intercept is] publishing [a
document from GCHQs previously secret unit, JTRIG, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence
Group], entitled The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations. Among the core
self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the
internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other
techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers
desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to
achieve those ends: false flag operations (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it
to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose
reputation they want to destroy), and posting negative information on various forums.
Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate
online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have
long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama
adviser and the White Houses former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert
agents and pseudo-independent advocates to cognitively infiltrate online groups and websites,
as well as other activist groups. Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into chat
rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups which spread what he views as
false and damaging conspiracy theories about the government.
Note: To see a guidebook developed by intelligence agencies full of charts and information on how
to infiltrate and deceive the public, click here. The Intercept is the new media source being funded
by Pierre Omidyar and featuring Glenn Greenwald and other top reporters known for their
independence. Note that Greenwald fails to mention that Sunstein's almost exclusive focus was on
"conspiracy theories" advocated by the 9/11 truth movement. For more on his call for what
amounts to a new COINTELPRO, see David Ray Griffin's book Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama
Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory.

Gold price rigging fears put investors on alert

2014-02-23, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d5e00172-9b14-11e3-946b-00144feab7de.html
Global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50 per cent of occasions between January
2010 and December 2013, according to analysis by Fideres, a consultancy. The findings come
amid a probe by German and UK regulators into alleged manipulation of the gold price, which is
set twice a day by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Bank of Nova Scotia and Socit Gnrale in
a process known as the London gold fixing. Fideres research found the gold price frequently
climbs (or falls) once a twice-daily conference call between the five banks begins, peaks (or
troughs) almost exactly as the call ends and then experiences a sharp reversal, a pattern it alleged
may be evidence of collusive behaviour. [This] is indicative of panel banks pushing the gold
price upwards on the basis of a strategy that was likely predetermined before the start of
the call in order to benefit their existing positions or pending orders, Fideres concluded.
The behaviour of the gold price is very suspicious in 50 per cent of cases. This is not
something you would expect to see if you take into account normal market factors, said
Alberto Thomas, a partner at Fideres. Alasdair Macleod, head of research at GoldMoney, a dealer
in physical gold, added: When the banks fix the price, the advantage they have is that they know
what orders they have in the pocket. BaFin, the German regulator, has launched an investigation
into gold-price manipulation and demanded documents from Deutsche Bank. The UKs Financial
Conduct Authority is also examining how the price of gold and other precious metals is set as part
of a wider probe into benchmark manipulation following findings of wrongdoing with respect to
Libor and similar allegations with respect to the foreign exchange market.
Important Note: The above article was removed from the Financial Times website just two days
after it was posted. How strange. To read the full article on another website, click here. And for a
BBC article which shows how the Rothschilds fixed gold prices in the past, click here. For more on
financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Admiral: 'Destroy' photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse

2014-02-12, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/12/osama-bin-laden-photo-cor...
Less than two weeks after the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a top Pentagon official
ordered all photos of bin Laden's corpse be destroyed or turned over to the CIA. In an e-mail
dated May 13, 2011, Adm. William McRaven, the U.S. Special Operations commander, wrote:
"One particular item that I want to emphasize is photos; particularly UBLs remains. At this point
all photos should have been turned over to the CIA; if you still have them destroy them
immediately or get them to the (redacted)." Shortly after the raid in Pakistan, President Obama
said he would not authorize the release of any images of the al-Qaeda leader's body. Days
before the order to destroy the photos, watchdog group Judicial Watch and the Associated Press
had separately filed a Freedom of Information Act request for photos, videos and documents

regarding bin Laden during the raid. Typically, when a Freedom of Information Act request is filed
to a government agency under the Federal Records Act, the agency is obliged to preserve the
material sought even if the agency later denies the request.
Note: Why would a top military commander order all photos of bin Laden's dead body destroyed?
Why would Obama prevent the release of any images of the body? For powerful evidence that the
dead body was not, in fact, bin Laden's, click here and here. For other solid evidence that the
official story of 9/11 is riddles with holes, see our 9/11 Information Center available here.

The F.B.I. Deemed Agents Faultless in 150 Shootings

2013-06-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/us/in-150-shootings-the-fbi-deemed-agents-f...
After contradictory stories emerged about an F.B.I. agents killing last month of a Chechen man in
Orlando, Fla., who was being questioned over ties to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the
bureau reassured the public that it would clear up the murky episode. But if such internal
investigations are time-tested, their outcomes are also predictable: from 1993 to early 2011, F.B.I.
agents fatally shot about 70 subjects and wounded about 80 others and every one of
those episodes was deemed justified, according to interviews and internal F.B.I. records.
The last two years have followed the same pattern: an F.B.I. spokesman said that since 2011,
there had been no findings of improper intentional shootings. In most of the shootings, the
F.B.I.s internal investigation was the only official inquiry. In the Orlando case, for example,
there have been conflicting accounts about basic facts like whether the Chechen man, Ibragim
Todashev, attacked an agent with a knife, was unarmed or was brandishing a metal pole. But
Orlando homicide detectives are not independently investigating what happened. Occasionally, the
F.B.I. does discipline an agent. A typical punishment involved adding letters of censure to agents
files. Critics say the fact that for at least two decades no agent has been disciplined for any
instance of deliberately shooting someone raises questions about the credibility of the bureaus
internal investigations.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease

2013-05-16, British Medical Journal
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3037
The CDC pledges To base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data. In the
case of influenza vaccinations and their marketing, this is not so. Promotion of influenza
vaccines is one of the most visible and aggressive public health policies today. Although
proponents employ the rhetoric of science, the studies underlying the policy are often of
low quality, and do not substantiate officials claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial

and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated. Twenty
years ago, in 1990, 32 million doses of influenza vaccine were available in the United States.
Today [the number is] around 135 million doses. This enormous growth has not been fueled by
popular demand but instead by a public health campaign. Drug companies have long known that
to sell some products, you would have to first sell people on the disease. In the 1950s and 1960s,
Merck launched an extensive campaign to lower the diagnostic threshold for hypertension, and in
doing so enlarging the market for its diuretic drug, Diuril. Could influenza ... be yet one more case
of disease mongering? Marketing influenza vaccines ... involves marketing influenza as a threat of
great proportions. The CDCs website explains that Flu seasons ... can be severe, citing a death
toll of 3000 to a high of about 49000 people. However, a far less volatile and more reassuring
picture of influenza seems likely if one considers that recorded deaths from influenza declined
sharply over the middle of the 20th century ... all before the great expansion of vaccination
campaigns in the 2000s. Yet across the country, mandatory influenza vaccination policies have
cropped up ... precisely because not everyone wants the vaccination, and compulsion appears the
only way to achieve high vaccination rates.
Note: Read the entire revealing article at this link. The author clearly shows how fear and profit are
the driving force behind flu vaccines and not good science and health. And this US government
webpage states, "Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in
1989, 3,981 compensation awards have been made. More than $2.8 billion in compensation
awards has been paid to petitioners." For other verifiable information on health corruption, see the
excellent, reliable resources provided in our Health Information Center.

UFOs Disabling Nuclear Missiles: Former Senator Says Veterans'

Testimony is the "Smoking Gun"
2013-05-07, Wall Street Journal/PRNewswire-USNewswire
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130507-908600.html
In an interview with ABC News/Yahoo! News last Friday, former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel (DAlaska) said statements by U.S. Air Force nuclear missile launch officers regarding mysterious
aerial objects interfering with the functionality of American ICBMs make clear that top
government officials are lying to the public when they claim to have no knowledge of national
security-related UFO incidents. Gravel first gained national recognition in 1971, by placing the stillclassified Pentagon Papers which documented U.S. government malfeasance during the
Vietnam War into the public record. Gravel said the revelations by former/retired Captains
Robert Salas, Bruce Fenstermacher, and David Schindele, as well as retired Security
Policeman Sgt. David Scott, are "the smoking gun of the whole issue" of government
secrecy on UFOs. On September 27, 2010, Captain Salas co-hosted the "UFOs and Nukes"
press conference with noted researcher Robert Hastings, during which seven USAF veterans
revealed ongoing UFO activity at U.S. nuclear weapons sites during the Cold War era. That media
event was extensively and favorably covered by hundreds of news organizations worldwide,
including CNN, which streamed the proceedings live. The full-length video of the press conference

appears at http://www.ufohastings.com. The latest testimony about UFOs knocking ICBMs offline
was heard by Senator Gravel and five other former members of congress at the "Citizen Hearing
on Disclosure" organized by Stephen Bassett at the National Press Club last week.
Note: For the thorough research of Capt. Salas into the event where UFOs disabled nuclear
missiles, click here. Could UFOs disabling nuclear warheads be a message from extraterrestrial
forces for us not to play with such dangerous toys? Hundreds of military and government
witnesses have gone on record claiming a major cover-up around UFOs, including a former
chief of the CIA, the former chiefs of defense of the UK and Canada (see video), and Edgar
Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon. Why is it that so few people are aware of this and
other amazing and even inspiring facts around UFOs? For more, click here.

Rumor: New drug shrinks, cures all tumors

2013-04-01, MSN
http://news.msn.com/rumors/rumor-new-drug-shrinks-cures-all-tumors
Researchers say they have created a drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has
come in contact with, according to Science Magazine. The antibody treatment works by
blocking a protein called CD47 which tricks the body into not destroying cancerous cells. After the
protein is blocked, the body can then recognize the cancer cells as invaders and attack. While the
research is seen as a step closer to discovering a treatment that can cure all cancers, the drug has
only been tested on mice and will need to prove itself on humans before it can be available to
patients. This may take a few years. The research team has been given the green light and
recently received a four-year, $20 million grant to conduct human clinical trials. Research for this
new drug started a decade ago when biologist Irving Weissman at Stanford University was
studying leukemia cells. He found that that leukemia cells produce higher levels of the CD47
protein than healthy cells. CD47 acts as a "don't-eat-me" signal, instructing the body to not eat
harmful cells. Cancers take advantage of this signal to trick the immune system into ignoring them.
Weissman's research showed that blocking CD47 can cure more than just blood cancers.
The drug can also shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and
prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice. The treatment forced the mice's
immune system to kill the cancer cells. This means this single drug could cure a variety of cancers
and prevent cancers from spreading in the body.
Note: With many millions around the world dying of cancer every year, why aren't the most
promising treatments being fast-tracked? Why is this article titled a "rumor"? Why isn't this
making major headlines? Why isn't the very promising treatment of DCA, which is both cheap and
incredibly promising, being given many millions to move rapidly forward? To read major media
articles describing other potential cures not being adequately funded, click here. To understand
why some treatments are suppressed, click here.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says hes convinced his uncles assassination

wasnt work of 1 person

2013-01-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/robert-f-kennedy-says-hes-convinced-hi...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasnt solely responsible for the
assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about
their family [on January 11] while being interviewed in front of an audience ... in Dallas. The event
comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the presidents death. Their
uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later,
their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California
Democratic presidential primary. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come
to grips with his brothers death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry
David Thoreau, poets and others trying to figure out ... the existential implications of why a just
God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing. He said his father thought
the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the
president, was a shoddy piece of craftsmanship. He said that he, too, questioned the
report. The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone
gunman, he said, but he didnt say what he believed may have happened. He said his father had
investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and
nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the presidents assassination, were
like an inventory of mafia leaders the government had been investigating. He said his father, later
elected U.S. senator in New York, was fairly convinced that others were involved.
Note: The History Channel produced
Kennedy." For a five-minute clip of this
with incredible evidence implicating a
revealing reports from reliable major
assassinations, click here.

a nine-part series tellingly titled "The Men Who Killed

excellent piece, click here. For the powerful final episode
US president and others, click here. For other deeply
media sources on the JFK, RFK and other political

IMF's epic plan to conjure away debt and dethrone bankers

2012-10-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9623863/IMFs-epic-plan-to-conjure-...
One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone
bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far
more quickly than anybody imagined. The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bankcreated money -- roughly 97pc of the money supply -- with state-created money. Specifically, it
means an assault on "fractional reserve banking". If lenders are forced to put up 100pc
reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of
thin air. The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more
bank runs, and fewer boom-bust credit cycles. That at least is the argument [in] the IMF study,
by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof, which came out in August and has begun to acquire a cult
following around the world. Entitled "The Chicago Plan Revisited", it revives the scheme first put

forward by professors Henry Simons and Irving Fisher in 1936 during the ferment of creative
thinking in the late Depression. Benes and Kumhof argue that credit-cycle trauma - caused by
private money creation - dates deep into history. The original authors of the Chicago Plan were
responding to the Great Depression. They believed it was possible to prevent the social havoc
caused by wild swings from boom to bust, and to do so without crimping economic dynamism. The
benign side-effect of their proposals would be a switch from national debt to national surplus.
Note: This article is an incredible breakthrough in real reporting on the banking sector. It is most
highly recommended to read the entire article and then explore our powerful Banking Corruption
Information Center.

A Doctor's Dilemma: When Crucial New-Drug Data Is Hidden

2012-09-24, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/24/a-doctors-dilemma-when-crucial-new-drug...
Dr. Ben Goldacre is no slouch when it comes to rooting out the flaws in scientific studies, analyzing
clinical trial data and recognizing when it's been manipulated or fudged. But even Goldacre has
been fooled by bad science. In ... his forthcoming book, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies
Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients, ... Goldacre describes how he ended up prescribing the
antidepressant reboxetine to his patients based on insufficient data. The research
overwhelmingly finds the drug to be ineffective, but it was still approved in the U.K. In order
to get approval of the drug in Europe, the manufacturer had simply not published its
negative data. Seven trials had been conducted comparing reboxetine against a placebo. Only
one, conducted in 254 patients, had a neat, positive result, and that one was published in an
academic journal, for doctors and researchers to read. But six more trials were conducted, in
almost 10 times as many patients. All of them showed that reboxetine was no better than a dummy
sugar pill. None of these trials was published. I had no idea they existed. It got worse. The trials
comparing reboxetine against other drugs showed exactly the same picture: three small studies,
507 patients in total, showed that reboxetine was just as good as any other drug. They were all
published. But 1,657 patients' worth of data was left unpublished, and this unpublished data
showed that patients on reboxetine did worse than those on other drugs.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical
corruption, click here.

Study finds tumors in rats fed on Monsanto's GM corn

2012-09-19, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49086360/ns/health-health_care
French scientists said on [September 19] that rats fed on Monsanto's genetically modified
corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller suffered tumors and multiple organ damage.
Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet containing

NK603 - a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller - or given
water with Roundup at levels permitted in the United States, died earlier than those on a standard
diet. The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney
damage. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and
presented at a news conference in London. The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70
percent of females died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the
control group. GMOs are deeply unpopular in Europe and many other countries, but dominate
key crops in the United States after Monsanto in 1996 introduced a soybean genetically altered to
tolerate Monsanto's Roundup weed killer. Seralini was part of a team that has voiced previous
safety concerns based on a shorter rat study in a scientific paper published in 2009. This new
study takes things a step further by tracking the animals throughout their two-year lifespan. Seralini
believes his latest lifetime rat tests give a more realistic and authoritative view of risks than the 90day feeding trials that form the basis of GM crop approvals, since three months is only the
equivalent of early adulthood in rats.
Note: For alarming photos and more from the above long-term study on the dangers of GM food,
click here. For an incisive, powerful 13-minute video revealing the disturbing results of this first
long-term scientific study on GMOs, click here. For an excellent article and a great two-minute
video clearly explaining the major dangers of GM food, click here. For a powerful summary of the
health risks from GM foods, click here.

Government Workers With Ties to Child Porn

2012-09-19, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/09/19/to-catch-government-workers-w...
There is a national crisis of federal employees engaged in the child porn industry and a
related epidemic at the state level. Two states, Vermont and Maine ... appear to be running
state protected child trafficking rings with evidence of cops, judges, lawyers, clergy and
government employees covering for each other. This kind of racketeering creates powerful,
and extremely profitable, pedophile rings. Money drives the crime. It is estimated that a criminal
willing to molest a child in front of a live webcam can earn $1,000 a night. In Kittery Maine, at the
Danish Health Club, one bust yielded $6.1 million in door fees over a five year period with
prostitutes earning $12 million. Pimps earnings were not reported. The door man was a retired
police officer whose wife worked in back. Half of all global child porn is produced in America. Ten
new images of children are posted daily. Estimates of the global profits from child porn range from
$3-20 billion. The Department of Justice (DOJ)s Child Exploitation and Obscenities unit has been,
by many accounts, totally disabled under US Attorney General Eric Holder. Mr. Holder even
refused to prosecute his own Assistant United States Attorney caught doing child porn on DOJ
computers. Child trafficking and porn are the fastest growing crimes in America. With billions being
laundered in black money it makes solid economic sense for the IRS to focus on the child porn
industry. Eric Holders Department of Justice has demonstrated they have no interest in
prosecuting pedophiles, not even their own.

Note: For a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary providing powerful evidence of a child
abuse ring that goes to the highest level in government, click here. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on institutional sexual abuse, click here.

The 9/11 Hijackers: Fraud in Official Video Exhibits Uncovered by Expert

Panel
2012-09-10, MarketWatch/Wall Street Journal
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-911-hijackers-fraud-in-official-video-ex...
A Panel of 22 researchers into the history of 9/11 has uncovered evidence of fraud in the
photographic images of Muslim hijackers prior to boarding the planes on 9/11. Court exhibits state
that leader Mohamed Atta took a commuter flight from Portland, Maine, to connect to AA Flight 11
out of Boston, which hit the North Tower. The dubious images heighten the mystery of why
Atta left Boston, where Flight 11 was to be hijacked, and risked the failure of his entire
mission by driving to Portland September 10, staying overnight, and booking a tight
connection back to Boston early September 11. The [9/11 Consensus] Panel's in-depth
review shows the Portland story to be peppered with inconsistencies and revisions, placing
the entire hijack theory in question. Similarly, at Washington's Dulles International Airport, five
hijackers allegedly passed through security before flying AA Flight 77, carrying CNN correspondent
Barbara Olson, into the Pentagon. Yet no images were released from the 300+ security cameras at
Dulles that morning, nor were Arabic men reported in FBI interviews of airport staff. The Panel has
produced 28 Consensus Points of "best evidence" regarding the official claims of 9/11 -- the trigger
event for the Middle East wars of the last decade. Its investigations cover: explosives at the Twin
Towers and Building WTC-7; the inadequate flying skills of the alleged Pentagon pilot; the missing
debris from "Let's Roll" Flight 93; the [many] military drills coinciding on 9/11, and the allegedly
absent political and military commanders.
Note: This article appears to have been removed from the MarketWatch website, though you can
still read it using the Internet Archive. Don't miss the PBS special, "9/11 Explosive Evidence:
Experts Speak Out", in which 40 whistle-blowing experts present evidence of controlled demolition
at the World Trade Center. For many other major media articles which raise serious questions
about the 9/11 official story, click here. For lots more verifiable evidence suggesting a major coverup around 9/11, click here.

Recent Charges of Sexual Abuse of Children in Hollywood Just Tip of

Iceberg, Experts Say
2011-12-05, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/05/recent-charges-sexual-abuse-c...

If a spate of recent allegations proves true, Hollywood may have a hideous epidemic on its hands.
The past two weeks have brought three separate reports of alleged child sexual abuse in the
entertainment industry. Martin Weiss, a 47-year-old Hollywood manager who represented child
actors, was charged in Los Angeles on Dec. 1 with sexually abusing a former client. His accuser,
who was under 12 years old during the time of the alleged abuse, reported to authorities that
Weiss told him "what they were doing was common practice in the entertainment industry." Weiss
has pleaded not guilty. On Nov. 21, Fernando Rivas, 59, an award-winning composer for Sesame
Street, was arraigned on charges of coercing a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct in
South Carolina. The Juilliard-trained composer was also charged with production and distribution
of child pornography. Registered sex offender Jason James Murphy, 35, worked as a casting
agent in Hollywood for years before his past kidnapping and sexual abuse of a boy was
revealed by the Los Angeles Times. Revelations of this sort come as no surprise to former child
star Corey Feldman. Feldman, 40, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, unflinchingly
warned of the world of pedophiles who are drawn to the entertainment industry last August. "I can
tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,
Feldman told ABCs Nightline. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... It's the big
secret.
Note: For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here. And for an
abundance of major media news articles showing rampant child sexual abuse at high levels in
many prominent organizations, click here.

The right to know what you are eating

2011-11-22, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/21/ED4S1M1FJB.DTL
An unprecedented agricultural experiment is being conducted at America's dinner tables. While
none of the processed food we ate 20 years ago contained genetically engineered
ingredients, now 75 percent of it does - even though the long-term human health and
environmental impacts are unknown. The Food and Drug Administration doesn't require
labeling of genetically engineered foods. In 1992, the FDA ruled that genetically engineered foods
didn't need independent safety tests or labeling requirements before being introduced. But one of
its own scientists disagreed, warning there were "profound differences" with genetically engineered
foods. Genetically engineered seed manufacturers were allowed to sell their products without
telling consumers. A 2006 survey found that 74 percent of Americans had no idea that genetically
engineered foods were already being sold. About 94 percent of U.S. grown soybeans are
genetically engineered and contain a gene that protects them against glyphosate, now the nation's
most widely used pesticide. Almost all the research on the safety of genetically engineered foods
has been conducted by the companies that sell them. A recent poll found 93 percent of
Americans think genetically engineered foods should be labeled. This month, 384,000 people
signed a Just Label It (www.justlabelit.org) petition urging the FDA to mandate genetically
engineered food labeling nationally.

Note: Over one million people have now signed the above-mentioned petition. Please join in
signing and making your voice heard at this link. For powerful, verifiable information showing
scientific studies which revealed lab animals died after ingesting GMOs, click here. For other major
media articles on the many dangers of GM food, click here.

Italian cold fusion machine passes another test

2011-11-03, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45153076/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Italian physicist and inventor Andrea Rossi has conducted a public demonstration of his
"cold fusion" machine, the E-Cat, at the University of Bologna, showing that a small amount
of input energy drives an unexplained reaction between atoms of hydrogen and nickel that
leads to a large outpouring of energy, more than 10 times what was put in. The first
seemingly successful cold fusion experiment was reported two decades ago. Two types of atoms,
typically a light element and a heavier metal, seem to fuse together, releasing pure heat that can
be converted into electricity. The process is an attractive energy solution for two reasons: Unlike in
nuclear fission, the reaction doesn't give off dangerous radiation. Unlike the fusion processes that
take place in the sun, cold fusion doesn't require extremely high temperatures. In April ... Rossi
and fellow physicist Sergio Focardi successfully demonstrated the device for a group of Swedish
physicists. At the demo in October, after an initial energy input of 400 watts into each module, each
one then produced a sustained, continuous output of 10 kilowatts (470 kW altogether) for three to
four hours. Peter Hagelstein, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science and
one of the most mainstream proponents of cold fusion research, thinks the process may involve
vibrational energy in the metal's lattice driving nuclear transitions that lead to fusion.
Note: For lots more on this exciting development, click here. And for a CBS video segment and
another excellent documentary showing top researchers who continue to be very excited about
results of ongoing cold fusion experiments, click here. For media reports on other suppressed new
energy inventions, click here.

Scandal Exposed in Major Study of Autism and Mercury

2011-10-25, Sacramento Bee (Leading newspaper in California's capital city)
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/25/4005040/scandal-exposed-in-major-study.html
The Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD) exposes communications between Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) personnel and vaccine researchers revealing U.S. officials apparently
colluded in covering-up the decline in Denmark's autism rates following the removal of
mercury from vaccines. Documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
show that CDC officials were aware of Danish data indicating a connection between
removing Thimerosal (49.55% mercury) and a decline in autism rates. Despite this
knowledge, these officials allowed a 2003 article to be published in Pediatrics that excluded this
information, misrepresented the decline as an increase, and led to the mistaken conclusion that

Thimerosal in vaccines does not cause autism. In Denmark, Thimerosal, a controversial mercury
compound used as a preservative in certain vaccines, was removed from all Danish vaccines in
1992. The well-publicized Danish study published in Pediatrics 2003 claimed that autism rates
actually increased after Thimerosal was phased out. This study subsequently became a
cornerstone for the notion that mercury does not cause autism. However, one of the FOIA
documents obtained from CDC clearly indicates that this study omitted large amounts of data
showing autism rates actually dropping after mercury was removed from Danish vaccines.
Note: For the complete text of the article, which has been taken down from the Sacramento Bee
website, click here. Read about a key scientific study which showed that monkeys given standard
human vaccines developed autism symptoms, at this link. And an MSNBC/Associated Press report
shows that the FDA rejected limits on thimerosal and that "most doses of flu vaccine still contain
thimerosal."

Measles among vaccinated Quebec kids questioned

2011-10-20, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada's NPR)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/10/20/measles-quebec-vaccine-schedul...
Measles cases have surged in parts of Canada and the United States this year. A still smoldering
outbreak of measles in Quebec is the largest in the Americas in over a decade. An investigation
into an outbreak in a high school in a town that was heavily hit by the virus found that about half of
the cases were in teens who had received the recommended two doses of vaccine in childhood
in other words, teens whom authorities would have expected to have been protected from the
measles virus. It's generally assumed that the measles vaccine ... should protect against
measles infection about 99 per cent of the time. So the discovery that 52 of the 98 teens
who caught measles were fully vaccinated came as a shock to the researchers who
conducted the investigation.
Note: For an excellent report endorsed by dozens of respected doctors and nurses on the serious
risks and dangers of vaccines, click here. For key reports from reliable sources on the dangers and
questionable science surrounding vaccines, click here.

'Magic Mushrooms' Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term

2011-06-16, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16/magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychologic...
The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits,
according to new research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The mushroom-derived
hallucinogen, called psilocybin, is known to trigger transformative spiritual states, but at high doses
it can also result in "bad trips" marked by terror and panic. "The important point here is that we
found the sweet spot where we can optimize the positive persistent effects and avoid some of the
fear and anxiety that can occur and can be quite disruptive," says lead author Roland Griffiths,

professor of behavioral biology at Hopkins. Giffiths' study involved 18 healthy adults, average age
46. Nearly all the volunteers were college graduates and 78% participated regularly in religious
activities; all were interested in spiritual experience. Fourteen months after participating in the
study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most
meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience. The
participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they
gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that the psilocybin
experience had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.

Bilderberg mystery: Why do people believe in cabals?

2011-06-07, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13682082
The secretive Bilderberg Group ... is bringing together the world's financial and political elite this
week. Conspiracy theories abound. It's only recently that the media has picked up on the
Bilderbergers. Meetings are closed to the public and the media, and no press releases are issued.
In the manner of a James Bond plot, up to 150 leading politicians and business people are
to gather in a ski resort in Switzerland for four days of discussion about the future of the
world. Meetings often feature future political leaders shortly before they become household
names. Under the group's leadership of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and onetime EU vice president, Viscount Davignon, the aim is purportedly to allow Western elites to share
ideas. But conspiracy theorists have accused it of everything from deliberately engineering the
credit crunch to planning to kill 80% of the world population. Denis Healey, co-founder of the
group, told the journalist Jon Ronson in his book Them that ... "The confidentiality enabled people
to speak honestly without fear of repercussions." Secret cabals extend beyond the Bilderberg
Group. The Illuminati ... is alleged to be an all powerful secret society. The Freemasons [is
another] secret fraternity society. The conspiracy theorists may get overexcited, but they have a
point, says Prof Andrew Kakabadse. The group has genuine power that far outranks the World
Economic Forum, which meets in Davos, he argues. And with no transparency, it is easy to see
why people are worried about its influence. The theme at Bilderberg is to bolster a consensus
around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe, he says. "There's a very
strong move to have a One World government in the mould of free market Western capitalism."
Note: Why is there so little reporting on this influential group in the major media? Thankfully, the
alternative media has had some good articles. And a Google search can be highly informative. For
many other revealing news articles from major media sources on powerful secret societies, click
here. And for reliable information covering the big picture of how and why these secret societies
are using government-sponsored mind control programs to achieve their agenda, click here.

Architect Richard Gage Explains His 9/11 Theory

2011-04-19, WJBK Fox 2 (Detroit Affiliate of Fox News)

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/architect-richard-gage-explains-hi...
It is a day of infamy 9/11. The official investigation concluded that intense heat from the crash
and the jet fuel melted the support beams causing the [WTC] towers to collapse. But architect
Richard Gage doesn't believe that. He is the founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
[Gage:] There is evidence to suggest that explosive demolitions have brought down all three World
Trade Center skyscrapers. We have now 1,500 architects and engineers calling for a new
investigation based on this evidence, including the third skyscraper that most people know nothing
about. This is a 47-story skyscraper that collapses at free fall acceleration, straight down ... into its
own footprint just like a controlled demolition. This is extraordinary evidence, along with the
chemical evidence of high-tech nanothermite composite explosives or incendiaries found in the all
the World Trade Center dust. The architects and engineers are highlighting the specific
evidence in these three skyscrapers, because its so clear that they're explosive
demolitions. We have [found] in all of this massive quantity of dust ... iron microspheres the
size of the diameter of a human hair. Billions of them ... are found. These contain the
evidence of ignited thermite. There is no other explanation for them. What the 1,500 architects
and engineers that I represent are calling for is an investigation that is thorough that uses the
scientific method [and] analyzes all of the evidence. Once this evidence is all analyzed, we'll let the
chips fall where they may. We don't have conspiracy theories. What we want is a real investigation.
Note: The text above is taken from the video news report at the Fox News link above. To watch
the symmetrical fall of the third World Trade Center building, click here. For lots more reliable,
verifiable information questioning the 9/11 official story, see our 9/11 Information Center.

FBI Vault Reveals UFO, Roswell Files

2011-04-11, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fbi-vault-reveals-ufo-roswell-files/story?id...
Flying saucer sightings? Reports of three-foot-tall aliens? Secret memos about suspicious objects
recovered near Roswell, N.M.? They're all included in the thousands of declassified government
documents posted to the FBI's new online "Vault." Among the so-called "X-files" are onceclassified reports dating back to the 1940s and 1950s detailing Air Force investigations into "flying
discs" and the "bodies of human shape" discovered inside them. In one report from March 1950,
Guy Hottel, a special agent with the FBI, said he received information from an Air Force
investigator about flying saucers found in New Mexico. "They were described as being circular
in shape with raised centers, approximately 50-feet in diameter," he wrote. "Each one was
occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in a metallic cloth of
a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner very similar to the blackout suits used
by speed flyers and test pilots." The informant, whose name is redacted in the file, said he thought
the saucer was spotted in New Mexico because a high-powered government radar in the area
interfered with the saucer's controlling mechanism. Other reports once marked "restricted" and
"confidential" detail sightings of mysterious flashing lights and other "unidentified aerial objects."

Note: You can view the declassified memorandum described above on the FBI website at this link.
Or download this amazing document and view it on our website at this link. For lots more reliable
information suggesting a major cover-up of the reality of ET visitation, click here.

Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review

2011-03-31, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html
For all those who've declared the autism-vaccine debate over a new scientific review begs to
differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections
between vaccines and autism. The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled
"Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review." The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly
herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else
apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first
described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or
the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them. Ratajczak's article states, in part, that
"Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and
encephalitis following vaccination. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or
inflammation of the brain." The article goes on to discuss many potential vaccine-related
culprits, including the increasing number of vaccines given in a short period of time.
Ratajczak also looks at a factor that hasn't been widely discussed: human DNA contained
in vaccines. Ratajczak reports that about the same time vaccine makers took most thimerosal out
of most vaccines (with the exception of flu shots which still widely contain thimerosal), they began
making some vaccines using human tissue.
Note: For an excellent report endorsed by dozens of respected doctors and nurses on the serious
risks and dangers of vaccines, click here. For other major media articles presenting evidence on
the risks and dangers of vaccines, click here.

Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico

2011-03-03, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eveningnews/main20039031.shtml
Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief. He was intentionally
letting guns go to Mexico. An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms [ATF] senior agent assigned to the
Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he
says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen. Investigators call the tactic letting guns
"walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the
United States. Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Agent Dodson and other sources say
the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to
see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret
from Mexico. ATF named the case "Fast and Furious." Documents show the inevitable result: The

guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by
watching thousands of weapons hit the streets. The Fast and Furious group supervisor
noted the escalating Mexican violence. One e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most
violent month since 2005." Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating
violence. Senior agents including Dodson ... confronted their supervisors over and over. Their
answer ... "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs." On Dec. 14,
2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. Two assault rifles ATF had let go nearly
a year before were found at Terry's murder. Dodson said, "I felt guilty. I mean it's crushing."
Dodson said they never did take down a drug cartel. However, he said thousands of Fast and
Furious weapons are still out there and will be claiming victims on both sides of the border for
years to come.
Note: Could it be that there are those in high positions of power who want this violence to keep us
in fear? The fear industry brings huge profits. For more powerful information on this, click here and
here.

Shocking History of Medical Experiments on People

2011-02-27, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=13012856
Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on
disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental
patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in
Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital. Much
of this horrific history is 40 to 80 years old, but it is the backdrop for a meeting in Washington this
week by a presidential bioethics commission. The meeting was triggered by the government's
apology last fall for federal doctors infecting prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with
syphilis 65 years ago. U.S. officials also acknowledged there had been dozens of similar
experiments in the United States. Inevitably, they will be compared to the well-known Tuskegee
syphilis study. In that episode, U.S. health officials tracked 600 black men in Alabama who already
had syphilis but didn't give them adequate treatment even after penicillin became available.
Though people in the studies were usually described as volunteers, historians and ethicists have
questioned how well these people understood what was to be done to them and why, or whether
they were coerced. In the last 15 years, two international studies sparked outrage. U.S.-funded
doctors failed to give the AIDS drug AZT to all the HIV-infected pregnant women in a study in
Uganda even though it would have protected their newborns. The other study, by Pfizer Inc., gave
an antibiotic named Trovan to children with meningitis in Nigeria, although there were doubts
about its effectiveness. Critics blamed the experiment for the deaths of 11 children and the
disabling of scores of others. Pfizer settled a lawsuit with Nigerian officials for $75 million but
admitted no wrongdoing.

Note: If the above link fails, click here. Though it appears these highly unethical studies have
stopped in the US, the article points out that many drug companies are now doing their studies in
countries where ethical codes are not strong. For an astounding list of government-sponsored
programs where humans were used as guinea pigs, click here. For a two-page summary of solid
evidence of government involvement in mind control programs, click here.

Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

2011-01-24, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/23/why-almost-everything-you-hear-about-medic...
If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol,
thenafter more studyit doesnt. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in
postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesnt. But what if wrong answers arent
the exception but the rule? More and more scholars who scrutinize health research are now
making that claim. It isnt just an individual study here and there thats flawed, they charge.
Instead, the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and
again to findings that are at best unproved and at worst dangerously wrong. The result is a
system that leads patients and physicians astrayspurring often costly regimens that wont help
and may even harm you. Even a cursory glance at medical journals shows that once heralded
studies keep falling by the wayside. A major study concluded theres no good evidence that statins
(drugs like Lipitor and Crestor) help people with no history of heart disease. The study ... was
based on an evaluation of 14 individual trials with 34,272 patients. Cost of statins: more than $20
billion per year. Positive drug trials, which find that a treatment is effective, and negative trials,
in which a drug fails, take the same amount of time to conduct. But negative trials took an extra
two to four years to be published. With billions of dollars on the line, companies are loath to
declare a new drug ineffective. As a result of the lag in publishing negative studies, patients
receive a treatment that is actually ineffective. From clinical trials of new drugs to cutting-edge
genetics, biomedical research is riddled with incorrect findings.
Note: For the good of your health, the entire article at the link above is well worth reading. For lots
more on how the profit-oriented health profession puts public health at risk, click here and here.

A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives

2010-12-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/business/12advantage.html
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in
Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in
the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable and controversial fields in
finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their
identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman
Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in

derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk. In theory, this group exists
to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the
dominance of the big banks. The banks in this group ... have fought to block other banks from
entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and
fees freely available. Banks influence over this market, and over clearinghouses like the one this
select group advises, has costly implications for businesses large and small. The size and reach of
this market has grown rapidly over the past two decades. Pension funds today use derivatives to
hedge investments. States and cities use them to try to hold down borrowing costs. Airlines use
them to secure steady fuel prices. Food companies use them to lock in prices of commodities like
wheat or beef.
Note: To explore highly revealing news articles on the powerful secret societies which without
doubt back these top bankers, click here. For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources
detailing the amazing control of major banks over government and society, click here.

The rich get richer, then buy elections

2010-10-24, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/24/IN7R1FV3LE.DTL
It's a perfect storm. I'm talking about the dangers facing our democracy. First, income in America is
now more concentrated in fewer hands than it has been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total
income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans. The top onetenth of 1 percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us. Who are
these people? They're top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge-fund managers
and private equity managers. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for
and against candidates - without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They're laundered
through a handful of groups. Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings and even
homes are on the line. They need a government that's working for them, not for the privileged and
the powerful. Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. There's no
jobs bill to speak of. Washington says nothing can be done. There's no money left. No money?
The marginal income tax rate on the very rich is the lowest it has been in more than 80
years. Under President Dwight Eisenhower ... it was 91 percent. Now it's 36 percent. We're
losing our democracy to a different system. It's called plutocracy.
Note: Whether you are on the left or right of the political spectrum, this incisive article by former
US Sect. of Labor Robert Reich is well worth reading in its entirety. For more in income inequality,
click here.

Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show

2010-08-05, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10853905

The government took the threat of UFOs so seriously in the 1950s that UK intelligence chiefs met
to discuss the issue, newly-released files show. Ministers even went on to commission weekly
reports on UFO sightings from a committee of intelligence experts. The files show reports of UFOs
peaked in 1996. The latest batch of UFO files released from the Ministry of Defence to the National
Archives shows that, in 1957, the committee received reports detailing an average of one UFO
sighting a week. The files also include an account of a wartime meeting attended by Winston
Churchill in which, it is claimed, the prime minister was so concerned about a reported encounter
between a UFO and RAF bombers, that he ordered it be kept secret for at least 50 years to
prevent "mass panic". Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFO sightings for the MoD, said: "The
interesting thing is that most of the UFO files from that period have been destroyed. But what
happened is that a scientist whose grandfather was one of his [Churchill's] bodyguards, said
look, Churchill and Eisenhower got together to cover up this phenomenal UFO sighting,
that was witnessed by an RAF crew on their way back from a bombing raid. The reason
apparently was because Churchill believed it would cause mass panic and it would shatter
people's religious views."
Note: For reliable information on UFOs, check out our UFO Information Center.

The Pope, Eichmann and the Nazi 'Ratlines'

2010-03-17, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/juliankossoff/100030163/the-pope-eichmann-a...
Germany is fighting to keep sealed the Adolf Eichmann files detailing the years the Holocaust chief
logistical organiser spent on the run before he was captured by Mossad agents. Those hoping to
have a 50-year secrecy order overturned believe the government is embarrassed by details within
that may prove German and Vatican officials colluded in his escape and freedom. For the current
papacy under the German pope, Benedict XVI, the 4,500 page Eichmann dossier could be the
smoking gun that would shoot down his plans to canonize Pope Pius XII (1939-58), aka Hitlers
Pope. The role of Pope Pius XII during World War II, his relationship with Nazism and his efforts
(or lack of them) to save Jews from the gas chambers are hotly disputed. Even within the Jewish
community there are strong opinions on both sides of the debate. In fact historys most savage
mass murderers Adolf Eichmann, Dr Josef Mengele, better known as Auschwitzs Angel
of Death, Franz Stangl, commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp escaped justice
down the ratline that ran straight through the Vatican state in Rome. Senior members of the
Roman Catholic hierarchy marinaded in virulent Judeophobia and obsessed by Bolshevism
organised the escape of thousands of the most debauched, cruel monsters to a peaceful,
prosperous retirement in Catholic South America.
Note: As mentioned by the initiator of the lawsuit to open the documents in this Associated Press
story, "I think it's impossible that in Germany we are hiding documents about a convicted Nazi
mass murderer today." Evidence suggests that these Nazis were purposely allowed to escape with

the involvement of the Vatican, the CIA, and other groups. Josef Mengele is purported to have
gone on to train the CIA in powerful mind control techniques he perfected using concentration
camp inmates as guinea pigs. For more on this, click here.

FDA "Corruption" Letter Authenticated: Lawyers, Start Your Engines!

2010-03-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-corruption-letter-authenticated-lawyers-start...
The FDA has "certified" a 2009 letter sent anonymously by FDA staff to President Obama
describing "systemic corruption and wrongdoing that permeates all levels of FDA." The FDA's
official recognition of the letter means that lawyers who want to use it to demonstrate that the FDA
isn't perfect won't have to go through weeks of tedious discovery demands to find someone at the
FDA who can officially say, "Yup, we sent that." That's going to be a headache for drug companies
who often defend their drugs in court by saying, "Hey, the FDA said this product was fine and we
did everything they asked -- so it's not fair to hold us responsible." Plaintiffs' lawyers can now hold
up the letter in court and argue that drug companies have been on notice that the FDA is riddled
with politics, conflicts of interest and outright corruption, and is, as the letter says,
"fundamentally broken." Written by a group of scientists on FDA letter head -- but with their
names blacked out for fear of retaliation -- the letter describes a nightmare of bungling and
self-dealing among higher-ups at the drug safety agency. It begs Obama to step in and reform
the shop: "... many other FDA managers who have failed to protect the American public, who have
violated laws, rules, and regulations, who have suppressed or altered scientific or technological
findings and conclusions, who have abused their power and authority, and who have engaged in
illegal retaliation against those who speak out, have not been held accountable and remain in
place."
Note: The FDA actively persecutes whistle-blowers, placed a former Monsanto lobbyist in a high
ranking position, and gives industrial food companies preferential treatment over small farmers. In
recent years, FDA executives have been caught participating in medical industry corruption,
including keeping important prescription drug safety information hidden from consumers.

IRS: 400 richest averaged $345M in '07 income, 16% tax rate
2010-02-18, USA Today
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/irs-400-riche...
The [IRS] reports that the nation's 400 highest-earning households reported an average income of
$345 million in 2007 up 31% from 2006 and that their average tax bill fell to a 15-year low.
Bloomberg writes that the elite 400's average income more than doubled that year from
$131.1 million in 2001, the year Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George
W. Bush. Each household in the top 400 of earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent,
the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992. Their average effective tax rate
was about half the 29.4 percent in 1993, the first year of President Bill Clinton's administration. The

top 400 earners received a total $138 billion in 2007, up from $105.3 billion a year earlier. On an
inflation-adjusted basis, their average income grew almost fivefold since 1992. Almost threequarters of the highest earners' income was in capital gains and dividends taxed at a 15 percent
rate set as part of Bush-backed tax cuts in 2003.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on income inequality, click here. And for a
powerful summary of 10 top corporations which avoided taxes in most egregious ways, see the
excellent list compiled by independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders at this link.

UFO sightings revealed in UK archive files from 1990s

2010-02-18, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8520486.stm
Thousands of UFOs have been spotted in the last 20 years around the UK, according to newly
released documents. More than 6,000 pages of reports describe people's experiences with
unidentified flying objects between 1994 and 2000. Details have been released under a three-year
project between the Ministry of Defence and The National Archives. The reports detail how objects
of various shapes and sizes have been witnessed flying over a range of locations. Some drawings
by witnesses have also been released. Included in the latest release is a letter from senior
MoD official Ralph Noyes, in which he describes seeing a film of UFOs captured by RAF
fighter pilots in 1956. Mr Noyes claims the footage was shown at a secret underground
screening arranged for air defence staff at the MoD in 1970. Experts believe the records
highlight how shapes of reported UFOs have changed over the last few decades. Many reports in
this latest file describe aircraft as big, black and triangular in shape with lights along the edges,
whereas the predominant form in the 1940s to 1950s was saucer or disc-shaped. The files are
available to download for free for a month from the National Archives website.
Note: For a concise summary of key testimony on UFO sightings by highly-credible government
and military officials, click here. For astonishing media reports revealing the existence of UFOs,
click here.

Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits

2009-07-30, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/30/business/main5197668.shtml
Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to
employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according
to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo Thursday. Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company's
performance, the report states that "there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks
compensate or reward their employees." Cuomo's investigation "suggests a disconnect
between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a 'heads I win, tails you lose'

bonus system." According to the report: Goldman Sachs, which earned $2.3 billion last year
and received $10 billion in TARP funding, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses in 2008 - more than
double their net income. Morgan Stanley, which earned $1.7 billion last year and received $10
billion in bailout funds, handed out $4.475 billion in bonuses, nearly three times their net income.
JPMorgan Chase, which earned $5.6 billion in 2008 and received $25 billion from the government,
paid out $8.69 billion in bonus money. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch lost a combined $54 billion last
year. They received a total of $55 billion in bailouts and paid out $9 billion in combined bonuses.
($5.33 billion for Citigroup; $3.6 billion for Merrill Lynch, which was subsequently acquired by Bank
of America.) Bonuses have been a hot-button issue surrounding these federally bailed out banks
for months, with company executives facing heat from ... local officials like Cuomo angered by the
exorbitant compensation plans for the same people widely seen as responsible for the country's
financial crisis.
Note: Click here to read the full report. For lots more on the realities behind the taxpayer bailout of
Wall Street, click here.

Hospitalization Rates Higher in Kids Who Get Flu Shots

2009-05-19, U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/research/articl...
Children who get the annual flu vaccine, especially those who have asthma, may be more likely to
be hospitalized than children who don't get the shot, a new study shows. But the researcher noted
... "This may not be a reflection of the vaccine but that these patients are the sickest, and their
doctors insist they get a vaccination," said study author Dr. Avni Y. Joshi, a fellow at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "I would be very cautious about interpreting this," said Dr. Gurjit Khurana
Hershey, director of asthma research and professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
"The bottom line is that kids with asthma who get the flu vaccine are probably a different
population anyway. They may be the more severely ill children, so it may have very little to do with
the vaccine." The study has too many unknowns and covers too wide an age range over too many
flu seasons to indicate any change in recommendations, said Dr. Hank Bernstein, a member of the
committee on infectious diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The authors looked
back at 263 children aged 6 months to 18 years who had visited the Mayo Clinic between 1999
and 2006 with laboratory-confirmed influenza. Children -- including children who had asthma -who received the annual inactivated flu vaccine were almost three times more likely to be
hospitalized than those who were not inoculated.
Note: With hospitalization rates nearly three times that of children who did not get vaccinated, why
are these doctors downplaying this study so much? Why the focus on asthma, when the study
covered a wide range of children? Why isn't anyone calling for more research on these striking
results? For lots of articles raising serious questions about the safety of vaccines, click here.

Tamiflu Developer: Swine Flu Could Have Come From Bio-Experiment

Lab
2009-05-14, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SwineFlu/story?id=7584420
An Australian researcher claims the swine flu, which has killed at least 64 people so far,
might not be a mutation that occurred naturally but a man-made product of genetic
experiments accidently leaked from a laboratory -- a theory the World Health Organization
is taking very seriously. Adrian Gibbs, a scientist on the team that was behind the development
of Tamiflu, says in a report he is submitting today that swine flu might have been created using
eggs to grow viruses and make new vaccines, and could have been accidently leaked to the
general public. "It might be some sort of simple error that's not being recognized," Gibbs said on
ABC's "Good Morning America." In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Gibbs admitted there
are other ways to explain swine flu's origin. "One of the simplest explanations if that it's a
laboratory escape, but there are lots of others," he said. Regardless of the validity of Gibb's claims,
he and several experts say that just bringing the idea of laboratory security to the public's attention
is important. "There are lives at risk," Gibbs said. "The sooner this idea gets out, the better."
Note: What would cause one of the developers of Tamiflu to make such a statement? If you read
between the lines, there is much more here than meets the eye. For lots more on this intriguing
development, click here.

American Academy of Environmental Medicine Calls for Moratorium on

Genetically Modified Foods
2009-05-08, American Academy of Environmental Medicine
http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html
There is more than a casual association between GM [Genetically Modified] foods and
adverse health effects. There is causation [as] confirmed in several animal studies.
Specificity of the association of GM foods and specific disease processes is also supported. In
spite of this risk, the biotechnology industry claims that GM foods can feed the world through
production of higher crop yields. However, a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists
reviewed 12 academic studies and indicates otherwise: "The several thousand field trials over the
last 20 years ... indicate a significant undertaking. Yet none of these field trials have resulted in
increased yield ... with the exception of Bt corn." Therefore, because GM foods pose a serious
health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and
metabolic, physiologic and genetic health and are without benefit, ... because GM foods have not
been properly tested for human consumption, and because there is ample evidence of probable
harm, the AAEM asks: [1] Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and
the public to avoid GM foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM
foods and health risks. [2] Physicians to consider the possible role of GM foods in the disease
process. [3] Our members, the medical community, and the independent scientific community to

gather case studies potentially related to GM food consumption and health effects. [4] For a
moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long term independent safety testing, and
labeling of GM foods, which is necessary for the health and safety of consumers.
Note: Why was this not reported in the mainstream media? A top academy of physicians states
our health is being endangered by GM foods, yet no one is reporting this. For how our media is
bought off in matters like this, click here. For a powerful essay showing blatant corruption of the
science around GMOs and FDA complicity, click here. For key media articles on this vital topic,
click here.

New Merck Allegations: A Fake Journal; Ghostwritten Studies; Vioxx

Pop Songs; PR Execs Harass Reporters
2009-04-23, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-merck-allegations-a-fake-journal-ghostwritten...
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. will be reading with amusement the Australian press's coverage of
a class action trial down under for patients who took Merck's now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.
Details emerging in Oz make some of the antics that Merck's American counterparts got up to look
tame by comparison. For example, in Australia, Merck allegedly: Had a doctor sign his name to
an entirely ghostwritten journal article even though a Merck staffer had complained that the
data within it was based on "wishful thinking;" created a fake "peer-reviewed" journal, the
"Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine," in which to publicize pro-Vioxx articles;
created a Ricky Martin-style pop song to get Merck sales reps all jazzed up about Vioxx;
[and] hatched a Blackadder-style "cunning plan" to seed seminars with speakers who were
sympathetic to Vioxx. Here's The Australian's description of the Merck PR team's over-the-top
"handling" of reporters at ... a class action trial down under for patients who took Merck's nowwithdrawn painkiller Vioxx: A hired crisis management team sits in court every day, under the
guidance of Merck & Co's media spokeswoman flown out from the US, watching what journalists
write, who they talk to and where they go in the court breaks. The team ... follow journalists out of
court, ask them what they are writing, hand out daily press releases and send "background" emails
they say should not be attributed to the company but which detail what they think are the "salient
points" from the evidence presented in court. The team rings reporters first thing in the morning,
accuses them of "cherry-picking" the evidence and bombards newspapers with letters to the editor
arguing their case in detail based on the day's evidence - five were sent to The Australian in just
seven days.
Note: FDA analysts estimated that Vioxx caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks, 30 to
40 percent of which were probably fatal, in the five years the drug was on the market. Read
another CBS News article which shows how Merck literally created a hit list for doctors who
opposed use of Vioxx. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
health corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Cold Fusion Is Hot Again

2009-04-19, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167.shtml
Twenty years ago it appeared, for a moment, that all our energy problems could be solved. It was
the announcement of cold fusion - nuclear energy like that which powers the sun - but at room
temperature on a table top. It promised to be cheap, limitless and clean. Cold fusion would end our
dependence on the Middle East and stop those greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. It
would change everything. But then, just as quickly as it was announced, it was discredited. So
thoroughly, that cold fusion became a catch phrase for junk science. Well, a funny thing happened
on the way to oblivion - for many scientists today, cold fusion is hot again. "We can yield the power
of nuclear physics on a tabletop. The potential is unlimited. That is the most powerful energy
source known to man," researcher Michael McKubre told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.
McKubre says he has seen that energy more than 50 times in cold fusion experiments he's doing
at SRI International, a respected California lab that does extensive work for the government.
McKubre is an electro-chemist who imagines, in 20 years, the creation of a clean nuclear battery.
"For example, a laptop would come pre-charged with all of the energy that you would ever
intend to use. You're now decoupled from your charger and the wall socket," he explained.
The same would go for cars. "The potential is for an energy source that would run your car
for three, four years, for example. And you'd take it in for service every four years and
they'd give you a new power supply," McKubre told Pelley.
Note: To watch the full, revealing 12-minute video clip of this segment, click here.

2,757.1 MPG Achieved at 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas

2009-04-19, CNBC News
http://classic.cnbc.com/id/30287740
Distance, not speed, was the goal this weekend on the track at the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon
Americas(R), a challenge for students to design, build and test fuel-efficient vehicles that travel the
farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. This year, more than 500 students from North
and South America were on hand to stretch the boundaries of fuel efficiency. So who came
out on top? The student team from Laval University, with an astonishing 2,757.1 miles per
gallon, equivalent to 1,172.2 kilometres per liter, won the grand prize in the "Prototype"
category. And in the "UrbanConcept" category - new to the Americas event this year - the team
from Mater Dei High School took the grand prize by achieving 433.3 mpg, equivalent to 184.2 km/l.
With 44 participating teams at track competition was steep. This year's challenge brought together
a number of returning teams determined to beat the 2,843 mpg (1,208 km/l) record set by Mater
Dei High School (Evansville, Ind.) in 2008, combined with a number of new teams adding fresh
innovation and vehicle designs to the competition. "The Shell Eco-marathon is a platform for
students to let their imaginations run wild," said Mark Singer, global project manager for the Shell

Eco-marathon. "By encouraging these students to build vehicles with greater energy efficiency, we
hope this will help inspire others; and together we can find solutions that will help meet the global
energy challenge."
Note: CNBC removed this article for some reason. It was still available on the Shell website at this
link for a while, but then strangely removed. Using the Internet Archive, you can still view the
article at this link. Why so little media attention to this most exciting race for top gas mileage? And
if high school students can build a car that gets over 2,500 mpg, what's up with Detroit? Could big
business be suppressing, or at the very least ignoring these inspiring inventions?

The $700 trillion elephant

2009-03-06, MarketWatch (Wall Street Journal Digital Network)
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/The-700-trillion-elephant-room/story.as...
There's a $700 trillion elephant in the room and it's time we found out how much it really weighs on
the economy. Derivative contracts total about three-quarters of a quadrillion dollars in "notional"
amounts, according to the Bank for International Settlements. These contracts are tallied in
notional values because no one really can say how much they are worth. But valuing them
correctly is exactly what we should be doing because these comprise the viral disease that has
infected the financial markets and the economies of the world. Try as we might to salvage the
residential real estate market, it's at best worth $23 trillion in the U.S. We're struggling to save the
stock market, but that's valued at less than $15 trillion. And we hope to keep the entire U.S.
economy from collapsing, yet gross domestic product stands at $14.2 trillion. Compare any of
these to the derivatives market and you can easily see that we are just closing the windows as a
tsunami crashes to shore. The total value of all the stock markets in the world amounts to less than
$50 trillion, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. To be sure, the derivatives market is
international. But much of the trouble we're in began with contracts "derived" from the
values associated with U.S. residential real estate market. These contracts were engineered
based on the various assumptions tied to those values. Few know what derivatives are
worth. I spoke with one derivatives trader who manages billions of dollars and she said she
couldn't even value her portfolio because "no one knows anymore who is on the other side of the
trade."
Note: Banks and financial firms deemed "too big to fail" were bailed out worldwide at taxpayers'
expense. But what will happen if losses in the derivatives market skyrocket? No government in the
world has the resources to save financial corporations from a collapse in their derivatives trading.
For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources detailing the amazing control of major banks
over government and society, click here.

Ford's records show 2 on Warren panel had doubts in JFK killing

2008-08-10, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/09/AR20080809007...

Former President Gerald Ford secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on
the Warren Commission doubted the FBI's conclusion that John F. Kennedy was shot from
the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. The new details were included
in 500 pages of the FBI's large file on Ford, released in part this past week in response to requests
under the Freedom of Information Act that The Associated Press and others made on the day Ford
died in December 2006. That Ford served as the FBI's eyes and ears inside the commission has
been known for years. Long ago, the government released a 1963 FBI memo that said Ford ... had
volunteered to keep the FBI informed about the panel's private deliberations, but only if that
relationship remained confidential. The bureau agreed. It was also well-known Ford was an
outspoken proponent of the bureau's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy while
acting alone. [Assistant FBI Director Cartha "Deke"] DeLoach wrote [a memorandum] on Dec. 17,
1963, to outline what Ford told him ... about the commission meeting the day before. "Two
members of the commission brought up the fact that they still were not convinced that the
President had been shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas Book Depository. ... These
members failed to understand the trajectory of the slugs that killed the President. [Ford] stated he
felt this point would be discussed further but, of course, would represent no problem." There was
no explanation of what Ford meant by "no problem."
Note: For many revealing reports on major assassinations from major media sources, click here.

Debate Over Existence of UFOs

2008-07-18, CNN Larry King Live
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/18/lkl.01.html
LARRY KING: Bob Salas is a former captain [of the] U.S. Air Force. He was at Malstrom Air Force
Base in 1967, where there were claims that a UFO caused missiles to malfunction. SALAS: I was
on duty as a missile launch officer. First, I get one call saying that they're seeing strange lights
flying in the sky. About five minutes later ... the flight security controller calls down and says he's
looking at a glowing red object, very large, hovering over the front gate. Within seconds of that call,
my missiles start shutting down. I recall losing all 10 of them. KING: Bob Jamison you were there
too, right? JAMISON: My job as a target officer was to bring them back up. KING: Is it possible
they just malfunctioned? JAMISON: Very rarely does a missile malfunction. Much more rare would
be two at the same time. But never ten. DR. BOB JACOBS: I was in charge of optical
instrumentation at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Our job was to photograph ... every missile launch.
[One day] we photographed an Atlas missile raising up out of the fog cover. The next day I was
called into the office. Major Mansmann [turned on] the projector. I recognized it as the film that we
had shot ... the previous day. Toward the end of the flight ... everything was flying along and
suddenly ... at about 8,000 miles an hour, an object came into the frame, shot a beam of light at
the warhead, flew up to the top, shot another beam of light at the warhead ... and then flew out the
same way it came in. Major Mansmann said ... were you guys screwing around up there? I
said, no, sir. And he said then tell me what that was. And I said we got a UFO. And he said,

lieutenant, you are never to speak of this again. As far as you're concerned, this didn't
happen. KING: Our latest Associated Press poll shows 14 percent of Americans claim they've
seen a UFO.
Note: For a more detailed description of the experience of both Capt. Salas and Dr. Jacobs, click
here. For a two-page summary of other riveting testimony on UFOs from top officials, click here.
For a ten-minute video clip of this show, click here. For our resource-filled UFO Information Center,
click here.

9/11 third tower mystery 'solved'

2008-07-04, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7485331.stm
The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers.
Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse.
Conspiracy theorists have argued that the third tower was brought down in a controlled demolition.
Unlike the twin towers, Tower Seven was not hit by a plane. The National Institute of Standards
and Technology [NIST] ... is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that
ordinary fires caused the building to collapse. That would make it the first and only steel
skyscraper in the world to collapse because of fire. [NIST's] lead investigator, Dr Shyam Sunder,
spoke to BBC Two's "The Conspiracy Files": "Our working hypothesis now actually suggests that it
was normal building fires that were growing and spreading throughout the multiple floors that may
have caused the ultimate collapse of the buildings." However, a group of architects, engineers and
scientists say the official explanation that fires caused the collapse is impossible. Architects and
Engineers for 9/11 Truth argue there must have been a controlled demolition. The founder of the
group, Richard Gage, says the collapse of the third tower is an obvious example of a controlled
demolition using explosives. "Building Seven is the smoking gun of 9/11. A sixth grader can
look at this building falling at virtually freefall speed, symmetrically and smoothly, and see
that it is not a natural process. Buildings that fall in natural processes fall to the path of
least resistance", says Gage, "they don't go straight down through themselves."
Note: To watch a one-minute clip of the fall of WTC 7 from a PBS documentary, click here. For a
two-page summary of some unanswered questions about what really happened on 9/11, click
here. To learn about over 2,000 architects and engineers who claim a major cover-up around 9/11
click here.

Taming the Gas-Hogging SUV

2008-06-09, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=5028894

Johnathan Goodwin walks to the back of his auto conversion shop in Wichita, Kan., and lifts up a
gas nozzle connected to a huge cube-shaped container. The orange stuff he's pumping is the key
to his company's mission: converting the worst gas-gulping SUVs into cleaner, meaner machines.
"This is 100 percent canola oil, refined to biodiesel," Goodwin said. His well-maintained shop is a
bit like a showroom for that much-maligned symbol of environmental ruin: the Hummer. The silver
H-1 which Goodwin says gets 60 miles per gallon has already been modified to run on
biodiesel, diesel, vegetable oil, gasoline, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas and propane. On a
standard gasoline-to-biodiesel conversion, Goodwin starts by taking a new nine-mile-per-gallon
Hummer and removing the original gas engine. In goes an off-the-shelf GM Duramax engine that
runs on diesel fuel. A few extra modifications and a tank full of biodiesel later, the Hummer now
boasting 500 horsepower and getting about 20 miles per gallon is ready for the road. He offers
a couple of lower-cost options, including a fuel vaporizer for $1,000 that he says boosts fuel
economy by 30 percent, and a $500 software download that reprograms diesel engines to get up
to an additional seven miles per gallon. His work has many wondering why the big automakers
can't simply reconfigure their assembly lines to make their own cars run as efficiently as
Goodwin does. "I don't know why GM hasn't done it," says Goodwin. "But I can tell you that
all the parts that I use for the conversion 95 percent are all GM parts. I'm not
reinventing anything."
Note: For lots more powerful and inspiring information on this breakthrough technology and kits
you can order, click here. For many other revealing major media articles showing new energy
inventions and breakthroughs which should be making headlines, click here.

Leading Doctor: Vaccines-Autism Worth Study

2008-05-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/12/cbsnews_investigates/main4086809.shtml
Jordan King was a typical baby. His parents called him vocal and vivacious. Then just before age
2, after a large battery of vaccinations, he simply withdrew from the world. "The real scary thing
was when I noticed he wasn't looking at us any more in the eyes," Mylinda King, Jordan's mother,
said. William Mead was a Pottery Barn baby model and met all the typical milestones. Then, also
at age 2, after a set of vaccinations, William became very ill and he, too, changed forever. In both
children, batteries of tests revealed dangerous levels of the brain toxin mercury in their
systems. Their only known exposure: the mercury preservative once widely used in
childhood shots. Dr. Bernadine Healy is the former head of the National Institutes of Health, and
the most well-known medical voice yet to break with her colleagues on the vaccine-autism
question. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Healy said the question is still open. "I think
that the public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational," Healy
said. Healy goes on to say public health officials have intentionally avoided researching whether
subsets of children are susceptible to vaccine side effects - afraid the answer will scare the
public. CBS News has learned the government has paid more than 1,300 brain injury claims
in vaccine court since 1988, but is not studying those cases or tracking how many of them
resulted in autism.

Note: For a powerfully revealing article by Robert Kennedy, Jr. showing a major cover-up of this
issue, click here. For another suppressed article on a published University of Pittsburgh study with
strong evidence of an autism-vaccine link, click here.

Concentration camp doctor tops list of wanted Nazis

2008-04-30, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://articles.boston.com/2008-04-30/news/29272267_1_efraim-zuroff-top-nazi-...
Karl Lotter, a prisoner who worked in the hospital at Mauthausen concentration camp, had no
trouble remembering the first time he watched SS doctor Aribert Heim kill a man. It was 1941, and
an 18-year-old Jew had been sent to the clinic with a foot inflammation. Heim asked him about
himself and why he was so fit. The young man said he had been a soccer player and swimmer.
Then, instead of treating the prisoner's foot, Heim anesthetized him, cut him open, castrated
him, took apart one kidney and removed the second, Lotter said. The victim's head was
removed and the flesh boiled off so that Heim could keep it on display. "He needed the head
because of its perfect teeth," Lotter, a non-Jewish political prisoner, recalled in testimony eight
years later that was included in an Austrian warrant for Heim's arrest. But Heim managed to
avoid prosecution, his American-held file in Germany mysteriously omitting his time at
Mauthausen, and today he is the most wanted Nazi war criminal on a list of hundreds who the
Simon Wiesenthal Center estimates are still free.
Note: As this article shows, some Nazi concentration camp doctors had virtually no moral aversion
to killing and torturing any prisoner. Some of the most infamous doctors were tasked with
perfecting mind control by any means. And many, like Heim, were allowed to escape. For reliable
information on this, and how some of these doctors were then secretly brought to the US to train
the CIA in mind control techniques, click here.

U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations

2008-04-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of
the world's prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection
of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment.
Americans are locked up for crimes from writing bad checks to using drugs that
would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept
incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations. Criminologists and legal scholars in other
industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American
prison sentences. The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than
any other nation. The United States ... has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in
population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.) The median among all
nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate. "Far from serving as a model for the

world, contemporary America is viewed with horror," James Whitman, a specialist in comparative
law at Yale, wrote last year in Social Research. Prison sentences here have become "vastly
harsher than in any other country to which the United States would ordinarily be
compared," Michael Tonry, a leading authority on crime policy, wrote. Indeed, said Vivien Stern, a
research fellow at the prison studies center in London, the American incarceration rate has made
the United States "a rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal
Western approach."
Note: Many people are not aware that violent crime in the US has dropped by over 50% in the last
15 years. Yet the prison population continues to grow rapidly at the same time. For more on this,
click here.

Researcher sets saltwater on fire

2007-11-14, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/14/saltwater.fire/
Last winter, inventor John Kanzius was already attempting one seemingly impossible feat -building a machine to cure cancer with radio waves -- when his device inadvertently succeeded in
another: He made saltwater catch fire. TV footage of his bizarre discovery has been burning up the
blogosphere ever since, drawing crackpots and Ph.D.s alike into a raging debate. Can water burn?
And if so, what good can come of it? Some people gush over the invention's potential for
desalinization or cheap energy. Briny seawater, after all, sloshes over most of the planet's surface,
and harnessing its heat energy could power all sorts of things. Skeptics say Kanzius's radio
generator is sucking up far more energy than it's creating, making it a carnival trick at best. For
now, Kanzius is tuning out the hubbub. Diagnosed with leukemia in 2002, he began building his
radio-wave blaster the next year, soon after a relapse. If he could seed a person's cancerous cells
with nanoscopic metal particles and blast them with radio waves, perhaps he could kill off the
cancer while sparing healthy tissue. The saltwater phenomenon happened by accident when
an assistant was bombarding a saline-filled test tube with radio waves and bumped the
tube, causing a small flash. Curious, Kanzius struck a match. "The water lit like a propane
flame," he recalls. "People said, 'It's a crock. Look for hidden electrodes in the water,' " says Penn
State University materials scientist Rustum Roy, who visited [Kanzius] in his lab in August after
seeing the feat on Google Video. A demo made Roy a believer. "This is discovery science in the
best tradition," he says. Meanwhile, researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and
the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have made progress using Kanzius's technology to
fight cancer in animals. They published their findings last month in the journal Cancer.
Note: For other compelling articles on this fascinating invention, see recent articles in the Los
Angeles Times, ABC News, and especially Medical News Today. And for dozens of astounding
major media articles showing clear suppression of potential cancer cures, click here.

I touched a UFO: ex-air force pilot

2007-11-13, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-tales/i-touched-a-ufo-exair-force-pilot/20...
A group of former pilots who have recounted seeing strange phenomena in the sky has
demanded the US government reopen an investigation into UFOs. Several pilots offered
dramatic accounts of witnessing UFOs - including a transparent flying disc and a triangular
craft with mysterious markings. "We want the US government to stop perpetuating the myth that
all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventional terms," said Fife Symington, [a]
former governor of Arizona and air force pilot who says he saw a UFO in 1997. "Our country needs
to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969," Symington said. "Nothing in my
training prepared me for what we were witnessing," said James Penniston, a retired US Air Force
pilot, as he described seeing and touching a UFO when he was stationed at a British air base in
Woodbridge. He said he saw an inexplicable triangular craft in a clearing in the woods with "blue
and yellow lights swirling around the exterior". The UFO was "warm to the touch and felt like
metal," Penniston said. One side of the craft had pictorial symbols. Then after 45 minutes, the light
from the object "began to intensify" and it then "shot off at an unbelievable speed" before 80 Air
Force personnel, he said. "In my logbook, I wrote 'speed: impossible'." A former official with the
Federal Aviation Administration, John Callahan, said government agencies discourage inquiries
into UFOs. "'Who believes in UFOs?' is the kind of attitude of the FAA all the time," he said.
"However, when I asked the CIA person: 'What do you think it was,' he responded 'a UFO'." When
Callahan suggested the government tell Americans about [the] UFO, the CIA official allegedly told
him: "'No way, if we were to tell the American public there are UFOs they would panic."'
Note: For an abundance of reliable, verifiable information and resources suggesting a UFO coverup, click here.

Challenge Day
2007-08-31, Denver Post (Denver's leading newspaper)
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6764621
Wadded-up tissues littered Rishel Middle School's gym floor as tough teenagers sobbed, hugged
their peers and told gut-wrenching stories about their lives during an all-day session intended to
break down barriers. One 13-year-old said he was abandoned by his parents and that he lies
awake at night scared by sounds of gunshots outside his window. A 15-year-old girl talked about
attempting suicide and urged anyone with similar thoughts to reach out for help. And a teacher
tearfully warned students about their actions by revealing he was a bully when he was
younger until the person he tormented tried to kill himself. The confessions were shared
... as part of "Challenge Day," a nationally recognized anti-bullying program that travels to
schools around the country. Challenge Day promotes self respect and acceptance, and inspires
students to become positive leaders in their schools and communities. [The] 20-year-old program
[was] designed by Yvonne and Rich St. John-Dutra. "We want to create a world where every child
feels safe," said Rich St. John-Dutra. The program, which was featured on "The Oprah Winfrey
Show," was brought to Denver Public Schools ... as part of the district's mission to change cultures

inside the schools. The events combined ice-breaking routines to get students to drop their guards
with soul-searching exercises designed to reveal their true selves. Students wept as their troubles
tumbled out - from worries about their parents, medical problems within the family, troubles with
gangs, and battles with alcohol and drugs. Students later apologized to others who they had put
down or teased over the years. "This is going to change people," said Eddie Castillo, 13. "I never
knew people had problems with their families and their brothers and drugs. I never saw that
sensitive side until now."
Note: For one of the most inspiring video clips ever, watch the incredibly moving 15-minute clip
from an Emmy-award winning documentary on Challenge day available here.

Under The Influence

2007-04-02, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/29/60minutes/main2625305.shtml
If you have ever wondered why the cost of prescription drugs in the United States are the highest
in the world or why it's illegal to import cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico, you need look no
further than the pharmaceutical lobby and its influence in Washington, D.C. Congressmen are
outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly a $100 million a
year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits. One reason
[drug company] profits have exceeded Wall Street expectations is the Medicare prescription drug
bill ... passed three-and-a-half years ago. The unorthodox roll call on one of the most expensive
bills ever placed before the House of Representatives began in the middle of the night. The only
witnesses were congressional staffers, hundreds of lobbyists, and U.S. Representatives like Dan
Burton, R-Ind., and Walter Jones, R-N.C. "The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill," says
Jones. Why did the vote finally take place at 3 a.m.? "They didn't want on national television in
primetime," according to Burton. "I've been in politics for 22 years," says Jones, "and it was the
ugliest night I have ever seen." Jones says the arm-twisting was horrible. It certainly wasn't ugly for
the drug lobby which ... has been a source of lucrative employment opportunities for congressmen
when they leave office. In all, at least 15 congressional staffers, congressmen and federal officials
left to go to work for the pharmaceutical industry, whose profits were increased by several billion
dollars. "They have unlimited resources," Burton says. "And when they push real hard to get
something accomplished in the Congress of the United States, they can get it done."
Note: This article also states that the Medicare prescription bill "was the largest entitlement
program in more than 40 years, and the debate broke down along party lines." Usually
Republicans are against entitlement programs while Democrats support them. Why was it the
opposite in this case? Could it be that big industry made huge profits from the passage of this bill?
For lots more, click here.

Whistle-blower Had to Fight NSA, LA Times to Tell Story

2007-03-06, ABC News

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/whistleblower_h.html
Whistle-blower AT&T technician Mark Klein says his effort to reveal alleged government
surveillance of domestic Internet traffic was blocked not only by U.S. intelligence officials
but also by the top editors of the Los Angeles Times. Klein describes how he stumbled across
"secret NSA rooms" being installed at an AT&T switching center in San Francisco and later heard
of similar rooms in at least six other cities. Eventually, Klein says he decided to take his documents
to the Los Angeles Times, to blow the whistle on what he calls "an illegal and Orwellian project."
But after working for two months with LA Times reporter Joe Menn, Klein says he was told the
story had been killed at the request of then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and
then-director of the NSA Gen. Michael Hayden. Klein says he then took his AT&T documents to
The New York Times, which published its exclusive account last April. In the court case against
AT&T, Negroponte formally invoked the "state secrets privilege," claiming the lawsuit and the
information from Klein and others could "cause exceptionally grave damage to the national
security of the United States." The Los Angeles Times' decision was made by the paper's editor at
the time, Dean Baquet, now the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. As the new
Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, Baquet now oversees the reporters who have
broken most of the major stories involving the government surveillance program, often over
objections from the government.
Note: So after the NY Times has the guts to report this important story, the man who was
responsible for the censorship at the LA Times is transferred to the very position in the NY Times
where he can now block future stories there. For why this case of blatant media censorship isn't
making headlines, click here.

The Prophet of Garbage

2007-03-00, Popular Science - March 2007 Issue
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage
The Plasma Converter ... can consume nearly any type of wastefrom dirty diapers to chemical
weaponsby annihilating toxic materials in a process ... called plasma gasification. A 650-volt
current passing between two electrodes rips electrons from the air, converting the gas into plasma.
The plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart
molecular bonds. The system is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear
waste. The only by-products are an obsidian-like glass [and] a mixture of primarily hydrogen and
carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol,
natural gas and hydrogen. Perhaps the most amazing part of the process is that its selfsustaining. Once the cycle is under way, the 2,200F syngas is fed into a cooling system,
generating steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. About two thirds of the power
is siphoned off to run the converter; the rest can be used on-site for heating or electricity,
or sold back to the utility grid. Even a blackout would not stop the operation of the facility. New
York City is already paying an astronomical $90 a ton to get rid of its trash. According to Startech,
a few 2,000-ton-per-day plasma-gasification plants could do it for $36. Sell the syngas and surplus

electricity, and youd actually net $15 a ton. But the decision-making bureaucracy can be slow, and
it is hamstrung by the politically well-connected waste-disposal industry. Startech isnt the only
company using plasma to turn waste into a source of clean energy. A handful of start-ups
Geoplasma, Recovered Energy, PyroGenesis, EnviroArc and Plasco Energy, among othershave
entered the market in the past decade.
Note: Why isn't this amazing, proven machine and technology making front page headlines? Read
this exciting article to find how it is already being used. For why you don't know about it, click here.
And for another amazing new energy source not yet reported in the major media, click here.

A Faith-Based Fuel Initiative

2007-01-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/opinion/30tue1.html?ex=1327813200&en=8ce942...
In 1975, after the oil embargo, Congress approved the most successful energy-saving measure
this country has ever seen: the Corporate Average Fuel Economy system, known as CAFE, which
set minimum mileage standards for cars. Within 10 years, automobile efficiency had virtually
doubled, to 27.5 miles per gallon in 1985 from just over 14 miles per gallon in 1976. The
mileage standards are still 27.5 m.p.g. Except for minor tweaks, Congress has refused to raise
fuel efficiency requirements or close a gaping loophole that lets S.U.V.s and pickups be measured
by a more lenient standard.
Note: Thank you New York Times for pointing out what so few have bothered to mention. In the
U.S., it is not the automotive industry that determines fuel mileage standards, but rather Congress.
Whenever Congress has raised the mileage standard, industry complies and average mileage
increases. When the standards are not raised, average car mileage for new cars stays the same.
Yet Congress refused to significantly raise the standards from 1985 to 2012, despite the increasing
talk of an energy crisis. Why? If you really want to know, click here and here.

Mind Games
2007-01-14, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR20070110013...
A community of people who believe the government is beaming voices into their minds ... may be
crazy, but the Pentagon has pursued a weapon that can do just that. An academic paper written
for the Air Force in the mid-1990s mentions the idea of [such] a weapon. "The signal can be a
'message from God' that can warn the enemy of impending doom, or encourage the enemy to
surrender." In 2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory patented precisely such a technology:
using microwaves to send words into someone's head. The patent was based on human
experimentation in October 1994 at the Air Force lab, where scientists were able to transmit
phrases into the heads of human subjects, albeit with marginal intelligibility. The official U.S.
Air Force position is that there are no non-thermal effects of microwaves. Yet ... the military's use

of weapons that employ electromagnetic radiation to create pain is well-known. In 2001, the
Pentagon declassified one element of this research: the Active Denial System, a weapon that uses
electromagnetic radiation to heat skin and create an intense burning sensation. While its exact
range is classified, Doug Beason, an expert in directed-energy weapons, puts it at about 700
meters, and the beam cannot penetrate a number of materials, such as aluminum. Given the
history of America's clandestine research, it's reasonable to assume that if the defense
establishment could develop mind-control or long-distance ray weapons, it almost certainly would.
And, once developed, the possibility that they might be tested on innocent civilians could not be
categorically dismissed.
Note: For lots more reliable, verifiable information on the little-known, yet critical topic of nonlethal
weapons, click here. For an excellent two-page summary of government mind control programs,
click here.

12-Year-Old Spiritual Prodigy Akiane

2006-12-14, CNN Video Clip
http://edition.cnn.com/video/bestoftv/2006/12/14/beck.akiane.child.prodigy.cn...
A self taught artist who says her inspiration comes from above.... [These] Paintings ... are spiritual,
emotional, and created by a 12-year-old prodigy. Her name is Akiane. She picked up the brush
when she was just six years old, but the visions -- what she calls inspiration from God -- started
when she was just four. She began to describe to her mother in great detail her visits to heaven.
"All the colors were out of this world. There are hundreds and millions of more colors that we don't
know yet." Her mother remarkably was an atheist. The concept of God [was] never
discussed in their home. [Akiane:] "I explained to her you have to believe me. This is a different
way ... a way that's so mysterious that God wants me to go through." To four-year-old Akiane, God
quickly became a part of her daily life, and eventually became a part of her family's life, too. Her
talent doesn't stop at her art work. Only a few months ago she decided to learn the piano and is
now already composing her own music. But it is her painting that truly captures the incredible
spirituality of this young girl. The visions to me [are] like he's explaining himself to me and what he
does. She is a self taught painter, and as she grows older her paintings grow more expressive,
more colorful, [and] more complex. A girl -- who armed only with a brush and some paints -- is
determined to capture the essence of her faith, and hopefully along the way inspire others
to feel the same way. [Akiane:] "It's just so beautiful! The most important things in this world is
faith, because without faith you cannot communicate with God."
Note: The above CNN link takes you to a three-minute video (after commercial) showing the
incredible talents of this amazingly gifted girl. If the link fails, click here. For her website, click here.
For a collection of videos showing Akiane and her inspiration as she gets older, click here.

CIA role claim in Kennedy killing

2006-11-21, BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6169006.stm
New video and photographic evidence ... puts three senior CIA operatives at the scene of Robert
Kennedy's assassination. It reveals that the operatives and four unidentified associates were at the
Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles in the moments before and after the shooting on 5 June, 1968.
The CIA had no domestic jurisdiction and some of the officers were based in South-East Asia at
the time, with no reason to be in Los Angeles. Kennedy had just won the California Democratic
primary on an anti-War ticket and was set to challenge Nixon for the White House. A 24-year-old
Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan, was arrested as the lone assassin. However, even under hypnosis, he
has never been able to remember the shooting and defence psychiatrists concluded he was in a
trance at the time. Witnesses placed Sirhan's gun several feet in front of Kennedy but the autopsy
showed the fatal shot came from one inch behind. Dr Herbert Spiegel, a world authority on
hypnosis at Columbia University, believes Sirhan may have been hypnotically programmed
to act as a decoy for the real assassin. Three of these men have been positively identified as
senior officers who worked together in 1963 at JMWAVE, the CIA's Miami base. David Morales
was Chief of Operations and once told friends: "I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and
I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard." George Joannides was Chief of Psychological
Warfare Operations. Now, we see him at the Ambassador Hotel the night a second Kennedy is
assassinated.
Note: There is ample evidence that Sirhan Sirhan was a programmed Manchurian Candidate.
Declassified CIA documents show that U.S. intelligence services were creating programmed
assassins back as early as the 1950s. For reliable, verifiable information on this key topic, click
here.

Tenet told 9/11 panel that he warned Rice of Al Qaeda

2006-10-03, Boston Globe/Washington Post
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/03/tenet_told_9...
Former CIA director George Tenet told the 9/11 Commission that he had warned of an imminent
threat from Al Qaeda in a July 2001 meeting with Condoleezza Rice, adding that he believed Rice
took the warning seriously, according to a transcript of the interview and the recollection of a
commissioner who was there. The meeting has become the focus of a fierce and often confusing
round of finger-pointing involving Rice, the White House, and the 9/11 Commission, all of whom
dispatched staffers to the National Archives and other locations yesterday in attempts to sort out
what had occurred. Members of the commission, an independent bipartisan panel created by
Congress to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, have said for days that they were not
told about the July 10 meeting and were angry at being left out. As recently as yesterday
afternoon, both commission chairman Thomas H. Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton
said they believed the panel had not been told about the July 10 meeting. But it turns out
that the panel was, in fact, told about the meeting, according to the interview transcript and
Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, who sat in on the interview with Tenet.

Rice added to the confusion yesterday by strongly suggesting that the meeting may never
have occurred at all, even though administration officials had conceded for several days
that it had.
Note: Could it be possible that some of our nation's top leaders are lying? How could they have
just
forgotten
about
such
important
matters?
For
lots
more
see
http://www.WantToKnow.info/911information.

Brazil's alcohol cars hit 2m mark

2006-08-18, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5263384.stm
Brazil's new generation of cars and trucks adapted to run on alcohol has just hit the twomillion mark. "Flex-fuel" vehicles, which run on any combination of ethanol and petrol, now
make up 77% of the Brazilian market. Brazil has pioneered the use of ethanol derived from
sugar-cane as motor fuel. Ethanol-driven cars have been on sale there for 25 years, but they have
been enjoying a revival since flex-fuel models first appeared in March 2003. Just 48,200 flex-fuel
cars were sold in Brazil in 2003, but the total had reached 1.2 million by the end of last year and
had since topped two million, the Brazilian motor manufacturers' association Anfavea said.
Note: With sky-high gasoline prices and the fear of depletion of global oil supplies, why don't such
cars exist in the U.S.? Why are the trains of almost every other developed nation far advanced
from trains in the U.S.? And why isn't the U.S. media reporting on this important development? For
possible answers, click here. The excellent movie Who Killed the Electric Car is also incredibly
revealing.

Child Psychiatrist Says Past-Life Memories Not So Uncommon in Kids

2006-07-25, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2232830
From the ages of 2 to 6, James Leininger seemed to recall in striking detail a "past life" he had as
a World War II Navy pilot who was shot down and killed over the Pacific. The boy knew details
about airplanes and about pilot James Huston Jr. that he couldn't have known. James' parents say
he also had terrible nightmares about a plane crashing and a "little man" unable to get out. James,
now 8, stills loves airplanes, but he is free of those haunting images of the pilot's death. Jim
Tucker, a child psychiatrist and medical director of the Child and Family Psychiatric Clinic at the
University of Virginia, is one of the few researchers to extensively study the phenomenon of
children who seem to have memories of past lives. He says James' case is very much like others
he has studied. "At the University of Virginia, we've studied over 2,500 cases of children who
seem to talk about previous lives when they're little," Tucker said. "They start at 2 or 3, and
by the time they're 6 or 7 they forget all about it and go on to live the rest of their lives."
Tucker -- the author of Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of

Previous Lives -- has seen cases like James' where children make statements that can be verified
and seem to match with a particular person. "It means that this is a phenomenon that really needs
to be explored," Tucker said. "James is one of many, many kids who have said things like this."
While about three-fourths of Americans say they believe in paranormal activity, 20 percent believe
in reincarnation, according to a 2005 Gallup poll.
Note: To watch the engaging ABC News video clip of this incredible story, click here. For an even
better Fox News clip, click here. For an excellent survey of powerful evidence of life and death,
click here. For a collection of news articles with other powerful evidence of past-lives, click here.

A Single Person Could Swing an Election

2006-06-28, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR20060627014...
To determine what it would take to hack a U.S. election, a team of cybersecurity experts turned to
a fictional battleground state called Pennasota. The state uses electronic voting machines. The
experts...concluded in a report issued yesterday that it would take only one person, with a
sophisticated technical knowledge and timely access to the software that runs the voting
machines, to change the outcome. The report, which was unveiled at a Capitol Hill news
conference by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice and billed as the most
authoritative to date, tackles some of the most contentious questions about the security of
electronic voting. The report concluded that the three major electronic voting systems in use have
significant security and reliability vulnerabilities. But it added that most of these vulnerabilities can
be overcome by auditing printed voting records to spot irregularities. And while 26 states require
paper records of votes, fewer than half of those require regular audits. Republican Reps. Tom Cole
(Okla.) and Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee,
joined Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) in calling for a law that would set strict requirements for
electronic voting machines.

Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug

2006-03-12, Independent (one of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-rumsfeld-makes-5m-kil...
The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares
in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive
amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease. More than 60
countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral medication - the only oral medicine
believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease - to try to protect their
people. The United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people worldwide. The
drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. Mr Rumsfeld was
on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join
the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding. The 2005 report showed that, in all, he

owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from which he got an income of up to $13m. The firm made a
loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost
quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled
again, to $161.6m last year.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. With both the avian flu and swine flu, top drug companies
raked in billions of dollars from sales of medications and vaccines, most of which went unused and
have now expired. For many more strange coincidences and facts around the avian and swine flu
scares, take a look at our summary of eye-opening news articles available here.

Strongest Dad in the World

2005-09-17, Canadian Runner/Sports Illustrated
http://www.canadianrunner.com/content/view/4258/32
Eighty-five times [Dick Hoyt has] pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons.
Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4
miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain
climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. And what has Rick done for his father?
Not much -- except save his life. This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when
Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to
control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him. But the
Hoyts weren't buying it. [Eventually,] rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the
cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was...able to communicate. First words?
"Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school
organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that." Yeah, right. How was
Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five
miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two
weeks." That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't
disabled anymore!"
Note: Don't miss the entire incredibly moving story with links to the Hoyt's beautiful website,
inspiring
photos,
a
deeply
touching
video
clip,
and
lots
more
at
www.weboflove.org/050917dadtrulycares.

Deadly Immunity - by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

2005-06-16, Common Dreams/Boston Globe
https://web.archive.org/web/20050618020050/http://www.commondreams.org/views0...
In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at
the isolated Simpsonwood conference center ... to ensure complete secrecy. The federal officials
and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming

questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and
young children. A mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be
responsible for a dramatic increase in autism. But instead of taking immediate steps to alert
the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at
Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging
data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting
were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine
industry's bottom line. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash
the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical
industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have
been filed by the parents of injured children. More than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism.
The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among 11 children
born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931. Internal documents
reveal that Eli Lilly, which first developed thimerosal, knew from the start that its product could
cause damage -- and even death -- in both animals and humans.
Note: A good, though somewhat watered down version of the above article was published in the
Boston Globe on July 1, 2005. To see this article on the Globe website, click here. For an excellent
report endorsed by dozens of respected doctors and nurses on the serious risks and dangers of
vaccines, click here.

Enron Schemes Caught On Tape

2005-02-03, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/03/eveningnews/main671618.shtml
During the West Coast Power crisis homes went dark and streetlights were out ... causing injuries
and accidents. But the danger didn't stop Enron's energy traders from having a good laugh. CBS
... reports on the Enron scheme, as caught on new audio tape. The traders and plant operator
laugh and plot in a display that seems to prove the theory that years before the energy crisis,
Enron manipulated markets. "They had to do a rolling blackout through the town and there was a
red light there he didn't see," one Enron trader says on tape. "That's beautiful," a second voice
responds. Enron secretly shut power plants down so they could cause, and then cash in on,
the crisis. Enron also pulled power out of states like California, causing emergency
conditions to worsen. "Sorry California," an Enron trader says. "I'm bringing all our power
out of state today." Plant operators were coached on how to lie to officials. "We want you guys to
get a little creative..." one voice says on the tape, "and come up with a reason to go down. Just call
'em, Hey guyswe're coming down." The plant operator replies, "OK, so we're just comin' down
for some maintenance?" "Right," the trader says. "And that's cool?" the plant operator asks.
"Hopefully," the trader responds, to which the men are heard laughing. Enron also pulled power
out of states like California, causing emergency conditions to worsen. The "shut downs" and "pull
outs" triggered sky high power prices. "We're just making money hand over fist!" one voice is

heard saying on the tape. And when states complained, the guys at Enron seemed to have a
response. "Get a f****** clue," one says. "Yeah," another chimes in. "Leave us alone. Let us make
a little bit of money."
Note: For an eye-opening two-minute video clip on CBS, watch "Enron Schemers on Tape" at this
link. MSNBC also published a revealing article on this. And a New York Times article states
"Company officials had long denied that they illegally shut down plants to create artificial
shortages. Two months after the recording showed how the Nevada plant was shut down, [Enron
CEO Kenneth] Lay called any claims of market manipulation 'conspiracy theories.'" For lots more
reliable information on the energy cover-up, click here.

Why I Resigned From the CIA

2004-12-05, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/05/opinion/oe-scheuer5
Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA, wrote "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the
War on Terror." Between January 1996 and June 1999 I was in charge of running operations
against Al Qaeda from Washington. When it comes to this small slice of the large U.S. national
security pie, I speak with firsthand experience (and for several score of CIA officers) when I
state categorically that during this time senior White House officials repeatedly refused to
act on sound intelligence that provided multiple chances to eliminate Osama bin Laden
either by capture or by U.S. military attack. I witnessed and documented, along with dozens of
other CIA officers, instances where life-risking intelligence-gathering work of the agency's men and
women in the field was wasted. I was never charged with deciding whether to act against Bin
Laden. That decision properly belongs solely to senior White House officials. However, as a nowprivate American citizen, it is my right to question their judgment; I am entitled to know why the
protection of Americans most selfishly, my own children and grandchildren was not the top
priority of the senior officials who refused to act on the opportunities to attack Bin Laden provided
by the clandestine service. Each of these officials have publicly argued that the intelligence was
not "good enough" to act, but they almost always neglect to say that they were repeatedly advised
that the intelligence was not going to get better and that Bin Laden was going to kill thousands of
Americans if he was not stopped.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For many other serious questions around the 9/11 attacks,
click here.

Of Mice, Men and In-Between

2004-11-20, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63731-2004Nov19.html

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins. In Nevada, there are sheep
whose livers and hearts are largely human. In California, mice peer from their cages with human
brain cells firing inside their skulls. Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical
Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. Chimeras are allowing
scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact ...
inside the bodies of living creatures. But with no federal guidelines in place ... how human must a
chimera be before more stringent research rules should kick in? Chimerism becomes a more
sensitive topic when it involves growing entire human organs inside animals. And it becomes
especially sensitive when it deals in brain cells. Imagine, said Robert Streiffer, a professor of
philosophy and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, a human-chimpanzee chimera endowed
with speech ... what some have called a "humanzee." Perhaps the most ambitious efforts to make
use of chimeras come from Irving Weissman, director of Stanford University's Institute of
Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. Weissman helped make the first mouse with a nearly
complete human immune system. More recently his team injected human neural stem cells into
mouse fetuses, creating mice whose brains are about 1 percent human. Now Weissman says he
is thinking about making chimeric mice whose brains are 100 percent human.
Note: If the above link fails, click here.

Brainwash victims win cash claims

2004-10-17, Times of London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1313808,00.html
Hundreds of mentally ill patients who were subjected to barbaric CIA-funded brainwashing
experiments ... could be entitled to compensation following a landmark court ruling. Doctor Ewan
Cameron, who became one of the worlds leading psychiatrists, developed techniques used
by Nazi scientists to wipe out the existing personalities of people in his care. Cameron ...
was recruited by the CIA during the cold war while working at McGill University in Montreal,
Canada. He carried out mind-control experiments using drugs such as LSD on hundreds of
patients, but only 77 of them were awarded compensation. Now a landmark ruling by a Federal
Court judge in Montreal will allow more than 250 former patients, whose claims were rejected, to
seek compensation. Last week, Alan Stein, of Montreal law firm Stein and Stein ... confirmed he
was in the process of contacting former clients who could now renew their appeal. There are
about 200 people still due compensation, he said. Using techniques similar to those portrayed
in the celebrated novel the Manchurian Candidate, it was believed that people could be
brainwashed and reprogrammed to carry out specific acts. Cameron developed a range of
depatterning treatments. Patients were woken from drug-induced stupors two or three times a
day for multiple electric shocks. In a specially designed sleep room made famous by Anne
Collinss book of the same name, Cameron placed a speaker under the patients pillow and
relayed negative messages for 16 hours a day. Cameron ... rose to become the first president of
the World Psychiatric Association.

Note: If the above link does not work, click here. Dr. Cameron was once President of the American
and World Psychiatric Associations. For more on the severe abuses of doctors in serving the CIA's
mind control programs, click here. This article clearly shows that the Manchurian candidate
(programmed assassin) is not just fiction. For a powerful two-page summary of 18,000 pages of
declassified CIA documents on this disturbing mind control program, click here. Links to view the
original top secret documents are included.

F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements

2004-05-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/national/06CND-TAPE.html
At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001,
made a tape recording that same day describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a
supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation
Department said in a report today. The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air
Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, where about 16 people met in a
basement conference room known as "the Bat Cave" and passed around a microphone, each
recalling his or her version of the events a few hours earlier. But officials at the center never told
higher-ups of the tape's existence, and it was later destroyed by an F.A.A. official described
in the report as a quality-assurance manager there. That manager crushed the cassette in
his hand, shredded the tape and dropped the pieces into different trash cans around the
building. The inspector general, Kenneth M. Mead, said that the officials' keeping the existence of
the tape a secret and the decision by one to destroy it had not served "the interests of the F.A.A.,
the department or the public" and could foster suspicions among the public.
Note: The destruction of the tape described in this article has raised questions from critics of the
official explanation of the 9/11 attacks, in which the lack of a response by air defences to the
hijackings was implausibly explained by a failure of the well-established communication system
between the FAA and NORAD. For many other questions raised by highly credible members of
government and the professions, click here and here.

FAA Managers Destroyed 9/11 Tape

2004-05-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A6892-200...
Six air traffic controllers provided accounts of their communications with hijacked planes on Sept.
11, 2001, on a tape recording that was later destroyed by Federal Aviation Administration
managers. It is unclear what information was on the tape because no one ever listened to,
transcribed or duplicated it. The FAA ... said it took disciplinary action against the employee who
destroyed the tape but declined to elaborate on what kind of action they took. [Earlier, an FAA
official incorrectly stated that the agency took action against two employees in the case.] Hours
after the [9/11 attacks] an FAA manager at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center gathered

six controllers who communicated or tracked two of the hijacked planes and recorded in a onehour interview their personal accounts of what occurred. The manager, who is not named in the
report, said that his intentions were to provide quick information to federal officials investigating the
attack before the air traffic controllers involved took sick leave for the stress of their experiences,
as is common practice. A second manager ... destroyed the tape between December 2001 and
January 2002 by crushing the tape with his hand, cutting it into small pieces and depositing
the pieces into trash cans around the building. The tape's existence was never made known to
federal officials investigating the attack. The New York managers acknowledged that they received
an e-mail from FAA officials instructing them to retain all materials related to the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the managers decided not to include the tape in a November 2001 "Formal Accident Package"
report the office prepared.
Note: Why on earth wouldn't this most important tape have been included in the FAA's official
report. And more importantly, why did someone later destroy it so carefully and thoroughly. For lots
more, click here.

Transcript: Rice's Testimony on 9/11 (for 9/11 Commissioner Lehman)

2004-04-08, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61252-2004Apr8_4.html
LEHMAN. Were you told that there were numerous young Arab males in flight training? RICE. I
was not. LEHMAN. Were you told that the red team in F.A.A. for 10 years had reported ... that the
U.S. airport security system never got higher than 20 percent effective. RICE. To the best of my
recollection I was not told that. LEHMAN. Were you aware that I.N.S. had quietly internally halved
its internal security enforcement budget? RICE. I was not made aware of that. LEHMAN. Were you
aware that it was the U.S. government established policy not to question or oppose the sanctuary
policies [which] prohibited the local police from cooperating at all with federal immigration
authorities? RICE. I do not believe I was aware of that. LEHMAN. Were you aware of a program
that was well established that allowed Saudi citizens to get visas without interviews? RICE. I
learned of that after 9/11. LEHMAN. Were you aware of the extensive activities [of] the Saudi
government in supporting over 300 radical teaching schools and mosques around the country,
including right here in the United States? Were you aware at the time of the fact that Saudi
Arabia ... had in their custody the C.F.O. [Chief Financial Officer] and the closest confidante
of Al Qaeda, of Osama bin Laden, and that they refused direct access to the United States?
RICE. I don't remember anything of that kind. LEHMAN. Were you aware that they would not
cooperate and give us access to the perpetrators of the Cobar Towers attack? RICE. I was very
involved in issues concerning Cobar Towers. LEHMAN. Were you aware that it was the policy of
the Justice Department ... to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in
secondary questioning? RICE. No.
Note: Don't miss the full revealing transcript at the link above. Most of the quotes above are
towards the bottom of the webpage. Why didn't we hear lots more about these astounding facts
put forward by one of the 9/11 commissioners, yet hardly mentioned in the final report? For lots

more, click here.

The Results Are in and the Winner Is . . . or Maybe Not

2004-02-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/opinion/editorial-observer-the-results-are-...
Charlie Matulka, who lost to Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska [in 2002], does not trust the results
in his election. Most of the votes were cast on paper ballots that were scanned into computerized
vote-counting machines, which happen to have been manufactured by a company Mr. Hagel used
to run. Mr. Matulka, suspicious of Senator Hagel's ties to the voting machine company, demanded
a hand recount of the paper ballots. Nebraska law did not allow it, he was informed. In his primary
race in 1996, Mr. Hagel, who had lived in Virginia for 20 years, beat the state attorney general by
nearly two to one. In the general election, he defeated the governor, who had been elected two
years earlier in a landslide. In 2002, against Mr. Matulka, he won more than 80 percent of the
vote. What gets conspiracy theorists excited is not just Mr. Hagel's prodigious wins, but his
job before jumping into the 1996 race: heading American Information Systems, the
manufacturer of the machines that count 85 percent of Nebraska's votes. Rob Behler ... who
helped prepare Georgia's machines for the 2002 election, says secret computer codes were
installed late in the process. Votes ''could have been manipulated,'' he says, and the election
thrown. Modern technology is creating a whole new generation of conspiracy theories -- easy to
imagine and, unless we're careful, impossible to disprove. Among the growing ranks of electronicvoting skeptics ... Mr. Hagel's wins in 1996 and 2002 have taken on mythic status. The problem is,
there is no way to prove the right man was elected. A healthy democracy must avoid even the
appearance of corruption. [The] Nebraska elections fail this test.
Note: For more clear evidence Hagel was directly involved in voting machine manipulation which
lead to an illegal victory for him, click here and here.

Senators: State Department Had Key to Stopping 9/11 Attacks

2002-12-18, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,73395,00.html
Sens. Jon Kyl and Pat Roberts said in a report that "the answer to the question could 9/11
have been prevented is yes, if State Department personnel had merely followed the law
and not granted non-immigrant visas to 15 of the 19 hijackers in Saudi Arabia." If laws had
been followed, "most of the hijackers would not have been able to obtain visas and 9/11 would not
have happened," they said. Both [senators] were part of the House and Senate intelligence
committees' inquiry into intelligence failures leading up to the attacks. Last week, in its final report,
the inquiry said agencies were poorly organized and failed to share information, but didn't identify
a single intelligence error that, by itself, allowed the attacks to occur. Kyl and Roberts ... said the
inquiry findings, most of which remain classified, didn't dig deeply enough into the cause of
intelligence problems. They said also intelligence committee leaders excluded other lawmakers

from key decisions during the investigation. Their report also said the investigation's scope,
confined to intelligence issues, was too limited. The most glaring omission, they said, was the
failure to examine State Department procedures for issuing visas.
Note: For many questions concerning the official account of 9/11 asked by highly-respected
professionals, click here and here.

Federal agency planned plane-crashing-into-building drill [on] Sept. 11

2002-08-22, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-22-sept-11-plane-drill-_x.htm
In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency
was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its
buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism it was to be a simulated accident. Officials at the
Chantilly, Va.-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in
which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters
building. The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles International
Airport. "It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into
our facility," [NRO spokesman Art] Haubold said. "As soon as the real world events began, we
canceled the exercise." Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 the Boeing 767
that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11,
50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64
aboard the plane and 125 on the ground. The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of
the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA. In a promotion for
speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the
announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were
running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created
if a plane were to strike a building."
Note: For many more disturbing coincindences and outright cover-ups around 9/11, click here.
And for yet another amazing "coincidence" surrounding the London bombings, click here.

Whistleblower Complains of FBI Obstruction

2002-05-30, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,54070,00.html
[An] FBI counter-terrorism agent [is] accusing the agency of prohibiting him from conducting his
probe into terror financing activities because he complained about obstruction by bureau superiors.
Chicago-based FBI Special Agent Robert Wright ... said the recent trajectory of his FBI career has
taken a downward spiral since he complained about two incidents that inhibited his ability to
continue terror funding and money laundering probes of members of ... Hamas and Hezbollah.
The FBI has been under fire since it was revealed that FBI field alerts to Washington of

Middle Eastern men training at U.S. flight schools during the summer of 2001 were buried in
paperwork, and agents in Minneapolis who circumvented normal channels to contact the CIA
about suspected "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui were reprimanded. Agents who have
complained about bureaucratic barriers in the past have been punished, and Wright said that he is
one of them. Wright has been demoted to "paper pusher" and "chief dishwasher" at the Chicago
field office since he complained about the wrenches thrown into his probe. Wright is under threat
of retribution should he talk to members of Congress about what he knows. Wright said
throughout his six-year posting in counter-terrorism, he was involved in probes of Hamas and
Hezbollah. His most successful 'get' netted $1.4 million in terrorist money in 1998, money that he
said today was linked to Saudi businessman and financier Yassin Kadi, who was identified late last
year as a close associate of Usama Bin Laden.
Note: For lots more on what happened with Robert Wright, click here. For many still-unanswered
questions from highly respected government officials and professors about the behavior of the
highest levels of the FBI and other US government agencies before, during and after the 9/11
attacks, click here and here.

Lost city 'could rewrite history'

2002-01-19, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm
The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and
archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history. Marine scientists say
archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the
western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city - which is five miles long
and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent
by more than 5,000 years. Debris recovered from the site - including construction material,
pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture and human bones and teeth has been carbon dated
and found to be nearly 9,500 years old. The city is believed to be even older than the ancient
Harappan civilisation, which dates back around 4,000 years. Author and film-maker Graham
Hancock - who has written extensively on the uncovering of ancient civilisations [said,] "Cities on
this scale are not known in the archaeological record until roughly 4,500 years ago when the first
big cities begin to appear in Mesopotamia. Nothing else on the scale of the underwater cities of
Cambay is known. There's a huge chronological problem in this discovery. It means that the
whole model of the origins of civilisation with which archaeologists have been working will
have to be remade from scratch," he said.
Note: Dozens of manmade complexes found under the ocean have been found, yet mainstream
archeologists are largely ignoring these finds because they don't fit the academic consensus. For
an excellent compilation of reliable, mainstream media news articles showing both the hidden
history and suppressed archeology of our world, click here. For an interview with former Economist
reporter Graham Hancock, who finds lots of solid, astounding evidence of a lost civilization, click
here.

'Lost city' found beneath Cuban waters

2001-12-07, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1697038.stm
A team of explorers working off the western coast of Cuba say they have discovered what they
think are the ruins of a submerged city built thousands of years ago. Researchers from ...
Canadian company [Advanced Digital Communications] used sophisticated sonar
equipment to find and film stone structures more than 2,000 feet (650 metres) below the
sea's surface. The explorers first spotted the underwater city last year, when scanning equipment
started to produce images of symmetrically organized stone structures reminiscent of an urban
development. In July, the researchers returned to the site with an explorative robot device capable
of highly advanced underwater filming work. The images the robot brought back confirmed the
presence of huge, smooth blocks with the appearance of cut granite. They believe these
formations could have been built more than 6,000 years ago, a date which precedes the great
pyramids of Egypt by 1,500 years. "It's a really wonderful structure which really looks like it could
have been a large urban centre," ADC explorer Paulina Zelitsky told the Reuters news agency.
Note: For an excellent discussion by former Economist reporter Graham Hancock of this most
amazing find which brings into question the accepted theories of civilization, click here. For a
compilation of 10 mysteries that hint at ancient civilizations which have largely been ignored, click
here.

Has someone been sitting on the FBI?

2001-11-06, BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm
GREG PALAST: The CIA and Saudi Arabia, the Bushes and the Bin Ladens. Did their connections
cause America to turn a blind eye to terrorism? UNNAMED MAN: There is a hidden agenda at the
very highest levels of our government. PETER ELSNER: How can it be that the former President
of the US and the current President of the US have business dealings with characters that need to
be investigated? PALAST: In the eight weeks since the attacks, over 1,000 suspects and potential
witnesses have been detained. Yet, just days after the hijackers took off from Boston aiming for the
Twin Towers, a special charter flight out of the same airport whisked 11 members of Osama Bin
Laden's family off to Saudi Arabia. That did not concern the White House. Their official line is
that the Bin Ladens are above suspicion - apart from Osama, the black sheep, who they say
hijacked the family name. That's fortunate for the Bush family and the Saudi royal
household, whose links with the Bin Ladens could otherwise prove embarrassing. But
Newsnight has obtained evidence that the FBI was on the trail of other members of the Bin Laden
family for links to terrorist organisations before and after September 11th. This document is
marked "Secret". Case ID - 199-Eye WF 213 589. 199 is FBI code for case type. 9 would be
murder. 65 would be espionage. 199 means national security. WF indicates Washington field office
special agents were investigating ABL. ABL is Abdullah Bin Laden.

Note: For a Washington Post article showing that former President George H.W. Bush was
meeting with a brother of Osama bin Laden the day before 9/11, click here. For lots more on the
unanswered questions about the official account of 9/11, click here and here.

Sloppy State Dept. Paper Work Let Sept. 11 Hijackers Into the U.S
2001-10-23, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130051
A new report accuses the State Department of staggering lapses in its visa program that gave
Sept. 11 hijackers entry into the United States. The political journal National Review obtained the
visa applications for 15 of the 19 hijackers and evidence that all of them should have been
denied entry to the country. Almost all of the hijacker's visas were issued in Saudi Arabia, at the
U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or the U.S. Consulate in Jedda. Terrorist ties aside, the applications
themselves should have raised red flags, say experts. The forms are incomplete and often
incomprehensible yet that didn't stop any of the 15 terrorists for whom the visa
applications were obtained from coming to the United States. The only alleged would-be
hijacker who failed to get a visa was Ramzi Binalshibh, who was denied entrance to the United
States repeatedly. "This is a systemic problem," said Nikolai Wenzel, a former U.S. consular
officer. "It's a problem of sloppiness, it's a problem of negligence which I would call criminal
negligence because obviously, having reviewed all these applications, there is a pattern here." The
pattern? None of the 15 applications reviewed was filled out properly. The State Department would
not allow interviews with current consular affairs employees.
Note: For many questions concerning the official account of 9/11 asked by highly-respected
professionals, click here and here.

Years Ago, The Military Sprayed Germs on U.S. Cities

2001-10-22, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1003703226697496080.html
Much of what the Pentagon knows about the effects of bacterial attacks on cities came from ...
secret tests conducted on San Francisco and other American cities from the 1940s through the
1960s, experts say. In the 1950s, Army researchers dispersed Serratia on Panama City, Fla., and
Key West, Fla., with no known illnesses resulting. They also released fluorescent compounds over
Minnesota and other Midwestern states to see how far they would spread in the atmosphere. The
particles of zinc-cadmium-sulfide -- now a known cancer-causing agent -- were detected more than
1,000 miles away in New York state, the Army told the Senate hearings. In New York, military
researchers in 1966 spread Bacillus subtilis variant Niger, also believed to be harmless, in the
subway system by dropping lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto tracks in stations in midtown
Manhattan. The bacteria were carried for miles throughout the subway system. The Army kept
the biological-warfare tests secret until word of them was leaked to the press in the 1970s.
Between 1949 and 1969 ... open-air tests of biological agents were conducted 239 times,

according to the Army's testimony in 1977 before the Senate's subcommittee on health. In
80 of those experiments, the Army said it used live bacteria that its researchers at the time thought
were harmless. Several medical experts have since claimed that an untold number of people may
have gotten sick as a result of the germ tests. These researchers say even benign agents can
mutate into unpredictable pathogens once exposed to the elements.
Note: Reading the full article on the Wall Street Journal website requires a paid subscription. You
can read it free at this link. Considering that the army kept all of these tests secret for decades, is it
possible that they are keeping information on chemtrails secret from the public? For lots more on
the government secretly using unsuspecting citizens as guinea pigs in its risky experiments over
the years, click here. For powerful evidence that this is still happening, click here.

Resentful west spurned Sudan's key terror files

2001-09-30, The Observer (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/30/terrorism.afghanistan2
Security chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic repeatedly turned down the chance to acquire
a vast intelligence database on Osama bin Laden and more than 200 leading members of
his al-Qaeda terrorist network in the years leading up to the 11 September attacks. They
were offered thick files, with photographs and detailed biographies of many of his principal cadres,
and vital information about al-Qaeda's financial interests in many parts of the globe. On two
separate occasions, they were given an opportunity to extradite or interview key bin Laden
operatives who had been arrested in Africa because they appeared to be planning terrorist
atrocities. None of the offers, made regularly from the start of 1995, was taken up. One senior CIA
source admitted last night: 'This represents the worst single intelligence failure in this whole terrible
business.' Bin Laden and his cadres came to Sudan in 1992 because at that time it was one of the
few Islamic countries where they did not need visas. He used his time there to build a lucrative
web of legitimate businesses, and to seed a far-flung financial network - much of which was
monitored by the Sudanese. They also kept his followers under close surveillance. One US source
who has seen the files on bin Laden's men in Khartoum said some were 'an inch and a half thick'.
They included photographs, and information on their families, backgrounds and contacts.
Note: For many questions raised about the official account of the 9/11 attacks by highly credible
professors and officials, click here and here.

Revealed: the men with stolen identities

2001-09-23, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/1341391/Reve...
Their names were flashed around the world as suicide hijackers who carried out the attacks on
America. But yesterday four innocent men told how their identities had been stolen by Osama bin
Laden's teams to cover their tracks. The men - all from Saudi Arabia - spoke of their shock at

being mistakenly named by the FBI as suicide terrorists. None of the four was in the United States
on September 11 and all are alive in their home country. The FBI released the list of 19 suicide
terrorists three days after the attacks. The Saudi Airlines pilot, Saeed Al-Ghamdi, 25, and
Abdulaziz Al-Omari, an engineer from Riyadh, are furious that the hijackers' "personal
details" - including name, place, date of birth and occupation - matched their own. The other
two men accused of being terrorists are Salem Al-Hamzi and Ahmed Al-Nami. Mr Al-Hamzi is 26
and had just returned to work at a petrochemical complex in the industrial eastern city of Yanbou ...
when the hijackers struck. Mr Al-Nami, 33, from Riyadh, an administrative supervisor with Saudi
Arabian Airlines, said that he was in Riyadh when the terrorists struck. The FBI admitted that
there was some doubt about the identities of some of the suspects. A spokesman said: "The
identification process has been complicated by the fact that many Arabic family names are similar.
It is also possible that the hijackers used false identities." The spokesman declined to say whether
the FBI would apologise but added: "If we have made mistakes then obviously that would be
regrettable."
Note: The deceptions in the official story of 9/11 are nowhere more clearly shown than in this
important story. The FBI never revised its list of alleged hijackers, and these four are all later listed
in the official 9/11 Commission report as the hijackers. Click here and scroll down a little over half
way to see their photos in the official report. For more on this, click here. For an abundance of
reliable information suggesting a major 9/11 cover-up, click here. For other revealing news articles
on 9/11, click here.

2nd Witness Arrested; 25 Held for Questioning

2001-09-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38270-2001Sep15
Investigators yesterday arrested a second person as a material witness in the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. As the investigation gathered strength yesterday, unusual leads
began to surface, among them the possibility that some of the hijackers may have received
training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida or other U.S. military facilities. Two of 19
suspects named by the FBI, Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi, have the same names
as men listed at a housing facility for foreign military trainees at Pensacola. Two others,
Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami, have names similar to individuals listed in public records as
using the same address inside the base. In addition, a man named Saeed Alghamdi graduated
from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, while men with
the same names as two other hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, appear as
graduates of the U.S. International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and the
Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, respectively.
Note: For more on this vitally important news, see the Newsweek article available here and the
New York Times article here. Several of the alleged hijackers also contacted US media shortly
after 9/11 to report that they were alive and were not on the hijacked planes. See the BBC News
and Times of London articles on this. Yet the 9/11 Commission Report lists these men as the

official hijackers at this link. So what's really going on here? For many other major media reports
suggesting that rogue elements of government were involved in 9/11, click here. For our reliable
9/11 Information Center, click here.

Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle

2001-01-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/business/25FOOD.html?pagewanted=all
In late 1986, four executives of the Monsanto Company, the leader in agricultural biotechnology,
paid a visit to Vice President George Bush at the White House. In the weeks and months that
followed, the White House complied, working behind the scenes, to help Monsanto long a
political power with deep connections in Washington get the regulations that it wanted. It was an
outcome that would be repeated, again and again, through three administrations. What Monsanto
wished for from Washington, Monsanto and, by extension, the biotechnology industry got.
Even longtime Washington hands said that the control this nascent industry exerted over its own
regulatory destiny through the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture Department
and ultimately the Food and Drug Administration was astonishing. Dr. Louis J. Pribyl, one of 17
government scientists working on a policy for genetically engineered food, ... knew from studies
that toxins could be unintentionally created when new genes were introduced into a plant's cells.
The government was dismissing that risk and any other possible risk as no different from those of
conventionally derived food. That meant biotechnology companies would not need government
approval to sell the foods they were developing. "This is the industry's pet idea, namely that
there are no unintended effects that will raise the F.D.A.'s level of concern," Dr. Pribyl wrote
in a fiery memo to the F.D.A. scientist overseeing the policy's development. "But time and
time again, there is no data to back up their contention."
Note: For a powerful essay showing the grave risks and dangers of GMOs, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on genetically modified foods, click here.

A blacklist burning for Bush

2000-12-10, The Observer (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2000/dec/10/columnists.theobserver
This week, I was hacking my way through the Florida swampland known as the Office of Secretary
of State Katherine Harris and found a couple thousand more names of voters electronically
'disappeared' from the vote rolls. About half of those named are African-Americans. They had the
right to vote, but they never made it to the balloting booths. When we left off our Florida story two
weeks ago, The Observer discovered that Harris's office had ordered the elimination of 8,000
Florida voters on the grounds that they had committed felonies in other states. None had. Harris
bought the bum list from a company called ChoicePoint, a firm whose Atlanta executive suite and
boardroom are filled with Republican funders. ChoicePoint, we have learned, picked up the list of
faux felons from state officials in ... Texas. In fact, it was a roster of people who, like their

Governor, George W, had committed nothing more than misdemeanours. Most of those targeted to
have their names 'scrubbed' from the voter roles were African-Americans, Hispanics and poor
white folk, likely voters for Vice-President Gore. Add it up. The dead-wrong Texas list, the
uncorrected 'corrected' list, plus the out-of-state ex-con list. It's enough to swing a
presidential election.
Note: The entire article at the above link is highly recommended. It provides virtual proof of
criminal fraud. For lots more on blatant deception in the decisive Florida count of the U.S. 2000
presidential election, click here.

Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing

1999-12-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-l...
A jury in a civil suit brought by the family of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided today that a
retired Memphis cafe owner was part of a conspiracy in the 1968 killing of Dr. King. The jury's
decision means it did not believe that James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the crime, fired the
shot that killed Dr. King. After four weeks of testimony and one hour of deliberation, the jury in the
wrongful-death case found that Loyd Jowers as well as ''others, including governmental agencies''
had been part of a conspiracy. The jury awarded the King family the damages they had sought:
$100, which the family says it will donate to charity. The family has long questioned Mr. Ray's
conviction and hoped the suit would change the legal and historical record of the assassination.
Mr. Jowers, in a 1993 television interview, said that he had hired a Memphis police officer to
kill Dr. King from the bushes behind his restaurant. Mr. Jowers said he had been paid to do
so by a Memphis grocery store owner with Mafia connections. In an unlikely alliance, the King
family was represented in the case by William Pepper, who had been Mr. Ray's lawyer. The King
family maintains that Mr. Pepper's version of the assassination is the one that gets at the real truth
behind Dr. King's death, not the official version with Mr. Ray as the gunman. Mr. Pepper said
federal, state and Memphis governmental agencies, as well as the news media conspired in the
assassination.'
Note: For an awesome six-minute clip on this most important trial, click here. For other major
media article with powerful evidence of conspiracies to kill the Kennedy brothers and more, click
here. And for more from the MLK family on this incident, see their fascinating discussion at this
link.

Car achieves almost 10,000 miles per gallon

1999-07-16, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/395366.stm

A car driven by a 10-year-old and built at a French school has set a new world record for fuel
efficiency. The Microjoule team managed the equivalent of 9,845 miles per gallon while
driving for 10 miles around Silverstone race track in the UK. More than 100 teams competed
in the Shell Eco-Marathon. Their one goal was to see how far they can get these amazing
machines to travel on a minuscule amount of fuel. While we might be delirious if we managed 40
miles (64 kilometres) to the gallon (4.5 litres) pottering about town in our super minis, these people
are not happy until they have seen the mileometer click through the thousands. The teams have a
choice of petrol or diesel, with solar assistance permitted for the first time this year. A car is
allowed three 40-minute runs. It must average at least 15 mph (24 kph) after which the stewards at
the meeting calculate the machine's fuel efficiency. "The top fuel teams do about 10 miles, which is
six laps on the club circuit at Silverstone," says the event's fuel manager Geoff Houlbrook. "They
do that on less than 10 millilitres which is just two teaspoons of fuel." The entries come from all
over Europe. Some teams use advanced materials like titanium and carbon fibre. Some of the
machines built by schoolchildren are made from parts of old sewing and washing machines. "It's
fun but it's also science," says BBC Top Gear presenter and racing driver Tiff Needell. "It's like an
experiment with people learning how to save energy."
Note: Some of these amazing vehicles built in 1999 were "built by schoolchildren," yet the auto
industry still can't come up with a car that get's 100 mpg? Granted these cars are slow and small,
but if they can get almost 10,000 mpg, don't you think similar technology could be used to get at
least several hundred mpg in regular cars? For why car mileage hasn't increased much since the
1908 Model T got 25 mpg, click here and here.

Acid, Americans and the Agency

1999-02-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/1999/feb/14/life1.lifemagazine
[In 1977's] Senate hearings about CIA abuses ... one of the witnesses described a government
drug-testing programme known as MKULTRA, which had used innocent Americans selected as
human guinea pigs. This CIA-sponsored 'research' directly violated the Nuremberg Code [which]
stipulates that patients must give 'informed consent' before any experimentation may begin. [The]
architect of MKULTRA, Sidney Gottlieb [testified] about the policy of spiking the drinks of
unsuspecting Americans [with LSD]. Ultimately, Gottlieb would admit that MKULTRA tested an
array of techniques and substances on dozens of unsuspecting people, and there may well
have been hundreds. Gottlieb ... personally spiked the drinks of scientists working with
him. An Army scientist, Frank Olson, was given a massive dose and ... ended up jumping through
the 10th-floor window of a Manhattan hotel. Gottlieb asked a government narcotics agent named
George White to begin testing hallucinogens on unsuspecting citizens. White, a hard-drinking, fastliving man ... began dosing unwitting guinea pigs in autumn 1952. He would later, with Gottlieb's
approval, set up safe houses in New York and San Francisco where he played host to prostitutes,
drug dealers and their customers and handed the unsuspecting guests drinks laced with LSD. In a
1953 memo to a researcher, Gottlieb gave an indication of the kinds of mind control issues he was
interested in -- for both offensive and defensive purposes: 'Disturbance of memory; discrediting by

aberrant behaviour; alteration of sex patterns; eliciting of information.' Gottlieb and his boss,
Richard Helms -- in an unprecedented and controversial move -- ordered all MKULTRA records
destroyed in 1973. A few financial records survived.
Note: Though the CIA denies that mind control techniques were successful, an abundance of
evidence suggests otherwise. For a powerful two-page summary of this evidence, click here. For
major media articles, key documentaries, and other verifiable information on the secret mind
control programs, see our Mind Control Information Center available here.

Homosexual prostitution inquiry ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush

1989-06-29, WantToKnow.info/Washington Times
http://www.WantToKnow.info/890629washingtontimesfranklin
A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and
includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military
officers, congressional aides and US and foreign businessmen with close social ties to
Washington's political elite. Reporters for this newspaper examined hundreds of credit-card
vouchers, drawn on both corporate and personal cards and made payable to the escort service
operated by the homosexual ring. Among clients who charged homosexual prostitutes services on
major credit cards over the past 18 months are Charles K. Dutcher, former associate director of
presidential personnel in the Reagan administration, and Paul R. Balach, Labor Secretary
Elizabeth Doles political personnel liaison to the White House. Members of major news
organizations also procured escort services from the ring, credit card documents show. These
include Stanley Mark Tapscott, who was an assistant managing editor of The Washington Times.
Before joining The Times, Mr. Tapscott worked for the Office of Personnel Management in the
Reagan administration. A major concern, said the former official with longtime ties to top-ranking
military intelligence officers, was that hostile foreign intelligence services were using young male
prostitutes to compromise top administration homosexuals, thus making them subject to blackmail.
Note: How is it possible that this major story was not covered by any major media other
than the Washington Times? For answers to this question, click here. For more on this
astonishing case, don't miss the excellent, reliable resources and the powerful, suppressed
Discovery Channel documentary available here. For an insider's story of how prostitution was
regularly used to compromise politicians, click here.

Nebraska Inquiry Is Given File on Sex Abuse of Foster Children

1988-12-25, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D9133DF936A15751C1A96E94...
A state file containing reports of physical and sexual abuse of foster children, based on interviews
with some of the children and including one instance reminiscent of slave auctions, has been
turned over to the Executive Board of the Nebraska Legislature. One of the reports in the file ... is

an account by [a] victim who described parties at various places, including Omaha and cities
to which she was flown on the East Coast ... including one in which the ... teen-ager was
made to stand nude at a party while she was offered at auction to the highest bidder. "I don't
know if they can prove it," the source said, "but if one-tenth of what that girl is saying is true, I'd
sure hate to have her talking about me." The foster care agency's submission of the file is among
the latest developments in a case that began surfacing Nov. 4, when the Government's National
Credit Union Administration shut down the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Omaha.
The agency ... subsequently filed suit against Lawrence E. King Jr., Franklin Community's
manager and treasurer, charging him with diverting millions of dollars of the institution's money to
his own purposes. In all, the agency says, Franklin Community is missing $38 million. Mr. King has
not been accused of personally engaging in child sexual abuse. But a number of widening Federal
and state investigations into the credit union's collapse are aimed in part at determining whether
any of the money he is accused of embezzling was ever used to transport children or to pay them
for sex.
Note: This article reveals only a small part of what is known about a sophisticated pedophile ring
that reaches to the highest levels of government. For more on the suppressed Franklin Scandal,
don't miss the excellent, reliable resources and the powerful Discovery Channel documentary
available here. Note also the Christmas date of this article. You might be surprised at how often
the press discloses the most deeply revealing information on key cover-ups on holidays, when few
read the paper.

Kenneth Ring: 'You Never Recover Your Original Self'

1988-08-28, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1DB1E38F93BA1575BC0A96E94...
Probably the oldest mystery to vex mankind is what, if anything, occurs after death. For a decade,
Kenneth Ring, a psychology professor and researcher at the University of Connecticut, has looked
into the question through the near-death experiences of others. Mr. Ring ... talked with hundreds of
people between the ages of 18 and 84 who have come close to physical death. [His books] Life at
Death [and] Heading Toward Omega both deal with near-death experiences and how they change
people's lives. A near-death experience ... often happens to individuals who find themselves on the
verge of imminent biological death. It involves ... a sense of the most profound peace and wellbeing that is possible to imagine. It's a sense of being separate from the physical body and
sometimes being able to see it as though a spectator off to one side or from up above. These
people have a sense of moving through a dark space or tunnel toward a radiantly beautiful white or
golden light. They are absorbed in that light, having in some cases a panoramic life review in
which virtually everything that they've ever done in their life they're able to see; perhaps meeting
the spirits of deceased love ones or friends. And in some cases, they are asked to make a
decision as to whether they would like to continue or go back to their body. The most powerful
antidote to the fear of death is coming close to death ... and remembering one of these

experiences. After having a near-death experience, people believe the end of life isn't [the
end]; they believe in some sort of life after death. [Those] who have a near-death
experience almost totally lose their fear of death.
Note: The documented experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and come
back to life are some of the most mind-boggling and inspiring cases to have ever surfaced. To read
some of the most amazing of these cases and explore other excellent resources on the topic, click
here.

Was Edison Adversary Father Of 'Star Wars'?

1986-08-10, Chicago Tribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-08-10/news/8602270598_1_nikola-tesla-...
Weren't we taught that radio was invented by an Italian named Guglielmo Marconi? And that the
legendary Thomas Alva Edison devised today's electrical power system? "We were taught wrong,"
said Toby Grotz, president of the International Tesla Society. Two years before Marconi
demonstrated his wireless radio transmission, [Nikola Tesla] performed an identical feat at the
1893 World's Fair in Chicago. On June 21, 1943, in the case of Marconi Wireless Telegraph
Co. vs. the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that that Tesla's radio patents had
predated those of the Italian genius. To be sure, Edison invented the incandesent light bulb. But
he powered it and all of his other projects with inefficient direct current (DC) electricity. It was Tesla
who discovered how to use the far more powerful phased form of alternating current (AC)
electricity that is virtually the universal type of electricity employed by modern civilization. There
are indications that Tesla also discovered many of the devices ... for the Pentagon's controversial
Star Wars antimissile defense system. "Tesla dreamed of supplying limitless amounts of power
freely and equally available to all persons on Earth," said Grotz. And he was convinced he could
do so by broadcasting electrical power across large distances just as radio transmits far smaller
amounts of energy. [Tesla's] tests ... caused lights to burn as much as 26 miles away,
according to news reports of the time.
Note: Tesla was written out of history texts likely because he advocated providing methods for
extremely cheap electricity available to everyone. He successfully transmitted electricity through
the air to lights 26 miles away. Yet the rich energy power brokers of his time could not stand for
this. Only the little known Supreme Court ruling mentioned above restored his claim as original
inventor of the radio. For lots more on this most fascinating genius, click on the article link above
and click here and here. For revealing major media articles showing the suppression of other
energy inventions which could transform our world, click here.

Now you see it, now you don't

1978-10-01, U.S. National Security Agency Website
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/ufo/now_you_see.pdf

It had been an entirely routine night watch for the Imperial Iranian Air Force's command post in the
Tehran area [when] in quick succession, four calls arrived ... reporting a series of strange airborne
objects. A senior officer ... immediately scrambled an IIAF F-4 to investigate. The F-4 pilot reported
that the brilliant object was easily visible 70 miles away. When approximately 25 NM [nautical
miles] distant, the interceptor lost all instrumentation and UHF/Intercom communications. Upon
breaking off the intercept and turning towards his home base, all systems returned to normal, as if
the strange object no longer regarded the aircraft as a threat. A second F-4 was scrambled ten
minutes after the first. Upon reaching the 25 NM point, the object began rapidly moving away to
maintain a constant separation distance. Visually, it resembled flashing strobe lights arranged in a
rectangular pattern and alternating blue, green, red, and orange. Their sequence was so fast that
all colors could be seen at once. As the F-4 continued pursuit south of Tehran, a second
brightly-lit object (about one-half to one-third the size of the moon) detached from the
original UFO and headed straight for the F-4 at a high rate of speed. The pilot attempted to
fire an AIM-9 missile at the new object but was prevented by a sudden power loss in his
weapons control panel. UHF and internal communications were simultaneously lost. The pilot
promptly initiated a turn and negative G dive to escape. Continuing the turn, the pilot observed the
second object turn inside of him and then away, subsequently returning to the primary UFO for a
perfect rendezvous.
Note: This official report by U.S. Air Force Captain Henry Shields, taken from the NSA website at
the link above, raises many questions. A copy of this document is available at this link. A 1976
report to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on this remarkable incident is also available here. For
astounding statements by other top government and military officials acknowledging a major
cover-up of UFOs, click here.

80 Institutions Used in C.I.A. Mind Studies

1977-08-04, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D15F63A5B167493C6A91783D85...
Adm. Stansfield Turner, the Director of Central Intelligence, testified today that the C.I.A.
had secretly supported human behavior control research at 80 institutions, including 44
colleges or universities as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. He
said that the main action years of MK-Ultra were from 1953 through 1963. The projects, he said,
had included tests of LSD and of a "K," or "knockout drop." The agency had supported 185
nongovernment researchers in 149 separate research projects. Admiral Turner said that ... 8,000
pages of newly discovered documents do not contain the names of the subjects of the tests but do
contain "leads" that might enable them to be found. Admiral Turner acknowledged under
questioning that the C.I.A. had apparently planned to test drugs on terminal cancer patients at the
same institution where it secretly contributed $375,000 toward the construction of a hospital
building. The New York Times has independently confirmed the institution is Georgetown
University Medical School here. Admiral Turner [also] said that "some unwitting testing took place
on criminal sexual psychopaths confined at a state hospital." At the two-hour hearing today,

Senator Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, pressed Admiral Turner to let the universities,
researchers and possible subjects of the tests know of the C.I.A.'s involvement. "These individuals
have a right to know who they are and why they were used," he said.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For lots more reliable, verifiable information suggesting a
major cover-up of government mind control programs, click here.

'Matador' With a Radio Stops Wired Bull

1965-05-17, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20817F9395812738DDDAE0994DD4...
The brave bull bore down on the unarmed "matador" a scientist who had never faced a fighting
bull. But the charging animal's horns never reached the man behind the heavy red cape. Moments
before that could happen, Dr. Jose M. R. Delgado, the scientist, pressed a button on a small radio
transmitter in his hand, and the bull braked to a halt. Then, he pressed another button on the
transmitter and the bull obediently turned to the right and trotted away. The bull was obeying
commands from his brain that had been called forth by electrical stimulationby the radio signals
of certain regions in which fine wire electrodes had been painlessly implanted the day before.
[Experiments] have shown, he explained, that "functions traditionally related to the psyche,
such as friendliness, pleasure or verbal expression, can be induced, modified and inhibited
by direct electrical stimulation of the brain." For example, he has been able to "play"
monkeys and cats 'like little electronic toys" that yawn, hide, fight, play, mate and go to
sleep on command. With humans under treatment for epilepsy, he has increased word output
sixfold in one person, has produced severe anxiety in another, and in several others has induced
feelings of profound friendlinessall by electrical stimulation of various specific regions of their
brains. "I do not know why more work of this sort isn't done," he remarked recently, "because it is
so economical and easy." Monkeys will learn to press a button that sends a stimulus to the brain of
an enraged member of the colony and calms it down, indicating that animals can be taught to
control one another's behavior.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. This article shows mind control was being developed over
40 years ago. Though this technology can be used for good purposes, it also can and secretly has
been used to manipulate and control for many years. For lots of information based on released CIA
documents on how mind control has been secretly used for decades to affect both individual
behavior and global politics, click here and here.

Western Europe: New Elan in an Old Clan

1963-12-20, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938990,00.html

For seven generations, one European family has dominated an incredible part of all that money
can buy. From its London and Paris banks, the family's millions have been sent forth to ... business
enterprises on six continents. Some of its stately dwellings are the kind of mansions that mere San
Simeons hoped to imitate. This ancient and unusual banking dynasty shields itself from the
curious eye of the public, but the map and history of Europe have been changed by its
action and etched with its name: the House of Rothschild. Seldom unimaginative in the use of
their money, Rothschild gold has powered the ambitions of prime ministers, princes and popes. It
has financed wars and reparations treaties, changed the course of politics and bailed out armies
and nations. The Rothschilds strung railroads across the Continent, gained control of the Suez
Canal [and] carved diamond mines in the African veld. The British Rothschilds [are still] the world's
most important bullion dealers. No modern family ... has been so important for so long in European
business. Newer dynasties such as the Rockefellers and the Fords have made more millions, but
... ledgers cannot reflect the Rothschild lands, their possessions and influence accumulated over
the generations, their priceless collections of art. Today, the legend is very much aliveand being
added to. The Rothschilds are striking out in many new directions behind a silver curtain of
discretion. Rather than run companies by themselves, the Rothschilds often prefer to start or join
syndicates, placing their men on boards to exert maximum influence with minimum investment
risk. [They rely on] a far spreading network of agents, who seldom even admit that they are
employed by the Rothschilds.
Note: To read the full, fascinating article, click here. The major media have very rarely exposed the
power and wealth of the Rothschilds as in this article. Note that the article was written less than a
month after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Could it be because of some anger at the elite
who killed Kennedy that this highly revealing article was actually published? For more on secret
societies which command huge hidden power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Air Force Order on Saucers Cited

1960-02-28, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A12F9345D1A728DDDA10A94DA4...
The Air Force has sent its commands a warning to treat sightings of unidentified flying objects as
"serious business" directly related to the nation's defense, it was learned today. An Air Force
spokesman confirmed issuance of the directive after portions of it were made public by a private
flying saucer group. The new regulations were issued by the Air Force inspector general Dec. 24.
Existence of the document was revealed by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena [NICAP]. The privately financed committee accused the Air Force of deception in
publicly describing reports of unidentified flying objects as delusions and hoaxes while sending the
private admonition to its commands. Vice Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter (Ret.), a committee board
member and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said ... "It is time for the
truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high-ranking

Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and
ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense," the
retired admiral said. He charged that "to hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.
Note: If the above link fails, click here for a free copy of this article. Why would a former head of
the CIA be claiming that Air Force officers are "soberly concerned" about UFOs? For an
abundance of reliable, verifiable information on this major cover-up, click here

SI and H Experimentation (Sleep Induction and Hypnosis)

1951-09-25, Declassified CIA Document
http://www.WantToKnow.info/mind_control/foia_mind_control/190527.1_bomb_girls...
Both subjects were placed in a very deep trance state and while in this state, the following
instructions were given: [Deleted] was instructed that upon awakening, she would proceed to
[deleted] room where she would wait at the desk for a telephone call. Upon receiving the call, a
person known as "Jim" would engage her in normal conversation. During the course of the
conversation, this individual would mention a code word. When she heard this code word, she
would pass into a SI trance state, but would not close her eyes and remain perfectly normal and
continue the telephone conversation. She was told that ... upon conclusion of the telephone
conversation, she would carry out instructions: [Deleted] was shown an electric timing device. She
was informed that this device was an incendiary bomb, and was then instructed how to attach and
set the device. After [deleted] learned how to set and attach the device, she was told ... to
take the timing device which was in a briefcase, and proceed to the ladies room. In the
ladies room, she would be met by a girl whom she had never seen who would identify
herself by the code word "New York." [Deleted] was then to show this individual how to
attach and set the timing device and further instructions would be given ... that the timing
device was to be carried in the briefcase to [deleted] room, placed in the nearest empty electriclight plug and concealed in the bottom, left-hand drawer of [deleted] desk, with the device set for
82 seconds and turned on. The experiment was carried out perfectly without any difficulty.
Note: This text is quoted from pages 1 and 2 of declassified CIA document MORI ID 190527. To
verify the statement in the text, make a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request as described
here, or directly view a scanned copy of page 1 here and page 2 here. For a two-page summary of
highly revealing government mind control programs, click here. To access thousands of pages of
declassified CIA mind control documents online, click here. For lots more reliable information on
this crucial topic, click here.

Declassified Memorandum to FBI Director: Flying Saucers

1950-03-22, Website of FBI
http://vault.fbi.gov/hottel_guy/Guy%20Hottel%20Part%201%20of%201/view

An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been
recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers,
approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape
but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was
bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots. The
saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high powered
radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of
the saucers.
Note: Download this amazing document and view it on our website at this link. For an ABC news
article discussing this, click here. Another FBI document shows FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover wanted
"full access to discs recovered" at Roswell. For numerous highly revealing major media reports
presenting strong evidence on UFOs, click here. For other reliable and inspiring information on this
topic, visit our UFO Information Center.

FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over US Cities

2015-06-02, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fbi-mysterious-surveillance-aircra...
FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over US Cities

June 2, 2015, ABC News/Associated Press

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fbi-mysterious-surveillance-aircraft...
Scores of low-flying planes circling American cities are part of a civilian air force operated
by the FBI and obscured behind fictitious companies. The aircraft are equipped with high-tech
cameras, and ... technology capable of tracking thousands of cellphones. The surveillance
equipment is used for ongoing investigations, the FBI says, generally without a judge's approval.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has its own planes, also registered to fake companies,
according to a 2011 Justice Department ... report. At the time, the DEA had 92 aircraft in its fleet.
And since 2007, the U.S. Marshals Service has operated an aerial surveillance program with its
own fleet equipped with technology that can capture data from thousands of cellphones. "These
are not your grandparents' surveillance aircraft," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the
American Civil Liberties Union. Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from long
distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information from cellphones using a
device known as a "cell-site simulator" [to] trick pinpointed cellphones into revealing identification
numbers of subscribers, including those not suspected of a crime. The Obama administration [has]
been directing local authorities through secret agreements not to reveal their own use of the
devices. During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI's fleet on more than
100 flights over at least 11 states plus the District of Columbia.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
the corrupt intelligence agencies that facilitate the erosion of privacy rights in the U.S. and
elsewhere.

What Ever Happened to Antitrust?

2015-05-25, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/Antitrust-laws-have-lost-all-effe...
The May 20 settlement between the Justice Department and five giant banks reveals the appalling
weakness of modern antitrust. The banks had engaged in the biggest price-fixing conspiracy
in modern history. It was a "brazen display of collusion" that went on for years, said
Attorney General Loretta Lynch. But there will be no trial [and] no executive will go to jail.
The fines ... will be treated by the banks as costs of doing business. America used to have
antitrust laws that permanently stopped corporations from monopolizing markets. No longer. The
result has been higher prices for the many, and higher profits for the few. It's a hidden upward
redistribution from the majority of Americans to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders.
Similar upward distributions are occurring elsewhere in the economy. The four largest food
companies control 82 percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of
pork packing, and 53 percent of chicken processing. Monsanto alone owns the key genetic traits to
more than 90 percent of the soybeans planted by farmers in the United States, and 80 percent of
the corn. Big Agribusiness wants to keep it this way. The list goes on, industry after industry,
across the economy. Antitrust has been ambushed by the giant companies it was designed to
contain. The market is rigged. And unless government unrigs it through bold antitrust action to
restore competition, the upward distributions hidden inside the "free market" will become even
larger.
Note: The above article was written by former US Secretary of Labor and current professor of
public policy at UC Berkeley Robert Reich. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing news articles about the systemically corrupt financial industry and the income
inequality that this contributes to.

How the DEA took a young mans life savings without ever charging him
with a crime
2015-05-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/11/how-the-dea-took-a...
Joseph Rivers ... pulled together $16,000 in seed money to fulfill a lifetime dream of starting
a music video company. Last month, Rivers took the first step in that voyage [by] boarding an
Amtrak train headed for Los Angeles. He never made it. A DEA agent boarded the train at the
Albuquerque Amtrak station and began asking various passengers, including Rivers, where they
were going and why. When Rivers replied that he was headed to LA to make a music video, the
agent asked to search his bags. Rivers complied. The agent found Rivers's cash, still in a bank
envelope. He explained why he had it. The agents didn't believe him. Rivers let them call his
mother back home to corroborate the story. They didn't believe her, either. The agents found
nothing in Rivers's belongings that indicated that he was involved with the drug trade. They
didn't arrest him or charge him with a crime. But they took his cash anyway, every last cent,
under the authority of the Justice Department's civil asset forfeiture program. Rivers says he

suspects he may have been singled out for a search because he was the only black person on that
part of the train. According to a Washington Post investigation last year ... asset forfeiture is
lucrative. In fiscal year 2014 Justice Department agencies made a total of $3.9 billion in civil asset
seizures, versus only $679 million in criminal asset seizures. Asset forfeitures have more than
doubled during President Obama's tenure.
Note: Read a New York Times article on this program which allows law enforcement agencies to
seize money with impunity. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
news articles about government corruption and the erosion of civil liberties from reliable major
media sources.

Report: DEA agents had 'sex parties' with prostitutes hired by drug
cartels
2015-03-26, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/report-dea-agents-had-s...
Drug Enforcement Administration agents allegedly had "sex parties" with prostitutes hired
by local drug cartels overseas over a period of several years, according to a report released
Thursday by the Justice Department's watchdog. The agents, some of whom had top-secret
security clearances, received suspensions of two to 10 days. Former police officers in Colombia
also alleged that three DEA supervisory special agents were provided with money, expensive
gifts and weapons from drug cartel members, according to the report. The findings were part of
a much broader investigation into the handling of allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct
from fiscal 2009 to 2012 at federal law enforcement agencies. [Justice Department Inspector
General Michael E.] Horowitz said the investigation was "significantly impacted and unnecessarily
delayed" by repeated difficulties his office had in obtaining relevant information from the FBI and
the DEA. When he did receive the information, he said, it "was still incomplete." Sen. Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called on the Justice Department on
Thursday to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for employees who purchase sex. "The Department of
Justice may not be taking adequate steps to prevent its own employees from buying sex and
thereby contributing to the demand for the human sex trade," Grassley wrote to Acting Deputy
Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates.
Note: DEA agents caught being supplied prostitutes by drug cartels are merely suspended for a
few days? What's up with that? Read the gripping stories of two award-winning journalists giving
powerful evidence of direct DEA and CIA involvement in and support of drug running and drug
cartels. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles
about corruption in government and in the intelligence community.

Public Health Officials Know: Recently Vaccinated Individuals Spread

Disease

2015-03-03, CNBC/Globe Newswire

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102473744
Physicians and public health officials know that recently vaccinated individuals can spread
disease. "The public health community is blaming unvaccinated children for the outbreak of
measles at Disneyland, but the illnesses could just as easily have occurred due to contact with a
recently vaccinated individual," says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price
Foundation. Both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals are at risk from exposure to those
recently vaccinated. Vaccine failure is widespread; vaccine-induced immunity is not
permanent and recent outbreaks of diseases such as whooping cough, mumps and
measles have occurred in fully vaccinated populations. Flu vaccine recipients become more
susceptible to future infection after repeated vaccination. "Vaccine failure and failure to
acknowledge that live virus vaccines can spread disease have resulted in an increase in outbreaks
of infectious disease in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals," says Leslie Manookian,
producer of The Greater Good. "CDC should instruct physicians who administer vaccinations to
inform their patients about the risks posed to others by those who've been recently vaccinated."
The number of measles deaths declined from 7575 in 1920 (10,000 per year in many years in the
1910s) to an average of 432 each year from 1958-1962. The vaccine was introduced in 1963.
Between 2005 and 2014, there have been no deaths from measles in the U.S. and 108 deaths
reported after the MMR vaccine.
Note: The above article provides an extensive list or references. For more, read this informative
webpage on the excellent alternative health website Mercola.com. And this US government
webpage states, "Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in
1989, 3,981 compensation awards have been made. More than $2.8 billion in compensation
awards has been paid to petitioners."

Serious case review slams police failure in serial abuse of Oxford girls
2015-03-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/01/gangs-abused-hundreds-of-oxfor...
More than 300 young people have been groomed and sexually exploited by gangs of men in
Oxfordshire in the past 15 years, a damning report into the failures of police and social services to
stop years of sexual torture, trafficking and rape will reveal, the Guardian has learned. The victims,
mostly girls, come predominantly from the city of Oxford. A serious case review by the Oxfordshire
safeguarding childrens board, to be published on Tuesday, will condemn Thames Valley police for
not believing the young girls, for treating them as if they had chosen to adopt the lifestyle, and for
failing to act on repeated calls for help. Oxfordshire social services which had responsibility for
the girls safety will be equally damned for knowing they were being groomed and for failing to
protect them despite compelling evidence they were in danger. One social worker told a trial that
nine out of 10 of those responsible for the girls [were] aware of what was going on. The
case echoes the child exploitation scandals in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby. In Oxford,
however, the grooming, sexual torture and trafficking took place on the streets of the

Cowley area of the city, in churchyards, parks, a guesthouse and empty flats procured for
the purpose of drugging the girls and handing them around to be gang raped and
brutalised. Police officers and social workers did not listen to the girls when they spoke of the
abuse they were suffering, did not believe them and dismissed them.
Note: If you think this is only a problem in the UK, read this disturbing article about the likely
murder of Bill Bowen, a man who was about to complete a documentary exposing blatant, horrible
abuses by the US's Child Protective Services that were covered up at high levels. Watch a
revealing five-minute video presenting solid evidence that Child Protective Services is involved in
organized U.S. child sex trafficking rings. See this webpage for more information. For solid
evidence of a pedophile ring reaching to the highest levels of government, don't miss this powerful
documentary and these sexual abuse new summaries.

Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and
ISIS Are Such Grave Threats?
2015-02-26, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism...
The FBI and major media outlets yesterday trumpeted the ... latest counterterrorism triumph: the
arrest of three Brooklyn men, ages 19 to 30, on charges of conspiring to travel to Syria to fight for
ISIS. It appears that none of the three men was in any condition to travel or support the Islamic
State, without help from the FBI informant. One of the frightening terrorist villains told the FBI
informant that, beyond having no money, he had encountered a significant problem in following
through on the FBIs plot: his mom had taken away his passport. In this regard, this latest arrest
appears to be quite similar to the overwhelming majority of terrorism arrests the FBI has proudly
touted over the last decade. These cases ... end up sending young people to prison for
decades for crimes which even their sentencing judges acknowledge they never would
have seriously considered, let alone committed, in the absence of FBI trickery. Were
constantly bombarded with dire warnings about the grave threat of [terrorism]. But how serious of a
threat can all of this be, at least domestically, if the FBI continually has to resort to manufacturing
its own plots by trolling the Internet in search of young drifters and/or the mentally ill whom they
target? Shouldnt there be actual plots, ones that are created and fueled without the help of the
FBI? The Justice Department is aggressively pressuring U.S. allies to employ these same
entrapment tactics in order to create their own terrorists, who can then be paraded around as
proof of the grave threat. The FBIs terrorism strategy keep fear alive drives everything they
do.
Note: Human Rights Watch has documented the government manufacture of fake "terrorism" plots
being used to keep fear alive in war on terror. There is even evidence that the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing was an F.B.I. entrapment plan gone awry. In 2012, the New York Times exposed
the pattern of F.B.I. entrapment used to produce these fake "terrorism" plots. How can corrupt
intelligence agencies continue to blatantly manipulate public perception like this?

The 'Real Unemployment Rate' Vs. The Spin: Where's The News Here?
2015-02-08, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2015/02/08/the-real-unemployment-rate-v...
Jim Clifton, longtime CEO of Gallup ... penned an op-ed on the company website referring to the
big lie of the official Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly unemployment rate. The 5.7% rate for
January he says is woefully inadequate and does not take into account part-time workers, those
earning $20 a week, those underemployed, and the hundreds of thousands of others who have
simply given up looking for work. The real unemployment is much larger. In all of this, Clifton is
absolutely right. The published rate is not only woefully inadequate, it is misleading and dishonest.
In a follow up interview on CNBC ... he notes that he fears that telling the truth will
endanger his life. So he backed off the big lie headline by telling CNBC: I think that the
number that comes out of BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] and the Department of Labor is
very, very accurate. I need to make that very, very clear so that I dont suddenly disappear. I
need to make it home tonight.
Note: Read the article by Gallup CEO Jim Clifton showing that the US official unemployment rate
of 5.6% is very misleading. Gallup research finds 44% of US citizens available to work are not
getting enough work. Then watch the video where he admits he fears for his life for reporting on
this. Notably, the Forbes article summarized above confirms that Clifton's statements are accurate,
but criticizes him for revealing that mass media is manipulated by the financial and political elite.

New York Times editor: we failed to do our job after 9/11

2015-01-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/jan/28/new-york-times-editor...
Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the New York Times, believes his newspaper in company
with the US mainstream media failed their audiences after 9/11. He told the German news
magazine Der Spiegel that he agreed with the criticism originally made by an NYT reporter, James
Risen, Baquet said: The mainstream press was not aggressive enough after 9/11, was not
aggressive enough in asking questions about a decision to go to war in Iraq, was not
aggressive enough in asking the hard questions about the war on terror. I accept that for
the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. Baquet, in charge of the NYT since May
2014, was previously editor-in-chief of the LA Times. In his wide-ranging interview with Der
Spiegel, Baquet also spoke about the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden having chosen to tell
his story to the Guardian. He said he regards the Guardian as a new competitor [for the NYT] in
the digital age. He said: Does it make me nervous that they compete with us and in fact beat us
on the Snowden story? Yes. "It hurt a lot. It meant two things. Morally, it meant that somebody with
a big story to tell didnt think we were the place to go, and thats painful. And then it also meant
that we got beaten on what was arguably the biggest national security story in many, many years.

Note: When asked about the New York Times' refusal to report on military drone base locations in
the interview referenced above, Baquet recalls, "A high-ranking CIA official called me up and
made the case to leave out where the drone base was. It was Saudi Arabia. I accepted it.
And I was wrong." For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing
articles about mass media manipulation.

When Silicon Valley takes LSD

2015-01-25, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/25/technology/lsd-psychedelics-silicon-valley
In Silicon Valley, there is a premium on creativity, and tools thought to induce or enhance it are
avidly sought. Some view psychedelics as ... a way to approach problems differently. There's no
definitive scientific evidence that LSD or other hallucinogens improve creativity, and the DEA
classifies LSD as a highly addictive, Schedule I drug. But the belief that they might work as a
creative tool is enough to fuel some technologists' hope for professional epiphanies. Tim Ferriss, a
Silicon Valley investor and author of "The 4-Hour Workweek," says he knows many successful
entrepreneurs who dabble in psychedelics. "The billionaires I know, almost without exception,
use hallucinogens on a regular basis," Ferriss said. "[They're] trying to be very disruptive
and look at the problems in the world ... and ask completely new questions." The
phenomenon was satirized on HBO's Silicon Valley when psychedelic mushrooms guide one of the
show's main characters in the hunt for a new name for their startup. A recent study at Imperial
College London provides a possible explanation. Twenty participants ingested LSD and then had
their brain activity monitored in an fMRI machine. The drug [allowed] new patterns of
communication to form. "Psychedelics dismantle 'well-worn' networks, and this allows novel
communication patterns to occur. Modules that don't usually talk to each other are talking to each
other more," explained Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, the researcher who conducted the study.
Note: Food justice champion Michael Pollan recently wrote a fascinating article prominently
featured in the venerable magazine The New Yorker about the amazing power of psilocybin
mushrooms to create profound healing in carefully controlled environments. It is subtitled
"Research into psychedelics, shut down for decades, is now yielding exciting results." Are the
healing potentials of mind altering drugs finally starting to receive honest mainstream attention?

New police radars can 'see' inside homes

2015-01-20, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/...
At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar
devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether
anyone is inside. Those agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, began
deploying the radar systems more than two years ago with little notice to the courts and no public
disclosure of when or how they would be used. The technology raises legal and privacy issues

because the U.S. Supreme Court has said officers generally cannot use high-tech sensors to tell
them about the inside of a person's house without first obtaining a search warrant. The radars
work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as
human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet. They can detect whether anyone is inside
of a house, where they are and whether they are moving. The device the Marshals Service and
others are using [was] first designed for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. They represent the latest
example of battlefield technology finding its way home to civilian policing and bringing
complex legal questions with it. Those concerns are especially thorny when it comes to
technology that lets the police determine what's happening inside someone's home.
Note: This technology is not new. Working as interpreter in Washington, DC, WantToKnow.info
founder Fred Burks witnessed this technology being used by the police there in the late 1980s. For
more along these lines, see this deeply revealing summarized NPR report about The Pentagon's
massive Program 1033 to widely distribute military hardware to domestic police forces.

The Saudi Role in Sept. 11 and the Hidden 9/11 Report Pages
2015-01-07, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-911-george-w-bush-barack-obama-prince-ba...
28 still-classified pages pages in a congressional inquiry on 9/11 ... raise questions about
Saudi financial support to the hijackers in the United States prior to the attacks. Both the
administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have refused to declassify the pages on
grounds of national security. But [some] members of Congress who have read the pages ... say
national security has nothing to do with it. Former Florida Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat who
co-chaired the joint investigation of the House and Senate intelligence committees into the Sept.
11 attacks ... maintains that nothing in them qualifies as a legitimate national security secret.
The 2002 joint congressional committee probe [Graham] co-chaired reported only that, contacts in
the United States helped hijackers ... But in an interview with Newsweek, Graham said the
contacts were Saudis with close connections to their government. The Florida Democrat charged
that there has been an organized effort to suppress information about Saudi support for
terrorism, which "started long before 9/11 and continued ... after 9/11. ISIS ... is a product of Saudi
ideals, Saudi money and Saudi organizational support, although now they are making a pretense
of being very anti-ISIS, Graham added. The two co-chairman of ... the 9/11 Commission, likewise
urged the White House to declassify the 28 pages. Im embarrassed that theyre not declassified,
former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind) said at a press conference with his co-chair Tom Kean, the
former Republican governor of New Jersey. Meanwhile, Washington and the Saudi royals still
maintain their decades-long, cozy relationship.
Note: Several current and former government officials are trying to expose the Saudi government
money behind ISIS and other terrorist groups. For more along these lines, read concise
summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 investigation news from reliable major media sources.

Ministry of Defence pays out 2 million to settle cadets' sex abuse

claims
2015-01-01, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11315528/Ministry-of-Defence-pay...
The Ministry of Defence has paid out more than 2 million in out-of-court settlements in the
last three years as a result of claims that young cadets were sexually abused. The cases
includes allegations that teenage boys performed ritual sex acts on younger cadets, and a cadet
who was raped by an instructor and gave birth to her abusers child. Some of the settlements are
understood to relate to historic abuse, perpetrated against adults when they were children. Others
relate to abuse carried out in recent years. [One] settlement involved a teenage girl who was
sexually abused by her adult cadet instructor while she was a cadet under his charge.
Eventually she gave birth to her abusers child, leading to her suffering post-traumatic stress
disorder and chronic depression. The MoD admitted liability at an early stage and settled the claim
for 210,000. Among the settlements made in 2012, four people made a successful claim for
900,000 after alleging they were abused when they were young members of the Army Cadets in
Harborne, Birmingham. An MoD spokesperson said: We take any allegation of abuse extremely
seriously. All adult volunteers undergo enhanced criminal record checks and are made fully aware
of their responsibility to protect children from harm.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Five Westminster paedophile rings probed by Scotland Yard

2014-12-21, The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11306575/Five-Westminster-paedop...
Police are investigating claims that up to five paedophile rings operated at the heart of
Westminster with the involvement of highly influential politicians. A Labour MP who has handed
a dossier of evidence to Scotland Yard said he now believed the complexity of child abuse
networks at the heart of government in the Seventies and Eighties had been seriously
underestimated. John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, said it was inconceivable that police would not
now arrest and interview some of the politicians he has named in a list handed to detectives. Mr
Mann, who has spent months sifting evidence from members of the public, met Scotland Yard and
handed over evidence on 22 politicians, including three serving MPs and three members of the
House of Lords. There are at least five paedophile rings which involved MPs, he said.
Each of them involved at least one MP, some involved more, and these were groups of
people who knew about the activities of one another. In some cases I believe they
committed abuse together. Thirteen former ministers were among the list. Mr Mann handed his
dossier to detectives from Operation Trinity, the Metropolitan Polices investigation into alleged
abuse in childrens homes in Lambeth, south London. A range of other inquiries have also been
launched including Operation Midland, looking at allegations of child sex abuse focusing on
Westminster.

Note: A further article states that a member of Parliament is calling for an investigation into the
suspicious deaths of two people who were revealing information on the pedophile rings which go
to the highest levels of government. Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel
documentary showing that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government.

The Coin of the Realm

2014-12-16, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201412161030--tms--amvoices...
The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 banned insider trading but left it up to the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the courts to define it. Which they have -- in recent decades so broadly
that confidential information [is now Wall Street's] "coin of the realm." If a CEO tells his golf buddy
that his company is being taken over, and his buddy makes a killing on that information, no
problem. If his buddy leaks the information to a hedge fund manager and doesn't say where it
came from, the hedge fund manager can also use the information to make a bundle. CEOs and
other top executives ... routinely use their own inside knowledge of when their companies
will buy back large numbers of shares from the public -- thereby pumping up share prices -in order to time their own personal stock transactions. That didn't used to be legal. Until
1981, the Securities and Exchange Commission required companies to publicly disclose the
amount and timing of their buybacks. But Ronald Reagan's SEC removed those restrictions. Then,
George W. Bush's SEC allowed top executives, even though technically company "insiders" ... to
quietly cash in their stock options without public disclosure. Now it's normal practice. Many CEOs
are making vast fortunes not because they're good at managing their corporations but because
they're good at using insider information.
Note: Is the trend to relax the rules on insider trading related to the revolving door between big
banks and government? For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply
revealing articles about widespread corruption in government and banking and finance.

Media gagged over bid to report MP child sex cases

2014-11-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/22/media-gagged-westminster-child...
The security services are facing questions over the cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring as it
emerged that files relating to official requests for media blackouts in the early 1980s were
destroyed. Two newspaper executives have told the Observer that their publications were
issued with D-notices warnings not to publish intelligence that might damage national
security when they sought to report on allegations of a powerful group of men engaging
in child sex abuse in 1984. One executive said he had been accosted in his office by 15
uniformed and two non-uniformed police over a dossier on Westminster paedophiles passed to
him by the former Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle. The other said that his newspaper had
received a D-notice when a reporter sought to write about a police investigation into Elm Guest

House, in southwest London, where a group of high-profile paedophiles was said to have
operated. Theresa May, home secretary, this month told the Commons that an official review into
whether there had been a cover-up of the Home Offices handling of child-abuse allegations in the
1980s ... was prompted by the discovery that 114 Home Office files related to child abuse in the
1980s had gone missing. The two journalists, Don Hale, the former editor of the Bury Messenger,
and Hilton Tims, news editor of the Surrey Comet between 1980 and 1988, both recall their
publications being issued with D-notices around 1984.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals also reach to the highest levels of government in the US. For
more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption
and sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable sources.

Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize
2014-11-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/police-use-department-wish-list-when-dec...
Civil asset forfeiture ... allows the government, without ever securing a conviction or even
filing a criminal charge, to seize property. The practice ... has become a staple of law
enforcement agencies because it helps finance their work. Under a Justice Department
program, the value of assets seized has ballooned to $4.3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year from
$407 million in 2001. From Orange County, N.Y., to Rio Rancho, N.M., forfeiture operations are
being established or expanded. Much of the nuts-and-bolts how-to of civil forfeiture is passed on in
continuing education seminars for local prosecutors and law enforcement officials, some of which
have been captured on video. In the sessions, officials ... offered advice on dealing with skeptical
judges, mocked Hispanics whose cars were seized, and ... gave weight to the argument that civil
forfeiture encourages decisions based on the value of the assets to be seized rather than public
safety. Prosecutors boasted in the sessions that seizure cases were rarely contested or appealed.
Civil forfeiture places the burden on owners, who must pay court fees and legal costs. And often
the first hearing is presided over not by a judge but by the prosecutor whose office benefits from
the proceeds. Mr. McMurtry [chief of the forfeiture unit in the Mercer County, N.J., prosecutors
office] said his handling of a case is sometimes determined by department wish lists. If you want
the car, and you really want to put it in your fleet, let me know Ill fight for it.
Note: Watch the video at the link above showing a trainer teaching cops how to steal a car that a
cop might want legally. For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply
revealing government corruption and civil liberties news articles from reliable sources.

Red Cross 'Diverted Assets' During Storms' Aftermath To Focus On

Image
2014-10-29, National Public Radio

http://www.npr.org/2014/10/29/359365276/on-superstorm-sandy-anniversary-red-c...
Within hours of Superstorm Sandy slamming the East Coast two years ago, Americans opened
their wallets to help donating millions to the first charity that came to mind: the American Red
Cross. In the months after the disaster, the Red Cross touted its success in delivering food, clothes
and shelter to tens of thousands of people left homeless by the storm. The venerable charity's
track record in dealing with the megastorm is now being challenged. Multiple internal documents
obtained by NPR and ProPublica along with interviews with top Red Cross officials ...
depict an organization so consumed with public relations that it hindered the charity's
ability to provide disaster services. Among NPR and ProPublica's findings: The Red Cross
national headquarters in Washington "diverted assets for public relations purposes." A
former Red Cross official managing the Sandy effort says 40 percent of available trucks were
assigned to serve as backdrops for news conferences. Distribution of relief was "politically driven
instead of [Red Cross] planned." Relief organizers were ordered to produce 200,000 additional
meals one day to drive up numbers. They did it at extraordinary cost, even though there was no
one to deliver them to and most went to waste. It wasn't just Sandy. When Isaac hit Mississippi and
Louisiana earlier in 2012 ... one Red Cross official had 80 trucks drive around empty or largely
empty "just to be seen," as one of the drivers recalls.
Note: The above story follows up on this Salon/ProPublica article, where the Red Cross called its
spending habits a "trade secret". For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing stories about corporate corruption from reliable sources.

10 Questions With Bryan Stevenson

2014-10-27, Time Magazine
http://time.com/3512675/bryan-stevenson-interview/
TIME: Your book Just Mercy is about getting legal help for poor people in Alabama. What are the
biggest impediments? BRYAN STEVENSON (Lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative):
We have a criminal-justice system that treats you better if youre rich and guilty than if
youre poor and innocent. I dont believe that Americas system is shaped by culpability. I think
its shaped by wealth. TIME: 1 in 3 black men in the U.S. under 30 is in jail, on probation or on
parole. Is this the scariest stat? STEVENSON: That 1 in 3 black males born in 2001 is expected to
go to jail or prison during their lifetimes is more astonishing because its about the future. And 1 in
6 Latino boys. That wasnt true in the 20th century. TIME: What do you say to people who say, Its
easy to not go to jaildont commit a crime? STEVENSON: In this country we have a presumption
of guilt that follows young kids of color. Ive represented 10-year-olds being prosecuted as adults.
They are put in an adult jail. Its so unnecessarywe have juvenile facilities. No one defends it, and
yet we still have 10,000 children in an adult jail or prison. TIME: Whats the role of the corporations
that build prisons? STEVENSON: Corporations have really corrupted American criminal
justice by creating these perverse incentives where they actually pay legislators to create

new crimes so that we can maintain these record-high-level rates of imprisonment. These
companies spend millions of dollars a year on lobbying. Prison spending has gone from $6 billion
in 1980 to $80 billion today.
Note: For details about Stevenson's uphill battle as a legal advocate for the poor, read the
complete transcript of the Time interview summarized above. For more along these lines, see
these excellent, concise summaries of prison corruption news stories from major media sources.

Vote all you want. The secret government won't change

2014-10-19, Boston Globe
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/10/18/vote-all-you-want-the-secret-gov...
The Obama version of national security looks almost indistinguishable from the one he inherited.
Critics tend to focus on Obama himself, but Tufts University political scientist Michael J. Glennon
has a more pessimistic answer: Obama couldnt have changed policies much even if he tried. Our
government no longer works that way. In a new book, National Security and Double Government,
he catalogs the ways that the defence and national security apparatus is effectively selfgoverning, with virtually no accountability, transparency, or checks and balances of any
kind. He uses the term double government: Theres the one we elect, and then theres the
one behind it, steering huge swaths of policy almost unchecked. Elected officials end up serving
as mere cover for the real decisions made by the bureaucracy. National Security and Double
Government comes favorably blurbed by former members of the Defense Department, State
Department, White House, and even the CIA. Glennon spoke with Ideas from his office. IDEAS:
Where does the term double government come from? GLENNON: Walter Bagehot - the scholar
who presided over the birth of The Economist magazine. IDEAS: What evidence exists for saying
America has a double government? GLENNON: The documented evidence in the book is
substantial there are 800 footnotes. I think the American people ... believe that when they vote
for a president or member of Congress or succeed in bringing a case before the courts, that policy
is going to change. Policy by and large in the national security realm is made by the
concealed institutions.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

Grenade launchers in schools? U.S. school police stock up on free

military gear
2014-09-17, Toronto Star/Associated Press
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/09/17/grenade_launchers_in_schools_us_...
School police departments across the country have taken advantage of free military surplus gear,
stocking up on mine resistant armoured vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles. At
least 26 school districts across the country have participated in the Pentagons surplus

program. Federal records show schools in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan,
Nevada, Texas and Utah obtained surplus military gear. Nearly two dozen education and civil
liberties groups sent a letter earlier this week to the Pentagon and the Justice and Education
departments urging a stop to transfers of military weapons to school police. The Los Angeles
Unified School District the nations second-largest school district, enrolling more than 900,000
students said in a statement this week that it would remove three grenade launchers it had
acquired under the program in 2001 because they are not essential life-saving items within the
scope, duties and mission of the districts police force. But the district plans to keep 60 M16s and
a MRAP, a military vehicle used in Iraq and Afghanistan that is built to withstand mine blasts. Los
Angeles school board member Steve Zimmer said the district will likely also let go of the MRAP,
too. The board was told of the specific equipment the district had received only after the protests
last month in Ferguson, Zimmer said. Jill Poe, police chief in the Southern Californias Baldwin
Park school district, said shell be returning the three M16 rifles acquired under her predecessor.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data

2014-09-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-threatened-massive-fine-...
The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply
with a broad demand to hand over user communications a request the company believed
was unconstitutional according to court documents unsealed [on September 11] that
illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National
Security Agencys controversial PRISM program. The documents ... outline a secret and ultimately
unsuccessful legal battle by Yahoo to resist the governments demands. The companys loss
required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a
program that gave the NSA extensive access to records of online communications by users of
Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms. The ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court of Review became a key moment in the development of PRISM, helping government
officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been
tested in the courts and found constitutionally sound. Eventually, most major U.S. tech companies,
including Google, Facebook, Apple and AOL, complied. Microsoft had joined earlier, before the
ruling, NSA documents have shown. PRISM was first revealed by former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden last year. Documents made it clear that the program allowed the NSA to order U.S.based tech companies to turn over e-mails and other communications to or from foreign targets
without search warrants for each of those targets. Other NSA programs gave even more wideranging access to personal information of people worldwide, by collecting data directly from fiberoptic connections.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Did Merck Unfairly Monopolize the Market for a Mumps Vaccine?

2014-09-10, Wall Street Journal blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/2014/09/10/did-merck-unfairly-monopolize-the-m...
Did Merck use false pretenses to monopolize the market for mumps vaccines? A pair of lawsuits
one of which is filed by former employees and the other by doctors make this allegation and a
federal judge is allowing both claims to proceed. The former employees virologists who filed
a whistleblower lawsuit four years ago charge Merck knew its vaccine was less effective
than the purported 95% efficacy level. And they alleged that senior management was aware,
complicit and in charge of testing that concealed the actual effectiveness. They claim to
have witnessed fIrsthand what they describe as improper testing and data falsification in which
Merck engaged in order to conceal what the drug maker knew about the vaccines diminished
efficacy. In fact, their Merck superiors and senior management pressured them to participate in the
fraud and subsequent cover up when they objected to and tried to stop it, according to their
lawsuit. The feds declined to join the lawsuit, which was unsealed two years ago. Shortly
afterwards, the physicians subsequently filed the other lawsuit charge the vaccine was mislabeled
and was not the product for which the government or other purchasers paid, which meant that
Merck violated the False Claims Act. Both lawsuits note that Merck held an exclusive license to
sell a mumps vaccine and its actions discouraged competition. The ultimate victims here are the
millions of children who, every year, are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing
them with an adequate level of protection, the lawsuit filed by the virologists states. Meanwhile,
the mumps vaccine was ringing the register at Merck, which reported that sales reached $621
million last year.
Note: Read a CBS News article which shows how Merck literally created a hit list for doctors who
opposed use of the deadly drug Vioxx, which was responsible for thousands of deaths. A second
CBS article shows how Merck created a fake medical journal to support Vioxx and harassed
reporters revealing the truth. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing health corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

The US government can brand you a terrorist based on a Facebook post

2014-08-30, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/30/terrorist-watch-list-rul...
The US governments web of surveillance is vast and interconnected. You can be pulled into the
National Security Agencys database quietly and quickly. Through ICREACH, a Google-style
search engine created for the intelligence community, the NSA provides data on private
communications to 23 government agencies. More than 1,000 analysts had access to that
information. It was confirmed earlier this month that the FBI shares its master watchlist, the
Terrorist Screening Database, with at least 22 foreign governments, countless federal agencies,
state and local law enforcement, plus private contractors. The watchlist [is] based on [low]
standards and secret evidence, which ensnares innocent people. Indeed, the standards are so low

that the US governments guidelines specifically allow for a single, uncorroborated source of
information including a Facebook or Twitter post to serve as the basis for placing you on its
master watchlist. Of the 680,000 individuals on that FBI master list, roughly 40% have no
recognized terrorist group affiliation, according to the Intercept. These individuals dont
even have a connection as the government loosely defines it to a designated terrorist
group, but they are still branded as suspected terrorists. The US [government uses] a loose
standard so-called reasonable suspicion in determining who, exactly, can be watchlisted.
["Reasonable suspicion"] requires neither concrete evidence nor irrefutable evidence. Instead,
an official is permitted to consider reasonable inferences and to draw from the facts in light of
his/her experience.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing terrorism news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Why We Fight Wars

2014-08-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/opinion/paul-krugman-why-we-fight.html
A century has passed since the start of World War I, which many people at the time declared was
the war to end all wars. Unfortunately, wars just kept happening. In influential research
sponsored by the World Bank, the Oxford economist Paul Collier has shown that the best predictor
of civil war, which is all too common in poor countries, is the availability of lootable resources like
diamonds. Whatever other reasons rebels cite for their actions seem to be mainly after-the-fact
rationalizations. If youre a modern, wealthy nation, however, war even easy, victorious war
doesnt pay. And this has been true for a long time. In his famous 1910 book The Great Illusion,
the British journalist Norman Angell argued that military power is socially and economically futile.
As he pointed out, in an interdependent world (which already existed in the age of steamships,
railroads, and the telegraph), war would necessarily inflict severe economic harm even on the
victor. Modern nations cant enrich themselves by waging war. Yet wars keep happening.
Why? Governments all too often gain politically from war, even if the war in question makes
no sense in terms of national interests. Nations almost always rally around their leaders in
times of war, no matter how foolish the war or how awful the leaders. Argentinas junta briefly
became extremely popular during the Falklands war. For a time, the war on terror took President
George W. Bushs approval to dizzying heights, and Iraq probably won him the 2004 election. True
to form, Mr. Putins approval ratings have soared since the Ukraine crisis began.
Note: For more on this, see this concise summary of War Is A Racket, a powerful book written by
one of the most highly decorated US generals ever.

Inquiry by C.I.A. Affirms It Spied on Senate Panel

2014-08-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/world/senate-intelligence-commitee-cia-inte...

An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network
used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.s
detention and interrogation program. The report by the agencys inspector general also found that
C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to the
Justice Department based on false information. The investigation also discovered that the
officers created a false online identity to gain access on more than one occasion to
computers used by the committee staff. The inspector generals account of how the C.I.A.
secretly monitored a congressional committee charged with supervising its activities touched off
angry criticism from members of the Senate and amounted to vindication for Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California, the committees Democratic chairwoman, who excoriated the C.I.A. in
March when the agencys monitoring of committee investigators became public. Senator Mark
Udall, Democrat of Colorado and another member of the Intelligence Committee, demanded Mr.
Brennans resignation. The C.I.A. unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into the Senate
Intelligence Committee computers, he said in a written statement. This grave misconduct not
only is illegal but it violates the U.S. Constitutions requirement of separation of powers, he
added.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Study: Running 5 Minutes a Day Could Add Years to Your Life

2014-07-29, Time Magazine
http://time.com/3053081/running-daily/
According to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, running
five minutes per day can reduce an individuals risk of premature death by about three years.
Researchers found that people who ran less than an hour per week also saw an increase in
lifespan, not just a decrease in risk of premature death. The study took place over the course of 15
years, testing participants ranging in age from 18-100. Separate research found that running more
than 20 miles per week could take years off an individuals life, providing further evidence that less
can be more with regard to exercise. According to that research, individuals who exhibit
consistent but moderate workout patterns are likely to live the longest.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Government agents 'directly involved' in most high-profile US terror

plots
2014-07-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-invol...

Nearly all of the highest-profile domestic terrorism plots in the United States since 9/11 featured
the "direct involvement" of government agents or informants, a new report says. Some of the
controversial "sting" operations "were proposed or led by informants", bordering on entrapment by
law enforcement. Yet the courtroom obstacles to proving entrapment are significant, one of the
reasons the stings persist. The lengthy report, released on [July 21] by Human Rights Watch,
raises questions about the US criminal justice system's [respect for] civil rights and due process in
post-9/11 terrorism cases. [The report] portrays a system that features not just the sting
operations but secret evidence, anonymous juries, extensive pretrial detentions and
convictions significantly removed from actual plots. "In some cases the FBI may have
created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist
action or encouraging the target to act," the report alleges. Out of the 494 cases related to
terrorism the US has tried since 9/11, the plurality of convictions ... are not for thwarted plots but
for "material support" charges, a broad category expanded further by the 2001 Patriot Act that
permits prosecutors to pursue charges with tenuous connections to a terrorist act or group.
Several cases featured years-long solitary confinement for accused terrorists before their trials.
Some defendants displayed signs of mental incapacity. Jurors for the 2007 plot to attack the Fort
Dix army base, itself influenced by government informants, were anonymous, limiting defense
counsel's ability to screen out bias.
Note: Why was this important news not picked up by any major US media? For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Racy Photos Were Often Shared at N.S.A., Snowden Says

2014-07-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/us/politics/edward-snowden-at-nsa-sexually-...
The former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden said in a wide-ranging
interview ... that the oversight of surveillance programs was so weak that members of the United
States military working at the spy agency sometimes shared sexually explicit photos they
intercepted. He also said the British government often pioneered the most invasive surveillance
programs because its intelligence services operate with fewer restrictions intended to protect
individual privacy than its counterparts in the United States and other allies. In the course of
their daily work they stumble across something that is completely unrelated to their work,
for example an intimate nude photo of someone in a sexually compromising situation but
theyre extremely attractive, he said. So what do they do? They turn around in their chair
and they show a co-worker. And their co-worker says: Oh, hey, thats great. Send that to
Bill down the way. Mr. Snowden said that type of sharing ... was seen as the fringe benefits of
surveillance positions. He said that this was never reported and that the system for auditing
surveillance programs was incredibly weak. Mr. Snowden had particularly stark criticism for the
British governments surveillance programs, because in Britain the respect for individual privacy,
he said, is not strongly encoded in law or policy. Because it has fewer restrictions, British

intelligence platforms are used as a testing ground for programs of all five intelligence partners, a
group referred to as Five Eyes, which includes Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the
United States.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing privacy news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Pope Francis: 'About 2%' of Catholic clergy paedophiles

2014-07-13, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28282050
Pope Francis has been quoted as saying that reliable data indicates that "about 2%" of clergy in
the Catholic Church are paedophiles. The Pope said that abuse of children was like "leprosy"
infecting the Church, according to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper. He vowed to "confront it
with the severity it demands". Until now, the Vatican has declined to quantify the extent of clerical
sexual abuse scandals in the worldwide Church. Statistics are usually available only for countries
in the developed world. In the developing world, information is usually only sketchy. In the
interview, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that the 2% estimate came from advisers. It would
represent around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000. While the incidence of
paedophilia as a psychiatric disorder in the general population is not accurately known, some
estimates have put it at less than five percent. "Among the 2% who are paedophiles are priests,
bishops and cardinals. Others, more numerous, know but keep quiet. They punish without giving
the reason," Pope Francis was quoted as saying. "I find this state of affairs intolerable," he went
on. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi denied that Pope Francis had said that there
were cardinals who were paedophiles. Asked in the same La Repubblica interview about the
celibacy rule for priests, Pope Francis recalled that it was adopted 900 years after the death
of Jesus Christ and pointed out that the Eastern Catholic Church allows its priests to marry.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The alleged paedophile ring at the heart of the British Establishment

2014-07-06, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10950111/The-alleged-paedophile-...
[The] horrors of the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal that saw the BBC accused of cover up and
culture of secrecy to protect itself, ... opened the door on a potentially even more explosive
scandal the claims of a VIP Westminster paedophile ring operating from the heart of the British
Establishment from the 1960s onwards. It has led to allegations of a massive cover up across
Whitehall spanning decades, pressure on the police and prosecutors not to pursue cases and the
apparent disappearance of key dossiers and files detailing claims of child abuse and alleged
attackers. The story begins with Cyril Smith, the late Liberal Democrat MP, who was exposed as

an alleged paedophile in 2012, two years after his death, aged 82. As early as the 1960s, he
allegedly routinely assaulted young boys, especially in childrens homes and special schools in his
home town, where he was MP from 1972 to 1992. He was also said to have been a visitor to the
notorious Elm Guest house in South-west London, now the focus of a Scotland Yard investigation
into an alleged VIP paedophile ring. Smith was only one of a number of alleged high profile
child abusers within Westminster said to have been named in a 40-page dossier submitted
to the Home Office by the late campaigning Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983. Mr Dickens
told his family at the time that it named leading public figures, including senior politicians,
and was going to blow it all apart. But the time bomb never exploded.
Note: The truth is slowly coming out. To learn how child sex abuse rings lead to the highest levels
of government, watch this highly revealing Discovery Channel documentary. If you want to know
more about cults involved in sexual abuse, read a professor's speech and a survivor's account.

Before Shooting in Iraq, a Warning on Blackwater

2014-06-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/us/before-shooting-in-iraq-warning-on-black...
Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdads Nisour Square in 2007,
the State Department began investigating the security contractors operations in Iraq. But the
inquiry was abandoned after Blackwaters top manager there issued a threat: that he could
kill the governments chief investigator and no one could or would do anything about it
as we were in Iraq. American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than
the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the
previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted
the embassys relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country.
After returning to Washington, the chief investigator wrote a scathing report to State Department
officials documenting misconduct by Blackwater employees and warning that lax oversight of the
company, which had a contract worth more than $1 billion to protect American diplomats, had
created an environment full of liability and negligence. The management structures in place to
manage and monitor our contracts in Iraq have become subservient to the contractors
themselves, the investigator, Jean C. Richter, wrote in an Aug. 31, 2007, memo to State
Department officials. Blackwater contractors saw themselves as above the law, he said,
adding that the hands off management resulted in a situation in which the contractors,
instead of Department officials, are in command and in control.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war crimes news articles from
reliable major media sources.

CDC's Vaccine Safety Research is Exposed as Flawed and Falsified in

Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal

2014-06-13, Yahoo! Finance/PR Newswire

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cdcs-vaccine-safety-research-exposed-115600020....
Just months after U.S. Congressman Bill Posey compared the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s
vaccine safety studies to the SEC's Bernie Madoff scandal, malfeasance in the CDC's studies of
thimerosal-containing vaccines has, for the first time, been documented in peer-reviewed scientific
literature. The journal BioMed Research International now provides direct evidence that the CDC's
safety assurances about the mercury-containing preservative are not fact-based, according to the
article's lead author, Brian Hooker. The paper [cites] over 165 studies that have found thimerosal
to be harmful, including 16 studies that had reported [serious detrimental] outcomes in human
infants and children. "Substantial scientific evidence exists and has existed for many years
that the vaccine ingredient thimerosal is a developmental neurotoxin" says George Lucier,
former Associate Director of the National Toxicology Program. Studies showing harm from
thimerosal sharply contradict published outcomes of six CDC coauthored and sponsored papers
the very studies that CDC relies upon to declare that thimerosal is "safe" for use in infant and
maternal vaccines. Dr. Hooker ... said of the six CDC studies, "Each of these papers is fatally
flawed from a statistics standpoint and several of the papers represent issues of scientific
malfeasance. For example, important data showing a relationship between thimerosal
exposure and autism are withheld from three of the publications. This type of cherrypicking of data by the CDC in order to change the results of important research studies to
support flawed and dangerous vaccination policies should not be tolerated."
Note: A Reuters article reports that the former head of the US's CDC was later named president of
Merck's vaccine division with accompanying high salary. Could this be payoff for her support in
suppressing studies that cast doubt on vaccines? For more on this, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing vaccines news articles from reliable major media sources.

Dolphins Guide Scientists to Rescue Suicidal Girl

2014-05-29, National Geographic
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/29/dolphins-guide-scientists-...
My research team and I were following a school of bottlenose dolphins near shore ... off Los
Angeles, California. The dolphins were still feeding in circle near shore, when suddenly, one
individual changed direction heading out toward deeper water. A minute later, the rest of the school
turned to follow. Seeing them abruptly leave a foraging ground and change direction came as a
surprise to the research team. I decided to follow them. The dolphins increased their speed.
Somewhere near three miles offshore the dolphin group stopped, forming a sort of ring
around a dark object in the water. Someones in the water! yelled my assistant, standing
up and pointing at the seemingly lifeless body of a girl. As the boat neared, she feebly turned
her head toward us, half-raising her hand as a weak sign for help. If we didnt act immediately, the
girl would die. We [pulled] the frail and hypothermic body on board. She is cyanotic, said one of
my researchers, also a lifeguard, after a cursory examination. She has severe hypothermia. We
need to get her warm! We managed to get some of her wet garments off and wrap her in a

blanket. We took turns keeping her warm by huddling with her under the blanket. A couple of hours
later, we were all waiting outside the emergency room at the Marina del Rey hospital. The ER
doctor came out to talk with us. The girl, it seems, would pull through, and he thanked us for our
quick action. He tells us the girl was vacationing in L.A. from Germany and, as the letter found in
her plastic bag explained, she was attempting suicide. If we hadnt found her, if the dolphins
hadnt led us offshore when they did, to that specific place, she would have died.
Note: This article has been adapted from the book Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field
Biologist. For more on the amazing capacities of dolphins and other marine mammals, as well as
the threats they face from human activities, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Corporate Profits Grow and Wages Slide

2014-04-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/business/economy/corporate-profits-grow-eve...
Corporate profits are at their highest level in at least 85 years. Employee compensation is at
the lowest level in 65 years. The Commerce Department last week estimated that corporations
earned $2.1 trillion during 2013, and paid $419 billion in corporate taxes. The after-tax profit of
$1.7 trillion amounted to 10 percent of gross domestic product during the year, the first full year it
has been that high. In 2012, it was 9.7 percent, itself a record. Until 2010, the highest level of aftertax profits ever recorded was 9.1 percent, in 1929, the first year that the government began
calculating the number. Before taxes, corporate profits accounted for 12.5 percent of the total
economy, tying the previous record that was set in 1942, when World War II pushed up profits for
many companies. But in 1942, most of those profits were taxed away. The effective corporate tax
rate was nearly 55 percent, in sharp contrast to last years figure of under 20 percent. The trend
of higher profits and lower effective taxes has been gaining strength for years, but really
picked up after the Great Recession temporarily depressed profits in 2009. The effective rate
has been below 20 percent in three of the last five years. Before 2009, the rate had not been that
low since 1931. The Commerce Department also said total wages and salaries last year amounted
to $7.1 trillion, or 42.5 percent of the entire economy. That was down from 42.6 percent in 2012
and was lower than in any year previously measured.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Grid parity: Why electric utilities should struggle to sleep at night

2014-03-25, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/25/grid-parity-why...

Whats good news for those concerned with climate change, and bad news for electric utilities?
Thats grid parity. It exists when an alternative energy source generates electricity at a cost
matching the price of power from the electric grid. As grid parity becomes increasingly common,
renewable energy could transform our world and slow the effects of climate change. Advances in
solar panels and battery storage will make it more realistic for consumers to dump their electric
utility, and power their homes through solar energy. A 2013 Deutsche Bank report said that 10
states are currently at grid parity: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Vermont. Germany, Spain, Portugal and
Australia have reached grid parity. This shift has benefited from a dramatic drop in the price
of solar panels, which dropped 97.2 percent from 1975 to 2012. As solar energy gets cheaper,
traditional electric utilities are doing the opposite. The cost of maintaining the electric grid has
gotten more expensive, but reliability hasnt improved. If customers leave electric utilities, it starts a
downward spiral. Fewer customers will mean higher rates, which encourages remaining customers
to jump ship for a solar-battery system. Energy upstarts are led by forward thinkers with disruptive
track records and eyes on societys big problems. NRG Energy chief executive David Crane ...
highlighted the climate change concerns in a recent letter to shareholders: The day is coming
when our children sit us down ... look us straight in the eye, with an acute sense of betrayal and
disappointment in theirs, and whisper to us, You knew and you didnt do anything about it.
Why?
Note: Read through a rich collection of energy news articles with inspiring and revealing news on
energy developments. Then explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Health conspiracy theories are widely believed

2014-03-19, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/19/health-conspiracy-theori...
Nearly half of American adults believe the federal government, corporations or both are involved in
at least one conspiracy to cover up health information, a new survey finds. Conspiracy theories on
everything from cancer cures to cellphones to vaccines are well known and accepted by sizable
segments of the population, according to a research letter published this week in JAMA Internal
Medicine. The findings reflect "a very low level of trust" in government and business,
especially in pharmaceutical companies, says study co-author Eric Oliver, a professor of
political science at the University of Chicago. The online survey of 1,351 adults found: 37%
agree the Food and Drug Administration is keeping "natural cures for cancer and other
diseases" away from the public because of "pressure from drug companies." 20% believe
health officials are hiding evidence that cellphones cause cancer. 20% believe doctors and health
officials push child vaccines even though they "know these vaccines cause autism and other
psychological disorders." Smaller numbers endorse theories involving fluoride, genetically
modified foods and the deliberate infection of African Americans with HIV. 49% believe at least
one of the theories and 18% believe at least three. The beliefs also go along with certain health

behaviors, the survey found. Those who believe at least three health conspiracy theories are less
likely to use sunscreen, get flu shots or get check-ups and are more likely to use herbal remedies
and eat organic foods.
Note: For an intriguing list of 10 major health cover-ups with evidence to back it up, click here.

The truth is out: money is just an IOU, and the banks are rolling in it
2014-03-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-...
In the 1930s, Henry Ford is supposed to have remarked that it was a good thing that most
Americans didn't know how banking really works, because if they did, "there'd be a revolution
before tomorrow morning". Last week, something remarkable happened. The Bank of England let
the cat out of the bag. In a paper called "Money Creation in the Modern Economy", co-authored by
three economists from the Bank's Monetary Analysis Directorate, they stated outright that most
common assumptions of how banking works are simply wrong, and that the kind of populist,
heterodox positions more ordinarily associated with groups such as Occupy Wall Street are
correct. It's [an incorrect] understanding that allows us to continue to talk about money as if
it were a limited resource like bauxite or petroleum, to say "there's just not enough money"
to fund social programmes, to speak of the immorality of government debt or of public
spending "crowding out" the private sector. To quote from its own initial summary: "Rather
than banks receiving deposits when households save and then lending them out, bank lending
creates deposits" When banks make loans, they create money. This is because money is really
just an IOU. The role of the central bank is to preside over a legal order that effectively grants
banks the exclusive right to create IOUs of a certain kind, ones that the government will recognise
as legal tender by its willingness to accept them in payment of taxes. There's really no limit on how
much banks could create. The Bank's job is to actually run the system, and of late, the system has
not been running especially well.
Note: For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Banking
Corruption Information Center.

Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science

2014-03-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ideas-are-pri...
American science, long a source of national power and pride, is increasingly becoming a private
enterprise. In Washington, budget cuts have left the nations research complex reeling. Labs are
closing. Scientists are being laid off. Projects are being put on the shelf, especially in the risky,
freewheeling realm of basic research. Yet from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, science philanthropy is
hot, as many of the richest Americans seek to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress
through science research. The result is a new calculus of influence and priorities that the scientific

community views with a mix of gratitude and trepidation. For better or worse, said Steven A.
Edwards, a policy analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the practice of science in the 21st century is becoming shaped less by national priorities
or by peer-review groups and more by the particular preferences of individuals with huge
amounts of money. This is philanthropy in the age of the new economy financed with its
outsize riches, practiced according to its individualistic, entrepreneurial creed. Yet that personal
setting of priorities is precisely what troubles some in the science establishment. Many of the
patrons, they say, are ignoring basic research the kind that investigates the riddles of nature
and has produced centuries of breakthroughs, even whole industries for a jumble of popular,
feel-good fields.
Note: For more on corruption in science, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Vitamin D May Double Chances of Surviving Breast Cancer

2014-03-07, TIME Magazine
http://time.com/16148/vitamin-d-may-double-chances-of-surviving-breast-cancer/
In a new study, researchers found that breast-cancer patients who had high levels of vitamin
D were twice as likely to survive [as] women with low levels. They reviewed five studies that
observed more than 4,440 women. The study has implications for including vitamin D as an
adjuvant to conventional breast cancer therapy, study co-author Dr. Heather Hofflich, an associate
professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego, said in a press release. The
researchers recommend that vitamin D should be added to the various treatments given to women
fighting breast cancer. The body naturally produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, but milk,
fatty fish and other foods can also boost production. Patients could also take vitamin D
supplements.
Note: This is huge news! Why isn't this exciting development getting more press coverage? Read
numerous major media articles revealing potential cancer cures which have received little
attention. And see an excellent article with more on the Vitamin D connection.

Fake-food scandal revealed as tests show third of products mislabelled

2014-02-07, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/fake-food-scandal-revealed-tests...
Consumers are being sold food including mozzarella that is less than half real cheese, ham on
pizzas that is either poultry or "meat emulsion", and frozen prawns that are 50% water, according
to tests by a public laboratory. The checks on hundreds of food samples, which were taken in West
Yorkshire, revealed that more than a third were not what they claimed to be, or were mislabelled in
some way. Testers also discovered beef mince adulterated with pork or poultry, and even a herbal
slimming tea that was neither herb nor tea but glucose powder laced with a withdrawn prescription

drug for obesity at 13 times the normal dose. A third of fruit juices sampled were not what they
claimed or had labelling errors. Two contained additives that are not permitted in the EU, including
brominated vegetable oil, which is designed for use in flame retardants and linked to behavioural
problems in rats at high doses. Experts said they fear the alarming findings from 38% of 900
sample tests by West Yorkshire councils were representative of the picture nationally, with
the public at increasing risk as budgets to detect fake or mislabelled foods plummet. In one
case, tests revealed that the "vodka" had been made not from alcohol derived from agricultural
produce, as required, but from isopropanol, used in antifreeze and as an industrial solvent. Many
of the samples were collected from fast-food restaurants, independent retailers and wholesalers;
some were from larger stores and manufacturers.
Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Documents Reveal Decades Of Child Abuse Among Some Chicago

Priests
2014-01-21, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/21/264576054/documents-reveal-decades-of-child-abu...
Papers documenting allegation of sexual abuse by priests in the Chicago Archdiocese were
released to the public today by victims' attorneys. The documents cover only 30 of at least 65
priests for whom the Chicago church says it has substantiated claims of child abuse. The papers,
put online, were made available through settlements between Church and victims' lawyers. Church
officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988, none after 1996. The documents tell one
heartbreaking story after another - 6,000 pages detailing not just how children and adult
victims were abused by trusted priests, but also how church officials often bungled their
responses, failing to turn sexual predators over to criminal authorities and often shuttling
the offending priests from parish to parish, where they abused again. That deception ...
came from the cardinal on down. Not only were the victims and their families deceived, but so
too were parishioners where offending priests were transferred, as well as the police and the
public at large. In one case in 1979, a priest raped a 13-year old boy and later warned him at
gunpoint not to tell anyone. The documents show the boy's parents were assured that the priest
would get treatment and would be kept away from minors, but he wasn't. Within a year, that priest
was returned to ministry in another parish where he abused again. In another case, the late
Cardinal John Cody tells a priest accused of sexually abusing a girl that the allegations, quote,
"should just be forgotten." That priest later abused again.
Note: For more on sexual abuse of children, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows

2014-01-07, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/us/burglars-who-took-on-fbi-abandon-shadows...
On a night nearly 43 years ago, while Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier bludgeoned each other over
15 rounds in a televised title bout viewed by millions around the world, burglars took a lock pick
and a crowbar and broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in a suburb of Philadelphia,
making off with nearly every document inside. They were never caught, and the stolen documents
that they mailed anonymously to newspaper reporters ... would become a flood of revelations
about extensive spying and dirty-tricks operations by the F.B.I. against dissident groups. Perhaps
the most damning document from the cache [was] a 1970 memorandum that ... urged agents to
step up their interviews of antiwar activists and members of dissident student groups. It will
enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles and will further serve to get the point across there
is an F.B.I. agent behind every mailbox. Another document, signed by Hoover himself, revealed
widespread F.B.I. surveillance of black student groups on college campuses. But the document
that would have the biggest impact on reining in the F.B.I.s domestic spying activities [included] a
mysterious word: Cointelpro ... shorthand for Counterintelligence Program. Since 1956, the F.B.I.
had carried out an expansive campaign to spy on civil rights leaders, political organizers
and suspected Communists, and had tried to sow distrust among protest groups. Among
the grim litany of revelations was a blackmail letter F.B.I. agents had sent anonymously to the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., threatening to expose his extramarital affairs if he did not commit
suicide. The intent of Cointelpro was to destroy lives and ruin reputations.
Note: To learn about the brave citizen burglars who have now revealed themselves and watch the
engaging video covering this story, click on the link given above. For more on the realities of
intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

100 Years Later, The Federal Reserve Has Failed At Everything It's Tried
2013-12-20, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2013/12/20/100-years-later-the-fe...
On Dec. 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Owen Glass Act, creating the Federal
Reserve. As we note its centennial, what has the Fed accomplished during the last 100 years?
The stated original purposes were to protect the soundness of the dollar and banks and also to
lessen the jarring ups and downs of the business cycle. Oops. Under the Feds supervision, boom
and bust cycles have continued. Three of them have been severe: the Great Depression, the
stagflationary period of 1974-82, and the current Great Recession. Bank failures have occurred
in alarmingly high numbers. Depending on what measurements are used, the dollar has lost
between 95 and 98 percent of its purchasing power. (Amazingly, the Feds official position today is
that inflation is not high enough, so the erosion of the dollar continues as a matter of policy.)
Having failed to achieve its original goals, the Fed also has had a miserable record in
accomplishing later goals. The 1970 amendments to the Federal Reserve Act stipulated that the
Fed should promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate

long-term interest rates. In baseball parlance, the Fed has been 0-for-three. So, what has the
Fed accomplished during its century of existence? Well, it has become adept at bailing out
mismanaged banks. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed orchestrated the
big bailout of Wall Street. Politically, the Fed is repugnant. Its chairman is commonly referred to
as the second most powerful person in the country. In a democratic republic, should the second
most powerful policymaker be unelected?
Note: How remarkable for Forbes to publish an article chastising the Fed! The times are a
changin'! For an essay by noted financial researcher Ellen Brown on this occasion, click here. For
more on the collusion between government and the biggest banks, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The miracle of profit-sharing: Year 65 and still no layoffs

2013-12-15, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-miracle-of-profit-sharing-year-65-and...
When Canadian journalist ... Frank Koller published his book Spark: How Old-Fashioned Values
Drive a Twenty-First-Century Corporation: Lessons from Lincoln Electric's U, about the profitsharing model pioneered at Clevelands Lincoln Electric, it encouraged Making Sense to return to
the manufacturer after first reporting on them back in 1992. Two years later, Koller now updates us
on yet another profitable year for Lincoln. Frank Koller: Here are the latest numbers for the Ohiobased multinational welding manufacturer, now 118 years old. 80: uninterrupted years of paying
an employee bonus (i.e. profitable every year since 1934). $33,029: average 2013 bonus per
U.S. employee (roughly 3,000 employees). $81,366: average 2013 total earnings per U.S.
employee (wages or salary + bonus). $100.7 million: total pre-tax profit shared with
employees, Lincolns largest bonus pool ever. 0: number of layoffs in 2013 (that makes 65 years
without any layoffs) #1: Lincoln Electric remains number one in the global marketplace in its
industry. These figures once again provide convincing and reassuring evidence that with an
unwavering commitment to respecting employees by offering the opportunity to significantly share
in the profits of the firm, while demanding their very best, it is possible to run a very profitable, very
large, technologically superior multinational business based in North America while also honoring
a firms obligations to its customers, investors and society at large.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Police: NC teen fatally shot self in head while handcuffed

2013-12-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-teen-shot-self-in-head-while-handcuffed-in...

Officials in North Carolina are investigating how a teen allegedly shot himself in the head while
handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said ... at a news
conference that Jesus Huerta, 17, died of a self-inflicted gunshot [wound] to the head in
November. Lopez said a handgun was found in the car and that Huerta was still handcuffed from
behind, according to the station. "The medical examiner's office has confirmed that Jesus Huerta
died from a gunshot wound to his head," Lopez said. "Whether that wound was accidental or
intentional is unknown at this time." Huerta [had been] picked up early on Nov. 19 on a trespassing
warrant stemming from a July incident, after family members reported concerns for his safety in a
911 call. Chief Lopez said Huerta was searched by police prior to the shooting incident and the
weapon was not detected. "I know that it is hard for people not in law enforcement to
understand how someone could be capable of shooting themselves while handcuffed
behind the back," Lopez said. "While incidents like this are not common, they unfortunately
have happened in other jurisdictions in the past." Huertas family released a statement
following the news conference. "How did Jesus end up dead in the parking lot at police
headquarters in these circumstances? Searched. Handcuffed behind the back. How is it even
possible to shoot oneself?" the statement reads.
Note: If, as the police chief states, other incidents of people shooting themselves while handcuffed
behind the back have happened, maybe it's time for a thorough investigation of these police
forces. For more on the deadly corruption in the government-prison-industrial complex, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Whooping Cough Study May Offer Clue on Surge

2013-11-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/health/study-finds-vaccinated-baboons-can-s...
The whooping cough vaccines now in use were introduced in the 1990s after an older version,
which offered longer-lasting protection, was found to have side effects. But over the years,
scientists have determined that the new vaccines began to lose effectiveness after about five
years, a significant problem that many researchers believe has contributed to the significant rise in
whooping cough cases. The new study, published on Monday in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, offers another explanation. Using baboons, the researchers found that
recently vaccinated animals continued to carry the infection in their throats. Even though those
baboons did not get sick from it, they spread the infection to others that were not vaccinated.
"When you're newly vaccinated you are an asymptomatic carrier, which is good for you, but not for
the population," said Tod J. Merkel, the lead author of the study, who is a researcher in the Office
of Vaccines Research and Review in the Food and Drug Administration. The current whooping
cough vaccines were developed after a surge in concerns from parents that their children
were getting fevers and having seizures after receiving the old vaccine. The new finding
[suggest that] people recently vaccinated may be continuing to spread the infection without getting
sick.

Note: So a vaccine was replaced because of side effects. Hmmmmm. How often do your hear any
talk of side effects in the vaccine debate? And vaccinated animals can still spread the disease. Do
you think there is any hype going on with the recent measles scare? And this US government
webpage states, "Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in
1989, 3,981 compensation awards have been made. More than $2.8 billion in compensation
awards has been paid to petitioners."

Here's why Wall Street has a hard time being ethical

2013-11-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/25/wall-street-hard-time-ethical
My first year on Wall Street, 1993, I was paid 14 times more than I earned the prior year and three
times more than my father's best year. For that money, I helped my company create financial
products that were disguised to look simple, but which required complex math to properly
understand. That first year I was roundly applauded by my bosses, who told me I was clever, and
to my surprise they gave me $20,000 bonus beyond my salary. When I did ask, rather naively, if
this was all kosher, I would be assured multiple times that multiple lawyers and multiple managers
had approved the sales. One senior trader, consoling me late at night, reminded me, You are
playing in the big leagues now. If a customer wants a red suit, you sell them a red suit. If that
customer is Japanese, you charge him twice what it costs. Being paid very well also helped ease
any of my concerns. Feeling guilty, kid? Here take a big check. I was, for the first time in my life,
feeling valued for my math skills. Ego and money are nice salves for any potential feeling of guilt.
After a few years on Wall Street it was clear to me: you could make money by gaming
anyone and everything. The more clever you were, the more ingenious your ability to
exploit a flaw in a law or regulation, the more lauded and celebrated you became. Nobody
seemed to be getting called out. No move was too audacious. Traders got more and more
audacious, and corruption became more and more diffused through the system. By 2006 you
could open up almost any major business, look at its inside workings, and find some wrongdoing.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Congressional oversight of the NSA is a joke. I should know, I'm in

Congress
2013-10-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/25/nsa-no-congress-oversight
Recently, the US House of Representatives voted on an amendment ... that would have curbed the
NSA's omnipresent and inescapable [spying] tactics. Despite furious lobbying by the intelligence
industrial complex and its allies, and four hours of frantic and overwrought briefings by the NSA's
General Keith Alexander, 205 of 422 Representatives voted for the amendment. The vote signaled
a clear message to the NSA: we do not trust you. The vote also conveyed another, more subtle

message: members of Congress do not trust that the House Intelligence Committee is providing
the necessary oversight. On the contrary, "oversight" has become "overlook". Despite being a
member of Congress possessing security clearance, I've learned far more about government
spying on me and my fellow citizens from reading media reports than I have from "intelligence"
briefings. My colleagues feel the same way. In fact, one long-serving conservative Republican told
me that he doesn't attend such briefings anymore, because, "they always lie". Many of us worry
that Congressional Intelligence Committees are more loyal to the "intelligence community"
that they are tasked with policing, than to the Constitution. And the House Intelligence
Committee isn't doing anything to assuage our concerns. Supporters of the NSA's vast
ubiquitous domestic spying operation assure the public that members of Congress can be briefed
on these activities whenever they want. Senator Saxby Chambliss says all a member of Congress
needs to do is ask for information, and he'll get it. Well I did ask, and the House Intelligence
Committee said "no", repeatedly. And virtually every other member not on the Intelligence
Committee gets the same treatment.
Note: The above article was written by courageous U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson. For more on
government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Problems with scientific research

2013-10-19, The Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-change...
A simple idea underpins science: trust, but verify. Results should always be subject to challenge
from experiment. [But] modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifyingto
the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity. Too many of the findings that fill the
academic ether are the result of shoddy experiments or poor analysis. A rule of thumb among
biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of published research cannot be replicated. A leading
computer scientist frets that three-quarters of papers in his subfield are bunk. In [2010] roughly
80,000 patients took part in clinical trials based on research that was later retracted because of
mistakes or improprieties. One reason is the competitiveness of science. As their ranks have
swelled, to 6m-7m active researchers on the latest reckoning, scientists have lost their taste for
self-policing and quality control. The obligation to publish or perish has come to rule over
academic life. Competition for jobs is cut-throat. Every year six freshly minted PhDs vie for
every academic post. Nowadays verification (the replication of other peoples results) does
little to advance a researchers career. And without verification, dubious findings live on to
mislead. Careerism also encourages exaggeration and the cherry-picking of results. Failures to
prove a hypothesis are rarely even offered for publication, let alone accepted. Negative results
now account for only 14% of published papers, down from 30% in 1990. Yet knowing what is false
is as important to science as knowing what is true.
Note: For more on corruption in science, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Lab Life: The Anatomy of a Retraction

2013-10-10, Scientific American blog
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/2013/10/10/lab-life-the-anat...
An essential part of the scientific process is the critical analysis of research results by scientists
with expertise in the discipline. Because of this peer-review process, mistakes are supposed to be
caught before they propagate in the literature. Yet despite careful pre-publication scrutiny, some
reports are later retracted or, worse, widely suspected to be erroneous but never corrected. One
recent examination of 53 landmark medical studies found that further research was unable
to replicate all but six of them. How can the scientific community do better at avoiding published
errors and correcting them more quickly when they are discovered? A growing group of scientists
are addressing this question. They suggest incentives that will reward scientists to a greater
degree for producing solid, trustworthy research that others are able to replicate successfully and
then extend. Paradoxically, the same qualities trust and teamwork that are key to a
productive and harmonious laboratory environment are the same ones that can lead to an
informality that allows errors to be propagated. Despite the importance of retractions in
correcting the scientific record, there are few guidelines as to how they should be handled or how
fast self-correction should occur. To this end medical journalists Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus
created the web log Retraction Watch, which catalogs retractions as a window into the scientific
process and explores the causes of each one; it has been called one of most important recent
developments in science journalism by former Scientific American editor in chief John Rennie.
Note: For a powerful article showing how the author of the above article, Pamela Ronald, has not
been truthful in her own studies, click here. For more on corruption in science, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

How a Dropped Wrench Socket Almost Incinerated Arkansas: Review

2013-09-19, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-19/how-a-dropped-wrench-socket-almos...
For almost nine hours starting on Sept. 18, 1980, brave airmen sought to contain the damage
precipitated by a dropped wrench socket that hit a Titan II missile -- which was tipped with a W-53
thermonuclear warhead -- in its silo [in Damascus, Arkansas]. The socket pierced the missiles
skin, causing fuel and oxidizer leaks. The ensuing explosion destroyed the silo, propelling missile
parts and [the] warhead into abbreviated flight. One airman died from internal wounds while 21
personnel were injured. The W-53 warhead ended up on a nearby roadside -- passed by motorists
but fortunately never detonated. Close, but no mushroom cloud. This freakish event is at the
core of Eric Schlossers new book, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the
Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety. The United States has narrowly avoided a
long series of nuclear disasters, he writes. He reveals declassified studies that disclose
hundreds of mishaps between 1950 and 1967 and beyond. They include a B-61 hydrogen
bomb accidentally dropped 7 feet from a parked B-52 bomber at Carswell Air Force Base when a

crewman pulled a handle too hard, and a Mark 6 atomic bomb landing in a Mars Bluff, South
Carolina backyard, creating a 35-foot-deep crater and blowing out nearby windows and doors.
Schlosser takes Baby Boomers of the duck and cover era down a Megaton Memory Lane while
providing a vivid primer for the Twitter generation on a world where nuclear weapons were a fact of
life to deter a larger-than-life Soviet Union depicted as bent on world domination.
Note: Watch a 16-minute interview with Erik Schlosser showing how close we have come to
accidental nuclear explosions. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
nuclear risk news articles from reliable major media sources.

Atomic Gaffes
2013-09-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/books/review/command-and-control-by-eric-sc...
A little over 50 years ago a South Carolina doctor ... treated a family for injuries sustained when a
sudden, inexplicable explosion tore through their backyard. The object in the 50-foot crater left
behind their house was an atomic bomb that had fallen from a passing Air Force plane. The bomb
had not been armed with its nuclear core; the blast came from the explosives intended to trigger
a chain reaction. The crater can still be seen today. That incident, which led to an anti-nuclear
movement in Britain, where the plane was bound, is one of many stories Eric Schlosser ... tells in
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.
During the cold war, nuclear bombs fell out of the sky, burned up in plane crashes and were lost at
sea. In the incident Schlosser describes in greatest detail, the Damascus accident of Sept. 18,
1980, the warhead from a Titan II missile was ejected after a series of mishaps that began when a
repairman dropped a socket wrench and pierced a fuel tank. Tactical nuclear weapons scattered
across Europe had minimal security; misplaced tools and failed repairs triggered serious
accidents; inadequate safety procedures and poor oversight led to dozens of close brushes with
nuclear explosions. Schlossers readers (and he deserves a great many) will be struck by
how frequently the people he cites attribute the absence of accidental explosions and
nuclear war to divine intervention or sheer luck rather than to human wisdom and skill.
Note: For more on this highly revealing book, click here. For details of Schlosser's amazing story
of the two H-bombs that fell on North Carolina in 1961, click here. For more on the grave risks of
nuclear technologies, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web

2013-09-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html

The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using
supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine
the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to
newly disclosed documents. The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or
digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like
trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet
chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show. Many
users assume or have been assured by Internet companies that their data is safe from
prying eyes, including those of the government, and the N.S.A. wants to keep it that way.
The agency treats its recent successes in deciphering protected information as among its
most closely guarded secrets, restricted to those cleared for a highly classified program
code-named Bullrun, according to the documents, provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former
N.S.A. contractor. Beginning in 2000, as encryption tools were gradually blanketing the Web, the
N.S.A. invested billions of dollars in a clandestine campaign to preserve its ability to eavesdrop.
Having lost a public battle in the 1990s to insert its own back door in all encryption, it set out to
accomplish the same goal by stealth. The agency ... deployed custom-built, superfast computers
to break codes, and began collaborating with technology companies in the United States and
abroad to build entry points into their products [called "backdoors"].
Note: For an excellent article in the UK's respected Guardian on this, click here. For a guide from
the Guardian on "How to remain secure against NSA surveillance", click here.

Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks

2013-08-12, Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new...
[The] fact that a car is not a simple machine of glass and steel but a hackable network of
computers, is what [Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek] have spent the last year trying to
demonstrate. Miller, a 40-year-old security engineer at Twitter, and Valasek, the 31-year-old
director of security intelligence at the Seattle consultancy IOActive, received an $80,000-plus grant
last fall from [the] Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to root out security vulnerabilities
in automobiles. The need for scrutiny is growing as cars are increasingly automated and
connected to the Internet. Practically every American carmaker now offers a cellular service or WiFi network like General Motors OnStar, Toyotas Safety Connect and Fords SYNC. Without better
security its all potentially vulnerable, and automakers are remaining mum or downplaying the
issue. As I drove their vehicles for more than an hour, Miller and Valasek showed that theyve
reverse-engineered enough of the software of the [Ford] Escape and the Toyota Prius (both the
2010 model) to demonstrate a range of nasty surprises: everything from annoyances like
uncontrollably blasting the horn to serious hazards like slamming on the Prius brakes at high
speeds. They sent commands from their laptops that killed power steering, spoofed the
GPS and made pathological liars out of speedometers and odometers. Finally they directed
me out to a country road, where Valasek showed that he could violently jerk the Prius
steering at any speed, threatening to send us into a cornfield or a head-on collision.

Note: Don't miss the unbelievable video at the above link which shows how a good hacker can
take control of your car's steering, brakes, and much more. For more on the OnStar system in
most GM cars now and how it allows spying on you, read the CNN article titled "OnStar's 'brazen'
data tracking comes under fire" at this link. For more on government and corporate digital security
invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Marijuana stops child's severe seizures

2013-08-07, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/in...
Charlotte and Chase were born October 18, 2006. They were healthy. Everything was normal. The
twins were 3 months old when the Figis' lives changed forever. [Charlotte had a] seizure [which]
lasted about 30 minutes. Her parents rushed her to the hospital. They did a million-dollar work-up
... and found nothing. A week later, Charlotte had another seizure. Over the next few months,
Charlotte ... had frequent seizures lasting two to four hours, and she was hospitalized repeatedly.
She was [put] on seven drugs -- some of them heavy-duty, addictive ones such as barbiturates
and benzodiazepines. They'd work for a while, but the seizures always came back with a
vengeance. At 2, she really started to decline cognitively. In November 2000, Colorado voters
approved Amendment 20, which required the state to set up a medical marijuana registry program.
[Then Charlotte's father Matt] found a video online of a California boy whose [seizures were] being
successfully treated with cannabis. [Her parents started] Charlotte out on a small dose. By
then Charlotte had lost the ability to walk, talk and eat. She was having 300 grand mal
seizures a week. The results were stunning. The seizures stopped for ... seven days. [Now]
Charlotte gets a dose of the cannabis oil twice a day. [It has] stopped the seizures. Today,
Charlotte, 6, is thriving. Not only is she walking, she can ride her bicycle.
Note: There have been plentiful stories of miraculous healing from marijuana, but this may be the
first time the major media is reporting it (see links at the bottom of this article for more). That's
exciting! We may be seeing a major change here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which
will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

New Leaks Into Pacific at Japan Nuclear Plant

2013-08-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/world/asia/leaks-into-pacific-persist-at-ja...
Tons of contaminated groundwater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have
overwhelmed an underground barrier and are emptying daily into the Pacific, creating what
a top regulator has called a crisis. The water contains strontium and cesium, as well as
tritium. The plant was already struggling to store hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated
water that flowed through the buildings housing three reactors where [three] meltdowns occurred
in 2011. But the contamination in this new groundwater problem is from different sources, Tepco
said. The company has admitted that it failed to respond quickly enough to the latest groundwater

contamination, saying it was preoccupied with more pressing issues like cooling the damaged
reactors. Tepco appears overwhelmed in dealing with what is a very serious problem, said Akio
Yamamoto, a professor of nuclear engineering at Nagoya University, who serves as outside expert
for the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Japans nuclear watchdog. Critics contend that the plant has
emitted far more radioactive materials than it is saying, based in part on levels of contaminants
discovered in the harbor, which are well above safe levels in some places. The contamination
appears to be spreading, with tests last month by Tepco showing high levels of tritium and other
radioactive elements like strontium starting at other locations near the two other crippled reactors.
Note: Declaring the situation an "emergency", the Japanese government has stepped in to take
over control of the response from Tepco. For more on this, click here. For a National Geographic
article on what you need to know about the radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean by the
Fukushima disaster, click here. It reports that scientists have estimated that contaminated
seawater could reach the West Coast of the United States in five years or less. For more on the
environmental devastation of nuclear power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Exclusive: FBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes

2013-08-04, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/04/fbi-informant-crimes-rep...
The FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year,
according to newly disclosed documents that show just how often the nation's top law enforcement
agency enlists criminals to help it battle crime. The U.S. Justice Department ordered the FBI to
begin tracking crimes by its informants more than a decade ago, after the agency admitted that
its agents had allowed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger to operate a brutal crime
ring in exchange for information about the Mafia. The FBI submits that tally to top Justice
Department officials each year, but has never before made it public. Agents authorized 15
crimes a day, on average, including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to
bribing government officials and plotting robberies. FBI officials have said in the past that
permitting their informants who are often criminals themselves to break the law is an
indispensable, if sometimes distasteful, part of investigating criminal organizations. USA TODAY
obtained a copy of the FBI's 2011 report under the Freedom of Information Act. The report does
not spell out what types of crimes its agents authorized, or how serious they were. It also did not
include any information about crimes the bureau's sources were known to have committed without
the government's permission. Crimes authorized by the FBI almost certainly make up a tiny
fraction of the total number of offenses committed by informants for local, state and federal
agencies each year.
Note: As reported in this USA Today article, the DEA and ATF don't even track crimes committed
by their informants. For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Is Big Pharma Addicted To Fraud?

2013-07-29, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2013/07/29/is-big-pharma-addicted-to-...
Recent news out of China raises the question once again of whether any aspect of the
pharmaceutical business can be trusted. First, Chinese authorities announced they were
investigating GlaxoSmithKline and other pharma companies for bribing doctors, hospitals and
government officials to buy and prescribe their drugs. Glaxo is accused of using a Shanghai travel
agency to funnel at least $489 million in bribes. Then the New York Times revealed last week the
alarming news that an internal Glaxo audit found serious problems with the way research was
conducted at the companys Shanghai research and development center. Last year Glaxo paid $3
billion to resolve civil and criminal allegations of, among other things, marketing widely used
prescription drugs for unapproved treatments and using kickbacks to promote sales. Glaxo is a
leader in pharma fraud and wrongdoing, with other industry heavyweights close behind. Over the
past decade, whistleblowers and government investigations in the US have exposed a neverending series of problems by numerous pharma companies in all facets of the industry, starting
with fraudulent research papers used to bolster marketing and continuing through to the
manufacture of contaminated and defective products, the marketing of drugs for unapproved and
life-threatening uses and the mispricing of prescription drugs. Pharma ... has paid more than
$30.2 billion in civil and criminal penalties to the US and state governments and continues
to face more allegations of wrongdoing. The industry despite huge penalties and a long
string of public mea culpas has a fraud habit that is just too profitable to kick. Finding a
cure should be a top priority of regulators worldwide.
Note: For more on pharmaceutical industry corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Dolphins Use Names for Each Other

2013-07-24, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/dolphins-names/story?id=19751193
They escape from aquarium tanks. They locate underwater mines. Now, a new paper published in
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science claims that dolphins recognized their
own name when called. Vincent Janik, one of the authors of the study and a biology researcher at
the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said that the name is actually a specific type of dolphin
vocalization that the animals respond to. "They're these high pitched whistles that have a little bit
of a melody," he told ABC News. These sounds are referred to as "signature whistles." Janik and
his colleague, Stephanie King, cruised along the east coast of Scotland looking for bottlenose
dolphins. After spotting and identifying a dolphin in the wild, the researchers would play one of
three different sounds: a modified sound clip of that dolphin's signature whistle, a signature whistle
of one of its podmates, or the signature whistle of a completely foreign dolphin. They played the
dolphin's own signature whistle and the animal would come up and approach the boat and whistle
back. However, the dolphin didn't respond to the other two types of whistles and mostly kept about

its business. It may seem odd that the dolphins don't react much to the whistles of their fellow
herdmates, but Janik says that copying a dolphin's signature whistle just right is part of their social
group. "This copying only occurs between closely associated animals, like between
mothers and their calves," he said. Dolphins only need to respond to their own signature
whistles, since any socially relevant animal will have learned how to copy it. "It says to
them, 'I know that this [whistle] is a friend.'"
Note: For an abstract of this intriguing study, click here. For more on the fascinating capabilities of
marine mammals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Whales flee from military sonar leading to mass strandings, research

shows
2013-07-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/03/whales-flee-military-sonar-...
Whales flee from the loud military sonar used by navies to hunt submarines, new research has
proven for the first time. The studies provide a missing link in the puzzle that has connected naval
exercises around the world to unusual mass strandings of whales and dolphins. Beaked whales,
the most common casualty of the strandings, were shown to be highly sensitive to sonar. But the
research also revealed unexpectedly that blue whales, the largest animals on Earth and whose
population has plummeted by 95% in the last century, also abandoned feeding and swam rapidly
away from sonar noise. The strong response observed in the beaked whales occurred at noise
levels well below those allowed for US navy exercises. "For whales and dolphins, listening is
as important as seeing is for humans they communicate, locate food, and navigate using
sound," said Sarah Dolman, at charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation. "Noise pollution
threatens vulnerable populations, driving them away from areas important to their survival,
and at worst injuring or even causing the deaths of some whales and dolphins." Dolman
said there were no accepted international standards regarding noise pollution and there was an
urgent need to re-evaluate the environmental impacts of military activities. Unusual mass
strandings, where multiple species of whale and dolphin beach at several locations at once, have
soared since the introduction of military sonar in the 1950s and can be fatal. The strandings occur
every year and major recent events saw up to 15 animals beached in the Canary Islands, the
Bahamas and Greece.
Note: For more on threats to whales and dolphins, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis

2013-06-19, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-last-mystery-of-the-financial-c...

It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger
the meltdown. A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it. Everybody else got
plenty of blame: the greed-fattened banks, the sleeping regulators, the unscrupulous mortgage
hucksters. But what about the ratings agencies? Thanks to a mountain of evidence gathered for a
pair of major lawsuits by the San Diego-based law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, ... we
now know that the nation's two top ratings companies, Moody's and S&P, have for many
years been shameless tools for the banks, willing to give just about anything a high rating
in exchange for cash. In incriminating e-mail after incriminating e-mail, executives and analysts
from these companies are caught admitting their entire business model is crooked. Ratings
agencies are the glue that ostensibly holds the entire financial industry together. Their primary
function is to help define what's safe to buy, and what isn't. But the financial crisis happened
because AAA ratings stopped being something that had to be earned and turned into
something that could be paid for. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission published a case
study in 2011 of Moody's in particular and discovered that between 2000 and 2007, the agency
gave nearly 45,000 mortgage-backed securities AAA ratings. One year Moody's doled out AAA
ratings to 30 mortgage-backed securities every day, 83 percent of which were ultimately
downgraded. "This crisis could not have happened without the rating agencies," the commission
concluded.
Note: This is another great, well researched article by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi. Why isn't the
major media coming up with anything near the quality of this man's work? For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click here.

Traders Said to Rig Currency Rates to Profit Off Clients

2013-06-11, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-11/traders-said-to-rig-currency-rates-t...
Traders at some of the worlds biggest banks manipulated benchmark foreign-exchange rates
used to set the value of trillions of dollars of investments, according to five dealers with knowledge
of the practice. Employees have been front-running client orders and rigging WM/Reuters rates by
pushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows when the benchmarks are set,
said the current and former traders, who requested anonymity because the practice is
controversial. Dealers colluded with counterparts to boost chances of moving the rates, said
two of the people, who worked in the industry for a total of more than 20 years. The
behavior occurred daily in the spot foreign-exchange market and has been going on for at
least a decade, affecting the value of funds and derivatives, the two traders said. The
Financial Conduct Authority, Britains markets supervisor, is considering opening a probe into
potential manipulation of the rates, according to a person briefed on the matter. The $4.7-trilliona-day currency market, the biggest in the financial system, is one of the least regulated. The
inherent conflict banks face between executing client orders and profiting from their own trades is
exacerbated because most currency trading takes place away from exchanges. The WM/Reuters

rates are used by fund managers to compute the day-to-day value of their holdings. While the
rates arent followed by most investors, even small movements can affect the value of [the] $3.6
trillion in funds including pension and savings accounts that track global indexes.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

16-year-old finds a new way to detect cancer

2013-05-18, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57585179/16-year-old-finds-a-new-way-to...
Sixteen-year-old Jack Andraka's innovative mind led him to create a new way to detect pancreatic,
ovarian and lung cancer. "I created a new way to detect pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer that
costs three cents and takes five minutes to run," he said. After a close friend died from
pancreatic cancer, this 16-year-old from Crownsville, Maryland, unleashed his hyper-drive
intellect on preventing more cancer deaths. "It's 168 times faster, over 26,000 times less
expensive, and over 400 times more sensitive than our current methods of diagnosis," he
said. Tinkering in his room and using information readily available online, he came up with a new
way to detect cancer. "85 percent of all pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late, when someone has
less than a two percent chance of survival. And our current test costs $800 per test and misses 30
percent of all pancreatic cancers," he said. He won last year's Intel International Science and
Engineering Fair. The sweet validation came with $100,000 in scholarships, but Jack Andraka's
got his eye on even bigger things. "The name of the competition is called the Tricorder XPRIZE,"
he said. "It's a $10 million prize. Essentially what you have to do is develop something the size of a
smartphone that you scan over your skin and it will diagnose any disease instantly." Jack is fielding
a team of other high-schoolers to compete against 300 teams of adult scientists and corporations
in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition. He says youth is an advantage -- that new eyes
are more likely to solve old problems.
Note: Let's hope this invention gets fast tracked and makes it to market. Notice how little attention
this exciting development received. To read about many potential cancer cures reported in major
media which have not made it to market for financial reasons, click here. For a treasure trove of
great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

The 9/11 Phone Calls: Disturbing Irregularities Uncovered in the Calls

that Flashed around the World
2013-05-16, Wall Street Journal/PRNewswire
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130516-909978.html
The 9/11 Consensus Panel now offers four evidence-based points about the alleged phone calls
from the 9/11 flights. The famous "let's roll" drama of the passenger revolt on UA 93 was relayed
by passenger Todd Beamer's 13-minute unrecorded seat-back call to GTE telephone supervisor

Lisa Jefferson, who reported Beamer as strangely tranquil, declining to speak to his wife.
Eerily, Beamer's line remained open for 15 minutes after the crash. Oddly, the Verizon
wireless record shows that 19 calls were made from Beamer's cell phone long after the
crash of UA 93. Initial media reports and FBI interviews detailed more than a dozen cell phone
calls from the planes at high elevation. Yet in 2001, a telephone spokesperson stated that
sustained mobile calls were not possible above 10,000 feet. During the 2006 Moussaoui Trial, the
FBI (under oath) reduced the number of cell phone calls to two calls made from 5,000 feet, and
presented evidence of only one (not two) "unconnected" call from Barbara Olson, lasting "0
seconds." In another twist, two other women reported that Caller-ID showed their husband's cell
numbers on their answering machines, which while lasting several minutes, had been made from
elevations of 25,000 and 35,000 feet. Although the FBI conducted a massive investigation into the
calls, none of the telephone billing, nor any of the cell phone location data stored in standard
phone company records has been publicly released.
Note: The 9/11 Consensus Panel, consisting of scientists, pilots, professors, attorneys, and
journalists, has developed 32 Points of evidence contradicting specific claims made by the official
account of 9/11. For many unanswered questions about 9/11 raised by highly credible former
government officials and professors, click here and here. For our 9/11 Information Center filled with
reliable, verifiable 9/11 resources, click here.

With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan

2013-04-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/world/asia/cia-delivers-cash-to-afghan-lead...
For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on
occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of
Afghanistans president courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of millions of
dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current
and former advisers to the Afghan leader. We called it ghost money, said Khalil Roman, who
served as Mr. Karzais deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005. It came in secret, and it left in
secret. The C.I.A. ... has long been known to support some relatives and close aides of Mr.
Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments
on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing. Moreover, there is little
evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American
officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining
Washingtons exit strategy from Afghanistan. The biggest source of corruption in
Afghanistan, one American official said, was the United States. Now, Mr. Karzai is seeking
control over the Afghan militias raised by the C.I.A. to target ... insurgent commanders, potentially
upending a critical part of the Obama administrations plans for fighting militants as conventional
military forces pull back this year. But the C.I.A. has continued to pay.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Cypriot Bailout Sends Shivers Throughout the Euro Zone

2013-03-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/business/global/facing-bailout-tax-cypriots...
Europes decision to force depositors in Cypriot banks to share in the cost of the latest
euro zone bailout has sparked outrage in Cyprus and fears that a run on deposits over the
weekend might spread to larger countries at risk like Spain and Italy. Under an emergency deal
reached early Saturday in Brussels, a one-time tax of 9.9 percent is to be levied on Cypriot bank
deposits of more than 100,000 euros, or $130,000, effective [March 19]. That will hit wealthy
depositors mostly Russians who have put vast sums into Cypruss banks in recent years. But
smaller deposits will also be taxed, at 6.75 percent, meaning that the banks will be confiscating
money directly from retirees and ordinary workers to help pay the tab for the 10 billion euro
bailout or $13 billion. Most of the 10 billion euros will go to bail out Cypriot banks, which took a
blow when their substantial holdings of Greek government bonds were written down as part of that
countrys second bailout. The islands banks are also laden with loans made to Greek companies
and individuals, which have turned sour as Greece endures its fourth year of economic and
financial crisis. The "deposit tax", which is expected to raise 5.8 billion euros, was part of a bailout
agreement ... among finance ministers from euro countries and representatives of the International
Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. The Cypriot bailout follows those for Greece,
Portugal, Ireland and the Spanish banking sector and is the first where bank depositors will be
touched.
Note: What gives anyone the right to seize the deposits of ordinary bank account holders? Is this
the first step towards establishing a precedent for governments to seize anything they want from
ordinary citizens? For a report indicating that the Cypriot people may not take this attack lying
down, click here.

1.6 Billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security? It's Time For A
National Conversation
2013-03-11, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2013/03/11/1-6-billion-rounds-of-ammo-...
The Denver Post, on February 15th, ran an Associated Press article entitled "Homeland Security
aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo". It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has
issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. Some of this purchase
order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a
frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq
War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month. Therefore 1.6 billion rounds
would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years. DHS now is [also] showing off its
acquisition of heavily armored personnel carriers, repatriated from the Iraqi and Afghani theaters of
operation. The Department of Homeland Security is apparently taking delivery (apparently through
the Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico VA, via the manufacturer Navistar Defense LLC)

of an undetermined number of [recently retrofitted] Mine Resistant Protected MaxxPro MRAP

vehicles for service on the streets of the United States. Why would they need such over-the-top
vehicles on U.S. streets to withstand IEDs, mine blasts, and 50 caliber hits to bullet-proof glass? In
a war zone yes, definitely. [But] on the streets of America?
Note: For a U.S. Army field manual titled "Internment and Resettlement Operations" (FM 3-39.40)
describing how large numbers of American citizens could be sent to internment camps if involved
in "terrorist" activities, click here. The introduction to this document states, "Commanders will use
technology and conduct police intelligence operations to influence and control populations,
evacuate detainees and, conclusively, transition rehabilitative and reconciliation operations to other
functional agencies." For a disturbing report on the massive expansion of drones over US skies,
click here.

Pope conclave tainted by abuse scandal

2013-03-05, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/03/pope-conclave-child-abuse-sc...
In Rome, where 115 cardinals are gathering to elect a new pope, the conclave will include these
luminaries: Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, who in the 1980s plotted
with an adviser to conceal child molesting priests from law enforcement. Cardinal Sean Brady, the
leader of Ireland's church, who failed in the 1970s to follow up on incriminating evidence against a
priest, who went on to become a notorious serial molester. Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former
head of the Belgian church, who once advised an adult victim of 13 years of childhood abuse
against making "a lot of noise" about it because his molester, a bishop, was about to retire.The full
list of cardinals who abetted the child abuse scandal that has dogged the church for more than a
decade is longer. Under church law, no one can force these cardinals to forgo voting, but they
should. It is impossible to overstate the breadth and depth of the child molestation scandal, or the
damage done to both the children and the credibility of the church. In the U.S. alone, more than
16,000 victims have reported abuse. Similar scandals have roiled Australia, Ireland,
Scotland, Belgium and Benedict XVI's own Germany, each revealing thousands more
victims. The details in each country are as horrifying as they are familiar. Hundreds of
priests abused and raped children. Reports of abuse were ignored. Victims were sometimes
muzzled. Predator priests were shuffled off to other parishes to molest again. And the highest
church leaders often fought to keep the details secret.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
including involvement of several Catholic Cardinals directly implicated in the sex abuse scandals,
click here. To learn how child sex-abuse rings lead to top levels of leadership around the world,
watch the powerful Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link.

Papal resignation linked to inquiry into 'Vatican gay officials', says

paper

2013-02-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/pope-retired-amid-gay-bishop-blac...
A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the
discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom the report said
were being blackmailed by outsiders. The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny
the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. The paper said the
pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign the day he received a
dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair. The
newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were
"united by sexual orientation". In an apparent quotation from the report, La Repubblica said some
Vatican officials had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of
a "worldly nature". The paper said this was a clear reference to blackmail. It quoted a source "very
close to those who wrote [the cardinal's report]" as saying: "Everything revolves around the nonobservance of the sixth and seventh commandments." The seventh enjoins against theft. The sixth
forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts.The
cardinals' report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa
outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former
university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.
Note: For more revelations on this astounding information from a reliable source, click here.

To Kill an American
2013-02-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/to-kill-an-american.html
The newly disclosed white paper offering a legal reasoning behind the claim that President
Obama has the power to order the killing of American citizens ... coyly describes another,
classified document ... that actually provided the legal justification for ordering the killing of
American citizens. That document still has not been provided to Congress, despite repeated
demands from lawmakers. According to the white paper, the Constitution and the Congressional
authorization for the use of force after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave Mr. Obama the right to
kill any American citizen that an informed, high-level official decides is a senior operational
leader of Al Qaeda or an associated force and presents an imminent threat of violent attack. It
never tries to define what an informed, high-level official might be, and the authors of the
memo seem to have redefined the word imminent in a way that diverges sharply from its
customary meaning. It takes the position that the only oversight needed for such a
decision resides within the executive branch, and there is no need to explain the judgment to
Congress, the courts or the public or, indeed, to even acknowledge that the killing took place.
The paper argues that judges and Congress dont have the right to rule on or interfere with
decisions made in the heat of combat. The white paper is a confusing blend of self-defense and
law of war concepts said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies. Its due
process analysis is especially weak.

Note: To read the entire 'white paper' on drone strikes on Americans, click here. For a more
detailed analysis by a distinguished lawyer, click here. What this means is that if the president
doesn't like someone and deems him an imminent threat, he can have that person killed and
legally keep it all a secret. Is America drifting towards a police state?

Health Cares Trick Coin

2013-02-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/opinion/health-cares-trick-coin.html
This month, Johnson & Johnson is facing more than 10,000 lawsuits over an artificial hip that has
been recalled because of a 40 percent failure rate within five years. Mistakes happen in medicine,
but internal documents showed that executives had known of flaws with the device for some time,
but had failed to make them public. The entire evidence base for medicine has been undermined
by [a] lack of transparency. Sometimes this is through a failure to report concerns raised by
doctors and internal analyses, as was the case with Johnson & Johnson. More commonly, it
involves the suppression of clinical trial results, especially when they show a drug is no good. The
best evidence shows that half of all the clinical trials ever conducted and completed on the
treatments in use today have never been published in academic journals. Trials with
positive or flattering results, unsurprisingly, are about twice as likely to be published and
this is true for both academic research and industry studies. In the worst case, we can be
misled into believing that ineffective treatments are worth using; more commonly we are misled
about the relative merits of competing treatments, exposing patients to inferior ones. This problem
has been documented for three decades, and many in the industry now claim it has been fixed.
But every intervention has been full of loopholes, none has been competently implemented and,
lastly, with no routine public audit, flaws have taken years to emerge.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical industry
corruption, click here.

After Years in Solitary, an Austere Life as Uruguays President

2013-01-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-a...
Some world leaders live in palaces. Some enjoy perks like having a discreet butler, a fleet of
yachts or a wine cellar with vintage Champagnes. Then there is Jos Mujica, the former guerrilla
who is Uruguays president. He lives in a run-down house on Montevideos outskirts with no
servants at all. His security detail: two plainclothes officers parked on a dirt road. In a deliberate
statement to this cattle-exporting nation of 3.3 million people, Mr. Mujica, 77, shunned the opulent
Surez y Reyes presidential mansion, with its staff of 42, remaining instead in the home where he
and his wife have lived for years, on a plot of land where they grow chrysanthemums for sale in
local markets. His net worth upon taking office in 2010 amounted to about $1,800 the
value of the 1987 Volkswagen Beetle parked in his garage. He never wears a tie and donates

about 90 percent of his salary, largely to a program for expanding housing for the poor. His
current brand of low-key radicalism ... exemplifies Uruguays emergence as arguably Latin
Americas most socially liberal country. Under Mr. Mujica, who took office in 2010, Uruguay has
drawn attention for seeking to legalize marijuana and same-sex marriage, while also enacting one
of the regions most sweeping abortion rights laws and sharply boosting the use of renewable
energy sources like wind and biomass. For democracy to function properly, [Mujica] argues,
elected leaders should be taken down a notch. We have done everything possible to make the
presidency less venerated, Mr. Mujica said in an interview one recent morning, after preparing a
serving in his kitchen of mate.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The 'war on terror' - by design - can never end

2013-01-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/04/war-on-terror-endless-joh...
In October, the Washington Post's Greg Miller reported that the administration was instituting a
"disposition matrix" to determine how terrorism suspects will be disposed of, all based on this fact:
"among senior Obama administration officials, there is broad consensus that such operations are
likely to be extended at least another decade." As Miller puts it: "That timeline suggests that the
United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on
terrorism." The polices adopted by the Obama administration ... leave no doubt that they are
accelerating, not winding down, the war apparatus that has been relentlessly strengthened
over the last decade. In the name of the War on Terror, the current president has diluted
decades-old Miranda warnings; codified a new scheme of indefinite detention on US soil; plotted to
relocate Guantanamo to Illinois; increased secrecy, repression and release-restrictions at the
camp; minted a new theory of presidential assassination powers even for US citizens; renewed the
Bush/Cheney warrantless eavesdropping framework for another five years, as well as the Patriot
Act, without a single reform; and just signed into law all new restrictions on the release of
indefinitely held detainees. Does that sound to you like a government anticipating the end of the
War on Terror any time soon? Or does it sound like one working feverishly to make their terrorismjustified powers of detention, surveillance, killing and secrecy permanent? There's a good reason
US officials are assuming the "War on Terror" will persist indefinitely: namely, their actions
ensure that this occurs.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the War on Terror, click
here.

Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy

2012-12-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown...

New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporatestate repression of dissent. It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents
show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall so mystifying at the time was not just
coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The
crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to
the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in
bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves was coordinated with the big banks
themselves. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once
more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America
left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document reproduced here in an
easily searchable format shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police,
regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another
that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the
Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally
planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working
for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.
Note: For analysis of these amazing documents revealing the use of joint government and
corporate counterterrorism structures against peaceful protestors of financial corruption, click here
and here. For a Democracy Now! video segment on this, click here.

Jimmy Savile abuse: Number of alleged victims reaches 450

2012-12-12, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20697738
Police have confirmed that the number of alleged sex abuse victims of the late Jimmy Savile has
reached 450. 589 alleged victims have come forward during their investigation of offences
committed by Savile and others. Of the alleged victims, 82% were female and 80% were children
or young people. The level of allegations against Savile - 450 in total - is unprecedented - never
before have police received that number of allegations against a single person. Meanwhile, police
have set up Operation Fairbank to investigate allegations by Labour MP Tom Watson of a
paedophile ring in high places. Mr Watson said in October that police should investigate
claims of a "powerful paedophile ring" linked to a previous prime minister's "senior
adviser" and Parliament. Police have a total of 20 suspects whom they wish to interview. They
have interviewed seven people in total - six of whom were arrested. Police are looking at three
strands within their inquiry - claims against Savile, those against Savile and others, and those
against others only. High-profile names arrested in connection with the investigation are PR
consultant Max Clifford, comedian Freddie Starr, DJ Dave Lee Travis and former TV producer
Wilfred De'Ath, who all deny any wrongdoing. Gary Glitter, who was also arrested, has not yet
made a statement.

Note: WantToKnow.info has presented evidence of "a paedophile ring in high places" for years. If
you want to know how pervasive this is, you must watch the banned Discovery Channel
documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link. Thankfully the word is slowly getting out. For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

HSBC, too big to jail, is the new poster child for US two-tiered justice
system
2012-12-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/12/hsbc-prosecution-fine-mon...
The US is the world's largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation
on earth, both in absolute numbers and proportionally. It imprisons people for longer periods of
time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions than any nation in the west. This
sprawling penal state has been constructed over decades, by both political parties, and it punishes
the poor and racial minorities at overwhelmingly disproportionate rates. But not everyone is
subjected to that system of penal harshness. It all changes radically when the nation's most
powerful actors are caught breaking the law. With few exceptions, they are gifted not
merely with leniency, but full-scale immunity from criminal punishment. Thus have the most
egregious crimes of the last decade been fully shielded from prosecution when committed by those
with the greatest political and economic power: the construction of a worldwide torture regime,
spying on Americans' communications without the warrants required by criminal law by
government agencies and the telecom industry, an aggressive war launched on false pretenses,
and massive, systemic financial fraud in the banking and credit industry that triggered the 2008
financial crisis. This two-tiered justice system was the subject of [the] book, With Liberty and
Justice for Some. On Tuesday, not only did the US Justice Department announce that HSBC
would not be criminally prosecuted, but outright claimed that the reason is that they are too
important, too instrumental to subject them to such disruptions.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Cleveland anarchist bomb plot aided and abetted by the FBI

2012-11-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/28/cleveland-anarchist-bomb-...
On 20 November, district court Judge David D Dowd Jr sentenced three anarchists with the
Occupy Cleveland movement to prison terms ranging from 8 to 11.5 years for attempting to bomb
a highway bridge last spring. Shaquille Azir, a paid FBI informant with a 20-year criminal record,
facilitated every step in the plot. Azir molded the five's childish bravado and drunken fantasies into
terrorism. He played father figure to the lost men, providing them with jobs, housing, beer and
drugs. Every time the scheme threatened to collapse into gutterpunk chaos, he kept it on track.
FBI tapes reveal Azir led the brainstorming of targets, showed them bridges to case out,

pushed them to buy C-4 military-grade explosives, provided the contact for weapons, gave
them money for the explosives and demanded they develop a plan because "we on the
hook" for the weapons. This case could have put on trial the post-September 11 strategy of
"preventative prosecution", in which the FBI dispatches provocateurs to infiltrate targeted religious
and political groups to see what they can stir up. Anarchists are inherently suspect. A recent FBI
document calls anarchists "criminals seeking an ideology to justify their activities." Pardiss
Kebriaei, a senior attorney specializing in national security at the Center for Constitutional Rights,
claims standard operating procedure in terror cases "starts with surveillance and profiling on the
basis of religion, politics and national origin". She notes parallels between the Cleveland
anarchists and the "Newburgh Four", named for the upstate New York town in which the plot was
hatched.
Note: For information on how to contact Brandon Baxter, Joshua Stafford, Connor Stevens and
Douglas Wright, see cleveland4solidarity.org. For the Newburgh Four, see projectsalam.org For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on entrapment operations and other
manipulations by the FBI and intelligence agencies, click here.

Goldman Sachs' Global Coup D'etat

2012-11-27, Truthout
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12996-goldman-sachs-global-coup-de-tat.html
When the people of Greece saw their democratically elected Prime Minister George Papandreou
forced out of office in November of 2011 and replaced by an unelected Conservative technocrat,
Lucas Papademos, most were unaware of the bigger picture of what was happening. Most of us in
the United States were [equally] ignorant when, in 2008, [Congress] voted yes at the behest of
Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen and jammed through the biggest bailout of Wall Street in
our nations history. But now, as the Bank of England ... announces that former investment banker
Mark Carney will be its new chief, we cant afford to ignore whats happening around the world.
Steadily and stealthily Goldman Sachs is carrying out a global coup detat. Theres one
tie that binds Lucas Papademos in Greece, Henry Paulsen [and Timothy Geithner] in the
United States, and Mark Carney in the U.K., and thats Goldman Sachs. All were former
bankers and executives at the Wall Street giant, all assumed prominent positions of power, and
all played a hand after the global financial meltdown of 2007-08, thus making sure Goldman Sachs
weathered the storm and made significant profits in the process. As Europe descends [into]
economic crisis, Goldman Sachs's people are managing the demise of the continent. As the British
newspaper The Independent reported earlier this year, the Conservative technocrats currently
steering or who have steered post-crash fiscal policy in Greece, Germany, Italy, Belgium, France,
and now the UK, all hail from Goldman Sachs. In fact, the head of the European Central Bank
itself, Mario Draghi, was the former managing director of Goldman Sachs International.
Note: Once again truth-out.org carries this important article and vital information which no major
media has covered. Strangely, the entire website went down for a while not long after the article
was published. If the article cannot be found at the link above, click here. For deeply revealing

reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click here.

Anonymous, Karl Rove and 2012 Election Fix?

2012-11-19, Truthout
http://truth-out.org/news/item/12845-anonymous-karl-rove-and-2012-election-fix
At around 11:25 pm EST on election night, Karl Rove knew something had gone terribly wrong.
Minutes earlier, Fox News called the key battleground state of Ohio for President Obama, sealing
his re-election. But as the network took live shots of jubilant Obama supporters camped outside
the Obama re-election headquarters in Chicago celebrating their victory, Karl Rove began building
a case against the call his employer network had just made. Rove explained that when Fox called
Ohio, only 74% of the vote was in, showing President Obama with a lead of roughly 30,000 votes.
But, as Rove contended, with 77% reporting according to the Ohio Secretary of State office, the
Presidents lead had been slashed to just 991 votes. We gotta be careful about calling the thing,
Rove said. Rove was supremely confident that the numbers coming in from Ohio throughout the
night that favored President Obama werent indicative of who would win Ohio when all the votes
were ultimately tabulated by the state's computers. With a quarter of the vote still out there, Rove
was anticipating a shift to the Right just after 11 pm, which, coincidentally, is exactly what
happened in 2004. So the question is: on election night this year, when Karl Rove was
protesting the call his network had just made in Ohio, was Rove anticipating a wave of
unpredicted vote totals to swing the election back to Mitt Romney after a statewide server
crash, just as had happened in 2004? Just two days after Election Day ... Anonymous
released a press statement claiming it did indeed prevent an attempt by Rove to steal the
election for Mitt Romney.
Note: We don't normally use Truthout as a source, but as no major media sources have yet
covered this most important news, we are including it here. We have independent, reliable sources
confirming that it is very likely that Rove tried to swing this election, as he did in 2004, but was
stymied by an anonymous group. For another inspiring article describing how Karl Rove may have
been stopped from manipulating the US elections, click here. And for a well researched articled
suggesting that it was not Anonymous who stopped Karl Rove, but another group called "the
protectors," click here.

Could e-voting machines in Election 2012 be hacked? Yes.

2012-10-26, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2012/1026/Could-e-voting-machines-in-E...
Rapid advances in the development of cyberweapons and malicious software mean that
electronic-voting machines used in the 2012 election could be hacked, potentially tipping
the presidential election or a number of other races. [A University of Pennsylvania] study
concluded "virtually every important software security mechanism is vulnerable." Most at risk are
paperless e-voting machines, which dont print out any record of votes. Four swing states

Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida rely to varying degrees on paperless machines.
Alex Halderman, a researcher at the University of Michigan, and a colleague at Princeton
University hacked into a paperless touch-screen voting machine in 2010 and installed the video
game Pac-Man. Similarly, he and Princeton researchers in 2006 demonstrated that if someone
could get a few minutes unattended access to a paperless machine, that person could install a
software virus that could spread to other machines and switch those machines votes before
deleting all traces of itself. Among the 23 states that use touch-screen Direct-Recording Electronic
(DREs) machines ... only California, Indiana, and Ohio were rated excellent in a national report this
summer by Verified Voting. For a savvy hacker, the time and access needed to infect a
machine is so small that it could be done while in a voting booth. A hacker could in theory
use the Internet to target an e-voting machine company, which would then unknowingly infect its
own machines when it serviced them. It's impossible to know if newer machines and software are
really secure because their source code is largely unavailable for analysis. Voting-equipment
makers frequently say their software is a trade secret.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on serious problems with the
US elections system, click here.

Informant: NYPD Paid Me to 'Bait' Muslims

2012-10-24, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/informant-nypd-paid-bait-muslims-17547920#...
A paid informant for the New York Police Department's intelligence unit was under orders to "bait"
Muslims into saying inflammatory things as he lived a double life, snapping pictures inside
mosques and collecting the names of innocent people attending study groups on Islam. Shamiur
Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bangladeshi descent who has now denounced his work as an
informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called "create and capture." He said it
involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to
the NYPD. For his work, he earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after
a string of minor marijuana arrests. Rahman's account shows how the NYPD unleashed
informants on Muslim neighborhoods, often without specific targets or criminal leads. Much of what
Rahman said represents a tactic the NYPD has denied using. The AP corroborated Rahman's
account through arrest records and weeks of text messages between Rahman and his police
handler. Informants like Rahman are a central component of the NYPD's wide-ranging programs to
monitor life in Muslim neighborhoods since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Police officers have
eavesdropped inside Muslim businesses, trained video cameras on mosques and collected license
plates of worshippers. Informants who trawl the mosques known informally as "mosque
crawlers" tell police what the imam says at sermons and provide police lists of
attendees, even when there's no evidence they committed a crime. The programs were built
with unprecedented help from the CIA.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the games intelligence
agencies and units play, click here.

Is this the year that the food movement finally enters politics?
2012-10-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/why-californias-proposition-37-sho...
Californias Proposition 37, which would require that genetically modified (G.M.) foods carry a
label, has the potential ... to change the politics of food not just in California but nationally too.
Genetically modified foods dont offer the eater any benefits whatsoever only a potential, as yet
undetermined risk. Monsanto and its allies have fought the labeling of genetically modified
food ... vigorously since 1992, when the industry managed to persuade the [F.D.A.] over
the objection of its own scientists that the new crops were substantially equivalent to
the old and so did not need to be labeled, much less regulated. The F.D.A. policy was cowritten by a lawyer whose former firm worked for Monsanto. More than 60 other countries have
seen fit to label genetically modified food, including those in the European Union, Japan, Russia
and China. Monsanto and DuPont, the two leading merchants of genetically modified seed, have
invested more than $12 million to defeat Prop 37. Americans have been eating genetically
engineered food for 18 years, and as supporters of the technology are quick to point out, we dont
seem to be dropping like flies. But they miss the point. The fight over labeling G.M. food is not
foremost about food safety or environmental harm, legitimate though these questions are. The
fight is about the power of Big Food. Monsanto has become the symbol of everything people
dislike about industrial agriculture: corporate control of the regulatory process; lack of transparency
(for consumers) and lack of choice (for farmers); an intensifying rain of pesticides; and the
monopolization of seeds, which is to say, of the genetic resources on which all of humanity
depends.
Note: To learn more about the revolving door between Monsanto and the FDA, click here. To read
about many suppressed scientific studies which showed the GM foods were often harmful and
sometimes even lethal to a variety of lab animals, click here. To watch a powerful video showing
clearly how Monsanto has attacked those who will not use their GM seeds, click here.

The Deafness Before the Storm

2012-09-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-...
It was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history. On Aug. 6, 2001, President George
W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist
network, Al Qaeda. That mornings presidential daily brief the top-secret document prepared
by Americas intelligence agencies featured the now-infamous heading: Bin Laden Determined
to Strike in U.S. On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief and only
that daily brief in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission. [But] the Aug. 6 document,
for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came
before it. The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in
the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report

that a group presently in the United States was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on
June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be imminent, although intelligence
suggested the time frame was flexible. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one [warning]
reported on June 29, expected the planned near-term attacks to have dramatic
consequences, including major casualties. Yet, the White House failed to take significant
action. In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush officials attempted to deflect criticism that they had ignored
C.I.A. warnings by saying they had not been told when and where the attack would occur.
Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on 9/11, click here.

CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news

2012-09-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/04/cnn-business-state-sponso...
[CNN] is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between
advertising and editorial. CNN International (CNNi) [has refused] to broadcast an award-winning
documentary, "iRevolution", that was produced in early 2011 as the Arab Spring engulfed the
region and which was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain. The documentary ... documented the
brutality and violence the regime was using against its own citizens who were peacefully protesting
for democracy. CNNi has aggressively pursued a business strategy of extensive, multifaceted
financial arrangements between the network and several of the most repressive regimes around
the world which the network purports to cover. Its financial dealings with Bahrain are deep and
longstanding. CNNi's pursuit of and reliance on revenue from Middle East regimes increased
significantly after the 2008 financial crisis, which caused the network to suffer significant
losses in corporate sponsorships. It thus pursued all-new, journalistically dubious ways to
earn revenue from governments around the world. Bahrain has been one of the most
aggressive government exploiters of the opportunities presented by CNNi [which produces]
programs in an arrangement it describes as "in association with" the government of a country, and
offers regimes the ability to pay for specific programs about their country. These programs are then
featured as part of CNNi's so-called "Eye on" series [or] "Marketplace Middle East", [which are]
designed to tout the positive economic, social and political features of that country.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on corruption in the major media, click
here.

Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA
2012-08-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/29/correspondence-collusion-...
The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released [on August 28] a new batch of
documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood
film-makers about the Bin Laden raid. Obama officials did so to enable the production of a

politically beneficial pre-election film about that "heroic" killing, even as administration lawyers
insisted to federal courts and media outlets that no disclosure was permissible because the raid
was classified. The newly released emails [were] between Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times's
national security and intelligence reporter, and CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf. The CIA had
evidently heard that [NY Times columnist] Maureen Dowd was planning to write a column on the
CIA's role in pumping the film-makers with information about the Bin Laden raid in order to boost
Obama's re-election chances, and was apparently worried about how Dowd's column would reflect
on them. This exchange ... is remarkably revealing of the standard role played by
establishment journalists and the corruption that pervades it. Here we have a New York
Times reporter who covers the CIA colluding with its spokesperson to plan for the fallout
from the reporting by his own newspaper ("nothing to worry about"). Beyond this, that a New
York Times journalist ostensibly devoted to bringing transparency to government institutions is
pleading with the CIA spokesperson, of all people, to conceal his actions and to delete the
evidence of collusion is so richly symbolic.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on corruption in the major media, click
here.

Report: Boy Scout files reveal repeat child abuse

2012-08-05, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/08/05/report_boy_scout_files_...
Internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America reveal more than 125 cases in which men
suspected of molestation allegedly continued to abuse Scouts, despite a blacklist meant to protect
boys from sexual predators. A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files from 1970 to
1991 found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after officials were
first presented with sexual misconduct allegations. Predators moved from troop to troop
because of clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the blacklist,
known as the "perversion files." In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only
to discover they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again. In other
cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, letting offenders stay in the
program until new allegations came to light. One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually
assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Indiana. After being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two
troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting more than 100 boys. The
"perversion files" naming suspected child molesters include admissions of guilt as well as
unproven allegations. The confidential documents have come to light in recent years in lawsuits by
former Scouts, accusing the group of failing to detect abuses, exclude known pedophiles or turn in
offenders to authorities. The Boy Scouts have fought in court to keep the records from public
view, saying confidentiality was needed to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused.
Note: Sexual offender lists are widely available to the public without endangering victims. Why
would the scouts refuse to release the names of sexual abusers?

Libor: They all knew and no one acted

2012-07-14, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/libor-they-all-knew--and-no-o...
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic failed to act on clear warnings that the Libor interest rate
was being falsely reported by banks during the financial crisis, it emerged last night. A cache of
documents released yesterday by the New York Federal Reserve showed that US officials had
evidence from April 2008 that Barclays was knowingly posting false reports about the rate
at which it could borrow in order to assuage market concerns about its solvency. An
unnamed Barclays employee told a New York Fed analyst, Fabiola Ravazzolo, on 11 April 2008:
"So we know that we're not posting, um, an honest Libor." He said Barclays started underreporting Libor because graphs showing the relatively high rates at which the bank had to borrow
attracted "unwanted attention" and the "share price went down". The verbatim note of the call
released by the Fed represents the starkest evidence yet that Libor-fiddling was discussed in high
regulatory circles years before Barclays' recent 290m fine. The New York Fed said that,
immediately after the call, Ms Ravazzolo informed her superiors of the information, who then
passed on her concerns to Tim Geithner, who was head of the New York Fed at the time. Mr
Geithner investigated and drew up a six-point proposal for ensuring the integrity of Libor which he
presented to the British Bankers Association, which is responsible for producing the Libor rate
daily. Mr Geithner, who is now US Treasury Secretary, also forwarded the six-point plan to the
Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on regulatory and financial
corruption and criminality, click here. For our highly revealing Banking Corruption Information
Center, click here.

Abuse Scandal Inquiry Damns Paterno and Penn State

2012-07-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/sports/ncaafootball/13pennstate.html?_r=1&p...
In 1998, officials at Penn State, including its president and its legendary football coach, were
aware Jerry Sandusky was being investigated by the universitys police department for possibly
molesting two young boys in the football buildings showers. They followed the investigation
closely, updating one another along the way. The officials did nothing. No one so much as spoke to
Mr. Sandusky. Last month, Mr. Sandusky, for three decades one of Joe Paternos top coaching
lieutenants, was convicted of sexually attacking 10 young boys, nine of them after the 1998
investigation, and several of them in the same football building showers. Louis J. Freeh, the former
federal judge and director of the F.B.I. who spent the last seven months examining the Sandusky
scandal at Penn State, issued a damning conclusion [on July 12]: The most senior officials at
Penn State had shown a total and consistent disregard for the welfare of children, had
worked together to actively conceal Mr. Sanduskys assaults, and had done so for one
central reason: fear of bad publicity. That publicity, Mr. Freeh said, would have hurt the

nationally ranked football program, Mr. Paternos reputation as a coach of high principles, the Penn
State brand and the universitys ability to raise money as one of the most respected public
institutions in the country.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on institutional sexual
abuse, click here. For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
showing that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here.

Was the petrol price rigged too?

2012-07-12, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fuel/9401934/Libor-scandal-Was-the-pe...
Motorists may have been paying too much for their petrol because banks and other traders are
likely to have tried to manipulate oil prices in the same way they rigged interest rates, an official
report has warned. Concerns are growing about the reliability of oil prices, after a report for the
G20 found the market is wide open to manipulation or distortion. Traders from banks, oil
companies or hedge funds have an incentive to distort the market and are likely to try to report
false prices, it said. Petrol retailers use oil price benchmarks to decide how much to pay for future
supplies. The rate is calculated by data companies based on submissions from firms which
trade oil on a daily basis such as banks, hedge funds and energy companies. However,
like Libor ... the market is unregulated and relies on the honesty of the firms to submit
accurate data about all their trades. This is one of the major concerns raised in the G20 report,
published last month by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). In the
study for global finance ministers, including George Osborne, the regulator warns that traders have
opportunities to influence oil prices for their own profit. It points out that the whole market is
voluntary, meaning banks and energy companies can choose which trades to make public.
IOSCO says this creates opportunity for a trader to submit a partial picture in order to influence
the [price] to the traders advantage.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on regulatory and financial
corruption and criminality, click here.

Ex-CIA agent: Roswell, N.M., incident really happened

2012-07-10, USA Today
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/07/ex-cia-agent-...
A former CIA agent is going on the record to say the alleged UFO incident on July 8, 1947, in
Roswell, N.M., really happened. Chase Brandon, who worked 35 years with the CIA, said
documents regarding the alleged landing of beings from outer space are locked up at the CIA's
headquarters in Langley, Va. "It was in a vaulted area - there was one box that really caught my
eye," the Daily Mail quotes Brandon as saying. "It had one word on it: Roswell. I rummaged inside
it, put the box on the shelf and said, 'My God, it really happened.'" Brandon [made] the comments

during the 65th anniversary of the alleged incident, which military officials initially explained as the
capture of "a disc," but later explained away as a weather balloon. "It was not a weather balloon
- it was what people first reported," the [Daily Mail] quotes Brandon as saying. The
Huffington Post quotes Brandon as saying, "It was a craft that clearly did not come from
this planet." Brandon worked as an undercover, covert operations officer in the CIA's Clandestine
Service, where he focused on missions on international terrorism, counterinsurgency, global
narcotics and weapons smuggling. He spent his final decade with the agency as liaison to the
entertainment and publication industries, and it was during this time - in the mid 1990s - that he
walked into the vaulted Historical Intelligence Collection area at CIA headquarters, according to the
news organization. Brandon said the box contained written material and photographs.
Note: For a great Huffington Post article on this, click here. For the Daily Mail article, click here.
For an excellent, intriguing eight-minute video featuring Chase Brandon on his knowledge of CIA
training, click here. For verifiable quotes from a former head of the CIA, two astronauts, and other
top officials on a huge UFO cover-up, click here.

Bank rate rigging scandal widens; Diamond fights on

2012-06-29, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-libor-banksbre85s0p4-2012062...
A scandal over the rigging of key interest rates could plunge the global banking industry into a
legal morass for years, analysts said. The head of the Bank of England said there needed to be
"real change" in the industry's culture. Referring to what he called the "deceitful manipulation" of
rates, Mervyn King told a news conference [that] the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) should
be reformed to reflect actual market transactions. U.S. and British authorities fined Barclays
$453 million on Wednesday for manipulating LIBOR, which underpins some $360 trillion of
loans and financial contracts around the world - and analysts forecast more banks would
soon be named for collusion. Others predicted Barclays and other banks could face billions in
costs from litigation, especially in the United States, in much the same way that oil major BP ran
into drawn-out legal rows over its oil spill. Barclays was the first bank to settle in an investigation
which is looking at other large financial institutions in Europe, Japan and North America.
Note: This article states that LIBOR underpins some $360 trillion of loans and financial contracts
around the world. That's $50,000 for every man, woman, and child on this planet. And it is being
hugely manipulated. For more vitally important information on this, learn about the huge amounts
of derivatives being manipulated at this link and explore the excellent, reliable information in our
Banking Corruption Information Center available here.

Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

2012-06-22, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patro...

The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jerseys system of
halfway houses privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The horrors described
are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized
and degraded. So whats really behind the drive to privatize prisons? One answer is that
privatization can serve as a stealth form of government borrowing, in which governments avoid
recording upfront expenses (or even raise money by selling existing facilities) while raising their
long-run costs in ways taxpayers cant see. Another answer is that privatization is a way of getting
rid of public employees. But the main answer, surely, is to follow the money. As more and more
government functions get privatized, states become pay-to-play paradises, in which both
political contributions and contracts for friends and relatives become a quid pro quo for
getting government business. Are the corporations capturing the politicians, or the
politicians capturing the corporations? One thing the companies that make up the prisonindustrial complex companies like Community Education or the private-prison giant Corrections
Corporation of America are definitely not doing is competing in a free market. They are, instead,
living off government contracts. And ... despite many promises that prison privatization will lead to
big cost savings, such savings as a comprehensive study by the Bureau of Justice Assistance,
part of the U.S. Department of Justice, concluded have simply not materialized. A corrupt
nexus of privatization and patronage [is] undermining government across much of our nation.
Note: Have you noticed that crime rates are at the lowest in many years, yet prison spending
continues to skyrocket? Is something wrong with this picture? For key major media new articles
exposing more on corruption within the "prison-industrial complex," click here.

Plantations, Prisons and Profits

2012-05-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/opinion/blow-plantations-prisons-and-profit...
Louisiana is the worlds prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head,
than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world.
Louisianas incarceration rate is nearly triple Irans, seven times Chinas and 10 times
Germanys. That paragraph opens a devastating eight-part series published this month by The
Times-Picayune of New Orleans about how the states largely private prison system profits from
high incarceration rates and tough sentencing, and how many with the power to curtail the system
actually have a financial incentive to perpetuate it. The picture that emerges is one of convicts as
chattel and a legal system essentially based on human commodification. One in 86 Louisiana
adults is in the prison system, which is nearly double the national average. More than 50 percent
of Louisianas inmates are in local prisons, which is more than any other state. The national
average is 5 percent. Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of its prisoners serving life
without parole. Nearly two-thirds of Louisianas prisoners are nonviolent offenders. The national
average is less than half. In the early 1990s, the state was under a federal court order to reduce
overcrowding, but instead of releasing prisoners or loosening sentencing guidelines, the state

incentivized the building of private prisons. But, in what the newspaper called a uniquely
Louisiana twist, most of the prison entrepreneurs were actually rural sheriffs. They saw a way to
make a profit and did.
Note: To read the powerful 8-part investigation of the Louisiana prison system from the New
Orleans Times-Picayune, click here. For more on the cruelty and corruption of the prison-industrial
complex, click here.

Expert Group Rejects World Trade Center Reports

2012-05-22, MarketWatch (Part of the Wall Street Journal's digital network)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/expert-group-rejects-world-trade-center-repo...
If you thought that the fires at the World Trade Center twin towers, set off by the horrific jetliner
impacts of September 11, 2001, were the cause of the destruction of those iconic skyscrapers, you
may be mistaken. Experts now cite evidence showing that high-temperature incendiaries
and explosives were planted throughout the twin towers and the lesser-known 47-story
Building 7, also destroyed later the same day. So says a group of architects and engineers
nearly 1700 strong, represented by Richard Gage, AIA, founder of Architects & Engineers For 9/11
Truth and the director/producer of a new documentary. Two years in the making, the documentary
"9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out - FINAL EDITION " officially debuted today. The
film features 43 experts in building engineering, physics, chemistry, and other technical
fields, plus a half-dozen psychologists who discussed the denial of the evidence that the
AE911Truth engineers have been seeking to get attention to since the founding of the nonprofit
organization in 2007. The group's petition, signed by 14,000 concerned citizens in addition to the
architectural and engineering experts, calls upon the U.S. Congress to initiate a new independent
investigation. "The official story about the attacks of September 11 falls apart when you look
squarely at the facts and apply basic scientific principles to interpret them," says Gage.
Note: For an early version of this powerful documentary, click here. See our 9/11 Information
Center for lots more information on the realities behind 9/11.

How America's death penalty murders innocents

2012-05-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/21/america-death-...
The US criminal justice system is a broken machine that wrongfully convicts innocent people,
sentencing thousands of people to prison or to death for the crimes of others, as a new study
reveals. The University of Michigan law school and Northwestern University have compiled a new
National Registry of Exonerations a database of over 2,000 prisoners exonerated between 1989
and the present day, when DNA evidence has been widely used to clear the names of innocent
people convicted of rape and murder. Of these, 885 have profiles developed for the registry's
website, exonerationregistry.org. The details are shocking. Death row inmates were exonerated

nine times more frequently than others convicted of murder. One-fourth of those
exonerated of murder had received a death sentence, while half of those who had been
wrongfully convicted of rape or murder faced death or a life behind bars. Ten of the inmates
went to their grave before their names were cleared. The leading causes of wrongful
convictions include perjury, flawed eyewitness identification and prosecutorial misconduct. "The
most important thing we know about false convictions is that they happen and on a regular basis
Most false convictions never see the light of the day," said University of Michigan law professors
Samuel Gross and Michael Shaffer, who wrote the study. "Nobody had an inkling of the serious
problem of false confessions until we had this data," said Rob Warden, executive director of the
Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the injustices and corruption of the prisonindustrial complex, click here.

A Judges Plea for Pot

2012-05-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/opinion/a-judges-plea-for-medical-marijuana...
Three and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It
turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today
I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not
foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two
decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me
to marijuana. My survival has demanded an enormous price, including months of chemotherapy,
radiation hell and brutal surgery. Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief
from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep. The oral synthetic
substitute, Marinol, prescribed by my doctors, was useless. Rather than watch the agony of my
suffering, friends have chosen, at some personal risk, to provide the substance. I find a few
puffs of marijuana before dinner gives me ammunition in the battle to eat. A few more puffs
at bedtime permits desperately needed sleep. This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a
medical and a human rights issue. Being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I
am receiving the absolute gold standard of medical care. But doctors cannot be expected to do
what the law prohibits, even when they know it is in the best interests of their patients. When
palliative care is understood as a fundamental human and medical right, marijuana for medical use
should be beyond controversy.
Note: The author is Gustin L. Reichbach, who is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in
Brooklyn. For lots more from reliable sources on the benefits of many mind-altering drugs, click
here.

Misinformation campaign targets USA TODAY reporter, editor

2012-04-19, USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-04-19/vanden-brook-locker-...
A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have
themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet
through a series of bogus websites. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created in
their names, along with a Wikipedia entry and dozens of message board postings and blog
comments. Websites were registered in their names. The timeline of the activity tracks USA
TODAY's reporting on the military's "information operations" program, which spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on marketing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns that have been
criticized even within the Pentagon as ineffective and poorly monitored. For example, Internet
domain registries show the website TomVandenBrook.com was created Jan. 7 just days after
Pentagon reporter Tom Vanden Brook first contacted Pentagon contractors involved in the
program. Two weeks after his editor Ray Locker's byline appeared on a story, someone created a
similar site, RayLocker.com, through the same company. If the websites were created using
federal funds, it could violate federal law prohibiting the production of propaganda for domestic
consumption. Some postings ... accused them of being sponsored by the Taliban. "They
disputed nothing factual in the story about information operations," Vanden Brook said.
Note: For more on a proposed amendment to a U.S. bill which would make it legal to use
propaganda and lie to the American public, click here.

Investigating the Investigation

2012-04-13, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299604577323843914377930.html
On April 19, 1995, a huge truck bomb destroyed a large part of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City ... killing 168 people, including 19 children. In a matter of days the FBI
established that the bombing was the work of a conspiracy. The first conspirator arrested was
Timothy McVeigh, a 27-year-old Army veteran. The second conspirator arrested was Terry Nichols.
"Oklahoma City," an extraordinarily well-researched book, asserts that the FBI investigation of the
bombing was badly flawed and missed, or disregarded, evidence of a larger conspiracy. The
authors, Andrew Gumbel and Roger Charles, are both highly regarded investigative reporters who
have been immersed in this case for more than a decade. They were given access to vast
amounts of material assembled by the defense teams, including 18,000 FBI witness interviews.
The book ... outlines how federal prosecutors, eager to wrap up the McVeigh and Nichols cases,
avoided raising questions about possible co-conspirators that the defense could use to confound a
jury. Among the glaring gaps in the investigation was the failure of the FBI to attempt to match the
more than 1,000 unidentified latent fingerprints found in the investigation. [And] almost all the
eyewitnesses to the crime claimed that McVeigh was not alone. No fewer than 24 witnesses said
that they saw McVeigh, just before and after the crime, with a man who could not have been
... Mr. Nichols. The FBI concluded that these witnesses had all been confused. Certainly
eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, but 24 mistaken witnessesand no accurate
ones?

Note: Many aspects of the Oklahoma City bombing were covered up. For a compilation of media
videos showing without doubt there were other bombs in the building which later were completely
ignored, click here. For other major media articles showing major manipulation, click here click
here, here, and here.

Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all

2012-04-01, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/man-whose-wmd-lies-led-to-10...
A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq starting a nine-year war costing
more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds will come clean in his first British
television interview tomorrow [click here for interview]. "Curveball", the Iraqi defector who
fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he
made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi's lies used to justify the Iraq war. The chemical engineer claimed to
have overseen the building of a mobile biological laboratory when he sought political asylum in
Germany in 1999. His lies were presented as "facts and conclusions based on solid
intelligence" by Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, when making the case for war at the UN
Security Council in February 2003. But Mr Janabi ... says none of it was true. US officials "sexed
up" Mr Janabi's drawings of mobile biological weapons labs to make them more presentable,
admits Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, General Powell's former chief of staff. "I brought the White
House team in to do the graphics," he says, adding how "intelligence was being worked to fit
around the policy". Another revelation ... is the real reason why the FBI swooped on Russian spy
Anna Chapman in 2010. Top officials feared the glamorous Russian agent wanted to seduce one
of US President Barack Obama's inner circle. The fear that Chapman would compromise a senior
US official in a "honey trap" was a key reason for the arrest and deportation of the Russian spy
ring of 10 people.
Note: For a Washington Post blog on this important development, click here. For a revealing
essay by a top U.S. general on major war manipulations, click here. For many major media articles
on this topic, click here.

Can the Secret Service tell you to shut up?

2012-03-15, Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/15/can-the-secret-service-tell-y...
[On March 8, 2012], President Obama signed into law the Federal Restricted Buildings and
Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. This law permits Secret Service agents to designate any
place they wish as a place where free speech, association and petition of the government
are prohibited. It permits the Secret Service to make these determinations based on the content
of speech. Thus, federal agents whose work is to protect public officials and their friends may
prohibit the speech and the gatherings of folks who disagree with those officials or permit the

speech and the gatherings of those who would praise them, even though the First Amendment
condemns content-based speech discrimination by the government. The new law also provides
that anyone who gathers in a restricted area may be prosecuted. Permitting people to express
publicly their opinions to the president only at a time and in a place and manner such that he
cannot hear them violates the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to useful speech. The
same may be said of the rights to associate and to petition. If peaceful public assembly and public
expression of political demands on the government can be restricted to places where government
officials cannot be confronted, then those rights, too, have been neutered. This abominable
legislation enjoyed overwhelming support from both political parties in Congress because
the establishment loves power, fears dissent and hates inconvenience, and it doesnt give a
damn about the Constitution.
Note: How strange that the Washington Times was one of the few media to have even covered
this incredible infringement on the right to free speech. Fox News also covered it, as you can see
in this excellent video. Now instead of being a country where free speech is held in great esteem,
the US has "free speech zones" outside of which citizens lose their right to speak freely. What's
happening here?

Pentagon says it has no records of bin Laden's death; CIA hasn't

answered open records request
2012-03-15, Minneapolis Star Tribune/Associated Press
http://www.startribune.com/nation/142811145.html
Government officials have openly discussed details of the mission [to kill Osama bin Laden] in
speeches, interviews and television appearances, but the administration won't disclose records
that would confirm their narrative of that fateful night. The Associated Press asked for files about
the raid in more than 20 separate [FOIA] requests, mostly submitted the day after bin Laden's
death. The Pentagon told the AP this month it could not locate any photographs or video
taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of
bin Laden's body on the Navy aircraft carrier where the al-Qaida leader's body was taken. The
Pentagon said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA
identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government
planned to dispose of bin Laden's body if he were killed. It said it searched files at the Pentagon,
U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., and the Navy command in San Diego that
controls the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier used in the mission. The Defense Department
told the AP in late February it could not find any emails about the bin Laden mission or his
"Geronimo" code name that were sent or received in the year before the raid by William
McRaven, the three-star admiral at the Joint Special Operations Command who organized and
oversaw the mission. It also could not find any emails from other senior officers who would have
been involved in the mission's planning.

Note: WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin, in his book Osama bin Laden: Dead or
Alive?, lays out the extensive evidence that bin Laden died in December 2001, and that since that
time Pentagon psyops had been keeping him "alive" with fake videos and audiotapes to maintain a
crucial pretext for the ever-expanding "war on terror." Could it be that the Pentagon will produce no
records of its purported "death raid" because in fact it will reveal major manipulations involving bin
Laden's death?

Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs

2012-03-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html
Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs. Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of
advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet [and] five of the largest asset managers in
the United States. My clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars. After almost 12
years at the firm ... I believe I have worked here long enough to understand ... its culture, its
people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive
as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue
to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Today, if you make
enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a
position of influence. What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm's
"axes," which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other
products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential
profit. b) "Hunt Elephants." In English: get your clients -- some of whom are sophisticated, and
some of whom aren't -- to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. c) Find yourself
sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym. I
attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions
about how we can help clients. It's purely about how we can make the most possible money
off of them.
Note: The author of this article, Greg Smith, was a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of
the firms United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For an
excellent compilation of news articles and government documents showing the huge risk of the
derivatives bubble being manipulate by Goldman Sachs and others, click here.

After Recess: Change the World

2012-02-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/kristof-after-recess-change-...
A battle between a class of fourth graders and a major movie studio would seem an unequal fight.
So it proved to be: the studio buckled. And therein lies a story of how new Internet tools are
allowing very ordinary people to defeat some of the most powerful corporate and political interests
around by threatening the titans with the online equivalent of a tarring and feathering. Take Ted

Wellss fourth-grade class in Brookline, Mass. The kids read the Dr. Seuss story The Lorax and
admired its emphasis on protecting nature, so they were delighted to hear that Universal Studios
would be releasing a movie version in March. But when the kids went to the movies Web site, they
were crushed that the site seemed to ignore the environmental themes. So last month they
started a petition on Change.org, the go-to site for Web uprisings. They demanded that
Universal Studios let the Lorax speak for the trees. The petition went viral, quickly
gathering more than 57,000 signatures, and the studio updated the movie site with the
environmental message that the kids had dictated. It was exactly what the kids asked for
the kids were through the roof, Wells [said], recalling the celebratory party that the children held
during their snack break. These kids are really feeling the glow of making the world a better place.
Theyre feeling that power. Change.org has grown from 20 employees a year ago to 100 now, in
offices on four continents.
Note: Never doubt that a small group of committed people can make a big difference. For lots
more inspiring new articles like this, click here.

Miracle material graphene can distil booze, says study

2012-01-27, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16747208
Membranes based on the "miracle material" graphene can be used to distil alcohol, according to a
new study in Science [magazine]. An international team created the membrane from graphene
oxide - a chemical derivative of graphene. They have shown that the membrane blocks the
passage of several gases and liquids, but lets water through. This joins a long list of fascinating
and unusual properties associated with graphene and its derivatives. Graphene ... is a flat layer of
carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement. Because it is so
thin, it is also practically transparent. As a conductor of electricity, it performs as well as
copper; and as a conductor of heat, it outperforms all other known materials. The unusual
electronic, mechanical and chemical properties of graphene at the molecular scale promise
numerous applications. Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of
Manchester were awarded 2010's Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery [of graphene].
Geim and others have now developed a laminate made from thin sheets of graphene oxide. These
films were hundreds of times thinner than a human hair but remained strong, flexible and easy to
handle. In another study in Science journal, a different team reports the development of a
membrane based on diamond-like carbon. This membrane has unique pore sizes that allow for the
ultra-fast passage of oil through it. One expert said it could potentially be used for filtering toxic
contaminants out of water or for purifying industrial chemicals.
Note: To read about the exciting potential of this miracle material to create fresh water from salt
water, click here. For revealing media articles on amazing energy inventions, most of which are not
getting nearly the attention they deserve, click here.

'Invisible War' exposes widespread rape in U.S. military

2012-01-22, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-sundance-militarytre80l...
Rape in the American armed forces is an issue that has quietly been gathering attention over the
past decade. The documentary "The Invisible War" [is] a devastating indictment of the
government's inaction on the issue. Director Kirby Dick brought a powerful weapon to his film:
victim after eloquent victim, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, Army and Air Force veterans who were
assaulted by fellow officers, supervisors or recruits. They tell their stories in courageous detail,
and it quickly becomes clear that these are not isolated incidents but a pattern reflective of
a widespread rot within America's military institution, one that betrays its essential values.
One Marine, Ariana Klay, was raped by a fellow officer in the elite Marine Barracks in Washington,
D.C. A Navy officer, Trina McDonald, was drugged and raped repeatedly by fellow officers on a
remote base in Alaska. Coast Guard recruit Kori Cioca was raped and then assaulted -- smacked
so hard in the face that it dislocated her jaw, causing her permanent damage and pain for which
the Veterans Administration declines to provide medical coverage. Every woman in the film has
had her life shattered by this event -- not necessarily because of the rape, but because of the
response by the military establishment. After lodging complaints, the women were met with
indifference or targeted retaliation. They have had to leave the military. Some were threatened with
violence. Almost none of the alleged perpetrators were brought up on charges or punished in any
way.
Note: As this article appears to have disappeared from the Tribune website, you can also find it on
the Reuters website at this link. To learn about documented sexual abuse in secret CIA mind
control programs, click here. For lots more on sexual abuse scandals from major media sources,
click here.

No magic bullet on the flu

2012-01-15, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/15/opinion/la-oe-finkelstein-tamiflu-201...
In 2006 ... the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the World Health
Organization in Geneva warned of the imminent onset of an avian flu "pandemic" of lethal
proportions. The pandemic never occurred. After reviewing studies of Tamiflu during the avian flu
scare, Dr. Tom Jefferson ... had concluded in a 2006 report that the drug was effective. "But," said
the article, "several years later, another physician challenged that conclusion because 8 of 10
studies in a meta-analysis a review of studies that Jefferson relied on had never been
published." That prompted Jefferson to seek the raw data. "He was stymied when several authors
and the manufacturer gave one excuse after another for why it couldn't supply the actual data.
Jefferson's concern turned to outrage when two employees of a communications company
[revealed] they had been paid to ghostwrite some of the Tamiflu studies [and] had been
given explicit instructions to ensure that a key message was embedded in the articles: Flu
is a threat, and Tamiflu is the answer. "After reanalyzing the raw data finally made available

(they still don't have it all), Jefferson and his colleagues published their review [in December 2009],
saying that once the unpublished studies were excluded, there was no proof that Tamiflu reduced
serious flu complications like pneumonia or death." In short, it appears the pharmaceutical
companies had been as cunning in conning the public on matters of health as Wall Street had
been on matters of wealth.
Note: For powerful media reports suggesting that both the Avian Flu and Swine Flu were
incredibly manipulated to promote fear and boost pharmaceutical sales, click here. For lots more
from reliable sources on pharmaceutical corruption, click here.

10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free

2012-01-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of...
Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any
definition of a free nation must include their own the land of [the] free. Yet ... in the decade since
Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an
expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization
Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. While each new national
security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often
discussed in isolation. But they dont operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers
under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often
proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba
and China as categorically unfree. [Yet] the United States now has much more in common with
such regimes than anyone may like to admit. These countries also have constitutions that purport
to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those
rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens precisely the problem with the new laws
in this country. The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11: 1. Assassination of
U.S. citizens. 2. Indefinite detention. 3. Arbitrary justice. 4. Warrantless searches. 5. Secret
evidence. 6. War crimes. 7. Secret court. 8. Immunity from judicial review. 9. Continual monitoring
of citizens. 10. Extraordinary renditions.
Note: Thank you to the Washington Post for publishing this amazing article revealing the
disturbing and severe erosion of freedom and civil liberties in the U.S. ever since 9/11. Written by
Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University in the nation's capital, this incisive
essay lays bare what so many citizens don't know, and what many don't even want to know. Yet, in
this case, ignorance is not bliss. Don't miss the full article listing the loss of 10 important civil
liberties at this link.

Money's stranglehold on government is key issue

2011-12-25, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/23/INL31ME08J.DTL

Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution
against government. But the surge of cynicism engulfing America isn't about how big government
has become. It's a growing perception that our government is no longer working for average
people. It's for big business, Wall Street and the very rich. The richest Americans are taking home
a bigger share of total income than at any other time since the 1920s. Their tax payments are
down because the Bush tax cuts reduced their top rates to the lowest level in more than half a
century, and cut capital gains taxes to 15 percent. Congress hasn't even closed a loophole that
allows mutual-fund and private-equity managers to treat their incomes as capital gains. So the 400
richest Americans, whose total wealth exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 150
million Americans put together, pay an average of 17 percent of their income in taxes.
That's lower than the tax rates of most day laborers. And the share of revenues coming
from corporations has been dropping. The biggest, like GE, find ways to pay no federal taxes at
all. Many shelter their income abroad, and every few years Congress grants them a tax amnesty to
bring the money home. Get it? "Big government" isn't the problem. The problem is the big money
that's taking over government. Government is doing less of the things most of us want it to do ...
and more of the things big corporations, Wall Street and the wealthy want it to do.
Note: The author of this analysis, Robert Reich, is a former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of
public policy at UC Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's
Future. He blogs at www.robertreich.org.

From Finland, an Intriguing School-Reform Model

2011-12-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school...
Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educator and author, [said that in] his country, ... teachers typically spend
about four hours a day in the classroom, and are paid to spend two hours a week on professional
development. At the University of Helsinki, where he teaches, 2,400 people competed last year for
120 slots in the (fully subsidized) masters program for schoolteachers. Its more difficult getting
into teacher education than law or medicine, he said. Dr. Sahlberg puts high-quality teachers at
the heart of Finlands education success story. Ever since Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million
that does not start formal education until age 7 and scorns homework and testing until well
into the teenage years, scored at the top of a well-respected international test in 2001 in
math, science and reading, it has been an object of fascination among American educators
and policy makers. Finlandophilia only picked up when the nation placed close to the top again in
2009, while the United States ranked 15th in reading, 19th in math and 27th in science. In Helsinki,
the Education Ministry has had 100 official delegations from 40 to 45 countries visit each year
since 2005. Dr. Sahlberg said a turning point was a government decision in the 1970s to require all
teachers to have masters degrees and to pay for their acquisition. Finland scorns almost all
standardized testing before age 16 and discourages homework, and it is seen as a violation of
childrens right to be children for them to start school any sooner than 7, Dr. Sahlberg said.

Note: The US continues to push for more testing, while Finland shows that less testing and
homework gives better results. For an excellent article on this in the Washington Post, click here.
For more astounding facts on Finland's education success, click here.

Newburgh Four: poor, black, and jailed under FBI 'entrapment' tactics
2011-12-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/12/newburgh-four-fbi-entrapment-terror
Imam Salahuddin Muhammad could hardly miss Shahed Hussain when he first appeared three
years ago at his mosque in the dilapidated town of Newburgh, just 60 miles up the Hudson River
from New York. Hussain was flash, drove expensive cars and treated people to gifts of cash and
food. Hussain would make Newburgh's Muslim community famous when earlier this year four
other black Newburgh Muslims were jailed for 25 years for a 2009 plot to fire a Stinger missile at
US military planes. All four followed the instructions of Hussain, who meticulously organised the
scheme: from getting the missile and bombs, to reconnaissance missions, to teaching the tenets of
radical Islam. Hussain was a fake. In fact, Hussain worked for the FBI as an informant trawling
mosques in hope of picking up radicals. Yet far from being active militants, the four men he
attracted were impoverished individuals struggling with Newburgh's grim epidemic of crack, drug
crime and poverty. Hussain offered the men huge financial inducements to carry out the plot
including $250,000 to one man and free holidays and expensive cars. The Newburgh
Four ... represent the most extreme form of a controversial FBI policy to use invented
terrorist plots to lure targets. "There has been no case as egregious as this. It is unique in
the incentive the government provided. A quarter million dollars?" said Professor Karen
Greenberg, a terrorism expert at Fordham University.
Note: For a powerful BBC documentary showing clearly that much of the war on terror is a
fabrication to forward a political agenda, watch Power of Nightmares at this link. For many reports
from major media sources on the fake terror behind the "global war on terror", click here.

OCCs Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities:

Third Quarter 2011
2011-12-00, OCC (U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Administrator of
National Banks)
http://www.occ.gov/topics/capital-markets/financial-markets/trading/derivativ...
The OCCs quarterly report on trading revenues and bank derivatives activities is based on Call
Report information provided by all insured U.S. commercial banks and trust companies, reports
filed by U.S. financial holding companies, and other published data. The notional amount of
derivatives held by insured U.S. commercial banks decreased $1.4 trillion, or 0.6%, from the
second quarter of 2011 to $248 trillion. Notional derivatives are 5.7% higher than at the same time
last year. Derivatives activity in the U.S. banking system continues to be dominated by a small

group of large financial institutions. The five banks with the most derivatives activity hold 96%
of all derivatives. Insured commercial banks have more limited legal authorities than do their
holding companies.
Note: Graphs in this OCC report (pg. 25 & 26) show that five U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase,
Citibank, BofA, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, hold $235 of the $248 trillion above, while
their holding companies control an additional $311 of the $326 trillion in derivatives held by holding
companies. So these five banks and their holding companies combined hold $546 trillion in
derivatives, 95% of the U.S. derivatives market, nearly 80% of the global market, and equivalent
to over $75,000 for every person on the planet. If the above link fails, click here. For quarterly
derivative reports by the OCC going back to 1995, click here.

Lobbying firm's memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street
2011-11-19, MSNBC
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8884405-lobbying-firms-memo...
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an
$850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the
protests, according to a memo obtained by [MSNBC]. The proposal was written on the letterhead
of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGCs clients, the
American Bankers Association. CLGCs memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to
conduct opposition research on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct negative
narratives about the protests and allied politicians. Two of the memos authors, partners
Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, ROhio. The memo outlines a 60-day plan to conduct surveys and research on OWS and its
supporters so that Wall Street companies will be prepared to conduct a media campaign in
response to OWS. Wall Street companies likely will not be the best spokespeople for their own
cause, according to the memo. A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have
political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the reasons why people nationwide are occupying
their city centers in protest against the collusion between powerful corporate and government
elites, click here.

47% of Congress Members Millionaires a Status Shared by Only 1%

of Americans
2011-11-16, ABC News Blog
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/47-of-congress-members-millionai...
Its no secret that many members of the U.S. House and Senate are millionaires 47 percent of
them their salaries paid in part by the American taxpayers. The Center for Responsive Politics
has crunched the numbers and released the results on its Open Secrets blog: About 47 percent of

Congress, or 249 current members are millionaires. In 2010, the estimated median net worth of
a current U.S. senator stood at an average of $2.56 million. Despite the global economic
meltdown in 2008 and the sluggish recovery that followed, thats up about 7.6 percent from
an estimated median net worth of $2.38 million in 2009 and up 13 percent from a median
net worth of $2.27 million in 2008. Fully 36 Senate Democrats, and 30 Senate Republicans
reported an average net worth in excess of $1 million in 2010. The same was true for 110 House
Republicans and 73 House Democrats. The vast majority of members of Congress are quite
comfortable, financially, while many of their own constituents suffer from economic hardships, said
Sheila Krumholz at the Center For Responsive Politics. Few Americans enjoy the same financial
cushions maintained by most members of Congress or the same access to market-altering
information that could yield personal, financial gains.
Note: For key reports on major media control of information and cover-ups, click here.

Abramoff: Lobbying reforms haven't fixed 'flawed' system

2011-11-06, CNN
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-06/politics/politics_abramoff-ethics_1_neil-v...
Ethics reforms put in place since the influence-peddling scandal surrounding high-rolling lobbyist
Jack Abramoff haven't cleaned up the system "at all," a now-free Abramoff says. Abramoff served
three and a half years in prison for conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion before his release last
December. In an interview ... on CBS News' "60 Minutes," he said the reforms imposed after his
guilty plea have little effect while campaign finance remains untouched. "You can't take a
congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak or something like that," he
said. "But you can take him to a fund-raising lunch and not only buy him that steak, but give him
$25,000 extra and call it a fund-raiser -- and have all the same access and all the same
interactions with that congressman." Abramoff's interview with "60 Minutes" aired the night before
a memoir, Capitol Punishment, is scheduled to hit shelves. Abramoff describes some of the
techniques he employed as a lobbyist as "evil," "terrible" and, at the same time, "effective" for his
firm, his clients and Republican politicians he usually worked with. Abramoff said the best way to
get what he wanted to was to offer high-ranking congressional aides a job when they left
public office. Once that was done, he told CBS, "We owned them." "Everything that we
want, they're going to do. Not only that, they're going to think of things we can't think of to do,"
Abramoff said, estimating his office had "very strong influence" on 100 of the 535 congressional
offices.
Note: For a powerful, six-minute analysis of legalized corruption based on Abramoff's comments
on CBS 60 Minutes, click here. A petty thief steals three times for a total value of a few thousand
dollars and by the "three strikes" law ends up in jail for life. Abramoff, along with his assistants,
successfully corrupt U.S. Senators and Congress members and serve less than four years in jail.
Some of his assistants got off with no jail time. Is the US justice system biased towards the rich?

Jack Abramoff: The lobbyist's playbook

2011-11-06, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57319075/jack-abramoff-the-lobbyists-pl...
Jack Abramoff may be the most notorious and crooked lobbyist of our time. He became a master
at showering gifts on lawmakers in return for their votes on legislation. Five years ago ... Jack
Abramoff pled guilty ... and served three and a half years in prison. Abramoff: I think most
congressmen don't feel they're being bought. [They] can in their own mind justify the
system. The "best way" to get a congressional office ... was to offer a staffer a job that could triple
his salary. The moment I [offered] that to them ... we owned them. Most of the people ... on Capitol
Hill wanted ... to be lobbyists. Republican Congressman Bob Ney was ambitious and looked at
Abramoff as a way to build alliances with the White House and the majority leader. Neil Volz, his
former chief of staff, by then a lobbyist for Abramoff .. asked Ney to insert some language into a
reform bill that would give a backdoor license to an Indian casino. Abramoff: We crafted language
that was so obscure ... but so precise to change the U.S. code. "Public law 100-89 is amended
by striking section 207 101 stat. 668, 672." Members don't read the bills. Ney: It was a great big
shell game. Ney would eventually serve 17 months in federal prison, the only congressman who
was ever charged. But Abramoff says that there were many other members that did his bidding
that could have been charged. Abramoff: I'm talking about giving a gift to somebody who makes a
decision on behalf of the public. That's really what bribery is. But it is done everyday. There
were very few members who ... didn't at some level participate in that. Our system is flawed and
has to be fixed. He says the most important thing that needs to be done is to prohibit members of
Congress and their staff from ever becoming lobbyists in Washington.
Note: To watch this incredibly revealing interview, click here. For a powerful, six-minute analysis of
legalized corruption based on Abramoff's comments, click here. A petty thief steals three times for
a total value of a few thousand dollars and by the "three strikes" law ends up in jail for life.
Abramoff, along with his assistants, successfully corrupt U.S. Senators and Congress members
and serve less than four years in jail. Many get off with no jail time. Is the US justice system biased
towards the rich?

The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest

2011-10-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/31/corporation-london-city-m...
It's the dark heart of Britain, the place where democracy goes to die, immensely powerful, equally
unaccountable. But I doubt that one in 10 British people has any idea of what the Corporation of
the City of London is and how it works. As Nicholas Shaxson explains in his fascinating book
Treasure Islands, the Corporation exists outside many of the laws and democratic controls which
govern the rest of the United Kingdom. The City of London is the only part of Britain over
which parliament has no authority. This is ... an official old boys' network. In one respect at least
the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called
the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that,

whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected.
The mayor of London's mandate stops at the boundaries of the Square Mile. The City has
exploited this remarkable position to establish itself as a kind of offshore state, a secrecy
jurisdiction which controls the network of tax havens housed in the UK's crown
dependencies and overseas territories. This autonomous state within our borders is in a
position to launder the ill-gotten cash of oligarchs, kleptocrats, gangsters and drug barons.
It has also made the effective regulation of global finance almost impossible.
Note: To understand how democracy is easily circumvented, read this full article. For lots more
from reliable sources on the hidden background to the control over governments held by financial
powers, click here.

Bulgers FBI Ties Enrage Cops

2011-10-21, Newsweek/Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/21/whitey-bulger-s-secret-deal-...
Three Massachusetts State Police officers once staked out organized-crime chief Whitey
Bulger for months, all the while not knowing that he was an FBI informant who was tipped
to their surveillance. James Whitey Bulger, now 82, is the Al Capone of Boston. A fugitive
since 1995 who seemed untouchable, he is also compared to the Teflon Don of New York, John
Gotti. His brother, Billy Bulger, was once the most powerful political figure in Massachusetts.
"Whitey" was an FBI informant for decades while ruling the Irish organized-crime world. He made
millions from rackets and drugs and committed an untold number of murders to keep his empire
safe. On June 22, he was arrested in Santa Monica, California. The seizure of weapons and more
than $800,000 in cash was no surprise. Recently, I spoke with three of the bestBob Long, Rick
Fraelick, and Jack OMalley. Intrepid Bob Long was in charge. Bob Long says that if Bulger and
Flemmi had not been protected by the FBI, then ... nine murders would have never taken
place. Long said he believes that Agents Morris and Connolly identified more than a dozen
individuals to Bulger and Flemmi as FBI informants or could-be FBI informants and all of those
people were killed. Connolly is now in prison; Morris received a grant of immunity for testimony.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Citigroup to Pay $285 Million to Settle Fraud Charges

2011-10-20, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204618704576640873051858568.html
Wall Street's total price tag on settlements with U.S. securities regulators for allegedly misleading
investors about mortgage bonds churned out ahead of the financial crisis surged past $1 billion
with a deal by Citigroup Inc. to pay $285 million ... to end civil-fraud charges by the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The SEC claimed Citigroup sold slices of the $1 billion mortgagebond deal without disclosing to investors that the bank was shorting $500 million of the

deal, or betting its assets would lose value. Several Wall Street firms have settled similar
claims by the SEC, which has generally stuck to the strategy used by the agency to get a $550
million settlement last year with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.. And the SEC's investigation of the
Wall Street mortgage machine isn't over yet. Lorin Reisner, deputy enforcement director at the
SEC, said civil mortgage-related cases against Goldman, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Countrywide
Financial Corp., New Century Financial Corp. and other companies "read like an index to unlawful
conduct in connection with the financial crisis." The SEC has collected a total of $1.03 billion
through mortgage-bond-deal settlements. In addition to Citigroup, the total includes Goldman, J.P.
Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Wells Fargo & Co. and Credit Suisse Group AG.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the illegal profiteering of major financial
corporations, click here.

Abiotic Oil: A Theory Worth Exploring

2011-09-14, US News & World Report magazine
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/energy-intelligence/2011/09/14/abiotic-oi...
[Abiotic oil theorists] hold that oil can be derived from hydrocarbons that existed eons ago in
massive pools deep within the earth's core. That source of hydrocarbons seeps up through the
earth's layers and slowly replenishes oil sources. In other words, it turns the fossil-fuel paradigm
upside down. Thomas Gold, a respected astronomer and professor emeritus at Cornell University
in Ithaca, NY, has held for years that oil is actually a renewable, primordial syrup continually
manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this
substance migrates toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have
an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs, he says. That ... raises the tantalizing possibility
that oil may not be the limited resource it is assumed to be. In 2008 ... a group of Russian and
Ukrainian scientists [said] that oil and gas don't come from fossils; they're synthesized deep within
the earth's mantle by heat, pressure, and other purely chemical means, before gradually rising to
the surface. The idea that oil comes from fossils "is a myth" that needs changing according to
petroleum engineer Vladimir Kutcherov, speaking at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.
"All kinds of rocks could have oil and gas deposits." Alexander Kitchka of the Ukrainian National
Academy of Sciences estimates that 60 percent of the content of all oil is abiotic in origin and not
from fossil fuels.
Note: For more on the intriguing abiotic oil theory, click here. For key reports from major media
sources on promising energy sources, click here.

Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on Lost Decade

2011-09-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html

Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau
reported [on Sep. 13], and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2
million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing
figures on it. And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household
incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1996. Economists pointed to a telling statistic: It was
the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had
not risen over such a long period, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard. This is
truly a lost decade, Mr. Katz said. The bureaus findings were worse than many economists
expected, and brought into sharp relief the toll the past decade including the painful declines of
the financial crisis and recession had taken on Americans at the middle and lower parts of the
income ladder. It is also fresh evidence that the disappointing economic recovery has done nothing
for the countrys poorest citizens. The report said the percentage of Americans living below the
poverty line last year, 15.1 percent, was the highest level since 1993. (The poverty line in 2010 for
a family of four was $22,314.)
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on income inequality, click here.

Top Secret America: A look at the militarys Joint Special Operations

Command
2011-09-02, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-secret-america-a-lo...
The CIAs armed drones and paramilitary forces have killed dozens of al-Qaeda leaders and
thousands of its foot soldiers. But there is another mysterious organization that has killed even
more of Americas enemies in the decade since the 9/11 attacks. Troops from this other secret
organization have imprisoned and interrogated 10 times as many [suspects as has the CIA],
holding them in jails that it alone controls in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, this secretive group of men (and a few women) has grown tenfold while sustaining a level
of obscurity that not even the CIA managed. Were the dark matter. Were the force that orders
the universe but cant be seen, a strapping Navy SEAL, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said in describing his unit. The SEALs are just part of the U.S. militarys Joint Special
Operations Command, known by the acronym JSOC, which has grown from a rarely used hostage
rescue team into Americas secret army, routinely [used] to mount intelligence-gathering missions
and lethal raids, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in countries with which the United States
was not at war, including Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, the Philippines, Nigeria and Syria. The
president has also given JSOC the rare authority to select individuals for its kill list and
then to kill, rather than capture, them. JSOC has grown from 1,800 troops prior to 9/11 to as
many as 25,000. It has its own intelligence division, its own drones and reconnaissance planes,
even its own dedicated satellites.
Note: This article describing JSOCs spectacular rise, much of which has not been publicly
disclosed before, is adapted from a chapter of the newly released Top Secret America: The Rise of
the New American Security State, by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and William M. Arkin.

For lots more on the secret realities of the "Endless War" launched by the 9/11 false-flag operation,
click here.

Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans

2011-08-22, Businessweek/Bloomberg News
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-08-22/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-t...
Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home
prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage firms to their best year ever with
$104 billion of profits. By 2008, the housing markets collapse forced those companies to take
more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The
loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now
the full amounts have remained secret. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernankes [actions] included
lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same
amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The
largest borrower, Morgan Stanley, got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion
and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained
through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress. It wasnt
just American finance. Almost half of the Feds top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances,
were European firms. Data gleaned [under the Freedom of Information Act] make clear for
the first time how deeply the worlds largest banks depended on the U.S. central bank to
stave off cash shortfalls. Even as the firms asserted in news releases or earnings calls that
they had ample cash, they drew Fed funding in secret.
Note: For a treasure trove of information from reliable sources on the government transfer of
public assets to private banks and financial corporations, click here.

Actor Corey Feldman Says Pedophilia No. 1 Problem for Child Stars
2011-08-10, ABC News Nightline
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/corey-feldman-pedophilia-problem-child-ac...
Corey Feldman has no idea what it's like not to be famous. After all, he starred in a McDonald's ad
when he was just 3 years old. But being famous and underage, he said, caused serious damage to
him and his friends, including loss of innocence and a lost childhood. Feldman blamed the adults
around him, not just those looking to profit from charming children, but also some with far more
sinister motives. "I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always
will be pedophilia. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry. ... It's the big
secret," Feldman said. The "casting couch," which is the old Hollywood reference to actors
being expected to offer sex for roles, applied to children, Feldman said. "I was surrounded by
[pedophiles] when I was 14 years old. Didn't even know it. It wasn't until I was old enough to
realize what they were and what they wanted till I went, Oh, my God. They were everywhere,"
Feldman, 40, said. The trauma of pedophilia contributed to the 2010 death of his closest friend and

"The Lost Boys" co-star, Corey Haim, Feldman said. "There's one person to blame in the death of
Corey Haim. And that person happens to be a Hollywood mogul," Feldman said, adding that he,
too, had been sexually abused by men in show business. Feldman said his realization followed the
discovery of what some adults around him had allegedly done to other children. "There was a
circle of older men around this group of kids. And they all had either their own power or
connections to great power in the entertainment industry," he said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pedophilia and sexual
abuse by the powerful, click here.

The Fed Audit

2011-07-21, Official Government Website of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how
the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign
banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Among
the [Government Accountability Office] investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally
provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from
South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. The [report] also determined that the Fed
lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for
abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees
and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and
corporations that were given emergency loans. For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served
on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390
billion in financial assistance from the Fed. The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced
most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients
of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.
Note: We don't normally use the website of a member of the U.S. Senate as a source, but as
amazingly none of the media covered this vitally important story other than one blog on Forbes, we
are publishing this here. The GAO report to back up these claims is available for all to see at this
link. For how the media is so controlled, don't miss the powerful two-page summary with reports by
many award-winning journalists at this link. For another good article on the Fed's manipulations,
click here.

Top lobbying banks got biggest bailouts: study

2011-05-26, MSNBC/Reuters News
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20110526&id=136...

The more aggressively a bank lobbied before the financial crisis, the worse its loans
performed during the economic downturn -- and the more bailout dollars it received,
according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week. The
report, titled "A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis," said that banks' lobbying
efforts may be motivated by short-term profit gains, which can have devastating effects on the
economy. "Overall, our findings suggest that the political influence of the financial industry
played a role in the accumulation of risks, and hence, contributed to the financial crisis,"
said the report, written by three economists from the International Monetary Fund. Data collected
by the three authors -- Deniz Igan, Prachi Mishra and Thierry Tressel -- show that the most
aggressive lobbiers in the financial industry from 2000 to 2007 also made the most toxic mortgage
loans. They securitized a greater portion of debt to pass the home loans onto investors and their
stock prices correlated more closely to the downturn and ensuing bailout. The banks' loans also
suffered from higher delinquencies during the downturn.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on corruption in the
government bailouts of the biggest banks, click here.

Steady Decline in Major Crime Baffles Experts

2011-05-24, CNBC/New York Times
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43151654
The number of violent crimes in the United States dropped significantly last year, to what
appeared to be the lowest rate in nearly 40 years, a development that was considered
puzzling partly because it ran counter to the prevailing expectation that crime would
increase during a recession. In all regions, the country appears to be safer. The odds of being
murdered or robbed are now less than half of what they were in the early 1990s, when violent
crime peaked in the United States. Small towns, especially, are seeing far fewer murders: In cities
with populations under 10,000, the number plunged by more than 25 percent last year.
Criminology experts said they were surprised and impressed by the national numbers, issued ... by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and based on data from more than 13,000 law-enforcement
agencies. There was no immediate consensus to explain the drop. But some experts said the
figures collided with theories about correlations between crime, unemployment and the number of
people in prison. Take robbery: The nation has endured a devastating economic crisis, but
robberies fell 9.5 percent last year, after dropping 8 percent the year before.
Note: See the U.S. Department of Justice statistics at this link for verification. Why isn't this
exciting news making front page headlines? Could it be that the media and powers that be want us
to be afraid?

Area 51 'Uncensored': Was It UFOs Or The USSR?

2011-05-17, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/17/136356848/area-51-uncensored-was-it-ufos-or-the...

Officially, the U.S. government has never acknowledged the existence of Area 51. Unofficially, it
has become a place associated with conspiracy theories, alien landings and tiny spaceships. In
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, [Los Angeles Times
journalist Annie] Jacobsen details how several agencies including the Atomic Energy
Commission, the Department of Defense and the CIA once used the site to conduct
controversial and secretive research on aircraft and pilot-related projects, including planes that
traveled three times faster than the speed of sound and nuclear-propelled, space-based missile
launch systems. Nuclear tests at Area 51 gave the Department of Defense ideas about how the
technology could be used to help the United States' newly minted space program. Jacobsen:
There was an unusual moment where [my] source became very upset and told me ... that a flying
disc really did crash in New Mexico and it was transported to Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base, and then in 1951 it was transferred to Area 51. My source, who I absolutely believe and
worked with for 18 months on this, was one of the engineers who received the equipment and he
also received the people who were in the craft. The people ... were child-sized pilots. I absolutely
believe the veracity of my source, and I believe it was important that I put this information out there
because it is the tip of a very big iceberg.
Note: The author and her source believe the child-sized pilots were the result of a Soviet human
experimentation program. For the testimony of top military and government officials on the reality
of a major UFO cover-up and their personal experince with it, click here. For lots more reliable
information on UFOs, click here. An excerpt from the book at the end of the NPR article has some
fascinating information on Area 51.

Obama Says 'Justice Has Been Done': Bin Laden Scholar Says No
2011-05-06, CNBC News (NBC's Business News Channel)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42929478/
President Obama, speaking of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, said: "Justice has been
done." It has been widely assumed that, if bin Laden is now dead, the person most responsible for
the 9/11 attacks has been brought to justice. But the US government has never provided
evidence that the attacks were carried out by bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization. In
September 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell promised to provide this evidence, but the next
day recanted, saying "most of [the evidence] is classified." In October, Prime Minister Tony Blair
provided evidence that bin Laden and al-Qaeda planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. But he
added: "This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Osama Bin Laden
in a court of law." The FBI's acts that made bin Laden a "Most Wanted Terrorist" do not include the
9/11 attacks. The FBI's chief of investigative publicity explained: "The FBI has seen no hard
evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11." Could al-Qaeda have carried out the attacks? Scientists
for 9/11 Truth views the rapid, symmetrical, straight-down collapses of the Towers and nearby
WTC 7 as consistent only with controlled demolition. And 1500 members of Architects and
Engineers for 9/11 Truth agree: The 9/11 attacks were not the work of al-Qaeda.

Note: CNBC removed this article not long after posting it. To read this critically important press
release by WantToKnow.info team member and Nobel Peace Prize nominee David Ray Griffin in
its entirety, click here. Dr. Griffin's 2009 book, Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? presented
compelling evidence that bin Laden died in December 2001 -- prompting a BBC documentary of
the same name. Griffin was named among the New Statesman's "50 People Who Matter Today".
For an abundance of reliable news articles, videos, and more showing major deception on 9/11,
click here.

The nagging questions that refuse to go away

2011-05-05, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-nag...
Some 36 hours after the world first learnt of the US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden,
the White House changed parts of its story. A woman was killed, its spokesman said, but she was
not Bin Laden's wife who survived after being shot in the leg. Bin Laden did not, as had earlier
been claimed, use his wife as a human shield; she was injured when she tried to challenge one of
the US commandos. And Bin Laden was not, after all, armed, although he did, the spokesman
said, put up some resistance. The new version no wife as human shield, no weapon makes
[bin Laden] more ordinary and more vulnerable. It also raises further questions. If the first version
was incorrect, perhaps even to an extent "spun" for a certain effect, might there not be
room for doubt about other aspects of the official narrative? About, say, whether the crucial
intelligence about Bin Laden was extracted from al-Qa'ida operatives under torture, which might
appear to justify such methods and lift some of the opprobrium from the previous US
administration and the CIA. A no less pertinent question that the new version raises is whether Bin
Laden was ever actually given a chance to surrender and whether he might have been taken alive
rather than dead. When President Obama said that justice had been done, was this strictly
speaking justice, or was it cold-blooded retribution?
Note: WantToKnow team member David Ray Griffin's book establishing the likelihood that Osama
bin Laden died in December 2001, Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?, is available here. For many
other major media news articles showing clear deception and more by government officials, click
here.

Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution

2011-02-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17sharp.html
Stoop-shouldered and white-haired at 83, [Gene Sharp] grows orchids, has yet to master the
Internet and hardly seems like a dangerous man. But for the worlds despots, his ideas can be
fatal. For decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution most notably From
Dictatorship to Democracy, a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download
in 24 languages have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia,

Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt. When Egypts April 6 Youth Movement
was struggling ... its leaders tossed around crazy ideas about bringing down the government.
They stumbled on Mr. Sharp. When the nonpartisan International Center on Nonviolent Conflict,
which trains democracy activists, slipped into Cairo several years ago ... among the papers it
distributed was Mr. Sharps 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, a list of tactics that range from
hunger strikes to protest disrobing. Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian blogger and activist who attended
the workshop ... said trainees were active in both the Tunisia and Egypt revolts. She said that
some activists translated excerpts of Mr. Sharps work into Arabic, and that his message of
attacking weaknesses of dictators stuck with them. He has concluded that advancing freedom
takes careful strategy and meticulous planning, advice that ... resonated among youth leaders in
Egypt. Peaceful protest is best, he says not for any moral reason, but because violence
provokes autocrats to crack down. If you fight with violence, Mr. Sharp said, you are fighting with
your enemys best weapon, and you may be a brave but dead hero. He was struck by the
Egyptian protesters discipline in remaining peaceful, and especially by their lack of fear. If people
are not afraid of the dictatorship, that dictatorship is in big trouble.
Note: For powerful and inspiring information on the military/industrial complex and what we can do
to make a difference, click here.

Food speculation: 'People die from hunger while banks make a killing
on food'
2011-01-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/jan/23/food-speculation-ban...
Just under three years ago, people in the village of Gumbi in western Malawi went unexpectedly
hungry. Not like Europeans do if they miss a meal or two, but that deep, gnawing hunger that
prevents sleep and dulls the senses when there has been no food for weeks. Oddly, there had
been no drought, the usual cause of malnutrition and hunger in southern Africa, and there was
plenty of food in the markets. For no obvious reason the price of staple foods such as maize and
rice nearly doubled in a few months. Unusually, too, there was no evidence that the local
merchants were hoarding food. It was the same story in 100 other developing countries. There
were food riots in more than 20 countries and governments had to ban food exports and subsidise
staples heavily. A new theory is emerging among traders and economists. The same banks,
hedge funds and financiers whose speculation on the global money markets caused the
sub-prime mortgage crisis are ... taking advantage of the deregulation of global commodity
markets [to make] billions from speculating on food and causing misery around the world.
As food prices soar again to beyond 2008 levels, it becomes clear that everyone is now being
affected. Food prices are now rising by up to 10% a year in Britain and Europe. What is more, says
the UN, prices can be expected to rise at least 40% in the next decade.
Note: Remember that speculation is behind almost all of the economic bubbles and busts. The
price of oil spiked a couple years ago almost purely because of speculators, while the oil
companies raked in record profits. It looks like the speculators are now driving food prices as high

as they can. For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources investigating the many different
strategies used by financial corporations to enrich themselves at the expense of common people,
click here.

WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops

2011-01-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops
The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any
European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released
WikiLeaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in
late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president
George Bush, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particularly countries which did not
support the use of GM crops. "Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real
costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," said Stapleton, who
with Bush co-owned the St Louis-based Texas Rangers baseball team in the 1990s [and is married
to Dorothy Walker, a first cousin of former U.S. president George H.W. Bush]. In other newly
released cables, US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic
government and commercial imperative. In addition, the cables show US diplomats working
directly for GM companies such as Monsanto. It also emerges that Spain and the US have
worked closely together to persuade the EU not to strengthen biotechnology laws. In one cable,
the embassy in Madrid writes: "If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow." The cables show that
not only did the Spanish government ask the US to keep pressure on Brussels but that the US
knew in advance how Spain would vote, even before the Spanish biotech commission had
reported.
Note: For a powerful 13-minute video revealing the disturbing results of the first long-term
scientific study on GMOs and showing how they greatly increased cancer incidence in rats, click
here. For more revealing information on this from Dr. Mercola, click here. For an excellent
overview of scientific studies on the risks from genetically-modified foods, click here.

Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice now for humans
2010-11-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-...
Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out
organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by
regenerating their aged bodies. The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among
scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans or at least to slow down the
ageing process. "What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of
the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal and that was unexpected," said Ronald

DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature. The Harvard group
focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of
chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a
telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop
working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is
behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing. At Harvard, they bred genetically
manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter.
When DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues
and reversed the signs of ageing.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

Nazis Were Given Safe Haven in U.S., Report Says

2010-11-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html
A secret history of the United States government's Nazi-hunting operation concludes that
American intelligence officials created a "safe haven" in the United States for Nazis and their
collaborators after World War II. The 600-page report, which the Justice Department has tried to
keep secret for four years, provides new evidence about more than two dozen of the most
notorious Nazi cases of the last three decades. It describes the government's ... pursuit of Dr.
Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz. The report catalogs both the successes
and failures of the band of lawyers, historians and investigators at the Justice Department's Office
of Special Investigations, which was created in 1979 to deport Nazis. The report's most damning
disclosures come in assessing the Central Intelligence Agency's involvement with Nazi
emigres. Scholars and previous government reports had acknowledged the C.I.A.'s use of
Nazis for postwar intelligence purposes. But this report goes further in documenting the
level of American complicity and deception in such operations. The Justice Department has
resisted making the report public since 2006. Under the threat of a lawsuit, it turned over a heavily
redacted version last month to a private research group, the National Security Archive, but even
then many ... portions were omitted. A complete version was obtained by The New York Times.
Note: To read the complete Justice Department report obtained by The New York Times, click
here. For a brief comparison with the heavily redacted version previously available, click here. For
a more detailed analysis by the the National Security Archive, click here.

Former Air Force officers discuss UFO sightings

2010-09-27, Air Force Times
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/09/ap-Former-Air-Force-officers-discus...

Armed with declassified documents and vivid details, a group of former Air Force officers gathered
Monday to go public with an assertion they have kept mostly under wraps for decades: that UFOs
visited the bases they were stationed at and caused nuclear weapon system to temporarily
malfunction. The group, convened by UFO researcher Robert Hastings, came to the National
Press Club in Washington to discuss their individual experiences and to urge a government that
tried to ignore and silence them when they came forward years ago to finally come clean.
Hastings said he believes that visitors from outer space are fixating on nuclear weapons
because they want to send a message: Disarm before the world destroys itself. Hastings
said he has heard of a UFO incident occurring at Malmstrom as recently as 2007. The
declassified documents Hastings presented at Monday's news conference include decades-old
government memos detailing reports of sightings of objects in the skies above Alabama, Montana,
New Mexico and North Dakota. He has talked to 120 former or retired U.S. military about the
presence of UFOs at nuclear weapons sites across the United States and around the globe as
early as 1945, when the world entered the nuclear age with the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. For some of the officers who came forward Monday, going public wasn't easy. Bruce
Fenstermacher, a missile combat crew commander at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne,
Wyo., was "laughed at" by superiors when he reported a UFO sighting at a launch site that one of
his sergeants had passed on to him, he said. He decided to keep his head low after that. "I was
very careful about who I told what," he said. "I was concerned. I don't want to be considered a
kook. But I think it's more important to come out and tell our story."
Note: To watch 18-minutes of this most fascinating testimony on the CNN website, click here. For
a treasure trove of reliable, verifiable information on the UFO cover-up, see our resource-filled
UFO Information Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/ufoinformation.

What if growth had been equal?

2010-09-13, Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/what_if_growth_had_been_e...
"The Conehead economy" [is] the idea that if the economy were a person, its growth over the past
few decades would've turned it from a normal-looking individual into a conehead. Jacob Hacker
and Paul Pierson get at this idea slightly differently [in their book Winner-Take-All Politics]. They've
got a table showing how incomes would look if growth had been equally shared from 1979 to 2006
-- much as it was in the decades before 1979. If growth had been equally shared, the middle
quintile would be making $64,395 today. Instead, they're making $52,100. That's a 23 percent
raise those folks didn't get -- and that I'm sure they would've noticed. The top 1 percent ... made,
on average, $1,200,300 in 2006. If growth had been equally shared in the three decades before
that, however, their incomes would've been cut by more than half, down to $506,002. That's real,
serious money we're talking about. The top 1 percent now accounts for 23.5 percent of the
national income if you include capital gains. In 1979, they only had 9.8 percent of the
nation's earnings. During that same period, tax rates on the richest Americans have
actually dropped. So as the economy went one way -- toward more money going to the rich
-- the tax system went the other.

Note: For lots more on income inequality from reliable sources, click here.

Pentagon Attempts to Block Book on Afghan War

2010-09-10, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/09/military-intelligence-attempts-blo...
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has attempted to block a book about the tipping point in
Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called "Able Danger." In a letter
obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could be breached if Operation Dark Heart is
published in its current form. The agency also attempted to block key portions of the book that
claim "Able Danger" successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United
States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In a highly unusual move, the Department of
Defense is now negotiating with the publisher, St. Martin's Press, to buy all 10,000 copies of the
first printing of the book to keep it off shelves -- even after the U.S. Army had cleared the book for
release. Specifically, the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer,
the book's author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow,
removed. In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges the commission
was told about "Able Danger" and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention
of this was made in the final 9/11 report. Once back in the U.S., Shaffer says he contacted the
commission. Without explanation, the commission was no longer interested.
Note: Click here to read the full DIA letter (pdf). For a video of Fox News' exclusive interview with
the author of the book blocked by the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, click here.

New Scientific Evidence Undermines Afghanistan War

2010-09-09, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS204116+09-Sep-2010+PRN20100909
On the eve of the 9th anniversary of 9/11, support for the war in Afghanistan took a serious blow
today. Simultaneous press conferences were held in New York and Los Angeles to present
startling new information refuting the official 9/11 narrative, used to justify the war. Also announced
were three major professional groups which have joined the worldwide, and ever-growing, "9/11
Truth Movement." Representatives of "Scientists for 9/11 Truth," "U.S. Military Officers for
9/11 Truth" and "Actors & Artists for 9/11 Truth" presented their findings and unveiled their
eye-opening websites. Each non-profit group has launched a petition calling for a new,
transparent investigation. In NY, representing "Scientists," Professor Niels Harrit said, "The
official account put forth by NIST violates the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry." In LA,
physics teacher David Chandler discussed the swift destruction of the WTC towers, including
Building 7, the little-known third tower. Having demonstrated its free fall, he confronted the US
government agency NIST with his analyses and forced NIST to revise its November 2008 Final
Report on WTC 7. NIST's Draft Report had claimed free fall was impossible but NIST ultimately
acknowledged WTC 7 was in absolute free fall for over two seconds. Concluded Chandler, "Free

fall is physically impossible without explosives." In LA, former Director of Advanced Space
Programs Development Lt. Col. Robert Bowman stated, "9/11 has been an excuse to use our
brave young troops as cannon fodder in unjust wars of aggression."
Note: To view a powerful video of the joint press conferences of these three new 9/11 truth
organizations, click here.

Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award

2010-09-09, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20015982-10391695.html
The first court award in a vaccine-autism claim is a big one. CBS News has learned the family of
Hannah Poling will receive more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care, lost earnings, and pain
and suffering for the first year alone. In addition to the first year, the family will receive more than
$500,000 per year to pay for Hannah's care. Those familiar with the case believe the
compensation could easily amount to $20 million over the child's lifetime. Hannah was described
as normal, happy and precocious in her first 18 months. Then, in July 2000, she was vaccinated
against nine diseases in one doctor's visit: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria,
pertussis, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae. Afterward, her health declined rapidly. She
developed high fevers, stopped eating, didn't respond when spoken to, began showing signs of
autism, and began having screaming fits. In acknowledging Hannah's injuries, the government
said vaccines aggravated an unknown mitochondrial disorder Hannah had which didn't
"cause" her autism, but "resulted" in it. It's unknown how many other children have similar
undiagnosed mitochondrial disorder. All other autism "test cases" have been defeated at
trial. Approximately 4,800 are awaiting disposition in federal vaccine court.
Note: A CBS affiliate reports that "since the late 1980s, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program (NVICP) has paid money for 83 cases involving autism." The article also mentions this
has been kept quiet. For a powerful report by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. showing blatant deception
and cover up on the part of government and industry around a link between vaccines and autism,
click here. For numerous revealing reports from major media sources on the link between vaccines
and autism, click here.

US 'fails to account' for Iraq reconstruction billions

2010-07-27, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10774002
A US federal watchdog has criticised the US military for failing to account properly for billions of
dollars it received to help rebuild Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says
the US Department of Defence is unable to account properly for 96% of the money. Out of
just over $9bn, $8.7bn is unaccounted for, the inspector says. Much of the money came
from the sale of Iraqi oil and gas, and some frozen Saddam Hussein-era assets were also sold

off. The money was in a special fund administered by the US Department of Defense, the
Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), and was earmarked for reconstruction projects. But the report
says that a lack of proper accounting and poor oversight makes it impossible to say exactly what
happened to most of it. "The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses
and undetected loss," the report said. This is not the first time that allegations of missing billions
have surfaced in relation to the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. In 2005, the inspector
general criticised the Coalition Provisional Authority, the US-led occupation administration, for its
management of an $8.8bn fund that belonged to the Iraqi government. A criminal investigation
conducted led to the conviction of eight US officials on bribery, fraud and money-laundering
charges.
Note: For a collection of major media articles showing how the US military has repeatedly failed to
account for hundreds of billions of dollars, click here.

A hidden world, growing beyond control

2010-07-19, Washington Post
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/tsa/static/articles/hid...
In the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside,
only a handful of senior officials - called Super Users - have the ability to even know about all the
department's activities. Most [sources for this story] requested anonymity either because they are
prohibited from speaking publicly or because, they said, they feared retaliation at work for
describing their concerns. Beyond redundancy, secrecy within the intelligence world hampers
effectiveness in other ways. For the Defense Department, [the] problem goes back to an ultrasecret group of programs for which access is extremely limited and monitored by specially trained
security officers. These are called Special Access Programs - or SAPs - and the Pentagon's list of
code names for them runs 300 pages. The intelligence community has hundreds more of its own,
and those hundreds have thousands of sub-programs with their own limits on the number of
people authorized to know anything about them. All this means that very few people have a
complete sense of what's going on. Such secrecy can undermine the normal chain of
command when senior officials use it to cut out rivals or when subordinates are ordered to
keep secrets from their commanders. One military officer involved in one such program said he
was ordered to sign a document prohibiting him from disclosing it to his four-star commander, with
whom he worked closely every day, because the commander was not authorized to know about it
Note: To read the full text of this important article, please make sure to press the "Continue
Reading" button at the end of the first webpage to access all of the fascinating information
provided. For lots more on government secrecy, click here.

Movie review: 'Burzynski'

2010-06-17, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/la-et-movie-review-burzynsk...

Eric Merolas Burzynski charts how a Texas medical doctor and biochemist developed
Antineoplastons, genetic-targeted medicines, and with them began to treat a wide range of
cancers, including difficult-to-treat brain malignancies, with remarkable and continuing success
only to bring down the full force of the medical establishment, which has laid assault to him in the
most stupefying, devious and costly manner. Stanislaw Burzynski, a Polish immigrant ... eventually
won a 14-year struggle during which he found himself threatened with life imprisonment and
astronomical fines for fraud and other violations to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of his
Antineoplastons, an ordeal that cost Burzynski $2.2 million in legal expenses and the FDA $60
million in taxpayers money. The film makes the case that big pharmacy holds the FDA in its
thrall. Burzynskis Antineoplastons, with their high success rate and lack of side effects,
pose a significant threat to the trillion-dollar industry of treating cancer with the traditional
methods of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Note: The Los Angeles Times now requires payment to view this article at this link. For the
Burzynski clinic website, click here. You can watch part or all of this revealing movie at this link.
For another powerful documentary featuring a variety of potential cancer cures that have been
suppressed, click here. For excerpts from numerous major media articles with potential cancer
cures that are being suppressed, click here.

Reports accuse WHO of exaggerating H1N1 threat, possible ties to drug

makers
2010-06-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR20100604030...
European criticism of the World Health Organization's handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified
... with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the
virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its
recommendations for how countries should respond. The WHO's response caused widespread,
unnecessary fear and prompted countries around the world to waste millions of dollars. At
the same time, the Geneva-based arm of the United Nations relied on advice from experts
with ties to drug makers in developing the guidelines it used to encourage countries to stockpile
millions of doses of antiviral medications. The first report ... came from the Social, Health and
Family Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which launched
an investigation in response to allegations that the WHO's response to the pandemic was
influenced by drug companies that make antiviral drugs and vaccines. The second report, a joint
investigation by the [British Medical Journal] and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism ...
criticized 2004 guidelines the WHO developed based in part on the advice of three experts who
received consulting fees from the two leading manufacturers of antiviral drugs used against the
virus, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.
Note: For wide coverage from reliable sourcesof the swine and avian flu "fake pandemics"
designed for corporate profit, click here.

Speedy New Traders Make Waves Far From Wall Street

2010-05-17, New York Times
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/speedy-new-traders-make-waves-fa...
Inside the humdrum offices of a tiny trading firm called Tradeworx, workers ... tend high-speed
computers that typically buy and sell 80 million shares a day. But on the afternoon of May 6, as the
stock market began to plunge in the flash crash, someone here walked up to one of those
computers and typed the command HF STOP: sell everything and shutdown. Across the country,
several of Tradeworxs counterparts did the same. In a blink, some of the most powerful players in
the stock market high-frequency traders went dark. The result sent chills through the
financial world. After the brief 1,000-point plunge in the stock market that day, the growing role of
high-frequency traders in the nations financial markets is drawing new scrutiny. Over the last
decade, these high-tech operators have become sort of a shadow Wall Street from New Jersey
to Kansas City, from Texas to Chicago. Depending on whose estimates you believe, highfrequency traders account for 40 to 70 percent of all trading on every stock market in the
country. Some of the biggest players trade more than a billion shares a day. These are shortterm bets. Very short. The founder of Tradebot, in Kansas City, Mo., told students in 2008 that
his firm typically held stocks for 11 seconds. Tradebot, one of the biggest high-frequency
traders around, had not had a losing day in four years, he said.
Note: For key reports on the dubious practices which underlay the financial crisis and the
impoverishment of the public treasury, click here.

Were Russian secrets shared with space alien visitors?

2010-05-07, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7118769.ece
Russia has never been immune to spies and informers, but the latest claim must have struck
President Medvedev as a little bizarre: he has been urged to investigate whether a regional
politician passed official secrets to a group of aliens. The request came after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
the millionaire President of Kalmykia, claimed on state television that he had been visited by
aliens at his Moscow apartment several years ago and had spent hours in discussions with
them on board their spaceship. The head of the republic said that the humanoid figures
wore yellow spacesuits and gave him a tour of their craft, which he described as a semitransparent half-tube. They had brought him home in the morning, just as his worried driver and
two advisers were about to call a citywide search after finding his apartment empty. I am often
asked which language I used to talk to them. Perhaps it was on a level of the exchange of ideas,
Mr Ilyumzhinov, who is also president of the international chess federation FIDE, told the Vladimir
Pozner programme on Russias main First Channel. Mr Ilyumzhinov told his interviewer that his
encounter had taken place in 1997. I would not have believed it, if I had not had three witnesses.
Note: For lots more on UFOs, check out our information-packed UFO Information Center.

New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer

2010-05-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/opinion/06kristof.html
The Presidents Cancer Panel is the Mount Everest of the medical mainstream, so it is astonishing
to learn that it is poised to join ranks with the organic food movement and declare: chemicals
threaten our bodies. The cancer panel is releasing a landmark 200-page report ... warning that our
lackadaisical approach to regulation may have far-reaching consequences for our health. It calls
on America to rethink the way we confront cancer, including much more rigorous regulation of
chemicals. The Presidents Cancer Panel suggests ... giving preference to organic food, checking
radon levels in the home and microwaving food in glass containers rather than plastic. In particular,
the report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to
be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of
newborn babies, the study warns that: to a disturbing extent, babies are born prepolluted. The report blames weak laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority, as well as
the existing regulatory presumption that chemicals are safe unless strong evidence emerges to the
contrary. Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have
been tested for safety, the report says. It adds: Many known or suspected carcinogens are
completely unregulated.
Note: To read the President's Cancer Panel report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, click
here. For many other important reports from major media sources on potential cancer cures and
treatments, click here.

Obama gives order to kill American imam

2010-04-08, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7089899.ece
The Obama Administration has taken the unprecedented step of authorising the killing of a US
citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The decision is extraordinary not only
because Mr al-Awlaki is believed to be the first American whose killing has been approved
by a US President, but also because the Obama Administration chose to make the move
public. The Los Angeles Times reported in January that Mr al-Awlakis name had been placed on
a top-secret list of targeted killings. In the past 24 hours, however, a handful of intelligence and
counter-terrorism officials have briefed Reuters and The New York Times on the decision. The
authorisation ... and the decision to make it public is a high-risk strategy. Tina Foster, of the USbased International Justice Network, told The Times: It is shocking that our Government would go
to these extremes, even depriving someone of their life without a legal process. The policy of
targeted killings is controversial. President Ford issued an order in 1976 banning political
assassinations. Yet Congress approved the use of force against al-Qaeda after the September 11
attacks.

Note: Obama is the first president to publicly order the assassination an American citizen. Neither
George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney asserted such a power on the part of the president.

Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers

2010-04-05, Washington Post/Reuters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR20100405038...
Classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen
people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, was released on [April 5] by a group that
promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption. The group, WikiLeaks, told a
news conference in Washington that it acquired encrypted video of the July 12, 2007, attack
from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking the
encryption code. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the
video and audio were authentic. David Schlesinger, Reuters' editor-in-chief, said the video
released by WikiLeaks showed the deaths of [Namir] Noor-Eldeen and [Saeed] Chmagh were
"tragic and emblematic of the extreme dangers that exist in covering war zones." "The video
released today via WikiLeaks is graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and
the tragedies that can result," he said. Reuters has pressed the U.S. military to conduct a full and
objective investigation into the killing of the two staff. WikiLeaks posted the video at
http://www.collateralmurder.com.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. Should the above video disappear, click here to view it on
one of our websites. The only reason this event made news is because the two cameramen killed
were Reuters reporters. US forces then fired on an unarmed van with children in it, which was
attempting to bring the dead and wounded out of the combat zone. How many innocent civilians
are killed like this and never make the news? Spread this important video and help others to wake
up and work together to stop the creulty of some of the US forces. The Pentagon is working hard
to shut down Wikileaks, the organization which secured this powerful video.

Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys

2010-03-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25vatican.html
Top Vatican officials including the future Pope Benedict XVI did not defrock a priest who
molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned
them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly
unearthed as part of a lawsuit. The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin
directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials
tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting
the church from scandal. The documents emerge as Pope Benedict is facing other accusations
that he and direct subordinates often did not alert civilian authorities or discipline priests involved in
sexual abuse when he served as an archbishop in Germany and as the Vaticans chief doctrinal

enforcer. The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who
worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. But it is only one of thousands
of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger.
Note: If you want to know just how deep this goes, watch the powerfully revealing documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available at this link.

Law enforcement is tracking Americans' cell phones in real time

2010-02-19, Newsweek magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233916
Law enforcement is tracking Americans' cell phones in real timewithout the benefit of a warrant.
Amid all the furor over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program a few years ago,
a mini-revolt was brewing over another type of federal snooping that was getting no public
attention at all. Federal prosecutors were seeking what seemed to be unusually sensitive records:
internal data from telecommunications companies that showed the locations of their customers'
cell phonessometimes in real time, sometimes after the fact. Prosecutors "were using the cell
phone as a surreptitious tracking device," said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston.
"And I started asking the U.S. Attorney's Office, 'What is the legal authority for this? What is the
legal standard for getting this information?'" Those questions are now at the core of a
constitutional clash between President Obama's Justice Department and civil libertarians
alarmed by what they see as the government's relentless intrusion into the private lives of
citizens. There are numerous other fronts in the privacy warsabout the content of e-mails, for
instance, and access to bank records and credit-card transactions. The Feds now can quietly get
all that information. But cell-phone tracking is among the more unsettling forms of government
surveillance, conjuring up Orwellian images of Big Brother secretly following your movements
through the small device in your pocket.
Note: For many key reports from major media sources on the disturbing trend toward increasing
government and corporate surveillance, click here.

Battle Over the Bailout

2010-02-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/nyregion/14fed.html
Mark Pittman, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg News ... filed a Freedom of Information Act
request with the Federal Reserve Board, seeking the details of its unprecedented efforts to funnel
money to the collapsing banks of Wall Street. That was in September 2008. Just more than a year
later, Mr. Pittman ... died unexpectedly at age 52. But his cause has persevered. It is now known
as Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, an attempt to unlock the vault of
the largest Wall Street rescue plan in decades or, as the legal briefs put it, to break down a wall

of secrecy that the Fed has kept in place for nearly two years in its controversial use of public
money to prop up financial institutions. The Federal Reserve has wrapped itself in secrecy
since the turn of the 20th century, when a select group of financiers met at the private
Jekyll Island Club off the eastern coast of Georgia and, forgoing last names to preserve
their anonymity among the staff, drafted legislation to create a central bank. Its secrecy, of
course, persists today, with Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, refusing to tell even
Congress which banks received government money under the bailout. There is also a heated
battle to force the Fed to disclose its role in the controversial attempt to save the insurance giant
American International Group.
Note: Isn't it interesting that Pittman died at age 52 while trying to expose manipulations of the big
bankers? For a one-minute video proving the existence of a secret weapon which can cause an
undetectable heart attack, click here. For a concise, excellent background on the hidden role of the
Federal Reserve, click here.

Terror suspect allowed to keep visa by intelligence officials

2010-01-27, Detroit News
http://detnews.com/article/20100127/NATION/1270405/Terror-suspect-kept-visa-t...
The State Department didn't revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top
State Department official revealed. Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at
the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away because intelligence officials
asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist. "Revocation action would have
disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on
Homeland Security. Since the failed attack, criticism has swirled around leaders of the U.S.
intelligence community who have indicated they were warned by the suspect's father about a
month before the flight of a potential terror threat, but failed to stop Abdmutallab, despite other
warning signs like the fact that he purchased a one-way ticket to Detroit with cash.
Note: So federal counterterrorism officials stopped the bomber's visa from being revoked.
Hmmmm... Clearly there is more going on in this case than "failure to connect the dots." Why
aren't other major media reporting this important story? Kurt Haskell, a key eyewitness passenger
who almost lost his life, has written a powerfully revealing blog piece on what he thinks is really
going on, available here. For more on this key case, click here.

David Kelly death evidence 'to be kept secret for 70 years'

2010-01-25, Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7066383/David-Kelly-death-evidence-to-...

A highly unusual ruling by Lord Hutton, who chaired the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, means
medical records including the post-mortem report will remain classified until after all those with a
direct interest in the case are dead. And a 30-year secrecy order has been placed on written
records provided to Lord Hutton's inquiry which were not produced in evidence. Liberal Democrat
MP Norman Baker, who has conducted his own investigations into Dr Kelly's death, described the
order as "astonishing". Dr Kelly's body was found in woods close to his Oxfordshire home in
2003, shortly after it was revealed that he was the source of a BBC report casting doubt on
the Government's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction capable of being fired
within 45 minutes. An inquest was suspended by then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, who ruled
that Lord Hutton's inquiry could take its place. But ... the inquiry focused more on the question of
how the BBC report came to be broadcast than on the medical explanation for Dr Kelly's death.
Lord Hutton's report in 2004 concluded that Dr Kelly killed himself by cutting an artery in his wrist.
But the finding has been challenged by doctors who claim that the weapons inspector's stated
injuries were not serious enough.
Note: For a cache of illuminating reports on government secrecy, click here.

Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List

2010-01-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/nyregion/14watchlist.html
The Transportation Security Administration ... has on its web site a mythbuster that tries to
reassure the public. Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy. Buster: No 8-year-old is on a
T.S.A. watch list. Meet Mikey Hicks, said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a
New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle
because he shares the name of a suspicious person. Its not a myth. Hickss mother initially
sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at
an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name was on the list, she recalled. The first
time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.
After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this years
vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more
aggressively on the way home. Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch someone
is patting your 8-year-old down like hes a criminal, Mrs. Hicks recounted. It is true that Mikey
is not on the federal governments no-fly list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10
percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the
larger selectee list, which sets off a high level of security screening.
Note: For many reports from major media sources on the extreme loss of liberties brought about
by the highly touted "war on terrorism," click here.

Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets

2010-01-12, BusinessWeek/Bloomberg News

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-12/federal-reserve-seeks-to-protect-...
The Federal Reserve asked a U.S. appeals court to block a ruling that for the first time
would force the central bank to reveal secret identities of financial firms that might have
collapsed without the largest government bailout in U.S. history. Bloomberg argued that the
public has the right to know basic information about the unprecedented and highly controversial
use of public money. Banks and the Fed warn that bailed-out lenders may be hurt if the
documents are made public, causing a run or a sell-off by investors. New York-based Bloomberg
... sued in November 2008 after the Fed refused to name the firms it lent to or disclose the
amounts or assets used as collateral under its lending programs. Bloomberg has been trying for
almost two years to break down a brick wall of secrecy in order to vindicate the publics right to
learn basic information, Thomas Golden, an attorney for the company with Willkie Farr &
Gallagher LLP, wrote in court filings. More than a dozen other groups or companies filed amicus,
or friend-of-the-court, briefs, including the American Society of News Editors and individual news
organizations. The judge postponed the application of her ruling to allow the appeals court to
consider the case.
Note: When doling out trillions of dollars of tax-payers' money, doesn't the public have a right to
know who is receiving the money and what it is being used for?

Is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive?

2010-01-09, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8444069.stm
Osama Bin Laden died eight years ago during the battle for Tora Bora in Afghanistan, either from a
US bomb or from a serious kidney disease. Or so the conspiracy theory goes. The theory that has
developed on the web since 9/11 is that US intelligence services are manufacturing the Bin Laden
statements ... to justify the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and back at home.
Numerous audio and video statements purporting to be from Bin Laden have been released, but
their authenticity has been continually questioned. The veracity of all of the videos is questioned by
David Ray Griffin, a former theology professor and member of the 9/11 Truth Movement, which
also questions mainstream accounts of the attack on the World Trade Centre. "None of them can
be proven to be authentic," he says. "At least three of them can be shown to be almost
certainly fake. And if somebody is faking Bin Laden videos, then that leads to the suspicion
that all the videos and audio tapes have been faked." His first example is a video released by
the US Department of Defense in December 2001. In it, [the] Bin Laden [figure] confesses to 9/11,
yet Mr Griffin points out that al-Qaeda has only rarely admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks.
He also maintains that the Bin Laden figure looks very different to previous footage - fatter, with
shorter fingers, and that he is even writing with the wrong hand.
Note: To see how easily audio and video materials can be faked, read excerpts from this
Washington Post article. WantToKnow supporter David Ray Griffin has written extensively about
the evidence regarding whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead, including his recent book,

Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? BBC also interviewed former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto, who stated in 2007 that bin Laden was dead. She was murdered one month later. For
more on this, click here

Is the Fed rigging the stock market?

2010-01-05, MSN Money
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/top-stocks/blog.aspx?post=1528464
It is not illegal for the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Treasury to buy S&P 500 futures. This type of
intervention could explain some of the unusual market action in recent months, with stock prices
grinding higher on low volume even as companies sold huge amounts of new shares and retail
investors stayed on the sidelines. Some market watchers have charted that virtually all of the
markets upside since mid-September has come from after-hours futures activity. [These
claims are] based on an analysis of the possible sources of the $600 billion in net new cash that
was needed to boost the U.S. stock market capitalization by $6 billion since March. The usual
sources, such as retail investors and pension funds, could muster only about $100 billion. The rest
had to come from somewhere. The Fed has been openly buying some $1.7 trillion worth of
long-term bonds since last March, which is something it hasn't done since the 1950s. Today,
the Fed is making purchases to support housing by keeping mortgages cheap. As these
purchases are phased out over the next few months, long-term interest rates will continue to move
higher. This will cause long-term bond prices to fall, causing this new "bond bubble" to deflate.
Stock investors will benefit, just as they did in the 1950s and 1960s as capital was moved from
falling bonds into rising stocks.
Note: For a treasure trove of key reports from reliable sources on the secret manipulations
keeping Wall Street afloat, click here.

Use of potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under law

2010-01-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/03/AR20100103021...
Of the 84,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States -- from flame retardants in
furniture to household cleaners -- nearly 20 percent are secret, according to the Environmental
Protection Agency, their names and physical properties guarded from consumers and virtually all
public officials under a little-known federal provision. Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control
Act, manufacturers must report to the federal government new chemicals they intend to market.
But the law exempts from public disclosure any information that could harm their bottom
line. Government officials, scientists and environmental groups say that manufacturers have
exploited weaknesses in the law to claim secrecy for an ever-increasing number of chemicals. In
the past several years, 95 percent of the notices for new chemicals sent to the government
requested some secrecy, according to the Government Accountability Office. About 700

chemicals are introduced annually. Some companies have successfully argued that the federal
government should not only keep the names of their chemicals secret but also hide from public
view the identities and addresses of the manufacturers.
Note: So according to this law, the bottom line (profits) trumps public health. For lots more on
corporate and government secrecy, click here.

US aid tied to purchase of arms

2010-01-02, Sydney Mountain Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-aid-tied-to-purchase-of-arms-20100101-llsb.html
Just before Christmas, the US President, Barack Obama, signed into law one of his country's
biggest aid pledges of the year. It was bound not for Africa or any of the many struggling countries
on the World Bank's list. It was a deal for $US2.77 billion ($3 billion) to go to Israel in 2010 and
a total of $US30 billion over the next decade. Israel is bound by the agreement to use 75 per
cent of the aid to buy military hardware made in the US. For the first time the US is also
providing $US500 million to the Palestinian Authority, including $US100 million to train security
forces, under the strict proviso that the authority's leadership recognises Israel. For many years
Israel has been the largest recipient of US foreign aid, followed by Egypt ($US1.75 billion), which
also receives most of its assistance in tied military aid. The Congressional Research Service says
that the US spent 17 per cent of its total aid budget - or $US5.1 billion - on military aid in 2008, of
which $US4.7 billion was grants to enable governments to receive equipment from the US.
Note: Israel's population is 7.5 million. If you do the math, the US is providing the equivalent of
$4,000 in aid to every man, woman and child in Israel over the next decade, with $3,000 of
that to buy US military hardware. For lots more on government-facilitated profiteering in the arms
industry, click here and here.

Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

2009-12-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html
Pension funds and insurance companies lost billions of dollars on securities that they believed
were solid investments, according to former Goldman employees with direct knowledge of the
deals who asked not to be identified because they have confidentiality agreements with the firm.
Goldman was not the only firm that peddled these complex securities ... and then made
financial bets against them, called selling short in Wall Street parlance. Others that created
similar securities and then bet they would fail ... include Deutsche Bank and Morgan
Stanley, as well as smaller firms like Tricadia Inc., an investment company whose parent firm was
overseen by Lewis A. Sachs, who this year became a special counselor to Treasury Secretary
Timothy F. Geithner. How these disastrously performing securities were devised is now the subject
of scrutiny by investigators in Congress, at the Securities and Exchange Commission and at the

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. While the investigations are in the early phases,
authorities appear to be looking at whether securities laws or rules of fair dealing were violated by
firms that created and sold these mortgage-linked debt instruments and then bet against the
clients who purchased them, people briefed on the matter say.
Note: So the banks were betting that their own customers would lose money on their products.
Hmmmm. For lots of reliable, eye-opening reports on banking secrecy and corruption, click here.

Cattle mutilations baffle Colorado ranchers

2009-12-14, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-dead-calves14-2009dec14,0,...
Livestock are being found with eyes, tongues and other body parts cut neatly out. There are no
tracks or bloodstains. It's been happening, off and on, for decades. Manuel A. Sanchez has ruled
out every logical explanation for the fate that has befallen the calves on his ranch in southern
Colorado. Over the past month, he's found four calves dead in a way that he cannot reconcile with
anything in his 50 years of raising cattle: eyes and ears missing, tongues and genitals excised in
what appeared to be a series of fine cuts. Mountain lions, bears or coyotes would leave messier
marks, he said. And Sanchez found no tire tracks or footprints that would suggest a human invader
-- nor even bloodstains he'd expect to find around the carcasses if someone had butchered them.
It's not the first time. In the 1970s, ranchers in eastern and southern Colorado filed more than 200
mutilation reports, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation reports. The agency investigated,
even conducting an undercover operation, but to no avail. "It was such a bewilderment,"
recalled Tillie Bishop, a state senator at the time. Some people suspected satanic cults.
Others grew convinced of an otherworldly explanation -- space aliens. In the mid-1990s, 27
cattle in northern New Mexico were mutilated in 16 months, the Associated Press reported. Again,
ranchers found cattle with genitals removed, tongues cut off at the roots, and eyes and ears
missing. The incisions appeared to have been cauterized, they said.
Note: For a powerfully revealing documentary on UFOs with top military and government
witnesses, click here.

G30, Ripe for Conspiracy Theorists

2009-12-04, Wall Street Journal blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/12/04/g30-ripe-for-conspiracy-theorists
If you want to encourage the kind of conspiracy theories that have prospered in the wake of
last years financial crisis those that describe a secret cabal of elites running the world
try doing the following: Have a group of 30 high-powered economists, government officials
and bankers meet under the auspices of an international group that shares ideas on how to run the
global financial architecture. Have your Board of Trustees led by an influential former Federal
Reserve chairman whos now working as a senior advisor to the president of the United States.

Name the former vice chairman of bailout behemoth AIG as the groups Chairman and CEO (It
helps that he [is] former governor of the Bank of Israel). Ensure that membership includes the likes
of these: A former Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard who also now works as a top
presidential economic advisor; Citigroups senior vice chairman; a former IMF deputy managing
director and the current governor of the Bank of Israel; and top representatives of the worlds four
most important central banks. Hold two days of closed-door meetings at the New York Fed. Do not
publicize a list of attendees and leave everyone guessing about the agenda. These were the
circumstances surrounding Fridays start to the 62nd plenary meetings of the Group of 30,
whose formal name is The Consultative Group on International Economic and Monetary Affairs,
Inc.
Note: The article interestingly then goes on to claim that this secret meeting of the world's top
bankers is not really anything to worry about, that they are really working for the public good. If so,
why not have the meeting open and widely covered by the press? For many other revealing
articles from major media reports on secret societies and secret meetings of the most rich and
powerful people in our world, click here.

Public servants on $20m a year

2009-12-03, BBC News blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/12/public_servants_...
Twice a year, the chairmen and chief executives of Europe's biggest banks gather in secret.
They meet under the auspices of a hush-hush club formed after World War II, whose
operations are so mysterious that even the grandees who attend it seem unclear what it's
really called. One bank supremo told me its name was the Instituts d'Etudes Financieres ...
another that it went by the moniker IIEB. Either way, what I can tell you is that it attracts a pretty
high calibre of banker - and that its last meeting was just a few weeks ago at the plush London
hotel, Claridges, where the main item on the agenda was the topical question of bankers' bonuses.
Present were ... Stephen Green of HSBC, Philip Hampton of RBS, Marcus Agius of Barclays and
David Mayhew of JP Morgan Cazenove, and their counterparts from Germany, Italy, France and so
on. Now, let's be clear: the idea that banks would ever collude to solve a mutual problem would be
an outrageous and unwarranted slur. That said, they would dearly love a collective agreement to
cease hostilities on bankers' pay, because they know there is a one-to-one correlation between
each million pound bonus they pay and damage to their reputations. But although they explored
whether they could reach an entente on capping bankers' pay, they abandoned the ambition as a
hopeless cause. Why? Because they can't get the Americans into the room. So what is the going
rate for RBS's top profit generators? Last year, when the bonus pool was 900m [over $1.3 billion]
for the investment bank, several hundred of its executives earned more than a million pounds
each. [This year] quite a number of its top traders will be expecting $10m plus.
Note: You can bet that the money for this year's bonuses is coming out of taxpayers' pockets
through the huge bailouts. So here is yet another secret meeting of the world's top bankers not
being reported in the major media except for this BBC blog. For many other revealing articles from

major media reports on secret societies and secret meetings of the most rich and powerful people
in our world, click here.

The Lies They Told

2009-11-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Heilbrunn-t.html
When Sept. 11, 2001, dawned, the Northeast Air Defense Sector in Rome, N.Y., went on full alert
to prepare for a training exercise that envisioned a sneak attack by Russian planes flying over
the North Pole to bomb the United States, a prospect that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
had dismissed as outdated in 1966. Later that morning, ... three F-16 fighter jets were scrambled
from Langley Air Force Base to form a combat air patrol over Washington. But degraded radio
transmission quality meant that the pilots were left clueless about the nature of their mission. On
seeing the Pentagon in flames, the lead fighter pilot later explained, I reverted to the Russian
threat. Im thinking cruise missile threat from the sea. You know, you look down and see the
Pentagon burning, and I thought the bastards snuck one by us. You couldnt see any airplanes,
and no one told us anything. As senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, [Farmer] investigated
the derelict conduct of the national security apparatus. Now that numerous transcripts and tapes
have been declassified, [in his book The Ground Truth] Farmer draws on them to assail the
governments official depiction of 9/11 as so much public relations flimflam. Both Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, Farmer says, provided
palpably false versions that touted the militarys readiness to shoot down United 93 before
it could hit Washington. Planes were never in place to intercept it. Farmer ... was the attorney
general of New Jersey and is the dean of the Rutgers School of Law,
Note: For more on Farmer's book, see a summary of this Time magazine article. For more on this,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 news articles from reliable major media sources.

State to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web search

2009-11-10, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6534319/State...
Every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens is to be stored for
a year and will be available for monitoring by government bodies. All telecoms companies and
internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customers
personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as
the websites they have visited. Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of
surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including
police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and
even prison governors. They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the
information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy
head of department at a local authority. The Government announced yesterday it was pressing

ahead with privately held Big Brother databases that opposition leaders said amounted to
state-spying and a form of covert surveillance on the public. It is doing so despite its
own consultation showing that it has little public support. The new rules ... will not only force
communications companies to keep their records for longer, but to expand the type of data they
keep to include details of every website their customers visit.
Note: For many more reports from major media sources on the disturbing trend toward increasing
government and corporate surveillance and loss of privacy, click here.

How Goldman secretly bet on the housing crash

2009-11-01, Kansas City Star/McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.kansascity.com/437/story/1542453.html
In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at
least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp
drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Goldman's
sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown,
enabled one of the nation's premier investment banks to pass most of its potential losses
to others before a flood of mortgage loan defaults staggered the U.S. and global
economies. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman promoted as triple-A investments
were closer to junk. Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial
institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month
McClatchy Newspapers investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made
secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws. "The
Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that
secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product
or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said
Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul
of the nation's big banks. "This is fraud and should be prosecuted."
Note: For an eye-opening, powerful PBS video which reveals how the economic crisis was
conscously allowed to happen, click here. It reveals that Fed chairman Alan Greenspan was
against investigating any fraud. For many reports from reliable sources on corruption at the core of
the Wall Street collapse and bailout, click here.

Freedom of Information: Stalled at CDC and D.C. Government

2009-10-27, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/freedom-of-information-stalled-at-cdc-and-dc-gove...
In August 2009, CBS News made a simple request of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for public documents, e-mails and other materials CDC used to communicate to states
the decision to stop testing individual cases of Novel H1N1, or "swine flu." When the public affairs

folks at CDC refused to produce the documents and quit responding to my queries altogether, I
filed a formal Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the materials. Two months after my FOI
request, the CDC has yet to produce any of these easily retrievable materials. This has
become standard operating procedure in Washington. Today, I received a letter from the CDC
Freedom of Information office ... to inform me that my request for "expedited" treatment of my FOI
request has been denied because CDC has determined the request is "not a matter of widespread
and exceptional media and public interest." The CDC may be the only agency on the planet to
argue that testing and counting of swine flu cases is "not of widespread and exceptional
media and public interest." CBS News reporting on the topic has been quoted and reproduced
internationally by news organizations such as California NPR, radio talk shows and others. The
Freedom of Information Act ... was supposed to stop federal agencies from using their power and
control to withhold public information from the people who own it. Many federal agencies use it to
obstruct the delay or release of obviously public information.
Note: See powerful media reports suggesting that both the Avian Flu and Swine Flu were
manipulated to promote fear and boost pharmaceutical sales. For other verifiable information on
health corruption, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Health Information Center.

Secrets Of 'The Lost Symbol'

2009-10-27, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33280724/ns/dateline_nbc-newsmakers/t/secrets-los...
Dan Brown's best-selling novel, "The Lost Symbol," [reveals] part of the history of the secretive
brotherhood called the Freemasons. Dan Brown: [The book] raises provocative questions about
the beliefs of the man on the dollar bill, about the power of the human mind, about whether people
can become gods. George Washington was a Mason, along with 13 other presidents and
numerous Supreme Court Justices. Benjamin Franklin published a book about Freemasonry on
his own printing press. Nine signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons,
including ... John Hancock. The last master Mason to serve as president was Gerald Ford.
Freemasons have been accused of everything from murder to devil worship to secretly controlling
the U.S. government. Arturo de Hoyos is the grand archivist and grand historian of the supreme
council of the Scottish rite and himself a 33rd-degree Mason. Arturo de Hoyos: The father of our
country was a Freemason. And historians agree that some principles of Freemasonry became
cherished principles of the United States. Dan Brown: America wasn't founded a Christian country.
It became a Christian country. Many of the founding fathers were deists. Deists believe that a
supreme being created the universe, but that being is impersonal. The Masons celebrate mankind
and the power of the human mind. I hear about these experiments that are being done that
categorically and scientifically prove that the human mind has power over matter. Noetic science
really is the reason this book took me so long to write. Noetic scientists study whether age old
ideas like faith healing ESP, mind over matter actually have a scientific basis. Another
important aspect of Freemasonry is this idea of freedom of religion. The last word of the book is
one that will surprise people: hope.

Note: Watch this full, fascinating interview on the MSNBC webpage at the link above. If you don't
have time to read Brown's gripping novel, at least watch this video or read the text at the link
above. The book also describes the fascinating, little-known science of liquid breathing - the ability
to breathe while submerged in liquid. For more on this, click here and here. Many secret societies
came into existence to escape the oppressive hand of the church, but some also became quite
twisted. For lots more revealing information on secret societies, click here. and here. For a
surprising example of secret masonic symbols, click here.

Swine Flu Cases Overestimated

2009-10-21, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml
If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months,
you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didnt have H1N1 flu. In fact, you probably didnt
have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS
News investigation. Why the uncertainty about who has and who hasn't had H1N1 flu? In late
July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting
individual cases. CBS News learned that the decision to stop counting H1N1 flu cases was made
so hastily that states weren't given the opportunity to provide input. When CDC did not provide us
[CBS News] with the material, we filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS). More than two months later, the request has not been fulfilled.
We also asked CDC for state-by-state test results prior to halting of testing and tracking, but CDC
was again, initially, unresponsive. We asked all 50 states for their statistics on state lab-confirmed
H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July. The vast majority of cases were
negative for H1N1 as well as seasonal flu, despite the fact that many states were specifically
testing patients deemed to be most likely to have H1N1 flu, based on symptoms and risk factors,
such as travel to Mexico. With most cases diagnosed solely on symptoms and risk factors, the
H1N1 flu epidemic may seem worse than it is.
Note: Some states found that less than 2% of cases claimed to be swine flu turned out to be the
real thing. The numbers have been greatly exaggerated. Yet the drug companies raked in billions
of dollars in profit from all the fear mongering. For more reliable information on this, click here and
here.

Material missing from Oklahoma bombing tapes, lawyer says

2009-09-27, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-27-okla-city-bombing-tapes_N.htm
Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the
Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been
edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday. "The real story is what's missing,"
said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal

Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995,
bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. The tapes turned over by the FBI came
from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a
4,000-pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said. "Four
cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of
April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said. He said
government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing
because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced." "The absence of footage
from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI
doesn't want anybody to see." Trentadue said he is seeking more tapes along with a variety of
bombing-related documents from the FBI and the CIA. An FOIA request by Trentadue for 26 CIA
documents was rejected in June. A letter from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which
reviewed the documents, said their release "could cause grave damage to our national security."
Note: This revealing article also tells how Trentadue's brother was murdered by FBI agents who
mistakenly thought his brother was the bomber. For more valuable information on this and other
evidence challenging the official story of the Oklahoma City bombing, click here.

Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out

2009-08-29, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500690_162-5253431.html
Amid questions about the safety of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, one of the lead researchers for the
Merck drug is speaking out about its risks, benefits and aggressive marketing. Dr. Diane Harper
says young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the
vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Dr. Harper helped design and carry out the Phase II and Phase
III safety and effectiveness studies to get Gardasil approved, and authored many of the published,
scholarly papers about it. She has been a paid speaker and consultant to Merck. It's highly
unusual for a researcher to publicly criticize a medicine or vaccine she helped get
approved. Dr. Harper joins a number of consumer watchdogs, vaccine safety advocates, and
parents who question the vaccine's risk-versus-benefit profile. She says data available for
Gardasil shows that ... there is no data showing that it remains effective beyond five years.
This raises questions about the CDC's recommendation that the series of shots be given to
girls as young as 11-years old. "If we vaccinate 11 year olds and the protection doesn't last...
we've put them at harm from side effects, small but real, for no benefit," says Dr. Harper. "The
benefit to public health is nothing, there is no reduction in cervical cancers, they are just
postponed, unless the protection lasts for at least 15 years, and over 70% of all sexually active
females of all ages are vaccinated." She also says that enough serious side effects have been
reported after Gardasil use that the vaccine could prove riskier than the cervical cancer it purports
to prevent. Cervical cancer is usually entirely curable when detected early through normal Pap
screenings.

Note: For more on the dangers of vaccines, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Legislators for sale

2009-08-03, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32276889/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann
A special comment on health care reform in this country. The insurance industry owns the
Republican Party. Not exclusively. Pharma owns part of it, too. Hospitals and HMO's, another part.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota ... has thus far received from the Health Sector, campaign
contributions ... amounting to $1,206,176. How about Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite? Are you truly
worth every dollar of the $369,000,255 ... you have received over the years from the Health
Sector? [And Democrat] Bart Gordon of Tennessee ... $1,173,000 in donations from the
Health Sector. [Democratic Senator] Max Baucus of Montana, ... you're supposed to be
negotiating all this out with the Republicans and hesitant Democrats? Your price has been ...
$414,000 in donations from hospitals, about $667,000 from the insurance companies and just over
$1,000,000 from Big Pharma. Mr. Baucus, you are not the Senator from Schering-Plough Global
Health Care, even if they have already given you $76,000 towards your re-election. We could bring
up Senator Hagan ... who, at $628,000, appears to represent the insurance industry and not North
Dakota. I could bring up Sen. Carper, and Sen. Blanche Lincoln. I could bring up all the other
Democrats doing their masters' bidding in the House or the Senate. Every poll, every analysis,
every vote, every region of this country supports health care reform, and the essential great
leveling agent of a government-funded alternative to ... profiteering private insurance corporations.
Note: For an excellent analysis of the huge influence of the pharmaceutical industry over our
government by the former editor-in-chief of the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine, click
here. It's time to get the money influence out of politics and shift from our current one dollar equals
one vote to one person equals one vote.

Sticker Shock: $23.7 Trillion Bailout?

2009-07-21, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Politics/story?id=8140184
"The total potential federal government support could reach up to $23.7 trillion," says Neil
Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in a report
released today on the government's efforts to fix the financial system. "The potential financial
commitment the American taxpayers could be responsible for is of a size and scope that isn't even
imaginable," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member on the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee. "If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth
of Christ, that wouldn't even come close to just $1 trillion -- $23.7 trillion is a staggering
figure." The government has about 50 different programs to fight the current recession, including
programs to bail out ailing banks and automakers, boost lending and beat back the housing crisis.

So far they've cost taxpayers around $4 trillion. But Barofsky says if each federal agency spent the
maximum potential amount involved in these initiatives, taxpayers could be on the hook for trillions
more. The watchdog also warned today that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars could be lost if
the government does not increase the transparency of the TARP program, which he says has
grown to an unprecedented scope and scale. Requiring TARP recipients to report on how
government funds are used is among the recommendations urged by Barofsky. He also wants the
department to report on the values of its TARP portfolio so taxpayers know about the value of their
investments.
Note: For a treasure trove of revelations from reliable sources on the hidden realities behind the
Wall Street bailout, click here.

Washington's C Street House at Congress Run by Secretive 'The Family'

2009-07-13, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31890176
The secretive religious group, the Family, ... appears to be the connective tissue of the Senator
Ensign sex scandal and the Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina sex scandal. Its a mystery
that concerns this house at 133 C Street Southeast in Washington, D.C. This buildings financial
paper trail [shows] that its actually considered to be a church. That designation makes C
Street a convenient tax-free haven for the secretive organization that runs it, an
organization known as the Family. Members of Congress who live there are sworn to
secrecy. This powerful, poorly understood religious group ... and the house at C Street have
ended up reluctantly in the headlines now because of the two major politicians sex scandals.
Embattled Nevada Senator John Ensign lives at the C Street house. Prominent members of the
Family ... as well as other members of Congress who live at C Streetwere both aware of
Ensigns secret affair and were involved in his efforts to pay off the mistress and her family. South
Carolina Governor Mark Sanford mentioned C Street by name in his long public statement of
regret about his affair with a woman in Argentina. Jeff Sharlet ... secretly infiltrated the family to
write a book [The Family] about them. SHARLET: They like to call themselves the Christian mafia.
They mean this in the sense of money moving quietly behind the scenes. Where the money goes
they believe God goes. Douglas Coe, "The Family" leader, ... again and again [uses] the
model of Hitler as an ideal of strength. Its not that hes a neo-Nazi. Its that they fetishize
strength. They look for the leader who they believe is chosen by God. Evidence [of this] is his
power, his wealth, and his willingness to align himself with their version of American power.
Note: To watch a stunning MSNBC video clip on "the Family," click here. For how political sex
scandals may be much more commonplace than you might think, click here. And for powerful
inside information from one who claims to have escaped from "the family," and another who says
he is from a very high level there, click here and here. To develop an understanding of the bigger
picture behind all of this, click here.

Affordable Health Care on the Critical List

2009-07-10, PBS Bill Moyers Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch3.html
Quality, affordable health care is on the critical list in America. And so is the newspaper business.
So maybe it's not surprising that one of the most powerful papers in the country attempted an
unholy alliance, trying to turn a profit from its newsroom's coverage of the fight for health care
reform. You may have missed the story because it broke on the eve of the July 4th weekend. The
publisher of The Washington Post, Katharine Weymouth one of the most powerful people
in the nation's capital invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and
Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform
with some of her reporters and editors covering the story. But she then invited CEOs and
lobbyists from the health care industry to come, too providing they fork over $25,000 a
head, or a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy little gettogethers. And what is the inducement she offers them? Nothing less than and I'm quoting the
invitation verbatim "An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health care reform debate
among the select few who will actually get it done." The invitation promises this private, intimate,
and off-the-record dinner is an extension "of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into
the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard." Let that sink in. The
"stakeholders" in health care reform in this case do not include the rabble the folks across the
country who actually need quality health care but can't afford it. If any of them showed up at the
kitchen door on the night of this little soiree, a bouncer would drop kick them beyond the beltway.
Note: To read the complete text, click on the link above and scroll below the video box at the top of
the page. For an excellent article on the Washington Post's ties to the CIA and manipulative
politics, click here.

Senate Blocks Bid to Audit Federal Reserve

2009-07-09, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,531045,00.html
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, HOST: Despite growing pressure from the House and ordinary
people, the Senate decided not to increase scrutiny on the Federal Reserve. They actually blocked
a bid on procedural grounds to have the Government Accountability Office audit the Federal
Reserve and issue a report. Here is Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Senator DeMint, ... Why
should the Federal Reserve be audited? DEMINT: Well, the value of our dollar, our whole
economic system, rides on [this] unelected, secret agency called the Federal Reserve. We're not
sure what they're doing right now. And Ron Paul in the House with over half of the House signing
up as cosponsors, and me and Bernie Sanders in the Senate are pushing the idea of a complete
audit of the Federal Reserve, because frankly, a lot of us here in this country and around the world,
are concerned that we're going to destroy the American dollar and the worldwide reserve currency.
NAPOLITANO: How is it that legislation that has more than half the members of the House
behind it and is proposed by a staunch conservative Republican like you and then

independent socialists like Bernie Sanders is stopped on the floor of the Senate cold before
you can even formally introduce it, before you can make a speech in favor of it? DEMINT:
Well, if we could get the Federal Reserve under control, it would make it more difficult for the
Obama administration, I think, to carry out the continued spending and growing of debt. Because
one thing we're concerned about is the Federal Reserve ... will do what we call monetize the debt,
basically print money, buy our own debt as a country, and devalue the dollar that way.
Note: For two powerful, short videos revealing efforts to expose the intriguing secrets of the
Federal Reserve, click here and here. If you care about the financial health of the U.S. and its
implications in our world, these are both must watch videos.

America's poor are its most generous donors

2009-05-23, Seattle Times/McClatchy News
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009253657_charity23.html
When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald's recently, he
bought the man a cheeseburger. There's nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is
homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsize chunk of the $9.50 he'd earned that
day panhandling. The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In
fact, the nation's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys
of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the
generosity of richer givers does. "The lowest-income fifth [of the population] always give at more
than their capacity," said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent
Sector, a Washington, D.C.-based association of nonprofit agencies. "The next two-fifths give at
capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give." The
Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest survey of consumer expenditure found that the poorest
fifth of U.S. households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charitable
organizations in 2007. The richest fifth gave at less than half that rate, 2.1 percent. The
figures probably undercount remittances by legal and illegal immigrants to family and friends back
home, a multibillion-dollar outlay to which the poor contribute disproportionally. None of the middle
fifths of U.S. households, in contrast, gave away as much as 3 percent of their incomes. What
makes poor people's generosity even more impressive is that their giving generally isn't tax
deductible, because they don't earn enough to itemize their charitable tax deductions.

'Bailout psychology' destroying the economy

2009-04-05, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/04/INR316Q4F5.DTL
President Obama must stop the bailouts and start the prosecutions. It's time to focus on antipoverty programs to protect the growing unemployed from hunger and homelessness. Stealth
payments to billionaire bondholders must cease immediately. Since the mid-1970s, average
Americans' wages have stayed flat when adjusted for inflation. Productivity rose, profits

rose, but not wages. To compensate for stagnant wages and the desire to consume more
each year, Americans worked more, retired later, spouses went to work, and many burned
savings. Then they started borrowing. Debt became America's growth industry. The scheme
collapsed because Americans' wages weren't sufficient to pay the interest on existing debts. The
administration and the banks keep talking about a credit crisis, but there isn't one. Banks are
lending. If you want a mortgage and can afford to pay it back, you can borrow at low rates today.
But most Americans don't want more debt because it is a debilitating path to poverty. The average
American family already pays 14 percent of annual income in interest to banks. To fix this fake
crisis, there are fake discussions about what the government must do. The endlessly recycled plan
to buy "troubled" assets isn't to get banks lending again, because they haven't stopped lending.
The plan seeks for taxpayers to buy worthless assets at high prices to absorb rich investors'
losses. That's it. It keeps coming back as a different plan, but with that same goal. There is no goal
beyond that one goal: keep rich people from taking losses.
Note: For an extensive archive of key reports on the hidden realities of the Wall Street bailout,
click here.

The Road to Area 51

2009-04-05, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/la-mag-april052009-backstory,0,786384.story
Area 51. It's the most famous military institution in the world that doesn't officially exist. If it did, it
would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada's high desert. Then again, maybe
not the U.S. government refuses to say. You can't drive anywhere close to it, and until recently,
the airspace overhead was restricted all the way to outer space. Any mention of Area 51 gets
redacted from official documents, even those that have been declassified for decades. It has
become the holy grail for conspiracy theorists, with UFOlogists positing that the Pentagon reverse
engineers flying saucers and keeps extraterrestrial beings stored in freezers. Urban legend has it
that Area 51 is connected by underground tunnels and trains to other secret facilities
around the country. Well, now, for the first time, someone is ready to talk in fact, five men
are, and their stories rival the most outrageous of rumors. Colonel Hugh "Slip" Slater, 87, was
commander of the Area 51 base in the 1960s. Edward Lovick, 90, ... spent three decades radar
testing some of the world's most famous aircraft. Kenneth Collins, 80, a CIA experimental test pilot,
was given the silver star. Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, was an Area 51 special-projects engineer.
And Harry Martin, 77, was one of the men in charge of the base's half-million-gallon monthly
supply of spy-plane fuels. As for the underground-tunnel talk ... Barnes worked on a nuclear-rocket
program ... in Area 51's backyard. "Three test-cell facilities were connected by railroad, but
everything else was underground," he says.
Note: So the government has been lying to us for 50 years about Area 51 and underground
research there. What else are they lying to us about? For a more powerful, incisive article on this
development, click here. And why isn't this getting more coverage? For another report showing
major media cover-up of UFOs, click here.

Several Clay County Officials Arrested On Federal Charges

2009-03-21, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29778909
Five Clay County [Kentucky] officials, including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and
election officers were arrested Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges accusing them
of using corrupt tactics to obtain political power and personal gain. The 10-count indictment,
unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November
2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The
defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure
voters' rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud. According to the indictment, these alleged
criminal actions affected the outcome of federal, local, and state primary and general
elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006. Clay County Circuit Court Judge Russell Cletus Maricle, 65,
and school superintendent Douglas C. Adams, 57, allegedly used their status in the county to
influence the appointment of corrupt members to the Clay County Board of Election Officials. [They
also] caused election officers to commit acts of extortion, mail fraud, and bribery. Clay County
Clerk, Freddy Thompson, 45, allegedly provided money to election officers to be distributed by the
officers to buy votes. He also instructed officers how to change votes at the voting machine.
Paul E. Bishop, 60, ... hosted alleged meetings at his home where money was pooled together by
candidates and distributed to election officers, including himself. He was also accused of
instructing the officers how to change votes at the voting machine. The investigation preceding the
indictment was conducted by the FBI, Kentucky State Police, and Appalachia
Note: For some strange reason, the article is no longer available at the link above. To read it on an
MSNBC affiliate website, click here. The media have almost always proclaimed that voting
maching tampering has never been proven to affect election outcome. This article demonstrates
that not only does it happen, but it may be much more prevalent than most would think. For more
on this indictment, click here. For more reliable information on widespread election fraud, click
here.

Solar Panel Drops to $1 per Watt

2009-02-26, Popular Mechanics
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4306443.html
A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.based First
Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had
dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. With comparable costs for standard silicon panels
still hovering in the $3 range, it's tempting to conclude that First Solar's cadmium telluride (CdTe)
technology has won the race. But if we're concerned about the big picture (scaling up solar until it's
a cheap and ubiquitous antidote to global warming and foreign oil) a forthcoming study from the
University of CaliforniaBerkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that
neither material has what it takes compared to lesser-known alternatives such aswe're not

kiddingfool's gold. Even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10
yearsslightly higher than the rapid growth of the past yearphotovoltaics would still only
account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity, LBNL researcher Cyrus Wadia says. "First Solar
is great, as long as we're talking megawatts or gigawatts," he says. "But as soon as they have to
start rolling out terawatts, that's where I believe they will reach some limitations." Even the current
rate of growth won't be easy to sustain. Despite the buck-per-watt announcement, First Solar's
share price plummeted more than 20 percent on Wednesday, thanks to warnings from CEO Mike
Ahearn about the effect of the credit crisis on potential solar customersas much as 10 to 15
percent of current orders might default.
Note: Solar energy costs have dropped consistently and steadily over the past 30 years. In the
late 1970s solar energy cost $100 per watt. The price will almost certainly continue to drop. The
San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2005 that "the electricity currently provided by utilities ...
averages $1 per watt." Why isn't it being trumpeted loudly worldwide in the media that solar energy
is reaching parity with traditional energy sources? Could it be that powerful interests don't want
solar energy to be competitive with oil and nuclear?

Pentagon sets sights on public opinion

2009-02-05, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29040299/
The Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls "the
human terrain" of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading
propaganda at home in violation of federal law. An Associated Press investigation found that over
the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and
abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of
Defense budgets and other documents. That's almost as much as it spent on body armor for
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. This year, the Pentagon will employ
27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations almost as many as
the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department. The biggest chunk of funds
about $1.6 billion goes into recruitment and advertising. Another $547 million goes into public
affairs, which reaches American audiences. And about $489 million more goes into what is
known as psychological operations. Staffing across all these areas costs about $2.1 billion, as
calculated by the number of full-time employees and the military's average cost per service
member. That's double the staffing costs for 2003. Recruitment and advertising are the only two
areas where Congress has authorized the military to influence the American public. Far more
controversial is public affairs, because of the prohibition on propaganda to the American public.
Note: For more revealing reports from reliable sources on the realities of the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq, click here.

Whistleblower exposes spying on Americans

2009-01-22, MSNBC Countdown With Keith Olberman

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28794766/
OLBERMANN: It has taken less than 24 hours after the Bush presidency ended for a former
analyst at the National Security Agency to come forward to reveal new allegations about how this
nation was spied on by its own government. Russell Tice [reveals] that under the collar of fighting
terrorism, the Bush administration was also targeting specific groups of Americans for surveillance.
TICE: The National Security Agency had access to all Americans communications, faxes,
phone calls, and their computer communications. They monitored all communications.
What was done was a sort of an ability to look at the meta data, the signaling data for
communications, and ferret that information to determine what communications would ultimately
be collected. Basically, filtering out sort of like sweeping everything with that meta data, and then
cutting down ultimately what you are going to look at and what is going to be collected, and in the
long run have an analyst look at, you know, needles in a haystack for what might be of interest.
OLBERMANN: I mention that you say specific groups were targeted. What group or groups can
you tell us about? TICE: [Some of the groups they] collected on were U.S. news organizations and
reporters and journalists. The collection ... was 24/7, and you know, 365 days a year, and it made
no sense.
Note: To watch this revealing clip on video, click here. For many reports on government
surveillance and invasions of privacy, click here.

U.S. Embassy in Iraq Largest, Most Expensive Ever

2009-01-05, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,476464,00.html
After much delay the United States opened its new $700 million embassy in Iraq on Monday,
inaugurating the largest and most expensive embassy ever built. The compound is six
times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the size of the
National Mall in Washington. It has space for 1,000 employees with six apartment blocks
and is 10 times larger than any other U.S. embassy. Critics have said that the embassy's
fortress-like design and immense size show a fundamental disconnect between the U.S. and
conditions on the ground in Iraq. The presence of a massive U.S. embassy by far the largest in
the world co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an
indication of who actually exercises power in their country, the International Crisis Group, a
European-based research group, said in 2006. "The idea of an embassy this huge, this costly, and
this isolated from events taking place outside its walls is not necessarily a cause for celebration,"
architectural historian Jane Loeffler wrote in Foreign Affairs in 2007. Although the U.S.
Government regularly proclaims confidence in Iraqs democratic future, the U.S. has designed an
embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for their future. Instead, the U.S. has
built a fortress capable of sustaining a massive, long-term presence in the face of continued
violence.

Note: Why would the U.S. want Iraq (estimated population 28 million) to have an embassy 10
times or more larger than that of China (over a billion people), Canada, Japan, or for that matter
many other countries? And why isn't any major media besides Fox even raising this key question?
Look at the AP article which has virtually nothing critical. Could this possibly have anything to do
with control of oil and other precious resources there?

Have UFOs shut down our government's defense systems?

2008-12-31, CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0812/31/lkl.01.html
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, have UFOs shut down our government's defense systems? There is
evidence that something caused missiles to malfunction during test launches. Former Air Force
officers tell their incredible story about the film that was confiscated by the CIA and what was on it
and why officials don't want us to see it. Our first guests claim UFOs have activated missile
systems at five Air Force Bases in five different states. They also claim a cover-up, that the United
States government is keeping the information secret. Robert Hastings [is] author of UFOs and
Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites. He has been investigating sightings
at weapon sites for years. Bob Salas is a former captain [in] the United States Air Force. He was at
Malstrom Air Force Base in 1967, where there were claims that a UFO caused missiles to
malfunction. He's co-author of Faded Giant: the 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents. Bob Jamison is ... a
former U.S. Air Force officer. He was at Malstrom, as well, in 1967 and he says his superiors told
him UFOs caused the malfunctions. And ... Dr. Bob Jacobs, ... former U.S. Air Force photographic
instrumentation officer. A UFO showed up on film that he shot in 1954 at Vandenberg Air Force
Base and that was later confiscated by CIA agents. What's your explanation for UFOs at
nuclear weapon sites? ROBERT HASTINGS: There are hundreds of declassified documents
which indicate that UFOs have demonstrated a distinct and ongoing interest in our nuclear
weapons sites. I've also interviewed nearly a hundred [men] who were involved in these
incidents at various Air Force bases. This is very widespread.
Note: Don't miss this fascinating CNN broadcast. Robert Salas provided WantToKnow.info with an
excellent summary of his personal research on the astounding UFO event of which he was a part.
For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Meet Jasmine, the dog who has become a surrogate mother for the 50th
time
2008-12-31, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1103645/Meet-Jasmine-rescue-dog-surro...
When Jasmine the abandoned greyhound arrived at a wildlife sanctuary shivering and desperate
for food, she needed all the love in the world to nurse her back to full health. Now it appears the
kindness and patience shown to her has rubbed off for the ... dog has become a surrogate

mother for the 50th time. Seven-year-old Jasmine is currently caring for tiny Bramble, an 11-weekold roe deer fawn found semi-conscious in a nearby field. She cuddles up to her to keep her warm,
showers her with affection and makes sure nothing is matted in her fur. She has had plenty of
practice, having cared for five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray
puppies and even 15 rabbits. Jasmine was brought to the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife
Sanctuary by the police in 2003, having been found dumped in a garden shed. She was cold, filthy
and malnourished. It took a few weeks for her to fully trust staff at the centre but with tender loving
care she was nursed back to full fitness. Five years on, Jasmine is now the one looking after stray
waifs. Geoff Grewcock, who runs the sanctuary, said: "She simply dotes on the animals as if
they were her own, it's incredible to see. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps
them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings. As soon as an
animal is brought in, she walks over takes a sniff or two and then licks and cuddles them. It
is quite amazing."
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane

2008-12-20, New York Times
http://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/stocks/news/press_release.asp?docKey=6...
Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George
Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three
miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a non-profit that has been investigating
Mr. Connell's activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell
has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George
Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick
Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus." A tipster close to the McCain campaign
disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell's life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had
threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR's attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States
Attorney General, Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that
Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell's not to
fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very
experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of
suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport
outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he
crashed.
Note: WantToKnow.info supporter Dr. Josh Mitteldorf downloaded this essay from the New York
Times website the day it was published, but then was surprised to find it removed the very next
day. You can find the article as it originally appeared at this link. For an excellent OpEdNews article

by Dr. Mitteldorf on this most strange death and why it matters, click here. And for the deposition of
Stephen Spoonamore, a Republican insider and computer consultant who came out as
whistleblower on this matter, click here.

The Madoff Economy

2008-12-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19krugman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&...
The revelation that Bernard Madoff brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought),
philanthropist, pillar of the community was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably
so. The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend. Yet ... how different,
really, is Mr. Madoffs tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole? The financial
services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nations income over the past
generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if
much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it. And its not just a matter of
money: the vast riches achieved by those who managed other peoples money have had a
corrupting effect on our society as a whole. Last year, the average salary of employees in
securities, commodity contracts, and investments was more than four times the average salary in
the rest of the economy. Earning a million dollars was nothing special, and even incomes of $20
million or more were fairly common. The incomes of the richest Americans have exploded over the
past generation, even as wages of ordinary workers have stagnated. High pay on Wall Street was
a major cause of that divergence. Wall Streets ill-gotten gains corrupted and continue to
corrupt politics, in a nicely bipartisan way. From Bush administration officials ... who looked the
other way as evidence of financial fraud mounted, to Democrats who still havent closed the
outrageous tax loophole that benefits executives at hedge funds and private equity firms ...
politicians have walked when money talked. The pay system on Wall Street lavishly rewards
the appearance of profit, even if that appearance later turns out to have been an illusion.
Note: This entire, penetrating article is well worth a read at the link above. For many revealing
reports from reliable sources on the realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.

US diluted loan rules before crash

2008-12-01, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/business&id=6532267
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interestonly mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of
the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold
the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch
wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a
job. Bowing to aggressive lobbying - along with assurances from banks that the troubled

mortgages were OK - regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were
released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was
under way. The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of its governing
philosophy, which trusted market forces and discounted the value of government intervention in
the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since
the 1930s. Many of the banks that fought to undermine the proposals by some regulators are now
either out of business or accepting billions in federal aid to recover from a mortgage crisis they
insisted would never come. In 2005, faced with ominous signs the housing market was in jeopardy,
bank regulators proposed new guidelines for banks writing risky loans. Those proposals all were
stripped from the final rules.
Note: For many revealing reports on the Wall Street bailout from reliable sources, click here.

All Fall Down

2008-11-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26friedman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss...
I spent Sunday afternoon brooding over a [New York Times] front-page article, entitled ["Citigroup
Saw No Red Flags Even as It Made Bolder Bets]. In searing detail it exposed ... how some of our
countrys best-paid bankers were overrated dopes who had no idea what they were selling, or
greedy cynics who did know and turned a blind eye. But it wasnt only the bankers. This
financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility,
government regulation and financial ethics. So many people were in on it: People who had
no business buying a home, with nothing down and nothing to pay for two years; people who had
no business pushing such mortgages, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business
bundling those loans into securities and selling them to third parties, as if they were AAA bonds,
but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business rating those loans as AAA, but made
fortunes doing so; and people who had no business buying those bonds and putting them on their
balance sheets so they could earn a little better yield, but made fortunes doing so. Citigroup was
involved in, and made money from, almost every link in that chain. And the banks executives,
including ...the former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, were ... so ensnared by the cronyism
between the banks risk managers and risk takers (and so bought off by their bonuses) that they
had no interest in stopping it. These are the people whom taxpayers bailed out on Monday to the
tune of what could be more than $300 billion.
Note: For many revealing reports on the Wall Street bailout from major media sources, click here.

Treasury gives banks multi-billion tax break windfall

2008-11-11, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/11/BUTP141OVI.DTL

Some of the nation's biggest banks are in for a windfall on top of the $700 billion
government bailout thanks to a new tax policy quietly issued by the Treasury Department.
The notice gives big tax breaks to companies that acquire struggling banks hit hard by the
mortgage crisis. In some cases, the tax breaks could exceed the cost of acquiring the banks,
according to analyses by private tax experts. The change could cost the Treasury as much as
$140 billion by enabling firms that acquire struggling banks to use more losses incurred by those
banks to offset their own taxable profits. San Francisco's Wells Fargo & Co., which made a bid to
acquire Wachovia Corp. just days after the notice was issued, stands to reap about $20 billion in
additional tax savings because of the change, according to the analyses. Wells Fargo paid $14.8
billion in a stock deal to buy Wachovia. The notice was issued Sept. 30 as Congress debated the
$700 billion bailout plan. Some members of Congress are upset that such a sweeping tax change
was issued with no public hearings or congressional input. "I am concerned that the notice, which
was never debated by Congress, could end up costing taxpayers tens of billions of more dollars on
top of the hundreds of billions of dollars already approved by Congress in the financial rescue
plan," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a letter last week to Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson. Some tax lawyers questioned the legality of the notice. Before the notice was issued, the
merged bank could write off only a limited amount of the losses. The notice removed those
restrictions, enabling the acquiring banks to make huge reductions in their tax liabilities.
Note: With no limitations placed on the nine biggest banks receiving many billions of dollars in
bailout money, they are free to buy up smaller banks. And they will likely receive huge tax breaks,
sometimes even greater than the purchase price, for doing so! For many revealing, reliable reports
on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

New Terrain for Panel on Bailout

2008-11-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/business/economy/04bailout.html?partner=rss...
Having been handed vast authority and almost no restrictions in the bailout law that
Congress passed ... a committee of five little-known government officials, aided by a barebones staff of 40, is picking winners and losers among thousands of banks, savings and
loans, insurers and other institutions. It is new and unfamiliar terrain for the officials, who are
making monumental decisions a form of industrial policy, some critics say that contradict the
free market philosophy they usually espouse. Predictably, the process is stirring alarm from Capitol
Hill to Wall Street. Among the problems, critics say, is that despite earlier promises of
transparency, the process is shrouded in secrecy, its precise goals opaque. Treasury
officials have refused to disclose their criteria for deciding which banks ... get money. And officials
have yet to say they even have a broader strategy, though banking executives are convinced the
government wants to encourage acquisitions. Already, critics from Capitol Hill to Wall Street are
lashing out at the program, saying the banks are misusing the capital infusions by hoarding the
money rather than lending it. The government, the critics say, is wrongly steering funds to banks to
take over weaker rivals. All this comes after Mr. Paulson abruptly shifted the focus of the program

to injecting capital rather than buying distressed mortgage-related assets from the banks. This
meant that Congress had never debated the details of how the government ought to carry out a
recapitalization.
Note: With the intense secrecy and all of the lobbyist and big guns for banking fighting for
hundreds of billions of dollars given practically free by the government, do you really think these
"five little-known government officials" will be impartial in their decisions? For many revealing,
reliable reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

So When Will Banks Give Loans?

2008-10-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25nocera.html?partner=rssuserland&...
Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business
side and will it change our strategic lending policy? It was Oct. 17, just four days after JPMorgan
Chases chief executive, Jamie Dimon, agreed to take a $25 billion capital injection courtesy of the
United States government, when a JPMorgan employee asked that question [during] an employeeonly conference call. The JPMorgan executive who was moderating the employee conference call
didnt hesitate to answer. What we ... think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on
the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. I think there are
going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an
opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way. Read that answer as many times as you want
you are not going to find a single word in there about making loans to help the American economy.
On the contrary: It is starting to appear as if one of Treasurys key rationales for the
recapitalization program namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again is a fig
leaf, Treasurys version of the weapons of mass destruction. In fact, Treasury wants banks
to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round
of bank consolidation. Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy
other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth
billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax
expert, Robert Willens, put it: It couldnt be clearer if they had taken out an ad.
Note: Was the real purpose of the "bailout" to strengthen the biggest banks by enabling them to
gobble up the smaller ones at the public's expense? No wonder the legislation was rushed through
without discussion! For lots more highly revealing reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Blacklight Power bolsters its impossible claims of a new renewable

energy source
2008-10-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2008/10/21/21venturebeat-blacklig...

Ask nearly any physicist if its possible for a hydrogen atom to enter a lower energy state than the
ground, or resting, state they hold in nature, and youre likely to get an unequivocal no. But a tiny
company in New Jersey called Blacklight Power has been disputing that assumption for over a
decade, and of late, making gad-fly claims that its founder says will overturn the accepted scientific
order. Blacklights claims have a special significance: If theyre true, theres a source of cheap,
clean energy that can be easily tapped anywhere in the world. Blacklight is now saying that it has
physical proof of its energy generator, verified by an independent university lab. Its hydrino theory
isnt put forth by a single crackpot; instead, the company employs a good handful of high-level
scientists who would presumably rebel if the idea was totally false. It has also taken over $60
million in venture funding. Despite a hearty rejection by the scientific mainstream, and being
ignored for years on end, its founder, Randell Mills, has plugged on. Now an engineering team at
Rowan University ...has come forward with results from its own tests of the Blacklight process.
Tests conducted in sealed chambers, and measured with a device called a calorimeter,
show a heat reaction from a substance provided by Blacklight far beyond anything
anticipated. Weve been able to regularly reproduce these results and we believe any
research lab could do the same, Peter Jansson, the faculty member heading the experiments,
[said].
Note: For several videos demonstrating this amazing new energy source, click here. For reports
from professors and engineers who have validated this exciting technology, click here.

Puzzled Researchers Vet BlackLights Physics-Defying Hydrogen Power

2008-10-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2008/10/21/21gigaom-blacklight-validat...
BlackLight Power, the company that has pulled in $60 million for its seemingly physics-defying fuel
cell, is back with an announcement about an independent validation of its technology. A team of
engineers, headed by Dr. Peter Jansson at Rowan University, have tested BlackLights prototypes
and found that the devices perform as BlackLight claims, ambiguously concluding that there is a
novel reaction of some type causing the large exotherm which is consistently produced. To
translate: Theres definitely lots of energy being produced. Theyre just not sure why. BlackLight
says its technology can push an electron closer to the nucleus by way of a catalytic
reaction, resulting in a huge amount of clean energy. The company describes the reaction
as somewhere between a nuclear and a chemical reaction, but without any of the messy
fallout. The team at Rowan tested BlackLights 1,000- and 50,000-watt reactors over three months
and were able to replicate BlackLights energy claims, saying that the energy produced cannot be
explained by other known sources like combustion or nuclear energy. The company says a
complete verification of the whole process will likely happen within a year. BlackLight tells us it is
now in the process of licensing its technology to power producers. The company says it has
enough capital to get through commercialization and plans to have its reactors in a power plant in
the next two years.

Note: For several videos demonstrating this amazing new energy source, click here. For reports
from professors and engineers who have validated this exciting technology, click here.

When Doctors, and Even Santa, Endorsed Tobacco

2008-10-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/media/07adco.html
People who remember when tobacco advertising was a prominent part of the media landscape ...
probably recollect that actors like Barbara Stanwyck and athletes like Mickey Mantle routinely
endorsed cigarettes. But how about doctors and other medical professionals, proclaiming the
merits of various cigarette brands? Or politicians? Or children? Even Santa Claus? Those images
some flabbergasting, even disturbing were also used by Madison Avenue to peddle tobacco
products. An exhibit ... in New York presents cigarette ads from the 1920s through the early 1950s
in an effort to demonstrate what has changed since then and what may not have. The exhibit is
the brainchild of Dr. Robert K. Jackler of the Stanford School of Medicine. The very best artists
and copywriters that money could buy would work on cigarette accounts, said Dr. Jackler. This
era of over-the-top hucksterism went on for decades, he added, and it was all blatantly
false. The genesis of the exhibit was an ad from around 1930 for Lucky Strike cigarettes, which
shows a doctor above a headline proclaiming that 20,679 physicians say Luckies are less
irritating. The Luckies doctor was joined in Dr. Jacklers collection of about 5,000 ads by
scores of scientists and medical professionals doctors, dentists, nurses making
statements that are now known to be patently untrue. Some of the claims being made in the
ads, you did not have to be a scientist in a laboratory to dispute ... ads that smoking certain brands
does not cause bad breath or can never stain your teeth.
Note: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) promoted cigarette ads for 20
years "after careful consideration of the extent to which cigarettes were used by physicians in
practice." Will people, even highly respected members of society, bend the truth and even lie when
paid enough? This article seems to answer that with a resounding yes. Is that still true today? For
excerpts from many highly revealing articles showing it's as true now as ever, click here and here.

Many Firms Didn't Pay Taxes

2008-08-12, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR20080811023...
About two-thirds of corporations operating in the United States did not pay taxes annually
from 1998 to 2005, according to a [report] from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. In
2005, after collectively making $2.5 trillion in sales, corporations gave a variety of reasons
on their tax returns to account for the absence of taxable revenue. The most frequently listed
included the cost of producing their goods, salary expenses and interest payments on their debt,
the report said. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) called the findings "a shocking indictment of the
current tax system." "It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to

support our country," he said. "The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an
embarrassment and unfair to hardworking Americans who pay their fair share of taxes. We need to
plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls." In 2005, about 28
percent of large corporations paid no taxes. Of the 1.3 million corporations included in the study,
998 were categorized as "large." Dorgan and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) requested the report
out of concern that some corporations were using "transfer pricing" to reduce their tax bills. The
practice allows multi-national companies to transfer goods and assets between internal divisions
so they can record income in a jurisdiction with low tax rates. Levin said: "This report makes clear
that too many corporations are using tax trickery to send their profits overseas and avoid paying
their fair share in the United States."
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption, click here.

Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes

2008-08-12, Business Week/Associated Press
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D92GQ1982.htm
Unlike the rest of us, most U.S. corporations and foreign companies doing business in the United
States pay no federal income tax, according to a new report from Congress. The study by the
Government Accountability Office ... said two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal
income taxes between 1998 and 2005, and about 68 percent of foreign companies doing
business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period. Collectively, the
companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate. "It's shameful
that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study. The GAO study did not investigate why
corporations weren't paying federal income taxes or corporate taxes and it did not identify any
corporations by name. More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2
million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5
trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were
considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in
receipts. The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of
corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax
returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S. "It's time for the
big corporations to pay their fair share," Dorgan said.
Note: For many revealing reports on corporate corruption from reliable, verifiable sources, click
here.

EPA silences employees

2008-07-29, Los Angeles Times/Associated Press
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-epagag29-2008jul29,0,585...

The Environmental Protection Agency is telling its pollution enforcement officials not to talk with
congressional investigators, reporters and even the agency's own inspector general, according to
an internal e-mail provided to The Associated Press. The June 16 message instructs 11 managers
in the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the branch of the agency charged
with making sure environmental laws are followed, to remind their staff members to keep quiet. "If
you are contacted directly by the IG's office or GAO requesting information of any kind . . . please
do not respond to questions or make any statements," reads the e-mail sent by Robbi Farrell, the
division's chief of staff. Instead, staff members should forward inquiries to a designated EPA
representative, the memo says. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained the email and provided it to the AP. The group is a nonprofit alliance of local, state and federal
professionals. Jeff Ruch, its executive director, said ... the e-mail reinforces a "bunker
mentality" within EPA under the Bush administration. "The clear intention behind this move
is to chill the cubicles by suppressing any uncontrolled information." The Office of Inspector
General said it did not approve of the language in the e-mail. "All EPA officials and employees are
required to cooperate with OIG," the statement said. "This cooperation includes providing the OIG
full and unrestricted access to EPA documents, records, and personnel."
Note: For many revealing reports on government secrecy from major media sources, click here.

American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

2008-07-17, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/american-inequality-highligh...
The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the
average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous
New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending
on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human
Development Index has [issued a report] measuring well-being ... with shocking results. The US
finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age.
Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to
just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners.
The report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities. "The report shows that
although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to
providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life," the authors said. Some of
its more shocking findings reveal that ... Asian-American males have the best quality of life and
black Americans the lowest, with a staggering 50-year life expectancy gap between the two
groups. Using official government statistics, the study points out that because American schools
are funded primarily from local property taxes, rich districts get the best state education. The US
has no federally mandated sick pay, paternity leave or annual paid vacation.
Note: For lots more on health issues from reliable, verifiable sources, click here.

Cancer cure trials move from mice to men

2008-06-29, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/canc...
In a major breakthrough in the search for a cure for cancer, the first human trials are to begin using
a technique that has already been shown to destroy the disease in mice. The trials are the
culmination of years of research prompted by the discovery of a cancer-proof mouse by
researchers almost a decade ago. More than 20 cancer patients will be given white blood cells
with cancer-killing properties in an attempt to boost their immune system's fight against the deadly
illness. The work stems from experiments into the metabolism of a humble laboratory mouse
whose immunity to cancer defied the repeated attempts of scientists to kill it with high-level doses
of cancer cells. White blood cells taken from the animal and its offspring were subsequently used
to cure other mice of advanced cancers. The white blood cells destroyed the cancer cells but left
normal cells alone. This discovery encouraged scientists to study how people might be helped to
fight off cancer by being given a boost of white blood cells called granulocytes. Laboratory tests
have since shown how human granulocytes can destroy cervical, prostate and breast
cancer cells, provided sufficient numbers of cancer-killing granulocytes from healthy
donors are used. Scientists are now confident that the treatment will prove just as
successful in humans as it has been in mice. Hundreds of donors will be recruited for the new
treatment which is called leukocyte infusion therapy and a process similar to platelet donation
will be used to collect the granulocytes.
Note: Why is this important news getting so little coverage? For more cancer breakthroughs, click
here. And for a most excellent documentary on alternative cancer cures, click here.

What happened to building 7?

2008-06-06, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7d174b42-31fa-11dd-9b87-0000779fd2ac,s01=1.html
To the ["9/11 Truth movement"], Building 7 the third building in the World Trade Center complex
to collapse on September 11 is evidence that the mainstream media is in on the plot. On that
day, the BBC reported the buildings fall almost half an hour before it happened. Journalist
Jane Standley was broadcast at 4.54pm eastern time reporting that the tower had collapsed
but in the background, it was still standing. It fell 26 minutes later, seven hours after the
Twin Towers came down. When the Standley clip hit YouTube, truthers bombarded the BBCs
website with questions and accusations. Richard Porter, head of BBC world news, was forced to
deny that the broadcaster was reading from the Bush conspirators script. He said the BBC had
misreported warnings from fire crews of the buildings imminent collapse and instead stated that it
had already happened. He blamed the confusion of the day for the mix-up. CNN had earlier
reported rumours that a third building had either collapsed or was about to. This explanation was
undermined by Porters admission that the BBC no longer had the original tapes of its coverage.
Building 7 is [a] smoking gun for other reasons, too. How, they ask, could this modern, steel-

framed skyscraper collapse merely because of fire, without even being hit by an airliner? The 47storey WTC7 fell straight down, at almost free-fall speed, largely into its own footprint: all the
hallmarks, the sceptics say, of a controlled demolition.
Note: To read a related Financial Times report on the 9/11 Truth movement's claims, click here.

Exposed: the Great GM Crops Myth

2008-04-20, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-cr...
Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study
shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is
needed to solve the growing world food crisis. The study carried out over the past three
years at the University of Kansas has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food
than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it
increases yields. Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he
started the research reported in the journal Better Crops because many farmers who had
changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under
optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a
yield as I used to?'" He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety
in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77
bushels from the non-GM one. The GM crop engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller,
Roundup recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the
modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. The new study
confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM
soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the
best non-GM soya available.
Note: For many important reports on genetically modified organisms from major media sources,
click here.

Loremo: The 'Low Resistance Mobile'

2008-02-20, MSN
https://web.archive.org/web/20080308132816/http://editorial.autos.msn.com/art...
The idea is deceptively simple. Forget about fancy batteries, regenerative braking, and alternative
fuels. Instead, make a car that's elegant in its minimalism and efficiency. The Loremo's German
designers revisited the basics engine efficiency, low weight, and minimal drag to
create a car that offers fuel-efficiency in the neighborhood of 130 to 150 miles per gallon.
The Loremo is likely to dazzle drivers not with its acceleration, but with its ability to drive
from New York to L.A. with only three stops at the pump. Loremo stands for low resistance
mobile, and its engineers have stuck obsessively to this idea. By building the car around a 2-

cylinder turbodiesel engine, and cutting back on weight, drag, and other excess fat such as sideopening doors, the Loremo puffs out a mere 50 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. This is
about 40 grams less per kilometer than the tiny diesel smart. According to its creators, this will
make the Loremo the most efficient production car ever sold. If the Loremo showed up as a
concept on an auto show pedestal, it would certainly garner some attention. But the Loremo is not
a car for dreamers; not only will it enter mass production next year, it will sport a base price
attainable by mortal motorists: 15,000 euros (about U.S. $22,000). After its 2009 release in
Europe, the Loremo will be redesigned to reach the North American market the following year. A
$30,000, 3-cylinder GT model will also become available, offering better acceleration (0-60 in
roughly 10 seconds, vs. 16 for the base model). Both hybrid and fully electric versions are also in
the works.
Note: For many exciting, reliable reports on new energy and automobile technologies, click here.

BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince

2008-02-15, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade
Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless
corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents
revealed yesterday. Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced
"another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their
inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence. Prince Bandar, the head of
the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the
man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces
accusations that he himself took more than 1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.
He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and
uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office
investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family. The threats halted the fraud
inquiry. Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government
appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as
if a gun had been held to the head" of the government. The SFO investigation began in 2004,
when Robert Wardle, its director, studied evidence unearthed by the Guardian. This revealed that
massive secret payments were going from BAE to Saudi Arabian princes, to promote arms deals.
Yesterday, anti-corruption campaigners began a legal action to overturn the decision to halt the
case. They want the original investigation restarted, arguing the government had caved into
blackmail.
Note: This report comes very close to confirming the close link between terrorist attacks and highlevel policy of certain states. For many revealing clues along these lines from reliable sources,
click here.

Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war

2008-01-23, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/
President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed
by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released ... by two
nonprofit journalism groups. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the
basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in
military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," reads an overview of the examination,
conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in
Journalism. According to the study, Bush and seven top officials -- including Vice President Dick
Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice -- made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years. The study says Bush made
232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of
mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda. The study, released
Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about
weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer each made 109 false statements. "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq
did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," the report
reads. The overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets didn't do
enough to investigate the claims. "Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news
organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far
too deferential and uncritical," the report reads.
Note: These lies led to the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi civilians. Why is no action being taken on this matter? For other powerful revelations of war
corruption and profiteering, click here.

Davos: Wealth, power and a sprinkling of stardust

2008-01-22, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/davos-wealth...
For a few days an obscene proportion of the world's wealth and clout will be concentrated
in one normally obscure Alpine town, [Davos, Switzerland]. Some 27 heads of state or
government; 113 cabinet ministers; hundreds of chief executives, bankers, sovereign
wealth fund managers, economists and the media: about 2,500 participants in all. So who's
coming and what will they be chattering about? The official co-chairs of the Forum are mostly wellknown names: Tony Blair, of JP Morgan; James Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan; KV
Kamath, MD and CEO of India's ICICI Bank; Henry Kissinger, chairman of Kissinger Associates;
Indra K Noovi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo; David J O'Reilly, chairman and CEO of Chevron
Corporation; and Wang Jianzhou, CEO of China Mobile Communications Corporation. The
prominent role allotted to Mr Wang, while not entirely novel, is nonetheless significant. In 2008, for
the first time, China will contribute more to the growth of the world economy than the United

States. Double-digit growth in China should still just be possible this year, and it alone seems to
stand between the world and a full-blown recession. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) from China
and elsewhere have already been busy re-capitalising the West's stricken banks. The recycling of
trillions of dollars of trade surpluses and petro dollars means that such deals will become more
prevalent.
Note: Yet these meetings are kept largely secret. Why isn't the media giving lots more coverage to
this gathering of some of the most powerful people on the planet? For other reliable, verifiable
reports on secret meetings of the power elite of the world, click here.

Mystery Behind the Damanhur Temples

2008-01-21, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4216350
Hidden away in a country renowned for its architectural beauty lies a massive hand-built place of
worship many tourists never see. An entrance that looks like a mineshaft opens up to a maze
carved inside the mountain holding the Damanhur Temples of Humankind in the Valchiusella
Valley, about 30 miles north of Turin, [Italy]. Damanhur narrates the history of human potential
through art. With at least nine rooms some with 25-foot high ceilings it looks as if the secret
doors and passageways were built centuries ago. In truth, the unlikely temple is no ancient wonder
and was built piecemeal by 150 people over a 15-year period beginning in 1978. The work was so
secret, the Italian government never knew it was going on and never gave permission for it. The
handcrafted structure is full of dramatic beauty, and each apparent dead end really leads into
another mysterious hall. "You have to think that we did that without any engineer or architect,"
Ananas said. "Everything has been excavated by hand." At least as mysterious as the temple itself
is the utopian society to which it belongs, The Federation of Damanhur. Damanhur, which means
city of light, comprises 800 people who live in communal homes. Founded in 1975, the
Federation of Damanhur thinks of itself as the builders of a new civilization that stands for
peace and human potential. It prides itself on being an eco-society based on ethical and
spiritual values. Falco, as the group's founder is known, said that he always dreamed of the
elaborate temples. The group wanted the temple to be "a gift to humanity" once it was completed.
Visitors to the halls of the temple have expressed awe, delight and intrigue.
Note: To see photos of the stunning beauty of these temples, click here. Damanhur's visionary
Falco died of cancer on June 23, 2013. For more on this great visionary, click here. To watch a
one-minute ABC News video giving a glimpse of the beauty of these temples, click here. Watch an
awesome video tour of Damanhur and the Temples of Humankind available here. And for an
intriguing 15-minute video of experiments done at Damanhur attaching plants to synthesizers to
make angelic music, click here.

Can You Count on Voting Machines?

2008-01-06, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?ex=1357275600&en=75d...
As the primaries start in New Hampshire this week and roll on through the next few months, the
erratic behavior of voting technology will once again find itself under a microscope. In the last three
election cycles, touch-screen machines have become one of the most mysterious and divisive
elements in modern electoral politics. In hundreds of instances ... they [have failed] unpredictably,
and in extremely strange ways; voters report that their choices flip from one candidate to another
before their eyes; machines crash or begin to count backward; votes simply vanish. Most
famously, in the November 2006 Congressional election in Sarasota, Fla., touch-screen machines
recorded an 18,000-person undervote for a race decided by fewer than 400 votes. The earliest
critiques of digital voting booths came from the fringe disgruntled citizens and ... computer
geeks but the fears have now risen to the highest levels of government. One by one,
states are renouncing the use of touch-screen voting machines. California and Florida
decided to get rid of their electronic voting machines last spring, and last month, Colorado
decertified about half of its touch-screen devices. Also last month, Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio
secretary of state, released a report in the wake of the Cuyahoga crashes arguing that touchscreens may jeopardize the integrity of the voting process. She was so worried she is now
forcing Cuyahoga to scrap its touch-screen machines and go back to paper-based voting before
the Ohio primary, scheduled for March 4. Michael Shamos, a computer scientist at Carnegie
Mellon University who has examined voting-machine systems for more than 25 years, estimates
that about 10 percent of the touch-screen machines fail in each election.
Note: 10% of the machines fail, yet many still believe the results from previous elections were
accurate. For many revealing reports on the serious problems with electronic voting machines,
click here.

The New Dawn of Solar

2007-12-01, Popular Science magazine
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html
Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint, that takes light and
converts it to electricity. From there, you can picture roof shingles with solar cells built inside and
window coatings that seem to suck power from the air. Consider solar-powered buildings
stretching not just across sunny Southern California, but through China and India and Kenya as
well, because even in those countries, going solar will be cheaper than burning coal. Thats the
promise of thin-film solar cells: solar power thats ubiquitous because its cheap. The basic
technology has been around for decades, but this year, Silicon Valleybased Nanosolar
created the manufacturing technology that could make that promise a reality. The company
produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of
solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made
for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.
Nanosolars first commercial cells rolled off the presses this year. Cost has always been one of
solars biggest problems. Traditional solar cells require silicon, and silicon is an expensive

commodity. That means even the cheapest solar panels cost about $3 per watt of energy they go
on to produce. To compete with coal, that figure has to shrink to just $1 per watt. Nanosolars cells
use no silicon, and the companys manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as
efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt. "It really is quite a big deal in
terms of altering the way we think about solar and in inherently altering the economics of solar,"
says Dan Kammen, founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the
University of California at Berkeley.
Note: For exciting reports of other new energy technologies, click here.

Global Derivatives Market Expands to $516 Trillion

2007-11-22, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a58EF32GpHeg
The market for derivatives grew at the fastest pace in at least nine years to $516 trillion in
the first half of 2007, the Bank for International Settlements said. Credit-default swaps,
contracts designed to protect investors against default and used to speculate on credit
quality, led the increase, expanding 49 percent to cover a notional $43 trillion of debt in the
six months ended June 30, the BIS said in a report published late yesterday. Derivatives of debt,
currencies, commodities, stocks and interest rates rose 25 percent from the previous six months,
the biggest jump since the Basel, Switzerland-based bank began compiling the data. Investors
have been turning to credit derivatives as a way to speculate on a growing risk of defaults amid
record U.S. mortgage foreclosures. The money at risk through credit-default swaps increased 145
percent from last year to $721 billion, the report said. The amount at stake in the entire derivatives
market is $11.1 trillion, according to the BIS, which was formed in 1930 to monitor financial
markets and regulate banks. Derivatives are financial instruments derived from stocks, bonds,
loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events like changes in interest rates or the
weather. The report is based on contracts traded outside of exchanges in over-the- counter
market.
Note: Like most reporting in the major media, this article trivializes the massive size of the
derivatives market. $516 trillion is equivalent to $75,000 for every man, woman, and child in the
world! Do you think the financial industry is out of control? For lots more powerful, reliable
information on major banking manipulations, click here. For a powerful analysis describing just
how crazy things have gotten and giving some rays of hope by researcher David Wilcock, click
here.

Former pilots and officials call for new U.S. UFO probe
2007-11-12, ABC News/Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3855969

An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials called on the U.S.
government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and
security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings.
"Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns ... which
cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters," they said in a
statement released at a news conference. The panelists from seven countries, including former
senior military officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into
UFO phenomena. "It's a question of who [are] you going to believe: your lying eyes or the
government?" remarked John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation Administration
investigator, who said the CIA in 1987 tried to hush up the sighting of a huge lighted ball
four times the size of a jumbo jet in Alaska. The panel, organized by a group dedicated to
winning credibility for the study of UFOs, urged Washington to resume UFO investigations through
the U.S. Air Force or NASA. "It would certainly, I think, take a lot of angst out of this issue," said
former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who said he was among hundreds who saw a delta-shaped
craft with enormous lights silently traverse the sky near Phoenix in 1997.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For a eight-minute CNN clip on this historic event including
witness testimony, click here. For lots more media coverage of this and other major UFO events,
click here. For their bios, photos, and official statements, click here.

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto: Osama bin Laden is Dead

2007-11-02, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7070000/newsid_7075800/7075843.stm
David Frost: Does anyone know exactly who was responsible for this assassination attempt?
There is one report that said that you arranged to send President Musharraf a letter ... in the event
of your death by assassination, urging him to investigate certain individuals in his government. Is
that true? Benazir Bhutto: Yes it is true that I wrote to General Musharraf. I feel these are the
forces that really want to stop not just me, but the democratic process and the will of the people
[from] triumphing. David Frost: In terms of these three people you mentioned where they members
of or associated with the government? Benazir Bhutto: One of them is a very key figure in security.
He is a former military officer. He is someone who has had dealings with Jaish-e-Mohammad, one
of the band [of] groups of Maulana Masood Azhar, who was in an Indian jail for decapitating
three British tourists and three American tourists. And he also had dealings with Omar
Shiekh, who murdered Osama bin Laden.
Note: The key statement on bin Laden's murder happens at minute five in the video at the above
link. If the link fails, click here. For a Jan. 9, 2010 BBC article also suggesting bin Laden may
already have been dead years earlier and that his death had been covered up, click here. Bhutto
was assassinated not long after this interview on Dec. 27, 2007.

Chip implants linked to animal tumors

2007-09-09, Washington Post/Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/09/AR20070909004...
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the
manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients'
medical records almost instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device was safe, and
a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative technologies." But neither the company
nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating
to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab
mice and rats. "The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a
retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining ... the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow
Chemical Co. Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and ...
said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive
implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely
implanted in people. To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID,
devices have been implanted in humans worldwide. Did the agency know of the tumor findings
before approving the chip implants? The FDA declined repeated AP requests to specify what
studies it reviewed. The FDA is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services,
which, at the time of VeriChip's approval, was headed by Tommy Thompson. Two weeks after the
device's approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within five
months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was
compensated in cash and stock options.
Note: For more reliable information about the use and dangers of microchips, click here.

The White House Coup

2007-07-23, BBC Radio
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml
[BBC Radio] uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American
businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of
half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most
famous families in America (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell [House] and
George Bushs grandfather, Prescott [Bush]) believed that their country should adopt the
policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Why [is] so little ... known about
this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy?
Note: The highly decorated General Smedley Butler, author of the landmark book War is a Racket,
was approached by the plotters for assistance in carrying out this coup. He at first played along,
but then eventually exposed the coup plot in Congressional testimony. Yet news of this huge plot
was squelched by both the government and media. To understand why, read a two-page summary
of General Butler's book by clicking here and listen to the gripping, 30-minute BBC broadcast at
the link above.

UCSF study questions drug trial results

2007-06-05, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/05/DRUGS.TMP
Money talks -- and very loudly -- when a drug company is funding a clinical trial involving one of its
products. UCSF researchers looked at nearly 200 head-to-head studies of widely prescribed
cholesterol-lowering medications, or statins, and found that results were 20 times more likely to
favor the drug made by the company that sponsored the trial. "We have to be really, really
skeptical of these drug-company-sponsored studies," said Lisa Bero, the study's author and
professor of clinical pharmacy and health policy studies. The trials typically involved comparing the
effectiveness of a drug to one or two other statins. UCSF researchers also found that a study's
conclusions -- not the actual research results but the trial investigators' impressions -- are
more than 35 times more likely to favor the test drug when that trial is sponsored by the
drug's maker. Bero said drug companies fund up to 90 percent of drug-to-drug clinical trials for
certain classes of medication. The researchers found other factors that could affect trial results.
For example, pharmaceutical companies could choose not to publish results of studies that fail to
favor their drugs, or they could be designed in ways to skew results. The study found the most
important weakness of trials was lack of true clinical outcome measures. In the case of statins,
some trials focused on less-direct results such as lipid levels but failed to connect the results with
key outcomes such as heart attacks or mortality. "None of us really care what our cholesterol level
is. We care about having a heart attack," Gibson said. "For the drug to be worthwhile taking, it has
to be directly related to prevent a heart attack."
Note: For lots more reliable information about corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, click here.

Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs

2007-05-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/business/09anemia.html?ex=1336363200&en=b68...
Two of the worlds largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors
every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be
unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the
doctors who receive them are aware of their size. The payments give physicians an incentive to
prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients risks of heart attacks or strokes. At
just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7
million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. [A] report
prepared by F.D.A. staff scientists said no evidence indicated that the medicines either
improved quality of life in patients or extended their survival. Several studies suggested that
the drugs can shorten patients lives when used at high doses. The medicines ... are among the
worlds top-selling drugs. They represent the single biggest drug expense for Medicare. Since
1991 ... the average dose given to dialysis patients in this country has nearly tripled. About 50
percent of dialysis patients now receive enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts
above the level considered risky by the F.D.A. Unlike most drugs, the anemia medicines do not

come in fixed doses. Therefore, doctors have great flexibility to increase dosing and profits. The
companies have [failed] to test whether lower doses of the medicines might work better than
higher doses. There is little evidence that the drugs make much difference for patients with
moderate anemia, and federal statistics show that the increased use of the drugs has not improved
survival in dialysis patients.
Note: For lots more on major corruption in health care, click here.

Inside Medicine: Is your doctor giving you this important number?

2007-05-05, Sacramento Bee (Leading newspaper of California's capital city)
http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/166505.html
By Dr. Michael Wilkes. I recently wrote a column about cholesterol-lowering medications. I stated
that if 67 healthy men with elevated cholesterol took a cholesterol-lowering drug ... for five
years, only one would benefit. The other 66 would not benefit, and it would cost about
$5,500 over the five-year period. I received a ton of e-mail from readers. Many readers wrote
that after knowing this number, they did not feel taking the drug was worth the effort or expense.
Others took the opposite view. Both interpretations are valid, depending on the person's values.
This number -- the 1 in 67 -- is a term doctors call "the number needed to treat," or NNT. It is a
relatively new concept [that] is grossly underused in sharing information with the public. Doctors
and pharmacists do a poor job talking with patients about their medications. Many people will
derive little or no benefit from their medicines, but they are never told this. The key is for doctors
and patients to understand the NNT. Here are some estimates of NNT: 1 in 2,550: The number of
breast cancer deaths prevented in women between the ages of 50 and 59 screened annually for
five years with mammograms. 1 in 2,000: The number of women ages 60-64 without risk factors
who would prevent a hip fracture by taking medicine for osteoporosis for five years. 1 in 700: The
number of people with mild high blood pressure who would prevent a stroke or heart attack by
taking blood pressure medicine for one year. 1 in 16: The number of infections prevented by
treating a victim of a dog bite with a week of antibiotics. 1 in 7: The number of children (otherwise
healthy children) who benefit from treatment with an antibiotic for an ordinary ear infection.
Note: Many doctors and scientists have made valid claims that drug companies are hyping
disease in order to make profits on their drugs. For a top MD's discussion of this vital topic, click
here.

Buying the War

2007-04-25, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a
flight suit ... in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a
"breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound

questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing
violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was
won. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the
existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue
to go largely unreported? In the run-up to war, skepticism was a rarity among journalists inside the
Beltway. The [PBS "Buying the War"] program analyzes the stream of unchecked information from
administration sources and Iraqi defectors to the mainstream print and broadcast press. While
almost all the claims would eventually prove to be false, the drumbeat of misinformation about
WMDs went virtually unchallenged by the media. "Buying the War" examines the press coverage
in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy and
asks, four years after the invasion, what's changed? "More and more the media become ...
common carriers of administration statements," says the Washington Post's Walter Pincus. "We've
sort of given up being independent on our own."
Note: You can view the highly revealing documentary "Buying the War" or read the transcript at
the link above.

Phone cancer report buried

2007-04-15, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1655012.ece
T-MOBILE, the mobile phone giant, has been accused of burying a scientific report it
commissioned that concluded handsets and masts contribute to cancer and genetic damage. The
report argued that officially recommended limits on radiation exposure should be cut to 1/1000th of
those in force. The suggestion has not been taken up by the company or by regulators.
Campaigners claimed T-Mobiles handling of the report was part of a wider pattern of behaviour by
the industry in its efforts to keep discussion of the health risks off the agenda. The Ecolog
Institute, which has been researching mobile phone technology since 1992, was paid by TMobile to evaluate evidence on its potential dangers. But Dr Peter Neitzke, one of the
authors of the report, has accused T-Mobile ... of diluting the findings by commissioning other
studies from which it knew no critical results or recommendations were to be expected. Ecologs
report, which analysed dozens of peer-reviewed studies, stated: Given the results of the present
epidemiological studies, it can be concluded that electromagnetic fields with frequencies in the
mobile telecommunications range do play a role in the development of cancer. This is
particularly notable for tumours of the central nervous system.
Note: For many highly important articles from reliable sources on major health issues, click here.

Terrorized by 'War on Terror'

2007-03-25, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR20070323016...

The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of
these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious
impact on American democracy. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one
major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason,
intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on
behalf of the policies they want to pursue. America today is not the self-confident and
determined nation that responded to Pearl Harbor; nor is it the America that heard from its leader,
at another moment of crisis, the powerful words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Fearmongering, reinforced by security entrepreneurs, the mass media and the entertainment industry,
generates its own momentum. The terror entrepreneurs ... are necessarily engaged in competition
to justify their existence. Hence their task is to convince the public that it faces new threats.
"Security" procedures have become routine, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and further
contributing to a siege mentality. Government at every level has stimulated the paranoia. The
record is even more troubling in the general area of civil rights. The culture of fear has bred
intolerance, suspicion of foreigners and the adoption of legal procedures that undermine
fundamental notions of justice. Innocent until proven guilty has been diluted if not undone, with
some -- even U.S. citizens -- incarcerated for lengthy periods of time without ... due process. There
is no known, hard evidence that such excess has prevented significant acts of terrorism.
Note: This is an amazingly deep and powerful analysis of the use of fear by politicians, big
business, and the media to promote their own agendas. Amazingly, the article was written by
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter. This is the same man who
wrote in his book The Grand Chessboard, that U.S. global primacy is not likely to be achieved
"except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."
Strange, but the article is well worth reading in its entirety. For more, click here.

The Lights Over Phoenix

2007-03-22, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/22/transcript.fri/index.html#three
Ten years ago in Arizona's capital, thousands of people reported seeing a massive, v-shaped line
of lights. Some government officials later said military flares caused the confusion. But Gary
Tuchman spoke with one former governor who's now saying they didn't look like flares to him.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN REPORTER: Fife Symington ... was the Republican governor of Arizona
for six years. FIFE SYMINGTON: If you had been here ten years ago, and looked at the lights and
the view, you would have been astounded. TUCHMAN: Governor Symington is referring to what is
now known as the Phoenix lights -- an object videotaped by many and seen by thousands over
several nights in the Arizona sky in 1997. It was described by witnesses as larger than a football
field and silent. The governor, a Vietnam Air Force veteran, had never publicly acknowledged
seeing it until now. SYMINGTON: I suspect that unless the Defense Department proves us
otherwise, that it was probably some form of alien spacecraft. TUCHMAN: So why didn't he
say anything then? Partly he says, because he didn't want people to panic. UFO enthusiasts were
not amused, especially since the governor was believed to have seen nothing. But now he's

coming out. SYMINGTON: The lights were really brilliant. And it was just fascinating. It was
enormous. It just felt otherworldly. TUCHMAN: Symington will be talking about this in an updated
film about UFOs called 'Out of the Blue.' Governor Symington says he did tell his family, friends,
and staff about what he saw early on. SYMINGTON: I still behind the scenes tried to investigate it,
but I got nowhere.
Note: To watch this fascinating three-minute CNN broadcast, click here. For more on the intriguing
Phoenix lights, click here. For lots more on the powerfully revealing UFO documentary Out of the
Blue, arguably the best UFO documentary ever made, click here. Learn about dozens of top
military brass who have publicly testified on a major cover-up of UFOs and more. For a two-page
summary of this powerful witness testimony, click here.

The 9/11 conspiracy movement

2007-02-14, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/conspiracy_files/6354679.stm
9/11 was the first global event in the age of the internet. And now the world wide web is being
used as a platform for a wide range of conspiracy theories ... which allege that the US
government was somehow involved in the attacks. Those who question the official account
of 9/11 form a broad coalition. Loose Change has been viewed tens of millions of times and pulls
no punches. [Creator Dylan Avery claims] "our government will willingly kill its own citizens for
whatever gain it deems necessary ... and then lie as much as they need to cover it up." At the
other extreme [Professor Jim] Fetzer is a former US Marine officer and retired professor of
philosophy. Puzzled by the apparent discrepancies in the official account of 9/11, he founded a
coalition of like-minded academics called Scholars For 9/11 Truth. Its purpose is to research
exactly what happened that day, using the principles of scientific research. Alex Jones, a nationally
syndicated radio talk show host ... believes 9/11 was "an inside job." "It's a self inflicted wound, it's
a false-flag terror operation," he claims. After the attacks, government officials were summoned to
give evidence before a Congressional Inquiry set up to investigate the intelligence failure before
9/11. Co-chairman Senator Bob Graham told ... of his frustration at the lack of co-operation from
the FBI in that inquiry, and by the government's decision to censor over 30 pages of his report
which related to Saudi Arabia. "Within 9/11 there are too many secrets," he said, "withholding of
those secrets has eroded public confidence in their government."
Note: Don't miss the BBC's impressive 9/11 Timeline available here which is related to the above
article. And for lots more reliable, verifiable information suggesting a 9/11 cover-up, click here. If
the above link to the BBC article does not function, click on The 9/11 Conspiracy Movement.

Bribes offered to scientists

2007-02-03, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/bribes-offered-to-scientists/2007/02/0...

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one
of the world's largest oil companies to undermine the UN climate change report. Letters sent
by the American Enterprise Institute, an ExxonMobil-funded think tank with close links to the Bush
Administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of the report.
Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered. The institute has received more than
$1.6 million from ExxonMobil - which yesterday announced a $50 billion annual profit, the biggest
ever by a US company - and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush
Administration. A former head of ExxonMobil, Lee Raymond, is the vice-chairman of the institute's
board of trustees.
Note: Why wasn't this important story covered by any major media in the U.S.? For an
answer, click here.

US scientists reject interference

2006-12-14, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6178213.stm
Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political
interference in the scientific process. The statement, which includes the backing of 52
Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.
According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for
political reasons. It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data
to fit policy initiatives. The Union has released an "A to Z" guide that ... documents dozens of
recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science. Campaigners
say that in recent years the White House has been able to censor the work of agencies like the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration because a Republican
congress has been loath to stand up for scientific integrity. Michael Halpern from the UCS said the
statement of objection to political interference had been supported by researchers regardless of
their political views. "This science statement that has now been signed by the 10,000 scientists is
signed by science advisers to both Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to
President Eisenhower, stating that this is not business as usual and calling for this practice to
stop."

Got $2,200? In this world, you're rich

2006-12-13, MSN
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/StudyRevealsOverwhelmingWealthGap.aspx
A global study reveals an overwhelming wealth gap, with the world's three richest people having
more money than the poorest 48 nations combined. The richest 2% of the world's population owns
more than half of the world's household wealth. For the first time, personal wealth -- not income -has been measured around the world. The findings may be surprising, for what makes people
"wealthy" across the world spectrum is a relatively low bar. The research indicates that assets of

just $2,200 per adult place a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest. To be among the
richest 10% of adults in the world, just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than
$500,000, you're part of the richest 1%, the United Nations study says. If it takes just a couple of
thousand dollars to qualify as rich in this world, imagine what it means to be poor. Half the world,
nearly 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. The three richest people in the world Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Mexican telecom mogul Carlos
Slim Hel -- have more money than the poorest 48 nations combined.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on income inequality, click here.

Fiscal mess awaits new defense chief: 'Worst-managed' federal agency

2006-12-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/13/MNG96MUHPF1.DTL
Robert Gates will face ... the enormous task of cleaning up the Pentagon's tangled finances, which
outside auditors lambaste as so chaotic that no one knows how much money is being spent on
defense at any given time. The White House's Office of Management and Budget believes the
Pentagon's financial management systems are in such a mess "that independent auditors still
cannot certify the accuracy of the financial statements." David Walker, the U.S. Comptroller
General, issued a devastating assessment of the Pentagon's finances, which include an annual
budget of over $500 billion. The Pentagon's financial problems "are pervasive, complex, longstanding and deeply rooted in virtually all business operations throughout the department," Walker
told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Financial problems like the Pentagon's "would put
any civilian company out of business," said Kwai Chan, a former GAO auditor ... and author of
a report entitled "Financial Management in the Department of Defense: No One is Accountable."
Winslow Wheeler, a former national security expert for the Senate Budget Committee, called the
Defense Department "the worst-managed agency in the federal government, (that) can't account
for the half-trillion dollars it spends each year, and seeks to produce weapons that are irrelevant or
ineffective, or both."
Note: For major media articles showing that more than $1 trillion of taxpayers money have gone
missing at the Pentagon, click here. For the deeper reasons behind this, a top U.S. general's
explanation is available here.

It's still about oil in Iraq

2006-12-08, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-juhasz8dec08,0,4717508.story
While the Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the
war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such
reticence. Page 1, Chapter 1 ... lays out Iraq's importance: "It has the world's second-largest
known oil reserves." The report makes visible to everyone the elephant in the room: that we

are fighting, killing and dying in a war for oil. Recommendation No. 63 ... calls on the U.S. to
"assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise." This is an
echo of calls made [by] the U.S. State Department's Oil and Energy Working Group, meeting
between December 2002 and April 2003. Iraq "should be opened to international oil companies as
quickly as possible after the war." Its preferred method of privatization was a form of oil contract
called a production-sharing agreement. These agreements are ... rejected by all the top oil
producers in the Middle East because they grant greater control and more profits to the companies
than the governments. For any degree of oil privatization to take place ... Iraq has to amend its
constitution. Recommendation No. 26 of the Iraq Study Group calls for a review of the constitution
to be "pursued on an urgent basis." Petroleum Economist magazine later reported that U.S. oil
companies considered passage of the new oil law more important than increased security. Further,
the Iraq Study Group would commit U.S. troops to Iraq for several more years to ... provide
security for Iraq's oil infrastructure. We can thank the Iraq Study Group for making its case publicly.
It is now our turn to decide if we wish to spill more blood for oil.
Note: For more on corporate complicity in fomenting war exposed by a top U.S. general, click
here.

Class Struggle
2006-11-15, Wall Street Journal
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246
The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's
steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th
century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years.
Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our
wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the
economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national
income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate
America, through a vast system of loopholes. Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve
compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this
newspaper has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million
a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been
raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20
times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much. Trickle-down
economics didn't happen. Wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the
national wealth. This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries.
A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris.
Note: For some reason the Wall Street Journal has removed this article. You can read it on the
website of the article's author at this link.

Microcredit pioneers win Nobel Peace Prize

2006-10-13, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-13-norway-nobel_x.htm
Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize on
Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans microcredit to lift millions
out of poverty. "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in
which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation. "Microcredit is one such
means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights." Grameen
Bank was the first lender to hand out microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis
who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed and repayment is
based on an honor system. Anyone can qualify for a loan the average is about $200 but
recipients are put in groups of five. Once two members of the group have borrowed money, the
other three must wait for the funds to be repaid before they get a loan. The method encourages
social responsibility. The results are hard to argue with the bank says it has a 99% repayment
rate. Since Yunus gave out his first loans in 1974, microcredit schemes have spread
throughout the developing world and are now considered a key to alleviating poverty and
spurring development. Worldwide, microcredit financing is estimated to have helped some 17
million people. "Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work
to bring about their own development," the Nobel citation said. Today, the bank claims to have 6.6
million borrowers, 97% of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in
Bangladesh. Its model of micro-financing has inspired similar efforts around the world.
Note: Why not reduce involvement in the stock market and invest instead in ending poverty? You
still get a return on your investment while knowing that your money is helping to pull entire families
out of poverty. To make a real difference in helping to reduce poverty in a dramatic way, see our
empowering microcredit summary, which describes how you can easily participate this inspiring
worldwide movement.

Voting machines put U.S. democracy at risk

2006-09-20, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/19/Dobbs.Sept20/index.html
There is little assurance your vote will count. As we've been reporting almost nightly...for more than
a year, electronic voting machines are placing our democracy at risk. These machines time and
again have been demonstrated to be extremely vulnerable to tampering and error, and many of
them have no voter-verified paper trail. Only 27 states have laws requiring the use of voter-verified
paper trails. 15 states [have] no mandated requirements for safeguarding your vote. During the
2004 presidential election, one voting machine...added nearly 3,900 additional votes to Bush's
total. Officials caught the machine's error because only 638 voters cast presidential ballots at that
precinct, but in a heavily populated district, can we really be sure the votes will be counted
correctly? [In] the May primary election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio...the electronic voting
machines' four sources of vote totals -- individual ballots, paper trail summary, election

archives and memory cards -- didn't even match up. The report concluded that relying on the
current system for Cuyahoga County's more than 1.3 million people should be viewed as "a
calculated risk." Are we really willing to risk our democracy? A 2005 Government Accountability
Office report on electronic voting confirmed the worst fears of watchdog groups and election
officials. "There is evidence that some of these concerns have been realized and have caused
problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes." That is simply
unacceptable. Congress and the White House need to immediately take steps to assure the
integrity of electronic voting with paper trails that could be audited in any recount.
Note: For lots more reliable, verifiable information on the various aspects of the elections coverup, see http://www.wanttoknow.info/electionsinformation

In Search of Accurate Vote Totals

2006-09-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/opinion/05tue1.html?ex=1315108800&en=c05607...
It's hard to believe that nearly six years after the disasters of Florida in 2000, states still haven't
mastered the art of counting votes accurately. The most troubling evidence comes from
Ohio...whose electoral votes decided the 2004 presidential election. A recent government report
details enormous flaws in the election system in Ohio's biggest county, problems that may not be
fixable before the 2008 election. Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland...recently adopted
Diebold electronic voting machines that produce a voter-verified paper record of every vote cast.
Investigators compared the vote totals recorded on the machines after this year's primary with the
paper records produced by the machines. The numbers should have been the same, but often
there were large and unexplained discrepancies. The report also found that nearly 10
percent of the paper records were destroyed, blank, illegible, or otherwise compromised.
Some of these problems may be explored further in a federal lawsuit challenging Ohio's
administration of its 2004 election. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell...has been criticized for
many decisions he made on election matters that year. New York's Legislature was shamefully
slow in passing the law needed to start adopting new voting machines statewide. Now localities
are just starting to evaluate voting machine companies as they scramble to put machines in place
in time for the 2007 election. Because of a federal lawsuit, New York has to make the switch a year
early.
Note: Why has the media barely mentioned the federal lawsuit challenging Ohio's administration
of the 2004 election? This was the state that determined the winner. For more on elections coverup, click here.

Why The 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away

2006-09-03, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531304,00.html

A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very
likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or
carried out the attacks themselves. Thirty-six percent adds up to a lot of people. This is not a fringe
phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality. Although the 9/11 Truth Movement, as many
conspiracy believers refer to their passion, has been largely ignored by the mainstream
media, it is flourishing on the Internet. One of the most popular conspiracy videos online is
Loose Change, a 90-min. blizzard of statistics, photographs, documents, eyewitness accounts and
expert testimony set to a trippy hip-hop backbeat. It's designed to pick apart, point by point, the
conventional narrative of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. Loose Change is a compelling
experience. Take the section about the attack on the Pentagon. As the film points out...the crash
site doesn't look right. There's not enough damage. The hole smashed in the Pentagon's outer
wall was 75 ft. wide, but a Boeing 757 has a 124-ft. wingspan. Why wasn't the hole wider? There's
something empowering about just exploring such questions. Loose Change appeals to the
viewer's common sense: it tells you to forget the official explanations and the expert testimony, and
trust your eyes and your brain instead. It implies that the world can be grasped by laymen without
any help or interference from the talking heads. Watching Loose Change, you feel as if you are
participating in the great American tradition of self-reliance and nonconformist, antiauthoritarian
dissent. You're fighting the power. You're thinking different.

500 Conspiracy Buffs Meet to Seek the Truth of 9/11

2006-06-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/us/05conspiracy.html?ex=1307160000&en=2d326...
In the ballroom foyer of the Embassy Suites Hotel, the two-day International Education and
Strategy Conference for 9/11 Truth was off to a rollicking start. More than 500 people from
Italy to Northern California gathered for the weekend at a major chain hotel near the
runways of O'Hare International. There were talks on the Reichstag fire and the sinking of the
Battleship Maine as precedents for 9/11. There were speeches by the lawyer for James Earl Ray,
who claimed that a military conspiracy killed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and by a former
operative for the British secret service, MI5. 9/11 Truthers [are] a group that, in its rank and file,
includes professors, chain-saw operators, mothers, engineers, activists, used-book sellers, pizza
deliverymen, [and] college students. Steven E. Jones [is] a professor of physics at Brigham Young
University and the movement's expert in the matter of collapse. Dr. Jones...is a soft-spoken man
who lets his writing do the talking. He composed an account of the destruction of the towers...that
holds that "pre-positioned cutter-charges" brought the buildings down. There is a plan by the
British delegation...to get members of Parliament to watch "Loose Change," the seminal
movement DVD. The Truthers are not alone in believing the whole truth has not come out. A poll
released last month by Zogby International found that 42 percent of all Americans believe the 9/11
Commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence" in the attacks. [And a] Zogby
poll two years ago that found that 49 percent of New York City residents agreed with the idea that
some leaders "knew in advance" that the attacks were planned and failed to act.

Injected Cells Cure Tumors in Mice

2006-05-09, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/09/science/sci-cancer9
White blood cells from mice that are naturally immune to cancer cured tumors in other mice
and provided them with lifelong immunity to the disease, researchers reported Monday. The
finding indicates the existence of a biological pathway previously unsuspected in any species. A
small team of researchers is working to understand the genetic and immunological basis of the
surprising phenomenon. Preliminary studies hint at the existence of a similar resistance in
humans. Researchers hope that harnessing the biological process could lead to a new approach
to treating cancer. But Dr. Zhen Cui of Wake Forest, whose team published the findings in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, said he expected rapid replication of the results
because the findings were so clear-cut and easily observed. "This is a truly remarkable
phenomenon -- and it really needs confirmation from other institutions," he said. The team took
white blood cells from the immune mice ... and injected them into mice already carrying a variety of
tumors, some of which were extremely aggressive. In every case, the cancers were destroyed,
even if the cells were injected at a point distant from the tumor. Healthy tissues were not affected.
The mice that received the cells, furthermore, were protected from new tumors for the rest of their
lives. The researchers have no idea how the immunity continues.
Note: Why was this not in the headlines and not given a title like "Cancer Cure Found for Mice"?
Most major papers didn't even report the story, and an article in the New York Times was titled
simply "A Strain of Mice Appears Able to Resist Cancer Cells." Could it be that the power brokers
in the medical industry know that a cancer cure would cause huge financial losses for them? For
what happened to an incredible scientist in the past who discovered a cancer cure for humans,
click here.

Journals 'regularly publish fraudulent research

2006-05-03, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,1766642,00.html
Fraudulent research regularly appears in the 30,000 scientific journals published worldwide, a
former editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) said today. Even when journals discover that
published research is fabricated or falsified they rarely retract the findings, according to Richard
Smith, who was also chief executive of the BMJ publishing group. Writing in the latest edition of
the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Smith called on editors to blow the whistle on bad
research and to use their clout to pressure universities into taking action against dodgy
researchers. The former BMJ editor said it was likely that research fraud was "equally common" in
the 30,000 plus scientific journals across the globe but was "invariably covered up". His call for
action comes in the wake of several high profile cases of fraudulent research, including the Korean
scientist Hwang Woo-suk who fabricated stem cell research that it was claimed would open up
new ways to treat diseases like Parkinson's. Dr Smith criticised the failure of scientific institutions,
including universities, to discipline dodgy researchers even when alerted to problems by journals.

"Few countries have measures in place to ensure research is carried out ethically," he said.
"Most cases are not publicised. They are simply not recognised, covered up altogether or the
guilty researcher is urged to retrain, move to another institution or retire from research."
Note: For reliable information on the collusion of industry, government, and research facilities who
place profits above advances in public health: http://www.WantToKnow.info/healthcoverup

Selling 'pandemic flu' through a language of fear

2006-03-21, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0321/p09s01-coop.html
Americans consider the United States to be a country where debate flourishes. Yet with regard to
avian flu, hyped sound bites predominate. When President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion
toward "pandemic flu preparedness," even his critics replied "not enough." What is lacking in the
overall discussion about pandemic flu is disagreement, criticism, and skepticism - once the
bedrock of science - from researchers willing to question and test the data. Some facts:
According to the World Health Organization, the first "outbreak" of the H5N1 virus, also known as
avian flu, killed six people in 1997. Since then, H5N1 has allegedly killed 97 more worldwide, the
majority of whom lived in poor, rural areas and had direct contact with dead or sick birds often kept
in unsanitary conditions. These numbers do not suggest the human population faces an
insurmountable threat from this virus. Peter Palese, flu scientist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York, told The New York Times in a Nov. 8, 2005 article that H5N1 is a false alarm. The
virus has been "around for more than a dozen years, but it hasn't jumped into the human
population." The reason? It probably can't. There are better ways to promote America's health than
selling sickness through the language of fear. Before the government employs "all instruments of
national power," including "quarantine authority," as the National Strategy for Pandemic
Influenza declares, we need to be told what "pandemic flu" really means.
Note: Not mentioned are the huge profits reaped by the drug companies and their political
supporters thanks to the intense fear of bird flu generated by the media. For more:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/healthcoverup

Out of Control: AIDS and the corruption of medical science

2006-03-01, Harper's Magazine
http://harpers.org/archive/2006/03/0080961
HIV tests detect footprints, never the animal itself. These footprints, antibodies ... were limited to
two in 1984 ... but over the years expanded to include many proteins previously not associated
with HIV. A majority of HIV-positive tests, when retested, come back indeterminate or negative. In
many cases, different results emerge from the same blood tested in different labs. There are
currently at least eleven different criteria for how many and what proteins at which band density
signal positive. The most stringent criteria (four bands) are upheld in Australia and France; the

least stringent (two bands), in Africa, where an HIV test is not even required as part of an AIDS
diagnosis. Africa ... has become ground zero of the AIDS epidemic. The clinical definition of AIDS
in Africa, however, is stunningly broad and generic, and was seemingly designed to be little other
than a signal for funding. The Bangui definition of AIDS ... requires neither a positive HIV test nor
a low T-cell count, as in the West, but only the presence of chronic diarrhea, fever, significant
weight loss, and asthenia. These happen to be the symptoms of chronic malnutrition, malaria,
parasitic infections, and other common African illnesses. The statistical picture of AIDS in Africa,
consequently, is a communal projection based on very rough estimates ... extrapolated across the
continent using computer models and highly questionable assumptions. More than 2,300 people,
mostly scientists and doctors, including Nobelists in chemistry and medicine, have signed
the petition of the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis, which
calls for a more independent and skeptical approach to the question of AIDS causality.
Note: If you want to be educated about the details of how rampant corruption has become in the
medical research industry, read this well researched article. For a concise description of unbridled
corruption in the health care industry by one of the most respected doctors in the world, click here.

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car

2006-02-17, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/eveningnews/main1329941.shtml
The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a
sports-economy car one that combines performance and practicality under one hood. But as
CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that
buyers have been waiting decades [for] comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean
bio-diesel fuel to boot. A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50
miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to
thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi,
five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School. The five kids ... built
the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year rummaging for
parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids
weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop. "If you give kids that have been stereotyped as
not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.
Stepping up is something the big automakers have yet to do. They're still in the early stages of
marketing hybrid cars while playing catch-up to the Bad News Bears of auto shop. "We made this
work," says Hauger. "We're not geniuses. So why aren't they doing it?" Kosi thinks he knows why.
The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.
Note: So why isn't this remarkable engine design breakthrough making front page headlines in all
major media? Why aren't the many other major energy breakthroughs that have been reported
given the headlines they deserve? Could it be that those who are reaping huge profits from oil
sales have much more political and media influence than you might imagine? For lots more
reliable information on this, click here.

Losing bin Laden

2006-02-12, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR20060209016...
Despite a huge and costly effort by the media, the public still has an incomplete picture of what
really happened during the [war in Afghanistan] and of how Osama bin Laden survived it. Gary
Berntsen's Jawbreaker provides a valuable new account by a major participant that fills in many
blanks. Berntsen was a top CIA field commander in the most critical sector of a new kind of war; at
various times, the CIA veteran had elements of the Delta Force, Army Rangers, Navy SEALs and
tactical air units reporting to him. Crown Publishers has chosen unnecessarily to position it as a
diatribe that the CIA tried to suppress. In fact, while the CIA dragged its feet in reviewing the
manuscript for classified material and redacted plenty of specifics, the book is hardly an attack on
the CIA. In fact, the overall picture of the CIA here is far more flattering than that in The 9/11
Commission Report. Still, to portray Jawbreaker as "the book the CIA doesn't want you to read" (as
the cover puts it), the publisher has displayed the redactions throughout the book as large black
lines. Contradicting Bush administration denials, Berntsen writes that his teams discovered bin
Laden and the remnants of his entourage in the now famous Tora Bora Mountains along the
lawless, rugged Afghan-Pakistani border. Berntsen recounts very credibly how he and others
pleaded with Gen. Tommy Franks and the Pentagon brass to put in blocking forces so that
bin Laden and the remnants of al Qaeda's leadership could not flee into Pakistan. But for
reasons that remain unclear to Berntsen ... the Bush administration or Franks decided to
depend instead on local Afghan warlords rather than put U.S. forces on the ground to block
bin Laden's escape.
Note: To read a concise summary of reliable news reports that raise serious questions about what
really happened on 9/11, click here.

The Age of Autism: 'A pretty big secret'

2005-12-07, Washington Times/UPI
https://web.archive.org/web/20051213040915/http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi...
Where are the autistic Amish? In Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there
should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder. There is evidence of only three. Julia is
one of them. She ... is adopted from China. She had most of her vaccines given to her in the
United States. [Of the other, one definitely had a vaccine, and the other's vaccine status is
unknown.] Thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago
have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They
have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism. "We have about 30,000 or 35,000
children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of
autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein,
Homefirst's medical director. Eisenstein, in fact, is author of the book "Don't Vaccinate Before You
Educate!" Earlier this year Florida pediatrician Dr. Jeff Bradstreet said there is virtually no autism in

home-schooling families who decline to vaccinate for religious reasons lending credence to
Eisenstein's observations. "It's largely non-existent," said Bradstreet, who treats children with
autism from around the country. Thimerosal, which is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury by weight, was
phased out of most U.S. childhood immunizations beginning in 1999, but the CDC recommends flu
shots for pregnant women and last year began recommending them for children 6 to 23 months
old. Most of those shots contain thimerosal.
Note: The above article was removed from the Washington Times website, so the link above uses
an archived copy of the article at archive.org. You can also find it on the UPI website at this link.
Page two is available here. If these links fail, click here.

Doctor says bird flu drug is useless

2005-12-04, London Times
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article208383.ece
A Vietnamese doctor who has treated dozens of victims of avian flu claims the drug being
stockpiled around the world to combat a pandemic is 'useless' against the virus. Dr Nguyen Tuong
Van runs the intensive care unit at the Centre for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and has treated 41
victims of H5N1. Van followed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and gave her
patients Tamiflu, but concluded it had no effect. 'We place no importance on using this drug on
our patients,' she said. 'Tamiflu is really only meant for treating ordinary type A flu. It was not
designed to combat H5N1 . . . (Tamiflu) is useless.' Roche, the company that makes Tamiflu, has
sold stockpiles of the drug to 40 countries and insists there is clear evidence it will protect against
a future flu virus. However, it stresses the drug must be given within 48 hours to be effective. The
WHO admitted Tamiflu had not been widely successful in humans. 'However, we believe in many
Asian countries it hasn't been used until late in the illness,' a spokesman said.
Note: Yet hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to stockpile this drug. It's quite
interesting that the former chairman of the board of directors of the company that made Tamiflu is
current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Rumsfeld has had over $5 million in stock
gains from the sales of this drug. To read about this and lots more:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/avianflu

U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules

2005-09-10, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR20050909007...
A federal appeals court yesterday backed the president's power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen
captured on U.S. soil without any criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during
wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks. The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
4th Circuit, came in the case of Jose Padilla, a former gang member and U.S. citizen arrested in
Chicago in 2002 and a month later designated an "enemy combatant" by President Bush. Padilla

has been held without trial in a U.S. naval brig for more than three years, and his case has ignited
a fierce battle over the balance between civil liberties and the government's power to fight
terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A host of civil liberties groups and former attorney
general Janet Reno weighed in on Padilla's behalf, calling his detention illegal and arguing that the
president does not have unchecked power to lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely. In its ruling
yesterday, the three-judge panel overturned a lower court. Avidan Cover, a senior associate at
Human Rights First, said the ruling "really flies in the face of our understanding of what
rights American citizens are entitled to." Opponents have warned that if not constrained by
the courts, Padilla's detention could lead to the military being allowed to hold anyone who,
for example, checks out what the government considers the wrong kind of reading
materials from the library.
Note: For many disturbing reports from major media sources on government threats to civil
liberties, click here.

Getting Agnostic About 9/11

2005-08-28, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-crgriffin35aug28,...
Anyone who types the words "9/11" and "conspiracy" into an online search engine soon learns that
not everybody buys the official narrative of what took place on Sept. 11, 2001. As a professor
emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, 66-year-old David Ray Griffin would seem to have
more affinity for leather elbow patches than tin hats, yet after friends and colleagues prodded him
into sifting through the evidence, he experienced a conversion. "For the first year and a half I
just accepted the conventional view ... that this was blowback for our foreign policy. When
a colleague suggested to me ... forces within our own government had arranged it, I didn't
accept that. Then several months later another colleague sent me a website that had a
timeline. Once I ... saw all those stories drawn from mainstream sources that contradicted the
official account, I decided I needed to look into it more carefully, and the more I looked, the worse it
got. The fact that Building 7 ... collapsed when it had not been hit by an airplane ... that's a
smoking gun. The fact that standard operating procedures were not followed that morning, and
we've gotten three different stories now by the U.S. military as to why they did not intercept the
planes, that's a smoking gun. The 9/11 commission simply ignored those questions. The official
account itself is a conspiracy theory. It says that 19 Arab Muslims...conspired to pull off this
operation. The question is not whether one is a conspiracy theorist about 9/11. It's which
conspiracy theory do you find most supported by the evidence?"
Note: If the Los Angeles Times link does not work, click here for the full article. The timeline to
which Prof. Griffin refers is the WantToKnow.info timeline at http://www.WantToKnow.info/911cover-up

CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away

2005-08-15, Newsweek magazine

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8853000/site/newsweek/
During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether
Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush
asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain
hideaway along the Afghan border. But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the
agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did
know that ... bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora ... and could have been caught. Asked to
comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed
on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to
this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19
New York Times op-ed. [CIA Commander] Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was
not on the ground out there. I was." In his booktitled "Jawbreaker"the decorated career CIA
officer criticizes Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department for not providing enough support to the
CIA and the Pentagon's own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora. Berntsen ... has
sued the agency over what he calls unacceptable delays in approving his book. "They're just
holding the book," which is scheduled for October release, he says. "CIA officers, Special
Forces and U.S. air power drove the Taliban out in 70 days. The CIA has taken roughly 80
days to clear my book."
Note: For a concise summary of reliable, verifiable information questioning the official account of
9/11, click here.

Eco-car more efficient than light bulb

2005-07-05, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/07/04/eco.car
An eco-car that can travel the world using a fraction of the electricity it takes to power a light bulb
has been unveiled by its British creators. The hydrogen-powered Ech2o needs just 25 Watts -- the
equivalent of less than two gallons of petrol -- to complete the 25,000-mile global trip, while
emitting nothing more hazardous than water. But with a top speed of 30mph, the journey would
take more than a month to complete. Ech2o, built by British gas firm BOC, will bid to smash
the world fuel efficiency record of over 10,000 miles per gallon at the Shell Eco Marathon. The
record is currently ... 5,385 km/per liter [12,900 mpg!]. John Carolin, BOC global director
sustainable energy: "It sounds unbelievable how little power is used to keep the BOC Ech2o
moving, but it demonstrates the impact of careful design and is a valuable lesson for car makers in
the future.
Note: If these small test cars get over 10,000 miles per gallon, why aren't new cars getting at least
100 mpg?

Debate over vaccines, autism won't die

2005-06-26, MSNBC
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8336821
The afternoon after Kelly Kerns' 2-month-old daughter Kaylee got several vaccines was "living
hell," with the child screaming and arching her back, her mother said. 'I kept telling myself
everybody gets vaccinated this is OK,' she said. When Kaylee was 18 months old, her whiteblonde hair began falling out and she stopped talking. Meanwhile, Kerns had twin boys Andrew
and Daniel. When they were 15 months old, they received three vaccines. A week later, they
stopped talking. All three children have since been diagnosed as autistic. Flu vaccine sold in
multidose vials still contains the preservative, and the government urges flu shots for pregnant
women and young children even though not enough thimerosal-free ones are available, critics say.
Finding answers is tough because autism, a little-understood developmental disorder, often is
diagnosed at the very ages when children get vaccines. The stories are remarkably similar: A
seemingly normal child gets a shot and days, weeks or months later, withdraws from the
world, stops speaking, becomes upset at random stimulation such as a doorbell, and
adopts compulsive behaviors like head-banging.
Note: Thimerosal has now been removed from childhood vaccines, however the government and
drug industry continue to deny that there is any link between mercury in vaccines and autism. And
mercury is still commonly used in flu and other vaccines in the U.S. A document hidden by drug
companies for two years all but proves that a commonly used vaccine is responsible for the deaths
of countless toddlers within 10 days of receiving the vaccine. This document is discussed on the
US National Institutes of Health website at this link. An article going into depth on this vital
information is available here.

Refiners Maintain a Firm but Legal Grip on Supplies

2005-06-18, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calgas18jun18,0,7589520.story
California refiners are simply cashing in on a system that allows a handful of players to keep prices
high by carefully controlling supplies. The result is a kind of miracle market in which profits abound,
outsiders can't compete and a dwindling cadre of gas station operators has little choice but go
along. Refiners "not only control how much supply is in the marketplace, they control who gets it
and at what price," said Dennis DeCota, executive director of the California Service Station and
Automotive Repair Assn. The recent history of California's fuel industry is a textbook case of
how a once-competitive business can become skewed to the advantage of a few, all with
the federal government's blessing. Refiners acknowledge their California businesses have
become the most profitable in the nation. The rest of the country isn't far behind. Characteristics
once unique to California specialty fuels, a refinery shortage, the growing dominance of a few
companies have begun to plague other gasoline markets.

A change of heart changes everything

2005-06-00, Ode Magazine, June 2005 Issue
http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/24/a_change_of_heart_changes_everything
A California institute demonstrates how people can actually make their heart beat in a healthier
way. HeartMaths research shows that emotions work much faster, and are more powerful, than
thoughts. And thatwhen it comes to the human bodythe heart is much more important than the
brain to overall health and well-being. Briefly re-experiencing a cherished memory creates
synchronization in your heart rhythm in mere seconds. Using a simple prescription that
consists of a number of exercises that anyone can do anywhere in a few minutes ...
HeartMath is successfully battling the greatest threat to health, happiness and peace in this
world: stress. A successful anti-stress strategy provides results precisely at the moment the
stress is experienced. This is what HeartMath does, which is why its client list now includes such
leading companies as Hewlett Packard, Shell, Unilever, Cisco Systems, and Boeing. HeartMath ...
has published a large body of scientific research in established and respected publications such as
the Harvard Business Review and the American Journal of Cardiology. You can learn the
techniques in five minutes and get positive results if you do them a few times a day for 30
seconds. Feelings of compassion, love, care and appreciation produce a smoothly rolling ... heart
rhythm, while feelings of anger, frustration, fear and danger emit a jagged ... image. When people
experience love, they not only feel happy and joyful, but they also produce ... the hormone that
prevents aging and gives us feelings of youthful vitality. HeartMaths slogan a change of heart
changes everything pretty much sums it up. We can change the world, starting with ourselves.
Note: To visit the inspiring website of the Institute of HeartMath, see http://www.heartmath.org.

A child's return from autism

2005-05-25, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/25/BAGU0CU2K71.DTL
A Lafayette couple, certain that chelation therapy has helped their autistic son, stepped squarely
into the controversy surrounding the causes of autism and its treatment Tuesday as they joined
150 other parents in launching an international support group that will aggressively promote the
treatment. The Handleys are now among a small minority of parents -- who, believing that
the autism was caused by the mercury in thimerosal, a preservative that was routinely used
in vaccines until recently -- are treating their children with chelation therapy, a lotion or pill
that strips the body of heavy metals. It has been used for decades to detoxify people
contaminated in industrial accidents, but no studies have proved whether it is an effective
treatment for autism. For Jamie's parents, the proof they need is in front of them: Jamie, now 3
years old and several months into treatment, is plump and playing baseball. His smile has
returned.
The
Handleys
said
the
new
support
group,
Generation
Rescue,
www.generationrescue.com, will offer information on chelation therapy and connect parents with
those who can help.

Note: For why the some powerful people may be covering up this important information, click here.
And remember how tobacco companies, fully aware of the dangers of smoking, for decades
flooded the media with information and industry-sponsored studies claiming smoking caused no
harm.

Pope 'obstructed' sex abuse inquiry

2005-04-24, The Observer (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1469055,00.html
Confidential letter reveals Ratzinger ordered bishops to keep allegations secret. Pope Benedict
XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed justice' after it emerged he issued an order
ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret.
The order was made in a confidential letter, obtained by The Observer, which was sent to every
Catholic bishop in May 2001. It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors
and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The
letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John Paul II's successor last
week. Lawyers acting for abuse victims claim it was designed to prevent the allegations from
becoming public knowledge or being investigated by the police. They accuse Ratzinger of
committing a 'clear obstruction of justice'. 'Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret,'
Ratzinger's letter concludes. Breaching the pontifical secret at any time while the 10-year
jurisdiction order is operating carries penalties, including the threat of excommunication. The letter
is referred to in documents relating to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against a church in Texas and
Ratzinger on behalf of two alleged abuse victims. By sending the letter, lawyers acting for the
alleged victims claim the cardinal conspired to obstruct justice. Daniel Shea, the lawyer for the two
alleged victims who discovered the letter, said: 'If you can manage to keep it secret for 18 years
plus 10 the priest will get away with it.'

Possible Mercury, Autism Connection Found in Study

2005-03-17, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-autism17mar17,1,1770760.story
Studying individual school districts in Texas, the epidemiologists found that those districts with the
highest levels of mercury in the environment also had the highest rates of special education
students and autism diagnoses. There was a strong, direct relationship between mercury and
autism levels. The incidence of autism has grown dramatically over the last two decades,
from about one in every 2,000 children to as high as one in every 166. The purported link
between autism and mercury has been a subject of intense debate. In the past it has centered
primarily on the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which was once widely used in
vaccines. Many parents have argued that thimerosal causes autism because their children
seemed to develop the neurological disorder shortly after they received childhood vaccinations.

Note: An MSNBC/Associated Press report shows that the FDA rejected limits on thimerosal and
that "most doses of flu vaccine still contain thimerosal."

Was Use of Cell Phones on 9/11 Flights Possible?

2004-12-15, WantToKnow.info/Washington Post/SF Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.WantToKnow.info/911cellphonecalls
Once you get to a certain height, you are no longer in the range of the cellular network,
because cell phone towers aren't built to project their signals that high.
Washington Post, 12/9/04
Today's vote by the FCC is intended to address whether technology has improved to the
extent that cell phone calls now are possible above 10,000 feet -- they weren't in the past.
San Francisco Chronicle, 12/15/04
"With television cameramen hovering, Qualcomm chief executive Irwin Jacobs sat in the
front row of coach and made one of the first legal cell phone calls from a commercial
jetliner. Jacobs pronounced the [brand new] technology behind the airborne phone call a
success, although adding that it will be improved over the next couple years. Connections
from the plane were generally good, although some calls were dropped."
USA Today/Associated Press, 7/16/04
Note: To find articles showing multiple cell phone use on Sept. 11, 2001, type "9/11" and "cell
phone calls" into your favorite search engine, or click here for a Washington Post report on an
alleged 30-minute uninterrupted cell phone call from Flight 93. Click here for a CNN report on
another call from that flight. Tests have shown it is not possible to have an extended cell phone
conversation above 10,000 feet.

Army test in 1950 may have changed microbial ecology

2004-10-31, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Serratia-has-dark-history-in-region-Army...
Serratia is a bacterium that some doctors and residents of the Bay Area have been familiar with for
many years. In 1950, government officials believed that serratia did not cause disease. That belief
was later used as a justification for a secret post-World War II Army experiment that became a
notorious disaster tale about the microbe. The Army used serratia to test whether enemy agents
could launch a biological warfare attack on a port city such as San Francisco from a location miles
offshore. For six days in late September 1950, a small military vessel near San Francisco
sprayed a huge cloud of serratia particles into the air while the weather favored dispersal.
Army tests showed that the bacterial cloud had exposed hundreds of thousands of people

in a broad swath of Bay Area communities. Soon after the spraying, 11 people came down
with hard-to-treat infections at the old Stanford University Hospital in San Francisco. By
November, one man had died. The outbreak was so unusual that the Stanford doctors wrote it up
for a medical journal. But the medics and [the dead man's] relatives didn't find out about the Army
experiment for nearly 26 years, when a series of secret military experiments came to light. Some
people now speculate that descendants of the Army germs are still causing infections here today.
The secret bio-warfare test might have permanently changed the microbial ecology of the region.
Note: The military regularly used humans as guinea pigs in experiments in the decades before
and after WWII. For a list of these sometimes lethal experiments, click here. For reliable
information on government mind control experiments which also used unsuspecting civilians, click
here.

Write More About Skull And Bones

2004-10-27, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/10/27/notes102704.DTL
I get this a lot: Hey Mark ... why don't you quit toeing the typical blas journalism line ... and
instead write about the real truths? Like for example how both Kerry and Bush are members of
mega-yuppie Yale secret society/boys' club Skull & Bones. And why, furthermore, don't you talk
about the real truths of 9/11? Haven't you seen that amazing [9/11] video on that Web site? And
what about Building 7? Why did that 47-story tower adjacent to the WTC collapse when it had no
fire and no plane crash? Why isn't the media reporting any of this? Does this make you laugh?
Scoff? It is, after all, incredibly easy to dismiss conspiracy theories. But you know what? It's not
that easy. These people ... have a point. They are indeed onto something quite large and ominous
and it very much has to do with the media toeing the line of "safe" information. There is indeed
ample evidence that the U.S. government, long before 9/11, had already discussed the quite
plausible possibilities and strategic benefits of unleashing a "Pearl Harbor"-type event on America.
There are plenty of strangely unanswered questions about 9/11, about the stunning inaction of
NORAD and Bush's stupefying nonreaction upon hearing of the attack, not to mention his
administration's incredible attempts to halt any independent 9/11 investigations. Of course, no
one in any major media will touch this stuff. It is professional suicide to dare suggest an
alternate truth to the one supplied by the Pentagon and regurgitated by the media. And the
truth is, we don't really want such unstable questions answered. We simply cannot tolerate to have
our world, our leaders, our foundations so questioned. We prefer stasis to growth, security to true
knowledge.

Conspiracy Theories Flourish on the Internet

2004-10-07, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13059-2004Oct6.html

Darren Williams spent four weeks this summer making a short but startling video that raises novel
questions about the 2001 attack. The video, "9/11: Pentagon Strike," suggests that it was not
American Airlines Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon, but a missile or a small plane. The
video offers flashes of photographs taken shortly after impact, interspersed with witness accounts.
The pictures seem incompatible with damage caused by a jumbo jet. Firefighters stand outside a
perfectly round hole in a Pentagon wall where the Boeing 757 punched through; it is less than 20
feet in diameter. Propelled by word of mouth, Internet search engines and e-mail, the video
has been downloaded by millions of people around the world. Williams created a Web site for
the video, www.pentagonstrike.co.uk. Then he e-mailed a copy to Laura Knight-Jadczyk [who]
posted a link to the video on the group's Web site, www.Cassiopaea.org. Within 36 hours,
Williams's site collapsed under the crush of tens of thousands of visitors. But there were others to
fill the void. In Texas, a former casino worker who downloaded the video began drawing almost
700,000 visitors a day. In Louisiana, a young Navy specialist put the video on his personal Web
page. Suddenly, the site was inundated by more than 20,000 hits. "Pentagon Strike" is just the
latest and flashiest example of a growing number of Web sites, books and videos contending that
something other than a commercial airliner hit the Pentagon. Knight-Jadczyk said she never
imagined anyone outside her group would ever view "Pentagon Strike." "The fact everybody's
been sending it to his brother and his cousin ... reflects the fact that there is a deep unease," she
said.
Note: This five-minute video is well worth watching, even though it was made a few years ago. To
view it free online, click here. For lots more information suggesting a major 9/11 cover-up, click
here.

Big Pharma snared by net

2004-09-26, The Observer (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1312765,00.html
No one foresaw ... the shocking extent to which the internet would change the terms of trade
between corporations and society. One of the world's largest drug companies [was] the first victim.
Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest pharma, denied any wrongdoing, but agreed
to pay $2.5m ... for concealing evidence of its antidepressant Seroxat's potential for harming
children, while doing them no measurable good. Infinitely more frightening ... this pharma had the
backing of institutions that we, the public, rely on to protect us from poisoning by prescription. The
Royal College of Psychiatrists had insisted only a year earlier that 'there is no evidence that
antidepressant drugs can cause dependence syndromes'. It was really the internet that allowed
public health activists to do an end run around GSK's and the medical authorities' denials
of the drug's risks. An explosion of websites dedicated to vivid accounts of antidepressant
reactions told these campaigners about hundreds of thousands affected by a problem that
officially did not exist. Health activists in Britain and America have uncovered the core of pharma
might. In both countries, clinical drug tests are paid for by the pharmas, who tweak the trials'
design for the best possible results. Until recently, only the most favourable findings got published
in the 20,000-odd biomedical journals, many of them dependent on pharmas for funding. The

drugs are approved for marketing by regulators, whose salaries are mostly financed by the
subjects of their evaluations. The medicines are then prescribed by doctors routinely courted with
pharma gifts ... meant to persuade them to change their prescribing habits.
Note: For a two-page summary with lots more reliable information on major health cover-ups by a
doctor who was editor-in-chief of one of the most pretigious medical journals in the world, click
here.

Son probes strange death of WMD worker

2004-09-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/12/MNG468MM8N1.DTL
Eric Olson now has a new verb for what happened to his father, Frank Olson, who worked for the
Army's top-secret Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, where he developed bioweapons
and experimented with mind-control drugs. Eric Olson found the verb in a 1950s CIA manual. The
verb is "dropped." And the manual is a how-to guide for assassins. "The most efficient accident, in
simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface," the manual says, adding
helpfully: "It will usually be necessary to stun or drug the subject before dropping him." Eric Olson
believes his father -- who developed misgivings about his work and tried to resign -- was murdered
by government agents to protect dark government secrets. "No assassination instructions
should ever be written or recorded," says the CIA assassination manual. "Decision and
instructions should be confined to an absolute minimum of persons." It adds: "For secret
assassination the contrived accident is the most effective technique. When successfully
executed, it causes little excitement and is only casually investigated." William P. Walter, 78, who
supervised anthrax production at Detrick, says Olson's colleagues were divided about his death.
"Some say he jumped. Some say he had help," Walter says. "I'm one of the 'had-help' people." So
is James Starrs, a George Washington University forensic pathologist who ... called the evidence
"rankly and starkly suggestive of homicide." In a report to the CIA on the death, [Harold]
Abramson, [a doctor who had experimented with LSD] wrote that the LSD experiment was
designed "especially to trap (Olson)." This ... raised a troubling possibility: that the LSD experiment
was actually designed to see whether Olson could still be trusted to keep the agency's dark
secrets.
Note: Frank Olson was just one of many tragic casualties of the CIA's mind-control programs. For
revealing information on this secret history, click here.

Lost In Translation
2004-08-08, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/25/60minutes/main526954.shtml

Sibel Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI's language division, says [that hundreds, if not
thousands, of foreign language intelligence documents] weren't translated because the division
was riddled with incompetence and corruption. Edmonds was fired after reporting her concerns to
FBI officials. Because she is fluent in Turkish and other Middle Eastern languages, Edmonds, a
Turkish-American, was hired by the FBI soon after Sept. 11 and given top-secret security
clearance to translate some of the reams of documents seized by FBI agents who have been
rounding up suspected terrorists across the United States and abroad. In its rush to hire more
foreign language translators after Sept. 11, the FBI admits it has had difficulty performing
background checks to detect translators who may have loyalties to other governments, which
could pose a threat to U.S. national security. Take the case of Jan Dickerson, a Turkish translator
who worked with Edmonds. The FBI has admitted that when Dickerson was hired, the bureau
didn't know that she had worked for a Turkish organization being investigated by the FBI's
own counter-intelligence unit. They also didn't know she'd had a relationship with a Turkish
intelligence officer stationed in Washington who was the target of that investigation.
According to Edmonds, Dickerson tried to recruit her into that organization, and insisted that
Dickerson be the only one to translate the FBI's wiretaps of that Turkish official. She got very
angry, and later she threatened me and my family's life, says Edmonds, when she decided not to
go along with the plan. She said, Why would you want to place your life and your family's life in
danger by translating these tapes? Edmonds says that when she reviewed Dickerson's
translations of those tapes, she found that Dickerson had left out information crucial to the FBI's
investigation - information that Edmonds says would have revealed that the Turkish intelligence
officer had spies working for him inside the U.S. State Department and at the Pentagon.
Note: This article should be read in its entirety. For many revealing articles on the ongoing efforts
by longtime whistleblower Sibel Edmonds to tell her story, click here.

Letter to Thomas Kean from Sibel Edmonds

2004-08-05, AsiaTimes ('Asia's most trusted news source')
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FH05Aa01.html
Your commission ... has now issued its "9/11 Commission Report". After [9/11] we, the
translators at the FBI's largest and most important translation unit, were told to slow down,
even stop, translation of critical information related to terrorist activities. This issue has
been confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Melek Can Dickerson, with the assistance of
her direct supervisor, forged signatures on top-secret documents related to certain 9/11 detainees.
Not only does the supervisor facilitating these criminal conducts remain in a supervisory position,
he has been promoted. In April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset ... received information that:
1) Osama Bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting 4-5 major
cities, 2) the attack was going to involve airplanes [and] the attack was going to be carried out
soon. No action was taken. After 9/11, the agents and the translators were told to 'keep quiet'
regarding this issue. The translator who was present ... reported this incident to Director Mueller in
writing. Why did your report choose to exclude the information ... despite the public confirmation by
the FBI, witnesses provided to your investigators, and briefings you received directly? As you are

fully aware, these issues and incidents were found confirmed by a Senior Republican Senator,
Charles Grassley, and a Senior Democrat Senator, Patrick Leahy. Even FBI officials 'confirmed all
my allegations and denied none' during their unclassified meetings with the Senate Judiciary staff.
However, neither your commission's hearings, nor your commission's five hundred sixty sevenpage report ... include these serious issues, major incidents, and systemic problems.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. Sibel Edmonds is one of the great heroes of our day. She
has been gagged directly by the U.S. Attorney General from telling what she knows. The above
letter was not published in any major U.S. media, though widely reported in alternative new
sources. To understand how such vital information is hidden from the public, click here. For lots
more on Ms. Edmonds, click here.

The inside story of how a band of reformers tried and failed to

change America's spy agencies
2004-07-25, US News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040802/2intell.htm
Twice each week, a top-secret report with distinctive red stripes lands on the desks of select
policymakers in Washington. Called the "Red Cell," it is the work of a CIA unit by the same name,
set up after the 9/11 attacks. "Some of it is really wacky, even scary," says an insider. "Like
bombing Iran." The "Red Cell," in a very real sense, is emblematic of the trouble the U.S.
intelligence community finds itself in today. Created in 1947, the U.S. intelligence community has
grown enormously in terms of bodies and dollars but also in the number and complexity of its
responsibilities. It has also, for many reasons, grown into a mess. After 9/11, Americans had good
reason to assume the nation's intelligence capabilities were being improved. But then came the
Iraq war and the subsequent revelations that the CIA's "slam dunk" intelligence on Saddam
Hussein's stockpiles of banned weapons was a complete air ball, a casualty of badly forged
documents, eager exiles with outlandish stories, and analysis that, in the most charitable sense,
could be described as flawed. The Senate Intelligence Committee's 511-page Iraq report
documents how on the country's weightiest issue whether to launch a pre-emptive war
the U.S. intelligence community ended up wrong on virtually every critical point. "In short,"
laments Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the intelligence panel's ranking Democrat, "we went to war in Iraq
based on false claims." When Harry Truman signed into law the National Security Act of 1947,
creating the CIA, he wanted precisely what the name implied: a central agency for intelligence.
"The CIA was set up by me for the sole purpose of getting all the available information to
the president," Truman wrote. "It was not intended to operate as an international agency
engaged in strange activities." Within months, of course, Truman himself was ordering the CIA
to engage in "strange activities," such as staving off a Communist takeover in Italy.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Victorian police in pedophile rings: victims

2004-07-08, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/08/1089000284210.html
A highly-organised paedophile ring involving Victorian police and former politicians had
been operating in the state since the 1970s, anti-child abuse groups claimed today. Dr Reina
Michaelson of The Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (CSAPP) and Bravehearts founder
Hetty Johnston today said they had been told by child sex abuse victims that former Victorian
elected politicians and police members were involved in child pornography and
prostitution. Dr Michaelson said she was working with child sex abuse victims who said they had
witnessed significant police corruption and protection of paedophilia rings. The allegations come in
response to a damning report released by Victoria's Ombudsman George Brouwer yesterday into
Victoria Police's botched handling of four cases of child sex abuse. Ms Michaelson and Ms
Johnston today called for the confidential Ombudsman's report to be made public and for a royal
commission into child sexual abuse and corruption. "When problems within Victoria Police are
shown to have extended into the investigation of serious sex crimes against children, as has been
revealed by the Ombudsman's investigation, it is time for the Victorian government to act," Dr
Michaelson said.
Note: Because of intense pressure from politicians and police and disturbing threats, Dr.
Michaelson eventually gave up trying to push for justice in these sexual abuse cases. For lots
more solid information on this disturbing news, click here and here. And if you are willing to explore
how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to the highest levels of
government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence,"
available here.

Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory

2004-06-03, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3773019.stm
The Bilderberg group, an elite coterie of Western thinkers and power-brokers, has been
accused of fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors. As the organisation marks its 50th
anniversary, rumours are more rife than ever. On Thursday the Bilderberg group marks its 50th
anniversary with the start of its yearly meeting. For four days some of the West's chief political
movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists and strategic thinkers will hunker down in a fivestar hotel in northern Italy to talk about global issues. What sets Bilderberg apart from other highpowered get-togethers, such as the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), is its mystique. Not a
word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are
invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted. A
former journalist, Mr Gosling runs a campaign against the group from his home in Bristol, UK."
One of the first places I heard about the determination of US forces to attack Iraq was from leaks
that came out of the 2002 Bilderberg meeting," says Mr Gosling.

The Rothschild story: A golden era ends for a secretive dynasty

2004-04-16, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070115044040/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/th...
The news that the bankers Rothschild are to withdraw from the gold market, in which they have
been a major player for two centuries, has been hailed as the end of an era. In one sense, of
course, it is. But in another way it marks out the continuation of an even older tradition - the ability
of the family which has founded one of the world's largest private banking dynasties to
sustain their secretive fortune, which industry insiders count not in billions but in trillions,
and keep it within the family. Secrecy has been a hallmark of the Rothschilds from the
outset. The Rothschilds created the world of banking as we know it today. [They] invented, or
at any rate popularised, the government bond, which allowed investors, big and small, to buy bits
of the debts of sovereign states by purchasing fixed-interest bearer bonds. It brought investment in
railways, the industrial revolution and ventures like the Suez Canal. The Rothschilds got a cut of
everything. They made billions in the 1980s from Margaret Thatcher's privatisations of state-owned
industries on which they advised. In France after their bank was nationalised by the Socialist
president Francois Mitterrand they slowly built a new business which, under Baron David de
Rothschild, has risen to the top ranks of the merger and acquisition league tables. They have
pulled out of retail fund management - into which they went with much fanfare only three years
back - and now they are pulling out of oil and gold in favour of the higher-margin areas of private
banking and wealth management
Note: For some reason this article was removed from the website of the Independent, which is
why the above link takes you to a cached version of this revealing article. For more on financial
corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Academic turns city into a social experiment

2004-03-11, Harvard University Gazette
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.11/01-mockus.html
Antanas Mockus had just resigned from the top job of Colombian National University. A
mathematician and philosopher, Mockus looked around for another big challenge. Mockus, who
had no political experience, ran for mayor of Bogot. Mockus turned Bogot into a social
experiment just as the city was choked with violence, lawless traffic, [and] corruption. People were
desperate for a change. The eccentric Mockus, who communicates through symbols, humor, and
metaphors, filled the role. When many hated the disordered and disorderly city of Bogot, he wore
a Superman costume and acted as a superhero called "Supercitizen." People laughed at Mockus'
antics, but the laughter began to break the ice. Mockus ... finished his second term as mayor this
past January. The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor the opportunity
to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes to control traffic in Bogot's chaotic and
dangerous streets. He launched a "Night for Women" and asked the city's men to stay home in the
evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went out on the first of three nights. Mockus
sees the reduction of homicides from 80 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993 to 22 per 100,000

inhabitants in 2003 as a major achievement. Yet Mockus doesn't like to be called a leader. "To me,
it is important to develop collective leadership." Most important to Mockus was his campaign
about the importance and sacredness of life. "In a society where human life has lost value,"
he said, "there cannot be a higher priority than re-establishing respect for life as the main
right and duty of citizens."
Note: Don't miss the entire, highly inspiring story of political transformation with great photos at the
link above, or for a shorter version, click here.

Retired FBI agent guilty of sex abuse

2004-02-18, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/18/retired_fbi_agent_guilt...
The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined
the bureau for what became a two-decade career. John H. Conditt Jr., 53, who retired in 2001, was
sentenced last week ... to 12 years in prison after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI
agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before he began his
law enforcement career, his lawyer said. Conditt headed the internal affairs unit, which
investigates agent wrongdoing, for the Office of Professional Responsibility at FBI
headquarters in Washington from 1999 until June 2001, the FBI said. FBI officials said
yesterday they had no information suggesting Conditt had any problems during his career and he
was never the subject of an investigation. Assistant District Attorney Mitch Poe of Tarrant County,
who prosecuted the case, said he wanted a longer prison sentence and was skeptical of Conditt's
claim that his molestation of children subsided during his FBI career.
Note: For powerful evidence in a Discovery Channel documentary that many top politicians are
involved in sophisticated child sex abuse rings, click here.

Steve Wilson Exposes Huge Prescription Drug Price Markups

2004-02-05, WXYZ-TV (Detroit ABC affiliate)
http://web.archive.org/web/20050316092358/http://www.wxyz.com/wxyz/ys_investi...
Generic drugs are just as safe and effective as their brand-name counterparts but they cost only a
fraction as much. That is because companies that produce the generic versions simply copy the
formula developed by the drugs inventor years before. While your drugstore charges you less for
a generic drug than a brand name version, that price difference is nothing compared to the markup
most druggists place on the generics. Your pharmacy most likely paid a wholesale price of only
pennies for that generic medicine. They then charge you a markup of 3,000%, 4,000%, even
5,000% or more, pocketing most of your savings. Whos paying sky-high prices? People who can
least afford to get ripped offthe elderly, the unemployed, and everybody who has to pay for their
prescription medicine out of their own pocket. At CVS the cost of generic Prozac is marked up

at least 56 times what the drug cost wholesale. It is a 5,594% markup. And in our survey of
more than a dozen popular generic drugs, CVS leads the pack with average markups of
1,436% Walgreens is not far behind at 1,341% and Rite Aid markups on generics average
1,183%. [WXYZ reporter] Steve Wilson took the issue to Kurt Proctor, Vice President of the
Association of Chain Drug Stores. "Explain to me why its necessary to take an 82 cent product
and mark it up to $46.69? You have to mark it up 5,500% to meet your costs to make a profit? This
is really about greed, isnt it?" asked Wilson. "Its not about greed," responded Proctor. "Thats not
accurate at all. Thats a misleading statement. What I hope you will focus on is making sure people
use their medications correctly."
Note: This important exposure of price-gouging by pharmacies is still available at Web Archive
(click on the link above for the complete article, which is well worth reading in its entirety), but for
some reason has been taken down at WXYZ's website. Could it be someone doesn't want us to
know about this?

German Sept 11 theory stokes anti-US feeling

2003-11-20, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1447232/German-Sept-...
A former German cabinet minister is drawing huge crowds ... with a book arguing that the US
government mounted the September 11 attacks in a plot to win global domination. Mr von Bulow,
66, a former research minister in the German government, believes that September 11, when more
than 3,000 people died, was staged to justify the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His
ideas are very popular in Germany, [where] polls show that a fifth of the population, and one in
three of those under 30, believe the US government ordered the attacks. "If what I say is right, the
whole US government should end up behind bars," Mr von Bulow told The Daily Telegraph. "They
have hidden behind a veil of secrecy and destroyed the evidence - that they invented the story of
19 Muslims working within Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda - in order to hide the truth of their own
covert operation. What I saw on September 11 was a perfectly executed act that could have
happened only with the support of intelligence services, and whoever controlled it must
have known could only bring harm to the Muslim world," he said. "I'm convinced that the US
apparatus must have played a role and my theory is backed up by the [Washington] government's
refusal to present any proof whatsoever of what happened." Mr von Bulow's book, The CIA and
September 11, has sold more than 100,000 copies, a vast print run for Germany.
Note: Although the tone of this report suggests that von Bulow is taking a fringe position on the
events of 9/11, he has been joined by many highly-respected professionals around the world; to
see questions raised by many top military and government officials, respected professors, and
more, click here and here and here.

Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican?

2003-08-06, CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/06/eveningnews/main566978.shtml
For decades, priests in this country abused children in parish after parish while their superiors
covered it all up. Now it turns out the orders for this cover up were written in Rome at the highest
levels of the Vatican. [A] confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a
church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests
anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church. The policy was written in 1962 by
Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani. The document, once "stored in the secret archives" of the Vatican,
focuses on crimes initiated as part of the confessional relationship. Bishops are instructed to
pursue these cases "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and
everyone (including the alleged victim) ... is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly
regarded as a secret of the Holy Office ... under the penalty of excommunication." Larry Drivon, a
lawyer who represents alleged victims, said, This document is significant because it's a blueprint
for deception. It's an instruction manual on how to deceive and how to protect pedophiles ... and
exactly how to avoid the truth coming out." Richard Sipe, a former priest who has written about sex
abuse and secrecy in the church, said the document sends a chilling message. You keep it secret
at all costs, Sipe said. It's happened in every diocese in this country. According to church
records, the document was a bedrock of Catholic sex abuse policy until America's bishops met last
summer and drafted new policies to address the crisis in the church.

Military waste under fire: $1 trillion missing

2003-05-18, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/18/MN251738.DTL
The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat...couldn't account
for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles
and planes. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial
complaints about the financial woes at Defense, which recently failed its seventh audit in as many
years. "Overhauling DOD's financial management operations represent a challenge that goes far
beyond financial accounting," GAO chief David Walker told lawmakers. Recent government reports
suggest the Pentagon's money management woes have reached astronomical proportions. A
GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56
airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units. When military leaders
were scrambling to find enough chemical and biological warfare suits to protect U.S.
troops, the department was caught selling these suits as surplus on the Internet "for
pennies on the dollar," a GAO official said. "We are overhauling our financial management
system," said Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's chief financial officer. "The Pentagon has failed to
address financial problems that dwarf those of Enron," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.
Gregory Kutz, director of GAO's financial management division [said] "I've been to Wal-Mart. They
were able to tell me how many tubes of toothpaste were in Fairfax, Va. And DOD can't find its
chem-bio suits." Opposition to defense spending is portrayed as unpatriotic. Legislators are often
more concerned about winning Pentagon pork than controlling defense waste.

Note: You can read the GAO Report (Page 17 on missing planes). Page two states, "To date, no
major part of DOD has yet been able to pass the test of an independent audit." For an intriguing
Online Journal article exposing the deep role of the Pentagon's former CFO (Chief Financial
Officer) Zakheim in this corruption, click here. Why wasn't and isn't this front page headlines? Why
are newspaper editors keeping this most vital information from the public?

Who's in charge here? No one

2003-04-26, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/apr/27/theobserver.observerbusiness7
Semco, Brazil's most famous company ... made its name by standing the conventional corporate
rulebook on its head. Semco doesn't have a mission statement, its own rulebook or any
written policies. It doesn't have an organisation chart, a human resources department or even,
these days, a headquarters. Subordinates choose their managers, decide how much they are paid
and when they work. Meetings are voluntary, and two seats at board meetings are open to the first
employees who turn up. Salaries are made public, and so is all the company's financial
information. Six months is the farthest ahead the group ever looks. Its units each half-year decide
how many people they require for the next period. Naturally it doesn't plan which businesses to
enter. Instead it 'rambles' into new areas by trial, error and argument. Its current portfolio is an odd
mixture of machinery, property, professional services and fledgling hi-tech spin-offs. That's right,
Semco is the epitome of managerial incorrectness. Sounds like a recipe for chaos, eh? Yet Semco
has surfed Brazil's rough economic and political currents with panache, often growing at between
30 and 40 per cent a year. It turns over $160 million, up from $4m when [company founder
Ricardo] Semler joined the family business two decades ago, and it employs 3,000 [people].
$100,000 invested in this barmy firm 20 years ago would now be worth $5m. But conventional
control attitudes are deeply programmed. Even now, laments Semler, 'we're only 50 or 60 per cent
where we'd like to be'.
Note: Ricardo Semler's wonderfully subversive book, The Seven Day Weekend is available on
amazon.com. Don't miss the inspiring TedTalk of this highly innovative man.

9-11 Commission Funding Woes

2003-03-26, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,437267,00.html
Is the Bush White House trying to put the brakes on the congressional panel created last fall to
investigate 9-11 attacks? The White House brushed off a request quietly made last week by the 911 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, to boost his
budget by $11 million. The panel has until the end of May 2004 to complete its work, but it will
spend the $3 million it was originally allotted by around August 2003 if it doesn't get the
supplement. Bush's recent move has miffed some members of the 9-11 panel. Kean and former
congressman Lee Hamilton, the panel's top Democrat, requested additional funding in a letter to

the administration last week. In denying the request, the White House irritated many of the
members of the commission. The White House sidestepped the issue of why the request wasn't
granted. The latest effort to curtail funding has angered victims of the attacks. Stephen Push, a
leader of the 9/11 victims' families, who are closely monitoring the commission, said the White
House decision was another in a long line of efforts to water down or shrink the panel's
role. Commission member Tim Roemer ... has gone so far as to draw comparisons with the
$50 million provided to investigate the recent Columbia tragedy in which seven people died.
"If we're looking at well over $11 million for that, we certainly should be looking for at least the
same vicinity of money for how 3,000 people died and how to strengthen our homeland security,"
he said.
Note: MSNBC reported that "the Ken Starr investigation of Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky cost
the tax-payer $64 million." The Columbia tragedy invstigation ran $50 million. Yet the White House
wanted to limit the investigation of the worst terror attack ever to $3 million. What secrets are they
hiding? Click here for more.

The people who control the world

2003-01-30, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/01/30/ronson.them
The Middle Ages had the Knights Templar. The 18th century had the Masons and the Illuminati.
Our modern age has golf-playing businessmen. [Jon] Ronson, a 35-year-old British writer,
humorist and documentarian, kept reading and hearing about the "tiny elite [that] rules the world
from inside a secret room" -- so he decided to go in search of it. He met with extremists of many
stripes: Ku Klux Klansmen with a PR bent, Muslim rabble-rousers ... and others convinced that a
New World Order meant the end of the world. He sought out the industrialists of groups such as
the Bilderberg Group and Bohemian Grove. He wrote about his experiences in "Them." Ronson's
extremists seem rather normal. Some are very much aware of how their views marginalize them.
The people of "Them" are people who are all too human -- even if they would deny others their
humanity. As the saying goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to
get you. Ronson doesn't deny that many of the extremists in "Them" are, well, extreme. Many have
put together half-baked theories that blame the troubles of the world on wealthy businessmen,
usually a code word for Jews. Ronson, who's Jewish himself, sometimes found it awkward to listen
to their views. Conspiracy theorists tend to be fearful, less educated, less tied in to the power
structure. Meanwhile, the leaders of corporations and countries do meet as part of conferences
sponsored by organizations such as the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group. While
researching a Bilderberg Group meeting, [Ronson] was chased through parts of Portugal
by shadowy security men. He found out just how thin the membrane between "us" and
"them" may be.
Note: Them is by far the most balanced, entertaining book you are likely to find on conspiracy
theorists. It pokes a lot of fun both at the conspiracy theorists and at the powerful secret groups
which he finds to be deluded almost as much as the conspiracy theorists themselves.

The Man Behind The Vaccine Mystery

2002-12-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/12/eveningnews/main532886.shtml
It's been a mystery in Washington for weeks. Just before President Bush signed the homeland
security bill into law an unknown member of Congress inserted a provision into the
legislation that blocks lawsuits against the maker of a controversial vaccine preservative
called "thimerosal," used in vaccines that are given to children. Drug giant Eli Lilly and
Company makes thimerosal. It's the mercury in the preservative that many parents say causes
autism in thousands of children. But nobody in Congress would admit to adding the provision,
reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta until now. House Majority Leader Dick Armey tells
CBS News he did it to keep vaccine-makers from going out of business under the weight of
mounting lawsuits. "I did it and I'm proud of it," says Armey, R-Texas. "It's a matter of national
security," Armey says. Because Armey is retiring at the end of the year, some say the outgoing
majority leader is the perfect fall guy to take the heat and shield the White House from
embarrassment.
Note: A Reuters article reports that the former head of the US's CDC was later named president of
Merck's vaccine division with accompanying high salary. Could this be payoff for her support in
suppressing studies that cast doubt on vaccines?

The Secret War

2002-10-27, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/27/opinion/op-arkin27
The Defense Department is dramatically expanding its 'black world' of covert operations. The Bush
administration has turned to what the Pentagon calls the "black world" to press the war on
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The increasingly dominant role of the military ...
reflects the desire of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to gain greater overall control of the
war on terror. "Our task is to find and destroy the enemy before they strike us." Though covert
action can bring quick results, because it is isolated from the normal review processes it can just
as quickly bring mistakes and larger problems. The epicenter of the Pentagon's covert operations
remains the North Carolina-based Joint Special Operations Command, often referred to as Delta
Force. The super-secret command is still not officially acknowledged to exist. Rumsfeld's influential
Defense Science Board ... recommends creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an
organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG), to bring together CIA
and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception. This body
would launch secret operations aimed at "stimulating reactions" among terrorists and
states possessing weapons of mass destruction -- that is, for instance, prodding terrorist
cells into action and exposing themselves to "quick-response" attacks by U.S. forces. The
Air Force is designing its own Global Response Task Force ... capable of delivering a "worldwide
attack within an hour."

Note: For an amazing expos by a highly decorated U.S. general on the hidden reasons behind
war, click here.

Toyota smashes fuel economy record

2002-10-20, London Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,588-451038,00.html
Tucked away on the Toyota stand you will find a cheeky little coup that looks sporty but whose
raison dtre is fuel economy, the lowest exhaust emissions and ease of recycling. The ES3 the
initials stand for Eco Spirit achieves 104mpg in the official European fuel consumption
tests, a record for a four-seat car. Some months ago I drove this prototype and not only is it
even more economical than the special 3 litre (three litres of fuel for every 100km travelled, or
94mpg) versions of the Audi A2 and VW Lupo that sell in Germany, but the Toyota is more lively
and responsive and would be very acceptable as an everyday car. The ES3 has a 1.4 litre
turbocharged diesel engine and CVT (continuously variable transmission).
Note: So what happened to this amazing car? Why haven't we heard anything about it since the
article was published in 2002? Read the revealing WantToKnow.info article at this link to learn how
this amazing car, which was the talk of the fuel economy car industry in 2002, eventually
disappeared. And for an excellent essay which provides key information on this topic, including a
detailed list of suppressed inventions which greatly improve gasoline mileage reported over the
years in respected magazines, click here.

Foundations are in place for martial law in the US

2002-07-21, Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place
in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States. When
president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive
orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in
the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition
against a US military invasion abroad". On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled
"Arabs in US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member of the US Civil Rights
Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has
practised for such an occasion. FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible
for handling US domestic unrest. From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in
drafting its civil defence preparations. They included executive orders providing for
suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the
turning over of government to the president and FEMA. A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987,

reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the
martial law portion of the planning. Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute
for Homeland Security.
Note: Most of these provisions are still in place today. Isn't it time for a change?

Coleen Rowley's Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller

2002-05-21, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html
Dear Director Mueller: I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now, been
omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mis-characterized in an effort to avoid or minimize
personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for
improper political reasons: ... 5) The fact is that key FBIHQ personnel whose job it was to assist
and coordinate with field division agents ... continued to, almost inexplicably, throw up roadblocks
and undermine Minneapolis' by-now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant. In all of
their conversations and correspondence, HQ personnel never disclosed to the Minneapolis
agents that the Phoenix Division had, only approximately three weeks earlier, warned of Al
Qaeda operatives in flight schools seeking flight training for terrorist purposes! Nor did
FBIHQ personnel do much to disseminate the information about Moussaoui to other
appropriate intelligence/law enforcement authorities. When, in a desperate 11th hour measure
to bypass the FBIHQ roadblock, the Minneapolis Division undertook to directly notify the CIA's
Counter Terrorist Center (CTC), FBIHQ personnel actually chastised the Minneapolis agents for
making the direct notification without their approval!
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For many more serious questions about the official account
of 9/11 raised by former officials like Colleen Rowley, click here. For more solid information
suggesting a major cover-up, click here.

Clues Alerted White House to Potential Attacks

2002-05-17, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,53065,00.html
[There are] many examples of "missed leads" that the Bush administration was given prior to Sept.
11. An Iranian in custody in New York City told local police last May of a plot to attack the World
Trade Center. German intelligence alerted the Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI-6
intelligence service, Israel's Mossad in June 2001 that Middle Eastern terrorists were training for
hijackings and targeting American and Israeli interests. Based on its own intelligence, the
Israeli government provided "general" information to the United States in the second week
of August that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said
publicly that he ordered his intelligence agencies to alert the United States last summer that
suicide pilots were training for attacks on U.S. targets. An Islamic terrorist conspiracy was

uncovered in 1996 in the Philippines to hijack a dozen airplanes and fly them into CIA
headquarters and other buildings. U.S. investigators confirmed in October that a 29-year-old
Iranian ... made phone calls to U.S. police from his deportation cell that an attack on the World
Trade Center was imminent in "the days before the attack." [A] memo from the FBI Phoenix office
about Arabs training in U.S. flight schools never reached headquarters. In 1999, the Federal
Research Division at the Library of Congress published its own report ... which described that
"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to Al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft
packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the [CIA], or
the White House."
Note: For lots more evidence that suggest 9/11 at the very least may have been allowed to
happen, click here.

'Shadow Government' News To Congress

2002-03-01, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/01/attack/main502530.shtml
Key congressional leaders say they didn't know President Bush had established a "shadow
government," moving dozens of senior civilian managers to secret underground locations outside
Washington. Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) [said] he had not been
informed by the White House about the role, location or even the existence of the shadow
government that the administration began to deploy the morning of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
Among Congress's GOP leadership, aides to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), second in line
to succeed the president if he became incapacitated, and to Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott
(Miss.) said they were not sure whether they knew. Mr. Bush acknowledged yesterday that the
administration had taken extensive measures to guarantee "the continuity of government," adding,
"This is serious business." Such an operation was conceived as a Cold War precaution against
nuclear attack during the Eisenhower administration but never used until now. It went into effect in
the first hours after the terror attacks [and] is an extension of a policy that has kept Vice President
Dick Cheney in secure, undisclosed locations away from Washington. Cheney has moved in and
out of public view as threat levels have fluctuated.
Note: For lots more on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here. For an abundance of
solid information suggesting a major cover-up around 9/11, click here.

German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals

2001-12-17, Fox News/Reuters
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41004,00.html
German computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an
unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed
into New York's World Trade Center Sept. 11. Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in

credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the
planes hit the twin towers? Or was it coincidence that unusually large sums of money,
perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed through the computers as the disaster
unfolded? A world leader in retrieving data, German-based firm Convar is trying to answer those
questions. Using a pioneering laser scanning technology to find data on damaged computer hard
drives and main frames found in the rubble of the World Trade Center and other nearby collapsed
buildings, Convar has recovered information from 32 computers that support assumptions of dirty
doomsday dealings. "The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send
financial transaction commands and authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the
criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start,'' said Convar director Peter Henschel.
"Not only the volume but the size of the transactions was far higher than usual for a day like that.
There is a suspicion that these were possibly planned to take advantage of the chaos.''
Note: For a CNN article on this most bizarre news, click here. A German news broadcast from
March 11, 2002 at this link reveals that the results are being kept secret. But why? And why hasn't
there been any follow-up news on this astounding information? Could it be that key government
insiders knew there was going to be an attack? For lots more reliable, verifiable information on
9/11 raising serious questions, click here.

Bin Laden treated for kidney problem in Dubai, claims report

2001-10-31, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0110/31/world/world105.html
Osama bin Laden underwent treatment in July at the American Hospital in Dubai where he met a
US Central Intelligence Agency official, French daily Le Figaro and Radio France International
reported today. Quoting "a witness, a professional partner of the administrative management of the
hospital," they said the man suspected by the United States of being behind the September 11
terrorist attacks had arrived in Dubai on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan. He was immediately
taken to the hospital for kidney treatment. He left the establishment on July 14, Le Figaro said.
During his stay, the daily said, the local CIA representative was seen going into bin Laden's
room and "a few days later, the CIA man boasted to some friends of having visited the
Saudi-born millionaire." Quoting "an authoritative source," Le Figaro and the radio station said
the CIA representative had been recalled to Washington on July 15. Bin Laden ... was admitted to
the urology department of Dr Terry Callaway, who specialises in kidney stones and male infertility.
Telephoned several times, the doctor declined to answer questions. Several sources had reported
that bin Laden had a serious kidney infection. He had a mobile dialysis machine sent to his
Kandahar hideout in Afghanistan in the first half of 2000, according to "authoritative sources"
quoted by Le Figaro and RFI.
Note: This article has disappeared from the Herald website. To read the full original as we copied
it, click here. For excerpts from many major media articles suggesting a 9/11 cover-up, click here.

Mystery of terror 'insider dealers'

2001-10-14, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mystery-of-terror-insider-dea...
Share speculators have failed to collect $2.5m (1.7m) in profits made from the fall in the share
price of United Airlines after the 11 September World Trade Centre attacks. Further details of the
futures trades that netted such huge gains in the wake of the hijackings have been disclosed. To
the embarrassment of investigators, it has also emerged that the firm used to buy many of
the "put" options where a trader, in effect, bets on a share price fall on United Airlines
stock was headed until 1998 by "Buzzy" Krongard, now executive director of the CIA. Until
1997, Mr Krongard was chairman of Alex Brown Inc, America's oldest investment banking firm.
Alex Brown was acquired by Bankers Trust, which in turn was bought by Deutsche Bank. His last
post before resigning to take his senior role in the CIA was to head Bankers Trust Alex Brown's
private client business, dealing with the accounts and investments of wealthy customers around
the world. Between 6 and 7 September, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of
4,744 "put" option contracts in UAL versus 396 call options. Holders of the put options would have
netted a profit of $5m (3.3m) once the carrier's share price dived after 11 September. On 10
September, more trading in Chicago saw the purchase of 4,516 put options in American Airlines,
the other airline involved in the hijackings. This compares with a mere 748 call options in American
purchased that day. Investigators cannot help but notice that no other airlines saw such trading in
their put options.
Note: This important article on the CIA connections to the insider trading in put options on key
airlines, insurance and financial corporation stocks in the days immediately before 9/11 has been
removed from The Independent website. To read the full article, click here.

[9/11] Suicide hijackers hid behind stolen Arab identities

2001-09-20, WantToKnow.info/London Times
http://www.WantToKnow.info/010920londontimes.hijackers
Five of the [9/11] hijackers were using stolen identities, and investigators are studying the
possibility that the entire suicide squad consisted of impostors. In Saudi Arabia, five of the
alleged hijackers have emerged, alive, innocent and astonished to see their names and
photographs appearing on satellite television. "The name is my name and the birth date is
the same as mine, but I am not the one who bombed the World Trade Centre," Abdulaziz
Alomari told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. Mr Alomari, 28, ... said that he had
left the United States in April 2000. The US-educated engineer had reported to police that his
passport was stolen when his flat in Denver, Colorado, was burgled in 1995. A Saudi diplomat
formerly based in Washington, Ahmed al-Shehri, told al-Eqtisadiah newspaper that details of one
of the hijackers matched his son, Waleed. The young man, a pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines who
graduated four years ago from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, is living in
Morocco. Another Saudi pilot, Said Hussein al-Ghamdi, whose photograph was broadcast on CNN
when it portrayed him as a hijacker, is living in Tunis. The family of Ziad al-Jarrah, an alcohol-

drinking Lebanese partygoer, deny he could have been the fanatical Muslim hijacker whose aircraft
crashed in Pennsylvania. Alarming reports claimed that three of the hijackers -Saeed al-Ghamdi,
Ahmed al-Mani and Ahmed al-Ghamdi -had learned to fly at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola,
Florida, known as the "Cradle of US Naval Aviation".
Note: Yet these individuals are all later listed in the 9/11 Commission report as the hijackers. Click
here and scroll down a little over half way to see their photos in the official report. For more on this,
click here. For an abundance of reliable information suggesting a major 9/11 cover-up, click here.

Congress OKs Use of Force

2001-09-15, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/sep/15/news/mn-46069
Two of them were American-trained Saudi fighter pilots. One graduated from America's foremost
flight university. One drank Stoli and orange juice and one advertised for a Mexican bride. The 19
men identified by the FBI as suspects in the World Trade Center and Pentagon hijack attacks ...
studied flying, lived in nondescript suburban apartments and seldom called attention to
themselves. Most lived for a time in Florida. Others were scattered in Massachusetts, New Jersey,
Arizona and Southern California. Then, in the last several weeks, they began disappearing from
their neighborhoods. They reappeared Friday on a list of suspects in the deadliest terrorist attack
in U.S. history. The FBI said it did not know for certain where most of the men came from, exactly
where they lived in the United States or how old they were. Several had names so common in the
Middle East that tracking them down might never be possible. A defense official said two of the
[9/11] hijackers were former Saudi fighter pilots who had studied in exchange programs at
the Defense Language School at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and the Air War College
at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
Note: Can you beleive that two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers trained at a US Air Force base? For
other major media reports showing as many as seven of the hijackers trained at US military bases,
click here.

On Flight 77: 'Our Plane Is Being Hijacked'

2001-09-12, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14365-2001Sep11
About an hour after takeoff from Dulles International Airport yesterday morning, Flight 77, a Boeing
757 headed for Los Angeles with 64 people aboard, became a massive missile aimed at the White
House. The target would change suddenly, but the symbolism was equally devastating. The diving
plane carved out a massive chunk of the Pentagon. The unidentified pilot executed a pivot so
tight that it reminded observers of a fighter jet maneuver. The plane circled 270 degrees to the
right to approach the Pentagon from the west, whereupon Flight 77 fell below radar level,
vanishing from controllers' screens. Aviation sources said the plane was flown with

extraordinary skill, making it highly likely that a trained pilot was at the helm, possibly one of
the hijackers. Someone even knew how to turn off the transponder, a move that is considerably
less than obvious.
Note: Yet Hani Hanjour, the alleged terrorist pilot of Flight 77, was a terrible pilot. According to a
New York Times article, "Marcel Bernard, the chief flight instructor at the school, said Mr. Hanjour
showed up in Washington asking to rent a single-engine plane. But he was told that he had to
prove his skills before being allowed to do so. Mr. Bernard said Mr. Hanjour made three flights with
two different instructors but was unable to prove that he had the necessary skills." The article
states this was less than a month before 9/11. How then was he able to execute the "fighter jet
maneuver" above on a Boeing 757? Click here for more.

UFO spotters slam 'US cover-up'

2001-05-10, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1322432.stm
Neil Armstrong was not the first being on the moon. That, at any rate, is the position of the suitably
sci-fi sounding Project Disclosure that launched a campaign in Washington ... aimed at persuading
the US Congress to hold hearings on the existence of unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrials. The campaign believes the US Government has known about the existence of UFOs
for over 50 years but has been trying to hide it. Donna Hare was just one of over 20 witnesses,
most of them ex-military, and all deadly serious. Among them was former Army Sergeant, Clifford
Stone, who said the US Government had tried to suppress what he had seen one strange day in
Pennsylvania, back in 1969. "I was involved in situations where we actually did recoveries of
crashed saucers. There were bodies that were involved with some of these crashes. Also
some of these were alive," he said. "While we were doing this, we were telling the American
public there was nothing to it. We were telling the world there was nothing to it," Mr Stone added.
Despite the impressive military credentials and undoubted sincerity of the witnesses, Congress is
surely unlikely to move on their request for a hearing - unless a space ship lands on, or at least
within sight of, Capitol Hill.
Note: Though BBC quotes one Army sergeant in this article, they fail to quote some of the many,
credible higher ranking military officers and government officials who shared mind-boggling stories
of personal experiences with a major government cover-up of UFOs. For an excellent summary of
testimony by top military and government officials who personally witnessed and/or took part in the
UFO cover-up, click here. For a powerful, inspiring video interweaving top witness testimony with
excellent UFO footage and lots more, click here.

IMF's four steps to damnation

2001-04-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2001/apr/29/business.mbas

Joseph Stiglitz, ex-chief economist of the World Bank, ... was in Washington for the big confab of
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. From sources unnamable (not Stiglitz), we
obtained a cache of documents marked, 'confidential' and 'restricted'. Stiglitz helped translate one,
a 'country assistance strategy'. There's an assistance strategy for every poorer nation, designed,
says the World Bank, after careful in-country investigation. But according to insider Stiglitz, the
Bank's 'investigation' involves little more than close inspection of five-star hotels. It
concludes with a meeting with a begging finance minister, who is handed a 'restructuring
agreement' pre-drafted for 'voluntary' signature. The Bank hands every minister the same
four-step programme. Step One is privatisation. Stiglitz said that rather than objecting to the selloffs of state industries, some politicians - using the World Bank's demands to silence local critics happily flogged their electricity and water companies. After privatisation, Step Two is capital market
liberalisation. Stiglitz calls this the 'hot money' cycle. Cash comes in for speculation in real estate
and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation's reserves can drain in days. And
when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation's own capital funds, the IMF
demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%. Step Three: market-based
pricing - a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. Step Four: free trade. This
is free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank, which Stiglitz likens
to the Opium Wars. 'That too was about "opening markets",' he said.
Note: For an essay by John Perkins, an insider who was directly involved in these severe
manipulations, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on
government collusion in financial corruption, click here.

Many Medicines Are Potent Years Past Expiration Dates

2000-03-28, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB954201508530067326.html
Do drugs really stop working after the date stamped on the bottle? Fifteen years ago, the U.S.
military decided to find out. Sitting on a $1 billion stockpile of drugs and facing the daunting
process of destroying and replacing its supply every two to three years, the military began a testing
program to see if it could extend the life of its inventory. The testing, conducted by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration, ultimately covered more than 100 drugs, prescription and over-thecounter. The results ... show that about 90% of them were safe and effective far past their original
expiration date, at least one for 15 years past it. The program's returns have been huge. The
military from 1993 through 1998 spent about $3.9 million on testing and saved $263.4 million on
drug expense. In light of these results, a former director of the testing program, Francis Flaherty,
says he has concluded that expiration dates put on by manufacturers typically have no
bearing on whether a drug is usable for longer. "Manufacturers put expiration dates on for
marketing, rather than scientific, reasons," says Mr. Flaherty, a pharmacist at the FDA until his
retirement last year. "They want turnover." Joel Davis, a former FDA expiration-date compliance
chief, says that with a handful of exceptions - notably nitroglycerin, insulin and some liquid
antibiotics - most drugs are probably as durable as those the agency has tested for the military.

"Most drugs degrade very slowly," he says. "In all likelihood, you can take a product you have at
home and keep it for many years." Drug-industry officials ... acknowledge that expiration dates
have a commercial dimension.
Note: As the Wall Street Journal charges to view this article at the above link, you can view it free
here. For lots more on how the pharmaceutical industry cares more about profits than your health,
click here.

The Virus and the Vaccine

2000-02-01, Atlantic Monthly
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/02/002bookchin.htm
A simian virus known as SV40 has been associated with a number of rare human cancers.
This same virus contaminated the polio vaccine administered to 98 million Americans from
1955 to 1963. Federal health officials see little reason for concern. A growing cadre of medical
researchers disagree. A breakthrough in the war against polio had come in the early 1950s, when
Jonas Salk took advantage of a new discovery: monkey kidneys could be used to culture the
abundant quantities of polio virus necessary to mass-produce a vaccine. But there were problems
with the monkey kidneys. In 1960 Bernice Eddy, a government researcher, discovered that when
she injected hamsters with the kidney mixture on which the vaccine was cultured, they developed
tumors. Eddy's superiors tried to keep the discovery quiet, but Eddy presented her data at a
cancer conference in New York. She was eventually demoted, and lost her laboratory. The
cancer-causing virus was soon isolated by other scientists and dubbed SV40, because it was the
fortieth simian virus discovered. Alarm spread through the scientific community as researchers
realized that nearly every dose of the vaccine had been contaminated. In 1961 federal health
officials ordered vaccine manufacturers to screen for the virus and eliminate it from the vaccine.
Worried about creating a panic, they kept the discovery of SV40 under wraps and never recalled
existing stocks. For two more years millions of additional people were needlessly exposed -bringing the total to 98 million Americans from 1955 to 1963.
Note: This fascinating report on modern research into SV40's role in human cancers is well worth
reading in its entirety at the link above. It is most strange that the CDC posted a webpage stating
"it has been estimated that 1030 million Americans could have received an SV40 contaminated
dose of vaccine" and much more, but the webpage was then taken down. Using the Internet
Archive, you can still see the revealing page that has been removed at this link.

Tsunami bomb - NZ's devastating war secret

1999-09-25, New Zealand Herald (New Zealand's leading newspaper)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=14727

Top-secret wartime experiments were conducted off the coast of Auckland to perfect a tidal
wave bomb, declassified files reveal. United States defence chiefs said that if the project had
been completed before the end of the war it could have played a role as effective as that of the
atom bomb. Details of the tsunami bomb, known as Project Seal, are contained in 53-year-old
documents released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Papers stamped "top secret"
show the US and British military were eager for Seal to be developed in the post-war years too.
The experiments involved laying a pattern of explosives underwater to create a tsunami. It is
unclear what happened to Project Seal once the final report was forwarded to Wellington Defence
Headquarters late in the 1940s. The bomb was never tested on a full scale. "Whether it could ever
be resurrected ... Under some circumstances I think it could be devastating."

Listen, Detroit: You'll Get a Charge Out of This

1999-03-01, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,ovsh...
Troy, Mich., in the belly of the automobile industry, is an odd place to spark a revolution against the
internal-combustion engine. But, then, Stanford Ovshinsky is no ordinary gearhead. Although he
never went to college, he founded a new field of physics based on the superconductivity of certain
alloys. The company he formed in 1960, Energy Conversion Devices, makes the photovoltaic cells
used on the Mir space station to generate electricity from sunlight. In the '80s the Japanese
licensed his patents to produce digital video discs. But what really revs him up these days is a car
battery. How dull is that? Not at all, if it can "change the world," as he claims with a subversive glint
in his eye. When Ovshinsky talked of scaling up his battery to run a car, he was ridiculed. "The
auto companies said it wouldn't work," he recalls. "Then, after one car got 200 miles on a
single charge, they said it couldn't be manufactured. Now that we are making them, they
say it is too costly. But that is a red herring too." Ovshinsky's team of engineers and
electrochemists has slashed the cost 40% in two years, they claim. If automakers would commit to
buying tens of thousands, Ovshinsky says, the batteries would make electric cars as cheap as
gasoline models.
Note: Ovshinsky, who has over 200 patents to his name, was censured for publicizing his amazing
battery. GM refused to use his superior battery in the GM's EV-1 when it first came out. The inferior
battery they used instead ensured the car would not be successful. Once Ovshinsky's battery
became even more effective and looked sure to overtake conventional gasoline as the more
effective way to run a car, his company was then sold by GM to Chevron Texaco, who shelved the
project entirely. To see a three-minute clip from the excellent movie "Who Killed the Electric Car"
on this, click here. For more on this remarkable man, click here.

Roswell Plus 50
1997-07-00, Popular Mechanics
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/1282456.html

As a presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter claimed to have seen a UFO. As president, Ronald
Reagan mused openly on how petty differences among nations might evaporate in the face of an
extraterrestrial threat. And no one has done more to turn up the speculative heat than retired Adm.
Bobby Ray Inman, who held a slew of top intelligence posts, including deputy director of the
Central Intelligence Agency. In a Learning Channel documentary, Inman said but has since
repeatedly and vigorously denied that the military is attempting to use technology from
unspecified "recovered vehicles." The most perplexing UFO mystery of all began in the desert
north of Roswell, NM. Ideas of what happened here during the first week of July 1947 range from
the simple a weather balloon crash to the downright silly Earth was being scouted for an
intergalactic invasion. The latest official government explanation there have been three thus far
is that the recovered debris came from a Project Mogul balloon that was carrying instruments to
detect Soviet nuclear tests. After interviewing witnesses who had seen and handled crashsite debris, and reviewing [classified documents], we have concluded that there really was
a crashed disc, dead bodies and a secret that could have been politically deadly to
presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Note: If the above link fails, click here or here. This well researched article raises more questions
than it answers, yet it leaves virtually no doubt that there was a major cover-up. For lots more
intriguing media articles suggesting a major cover-up of UFOs and related phenomena, click here.

The Pentagon's quest for nonlethal arms is amazing. But is it smart?

1997-06-29, US News and World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/970707/archive_007360.htm
For [many] years, sci-fi writers have imagined weapons that might use energy waves or pulses to
knock out, knock down, or otherwise disable enemies--without necessarily killing them. And for a
good 40 years the U.S. military has quietly been pursuing weapons of this sort. Much of this work
is still secret. But now ... the search for weapons that could incapacitate people without inflicting
lethal injuries has intensified. Police, too, are keenly interested. Scores of new contracts have
been let, and scientists, aided by government research on the "bioeffects" of beamed
energy, are searching the electromagnetic and sonic spectrums for wavelengths that can
affect human behavior. Recent advancements in miniaturized electronics, power generation, and
beam aiming may finally have put such pulse and beam weapons on the cusp of practicality.
Scientists say they are natural successors to projects already underway--beams that disable the
electronic systems of aircraft, computers, or missiles, for instance. "Once you are into these
antimateriel weapons, it is a short jump to antipersonnel weapons," says Louis Slesin, editor of the
trade journal Microwave News. That's because the human body is essentially an electrochemical
system, and devices that disrupt the electrical impulses of the nervous system can affect behavior
and body functions. But these programs--particularly those involving antipersonnel research--are
so well guarded that details are scarce. "People [in the military] go silent on this issue," says
Slesin, "more than any other issue. People just do not want to talk about this."
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on so-called "non-lethal weapons, click here.

Up Close and Personal With a Remote Viewer

1995-12-04, Washington Post
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/offers.html?url=%2Fwashingtonpost%...
Remote viewers have been in the headlines recently because it's come to light that several
of them worked on the "Stargate" program, a top-secret, multimillion-dollar project at Fort
Meade, Md. [They helped] locate American hostages, enemy submarines, strategic
buildings in foreign countries and who knows what else. [Joseph] McMoneagle, 49, defended
remote viewing, which he explained as the act of describing or drawing details about a place,
person or thing without having any prior knowledge. He said that true remote viewing, unlike
crystal-ball gazing and tea-leaf reading, is always conducted under "strict scientific protocols." He
put his skills on the line last week on national television when ABC became, for an hour, the
other psychic network and the demonstration was impressive. "My career was destroyed in the
Army," said McMoneagle, who joined in 1964. He said he knew when he first joined the Stargate
project which was then called Grillflame in 1978 that he would never again be taken seriously
for any other job in the military. But he felt the assignment was too important to national security to
decline. The government was ... using remote viewers, about 15 of them, who operated under
strict guidelines developed in the laboratories at SRI International, a California contractor, to
provide additional information to be used in conjunction with intelligence gathered by satellites or
spies or any other traditional means. Research has shown that remote viewing works 14 percent of
the time or more. He said, "There is a huge percentage of intelligence collection systems that don't
do as well." He helped the Army locate hostages in Iran. He said he predicted almost precisely
where Skylab was going to fall, 11 months before the spacecraft returned to Earth in 1979.
Note: The U.S. government completely denied the existence of this program for decades. For a
free copy of this entire, fascinating article, click here. For a four-minute newscast video showing
how remote viewing works, click here. For an excellent, albeit overly dramatized documentary on
remote viewing, click here.

Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast

1993-10-28, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F00617FE3A5C0C7B8EDDA...
Law-enforcement officials were told that terrorists were building a bomb that was eventually used
to blow up the World Trade Center. The informer was to have helped the plotters build the
bomb and supply the fake powder, but the plan was called off by an F.B.I. supervisor who
had other ideas about how the informer, Emad A. Salem, should be used. The account, which
is given in the transcript of hundreds of hours of tape recordings Mr. Salem secretly made of his
talks with law-enforcement agents, portrays the authorities as in a far better position than
previously known to foil the Feb. 26 bombing of New York City's tallest towers. The explosion left
six people dead, more than 1,000 injured and damages in excess of half a billion dollars. The
transcript quotes Mr. Salem as saying that he wanted to complain to F.B.I. headquarters in

Washington about the bureau's failure to stop the bombing, but was dissuaded by an agent
identified as John Anticev. "He said, I don't think that the New York people would like the things out
of the New York office to go to Washington, D.C." Another agent ... does not dispute Mr. Salem's
account, but rather, appears to agree with it. Other Salem tapes and transcripts were being
withheld pending Government review, of "security and other issues." William M. Kunstler, a
defense lawyer in the case, accused the Government this week of improper delay in handing over
all the material. The transcripts he had seen, he said, "were filled with all sorts of Government
misconduct." But citing the judge's order, he said he could not provide any details.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For a two-minute CBS News clip the same day giving more
information on this little-known story, click here.

US Navy tested mustard gas on its own sailors

1993-03-14, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/us-navy-tested-mustard-gas-on-its-own...
Fifty years ago, the US Navy locked 17-year-old Glenn Jenkins into a gas chamber within sight of
the dome of the US Capitol in Washington. It then poisoned him with mustard and lewisite
(arsenic) gas. He never recovered his good health. Nathan Schnurman, another 17-year-old, was
asked to test summer uniforms for the navy. He was locked in a small hut heated by a furnace and
with a door that could be opened only from the outside. When something went wrong with his
mask, he asked over the intercom to come out, but was refused. He vomited into his mask, passed
out and had a heart attack. The plight of Mr Jenkins, Mr Schnurman and 2,500 other sailors
who were used in what the navy called 'man break' experiments with poison gas, has
remained a secret for five decades. Only last week, under pressure from the victims, did the
Pentagon agree to let them tell their stories. Many, who had been told that the Espionage Act
would be used against them, did not even tell their doctors what had happened. All the survivors,
now in their late sixties, tell similar stories. The navy not only volunteered its own men, but for
decades after the war also refused to compensate them for crippling injuries. [And] the
experiments were for nothing. Mustard gas was used just once in the Second World War by the
Allies, and then by accident.
Note: The military has repeatedly condoned horrendous research on live subjects. For a revealing
list of highly unethical experimentation on human over the past 75 years, click here. For a concise
summary of the government's secret quest to control the mind and human behavior no matter what
the cost, click here.

U.S. Strategy Plan Calls For Insuring No Rivals Develop

1992-03-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/08/world/us-strategy-plan-calls-for-insuring-n...

In a broad new policy statement that is in its final drafting stage, the Defense Department asserts
that America's political and military mission in the post-Cold-War era will be to insure that no rival
superpower is allowed to emerge in Western Europe, Asia or the territory of the former Soviet
Union. The classified document makes the case for a world dominated by one superpower
whose position can be perpetuated by constructive behavior and sufficient military might to
deter any nation or group of nations from challenging American primacy. With its focus on
this concept of benevolent domination by one power, the Pentagon document articulates
the clearest rejection to date of collective internationalism, the strategy that emerged from
World War II when the five victorious powers sought to form a United Nations that could mediate
disputes and police outbreaks of violence. Though the document is internal to the Pentagon and is
not provided to Congress, its policy statements are developed in conjunction with the National
Security Council and in consultation with the President or his senior national security advisers. Its
drafting has been supervised by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's Under Secretary for Policy. Mr.
Wolfowitz often represents the Pentagon on the Deputies Committee, which formulates policy in
an interagency process dominated by the State and Defense departments. The document is
known in Pentagon parlance as the Defense Planning Guidance, an internal Administration policy
statement that is distributed to the military leaders and civilian Defense Department heads to
instruct them on how to prepare their forces, budgets and strategy for the remainder of the decade.
Note: For more on the long-term planning for future war, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

CIA Brainwashing Suit Settled

1988-10-05, Chicago Tribune
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24835384.html?dids=24835384...
Eight elderly Canadians who were victims of CIA-funded brainwashing experiments in the 1950s
reached a tentative out-of-court settlement Tuesday in their multimillion-dollar damage suit against
the U.S. spy agency. The Canadian plaintiffs, who say they suffered permanent mental and
physical damage as a result of the bizarre experiments performed on them at a Montreal
psychiatric hospital, will divide a $750,000 payment among them, according to their attorney,
James Turner. The Canadians, all patients of the late Dr. Ewen Cameron at Montreal's Allan
Memorial Institute in the late 1950s, were injected with repeated doses of mind-altering
LSD, deprived of sleep, subjected to massive electroshock treatments and forced to listen
to thousands of repetitions of taped messages taken from the most sensitive moments of
their therapy sessions.
Note: Dr. Cameron was once President of the American and World Psychiatric Associations. For
more on the severe abuses of doctors in serving the CIA's mind control programs, click here. For
lots more reliable, verifiable information on CIA mind control experiments and programs, click here.
The link above provides this abstract of the complete article, which can be accessed by payment
of a small fee.

Above Their Own Laws

1988-05-23, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967427,00.html
By one count, only 61 of the 2,500 senior policy staff members working for the Senate are black.
There are, however, no exact records -- because Congress has exempted itself from equalopportunity and affirmative-action laws. -- House Speaker Jim Wright's office catches fire, but there
are no sprinklers. The laws requiring them do not apply to the Capitol or other federal buildings. -A controversy erupts over dangerous working conditions in the Capitol's mail-folding room, where
newsletters are processed. Congress does not fall under the occupational safety and health
(OSHA) regulations that bedevil other employers. -- Legislators are about to decide whether to
raise the federal minimum-wage level for the first time in seven years. At the moment, however,
the minimum-wage laws do not protect the 15,000 people who work for Congress. -- Michael
Deaver and Lyn Nofziger face jail terms because their lobbying ran afoul of the Ethics in
Government Law. Congressmen and their staffers who become lobbyists and do the same things
have no fear: the law does not apply to them. Congress's attitude, says Senator John Glenn,
"is the rankest form of hypocrisy. Laws that are good enough for everybody else ought to
be good enough for us." Instead, Congress has exempted itself from a broad array of laws
covering civil rights, minimum wages, and safety requirements and discrimination. "Congress
would exempt itself from the laws of gravity if it could," says Illinois Congressman Henry
Hyde.
Note: The fact that Congress exempts itself from its own laws is one of the major sources of
corruption in the US. For lots more from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis

1987-11-04, WantToKnow.info/PBS Documentary
http://www.WantToKnow.info/050423secretgovernment
The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies,
mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives,
operate outside the legitimate institutions of government. The Russians had been our ally
against the Nazis, an expedient alliance for the sake of war. Now they were our enemy. To fight
them we turned to some of the very men who had inflicted on humanity the horrors of Hitlers
madness. We hired Nazis as American spies. Admiral Gene La Rocque: That National Security
Act of 1947 changed dramatically the direction of this great nation. It established the framework for
a national security state. Never have we had a National Security Council so concerned about the
nations security that were always looking for threats and looking how to orchestrate our society to
oppose those threats. National Security was invented, almost, in 1947, and now it has become the
prime mover of everything we do. The National Security Act also gave us the Central Intelligence
Agency." In 1975 ... Congress took its first public look at the Secret Government. Senator Frank
Church chaired the Select Committee to study government operations. The hearings opened the
books on a string of lethal activities. From the use of electric pistols and poison pellets, to Mafia

connections and drug experiments. And they gave us a detailed account of assassination plots
against foreign leaders and the overthrowing of sovereign governments. This is a system easily
corrupted. While freedom does have enemies in the world, it can also be undermined here at
home, in the dark, by those posing as its friends.
Note: This highly revealing PBS documentary is available for free viewing on the Internet. For the
link, written text, and much more on this amazingly revealing documentary, click here.

Pentagon is said to focus on ESP for wartime use

1984-01-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/10/science/pentagon-is-said-to-focus-on-esp-fo...
The Pentagon has spent millions of dollars, according to three new reports, on secret projects to
investigate extrasensory phenomena and to see if the sheer power of the human mind can be
harnessed to perform various acts of espionage and war - penetrating secret files, for example,
locating submarines or blowing up guided missiles in midflight. The Pentagon denies that it is
spending money on psychic research. The assertions to the contrary appear in a trio of new books,
one just published and two scheduled to be released this spring, and in a series of interviews in
which past Pentagon officials and scientists who study the paranormal have discussed what they
contend is the military's decades-long psychic quest. What emerges is a picture of [the Pentagon]
trying to master such esoteric arts as ESP (extrasensory perception), telepathy (thought transfer),
clairvoyance (seeing things that are out of sight), and psychokinesis (mental influence over objects
or events) - all in the name of the national defense. A Pentagon spokesman went so far as to
deny that the Department of Defense today ''spent a nickel'' on psychic research, but he
also suggested that he could not acknowledge the existence of highly classified projects.
The most detailed study of an actual set of psychic experiments comes from The Mind Race, by
Russell Targ and Keith Harary.
Note: This is one of many examples of blatant lying by the Pentagon on secret projects. The
Pentagon consistently denied the existence of a remote viewing project (called Stargate) until the
documents from the project were declassified in 1995. You can find the documents online at this
link. For a long period of time, the US government denied the existence of the NSA, so that the
moniker "No Such Agency" was jokingly used.

The CIA and the Media

1977-10-20, Website of Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Carl Bernstein
http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of Americas leading syndicated columnists, went to the
Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate.
He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went
at the request of the CIA. Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past

twenty-five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency,
according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Journalists provided a full range of
clandestine servicesfrom simple intelligence gathering to serving as go-betweens with
spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors
shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters
who considered themselves ambassadors-without-portfolio for their country. Most were less
exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their
work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring-do of the spy business as in
filing articles; and, the smallest category, full-time CIA employees masquerading as journalists
abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for
the CIA with the consent of the managements of Americas leading news organizations.
Note: To understand how the CIA and others manipulate the major media is in its news coverage,
see the brilliant summary of the work of 20 award-winning journalists on this key topic at this link.

Method and Apparatus for Tunneling by Melting

1972-09-22, US Patent and Trademark Office
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&...
The invention described herein was made in the course of, or under, a contract with the U. S.
ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. It relates ... to a method and apparatus for drilling, tunneling
and shaft-sinking in rock with particular advantage at hitherto inaccessible depths. The present
invention uses the basic apparatus and method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,505 and in Los
Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California Report No. LA-3243 (1965) entitled
"Rock Melting as a Drilling Technique." In the existing rock melting devices of the prior art, a major
difficulty which limited performance was that of delivering a sufficiently large heat flux to the
melting face of the drill or penetrator. The development of the heat pipe alleviates this problem in
that the use of heat pipes enables the transfer of heat energy from a compact heat source to the
extended melting surface of the penetrator at rates high enough to maintain the surface above the
melting temperature of the rock. The extrapolation of a mechanism useful for forming large holes in
the earth in accordance with the present invention uses the combination of a refractory rockmelting tool, an in situ heat source preferably a small nuclear reactor and an exceedingly
efficient heat transfer mechanism such as a system of heat pipes to convey heat from the
source to the walls of the drilling tool.
Note: This patent shows that government scientists at Los Alamos were using a "small nuclear
reactor" to drill underground tunnels. Several of the inventors listed on the patent worked at Los
Alamos National Laboratory, including: McInteer, Berthus B.; Mills, Robert L.; Potter, Robert M.;
Robinson, Eugene S.; Rowley, John C.; and Smith, Morton C.. For photos and more fascinating
information on this most intriguing patent, click here.

Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

1966-12-01, National Security Agency Website, NSA Technical Journal, Vol. XI

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/communications_extraterre...
We are not alone in the universe. A few years ago, this notion seemed farfetched; today, the
existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is taken for granted by most scientists. Even the
staid National Academy of Sciences has gone on record that contact with other civilizations "is no
longer something beyond our dreams but a natural event in the history of mankind that will
perhaps occur in the lifetime of many of us." Sir Bernard Lovell, one of the worlds leading radio
astronomers, has calculated that, even allowing for a margin of error of 5000%, there must be in
our own galaxy about 100 million stars which have planets of the right chemistry, dimensions, and
temperature to support organic evolution. Unless we are terribly conceited, we must assume that
the "others" are far more advanced than we are. Even a 50 year gap would be tremendous;
a 500-year gap staggers the imagination, and as for a 5000-year gap... It is quite possible that
"others" have satellite probes in space, retransmitting to "them" anything that sounds nonrandom
to the probe. But they have probably called us several thousand years ago, and are waiting for an
answer; or worse yet, they have given up; or, more probably, they have reached such impressive
technological advances that they have destroyed themselves. After we resolve our pressing
scientific questions, it might be appropriate to make discreet inquiries as to how we could live in
harmony and peace with our fellow man. [We] must keep a level head ... and be prepared to cope
with problems the like of which he has never seen - out of this world, so to speak.
Note: You can find this article on the NSA website in a fascinating list of NSA Technical Journal
articles at this link. The existence of the NSA itself was kept secret for years after its founding in
1952. This powerful organization discussed the implications of ET intelligence throughout the
universe at least as early as 1966, as revealed in this document. Yet the disinformation campaigns
of the NSA and other intelligence agencies have led to ridicule of any who believe in such things
even today. For powerful, verifiable testimony from top government and military officials on a major
government cover-up around the UFO issues, click here.

C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool?

1966-04-25, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A15FA3D5D137B93C7AB178FD85...
[Many questions] have dogged the [CIA] for years. This secret body [is] known to have overthrown
governments and installed others, raised armies, staged an invasion of Cuba, spied and
counterspied, established airlines, radio stations and schools. Was it in fact damaging, while it
sought to advance, the national interest? Former President Truman, whose administration
established the CIA in 1947, said In 1963 that by then he saw "something about the way the CIA
has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic positions." President Kennedy, as
the enormity of the Bay of Pigs disaster came home to him, said to one of the highest
officials of his administration that he wanted "to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and
scatter it to the winds." In the 19 years that the CIA has been in existence, 150 resolutions
for tighter congressional control have been introduced - and put aside. Few persons in or out

of the American Government know much about its work, its organization, its supervision or its
relationship to the other arms of the executive branch. In 1960, CIA agents in Laos, disguised as
"military advisers," stuffed ballot boxes and engineered local uprisings to help a hand-picked
strongman ... set up a "pro-American" government. It was the CIA that built up Ngo Dinh Diem as
the pro-American head of South Vietnam after the French ... had found him in a monastery cell in
Belgium and brought him back to Saigon as Premier. The revelation that CIA agents served among
Michigan State University scholars in South Vietnam from 1955 to 1959 has contributed to the fear
[of infiltration of universities].
Note: For a longer, even more revealing summary of this very lengthy article, click here. To see a
full copy of this article, click here. For more on the secret and illegal activities of major intelligence
agencies, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Flying Disks
1947-07-10, FBI Website, UFO Vault
http://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%201%20of%2016/
At request of Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, Chief of the Requirements Intelligence
Branch of Army Air Corps Intelligence, Special Agent [deleted] discussed the above captioned
matter with him on July 9, 1947. General Schulgen indicated to [deleted] that the Air Corps has
taken the attitude that every effort must be undertaken in order to run down and ascertain whether
or not the flying disks are a fact and, if so, to learn all about them. He advised that to complete the
picture he desired the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in locating and questioning
the individuals who first sighted the so-called flying disks in order to ascertain whether or not they
are sincere in their statements that they saw these disks. [Deleted] indicated that it was his attitude
that the flying disks are not the result of any Army or Navy experiments. He stated that he was of
the opinion that the Bureau, if at all possible, should accede to General Schulgen's request. [FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten response:] I would do it but before agreeing to it we
must insist upon full access to discs recovered. For instance in the Sa. case the army
grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory investigation.
Note: The excerpt above is from pages 44 and 45 of the rich collection of declassified FBI
documents on UFOs at the link above. If the link fails, click here. Note that this was just days after
the Roswell crash. For lots more solid evidence of a major UFO cover-up, see our UFO
Information Center at this link. Why hasn't this been widely reported and become public
knowledge? For a possible answer, click here.

New Cancer Foe Hailed

1940-05-18, Los Angeles Times
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/409290581.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI...

Germs that cause cancer have been discovered and with a new high-frequency radio "ray." They
have been killed in human patients who then recovered, according to assertions made yesterday
at the California State Homeopathic Medical societys convention. The new progress in combating
malignant cancer is said to have been made possible by an ultra microscope that magnifies 31,000
times and by a ray that kills micro-organisms in humans. Both the microscope and the Ray were
developed by Royal Raymond Rife of San Diego. Rife was to have announced his discoveries
before the British Medical Society, but made the announcement locally because of the war. Dr.
Arthur W. Yale of San Diego reported that with the aid of the Rife Ray he has succeeded in
curing a number of cases of malignant cancer in which patients had been told they had
only a limited time in which to live. The physician [said that] "for 17 years Mr. Rife experimented
with vibratory waves of all frequencies, and he has now succeeded in finding a rate that will kill the
different invading organisms of the body. Radio waves, which with their harmonics range from 10
meters to 20,000 meters, are projected through a tube filled with helium gas. I have witnessed
the disappearance of every malignant growth when the patient has remained under
treatment." Dr. Yale then reported case histories of patients treated. Mr. Rife alluded to the fact
that the medical profession has not yet accepted his findings. My work may not be accepted
during my lifetime," he said, "but ... I know it ultimately will be recognized.
Note: As the above link requires payment, you can read the full text of this article free at this link.
For an abundance of powerful, verifiable information on this amazing man and how his cancer cure
was ruthlessly suppressed by the medical establishment, click here.

Ford Sees Wealth in Muscle Shoals: Edison Backs Him Up

1921-12-06, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=3&res=9C04E0D7103EEE3ABC4E53...
Henry Ford [is] convinced that if Congress will complete and lease to him the water-power
developments [at Muscle Shoals], he can make this whole section of the South more prosperous.
Thomas A. Edison indorsed Mr. Fords views. He is very earnest in his support of Fords [proposal]
to finance Muscle Shoals by an issue of currency ... directly by the Government. "If our nation can
issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill," said Mr. Edison. "[When Congress authorizes] an
issue of bonds, it must go out to the money brokers. We then must pay interest to the money
brokers for the use of our own money. In all our great bond issues, the interest is always greater
than the principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the actual cost on that
account. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money
brokers collect twice the amount of the bond ... whereas the currency pays nobody but
those who directly contribute. Both are promises to pay: but one promise fattens the
usurer, and the other helps the people. It is the money broker, the money profiteer, the private
banker, that I oppose. It is a terrible situation when the Government ... must go into debt and
submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the [issuance of currency]. The
people must pay any way: why should they be compelled to pay twice as the bond system
compels them? [If] Government will adopt this policy of increasing its national wealth without
contributing to the interest collector ... you will see an era of progress and prosperity in this country

such as could never have come otherwise. Mr. Edison reiterated his belief [that if] the currency
method is tried in raising money for public improvements, the country will never go back to the
borrow method.
Note: If the above link fails, you can read the a copy of the full, fascinating article at this link or this
one. The entire article contains lots of amazing revelations of how big bankers keep us in debt.
How fascinating that Ford and Edison, both ultra-wealthy businessmen, here are arguing strongly
against the privately owned Federal Reserve system through which private bankers print US
money and charge interest on it, and for the US government printing its own money. This would
avoid US citizens having to pay the big bankers all of the interest on much of the national debt. For
lots of evidence to support this way of thinking, click here.

Belgian Muslim Community Reminds Us That Peacefully 'Living

Together' Is the Under-reported Norm
2015-06-03, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/belgium-synagogue-muslim-commu...
Have you heard the story about the Muslim community in Belgium that raised money to restore a
local synagogue? Probably not. But it is really important that you do. The oldest Jewish house of
worship in Belgium, Synagogue d'Arlon, had been forced to close its doors because of structural
problems with the building. The Jewish congregation was short of the funds needed to reopen, [so] a local Muslim community took it upon themselves to call for donations at Friday
prayer - even though they themselves do not have a permanent mosque and pray in a
converted house. The movement ... spread to Muslims across Belgium who contributed to the
fund. In a communiqu released by the Association of Muslims of Arlon (AMA), Hajib el-Hajjaji
urged fellow Muslims to contribute. The Muslim community ended up raising 2,400 Euro (about
2,600 dollars), which they presented to Rabbi Jacobs at an emotional roundtable discussion on the
theme of "Living Together". Ultimately it was not about the money, but about "a much larger
project," [General Secretary of AMA] Bouezmarni explained: "Jews and Muslims have lived
together for centuries. Do you know that the first hydraulic clock was invented by a Jew so that
Muslims can observe prayer times? Imams in France protected Jews during war. It is regrettable
that religions are used for political purposes and sow discord between men." This intentional
peacemaking is happening all around the globe.
Note: How sad that the media focuses so little on the many inspiring stories of people of differing
faiths working together and supporting each other. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries
of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

1,400 child abuse suspects identified

2015-05-20, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-32812449

More than 1,400 suspects, including politicians and celebrities, have been investigated by
police probing historical child sex abuse allegations. The figures were revealed by Operation
Hydrant, set up by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC). It explores ... child sex abuse by
"prominent public persons". Of the 1,433 suspects identified, 216 are now dead and 261 are
classified as people of public prominence, with 135 coming from TV, film or radio. The figures are
taken from police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They relate to reports
of abuse, or investigations of abuse, which police forces were dealing with in the summer of 2014.
Norfolk Police Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the NPCC's lead on child protection, said the
referrals were increasing "on an almost daily basis". He also said police were projected to receive
about 116,000 reports of historical child sex abuse by the end of 2015 - an increase of 71% from
2012. He added: "There is no doubt [Jimmy] Savile has had an effect on us. We are dealing with
more and more allegations." Ex-DJ Jimmy Savile was revealed after his death to be one of the
UK's most prolific sexual predators. Jon Brown, head of the NSPCC's programme to tackle sexual
abuse, described the figures as "astonishing" and said they showed abuse "permeates all parts of
society". He added: "What we're beginning to see is a much more realistic picture now of the
scale of the problem."
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major
media sources.

CIA's torture experts now use their skills in secret drones program
2015-04-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/29/cias-torture-experts-now...
The New York Times reported on Sunday that many of those in charge of the CIAs torture
program the same people whose names were explicitly redacted from the Senates torture
report in order to avert accountability have ascended to the agencys powerful senior
ranks and now run the CIA drone program. Rather than being fired and prosecuted, they have
been rewarded with promotions. The longtime Counterterrorism Center chief who just stepped
down, Michael DAndrea, was previously in charge of the notorious CIA prison known as the Salt
Pit, where prisoners were regularly tortured and some died. His replacement, Chris Wood, was
also central to the interrogation program, according to the Times. The only reason we know
DAndrea and Woods names is because the New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet
commendably decided to publish them. The CIA asked them not to. Adding to the disturbing nature
of the CIAs ability to kill people in complete secrecy, the agency apparently now has a carte
blanche to conduct drone strikes on its own. President Obama doesnt individually approve them
anymore he lets the CIA unilaterally decide to kill people. The Obama administration has
promised more transparency around drone strikes, yet at the same time, wont even acknowledge
that the controversial drone strike its apologizing for even happened - just because such
admission might force courts to hold the government accountable for its actions.

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in government and in the intelligence community.

What is medicines 5 sigma? by Lancet Chief Editor Richard Horton

2015-04-11, The Lancet (One of the world's top medical journals)
http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2960696-1.pdf
[A] symposium on the reproducibility and reliability of biomedical research, held at the Wellcome
Trust in London last week touched on one of the most sensitive issues in science today: the
idea that something has gone fundamentally wrong. The case against science is
straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.
Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant
conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious
importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. In their quest for telling a compelling story,
scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Journal editors deserve
their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Journals are not the only
miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent, endpoints that foster
reductive metrics. National assessment procedures ... incentivise bad practices. And individual
scientists, including their most senior leaders, do little to alter a research culture that occasionally
veers close to misconduct. Part of the problem is that no-one is incentivised to be right.
Instead, scientists are incentivised to be productive. The conclusion of the symposium was
that something must be done. The good news is that science is beginning to take some of its worst
failings very seriously. The bad news is that nobody is ready to take the first step to clean up the
system.
Note: The Lancet is considered by many to be the most prestigious medical journal in the world. If
the editor-in-chief of the Lancet is making these comments, who can we trust? Read a powerfully
revealing essay by former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine Marcia Angell on
how the drug companies blatantly manipulate science for profit.

Stop Making Us Guinea Pigs

2015-03-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/stop-making-us-guinea-pigs.html?_r=0
The issues surrounding G.M.O.s - genetically modified organisms - became more complicated last
week when the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate, the
active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup, probably causes cancer in
humans. Two insecticides, malathion and diazinon, were also classified as "probable" carcinogens
by the agency, a respected arm of the World Health Organization. Roundup, made by Monsanto
for both home and commercial use, is crucial in the production of genetically engineered corn and
soybean crops, so it was notable that the verdict on its dangers came nearly simultaneously with
an announcement by the Food and Drug Administration that new breeds of genetically engineered

potato and apple are safe to eat. Few people are surprised that an herbicide in widespread use is
probably toxic at high doses or with prolonged exposure, circumstances that may be common
among farmers and farmworkers. Nor is it surprising that it took so long - Roundup has been used
since the 1970s - to discover its likely carcinogenic properties. There is a sad history of us acting
as guinea pigs for the novel chemicals that industry develops. To date, G.M.O.s and other forms of
biotech have done nothing but enrich their manufacturers and promote a system of agriculture
that's neither sustainable nor for the most part beneficial. We don't need better, smarter
chemicals along with crops that can tolerate them; we need fewer chemicals. There's no
reason to put the general population, and particularly the farming population, at risk for the sake of
industry profits.
Note: Monsanto's Roundup and the GMO crops that support its use are well-known by scientists
to be a threat to public health. For more, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles
on GMO risks and how these are covered up.

The key to our happiness is connection, not competition

2015-03-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/20/key-to-happiness-...
Charles Darwin is normally associated with the "survival of the fittest" theory. He also ... wrote that
the communities most likely to flourish were "those with the most sympathetic members", an
observation backed up by research that we are wired to care about each other. But we have
such a strong cultural narrative about the selfish side of humanity that we adopt systems and
behaviours that undermine our natural co-operative tendencies. This starts in schools, where the
relentless focus on exams and attainment instills in young people the idea that success is about
doing better than others. It continues in our marketing culture, which encourages conspicuous
displays of consumption and rivalry. It's found at the heart of our workplaces, where employees
compete with each other for performance-related rewards. This "get ahead or lose out" ethos [is]
deeply flawed. In schools, helping young people to develop social and emotional skills [has] been
shown to boost their performance. In workplaces, research ... shows that "givers" - people who
help others without seeking anything in return - are more successful in the long term than
"takers" - who try to maximise benefits for themselves, rather than others. For society as a
whole, the World Happiness Report 2013, a major global study, found that two of the strongest
explanatory factors for national wellbeing are levels of social support and generosity.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

UK Police Watchdog to Investigate Westminster Child Abuse Cover-Up

2015-03-16, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/uk-police-watchdog-investigate-westminster-child-abus...

The UK police watchdog has announced that it is investigating the Metropolitan Police following
allegations that the force was involved in a cover-up over child abuse offenses. The Independent
Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched the investigation after the Met referred
themselves over 16 separate allegations - 14 of which are to be investigated. The IPCC will look
into claims of corruption within the force and whether they purposefully ignored evidence and
halted investigations due to the involvement of MPs and other members of the establishment. This
most recent development comes as a result of Operation Fairbank, first launched by
Scotland Yard in 2012, to probe suggestions that high profile figures were involved in
historic Westminster paedophile rings. Since then detectives have also opened up inquiries into
the murder of three boys who its alleged were killed by those involved in such rings, claims which
... have resulted in the police calling for witnesses as they have been unable to identify the victims.
One of the 14 referrals for the IPCC says that a proactive operation targeting young men in
Dolphin Square was stopped because officers were too near prominent people, while another is
about allegations that a politician had spoken with a senior Met Police officer and demanded
no action was taken regarding a paedophile ring and boys being procured and supplied to
prominent persons in Westminster in the 1970s.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Covert police unit spied on trade union members, whistleblower reveals

2015-03-13, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2...
An undercover police unit that monitored political groups over 40 years gathered intelligence on
members of at least five trade unions, a whistleblower has revealed. Peter Francis, who spent
four years undercover infiltrating political activists, has named five trade unions whose
members he spied on: Unison, the Fire Brigades Union, Communication Workers Union,
National Union of Teachers, and the National Union of Students. Francis, who has become a
whistleblower in recent years ... was part of the covert Metropolitan police unit, the Special
Demonstration Squad (SDS), that monitored hundreds of political groups between 1968 and 2008.
Francis gave a statement to a packed meeting in Parliament that marked the launch of a new book
about the blacklisting of thousands of workers by multi-national construction firms. This month, the
Daily Mirror revealed that one of the undercover officers in the SDS, Mark Jenner, posed as a
joiner and was a member of the construction workers union, UCATT, for three years. Jenners
involvement in trade unions is detailed here by the Undercover Research Group, a resource on
covert infiltration of political groups. It describes how he attended meetings of UCATT and other
unions, regularly went on pickets and ferried trade unionists to demonstrations. In his statement ...
Francis said, Let me state very clearly that Mark Jenner was 100% one of my fellow undercover
SDS police officers deployed alongside me in the 1990s.

Note: While undercover, Mark Jenner had a four-year relationship with a woman who did not know
his real identity. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Washington revolving door speeds up as Obama officials head for

lobbying jobs
2015-03-07, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/07/washington-revolving-door-lobb...
Washington has long been notorious for its revolving doors. Politicians, regulators and other
officials spin out of one capital building only to return at another as highly paid lobbyists. Leading
the pack of former White House staff [now] accepting the corporate shilling is Jay Carney,
President Obamas former White House press secretary, who this week joined Amazon as its head
of global corporate affairs. Carney follows David Plouffe, Obamas former campaign manager and
senior White House adviser, who quit the White House in 2013 and joined Uber. Others to have left
the Obama administration for the serious cash of the corporate world include Samuel Maruca, who
was director of transfer pricing (multinational company taxation) at the Internal Revenue Service,
[and] Shara Aranoff, [former] chair of the US International Trade Commission. Bill Allison, senior
fellow of the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit that campaigns for open government, said the
number of senior government officials switching to lobbying roles in big companies poses
a huge problem for transparency". Obama was very clear he didnt want people to switch
between lobbying and the government, but thats what is happening. When he took office,
Obama signed an order that the White House said: closes the revolving door that allows
government officials to move to and from private sector jobs in ways that give that sector undue
influence over government.
Note: For more on this, see Glenn Greenwald's excellent article.

U.S. probes banks over metals markets

2015-02-24, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/24/us-probes-metals-market-manipu...
U.S. authorities are investigating major banks over potential manipulation of the precious metals
market, the latest development in a series of probes related to major financial benchmarks. HSBC
is among at least 10 major banks being investigated by U.S. authorities for possible rigging
of the price-setting process for gold, silver, platinum and palladium, The Wall Street Journal
reported late Monday. The report said other banks being scrutinized include: Goldman Sachs;
JPMorgan Chase; Britain-based Barclays; Swiss banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse; Bank of
Nova Scotia; Germany-based Deutsche Bank; France-based Socit Gnrale; and South Africabased Standard Bank Group. U.S. authorities declined to comment. Goldman Sachs, HSBC,
Deutsche Bank and Barclays, HSBC, UBS and Bank of Nova Scotia have been named as
defendants in various putative class-action lawsuits in U.S. federal courts over suspected

manipulation of precious metals pricing. The complaints contend that bank traders conspired
to manipulate the price of metal derivatives in a bid to reap profits on proprietary trades.
The new U.S. investigations follow separate bank probes launched earlier over suspected
manipulation of the $5.3-billion-a-day foreign exchange currency trading market, along with rigging
of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used to set rates on billions of dollars in
loans, credit cards and mortgages.
Note: When it comes to international banking, it appears that almost everything is rigged. For
more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about the
systemically corrupt financial industry.

A Whistleblower's Horror Story

2015-02-18, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-whistleblowers-horror-story-20150218
One man's story in particular highlights just about everything that can go wrong when you give
evidence against your bosses in America: former Countrywide/Bank of America whistleblower
Michael Winston. Two years ago this month, Winston was being celebrated in the news as a hero.
He'd blown the whistle on Countrywide Financial, the bent mortgage lender that ... nearly blew up
the global economy. Today, Winston [has] spent over a million dollars fighting Countrywide (and
the firm that acquired it, Bank of America) in court. At first, that fight proved a good gamble, as a
jury granted him a multi-million-dollar award for retaliation and wrongful termination. But
after Winston won that case, an appellate judge not only wiped out that jury verdict, but
allowed Bank of America to counterattack him. The bank eventually beat him for nearly
$98,000 in court costs. That single transaction means a good guy in the crisis drama, Winston,
had by the end of 2014 paid a larger individual penalty than virtually every wrongdoer connected
with the financial collapse of 2008. When Winston protested his preposterous punishment on the
grounds that a trillion-dollar company recouping legal fees from an unemployed whistleblower was
unreasonable and unnecessary, a California Superior Court judge denied his argument get this
on the grounds that Winston failed to prove a disparity in resources between himself and Bank
of America! Four years later, we're still waiting for the first criminal conviction against any individual
for crisis-era corruption. There's been no significant reform. What we've seen instead is a series of
cash deals with the most corrupt companies.
Note: Countrywide bought political influence to more effectively defraud institutional investors and
taxpayers. Thanks to Winston, they were caught and proven guilty. But Bank of America
purchased Countrywide, and has been paying off officials in secret deals to continue skirting the
law without admitting wrongdoing. And Michael Winston now has to pay Bank of America for their
trouble.

Measles fears: Mild case of mass hysteria

2015-02-14, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Measles-fears-Mild-case-of-mass-hysteria...
Its not so much that more than a whopping 100 cases of measles have cropped up in California
since December. Its not even that concerns over the number of unvaccinated kids have been
escalating in recent years. The reason measles is on the tip of so many peoples tongues these
days, and the subject of so much sturm and drang in the media, is this: Its a mild case of mass
hysteria. The reality, doctors contend, is that chances of the potentially deadly disease once again
becoming epidemic are nil. The virus was declared wiped out in the U.S. in 2000, and with more
than 90 percent of the country still getting vaccinated, overall safety is still strong. The current
measles outbreak began in December, when the illness cropped up at two Disneyland theme
parks in Southern California. Within a month, smatterings of viral infections had spread throughout
the state with a handful of cases showing up in other states. To date, California has reported
nearly double the 61 measles cases reported all of last year. Thats ... considerably fewer
than the tens of thousands of cases that were diagnosed across the nation in 1989 in
another outbreak. But try telling that to parents of little kids who have become alarmed at
ceaseless news reports of increasing cases. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention says one or two people in 1,000 with measles worldwide will die from the illness. Thats
less deadly than ... tetanus, which globally kills up to 20 percent of its victims.
Note: How many mass media mass hysterias do we have to endure? Every couple years theres a
new killer plague about to devour us all. Today, its measles, a couple of months ago, it was Ebola.
A few years ago, avian flu was going to do us in. And there was the swine flu, which turned out to
be just a common flu. Of course governments worldwide paid Big Pharma billions to buy a special
swine flu vaccine. Now its measles, and everybody has to get a shot or the drug companies won't
make their billions. We definitely wouldn't want that!

Portugal Cut Addiction Rates in Half by Connecting Drug Users With

Communities Instead of Jailing Them
2015-02-12, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/portugal-cut-drug-addiction-rates-in...
The experiment is simple. Put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles. One is just water. The
other is water laced with heroin or cocaine. Almost every time you run this experiment, the rat will
become obsessed with the drugged water, and keep coming back for more and more, until it kills
itself. But in the 1970s ... Bruce Alexander noticed [that] the rat is put in the cage all alone. It has
nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So
Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and
the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends. The rats with good lives ...
mostly shunned [the drugged water]. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became
heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did. Professor Alexander argues
[that] addiction is an adaptation. Its not you. Its your cage. This gives us an insight that
goes much deeper than the need to understand addicts. The opposite of addiction is not
sobriety. It is human connection. This isnt [just] theoretical. 15 years ago, Portugal had one of

the worst drug problems in Europe, with one percent of the population addicted to heroin. They
had tried a drug war, and the problem just kept getting worse. So they decided to do something
radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs, and transfer all the money they used to
spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts, and spend it instead on reconnecting them to their own
feelings, and to the wider society. The results? Since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen,
and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.
Note: The complete article tells the story of internationally renown journalist Johann Hari's
profound shift in thinking about addiction as he personally investigated Portugal's inspiring
success.

Research misconduct often unreported in published studies

2015-02-09, NBC/Reuters
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/56951863#.VOheuSyeaZk
When U.S. health regulators find serious problems with how medical researchers collect their data,
the researchers final reports often dont mention it, a new analysis suggests. Out of 78 published
papers reporting on clinical trials in which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found
very serious issues, only three mentioned any violations, the new report says. These are
major things, said Charles Seife, a journalism professor and the studys author. Using documents
and data from 1998 to 2013, Seife and his students at New York University in New York City
identified 57 clinical trials that received an official action indicated violation - the most serious
type of violation for trials - for reasons including poor record keeping, false information and poor
patient safety. The problems that weren't reported were sometimes egregious. One paper, for
example, said all patients reported improvement, but in fact, the FDA found that one patient had a
foot amputated two weeks after receiving the treatment. In another case, the entire clinical trial
was considered unreliable by the FDA - but the published paper didn't mention that. In another,
researchers falsified data, which led to one patients death. Data on these violations are not readily
available. So it's impossible to say how often tainted data are published and how often the
violations are noted, Seife said.
Note: Read an informative article with much more detail about the egregious conduct of the FDA.
This article raises the question, "Why does the FDA stay silent about fraud and misconduct in
scientific studies of medicine?" For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing science corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Rotherham abuse: Researcher's warning 'ignored in 2002'

2015-02-09, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31327781

A former Home Office researcher says a bullying culture at Rotherham Council led to her
warnings of child sexual exploitation being suppressed in 2002, years before action was
finally taken. A report this month by government official Louise Casey concluded the council was
not "fit for purpose". The council says it is investigating researcher Adele Gladman's claims.
Previously, she has only spoken anonymously. "What I didn't realise was just how many whistleblowers there had been over the years and how many opportunities to change poor practice," she
said. "That has cost young people their health, their happiness and in some cases their
lives." Ms Gladman was based at Rotherham Council when she carried out the work for the Home
Office. She describes being subjected to bullying and intimidation after her research found a small
number of men, mainly of Pakistani heritage, were sexually exploiting a significant number of
young people. She says the council sent her on race awareness training and effectively
suppressed her report. "I had every aspect of my professionalism questioned," she said. "I had
every aspect of my work questioned. I had data removed over a weekend so that I couldn't
substantiate my findings." She says the bullying she faced went beyond the local authority and
remembers a police officer approaching her outside her office. "He and a colleague said words
along the lines of 'Wouldn't it be a shame if these perpetrators found out where you and your
family lived'. "And I took that as a direct threat to my personal safety. The message was very
clear."
Note: By 'conservative estimates' detailed in a 2014 report, over 1400 children as young as 12
were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham. Police and elected officials actively
helped the perpetrators, covered up the crimes, and systematically prevented the victims from
getting help. For more, watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
showing that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, or read
deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

Thatcher stopped officials publicly naming Sir Peter Hayman as

suspected paedophile
2015-02-03, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/thatcher-stopped-officials-pub...
Margaret Thatcher told officials not to publicly name a senior diplomat connected to a
paedophile scandal despite being fully briefed on allegations made against him, a newly
revealed secret file has shown. The file was prepared for the late Conservative Prime Minister in
the early Eighties, and details allegations of unnatural sexual activity by Sir Peter Hayman in
1966, when he returned from ... West Berlin to the Foreign Office. It also notified Mrs Thatcher that
the senior diplomat had been subject to a police investigation, after a parcel containing "obscene
materials" was found on a London bus in 1978. Sir Peter was not prosecuted following an
investigation into his activities. The diplomat, who died in 1992, was accused of being a
paedophile by MP Geoffrey Dickens under the cloak of parliamentary privilege in 1983, before the
file was prepared for the then Prime Minister. Compiled between October 1980 and March 1981,
the 37-page file is now available for public view, and features Mrs Thatchers handwritten

annotations and notes. It confirms that Sir Peter was a member of the Paedophile Information
Exchange (PIE) group, and claims he intended to make "contact with adults with whom he could
exchange obscene material." The revelations come as Home Secretary Theresa May announced
she would be launching an inquiry into historical child abuse, during which Sir Peters activities will
be investigated.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Don't Trade Away Our Health

2015-01-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/opinion/dont-trade-away-our-health.html?_r=0
A secretive group met behind closed doors in New York this week. What they decided may lead to
higher drug prices for you and hundreds of millions around the world. Representatives from the
United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries convened to decide the future of their
trade relations in the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (T.P.P.). Powerful companies
appear to have been given influence over the proceedings, even as full access is withheld
from many government officials from the partnership countries. Among the topics negotiators
have considered are some of the most contentious T.P.P. provisions those relating to intellectual
property rights. These rules could help big pharmaceutical companies maintain or increase their
monopoly profits on brand-name drugs [and] block cheaper generic drugs from the market. Big
Pharmas profits would rise, at the expense of the health of patients and the budgets of consumers
and governments. Of course, pharmaceutical companies claim they need to charge high prices to
fund their research and development. This just isnt so. For one thing, drug companies spend more
on marketing and advertising than on new ideas. Overly restrictive intellectual property rights
actually slow new discoveries. As it is, most of the important innovations come out of our
universities and research centers, like the National Institutes of Health, funded by government and
foundations.
Note: Read what a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Health has to say about
the egregious profiteering of Big Pharma. Watch an excellent, two-minute video by former U.S.
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on the TPP titled "The Worst Trade Deal You've Never Heard of,"
or read leaked draft texts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for yourself.

Wall Street's threat to the American middle class

2015-01-27, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201501271130--tms--amvoices...

The middle class can't be saved unless Wall Street is tamed. Yet most presidential
aspirants don't want to talk about taming the Street because Wall Street is one of their
largest sources of campaign money. Six years ago ... the financial collapse crippled the
middle class and poor, consuming the savings of millions of average Americans and causing 23
million to lose their jobs, 9.3 million to lose their health insurance and some 1 million to lose their
homes. A repeat performance is not unlikely. Wall Street's biggest banks are much larger now
than they were then. Five of them hold about 45 percent of America's banking assets. In 2000,
they held 25 percent. Meanwhile, the Street's lobbyists have gotten Congress to repeal a provision
of Dodd-Frank curbing excessive speculation by the big banks. The language was drafted by
Citigroup and personally pushed by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. It's nice that
presidential aspirants are talking about rebuilding America's middle class. But to be credible, the
candidates have to [propose] to limit the size of the biggest Wall Street banks, to resurrect the
Glass-Steagall Act (which used to separate investment banking from commercial banking), to
define insider trading the way most other countries do (using information any reasonable person
would know is unavailable to most investors), and to close the revolving door between the Street
and the U.S. Treasury. It also means not depending on the Street to finance their campaigns.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in government and the financial industry.

Prince Andrew Sex Scandal Lawsuit Has High Legal Stakes

2015-01-07, Time
http://time.com/3658851/prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein/
A federal court filing accuses ... Prince Andrew of having sex in three countries with the
self-described sex slave of an American financier, Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit that
mentions these charges [targets] the U.S. Department of Justice. The case [started] in 2005, when
Florida police began investigating claims that Epstein was paying underage girls for sex at his
West Palm Beach home. Investigators uncovered evidence that more than a dozen girls may
have been victimized by Epstein. The Justice Department agreed to a deal with Epstein that
required him to plead guilty to two state charges, including a single count of solicitation of minors
for prostitution, to register as a sex offender and to serve a short jail sentence. In exchange, the
U.S. Attorney agreed to drop any further prosecution. The agreement also said that the parties
anticipate that this agreement will not be made part of any public record, an unusual condition for
such a criminal plea. The [deal] shocked several of the victims. The case has been now been
ongoing for six years, with more than 280 filings. In legal filings, Edwards [a Florida trial lawyer]
and Cassell [a victims' rights advocate and former federal judge] have questioned [the] pressure
on the U.S. Attorney to keep the case from trial, either from Prince Andrew or former President
Clinton, who travelled with Epstein on his private plane at the time but has not been accused of
wrongdoing. The elephant in the room is this: How does a guy who sexually abused 40 girls end
up doing basically one year in a halfway house, says Cassell.

Note: This is the second recent child sex scandal connected with UK royalty. Watch powerful
evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that child sexual abuse
scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media
sources.

At Americas court of last resort, a handful of lawyers now dominates

the docket
2014-12-08, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/scotus/
The U.S. Supreme Court building proclaims a high ideal: Equal Justice Under Law. But inside, an
elite cadre of lawyers has emerged [to give] their clients a disproportionate chance to influence the
law. A Reuters examination of nine years of cases shows that 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who
petitioned the Supreme Court ... were at least six times more likely to be accepted by the court
than were all others. About half [of these 66 lawyers] worked for justices past or present, and some
socialize with them. Although they account for far less than 1 percent of lawyers who filed appeals
to the Supreme Court, these attorneys were involved in 43 percent of the cases the high court
chose to decide from 2004 through 2012. The Reuters examination of the Supreme Courts
docket, the most comprehensive ever, suggests ... a decided advantage for corporate
America. Some legal experts contend that the reliance on a small cluster of specialists, most
working on behalf of businesses, has turned the Supreme Court into an echo chamber a place
where an elite group of jurists embraces an elite group of lawyers who reinforce narrow views of
how the law should be construed. Of the 66 most successful lawyers, 51 worked for law firms
that primarily represented corporate interests. In cases pitting the interests of customers,
employees or other individuals against those of companies, a leading attorney was three times
more likely to launch an appeal for business than for an individual, Reuters found.
Note: How interesting that no major media seem to have picked up this revealing story. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about government
corruption from reliable major media sources.

Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State

2014-12-04, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/afghanistan-the-making-of-a-narco-s...
In the largest opium harvest in Afghanistan's history; with a record 224,000 hectares under
cultivation this year, the country produced an estimated 6,400 tons of opium, or around 90 percent
of the world's supply. In Afghanistan today, according to U.N. estimates, the opium industry
accounts for 15 percent of the economy. The Afghan narcotics trade has gotten undeniably
worse since the U.S.-led invasion: The country produces twice as much opium as it did in
2000. In the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, I arrange an interview with a drug smuggler. I'll call

him Sami. He grew up in a camp near the border town of Chagai, in Pakistan. After finishing 11th
grade, he got work as a driver and began ... smuggling opium through the desert. Baramcha, a
smuggling hub on the Afghan side of the border ... functions as a kind of switching station for much
of the opium trade. "The security situation is good ... the drug smugglers and the ISI are tight
together," he says, referring to Pakistan's intelligence service. The United States' alliances with
opium traffickers in Afghanistan go back to the 1980s, when the CIA waged a dirty war to
undermine the Soviet occupation of the country. Large-scale cultivation was introduced [with]
support from the ISI and the CIA. U.S. counternarcotics programs, which have cost nearly
$8 billion to date, and the Afghan state-building project in general, are perversely part of ...
the drug trade.
Note: Read the complete article above for an in depth look at the Afghan narcotics trade. For
more, read this 2002 news article, which shows that the Taliban had nearly eliminated opium
production in Afghanistan prior to the US led invasion. Yet once the allies defeated the Taliban,
opium production hit new records. Today, Afghanistan produces 90% of the global opium supply.
This huge source of income is used to fund all kinds of secret projects. Read powerful evidence
that the CIA and US military are directly involved in the drug trade.

41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes the facts on
the ground
2014-11-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147
A new analysis of the data available to the public about drone strikes, conducted by the
human-rights group Reprieve, indicates that even when operators target specific
individuals the most focused effort of what Barack Obama calls targeted killing they
kill vastly more people than their targets, often needing to strike multiple times. Attempts to
kill 41 men resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,147 people, as of 24 November. Reprieve
[focused on] cases in which specific people were targeted by drones multiple times. Their data,
shared with the Guardian, raises questions about the accuracy of US intelligence. The analysis is
a partial estimate. Drone strikes ... are only as precise as the intelligence that feeds them. There
is nothing precise about intelligence that results in the deaths of 28 unknown people, including
women and children, for every bad guy the US goes after, said Reprieves Jennifer Gibson. The
data cohort is only a fraction of those killed by US drones. Neither Reprieve nor the Guardian
examined ... the so-called signature strikes that attack people based on a pattern of behavior
considered suspicious, rather than intelligence tying their targets to terrorist activity. An analytically
conservative Council on Foreign Relations tally assesses that 500 drone strikes outside of Iraq and
Afghanistan have killed 3,674 people. Like all weapons, drones will inevitably miss their targets.
But the secrecy surrounding them obscures how often misses occur and the reasons for them.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing military corruption
news articles from reliable major media sources, including this NPR article that reports on the
possibility of future drone strikes taking place within the US.

Doctor Transparency: Why Leana Wen Received Threats After

Launching
2014-11-19, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/doctor-transparency-why-leana-wen-received-threats-aft...
Leana Wen created the Whos My Doctor campaign last year. The effort ... goes a step
further than the federal governments mandate requiring physicians to disclose all money they
receive from drug companies. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released
data that outlined the $3.5 billion that companies paid to the nations doctors. The Open Payments
database ... was heavily opposed by physician groups and pharmaceutical companies.
Incentives matter, said Wen in a recent TED talk, If you go to your doctor because of
back pain, you might want to know hes getting paid $5,000 to perform spine surgery versus
$25 to refer you to see a physical therapist. As part of the Whos My Doctor effort, each
physician voluntarily publishes a Total Transparency Manifesto, which ... flows into a searchable
database that prospective patients can use. One year after starting the project, only 34
transparent doctors are listed on the website. There are many more who were less than pleased.
I thought some doctors would sign on and others wouldnt, but I had no idea of the backlash that
would ensue, she said in her TED talk. The criticism quickly went beyond online comments. Soon,
people were asking Wens employer to fire her, and sending mail to her home address with
threats.
Note: Don't miss the inspiring TED talk of Dr. Wen. And check out her website "Who's My Doctor"
at http://www.whosmydoctor.com.

Organised child sex abuse 'widespread in England', MPs say

2014-11-18, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-30083835
Organised child sex abuse is widespread in England, a report by MPs on the Rotherham
exploitation scandal says. Their report said: "On the evidence we took, the alarming
conclusion is that Rotherham was not an outlier and that there is a widespread problem of
organised child sexual exploitation in England." The MPs inquiry was prompted by a report by
Prof Alexis Jay, which revealed up to 1,400 children were estimated to have been victims of abuse
in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Ofsted, which carried out a series of inspections during the
period, said it had introduced a "more rigorous inspection framework". The parliamentary
committee called for an investigation into missing files at the council and said council officials
"should be held accountable for their actions." In a statement, Ofsted said it welcomed "the
opportunity to give evidence to the committee. In common with a number of organisations, we
accept that past inspections may not have given child sexual exploitation the forensic focus it
needed and deserved," it said.

Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. And read an
abundance of major media news articles showing rampant child sexual abuse at high levels in
many prominent organizations.

'Vaccine court' keeps claimants waiting

2014-11-17, Bloomberg/Associated Press
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-11-17/ap-impact-vaccine-court-keeps-claim...
A system Congress established to speed help to Americans harmed by vaccines has
instead heaped additional suffering on thousands of families. The system is not working as
intended. The AP read hundreds of decisions, conducted more than 100 interviews, and analyzed
a database of more than 14,500 cases filed in a special vaccine court. Among the findings: Private
attorneys have been paid tens of millions of taxpayer dollars even as they clog the court. The court
offers a financial incentive to over-file unlike typical civil court cases. Prominent attorneys have
enlisted expert witnesses whose own work has been widely discredited, including one who treated
autism with a potent drug used to chemically castrate serial rapists. Many doctors hired by the
government to defend vaccine safety in court have ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Cases are supposed to be resolved within 240 days, with options for another 150 days of
extensions. Less than 7 percent of 7,876 claims not involving autism met the 240-day target. Add
in autism claims, which were postponed so the court could hear all of them at once, and just 4.5
percent took fewer than 240 days. Hundreds have surpassed the decade mark. Several people
died before getting any money.
Note: The secret court that shields big pharma from legal liability for selling harmful vaccines is
described in this 2009 Wall Street Journal news article. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing news articles on vaccines from reliable major media sources
showing huge corruption and deception.

Mind-control device lets people alter genes in mice through power of

thought
2014-11-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/11/mind-control-device-alter-gene...
Scientists have created a mind-control system that allows a person to alter the genes in a mouse
through the power of thought. A person wearing the device could alter how much protein was
made from a gene in the mouse. Volunteers found that they could turn the gene on or off in the
mouse at will. The experiment could lead to the development of a radical new approach to the
treatment of diseases. Martin Fussenegger, a bioengineer who leads the project at ETH Zurich
said he hoped to see clinical trials in people with chronic pain or epilepsy in the next five years.
Fusseneggers team describes a system that demonstrates the idea. The mouse was fitted with a
small implant containing copper coils, a light-emitting diode (LED) and a tiny container of

genetically modified cells. When the electromagnetic field switches on beneath the mouse, an
electric current is induced in the implants coils which makes the LED shine. This light illuminates
the cells which are designed to respond by switching on a particular gene, causing the cells to
make a new protein which seeps out of the implants membrane. In the tests, the new protein ...
allowed scientists to measure its levels ... while people wearing the headset changed their state of
mind. In a series of follow-up experiments, volunteers wearing the headset could see when
the LED came on, because the red light shone through the mouses skin. In time, they
learned to control the light and so the gene simply by thinking.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing microchip news
articles from reliable major media sources.

FBI: Violent crime drops, reaches 1970s level

2014-11-10, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-violent-crime-1970s-level-...
U.S. violent crimes including murders fell 4.4 percent in 2013 to their lowest number since
the 1970s, continuing a decades-long downturn, the FBI said on Monday. The law enforcement
agency's annual Crime in the United States report showed the country had an estimated 1.16
million violent crimes last year, the lowest number since 1.09 million were recorded in 1978. All
types of violent crimes were lower, with murder and non-negligent manslaughter off 4.4 percent to
14,196, the lowest figure since 1968. Rape was down 6.3 percent and robbery fell 2.8 percent, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation data showed. The violent crime rate last year was 367.9 for each
100,000 in population, down 5.1 percent from 2012. The rate has fallen every year since at least
1994, the earliest year for readily accessible FBI data, and the 2013 figure was about half
the 1994 rate. Property crimes fell 4.1 percent ... the 11th straight yearly decline. In an analysis,
the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts said the drop in crime coincided with a decline in the prison
population, with the number of U.S. prisoners down 6 percent in 2013 from its peak in 2008. Thirtytwo of the 50 states have seen a drop in crime rates as the rate of imprisonment fell, Pew said.
California notched the largest drop in imprisonment rate over the five-year period, at 15 percent,
and crime was down 11 percent. The state has been under court order to reduce prison
overcrowding, and voters last week approved an initiative that reduced sentences for some crimes.
Note: Why isn't this inspiring news being broadcast widely by the media? And why hasn't the FBI
website updated their data on this since 2010? The police and media appear to consistently
downplay the huge drop in violent crime since 1994. According to the FBI's own statistics, violent
crime has currently dropped to 1/3 or less what it was in 1994. See the revealing FBI graphs and
charts here, here, and here. Yet some of these charts have now been removed and mention of this
huge decrease downplayed. The obvious reason is that a large decrease in crime might cause
people to want to decrease police and FBI budgets. More here.

The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare

2014-11-06, Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106
[Alayne] Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in
American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid
$9 billion ... to keep the public from hearing. In 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank,
Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities
fraud." This past year she watched as Holder's Justice Department struck a series of historic
settlement deals with Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The root bargain in these
deals was cash for secrecy. The idea that Holder had cracked down on Chase was ... fiction.
The settlement, says Kelleher, "was ... crafted to bypass the court system. The DOJ and JPMorgan were trying to avoid disclosure of their dirty deeds." Chase emerged with barely a scratch.
The settlement put you, me and every other American taxpayer on the hook. Chase was allowed
to treat some $7 billion of the settlement as a tax write-off. The bank's share price soared six
percent on news of the settlement. Chase actually made money from the deal. What's more,
to defray the cost of this and other fines, Chase last year laid off 7,500 lower-level employees. But
no one made out better than [Chase CEO Jamie] Dimon. The board awarded [him] a 74 percent
raise. The people who stole all those billions are still in place. And the bank is more untouchable
than ever. Mary Jo White and Andrew Ceresny, who represented Chase for some of this case,
have since been named to the two top jobs at the SEC.
Note: Read this entire, fascinating article to understand just how corrupt both the banks and our
government are. For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing
articles about widespread corruption in government and banking and finance. For additional
information, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Banking Corruption Information
Center.

7 countries where Americans can study at universities, in English, for

free (or almost free)
2014-10-29, Washington Post Blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/10/29/7-countries-wher...
Since 1985, U.S. college costs have surged by about 500 percent, and tuition fees keep
rising. In Germany, they've done the opposite. The country's universities have been tuitionfree since the beginning of October. Tuition rates were always low in Germany, but now the
German government fully funds the education of its citizens -- and even of foreigners. Explaining
the change, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a senator in the northern city of Hamburg, said tuition fees
"discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking
up study." Germany's higher education landscape primarily consists of internationally well-ranked
public universities, some of which receive special funding because the government deems them
"excellent institutions." What's more, Americans can earn a German undergraduate or graduate
degree without speaking a word of German and without having to pay a single dollar of tuition fees:
About 900 undergraduate or graduate degrees are offered exclusively in English, with courses

ranging from engineering to social sciences. For some German degrees, you don't even have to
formally apply. The vast degree offerings in English are intended to prepare German students to
communicate in a foreign language, but also to attract foreign students, because the country
needs more skilled workers.
Note: This clearly shows which countries place a high priority on the education of their citizens.
Along with Germany, the article discusses Finland, France, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, and Brazil.

In Britain, Child Sex Abuse Defies Easy Stereotypes

2014-10-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/world/europe/in-britain-child-sex-abuse-def...
First there was abuse at the hands of a popular BBC host. There were scandals at private schools
and in the church and talk of a pedophile ring in Parliament. Then there was Rotherham. Over the
past two years, high-profile revelations of sexual abuse of children have painted a picture of Britain
as a place where such abuse is not just endemic but systematically covered up either
because the perpetrators are of the very highest status or because the victims are of the
very lowest. The main driver of abuse is impunity: Abuse happens in a context of permissibility,
said Helen Beckett, an expert on the subject at the University of Bedfordshire. In 2012, it emerged
that Jimmy Savile had raped scores of children as colleagues and the police turned a blind eye.
Mr. Savile, who was a friend of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, used his charity work to
gain access to his victims in schools and hospitals. In July, Britons learned of allegations that Cyril
Smith, a former member of Parliament who died in 2010, abused boys in a care home in his
constituency. The allegations against him and others were detailed in a file prepared three
decades ago by a crusading lawmaker who described a pedophile ring of big, big names. But the
file mysteriously disappeared.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal
news articles from reliable major media sources.

The NSA and Me: By Former ABC Producer James Bamford

2014-10-02, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/02/the-nsa-and-me/
My biggest battle with the NSA came before my book [The Puzzle Palace] was even published. I
had obtained the criminal file that the Justice Department had opened on the NSA. Marked as Top
Secret, the file was so sensitive that only two original copies existed. Never before or since has
an entire agency been the subject of a criminal investigation. Senior officials at the NSA
were even read their Miranda rights. Issued on June 6, 1975, the report noted that both the NSA
and CIA had engaged in questionable and possibly illegal electronic surveillance. As a result,
Attorney General Edward Levi established a secret internal task force to look into the potential for
criminal prosecution. Focusing particularly on NSA, the task force probed more deeply into

domestic eavesdropping than any part of the executive branch had ever done before. The reports
prosecutive summary also pointed to the NSAs top-secret charter issued by the
Executive Branch, which exempts the agency from legal restraints placed on the rest of the
government. This ... meant the NSA did not have to follow any restrictions placed on electronic
surveillance unless it was expressly directed to do so. In short, the report asked, how can you
prosecute an agency that is above the law? More than three decades later, the NSA, like a momand-pop operation that has exploded into a global industry, now employs sweeping powers of
surveillance that Frank Church could scarcely have imagined in the days of wired phones and
clunky typewriters. At the same time, the Senate intelligence committee he once chaired has done
an about face, protecting the agencies from the public rather than the public from the agencies.
Without adequate oversight, or penalties for abuse, the only protection that citizens have comes
not from Congress or the courts, but from whistleblowers.
Note: James Bamford is the courageous ABC producer and investigative reporter who first
exposed the declassified Operation Northwoods files in the May of 2001. These files showed
beyond a shadow of a doubt that the top Pentagon generals were willing to carry out false flag
terrorism activities which would kill innocent civilians in order to foment war fever against Cuba.
Yet only ABC News out of all the major media outlets was willing to report this most shocking
news. Don't miss the entire, highly revealing article by Bamford at the link above.

The Artful Dodgers

2014-09-11, Time Magazine
http://time.com/3326573/the-artful-dodgers/
Corporations in the U.S. today are hoarding about $2 trillion in profits overseas, arguing that the
U.S. corporate tax rate of 35% makes it too difficult to bring this cash home and invest it here
better to keep the money abroad and pay lower taxes in other countries. Yet the truth is that
legions of tax lawyers make sure that most big American corporations never pay anywhere close
to that rate. FORTUNE 500 companies on average pay more like 19.4%, and a third pay less than
10%, chiefly because of all the generous loopholes Congress has afforded corporations over the
years. Partly as a result, U.S. firms are enjoying record profit margins, making more money
than ever before yet paying a lower share of the overall U.S. tax pie than they have in
decades. They want the benefits of U.S. talent and markets but not the responsibilities.
Taxpayer-funded, early-stage investments in areas like the Internet, transportation and health care
research are the reason many of the largest U.S. companies got so big and successful to begin
with. As the academic Mariana Mazzucato argues in her excellent book The Entrepreneurial State:
Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, many of the most lauded corporate innovations,
including the parts of smartphones that make them smart (Internet, GPS, touchscreen display and
voice recognition), came out of state-funded research. Ditto any number of pharmaceutical,
biotech and cybersecurity innovations. In so many cases, public investments have become
business giveaways, making individuals and their companies rich but providing little return

to the economy or the state, says Mazzucato. Tax [dodges] that expatriate the gains of
American corporations to enrich a tiny managerial caste symbolize a whole new genre of selfish
capitalism.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Ex-Senator: FBI covered up 9/11 investigation

2014-09-10, WTSP-TV (Tampa Bay, FL CBS affiliate)
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/investigations/2014/09/10/911-cover-up-fbi-for...
A major FBI cover-up ... connects Sarasota and the 9/11 hijackers to the Saudi Arabian
government. While still at Sarasota's Emma E. Booker Elementary on the day of the 2001 terrorist
attacks, President George W. Bush said, "Terrorism against our nation will not stand." However,
the president's visit wasn't the only thing to tie this Bay area county to the September 11th attacks.
Within days, we learned three of the hijackers had been living in the area while taking flying
lessons at Huffman Aviation and Florida Flight Training in Sarasota County... but there is even
more than that. "There was a network supporting the hijackers," says former U.S. Senator
and Florida governor Bob Graham. According to Graham, the FBI has been covering up that
fact for years, and continues to try and hide it even now. Graham says he is convinced
there was a direct line between some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th
attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia. According to Graham, the FBI was aware of the
strong connection between hijackers and a Saudi Arabian family who were living in an upscale
Sarasota gated community. Twelve days before 9/11, the family abandoned the house -- leaving
behind valuable items including food, clothing, furnishings and three vehicles. "There are some
things I can't talk about," Graham told us, "And there are others like what I know is involved in the
investigation in Sarasota, which is diametrically opposed to what the FBI said publicly."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Aggressive police take hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists

not charged with crimes
2014-09-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/
The spread of an aggressive brand of policing ... has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of
dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes. Thousands of people have been
forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back. Behind the rise
in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the
techniques of highway interdiction to departments across the country. [It has] enabled police
nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists criminals and the innocent alike

 including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches
about which drivers to stop. A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now
competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in
the networks chat rooms and sharing trophy shots of money and drugs. Some police
advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.
Unexplored until now is the role of the federal government and the private police trainers in
encouraging officers to target cash on the nations highways. There have been 61,998 cash
seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants ... totaling more
than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice,
Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. 298 departments and 210
task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.
In 400 federal court cases examined by The Post where people who challenged seizures and
received some money back, the majority were black, Hispanic or another minority.
Note: Watch an excellent spoof on this unbelievable police practice. For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media
sources.

The Innocent on Death Row

2014-09-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/opinion/the-innocent-on-death-row.html
In late September 1983, an 11-year-old girl named Sabrina Buie was found murdered in a soybean
field in Robeson County. She had been raped, beaten with sticks and suffocated with her own
underwear. Within days, police got confessions from two local teenagers, Henry Lee McCollum, 19
at the time, and his half brother, Leon Brown, who was 15. Both were convicted and sentenced to
death. On [September 2], a state judge ordered both men freed after multiple pieces of evidence,
some of which had never been turned over to defense lawyers, proved that neither Mr. McCollum
nor Mr. Brown was responsible for the crime. DNA taken from a cigarette found at the crime scene
matched a different man, Roscoe Artis, who is already serving life in prison for a similar murder
committed just weeks after Sabrina Buies killing. Virtually everything about the arrests,
confessions, trial and convictions of Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown was polluted by official error and
misconduct. No physical evidence linked either man to the crime, so their false confessions,
given under duress, were the heart of the case the prosecutors mounted against them. Both
mens confessions were handwritten by police after hours of intense questioning without a
lawyer or parent present. Neither was recorded, and both men have maintained their
innocence ever since. Equally disturbing, Mr. Artis was a suspect from the start. Three days
before the murder trial began, police requested that a fingerprint from the crime scene be tested
for a match with Mr. Artis, who had a long history of sexual assaults against women. The test was
never done, and prosecutors never revealed the request to the defense.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing prison corruption news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The sports car that runs on saltwater

2014-09-01, Daily Mail (U.K.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2739768/The-sports-car-runs-SA...
Sports cars may not have the best reputation for being environmentally-friendly, but this sleek
machine has been designed to reach 217.5 mph (350 km/h) using nothing but saltwater. Its
radical drive system allows the 5,070lbs (2,300kg) Quant e-Sportlimousine to reach 0-60
mph (100 km/h) in 2.8 seconds, making it as fast as the McLaren P1. After making its debut
at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show in March, the saltwater technology has now been certified
for use on European roads. The 920 horsepower (680 kW) Quant e-Sportlimousine uses
something known as an electrolyte flow cell power system to power four electric motors within the
car. It works in a similar way to a hydrogen fuel cell, however, the liquid used for storing energy is
saltwater. The liquid passes through a membrane in between the two tanks, creating an electric
charge. This electricity is then stored and distributed by super capacitors. The car carries the water
in two 200-litre tanks, which in one sitting will allow drivers to travel up to 373 miles (600km).
NanoFlowcell AG, a Lichtenstein-based company behind the drive, is now planning to test the car
on public roads in Germany and elsewhere in Europe as the company prepares for series
production. It claims the technology offers five times the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries of
the same weight. 'We've got major plans, and not just within the automobile industry,' says
NanoFlowcell AG Chairman of the Board Professor Jens-Peter Ellermann. 'The potential of the
NanoFlowcell is much greater, especially in terms of domestic energy supplies as well as in
maritime, rail and aviation technology.'
Note: See the link above for photos and videos of this sleek masterpiece. Why isn't this car and it's
unique technology getting more press? For more on this amazing car, see its website and read a
gizmag article with more on how the car has received approval to run on European roads. Explore
a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to
make a difference.

Friends of Israel
2014-09-01, The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/friends-israel
On July 23rd, officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committeethe powerful lobbying
group known as AIPACgathered in a conference room at the Capitol for a closed meeting with a
dozen Democratic senators. The agenda of the meeting, which was attended by other Jewish
leaders as well, was the war in the Gaza Strip. In the century-long conflict between the Israelis and
the Palestinians, the previous two weeks had been particularly harrowing. In Gaza, there were
scenes of utter devastation, with hundreds of Palestinian children dead from bombing and mortar
fire. The Israeli government claimed that it had taken extraordinary measures to minimize civilian
casualties, but the United Nations was launching an inquiry into possible war crimes. AIPAC ...
endorsed a Senate resolution in support of Israels right to defend its citizens, which had seventy-

nine co-sponsors and passed without a word of dissent. AIPAC is prideful about its influence.
Its promotional literature points out that a reception during its annual policy conference, in
Washington, will be attended by more members of Congress than almost any other event,
except for a joint session of Congress or a State of the Union address. AIPAC has more
than a hundred thousand members, a network of seventeen regional offices, and a vast pool of
donors. The lobby does not raise funds directly. Its members do, and the amount of money they
channel to political candidates is difficult to track. But everybody in Congress recognizes its
influence in elections, and the effect is evident.
Note: To understand the powerful influence of the Israeli lobby on US politics, read the entire
revealing article at the link above. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Abuse Cases in British City Long Ignored

2014-08-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/europe/children-in-rotherham-england-...
A report released on [August 26] on accusations of widespread sexual abuse in the northern
England city of Rotherham found that about 1,400 minors some as young as 11 years old
were beaten, raped and trafficked from 1997 to 2013 as the local authorities ignored a series
of red flags. Some children were doused in gasoline and threatened with being set on fire if
they reported their abusers. Others were forced to watch rapes and threatened with the
same fate. In more than a third of the cases, the victims appear to have been known to child
protection agencies, but the police and local government officials failed to act. Within hours of the
reports publication, [Roger Stone, the leader of the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
since 2003,] resigned. It was not until 2010 that the first case of child sexual exploitation in
Rotherham, a South Yorkshire city of about 250,000 people, made it to court. Five men received
long prison sentences for grooming three teenage girls for sex. It was one of several high-profile
prosecutions over the past four years that revealed sexual exploitation in cities including Oxford,
Rochdale and Derby. Alexis Jay, the author of the report and a former chief inspector of social
work, said that vulnerable girls as young as 11 and largely from disadvantaged backgrounds had
been brutalized by groups of men. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other
towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated, she wrote. The report
described the failures of the political and police leadership as blatant.
Note: Further information is available in this story in the UK's Guardian. For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news articles from reliable major
media sources.

Former cyber security chief convicted in child porn case

2014-08-27, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-cyber-security-chief-convicted-in-child-po...

A former federal cyber security chief was convicted [on August 26] on several charges
related to accessing and distributing child pornography. Timothy DeFoggi, 56, was acting
director of cyber security at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when he
was detained in May 2013 as part of an investigation targeting three child pornography websites.
The former Germantown, Md. resident registered as a member of one of the sites on March 2,
2012, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. He used the site to access and
solicit child pornography, "and exchanged private messages with other members where he
expressed an interest in the violent rape and murder of children," according to the DOJ.
DeFoggi also suggested to one member of a message board that they meet in person to fulfill
fantasies of violently raping and murdering children. He is the sixth person convicted in connection
with the investigation. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7.
Note: For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here. For more on
this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Trigger happy
2014-08-15, The Economist blog
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/armed-police
The shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, by a police officer in Ferguson,
Missouri, is a reminder that civiliansinnocent or guiltyare far more likely to be shot by police in
America than in any other rich country. In 2012, according to data compiled by the FBI, 410
Americans were justifiably killed by police409 with guns. That figure may well be an
underestimate. Not only is it limited to the number of people who were shot while committing a
crime, but also, amazingly, reporting the data is voluntary. Last year, in total, British police
officers actually fired their weapons three times. The number of people fatally shot was
zero. In 2012 the figure was just one. Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britains
population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than
Americans. Between 2010 and 2014 the police force of one small American city, Albuquerque in
New Mexico, shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of
England and Waless 43 forces during the same period. The explanation for this gap is simple. In
Britain, guns are rare. Only specialist firearms officers carry them; and criminals rarely have
access to them. In America, by contrast, it is hardly surprising that cops resort to their weapons
more frequently. In 2013, 30 cops were shot and killedjust a fraction of the 9,000 or so murders
using guns that happen each year. Add to that a hyper-militarised police culture and a deep history
of racial strife and you have the reason why so many civilians are shot by police officers.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing police corruption news articles
from reliable major media sources.

Study: Government Blocks Specific Journalists From Accessing

Information
2014-08-07, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/study-government-blocks-specific-journalists-accessing...
It was revealed this week that many government information officers block specific journalists they
don't like from accessing information. The news comes as 47 federal inspectors general sent a
letter to lawmakers criticizing "serious limitations on access to records" that they say have
"impeded" their oversight work. The data about public information officers was compiled over the
past few years by Kennesaw State University professor Carolyn Carlson. Her surveys found that 4
in 10 public information officers say "there are specific reporters they will not allow their
staff to talk to due to problems with their stories in the past." Carlson has conducted
surveys of journalists and public information officers since 2012. In her most recent survey
of 445 working journalists, four out of five reported that "their interviews must be
approved" by government information officers, and "more than half of the reporters said they
had actually been prohibited from interviewing [government] employees at least some of the time
by public information officers." The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in 2013 "the
government cited national security to withhold information a record 8,496 times a 57 percent
increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama's first year." This week's letter from
more than half of the federal government's inspectors general [said] that government agencies'
move to hide information from them represents a "potentially serious challenge to the authority of
every Inspector General and our ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a
timely manner."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government secrecy news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Britains Crime of Complicity

2014-07-31, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/31/opinion/Britains-Crime-of-Complicity-With-t...
The [UK] government [has] announced an inquiry into historical allegations of child sex abuse by
leading political figures. The Westminster inquiry will investigate not just the rape and assault of
children at group homes going back decades but also accusations that child abuse by politicians
and other public figures was deliberately covered up or even facilitated by members of the elite.
[The] Parliament has ... spent 30 years failing to catch the pedophiles in its own house. Before the
inquiry was even announced, it emerged that 114 files concerning allegations of abuse against
children involving senior political figures had mysteriously disappeared. What links all these
convicted or alleged predators of children is not background or upbringing. What united them was
power and access and a sense of entitlement, acquired from Britains traditional elite, that came
from the knowledge that their reputations were too great for them to be held accountable. In many
cases, investigation by the authorities was deliberately deflected. Nowhere is this truer than
at Britains top public schools, as the private secondary, usually boarding, schools are

known. In these, a culture of bullying and sexualized violence has been understood for
more than a century as part of the process of training young men to be leaders. Teachers at
130 of these schools have been implicated; several schools are under criminal investigation by
the police. That victims of child abuse often grow up to replicate that abuse, to become bullies or
tyrants or covert sexual predators, has long been understood as a human tragedy. Only in Britain
does it seem to have been the intrinsic psychology at the dark heart of the governing elite.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Westminster child abuse inquiry: Former Met Police detective removed

from post 'because he named suspected paedophiles'
2014-07-16, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/westminster-child-abuse-inquiry-fo...
A former Metropolitan Police detective was removed from his post in an investigation into alleged
child sex abuse after revealing politicians were suspects, he has claimed. Clive Driscoll, a
Detective Chief Inspector who has since retired, [said] he was conducting an inquiry in 1998 into
reported paedophile activity at childrens homes in Lambeth, south London, in the 1980s. Mr
Driscoll said he had a list of suspects he wanted to look at, including local and national politicians
in power during the period. Mr Driscoll said he had disclosed suspects names and was afterwards
informed it was inappropriate and taken off the case. He added: "Whenever people spoke to
you and shared their fears and their story about what they had seen, it was almost on the
proviso that they wouldn't make a statement and that they would be scared if you released
who those people were that were talking for fear of reprisals to both themselves and their
families." Investigations are believed to have continued into more than 20 children's homes after
Mr Driscoll was moved. Mr Driscoll ... claimed there were discussions within the Met about
withholding documents from an independent inquiry into the original investigation. Some of the
allegations could be considered in the Governments inquiry into allegations of an establishment
cover-up of child abuse allegations. A spokesman at Scotland Yard said the Mets Directorate of
Professional Standards was looking into Mr Driscolls claims and they would be fully investigated.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing sexual abuse news articles from reliable major media sources.

Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek to Control the
Internet
2014-07-14, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-...

The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet
with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls,
artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, amplif[y] sanctioned messages on
YouTube, and censor video content judged to be extremist. The capabilities, detailed in
documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for preadolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in
a call. The tools were created by GCHQs Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and
constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained
within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIGs use of fake
victim blog posts, false flag operations, honey traps and psychological manipulation to target
online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users. A newly
released top-secret GCHQ document called JTRIG Tools and Techniques provides a
comprehensive, birds-eye view of just how underhanded and invasive this units operations are.
The documentavailable in full hereis designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIGs
weaponised capability when it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves as a sort of hackers
buffet for wreaking online havoc.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Citigroup to pay $7 billion for egregious misconduct leading up to

financial crisis
2014-07-14, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/citigroup-pay-7-billion-egregious-misconduct-l...
JUDY WOODRUFF: We should start praying. I wouldnt be surprised if half of these loans went
down thats what a trader at Citigroup wrote in an e-mail in 2007, after reviewing thousands of
mortgages bought and sold by the bank. Today, the Justice Department cited those very words as
it announced a $7 billion settlement with the bank. The government said Citi committed
egregious misconduct in the lead-up to the financial crisis. Of the $7 billion, Citigroup will
pay $4 billion to the Justice Department. More than $2.5 billion is set aside for whats
described as consumer relief. Tony West is associate attorney general. And he was the
governments lead negotiator in this case. Lay out for us, what was this egregious conduct and
how many people at Citigroup were engaged in it? TONY WEST: Citibank packaged securities,
packaged loans, mortgage loans into these securities, which they sold to investors. What they
didnt tell investors was what the actual quality of those loans were. And so you had these
mortgage bond deals that had quality that was far less than what Citi was representing to investors
that they were. JUDY WOODRUFF: And how many people knew about this, and did the
knowledge go all the way to the top? TONY WEST: We know from the evidence that bankers were
warned that the quality of the loans that they were packaging into these securities wasnt what they

were telling investors they were, but they ignored those warning signs. They ignored that due
diligence. Certainly enough ... bankers knew that we felt that we could demand a very high, in fact,
an historically high, penalty from Citibank.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing financial corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Organic foods are more nutritious, according to review of 343 studies

2014-07-14, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-organic-foods-20140715-story.html
Most everyone who has ever selected their fruits and vegetables from the "organic" section while
grocery shopping probably thought they were doing something good for their bodies and the
environment. Yet the question of whether organic foods are in fact more nutritious than their
conventionally grown counterparts remains a topic of heated scientific debate. On [July 14], the
British Journal of Nutrition published research that disputed the notion that organic foods are
essentially no more healthful than conventional foods. After reviewing 343 studies on the topic,
researchers in Europe and the United States concluded that organic crops and organic-cropbased foods contained higher concentrations of antioxidants on average than
conventionally grown foods. At the same time, the researchers found that conventional foods
contained greater concentrations of residual pesticides and the toxic metal cadmium. "This shows
clearly that organically grown fruits, vegetables and grains deliver tangible nutrition and
food safety benefits," said study coauthor Charles Benbrook, a research professor at
Washington State University's Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Note: Read more about this landmark study in this article.

England: Land of Royals, Tea and Horrific Pedophilia Coverups

2014-07-10, Time Magazine
http://time.com/2974381/england-land-of-royals-tea-and-horrific-pedophilia-co...
From politicians fraudulent expenses to phone hacking, Britain has become surprisingly scandalstrewn in recent years, but the latest reputational cyclone to sweep across its shores is casting an
especially dark light: pedophilia in high places. Newspapers and TV bulletins have been dominated
for the past week by allegations that politicians with links to Margaret Thatchers government
sexually abused vulnerable children in the 1980s and hid the truth for decades through their
chumocracy. Suspicions of an establishment cover-up involving government departments,
Scotland Yard and other elements of the establishment intensified in recent days when the lawand-order ministry, the Home Office, confirmed [that] dozens of potentially-relevant files alleging
sexual misconduct had gone missing from its archives. The allegationswhich center around
the suggestion that politicians of all parties and other VIPs preyed on children at a guest
house in the London suburb of Barneshave been given greater credence because in the

past two years a string of national figures have been exposed as predatory pedophiles. Into
this febrile atmosphere, Tom Watson, a Labour Party lawmaker, told the House of Commons in
October 2012 that police should investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful pedophile
network linked to Parliament and Number 10. As a result of Watson and online news agency
Exaros investigations, Scotland Yard launched Operation Fernbridge, an inquiry into the nownotorious Elm Guest House.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news articles from reliable major
media sources.

Phil Donahues vindication: Media icon unloads on Fox, Cheney and

what happened at MSNBC
2014-07-10, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/10/phil_donahues_vindication_media_icon_unloads_...
[Phil Donahue:] I [have] produced ... an anti-Iraq War documentary. Its titled Body of War, and it
is available on Netflix. Id very much like you to see the behavior of the [US] congressmen [in my
film]. They were summoned to the White House by WHIG, White House Iraq Group. This is a Karl
Rove committee that included the advertising warriors who named our invasion Shock and Awe,
and Rolling Thunder, like video games. And they gave them their talking points: A smoking gun
will become a mushroom cloud; The longer we wait, the more dangerous he becomes; Saddam
has more weapons of mass destruction than Hitler ever had; I see Hitler in Saddam Hussein.
And they read this, theyre looking down at the piece of paper, in what was at most a shell debate,
that led to the deaths of over 4,500 service people, men and women both, not to mention how
many injuries, were not even sure, were not even sure how many Iraqis are dead, and the
refugees are in the millions. This is unbelievable. Youve got to see this debate. Its truly a very
instructive piece on what you can do if you scare the people. George Bush took this nation,
the mainstream media included, and led it right into this war. It was an amazingly executed,
brilliantly executed, plan. The politics of fear. We havent won a war, and were spending $2
billion a day on things that go boom. We have become a warrior nation. We have no respect for
diplomacy. We have to be tough, and we dont talk to people we dont like.
Note: Learn lots more about the politics of fear by watching online the BBC documentary Power of
Nightmares. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Edwardian house at heart of a long-simmering sex scandal

2014-07-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/05/elm-guest-house-paedophile-ne...

The handsome Edwardian house that was formerly Elm Guest House, near Barnes, in south-west
London, was long ago converted into flats. Some 30 years ago, the convenient location was
similarly appealing. Today ... this suburban house is at the heart of a simmering scandal
threatening to boil over and take with it the reputations of a swath of the political class of the 1970s
and 1980s. In 2012 Tom Watson, the Labour MP who played a key role in exposing the phonehacking scandal at the News of the World, stood up in parliament to ask the prime minister to
ensure that a dossier of information used in 1992 to convict a notorious paedophile called Peter
Righton was examined thoroughly. Watson said he believed the file, if it still existed, would provide
some evidence of a "powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No 10". Claims have
since materialised about boys from Grafton Close Children's Home in Hounslow, west
London, being taken to Elm Guest House, plied with alcohol and abused. Cyril Smith, the
late Liberal MP, accused since his death in 2010 of being an inveterate child abuser, is said
to have regularly visited the property. Back in 1983, Geoffrey Dickens, a Tory MP, had got wind
of something of this. He compiled a dossier, telling his family it was "explosive" and would "blow
the lid" on powerful and famous child abusers. The dossier was handed over to the then home
secretary, Leon Brittan, who acknowledged receipt in a letter and suggested the police had been
informed. [But] nothing was heard of the Dickens dossier again.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news articles from reliable major
media sources.

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the

foreigners who are
2014-07-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data...
Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted
foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital
networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. [90% of] account
holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught
in a net the agency had cast for somebody else. Many of them were Americans. [Many] files,
described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained, have a startlingly intimate,
even voyeuristic quality. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons,
mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and
disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted
are catalogued and recorded nevertheless. The cache Snowden provided came from domestic
NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA content is generally stored in closely controlled data

repositories, and for more than a year. The files offer an unprecedented vantage point on the
changes wrought by Section 702 of the FISA amendments, which enabled the NSA to make freer
use of methods that for 30 years had required probable cause and a warrant from a judge.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles'

2014-06-19, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27885502
Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the so-called dark net to trade images of sexual
abuse, an investigation by BBC News indicates. Brits are heavily involved in producing and
distributing illegal obscene images. Britain's National Crime Agency warned in its 2014 threat
assessment that abusers were turning to anonymous sites and encryption technology. The dark
net is the term used to refer to parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to
access without special software. One of the most popular products used to access such
areas is called the TorBrowser. It allows people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system which
makes a PC's net address untraceable by bouncing the encrypted data it sends through several
randomly selected computer servers on a volunteer network - each of which removes a level of
encryption - before it reaches its destination. There are also many hidden sites on the network
ending in the .onion suffix, which cannot be found using Google or other regular search engines.
Tor was first created by the US military but is now also used by pro-democracy campaigners,
whistleblowers and journalists operating under repressive regimes. It was used by activists during
the Arab Spring to avoid detection. But criminals are also taking advantage of its anonymity. IT
experts are divided as to whether it's possible to create a workable "backdoor" into Tor, which
would allow users to be identified. But some security specialists believe there are innovative ways
to unmask the users of paedophile sites.
Note: Another BBC article reveals that over 100 million files containing images of child abuse have
been reviewed. And this only counts the ones authorities have found and monitored. For more on
this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news articles from reliable
major media sources.

St. Louis Archbishop Didn't Know Sex With Children Was a Crime
2014-06-10, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/st-louis-archbishop-didnt-know-sex-child...
The St. Louis archbishop embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal testified last month that he didnt
know in the 1980s whether it was illegal for priests to have sex with children, according to a court
deposition released [on June 9]. Archbishop Robert Carlson, who was chancellor of the
Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul at the time, was deposed as part of a lawsuit against the

Twin Cities archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona, Minnesota. In a video released by the St.
Paul law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, the Catholic archbishop is asked whether he had known
it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child. Im not sure whether I knew it was a
crime or not, Carlson responded. I understand today its a crime. When asked when he first
realized it was a crime for an adult including priests to have sex with a child, Carlson, 69,
shook his head. I dont remember, he testified. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing an
alleged clergy abuse victim, also released documents ... indicating Carlson was aware in 1984 of
the seriousness of child abuse allegations. He admitted in his deposition that he never personally
went to police, even when a clergy member admitted to inappropriate behavior. In last months
testimony, Carlson responded 193 times that he did not recall abuse-related conversations
from the 1980s to mid-1990s. Anderson provided a report from a previous deposition in
1987 in which now-deceased Bishop Loras Watters said he advised Carlson to answer I
dont remember if questioned in court. Carlson responded last month that he had no
knowledge of the discussion.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The perils of America's hard-charging capitalism

2014-05-27, Chicago Tribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-27/opinion/sns-201405271000--tms--...
Recent data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database [is] shocking. While median per capita
income in the United States has stagnated since 2000, it's up significantly in Canada and Northern
Europe. Their typical worker's income is now higher than ours, and their disposable income -- after
taxes -- higher still. Most of them get free health care and subsidized child care. And if they lose
their jobs, they get far more generous unemployment benefits than we do. (In fact, right now, 75
percent of jobless Americans lack any unemployment benefits.) If you think we make up for it by
working less and getting paid more on an hourly basis, think again. There, at least three weeks
paid vacation is the norm, along with paid sick leave and paid parental leave. We're working an
average of 4.6 percent more hours more than the typical Canadian worker, 21 percent more than
the typical French worker, and a whopping 28 percent more than your typical German worker. But
at least Americans are more satisfied, aren't we? Not really. According to opinion surveys
and interviews, Canadians and Northern Europeans are. They also live longer, their rate of
infant mortality is lower, and women in those countries are far less likely to die as result of
complications in pregnancy or childbirth. But at least we're the land of more equal opportunity,
right? Wrong. Their poor kids have a better chance of getting ahead. While 42 percent of American
kids born into poor families remain poor through their adult lives, only 30 percent of Britain's poor
kids remain impoverished -- and even smaller percentages in other rich countries.
Note: For more on the devastating impacts of the income inequality, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders

2014-05-26, NPR blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-b...
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is launching a $70 million program
to help military personnel with psychiatric disorders using electronic devices implanted in the brain.
The goal of the five-year program is to develop new ways of treating problems including
depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which are common among service
members who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. The new program will fund development of high-tech
implanted devices able to both monitor and electrically stimulate specific brain circuits. The effort
will be led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and Massachusetts General
Hospital. The UCSF team will begin its work by studying volunteers who already have probes in
their brains as part of treatment for epilepsy or Parkinson's disease. That will allow researchers to
"record directly from the brain at a level of resolution that's never [been] done before," says Eddie
Chang, a neurosurgeon at UCSF. And because many of the volunteers also have depression,
anxiety and other problems, it should be possible to figure out how these conditions have
changed specific circuits in the brain, Chang says. The scientists ... hope to design tiny
electronic implants that can stimulate the cells in faulty brain circuits. "We know that once
you start putting stimulation into the brain, the brain will change in response," Chang says.
Note: Do we really want the military implanting chips in people's brains? What other behavior
might they want to control? For more on microchip implants, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

It's Not a "Military Death Beam" and It's Not Getting Any More Federal
Funding
2014-05-16, Scientific American/Nature Magazine
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/us-ionospheric-research-facility-to...
The worlds most advanced ionospheric research facility has in its lifetime faced allegations of
being a 'military death beam', a weapon of weather control and even a top-secret mind-control
project. Now, the US governments High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is
threatened with closure. HAARP, near Gakona, Alaska, comprises radio transmitters and antennas
that are used to heat up the ionosphere the uppermost region of the atmosphere creating a
laboratory in the sky for scientists.The facility has been used to produce an artificial aurora
and to study how charged particles behave in the ionosphere, at a total cost of more than
$250 million to build and operate. To justify HAARPs price, the Pentagon had to dream up
exotic military applications, sparking conspiracy theories. The practical challenge for HAARP
has been to balance its role as a Pentagon-operated site for developing military applications with
its function as a basic science facility. Supporters have long tried to come up with potential military
uses, such as testing deep-sea communications for submarines, detecting underground military
bunkers and cleaning up satellite-disabling electrons in the event of a high-altitude nuclear
detonation. Research into that last application had been supported by the US Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but its chief says that the agency is now abandoning its work
at HAARP. The final DARPA-sponsored experiment, called Basic Research on Ionospheric
Characteristics and Effects (BRIOCHE), is scheduled to end in mid-June.
Note: Our excellent webpage on HAARP at this link presents powerful, reliable evidence that
HAARP is used for weather control and much more. And there is clearly manipulation going on
around the closing of this facility. A July 2013 article stated HAARP was officially shuttered in June
2013. Yet the above article states it "will be closed after a final research experiment in mid-June" of
2014. This may be an excuse to stop the live broadcasting of HAARP's signals on a public
website, which provided fodder for conspiracy theorists. With all the intense secrecy around this for
reasons of "national security," it's hard to know what's really happening.

Vermont just passed the nations first GMO food labeling law. Now it
prepares to get sued.
2014-05-09, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/04/29/how-vermont-plans-t...
Vermont on [May 8] became the first state in the nation to require the labeling of genetically
engineered foods. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed that mandate into law on Thursday afternoon, saying
in a statement we believe we have a right to know whats in the food we buy. The new law
represents a significant victory for advocates who have for years pushed such measures at the
state and local level. But there remains one more hurdle to overcome: a likely lawsuit. Legislators,
officials and advocates are preparing for the state to be sued over the new law. Last month, state
Attorney General Bill Sorrell told Vermont Public Radio that he would be very surprised if the
state isnt sued. And officials were so sure of a challenge that the measure itself creates a
$1.5 million legal defense fund, to be paid for with settlements won by the state. The threat
of a lawsuit worked for a while, but now it doesnt work anymore, says Ronnie Cummins,
national director of the Organic Consumers Association, whose organization has for years worked
with activists and lawmakers in Vermont on the issue. At least 25 states have considered such
legislation, according to a recent report on labeling requirements from the nonprofit Council for
Agricultural Science and Technology. And advocates are hopeful they will get a measure on the
Oregon ballot this year. Proponents argue that the science behind genetically modified food is far
from conclusive and ask why consumers should take risks without knowing what theyre eating. If
companies truly stand behind the safety of GMO foods, they shouldnt worry about having to
identify them, advocates for labeling argue.
Note: For many major media articles laying bare the serious risks and dangers of GMOs in our
food, click here. For more on the major risks from GMO foods, see the deeply revealing summary
available here.

Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse

2014-05-06, ABC News/Associated Press

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vatican-defrocks-848-priests-10...
The Vatican revealed [on May 6] that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped
or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever
breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since
2004. The Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, released the figures
during a second day of grilling by a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the U.N. treaty
against torture. Tomasi insisted that the Holy See was only obliged to abide by the torture
treaty inside the tiny Vatican City State, which has a population of only a few hundred
people. But significantly, he didn't dispute the committee's contention that sexual violence
against children can be considered torture. Legal experts have said that classifying sexual
abuse as torture could expose the Catholic Church to a new wave of lawsuits since torture cases
in much of the world don't carry statutes of limitations. The Vatican in 2001 required bishops and
religious superiors to forward all credible cases of abuse to Rome for review after determining that
they were shuffling pedophile priests from diocese to diocese rather than subjecting them to
church trials. Only in 2010 did the Vatican explicitly tell bishops and superiors to also report
credible cases to police where local reporting laws require them to. The Vatican statistics ...
showed that far from diminishing in recent years, the number of cases reported annually to the
Vatican has remained a fairly constant 400 or so since 2010.
Note: For more on sexual abuse by Catholic priests, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

More secret 9/11 documents identified, but FBI has yet to turn them over
to judge
2014-04-30, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/30/4090497/more-secret-911-documents-ident...
Contradicting an earlier assertion made under oath by a senior FBI official, an attorney for the
Justice Department said [on April 30] that the FBI has identified four more boxes of classified
9/11 documents held by its Tampa field office. The government, however, has yet to comply with a
federal judges orders ... that it turn over copies of that massive 9/11 file now said to total 27
boxes for his personal inspection. U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch issued those orders in a
Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by BrowardBulldog.org seeking records about the FBIs
investigation into apparent pre-9/11 terrorist activity in Sarasota. Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham,
who co-chaired Congress Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, has said that the FBI did not disclose
the existence of the Sarasota investigation to either the Joint Inquiry or the subsequent 9/11
Commission. The documents state that the Sarasota Saudis had many connections to
individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. One document lists three
individuals, with names blacked out, and ties them to the Venice, Fla., flight school where
suicide hijackers Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi trained.

Note: For solid evidence that many more were involved in 9/11 than is generally admitted, see the
revealing newspaper article at this link. For an excellent documentary focused on the Venice,
Florida flight school which all but proves a major cover-up involving US citizens involved in the
planning of 9/11, click here. And for a treasure trove of reliable information showing a major coverup around 9/11, click here.

Hundreds of U.S. inmates sentenced to death are innocent, researchers

say
2014-04-29, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-29/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-death-...
As many as 300 people who were sentenced to death in the United States over a three-decade
period were likely innocent. Dozens of defendants sentenced to death in recent years have been
exonerated before their sentences could be carried out, but many more were probably falsely
convicted, said University of Michigan professor Samuel Gross, the study's lead author. "Our
research adds the disturbing news that most innocent defendants who have been sentenced to
death have not been exonerated," Gross wrote in the study, published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. In their research, Gross and his colleagues examined the 7,482
U.S. death sentence convictions between 1973 and 2004. Of those, 117 had been exonerated in
recent years, thanks to the efforts of numerous groups and a tide of public attention to issues
surrounding the death penalty. Gross and his co-authors ... estimated that about 4 percent of
those sentenced to death were actually innocent, nearly three times the number exonerated
during that period. Once inmates' sentences are commuted to life, they are far less likely to
be exonerated, mostly because there are fewer legal resources given to their cases, Gross said.
"If you were never sentenced to death, you never had the benefit - if you call it a benefit - of that
process," he said. Although the study focuses on a period ending 10 years ago, the percentage of
false death sentence convictions likely holds true today, Gross said.
Note: For more on the terrible injustices within the corrupt prison-industrial complex, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Elizabeth Warrens A Fighting Chance: An exclusive excerpt on the

foreclosure crisis
2014-04-26, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/04/26/elizabeth-warren-new-memoir-ex...
In fall 2009, Secretary Timothy Geithner invited people working on TARP oversight to a meeting.
After we had listened to the secretary go on and on about his departments cheery projections for
recovery, I finally interrupted with a question about a new topic. Why, I asked, had Treasurys
response to the flood of foreclosures been so small? The Congressional Oversight Panel had been
sharply critical of Treasurys foreclosure plan. We thought that the program was poorly designed

and poorly managed and provided little permanent help, and we worried that it would reach too few
people to make any real difference. The secretary ... quickly launched into a general discussion of
his approach to dealing with foreclosures, rehashing the plan that the Congressional Oversight
Panel had already reviewed. Next, he explained why Treasurys efforts were perfectly adequate.
Then he hit his key point: The banks could manage only so many foreclosures at a time, and
Treasury wanted to slow down the pace so the banks wouldnt be overwhelmed. And this was
where the new foreclosure program came in: It was just big enough to foam the runway for them.
There it was: The Treasury foreclosure program was intended to foam the runway to protect
against a crash landing by the banks. Millions of people were getting tossed out on the
street, but the secretary of the Treasury believed the governments most important job was
to provide a soft landing for the tender fannies of the banks.
Note: Adapted from A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren. For more on the government's
collusion with the big banks before, during and after the 2008 financial crisis brought about by
fraudulent mortgage sales, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Measles Outbreak Traced to Fully Vaccinated Patient for First Time

2014-04-11, Science
http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/04/measles-outbreak-traced-fully-vacci...
Get the measles vaccine, and you won't get the measles-or give it to anyone else. Right? Well, not
always. A person fully vaccinated against measles has contracted the disease and passed it on to
others. The startling case study contradicts received wisdom about the vaccine and suggests that
a recent swell of measles outbreaks in developed nations could mean more illnesses even among
the vaccinated. A fully vaccinated 22-year-old theater employee in New York City who
developed the measles in 2011 was released without hospitalization or quarantine. This
patient turned out to be unwittingly contagious. Ultimately, she transmitted the measles to four
other people, according to a recent report in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Two of the secondary
patients had been fully vaccinated. The other two ... showed signs of previous measles
exposure that should have conferred immunity. Although public health officials have assumed
that measles immunity lasts forever ... "the actual duration [of immunity] following infection or
vaccination is unclear," says Jennifer Rosen, who led the investigation as director of epidemiology
and surveillance at the New York City Bureau of Immunization.
Note: Did you know that no one has died from measles in the US for 12 years, yet 98 measles
vaccine related deaths have been reported in the same period? Read more on this excellent
webpage. And read a rare local newspaper article report on one family who was awarded near $2
million for a vaccine injury only then to be ridiculed by vaccine supporters who claim these things
never happen. And this US government webpage states, "Since the first National Vaccine Injury
Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in 1989, 3,981 compensation awards have been made.
More than $2.8 billion in compensation awards has been paid."

Stockpiles of Roche Tamiflu Drug are Waste of Money, Report Finds

2014-04-10, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/10/us-roche-hldg-novartis-search-idUSB...
Researchers who have fought for years to get full data on Roche's flu medicine Tamiflu said on
Thursday that governments who stockpile it are wasting billions of dollars on a drug whose
effectiveness is in doubt. In a review of trial data on Tamiflu, and on GlaxoSmithKline's flu drug
Relenza, scientists from the respected research network the Cochrane Review said that the
medicines had few if any beneficial effects, but did have adverse side effects. "Remember,
the idea of a drug is that the benefits should exceed the harms," Heneghan said. "So if you can't
find any benefits, that accentuates the harm." Tamiflu sales hit almost $3 billion in 2009 - mostly
due to its use in the H1N1 flu pandemic. The drug, one of a class of medicines known as
neuraminidase inhibitors, is approved by regulators worldwide and is stockpiled in preparation for a
potential global flu outbreak. It is also on the World Health Organization's "essential medicines" list.
The United States has spent more than $1.3 billion buying a strategic reserve of antivirals
including Tamiflu, while the British government has spent almost 424 million pounds ($703
million) on a stockpile of some 40 million Tamiflu doses. There was no evidence of a reduction
in hospitalizations or in flu complications ... and Tamiflu also increased the risk of nausea and
vomiting in adults by around 4 percent and in children by 5 percent.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption
news articles from reliable major media sources. For more along these lines, see the excellent,
reliable resources provided in our Health Information Center.

Tamiflu: drugs given for swine flu 'were waste of 500m'

2014-04-10, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/10756200/Tamiflu-drugs-given-for-...
The drug Tamiflu, given to tens of thousands of people during the swine flu pandemic, does
nothing to halt the spread of influenza and the [UK] Government wasted nearly 500 million
stockpiling it, a major study has found. The review, authored by Oxford University, claims that
Roche, the drugs Swiss manufacturer, gave a false impression of its effectiveness and
accuses the company of sloppy science. The study found that Tamiflu, which was given to
240,000 people in the UK at a rate of 1,000 a week, has been linked to suicides of children in
Japan and suggested that, far from easing flu symptoms, it could actually worsen them.
Roche claimed at the time of the 2009 swine flu outbreak that trials had shown that it would reduce
hospital admissions and complications such as pneumonia, bronchitis or sinusitis. Based on [these
claims], the Department of Health bought around 40 million doses of Tamiflu at a cost of 424
million and prescribed it to around 240,000 people. In 2009, 0.5 per cent of the entire NHS budget
was spent on the drug. However, researchers from The Cochrane Collaboration, a not-for-profit
organisation which carries out reviews of health data, found that Tamiflu only cut flu-like symptoms
from seven days to 6.3 days and there was no evidence of a reduction in hospital admissions.

Eight children who took the drug in Japan ended up committing suicide after suffering psychotic
episodes. Other side effects included kidney problems, nausea, vomiting and headaches. Many
people reported feeling anxious or depressed when taking the drug.
Note: We sent out numerous messages at the time of all the fear-mongering around the avian and
swine flu scares that this was wasting huge amounts of money. Of course the money wasn't just
wasted, much of it went into the pockets of Donald Rumsfeld and others, as reported in this
newspaper article. For the revealing news articles we compiled showing the blatant greed and
corruption involved, click here.

Why aren't we putting US agencies on trial for financing El Chapo's drug

war?
2014-04-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/10/us-agencies-financing-el...
Since [the days of Al Capone,] Chicago officials have awarded "Public Enemy No 1" status to only
one other person: cartel billionaire Joaqun Guzmn Loera, better known now to the world over
as "El Chapo". But nearly seven weeks before [his February] capture at a beach resort, the
Mexican newspaper El Universal reported how US agencies had armed and financed El
Chapo's Sinaloa criminal empire for at least 12 years. That link has been substantiated by
DEA and Justice Department court testimonies, and even US agents confirmed the
financing had been approved by high-ranking officials and federal prosecutors. But the
American media barely reported how entrenched the American government has become in the
Mexican drug trade. The latest installment of the "war on drugs" has killed 100,000 people since its
official declaration by Mexican President Filipe Calderon and US President George W Bush in
2006. During this period, the US-El Chapo partnership was reportedly never closer: under the deal,
Washington allowed El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel to carry on business as usual while top Sinaola
members, for their part, provided information on their rivals. DEA agents met with their informants
more than 50 times, El Universal reported, as the agents offered their whisperers immunity.
American patronage goes well beyond stoking the largest and most powerful of the Mexican
cartels (Sinaloa), as well as the most heinous (Golfo and Los Zetas). Drug arrests of cartel
associates amounted to less than 2% of over 50,000 arrests made in the first four years of the
Bush-Calderon partnership.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Canadian Brad Katsuyama in spotlight over 'rigged' markets allegation

2014-04-01, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-brad-katsuyama-in-spotlight-over-rig...

A Canadian who works on Wall Street is emerging in some quarters as a hero for revealing the
inner workings of high frequency traders who critics have accused of rigging the stock market and
taking investors for billions. Brad Katsuyama now runs IEX the Investors Exchange a new Wall
Street trading platform he founded. But it was in his former capacity as the head trader in New
York for RBC Capital Markets that he caught the attention of popular financial writer Michael Lewis.
Katsuyama gets star billing in Lewiss new book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Katsuyama told
Lewis that he had uncovered the methods high frequency traders use to get what he considers to
be an unfair advantage over other investors. Katsuyama noticed that when he would send a large
stock order to the market, it would only be partially filled, and then he would have to pay a higher
price for the rest of the order. When he investigated, he found that his orders travelled along fibreoptic lines and hit the closest exchange first, where high frequency traders would use their speed
advantage to buy the shares he wanted and then sell them to him at a slightly higher price all in
milliseconds. "They are able to identify your desire to buy shares in Microsoft and buy them in front
of you and sell them back to you at a higher price," Lewis told 60 Minutes. The United States
stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism, is rigged. The main thrust of
Lewiss new book is that high-frequency traders use their speed advantage in predatory
ways that end up cheating market participants small and large.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Is the U.S. stock market rigged?

2014-03-30, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-the-us-stock-market-rigged/
In the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading
Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized
stock trading that now controls more than half the market. The probes were announced just ahead
of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called Flash Boys.
In it, Lewis argues that the stock market is now rigged to benefit a group of insiders that have
made tens of billions of dollars exploiting computerized trading. The story is told through an
unlikely cast of characters who figured out what was going on and have devised a plan to correct
it. It could have a huge impact on Wall Street. Tonight, Michael Lewis talks about it for the first
time. Steve Kroft: What's the headline here? Michael Lewis: Stock market's rigged. The United
States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged. Steve Kroft: By
whom? Michael Lewis: By a combination of these stock exchanges, the big Wall Street
banks and high-frequency traders. Steve Kroft: Who are the victims? Michael Lewis:
Everybody who has an investment in the stock market. If it wasn't complicated, it wouldn't be
allowed to happen. The complexity disguises what is happening. If it's so complicated you can't
understand it, then you can't question it. Steve Kroft: And this is all being done by computers?
Michael Lewis: All being done by computers. It's too fast to be done by humans. Humans have
been completely removed from the marketplace. The insiders are able to move faster than you.

Note: For an amazing story of greed and manipulation exposed on Wall Street, see the New York
Times article on Flash Boys at this link.

Can what you eat affect your mental health? New research links diet and
the mind
2014-03-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/can-what-you-eat-affect...
Scientists have recently begun to investigate [whether] food can have as powerful an impact on
the mind as it does on the body. Research exploring the link between diet and mental health is a
very new field; the first papers only came out a few years ago, said Michael Berk, a professor of
psychiatry at the Deakin University School of Medicine in Australia. But the results are unusually
consistent, and they show a link between diet quality and mental health. Diet quality refers to the
kinds of foods that people eat, how often they eat them and how much of them they eat. In several
studies ... Berk and his collaborators have found lower rates of depression, anxiety and bipolar
disorder among those who consumed a traditional diet of meat and vegetables than among people
who followed a modern Western diet heavy with processed and fast foods or even a health-food
diet of tofu and salads. Traditional diets the kinds of foods your grandmother would have
recognized have been associated with a lower risk of mental health issues, Berk said.
The association between diet and mental well-being may start even before birth. A 2013
study of more than 23,000 mothers and their children, led by Berks frequent collaborator and
Deakin colleague Felice Jacka, suggests a link between a mothers consumption of sweets and
processed foods during pregnancy and behavioral and mental health issues in her child at age 5.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Senator accuses CIA of spying on Congress

2014-03-11, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/feinstein-cia-senate
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein accused the CIA on [March 11] of violating
the law and the Constitution of the United States by interfering in a committee investigation into
Bush-era torture of terror suspects. Feinstein said the CIA had removed documents provided to the
committee through a special, segregated network set up by the agency for the committee to
pursue its investigation. Among the documents removed was an internal review of CIA
interrogation techniques conducted by then-CIA Director Leon Panetta, which committee members
have said corroborated committee findings critical of the agencys interrogation program. The CIA
just went and searched the committees computers, Feinstein said on the Senate floor.
This was done without the knowledge or approval of committee members or staff, and in
violation of our written agreements. Further, this type of behavior would not have been possible
had the CIA allowed the committee to conduct the review of documents here in the Senate,

Feinstein said. Feinstein said that the CIAs activities may have violated the Fourth Amendment,
the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and executive order 12333, which bars the CIA from
conducting domestic surveillance. Feinstein also said the CIAs activities violated the separation of
powers principles in the Constitution by interfering with congressional oversight of the executive
branch.
Note: For more on the out-of-control activities of intelligence agencies, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

FBI Investigates Prison Company

2014-03-07, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-fbi-investigates-prison-compan...
The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation of America over the
company's running of an Idaho prison with a reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it "Gladiator
School." CCA has operated Idaho's largest prison for more than a decade, but last year, CCA
officials acknowledged it had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours in
violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees falsified reports to cover up the vacancies.
The announcement came after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed
guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing requirements. The understaffing has
been the subject of federal lawsuits and a contempt of court action against CCA. The ACLU sued
on behalf of inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center in 2010, saying the facility was so violent
that inmates called it "Gladiator School" and that understaffing contributed to the high levels of
violence there. In 2012, a Boise law firm sued on behalf of inmates contending that CCA had
ceded control to prison gangs so that they could understaff the prison and save money on
employee wages, and that the understaffing led to an attack by one prison gang on another
group of inmates that left some of them badly injured.
Note: For more on corruption in the prison-industrial complex, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Watch Secrets of the Vatican

2014-02-27, Seattle Times blog
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/opinionnw/2014/02/27/watch-secrets-of-the-vatic...
Here is how a stunning PBS documentary describes itself: In Secrets of the Vatican, FRONTLINE
tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict papacy and illuminates the extraordinary
challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out
corruption and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.
Take everything you have ever heard about the Catholic Church and the global clergy child sexual
abuse scandals, the dodgy Vatican bank, add in drug abuse, and multiply it all by ten. A primary
insight is that Pope Benedict really did not step down from the papacy so much as flee the

job. No one could make up what this documentary reveals. For all of the horror on display,
the reality is basic: arrogance, hubris and insularity will bring down any organization, even
one ordained to do Gods work on earth. A human organization manifests all human frailties.
Allow it to make its own rules and hide, and the worst happens. This is a tragedy that defies
description. Abuse of people, power and a benefit of the doubt that goes with the job description.
Pope Francis is [presented] as the institutional savior who comes from far enough outside the
Roman Curia and the inner sanctum to instigate and sustain change. The only optimism in the
documentary are references to a new beginning for a wounded church, and a religious crusade to
save the church. Watch Secrets of the Vatican. You might know the story line. You have no clue
about the depth of the shame.
Note: To watch this devastating documentary, click the link above or click here. For a more
detailed description, click here. For more on institutional secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Optic Nerve: millions of Yahoo webcam images intercepted by GCHQ

2014-02-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-...
Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted
and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret
documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance
program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved
them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or
not. In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery including
substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user
accounts globally. Yahoo ... denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of
"a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy". Optic Nerve, the documents provided by NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden show, began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012.
The system, eerily reminiscent of the telescreens evoked in George Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-Four, was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ's
existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest. Such searches could be used to try to
find terror suspects or criminals making use of multiple, anonymous user IDs. Rather than
collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from
the users' feeds ... to avoid overloading GCHQ's servers. The documents describe these users as
"unselected" intelligence agency parlance for bulk rather than targeted collection.
Note: For more on government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Genetically Modified Babies

2014-02-23, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/genetically-modified-babies.html
An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration is set to begin two days of meetings
tomorrow to consider radical biological procedures that, if successful, would produce genetically
modified human beings. This is a dangerous step. These techniques would change every cell in
the bodies of children born as a result of their use, and these alterations would be passed down to
future generations. The F.D.A. calls them mitochondrial manipulation technologies. The
procedures involve removing the nuclear material either from the egg or embryo of a woman with
inheritable mitochondrial disease and inserting it into a healthy egg or embryo of a donor whose
own nuclear material has been discarded. Any offspring would carry genetic material from three
people the nuclear DNA of the mother and father, and the mitochondrial DNA of the donor.
Developers of these modification techniques say they are a way for women with mitochondrial
disease to give birth to healthy children to whom they are related genetically. Some are also
promoting their use for age-related infertility. These procedures are deeply problematic in
terms of their medical risks and societal implications. Will the child be born healthy, or will
the cellular disruptions created by this eggs-as-Lego-pieces approach lead to problems
later on? What about subsequent generations? And how far will we go in our efforts to
engineer humans? Unfortunately, there are now worrisome signs that opposition to inheritable
genetic modifications, written into law by dozens of countries, according to our count, may be
weakening. British regulators are also considering mitochondrial manipulations, and proponents
there, like their counterparts in the United States, want to move quickly to clinical trials.
Note: For more on the dangers to society of genetic engineering, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Study finds toxic chemicals linked to autism, ADHD

2014-02-16, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/study-finds-toxic-chemicals-linked-to-a...
Leading chemical experts are calling for a radical overhaul of chemical regulation to protect
children from everyday toxins that may be causing a global ''silent epidemic'' of brain development
disorders such as autism, dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. A review published
in The Lancet Neurology on [February15] said current regulations were inadequate to safeguard
fetuses and children from potentially hazardous chemicals found in the environment and everyday
items such as clothing, furniture and toys. In the past seven years, the number of recognised
chemical causes of neurodevelopmental disorders doubled from six to 12. These include lead,
arsenic, pesticides such as DDT, solvents, methylmercury that is found in some fish, flame
retardants that are often added to plastics and textiles, and manganese - a commonly mined metal
that can get into drinking water. The list also controversially includes fluoride, a mineral found
in water, plants and toothpaste. Many health authorities including the World Health Organisation
and ... governments say low levels of fluoride in drinking water is safe and protects teeth against
decay, but [the researchers] said a meta-analysis of 27 studies, mainly from China, had found
children in areas with high levels of fluoride in water had significantly lower IQ scores than

those living in low-level fluoride areas. Since 2006, the number of chemicals known to damage
the human brain more generally, but that are not regulated to protect children's health, had
increased from 202 to 214. Of the newly identified toxins, pesticides constitute the largest group.
Note: For more evidence that fluoride in the water supply can be damaging to health, click here
and here. For more on possible causes of autism including vaccines, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam
Yet
2014-02-12, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-vampire-squid-strikes-again-the...
It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. Most observers on the Hill thought the Financial
Services Modernization Act of 1999 also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was just the
latest and boldest in a long line of deregulatory handouts to Wall Street that had begun in the
Reagan years. Wall Street had spent much of that era arguing that America's banks needed to
become bigger and badder, in order to compete globally with the German and Japanese-style
financial giants. Bank lobbyists were pushing a new law designed to wipe out 60-plus years of
bedrock financial regulation. The key was repealing or "modifying," as bill proponents put it the
famed Glass-Steagall Act separating bankers and broker. Now, commercial banks would be
allowed to merge with investment banks and insurance companies, creating financial megafirms
potentially far more powerful than had ever existed in America. The [bill] additionally legalized
new forms of monopoly, allowing banks to merge with heavy industry. A tiny provision in
the bill also permitted commercial banks to delve into any activity that is "complementary
to a financial activity and does not pose a substantial risk to the safety or soundness of
depository institutions or the financial system generally." Today, banks like Morgan Stanley,
JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs own oil tankers, run airports and control huge quantities of
coal, natural gas, heating oil, electric power and precious metals. They likewise can now be found
exerting direct control over the supply of a whole galaxy of raw materials crucial to world industry
and to society in general, including everything from food products to metals like zinc, copper, tin,
nickel and ... aluminum.
Note: For more on government collusion with the biggest banks, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

What Nazis Taught the CIA

2014-02-11, Yahoo! News/Daily Beast
http://news.yahoo.com/nazis-taught-cia-104500320--politics.html

In the years after the end of WWII, CIA and US intelligence operatives tested LSD and other
interrogation techniques on captured Soviet spiesall with the help of former Nazi doctors.
It was 1946. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were preparing for total war with the Soviets. They even set
an estimated start date of 1952. U.S. military officers had been capturing and then hiring Hitlers
weapons makers in a Top Secret program that would become known as Operation Paperclip.
Soon, more than 1,600 of these men and their families would be living the American dream, right
here in the United States. In 1948, Operation Paperclips Brigadier General Charles E. Loucks ...
was working with Hitlers former chemists when one of the scientists [shared] information about a
drug with military potential ... LSD. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) reveal that the U.S. developed its post-war enhanced interrogation techniques ... under the
CIA code name Operation Bluebird. The CIA teamed up with the Army Chemical Corps at Camp
Detrick, in Maryland, to conduct further research and development on the chemistry of mindaltering drugs. One [Detrick agent was] Dr. Frank Olson, a former army officer and bacteriologist
turned agency operative whose sudden demiseby covert LSD poisoningin 1953 would nearly
bring down the CIA. In one of the rare, surviving official documents from the program, Deputy
Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles sent a secret memo to Richard Helms: In our
conversation of 9 February 1951, I outlined to you the possibilities of augmenting the usual
interrogation methods by the use of drugs, hypnosis, shock, etc., and emphasized the
defensive aspects as well as the offensive opportunities.
Note: To read excerpts from incredibly revealing declassified CIA documents on these programs,
click here. For more on secret government mind control programs which have had a powerful
hidden influence on global politics, see our Mind Control Information Center available here.

James Clapper might as well be called director of US fearmongering

2014-02-06, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/06/james-clapper-us-threat-...
James Clapper is very worried. It's not the first time. Last week the man who serves as America's
Director of National Intelligence [told] assembled members of the Senate Select Intelligence
Committee that the annual worldwide threat assessment ... has filled him with dread. Last year he
appeared before Congress for a similar purpose. He was very, very concerned then too. [And the
same] in 2012. Of course, one must consider the possibility that over the past five decades the
world has never been as dangerous, complex and challenging as it's been over the past three
years, [even though the] whole "threat of nuclear holocaust" ... defined much of the 60s, 70s and
80s. Clapper's alarmist tone is hardly matched by the threats he cites. Significantly more
Americans die each year from falling furniture [than from terrorist acts]. To listen to Clapper and
others in the intelligence community one might never know that inter-state war has largely
disappeared and that wars in general are in the midst of a multi-decade decline. 2013 was a
landmark year for non-proliferation with important progress made in slowing down Iran's nuclear
aspirations and enforcing the norm on chemical weapons usage. There are real threats to the US,
but Clapper should be able to talk about them in sober, evidence-based, non-hysterical terms. It's
almost as if Clapper and the intelligence community that he helms are playing up foreign

threats in order to justify bloated post-9/11 budgets. [Remember that] he allegedly lied to
Congress over the extent to which the National Security Agency was collecting phone and e-mail
records of individual Americans. [Sadly,] threat mongering and exaggeration is the norm rather
than the exception.
Note: For a dramatic BBC documentary showing how many politicians literally promote fear for
their own self benefit, watch Power of Nightmares at this link. For more on intense deception
perpetrated by the intelligence community, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Pope Francis must finally root out child abuse

2014-02-06, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/opinion/dispenza-priest-abuse
Finally, a strong important voice in the world, the United Nations, speaks out on behalf of the rights
of children and condemns the Vatican and the bishops for crimes of violence, rape and sexual
abuse against children by transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish, withholding
documents for prosecution and perpetuating an institutional culture of secrecy and shame. What's
truly shameful is that the Catholic Church was not itself that strong and important voice, protecting
"the least of these." The media have said the church is suffering from a "code of secrecy." Kirsten
Sandberg, the chairwoman of the United Nations, put it this way: "We think it is a horrible thing that
is being kept silent both by the Holy See itself and in local parishes." It is easy to think that when
we talk about the crisis of child rape and abuse that we are talking about the past -- and the
Catholic Church would have us believe that this most tragic era in church history is over. It
is not. It lives on today. Pedophiles are still in the priesthood. Coverups of their crimes are
happening now, and bishops in many cases are continuing to refuse to turn information
over to the criminal justice system. Cases are stalled and cannot go forward because the
church has such power to stop them. Children are still being harmed and victims cannot heal.
These criminal acts happened over and over to tens of thousands of children in the past, continue
now and will continue until Pope Francis and the bishops act fiercely to insist that children and
their safety come first, and that priests and protecting the image and power of the Catholic Church
come a distant second.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more on the Catholic Church's failure to control sexual
abuse of children by priests, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

The Mindful Revolution

2014-02-03, Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2163560,00.html

We're in the midst of a popular obsession with mindfulness as the secret to health and happiness.
And a growing body of evidence suggests it has clear benefits. A curriculum called Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, an MIT-educated
scientist. The techniques ... are intended to help practitioners quiet a busy mind, becoming more
aware of the present moment and less caught up in what happened earlier or what's to come.
Many cognitive therapists commend it to patients as a way to help cope with anxiety and
depression. Its strength lies in its universality. It is gaining acceptance with ... Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs, FORTUNE 500 titans, Pentagon chiefs and more. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs
said his meditation practice was directly responsible for his ability to concentrate and ignore
distractions. Though meditation is considered an essential means to achieving mindfulness, the
ultimate goal is simply to give your attention fully to what you're doing. One can work mindfully,
parent mindfully and learn mindfully. Think of your attention as a muscle. As with any muscle, it
makes sense to exercise it ... and like any muscle, it will strengthen from that exercise. There are
hundreds of mindfulness and meditation apps available from iTunes. Scientists have been able
to prove that meditation and rigorous mindfulness training can lower cortisol levels and
blood pressure, increase immune response and possibly even affect gene expression.
Scientific study is also showing that meditation can have an impact on the structure of the
brain itself.
Note: If the above link to the full article fails, click here. For another great article on mindfulness,
click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference,
click here.

Why we need GMO labels

2014-02-03, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/03/opinion/schubert-gmo-labeling
Most people like to know what they are eating. However, labeling for genetically modified
organisms is not required in any state. This is largely because of the money expended by GM
seed producers toward blocking food-labeling laws. A common claim made by this group is that
GM foods have been proved safe to eat and that there is a global scientific consensus to support
this statement; therefore, no labeling is needed. However, an examination of the scientific data ...
show[s] that both claims are blatantly false. GM crops have fostered an epidemic of herbicide
resistant weeds and insects that are no longer killed by the built-in toxins. The result is a massive
increase in herbicide use -- an additional 527 million pounds over the past 16 years. The major
herbicide, glyphosate, is found inside the GM plants we eat, leading to its detection in people.
There is increasing evidence that GM crops and the chemicals required for their production are
harmful to humans. An Associated Press story in October documented the large increase in
cancer and birth defects in commercial farming areas of Argentina since the introduction of
GM crops. These data confirm recent animal studies showing that GM corn and the herbicides
sprayed on it caused a dramatic increase in cancer in the same strain of rats used in FDA drug

safety tests. Another large study showed an increase in severe stomach inflammation in pigs
caused by GM feed containing insecticidal toxins, a condition that would likely lead to cancer in
humans. In reality, there is no evidence that GM food is safe for human consumption.
Note: For more on the damaging health impacts of GMO foods and the movement to label them,
see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy protection

2014-01-31, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/31/catholic-diocese-files-f...
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena [Montana] planned to file for bankruptcy protection [on
January 31] as part of a proposed settlement of $15 million for hundreds of victims who say clergy
members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up. The U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15
million to compensate the 362 victims identified in the two lawsuits. In addition, at least $2.5 million
will be set aside for victims who come forward later, [Diocese spokesman Dan] Bartleson said.
Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said she believes the bankruptcy process will resolve
the case more quickly than years of litigation and trials with uncertain outcomes. The Helena
diocese is the 11th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sex-abuse claims. In
one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly raped, fondled or forced to
perform sexual acts while at school, on the playground, on camping trips or at the victims'
homes. The second lawsuit, filed a week after the first in 2011 ... alleged that nuns at the
Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more articles on sexual abuse, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Snowden: NSA conducts industrial espionage too

2014-01-26, CBS News/Reuters
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/snowden-nsa-conducts-industrial-espionage-too/
The U.S. National Security Agency is involved in industrial espionage and will grab any intelligence
it can get its hands on regardless of its value to national security, former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden told a German TV network. ARD TV quoted Snowden saying the NSA does not limit its
espionage to issues of national security and he cited German engineering firm, Siemens as
one target. "If there's information at Siemens that's beneficial to U.S. national interests even if it doesn't have anything to do with national security - then they'll take that
information nevertheless," Snowden said. Snowden's claim the NSA is engaged in industrial
espionage follows a New York Times report earlier this month that the NSA put software in almost

100,000 computers around the world, allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices and
could provide a digital highway for cyberattacks. The NSA planted most of the software after
gaining access to computer networks, but has also used a secret technology that allows it entry
even to computers not connected to the Internet, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials,
computer experts and documents leaked by Snowden. Frequent targets of the programme, codenamed Quantum, included units of the Chinese military and industrial targets.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Couple Brings Gift of Hearing to Impaired Across the Globe

2014-01-21, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2014/01/21/couple-brings-gift-of-hearing-t...
In the shadow of Angkor Wat, Cambodia, a place that houses some of the oldest temples on
Earth, people, young and old and considered deaf, came by the hundreds looking for a miracle. Bill
and Tani Austin of Eden Prairie, Minn., were there in November to prove that most werent deaf at
all. They say 95 percent of the worlds so-called deaf are merely hearing impaired but can do
nothing about it. For 10 months a year, the couple travel around the world to fit the hearing
impaired with hearing aids. Last year, the Austins Starkey Hearing Foundation fit 165,000 free
hearing aids for people in India and the Bronx, from New Orleans to New Guinea. During the visit
to Angkor Wat, Tani Austin fit Sarien, 12, with powerful hearing aids to see whether she could get
her to respond. Her mother said she was completely deaf. With the hearing aids on, though,
Sarien could hear sounds and tried desperately to make sounds for the first time in her life. After
Bill Austin got rich running the hearing aid company Starkey the industrys only US owned and
operated one since 1967 he made it his mission to spend the money by giving back. He started
the foundation in 1984 with wife Tani. Starkey supplies the hearing aids. Their goal: help 1 million
people to hear by 2020. So far, nearly 500,000 hearing aids have been distributed around the
globe. For me a day here is better than any day on any beach anywhere in the world. Its
better than any fine meal in Paris. I would stay here and not eat at all and work for these
kids and go home tired and say I had a good day, Bill Austin said.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Richest 85 boast same wealth as half the world

2014-01-21, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/business/richest-85-boast-same-wealth-as-half-the-world...
Eighty-five people control the same amount of wealth as half the world's population. That is 85
people compared with 3.5 billion. A new report from Oxfam has been published in time for the
World Economic Forum in Davos this week. It shows the world's ultra-wealthy have not only

recovered from the global financial crisis, they have positively blossomed. The report shows the
wealth of the 1 per cent richest people in the world is worth about $US110 trillion, 65 times the total
wealth of the bottom half of the world's population. It also shows the world's richest 85 people
control about $US1.7 trillion in wealth, equivalent to the bottom half of the world's population. And
far from hindering the wealthy, the political response to the global financial crisis including the actions of central banks and the austerity measures introduced by national
governments - has made the rich fabulously richer. In the US, the wealthiest 1 per cent of
the population grabbed 95 per cent of post-financial crisis growth between 2009 and 2012,
while the bottom 90 per cent became poorer. An Oxfam survey of six countries - the United
States, UK, Spain, Brazil, India and South Africa - has found that the majority of people believe
laws and regulations are skewed in favour of the rich, so people are noticing.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Cheating Alleged in US Nuclear Missile Force

2014-01-16, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/air-force-34-missile-officers-cheati...
In what may be the biggest such scandal in Air Force history, 34 officers entrusted with land-based
nuclear missiles have been pulled off the job for alleged involvement in a cheating ring that officials
say was uncovered during a drug probe. The 34 are suspected of cheating several months ago on
a routine proficiency test that includes checking missile launch officers' knowledge of how to
handle an "emergency war order," which is the term for the authorization required to launch a
nuclear weapon. The cheating scandal is the latest in a series of Air Force nuclear stumbles
... including deliberate violations of safety rules, failures of inspections, breakdowns in
training and evidence that the men and women who operate the missiles from underground
command posts are suffering burnout. In October the general who commands the nuclear
missile force was fired for engaging in embarrassing behavior, including drunkenness, while
leading a U.S. delegation to a nuclear exercise in Russia. The AP disclosed in May an internal Air
Force email in which a missile operations officer complained that his force was infested with "rot"
bad attitudes and disregard for discipline. The Air Force's nuclear mission includes operation of
450 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Malmstrom unit failed a nuclear safety and
security inspection in August but succeeded on a redo in October.
Note: Some are speculating about a purge of high-level U.S. military officers. For evidence of this,
click here. And is it just a coincidence that the Malmstrom unit is mentioned? That is the base
where several officers testified that a UFO shut down all nuclear warheads several decades ago.
For more, click here. And for more on military corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Do Aliens Exist? Yes, And Some 'Look Just Like Us, Says Paul Hellyer,

Former Canadian Defense Minister

2014-01-07, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/do-aliens-exist-yes-some-look-just-us-says-paul-hellye...
Lots of people believe in extraterrestrial life forms, but not many can give specific details about
what they look like and where they're living. But that's just what Paul Hellyer, the now-90-year-old
former defense minister of Canada, did in his recent interview with Russia Today, claiming there
are 80 different species of alien life, from places like Andromeda, Pleiades and Zeta Reticuli, and
some look just like us. There are about 80 different species and some of them look just like
us and they could walk down the street and you wouldnt know if you walked past one,"
said Hellyer. "They are what we call 'Nordic Blondes' and also the Tall Whites who were
actually working with the U.S. air force in Nevada. Theyre able to get away with that; they had
a couple of their ladies dressed as nuns go into Las Vegas to shop and they werent detected. ...
Then theres the Short Greys as they are called, and they are the ones you see in most of the
cartoons, they have very slim arms and legs, they are very short, just a little over 5 feet, and they
have a great big head and great big brown eyes. But there are different species and you have to
know ... that they all are different. If you saw the Short Greys, youd certainly know theres
something up that youve never seen before, but if you saw one of the Nordic Blondes, youd
probably say, I wonder if shes from Denmark or somewhere. But fear not: Hellyer said most of
the aliens who have been visiting our planet for thousands of years are benign and benevolent,
and they do want to help us.
Note: For more on UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors to earth, see our deeply revealing UFO
Information Center available here.

Why the Pentagon's accounting fixes end up broken

2013-12-23, CNBC/Reuters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101293095
The Defense Department has launched 20 or more projects to build modern businessmanagement systems since the late 1990s. At least five were subsequently killed as complete
failures after billions of dollars were spent on them. With each failure, a pattern emerges: An offthe-shelf product with a proven track record in the private sector is chosen and then
modified to the point where it doesn't work properly. The Pentagon is unable to account for
itself, and thus for roughly half of all congressionally approved annual federal spending. Interviews
with scores of current and former defense officials, contractors and Pentagon watchers, as well as
a review of dozens of reports by oversight agencies, show that the Pentagon is continually
thwarted by a lack of accountability for failures ... and an incentive to spend. All other federal
agencies are audited annually ... and with rare exceptions, they pass every year. The
Pentagon alone has never been audited, leaving roughly $8.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars
unaccounted for since 1996. The Pentagon has for years kept lousy books with impunity.
The 2009 law requiring the Defense Department to be audit-ready by 2017 provides for no
penalties if it misses the deadline. From 1995 through 2002, Senator Charles Grassley pushed

through an amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill requiring the Pentagon to account
for its expenditures by following one seemingly simple procedure: match each payment to the
expense it covered. The order was ignored, and Grassley gave up. There is no doubt that bad
bookkeeping conceals movements of money that in some instances are illegal. But because the
Pentagon has never been audited, it is impossible to determine the frequency or extent of
violations.
Note: This article sadly fails to state the obvious: Many military officers illegally rake in tons of
money with false contracts which benefit those officers and contracting companies. They obviously
don't want their accounts to be properly audited. For a revealing essay by a top U.S. general
exposing major war manipulations, click here. For more on military corruption, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Woman's Christmas Letters Reach Husband and New Family Two Years
After Her Death
2013-12-22, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/womans-christmas-letters-reach-husband-family-years-...
A mother of four has surprised her children, husband and his new fiance with heartbreaking
Christmas letters two years after her death from ovarian cancer. Brenda Schmitz was 46 when she
passed away in September 2011. As a parting gift, she entrusted a letter to a friend, who remains
anonymous, to deliver when the time was right. A month before she lost her battle to the disease,
Schmitz wrote the letter to KSTZ Star 102.5, which runs a Christmas wishes program each year.
Listeners send in their Christmas wish letters, and the station elicits the help of sponsors to grant a
select few. Brenda's wishes were finally revealed two years later when the station brought her
husband, David, into the studio and read the note to him on air last week. "When you are in receipt
of this letter, I will have already lost my battle to ovarian cancer," the letter from Brenda began. "I
told [my friend] once my loving husband David had moved on in his life and had met
someone to share his life with again, to mail this letter to all of you at the station." David
had recently become engaged again and Brenda's first wish was a request for the station to
give his "new lifelong partner," Jane, a pampering session. "She deserves it, being a
stepmother to all those boys," the letter read. "Make her smile and know her efforts are truly
appreciated from me. "Thank you," Brenda added. "I love you, whoever you are."
Note: You simply must watch the profound video about this at this link. Incredibly moving!
For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Stealth Surprises in NSA Report Take on Non-NSA Spying

2013-12-20, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/stealth-surprises-nsa-report-nsa-spying/story?i...

The White House's expert NSA panel may have made headlines ... for telling President Barack
Obama to knock off the collection of Americans' meta-data, but surveillance experts said they were
surprised that the panel also took to task some controversial non-NSA-related spy tactics as well.
One recommendation was to impose much stricter oversight on the FBI's ability to issue National
Security Letters (NSLs), which have been used to obtain telephone call records and credit reports
in terrorism and espionage cases. Another even more peculiar recommendation by the five
national security experts ... was their advice that "governments" shouldn't hack into bank
accounts and drain funds. "Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities
to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial
systems," the unanimous Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies report
warned Obama. "That was a strangely specific recommendation for something nobody was talking
about," Kel McClanahan, executive director of government transparency group National Security
Counselors, told ABC News. Michelle Richardson, the American Civil Liberties Union's legislative
council in Washington, also said the findings on "NSLs" and government hacking were unexpected
-- but welcomed.
Note: The fact that this expert panel would even mention governments manipulating financial
accounts suggests that if it hasn't already happened, some were seriously considering this. For
lots more on this strange news, click here. For more on the realities of intelligence agency
activities, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Uruguay's president Jos Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

2013-12-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/uruguay-president-jose-mujica
If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity, it is Jos Mujica, Uruguay's
president, who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse, donates the vast bulk of his
salary to social projects, flies economy class and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle. But the former
guerrilla fighter is clearly disgruntled by those who tag him "the world's poorest president" and
much as he would like others to adopt a more sober lifestyle the 78-year-old has been in politics
long enough to recognise the folly of claiming to be a model for anyone. "If I asked people to live
as I live, they would kill me," Mujica said during an interview in his small but cosy one-bedroom
home set amid chrysanthemum fields outside Montevideo. The president is a former member of
the Tupamaros guerrilla group, which was notorious in the early 1970s for bank robberies,
kidnappings and distributing stolen food and money among the poor. He was shot by
police six times and spent 14 years in a military prison, much of it in dungeon-like
conditions. Since becoming leader of Uruguay in 2010, however, he has won plaudits
worldwide for living within his means, decrying excessive consumption and pushing ahead with
policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and cannabis legalisation that have reaffirmed Uruguay
as the most socially liberal country in Latin America. But the man who is best known as Pepe says
those who consider him poor fail to understand the meaning of wealth. "I'm not the poorest
president. The poorest is the one who needs a lot to live," he said. "My lifestyle is a consequence
of my wounds. I'm the son of my history."

Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Unique traffic stops in Missouri bring drivers to tears

2013-12-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sheriffs-deputies-kindness-brings-drivers-to-tears/
Earlier this month, in Kansas City, Missouri, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department was out
looking for people. What made this operation especially unusual was the man behind it: a fellow in
a red hat -- known to these men only as "Secret Santa." Every year this anonymous, wealthy
businessman gives out about a hundred thousand dollars worth of hundred dollar bills to
random strangers. But this year, instead of doing it all himself, he deputized these deputies
to give away much of it. And so, armed to the teeth with Benjamins, the officers went out to do
Santa's bidding. They specifically went after people they thought would appreciate it most. "Merry
Christmas," a deputy said while handing money to a driver. "You're kidding. Oh my God, no,"
answered the driver in disbelief. Most people weren't just blown away -- most people were moved
to tears. Their reactions were a combination of really needing the money and being caught off
guard. This year "Secret Santa" also had a secret agenda. "What do you want the officers to get
out of this?" I asked him. "Joy," he answered. "You know, as tough as they are they have hearts
that are bigger than the world." Let's face it, it hasn't been a good year for law enforcement -- but
for the vast majority of decent officers who will never make headlines -- Secret Santa offered this
gift.
Note: Don't miss the incredibly beautiful three-minute video on this.

Inside the secret world of the Freemasons

2013-12-08, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-secret-world-of-the-freemasons/
It's the world's most well-known secret society. Rich with symbols and ritual, it's the source of
legends ... parodies ... and conspiracy theories. Welcome to the world of Freemasonry.
Freemasons laid the cornerstone of America [or] at least some of its most iconic structures, like the
National Cathedral in Washington and the Statue of Liberty. So what is Freemasonry? It's the
world's oldest and largest fraternity. Its membership is a Who's Who of world history -- George
Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, Mozart, Davy Crockett, Franklin
Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, Gerald Ford, Henry Ford, John Wayne, even Colonel Sanders.
Freemasonry began in medieval Europe as a guild for stonemasons. The first grand lodge was
created in London in 1717. It wasn't long afterward that ... conspiracy theories began. In 1738
Pope Clement XII issued the Catholic Church's first decree against Freemasonry -- and it still
applies today. In the U.S., Freemasonry flourished until its secrecy made it the object of suspicion
here, spawning America's first third party, the Anti-Masonic Party. Today, Freemasonry has about
1.3 million members in the U.S., down from 4 million in 1959. Among the members today: African-

Americans, formerly relegated to a separate, black-only branch of Freemasonry. If you want to be

a Mason, you can petition a local lodge for membership. You'll need to demonstrate good
character and belief in some sort of Supreme Being. In almost all lodges, it's men only. The House
of the Temple for the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite [is] one branch of Freemasonry. Inside
[The House], the temple lodge room is a stunner. And downstairs, you can see the flag that Buzz
Aldrin took to the Moon.
Note: This informative article on Freemasonry fails to go into any depth about the secrecy of this
influential secret society. For an in-depth MSNBC article which is much more revealing, click here.
For more on other intriguing secret societies, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Why is Sweden closing its prisons?

2013-12-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/01/why-sweden-closing-prisons
Swedish prisons have long had a reputation around the world as being liberal and progressive.
The head of Sweden's prison and probation service, Nils Oberg, announced in November that four
Swedish prisons are to be closed due to an "out of the ordinary" decline in prisoner numbers.
Although there has been no fall in crime rates, between 2011 and 2012 there was a 6% drop in
Sweden's prisoner population, now a little over 4,500. A similar decrease is expected this year and
the next. The Swedes [have] managed to maintain a broadly humane approach to sentencing,
even of the most serious offenders: jail terms rarely exceed 10 years; those who receive life
imprisonment can still apply to the courts after a decade to have the sentence commuted to a fixed
term, usually in the region of 18 to 25 years. Sweden was the first country in Europe to
introduce the electronic tagging of convicted criminals and continues to strive to minimise
short-term prison sentences wherever possible by using community-based measures
proven to be more effective at reducing reoffending. The overall reoffending rate in Sweden
stands at between 30 and 40% over three years around half that in the UK. One likely factor
that has kept reoffending down and the rate of incarceration in Sweden below 70 per 100,000
head of population less than half the figure for England and Wales is that the age of criminal
responsibility is set at 15. Unlike the UK, where a life sentence can be handed down to a 10-yearold, in Sweden no young person under the age of 21 can be sentenced to life and every effort is
made to ensure that as few juvenile offenders as possible end up in prison.
Note: For a Time magazine article showing how Norway's prisons actually rehabilitate prisoners so
that they can more easily fit back in society, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

US bishop dresses up as homeless man to expose congregation's lack

of compassion

2013-11-29, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10483026/US-bishop...
An American bishop who disguised himself as a homeless man to give a sermon about
compassion was asked to leave his church by unknowing congregants. David Musselman, a
Mormon cleric near Salt Lake City, Utah, said he wanted to teach members of his church to be
kind to all people. To be Christ-like, just acknowledge them, he said. Mr Musselman recruited a
professional makeup artist to transform his face and wore a wooly hat, thick spectacles, a false
beard and a fake scar. Even his own family did not recognise him. The main thing I was trying
to get across was we don't need to be so quick to judge, Mr Musselman told his local
television news station. Many actually went out of their way to purposefully ignore me, and they
wouldn't even make eye contact, he said. I'd approach them and say, 'Happy Thanksgiving'.
After being asked to leave by five people, Mr Musselman walked to the pulpit during a
service and disclosed his true identity by taking off his wig, fake beard and glasses. It had
a shock value that I did not anticipate, he said. I really did not have any idea that the
members of my ward would gasp as big as they did. Mr Musselman said he was touched by the
reaction of younger members of the church. I was impressed by the children, he said. I could
see in their eyes they wanted to do more. Mr Musselman, whose stunt came just before the
Thanksgiving holiday, said that he did not intend to embarrass the members of his church or make
them feel ashamed. Instead, he said, he wanted them to remember to be kind all year long to
people from all walks of life.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Corporate Espionage Undermines Democracy

2013-11-26, MSN/Reuters
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&Date=20131127&ID=171...
Its not just the NSA that has been caught spying on Americans. Some of our nations largest
corporations have been conducting espionage as well, against civic groups. Thats the lesson of a
new report on corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations by ... Essential Information.
The title of the report is Spooky Business, and it is apt. Spooky Business is like a Canterbury
Tales of corporate snoopery: Hiring investigators to pose as volunteers and journalists.
Hacking. Wiretapping. Information warfare. Physical intrusion. Investigating the private
lives of nonprofit leaders. Dumpster diving using an active duty police officer to gain
access to trash receptacles. Electronic surveillance. Many different types of nonprofit civic
organizations have been targeted by corporate spies: environmental, public interest, consumer,
food safety, animal rights, pesticide reform, nursing home reform, gun control and social justice. A
diverse constellation of corporations has planned or executed corporate espionage against these
nonprofit civic organizations. Food companies like Kraft, Coca-Cola, Burger King, McDonalds and
Monsanto. Oil companies like Shell, BP and Chevron. Chemical companies like Dow and Sasol.
Also involved are the retailers (Wal-Mart), banks (Bank of America), and, of course, the nations

most powerful trade association: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Plenty of mercenary spooks
have joined up to abet them, including former officials at the FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service and
U.S. military. Sometimes even government contractors are part of the snooping.
Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Behind the Pentagons doctored ledgers, a running tally of epic waste

2013-11-18, CNBC/Reuters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101206230
Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S.
Department of Defense's accounts. Woodford and her fellow [accountants] set about preparing
monthly reports to square the Navy's books with the U.S. Treasury's. And every month ... numbers
were missing. Numbers were clearly wrong. Woodford and her colleagues were told by
superiors to ... enter false numbers, commonly called "plugs," to make the Navy's totals
match the Treasury's. Fudging the accounts with false entries is standard operating
procedure. Former military service officials say record-keeping at the operational level
throughout the services is rife with made-up numbers to cover lost or missing information.
Plugs also are symptomatic of one very large problem: the Pentagon's chronic failure to keep track
of its moneyhow much it has, how much it pays out and how much is wasted or stolen. The
Defense Department's 2012 budget totaled $565.8 billion, more than the annual defense budgets
of the 10 next largest military spenders combined, including Russia and China. How much of that
money is spent as intended is impossible to determine. The Pentagon is largely incapable of
keeping track of its vast stores of weapons, ammunition and other supplies. It has amassed a
backlog of more than half a trillion dollars in unaudited contracts with outside vendors. [It] also has
systematically ignored warnings about its accounting practices. The Pentagon is the only federal
agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government
departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the
Pentagon since 1996 ... has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China's
economic output last year. A single [military accounting] office in Columbus, Ohio, made at least
$1.59 trillion - yes, trillion - in errors, including $538 billion in plugs.
Note: This article sadly fails to state the obvious: Many military officers illegally rake in tons of
money with false contracts which benefit those officers and contracting companies. They obviously
don't want their accounts to be properly audited. For a revealing essay by a top U.S. general
exposing major war manipulations, click here. For more on military corruption, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Pope Francis 'is mafia target after campaigning against corruption'

2013-11-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/pope-francis-mafia-target-corrup...

Pope Francis's crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy's all-powerful mafia
clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned. Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria's
shadowy 'Ndrangheta mafia, said [that] Francis's attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was
making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates "nervous and agitated".
He told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano: "Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic
power in the Vatican. If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn't hesitate. I don't know if
organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about
it. They could be dangerous." Francis, who has called for "a poor church", has backed reform at
the Vatican's bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of
mob profits. This week police impounded a luxury hotel on Rome's Janiculum hill formerly a
monastery which the 'Ndrangheta allegedly purchased from a religious order. "The mafia that
invests, that launders money, that therefore has the real power, is the mafia which has got
rich for years from its connivance with the church," said Gratteri. "Priests continuously visit the
houses of bosses for coffee, which gives the bosses strength and popular legitimacy," he said. A
bishop in Locri in Calabria had excommunicated mobsters after they damaged fruit trees owned by
the church, he said. "But before that episode, the bosses had killed thousands of people" without
being sanctioned, he added.
Note: For more on secret societies, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.

2013-11-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consu...
When Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, sat down with President Obama at the
White House in April to discuss Syrian chemical weapons, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and
climate change, it was a cordial, routine exchange. The National Security Agency nonetheless
went to work in advance and intercepted Mr. Bans talking points for the meeting, a feat the agency
later reported as an operational highlight in a weekly internal brag sheet. It was emblematic of an
agency that for decades has operated on the principle that any eavesdropping that can be done on
a foreign target of any conceivable interest now or in the future should be done. After all,
American intelligence officials reasoned, whos going to find out? From thousands of classified
documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering
capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and
other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own
operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent
weeks; the agencys official mission list includes using its surveillance powers to achieve
diplomatic advantage over such allies as France and Germany and economic advantage over
Japan and Brazil, among other countries. The scale of eavesdropping by the N.S.A., with 35,000
workers and $10.8 billion a year, sets it apart.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

The Neuroscience of Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier

2013-10-30, Daily Good
http://www.dailygood.org/story/578/the-neuroscience-of-why-gratitude-makes-us...
Gratitude ... makes you happier and healthier. If you can find any authentic reason to give thanks,
anything that is going right with the world or your life, and put your attention there, then statistics
say you're going to be better off. Does this mean to live in a state of constant denial and put your
head in the sand? Of course not. Gratitude works when you're grateful for something real. What
are you actually grateful for? It's a question that could change your life. Recent studies have
concluded that the expression of gratitude can have profound and positive effects on our health,
our moods and even the survival of our marriages. Dr. John Gottman at the University of
Washington has been researching marriages for two decades. The conclusion of all that research,
he states, is that unless a couple is able to maintain a high ratio of positive to negative encounters
(5:1 or greater), it is likely the marriage will end. With 90 percent accuracy, Gottman says he can
predict, often after only three minutes of observation, which marriages are likely to flourish and
which are likely to flounder. The formula is that for every negative expression (a complaint, frown,
put-down, expression of anger) there needs to be about five positive ones (smiles, compliments,
laughter, expressions of appreciation and gratitude). Keep a daily journal of three things you
are thankful for. This works well first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed.
Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them
every day. To practice it further, join thousands of others in a transformative 21-Day
Gratitude Challenge starting November 7th leading up to Thanksgiving.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

High Flyer
2013-10-28, Daily Good
http://www.dailygood.org/story/543/high-flyer-david-leser
[ISIS Foundations Audette Exel] built a career on making millions for the rich, but her true
achievement has been using her legal and financial [prowess] to make money for the worlds
poorest. A monkey passes Exels [Katmandu, Nepal] hotel room as she works via email on a halfbillion-dollar sale of a European banking group. The negotiations are crucial. If successful, they will
represent one of the biggest European financial transactions of 2012. This is just before breakfast.
After breakfast, Exel visits some of the children she and her organisation, the ISIS Foundation,
have rescued from child traffickers in the remotest part of the country, children taken from
their homes under false pretences and imprisoned in appalling conditions. The children are
hugging her, squeezing her, holding her hand. An 11-year-old boy who almost died from a

hole in the heart before being saved by Exel and her team wont let her go. Later that
afternoon, Exel works on forging ties between her Nepalese staff and her manager in Uganda, the
other country where her organisation has saved the lives of thousands of mothers and their
children. This is the woman who, ... leading international finance lawyer James Watkins says, gave
up millions of her own income to help some of the most impoverished people in the world. The
same woman again who high-flying lawyer John Atkinson believes puts him and other bankers and
lawyers to shame. When I examine my life and I compare it to Audettes, you can quickly feel
pretty humbled, even quite selfish. I guess in the scheme of things I look quite normal and Audette
looks pretty extraordinary.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over

contacts
2013-10-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-c...
The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being
given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified
document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The confidential memo reveals that the
NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such as the White House, State
and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of
leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems. The document notes that one unnamed
US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of
whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA. The
revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after
the German chancellor Angela Merkel ... accused the US of tapping her mobile phone. The
NSA memo obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the
agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders and even asks for the assistance
of other US officials to do so. The memo, dated October 2006 and which was issued to staff in the
agency's Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), was titled "Customers Can Help SID Obtain
Targetable Phone Numbers". In the wake of the Merkel row, the US is facing growing international
criticism that any intelligence benefit from spying on friendly governments is far outweighed by the
potential diplomatic damage.
Note: For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Argentines link health problems to agrochemicals

2013-10-22, CBS News/Associated Press

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/argentines-link-health-problems-to-agrochemicals/
American biotechnology has turned Argentina into the world's third-largest soybean producer, but
the chemicals powering the boom aren't confined to soy and cotton and corn fields. The
Associated Press documented dozens of cases around the country where poisons are applied in
ways unanticipated by regulatory science or specifically banned by existing law. The spray drifts
into schools and homes and settles over water sources; farmworkers mix poisons with no
protective gear; villagers store water in pesticide containers that should have been destroyed. Now
doctors are warning that uncontrolled pesticide applications could be the cause of growing health
problems among the 12 million people who live in the South American nation's vast farm belt. In
Santa Fe, cancer rates are two times to four times higher than the national average. In Chaco,
birth defects quadrupled in the decade after biotechnology dramatically expanded farming in
Argentina. A nation once known for its grass-fed beef has undergone a remarkable
transformation since 1996, when the St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. promised that adopting
its patented seeds and chemicals would increase crop yields and lower pesticide use.
Today, Argentina's entire soy crop and nearly all its corn and cotton are genetically modified, with
soy cultivation alone tripling to 47 million acres. Agrochemical use did decline at first, then it
bounced back, increasing ninefold from 9 million gallons in 1990 to more than 84 million gallons
today as farmers squeezed in more harvests and pests became resistant to the poisons.
Note: For more on issues that matter to our health, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Bogus science paper reveals peer review's flaws

2013-10-14, CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bogus-science-paper-reveals-peer-review-s-f...
A bogus scientific paper about a new anti-cancer compound was accepted by more than half of
300 scientific journals it was submitted to in the past year, despite having obvious and serious
scientific flaws. Science journalist John Bohannon reported the results of his experiment in the
journal Science. Bohannon, who holds a PhD in molecular biology and is a visiting scholar at
Harvard Universitys program in ethics and health, ... concluded [that] a huge proportion of the
journals were not ensuring their papers were peer reviewed. Even in cases where peer review
happened, it didnt always function correctly. For example, the Ottawa-based International Journal
of Herbs and Medicinal Plants clearly sent the paper out to be reviewed by real scientists, who
pointed out some flaws, Bohannon recalled. Even so, when Bohannon submitted a revised version
of the paper without correcting any of the flaws, it was accepted. Bohannon said peer review is
crucial so that readers of a scientific paper know it has at least passed muster with a couple of
experts who are in a position, hopefully, to judge. It could be the whole peer review system is just
failing under the strain of the tens of thousands of journals that now exist. He added that if peer
review isnt working, then people with what amounts to fraudulent scientific credentials and

publication records are slowly filling university departments and government offices,
making important science-based policy decisions. In addition, terrible science is
polluting the global pool of knowledge."
Note: For more on the corruption of science, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Inequality Is a Choice
2013-10-13, New York Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/inequality-is-a-choice/
Its well known by now that income and wealth inequality in most rich countries, especially the
United States, have soared in recent decades and, tragically, worsened even more since the Great
Recession. But what about the rest of the world? New research by a World Bank economist
named Branko Milanovic, along with other scholars, points the way to some answers. Overall
equality across humanity, considered as individuals, has improved very little. So while nations in
Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, as a whole, might be catching up with the West, the poor
everywhere are left behind, even in places like China where theyve benefited somewhat from
rising living standards. From 1988 to 2008, Mr. Milanovic found, people in the worlds top 1 percent
saw their incomes increase by 60 percent, while those in the bottom 5 percent had no change in
their income. And while median incomes have greatly improved in recent decades, there are still
enormous imbalances: 8 percent of humanity takes home 50 percent of global income; the top 1
percent alone takes home 15 percent. The United States provides a particularly grim example
for the world. And because, in so many ways, America often leads the world, if others
follow Americas example, it does not portend well for the future. Last year, the top 1
percent of Americans took home 22 percent of the nations income; the top 0.1 percent, 11
percent. Ninety-five percent of all income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Rigging currency markets

2013-10-12, The Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21587824-are-foreign-exch...
[Banks] have rigged LIBOR, an interest rate used to peg contracts worth trillions. Its equivalent in
the world of derivatives, ISDAfix, has also come under question. Commodities prices from crude oil
to platinum have been the subject of allegations and inquiries. Now prices in global currency
markets, where turnover is $5 trillion a day, are being scrutinised by authorities, who suspect
bankers have tampered with those too. Switzerlands financial watchdog announced on October
4th that it was investigating a slew of banks it thinks have manipulated currencies. Britain and the
European Union also have probes under way. Concerns reportedly centre around abnormal

movements ahead of a widely-used daily snapshot of exchange rates, known as the 4pm London
fix. It represents the average of prices agreed during 60 seconds trading, and is used as a
reference rate to execute a much larger set of currency deals. Bankers, who are big participants in
the market, have huge incentives to nudge the price of a given currency pairing ahead of the fix.
With billions of dollars changing hands, a difference of a fraction of a cent can add a tidy sum to
the bonus pool. If proven, the charge would amount to banks fleecing their clients. Banks
know the big trades they are about to execute on others behalf, and are often themselves
the counterparty. By moving the markets ahead of the fix, they could alter the rate to their
profit and their clients loss. One suspected method is banging the close: submitting a quick
succession of orders just as the benchmark is set, to distort its value.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

The Snowden files: why the British public should be worried about
GCHQ
2013-10-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/03/edward-snowden-files-john-lanche...
The problem and the risk [with surveillance by GCHQ] comes in the area of mass capture of data,
or strategic surveillance. This is the kind of intelligence gathering that sucks in data from everyone,
everywhere: from phones, internet use from email to website visits, social networking, instant
messaging and video calls, and even areas such as video gaming; in short, everything digital. In
the US, the Prism programme may have given the NSA access to the servers of companies such
as Google and Facebook; in the UK, GCHQ has gained a similar degree of access via its Tempora
programme, and the two of them together have a cable- and network-tapping capabilities
collectively called Upstream, which have the ability to intercept anything that travels over the
internet. This data is fed into a database called XKeyscore, which allows analysts to extract
information "in real time", ie immediately. What this adds up to is a new thing in human history:
with a couple of clicks of a mouse, an agent of the state can target your home phone, or your
mobile, or your email, or your passport number, or any of your credit card numbers, or your
address, or any of your log-ins to a web service. Using that "selector", the state can get
access to all the content of your communications, via any of those channels; can gather
information about anyone you communicate with, can get a full picture of all your internet
use, can track your location online and offline. It can, in essence, know everything about you,
including thanks to the ability to look at your internet searches what's on your mind.
Note: For an excellent 15-minute BBC Newsnight interview with Glenn Greenwald defending
Edward Snowden's release of secret documents, click here. For more on government privacy
invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

As F.B.I. Pursued Snowden, an E-Mail Service Stood Firm

2013-10-03, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/us/snowdens-e-mail-provider-discusses-press...
The owner of the e-mail service [Lavabit, Ladar Levison,] said he closed it down after the
government, in pursuit of Edward J. Snowden, sought untrammeled access to the protected
messages of all his customers. Mr. Levison was willing to allow investigators with a court order to
tap Mr. Snowdens e-mail account; he had complied with similar narrowly targeted requests
involving other customers about two dozen times. But they wanted more, he said: the passwords,
encryption keys and computer code that would essentially allow the government untrammeled
access to the protected messages of all his customers. That, he said, was too much. On Aug. 8,
Mr. Levison closed Lavabit rather than, in his view, betray his promise of secure e-mail to his
customers. On [October 2], a federal judge unsealed documents in the case, allowing the tech
entrepreneur to speak candidly for the first time about his experiences. He had been summoned
to testify to a grand jury in Virginia; forbidden to discuss his case; held in contempt of
court and fined $10,000 for handing over his private encryption keys on paper and not in
digital form; and, finally, threatened with arrest for saying too much when he shuttered his
business. While Mr. Levisons struggles have been with the F.B.I., hovering in the background is
the N.S.A., which has worked secretly for years to undermine or bypass encrypted services like
Lavabit so that their electronic message scrambling cannot obstruct the agencys spying. Mr.
Levisons case shows how law enforcement officials can use legal tools to pry open messages, no
matter how well protected.
Note: For an excellent 15-minute BBC Newsnight interview with Glenn Greenwald defending
Edward Snowden's release of secret documents, click here. For more on government privacy
invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Exercise May Be as Effective as Drugs in Treating Disease

2013-10-01, Bloomberg BusinessWeek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-01/exercise-may-be-as-effective-as-d...
Physical activity may be as effective as drugs in treating heart disease and should be included as
a comparison in the development of new medicines, according to a review published today in the
British Medical Journal. No statistically detectable differences were evident between exercise
and drug treatment for patients with coronary heart disease or prediabetes, and exercise
was more effective among patients recovering from a stroke, according to a review of 16
meta-analyses that included 305 studies involving 339,274 participants. The analysis adds to
evidence showing the benefit of non-medical approaches to disease through behavior and lifestyle
changes. Given the cost of drug treatment, regulators should consider requiring pharmaceutical
companies to include exercise as a comparator in clinical trials of new medicines, according to
authors Huseyin Naci of Harvard and John Ioannidis of Stanford. Patients deserve to understand
the relative impact that physical activity might have on their condition, Naci and Ioannidis said in
the published paper. In the meantime, exercise interventions should therefore be considered as a
viable alternative to, or, alongside, drug therapy. A landmark study by Dean Ornish, founder of the

Preventive Medicine Research Institute, found that a low-fat vegetarian diet, increased exercise
and stress management can reduce heart disease more than standard medical care. Patients who
receive training from medical professionals on Ornishs program for reversing heart disease have
been reimbursed by Medicare since January 2011.
Note: For more inspiring ideas on replacing drugs with exercise, see Dr. Mercola's article at this
link. For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

NSA spied on Martin Luther King, documents reveal

2013-09-25, USA Today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24279394
The US National Security Agency spied on civil rights leader Martin Luther King and boxer
Muhammad Ali during the height of the Vietnam War protests, declassified documents reveal. The
documents show the NSA also tracked journalists from the New York Times and the Washington
Post and two senators. Some NSA officials later described the programme as "disreputable if not
outright illegal", the documents show. The operation, dubbed "Minaret", was originally exposed in
the 1970s. However, the names of those on the phone-tapping "watch list" had been kept
secret until now. The secret papers were published after a government panel ruled in favour of
researchers at George Washington University. The university's National Security Archive - a
research institute that seeks to check government secrecy - described the names on the NSA's
watch-list as "eye-popping". The agency eavesdropped on civil rights leaders Martin Luther King
and Whitney Young as well as boxing champion Muhammad Ali, New York Times journalist Tom
Wicker and Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald. The NSA also monitored the overseas
phone calls of two prominent US senators - Democrat Frank Church and Republican Howard
Baker. In 1967 the strength of the anti-war campaign led President Lyndon Johnson to ask US
intelligence agencies to find out if some protests were being stoked by foreign governments. Many
of those targeted were considered to be critics of US involvement in the Vietnam War. The
NSA worked with other spy agencies to draw up the "watch lists" of anti-war critics, tapping
their phone calls. The programme continued after Richard Nixon entered the White House in
1969.
Note: These names were kept secret until now allegedly for reason of "national security." Note
how this term is repeatedly used to cover up illegal government activity solely to protect those who
commit these crimes. For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

NSA stories around the world

2013-09-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/23/various-items-nsa-india-...

One of the most overlooked aspects of the NSA reporting in the US has been just how global of a
story this has become. Last week it was revealed that Belgium's largest telecom, Belgacom, was
the victim of a massive hacking attack which systematically compromised its system for as long as
two years. Last week, using documents obtained from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Laura
Poitras and other Der Spiegel journalists reported in that paper that it was the GCHQ, Britain's
intelligence agency, that was behind the attack. According to that report, the attack was carried out
by targeting individual engineers at the telecom with malware that allowed GCHQ agents to "own"
their computer and thus exploit their access to the telecommunications system. As the US and UK
run around the world protesting the hacking activities of others and warning of the dangers
of cyber-attacks, that duo is one of the most aggressive and malicious, if not the most
aggressive and malicious, perpetrators of those attacks of anyone on the planet. Nobody
hacks as prolifically and aggressively as the two countries who most vocally warn of the dangers of
hacking. A coalition called Stop Watching Us has been formed by privacy and civil liberties groups
from across the political spectrum. On October 26, the 12th anniversary of the enactment of the
Patriot Act, they will hold an anti-surveillance rally in Washington DC.
Note: For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Masses of food wasted - 'use by' dates mislead

2013-09-19, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Masses-of-food-wasted-use-by-dates-misl...
Americans throw away 40 percent of the food they buy, often because of misleading
expiration dates that have nothing to do with safety, said a study released [on September 18]
by Harvard University Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental
group. The report said 90 percent of Americans toss good food into the garbage because
they mistakenly think that "sell by," "best before," "use by" or "packed on" dates on food
containers indicate safety. One-fifth of consumers, the report said, "always" throw away food
based on package dates. In fact, "sell by" dates are used by retailers for inventory control. "Best
before" or "use by" dates usually reflect manufacturer estimates of peak quality. While some labels
are intended to indicate freshness, none of them reflects edibility or safety, said Ted Labuza, a
food science professor at the University of Minnesota who collaborated with the authors. "If food
looks rotten and smells bad, throw it away, but just because it reaches a certain date does not
mean the food is unsafe," Labuza said. "I don't know of any food poisoning outbreak that came
from people eating food that was past its shelf-life date." The report estimated the value of food
tossed away at $165 billion a year. Food waste is a big source of greenhouse gases. Wasting food
also squanders vast quantities of water, land, fertilizers, petroleum, packaging and other resources
that go into producing it. About a quarter of all fresh water used in the United States goes into
the making of food that is thrown away, the report said.

Israel has 80 nuclear warheads, can make 115 to 190 more, report says
2013-09-15, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-israel-nuclear-weapons-2013091...
Israel has 80 nuclear warheads and the potential to double that number, according to a new report
by U.S. experts. In the Global Nuclear Weapons Inventories, recently published in the Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists, proliferation experts Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris write that
Israel stopped production of nuclear warheads in 2004. But the country has enough fissile
material for an additional 115 to 190 warheads, according to the report, meaning it could as
much as double its arsenal. Previous estimates have been higher but the new figures agree with
the 2013 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute yearbook on armament and
international security. The yearbook estimated 50 of Israel's nuclear warheads were for
medium-range ballistic missiles and 30 were for for bombs carried by aircraft. Although
widely assumed a nuclear power, Israel has never acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons or
capabilities and continues to maintain its decades-old "strategic ambiguity" policy on the matter,
neither confirming nor denying foreign reports on the issue. In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli
nuclear technician, leaked the country's alleged nuclear secrets to a British newspaper, and said
Israel had at least 100 nuclear weapons. Vanunu was later convicted of espionage and treason
and was released from jail in 2004 after serving 17 years. Israel continued to adhere to its
vagueness policy after comments made by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2006 were
interpreted by many as an inadvertent confirmation that Israel had nuclear weapons.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Georgia school employee hailed as 'real hero' for talking gunman into
giving up
2013-08-21, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/21/us/georgia-school-gunshots/index.html
A man slips behind someone else into a packed elementary school with an AK-47-type
weapon. He goes into the office and shoots at the ground, then darts between there and
outside to fire at approaching police. So what do you do? If you're Antoinette Tuff, who
works in the front office at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy just outside
Atlanta, you don't run. You talk. You divulge your personal struggles to the gunman, you tell him
you love him, you even proactively offer to walk outside with him to surrender so police won't
shoot. And then the nightmare ends with the suspect, later identified as Michael Brandon Hill,
taken into custody and no one inside or outside the Decatur school even hurt, despite the gunfire.
By the end -- with police themselves having never directly talked to him -- Tuff and the gunman
were talking about where he would put his weapon, how he'd empty his pockets and where he'd lie
down before authorities could get him. "It's going to be all right, sweetie," she tells Hill at one point
[audible in the 911 call]. "I just want you to know I love you, though, OK? And I'm proud of you.
That's a good thing that you're just giving up and don't worry about it. We all go through something

in life." Tuff then let the gunman know that she'd been down before herself, but she'd picked
herself up. He could, too. "I thought the same thing, you know, I tried to commit suicide last year
after my husband left me," she said. "But look at me now. I'm still working and everything is OK."
That day, for everyone at that school, everything did turn out OK. Shots were fired, but no one got
hurt. The gunman never made it to the classroom area, deciding instead to give up and lay down.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Kaiser study yields big progress for hypertension

2013-08-21, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Kaiser-study-yields-big-progress-for-hyp...
In just a decade, and using a deceptively simple approach, Kaiser Permanente doubled the
percentage of Northern California patients whose blood pressures were brought down to healthy
levels. The Kaiser program relied on close monitoring by a team of health care workers and the
use of cheaper, more efficient drugs to treat high blood pressure. Over the course of an eightyear study, the percentage of patients with high blood pressure who had it under control
increased from 44 percent in 2001 to 80 percent in 2009. The rate continued to climb after
the study ended, and as of 2011, 87 percent of patients had lowered their high blood
pressure to a healthy level. The results are intriguing because high blood pressure ... is treatable
with medication and lifestyle changes, but has remained stubbornly difficult to control in most
patients, Kaiser doctors said. During the years of the Kaiser study, the number of heart attacks and
strokes fell substantially. Dr. Don Conkling, a 63-year-old Kaiser member who was part of the
study, managed to get his blood pressure into a normal, healthy range for the first time since his
early 40s. He lost about 60 pounds, cut out sugar and meat from his diet, and started walking
several times a day, often for miles at a time, with his dog Sophie. Conkling, a veterinarian in San
Bruno, also meditates every day for 45 minutes or longer to help reduce stress from his job. Not all
patients have to make such drastic lifestyle changes to lower their blood pressure, Conkling said.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The biggest threat to America? The size of its own military budget
2013-08-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's Leading Newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/09/biggest-threat-america-s...
Don't be fooled by terror alerts and dire warnings: the world in general is a safer place than ever.
Don't believe me? Check out what Michael Morell, the No. 2 man at the CIA, had to say about the
threats facing America in this recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. If anyone knows about
foreign threats, it's gotta be this guy, right? He gets to see everything [at the CIA]. The fact is, none
of what Morell describes as a threat actually is a significant threat. And while national security

elites from the secretary of defense to prominent think tank denizens like to describe the world
today as a "dangerous" place, it simply isn't true. There were six wars last year (just six!). This
follows a consistent trend of declining violence that dates back decades. When wars do occur, they
pretty much never occur between states. Since the Gulf war of 1991, territorial conquest has gone
the way of the dodo. Indeed, when the US fights a major war these days, it is generally because
they've started it with consistently disastrous results. What is most striking about Morell's
warnings is, in fact, the stunning hollowness of the threats he describes. If Syria, North Korea and
Iran are truly what threaten us, then truly, we have little to fear from the world outside our
borders. That this grab-bag of minor threats is used to justify a defense budget in the range
of $600bn, an active and reserve force of 1 million troops and a far-flung empire of military
bases and partners not to mention, a rather effective navy and air force, and thousands of
nuclear weapons is astounding. If this is best the CIA can do, they really need to pick up their
game. So, rest easy, America. It's not so bad out there.
Note: Read the powerful words of a top US general showing that war is a racket resulting from
greed and propaganda put out by banks and major corporations at this link. To watch the BBC's
powerful documentary "Power of Nightmares", showing that "Al Qaeda" was likely fabricated and is
in fact little more than a US/UK psychological operation to enable the Global War on Terror, click
here.

Why I changed my mind on weed

2013-08-09, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/index.html
Over the last year, I [CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta] have been working on a
new documentary called "Weed." The title "Weed" may sound cavalier, but the content is not. I
traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. I spoke
candidly to them, asking tough questions. What I found was stunning. Long before I began this
project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States
and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a
case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009,
titled "Why I would Vote No on Pot." Well, I am here to apologize. I apologize because I didn't look
hard enough, until now. I didn't look far enough. I didn't review papers from smaller labs in other
countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of
legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis. I mistakenly believed the Drug
Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific
proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most
dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse." They didn't
have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana
neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are
very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that
works.

Note: This article was authored by CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. For
more on the proven benefits from many mind-altering drugs, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Your TV might be watching you

2013-08-01, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/01/technology/security/tv-hack/index.html
Today's high-end televisions are almost all equipped with "smart" PC-like features, including
Internet connectivity, apps, microphones and cameras. But a recently discovered security hole in
some Samsung Smart TVs shows that many of those bells and whistles aren't ready for prime
time. The flaws in Samsung Smart TVs, which have now been patched, enabled hackers to
remotely turn on the TVs' built-in cameras without leaving any trace of it on the screen. While
you're watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world could have been watching you.
Hackers also could have easily rerouted an unsuspecting user to a malicious website to
steal bank account information. Samsung quickly fixed the problem after security researchers at
iSEC Partners informed the company about the bugs. Samsung sent a software update to all
affected TVs. But the glitches speak to a larger problem of gadgets that connect to the Internet but
have virtually no security to speak of. Security cameras, lights, heating control systems and even
door locks and windows are now increasingly coming with features that allow users to control them
remotely. Without proper security controls, there's little to stop hackers from invading users'
privacy, stealing personal information or spying on people. In the case of Samsung Smart TVs,
iSEC researchers found that they could tap into the TV's Web browser with ease, according to
iSEC security analyst Josh Yavor. That gave hackers access to all the functions controlled by the
browser, including the TV's built-in camera. "If there's a vulnerability in any application, there's
a vulnerability in the entire TV," said Aaron Grattafiori, also an analyst at iSEC.
Note: For how deep this problem goes, read this article. For more on corporate and government
privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Americans pay GCHQ 100m to spy for them, leaked papers claim
2013-08-01, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10217280/Americans-pay-GCHQ-10...
GCHQ has received at least 100 million from the US to help fund intelligence gathering, raising
questions over American influence on the British agencies. The money was paid across a range
of projects over three years and resulted in GCHQ spying on behalf of America, according
to leaked documents. It also emerged that the intelligence agency wants the ability to
exploit any phone, anywhere, any time and that some staff have raised concerns over the
morality and ethics of their operational work. The payments from the US National Security
Agency (NSA) are detailed in GCHQs annual investment portfolios, leaked by Mr Snowden to

The Guardian. The NSA paid GCHQ 22.9 million in 2009, 39.9 million in 2010 and 34.7 million
in 2011/12. The 2010 funding included ... 17.2 million for the agencys Mastering the Internet
project, which gathers raw information from the web to be analysed. In return, GCHQ has to have
the American view in mind when prioritising work, the papers claim. One strategy briefing
disclosed the pressure on GCHQ to meet NSA demands, saying: GCHQ must pull its weight and
be seen to pull its weight. In another document, from 2010, GCHQ apparently acknowledged that
the US had raised a number of issues with regards to meeting NSAs minimum expectations.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the

internet'
2013-07-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior
authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of
millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The
NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching"
system for developing intelligence from the internet. The files shed light on one of Snowden's most
controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.
"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a
federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email". Training materials for XKeyscore
detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by
filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The
request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. One
presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the
internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their
metadata. Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time"
interception of an individual's internet activity. XKeyscore provides the technological capability [to
target] US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some
identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.
Note: For more on government privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

A Universe Full of Planets

2013-07-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/opinion/global/a-universe-full-of-planets.h...

Using techniques of exquisite sensitivity and technological finesse, astronomers have spent the
past two decades on an astonishing voyage of cosmic discovery. They have found that the
universe is full of planets: cold, small, and dark next to their large and glaring suns, these worlds
have previously been hidden from us. To spot them represents a challenge that has been
compared to looking across thousands of miles to see a firefly buzzing around a brilliant
searchlight. They exert a gravitational pull, tugging their parent stars into a gently wobbling motion
that we can now detect. We now have firm evidence for thousands of planets, around thousands of
stars. We also know something about these worlds, their sizes, their orbits, often their ages. In a
handful of cases ... we have even measured the temperature of their upper atmospheres and
[determined] their gaseous chemistry, finding substances like sodium, methane and water. No
matter how conservative or optimistic we are, the statistics tell us that something like an
astonishing one out of every seven stars must harbor a planet similar in size to the Earth,
and at roughly the right orbital distance to allow for the possibility of a temperate surface
environment. In other words, roughly 15 percent of all suns could, in principle, be hosting a place
suitable for life as we know it. Since our galaxy contains at least 200 billion stars, this implies a
vast arena for the universes ubiquitous carbon chemistry to play in a process that, as here on
Earth, might lead to the complex machinery of life. Indeed, there is a 95-percent confidence
give or take a few percent that one of these worlds could be within a mere 16 light years of us.
Note: For fascinating testimony from top military and government officials revealing a major coverup of the existence of UFOs and ETs, click here. For more on the nature of reality, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Delaware 'Public Benefit Corporation' Lets Directors Serve Three

Masters Instead Of One
2013-07-16, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/07/16/delaware-public-benefit-c...
[On July 17 Delaware] Gov. Jack Markell is scheduled to sign a law creating a new public benefit
corporation where directors must balance the interests of the owners with those of employees, the
general public and the environment. Delaware becomes the 19th state to pass such a law, but
it may be the most important one since it is home to half of all publicly traded U.S.
companies. Not that Ford Motor Co. or Intel are likely to avail themselves of this new corporate
structure. Under the Delaware law, 90% of shareholders must approve a shift to benefit status. The
law will likely be more popular with closely held firms like Etsy, the online marketplace for
handmade products with more than $500 million a year in sales. It gives them a chance to declare
a broader set of objectives than profit alone, and a legal structure to pursue them without risking
lawsuits by disgruntled shareholders who might prefer a fatter dividend, say, than the comfort of
knowing no endangered species were wiped out by their companys logging operations. Under the
new Delaware law, the purpose of a public benefit corporation is to operate in a
responsible and sustainable manner. Directors cant be sued for pursuing objectives that

advance artistic, charitable, cultural scientific or technological goals. The benefit

corporation movement has even formed the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board to come
up with the equivalent of GAAP for the Birkenstock-wearing set.
Note: For more on this exciting development, see the Huffington Post article written by Delaware's
governor at this link.

What the Government Pays to Snoop on You

2013-07-10, CNBC/Associated Press
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100876701
In the era of intense government surveillance and secret court orders, a murky multimillion-dollar
market has emerged. Paid for by U.S. tax dollars, but with little public scrutiny, surveillance fees
charged in secret by technology and phone companies can vary wildly. AT&T, for example,
imposes a $325 "activation fee" for each wiretap and $10 a day to maintain it. Smaller
carriers Cricket and U.S. Cellular charge only about $250 per wiretap. But snoop on a Verizon
customer? That costs the government $775 for the first month and $500 each month after that.
Regardless of price, the surveillance business is growing. The U.S. government long has enjoyed
access to phone networks and high-speed Internet traffic under the U.S. Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to catch suspected criminals and terrorists. More recently, the
FBI has pushed technology companies like Google and Skype to guarantee access to real-time
communications on their services. As the number of law enforcement requests for data grew and
carriers upgraded their technology, the cost of accommodating government surveillance requests
increased. AT&T, for example, said it devotes roughly 100 employees to review each request
and hand over data. Likewise, Verizon said its team of 70 employees works around the
clock, seven days a week to handle the quarter-million requests it gets each year.
Note: For more on government and corporate attacks on privacy, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Breaking the Seal on Drug Research

2013-06-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/business/breaking-the-seal-on-drug-research...
Peter Doshi ... is one of the most influential voices in medical research today. Dr. Doshis renown
comes not from solving the puzzles of cancer or discovering the next blockbuster drug, but from
pushing the worlds biggest pharmaceutical companies to open their records to outsiders. Together
with a band of far-flung researchers and activists, he is trying to unearth data from clinical trials
complex studies that last for years and often involve thousands of patients across many countries
and make it public. The current system, the activists say, is one in which the meager details of
clinical trials published in medical journals, often by authors with financial ties to the companies
whose drugs they are writing about, is insufficient to the point of being misleading. For years,

researchers have talked about the problem of publication bias, or selectively publishing
results of trials. Concern about such bias gathered force in the 1990s and early 2000s,
when researchers documented how, time and again, positive results were published while
negative ones were not. Taken together, studies have shown that results of only about half of
clinical trials make their way into medical journals. In 2009, Dr. Doshi and his colleagues set out to
answer a simple question about the anti-flu drug Tamiflu: Does it work? Resolving that question
has been far harder than they ever envisioned, and, four years later, there is still no definitive
answer.
Note: If the public is going to be taking these drugs, shouldn't all safety studies be publicly
available? What are the drug companies hiding? For more on corruption in the pharmaceutical
industry, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

'Whitey' Bulger Trial Details FBI Corruption

2013-06-27, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/whitey-bulger-trial-details-fbi-corruption/story?id=...
Former FBI supervisor John Morris thought he had left his sordid relationship with James "Whitey"
Bulger back in Boston along with the envelopes of money, the cases of expensive wine, the homecooked meals he had prepared for the accused mob boss. Then the phone rang one night. It was
1995 and Bulger had become a fugitive from justice. It was Bulger on the phone. And he was livid.
A Boston newspaper had reported that Bulger was a longtime FBI informant, and Bulger wanted
Morris to have the story retracted. "He said if he was going to jail ... I was going with him." Morris
testified in the trial of Bulger, 83, who is accused of a string of crimes, including 19 murders.
Testimony during the trial has stated Bulger ran a criminal enterprise with the help of corrupt FBI
agents [John] Connolly and Morris, and that Bulger was an FBI informant concerning his criminal
rivals. Morris' testimony put a spotlight on a staggering amount of corruption in the Boston
FBI field office that included cash bribes and tip-offs to wiretaps. Connolly's relationship with
Bulger extended into the Massachusetts State House, Morris testified. His friendship with Bulger's
brother, then Senate President William Bulger, [could] land him a job as the Boston police
commissioner upon his retirement from the bureau. Connolly's behavior did not raise any
eyebrows with the Special Agents in Charge of the Boston FBI field office, Morris told the
court. In fact it was quite the opposite. FBI bosses sought Connolly's friendship, Morris testified.
"He had tremendous access across the board to everything including sports events, political
figures," Morris testified.
Note: For more on major corruption within the FBI and other intelligence services, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Was Michael Hastings' Car Hacked? Richard Clarke Says It's Possible
2013-06-24, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/michael-hastings-car-hacked_n_349233...

The peculiar circumstances of journalist Michael Hastings' death in Los Angeles last week have
unleashed a wave of conspiracy theories. Now there's another theory to contribute to the paranoia:
According to a prominent security analyst, technology exists that could [have] allowed someone to
hack his car. Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counterterrorism Richard Clarke [said] that what is known about the single-vehicle crash is "consistent
with a car cyber attack." Clarke said, "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for
major powers" -- including the United States -- know how to remotely seize control of a car. "It's
relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as
cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when
the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke told The Huffington Post.
Hastings was driving a 2013 Mercedes C250 coupe when he crashed into a tree on Highland Ave.
in Los Angeles at approximately 4:30 am on June 18. Video posted online showed the car in
flames, and one neighbor told a local news crew she heard a sound like an explosion. Another
eyewitness said the car's engine had been thrown 50 to 60 yards from the car. There were no
other vehicles involved in the accident. The fire was so all-consuming that it took the Los Angeles
County coroner's office two days to identify Hastings' body, but Clarke said a cyber attack on the
vehicle would have been nearly impossible to trace "even if the dozen or so computers on board
hadn't melted."
Note: For a video of a DARPA specialist talking about how any computerized function of a car can
be taken over, click here. This news article shows how a university test proved a car's onboard
computer can be hacked. For an excellent video presenting powerful evidence that Hastings' death
was anything but suicide, click here. For a Fox News video showing other evidence of
premeditated murder, click here. In this video, a good friend states he had just received an email
from Hastings that he had a story on the CIA that would be the biggest story yet. A later email then
said he was worried as he was now under FBI investigation.

How Barrett Brown shone light on the murky world of security

contractors [and is now jailed]
2013-06-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/surveillance-us-national-...
[Barrett] Brown is not a household name like Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning. But after
helping expose a dirty tricks plot, he faces jail. Brown made a splash in February 2011 by helping
to uncover "Team Themis", a project by intelligence contractors retained by Bank of America to
demolish the hacker society known as Anonymous. The Team Themis story began in late 2010,
when Julian Assange warned WikiLeaks would release documents outlining an "ecosystem of
corruption [that] could take down a bank or two." Bank of America went into damage-control mode
and, as the New York Times reported, assembled "a team of 15 to 20 top Bank of America officials
scouring thousands of documents in the event that they become public." Days later, Bank of
America retained the well-connected law firm of Hunton & Williams [which] "proposed various
schemes to attack" WikiLeaks. Its partners suggested creating false documents and fake personas

to damage progressive organizations. The tech companies' emails which Anonymous

hacked and Barrett Brown helped publicize listed planned tactics: "Feed[ing] the fuel
between the feuding groups. Disinformation. Create messages around actions to sabotage
or discredit the opposing organization. Submit fake documents and then call out the error."
Brown [has] been cooling his heels in a jail outside Dallas ... awaiting two separate trials that could
put him on ice for more than 100 years. In contrast to the FBI's aggressive pursuit of Brown, no
probe of the Team Themis project was launched despite a call from 17 US House
representatives to investigate a possible conspiracy to violate federal laws.
Note: With the wide focus on the privatized national security state by the leaks from Edward
Snowden, there is renewed interest in Brown's plight and the campaign for justice in his case. For
more on this and to support Barret Brown, click here. For more on intelligence agency corruption,
see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's

communications
2013-06-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communicati...
Britain's spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the
world's phone calls and internet traffic and has started to process vast streams of sensitive
personal information which it is sharing with its American partner, the National Security Agency
(NSA). The sheer scale of the agency's ambition is reflected in the titles of its two principal
components: Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation, aimed at scooping up as
much online and telephone traffic as possible. This is all being carried out without any form of
public acknowledgement or debate. One key innovation has been GCHQ's ability to tap into and
store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days so that it can be sifted
and analysed. GCHQ and the NSA are consequently able to access and process vast
quantities of communications between entirely innocent people, as well as targeted
suspects. This includes recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, entries
on Facebook and the history of any internet user's access to websites all of which is
deemed legal, even though the warrant system was supposed to limit interception to a specified
range of targets. The existence of the programme has been disclosed in documents shown to the
Guardian by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Britain's technical capacity to tap into the
cables that carry the world's communications ... has made GCHQ an intelligence superpower. A
total of 850,000 NSA employees and US private contractors with top secret clearance had access
to GCHQ databases.
Note: For solid evidence spy agencies targeted even top politicians, click here. For more on
intelligence agency corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits

2013-06-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/16/gchq-intercepted-communications-g20-...
Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had
their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British
government hosts. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up
by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic. The disclosure raises new questions
about the boundaries of surveillance by GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters] and
its American sister organisation, the National Security Agency [NSA], whose access to phone
records and internet data has been defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism and
serious crime. There have often been rumours of this kind of espionage at international
conferences, but it is highly unusual for hard evidence to confirm it and spell out the detail.
The evidence is contained in documents classified as top secret which were uncovered
by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and seen by the Guardian. They reveal that during
G20 meetings in April and September 2009 GCHQ used what one document calls "groundbreaking intelligence capabilities" to intercept the communications of visiting delegations. This
included: Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and keylogging software to spy on delegates' use of computers; Penetrating the security on delegates'
BlackBerrys to monitor their email messages and phone calls; Supplying 45 analysts with a live
round-the-clock summary of who was phoning who at the summit.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of
intelligence agencies, click here

Former Bank of America workers allege lies to homeowners

2013-06-14, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/sns-bank-of-america-workers-a...
Six former Bank of America Corp. employees have alleged that the bank deliberately denied
eligible home owners loan modifications and lied to them about the status of their mortgage
payments and documents. The bank allegedly used these tactics to shepherd homeowners into
foreclosure, as well as in-house loan modifications. Both yielded the bank more profits than the
government-sponsored Home Affordable Modification Program, according to documents recently
filed as part of a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court. The former employees, who worked at
Bank of America centers throughout the United States, said the bank rewarded customer
service representatives who foreclosed on homes with cash bonuses and gift cards to retail
stores such as Target Corp and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. At the same time, the bank punished
those who did not make the numbers or objected to its tactics with discipline, including firing. About
twice a month, the bank cleaned out its HAMP backlog in an operation called "blitz," where it
declined thousands of loan modification requests just because the documents were more than 60
months old, the court documents say. The testimony from the former employees also alleges the

bank falsified information it gave the government, saying it had given out HAMP loan modifications
when it had not. Borrowers filed the civil case against Bank of America in 2010 and are now
seeking class certification.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

America's private prison system is a national disgrace

2013-06-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/13/aclu-lawsuit-east-mississ...
Privatization [of government functions] often comes with a lack of oversight and a series of abuses.
One particularly stunning example is the American prison system, the realities of which should be
a national disgrace. Some of those realities are highlighted in a recent lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility
(EMCF). EMCF houses severely mentally ill prisoners, with the supposed intent of providing both
incarceration and treatment. Instead, the ACLU contends, the facility, which is operated by private
contractors, is rife with horrific abuses. The complaint lists a litany of such horrors, [including]:
Rampant rapes. Placing prisoners in solitary confinement for weeks, months or even years at a
time. Rat infestations so bad that vermin crawl over prisoners. Many suicide attempts, some
successful. Denying or delaying treatment for infections and even cancer. Stabbings, beatings and
other acts of violence. Malnourishment and chronic hunger. Officers who deal with prisoners by
using physical violence. The [US] prison system is increasingly built and run by for-profit
corporations, who have a financial interest in increasing the number of people in prison
while decreasing the amount of money it costs to house them. Since 1980, the US prison
population has grown by 790%. We have the largest prison population of any nation in the
history of the world.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption and human
rights abuses in prisons, click here.

'Gay lobby' in the Vatican, says Pope Francis

2013-06-11, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/101137...
Pope Francis has admitted that a "gay lobby" exists within the Vatican's administration and is
planning to take action about it, according to reports. "Yes, it is difficult," he reportedly said. "In the
Curia there are holy people, truly holy people. But there is also a current of corruption, also there is
... a 'gay lobby' and that is true. It is there ... we will have to see what we can do." In February,
Italian newspapers reported that a dossier on scandals within the Vatican, ordered by Pope
Benedict XVI and delivered to him in December, exposed a network of patronage among a
powerful lobby of homosexual churchmen as well as the potential blackmailing of

homosexuals. The Italian reports suggested that the details exposed had pushed Benedict
to resign in February. The dossier was compiled by three senior cardinals, who were charged
with looking into secret rivalries and corruption within the Vatican following the leaking of
Benedict's private letters by his butler, Paolo Gabriele. In his audience, Pope Francis allegedly
promised to reform the Vatican but said it would be "difficult" and that he could not carry out the
reforms himself because he was "disorganised". He reportedly said he would be relying on the
commission of eight cardinals he appointed in April to organise reform of the Curia, which is due to
meet in October.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on secrecy, click here.

U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies
in broad secret program
2013-06-07, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from...
The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine
leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails,
documents, and connection logs. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public
until now. It may be the first of its kind. Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants,
according to the document: Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers:
Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple. GCHQ, Britains
equivalent of the NSA, also has been secretly gathering intelligence from the same internet
companies through an operation set up by the NSA. PRISM was launched from the ashes of
President George W. Bushs secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after
news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the
president to look for new authority. Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the
FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily
with U.S. intelligence collection. Government officials and the document itself made clear that
the NSA regarded the identities of its private partners as PRISMs most sensitive secret,
fearing that the companies would withdraw from the program if exposed. 98 percent of
PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft; we need to make sure we
dont harm these sources, the briefings author wrote in his speakers notes.
Note: For graphs and lots more on the Prism program, see the Guardian article at this link.
Technically, U.S. officials are not allowed to mine personal data from U.S. citizens. Yet if U.K.
authorities mine data on U.S. citizens, they can share it freely with officials in the U.S. and vice
versa. There is evidence that this happens quite frequently, thus circumventing privacy protections.
For an excellent article which goes deep into this issue, click here.

Graham: FBI hindered Congresss 9/11 inquiry, withheld reports about

Sarasota Saudis
2013-06-05, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/05/3434487/graham-fbi-hindered-congresss.html
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has accused the FBI in court papers of having impeded
Congresss Joint Inquiry into 9/11 by withholding information about a Florida connection to the ...
attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The information ... includes a recently declassified FBI
report that ties a Saudi family who once lived in Sarasota to individuals associated with the
terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. The FBIs failure to call (to the Joint Inquirys attention) documents
finding many connections between Saudis living in the United States and individuals associated
with the terrorist attack(s) interfered with the Inquirys ability to complete its mission, said
Graham, co-chairman of the Joint Inquiry. Graham said the FBI kept the 9/11 Commission in the
dark, too. He said co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton and executive director Philip
Zelikow all told him they were unaware of the FBIs Sarasota investigation. Moreover, Graham
stated that Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce, the Bureaus second in command, personally
intervened to block him from speaking with the special agent-in-charge of the Sarasota
investigation. I am troubled by what appears to me to be a persistent effort by the FBI to
conceal from the American people information concerning possible Saudi support of the
Sept. 11 attacks, Floridas former governor said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the 9/11 attacks, click
here.

Facebook rejects rape culture. Can you?

2013-05-31, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/30/opinion/chemaly-facebook/index.html
After I wrote an article about misogyny found on Facebook, people began to send me links to
content that they had tried and failed to have removed by the site. Among these was a sevenminute video depicting a gang-rape of a girl by the side of the road. I began looking more deeply
into the subject. I came across "humor" pages with names like "Raping Your Girlfriend." There
were easily accessed pictures and videos of girls and women frightened, humiliated, bruised,
beaten, raped, [and] bathed in blood. In one instance, Facebook declined to remove an image of a
woman, mouth covered in tape, in which the caption read, "Don't tap her and rap her. Tape her and
rape her." The photo went viral. Facebook's response ... "the photo ... did not violate our
community standards." I joined [others] to launch a global campaign to confront
institutionalized sexism in media. We wrote an open letter to Facebook, co-signed by more than
100 organizations, asking the company ... to train people to recognize violence against women as
hateful. We encouraged users of Facebook to send messages to its advertisers encouraging them
to boycott the social media network. Over seven days, men and women around the world sent
more than 60,000 tweets ... and 5,000 e-mails to targeted advertisers, 16 of whom withdrew
their advertising. Facebook responded, noting that its "systems to identify and remove hate
speech have failed to work as effectively" as they would like. We are in the midst of a shifting

cultural tide in which gender based violence -- historically kept private -- is better understood as a
pandemic problem. Facebook's action represents an open acknowledgment that violence against
women is a serious issue [that] deserves serious attention.
Note: How sad that it took facebook advertisers withdrawing their support to make this change.
And how awesome that the writer of this article, Soraya Chemaly, had to the courage to stand up
and do something about it by initiating this sexism campaign against facebook, and to inspire
others to join her. Working together, we can make a difference.

What Goldman Sachs should admit: it drives up the cost of food

2013-05-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/23/goldman-sachs-agm-drive-f...
[In 2012,] financial speculator Goldman Sachs, the archetypal villain of the global economic
meltdown, bailed out by US taxpayers to the tune of $5.5bn ... made an estimated $400m from
speculating on food. The World Bank estimated in 2010 that 44 million people were pushed into
poverty because of high food prices, and that speculation is one of the main causes. Since
Goldman led the drive to deregulate commodity markets in the 1990s ... they've been at the
vanguard of creating and promoting complex commodity instruments, from which they've raked in
huge profits. Wallace Turbeville, a former vice president and the inventor of commodity index
funds, has been outing the company's methods. He says that in his time at Goldman, investment
increased from $3bn in 2003 to $260bn in 2008, and commodity prices rose dramatically
during the same period, increasing from 2006 to 2008 by an average of 71%. In 1996,
speculators held 12% of the positions on the Chicago wheat market, with most of the market being
made up of the legitimate users of food from farmers to producers. But the legitimate hedging
element of commodity markets has virtually disappeared in the intervening years. By 2011, pure
speculators made up a staggering 61% of the market. Of course, Goldman Sachs isn't the
only player, but it is certainly the largest. For several years, it was hotly debated whether
speculation in food commodities drives up prices. But the evidence now firmly says it does, and
that there's little correlation between rising prices and actual supply and demand. There are now
well over 100 studies which agree.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

Finally! Independent Testing Of Rossi's E-Cat Cold Fusion Device:

Maybe The World Will Change After All
2013-05-20, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2013/05/20/finally-independent-testing-...

Back in October 2011 I first wrote about Italian engineer, Andrea Rossi, and his E-Cat project, a
device that produces heat through a process called a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR). Very
briefly, LENR, otherwise called cold fusion, is a technique that generates energy through low
temperature (far lower than hot fusion temperatures which are in the range of tens off thousands of
degrees) reactions that are not chemical. Most importantly, LENR is, theoretically, much safer,
much simpler, and many orders of magnitude cheaper than hot fusion. What everyone wanted was
something that Rossi has been promising was about to happen for months: An independent test by
third parties who were credible. A report by credible, independent third parties is exactly what we
got. Published on May 16, the paper [is] titled Indication of anomalous heat energy production in a
reactor device, [by] serious academics with reputations to lose and the paper is detailed and
thorough. The authors [conclude,] "if we consider the whole volume of the reactor core and
the most conservative figures on energy production, we still get a value ... that is one order
of magnitude higher than any conventional source." This is not, of course, the last word or
even one anywhere near the end of this story but unless this is one of the most elaborate hoaxes
in scientific history it looks like the world may well be about to change. How quick will depend
solely on Rossi.
Note: For another point of view on this breakthrough testing, see the well written article at this link.
For dozens of other major media articles reporting spectacular breakthroughs in new energy
technology that strangely were neither debunked nor followed up on, click here.

U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto's GMO crops overseas: report

2013-05-14, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-usa-gmo-reportbre94d0il-2013...
U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops
developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on [May 14] said.
A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and
embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the
commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water
Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group. The officials tried to quash public criticism of
particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed
companies such as Monsanto over issues like patents and intellectual property, the report said.
The cables show U.S. diplomats supporting Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in
foreign countries even after it paid $1.5 million in fines after being charged with bribing an
Indonesian official and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2005. One 2009 cable
shows the embassy in Spain seeking "high-level U.S. government intervention" at the "urgent
request" of Monsanto to combat biotech crop opponents there. The report covered cables from
2005-2009 that were released by Wikileaks in 2010. "It really goes beyond promoting the U.S.'s
biotech industry and agriculture," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
"It really gets down to twisting the arms of countries and working to undermine local democratic
movements that may be opposed to biotech crops."

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Roger Stones New Book Solves JFK Assassination: Johnson Did It!
2013-05-14, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/14/roger-stone-s-new-book-solve...
The colorful GOP consultant Roger Stone is out with The Man Who Killed Kennedy. Roger Stone
has had a long and colorful career in the darker undersides of Republican politics, from working on
Richard Nixons Committee for the Re-Election of the President, to helping bring down New York
Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Stone lays the half-century-old murder at the feet of Kennedys vice
president, who Stone claims had John F. Kennedy murdered and then as president used
those powers to cover up the murder. Johnson is facing jail, ruin, and the end of his
political career. He is a very desperate man. Johnson knows that he is about to be indicted. He
knows that Life magazine is going to publish an expos regarding his relationship with Bobby
Baker [a Johnson protg accused of bribery]. After Kennedys death, Life magazine spikes the
story. Johnson knows that [John F.] Kennedy has told a number of people, before leaving
Washington, that he will dump Johnson and take Terry Sanford, then the governor of North
Carolina, for vice president. Hes got a set of hearings coming up about his relationship to Billie Sol
Estes [a Johnson ally later jailed for fraud]. Nixon, Stone says, had a long relationship with Jack
Ruby, dating back to the time Nixon served on the House Un-American Activities Committee.
There, Stone says, Ruby acted as an informant at Johnsons request. Stone is vague when asked
to lay out exactly how Johnson was able to organize a team of assassins in Dallas for Nov. 22,
1963, but said the Dallas police force and the Secret Service were complicit.
Note: For a powerful episode of the History Channel's "Men Who Killed Kennedy" presenting
undeniable evidence Johnson was involved with JFK's assassination, click here.

IRS apologizes for inappropriately targeting conservative political

groups in 2012 election
2013-05-11, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/irs-apologizes-for-inappropriately-tar...
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as
2011, according to a draft of an inspector generals report obtained by The Associated Press that
seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner. The IRS apologized [on May
10] for what it acknowledged was inappropriate targeting of conservative political groups during
the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed lowlevel employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner,
who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that
groups were being targeted, according to the watchdogs report. At the meeting, she was told that
groups with Tea Party, Patriot or 9/12 Project in their names were being flagged for additional

and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. The 9-12 Project is a group started by
conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for
flagging groups immediately, the report says. On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging
suspect groups was changed to, political action type organizations involved in
limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social
economic reform/movement, the report says.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Alien Nation: Have Humans Been Abducted by Extraterrestrials?

2013-05-10, Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/americans-alien-abduction-science
John Edward Mack, a Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer and Harvard Medical School
psychiatrist, spent years trying to fathom their stories [those who claimed alien abduction]
and reached an astonishing conclusion: they were telling the truth. That is, they were not
insane or deluded. In some unknown space/time dimension, something real had actually
happened to themnot that Mack could explain just what or how. Mack graduated cum laude
from Harvard Medical School and, while only a resident, founded one of the nations first outpatient
hospitals. Days before his 75th birthday, he looked the wrong way down a London street and
stepped in front of a drunk driver. But 20 years ago, when he burst onto the scene as the Harvard
professor who believed in alien abduction, he was probably the most famous, or infamous,
academic in America. Suddenly he was under investigation at Harvard, the target of a grueling
inquisition. But two decades after Mack took alien abduction from the pages of the National
Enquirer to the hallowed halls of Harvard, the question remains: why would a pillar of the
psychiatric establishment at Americas oldest university court professional suicide to champion the
most ridiculed and tormented outcasts of society? "I was raised as the strictest of materialists,
Mack told the writer C. D. B. Bryan. He had always assumed that anyone claiming to have been
abducted by aliens was crazy, along with those who took them seriously. [Yet eventually] Mack
appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with five of his lucid, articulate, and normal-acting
abductees. He believes them when they say they have been on the aliens spaceships, declared
Oprah.
Note: Read this entire article to find out how a successful and skeptical Harvard professor came
not only to believe some alien abductions were real, but had the courage to present the evidence
for it to his peers and to the public. To watch the profoundly moving documentary "Touched,"
featuring Prof. Mack, click here. For lots more reliable, verifiable information suggesting a major
cover-up of the UFO phenomenon, click here.

Teslas Model S receives top rating from Consumer Reports

2013-05-09, Washington Post/Bloomberg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tesla-electric-model-s-sedan-grabs-con...
Tesla Motors Inc.s electric Model S, Motor Trends 2013 Car of the Year, received the highest
rating from Consumer Reports in an evaluation of the luxury sedan that led first-quarter North
American plug-in car sales. The Model S from Palo Alto, California-based Tesla scored 99 out of
100 points, the non-profit magazine said in an e-mailed statement. The $89,650 car bought by
Consumer Reports performed better, or just as well overall as any vehicle its ever tested,
the ... magazine said. It accelerates, handles and brakes like a sports car, it has the ride
and quietness of a luxury car and is far more energy efficient than the best hybrid cars,
said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports director of automotive testing. No rechargeable car has won
a score as high as the Model S. The magazine last gave a vehicle 99 points in 2007, when Toyota
Motor Corp.s Lexus LS460L ranked that high. Model S shortcomings include limited range, long
charge times and coupe-like styling that impairs rear visibility and impedes access, Consumer
Reports said. Along with reliability that isnt yet determined, Tesla still has a limited service
network, the magazine said. The test vehicle had an 85-kilowatt/hour lithium-ion battery pack and
averaged about 200 miles (322 kilometers) per charge in real-world driving, the magazine said.
The Tesla is easily the most practical electric car that has been tested to date, Consumer Reports
said.
Note: After undeniable suppression of the electric car by car manufacturers, independent upstart
Tesla Motors has done it! Expect to see more breakthroughs from this great new company. For
more on the company's amazing namesake and how his inventions were suppressed, click here.

Indisputable Torture
2013-04-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/opinion/indisputable-torture-of-prisoners.html
A dozen years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, an independent, nonpartisan panels
examination of the interrogation and detention programs carried out in their aftermath by the Bush
administration ... provides a valuable, even necessary reckoning. The work of the [11-member task
force convened by the Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group] is informed by
interviews with dozens of former American and foreign officials, as well as with former prisoners. It
is the fullest independent effort so far to assess the treatment of detainees at Guantnamo Bay, in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the C.I.A.s secret prisons. The reports authoritative conclusion that
the United States engaged in the practice of torture is impossible to dismiss. The report found
that those methods violated international legal obligations with no firm or persuasive evidence
that they produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. The
task force found that using torture like waterboarding, slamming prisoners into walls,
and chaining them in uncomfortable stress position for hours had no justification. And
in engineering enforced disappearances and secret detentions, the United States violated
its international treaty obligations. As the panel notes, there never was before the kind of

considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his
top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees
in our custody.
Note: For another informative article on this from the Times, click here.

Ex-Regulator Says Reactors Are Flawed

2013-04-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/us/ex-regulator-says-nuclear-reactors-in-un...
All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem
that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology, the former
chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on [April 8]. Shutting them all down at
once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their
lives. The position of the former chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, is not unusual in that various antinuclear groups take the same stance. But it is highly unusual for a former head of the nuclear
commission to so bluntly criticize an industry whose safety he was previously in charge of
ensuring. Dr. Jaczko made his remarks at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in
Washington in a session about the Fukushima accident. Dr. Jaczko said that many American
reactors that had received permission from the nuclear commission to operate for 20 years beyond
their initial 40-year licenses probably would not last that long. He also rejected as unfeasible
changes proposed by the commission that would allow reactor owners to apply for a second 20year extension, meaning that some reactors would run for a total of 80 years. Dr. Jaczko resigned
as chairman last summer after months of conflict with his four colleagues on the commission. He
often voted in the minority on various safety questions, advocated more vigorous safety
improvements, and was regarded with deep suspicion by the nuclear industry.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on grave risks caused by
corruption in the nuclear power industry, click here.

Toyota Rav4 EV review: electrifying

2013-03-25, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Toyota-Rav4-EV-review-electrifyin...
In the new crop of electric cars, the Rav4 may be the best you've never heard of. It comes from
one of the world's largest automakers and sports a drivetrain built by Tesla Motors, rock star of the
plug-in world. And yet, outside the circle of electric enthusiasts, few drivers know it exists. You
can buy it only in California. Toyota doesn't advertise it on TV. So far, the company has
committed to building just 2,600. Critics, including some people who love the Rav4 EV, say
Toyota made it only to comply with California regulations that force automakers to sell
zero-pollution cars. "Everyone agrees it's a wonderful car," said Felix Kramer, founder of
CalCars, a plug-in vehicle advocacy group. "Too bad there's not enough." That suspicion comes

from experience. Toyota made an electric version of the Rav4 once before, building 1,484 of the
small SUVs between 1997 and 2003. Then the company killed the program, after California
changed its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) rules. The new Rav4 EV ... boasts ferocious acceleration,
plenty of power and a low center of gravity thanks to the big battery pack hidden in the floor. It's
not a luxury car, but the interior is comfortable and plush, tricked out with a touch-screen and
heated seats. Those so inclined can take the Rav4 EV from a standstill to 60 mph in 7 seconds.
The car gets a solid 125 miles on a fully charged battery pack, and an easy-to-read number on the
dash constantly reminds you how many miles you have left.
Note: Once again a major car manufacturer produces a great electric vehicle only to suppress it.
Remember "Who Killed the Electric Car", the movie on GM's EV1 which was killed despite major
consumer interest? Then there was Toyota's 100 mpg Eco Spirit which was also killed. For lots
more reliable information on this suggesting industry suppression of energy breakthroughs, click
here.

Profile: Global campaign group Avaaz

2013-02-28, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17199253
Avaaz - meaning "voice" in Farsi as well as several other European, Middle Eastern and Asian
languages - describes itself as "a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to
decision-making everywhere". According to the group's website, it was launched in 2007 with a
mission to "organise citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the
world most people everywhere want". It campaigns in 15 languages and is served by a small core
team of 52 full-time staff worldwide and thousands of volunteers in all 192 UN member states,
including Iran and China, where its website is illegal. "Our model of internet organising allows
thousands of individual efforts, however small, to be rapidly combined into a powerful
collective force," it says. Avaaz's founder and executive director, Ricken Patel, told the Times
newspaper earlier this month: "There are two types of fatalism. The belief the world can't change,
and the belief you can't play a role in changing it." The group employs a wide variety of tactics
in its campaigns, including collating petitions with hundreds of thousands, if not millions,
of signatures; organising demonstrations and phone-ins; fundraising, and paying for
advertising. It says its successes range from helping to uphold the EU ban on GM crops to
helping to circumventing the Burmese government's ban on international aid after Cyclone Nargis.
Note: The membership of this great organization has rapidly grown to over 20 million worldwide.
Consider joining them and making your voice heard at avaaz.org. You can start a petition there
which just might draw millions of supporters and make a real difference in building a better world.
For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

British terror suspects quietly stripped of citizenship then killed by

drones

2013-02-28, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/british-terror-suspects-quietly-st...
The Government has secretly ramped up a controversial programme that strips people of their
British citizenship on national security grounds with two of the men subsequently killed by
American drone attacks. Since 2010, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, has revoked the
passports of 16 individuals, many of whom are alleged to have had links to militant or terrorist
groups. Critics of the programme warn that it allows ministers to wash their hands of
British nationals suspected of terrorism who could be subject to torture and illegal
detention abroad. They add that it also allows those stripped of their citizenship to be killed
or rendered without any onus on the British Government to intervene. At least five of those
deprived of their UK nationality ... were born in Britain, and one man had lived in the country for
almost 50 years. Those affected have their passports cancelled, and lose their right to enter the
UK making it very difficult to appeal. The leading human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce said the
present situation smacked of mediaeval exile, just as cruel and just as arbitrary. Ian Macdonald
QC, the president of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association, described the citizenship
orders as sinister. Its not open government; its closed, and it needs to be exposed.
Government officials act when people are out of the country on two occasions while on holiday
before cancelling passports and revoking citizenships.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on crimes committed in wars
of aggression, click here.

British Cardinal to Skip Papal Conclave

2013-02-25, Time Magazine
http://world.time.com/2013/02/25/british-cardinal-to-skip-papal-conclave/?xid...
Cardinal Keith OBrien, Britains highest-ranking Catholic leader, says he is resigning as
archbishop in the wake of misconduct allegations and will be skipping the conclave to elect a
successor to Pope Benedict XVI. Experts said the decision not to attend the papal conclave is
unprecedented; never before has a cardinal stayed away from a conclave because of
personal scandal, according to Vatican historian Ambrogio Piazzoni, the vice prefect of the
Vatican library. The Vatican confirmed that OBrien had resigned as archbishop of Saint Andrews
and Edinburgh. He said in a statement that he is in indifferent health and that he had offered his
resignation last November. A church statement says the pope accepted OBriens resignation on
Feb. 18. OBrien ... is contesting allegations ... that three priests and a former priest have
filed complaints to the Vatican alleging that the cardinal acted inappropriately with them.
During a briefing with reporters at the Vatican last week, Piazzoni was asked about the campaign
to keep Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony away from the voting because he covered up sexual
abuse by priests. Piazzoni said while in the past some cardinals have been impeded either by
illness or by interference from their governments, none has stayed away because of a stain on his
own reputation.

Note: If people at the top of the church are resigning, we can only imagine the earthquakes
happening at lower levels. The dominos are falling. For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here. To learn how child sex-abuse rings
lead to top levels of leadership around the world, watch the powerful Discovery Channel
documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link.

UK's top cardinal accused of 'inappropriate acts' by priests

2013-02-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-in...
Three priests and a former priest in Scotland have reported the most senior Catholic
clergyman in Britain, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, to the Vatican over allegations of inappropriate
behaviour stretching back 30 years. O'Brien, who is due to retire next month, has been an
outspoken opponent of gay rights, condemning homosexuality as immoral, opposing gay
adoption, and most recently arguing that same-sex marriages would be "harmful to the physical,
mental and spiritual well-being of those involved". Last year he was named "bigot of the year" by
the gay rights charity Stonewall. One of the complainants, it is understood, alleges that the cardinal
developed an inappropriate relationship with him, resulting in a need for long-term psychological
counselling. The revelation of the priests' complaints will be met with consternation in the Vatican.
Allegations of sexual abuse by members of the church have dogged the papacy of Benedict XVI,
who is to step down as pope at the end of this month. Following the announcement, rumours have
swirled in Rome that Benedict's shock move may be connected to further scandals to come. Those
involved believe the cardinal abused his position. "You have to understand," explains the ex-priest,
"the relationship between a bishop and a priest. At your ordination, you take a vow to be obedient
to him. "He's more than your boss, more than the CEO of your company. He has immense power
over you. He controls every aspect of your life."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

2013-02-20, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killi...
The Texas Medical Center [is] a nearly 1,300-acre, 280-building complex of hospitals and related
medical facilities, of which MD Anderson is the lead brand name. Medicine had obviously become
a huge business. In fact, of Houstons top 10 employers, five are hospitals, including MD Anderson
with 19,000 employees. How did that happen? Wheres all that money coming from? And where is
it going? I have spent the past seven months trying to find out by analyzing a variety of bills from
hospitals like MD Anderson, doctors, drug companies and every other player in the American
health care ecosystem. When you look behind the bills that ... patients receive, you see nothing
rational no rhyme or reason about the costs they faced in a marketplace they enter through
no choice of their own. The only constant is the sticker shock for the patients who are asked to

pay. Yet those who work in the health care industry and those who argue over health care policy
seem inured to the shock. Why exactly are the bills so high? What are the reasons ... that
cancer means a half-million- or million-dollar tab? Why should a trip to the emergency room
for chest pains that turn out to be indigestion bring a bill that can exceed the cost of a
semester of college? What makes a single dose of even the most wonderful wonder drug
cost thousands of dollars? Why does simple lab work done during a few days in a hospital cost
more than a car? And what is so different about the medical ecosystem that causes technology
advances to drive bills up instead of down?
Note: For the amazing answers to all these questions, read this detailed investigative report in its
entirety at the link above. For more on corruption in the medical industry, click here.

Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks

2013-02-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-deni...
Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (77m) to more
than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change. The funds, doled out
between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a
single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising "wedge
issue" for hardcore conservatives. The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and
the Donors Capital Fund. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1m or more. By
2010, the dark money amounted to $118m distributed to 102 thinktanks or action groups which
have a record of denying the existence of a human factor in climate change, or opposing
environmental regulations. The money flowed to Washington thinktanks embedded in
Republican party politics, obscure policy forums in Alaska and Tennessee, contrarian
scientists at Harvard and lesser institutions. And it was all done with a guarantee of
complete anonymity for the donors who wished to remain hidden. "The funding of the denial
machine is becoming increasingly invisible to public scrutiny. It's also growing. Budgets for all
these different groups are growing," said Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace, which
compiled the data on funding of the anti-climate groups using tax records. "These groups are
increasingly getting money from sources that are anonymous or untraceable. There is no
transparency, no accountability for the money. There is no way to tell who is funding them," Davies
said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on scientific corruption and
climate change, click here and here.

Pope Benedict's Legacy Marred by Sex Abuse Scandal

2013-02-11, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/pope-benedicts-legacy-marred-sex-abuse-scandal/...

When Pope Benedict XVI resigns at the end of this month, he leaves behind a Church grappling
with a global fallout from sex abuse and a personal legacy marred by allegations that he was
instrumental in covering up that abuse. For 25 years, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, headed the Vatican office responsible for investigating claims of sex abuse, but
he did not act until he received an explicit order from Pope John Paul II. In 1980, as
Archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger approved plans for a priest to move to a different German parish
and return to pastoral work only days after the priest began therapy for pedophilia. In 1981,
Cardinal Ratzinger became head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the
office once known as the Inquisition -- making him responsible for upholding church doctrine, and
for investigating claims of sexual abuse against clergy. Thousands of letters detailing allegations of
abuse were forwarded to Ratzinger's office. A lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights
on behalf of the Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims' rights group,
charges that as head of the church body Ratzinger participated in a cover-up of abuse. The suit
alleges that investigators of sex abuse cases in several countries found "intentional cover-ups and
affirmative steps taken that serve to perpetuate the violence and exacerbate the harm." "Ratzinger,
now Pope Benedict XVI, either knew and/or [in] some cases consciously disregarded information
that showed subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes," the complaint says.
Note: This is one of the few media stories to reveal what may be the real reason for the Pope's
resignation - his direct involvement in protecting priests who were known child sexual abusers. To
learn how child sex-abuse rings lead to top levels of leadership around the world, watch the
powerful Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link.

Wild hospital cost disparities revealed

2013-02-11, San Francisco Chronicle/New York Times
ttp://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Wild-hospital-cost-disparities-revealed-4...
Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in
every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who
was uninsured but had the means to pay herself. Only about half of the hospitals, including topranked orthopedic centers and community hospitals, could provide any sort of price estimate,
despite repeated calls. Those that could gave quotes that varied by a factor of more than 10, from
$11,100 to $125,798. Rosenthal's grandmother was fictitious, created for a summer research
project on health care costs. But the findings, which form the basis of a paper released Monday by
JAMA Internal Medicine, [highlight] the unsustainable growth of U.S. health care costs and an
opaque medical system in which prices are often hidden from consumers. Although many experts
have said that Americans must become more discerning consumers to help rein in health care
costs, the study illustrates how hard that can be. Researchers emphasized that studies have
found little consistent correlation between higher prices and better quality in U.S. health
care. Cram said there was no data that "Mercedes" hip implants were better than cheaper options,
for example. Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, said: "If one
hospital can put in a hip for $12,000, then every hospital should be able to do it." With such
immense variation in prices, he said, "There is no real price. It's about profit."

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption in the health
care industry, click here.

Waiting Times at Ballot Boxes Draw Scrutiny

2013-02-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/politics/waiting-times-to-vote-at-polls-...
With studies suggesting that long lines at the polls cost Democrats hundreds of thousands of votes
in November, party leaders are beginning a push to make voting and voter registration easier,
setting up a likely new conflict with Republicans over a deeply polarizing issue. Democrats in the
House and Senate have already introduced bills that would require states to provide online voter
registration and allow at least 15 days of early voting, among other things. Fourteen states are also
considering whether to expand early voting, including the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and
Virginia, according to FairVote, a nonprofit group that advocates electoral change. Several recent
polls and studies suggest that long waiting times in some places depressed turnout in 2012 and
that lines were longest in cities, where Democrats outnumber Republicans. In a New York
Times/CBS News poll taken shortly after Election Day, 18 percent of Democrats said they
waited at least a half-hour to vote, compared with 11 percent of independents and 9 percent
of Republicans. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysis determined that blacks and
Hispanics waited nearly twice as long in line to vote on average than whites. Florida had the
nations longest lines, at 45 minutes, followed by the District of Columbia, Maryland, South
Carolina and Virginia, according to Charles Stewart III, the political science professor who
conducted the analysis. A separate analysis, by an Ohio State University professor and The
Orlando Sentinel, concluded that more than 200,000 voters in Florida gave up in
frustration without voting.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on major inadequacies in US
electoral procedures, click here.

JSOC: Obama's secret assassins

2013-02-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/03/jsoc-obama-secret-assassins
The president has a clandestine network targeting a 'kill list' justified by secret laws. How is that
different than a death squad? The film Dirty Wars, which premiered at Sundance ... tracks the Joint
Special Operations Command (JSOC), a network of highly-trained, completely unaccountable US
assassins, armed with ever-expanding "kill lists". [Narrator Jeremy] Scahill and [director Rick]
Rowley track this new model of US warfare that strikes at civilians and insurgents alike in 70
countries. They interview former JSOC assassins, who are shell-shocked at how the "kill lists" they
are given keep expanding, even as they eliminate more and more people. Our conventional forces
are subject to international laws of war: they are accountable for crimes in courts martial; and they
run according to a clear chain of command. As much as the US military may fall short of these

standards at times, it is a model of lawfulness compared with JSOC, which has far greater scope
to undertake the commission of extra-legal operations and unimaginable crimes. JSOC morphs
the secretive, unaccountable mercenary model of private military contracting, which Scahill
identified in Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, into a hybrid with
the firepower and intelligence backup of our full state resources. JSOC operates outside the
traditional chain of command; it reports directly to the president of the United States. What
does it means for the president to have an unaccountable paramilitary force, which can
assassinate anyone anywhere in the world?
Note: For more on JSOC, click here.

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street

from prosecutions
2013-01-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/untouchables-wall-street-...
PBS' Frontline program on [January 22] broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest
and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or
prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the
2008 financial crisis: a crisis from which millions of people around the world are still suffering.
What this program particularly demonstrated was that the Obama justice department, in
particular the Chief of its Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, never even tried to hold the highlevel criminals accountable. What Obama justice officials did instead is exactly what they did in
the face of high-level Bush era crimes of torture and warrantless eavesdropping: namely, acted to
protect the most powerful factions in the society in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious
criminality. Worst of all, Obama justice officials both shielded and feted these Wall Street oligarchs
... as they simultaneously prosecuted and imprisoned powerless Americans for far more trivial
transgressions. As Harvard law professor Larry Lessig put it two weeks ago when expressing
anger over the DOJ's persecution of Aaron Swartz: "we live in a world where the architects of the
financial crisis regularly dine at the White House." As [documented in the] 2011 book on America's
two-tiered justice system, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy
Equality and Protect the Powerful, the evidence that felonies were committed by Wall Street is
overwhelming.
Note: To watch this highly revealing PBS documentary, click here or here. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between government 'regulators' and
the financial powers they 'regulate', click here.

Evidence grows for narcolepsy link to GSK swine flu shot

2013-01-22, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50547267#.UQK87vJWKSo

Emelie Olsson is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares. When she wakes up, she's often
paralyzed, unable to breathe properly or call for help. During the day she can barely stay awake,
and often misses school or having fun with friends. She is only 14, but at times she has wondered
if her life is worth living. Emelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in
Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being immunized with
the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in 2009.
Their fate, coping with an illness that all but destroys normal life, is developing into what the health
official who coordinated Sweden's vaccination campaign calls a "medical tragedy" that will demand
rising scientific and medical attention. Europe's drugs regulator has ruled Pandemrix should no
longer be used in people aged under 20. "There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix
increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in children in some countries - and probably in most
countries," says [Emmanuel] Mignot, a specialist in the sleep disorder at Stanford University in the
United States. In total, the GSK shot was given to more than 30 million people in 47 countries
during the 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Because it contains an adjuvant, or booster, it
was not used in the United States because drug regulators there are wary of adjuvanted vaccines.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the major risks of flu
shots, click here. If you are thinking of getting a flu vaccine, it is most highly recommended to
educate yourself on risk vs. benefits. See this link for more. To see Piers Morgan receive a flu shot
on the Dr. Oz show and then come down with a flu less than 10 days later after having been
guaranteed that wouldn't happen, click here.

L.A. church leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities
2013-01-21, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-files-20130122,0,3114631.story
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony
and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including
keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution. Memos written in 1986 and 1987 by
Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse
cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's
largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the
archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep
authorities from discovering that children were being molested. In the confidential letters, filed this
month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from
investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry
suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities
and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators. The memos
are from personnel files for 14 priests submitted to a judge on behalf of a man who claims he was
abused by one of the priests. The confidential files of at least 75 more accused abusers are slated
to become public in coming weeks under the terms of a 2007 civil settlement with more than 500
victims.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Police launch criminal investigation into MPs child sex ring

2013-01-17, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-launch-criminal-investigati...
Scotland Yard tonight launched a full investigation into allegations that Conservative politicians
were members of a paedophile ring which abused children in care the 1980s. Operation
Fernbridge will centre on the alleged historic sexual abuse of children at Elm Guest House in ...
south-west London. Residents of a nearby care home run by Richmond Council claim they were
sexually assaulted at the property by a network of prominent individuals, including Tory MPs, who
used their connections to escape justice. The allegations are one of several lines of inquiry being
considered by specialist detectives at the countrys biggest force as a result of information supplied
to them by Labour MP Tom Watson. Mr Watson - who alleged widespread phone hacking at the
News of the World before police began a new inquiry - urged Scotland Yard to re-open the
evidence file on Peter Righton, a former child care consultant who was convicted of importing
illegal homosexual pornography in 1992. Saying that the file contained clear intelligence of a
widespread paedophile ring, Mr Watson said at Prime Ministers Questions: One of its
members boasts of a link to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister, who says he could smuggle
indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the files still exist, I
want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and
investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to
Parliament and No 10.
Note: The sad truth is beginning to surface. If you want to learn how top politicians have been
involved in child sex rings for decades, watch the highly revealing Discovery Channel documentary
at this link.

Military archives show NZ and US conducted secret tsunami bomb tests

2013-01-13, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3663487.htm
It's been revealed that the United States and New Zealand conducted secret tests in the 1940s of
a 'tsunami bomb' designed to inundate coastal cities. Thousands of underwater tests were carried
out near Auckland during the Second World War and showed such a weapon was feasible. The
top-secret operation code-named, ''Project Seal'', was shelved just months before the atomic bomb
was used on Japan in 1945. The secret plans have been uncovered during research by a New
Zealand author and filmmaker, Ray Waru. EMILY BOURKE: Where were these tests carried out?
RAY WARU: They were carried out at one of ... New Zealand's most well-known holiday spots, the
Whangaparaoa Peninsula just north of Auckland. Over a period of several months they carried out
almost 4,000 test explosions to kind of calibrate the size of the explosions, the number of

explosions and the depth of the explosion in the water would need to be in order to create a
tsunami effect. EMILY BOURKE: Was there any damage that occurred as a result of the research
and those tests? RAY WARU: No. They never actually produced a tidal wave. They decided at
the end if there were 2 million kilograms and they were detonated in an array a specific
number of kilometres from the shore that they would produce a wave ... about ten or 12 ...
metres in height. That would have been enough to wash out a shore installation. EMILY
BOURKE: Were these tests carried out at the behest of the United States? Did the United States
fund it? RAY WARU: Yes they were [and] they were carried out with the full cooperation of the New
Zealand government.
Note: This article was published on the website of Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's
equivalent of the BBC. A 1999 article in New Zealand's leading newspaper at this link also
discusses this secret tsunami bomb. For a very well researched webpage on HAARP, a secret
weapon allegedly used for weather control and much more, click here.

Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?

2013-01-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/can-forgiveness-play-a-role-in-cri...
Most modern justice systems focus on a crime, a lawbreaker and a punishment. But a concept
called restorative justice considers harm done and strives for agreement from all concerned
the victims, the offender and the community on making amends. And it allows victims, who
often feel shut out of the prosecutorial process, a way to be heard and participate. In this country,
restorative justice takes a number of forms, but perhaps the most prominent is restorative-justice
diversion. There are not many of these programs a few exist on the margins of the justice
system in communities like Baltimore, Minneapolis and Oakland, Calif. but, according to a
University of Pennsylvania study in 2007, they have been effective at reducing recidivism.
Typically, a facilitator meets separately with the accused and the victim, and if both are
willing to meet face to face without animosity and the offender is deemed willing and able
to complete restitution, then the case shifts out of the adversarial legal system and into a
parallel restorative-justice process. All parties the offender, victim, facilitator and law
enforcement come together in a forum sometimes called a restorative-community conference.
Each person speaks, one at a time and without interruption, about the crime and its effects, and
the participants come to a consensus about how to repair the harm done. The methods are mostly
applied in less serious crimes, like property offenses in which the wrong can be clearly righted.
The processes are designed to be flexible enough to handle violent crime like assault, but they are
rarely used in those situations.
Note: This deeply moving and highly educational piece from the New York Times Magazine about
the power of restorative justice is well worth reading in its entirety at the link above.

Cleric may have booked pre-9/11 flights for hijackers, FBI documents

show
2013-01-03, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/03/exclusive-al-awlaki-booked-pre-11-...
The FBI suspected within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that the American Muslim
cleric Anwar al-Awlaki may have purchased tickets for some of the hijackers for air travel in
advance of the attacks, according to newly released documents. The heavily redacted records
obtained by Judicial Watch through a [FOIA] request suggest the FBI held evidence tying the
American-born cleric to the hijackers just 16 days after the attack that killed nearly 3,000
Americans. We have FBI documents showing that the FBI knew that al-Awlaki had bought three
tickets for three of the hijackers to fly into Florida and into Las Vegas, including the lead hijacker,
Mohammad Atta, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Fox News. He added that the
records show the cleric, killed in September 2011 by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, was a central
focus of the FBI's investigation of 9/11. They show he wasn't cooperative. And they show that he
was under surveillance. The cleric was a guest speaker on moderate Islam at a Pentagon
executive dining room in February 2002. The newly released documents now suggest the
FBI knew five months earlier of al-Awlakis probable link to the hijackers. Al-Awlaki was held
at New York Citys JFK airport on Oct. 10, 2002, under a warrant for passport fraud, a felony
punishable by 10 years. However, ... an FBI agent, Wade Ammerman, from the bureaus
Washington field office ordered the cleric be released from custody, even though there was
an active warrant for his arrest.
Note: Click here to view the more than 200 pages of documents obtained by Judicial Watch. Isn't it
quite strange that the continuously monitored Al-Awlaki was breakfasting with the Pentagon brass
and was released from custody by the FBI, after the 9/11 attacks? Could his assassination by
drone have been for the purpose of keeping him quiet about what he knew concerning 9/11?

Breaking the hold of corporate welfare on America's incarceration

industry
2012-12-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/19/corporate-welfare-incarce...
The US Department of Justice released a report this week showing that 26 states have recorded
decreases in their prison populations during 2011. California boasted the biggest decline of over
15,000 prisoners and several other states including New York and Michigan reported drops of
around 1,000 prisoners each. This is the third consecutive year that the population has declined,
and as a result, at least six states have closed or are attempting to close approximately 20 prisons.
But sadly, because incarceration has become a virtual jobs program in many states and because
certain corporations are profiting handsomely from the incarceration binge that has been in place
for the past few decades, the reduction in prison populations and prison closures is being met with
huge resistance. According to a recent report by the Sentencing Project called On the Chopping
Block (pdf), which detailed all the prison closures and attempted closures in the past year,
several state governors have been dragged into legal battles with state employees and

unions who want the prisons to stay open. The private prisons, which are funded by the
taxpayer ... need to generate revenue to keep their shareholders happy. For them, the
bottom line is keeping their prisons full, regardless of need or cost. Last year, the Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) came under fire when it emerged that they sent a letter to 48 states
offering to take over any prisons going spare with the small caveat that they be guaranteed 90%
occupancy for the next 20 years.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption in the
prison/industrial complex, click here.

Too Big to Indict

2012-12-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/opinion/hsbc-too-big-to-indict.html
It is a dark day for the rule of law. Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC,
the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal
prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system. They also
have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could
launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions.
Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When
prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the
law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is
weakened, if not lost. In the HSBC case, prosecutors may want the public to focus on the $1.92
billion settlement. But even large financial settlements are small compared with the size of
international major banks. More important, once criminal sanctions are considered off limits,
penalties and forfeitures become just another cost of doing business, a risk factor to consider on
the road to profits. If banks operating at the center of the global economy cannot be held
fully accountable, the solution is to reduce their size by breaking them up and restricting
their activities not shield them and their leaders from prosecution for illegal activities.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government collusion
with financial corruption, click here.

U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens

2012-12-12, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324478304578171623040640006.html
Through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with officials at numerous agencies,
The Wall Street Journal has reconstructed the clash over the counterterrorism program within the
administration of President Barack Obama. The attorney general [has] signed the changes into
effect. The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the
government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to

suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing
information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an
investigation. Now, NCTC can copy entire government databasesflight records, casinoemployee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The
agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to
analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited. Data about
Americans "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" may be permanently retained.
"It's breathtaking" in its scope, said a former senior administration official. The Fourth Amendment
of the Constitution says that searches of "persons, houses, papers and effects" shouldn't be
conducted without "probable cause" that a crime has been committed.
Note: This article requires subscription to view at the link above. To read it for free, click here. For
analysis of this sweeping increase in government privacy invasions, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government privacy invasions, click here.

A Rising Tide of Noise Is Now Easy to See

2012-12-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/science/project-seeks-to-map-and-reduce-oce...
The ocean depths have become a noisy place. The causes are human: the sonar blasts of military
exercises, the booms from air guns used in oil and gas exploration, and the whine from fleets of
commercial ships that relentlessly crisscross the global seas. Marine experts say the rising clamor
is particularly dangerous to whales, which depend on their acute hearing to locate food and one
another. To fight the din, ... the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks to
document human-made noises in the ocean and transform the results into the worlds first large
sound maps. Its a first step, Leila T. Hatch, a marine biologist and one of the projects two
directors, said of the sound maps. No ones ever done it on this scale. Michael Jasny, a senior
policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, [which] has sued the Navy to reduce
sounds that can harm marine mammals, praised the maps as magnificent and their depictions of
sound pollution as incredibly disturbing. Legal experts say the new findings are likely to
accelerate efforts both domestically and internationally to deal with the complicated problem
through laws, regulations, treaties and voluntary noise reductions. The Navy estimates that
blasts from its sonars used in training and to hunt enemy submarines result in
permanent hearing losses for hundreds of sea mammals every year and temporary losses
for thousands. All told, annually the injured animals number more than a quarter million.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on threats to marine
mammals, click here.

German man locked up over HVB bank allegations may have been
telling truth

2012-11-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/28/gustl-mollath-hsv-claims-fraud
A German man committed to a high-security psychiatric hospital after being accused of fabricating
a story of money-laundering activities at a major bank is to have his case reviewed after evidence
has emerged proving the validity of his claims. Gustl Mollath, 56, was submitted to the secure
unit of a psychiatric hospital seven years ago after court experts diagnosed him with
paranoid personality disorder following his claims that staff at the Hypo Vereinsbank (HVB)
including his wife, then an assets consultant at HVB had been illegally smuggling large
sums of money into Switzerland. Mollath was tried in 2006 after his ex-wife accused him of
causing her physical harm. He denied the charges, claiming she was trying to sully his name in the
light of the evidence he allegedly had against her. He was admitted to the clinic, where he has
remained against his will ever since. But recent evidence brought to the attention of state
prosecutors shows that money-laundering activities were indeed practiced over several years by
members of staff at the Munich-based bank, the sixth-largest private financial institute in Germany.
A number of employees, including Mollath's wife, were subsequently sacked following the bank's
investigation. The "Mollath affair", as it has been dubbed by the German media, has taken on such
political dimensions that it now threatens to bring down the government of Bavaria.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

As drug industrys influence over research grows, so does the potential

for bias
2012-11-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-drug-industrys-influence-ov...
Arguably the most prestigious medical journal in the world, the New England Journal of Medicine
regularly features articles over which pharmaceutical companies and their employees can exert
significant influence. Over a year-long period ending in August, NEJM published 73 articles on
original studies of new drugs, encompassing drugs approved by the FDA since 2000 and
experimental drugs. Of those articles, 60 were funded by a pharmaceutical company, 50 were
co-written by drug company employees and 37 had a lead author, typically an academic,
who had previously accepted outside compensation from the sponsoring drug company in
the form of consultant pay, grants or speaker fees. The New England Journal of Medicine is
not alone in featuring research sponsored in large part by drug companies it has become a
common practice that reflects the growing role of industry money in research. Years ago, the
government funded a larger share of such experiments. But since about the mid-1980s, research
funding by pharmaceutical firms has exceeded what the National Institutes of Health spends. Last
year, the industry spent $39 billion on research in the United States while NIH spent $31 billion.
When the company is footing the bill, the opportunities for bias are manifold: Company executives
seeking to promote their drugs can design research that makes their products look better. They

can select like-minded academics to perform the work. And they can run the statistics in ways that
make their own drugs look better than they are. If troubling signs about a drug arise, they can steer
clear of further exploration.
Note: To read an excellent summary of a book written by a former editor in chief of the NEJM
exposing major corruption by the pharmaceuticals which poses a great threat to public health, click
here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption in the
pharmaceutical industry, click here.

HSBC Investigation: clients of Britain's biggest bank exposed

2012-11-15, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9665741/HSBC-...
Britains biggest bank is at the centre of a major ... investigation after it opened offshore accounts
in Jersey for serious criminals living in this country. Tax authorities have obtained details of every
British client of HSBC in Jersey after a whistleblower secretly provided a detailed list of names,
addresses and account balances earlier this week. Among those identified on the list are Daniel
Bayes, a drug dealer who is now in Venezuela; Michael Lee, who was convicted of possessing
more than 300 weapons at his house in Devon; three bankers facing major fraud allegations and a
man once dubbed Londons number two computer crook. The disclosures raise serious
questions about HSBCs procedures in Jersey, with the bank already preparing to pay fines of
around $1.5 billion in America for breaking money laundering rules. The bank is legally obliged to
report to the authorities any suspicions about the source of money deposited in its accounts. The
list identifies 4,388 people holding 699 million in offshore current accounts and they are also likely
to have billions of pounds more in investment schemes. Several celebrities and other well-known
figures are understood to be identified in the client data. The HSBC Jersey client list is
understood to be heavily dominated by senior figures in the City. Dozens of bankers are
understood to have deposited six-figure sums offshore with some institutions said to have
clusters of employees taking advantage of the accounts. Doctors, mining and oil executives
and oil workers are also heavily represented in the list.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption and
criminality, click here.

Uruguay's President Mujica Shuns Wealth for Small Farm and VW Beetle
2012-11-15, Fox News
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/11/15/uruguay-president-mujica...
Uruguays [president] Jos Mujica ... has shunned the countrys Residencia de Surez for the cozy
but modest quarters of his small home on the outskirts of the capital, Montevideo. Dubbed by
many media organizations as the worlds poorest president, Mujica and his wife keep house on a
small farm surrounded by other tiny homes and guarded by only two police officers and his three-

legged dog, Manuela. "I've lived like this most of my life," Mujica told the BBC. "I can live well with
what I have." Unlike his forebears and counterparts around the world who live in comfort and are
chauffeured around in limousines, Mujica donates 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to
charity organizations benefiting the poor and small businesses, and his means of transport is a
beat-up 1987 Volkswagon Beetle worth about $1,800 or the equivalent of his annual personal
wealth declaration. This year he bumped his wealth declaration up to $215,000 only after
declaring his wifes assets of land, tractors and a house which still pales in comparison to VicePresident Danilo Astori's declared wealth and former President Tabare Vasquezs bank account.
I'm called 'the poorest president,' but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to
try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more," Mujica said. "This is a
matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your
life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself."
Note: For more on this unusual and inspiring president, click here.

One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is

Reinventing Education
2012-11-02, Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/11/02/one-man-one-computer-10-mi...
The headquarters of what has rapidly become the largest school in the world, at 10 million
students strong, is stuffed into a few large communal rooms in a decaying 1960s office building
hard by the commuter rail tracks in Mountain View, Calif. The Khan Academy, which features
3,400 short instructional videos along with interactive quizzes and tools for teachers to chart
student progress, is a nonprofit, boasting a mission of a free world-class education for anyone
anywhere. There will be no IPO; funding comes from philanthropists, not venture capitalists. The
next half-century of education innovation is being shaped right now. Global spending on education
is $3.9 trillion, or 5.6% of planetary GDP. America spends the mostabout $1.3 trillion a yearyet
the U.S. ranks 25th out of the 34 OECD countries in mathematics, 17th in science and 14th in
reading. Its those latter statistics that motivate Khan. The site covers a staggering array of
topicsfrom basic arithmetic and algebra to the electoral college and the French
Revolution. The videos are quirky affairs where you never see the instructor (usually
Salman Khan himself, who personally has created nearly 3,000 of them). Instead, students
are confronted with a blank digital blackboard, which, over the course of a ten-minute lesson
narrated in Khans soothing baritone, is gradually filled up with neon-colored scrawls illustrating
key concepts. Over the past two years Khan Academy videos have been viewed more than 200
million times. The site is used by 6 million unique students each month.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

A Simple Fix for Farming

2012-10-19, New York Times blog

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/a-simple-fix-for-food
It's becoming clear that we can grow all the food we need, and profitably, with far fewer chemicals.
Conventional agriculture can shed much of its chemical use - if it wants to. What may be the most
important agricultural study this year ... was done on land owned by Iowa State University called
the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one
replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next,
along with its routine mix of chemicals. On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included
oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. The longer rotations also integrated the
raising of livestock, whose manure was used as fertilizer. The results were stunning: The longer
rotations produced better yields of both corn and soy, reduced the need for nitrogen
fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amounts of toxins in groundwater
200-fold and didn't reduce profits by a single cent. In short, there was only upside - and no
downside at all - associated with the longer rotations. There was an increase in labor costs,
but remember that profits were stable. So this is a matter of paying people for their knowledge and
smart work instead of paying chemical companies for poisons. And it's a high-stakes game;
according to the Environmental Protection Agency, about five billion pounds of pesticides are used
each year in the United States.

Heaven Is Real: A Doctors Experience With the Afterlife

2012-10-08, Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-e...
As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. In the fall of
2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the
neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific
reason to believe in consciousness after death. I had somehow contracted a very rare bacterial
meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid
and were eating my brain. For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higherorder brain functions totally offline. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete
inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to
another, larger dimension of the universe: the same one described by countless subjects of neardeath experiences and other mystical states. What I saw and learned there has placed me quite
literally in a new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies, and
where death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably
positive, journey. For most of my journey, someone else was with me. A woman. Without using
any words, she spoke to me. The message went through me like a wind, and I instantly
understood that it was true. I knew so in the same way that I knew that the world around us was
realwas not some fantasy, passing and insubstantial. You are loved and cherished, dearly,
forever. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.

Note: The author of this stirring account, Dr. Eben Alexander, was a neurosurgeon for 25 years.
His engaging book on this life-changing experience is Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey
into the Afterlife. For video interviews and other information on Dr. Alexander, click here. For other
highly inspiring resources and stories related to near-death experiences, click here.

We were all part of a conspiracy of silence

2012-10-07, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9591322/Esther-Rantzen-How-I-lon...
For decades, nobody said anything, at least not publicly, not officially. Everyone knew that is,
everyone in the television and pop music industries knew. The rumours swirled around [Jimmy
Savile], that he sexually abused young girls. So for decades the abuse was an open secret, and
Jimmy easily rebuffed the rumours when interviewers like Louis Theroux and the psychiatrist
Anthony Clare dared to put them to him. So what is the truth about Sir James Savile? When he
died almost a year ago, he was given a grand and glorious funeral befitting a folk hero. But now
the truth is out. More victims are emerging every day, telling stories of the sexual abuse by Sir
Jimmy of children as young as nine, on one occasion alongside the convicted paedophile pop star
Gary Glitter. They reveal that, like every practised paedophile, he targeted the most vulnerable
children, including those in care. Jimmy, for instance, reportedly visited the notorious Jersey
childrens home, Haut de la Garenne, several times in the Sixties and Seventies, where seven
people have since been prosecuted for child abuse. Knighted by both the Queen and the Pope,
Sir Jimmy hid the private reality that he was also a prolific, predatory paedophile. All of his
crimes the multitude of attacks committed in his famous Rolls-Royce, in his caravan, in
schools and childrens homes, in his dressing room and in a London taxi remained an
open secret. In spite of the fact that he flaunted his taste for underage children, police
investigations failed, newspaper investigations were never published, a Newsnight film was
dropped, and through it all Jimmys image remained intact.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on sexual abuse, click here.

Living with death by drone

2012-10-04, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/04/opinion/la-oe-gibson-drones-civilians...
Last week, Stanford University and New York University released a major study about the use of
drones in the ever-evolving but never-ending war on terror. Drones are terrorizing an entire civilian
population. [We] spent weeks in Pakistan interviewing more than 60 people from North Waziristan.
Many were survivors of strikes. Others had lost loved ones and family members. All of them live
under the constant threat of annihilation. What my colleagues and I learned from these unnamed

and unknown victims of America's drone warfare gave the report its title: "Living Under Drones."
Drones are a constant presence in the skies above the North Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan,
with as many as six hovering over villages at any one time. People hear them day and night. They
are an inescapable presence, the looming specter of death from above. And that presence is
steadily destroying a community twice the size of Rhode Island. The routines of daily life have
been ripped to shreds. Indisputably innocent people cower in their homes, afraid to assemble
on the streets. "Double taps," or secondary strikes on the same target, have stopped
residents from aiding those who have been injured. A leading humanitarian agency now
delays assistance by an astonishing six hours. What makes this situation even worse is that no
one can tell people in these communities what they can do to make themselves safe. No one
knows who is on the American kill list, no one knows how they got there and no one knows what
they can do to get themselves off. It's all terrifyingly random. Suddenly, and without warning, a
missile launches and obliterates everyone within a 16-yard radius.
Note: The author of this report, Jennifer Gibson, is a staff attorney with Reprieve, a London-based
legal charity that represents dozens of Pakistani drone victims. For an excellent, seven-minute
video by professors exploring the tragic reality of drone strikes in Pakistan, click here. For the
"Living Under Drones" website where you can read a summary and download this report by
Stanford University and the New York Times, click here. To learn about a beautiful movement to
place large photos of children's faces in target areas to stop drone operators from killing innocents,
click here.

Pesticide use ramping up as GMO crop technology backfires: study

2012-10-01, NBC News/Reuters
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14178036-study-us-farmers-using-mo...
U.S. farmers are using more hazardous pesticides to fight weeds and insects due largely to heavy
adoption of genetically modified crop technologies that are sparking a rise of "superweeds" and
hard-to-kill insects, according to a newly released study. Genetically engineered crops have led to
an increase in overall pesticide use, by 404 million pounds from the time they were introduced in
1996 through 2011, according to the report by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at the
Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. Of that
total, herbicide use increased over the 16-year period by 527 million pounds while insecticide use
decreased by 123 million pounds. Herbicide-tolerant crops were the first genetically modified crops
introduced to world, rolled out by Monsanto Co. in 1996, first in "Roundup Ready" soybeans and
then in corn, cotton and other crops. Roundup Ready crops are engineered through transgenic
modification to tolerate dousings of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. In recent years, more than
two dozen weed species have become resistant to Roundup's chief ingredient glyphosate,
causing farmers to use increasing amounts both of glyphosate and other weedkilling
chemicals to try to control the so-called "superweeds." Resistant weeds have become a
major problem for many farmers reliant on GE crops, and are now driving up the volume of
herbicide needed each year by about 25 percent.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the environmental and
health risks posed by GMO foods, click here.

Fighting Recession the Icelandic Way

2012-09-26, Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-26/is-remedy-for-next-crisis-buried-in-...
Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock
market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent;
the countrys biggest banks all failed. Since then, Iceland has turned in a pretty impressive
performance. It has repaid International Monetary Fund rescue loans ahead of schedule. Growth
this year will be about 2.5 percent, better than most developed economies. Unemployment has
fallen by half. Icelands approach was the polar opposite of the U.S. and Europe, which
rescued their banks and did little to aid indebted homeowners. Nothing distinguishes
Iceland as much as its aid to consumers. To homeowners with negative equity, the country
offered write-offs that would wipe out debt above 110 percent of the property value. The
government also provided means-tested subsidies to reduce mortgage-interest expenses: Those
with lower earnings, less home equity and children were granted the most generous support. In
June 2010, the nations Supreme Court gave debtors another break: Bank loans that were indexed
to foreign currencies were declared illegal. Because the Icelandic krona plunged 80 percent during
the crisis, the cost of repaying foreign debt more than doubled. The ruling let consumers repay the
banks as if the loans were in krona. These policies helped consumers erase debt equal to 13
percent of Icelands $14 billion economy. Now, consumers have money to spend on other things.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion of most
major governments with the financial sector whose profiteering contributed to the global economic
crisis, click here.

The drugs don't work: a modern medical scandal

2012-09-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-gol...
The doctors prescribing ... drugs don't know they don't do what they're meant to. Nor do their
patients. The manufacturers know full well, but they're not telling. Negative data goes missing, for
all treatments, in all areas of science. The regulators and professional bodies we would reasonably
expect to stamp out such practices have failed us. Drugs are tested by the people who
manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird,
unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in
such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Unsurprisingly, these trials tend
to produce results that favour the manufacturer. When trials throw up results that companies
don't like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients, so we only ever see a
distorted picture of any drug's true effects. This distorted evidence is then communicated and

applied in a distorted fashion. In their 40 years of practice after leaving medical school, doctors
hear about what works ad hoc, from sales reps, colleagues and journals. But those colleagues can
be in the pay of drug companies often undisclosed and the journals are, too. And so are
the patient groups. And finally, academic papers, which everyone thinks of as objective, are often
covertly planned and written by people who work directly for the companies, without disclosure.
Sometimes whole academic journals are owned outright by one drug company.
Note: This is an edited extract from Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and
Harm Patients, by Ben Goldacre, published next week by Fourth Estate. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical corruption, click here.

Drug giants fined $11bn for criminal wrongdoing

2012-09-20, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/drug-...
The global pharmaceutical industry has racked up fines of more than $11bn in the past
three years for criminal wrongdoing, including withholding safety data and promoting
drugs for use beyond their licensed conditions. In all, 26 companies, including eight of the 10
top players in the global industry, have been found to be acting dishonestly. The scale of the
wrongdoing, revealed for the first time, has undermined public and professional trust in the industry
and is holding back clinical progress, according to two papers published in today's New England
Journal of Medicine. Leading lawyers have warned that the multibillion-dollar fines are not enough
to change the industry's behaviour. The 26 firms are under "corporate integrity agreements", which
are imposed in the US when healthcare wrongdoing is detected, and place the companies on
notice for good behaviour for up to five years. The largest fine of $3bn, imposed on the UK-based
company GlaxoSmith-Kline in July after it admitted three counts of criminal behaviour in the US
courts, was the largest ever. But GSK is not alone nine other companies have had fines
imposed, ranging from $420m on Novartis to $2.3bn on Pfizer since 2009, totalling over $11bn.
Kevin Outterson, a lawyer at Boston University, says that despite the eye watering size of
the fines they amount to a small proportion of the companies' total revenues and may be
regarded as a "cost of doing business".
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical
corruption, click here.

Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show

2012-09-16, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boy-scouts-files-20120916,0,6937684.s...
Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters
to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public. A Los Angeles Times review of
1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently

urged admitted offenders to quietly resign and helped many cover their tracks.
Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons
such as business demands, "chronic brain dysfunction" and duties at a Shakespeare
festival. The details are contained in the organization's confidential "perversion files," a blacklist of
alleged molesters, that the Scouts have used internally since 1919. Scouts' lawyers around the
country have been fighting in court to keep the files from public view. As The Times reported in
August, the blacklist often didn't work: Men expelled for alleged abuses slipped back into the
program, only to be accused of molesting again. Now, a more extensive review has shown that
Scouts sometimes abetted molesters by keeping allegations under wraps. In the majority of cases,
the Scouts learned of alleged abuse after it had been reported to authorities. But in more than 500
instances, the Scouts learned about it from boys, parents, staff members or anonymous tips. In
about 400 of those cases 80% there is no record of Scouting officials reporting the
allegations to police. In more than 100 of the cases, officials actively sought to conceal the alleged
abuse or allowed the suspects to hide it.
Note: For a list giving details of Boy Scout leaders who sexually abused scouts with impunity, click
here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on institutional sexual abuse,
click here.

FBI releases more records on Richard Aoki

2012-09-07, San Francisco Chronicle/Center for Investigative Reporting
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/FBI-releases-more-records-on-Richard-Aoki...
Revelations that prominent radical activist Richard Aoki was an FBI informant have prompted
angry denials among his supporters, but newly released records confirm he was secretly providing
information to agents during the period he gave the Black Panthers guns and firearms training.
The documents from Aoki's FBI informant file - totaling 221 pages - were released after a court
challenge under the Freedom of Information Act and show that Aoki was an informant from 1961 to
1977, with only brief interruptions. The records say that at various points, he provided information
that was "unique" and of "extreme value." The records chronicle Aoki's 16-year career as an
informant, including years in which he was a student at Merritt College in Oakland and at UC
Berkeley, participating in the Black Panthers and other radical groups. They also cover years
during which Aoki was a teacher at those universities. An early FBI report says Aoki was assigned
the alias "Richard Ford" to use when signing reports, as well as a permanent informant number,
which the FBI redacted. It notes his date of birth, his parents' names and his address. "Coverage
furnished by this informant is unique and not available from any other source," the FBI
report says. "Many activist individuals seek informant's advice and counseling since
informant is considered as a militant who has succeeded within the establishment without
surrending (sic) to it."
Note: Here is undeniable evidence that the FBI was involved in infiltrating movements and
radicalizing them with guns and weapons. Why isn't this being discussed widely in the media,
particularly as it is likely this is still going on, most recently with the Occupy movement? The

revelation that Aoki was an informant was first made last month in a news report and video by the
Center for Investigative Reporting, based on the new book Subversives: The FBI's War on Student
Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power.

Report: About 30 cents of every health care dollar wasted; US can cut
costs without rationing
2012-09-06, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-about-30-cents-of-every-health-...
The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year roughly 30 cents of every medical
dollar through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential
Institute of Medicine [said] in a report. President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are
accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive
finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may
even produce better quality. More than 18 months in the making, the report identified six major
areas of waste: unnecessary services ($210 billion annually); inefficient delivery of care
($130 billion); excess administrative costs ($190 billion); inflated prices ($105 billion);
prevention failures ($55 billion), and fraud ($75 billion). Adjusting for some overlap among
the categories, the panel settled on an estimate of $750 billion. The report makes ten
recommendations, including payment reforms to reward quality results instead of reimbursing for
each procedure, improving coordination among different kinds of service providers, leveraging
technology to reinforce sound clinical decisions and educating patients to become more savvy
consumers. The reports main message for government is to accelerate payment reforms, said
panel chair Dr. Mark Smith, president of the California HealthCare Foundation, a research group.
For employers, its to move beyond cost shifts to workers and start demanding accountability from
hospitals and major medical groups. For doctors, it means getting beyond the bubble of solo
practice and collaborating with peers and other clinicians.
Note: The US spends far more on health care than most other developed countries which provide
health care to all of their citizens. The US system is driven by profits. For more on this, click here.

U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market

2012-08-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reac...
Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major sales to
Persian Gulf [countries], according to a new study for Congress. Overseas weapons sales by the
United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or nearly 78 percent of the global arms market,
valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals. The
U.S. weapons sales total was an "extraordinary increase" over the $21.4 billion in deals for
2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of U.S. arms
exports. The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas

totaled nearly $31 billion. Increasing tensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations -- Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman -- to spend record amounts on weapons. These
states do not share a border with Iran, and their purchases focused on warplanes and complex
missile defense systems. The agreements with Saudi Arabia included the purchase of 84
advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logistics support, and upgrades of
70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet ... all contributing to a total Saudi weapons deal with the
United States of $33.4 billion, according to the study. The United Arab Emirates bought a Terminal
High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced anti-missile shield that is valued at $3.49 billion, as well
as 16 Chinook helicopters for $939 million.
Note: For analyses of this deeply revealing Congressional report on the intense preparations for
war on Iran, click here and here. If just 1% of these skyrocketing arms sales were put towards
feeding the world, global hunger would vanish in no time.

Big Banks: No Crime, No Punishment

2012-08-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/no-crime-no-punishment.html
When the Justice Department recently closed its criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs,
it became all but certain that no major American banks or their top executives would ever
face criminal charges for their role in the financial crisis. Justice officials and even
President Obama have defended the lack of prosecutions, saying that even though greed and
other moral lapses were evident in the run-up to the crisis, the conduct was not necessarily illegal.
But that characterization of the financial industry's actions has always defied common sense - and
all the more so now that a fuller picture is emerging of the range of banks' reckless and lawless
activities, including interest-rate rigging, money laundering, securities fraud and excessive
speculation. The financial crisis, fomented over years by big banks and presided over by
executives, involved reckless lending, heedless securitizations, exorbitant paydays and illusory
profits, all of which led to government bailouts and economic calamity. Is it plausible that none of
that broke the law and that none of the people in positions of power and authority knew what was
going on? The statute of limitations, generally five years for securities fraud and most other federal
offenses, is running out, precluding the possibility of bringing many new suits dating from the
bubble years. The result is a public perception that the big banks and their leaders will never have
to answer fully for the crisis. The shameless pursuit of Wall Street campaign donations by both
political parties strengthens this perception, and further undermines confidence in the rule of law.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between
government and the big banks, click here.

Bank scandals: Somebody must go to jail

2012-08-18, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Bank-scandals-Somebody-must-go-to-jail-...

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing
armies." - Thomas Jefferson, 1816. When Thomas Jefferson spoke those words, banks were
local and very small compared with the financial behemoths of today. Banks are more dangerous
now than in Jefferson's time, and they are totally out of control. During the Depression of
the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt referred to banks as the "money changers in the
temple of our civilization," and little has been done since. It is well past the time that people on
Wall Street live by the rule of law - not just pay fines - and some executives go to jail for their
conduct. In 2008, the much-publicized Troubled Assets Relief Program bailed out banks and Wall
Street to the tune of $700 billion with taxpayer money. While the banks were bailed out of the
trouble they caused, they continued to pay out enormous executive bonuses with taxpayers'
money in multimillion-dollar year-end gifts. JPMorgan received $25 billion from the government in
2008 and gave out nearly $9 billion in bonus money that year. When the derivative-driven housing
market collapsed in 2008, Citigroup and Bank of America, the major banks in that market, and
eight other top Wall Street firms got $1.2 trillion in then-secret loans of taxpayer money from the
Federal Reserve. The Fed even went to court in an attempt to hide the identities of those banks
from the public. Regulating the banks and bringing the rule of law to Wall Street banks is
necessary now. Sending a few Wall Street banksters to jail would stop some of the abuse as well.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the corrupt relationship
between government and the financial sector, click here.

The unrepentant and unreformed bankers

2012-08-18, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-unrepentant-and-unreformed-bankers-...
Money laundering. Price fixing. Bid rigging. Securities fraud. Talking about the mob? No,
unfortunately. Wall Street. These days, the business sections of newspapers read like rap sheets.
GE Capital, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Wells Fargo and Bank of America tied to a bid-rigging
scheme to bilk cities and towns out of interest earnings. ING Direct, HSBC and Standard
Chartered Bank facing charges of money laundering. Barclays caught manipulating a key interest
rate, costing savers and investors dearly, with a raft of other big banks also under investigation.
Not to speak of the unprecedented wrongdoing that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. Yet, it's
clear that the unrepentant and the unreformed are still all too present within our banking system. A
June survey of 500 senior financial services executives in the United States and Britain turned up
stunning results. Some 24 percent said that they believed that financial services
professionals may need to engage in illegal or unethical conduct to succeed, 26 percent
said that they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace,
and 16 percent said they would engage in insider trading if they could get away with it. That
too much of Wall Street remains unchanged is not surprising. Simply stated, the banks and their
leaders have paid no real economic, legal or political price for their wrongdoing and thus have not
felt compelled to change.

Note: The author of this article, Phil Angelides, is a former state treasurer of California and the
chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on the corrupt relationship between government and the financial sector,
click here.

Afghan training mission losing ground

2012-08-18, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/brinkley/article/Afghan-training-mission-losing...
The U.S. military is packing to leave Afghanistan - pulling up airfields, tearing down bases,
disassembling Humvees for transport. Over the next few weeks, 23,000 troops will fly home,
leaving 68,000 troops who will stay until 2014. The looming question, though, is: After 11 years,
more than 2,000 U.S. military fatalities and at least $1 trillion in expenses, what are the
United States and NATO leaving behind? The answer is bleak: Afghan security forces totally
incapable of operating on their own, as the U.S. military quietly acknowledges. And a government
so corrupt and ineffectual that, as the Army said in that report to Congress, it "bolsters insurgent
messaging." In others words, great PR for the Taliban. Since 2002, the United States has spent
$43 billion to train the Afghan military and police. It plans to spend $11.2 billion more this year, and
the military has requested another $5.8 billion for 2013. Now the training mission acknowledges
that none of the Afghan forces are ready to fight on their own. The highest rating for trained Afghan
forces today is "independent - with advisers." Only 7 percent of Afghan army units are capable
even of that. That's just one in a nest of problems. Another big one is illiteracy. The special
inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, in a recent report, said the literacy rate of Afghan
security forces "as a whole is 11 percent." In almost every measurable way, the training mission is
losing ground. Aren't we in the same position as the Soviet Union 30 years ago - pursuing a
Sisyphean task, inescapably destined to fail?
Note: The author of this article, Joel Brinkley, is a professor of journalism at Stanford University
and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent for the New York Times. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the realities of the US war of aggression in
Afghanistan, click here.

9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out

2012-08-18, Colorado Public Television
http://www.cpt12.org/tv_schedule/program_details.cfm?series_id=66785954&CFID=...
In [the] new film ["9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out"], over 40 experts in the fields of
structural engineering, high-rise architecture, controlled demolition, physics, chemistry and
metallurgy lay out the case for a controlled demolition of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The
experts cite evidence showing that high-temperature incendiaries and explosives were planted
throughout the twin towers and the lesser-known Building 7 which collapsed later the same day.
Eight experts in psychology ... discuss the difficulties many people have in confronting this

possible reality and how necessary the truth is for healing both at the individual and collective
levels. Two years in the making, "9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out" is the latest film
from Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth, represented by founder Richard Gage, AIA. The
official story about the attacks of September 11 falls apart when you look squarely at the
facts and apply basic scientific principles to interpret them," says Gage. "After more than
ten years, a high-level investigation of the evidence is long overdue. Too much is at stake
here to sweep the concerns under the rug. Family members of 9/11 victims speak to the viewers of
this film. They explain why they are still not happy with the answers they've been given by our
government. And they are asking you to join them in looking at what our experts have to say."
Note: To watch a beautifully-made 15-minute documentary put together by Architects and
Engineers for 9/11 Truth, click here.

'Severe abnormalities' found in Fukushima butterflies

2012-08-13, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19245818
Exposure to radioactive material released into the environment has caused mutations in butterflies
found in Japan, a study suggests. Scientists found an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape
mutations among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident. By comparing
mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, the team found that areas with
greater amounts of radiation in the environment were home to butterflies with much smaller wings
and irregularly developed eyes. Six months later, they again collected adults from the 10 sites and
found that butterflies from the Fukushima area showed a mutation rate more than double that of
those found sooner after the accident. The team concluded that this higher rate of mutation came
from eating contaminated food, but also from mutations of the parents' genetic material that was
passed on to the next generation, even though these mutations were not evident in the previous
generations' adult butterflies. The findings from their new research show that the radionuclides
released from the accident had led to novel, severely abnormal development, and that the
mutations to the butterflies' genetic material [were] still affecting the insects, even after the
residual radiation in the environment had decayed away. "This study is important and
overwhelming in its implications for both the human and biological communities living in
Fukushima," explained University of South Carolina biologist Tim Mousseau, who studies the
impacts of radiation on animals and plants.
Note: Read the complete report, with numerous color photos, here. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on corruption in the nuclear power industry, click here.

What makes our NDAA lawsuit a struggle to save the US constitution

2012-08-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/10/ndaa-lawsuit-struggle-us-...

I [Tangerine Bolen] am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense
Authorization Act, which gives the president the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long
as he wants, without charge or trial. In a May hearing, Judge Katherine Forrest issued an
injunction against it; this week, in a final hearing in New York City, US government lawyers
asserted even more extreme powers the right to disregard entirely the judge and the law. On
Monday 6 August, Obama's lawyers filed an appeal to the injunction a profoundly important
development that, as of this writing, has been scarcely reported. In the earlier March hearing, US
government lawyers had confirmed that, yes, the NDAA does give the president the power to lock
up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists like myself and other plaintiffs.
Government attorneys stated on record that even war correspondents could be locked up
indefinitely under the NDAA. In this hearing ... Obama's attorneys refused to assure the court,
when questioned, that the NDAA's section 1021 the provision that permits reporters and
others who have not committed crimes to be detained without trial has not been applied
by the US government anywhere in the world after Judge Forrest's injunction. In other
words, they were telling a US federal judge that they could not, or would not, state whether
Obama's government had complied with the legal injunction that she had laid down before them. I,
like many in this fight, am now afraid of my government. We have good reason to be.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Democracy falling prey to big money

2012-08-10, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/Democracy-falling-prey-to-big-mon...
Who's buying our democracy? Wall Street financiers, the Koch brothers, and casino
magnates Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, among others. And they're doing much of it in
secret. It's a perfect storm - the combination of three waves that are about to drown
government as we know it. The first is the greatest concentration of wealth in America in more
than a century. The 400 richest Americans are richer than the bottom 150 million Americans put
together. The trend started 30 years ago, and it's related to globalization and technological
changes that have stymied wage growth for most people, "trickle-down economics," ... tax cuts
and the steady decline in the bargaining power of organized labor. The second is the wave of
unlimited political contributions, courtesy of ... one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history,
Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 ruling that held that corporations are
people under the First Amendment, [meaning] that virtually any billionaire can contribute as much
to a political campaign as he wants. The third is complete secrecy about who's contributing how
much to whom. Political fronts posing as charitable, nonprofit "social welfare" organizations ...
don't have to disclose their donors. As a result, outfits like the Chamber of Commerce and Karl
Rove's Crossroads GPS are taking in hundreds of millions from corporations that don't even tell
their own shareholders what political payments they're making. Separately, any one of these three
would be bad enough. Put the three together, and our democracy is being sold down the drain.

Note: The author of this article, Robert Reich, is a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and
former U.S. secretary of labor, and author of the newly released Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone
Wrong With Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It.

Washington's press is the cabin boy of the political class

2012-08-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/washington-press-corp-cab...
The Washington press corps ... is too caught up in its own self-importance and petty competition to
understand it has become the cabin boy of the political class. Washington reporters are coconspirators in an ongoing fraud. The epidemic of blind quotes is a standard way of giving a
platform to officials speaking in an official capacity, yet with zero accountability. The practice is also
supremely manipulative, giving the most banal information the allure of forbidden fruit. At its
worst, the game can allow the vice president of the United States to leak phony intelligence
to the New York Times and later refer back to the leak as independent journalistic
confirmation, leading to invasion and hundreds of thousands of deaths and a trillion dollars
in squandered treasure. The Iraq disgrace aside, obscuring official sources might be
understandable if this journalistic worst practice were in the service of earth-shaking news. It
almost never is. The blind quotes, though, are not even the worst of it. The New York Times
recently revealed that reporters are not merely working on background, they negotiate after
interviews what comments may be used and send them to sources for prepublication approval.
The sources routinely edit those quotes before turning them back over to news organisations. As
media ethicist Edward Wasserman so aptly put it, "At this point you're no longer talking about an
interview; you're talking about a press release And what happens is Washington becomes no
different from Beijing, in terms of reporting what authorities want reported".
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on mass media corruption, click here.

Wall Street Legend Sandy Weill: Break Up the Big Banks

2012-07-25, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48315170
Former Citigroup Chairman & CEO Sanford I. Weill, the man who invented the financial
supermarket, called for the breakup of big banks in an interview on CNBC Wednesday. What
we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit
takers, have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans, have banks do something thats
not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, thats not too big to fail, Weill told CNBCs Squawk Box. He
added: If they want to hedge what theyre doing with their investments, let them do it in a way
thats going to be mark-to-market so theyre never going to be hit. He essentially called for the
return of the GlassSteagall Act, which imposed banking reforms that split banks from
other financial institutions such as insurance companies. He said banks should be split off
entirely from investment banks, and they should operate with a leverage ratio of 12 times to 15

times of what they have on their balance sheets. Banks should also be completely transparent,
Weill said, with everything on balance sheet. There should be no such thing as off balance sheet,
he said.
Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on corruption and criminality in the
operations and regulation of the financial sector, click here.

Harvard Study Finds Fluoride Lowers IQ - Published in Federal Gov't

Journal
2012-07-24, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/idUS127920+24-Jul-2012+PRN20120724
Harvard University researchers' review of fluoride/brain studies concludes "our results support the
possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children's neurodevelopment." It was
published online July 20 in Environmental Health Perspectives, a US National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences' journal, reports the NYS Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. "The
children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low
fluoride areas," write Choi et al. Further, the EPA says fluoride is a chemical "with substantial
evidence of developmental neurotoxicity." Fluoride (fluosilicic acid) is added to US water supplies
at approximately 1 part per million attempting to reduce tooth decay. Choi et al. write, "Although
fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in animal models and acute fluoride poisoning causes
neurotoxicity in adults, very little is known of its effects on children's neurodevelopment." They
recommend more brain/fluoride research on children and at individual-level doses. "It's senseless
to keep subjecting our children to this ongoing fluoridation experiment to satisfy the political
agenda of special-interest groups," says attorney Paul Beeber, NYSCOF President. "Even if
fluoridation reduced cavities, is tooth health more important than brain health? It's time to
put politics aside and stop artificial fluoridation everywhere," says Beeber.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Wealth doesn't trickle down it just floods offshore, research reveals

2012-07-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/offshore-wealth-global-economy...
The world's super-rich have taken advantage of lax tax rules to siphon off at least $21
trillion, and possibly as much as $32tn, from their home countries and hide it abroad a
sum larger than the entire American economy. James Henry, a former chief economist at
consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has conducted groundbreaking new research
for the Tax Justice Network campaign group sifting through data from the Bank for International
Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private sector analysts to construct
an alarming picture that shows capital flooding out of countries across the world and disappearing
into the cracks in the financial system. "This offshore economy is large enough to have a major

impact on estimates of inequality of wealth and income; on estimates of national income and debt
ratios; and most importantly to have very significant negative impacts on the domestic tax
bases of 'source' countries," Henry says. John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network
[commented] "Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still
relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people. This new data shows the exact
opposite has happened: for three decades extraordinary wealth has been cascading into the
offshore accounts of a tiny number of super-rich." In total, 10 million individuals around the world
hold assets offshore, according to Henry's analysis; but almost half of the minimum estimate of
$21tn $9.8tn is owned by just 92,000 people.
Note: Henry's report, entitled The Price of Offshore Revisited, is available here. For more on this,
click here.

Regulators and HSBC Faulted in Report on Money Laundering

2012-07-16, New York Times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/scathing-report-details-money-launderi...
The global bank HSBC has been used by Mexican drug cartels looking to get cash back into
the United States, by Saudi Arabian banks that needed access to dollars despite their
terrorist ties and by Iranians who wanted to circumvent United States sanctions, a Senate
report says. The 335-page report released [on July 16] also says that executives at HSBC and
regulators at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ignored warning signs and failed to stop
the illegal behavior at many points between 2001 and 2010. The problems at HSBC, Europe's
largest financial institution, [are] indicators of a broader problem of illegal money flowing through
international financial institutions into the United States. The report on HSBC is the latest of
several scandals that have recently rocked global banks and highlighted the inability of regulators
to catch what is claimed to be widespread wrongdoing in the financial industry. The British bank
Barclays recently admitted that its traders tried to manipulate a crucial global interest rate, and
multiple major banks are under investigation. JPMorgan Chase disclosed last week that its
employees may have tried to hide trades that are likely to cost the bank billions of dollars. The
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has come under particularly harsh criticism for showing
too much deference to the banks it regulates.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on regulatory and financial
corruption and criminality, click here. For our highly revealing Banking Corruption Information
Center, click here.

What is Media Manipulation? A Definition and Explanation

2012-07-16, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/07/16/what-is-media-manipulation...

Media manipulation currently shapes everything you read, hear and watch online.
Everything. In the old days, we only had a few threats to fear when it came to media
manipulation: the government propagandist and the hustling publicist. They exploited the fact that
the media was trusted and reliable. Today, with our blog and web driven media cycle, nothing can
escape exaggeration, distortion, fabrication and simplification. Media manipulation is the status
quo. It becomes, as Daniel Boorstin, author [of] The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America,
once put it, a "thicket ... which stands between us and the facts of life." Today the media - driven
by blogs - is assailed on all sides, by the crushing economics of their business, dishonest
sources, inhuman deadlines, pageview quotas, inaccurate information, greedy publishers, poor
training, the demands of the audience, and so much more. These incentives are real, whether
youre the Huffington Post or CNN or some tiny blog. They warp everything you read online.
Everyone is in on the game, from bloggers to non-profits to marketers to the New York Times itself.
And when everyone is running the same racket, the line between the real and the fake becomes
indistinguishable. Media manipulation exploits the difference between perception and reality. This
all happens because of the poor incentives. When readers dont PAY for news, the creators of
the news dont have any loyalty to the readers. To combat these manipulations, we must
change the incentives. If we want loyalty to the truth, we must be loyal to the people who provide
us with it. This probably means paying for information in one form or another.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on mass media cover-ups and distortions,
click here. Thanks to the generous support of our readers and our lack of advertising,
WantToKnow.info is one of the few news sources not subject to pressure from financial incentives
which drive news manipulation for others. To support our work so that we can continue to be free
of these market pressures, click here.

Time for Banksters to be prosecuted

2012-07-10, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-time-for-bankste...
Once more the big banks are exposed in systematic fraudulent activity. When Barclays agreed to a
$450 million fine for trying to rig the Libor, its CEO offered the classic excuse: Everyone does it.
Once more the question remains: Will CEOs and CFOs, as well as traders, be prosecuted? Or
will they depart with their multimillion dollar rewards intact, leaving shareholders to pay the
tab for the hundreds of millions in fines? The Barclays settlement exposed that traders
colluded to try to fix the Libor rate. This is the rate used as the basis for exotic derivatives as well
as mortgages, credit card and personal loan rates. Almost everyone is affected. Fixing the rate
even a few hundredths of a percentage point could make Barclays millions on any single day
money taken out of the pockets of consumers and investors. Once more the banks were rigging
the rules; once more their customers were their mark. The collusion was systematic and routine.
Investigations are underway not only in the United Kingdom but also in the United States, Canada
and the European Union. Those named in the probes are all the usual suspects: JPMorgan Chase,

Citibank, UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS and others. This wasnt rogue trading, ... it was
more like a cartel. The Economist writes that what has been revealed here is the rotten heart of
finance, a culture of casual dishonesty.
Note: For key investigative reports on the criminality and corruption in the financial industry and
biggest banks, click here.

Guilty bankers should clean toilets

2012-07-05, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/opinion/quest-libor-analysis/index.html
The Libor scandal has confirmed what many of us have known for some time: There is something
smelly in the London financial world and the stench is now overwhelming. The Financial Services
Authority report [made it] clear just how widespread, how blatant was the fixing of the benchmark
interest rate Libor and Euribor by Barclays. Brazen is the only word for it. The emails and phone
calls reveal that on dozens of occasions those who stood to gain by the decisions asked
for favors (and got them) from those who helped set the interest rates. And all the time the
world believed Libor was somehow a barometer of what banks were lending to each other. It
wasn't. It was the rate at which a bank was prepared to corrupt the money markets for its own
narrow, venal gain. It is the way the traders, the rate submitters -- everyone involved in this cesspit
-- [were] running to do wrong which makes it so egregious. With one or two feeble exceptions, no
one ever seemed to stop and say "this is against the rules." Or, heaven forbid, "this is wrong." I
have no doubt that Barclays wasn't the only one up to this. The FSA report makes it clear that
other traders were putting pressure on their rate setters too. Libor and its cousin Euribor are the
rates used to determine hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of highly specialized financial
contracts called derivatives. Businesses and household loans are set by this benchmark. It is the
backbone of the financial world and now it has been proven to be bent and crooked.
Note: For an incredibly incisive interview between Eliot Spitzer, Matt Taibbi, and a top banking
expert on how the LIBOR scandal undermines the integrity of all banking, click here. For
astounding news on the $700 trillion derivatives bubble, click here. For a treasure trove of reliable
reports on the criminality and corruption within the financial and banking industries, click here.

Inquiry Declares Fukushima Crisis a Man-Made Disaster

2012-07-05, CNBC/New York Times
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48089813
The nuclear accident at Fukushima was a preventable disaster rooted in government-industry
collusion and the worst conformist conventions of Japanese culture, a parliamentary inquiry [has]
concluded. The report, released by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation
Commission, challenged some of the main story lines that the government and the operator of the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant have put forward. Most notably, the report said the plants

crucial cooling systems might have been damaged in the earthquake on March 11, 2011, not only
in the ensuing tsunami. That possibility raises doubts about the safety of all the quake-prone
countrys nuclear plants just as they begin to restart after a pause ordered in the wake of the
Fukushima crisis. It was a profoundly man-made disaster that could and should have
been foreseen and prevented, said Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the commissions chairman, in the
reports introduction. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human
response. The 641-page report criticized Tepco as being too quick to dismiss earthquake
damage as a cause of the fuel meltdowns at three of the plants six reactors, which overheated
when the site lost power. Tepco has contended that the plant withstood the earthquake that rocked
eastern Japan, instead placing blame for the disaster on what some experts have called a once in
a millennium tsunami that followed.
Note: For lots more from reliable major media articles on corruption in the nuclear power industry,
click here.

Drug Trials and Data-Based Medicine: An Interview with David Healy

2012-07-04, Psychology Today
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201207/drug-trials-and-data-...
Dr. David Healy is an internationally renowned psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and
author. He was responsible for submitting the key document that led to New York State's
successful fraud action against GlaxoSmithKline. [Q.] Youve written at your blog that evidencebased medicine and RCTs [random controlled trials] are ... simply not the answer to determining
cause and effect, [because] theyre quite likely to hide rather than reveal a problem like
antidepressant induced suicidality. How in fact do RCTs hide such information? [Dr. Healy:] There
are ... specific problems like miscoding, where suicidality becomes nausea or emotional lability
or even treatment non-responsiveness. There is also the problem of mislocation patients
on placebo end up being given problems they never had and of nonexistent patients, who
dont of course have adverse events. Beyond that, there are more sophisticated tricks that
companies can and do play such as claiming that increased rates of a problem on a drug
are not really evidence of an increase in rates if the data are not statistically significant. In this
way, companies have hidden many more heart attacks on Vioxx and Avandia or suicidal acts on
SSRIs than have been hidden by miscoding or mislocation. When it comes to adverse events,
trials almost never get the right answer. The deeper problem ... is the combination of product
patents, prescription-only status, and the use of clinical trials as a means of determining efficacy
in particular, when the data from those trials are not made available. This creates a perfect product
... which industry can manipulate to mean whatever they want them to mean.
Note: Dr. Healy is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and 20 books. For an
excellent article going further into Dr. Healy's amazing work, click here. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on health corruption and manipulations, click here.

Joseph Stiglitz: Man who ran World Bank calls for bankers to face the
music
2012-07-02, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/joseph-stigl...
The Barclays Libor scandal may have shocked the British public, but Joseph Stiglitz saw it
coming decades ago. And he's convinced that jailing bankers is the best way to curb
market abuses. [Former World Bank Chief Economist] Stiglitz wrote a series of papers in the
1970s and 1980s explaining how when some individuals have access to privileged knowledge that
others don't, free markets yield bad outcomes for wider society. That insight (known as the theory
of "asymmetric information") won Stiglitz the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001. And he has
leveraged those credentials relentlessly ever since to batter at the walls of "free market
fundamentalism". It is a crusade that [includes] his new book The Price of Inequality. When traders
working for Barclays rigged the Libor interest rate and flogged toxic financial derivatives using
their privileged position in the financial system to make profits at the expense of their customers
they were unwittingly proving Stiglitz right. "It's a textbook illustration," Stiglitz said. "Where there
are these asymmetries a lot of these activities are directed at rent seeking [appropriating resources
from someone else rather than creating new wealth]. That was one of my original points. It wasn't
about productivity, it was taking advantage." He argues that breaking the economic and political
power that has been amassed by the financial sector in recent decades, especially in the US and
the UK, is essential if we are to build a more just and prosperous society. The first step, he says, is
sending some bankers to jail.
Note: For key investigative reports on the criminality and corruption in the financial industry and
biggest banks, click here.

Libor scandal: How I manipulated the bank borrowing rate

2012-07-01, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9368430/Libor...
An anonymous insider from one of Britain's biggest lenders ... explains how he and his colleagues
helped manipulate the UK's bank borrowing rate. Neither the insider nor the bank can be identified
for legal reasons. It was during a weekly economic briefing at the bank in early 2008 that I first
heard the phrase. A sterling swaps trader told the assembled economists and managers that
"Libor was dislocated with itself". What the trader told us was that the bank could not be seen to
be borrowing at high rates, so we were putting in low Libor submissions, the same as
everyone. How could we do that? Easy. The British Bankers' Association, which compiled
Libor, asked for a rate submission but there were no checks. The trader said there was a
general acceptance that you lowered the price a few basis points each day. According to the
trader, "everyone knew" and "everyone was doing it". There was no implication of illegality. After
all, there were 20 to 30 people in the room from management to economists, structuring teams

to salespeople and more on the teleconference dial-in from across the country. The discussion
was so open the behaviour seemed above board. In no sense was this a clandestine gathering.
Libor had dislocated with itself for a very good reason to hide the true issues within the bank.
Note: For an incredibly incisive interview between Eliot Spitzer, Matt Taibbi, and a top banking
expert on how the LIBOR scandal undermines the integrity of all banking, click here. For a treasure
trove of reliable reports on the criminality and corruption within the financial and banking industries,
click here.

South Floridas ex-ICE chief to plead guilty to Internet child-porn

charges
2012-06-25, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/25/2867608/south-floridas-ex-ice-chief-to....
Anthony V. Mangione, the former chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South
Florida, plans to plead guilty rather than go to trial next month on Internet child-pornography
charges, according to a federal court filing. It is customary for federal defendants who plead guilty
to receive lower sentences after they accept responsibility and forego trial. Still, each of the
charges accusing Mangione of transporting and receiving images of minors engaging in sexually
explicit conduct carries a minimum-mandatory sentence of five years. Mangione ... served as an
agent with ICE for 27 years. During the past decade, ICE aggressively targeted child
pornography, with Mangione frequently speaking out against predators who illegally
share images through their computers. ICE also investigates migrant smuggling, illegal
weapons exports, terrorism and drug trafficking. As the special agent in charge of ICEs South
Florida office between 2007 and 2011, Mangione often praised the agencys efforts against
child pornography in both the cyber and real worlds.
Note: To learn about documented sexual abuse in secret CIA mind control programs, click here.
For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on sexual abuse, click here.

Monsignor convicted of child endangerment in priest abuse coverup

2012-06-22, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-priest-sex-abuse-trial-...
A Pennsylvania jury [has] convicted Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment for covering up
sexual abuse of children by priests. Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. to
be tried and convicted on charges related to the church scandal in which priests across the
country sexually abused children for years. In the landmark case, prosecutors said Lynn
reassigned pedophile priests in Philadelphia while covering up allegations of sexual abuse. By
assigning pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes, in an attempt to protect the churchs
reputation and stave off lawsuits, Lynn exposed more children to potential abuse, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors produced a list that Lynn compiled in 1994 naming 37 priests in the archdiocese who

had been identified as pedophiles or were suspected of sexually abusing children. The trial was
noteworthy because Lynn was not accused of sexual misconduct, but of covering it up. More than
a dozen witnesses testified that they were sexually abused by priests who had been allowed to
serve in their parishes even after being suspected or accused of abuse. Prosecutors said Lynn lied
to parents about pedophile priests in an attempt to protect the archdiocese, and that he and other
church officials were lax in responding to credible reports of abuse. In some instances, prosecutors
said, Lynn suggested to accused priests that their young alleged victims had enticed them into
sexual contact.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

Are we wildly underestimating solar and wind power?

2012-06-19, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/06/19/are-we-wildly-un...
Right now, renewable energy sources like solar and wind still provide just a small fraction of the
worlds electricity. But theyre growing fast. Solar is growing exponentially. Across the globe, 55
terawatt-hours of solar power had been installed by the end of 2011. That may not seem like much
in itself the United States by itself, after all, needed about one hundred times that much power
in 2011. But solar has been growing at a stunning rate, as panels keep getting dramatically
cheaper. If these exponential growth rates [continue] solar could provide nearly 10 percent
of the worlds electricity by 2018. Official agencies keep underestimating the growth rate of
renewables. The International Energy Agency is forecasting that solar will catch on much more
slowly providing a mere 4.5 percent of the worlds electricity by 2035. But [t]he IEA has almost
always underestimated how quickly wind and solar can grow. Forecasters have consistently been
too pessimistic. For instance, back in 2000, the IEAs World Energy Outlook predicted that nonhydro sources of renewable energy would make up 3 percent of global energy by the year 2020.
The world reached that point in 2008, well ahead of schedule. Using only current technology,
renewables could technically provide the vast bulk of U.S. electricity by mid-century.
Note: The media has consistently underplayed the promising potential for alternative energy
sources. The fact that the above is a blog and not a regular article in the Post is yet another
example of this. For more on promising developments on energy technologies, click here.

Studying the art of gratitude

2012-06-18, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/18/DDSP1OUJST.DTL
Are we in the middle of a gratitude movement? Evidence suggests so. Publishers can't seem to
print enough books with the words "gratitude" or "gratefulness" in the title. Scientists rake in
millions of dollars in grants to study how feelings of gratitude might improve physical health and
psychological well-being. And this weekend, hundreds are expected to attend a Pathways to

Gratefulness conference [in San Francisco] to talk about cultivating gratefulness in their lives.
Among the participants is Brother David Steindl-Rast, an 85-year-old Benedictine monk,
considered the spiritual leader of the gratitude movement. The author of Gratefulness, the Heart of
Prayer ... and A Listening Heart ..., Steindl-Rast will be joined by an eclectic collection of writers,
poets, spiritual teachers and scientists involved in the fast-growing field of gratitude research. One
of those scientists, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, is director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC
Berkeley, which controls a $5.9 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund a project
called Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude. Simon-Thomas ... said the Berkeley
center is considering 60 research proposals, including many from the leading brain science
laboratories in the United States. Some of the research would build on studies already
conducted by UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons, who cites "scientific proof that when
people regularly work on cultivating gratitude they experience a variety of measurable
benefits - psychological, physical and social."
Note: For a profound, five-minute video on gratefulness that will brighten your day, click here. And
for an excellent essay on gratitude, click here.

Drones over America. Are they spying on you?

2012-06-16, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0616/Drones-over-America.-Are-they-spying-o...
Most Americans have gotten used to regular news reports about military and CIA drones attacking
terrorist suspects including US citizens in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere abroad. But picture
thousands of drone aircraft buzzing around the United States. By some government estimates, as
many as 30,000 drones could be part of intelligence gathering and law enforcement here in
the United States within the next ten years. Operated by agencies down to the local level,
this would be in addition to the 110 current and planned drone activity sites run by the
military services in 39 states, reported this week by the Federation of American Scientists, a
non-government research project. Civil libertarians warn that unmanned aircraft carrying cameras
raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance of American life, as the
American Civil Liberties Union put it in a report last December. The technology is quickly
becoming cheaper and more powerful, interest in deploying drones among police departments is
increasing, and our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be
used responsibly and consistently with democratic values, reported the ACLU. In short, all the
pieces appear to be lining up for the eventual introduction of routine aerial surveillance in American
life.
Note: For deeper analysis of the threats posed to American citizens by military and police drones
in the skies, click here. For information on a federal recent law compelling the Federal Aviation
Administration to allow drones to fly in US skies, click here. For more information on the use of
drones by police in the US, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on surveillance in the
US, click here.

Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal?

2012-06-01, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/is-bilderberg-a-conference-on-world-affai...
A dull office park near Dulles International Airport took on the sheen of a Hollywood thriller this
week, when an invitation-only cadre of global leaders gathered for a secretive meeting known as
the Bilderberg conference. Henry Kissinger and Bill Gates were chauffeured in. Fairfax County
police established a security perimeter around the Westfields Marriott and prohibited a Washington
Post photographer from snapping pictures from a public street. Outside the Jersey barriers,
dozens of protesters and conspiracy theorists convinced that Bilderberg is a global cabal that
runs the world waved signs and shouted into bullhorns. The current chairman of its steering
committee is a French count. Participants include the [neoconservative] Richard Perle, billionaire
Peter Thiel, and financiers such as Roger Altman and Kenneth M. Jacobs, chairman and chief
executive of Lazard. Attendees are encouraged not to discuss the proceedings, which fuels
the secrecy concerns. Over the years, conspiracy buffs have embraced notions such as the
group is behind the creation of the euro and meets to select the winners and losers in the
U.S. presidential election.
Note: For an informative, revealing video on the Bilderberg Group featuring top Guardian journalist
Charlie Skelton, click here. For excellent summaries of revealing major media news articles on the
Bilderberg Group and other powerful secret societies, click here.

Heist of the century: Wall Street's role in the financial crisis

2012-05-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/20/wall-street-role-financial-crisis
Wall Street bankers could have averted the global financial crisis, so why didn't they? In this
exclusive extract from his book Inside Job: The Financiers Who Pulled Off the Heist of the
Century, Charles Ferguson argues that they should be prosecuted: The Securities and Exchanges
Commission has been deservedly criticised for not following up on years of complaints about
[Bernard L.] Madoff. But not a single bank that had suspicions about Madoff made such a call.
Instead, they assumed he was probably a crook, but either just left him alone or were happy to
make money from him. It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global
financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even
encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial
crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind
of economic accident. This behaviour is criminal. We are talking about deliberate concealment
of financial transactions that aided terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation and large-scale tax
evasion; assisting in major financial frauds and in concealment of criminal assets; and committing
frauds that substantially worsened the worst financial bubbles and crises since the Depression.
And yet none of this conduct has been punished in any significant way.

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corruption and criminality in the finance industry, click
here.

Vatican denounces leaks of papal correspondence, documents as

criminal, promises justice
2012-05-19, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/vatican-denounces-leaks-of-papal-c...
The Vatican has denounced as criminal a new book of leaked internal documents that shed light
on power struggles inside the Holy See and the thinking of its embattled top banker, and warned
that it would take legal action against those responsible. Pope Benedict XVI has already appointed
a commission of cardinals to investigate the Vatileaks scandal, which erupted earlier this year
with the publication of leaked memos alleging corruption and mismanagement in Holy See affairs
and internal squabbles over its efforts to comply with international anti-money laundering norms.
The publication Saturday of His Holiness, by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, added fuel to the
fire, reproducing confidential letters and memos to and from Benedict and his personal secretary.
The bank has been trying for some two years to remedy its reputation as a shady tax haven
beset by scandals, which include the collapse of Italys Banco Ambrosiano and the death of
its head, Roberto Calvi, who also helped manage Vatican investments and was found
hanging from Londons Blackfriars Bridge in 1982.
Note: For lots more on this most revealing case of Vatican corruption and media complicity in
keeping silent, click here and here. And to learn who is being accused of leaking these documents,
click here.

At 93, world's oldest yoga teacher still going strong

2012-05-10, NBC News
http://www.today.com/id/47378120#.UUzebzcTSSo
Tao Porchon-Lynch considers her hundreds of yoga students to be her own children. The 93-yearold has been practicing yoga since she was 8 years old, and was just named the world's oldest
yoga teacher by Guinness World Records. Based in New York, Porchon-Lynch has taught
hundreds of students around the globe for over 45 years, and has followers in India, France and
the U.S. It wasnt until the age of 73 that Porchon-Lynch decided to concentrate on teaching
yoga, founding the Westchester Institute of Yoga in New York. Porchon-Lynch teaches yoga
four days a week and also keeps busy ballroom dancing and guiding wine tours in New
York State. And she certainly knows how to overcome a challenge. At 87, she had hip surgery but
a month later she took to the dance floor, starting lessons. I believe that we can always reach just
a little bit further," said Porchon-Lynch. "Im inspired to bring yoga into others lives along with
helping people unearth new talents.

Note: For an awesome, two-minute video showing this amazing woman's strength and flexibility,
click here. For an inspiring article and video of an incredible 86-year-old gymnast performing
unbelievable feats, click here. For an article and video of a 75-year-old grandmother who is a
champion body builder and runs 10 miles a day, click here. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

The spectacle of terror and its vested interests

2012-05-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/09/spectacle-terr...
A cycle of overhyped terror plots involving government agency entrapment feeds a multimilliondollar surveillance industry. The news stories ... quickly surface, long enough to cause scary
headlines, then vanish before people can learn how often the cases are thrown out. These are
stories about "bumbling fantasists", hapless druggies, the aimless, even the virtually homeless and
mentally ill, and other marginal characters with not the strongest grip on reality, who have been
lured into discourses about violence against America only after assiduous courting, and in some
cases outright payment, by undercover FBI or police informants. But the tales of entrapment and
terror hype continue apace ten years after 9/11. Now we have another "underwear bomber"
declared by the Pentagon to have been about to launch a major attack via a US-bound plane, but
who appears, reportedly, to have been a CIA-run double agent. What is the evidence that the
"device", which is supposedly so sophisticated that there is doubt as to whether existing
surveillance technologies in US airports would have caught it, actually exists? It is important
to note that we can no longer assume that the FBI and the CIA and the NSA work ... for the safety
of the American people; they [now] represent a revolving door of government officials who become
security industry lobbyists and manufacturers, which, in turn, get the multimillion-dollar contracts
for tackling the very problems these stories [hype].
Note: For more on this bizarre news, see the CBS report at this link. Isn't it amazing how many
terrorist groups have undercover FBI and CIA agents involved in actually pushing plots forward?
One has to wonder how far the plots would go without prompting by intelligence insiders. For a
powerful BBC documentary suggesting that terrorism is pushed and sold by politicians for a
deeper agenda, click here.

Genetically modified crops' results raise concern

2012-04-30, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/29/MN1O1O5SS0.DTL
Biotechnology's promise to feed the world did not anticipate "Trojan corn," "super weeds"
and the disappearance of monarch butterflies. In the Midwest and South - blanketed by more
than 170 million acres of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton - an experiment begun
in 1996 with approval of the first commercial genetically modified organisms is producing
questionable results. Those results include vast increases in herbicide use that have created

impervious weeds now infesting millions of acres of cropland, while decimating other plants, such
as milkweeds that sustain the monarch butterflies. More than a million people have signed a
petition to the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of genetically engineered food. The
stakes on labeling such foods are huge. The crops are so widespread that an estimated 70
percent of U.S. processed foods contain engineered genes. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has approved more than 80 genetically engineered crops while denying none.
Genetically engineered crops ... have spawned an infestation of "super weeds" now covering at
least 13 million acres in 26 states. The crops led to a 400-million-pound net increase in herbicide
applications. Dave Mortensen, a weed ecologist at Pennsylvania State University, said the number
of "super weed" species grew from one in 1996 ... to 22 today. Last month, scientists definitively
tied heavy use of glyphosate to an 81 percent decline in the monarch butterfly population. It turns
out that the herbicide has obliterated the milkweeds on Midwest corn farms where the monarchs
lay their eggs after migrating from Mexico. Iowa State University ecologist John Pleasants, one of
the study's authors, said the catastrophic decline in monarchs is a consequence of the genetically
engineered crops that no one foresaw.
Note: Multiple reliable sources have shown that you may be eating genetically modified food daily
which scientific experiments have repeatedly demonstrated can cause sickness and even death in
lab animals. For key reports from major media sources on hidden facts on the dangers of
genetically modified food, click here.

5 real-life weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie

2012-04-10, Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/5-real-life-weapons-straight-sci-...
These five crazy, futuristic, and veritably frightening weapons may sound like they come from epic
sci-fi flicks, but ... they actually exist. 1. Speech-suppressing gun. This gun was designed by
Japanese researchers to silence people by messing with their heads. It could ... be used to silence
protesters [and] important political figures. Talk about an Orwellian nightmare come true! 2. Vomit
ray. This weapon ... uses radio frequency (RF) to affect a person's sense of hearing and
equilibrium. Anyone hit by these waves (which, by the way, can pass through walls) is expected to
throw up. 3. Pain ray. More formally known as the Active Denial System (ADS), the pain ray is a
weapon developed by the U.S. military that can ... cause excruciating pain by emitting highpowered waves similar to those from a microwave oven. A smaller version of the pain ray called
Silent Guardian was developed by defense technology company Raytheon and is currently
available for use by law enforcement agencies. 4. Mind-control gun. Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin recently admitted that the country's government created a gun that can put people
in a zombie-like state. Studies about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the brain reveal
that one of its possible effects is implanting thoughts and suggestions into a target's mind. 5. Selfguided bullet. The U.S. [has] developed a new kind of bullet that could turn anyone into a
sharpshooter. As long as you shine a laser beam to what you want to hit, the sensor on the bullet's
nose can follow it ... even if the target is up to a mile away. Most of the weapons in this list may not
be created to inflict fatal wounds, but they sure have terrifying implications.

Note: For an intriguing document on a U.S. military website about these exotic weapons, click
here. From our extensive research, this technology is far more advanced than is being admitted,
and it is being used by all of the major militaries of the world. For key major media articles
revealing the disturbing power of these exotic weapons, click here. For an excellent essay giving
historical background and more, click here. For powerful evidence the secretive HAARP program
is being used for similar purposes, click here.

Are We Ready for the Russian Zombie Gun?

2012-04-07, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/04/04/are-we-ready-for-the-russ...
Strange, alarming, morbidly intriguing any or all of those would serve to describe the newly
announced Zombie Gun that Russian president Vladimir Putin plans to use for achieving political
and strategic goals (his words, as quoted from the UK Mail Online). The concept is not new. For
some time now military technologists have been working on weapons to incapacitate the enemy by
attacking the central nervous system or damaging internal organs. Extremely high doses of
microwaves could stop someones heart from beating or disintegrate his eyeballs, for example.
Actually introducing such weapons to the combat zone or perhaps against dissidents might be
new. Lower dose microwave weapons have already been used in Russia for crowd control, and
some claim theyve also tried them out in other venues. Quoting from the Mail Online: "Plans to
introduce the super-weapons were announced quietly last week by Russian defence minister
Anatoly Serdyukov. Mr Serdyukov said: The development of weaponry based on new physics
principles direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic
weapons, psychotronic weapons, and so on is part of the state arms procurement
programme for 2011-2020." [One weapon] could theoretically render someone pliable or even
drive them insane by directly attacking the brain. This is the weapon most appropriately described
as a zombie gun. Similar weapons have already been used on a trial basis.
Note: For an intriguing document on a U.S. military website about these exotic weapons, click
here. From our extensive research, this technology is far more advanced than is being admitted,
and it is being used by all of the major militaries of the world. For key major media articles
revealing the disturbing power of these exotic weapons, click here. For an excellent essay giving
historical background and more, click here. For powerful evidence the secretive HAARP program
is being used for similar purposes, click here.

How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the

masses
2012-04-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/05/us-sexual-humi...

In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon
arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. [This joins] the NDAA, which lets anyone be
arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the "trespass bill", which gives you a 10-year sentence
for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection. Is American strip-searching
benign? The man who had brought the initial suit ... described having been told to "turn around.
Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks." There's the sexual abuse of prisoners at Bagram, [where]
in some cases, an interrogator would place his penis along the face of the detainee while he was
being questioned. Other inmates were raped with sticks or threatened with anal sex. And there's
the policy ... to grope US travelers genitally or else force them to go through a machine made by
a company, Rapiscan, owned by terror profiteer and former DHA czar Michael Chertoff with
images so vivid that it has been called the "pornoscanner". Believe me: you don't want the state
having the power to strip your clothes off. History shows that the use of forced nudity by a
state that is descending into fascism is powerfully effective in controlling and subduing
populations. Where are we headed? These recent laws ... are being set up to work in concert
with a see-all-all-the-time surveillance state. Remember, you don't need to have done anything
wrong to be arrested in America any longer. The man who was forced to spread his buttocks was
stopped for a driving infraction. As one internet advocate said: "There is a race against time: they
realise the internet is a tool of empowerment that will work against their interests, and they need to
race to turn it into a tool of control."
Note: How sad that it takes a British newspaper to spell out the highly repressive and invasive new
laws being passed in the US. For many revealing major media articles showing the dangers of big
brother in our world, click here. For excellent articles revealing the severe erosion of civil liberties,
click here.

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip Searches for Any Arrest

2012-04-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-...
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people
arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no
reason to suspect the presence of contraband. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the courts
conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of
correctional officials. The procedures endorsed by the majority are forbidden by statute in at least
10 states. According to a supporting brief filed by the American Bar Association, international
human rights treaties also ban the procedures. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the four
dissenters, said the strip searches the majority allowed were a serious affront to human dignity
and to individual privacy and should be used only when there was good reason to do so. Justice
Breyer said that the Fourth Amendment should be understood to bar strip searches of people
arrested for minor offenses not involving drugs or violence, unless officials had a reasonable
suspicion that they were carrying contraband. People have been subjected to the humiliation
of a visual strip search after being arrested for driving with a noisy muffler, failing to use a
turn signal and riding a bicycle without an audible bell. A nun was strip-searched ... after an

arrest for trespassing during an antiwar demonstration. In a study of 23,000 people admitted
to a correctional facility in Orange County, N.Y., using that standard, there was at most one
instance of contraband detected that would not otherwise have been found.
Note: For an abundance of major media articles showing severe erosion of civil liberties, click
here.

Swine flu vaccine 'linked to' sleeping disorder

2012-03-29, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9171414/Swine-flu-vaccine-linked...
A study in Finland has found that children vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu virus with
Pandemrix were more likely to develop the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The condition causes
excessive daytime sleepiness and sufferers can fall asleep suddenly and unintentionally. The
researchers found that between 2002 and 2009, before the swine flu pandemic struck, the
rate of narcolepsy in children under the age of 17 was 0.31 per 100,000. In 2010 this was
about 17 times higher at 5.3 per 100,000 while the narcolepsy rate remained the same in adults.
Markku Partinen of the Helsinki Sleep Clinic and Hanna Nohynek of the National Institute for
Health and Welfare in Finland, also collected vaccination and childhood narcolepsy data for
children born between January 1991 and December 2005. They found that in those who were
vaccinated the rate of narcolepsy was nine per 100,000 compared to 0.7 per 100,000
unvaccinated children, or 13 times lower. Pandemrix was the main vaccine used in Britain against
the swine flu epidemic in which six million people were vaccinated. It was formulated specifically
for the swine flu pandemic virus and is no longer in use.
Note: The WHO stated "more than 12 countries reported cases of narcolepsy in children and
adolescents using GlaxoSmithKline's swine flu vaccine." For powerful media reports suggesting
that both the Avian Flu and Swine Flu were incredibly manipulated to promote fear and boost
pharmaceutical sales, click here. For many news articles showing that vaccines are not tested
adequately for safety and are at times politically and financially motivated, click here. For lots more
from reliable sources on pharmaceutical corruption, click here.

Very High Radiation, Little Water in Japan Reactor

2012-03-28, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/high-radiation-water-japan-reac...
One of Japan's crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and hardly any water
to cool its fuel, according to an internal examination that reinforces doubts about the plant's
stability. The data collected showed the damage from the disaster is so severe, the plant operator
will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment and
decommission the plant, a process expected to last decades. The No. 2 reactor is the only one
plant workers have been able to closely examine so far. Tuesday's examination with an

industrial endoscope detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the
chamber. The other two reactors that had meltdowns could be in even worse shape. Three
Dai-ichi reactors had meltdowns, but the No. 2 reactor is the only one that has been examined
because radiation levels inside the reactor building are relatively low and its container is designed
with a convenient slot to send in the endoscope. The exact conditions of the other two reactors,
where hydrogen explosions damaged their buildings, are still unknown. Simulations have indicated
that more fuel inside No. 1 has breached the core than the other two, but radiation at No. 3
remains the highest. The high radiation levels inside the No. 2 reactor's chamber mean it's
inaccessible to the workers. Fukushima's accident has instilled public distrust and concerns about
nuclear safety, making it difficult for the government to start up reactors even after regular safety
checks. All but one of Japan's 54 reactors are now offline, with the last one scheduled to stop in
early May.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on Fukushima and other cases of corruption in the
nuclear power industry, click here.

Does the Federal Reserve Have Too Much Power?

2012-03-26, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/03/does-the-federal-reserve-hav...
Question: A group proposing a change in monetary policy based on the writings of Stephen
Zarlenga (monetary.org) [argues] that the government should print the money, not the Fed or any
other private body. H.R. 2990 proposed by Dennis Kucinich is based on these ideas. Are they
reasonable to you? Paul Solman: As the Treasury borrows more and more money by issuing
bonds and selling them to all comers, it commits itself, "with the full faith and credit" of the United
States, to pay back its creditors in full. That means it will either raise taxes in the future or -- and
this is the relevant point -- get the Fed to create more money by purchasing bonds on the open
market. This is called "monetizing the debt." There's a legitimate case that the Fed has too
much power, is insufficiently beholden to the people in what's supposed to be a democracy,
since no one on the Fed is chosen by popular election and private bankers are heavily
represented on its board. This has long been the argument of financial journalist William Greider,
author of a major book on the Fed, "The Secrets of the Temple." Greider: "The idea of giving the
Federal Reserve still greater power [is] dangerous. First of all it rewards failure. But secondly, it
puts them in the position as arbiter of who shall fail and who shall succeed. It asks to be able to
choose what are the 30 or 40 or 50 banks and industrial firms that it regards as systemic risks for
the society and ... it will protect those from failure. The government stands behind them and the
rest of us are on our own."
Note: If you look at the top of any U.S. currency bill, you will see the words "Federal Reserve
Note." Thus, though U.S. dollars are printed by the Treasury, they are issued and controlled by the
Federal Reserve, which is privately owned, though subject to minimal federal oversight. To see just
how much control the Federal Reserve has over the issuance of U.S. currency, see their webpage
at this link. For lots more on hidden manipulations of the Federal Reserve, click here.

Too Big To Bank There

2012-03-24, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577297711326667808.html
We have finally reached the point in our financial history where even bankers hate bankers. Last
week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued its 2011 annual report with a 34-page essay,
"Why We Must End Too Big To FailNow." The report [dubs the nation's largest banks] "a clear
and present danger to the U.S. economy." It begins with a letter from regional Fed president
Richard Fisher. "More than half of banking industry assets are on the books of just five
institutions," he complains. "They were a primary culprit in magnifying the financial crisis, and their
presence continues to play an important role in prolonging our economic malaise." This is a
member of the Federal Reserve itself an institution that bears responsibility for our
banking system devolving into an untenable oligarchy that buys off politicians, captures
regulators and eats up our money. This is a member of the establishment saying Too-BigTo-Fail, or TBTF, must die. "The term TBTF disguised the fact that commercial banks holding
roughly one-third of the assets in the banking system did essentially fail, surviving only with
extraordinary government assistance," the essay reads. Their executives paid themselves fortunes
to execute failed mergers and acquisitions and accumulate unimaginable piles of toxic debts. We
saved them to save the financial system. But now we must break them up so they don't put us in
this ridiculous situation again.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the criminal practices of the biggest banks and
financial firms and the collusion of government agencies, see our "Banking Bailout" newsarticles.

Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness

2012-03-16, The White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-nationa...
Section 101. Purpose. This order delegates authorities and addresses national defense resource
policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Sec. 103. General Functions.
Executive departments and agencies ... responsible for plans and programs relating to national
defense ... or for resources and services needed to support such plans and programs, shall: ... (c)
be prepared, in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions
necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including
services and critical technology, for national defense requirements; ... Sec. 310. Critical Items. The
head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense is delegated the
authority of the President ... to take appropriate action to ensure that critical components,
critical technology items, essential materials, and industrial resources are available from
reliable sources when needed to meet defense requirements during peacetime, graduated
mobilization, and national emergency. Appropriate action may include restricting contract

solicitations to reliable sources, restricting contract solicitations to domestic sources (pursuant to

statutory authority), stockpiling critical components, and developing substitutes for critical
components or critical technology items. [signed] BARACK OBAMA
Note: For analysis of this executive order issued by President Obama giving legal power to the
executive office to take control of all national resources, public or private, in peacetime or in war,
click here.

Corporations pay less in taxes than Buffett, Romney

2012-03-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/11/EDG91NILV9.DTL
Corporations pay a lower effective tax rate than Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney, but you wouldn't
know it from all the complaints that our corporate tax rate puts our country at a competitive
disadvantage. Despite an official corporate tax rate 35 percent, last year, U.S. corporations paid
just 12.1 percent of their earnings in federal corporate income taxes. Buffett's tax rate is 17.4
percent; Romney's reported 2010 tax rate was 13.9 percent. Our broken tax system blesses U.S.
multinational corporations with lots of loopholes that enable them to pay less in taxes than Main
Street businesses. It has starved our government of revenue. Contrary to common perception,
U.S. corporations pay far less toward the cost of public services and infrastructure than they did in
decades past, and less than foreign competitors pay in their countries today. In the 1950s,
corporate federal income taxes accounted for nearly one-third of federal government
revenue; in 2011, corporate taxes accounted for less than 8 percent. U.S. corporate profits
account for more than 10 percent of GDP, a 50-year high. Federal corporate income taxes
collected as a percent of GDP are at a 50-year low. The challenge of corporate taxes and
competitiveness is not that rates are too high, but that loopholes, preferences and subsidies make
corporate tax collections far too low.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click here
and here.

Holder: US can legally kill Americans in terror groups

2012-03-05, MSNBC
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/05/10585197-holder-us-can-legally-k...
The U.S. government is legally justified in killing its own citizens overseas if they are involved in
plotting terror attacks against America, Attorney General Eric Holder said [on March 5], offering the
Obama administration's most detailed explanation so far of its controversial targeted killing
program. The Fifth Amendment provides that no one can be "deprived of life" without due process
of law. But that due process, Holder said, doesn't necessarily come from a court. "Due process
and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The
Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process," the attorney general said. The ACLU

called Holder's explanation "a defense of the governments chillingly broad claimed authority to
conduct targeted killings of civilians, including American citizens, far from any battlefield without
judicial review or public scrutiny." "Few things are as dangerous to American liberty as the
proposition that the government should be able to kill citizens anywhere in the world on the
basis of legal standards and evidence that are never submitted to a court, either before or
after the fact," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLUs National Security Project. "Anyone willing
to trust President Obama with the power to secretly declare an American citizen an enemy of the
state and order his extrajudicial killing should ask whether they would be willing to trust the next
president with that dangerous power, she said. The ACLU is suing the Obama administration,
seeking to have documents regarding the targeted killing program made public.
Note: Attorney General Holder's claim that US citizens can be killed by the government without
judicial process clearly violates the U.S. Bill of Rights. In addition to the Fifth Amendment that
states that no person shall be held to answer for a crime "without due process of law," the Sixth
Amendment states that "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial."

The Archbishop of Dublin challenges the Church

2012-03-04, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57390125.html
An Irishman named Diarmuid Martin says the Catholic Church in Ireland has reached a breaking
point, a crisis that he says results from the sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover-up by
the Church. Martin has provided tens of thousands of pages of evidence against specific priests,
and his words and actions carry extraordinary weight. That's because Diarmuid Martin is the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. There's overwhelming evidence that the Church hierarchy
was not only aware of the sexual abuse, but did little about it. The Dublin Archdiocese knew who
the predator priests were, even wrote reports about them but then locked up the files.
Investigators on a state panel, the Murphy Commission, asked for the files, but the Church
refused until Diarmuid Martin became archbishop. The documents revealed that one priest
admitted abusing over a hundred children. Another said he abused children twice a month
for 25 years. Archbishop Martin believes thousands of children suffered similar fates. Martin:
Abuse isn't [just] the actual sexual acts, which are horrendous, but sexual abuse of a child is ... a
total abuse of power. It's actually saying to a child, "I control you." And that is saying to the child,
"You're worthless."
Note: To see the video of this important piece, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on
sexual abuse by the powerful, click here.

The extra dollars you're paying at the pump are going to Wall Street
speculators
2012-02-28, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-201202280930--tms--amvoicesctnav-a20120228f...
The current surge in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It doesn't even have
much to do with global supply and demand. It has most to do with America's continuing failure to
adequately regulate Wall Street. Oil supplies aren't being squeezed. Over 80 percent of America's
energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. In fact, we're starting to become an
energy exporter. Demand for oil isn't rising. Oil demand in the U.S. is down compared to last year
at this time. The American economy is showing only the faintest signs of recovery. Meanwhile,
global demand is still moderate. Europe's debt crisis hasn't gone away. China's growth continues
to slow. But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices. Hedge-fund managers and traders assume
that mounting tensions in the Middle East will hobble supplies later this year. Wall Street
speculators also assume global demand for oil will rise in the coming year. These are just
expectations, not today's realities. But they're pushing up oil prices just the same, because Wall
Street firms and other big financial players now dominate oil trading. Where there's money to be
made, Wall Street will find a way of making it. And when it comes to oil, so much money is at
stake that gigantic sums can be made if the bets pay off. Speculators figure they can hedge
against bad bets. Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil
contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for
64 percent of all contracts.
Note: This article was written by Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, professor of public
policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy
and America's Future. He blogs at www.robertreich.org. For lots more reliable information from the
major media on energy manipulations, click here.

Leaked emails shine rare light on Stratfor

2012-02-28, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46555168/ns/us_news-security
Private intelligence firm Stratfor ... sells what clients and subscribers consider some of the best
geopolitical analysis that money can buy. Now the Texas-based think tank is the latest target of
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, who says his anti-secrecy group has more than 5 million of
Stratfor's emails and is promising to release damaging material in the coming weeks. The first,
small batch published [on February 27] revealed clients that Stratfor has long safeguarded and
refused to disclose. They range from local universities to megacorporations like Coca-Cola. An
initial examination of the emails turned up a mix of the innocuous and the embarrassing. But
Assange has accused Stratfor of serious deeds, such as funneling money to informants through
offshore tax havens, monitoring activist groups on behalf of big corporations and making
investments based on its secret intelligence. "What we have discovered is a company that is a
private intelligence Enron," Assange told London's Frontline Club, referring to the Texas energy
giant whose spectacular bankruptcy turned it into a byword for corporate malfeasance. In
December, Stratfor founder George Friedman gave advice on handling sources to one of his
analysts gathering information on the health of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. "If this is a

source you suspect may have value, you have to take control (of) him. Control means
financial, sexual or psychological control to the point where he would reveal his sourcing
and be tasked," the email read.
Note: For more powerful information on this most recent release of revealing documents by
Wikileaks, click here. For verifiable information on astounding secret methods used to gain control
of people as reported in declassified U.S. government documents, click here.

Bill Gates' support of GM crops is wrong approach for Africa

2012-02-27, Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017612869_guest28ashton.html
Bill Gates' support of genetically modified crops as a solution for world hunger is of concern to
those ... involved in promoting sustainable, equitable and effective agricultural policies in Africa.
His technocratic ideology runs counter to the best informed science. The World Bank and United
Nations funded 900 scientists over three years in order to create an International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Its conclusions were
diametrically opposed, at both philosophical and practical levels, to those espoused by Gates and
clearly state that the use of GM crops is not a meaningful solution to the complex situation of world
hunger. The IAASTD suggests that rather than pursuing industrial farming models, "agroecological" methods provide the most viable means to enhance global food security. These
include implementing practical scientific research based on traditional seed varieties and local
farming practices adapted to the local ecology over millennia. Agro-ecology has consistently
proven capable of sustainably increasing productivity. Conversely, the present GM crops
generally have not increased yields over the long run, despite their increased costs and
dependence on agricultural chemicals, as highlighted in the 2009 Union of Concerned
Scientists report, "Failure to Yield."
Note: For an excellent summary of the risks posed by genetically-modified foods, click here.

Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?

2012-02-19, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57380893/treating-depression-is-there-a...
Do antidepressants work? "The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an
antidepressant is minimal for most people," says Harvard scientist Irving Kirsch. Kirsch's views are
of vital interest to the 17 million Americans who take the drugs, including children as young as six
and to the pharmaceutical industry that brings in $11.3 billion a year selling them. Irving Kirsch is
the associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School. He says that his
research challenges the very effectiveness of antidepressants. Kirsch's specialty has been the
study of the placebo effect: the taking of a dummy pill without any medication in it that creates an
expectation of healing that is so powerful, symptoms are actually alleviated. Kirsch, who's been

studying placebos for 36 years, says "sugar pills" can work miracles. Kirsch: Placebos are great for
treating a number of disorders: irritable bowel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, ulcers,
Parkinson's disease. Even traumatic knee pain. In this clinical trial some patients with
osteoarthritis underwent knee surgery, while others had their knees merely opened and
then sewn right back up. In terms of walking and climbing, the people who got the placebo
actually did better than the people who got the real surgery. And that lasted for a year. At
two years after surgery, there was no difference at all between the real surgery and the sham
surgery. It's not all in your head because the placebos can also affect your body.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on health issues, click here.

Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say

2012-02-17, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46424973/ns/business/t/foreclosure-abuse-rampant-...
A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of
lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who
have done studies in other parts of the country. The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San
Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study
released by the California city. "The audit in San Francisco is the most detailed and
comprehensive that has been done - but it's likely those numbers are comparable nationally,"
Diane Thompson, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, told Reuters. Across the
country from California, Jeff Thingpen, register of deeds in Guildford County, North Carolina,
examined 6,100 mortgage documents last year, from loan notes to foreclosure paperwork. Of
those documents, created between January 2008 and December 2010, 4,500 showed signature
irregularities, a telltale sign of the illegal practice of "robosigning" documents. Robosigning
involves the use of bogus documents to force foreclosures without lenders having to
scrutinize all the paperwork involved with mortgages. The practice was at the heart of the
foreclosure scandal that led to a $25 billion settlement between the U.S. government and five
major banks last week.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the illegal foreclosures made by the biggest
banks and financial firms, the collusion of government agencies, and more, see our "Banking
Bailout" news articles.

Canadian government is 'muzzling its scientists'

2012-02-17, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468
Speakers at a major science meeting being held in Canada said communication of vital research
on health and environment issues is being suppressed. Prof Thomas Pedersen, a senior scientist
at the University of Victoria, said he believed there was a political motive in some cases. The

Canadian government recently withdrew from the Kyoto protocol to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions. The allegation of "muzzling" came up at a session of the AAAS meeting to discuss the
impact of a media protocol introduced by the Conservative government shortly after it was elected
in 2008. The protocol requires that all interview requests for scientists employed by the
government must first be cleared by officials. A decision as to whether to allow the interview
can take several days, which can prevent government scientists commenting on breaking
news stories. Sources say that requests are often refused and when interviews are granted,
government media relations officials can and do ask for written questions to be submitted
in advance and elect to sit in on the interview. Andrew Weaver, an environmental scientist at
the University of Victoria in British Columbia, described the protocol as "Orwellian". Professor
Weaver said that information is so tightly controlled that the public is "left in the dark"."The only
information they are given is that which the government wants, which will then allow a supporting
of a particular agenda," he said.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

US sued over Navy sonar tests in whale waters

2012-01-26, NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244852-us-sued-over-navy-sonar-t...
Environmental groups sued the Obama administration ... for granting the Navy permits to test
underwater sonar along the West Coast -- and potentially harass up to 650,000 porpoises, seals,
dolphins and whales over a five-year period. The alliance said it wasn't seeking to stop the testing
but to scale it back, especially at certain times and in waters important for feeding and giving birth.
Several studies have found that marine mammals can hear low-frequency sonar, which is
magnified under water, and periodically dolphins and even whales have been found with
perforated ear drums. The National Marine Fisheries Service "fell down on the job and failed to
require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to protect" marine mammals, Steve
Mashuda, an attorney for the law firm Earthjustice, said. The lawsuit ... claims that the Navy's
sonar use might be strong enough to kill the animals outright. But even if it doesn't, it claims, the
repeated use of sonar in certain critical habitats is unwarranted. In 2010, the fisheries service
approved the Navy's five-year plan for operations in the Northwest Training Range Complex, an
area roughly the size of California that stretches from Washington state to Northern California.
Under the five-year plan, the service said it was acceptable for the Navy to incur up to 650,000
cases of harassment of marine mammals.
Note: Sonar can drive drive marine mammals insane with the intensity of noise. Imagine a huge
siren right next to your ears. You would certainly flee to try to get away. This is likely what is
causing many of the whale and dolphin strandings. How much sound does it take to perforate
an ear drum, as is mentioned in this article? For more on threats to marine mammals, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Killer Cars? Auto Computer Systems Open to Malfunction, Hackers

2012-01-25, U.S. News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/01/25/killer-cars-auto-computer-syst...
As auto manufacturers imagine a future of self-driving and always-connected cars, they'll need to
worry about something elseelectronic malfunctions and cyberattacks, according to a report
released by the Transportation Research Board. "Automobiles today are literally 'computers on
wheels,'" says the report. Current auto software uses more than a million lines of code. In the
coming years, onboard computers will become even more important. Like a computer, a car's
internal software can be infected with a virus or hacked. Last year, researchers at the
University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, proved that computers could
be hacked with either physical access to the car or wirelessly using technology such as Bluetooth.
A hacker could then disable the brakes, stop the engine, or worse. According to the report,
"automotive manufacturers have designed their networks without giving sufficient attention to such
cybersecurity vulnerabilities because automobiles have not faced adversarial pressures."
Note: A New York Times article goes into more detail. The article doesn't mention the obvious
possibility that the FBI, NSA, or other intelligence agencies could hack into any car's computer
system and cause an accident. There is even a term, "Boston Brakes," for staged car wrecks,
allegedly because the CIA first started experimenting with this in Boston. For an article delving into
this, click here. Could this be what happened to courageous reporter Michael Hastings and others?
For more on intelligence agency corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Iraqi Town Says Justice Failed Victims of US Raid

2012-01-25, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqi-town-justice-failed-victi...
In this town which saw 24 unarmed civilians die in a U.S. raid seven years ago, residents
expressed disbelief and sadness that the Marine sergeant who told his troops to "shoot
first, ask questions later" reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid jail time. They were
outraged both at the American military justice system and at the refusal of Iraq's Shiite-led
government to condemn the killings and at least try to bring those responsible to face trial in this
country. "We are deeply disappointed by this unfair deal," said Khalid Salman Rasif, an Anbar
provincial council member from Haditha. "The U.S. soldier will receive a punishment that is
suitable for a traffic violation." The raid took place on Nov. 19, 2005. U.S. military prosecutors
worked for more than six years to bring Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to trial on manslaughter
charges that could have sent him away to prison for life. [Then] they offered Wuterich a deal that
stopped the proceedings and meant no jail time for the squad leader who ordered his men to
"shoot first, ask questions later," resulting in one of the Iraq War's worst attacks on civilians by U.S.
troops. The 31-year-old Marine, who was originally accused of unpremeditated murder, pleaded

guilty Monday to negligent dereliction of duty for leading the squad that killed 24 unarmed Iraqi
civilians during raids after a roadside bomb exploded, killing a fellow Marine and wounding two
others.
Note: For earlier reports from reliable sources on the Haditha and other massacres carried out by
the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, click here.

Method for Enhancement of Surface Plasmon Polaritons to Initiate &

Sustain LENR (Cold Fusion)
2012-01-16, NASA Website's Technology Gateway
http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html
[Video transcript] Narrator: While the world is drastically dependent on fossil fuel, researchers at
NASA Langley Research Center are working on another way of producing energy-efficient nuclear
power. Senior Resarch Scientist Dr Zawodny: This other form of nuclear power releases energy by
adding neutrons. Eventually [the nuclei] gain a sufficient number of neutrons that they
spontaneously decay into something of the same mass but a different element. It has the
demonstrated ability to produce excess amounts of energy, cleanly, without hazardous
ionizing radiation, without producing nasty waste. Narrator: This clean form of energy is ...
able to support everything from transportation systems to infrastructure. Dr. Zawodny: The
easiest implementation of this would be for the home. It would be ... dual use. It would
[produce] heat; and youd derive electricity from it to run your electronics, power the house, power
the building, power the light industry. And then the waste heat would be used for environmental
control [i.e. heating, air conditioning, etc.] and warm water. Narrator: NASAs method for
enhancement of surface plasmon polaritons to initiate and sustain LENR in Metal Hydride
Systems, a clean nuclear energy for your power-operated technology.
Note: LENR stands for Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, aka cold fusion. So NASA is now
acknowledging cold fusion is real! And their research provides major hope for the future. To see Dr.
Zawodny's patent for this revolutionary technology, click here. For more on NASA's involvement in
this, click here. For lots more reliable information on the suppression of cold fusion/LENR by the
media and the scientific mainstream, click here. For more inspiring news on amazing new energy
inventions, click here.

I believe in Tim Tebow

2012-01-13, ESPN
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7455943/believing-tim-tebow
I've come to believe in [NFL star] Tim Tebow for what he does off a football field, which is represent
the best parts of us, the parts I want to be and so rarely am. Who among us is this selfless? Every
week, Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is dying, or who is injured. He flies these
people and their families to the Broncos game, rents them a car, puts them up in a nice hotel, buys

them dinner (usually at a Dave & Buster's), gets them and their families pregame passes, visits
with them just before kickoff (!), gets them 30-yard-line tickets down low, visits with them after the
game (sometimes for an hour), has them walk him to his car, and sends them off with a basket of
gifts. Home or road, win or lose, hero or goat. This whole thing makes no football sense, of course.
Most NFL players hardly talk to teammates before a game, much less visit with the sick and dying.
Isn't that a huge distraction? "Just the opposite," Tebow says. "It's by far the best thing I do to get
myself ready. Here you are, about to play a game that the world says is the most important thing in
the world. Win and they praise you. Lose and they crush you. And here I have a chance to talk to
the coolest, most courageous people. It puts it all into perspective. The game doesn't really
matter. I mean, I'll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most
want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it's to invest in people's lives,
to make a difference."

FBI tracking videotapers as terrorists?

2011-12-29, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-fbi-tracking-animal-vi...
The FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force has recommended for many years that animal activists who
carry out undercover investigations on farms could be prosecuted as domestic terrorists. New
documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by activist Ryan Shapiro show
the FBI advising that activists including Shapiro who walked onto a farm, videotaped animals
there and rescued an animal had violated terrorism statutes. The documents ... were issued by
the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2003 in response to an article in an animal rights publication in
which Shapiro and two other activists (whose names were redacted from the document), openly
claimed responsibility for shooting video and taking animals from a farm. The FBI notes discuss
the videotaping, illegal entry and the removal of animals, then concludes with there is a
reasonable indication that [Subject 1] and other members of the [redacted] have violated the
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a). The penalties for such a conviction can
include terrorism enhancements which can add decades to a sentence. Its simply outrageous
to consider civil disobedience as terrorism, Shapiro [said]. Civil disobedience is not
terrorism. It has a long and proud place in our nations history, from Martin Luther King to
Occupy Wall Street, and the [Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act] takes that kind of advocacy
that we celebrate from the civil rights movement and turns it into a terrorist event.
Note: As the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act shows, the animal experimentation lobby has
demonstrated its considerable clout by getting Congress to pass legislation making principled
demonstrations against animal torture and killing into a form of "terrorism". Do you think that Wall
Street might lobby for a similar law making "terrorists" out of Occupiers?

Alarm as Dutch lab creates highly contagious killer flu

2011-12-20, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/alarm-as-dutch-lab-creates-highly-c...
A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in
a laboratory by European scientists who now want to publish full details of how they did it. Some
scientists are questioning whether the research should ever have been undertaken in a university
laboratory, instead of at a military facility. For the first time the researchers have been able to
mutate the H5N1 strain of avian influenza so that it can be transmitted easily through the air in
coughs and sneezes. Until now, it was thought that H5N1 bird flu could only be transmitted
between humans via very close physical contact. Dutch scientists carried out the controversial
research to discover how easy it was to genetically mutate H5N1 into a highly infectious "airborne"
strain of human flu. They believe that the knowledge gained will be vital for the development of
new vaccines and drugs. But critics say the scientists have endangered the world by creating
a highly dangerous form of flu which could escape from the laboratory. The H5N1 strain of
avian influenza has killed hundreds of millions of birds since it first appeared in 1996, but
has so far infected only about 600 people who came into direct contact with infected
poultry. What makes H5N1 so dangerous, though, is that it has killed about 60 per cent of those it
has infected, making it one of the most lethal known forms of influenza in modern history a
deadliness moderated only by its inability (so far) to spread easily through airborne water droplets.
Note: For key major media reports revealing manipulation around both the avian and swine flus,
click here. For solid evidence that Lyme disease originated in a secret government germ
laboratory, click here.

Wall Street shenanigans fuel public distrust

2011-12-18, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/17/IN5N1MBT60.DTL
Wall Street is its own worst enemy. It's busily shredding new regulations and making the public
more distrustful than ever. The Street's biggest lobbying groups have just filed a lawsuit against
the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, seeking to overturn its new rule limiting speculative
trading in food, oil and other commodities. The Street makes bundles from these bets, but they
have raised costs for consumers. In other words, a small portion of what you and I pay for
food and energy has been going into the pockets of Wall Street. Just another redistribution
from the middle class and the poor to the top. The Street argues that the commission's costbenefit analysis wasn't adequate. Putting the question into the laps of federal judges gives the
Street a huge tactical advantage because the Street has almost an infinite amount of money to
hire so-called "experts" who will say benefits have been exaggerated and costs underestimated.
But when it comes to regulating Wall Street, one big cost doesn't make it into any individual
weighing: the public's mounting distrust of the entire economic system, generated by the Street's
repeated abuse of the public's trust. Wall Street's shenanigans have convinced a large portion of
America that the economic game is rigged. Wall Street has blanketed America in a miasma of
cynicism.

Note: The author of this analysis, Robert Reich, is a former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of
public policy at UC Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's
Future. He blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Derivatives industry eyes UK Lehman appeal ruling

2011-12-14, Reuters News Agency
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/14/britain-derivatives-idUSL6E7NE1YQ20...
Regulators and the world's $700 trillion derivatives industry are closely watching a legal
battle that began in Britain ... and which will fuel a sea change in swaps payouts. Four
cases, including one involving a unit of collapsed U.S. bank Lehman Brothers, are being presented
in a five-day hearing at the UK Court of Appeal. All revolve around payouts under the derivatives
industry's "master agreement", a framework contract. A bank that trades swaps with another bank
typically has one master agreement which sets the terms for millions of transactions between
them. The master agreement ... covers around 90 percent of off-exchange derivatives
transactions. Under the agreement, Lehman's bankruptcy is considered a default. However, in the
four cases before the court this week, the other party in the contracts elected not to terminate them
because they would have had to pay out to the defunct bank.
Note: Like most reporting in the major media, this article trivializes the massive size of the
derivatives market. $700 trillion is equivalent to $100,000 for every man, woman, and child in
the world! Do you think the financial industry is out of control? For lots more powerful, reliable
information on major banking manipulations, click here. For a powerful analysis of just how crazy
things have gotten and with some rays of hope by researcher David Wilcock, click here.

What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe

2011-11-18, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-price-t...
The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than
it is possible to count. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, [Italy] has suspended the normal
rules of democracy, and maybe democracy itself. And by putting a senior adviser at Goldman
Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an
investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic. The European
Central Bank ... is under ex-Goldman management, and the investment bank's alumni hold sway
in the corridors of power in almost every European nation, as they have done in the US throughout
the financial crisis. Even before the upheaval in Italy, there was no sign of Goldman Sachs living
down its nickname as "the Vampire Squid", and now that its tentacles reach to the top of the
eurozone, sceptical voices are raising questions over its influence. Simon Johnson, the former
International Monetary Fund economist, in his book 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the
Next Financial Meltdown, argued that Goldman Sachs and the other large banks had become so
close to government in the run-up to the financial crisis that the US was effectively an oligarchy. At

least European politicians aren't "bought and paid for" by corporations, as in the US, he says.
"Instead what you have in Europe is a shared world-view among the policy elite and the
bankers, a shared set of goals and mutual reinforcement of illusions." This is The Goldman
Sachs Project. Put simply, it is to hug governments close.
Note: For revealing major media articles on key secret societies which manipulate global politics,
click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption,
click here.

Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

2011-11-13, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-insi...
Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information - but should our elected officials be able
to use that information to pad their own pockets? Members of Congress and their aides have
regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock
market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal,
but some say it's time for the law to change. Few of them are doing it for the salary and all of
them will say they are doing it to serve the public. But there are other benefits: Power, prestige,
and the opportunity to become a Washington insider with access to information and connections
that no one else has, in an environment of privilege where rules that govern the rest of the country,
don't always apply to them. Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington
- if they ever leave Washington - with more money in their pockets than they had when they
arrived. Congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities and have long been
considered exempt from insider trading laws, even though they have daily access to non-public
information and plenty of opportunities to trade on it.
Note: According to a New York Times article, U.S. "Senators' stocks beat the market by 12
percent," while "the average household's portfolio underperformed the market by 1.44 per cent a
year." To watch this revealing 15-minute piece on CBS 60 Minutes, click here. For key reports from
reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

White House does damage control after Sarkozy-Obama exchange

2011-11-09, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-sarkozy-20111109,0,2922780.s...
The White House is suggesting that President Obama hasnt damaged his relationship with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following an embarrassing moment in France last week when
he was overheard making dismissive remarks about the Israeli leader. As fallout from the episode
mounts, the White House had been saying little about the exchange between Obama and his
French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, at the G20 summit in Cannes. The two men were speaking
in private, apparently unaware that their microphones were still on. I cant stand to see him

anymore, hes a liar, Sarkozy told Obama, according to a French translation of the exchange.
You are fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day, Obama replied. Briefing
reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Ben Rhodes, a spokesman for the National Security
Council, took a question about the flap. Obama has a very close working relationship with
Prime Minister Netanyahu, Rhodes said. They speak very regularly. Indeed, Rhodes said,
Obama has probably spent more time one on one with Netanyahu than with any other
world leader. Most of what happens at international summit meetings is off limits to the public. So
the Obama-Sarkozy exchange is being treated as a rare window into the unvarnished thinking of
two world leaders.
Note: For more on this story from the BBC, click here.

Should You Join the Credit Union Boom?

2011-11-08, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WorldNews/credit-unions-54-percent-increase-me...
As a result of Bank Transfer Day, in which consumers were encouraged to switch to credit unions,
54 percent of credit unions reported an increase in share growth, according to a survey from the
National Association of Federal Credit Unions sent to 10,000 respondents. At least 650,000
people have switched to credit unions since Sept. 29, according to the Credit Union
National Association. About 80 percent of credit unions offer at least one free checking account
with no minimum balance requirement and no monthly or activity fee, according to Moebs
Services. About 64 percent of the largest U.S. banks offer the same. Credit unions can help
consumers save money because they are non-profit, and can pay higher interest rates on
savings accounts, and offer lower loan and credit card rates. The National Association of
Federal Credit Unions ... has a web tool that allows people to search by address, credit union
name or company/affiliation. The site had the highest traffic ever on Saturday, Bank Transfer Day.
In October visits to the website were more than five times its monthly average. Visitors to the
website last month increased by more than 700 percent compared to October 2010.
Note: To find a good credit union near you, click here. For key reports from reliable sources
showing that the biggest banks have too much power, click here and here.

Group of moms defies U.S. law in raw milk protest

2011-11-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/01/MNRG1LP5LU.DTL
A self-described "caravan of criminal mothers" defied federal law [on November 1] by transporting
raw milk across state lines from a Pennsylvania farm and drinking it in front of the Food and Drug
Administration headquarters in Maryland. "It's totally natural for me as a parent to want to feed my
children good food that makes them healthy," said Liz Reitzig, 31, a mother of five in Bowie, Md.,
who organized the protest. "In this case that is fresh, clean, raw milk from farmers we know and

trust. The idea that we become criminals for engaging in that transaction is what is so appalling."
The protesters, numbering about 100, ... drove in from as far away as Illinois and Kentucky to
denounce government tyranny, corporate cabals and the "agricultural-industrial complex,"
promising more protests and civil disobedience. The FDA considers it "perfectly safe to feed
your kids Mountain Dew, Twinkies and Cocoa Puffs, but it's unsafe to feed them raw milk,
compost-grown tomatoes and Aunt Matilda's pickles," said Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer
made famous by the documentary "Food, Inc.," who joined the protesters. The protest sprang from
an FDA sting operation on Amish farmer Dan Allgyer's tiny dairy of three dozen cows in Kinzer,
Pa., that culminated in a predawn raid on the farm last year. Allgyer had been selling milk to
consumers in Maryland who had formed a buying club. None of Allgyer's milk was contaminated.
His alleged crime was selling it across state lines.
Note: For a great video of the raw milk freedom riders, click here. For key reports from reliable
sources on government attacks on civil liberties, click here.

Cold Fusion Experiment: Major Success or Complex Hoax?

2011-11-02, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/02/andrea-rossi-italian-cold-fusion-pl...
A physicist in Italy claims to have demonstrated a new type of power plant that provides safe,
cheap and virtually unlimited nuclear power to the world, without fossil fuels or radiation concerns.
The only hitch: Scientists say the method -- cold fusion -- is patently impossible. They say it defies
the laws of physics. Andrea Rossi doesn't seem to care. He told FoxNews.com that his new
device takes in nickel and hydrogen and fuses them in a low-grade nuclear reaction that
essentially spits out sheer power, validating the strange science. With low energy, it's
possible to give a heater a certain amount of energy and to get from the same heater a
superior amount of energy, Rossi explained. He claims he demonstrated the device, called an
E-Cat, at the University of Bologna in Italy on Oct. 28. Nearly a century ago, in the 1920s, Austrian
scientists Friedrich Paneth and Kurt Peters hypothesized a form of nuclear reaction that doesnt
produce radiation. And since then, the theory of cold fusion -- or "low-energy nuclear reaction," as
its champions now call it -- has popped in and out the public's eyes, notably hitting the cover of
Time magazine in 1989. Sterling Allan, CEO of the alternative energy news agency Pure Energy
Systems, told FoxNews.com he attended Rossis demonstration and the E-Cat is self sustaining.
Note: For lots more on this exciting development, click here. And for a CBS video segment and
another excellent documentary showing top researchers who continue to be very excited about
results of ongoing cold fusion experiments, click here. For media reports on other suppressed new
energy inventions, click here.

Top 1 Percent's Income Grew 275 Percent From 1979 to 2007

2011-10-26, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/income-doubles-top-percent-1979/story?id=14817561

The income of the richest 1 percent in the U.S. soared 275 percent from 1979 to 2007, but the
bottom 20 percent grew by just 18 percent, new government data shows. The Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) released a study this week that compared real after-tax household income
between 1979 and 2007, which were both after recessions and had similar overall economic
activity. While the income of the richest 1 percent nearly tripled, increases were smaller down the
economic ladder. After the 1 percent, income for the next highest 20 percent grew by 65 percent,
much faster than it did for the remaining 80 percent of the population but still lagging well behind
the top percentile. The changes illustrate how the better off have captured the bulk of income
gains over the past three decades. The top quintile has seen its share of income rise while
the other four quintiles have suffered declines in their shares, according to John Bowler,
director of country risk service with the Economist Intelligence Unit. The role of globalization, he
added, is "controversial." "Even some policymakers who would traditionally be in the free trade
camp are now questioning the benefits of globalization to the middle and lower-income U.S.
households, even if they have benefited from cheaper imported manufactured goods," he said.
Note: For key reports on income inequality from reliable sources, click here.

BofA Said to Split Regulators Over Moving Merrill Contracts

2011-10-18, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-18/bofa-said-to-split-regulators-ove...
Bank of America Corp., hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its
Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits. Derivatives are financial instruments
used to hedge risks or for speculation. Theyre derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and
commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in the weather or interest rates. Keeping
such deals separate from FDIC-insured savings has been a cornerstone of U.S. regulation for
decades, including last years Dodd-Frank overhaul of Wall Street regulation. Three years after
taxpayers rescued some of the biggest U.S. lenders, regulators are grappling with how to protect
FDIC-insured bank accounts from risks generated by investment-banking operations. The
concern is that there is always an enormous temptation to dump the losers on the insured
institution, said William Black, professor of economics and law at the University of MissouriKansas City and a former bank regulator. We should have fairly tight restrictions on that. Bank of
Americas holding company -- the parent of both the retail bank and the Merrill Lynch
securities unit -- held almost $75 trillion of derivatives at the end of June. That compares
with JPMorgans deposit-taking entity, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, which contained 99
percent of the New York-based firms $79 trillion of notional derivatives.
Note: Remember that the GDP of the entire world is estimated at around $60 trillion, less
than JPMorgan or BofA own in derivatives. For an excellent article laying out the incredible risk
this creates of a major economic collapse, click here. For more on the high risk and cost to
taxpayers of BofA moving its massive amount of derivatives to its subsidiary, click here. For lots
more from major media sources on the illegal profiteering of major financial corporations enabled
by lax government regulation, click here.

100-Year-Old Man Completes Marathon

2011-10-17, NBC New York (New York City NBC affiliate)
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/weird/100-Year-Old-Man-Completes-Marathon-1319...
The most impressive performance at a Toronto marathon Sunday was turned in by the man who
came in last place - and is 100 years old. Fauja Singh completed the Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront Marathon in approximately eight hours, making him the oldest person ever to finish one
of the 26.2-mile races. It was the eighth marathon for Singh, who was born India in 1911 and did
not start running marathons until he was 89, after he moved to England following the death of his
wife and son. He says not smoking or drinking alcohol throughout his life, combined with a
vegetarian diet and up to 10 miles of walking or running per day are the secrets to his
health. The Association of Road Racing Statistician already had Singh as the oldest person to
complete a marathon, for one he ran seven years ago. But the Guinness Book of World Records
recognized Dimitrion Yordanidis, 98, who ran in Athens in 1976. Singh recently set eight world
records for his age group in one day at a special invitational meet in Toronto. He ran the 100
meters in 23.14, 200 meters in 52.23, the 400 meters in 2:13.48, the 800 meters in 5:32.18, the
1500 meters in 11:27.81, the mile in 11:53.45, the 3000 meters in 24:52.47 and the 5000 meters in
49:57.39. "I have said it before: that I will carry on running, as it is keeping me alive," Singh
told the marathon website.
Note: Does anyone still believe vegetarianism can't be healthy?

Solar Energy: The Quest for Cheap

2011-10-13, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/solar-energy-the-quest-for-cheap-10132...
The big number is 50. When companies can produce solar photovoltaic modules for less
than 50 per watt, solar energy will be able to compete directly with coal. Right now, the
cheapest solar cells are being produced for as little as 70 per watt. They are selling for about
$1.26 per watt, with prices expected to drop to $1.17 next year. Most anticipate they they will hit
50 per watt within four or five years. As prices fall, demand is growing. Total solar installations
in the second quarter [of 2011] grew by 69 percent over the same period in 2010. The number of
Americans working in the solar industry more than doubled, to 100,000, from 2009 to 2011. Thats
considerably more than the 80,600 coal miners working in the U.S. Behind the price drops are
cheaper manufacturing costs, lower costs for such crucial raw materials as silicon, and rapidly
improving technology. Dozens of startups in the U.S. have potentially transformative ideas. The
question is which can come out on top. The wide variety of companies developing competing
technologies to capture and distribute solar power underscores the markets immaturity. Currently,
researchers are experimenting with materials ranging from silicon to gallium arsenide to cadmium
telluride, basing cost projections on disparate technologies that create solar cells. The goal is to
build one that competes without government subsidies.

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on developments in alternative energy technologies,
click here.

Report: Pentagon doesn't know where the money is going

2011-10-13, MSNBC
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/13/8294595-report-pentagon-doe...
The Defense Department, which has promised to publish a reliable account of how it
spends its money by 2017, has discovered that its financial ledgers are in worse shape than
expected and that it will have to spend billions of dollars in the coming years to make its
financial accounting credible, the Center for Public Integrity reported [on October 13]. The U.S.
military has spent more than $6 billion to develop and deploy new financial systems, but the effort
has been plagued by significant added overruns and delays, defense officials told the CPI, a
nonprofit investigative news organization. The Government Accountability Office said in a report
last month that although the services can now fully track incoming appropriations, they still can't
demonstrate that their funds are being spent as they should be. The Pentagons bookkeeping has
come under increased scrutiny as Congress and the Obama administration have vowed to reduce
the federal deficit. The department could face substantial cutbacks if a special bipartisan
"supercommittee" cant agree on a formula for reducing the deficit.
Note: For an essay by a top U.S. general revealing how wars are used to bring huge profits to the
powerful elite of our world, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on government
corruption, click here.

Megabanks growing even more dominant

2011-09-08, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44426180/ns/business-local_business/t/megabanks-g...
The American banking sector apparently is going to be vastly different when it finally emerges from
the financial crisis that took hold more than three years ago. It is going to be significantly smaller,
and the domination of a relative handful of behemoth institutions is going to increase. At the end of
June, there were 7,522 commercial banks, down from 8,542 on Dec. 31, 2007. That is a decline of
nearly 12 percent in just three and a half years. Of the more than 1,000 banks that disappeared,
about 370 failed. But the rest of the decrease came through mergers and acquisitions as a
decades-long pattern of consolidation continued. Most banks in the United States still are fairly
small. The median size of a bank at the end of June, according to an analysis of statistics from the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was about $155 million in assets. Thats about an 18 percent
increase since the end of 2007. But those numbers seriously skew the nature of the industry. Of
the more than $13.6 trillion in assets held by banks at the end of June, nearly $9.4 trillion is in
the hands of just 37 institutions, each with more than $50 billion in assets. And of that, $5.5

trillion is held by just four banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells
Fargo. Each of those have more than $1 trillion in assets. In other words, the U.S. banking
industry resembles a tall cake, with a very thick layer of icing on top.
Note: To learn how these same four banks and their holding companies hold over 90% of the $700
trillion derivatives market, click here. For many revealing reports from reliable sources on the
concentration and centralization of financial power by a few megabanks, click here.

Drones Evolve Into Weapon in Age of Terror

2011-09-08, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576556952946952670.html
The Sept. 11 attacks triggered a revolution in U.S. spycraft as the intelligence services shattered a
longstanding taboo by launching an expansive program of targeted killings by remote control. The
greatest shift both in tactics and mindset has been the embrace of the pilotless, hunter-killer
aircraft known as drones. The CIA, which doesn't formally acknowledge the covert program, has
killed about 2,000 militants with drones, U.S. officials say, most in the past two years as President
Barack Obama's national security team aggressively expanded the program. In 2010, the number
of drone strikes more than doubled, to 114, and this year, drone campaigns are expanding. The
CIA now plans flights in Yemen, and the military is using drones to kill militants in Somalia. Legal
challenges to the drone program have secured little traction. The main debate inside the
government has been over how to execute the campaign without irreversibly damaging Pakistani
cooperation. American citizens can be targets, too. Under the legal authority for the drone
program, the CIA must consult the National Security Council before capturing an American
posing an imminent threat, but no additional consultation is required to kill an American, a
former senior intelligence official said. "The reason there hasn't been more of an outcry about it is,
it's the Obama administration defending this authority," said the American Civil Liberties Union's
Jameel Jaffer.
Note: For lots more on the illegal methods employed by the CIA and Pentagon in its "endless war",
click here.

The Terrible Missed Chance

2011-09-04, Newsweek Magazine
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/04/the-terrible-missed-chance.html
It was early afternoon on Friday, Aug. 17, 2001. Special Agent Harry Samit of the FBIs
Minneapolis field office [sat] across from ... Zacarias Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French-born
student arrested the day before for overstaying his visa. Samit, a former intelligence officer at the
Navys celebrated Top Gun flight school, felt sure the man across the desk from him was a Muslim
extremist who was part of a plot to hijack a commercial jetliner filled with passengers. That same
day [at] FBI headquarters ... in Washington, counterterrorism supervisors were treating Samits first

reports about Moussaoui with skepticism, even contempt. New disclosures about Samits story
suggest that FBI agents in Minneapolis were much closer to unraveling the 9/11 plot than
previously known. The officials directly involved in the case were denied access to a key
internal memo - prepared for outgoing FBI Director Louis Freeh - that could have
allowed the Minneapolis field office to connect the dots and possibly preempt the attacks.
Their efforts were thwarted by a group of arrogant, slow-moving supervisors at FBI headquarters.
There is no clear reference to the Freeh memo in the 9/11 commissions report.
Note: For questions raised about the official story of 9/11 by hundreds of highly-respected citizens
from all walks of life, click here and here.

Study: Top CEOs earned more than companies paid in tax

2011-09-01, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0901-ceo-pay-20110901,0,261944....
Twenty-five of the 100 highest-paid U.S. CEOs earned more last year than their companies
paid in federal income tax, a pay study by a Washington think tank said [on August 31]. The
Institute for Policy Studies said it also found many of the companies spent more on
lobbying than they did on taxes. The institute compared CEO pay with current U.S. taxes paid,
excluding foreign, state and local taxes that may have been paid, as well as deferred taxes, which
can often be far larger than current taxes paid. The group's rationale was that U.S. taxes paid are
the closest approximation in public documents to what companies may have actually written a
check for last year. It said deferred taxes may or may not be paid. Among the companies topping
the IPS list: EBay, whose CEO John Donahoe made $12.4 million, but which reported a $131
million refund on its 2010 current U.S. taxes. Boeing, which paid CEO Jim McNerney $13.8
million, sent in $13 million in federal income taxes and spent $20.8 million on lobbying and
campaign spending. General Electric, where CEO Jeff Immelt earned $15.2 million in 2010, while
the company got a $3.3 billion federal refund and invested $41.8 million in its own lobbying and
political campaigns.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from major media sources, click here.

SEC accused of dumping records

2011-08-17, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sec-accused-of-dumping-records...
The SEC has violated federal law by destroying the records of thousands of enforcement cases
in which it decided not to file charges against or conduct full-blown investigations of Wall Street
firms and others initially suspected of wrongdoing, a former agency official has alleged. The
purged records involve major firms such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America,
Morgan Stanley and hedge-fund manager SAC Capital. At issue were suspicions of actions
such as insider trading, financial fraud and market manipulation. A file closed in 2002

involved Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose collapse fueled the financial meltdown of
2008, according to the former official. A file closed in 2009 involved suspected insider trading in
securities related to American International Group, the insurance giant bailed out by the
government at the height of the financial crisis. The allegations were leveled in a July letter to Sen.
Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) from Gary J. Aguirre, a former SEC enforcement lawyer now
representing a current SEC enforcement lawyer, Darcy Flynn. Flynn last year began managing
SEC enforcement records and became concerned that records that were supposed to be
preserved under federal law were being purged as a matter of SEC policy, Aguirre wrote.
Note: For more on this important news by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, click here. For lots more
from reliable sources on the criminal practices of Wall Street corporations which led to global
economic recession and massive government bailouts, click here.

Richard Clarke launches new 9/11 charge at CIA

2011-08-12, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/12/national/main20091608.shtml
[The top counterterrorism adviser to President Clinton and Mr. Bush, Richard Clarke will] be
featured in a documentary advancing [a] theory that the Central Intelligence Agency tried to
turn two of the 9/11 hijackers into double agents while they resided in the United States in
the years leading up to the attacks. During the 9/11 Commission's investigation of the
attacks, the CIA said it didn't know the location of the hijackers Clarke refers to, Nawaf alHazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. In the documentary, Clarke ... concludes that the CIA director at
the time, George Tenet, ordered the cover-up after the recruitment effort failed. In response to that
accusation, Tenet released a written statement saying that Clarke has "suddenly invented
baseless allegations which are belied by the record and unworthy of serious consideration."
Note: Richard Clarke is not the only highly-credible and respected former government official to
question the official acount of 9/11. For the questions raised by many more, click here.

Scholars seek to correct 'mistakes' in Bible

2011-08-12, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44117239/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa
A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation
that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: The sacred text that people revered in the
past was not the same one we study today. An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase.
Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events
happened. Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been
quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies
publishing the authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, and
tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia. The ongoing work of the

academic detectives of the Bible Project, as their undertaking is known, shows that this text
at the root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was somewhat fluid for long periods of its
history, and that its transmission through the ages was messier and more human than most
of us imagine. The sheer volume of information makes the Bible Project's version "the most
comprehensive critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in existence at the present time," said David
Marcus, a Bible scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, who is not involved with
the project.

Ask the Experts: What Is a Near-Death Experience?

2011-08-03, ABC News Nightline
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/beyondbelief/experts-death-experience/story?i...
What does a NDE look and feel like? There are thousands upon thousands of descriptions, all of
which show striking similarities between different people's experiences -- the white light, a tunnel, a
life review and sense of peace -- so there does seem to exist a unifying thread throughout.
Caroline Myss, a best-selling author and a speaker on spirituality and health, focuses on the first
explanation. "A near-death experience is a phenomenon in which a person's physical body ceases
to have any signs of life, and the soul detaches from the body and begins what could be called the
journey into the afterlife. ... A long tunnel of light begins to appear. ... What's so phenomenal is
that the descriptions [people] give, no matter what culture, no matter what background,
match the ancient descriptions ... from various cultures. So if these experiences were in
fact made up or hallucinatory, somebody did a very good job of getting that information out
to multiple cultures at the same time." Dr. Jeffrey Long runs the Near Death Experience
Research Foundation. He defines the physical conditions of someone having a NDE as
"unconscious ... or actually clinically dead, with absent heartbeat and no spontaneous respiration.
... And yet when they shouldn't have any conscious remembering at this time, they do. ... While no
two NDEs are the same, if you study large numbers of NDEs you see that very consistent pattern
of elements."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on NDE's, click here. And
watch a profound BBC documentary on near-death experiences which raises many questions.

Man makes drinking water out of thin air

2011-08-01, KSDK.com/CNN
http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/269771/28/Man-makes-drinking-water-out-of-th...
Water out of air? A Texas man has invented a machine that does just that. The drought doesn't
worry [inventor Terry LeBleu] because he has invented and patented a new machine. It's called the
"Drought Master" and makes drinkable water out of air. "It pulls the air through it, pulls out the
moisture, and exhausts the air," LeBleu says. Depending on humidity, the machine can make
between five to seven gallons of pure water in one day. All you have to do is plug it in, and
one gallon costs only 4 cents in electrical charges. An independent lab took samples of

LeBleu's water and found it had no bacteria and is free of metals. Lab techs say it's similar to
distilled water. Willie Nelson owns 50 of these machines, including an indoor version. Even Texas
Governor Rick Perry owns one. But LeBleu wants his invention to benefit local farmers and
ranchers. The machine is quieter than a refrigerator, and you only have to wash the filter every few
years. Building one takes only two hours. The oldest model made is still up and running. It's been
functioning for a decade.
Note: For a more detailed article, click here.

Dont Get Caught Holding Dollars When The U.S. Default Arrives
2011-07-23, Forbes.com blog
http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2011/07/23/dont-get-caught-holding-...
By some measures, the United States is even more deeply in hock than Greece. Greeces debt-toGDP ratio is 143%. Americas is officially 97%. But the $14.3 trillion national debt, stacked up
against a $14.7 trillion economy, doesnt tell the whole story. [It] doesnt count the black box of
bailouts. We know how much the Federal Reserve doled out in emergency loans: $16.1
trillion between Dec. 1, 2007, and July 21, 2010. We know that because yesterday the
Government Accountability Office completed its first-ever audit of the Fed, made possible
largely through the persistence of Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.) making that audit, however incomplete,
the law. What we dont know is how much of that has been paid back. We have literally injected
about $5.3 trillion, said Dr. Paul earlier this month during his questioning of Fed chief Ben
Bernanke, and I dont think we got very much for it. The national debt went up $5.1 trillion.
Bernanke did not challenge those figures. Even now, Americans are turning to their credit cards to
pay for groceries and gas. According to First Data Corp., the volume of gasoline purchases put on
credit cards jumped 39% over the last 12 months. You dont want to be the average American in a
default scenario, whenever it arrives. Ray Dalio, the head of Bridgewater Associates, the worlds
biggest hedge fund, puts that day in late 2012 or early 2013.
Note: A careful Internet search reveals that no one in the major media except this Forbes blog
even mentioned the astonishing results of the first ever audit of the Federal reserve - $16 trillion in
secret loans. To understand how the media is controlled from reporting vitally important information
like this, click here. For another revealing article showing what is happening from a historical
perspective and its relationship to gold prices, click here. For an article detailing who received
these trillions and links to the official GAO report, click here. For critical information on the financial
system kept hidden from the public, click here.

Pentagon looks to social media as new battlefield

2011-07-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/8651284/Pentagon-looks-to-...

The Pentagon is asking scientists to figure out how to detect and counter propaganda on social
media networks in the aftermath of Arab uprisings driven by Twitter and Facebook. The US
military's high-tech research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has
put out a request for experts to look at "a new science of social networks" that would attempt to get
ahead of the curve of events unfolding on new media. The program's goal was to track "purposeful
or deceptive messaging and misinformation" in social networks and to pursue "counter messaging
of detected adversary influence operations," according to DARPA's request for proposals issued
on July 14. The project echoes concerns among top military officers about the lightning
pace of change in the Middle East, where social networks have served as an engine for
protest against some longtime US allies. Some senior officers have spoken privately of the
need to better track unrest revealed in social networks and to look for ways to shape
outcomes in the Arab world through Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. Under the proposal,
researchers would be expected to unearth and classify the "formation, development and spread of
ideas and concepts (memes)" in social media. DARPA planned to spend $42 million (25m) on the
Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program, with prospective contractors asked to
test algorithms through "experiments" with social media, it said.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on new Pentagon strategies and technologies for
waging war on foreign and domestic populations, click here.

Revealed: British government's plan to play down Fukushima

2011-06-30, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-pla...
British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public
relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake
and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known. Internal emails seen
by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind
the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to
ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the
UK. "This has the potential to set the nuclear industry back globally," wrote one official at the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), whose name has been redacted. "We need
to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy
the territory and hold it. We really need to show the safety of nuclear." Officials stressed the
importance of preventing the incident from undermining public support for nuclear power. Louise
Hutchins, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, said the emails looked like "scandalous collusion".
"This highlights the government's blind obsession with nuclear power and shows neither they, nor
the industry, can be trusted when it comes to nuclear," she said.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and
here.

U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules

2011-06-20, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/20/national/main20072497.shtml
Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's
aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or
simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Time after
time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations
were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril. The result? Rising fears
that these accommodations by the NRC are significantly undermining safety and inching the
reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public. Examples abound. When valves leaked,
more leakage was allowed up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking
caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was
devised, so plants could meet standards. Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged
screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes all
of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered. Not a single official
body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of
such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of
reactors.
Note: Read this detailed report in its entirety to see the amazing range of serious problems in the
US nuclear industry which have systematically been covered up by the NRC. For lots more from
reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and here.

We invent enemies to buy the bombs

2011-06-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/16/eisenhower-fears-invent-e...
Why do we still go to war? We seem unable to stop. Britain's borders and British people have not
been under serious threat for a generation. Yet time and again our leaders crave battle. Why? Last
week we got a glimpse of an answer and it was not nice. The outgoing US defence secretary,
Robert Gates, berated Europe's "failure of political will" in not maintaining defence spending. He
said Nato had declined into a "two-tier alliance" between those willing to wage war and those "who
specialise in 'soft' humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and talking tasks". Peace, he
implied, is for wimps. Real men buy bombs, and drop them. Libya has cost Britain 100m so far,
and rising. But Iraq and the Afghan war are costing America $3bn a week, and there is
scarcely an industry, or a state, in the country that does not see some of this money. These
wars show no signs of being ended, let alone won. But to the defence lobby what matters is
the money. It sustains combat by constantly promising success and inducing politicians and
journalists to see "more enemy dead", "a glimmer of hope" and "a corner about to be turned".
Victory will come, but only if politicians spend more money on "a surge".

Note: For a very similar, classic analysis of war profiteering by famed US Marine Corps General
Smedley Butler, click here.

Cellphones possibly carcinogenic, WHO says

2011-05-31, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cell-phones-possibly-carcinogenic-who-...
Cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans, according to [an international panel of experts]
organized by the World Health Organization. But an exhaustive, eight-day review of hundreds of
studies concluded that the existing evidence is insufficient to know for sure. And because
cellphones are so popular, further research is urgently needed, the experts said. Possibly
carcinogenic is the WHOs third-highest rating, falling below carcinogenic and probably
carcinogenic. Other substances that the group has categorized as possibly carcinogenic include
talcum powder, which has been possibly linked to ovarian cancer, and low-frequency magnetic
fields, which are emitted by power lines and appliances and have been possibly associated with
childhood leukemia. The cellphone classification marks a departure for the WHO, which previously
said there were no risks from exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by the
devices. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and, therefore, we need to
keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer risk, said Jonathan M. Samet
of the University of Southern California, who chaired the WHOs International Agency for Research
on Cancer panel.
Note: Remember how long it took for the evidence to surface that smoking causes cancer.
Consider using a wired headset with your cellphone to decrease any cancer risk. Watch a Senate
committee meeting on the risks and dangers of cell phones, including greatly increased brain
cancer rates. For other safety suggestions, click here. For key articles on health issues from
reliable sources, click here.

GE official sees cheaper solar power

2011-05-27, Boston Globe/Bloomberg News
http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-27/business/29600903_1_solar-panels-solar-...
Solar power may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and nuclear reactors
in three to five years because of innovations, said Mark M. Little, global research director for
General Electric Co. If we can get solar at 15 cents a kilowatt-hour or lower, which Im hopeful that
we will do, youre going to have a lot of people that are going to want to have solar at home, Little
said. The 2009 average US retail rate per kilowatt-hour for electricity ranged from 6.1 cents in
Wyoming to 18.1 cents in Connecticut, according to federal data. GE said in April that it had
boosted the efficiency of thin-film solar panels to a record 12.8 percent. Improving efficiency, or the
amount of sunlight converted to electricity, helps reduce costs. The panels will be made at a plant
GE intends to open in 2013. Most solar panels use silicon-based photovoltaic cells. The thin-film

versions, made of glass or other material coated with cadmium telluride or copper indium gallium
selenide alloys, account for about 15 percent of the $28 billion in worldwide solar-panel sales. First
Solar Inc. is the worlds largest producer of thin-film panels, with $2.6 billion in yearly revenue.
Note: For reliable reports on promising new energy technologies, click here.

Red Cross and Vatican helped thousands of Nazis to escape

2011-05-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/nazis-escaped-on-red-cross-documents
The Red Cross and the Vatican both helped thousands of Nazi war criminals and collaborators to
escape after the Second World War, according to a book that pulls together evidence from
unpublished documents. Gerald Steinacher, a research fellow at Harvard University, was given
access to thousands of internal documents in the archives of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC). They throw light on how and why mass murderers such as Adolf Eichmann,
Josef Mengele and Klaus Barbie and thousands of others evaded capture by the allies. By
comparing lists of wanted war criminals to travel documents, Steinacher says Britain and
Canada alone inadvertently took in around 8,000 former Waffen-SS members in 1947, many
on the basis of valid documents issued mistakenly. The documents which are discussed in
Steinacher's book Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's henchmen fled justice offer a significant insight
into Vatican thinking, particularly, because its own archives beyond 1939 are still closed. The
Vatican has consistently refused to comment. Through the Vatican Refugee Commission, war
criminals were knowingly provided with false identities.
Note: Many Nazis were allowed entry, often under false identities, into the US in the late 40's and
early '50s. Some were doctors who had experimented on concentration camp inmates without their
consent, often torturing them and killing them. They continued to experiment on unwilling subjects
in CIA mind-control experiments. For confirmation and more information, click here.

Guatemala to Restore Legacy of a President the U.S. Helped Depose

2011-05-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/americas/24guatemala.html
After President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in a C.I.A.-backed coup in 1954, the Guatemalan
government reversed his policies and branded him a Communist, all but erasing his brief
presidency from history. Nearly six decades later, a democratic Guatemala has promised to restore
his legacy and treat him as a statesman. In an agreement signed with Mr. Arbenzs descendants
last week, the government promised to revise the school curriculum and grant Mr. Arbenz the
treatment afforded to historical heroes. It will name a main highway and a museum wing after the
ousted president, prepare a biography of him, publish his widows memoir and mount an exhibition
about him and his legacy in the National History Museum. The post office will even issue a series
of stamps in his honor. After winning the presidency in a landslide election in 1950, Mr. Arbenz

began an effort to modernize the economy, including a land-redistribution program that

angered American corporations and the United States government. President Eisenhower,
convinced that Mr. Arbenz was giving the Communists a foothold in the Americas,
authorized a coup that ousted the Guatemalan president in nine days.
Note: Many are still not aware of the role of the US in overthrowing democratically-elected leaders
like Guatemala's Arbenz. For a powerful documentary featuring five CIA whistleblowers, one of
whom was directly involved in overthrowing Arbenz, only later to regret his actions, click here.

Priest Sex-Abuse Case Hits Church of Pope's Adviser

2011-05-19, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2072613,00.html
The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an
influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to
prior scandals of pedophile priests. Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the
village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested [on] May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges.
Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug
dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have
family issues," he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the
Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide
policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse.
According to investigators, Seppia told a friend a former seminarian and barman who is
currently under investigation that the town's malls were the best places to entice minors. In
tapped phone conversations the two cursed and swore against God. The priest is charged with
having attempted to kiss and touch an underage altar boy and of having exchanged cocaine for
sexual intercourse with boys over 18.
Note: It's not just the church. To learn how child sex trafficking reaches to the highest levels of
government, watch the revealing Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this
link.

Goldman Sachs faces contentious AGM

2011-05-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/06/goldman-sachs-set-contentious-agm
Goldman Sachs is bracing itself for what may be the most contentious annual meeting in the
embattled investment bank's 142-year history. Angry shareholders, including a coalition of religious
groups, are planning to call on Goldman's executives to justify the combined $69.6m (42.4m)
payday its top five executives received in 2010 and to answer questions about allegations that the
bank misled clients and lied to Congress. The meeting comes amid mounting pressure on the

bank. Earlier this week Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, confirmed that the justice department
was investigating Goldman's role in the financial crisis following a withering report on the bank's
role led by senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn. The 650-page report "Wall Street and the
Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse," gave Goldman its own section titled "Failing to
Manage Conflicts of Interest: A Case Study of Goldman Sachs." In July the bank paid $500m to
settle charges brought by financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that
it misled customers over complex sub-prime mortgage products it sold in 2007. The spotlight on
executive pay could not come at a more sensitive moment for the bank. The bank's top five
executives received cash and stock last year that was 13 times greater than the year before.
Goldman's 2010 net revenues fell 13% and profits fell 37%. Goldman paid Blankfein close to
$19m in compensation for 2010, almost double his award for the previous year.
Note: For lots more on the financial chicanery of Goldman Sachs and other major financial
corporations that led to the global economic crisis and massive taxpayer bailouts of the firms, click
here.

Canada: Bishop Pleads Guilty in Child Pornography Case

2011-05-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/world/americas/05briefs-bishop.html
A Roman Catholic bishop pleaded guilty in Ottawa on [May 4] to possession of child pornography
for importation. Bishop Raymond Lahey, ... who once led the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia,
was charged after customs agents examined his laptop computer as he returned to Canada from
an overseas trip in 2009. They found 588 graphic images of children, 33 videos and the texts of
stories featuring the enslavement of children. Customs officials estimated that some boys in the
photographs were only 8 years old. A month before his arrest, Bishop Lahey negotiated a $15
million settlement with people who had been sexually abused by priests in his diocese as
far back as 1950. Bishop Lahey, who resigned his post in Antigonish, has been out on bail, but on
Wednesday he asked to be jailed immediately. He faces one to 10 years in prison.
Note: The bishop who negotiated a settlement for children sexually abused by priests is caught
with videos featuring the sexual enslavement of children. How high in the church do you think this
might go? If you are willing to explore deeper into this matter through a Discovery Channel
documentary that shows sexual enslavement of children going to the highest levels of government,
click here.

Skeptics Question Osama Bin Laden Death, Asking for Proof

2011-05-02, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WorldNews/conspiracy-theories-proof-bin-ladens...

As elated crowds celebrated the death of Osama bin Laden after Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida
chief in a weekend raid in Pakistan some are asking, "Where's the proof?" Photos depicting a
bloodied and bruised face appearing to be that of bin Laden began appearing on Twitter and
Facebook last night soon after news of his death spread across the Internet. According to Reuters,
an archive photo of bin Laden at a news conference proves that image was a fake. Now people
are asking to see the evidence proving bin Laden is dead. From Pakistan to the U.S. people
expressed their skepticism about the death of the man who is perhaps the most infamous terrorist
ever known. Officials said today they are "99.9 percent" certain that bin Laden was shot dead in
Pakistan. They also cited CIA photo analysis matching physical features such as bin Laden's
height. Rep. Mike Roger, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Associated Press
that more than one DNA sample was used to identify Osama bin Laden. After Adolf Hitler's
suicide in April 1945, conspiracy theories for years suggested Hitler was alive and in
hiding. The Russian secret services came forward with a skull and jawbones. DNA results
eventually showed the skull was that of a female.
Note: For two BBC reports suggesting that bin Laden may already have been dead, click here and
here. Why would bin Laden's body be buried at sea? Could it be to prevent a proof of identity?

Guantnamo leaks lift lid on world's most controversial prison

2011-04-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison
More than 700 leaked secret files on the Guantnamo detainees lay bare the inner workings of
America's controversial prison camp in Cuba. The US military dossiers ... reveal how ... many
prisoners were flown to the Guantnamo cages and held captive for years on the flimsiest
grounds, or on the basis of lurid confessions extracted by maltreatment. The 759
Guantnamo files, classified "secret", cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in
2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still
held there. The files depict a system often focused less on containing dangerous terrorists or
enemy fighters, than on extracting intelligence. Among inmates who proved harmless were an 89year-old Afghan villager, suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an
innocent kidnap victim. The documents also reveal: US authorities listed the main Pakistani
intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), as a terrorist organisation.
Almost 100 of the inmates who passed through Guantnamo are listed by their captors as having
had depressive or psychotic illnesses. Many went on hunger strike or attempted suicide. A
number of British nationals and residents were held for years even though US authorities knew
they were not Taliban or al-Qaida members.
Note: For many key reports on government secrecy from major media sources, click here.

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
2011-04-19, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-betwee...
Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest
oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents
show. The papers ... raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided
Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction. The minutes of a series of meetings between ministers and
senior oil executives are at odds with the public denials of self-interest from oil companies
and Western governments at the time. In March 2003, just before Britain went to war, Shell
denounced reports that it had held talks with Downing Street about Iraqi oil as "highly inaccurate".
BP denied that it had any "strategic interest" in Iraq, while Tony Blair described "the oil conspiracy
theory" as "the most absurd". But documents from October and November the previous year paint
a very different picture. Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the
Trade Minister, told BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share
of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Tony Blair's military commitment to US
plans for regime change. The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush
administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being "locked out" of deals that
Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the real reasons behind the "global war on terrorism",
click here.

Report: Market share drove faulty credit ratings decisions

2011-04-13, Kansas City Star/McClatchy News
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/13/2798570/report-market-share-drove-faulty...
Analysts who reviewed complex mortgage bonds that ultimately collapsed and ruined the U.S.
housing market were threatened with firing if they lost lucrative business, prompting faulty ratings
on trillions of dollars worth of junk mortgage bonds, a Senate report said [on April 13]. The 639page report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations confirms much of what
McClatchy Newspapers first reported about mismanagement by credit ratings agencies in 2009.
Credit rating agencies are supposed to provide independent assessments on the quality of debt
being issued by companies or governments. Traditionally, investments rated AAA had a probability
of failure of less than 1 percent. But in collusion with Wall Street investment banks, the Senate
report concludes, the top two ratings agencies - Moody's Investors Service and Standard &
Poor's - effectively cashed in on the housing boom by ignoring mounting evidence of
problems in the housing market. Profits at both companies soared, with revenues at market
leader Moody's more than tripling in five years. Then the bottom fell out of the housing market, and
Moody's stock lost 70 percent of its value; it has yet to fully recover. More than 90 percent of
AAA ratings given in 2006 and 2007 to pools of mortgage-backed securities were
downgraded to junk status.
Note: For many key reports from major media sources illuminating how major financial
corporations knowingly brought about the global financial crisis and profited from it, click here.

Unfair investment practices by wives of business bigs

2011-04-12, New York Daily News
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-12/gossip/29426543_1_matt-taibbi-stud...
Christy Mack, the wife of Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack, and Susan Karches, the widow of
the company's former investment-banking division president, Peter Karches, are among the chief
investors in a company that received $220 million in low-interest loans. The funds came from a
federal bailout program that "virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income," according to
the article ... "The Real Housewives of Wall Street," which appears in [Rolling Stone]. In 2009,
Christy Mack and Susan Karches launched Waterfall TALF Opportunity, a company with a Cayman
Islands address, although the two women did not seem "to have any experience whatsoever in
finance." TALF stands for "Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility." The federal aid they
received "falls under a broader category of bailout initiatives designed" by Federal Reserve chief
Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. With an initial upfront investment of
$15 million, Waterfall TALF received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which it
used to purchase "student loans and commercial mortgages." The loans were set up so
that the investors "would keep 100% of any gains on the deal while the Fed and the
Treasury (read: the taxpayer) would eat 90% of the losses."
Note: We don't usually quote the New York Daily News, but as they were the only major media to
report this important story, we've included it here. Why are the major media silent on this powerful
information uncovered by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders? For the full story on this, click here. For
lots more from reliable sources on corruption in the government bailouts of the biggest banks, click
here.

Billionaires' guide to U.S. taxes shows Top 400 pay lower rates than you
2011-04-08, Miami Herald/Bloomberg News
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/08/2156941/billionaires-guide-to-us-taxes....
For the well-off, this could be the best tax day since the early 1930s: Top tax rates on ordinary
income, dividends, estates and gifts will remain at or near historically low levels for at least the
next two years, thanks in part to federal legislation passed in December. The 400 U.S. taxpayers
with the highest adjusted gross income paid income taxes at an actual, or effective, rate
of just under 17 percent in 2007, down from almost 30 percent in 1995, according to the
Internal Revenue Service. The effective rate for the 1.4 million people in the top 1 percent of
taxpayers dropped to 23 percent the year before. That means the top 400 pay a lower rate than
the next 1,399,600 or so. Much of the top 400s income is from dividends and capital gains,
generated by everything from appreciated real estate to stocks and the sale of family businesses.
As Warren Buffett has said, since most of his income is from dividends, his tax rate is less
than that of the people who clean his office.
Note: For lots more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Bush Cousin Presides Over Federal Court Case Against Former Bush
Administration Officials
2011-04-07, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42469680
Confounding lawyers and legal scholars all over the world, Judge John Walker, first cousin
of former President George W. Bush, was one of three judges of the 2nd Circuit Court of
Appeals to hear argument [on April 5] in Gallop v. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers. The lawsuit
was brought by a soldier injured during the attack on the Pentagon and accuses former Vice
President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and former Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, of conspiring to facilitate the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The
attacks killed 3000 Americans, plus many who have died from the toxic clean-up conditions at
Ground Zero. Attorney William Veale, acting for April Gallop, learned of the assignment the usual 5
days before the argument, and filed a motion to disqualify Judge Walker. There was no prior
decision regarding the motion, and when Veale asked about it in court the motion was denied by
Judge Winter. Veale then requested a continuance to seek appellate review of the court's ruling
but that was denied as well. Veale, amidst frequent interruptions from the three judges, managed
to point out Cheney's direct involvement in tracking and dealing with the airplane that was heading
for the Pentagon, as reported to the 9/11 Commission by then Secretary of Transportation Norman
Mineta, a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Note: For a description of this important court case brought by US soldier April Gallop, who was in
the Pentagon where it was struck on 9/11 and whose account was suppressed by the FBI and has
been brought to light by, among others, Jesse Ventura on his recent television program on the
Pentagon, click here and here.

Mortgage mess: Who really owns your mortgage?

2011-04-03, CBS News 60 Minutes Overtime
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20049744-10391709.html
Do you know who really owns your mortgage? That question has become a nightmare for many
homeowners since the invention of mortgage-backed securities. Yes, those were the exotic
investments that sparked the financial collapse in this country. And they're still causing problems.
As it turns out, Wall Street cut corners when it bundled homeowners' mortgages into securities that
were traded from investor to investor. Now that banks are foreclosing on people, they're
finding that the legal documents behind many mortgages are missing. So, what do the
banks do? Some companies appear to be resorting to forgery and phony paperwork in what
looks like a nationwide epidemic. Even if you're not at risk of foreclosure, there could be legal
ramifications for a homeowner if the chain of title has been lost.

Note: Don't miss at the link above the most excellent, six-minute CBS video explaining more on
this blatant deception and manipulation by many banks. You have to put up with a one-minute
commercial shortly after the video starts. For lots more from reliable sources on the criminal
practices of mortgage lenders, click here.

Genetically modified cows produce 'human' milk

2011-04-02, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8423536/Gene...
Scientists have created genetically modified cattle that produce "human" milk in a bid to make
cows' milk more nutritious. The scientists have ... introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to
produce milk with [some of] the same properties as human breast milk. The scientists behind the
research ... hope genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in
supermarkets. The research has the backing of a major biotechnology company. Genetically
modified food has become a highly controversial subject and currently they can only be sold in the
UK and Europe if they have passed extensive safety testing. The consumer response to GM food
has also been highly negative, resulting in many supermarkets seeking to source products that are
GM free. Helen Wallace, director of biotechnology monitoring group GeneWatch UK, said: "We
have major concerns about this research to genetically modify cows with human genes. There are
major welfare issues with genetically modified animals as you get high numbers of still births.
There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe for humans and
it is really hard to tell that unless you do large clinical trials like you would a drug, so there
will be uncertainty about whether it could be harmful to some people. Ethically there are
issues about mass producing animals in this way."
Note: For a powerful summary of the dangers of genetically modified foods, click here. And for
other major media news articles exposing the serious risks and dangers of genetically modified
foods, click here.

Organic farmers sue, seek protection from Monsanto

2011-03-29, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/29/monsanto-lawsuit-idUKN2929224220110329
A consortium of U.S. organic farmers and seed dealers filed suit against global seed giant
Monsanto Co. on [March 29], in a move to protect themselves from what they see as a growing
threat in the company's arsenal of genetically modified crops. The Public Patent Foundation filed
the suit on behalf of more than 50 organizations challenging the chemical giant's patents on its
genetically modified seeds. The group is seeking a ruling that would prohibit Monsanto from
suing the farmers or dealers if their organic seed becomes contaminated with Monsanto's
patented biotech seed germplasm. Monsanto has filed scores of lawsuits and won
judgments against farmers they claimed made use of their seed without paying required
royalties. Many farmers have claimed that their fields were inadvertently contaminated without

their knowledge, and the issue has been a topic of concern for not only farmers, but also
companies that clean and handle seed. "This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue
organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto's genetically modified seed should land on
their property," said Dan Ravicher, executive director of PUBPAT. The suit also alleges that
Monsanto's GMO seeds do more harm than good and claims the patents on genetically modified
seed are invalid because they don't meet the "usefulness" requirement of patent law.
Note: For a powerful, quality documentary revealing the gross abuses of Monsanto which
endanger public health, click here.

G.E.s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether

2011-03-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html
General Electric, the nations largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. The company
reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its
operations in the United States. Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of
$3.2 billion. That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and
households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company
has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for
years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies. Its extraordinary
success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and
innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.s giant tax
department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often
referred to as the worlds best tax law firm. Indeed, the companys slogan Imagination at Work
fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also
from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress. While General Electric is
one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at
this as well.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click
here and here.

Indiana prosecutor resigns for encouraging fake attack on Wisconsin

governor
2011-03-25, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20047130-503544.html
Carlos Lam, a Republican activist and Indiana deputy prosecutor, has resigned amid revelations
that he sent an email calling for a fake attack on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker designed to
discredit union protesters. Walker, a Republican, was the target of protests for his efforts to roll
back many union collective bargaining rights in his state. In a Feb. 19 email uncovered by the

Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Lam apparently told Walker he had a "good
opportunity" to win public sympathy with a "'false flag' operation." "If you could employ an
associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' cause to physically attack you (or
even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions," read the email. Lam initially
denied having sent the email. He [claimed] he had been shopping for a minivan with his family
when it was sent, and suggested his email account had been infiltrated by his political enemies.
Lam resigned as deputy prosecutor on Thursday morning, however, reportedly telling his boss he
had indeed sent the email. Last month, another Indiana official -- Deputy Attorney General Jeff
Cox - lost his job for calling on law enforcement to "use live ammunition" on Wisconsin protesters.
Also in February, Walker was the victim of a prank call by a liberal journalist pretending to be
billionaire conservative activist David Koch. When the journalist suggested planting people among
the protesters to stir up trouble, Walker responded that "we thought about that" but added that he
had decided against it.
Note: To learn more about the prevalence of "false flag" operations in politics with links to reliable,
verifiable sources, click here. For more on this official's call for a false-flag attack, click here.

Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium
2011-03-20, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8393984/Saf...
A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushimas uranium reactors and shattered public faith in
nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and
ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium. Chinas Academy of Sciences said it had
chosen a thorium-based molten salt reactor system. The liquid fuel idea was pioneered by US
physicists at Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s. Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste
will be a thousand times less than with uranium. The system is inherently less prone to disaster.
The reactor has an amazing safety feature, said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA engineer
at Teledyne Brown and a thorium expert. If it begins to overheat, a little plug melts and the
salts drain into a pan. There is no need for computers, or the sort of electrical pumps that
were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor saves itself, he said. US physicists in the late
1940s explored thorium fuel for power. It has a higher neutron yield than uranium, a better fission
rating, longer fuel cycles, and does not require the extra cost of isotope separation. The plans
were shelved because thorium does not produce plutonium for bombs. As a happy bonus, it can
burn up plutonium and toxic waste from old reactors, reducing radio-toxicity and acting as an ecocleaner.
Note: For a 30-minute documentary on the powerful potential of thorium as an energy source, click
here. For many reports from reliable sources on promising new energy technologies, click here.

A Conspiracy With a Silver Lining

2011-03-02, New York Times blog

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/a-conspiracy-with-a-silver-li...
In the past six months, the value of [silver] has increased nearly 80 percent, to more than $34 an
ounce. [This] is reminiscent of ... the Hunt Brothers. When the Hunts started buying silver in 1973,
the price of the metal was $1.95 an ounce. By early 1980, the brothers had driven the price up to
$54 an ounce before the Federal Reserve intervened, changed the rules on speculative silver
investments and the price plunged. When JPMorgan Chase bought Bear Stearns in March 2008, it
inherited Bear Stearns large bet that the price of silver would fall. The international bank HSBC
got into the market heavily on the bear side as well. These actions artificially depressed the price
of silver dramatically downward, according to a class-action lawsuit ... filed against both banks in
November. The conspiracy and scheme was enormously successful, netting the
defendants substantial illegal profits in the billions of dollars between June 2008 and
March 2010, according to the suit. In November 2009, [Andrew Maguire] ... a former employee
of Goldman Sachs and a 40-year industry veteran, [related] tales of how the silver traders at
JPMorgan were bragging about all the money they were making as a result of the manipulation,
which entailed flooding the market with short positions every time the price of silver started to
creep upward. In March 2010, Maguire released his e-mails publicly. Then came the cloak and
dagger element: [On March 26th] Maguire was involved in a bizarre car accident in London. The
Commodity Futures Trading Commissions investigation is still unresolved, and at least one
commissioner Bart Chilton after interviewing more than 32 people and reviewing more than
40,000 documents, [says] there has been enough investigating and not enough prosecuting.
Chilton said ... that one participant in the silver market still controlled 35 percent of the silver
market.
Note: Gold and silver have been intensely manipulated for many years. The price of gold has risen
500% in the last 10 years, while silver prices have rocketed 700% in the last eight years. Yet the
media consistently underreports this amazing news. Few media gave more than a passing
mention to gold passing the $1,000 mark in 2008, which was a historic event. Read the full article
to understand this important topic. For lots more quality information on this from a former US
assistant secretary for HUD, click here.

Why those from 'Inside Job' aren't inside a prison

2011-03-01, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/28/BURF1HV7AV.DTL
"Forgive me," said Berkeley filmmaker Charles Ferguson upon receiving an Academy Award on
Sunday night for his documentary "Inside Job." "I must start by pointing out that three years after a
horrific financial crisis caused by fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail - and that's
wrong." A number of people would agree, including a majority of Americans, according to opinion
polls, who blame U.S. banks and other private institutions for the 2007-08 financial meltdown
documented in Ferguson's film. "He raised exactly the right question," said William Black, a senior
regulator at the former Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., which helped clean up the far
less costly S&L crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. More than 1,800 S&L officials were

convicted of felonies in its aftermath, with more than 1,000 jailed. But the difference between then
and now - and with the 1929 crash, which saw a number of bankers go to jail - is open to much
debate. "We had well over 10,000 criminal referrals from regulators in the S&L crisis," said
Black, now an associate professor of economics and law at the University of MissouriKansas City School of Law. "This time, zero."
Note: For other major media articles revealing the vast extent of unmitigated corruption related to
the banking bailouts, click here. For reliable, eye-opening information on how the public is
continually deceived about banking, click here. And for an excellent study guide on the facts
presented in this revealing film, click here.

'He does not remember it': RFK killer seeks parole

2011-02-28, MSNBC News/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41822218/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
More than four decades after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his convicted murderer
wants to go free for a crime he says he can't remember. It's been this way almost from the
beginning. Hypnotists and psychologists, lawyers and investigators have tried to jog his memory
with no useful result. "There is no doubt he does not remember the critical events," said William F.
Pepper, the attorney who will argue for Sirhan's parole. "He is not feigning it. He does not
remember it." Pepper, a New York-based lawyer who also is a British barrister, is the latest
advocate of a second gunman theory. Believers claim 13 shots were fired while Sirhan's gun
held only eight bullets and that the fatal shot appeared to come from behind Kennedy while
Sirhan faced him. Pepper also suggests Sirhan was "hypno-programmed," turning him into
a virtual "Manchurian Candidate." Pepper said ... that he has had Sirhan examined several
times by psychologist Daniel Brown of Harvard University, an expert in hypnosis of trauma victims.
"There have been substantial breakthroughs. It was very clear to me that this guy did not kill Bob
Kennedy," said Pepper. The lawyer notes that he has a personal tie to Kennedy, having been
chairman of his citizens' committee when he ran for Senate in 1964. Pepper also represented
James Earl Ray, through 10 years of appeals and a civil trial which he said proved that Ray was
not King's killer. By then Ray was dead. By all accounts, Sirhan has been a model prisoner. Sirhan
is a Christian and had no ties to terrorist groups.
Note: Few people know about the US civil trial in 1999 in Memphis where a jury took only one
hour to rule that elements within government were guilty of conspiring to shoot Dr. Martin Luther
King. For an astounding six-minute news clip on this little reported trial, click here. For summaries
of many other major media articles suggesting a cover-up around the assassinations of JFK, RFK,
and MLK, click here.

Scientist warns on safety of Monsanto's Roundup

2011-02-24, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41759713

Questions about the safety of a popular herbicide made by Monsanto Co have resurfaced in a
warning from a U.S. scientist that claims top-selling Roundup may contribute to plant disease and
health problems for farm animals. Plant pathologist and retired Purdue University professor Don
Huber has written a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning that a newly
discovered and widespread "electron microscopic pathogen appears to significantly impact the
health of plants, animals, and probably human beings." Huber coordinates a committee of the
American Phytopathological Society as part of the USDA National Plant Disease Recovery
System. Huber said the organism has been found in high concentrations of Roundup Ready
soybean meal and corn, which are used in livestock feed. He said laboratory tests have
confirmed the presence of the organism in pigs, cattle and other livestock that have
experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility. The organism is also prolific in corn and
soybean crops stricken by disease, according to Huber. "It should be treated as an emergency."
He requested USDA participation in an investigation, and he urged a moratorium on approvals of
Roundup Ready crops. USDA officials declined to comment about the letter's contents. Roundup
has long been a draw for critics, who say the herbicide promotes widespread weed resistance, or
"super weeds." "While the evidence is considered preliminary, the potential damage to humans
and animals is severe," said Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the Institute for Responsible
Technology. There have been other alarms raised about Roundup, including a report last year from
Argentine scientists who claimed that Roundup can contribute to birth defects in frogs and
chickens.
Note: This revealing article seems to have disappeared from MSNBC and other websites, yet you
can still find it on the Reuters website at this link. For other revealing major media articles showing
the clear risks and dangers of genetically modified foods already on our plates, click here. For a
vital essay by Jeffrey Smith detailing scientific studies where lab animals died from eating these
foods, click here.

Parents Lose High Court Appeal in Vaccine Case

2011-02-22, U.S. News & World Report/Associated Press
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/22/parents-lose-high-court-appeal...
The Supreme Court closed the courthouse door ... to parents who want to sue drug makers over
claims their children developed autism and other serious health problems from vaccines. The
ruling was a stinging defeat for families dissatisfied with how they fared before a special no-fault
vaccine court. The court voted 6-2 against the parents of a child who sued the drug maker Wyeth
in Pennsylvania state court for the health problems they say their daughter, now 19, suffered from
a vaccine she received in infancy. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said Congress
set up a special vaccine court in 1986 to ... create a system that spares the drug companies
the costs of defending against parents' lawsuits. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia
Sotomayor dissented. Nothing in the 1986 law ''remotely suggests that Congress intended such
a result,'' Sotomayor wrote, taking issue with Scalia. Scalia's opinion was the latest legal setback
for parents who felt they got too little from the vaccine court or failed to collect at all. Such was the
case for Robalee and Russell Bruesewitz of Pittsburgh, who filed their lawsuit after the vaccine

court rejected their claims for compensation. According to the lawsuit, their daughter, Hannah, was
a healthy infant until she received the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine in April 1992.
Within hours of getting the DPT shot, the third in a series of five, the baby suffered a series of
debilitating seizures.
Note: Vaccines have been strongly promoted for decades, yet the research supporting many
vaccines is amazingly weak. For more powerful information questioning the efficacy of vaccines,
click here.

At CIA, Grave Mistakes, Then Promotions

2011-02-11, ABC News/AP
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=12874101
In December 2003, security forces boarded a bus in Macedonia and snatched a German citizen
named Khaled el-Masri. For the next five months, el-Masri was a ghost. Only a select group of CIA
officers knew he had been whisked to a secret prison for interrogation in Afghanistan. But he was
the wrong guy. In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officers who committed
serious mistakes that left people wrongly imprisoned or even dead have received only
minor admonishments or no punishment at all. Many officers who made significant
missteps are now the senior managers fighting the president's spy wars. The AP
investigation of the CIA's actions revealed a disciplinary system that takes years to make
decisions, hands down reprimands inconsistently and is viewed inside the agency as prone to
favoritism and manipulation. When people are disciplined, the punishment seems to roll downhill,
sparing senior managers even when they were directly involved in operations that go awry. Two
officers involved in the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan, for instance, received no discipline and
have advanced into Middle East leadership positions. Other officers were punished after
participating in a mock execution in Poland and playing a role in the death of a prisoner in Iraq.
Those officers retired, then rejoined the intelligence community as contractors. Since 9/11, retired
CIA officers have published a variety of books opining on what ails the CIA. Their conclusions
differ, but they are in nearly unanimous agreement that the system of accountability is broken.
Note: It is great news that the media is now revealing some of the craziness at the CIA, a topic
that was almost taboo for the press in the past.

Trustee: J.P. Morgan Abetted Madoff

2011-02-04, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104576122300990479090.html
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ignored or dismissed warning signs about the Madoff fraud even as it
earned hundreds of millions of dollars from its relationship with his firm, according to a lawsuit
unsealed [on February 3]. The $6.4 billion lawsuit ... claims that bankers at J.P. Morgan
discussed the possibility that Bernard Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme, worried that a

firm of such size was audited by a storefront accountant and called his returns "too good to
be true." "While numerous financial institutions enabled Madoff's fraud, JPMC was at the
very center of that fraud, and thoroughly complicit in it," according to the 115-page lawsuit, filed
under seal in December by Irving Picard, the trustee seeking to recover money for Mr. Madoff's
victims. The complaint seeks the return of nearly $1 billion in J.P. Morgan's profits and fees, and
$5.4 billion in damages. It goes into great detail about the bank's alleged efforts, starting in about
2006, to make money by offering products tied to Mr. Madoff through investment funds that fed
money to him. The lawsuit offers a detailed account of the more than two decade relationship
between J.P. Morgan and Mr. Madoff. The lawsuit claims that the bank didn't pay attention to
billions of dollars passing through the Madoff firm's main J.P. Morgan account, much of it by handwritten check, or to discrepancies in the account balance and unreported obligations.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the criminal practices of the biggest financial
institutions, click here.

Critics question billions in aid routed back to US contractors

2011-02-03, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/02/03/critics_question_billio...
United States taxpayers have funneled more than $60 billion of aid into Egypt since President
Hosni Mubarak came to power in 1981, but more than half of the money has been spent supplying
weapons to the countrys military. About $34 billion of the aid to Egypt has come in the form of
grants that Congress requires Egypt to spend on American military hardware. In recent
years the large amount of aid earmarked for the military, and the relatively low sums supporting
civilian aid, have attracted scathing criticism from Egyptians, some of whom argue that US aid has
gone to entrench a military dictator at the expense of the fledgling democracy activists. During the
early turmoil, protesters were the target of tear gas canisters that read "made in the USA,"
fueling debate about the aid. Last year, Egypt was the fifth-largest recipient of US aid, getting $1.6
billion. Congress ... authorized major aid packages to both [Egypt and Israel in 1979], using an
informal formula not enshrined in the peace treaty that gave Egypt $2 for every $3 that Israel
received. Israel quickly became the largest recipient of US aid, and Egypt the second-largest
rankings that were only recently overtaken by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and last year,
the disaster in Haiti. The strong interest of US companies could help explain why US military
assistance to Egypt has remained at $1.3 billion a year, while its civilian economic assistance has
steadily shrunk, from $815 million a decade ago to $250 million requested for 2011. The decline
began in 1998, when Israel arranged for a reduction in economic support and an increase military
aid. As Israelis economic aid shrunk, so too did Egypts.
Note: Israel receives about $3 billion a year from the US, yet the population of the country is 8
million. If you do the math, the US is providing the equivalent of nearly $4,000 in aid per year
to every man, woman and child in Israel, with $3,000 of that to buy US military hardware. For
lots more reliable information on how the military/industrial complex manipulates world politics to
support the war machine, click here and here.

Deregulation of derivatives set stage for collapse

2011-01-30, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-01-30/business/27091349_1_otc-derivatives-otc...
"We certainly applaud the efforts of the commission," said White House press secretary Robert
Gibbs, referring to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report. "Frankly, I'm not sure much has changed,"
said one of commissioners, Byron Georgiou. "The concentration of assets in the nation's 10
biggest banks is bigger now than it was five years ago, from 58 percent in 2006 to 63
percent now." Referring to executives who remain at the head of those banks that almost ran
aground, Georgiou said ... "Either they knew and didn't want to tell us, or they really didn't know.
Either way, they put their institutions at risk." And have yet to be held accountable. Commissioner
Brooksley Born can enjoy a certain sense of vindication. Not only had "over-the-counter
derivatives contributed significantly to this crisis," ... but the enactment of legislation in 2000 to ban
their regulation "was a key turning point in the march toward the financial crisis." As head of the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the 1990s, Born was aware of the damage the largely
unregulated instruments had already caused. Born suggested some more regulation. [She] was
squashed like a bug by Clinton administration heavyweights, including Lawrence Summers and
Robert Rubin, [and] Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. One of the results: The
Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 eliminated government oversight of the OTC
market. As the report documents, the use of such derivatives ... helped bring the entire
financial system to its knees. Born hasn't seen much change in terms of accountability. One
thing the report makes clear ... is just how preposterous were the "Who knew?" and "Who could
have predicted?" statements offered up by chief executives and top government officials.
Note: So the 10 biggest banks now control 63% of total U.S. bank assets. The total for these
banking assets as of the second quarter of 2010 were calculated at $13.22 trillion. Yet four of
these megabanks also control an astounding 95% of the $574 trillion derivatives market, a sum
over 40 times the amount of bank assets! Do you think there might be a problem with a derivatives
bubble?

Vatican Told Irish Bishops Not to Report Abuse

2011-01-18, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/18/world/main7257626.shtml
A newly revealed 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all
suspected child-abuse cases to police a disclosure that victims groups described as "the
smoking gun" needed to show that the Vatican enforced a worldwide culture of cover-up. The
letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the
Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests
following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits. Child-abuse activists in Ireland said the
1997 letter should demonstrate, once and for all, that the protection of pedophile priests from
criminal investigation was not only sanctioned by Vatican leaders but ordered by them. "The letter

is of huge international significance, because it shows that the Vatican's intention is to prevent
reporting of abuse to criminal authorities. And if that instruction applied here, it applied
everywhere," said Colm O'Gorman, director of the Irish chapter of human rights watchdog
Amnesty International. The Vatican does advise bishops worldwide to report crimes to police
in a legally nonbinding lay guide on its Web site. This recourse is omitted from the
official legal advice provided by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and updated
last summer. That powerful policymaking body continues to stress the secrecy of canon
law.
Note: For many key reports from major media sources on institutional secrecy, click here.

FDA panel urges new look at "silver" teeth fillings

2010-12-15, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40604587/ns/health
Enough uncertainty surrounds silver-colored metal dental fillings with mercury that U.S. regulators
should add more cautions for dentists and patients, a U.S. advisory panel [has] said. The fillings
should be accompanied by warnings about unknown risks for vulnerable people such as children
and pregnant women. "There really is no place for mercury in children," Suresh Kotagal, a panelist
and neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said of the toxic metal. Mercury has
been linked to neurological damage at high exposure levels and makes up about half of a metal
filling. While the panel stopped short of urging a ban, it wants the FDA to look at the latest data and
reassess its guidance after the agency last year declared the fillings safe. Some European nations
have banned amalgam use. Critics told the advisers there was a clear link between mercury
fillings and side effects, especially in more vulnerable patients. They should be banned or
not implanted unless patients give consent, they said.
Note: Why is mercury still used in most dental fillings, when there is a known risk and other
materials are available? Our teeth are not a good place for mercury. Studies have proven that
small amounts of mercury are released by these fillings in gases into the mouth, only the toxicity is
debated. For more, click here.

U.S. officials protected Gestapo agents

2010-12-10, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40605965/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
A report to Congress reveals details on how U.S. intelligence officials used and protected some
Nazi Gestapo agents after World War II. The report was authored by historians hired by the U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration. The report draws from an unprecedented trove of
records on clandestine operations that the CIA was persuaded to declassify and from previously
inaccessible Army intelligence files. "The CIA records give us a much better picture of the
movements of Nazi war criminals in the postwar period. The Army records are voluminous,

and will be keeping people busy for many years," said Richard Breitman, of the American
University in Washington, D.C., who co-authored the report with Norman J.W. Goda, of the
University of Florida. The records were made available under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act
of 1998. Nazi hunters and lawmakers have long raised questions about what U.S. government
knew and its involvement with war criminals during the Cold War. The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure
Act has so far resulted in more than 8 million documents being declassified; a landmark 2005 book
on U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis in part authored by Breitman and Goda; and a final report to
Congress.
Note: The CIA would never have declassified these documents were it not for pressure from
caring citizens which caused Congress to act. For details of the CIA employment of Nazis in its
post-war mind-control experimentation on humans without their consent, click here.

Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates

mosque
2010-12-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR20101204037...
Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a
button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys. The undercover FBI
informant - a convicted forger named Craig Monteilh - then drove off for 5 a.m. prayers at the
Islamic Center of Irvine, where he says he spied on dozens of worshipers in a quest for potential
terrorists. Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of
violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him. He had helped build a terrorismrelated case against a mosque member, but that also collapsed. The Justice Department recently
took the extraordinary step of dropping charges against the worshiper, who Monteilh had caught
on tape agreeing to blow up buildings, law enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed
the man as a dire threat. Compounding the damage, Monteilh has gone public, revealing secret
FBI methods and charging that his "handlers" trained him to entrap Muslims as he
infiltrated their mosques, homes and businesses. He is now suing the FBI. Officials ...
confirm that he was a paid FBI informant. Court records and interviews corroborate not only
that Monteilh worked for the FBI - he says he made $177,000, tax-free, in 15 months - but that he
provided vital information on a number of cases.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the long series of fake terror scares used by
governments to control their domestic populations by fear, click here.

Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign
firms
2010-12-02, The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR20101201068...

New disclosures show the Federal Reserve rushed trillions of dollars in emergency aid not just to
Wall Street but also to ... foreign-owned banks in 2008 and 2009. The central bank's aid programs
also supported U.S. subsidiaries of banks based in East Asia, Europe and Canada. The biggest
users of the Fed lending programs were some of the world's largest banks, including Citigroup,
Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Swiss-based UBS and Britain's Barclays, according to more
than 21,000 loan records released [December 1] under new financial regulatory legislation. The
data reveal banks turning to the Fed for help almost daily in the fall of 2008 as the central bank
lowered lending standards and extended relief to all kinds of institutions it had never assisted
before. The extent of the lending to major banks - and the generous terms of some of those deals heighten the political peril for a central bank that is already under the gun for a wide range of
actions, including a recent decision to try to stimulate the economy by buying $600 billion in U.S.
bonds. "The American people are finally learning the incredible and jaw-dropping details of
the Fed's multitrillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America," said Sen. Bernard
Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime Fed critic whose provision in the Wall Street regulatory overhaul
required the new disclosures. "Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out
foreign private banks and corporations." The Fed launched emergency programs totaling $3.3
trillion in aid, a figure reached by adding up the peak amount of lending in each program.
Note: The figure of $3.3 trillion cited in this article was simply the peak amount lent at one moment
in time; the total amount lent by the Fed over the years covered by the data exceeded $20 trillion.
For analysis of this data release, click here.

McDonald's and PepsiCo to help write UK health policy

2010-11-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/mcdonalds-pepsico-help-health-...
The Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed
food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart
of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease. In an overhaul of public
health, said by [critics] to be the equivalent of handing smoking policy over to the tobacco industry,
health secretary Andrew Lansley has set up five "responsibility deal" networks with business, cochaired by ministers, to come up with policies. The groups are dominated by food and alcohol
industry members, who have been invited to suggest measures to tackle public health crises. The
alcohol responsibility deal network is chaired by the head of the lobby group the Wine and Spirit
Trade Association. The food network to tackle diet and health problems includes processed food
manufacturers, fast food companies, and Compass, the catering company. The food deal's subgroup on calories is chaired by PepsiCo, owner of Walkers crisps. The leading supermarkets are
an equally strong presence. In early meetings, these commercial partners have been invited
to draft priorities and identify barriers, such as EU legislation, that they would like removed.
They have been assured by Lansley that he wants to explore voluntary not regulatory
approaches, and to support them in removing obstacles.

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate and government corruption, click here and
here.

"Inside Job" rigorously shows how financial crisis happened

2010-10-29, Denver Post (Denver's leading newspaper)
http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_16451155
Somebody owes us $20 trillion. "Inside Job," a riveting, eye-opening, infuriating documentary
about the financial collapse of 2008, coolly presents a prosecutor's brief against the culprits who
engineered the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. They occupy both sides of
the legislative aisle, corporate boardrooms, Ivy League faculty lounges and bank headquarters.
They made money sometimes obscene amounts of it while rigging a monetary
meltdown that left middle-class taxpayers holding the bag, and thousands of less-fortunate
former homeowners holding cardboard signs beside freeway on-ramps. This is no dry
economics lesson; it is a vital wakeup call. The presentation is articulate and rigorously factual,
presented in six chapters, from "How We Got There" to "Accountability." The financial earthquake
was not only entirely avoidable, but was utterly predictable given the steady erosion of scrutiny of
financial markets here and abroad. Reducing state monitoring under the Reagan administration set
the stage for the savings-and-loan crisis and the collapse of the junk-bond market. But that was a
luau compared with what lay ahead. Successive administrations, Democratic and Republican
alike, heeded advisers pushing for further deregulation, leading to WorldCom, Enron, the dot-com
bubble and the 2008 panic. Many of those laissez-faire advocates were prominent academics
receiving sizable consulting fees to testify in antitrust cases and in Congress on Wall Street's
behalf.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the long history of criminal and corrupt practices of
major financial powers and regulatory bodies, click here.

Sleuths study ancient UFOs

2010-10-27, MSNBC
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/27/5361166-sleuths-study-ancient...
One of the best-known scientific sleuths of UFO sightings is focusing his search not on today's
flying saucers, but on the sky wonders of antiquity. Jacques Vallee [is] the French-born computer
whiz and venture capitalist who ... served as the model for Francois Truffaut's UFO-hunting
character in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." He's a co-author of a newly published book,
"Wonders in the Sky," that lists 500 unexplained aerial observations dating back as far as 1460
B.C. and going up to the dawn of the industrial age in 1879. About 90 percent of UFO reports turn
out to have perfectly natural explanations, but Vallee says the reports that remain unexplained are
provocative enough that they deserve more thoroughgoing study. Jacques Vallee: Many of the
reports in our book came from professional scientists in the 18th and 19th centuries [including] two
directors of the Paris Observatory. Thanks to the Internet, now we have the means to look at vast

collections of records. Many of the cases, both ancient and modern, involve a number of trained
people - sometimes the entire crew of an aircraft ... and official reports by pilots which in many
cases involved near-collisions. There are pilots and military people willing to talk openly about
what they've seen. There is a database of over 500 reports by pilots in the first person. There are
radar records, visual observations, electromagnetic observations. All of us who have
investigated this have spoken to pilots and radar operators who said that after a sighting, a
couple of people in blue jeans showed up with some identification from somewhere and
confiscated the tapes or the film, and they took it somewhere and no one ever saw it again.
Note: The list of sightings at the end of this article from highly reliable observers reporting before
humans could fly is quite intriguing. For lots more reliable, verifiable information on the UFO coverup, click here.

Seeking Proof in Near-Death Claims

2010-10-25, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304248704575574193494074922.html
At least 15 million American adults say they have had a near-death experience, according to a
1997 survey - and the number is thought to be rising with increasingly sophisticated
resuscitation techniques. In addition to floating above their bodies, people often describe moving
down a dark tunnel toward a bright light, feeling intense peace and joy, reviewing life events and
seeing long-deceased relativesonly to be told that it's not time yet and land abruptly back in an
ailing body. "There are always skeptics, but there are millions of 'experiencers' who know what
happened to them, and they don't care what anybody else says," says Diane Corcoran, president
of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, a nonprofit group in Durham, N.C. The
organization publishes the Journal of Near-Death Studies and maintains support groups in 47
states. In his new book, Evidence of the Afterlife, Jeffrey Long, a radiation oncologist in Louisiana,
analyzes 613 cases reported on the website of his Near Death Research Foundation and
concludes there is only one plausible explanation: "that people have survived death and traveled
to another [mode of existence]." "The self, the soul, the psychethroughout history, we've
never managed to figure out what it is and how it relates to the body," [said Sam Parnia, a
critical-care physician]. "This is a very important for science and fascinating for humankind."
Note: For two of the most amazing near-death experiences ever told, click here and here.

When A Child Moves to Nepal

2010-10-22, New York Times
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/when-a-child-moves-to-nepal
It was a gorgeous Himalayan village, with a river running through it. But it was also ravaged by the
war. Temples had been burned down, and the girls home had been converted into a rebel camp.
Most children couldnt afford school. In the cities, [Maggie Doyne] had seen them working with

hammers, breaking rocks into gravel to sell. The first little girl I met was Hema, Doyne
remembers. Then 6 or 7 years old (few children know their precise age), Hema spent her time
breaking rocks and scavenging garbage and had no chance to go to school. But she was radiant
and adorable and always greeted Doyne in Nepali with a warm, Good morning, Sister! Maybe I
saw a piece of myself in her, said Doyne, who decided to take Hema under her wing and pay for
her education: I knew I couldnt do anything about a million orphans, but what if I started with this
girl? So she took Hema to school and paid $7 for the girls school fees and another $8 for a
uniform so that she could enter kindergarten. It became addictive, Doyne said. I said, if I can
help one girl, why not 5? Why not 10?" Doyne found a ramshackle telephone booth
actually, a mud hut where she could place an international call and telephoned her
parents with a strange and urgent request: Can you wire me the money in my savings
account? Her parents sent her the money. Doyne has since raised hundreds of thousands more.
With it she has built the Kopila Valley Childrens Home.
Note: For a slide show of Maggie's great work on the New York Times website, click here. For
Maggie's inspiring website, click here.

Iraq war logs: secret files show how US ignored torture

2010-10-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-military-leaks
A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of
American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian ... via the
whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The new logs detail how: A US helicopter gunship involved
in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. The logs record 66,081 noncombatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities. The numerous reports of detainee abuse,
often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists
or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a
detainee's apparent death. The whistleblowing activists say they have deleted all names from the
documents that might result in reprisals.
Note: For an analysis by the Ad Hoc Committee for Justice for Iraq of the still very one-sided
picture of the devastation of Iraq provided by this leak of Iraq war logs, click here. For an interview
of the leader of Wikileaks on CNN in which he walks out after being asked about his personal life
rather than Iraqi deaths, click here.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission judge says colleague biased

against complainants
2010-10-19, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR20101019072...
As George H. Painter was preparing to retire recently as one of two administrative law judges
presiding over investor complaints at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, he issued an
extraordinary request: Please don't assign my pending cases to the other judge. [The CFTC
oversees trading of the nation's most important commodities, including oil, gold and cotton.]
Painter said Judge Bruce Levine ... had a secret agreement with a former Republican chairwoman
of the agency to stand in the way of investors filing complaints with the agency. "On Judge
Levine's first week on the job, nearly twenty years ago, he came into my office and stated
that he had promised Wendy Gramm, then Chairwoman of the Commission, that we would
never rule in a complainant's favor," Painter wrote. "A review of his rulings will confirm that
he fulfilled his vow. Judge Levine ... forces pro se complainants to run a hostile procedural
gauntlet until they lose hope, and either withdraw their complaint or settle for a pittance, regardless
of the merits of the case." Levine was the subject of a story 10 years ago in the Wall Street
Journal, which said that except in a handful of cases in which defunct firms failed to defend
themselves, Levine had never ruled in favor of an investor. Gramm [wife of former senator Phil
Gramm (R-Tex.)], was head of the CFTC just before president Bill Clinton took office. She has
been criticized by Democrats for helping firms such as Goldman Sachs and Enron gain influence
over the commodity markets. After leaving the CFTC, she joined Enron's board.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns' message to gay teens is
heartfelt, resonating
2010-10-15, Dallas Morning News (One of Dallas' leading newspapers)
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/jacquielynn-floyd/20101014-Fort-Wor...
If the now-viral video of Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns' extraordinary address during
an otherwise routine meeting ... does not move you to tears, you surely have a tough, leathery little
peanut for a heart. Burns, who is gay, spoke directly to young victims of anti-gay bullying. He
shared his own teenage experience of ugly, mindless victimization, and he made the promise to
kids enduring similar torment: "It gets better." That's "It Gets Better" - with caps - since it's the
name for an informal online video project of adults sharing their coming-out stories to teens who
are struggling with their sexual orientation and especially vulnerable to harassment. Burns'
statement ... could save somebody's life. It might already have [done so]. Burns first showed
photos and told stories of a half-dozen teens whose recent suicides have been linked to ridicule
they received for being - or being thought to be - gay. As cruel as these stories are, they are the
most poignant evidence there is against the absurd notion that sexual orientation is a "lifestyle
choice" instead of a biological reality. Burns deliberately sought the attention of scared, isolated
kids who fear their misery is permanent. "I know that life can seem unbearable but I want
you to know that it gets better," he said. "You will get out of the household that doesn't
accept you. You will get out of that high school, and you don't ever have to deal with those
jerks again, if you don't want to."

Note: For the beautiful, touching 12-minute video where this courageous city council member talks
about stopping school bullying which is killing innocent children, click here. And watch a touching
seven-minute video about a very tough decision made by a caring couple about the gender of their
child. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

How to brand a disease -- and sell a cure

2010-10-11, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/11/elliott.branding.disease/
If you want to understand the way prescription drugs are marketed today, have a look at the 1928
book, Propaganda, by Edward Bernays, the father of public relations in America. For Bernays, the
public relations business was less about selling things than about creating the conditions for things
to sell themselves. When Bernays was working as a salesman for Mozart pianos, for example, he
did not simply place advertisements for pianos in newspapers. That would have been too obvious.
Instead, Bernays persuaded reporters to write about a new trend: Sophisticated people were
putting aside a special room in the home for playing music. Once a person had a music room,
Bernays believed, he would naturally think of buying a piano. As Bernays wrote, "It will come to
him as his own idea." Just as Bernays sold pianos by selling the music room, pharmaceutical
marketers now sell drugs by selling the diseases that they treat. The buzzword is "disease
branding." To brand a disease is to shape its public perception in order to make it more
palatable to potential patients. Once a branded disease has achieved a degree of cultural
legitimacy, there is no need to convince anyone that a drug to treat it is necessary. It will
come to him as his own idea. It is hard to brand a disease without the help of physicians, of
course. So drug companies typically recruit academic "thought leaders" to write and speak about
any new conditions they are trying to introduce.
Note: This key topic is discussed in great depth in the BBC's documentary "Century of the Self"
available here. And for a top doctor's analysis that the cholesterol scare was largely manufactured
for profit, click here.

Poor healthcare may shorten American lives

2010-10-07, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39548799
Americans die sooner than citizens of a dozen other developed nations and the usual suspects -obesity, traffic accidents and a high murder rate -- are not to blame. Instead, poor healthcare may
be to blame, the team at Columbia University in New York reported. They found that 15-year
survival rates for men and women aged 45 to 65 have fallen in the United States relative to the
other 12 countries over the past 30 years. In June, the Commonwealth Fund, which advocates on
and does research focusing on healthcare reform, reported that Americans spend twice as much
on healthcare as residents of other developed countries -- $7,290 per person -- but get lower

quality and less efficiency. Between 1975 and 2005, medical costs went up in all the countries, as
did life expectancy. But costs went up far more in the United States and life expectancy increased
to a far lower degree. "In 1950, the United States was fifth among the leading industrialized
nations with respect to female life expectancy at birth, surpassed only by Sweden, Norway,
Australia, and the Netherlands," [the report authors] wrote. At last count, the United States
was 46th in female life expectancy; 49th for both sexes.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

Impact investing seeks to make money, do good

2010-10-06, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/05/BU7M1FOIA6.DTL
Most investors, when sizing up a company, ask a simple question: "Will this company make me
money?" But John Grafer, a principal with Satori Capital, likes to ask a question most traditional
investors never think of: "Does your receptionist have an equity stake in your company?" Grafer is
one of a growing breed of investors who look beyond the bottom line and ask what a
company is doing to help society. It's called impact investing, and its supporters say it
combines the shrewdness of the for-profit marketplace with an earnest desire to do good.
"It's the opposite of a quick flip," Grafer said. "While there might not be a short-term return, you get
a larger long-term return." The companies that make up Satori's $175 million fund all have to meet
strict financial and social benchmarks. Grafer said he focuses on ownership, the environment, civic
involvement and respectful relationships with customers. A report by Hope Consulting indicates
that investors were willing to spend as much as $120 billion on companies that promise social and
financial return, if the right product were available. Four social market funds are well on their way
to reaching $100 million. And attendance at this year's conference was double what it was when
the conference began just three years ago. Organizers say the trend toward socially conscious
investing has been spurred by the downturn in the economy. "The traditional market failed," said
Kevin Jones, of San Francisco's Good Capital and a conference organizer. "This kind of stuff
works without creating a bubble."
Note: For an excellent example of investing for social good while still make a return on your
investing, check out our excellent piece on microlending at this link.

Horrific medical tests of past raise concerns for today

2010-10-01, MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39463624/ns/today-today_health
The astounding revelation that U.S. medical researchers intentionally gave Guatemalans
gonorrhea and syphilis more than 60 years ago is so horrifying that we want to believe that what
happened then could never happen today. A report from the United States Department of Health
and Human Services noted that roughly 80 percent of drug approvals in 2008 were based in part

on data from outside the U.S. Susan Reverby, a distinguished historian at Wellesley College in
Massachusetts, has ... long researched the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the experiment
where poor, black men in rural Alabama were deliberately left untreated for syphilis by government
researchers. The study, somehow, was allowed to run from 1932 to 1972. More recently, Reverby
came across documents that showed that Dr. John C. Cutler, a physician who would later be one
of the researchers involved in the Tuskegee study, was involved in a completely unethical research
study much earlier in Guatemala. Cutler, who went to his grave defending the Tuskegee
experiment, directly inoculated unknowing prisoners in Guatemala with syphilis and also
encouraged them to have sex with diseased prostitutes for his research from 1946-48. His
work was sponsored by lauded organizations such as the United States Public Health Service, the
National Institutes of Health with collaboration of the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now
the Pan American Health Organization), and the Guatemalan government.
Note: The author of this commentary is Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the
University of Pennsylvania. For many other examples of government-sponsored experimentation
on human guinea pigs, click here.

Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes

2010-09-27, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/28/national/main6907702.shtml
Whatever the mysterious lights in the sky were, they seemed to have an interest in our nukes. One
of the more out-of-the-ordinary press conferences held in Washington this week consisted of
former Air Force personnel testifying to the existence of UFOs and their ability to neutralize
American and Russian nuclear missiles. UFO researcher Robert Hastings of Albuquerque,
N.M., who organized the National Press Club briefing, said more than 120 former service
members had told him they'd seen unidentified flying objects near nuclear weapon storage
and testing grounds. Robert Jamison, a retired USAF nuclear missile targeting officer, told of
several occasions having to go out and "re-start" missiles that had been deactivated, after UFOs
were sighted nearby. [In a] December 1980 incident near two Royal Air Force Bases in Suffolk,
England ... several U.S. Air Force personnel reported seeing a strange metallic object hovering.
Retired USAF Col. Charles Halt said that in December 1980, when he was deputy base
commander at RAF Bentwaters, strange lights in the forest were investigated by three patrolmen.
They reported approaching a triangular craft, "approximately three meters on a side, dark metallic
in appearance with strange markings." Halt found indentations in the ground, broken branches,
and low-level background radiation. He and his team also witnessed various lights moving silently
in the sky, of one which was "shedding something like molten metal." Several of the exservicemembers speaking Monday said when they'd brought their concern of such appearances to
superiors, they'd been told it was "top secret" or that it "didn't happen." Hastings suggested the
presence of such phenomena meant that aliens were monitoring our weapons, and perhaps
warning us - "a sign to Washington and Moscow that we are playing with fire."

Note: To watch 18-minutes of this most fascinating testimony on the CNN website, click here. For
lots more reliable information on the famous RAF Bentwaters incident, click here. For what may be
the best UFO documentary ever made, watch Out of the Blue, available for free viewing at this link.

Pentagon Destroys Copies of Controversial Memoir Written by Army

Officer
2010-09-25, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/25/pentagon-destroys-copies-controver...
The Pentagon has burned 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's memoir
Operation Dark Heart, his book about going undercover in Afghanistan. A Department of
Defense official tells Fox News that the department purchased copies of the first printing
because they contained information which could cause damage to national security. The
U.S. Army originally cleared the book for release. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency attempted
to block the book about the tipping point in Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining
project called "Able Danger." In a letter obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could
be breached if Operation Dark Heart is published in its current form. The agency also attempted to
block key portions of the book that claim "Able Danger" successfully identified hijacker Mohammed
Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Note: Able Danger was the program which identified Mohamed Atta and three other alleged 9/11
hijackers as a potential terror threat before 9/11. To read major media reports on the intense
controversy around this program (which is likely why the book is being burned), click here.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial

Objects
2010-09-15, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS166901+15-Sep-2010+PRN20100915
Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing
and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as
2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned
while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one
former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and
urge the government to publicly confirm their reality. One of them, ICBM launch officer Captain
Robert Salas, was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base and
was ordered to never discuss it. Captain Salas notes, "The U.S. Air Force is lying about the
national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can
prove it." Col. Halt adds, "I believe that the security services of both the United States and the
United Kingdom have attemptedboth then and nowto subvert the significance of what
occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation." Declassified

U.S. government documents, to be distributed at the event, now substantiate the reality of UFO
activity at nuclear weapons sites extending back to 1948. The press conference will also address
present-day concerns about the abuse of government secrecy as well as the ongoing threat of
nuclear weapons.
Note: Captain Salas has submitted to WantToKnow.info his own further investigation into his
experience. Read his fascinating story at this link. For the testimony of several dozen key military
and government officials on the existence of a major cover-up of UFOs, click here.

Nixon plot against newspaper columnist detailed

2010-09-13, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39157420/ns/politics
Nearly 40 years before the Obama White House denounced the WikiLeaks website for publishing
classified documents, another president, Richard Nixon, was even more obsessed with the same
phenomenon. Only Nixon and his top aides went to far greater lengths to deal with the problem:
They launched an extraordinary campaign to smear and discredit the journalist who, more than
anyone else, was bedeviling them by publishing government secrets: newspaper columnist Jack
Anderson. The White House obsession with Anderson whose "Washington Merry Go-Round"
column was the WikiLeaks of its day is detailed in a new book being published this month,
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson and the Rise of Washingtons Scandal
Culture, by journalism professor Mark Feldstein. The book relies in part on newly unearthed tapes
from the National Archives that document how Nixons aides plotted to destroy Anderson by
planting forged evidence with him and spreading false rumors about his sex life and that of one of
his associates. Feldstein also has uncovered new evidence that documents one of the more
outrageous schemes of the Nixon presidency: a plot to assassinate Anderson by either
putting poison in his medicine cabinet or exposing him to a massive dose of LSD by
smearing it on the steering wheel of his car.
Note: For more on the use of LSD and other substances by the CIA for mind control and
assassination, click here.

CIA Mind-Control Experiments

2010-08-06, Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2008962_200896...
At the height of the Cold War, the CIA conducted covert, illegal scientific research on human
subjects. Known as Project MK-ULTRA, the program subjected humans to experiments with drugs
such as LSD and barbiturates, hypnosis and (some reports indicate) radiological and biological
agents. In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all documents from Project MK-ULTRA
destroyed. Nevertheless, late the following year, the New York Times reported on the illegal
activities. In 1975, the Church Committee, headed by Senator Frank Church, and a commission

headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller investigated the project. They found that over more
than two decades, the CIA spent nearly $20 million, enlisted the services of researchers at
more than 30 universities and conducted experiments on subjects without their knowledge.
Some of the research was performed in Canada. Some historians argue that the goal of the
program was to create a mind-control system by which the CIA could program people to
conduct assassinations. In 1953, Richard Condon dramatized the idea in the thriller The
Manchurian Candidate, which was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra. Such ultimately
wacky ideas were also dramatized in the recent George Clooney film The Men Who Stare at
Goats.
Note: For more on CIA mind control experiments, see the extensive documentation available here.

Did Churchill and Eisenhower cover up UFO encounter?

2010-08-05, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/did-churchill-and-eisenhower-cover-...
With a civilian population haunted by the Blitz and the Second World War still in the balance, it was
one development Winston Churchill could have done without an incursion into British airspace by
an arrow-shaped metallic object feared to contain an invasion force of little green men. Such was
the sensitivity of an alleged UFO sighting by an RAF bomber crew returning to England from a
mission over Germany that Churchill ordered it to be covered up with the words: "This event
should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general
population and destroy one's belief in the Church." This at least was the allegation put to the
Ministry of Defence by relatives of a senior British military aide who claimed to have witnessed the
cigar-chomping Prime Minister discuss the incident with General Dwight Eisenhower as part of a
meeting about a succession of "foo fighter" sightings by Allied air crews in the Second World War.
The curious matter of visits by wartime aliens is one of hundreds of reports of strange celestial
phenomena from a space station covered in pulsating lights to an unusually agile rocket which
buzzed a Boeing 737 at Manchester Airport to be revealed in documents released today by the
National Archives.
Note: For reliable information on UFOs, check out our UFO Information Center.

BP accused of 'buying academic silence'

2010-07-22, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10731408
The head of the American Association of University Professors has accused BP of trying to "buy"
the best scientists and academics to help it contest litigation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "This
is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," said
Cary Nelson. BP faces more than 300 lawsuits so far. In a statement, BP says it has hired more
than a dozen national and local scientists "with expertise in the resources of the Gulf of Mexico".

The BBC has obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It says that scientists
cannot publish the research they do for BP or speak about the data for at least three years, or until
the government gives the final approval to the company's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf.
And it adds that scientists must take instructions from lawyers offering the contracts and other inhouse counsel at BP. What Mr Nelson is concerned about is BP's control over scientific research.
"Our ability to evaluate the disaster and write public policy and make decisions about it as a
country can be impacted by the silence of the research scientists who are looking at conditions,"
he said. "It's hugely destructive. I mean at some level, this is really BP versus the people of
the United States."
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police

2010-07-19, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/videotaping-cops-arrest/story?id=11179076
It wasn't his daredevil stunt [on his motorcycle] that has [Anthony Graber] facing the possibility of
16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. It was the video that Graber posted
on YouTube one week later -- taken with his helmet camera -- of a plainclothes state trooper
cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore. In early April, state police
officers raided Graber's parents' home in Abingdon, Md. They confiscated his camera, computers
and external hard drives. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by
recording the trooper without his consent. Arrests such as Graber's are becoming more common
along with the proliferation of portable video cameras and cell-phone recorders. Videos of alleged
police misconduct have become hot items on the Internet. YouTube still features Graber's
encounter along with numerous other witness videos. "The message is clearly, 'Don't criticize
the police,'" said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who
is part of Graber's defense team. "With these charges, anyone who would even think to
record the police is now justifiably in fear that they will also be criminally charged." Carlos
Miller, a Miami journalist who runs the blog "Photography Is Not a Crime," said he has documented
about 10 arrests since he started keeping track in 2007. Miller himself has been arrested twice for
photographing the police.
Note: To our knowledge, no one has ever been prosecuted for videotaping police doing good
things, which they often do, yet many have been arrested for catching police doing bad things.
Where's the justice here?

Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate

2010-07-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/health/policy/13avandia.html

In the fall of 1999, the drug giant SmithKline Beecham secretly began a study to find out if its
diabetes medicine, Avandia, was safer for the heart than a competing pill, Actos, made by Takeda.
Avandias success was crucial to SmithKline, whose labs were otherwise all but barren of new
products. But the studys results, completed that same year, were disastrous. Not only was
Avandia no better than Actos, but the study also provided clear signs that it was riskier to the
heart. But instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover
them up, according to documents recently obtained by The New York Times. The company did not
post the results on its Web site or submit them to federal drug regulators, as is required in most
cases by law. The heart risks from Avandia first became public in May 2007, with a study from a
cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic who used data the company was forced by a lawsuit to post on
its own Web site. In the ensuing months, GlaxoSmithKline officials conceded that they had known
of the drugs potential heart attack risks since at least 2005. But the latest documents
demonstrate that the company had data hinting at Avandias extensive heart problems
almost as soon as the drug was introduced in 1999, and sought intensively to keep those
risks from becoming public.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from major media sources, click here.

Sentenced to Serving the Good Life in Norway

2010-07-12, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2000920,00.html
On Bastoy, an island 46 miles south of Oslo, [125] residents live in brightly colored wooden
chalets, spread over one square mile of forest and gently sloping hills. They go horseback riding
and throw barbecues, and have access to a movie theater, tanning bed and, during winter, two ski
jumps. Despite all its trappings, Bastoy island isn't an exclusive resort: it's a prison. Bastoy's
governor ... describes it as the world's first human-ecological prison a place where
inmates learn to take responsibility for their actions by caring for the environment. Prisoners grow
their own organic vegetables, turn their garbage into compost and tend to chickens, cows, horses
and sheep. The prison generally emphasizes trust and self-regulation: Bastoy has no fences, the
windows have no bars, and only five guards remain on the island after 3 p.m. In an age when
countries from Britain to the U.S. cope with exploding prison populations by building ever larger
and, many would say, ever harsher prisons, Bastoy seems like an unorthodox, even bizarre,
departure. But Norwegians see the island as the embodiment of their country's long-standing
penal philosophy: that traditional, repressive prisons do not work, and that treating prisoners
humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society. Norway's system produces
overwhelmingly positive results. Within two years of their release, 20% of Norway's
prisoners end up back in jail. In the U.K. and the U.S., the figure hovers between 50% and
60%. Of course, Norway's ... prison roll lists a mere 3,300 inmates, a rate of 70 per 100,000
people, compared with 2.3 million in the U.S., or 753 per 100,000 the highest rate in the world.
Note: Why aren't other countries taking heed of Norway's excellent example? Part of the reason is
that some companies make massive profits from the prison system. For more on this, click here.

How Goldman gambled on starvation

2010-07-02, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-how...
This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the
traders at Merrill Lynch, and more have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in
the world. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and
stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per
cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people mostly children couldn't
afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. There were riots in more than
30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrown. Then, in spring 2008, prices
just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Food, calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions." Through
the 1990s, Goldman Sachs and others lobbied hard and the regulations [controlling
agricultural futures contracts] were abolished. Suddenly, these contracts were turned into
"derivatives" that could be bought and sold among traders who had nothing to do with
agriculture. A market in "food speculation" was born. The speculators drove the price through
the roof.
Note: Some researchers speculate that the global elite are aware that alternative energies will
eventually replace oil, which has been a prime means of control and underlying cause of many
wars in recent decades. So as a replacement for oil, the elite and their secret societies are
increasingly targeting control of the world's food supply through terminator crops which produce no
seed, and through the patenting of seeds.

Report details oil company gifts to regulators

2010-05-26, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/MN1I1DKGSU.DTL
Employees of the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling accepted lunches, football tickets,
hunting trips and other gifts from the oil and gas companies they were in charge of policing,
according to a report [on May 25] by the Interior Department's inspector general. The investigation,
which zeroed in on the Lake Charles, La., office of the embattled Minerals Management Service,
also found that at least one agency inspector also was actively negotiating employment with an oil
and gas production company while simultaneously inspecting its platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil spill in the gulf has focused intense scrutiny on the agency's oversight of offshore drilling
and raised questions about whether it was lax in setting requirements for key safety devices and
practices. But even before the spill, the agency had been singled out for ethical lapses and
mismanagement. In 2008, the Interior Department's inspector general rapped workers in
MMS' Lakewood, Colo., office for having sexual relationships with and accepting gifts from
energy company representatives. Over a decade, there have been ten inspector general reports

and nine from the Government Accountability Office that documented "failures within MMS," [Rep.
Darrell Issa] said, "and yet it still took a massive catastrophe to get anyone to ... agree on the need
for a massive bureaucratic overhaul."
Note: For an abundance of revealing articles from major media sources on government and
corporate collusion and corruption, click here and here.

British policeman wins UFO investigation award

2010-05-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/7744335/British-p...
Gary Heseltine's fascination with the unexplained in British skies began at the age of 15, when he
spotted a mysterious bright light while walking his first girlfriend home. The 49-year-old father-oftwo picked up the 2010 Disclosures Award in Washington for his website,
prufospolicedatabase.co.uk, which he launched in 2002. He said: "Winning the award was a total
surprise. I didn't know I was going to win until my name was read out. It's also a terrific boost for
my database as it puts me on an international platform, and I have already been offered chances
to give lectures in Brazil and Denmark." Mr Heseltine, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, has
amassed a database including 330 cases and the witness statements of more than 750 police
officers. Despite investigating thousands of reports, He said he will always remember his first
sighting over the skies of Scunthorpe in 1975. He said: "I was with my first girlfriend heading
towards the comprehensive school and suddenly became aware of a large bright light. Suddenly
all the electricity on the housing estate we could see ahead cut out. We were terrified at the
time but afterwards I decided to investigate and discovered that power cuts are extremely
common during UFO sightings."
Note: WantToKnow.info manager Fred Burks has met Gary and was very impressed by his
thorough research on UFO sightings by police officers. Don't miss his excellent website available
here.

Craig Venter creates synthetic life form

2010-05-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form
Craig Venter and his team have built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporated it
into a cell to make what they call the world's first synthetic life form. The world's first synthetic life
form ... paves the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved. The
controversial feat, which has occupied 20 scientists for more than 10 years at an estimated
cost of $40m, was described by one researcher as "a defining moment in biology". Craig
Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the
dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn
out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines.

However critics, including some religious groups, condemned the work, with one organisation
warning that artificial organisms could escape into the wild and cause environmental havoc or be
turned into biological weapons. Others said Venter was playing God. The new organism is based
on an existing bacterium... but at its core is an entirely synthetic genome that was constructed from
chemicals in the laboratory. The single-celled organism has four "watermarks" written into its
DNA to identify it as synthetic and help trace its descendants back to their creator, should
they go astray.
Note: For a vault of key reports from reliable souces on genetic engineering, click here.

Stock market time bomb?

2010-05-10, Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/10/stock-market-time-bomb/?page=all
Even the worlds most savvy stock-market giants (e.g., Warren E. Buffett) have warned over the
past decade that derivatives are the fiscal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. And the
consequences of such an explosion would make the recent global financial and economic crisis
seem like penny ante. But generously lubricated lobbyists for the unrestricted, unsupervised
derivatives markets tell congressional committees and government regulators to butt out.
While banks all over the world were imploding and some $50 trillion vanished in global
stock markets, the derivatives market grew by an estimated 65 percent, according the Bank
for International Settlements. BIS convenes the worlds 57 most powerful central bankers in Basel,
Switzerland, for periodic secret meetings. Occasionally, they issue a cry of alarm. This time,
derivatives had soared from $414.8 trillion at the end of 2006 to $683.7 trillion in mid-2008 - 18
months time. The derivatives market is now estimated at $700 trillion. Whats so difficult to
understand about derivatives? Essentially, they are bets for or against the house - red or black at
the roulette wheel. Or betting for or against the weather in situations in which the weather is critical
(e.g., vineyards). Forwards, futures, options and swaps form the panoply of derivatives. Credit
derivatives are based on loans, bonds or other forms of credit. Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives
are contracts that are traded and privately negotiated directly between two parties, outside of a
regular exchange. All of this is unregulated.
Note: Though not from one of the top U.S. newspapers, this incisive article lays bare severe
market manipulations that greatly endanger our world. The entire article is highly recommended.
$700 trillion is equivalent to $100,000 for every man, woman, and child in the world! Do you think
the financial industry is out of control? For lots more powerful, reliable information on major
banking manipulations, click here. For a powerful analysis describing just how crazy things have
gotten and giving some rays of hope by researcher David Wilcock, click here.

The Trades of a Lifetime in 20 Minutes

2010-05-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/business/08cancel.html

Someone on Wall Street just made a killing. That was the subject of so much chatter among
professional investors once the smoke cleared from the sudden panic and recovery on Thursday
[May 6] that briefly knocked some stocks down to a penny or two a share. Who had kept his cool
during those terrifying minutes and scooped up some dreamlike bargains? One thing, however, is
certain: By luck, savvy, lightning speed or all three, there was money gobs of it to be made
from the bargains that came and went in an instant. On Friday the blogosphere was alight with
conspiracy theories suggesting that perhaps the whole thing had been instigated by a big
bank or a hedge fund looking to make a quick profit. Some investment pros surely made a
fortune from the trillion-dollar market swing. Somebody got Accenture at a penny. Theyre
ready to announce their retirement, joked Daniel Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State
University. Investors who owned gold or United States Treasuries ... saw big gains as global
investors sought havens. But even those gains were small compared with those won by options
traders who had placed bets on an index that rises in value when volatility increases. The guys
who probably made the most money in this were options players, said Larry Tabb, chief executive
of the Tabb Group, a financial services consulting firm.
Note: This article refers to the record-breaking 1,000 point intra-day drop in the Dow Jones index
on May 7. For an abundance of deep reporting on the hidden realities of Wall Street's shadowy
operations, click here.

Man claims to have had no food or drink for 70 years

2010-04-28, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7645857/Man-claims-to-ha...
Indian military scientists are studying an 82-year-old who claims he has not had any food or drink
for 70 years. Prahlad Jani is being held in isolation in a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gurjarat, where he
is being closely monitored by India's defence research organization, who believe he may have a
genuine quality which could help save lives. He has now spent six days without food or water
under strict observation and doctors say his body has not yet shown any adverse effects
from hunger or dehydration. Mr Jani ... is regarded as a 'breatharian' who can live on a
'spiritual life-force' alone. He believes he is sustained by a goddess who pours an 'elixir' through
a hole in his palate. His claims have been supported by an Indian doctor who specializes in studies
of people who claim supernatural abilities. So far, Mr Prahlad appears to be standing up to
scrutiny. He has not eaten or drunk any fluids in six days, and similarly has not passed urine or a
stool in that time. He remains fit and healthy and shows no sign of lethargy. According to Dr Sudhir
Shah, who examined him in 2003, he went without food or water for ten days in which urine
appeared to be reabsorbed by his body after forming in his bladder. Doubts were expressed about
his claim after his weight fell slightly at the end of the trial.
Note: To read an intriguing BBC News article about the 2003 study of this remarkable man, click
here.

Report Details Torture at Secret Baghdad Prison

2010-04-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/world/middleeast/28baghdad.html
The torture of Iraqi detainees at a secret prison in Baghdad was far more systematic and brutal
than initially reported, Human Rights Watch reported. Human Rights Watch ... documented its
findings, which it described as credible and consistent, in a draft report provided to The New York
Times. The group said it had interviewed 42 detainees who displayed fresh scars and wounds.
Many said they were raped, sodomized with broomsticks and pistol barrels, or forced to
engage in sexual acts with one another and their jailers. All said they were tortured by
being hung upside down and then whipped and kicked before being suffocated with a
plastic bag. Those who passed out were revived, they said, with electric shocks to their genitals
and other parts of their bodies. The horror we found suggests torture was the norm in Muthanna,
said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East program at Human Rights Watch. Security
officials whipped detainees with heavy cables, pulled out finger and toenails, burned them with
acid and cigarettes, and smashed their teeth, Human Rights Watch said.
Note: For more on the atrocities committed by the US and its recent wars, click here.

The Problem with Factory Farms

2010-04-23, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1983981,00.html
If you eat meat, the odds are high that you've enjoyed a meal made from an animal raised on a
factory farm. The government designation is CAFO, which stands for Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operation. Basically, it's any farm that has 1,000 animal units or more. A beef cow is an
animal unit. These animals are kept in pens their entire lives. They're never outside. They
never breathe fresh air. They never see the sun. According to the USDA, 2% of U.S.
livestock facilities raise an estimated 40% of all farm animals. This means that pigs, chickens
and cows are concentrated in a small number of very large farms. There are simply too many
animals in too small of a place. CAFO cows eat a diet of milled grains, corn and soybeans, when
they are supposed to eat grass. The food isn't natural because they very often put growth
hormones and antibiotics in it. When you have 2,000 cows per acre instead of two, you have a
problem. You can't fit them in a pasture you fit them in a building. You don't have enough land to
absorb their waste. The manure is liquefied. It gets flushed out into an open lagoon [and] sprayed
into waterways and creeks. This stuff is untreated, by the way.
Note: For two excellent and fun short videos showing both the problem and solutions for cruel
factory farming, click here and here. For lots more little-known, excellent information to promote
your health, click here.

George W. Bush 'knew Guantnamo prisoners were innocent'

2010-04-09, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092435.ece
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men
were sent to the Guantnamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would
harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document
obtained by The Times. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin
Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed
by a Guantnamo detainee. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary
knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantnamo in 2002 were innocent but
believed that it was politically impossible to release them. Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of
the Bush Administrations approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the
majority of detainees children as young as 12 and men as old as 93 never saw a US
soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and
Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been
taken. He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld did not want the innocent
detainees released was because the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly
confused operation that they were.
Note: For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here.

To Sinead O'Connor, the pope's apology for sex abuse in Ireland seems
hollow
2010-03-28, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR20100325023...
As recently as 2007, 98 percent of Irish schools were run by the Catholic Church. Schools for
troubled youth have been rife with barbaric corporal punishments, psychological abuse and sexual
abuse. In October 2005, a report sponsored by the Irish government identified more than 100
allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Ferns, a small town 70 miles south of Dublin, between
1962 and 2002. Accused priests weren't investigated by police; they were deemed to be suffering
a "moral" problem. In 2009, a similar report implicated Dublin archbishops in hiding sexual abuse
scandals between 1975 and 2004. Pope Benedict's so-called apology takes no responsibility for
the transgressions of Irish priests. His letter states that "the Church in Ireland must first
acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless
children." What about the Vatican's complicity in those sins? Benedict's infamous 2001 letter to
bishops around the world ordered them to keep sexual abuse allegations secret under
threat of excommunication -- updating a noxious church policy, expressed in a 1962
document, that both priests accused of sex crimes and their victims "observe the strictest
secret" and be "restrained by a perpetual silence."

Fusion's Ups and Downs

2010-03-23, MSNBC
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/23/2237165.aspx
This week, scientists gathered at the American Chemical Society's spring meeting in San
Francisco to turn the spotlight on a highly unorthodox path: the effect known as cold fusion. This
year's session featured nearly 50 presentations - including reports on batteries and bacteria that
appear to exhibit the cold-fusion effect. Back in 1989, cold fusion was heralded as a simple,
inexpensive way to get a power-generating fusion reaction on a desktop. But when the
experimental results couldn't be reproduced, the researchers were driven into obscurity [and] the
term "cold fusion" became synonymous with quackery. Chemists, however, have kept up their
interest in the effect. Rick Nebel [has headed] up a handful of researchers following the lesstraveled path to fusion at EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. EMC2 recently created a buzz in the
fusion underground by reporting on its Web site that it successfully completed a series of
experiments to "validate and extend" earlier results. The company is now using a $7.9 million
contract from the U.S. Navy to build a bigger test machine. Nebel and his colleagues are now
seeking contributions to fund the development of what they say would be a 100-megawatt
fusion plant - a "Phase 3" effort projected to cost $200 million and take four years.
"Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels," the Web site proclaims.
Note: For a powerful, reliable documentary showing how promising results from cold fusion were
strongly suppressed, click here. For lots of reports from reliable sources of new energy
developments, click here.

U.S. Turns a Blind Eye to Opium in Afghan Town

2010-03-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/world/asia/21marja.html
The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marja has put American and NATO
commanders in the unusual position of arguing against opium eradication. From Gen. Stanley A.
McChrystal on down, the militarys position is clear: U.S. forces no longer eradicate, as
one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja.
American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers fields alone.
United Nations drug officials agree with the Americans. Pictures of NATO and other allied soldiers
walking next to the opium fields wont go well with domestic audiences, but the approach of
postponing eradicating in this particular case is a sensible one, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who is in
charge of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime here. Though the United States
governments official position is still to support opium crop eradication in general, some American
civilian officials say that the internal debate over Marja is far from over within parts of the State
Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. A spokesman for the United States
Embassy in Kabul, Brendan J. OBrien, said officials would decline to comment while the matter
was under review.

Note: For weeks the Pentagon and press claimed Marja is a city of 80,000 people, and compared
the "battle for Marja" as comparable to the attack on Falluja, Iraq. Then the news leaked out that
Marja is not even a town, but an unincorporated agricultural area with a few villages. Now the "city"
turns out to be a center of opium poppy production! Could protection of the lucrative poppy crops
be the real reason for the selection of this area for the largest single military operation of the
occupiers since the invasion in 2001? For more on this, click here.

Pope's Irish letter faces critical Catholic world

2010-03-20, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR20100319028...
Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland on [March 20] in a letter apologizing for the sex abuse
scandal [there] - a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see if it
also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved cover-ups. The scandals first emerged in
Canada and Australia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States this decade
and, in recent months, Benedict's German homeland. Victims' rights activists say that to begin
mending the church's battered image, Benedict's message ... must break his silence on the role of
the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecution. That includes abuses
committed decades ago under the pope's watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of
Munich, as well as the pontiff's role in hushing up the scandals. As leader of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was responsible for a 2001 Vatican edict that instructed
bishops to report all cases of child abuse to Vatican authorities under strict secrecy; it made no
mention of reporting crimes to police. "Is it not time for Pope Benedict XVI himself to
acknowledge his share of responsibility?" said the Rev. Hans Kung, a Swiss priest and
dissident Catholic theologian. "Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who
for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce
his own mea culpa," Kung said.

Police or provocateurs?
2010-03-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/18/undercover-police-infiltr...
Last Sunday's Observer claimed to expose how "an officer from a secretive unit of the Metropolitan
police" worked "undercover among anti-racist groups in Britain, during which he routinely engaged
in violence against members of the public and uniformed police officers to maintain his cover".
Despite this sensationalist introduction, "Officer A" does not describe his involvement in any violent
incidents. No wonder. The organisation he infiltrated, Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE)
is a peaceful organisation of young people, which in the 1990s organised mass protests
against racism and the BNP [British National Party]. YRE [has often faced] violence from
the far right, and unfortunately also from the police. The police not only used violence against
[YRE] demonstrations but also carried out a secretive, unaccountable and clearly expensive
infiltration operation. They gained nothing from it. Far from being secretive [YRE] publicly

advertised [its] events. The Observer's revelation is not unique. Christopher Andrew's The Defence
of the Realm: the Authorized History of M15, published last year, also describes state infiltration of
Militant, the National Union of Miners and others. Surveillance of peaceful protestors has
mushroomed. Police brutality also, as the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson showed, is not a thing of
the past.
Note: Why would police place officers promoting violence in peaceful groups working against
racism? Could it be that key elements within the police are racist?

Vitamin D better than vaccines at preventing flu

2010-03-15, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7061778.ece
The risk of children suffering from flu can be halved if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have
found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced
by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and
can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine. Only one in ten children,
aged six to 15 years, taking the sunshine vitamin in a clinical trial came down with flu
compared with one in five given a dummy tablet. Mitsuyoshi Urashima, the Japanese doctor
who led the trial, told The Times that vitamin D was more effective than vaccines in
preventing flu. Vitamin D was found to be even more effective when the comparison left out
children who were already given extra vitamin D by their parents, outside the trial. Taking the
sunshine vitamin was then shown to reduce the risk of flu to a third of what it would otherwise be.
The trial, which was double blind, randomised, and fully controlled scientifically, was conducted by
doctors and scientists from Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan.
Note: For important articles from reliable sources on health issues, click here.

Learning From Lehman

2010-03-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/opinion/14sun3.html
On top of everything Lehman Brothers did before it collapsed in 2008, nearly toppling the financial
system, it now seems that it was aggressively massaging its books. A new report on the Lehman
collapse, released last week ... would leave anyone dumbstruck by the firms audacity
and reminded of the crying need for adult supervision of Wall Street. The 2,200-page report
[finds that] Lehman engaged in transactions that let it temporarily shift troubled assets off its books
and in so doing, hide its reliance on borrowed money. The maneuvers ... made the firm appear
healthier than it was. [The author, Anton R. Valukas, a former federal prosecutor,] wrote that
Richard S. Fuld Jr., Lehmans former chief executive, was at least grossly negligent, and that
Lehman executives engaged in actionable balance sheet manipulation. According to the report,
rating agencies, government regulators and Lehmans board of directors had no clue about the

gimmicks. The result is that we were all blindsided. And we could be blindsided again. Congress
is not even close to passing meaningful regulatory reform. The surviving banks have only
gotten bigger and more politically powerful. If the Valukas report is not a wake-up call, what
would be?
Note: The Lehman report is described in detail here. For revealing information showing how the
US Treasury Department continues to fight against a much-needed audit of the Federal Reserve,
click here. For a great collection of revealing reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities
behind the financial crisis and government bailouts of the biggest financial corporations, click here.

Did the CIA test LSD in the New York City subway system?
2010-03-13, New York Post
http://nypost.com/2010/03/14/did-the-cia-test-lsd-in-the-new-york-city-subway...
On Nov. 28, 1953, Frank Olson, a ... 42-year-old government scientist, plunged to his death from
room 1018A in New York's Statler Hotel. [Twenty-two] years later, the Rockefeller Commission
report was released, detailing a litany of domestic abuses committed by the CIA. The ugly truth
emerged: Olson's death was the result of his having been surreptitiously dosed with LSD days
earlier by his colleagues. The belated 1975 [admission] ... generated more interest into a series of
wildly implausible "mind control" experiments on an unsuspecting populace over three decades.
Much of this plot unfolded here, in New York, according to H.P. Albarelli Jr., author of A Terrible
Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments. Albarelli spent
more than a decade sifting through more than 100,000 pages of government documents and his
most startling chestnut might be his claim that the intelligence community conducted aerosol
tests of LSD inside the New York City subway system. "The experiment was pretty shocking
shocking that the CIA and the Army would release LSD like that, among innocent
unwitting folks," Albarelli told The Post. An Olson colleague, Dr. Henry Eigelsbach, confirmed to
Albarelli that the LSD subway test did, in fact, occur in November 1950, albeit on a smaller scale
than first planned. Little, however, is known about the test what line, how many people and what
happened.
Note: For lots more reliable information on CIA mind control experiments, click here and here.

The GM war in Europe starts here

2010-03-12, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/7431043/The-GM-wa...
Brussels bureaucrats [are determined] to spread GM crops throughout Europe, against the will of
most of its people. In a little-noticed move last week, the European Commission defied most of the
governments to which it is supposed to answer to give the green light to growing a [genetically]
modified potato across the continent. It was the first time a GM crop had been authorised for
cultivation in 13 years. But, now the long moratorium has been broken, similar approvals for others

are expected rapidly to follow. The decision has its origins in a couple of secret, top-level
meetings called by Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission's strongly pro-GM president. He
invited the prime ministers of each of the 27 EU member states to send a personal
representative along to discuss how to "speed up" the spread of the technology and "deal
with" public opposition. About three times as many Europeans oppose genetic modification as
support it. As a result, GM crops cover only about 0.12 per cent of Europe's agricultural land and
the continent accounts for just 0.08 per cent of the area growing them worldwide. And they have
been losing ground. In the past two years, both France and Germany banned the Monsanto maize,
joining Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg.
Note: Though Europeans are very aware of the threat of genetically modified foods and have
worked hard to prohibit them, the media in the US have managed to stifle almost any reporting on
the topic. Most Americans have no idea that they are regularly eating GM foods known to have
serious health risks.

Chief exorcist says Devil is in Vatican

2010-03-11, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/74164...
The Devil is lurking in the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican's chief exorcist
claimed on Wednesday. Father Gabriele Amorth said people who are possessed by Satan vomit
shards of glass and pieces of iron. He added that the assault on Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas
Eve by a mentally unstable woman and the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church
in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the Anti-Christ was waging a war
against the Holy See. "The Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences,"
said Father Amorth, 85, who has been the Holy See's chief exorcist for 25 years. While there
was "resistance and mistrust" towards the concept of exorcism among some Catholics,
Pope Benedict XVI has no such doubts, Father Amorth said. "His Holiness believes
wholeheartedly in the practice of exorcism. He has encouraged and praised our work," he added.
In a rare insight into the world of exorcism, the Italian priest told La Repubblica newspaper that the
1973 film The Exorcist gave a "substantially exact" impression of what it was like to be possessed
by the Devil.

Jesse Ventura claims govt involved in 9/11

2010-03-09, MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35728268/ns/today-today_books
In his new book, American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government
Tells Us, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura begins an investigative journey to prove that there
is more to our national history than the government wants us to know. In this excerpt, he writes
about an alleged 9/11 cover-up. Chapter 12: What really happened on September 11? Our
government engaged in a massive cover-up of what really happened, including its own ties to the

hijackers. Unanswered questions remain about how the towers were brought down, and whether a
plane really struck the Pentagon. The Bush Administration either knew about the plan and allowed
it to proceed, or they had a hand in it themselves. I certainly never expected to think that elements
of the Bush Administration were complicit. Today, though, I am convinced that some people
inside our government knew the attack was going to happen and allowed it to come to pass
because it furthered their political agenda. I say this after expending many hours
researching things about the official story that dont add up, and interviewing a number of
witnesses with firsthand knowledge that contradicts what we were told. As a patriotic American, I
say this with a heavy heart and with an outrage that really knows no words. But its something
we, as a nation, must come to terms with. Otherwise, it could happen again.
Note: For the questions raised by many other highly respected former government officials about
what really happened on 9/11, click here.

Daniel Ellsberg on the Limits of Knowledge

2010-02-27, Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsberg-limitations-kno...
[Here's a story] from Ellsberg's book Secrets. The setting is a meeting with Henry Kissinger in late
1968. In 1968 Ellsberg was a highly respected analyst ... who had worked for both the Pentagon
and Rand, and Kissinger was just entering the government. Ellsberg told him, "Henry, there's
something I would like to tell you. You've dealt a great deal with top secret information. But you're
about to receive a whole slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty of them, that are
higher than top secret. First, you'll be exhilarated by some of this new information. But second, ...
you will feel like a fool for having studied, written, talked about these subjects, criticized and
analyzed decisions made by presidents for years without having known of the existence of all this
information. In particular, you'll feel foolish for having literally rubbed shoulders for over a
decade with some officials and consultants who did have access to all this ... and you'll be
stunned that they kept that secret from you so well. You will feel like a fool. Then, after
you've ... become used to using what amounts to whole libraries of hidden information, ... you will
forget there ever was a time when you didn't have it. You'll be aware only of the fact that you have
it now and most others don't ... and that all those other people are fools. [In] a matter of two or
three years you'll eventually become aware of the limitations of this information. It's often
inaccurate, and it can lead you astray. But that takes a while to learn. In the meantime ... you will
deal with a person who doesn't have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want
him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with. You'll have to lie carefully to him
about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him.
Note: Don't miss the entire fascinating, highly revealing article at the link above. To see this quote
from Ellsberg's book on Google books, click here. For more on government secrets, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Explosive News
2010-02-22, Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/22/inside-the-beltway-70128635
A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has
political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A
thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a
new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade
Center. "In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must
have been artificially, exploded outwards," says Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and
founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Mr. Gage, who is a member of the
American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new
petition requesting a formal inquiry. "The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and
National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and
fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers' destruction. We are therefore calling for a
grand jury investigation of NIST officials," Mr. Gage adds. "The implications are enormous."
Note: To read statements questionig the official account of the events of 9/11 by hundreds of
professors, government officials and professionals, click here and here. For our 9/11 Information
Center, click here.

In Tests, Vitamin D Shrinks Breast Cancer Cells

2010-02-22, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/study-vitamin-d-kills-cancer-cells/story?id=...
Doctors have known that low levels of vitamin D are linked to certain kinds of cancers as well as to
diabetes and asthma, but new research also shows that the vitamin can kill human cancer cells.
The results fall short of an immediate cancer cure, but they are encouraging, medical professionals
say. JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, has studied the
effects of vitamin D for 25 years. Part of her research involves taking human breast cancer
cells and treating them with a potent form of vitamin D. Within a few days, half the cancer
cells shriveled up and died. Welsh said the vitamin has the same effect as a drug used for
breast cancer treatment. "Vitamin D enters the cells and triggers the cell death process," she
[said]. "It's similar to what we see when we treat cells with Tamoxifen," a drug used to treat breast
cancer. The vitamin's effects were even more dramatic on breast cancer cells injected into mice.
After several weeks of treatment, the cancer tumors in the mice shrank by an average of more
than 50 percent. Some tumors disappeared. Similar results have been achieved on colon and
prostate cancer tumors in mice.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on hopeful cancer cures, click here. And for a most
excellent documentary on alternative cancer cures, click here.

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

2010-02-18, CBS 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml
In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no
emissions. Over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it. One of them, Bloom Energy, is
about to make public its invention: a little power-plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in
your backyard. You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The
idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid. K.R. Sridhar ...
says he knows it works because he originally invented a similar device for NASA. He really is a
rocket scientist. He invented a new kind of fuel cell, which is like a very skinny battery that always
runs. Sridhar feeds oxygen to it on one side, and fuel on the other. The two combine within the cell
to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity. There's no need for burning or combustion,
and no need for power lines from an outside source. "It's cheaper than the grid, it's cleaner than
the grid." Twenty large, well-known companies have quietly bought and are testing Bloom
boxes in California. The first customer was Google. Four units have been powering a Google
datacenter for 18 months. They use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a
traditional power plant. John Donahoe, eBay's CEO, says its five boxes were installed nine months
ago and have already saved the company more than $100,000 in electricity costs. eBay's boxes
run on bio-gas made from landfill waste, so they're carbon neutral. "In five to ten years, we would
like to be in every home." [Sridhar] said a unit should cost an average person less than $3,000.
Note: To watch the fascinating 60 Minutes video clip of this amazing invention, click here. For
other CBS videos clips on the Bloom Box, click here. For astounding news on other new energy
sources and inventions, click here and here.

Top Earners Averaged $345 Million in 2007, IRS Says

2010-02-18, Bloomberg/BusinessWeek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-18/top-400-earners-in-u-s-averaged-3...
The 400 highest-earning U.S. households reported an average of $345 million in income in
2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, IRS statistics show. The average tax rate for the
households fell to the lowest in almost 20 years. The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic
expansion, show that the average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from
$131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W.
Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Each household in the top 400 of
earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest since the agency began tracking the
data in 1992. The statistics underscore two long-term trends: that income at the very top
has exploded and their taxes have been cut dramatically, said Chuck Marr, director of federal
tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research group that
supports increasing taxes on high-income individuals. The top 400 earners received a total $138
billion in 2007, up from $105.3 billion a year earlier. On an inflation-adjusted basis, their average
income grew almost fivefold since 1992.

Note: BusinessWeek for some reason removed this article, though it is still available on the
Bloomberg website at this link. For lots more on income inequality from reliable sources, click here.

Greece to Make All Large Cash Transactions Illegal

2010-02-16, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/The-Daily-Reckoning/2010/0216/Greece-to-Make-A...
Embroiled in its debt crisis and looking for any avenue to bolster tax receipts [Greece] has done
the unthinkable it has made [cash, in euros] illegal for transactions over 1,500 euros. Of course,
larger credit- or debit-based electronic transactions over 1,500 will still be denominated in euros.
However, electronic transactions clearly require infrastructure and limit personal freedom. From
Reuters: From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between natural persons
and businesses, or between businesses, will not be considered legal if it is done in cash.
Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards. It seems wrong for the
Greek state to dictate how cash euros can be used. In fact, its surprising that the EU-endorsed
plan would allow Greece to control euro usage at that level. Despite the fact that the reform bill is a
piece of an approved EU plan to help improve Greek tax revenue and reduce deficit, it seems to
go too far in curtailing personal liberty. How much is a government willing to punish its own citizens
for using too much of their own legal tender in an otherwise legal transaction?
Note: What gives any government the right to limit cash transactions? And why is the EU
approving this unusual measure? Could this be part of a hidden agenda to push the public towards
a cashless society?

The government has your baby's DNA

2010-02-04, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/index.html
When Annie Brown's daughter, Isabel, was a month old, her pediatrician asked Brown and her
husband to sit down because he had some bad news to tell them: Isabel carried a gene that put
her at risk for cystic fibrosis. While grateful to have the information -- Isabel received further testing
and she doesn't have the disease -- the Mankato, Minnesota, couple wondered how the doctor
knew about Isabel's genes in the first place. After all, they'd never consented to genetic testing. It's
simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened
for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it's often
done without the parents' consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn
Screening & Genetics Resource Center. In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born,
babies' DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center. Many parents don't realize
their baby's DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the
Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these
parents' concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it's appropriate for a baby's genetic
blueprint to be in the government's possession.

Note: For many reliable reports on the increasing governmental and corporate threats to privacy,
click here.

SEC mulled national security status for AIG details

2010-01-24, CNN Money/Reuters
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/reuters/MTFH21979_2010-01-24_19-...
U.S. securities regulators [at the Securities and Exchange Commission] originally treated the New
York Federal Reserve's bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group
bailout like a request to protect matters of national security. The SEC ... agreed to limit the number
of SEC employees who would review the document to just two and keep the document locked in a
safe while the SEC considered AIG's confidentiality request. The SEC had also agreed that if it
determined the document should not be made public, it would be stored "in a special area where
national security related files are kept." Emails ... that have become public in recent weeks reveal
that some at the New York Fed had gone to great lengths to keep the terms of the bailout private
and the SEC may have played a role in contributing to some of the secrecy surrounding the AIG
rescue package. "The New York Fed was orchestrating what can only be characterized as an
extreme effort to ensure that details of the counterparty deal stayed secret," Rep. Darrell
Issa ... said. "More and more it looks as if they would've kept the details of the deal secret
indefinitely, it they could have."
Note: So now bank transactions are being considered a matter of "national security." What next?
It's becoming ever more apparent that "national security" is used as a catch-all phrase for
information that those in power don't want us to know about their secret dealings which benefit
themselves at the expense of most of the rest of us.

The Anthrax Attacks Remain Unsolved

2010-01-24, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004575011421223515284.html
The investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks ended as far as the public knew on July 29, 2008,
with the death of Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md. Less than a week after his apparent suicide,
the FBI declared Ivins to have been the sole perpetrator of the 2001 Anthrax attacks. The FBI
[had] turned the pressure up on him, isolating him at work and forcing him to spend what little
money he had on lawyers to defend himself. He became increasingly stressed. Then came his
suicide (which, as Eric Nadler and Bob Coen show in their documentary "The Anthrax War," was
one of four suicides among American and British biowarfare researchers in past years). But there
was still a vexing problem. Silicon was used in the 1960s to weaponize anthrax. Anthrax spores
were coated with the substance to prevent them from clinging together so as to create a lethal
aerosol. But since weaponization was banned by international treaties, research anthrax no longer
contains silicon, and the [anthrax] at Fort Detrick contained none. Ivins, no matter how weird he

may have been, had neither the set of skills nor the means to attach silicon to anthrax
spores. If Ivins had neither the equipment or skills to weaponize anthrax with silicon, then
some other party with access to the anthrax must have done it.
Note: As usual, the FBI tries to pin it on one wacko, when it is clear others most have been
involved. Remember that the anthrax attacks occurred as Congress was considering the PATRIOT
Act, and were directed in part at key senators opposed to the act. Congress was shut down for a
period, and when it reconvened it passed the bill without discussion. For lots more on the antrax
attacks as a likely false-flag operation, click here.

What Could You Live Without?

2010-01-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24kristof.html
It all began with a stop at a red light. Kevin Salwen, a writer ... in Atlanta, was driving his 14-yearold daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While waiting at a traffic light, they saw a
black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other. Dad, if
that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal, Hannah protested. [Hannah]
pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something. What do you want
to do? her mom responded. Sell our house? Warning! Never suggest a grand gesture to an
idealistic teenager. Hannah seized upon the idea of selling the luxurious family home and donating
half the proceeds to charity, while using the other half to buy a more modest replacement home.
Eventually, thats what the family did. The project crazy, impetuous and utterly inspiring is
chronicled in a book by father and daughter: The Power of Half. Mr. Salwen and his wife, Joan,
had always assumed that their kids would be better off in a bigger house. But after they
downsized, there was much less space to retreat to, so the family members spent more time
around each other. A smaller house unexpectedly turned out to be a more family-friendly
house.We essentially traded stuff for togetherness and connectedness, Mr. Salwen [said],
adding, I cant figure out why everybody wouldnt want that deal.
Note: For a treasure trove of other inspiring stories reported in the major media, click here.

Swine flu was as elusive as WMD. The real threat is mad scientist
syndrome
2010-01-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/14/swine-flu-elusive-as-wmd
Remember the warnings of 65,000 dead? Health chiefs should admit they were wrong yet again
about a global pandemic. Let me recap. Six months ago [the] BBC was intoning nightly statistics
on what "could" happen as "the deadly virus" took hold. The happy-go-lucky virologist, John
Oxford, said half the population could be infected, and that his lowest estimate was 6,000 dead.
The chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, bandied about any figure that came into his head,

settling on "65,000 could die", peaking at 350 corpses a day. The media went berserk. The World
Health Organisation declared a "six-level alert" so as to "prepare the world for an imminent attack".
If anyone dared question this drivel, they were dismissed by Donaldson as "extremists".
When people started reporting swine flu to be even milder than ordinary flu, he accused them of
complacency and told them to "wait for next winter". He was already buying 32m masks and
spending more than 1bn on Tamiflu and vaccines. It was pure, systematic governmentinduced panic in which I accept that the media played its joyful part.
Note: For lots more on the gross profiteering and fear mongering of swine flu scare, click here.

Fed paid record $46.1B to Treasury last year

2010-01-12, Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6811506.html
The Federal Reserve paid a record $46.1 billion in earnings to the Treasury Department last year,
reflecting gains as the central bank bulked up its portfolio of securities to revive the economy and
fight the financial crisis. The payment marks an increase of $14.4 billion from what the
Treasury was provided in 2008 and is the largest since the Fed began operating in 1914, the
central bank announced. The Fed's net income of $52.1 billion in 2009 also was a record,
according to preliminary figures. It was up from $35.5 billion in 2008. Such income rose largely
because the Fed's holdings of securities mushroomed, though increases in the value of the
securities also helped, Fed officials said. Under one program that ended last year, the Fed
snapped up $300 billion in government debt. Under another program, the Fed is on track to buy a
total of $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the end of
March. Those programs have boosted the value of securities held by the Fed.
Note: How interesting that the trillions of dollars of US taxpayer money funneled to the big banks
brought record income in 2009, while the average American saw little to no benefit. For key
background on the Federal Reserve, click here. For a trove of reports from major media sources
that reveal hidden realities of the government bailout of the biggest financial firms, click here.

Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates

2010-01-12, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452937.stm
Why would a former Guantanamo Bay prison guard track down two of his former captives - two
British men - and agree to fly to London to meet them? The last time Ruhal Ahmed met Brandon
Neely, he was "behind bars, behind a cage and [Brandon] was on the other side". The location had
been Camp X-Ray - the high-security detention camp run by the US in Guantanamo Bay. Mr
Ahmed, originally from Tipton in the West Midlands, was among several hundred foreign terror
suspects held at the centre. Mr Neely was one of his guards. The scene of this current exchange
of pleasantries couldn't be more different from where they last met - a television studio in London.

Also here is Shafiq Rasul, a fellow ex-Guantanamo prisoner, without whose Facebook page the
reunion would never have happened. Mr Neely, 29, ... left the US military in 2005 to become a
police officer and was still struggling to come to terms with his time as a guard at Guantanamo. He
felt anger at a number of incidents of abuse he says he witnessed, and guilt over one in particular.
"The news would always try to make Guantanamo into this great place," he says, "like 'they
[prisoners] were treated so great'. No it wasn't. You know here I was basically just putting
innocent people in cages."
Note: The video of this reunion at the BBC link above is quite extraordinary for what it represents.
How did these innocent men end up suffering so much? For a possible answer and wake-up call,
click here.

Norway conquers infections by cutting use of antibiotics

2010-01-11, Miami Herald/Associated Press
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/01/11/1420165/norway-conquers-infections-by.html
At a microscopic level [Aker University Hospital] is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and
contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated
hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia last year, soaring virtually unchecked. The reason:
Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs. Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing
their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive
program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that
program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics. Now a spate of new studies from
around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and
public health experts are saying these deaths -- 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than
from AIDS -- are unnecessary. The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of
the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press
found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like
tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat. Now, in
Norway's simple solution, there's a glimmer of hope.'
Note: For many key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

Antidepressant Pills May Help Only Most Severe Cases

2010-01-06, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aIjvgTRz2PN8
Antidepressants ... may be no better than dummy pills for people with mild or moderate
depression, according to a study that suggests 70 percent of patients wouldnt benefit from the
drugs. In a review of six trials of antidepressants involving more than 700 patients published
yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers led by Jay Fournier at
the University of Pennsylvania found the drugs helped only those patients with the most severe

depression. Doctors, policy makers and sufferers should be made aware that theres little evidence
to show the treatments will benefit patients with less severe symptoms, the authors said. This
important feature of the evidence base is not reflected in the implicit messages present in the
marketing of these medications to clinicians and the public, they said. The researchers combined
data from six trials. The drugs had a nonexistent to negligible effect on patients with mild,
moderate and severe symptoms, compared with those who took a placebo, according to a
commonly used scale used to measure the disorder. The pills had a large effect on patients
with very severe symptoms, the study found.
Note: For a treasure trove of important reports on corruption regarding major health issues, click
here.

With Bigger Bonuses, Another Upside for Banks

2010-01-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/business/01bonus.html
Along with Wall Streets resurgent bonuses will come a jump in an ancillary benefit: tax breaks. For
all banks and Wall Street firms, Im sure were talking $200 billion total compensation, which
would create a tax savings for the firms of $80 billion, said Robert Willens, an accounting and tax
analyst in New York. The tax deductions, which will increase the bottom line of the banks, are
perfectly legal and not new. They come as compensation for 2009 has roared back after the
largest banks paid back billions of dollars in federal aid, an outlay still fresh in the minds of
taxpayers. As pay goes up, so do the deductions. Many American banks already pay minuscule
federal income taxes. Because of various deductions and clever tax planning the payoutrelated breaks will reduce their tax bills further in coming years. The biggest tax break will
go to Goldman Sachs. It expects to award its employees $23 billion in bonuses the most
in its history. Because most employee compensation is a deductible expense under tax laws,
Goldman Sachs ... will save about $9 billion in federal income taxes on the bonuses it pays out for
2009.
Note: For a treasure trove of reliable reports on the government bailout of Wall Street, click here.

Capability Surprise
2010-01-00, U.S. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2010-10-Capability_Suprise_Vol_2.pdf
Deception [is reliant] on the close control of information, running agents (and double-agents) and
creating stories that adversaries will readily believe. In an era of ubiquitous information access,
anonymous leaks and public demands for transparency, deception operations are extraordinarily
difficult. Nevertheless, successful strategic deception has in the past provided the United States
with significant advantages that translated into operational and tactical success. Successful
deception also minimizes U.S. vulnerabilities, while simultaneously setting conditions to surprise

adversaries. Thus, strategic deception capabilities and plans must perforce be highly
classified. Deception cannot succeed in wartime without developing theory and doctrine in
peacetime. In order to mitigate or impart surprise, the United States should develop more
robust interagency deception planning and action prior to the need for military operations.
To be effective, a permanent standing office with strong professional intelligence and operational
expertise needs to be established.
Note: The above excerpts can be found on pages 77 and 78. For a powerful two-page summary of
a top general's description of how the American public is deceived into supporting war, click here.

Was a World War II pilot reincarnated in a body of a little boy?

2009-12-22, CNN Larry King Live
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0912/22/lkl.01.html
[Guest Host Jeff Probst]: Was a World War II fighter pilot reincarnated in a little boy's body? Bruce
[and Andrea] Leininger say yes. They are authors of Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World
War II Fighter Pilot. Their book describes how their son James had memories of a WWII pilot who
was killed in battle more than 60 years ago. James is now 11 years old. Andrea, when did you first
realize that ... James was having ideas or stories that he wanted to share about this? Andrea
Leininger: [It] started about two weeks after James' second birthday. He had a -- a night terror,
which he had never had before. And this first nightmare began a series of nightmares that started
occurring every other night, every night. And after several months of this, he was having a
nightmare and ... I was able to finally determine what he was saying. And he was saying,
"airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out." Probst: Bruce, even at three, he was -- James
was drawing pictures of an airplane crashing. Bruce Leininger: By the time he started drawing
those pictures, he'd been talking about this ... for several months. And he essentially gave us three
items of information over about a three month period. One, he gave us the name of the ship,
which I verified through research on the Internet. "Natoma Bay." He gave us a name Natoma.
About a month later, he gave us [the] name of a guy he said he flew with. When we asked him if
there was anyone else in his ... dream that he could remember. Jack -- Jack Larson.
Note: Jack Larson was confirmed to be a member of the crew of the Natoma Bay, who when
contacted, remembered the incident of the crash described by this boy. For an excellent, intriguing
four-minute Fox News clip on this fascinating case, click here.

Former CDC head lands vaccine job at Merck

2009-12-21, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2124506920091221
Dr. Julie Gerberding, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was
named president of Merck & Co Inc's vaccine division. Gerberding, who led the CDC from 2002 to
2009 and stepped down when President Barack Obama took office, will head up the company's $5

billion global vaccine business that includes shots to prevent chickenpox, cervical cancer and
pneumonia. She had led CDC from one crisis to another, including the investigation into the
anthrax attacks that killed five people in 2001, the H5N1 avian influenza, the global outbreak
of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and various outbreaks of food poisoning. She
may be charged with reigniting flagging sales of Merck's Gardasil vaccine to prevent cervical
cancer by protecting against human papillomavirus or HPV. After an encouraging launch Gardasil
sales have been falling and were down 22 percent in the third quarter at $311 million.
Note: So the head of the CDC now is in charge of vaccines at one of the biggest pharmaceutical
companies in the world. Could this be considered conflict of interest? Could this possibly be
payback for supporting the vaccine agenda so strongly for years? For more on the risks and
dangers of vaccines, click here.

Trillions Of Troubles Ahead

2009-12-18, Forbes magazine
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/18/government-budget-deficit-personal-finance-f...
If the government stays on the course it's been on for the past forty years without a radical change,
the federal government will soon have a $10 trillion budget. In other words, the federal budget
deficit will be $1.4 trillion. Just to make the size more visible, that's $1,400 billion. Our colleague
Rob Arnott ... wrote in his recent report that "at all levels, federal, state, local and GSEs, the
total public debt is now at 141% of GDP. That puts the United States in some elite company-only Japan, Lebanon and Zimbabwe are higher. That's only the start. Add household debt
(highest in the world at 99% of GDP) and corporate debt (highest in the world at 317% of GDP, not
even counting off-balance-sheet swaps and derivatives) and our total debt is 557% of GDP. Less
than three years ago our total indebtedness crossed 500% of GDP for the first time."
Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the realities of the governmentfinanced bank bailouts, click here.

CIA working with Palestinian security agents

2009-12-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/17/cia-palestinian-security-agents
Palestinian security agents who have been detaining and allegedly torturing supporters of the
Islamist organisation Hamas in the West Bank have been working closely with the CIA, the
Guardian has learned. Less than a year after Barack Obama signed an executive order that
prohibited torture and provided for the lawful interrogation of detainees in US custody, evidence is
emerging the CIA is co-operating with security agents whose continuing use of torture has been
widely documented by human rights groups. The relationship between the CIA and the two
Palestinian agencies involved Preventive Security Organisation (PSO) and General Intelligence
Service (GI) is said by some western diplomats and other officials in the region to be so close

that the American agency appears to be supervising the Palestinians' work. One senior
western official said: "The [Central Intelligence] Agency consider them as their property,
those two Palestinian services." A diplomatic source added that US influence over the agencies
was so great they could be considered "an advanced arm of the war on terror". Among the human
rights organisations that have documented or complained about the mistreatment of detainees
held by the PA in the West Bank are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, al-Haq and the
Israeli watchdog B'Tselem.
Note: For many accounts from major media sources of the horrific abuses committed by military,
intelligence and security forces in the wars of occupation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, click
here.

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

2009-12-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-...
Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global
crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer. Antonio Maria Costa, head
of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised
crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of
collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (216bn) of drugs profits was
absorbed into the economic system as a result. This will raise questions about crime's
influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the
banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new
International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence
that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by
intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from
drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking
system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said. Some of the
evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from
collapse when lending seized up, he said. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated
from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued
that way."
Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the hidden realities behind the
global financial crisis, click here.

DNA Test Sparks Controversy Over Hitler's Remains

2009-12-09, ABC News/Spiegel Online
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/hitler-skull-russian-secret-service-custody/story?id...

The controversy surrounding Adolf Hitler's skull fragments is a little embarrassing for the Russian
secret services. In 2000 they presented a skull fragment and a piece of jawbone that they claimed
were the remains of the Nazi leader. It was an attempt to quash outlandish rumors that he had
escaped alive at the end of World War II. But in October US researchers presented the results of
DNA tests on the skull and said it definitely didn't belong to the dictator because it was from a
female. Scientists had already harbored doubts about the authenticity of the piece of bone
because it was thinner than a male's usually is. "The bone seemed very thin -- male bone tends to
be more robust. It corresponds to a woman between the ages of 20 and 40," said Nick Bellantoni
of the University of Connecticut. The position of the exit wound at the back of the skull also made
scientists suspicious because eyewitnesses said Hitler had committed suicide by firing into his
right temple. Bellantoni said he was allowed to work on the skull for an hour. When he flew home
from Moscow he had two samples in his luggage: a sample from the skull fragment and one
sample of blood from the sofa on which Hitler is said to have shot himself. Bellantoni was able to
compare the bloodstains on the blood-stained fabric with photos the Soviets took after they
seized Hitler's bunker in Berlin. The stains had matched those in the photos. The research
showed that the sofa blood DNA did not match the skull DNA. The sofa blood was male and
the skull belonged to a woman, claimed Bellantoni.
Note: For more on the mysteries surrounding the end of Hitler's life, click here.

Ventura Turns Investigator for 'Conspiracy Theory'

2009-12-01, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9219009
Jesse Ventura is back for another stab at TV stardom, this time hosting a program that digs into
conspiracy theories, including alternate views of what was behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
and the purpose of a sprawling research center in remote Alaska. The former Minnesota governor,
professional wrestler and Navy SEAL stars in "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," ... on
truTV. The cable network, part of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., has ordered seven episodes of
the hourlong weekly series. Marc Juris, executive vide president and general manager of truTV,
said Ventura is passionate about the show and brings "knowledge from the inside" of
government. "He's not doing this as an act or a gimmick. It's true to his heart. He's really
looking for the answers," Juris told the AP. The premiere episode deals with the High Frequency
Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, a 35-acre compound of 180 antennas near Gakona,
Alaska, that is used to study the Earth's ionosphere. Ventura and those he interviews question
whether the government is using the site to manipulate the weather or to bombard people with
mind-controlling radio waves. Future "Conspiracy Theory" shows explore alleged cover-ups
surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks and whether there are real "Manchurian Candidate" assassins
who are programmed to kill, said Juris.
Note: Ventura was also a Navy Seal, where he personally was involved in top secret activities and
learned how what is presented to the public is very different from the deeper realities. Don't miss
the highly educational episode on the vitally important topic of HAARP by clicking here. And watch

the excellent episode on 9/11 by clicking here. You'll be surprised by the new angles presented.

Lending Declines as Bank Jitters Persist

2009-11-25, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125907631604662501.html
U.S. lenders saw loans fall by the largest amount since the government began tracking
such data, suggesting that nervousness among banks continues to hamper economic recovery.
Total loan balances fell by $210.4 billion, or 3%, in the third quarter, the biggest decline since data
collection began in 1984, according to a report released ... by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The FDIC also said its fund to backstop deposits fell into negative territory for just the second time
in its history, pushed down by a wave of bank failures. The decline in total loans showed how
banks remain reluctant to lend, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the government has
spent to prop up ailing banks and jump-start lending. The issue has taken on greater urgency with
the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 10.2% in October. "There is no question that credit availability
is an important issue for the economic recovery," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters
Tuesday. "We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers." She said large
banks -- which account for 56% of industry assets and received a large share of the
government's bailout funds -- accounted for 75% of the decline.
Note: The big banks were given trillions in bailout funds with a mandate to increase loans and
stimulate the economy. Why are they still giving out so few loans? Where did the huge amounts of
our taxpayer money go? Why isn't the government demanding accountability with such huge sums
of taxpayer money? For lots more on major manipulations by the big bankers, click here.

Triumph of a Dreamer
2009-11-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/opinion/15kristof.html
Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time youre discouraged by
impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: Tererai Trent. Of all the people earning university
degrees this year, perhaps the most remarkable story belongs to Tererai, a middle-aged woman.
When you hear that foreign-aid groups just squander money or build dependency, remember [her
story]. Tererai was born in a village in rural Zimbabwe, probably sometime in 1965, and attended
elementary school for less than one year. Her father married her off when she was about 11 to a
man who beat her regularly. A dozen years passed. Jo Luck, the head of an aid group called Heifer
International, passed through the village and told the women there that they should stand up,
nurture dreams, change their lives. Inspired, Tererai ... wrote that she wanted to study abroad, and
to earn a B.A., a masters and a doctorate. In 1998 she was accepted to Oklahoma State
University. Heifer helped with the plane tickets, Tererais mother sold a cow, and
neighbors sold goats to help raise money. With $4,000 in cash wrapped in a stocking and
tied around her waist, Tererai set off for Oklahoma. At one point the university tried to expel

Tererai for falling behind on tuition payments. A university official, Ron Beer, intervened on her
behalf and rallied the faculty and community behind her with donations and support. I saw that
she had enormous talent, Dr. Beer said. Tererai excelled at school, pursuing a Ph.D at Western
Michigan University and writing a dissertation on AIDS prevention in Africa even as she began
working for Heifer as a program evaluator.

Skull and Bones members include some of America's most powerful

2009-11-12, CNN
http://www.edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0911/12/ec.01.html
What really happens behind the padlocked doors of this windowless building, [the home] of Skull
and Bones, Yale's oldest secret society? Its members include some of America's most powerful
and privileged elite all sworn to secrecy. [CAMPBELL] BROWN: Alexandra Robbins broke through
the wall of silence to write Secrets of the Tomb based on clandestine interviews with dozens of
bonesmen. Only 15 [Yale students] get picked each year. The society includes at least three
U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, and too many senators and CEOs to name. In
2004, Bush versus Kerry was the first all-bonesmen presidential election. ALEXANDRA
ROBBINS: Skull and Bones' only purpose is to get its members into positions of
prominence around the world so that they can elevate other members to similar positions.
One of the first activities they participate in is called connubial bliss, where ... each member must
spend an evening standing in front of the other 14 bonesmen and recount his or her entire sexual
and romantic history. BROWN: According to one ... story, Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's
grandfather, was part of a group that broke into the Oklahoma burial place of the Apache chief
Geronimo and made off with his skull. Geronimo's grave was disturbed back in 1918, there are
photos of skulls inside the "Skull and Bones" tomb. They have their own private retreat. Deer
Island off the coast of New York. And a world of ready investors and political contacts in the
highest echelons of American society. What has kept the secret society alive for all these years?
Good old fashioned networking for the super elite.
Note: To watch the CNN video clip on this Yale secret society, click here. For lots more powerful
information on Skull and Bones and other secret societies reported in major media articles, click
here.

Cluster bomb trade funded by world's biggest banks

2009-10-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/29/banks-fund-cluster-bomb-trade
The deadly trade in cluster bombs is funded by the world's biggest banks who have loaned
or arranged finance worth $20bn (12.5bn) to firms producing the controversial weapons,
despite growing international efforts to ban them. HSBC, led by ordained Anglican priest
Stephen Green, has profited more than any other institution from companies that manufacture
cluster bombs. The British bank ... has earned a total of 657.3m in fees arranging bonds and

share offerings for Textron, which makes cluster munitions described by the US company as
"leaving a clean battlefield". HSBC will face protests outside its London headquarters today.
Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan and UK-based Barclays Bank are also named
among the worst banks in a detailed 126-page report by Dutch and Belgian campaign groups IKV
Pax Christi and Netwerk Vlaanderen. Goldman Sachs, the US bank which made 3.19bn proft in
just three months, earned $588.82m for bank services and lent $250m to Alliant Techsystems and
Textron. Last December 90 countries, including the UK, committed themselves to banning cluster
bombs by next year. But the US was not one of them. So far 23 countries have ratified the
convention. The UK has yet to do so.
Note: For many verifiable revelations of war profiteering by large corporations, click here.

In Germany, a Better Vaccine for Politicians?

2009-10-27, Time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1932366,00.html
As Germany launched its mass-vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus on Monday, the
government found itself fending off accusations of favoritism because it was offering one vaccine
believed to have fewer side effects to civil servants, politicians and soldiers, and another,
potentially riskier vaccine to everyone else. The German government prepared for its massvaccination campaign earlier this year by ordering 50 million doses of the Pandemrix vaccine. The
vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, contains an immunity-enhancing chemical
compound, known as an adjuvant, whose side effects are not yet entirely known. The
Interior Ministry confirmed that it had ordered a different vaccine, Celvapan, for government
officials and the military. Celvapan, which is made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Baxter, does not
contain an adjuvant and is believed to have fewer side effects.
Note: For a revealing article exposing more on this critical issue, click here. Other thoroughly
researched articles suggesting a major cover-up around the swine flu vaccine are available here.

Police in 9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists'

2009-10-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-domestic-extremists-database
Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political
meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence
databases. The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists".
Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of
overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime. Senior officers say domestic
extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of
minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience. Three national
police units responsible for combating domestic extremism are run by the "terrorism and allied

matters" committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). In total, it receives 9m in
public funding, from police forces and the Home Office, and employs a staff of 100. The main unit,
the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), runs a central database which lists thousands
of so-called domestic extremists. It filters intelligence supplied by police forces across England and
Wales, which routinely deploy surveillance teams at protests, rallies and public meetings. Vehicles
associated with protesters are being tracked via a nationwide system of automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR) cameras. Police surveillance units, known as Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT)
and Evidence Gatherers, record footage and take photographs of campaigners as they enter and
leave openly advertised public meetings. Surveillance officers are provided with "spotter cards"
used to identify the faces of target individuals who police believe are at risk of becoming involved
in domestic extremism. Targets include high-profile activists regularly seen taking part in protests.
Note: This important article should be read in its entirety. For further revelations of the magnitude
of this surveillance and "rebranding protest as extremism " program, click here.

Why governments are selling Vitamin D short

2009-10-23, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/11180df8-beaa-11de-b4ab-00144feab49a.html
Reinhold Vieth, [a] professor at the University of Torontos Department of Laboratory Medicine and
Patho-biology, ... is among the most knowledgeable people in the world on the subject of vitamin
D. In the US and Canada, official vitamin D policy is set by the Institute of Medicine. And in the
opinion of Vieth, the current recommendations 200 International Units per day for people under
50, 400 for people aged 51-70, and 600 for those 71 and older are outrageously low. Vieth and
other vitamin D advocates have good reason to think there will be minimal changes made to
dietary guidelines. Last December, the World Health Organisations International Agency for
Research on Cancer issued a 465-page report that concluded there was no need to raise vitamin
D recommendations. The evidence favouring vitamin D is probably as good as the evidence
that shows smoking is bad for you, Vieth says, explaining that just as smoking is correlated
with certain cancers, so are low vitamin D levels. But when these government officials see the
same kind of evidence that deals with vitamin D as they see with smoking they go, Oh wait
a minute. We cant really trust this. Vieth pauses, as though he can barely stand to talk about
such a miserable state of affairs. Its easy to say dont do something dont smoke. Its very hard
to say take this. Take vitamin D.
Note: For many key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

Officers accused of inciting violence to testify before police ethics panel

2009-10-23, Globe and Mail (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/officers-accused-of-inciting-vio...

Three undercover officers accused of inciting protesters to attack riot police at the 2007 North
American leaders summit in Montebello are being summoned to testify before Quebec's
independent police ethics committee. The decision from the committee released this week
overrules an independent review that exonerated the officers. It also comes more than two years
after the black-clad trio were first exposed on YouTube. Dave Coles, the union leader who
confronted the men at the time and filed a complaint against the police ... said he suspects an
inquiry would find there was political involvement. This is the big question: Who sent them
in? asked Mr. Coles. And don't give me some lame excuse that it was a low-level officer.
Video images of the incident posted on YouTube showed three officers disguised as protesters
wearing black tops and camouflage pants. Their faces were covered by black and white bandanas.
One of them, wearing a sideways ball cap marked with graffiti, held a large stone in his hand. Mr.
Coles yelled at them to show their faces and the officer carrying the rock responded with a twohanded shove.
Note: Click on the link above to watch the astonishing YouTube video of this police provocation.
This is just one case that happened to be caught on film. Why are undercover police infiltrating
activist groups and inciting violence at demonstrations around the world?

Voices of Power: Elizabeth Warren

2009-10-08, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR20091008007...
LOIS ROMANO: Welcome, Elizabeth Warren, Chairman of the Congressional Oversight
Committee that is tasked with scrutinizing how the Treasury Department has spent $700 billion to
shore up our failing financial institutions. There's a wonderful moment [in the movie "Capitalism: a
Love Story"] when [Michael Moore] asks you where the $700 billion is, and you look at him and
you say, "I don't know." So the question is: why don't you know? WARREN: Well, we don't know
where the $700 billion is because the system was initially designed to make sure that we didn't
know. When Secretary Paulson first put this money out into the banks, he didn't ask "what
are you going to do with it?" He didn't put any restrictions on it. He didn't put any tabs on
where it was going to go; in other words, he didn't ask. And if you don't ask, no one tells.
And so we have a system that originally put more than $200 billion into the financial institutions
basically saying just take it. ROMANO: And that money is gone. You have not been able to track
where that money is? WARREN: Well, we don't know where the money went from the financial
institutions. The big conversation at the time was that the credit markets are frozen; if we put
money into the financial institutions, they will start lending it because that's what they do when they
receive money. It was called the "Healthy Banks Program." Secretary Paulson kept saying, over
and over, these are investments in healthy financial institutions, no one needs any subsidy, that
[the] money was going to be used in lending to small businesses and consumers and kind of get
our whole credit market going again. That didn't happen.

Note: To watch a powerfully revealing, five-minute video showing the Inspector General of the
Federal Reserve testifying that she doesn't know where trillions of dollars are, click here. For a
comprehensive overview of the realities underlying the government's bailout of the biggest
financial institutions, click here.

Study prompts provinces to rethink flu plan

2009-09-30, Globe and Mail (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/study-prompts-province...
A perplexing Canadian study linking H1N1 to seasonal flu shots is throwing national influenza
plans into disarray and testing public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting
the nation's health. Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectiousdisease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as
likely to catch swine flu. The paper has since convinced several provincial health agencies
to announce hasty suspensions of seasonal flu vaccinations, long-held fixtures of publichealth planning. It has confused things very badly, said Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult
infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba. And it has certainly cost us credibility from the
public because of conflicting recommendations. Until last week, there had always been much
encouragement to get the seasonal flu vaccine. On Sunday Quebec joined Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia in suspending seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65
years of age. Quebec's Health Ministry announced it would postpone vaccinations until January.
B.C. is expected to announce a similar suspension during a press conference Monday morning.
Other provinces, including Manitoba, are still pondering a response to the research. Dr. Rubinstein,
who has read the study, said it appears sound. There are a large number of authors, all of them
excellent and credible researchers, he said. And the sample size is very large 12 or 13 million
people taken from the central reporting systems in three provinces. The research is solid.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the dangers of vaccines, click here.

Medical Editors Push for Ghostwriting Crackdown

2009-09-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/business/18ghost.html
The scientific integrity of medical research has been clouded in recent years by articles that
were drafted by drug company-sponsored ghostwriters and then passed off as the work of
independent academic authors. Yet the leading medical journals have continued to rely largely
on an honor system of disclosure to detect such potential bias, asking authors to voluntarily report
any industry ties or contributors to their manuscripts. But now, in light of recently released
evidence that some drug makers have gone to great lengths to turn scientific articles into
marketing vehicles for their products, some influential medical editors are cracking down on
industry-financed ghostwriting. These editors are demanding that journals impose tougher
disclosure policies for academic authors and that the journals enforce their own rules by actively

investigating the provenance of manuscripts and by punishing authors who play down extensive
contributions by ghostwriters. Calling for a zero tolerance policy, the editors of the medical journal
PLoS Medicine, from the Public Library of Science, called for journals to identify and retract
ghostwritten articles and banish their authors. Authors found to have not declared such interest
should be banned from any subsequent publication in the journal and their misconduct reported to
their institutions. In the past, researchers have raised allegations of ghostwriting in articles about
quality-of-life drugs like antidepressants, painkillers and diet pills. But the situation has become
more serious this year after a few editors said they had discovered ghostwriting in manuscripts
about life-and-death products like cancer and hematology drugs.
Note: For background on the prevalence of ghostwriting in major medical journals, click here and
here and here.

FBI: Murder, Violent Crime Dropped in 2008

2009-09-14, New York Times/Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/14/us/politics/AP-US-Crime.html
Murder and manslaughter dropped almost 4 percent last year, as reported crime overall fell around
the country, according to new data released ... by the FBI. The 3.9 percent decline in killings
reported to police was part of a nationwide drop in violent crime of 1.9 percent from 2007 to 2008.
Rapes declined 1.6 percent, to the lowest national number in 20 years -- about 89,000. The
statistics are based on crimes reported to police, who then forward the information to the FBI.
There were 14,180 murder victims in the United States last year. ''What has been impressive
has been how flat all the violent crime rates have been since 2000. To a large degree that's
still the case, but the striking change this year has been murder,'' said Alfred Blumstein, a
professor of criminal justice at Carnegie-Mellon University. The figures show that crime has come
way down since its peak in the early 1990's. ''These are rates we haven't seen since the 1960's,
even though the change from year to year has been rather small,'' said Blumstein. Property crimes
declined overall, by 0.8 percent, but that was driven mostly by a 12.7 percent drop in car thefts.
The other major categories of property crime -- burglaries and larceny-thefts -- both rose. Typically,
crime is expected to rise during economic hard times, but Blumstein said last year's data was too
early in the economic cycle to reflect that, because the most serious economic impacts came
toward the end of 2008, and may not have affected teenagers -- the group most likely to turn to
crime as their job prospects dwindle.
Note: What this report completely fails to report is that violent crime is down over 50% since
1994! Why does the major media consistently fail to report this awesome news? For verifiable
information on this, click here.

Inquiry Stokes Unease Over Trading Firms That Shape Markets

2009-09-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/business/global/04optiver.html

Its superfast, supersecret oil trading software was called the Hammer. And if the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission is right, the name fit well with an intricate scheme that allowed
commodity traders in Chicago working for Optiver, a little-known company based in Amsterdam, to
put their orders first in line and subtly manipulate the price of oil to the companys advantage.
Transcripts and taped conversations of actions that took place in 2007 ... reveal the secretive
workings of high-frequency trading, a fast-growing Wall Street business. Critics say this highspeed form of computerized trading, which is used in a wide range of financial markets, enables its
practitioners to profit at other investors expense. Traders in the Chicago office of Optiver
openly talked among themselves of whacking and bullying up the price of oil. But when
called to account by officials of the New York Mercantile Exchange, they described their
actions as just providing liquidity. In July 2008, the commission charged Optiver with
manipulating the price of oil; negotiations over a settlement continue. The Securities and
Exchange Commission has opened up an investigation into high-speed-trading practices, in
particular the ability of some of the most powerful computers to jump to the head of the trading
queue and in a fraction of a millisecond capture the evanescent trading spread before the
rest of the market does.
Note: This and other reports likely show only the tip of the iceberg of how prices of key stocks and
commodities are manipulated. For a great collection of reports from major media sources on the
schemes and tricks used by financial corporations, click here.

CIA's black sites, illuminated

2009-08-31, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia-detainee31-2009aug31...
The secret overseas "black sites" where the CIA conducted the interrogations are empty now, if not
already dismantled. They were never examined by a congressional committee, nor inspected by
the international Red Cross. The black sites not only imprisoned men but reduced them to a near
helpless state. The aim, as outlined in one document, was to teach every detainee "to perceive
and value his personal welfare, comfort and immediate needs more than the information he is
protecting." The prisoners' arrival -- almost always in diapers -- was engineered to achieve that
end. After being shaved, stripped and photographed nude, detainees were examined by CIA
medical and psychological personnel. Then came a preliminary interrogation that would determine
the prisoners' fate. Only those considered extremely cooperative would avoid a trio of techniques
designed to produce a "baseline, dependent" state: the deprivation of clothes, solid food and
sleep. Follow-up sessions would start with the prisoner standing with his back against a wall and a
towel or collar to prevent whiplash wrapped around his neck. He could be thrown against the wall
just once "to make a point, or 20 to 30 times consecutively." Prisoners so abhorred the repeated
slamming that they would remain in so-called stress positions, such as painful kneeling postures,
for hours to avoid a return to the wall, according to one Dec. 30, 2004, memo that amounts to a
CIA blueprint for breaking a detainee's will. Earlier this year, the Obama administration
released a series of Justice Department memos laying out legal rationales for the array of
coercive interrogation methods the CIA employed.

Note: For further revelations from major media sources on the illegal methods used by the US
government in its wars around the world, click here.

Interview: Brooksley Born

2009-08-28, PBS Frontline
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/interviews/born.html
As head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC], Brooksley Born became alarmed
by the lack of oversight of the secretive, multitrillion-dollar over-the-counter derivatives market. Her
attempts to regulate derivatives ran into fierce resistance from then-Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan, then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and then-Deputy Treasury Secretary
Larry Summers, who prevailed upon Congress to stop Born and limit future regulation.
PBS: Let's start with September 2008 as we all sat there and watched the economy melting down.
Born: It was like my worst nightmare coming true. I had had enormous concerns about the overthe-counter derivatives [OTC] market ... for a number of years. The market was totally opaque.
Nobody really knew what was going on. And then it became obvious as Lehman Brothers failed,
as AIG suddenly appeared to be on the brink of tremendous defaults and turned out [to have been
a major derivatives] dealer. PBS: How did it happen? Born: It happened because there was no
oversight of a very, very big, dynamic, growing market. I would never say derivatives should be
banned or forbidden. The problem is that they can be extremely misused. Traditionally,
government has had to protect the public interest by overseeing the marketplace and keeping the
extreme behavior under some check. All other financial markets have some kind of government
oversight protecting the public interest. [But] not this one. The over-the-counter derivatives dealers
business ... was something like 40 percent of the profits of many of these big banks as recently as
a couple of years ago. PBS: We're the losers. Who were the winners? Born: Our largest banks. It
was short-term benefit for a few major institutions at the expense of all the people who
have lost their jobs, who have lost their retirement savings, who have lost their homes.
Note: Don't miss this entire, astonishing interview with Born, who practiced derivatives law for 20
years before being appointed head of the CFTC. She lays bare the level of deceit, greed, and
corruption by both bankers and some of the politicians who protect them.

Smoking Marijuana Regularly May Reduce Risk of Some Neck, Head

Cancers
2009-08-26, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,542941,00.html
In a study, researchers have found that long-term pot smokers were roughly 62 percent less likely
to develop head and neck cancers than people who did not smoke pot. The new study featured
434 patients with head and neck cancers, which include tumors in the mouth, tongue, nose,
sinuses, throat and lymph nodes in the neck, and 547 individuals without these cancers seen in
the Greater Boston area from December 1999 to December 2003. After factoring out the impact of

smoking, drinking, and other factors that might influence the results, smoking marijuana from
once every two weeks to three times every two weeks, on average, was associated with
about half the risk of head and neck cancer, compared with less frequent use. Those who
took up pot smoking at an older age appeared to have less risk of these cancers than those
who started it at a younger age. Compared to people who never smoked pot, those who began
smoking marijuana between the ages of 15 and 19 years were 47 percent less likely to develop
head and neck cancer, while users who began at age 20 or older had a 61 percent reduced risk,
Kelsey and colleagues found. The authors note that chemicals in pot called cannabinoids have
been shown to have potential antitumor effects. Other studies have linked marijuana use to a
reduced risk of some cancers, such as cancer of the prostate, and now head and neck cancer. It's
also been suggested that smoking pot may help stave off Alzheimer's disease and help combat
weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in
cancer patients.
Note: For a great nine-minute video presenting major media reports showing how marijuana is a
very promising cancer treatment that is being suppressed, click here. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Health Care Battle: Lobbyists Outnumber Lawmakers

2009-08-14, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/story?id=8322683
The time, money and manpower that lobbying firms devote to courting lawmakers reveals an
investment inside the Beltway of staggering proportions. For every lawmaker in Congress, there
are about six lobbyists pushing their health care priorities, according to a Bloomberg News
investigation released today. That's about 3,300 registered health care lobbyists working Capitol
Hill. A total of $263 million has been spent on health lobbying in 2009, according to the latest data
from the Center for Responsive Politics. That's more money spent on health than any other sector
this year. The list of the top 20 spenders in 2009 across all sectors includes the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce at No. 1, spending more than $26 million, Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) at No. 3, spending $13 million, and Pfizer in the No. 6 spot,
spending $11 million. Also joining the ranks of the top 20 spenders this year are Blue Cross Blue
Shield, AARP, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and Eli Lilly, each
having doled out between $7 and $10 million this year. Wendell Potter, a 20-year health insurance
veteran and former CIGNA vice president, ... spoke out about insurance companies operating
behind the scenes. Potter recalled previous health care fights, saying insurers have undoubtedly
tried to shape the battle. "It is usually done through the PR firms that work for them," Potter said.
"They want to keep their fingerprints off stuff like that. "With this history, you can rest assured
that the industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has
used for many years to kill reform this year, or even better, to shape it so that it benefits
insurance companies and their Wall Street investors far more than average Americans," he
said.

Note: For lots more on the corrupt medical/governmental complex, click here.

TV host Andrew Castle: 'my daughter almost died from Tamiflu'

2009-08-11, Times of London (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/Swine_flu/article6791102.ece
The [UK] Health Secretary appeared on breakfast television this morning in a bid to reassure
concerned parents after scientists warned that children should not be given Tamiflu. Instead he
was confronted by a GMTV presenter who claimed that the drug had almost killed his daughter.
Andy Burnham insisted that the Government was right to advise children to take the anti-viral drug
despite a warning from researchers at the University of Oxford who called on the Department of
Health urgently to reconsider its pandemic strategy. But he was tackled live on TV by Andrew
Castle, Britain's former top tennis player, who said his older daughter, Georgina, had a respiratory
collapse after being given the drug as a precaution during the containment stage of the pandemic.
I can tell you that my child - who was not diagnosed at all - she had asthma, she took Tamiflu and
almost died, he said. Georgina, 16, was given Tamiflu when five pupils at Alleyns School in south
London were diagnosed with the illness in May. Castle, also a BBC tennis commentator, said he
feared for his daughters life as medical professionals backed away from the potentially contagious
child. He said: Nobody checked that she had swine flu beforehand. The Health Protection
Agency just handed it out at Alleyns School in south London and a lot of kids suffered in
the school very heavily. It almost cost my older child her life." The study published yesterday
warned that Tamiflu can cause vomiting in some children, which can lead to dehydration and the
need for hospital treatment.
Note: Remember that the drug companies often place profits above public health. For an article
showing how Donald Rumsfeld, former chairman of the board at the pharmaceutical which
produced Tamiflu, personally made millions from the sale of Tamiflu during the avian flu scare, click
here. To read an article with more information showing that Tamiflu and Relenza may not be safe
for children, click here.

Fed Struggles with Perceptions of Transparency

2009-07-30, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec09/federalreserve_07-30.html
PAUL SOLMAN, NewsHour economics correspondent: As the Federal Reserve moved rapidly and
radically last year to prevent what it feared was an economic meltdown, it bailed out some
institutions, but not others, forced mergers, [and] created hundreds of billions of dollars. The net
result: increased suspicion of the Fed itself. That's nothing new. The 1913 act of Congress that
established America's central bank was ... a compromise between government ... and
private banking interests, which owned the 12 regional Fed branches. [All along,] some
Americans have been suspicious of the Fed for operating above politics, too close to bankers, and
behind closed doors. Simply Google "Federal Reserve." You encounter everything from skepticism

to fear of conspiracy. NARRATOR: With the power to regulate the money supply is also the
power to bring entire economies and societies to its knees. DONALD KOHN, Federal Reserve
vice chairman: We bring information to bear from the private sector, from foreign governments and
foreign central banks that they tell us in confidence about what's going on in their businesses.
WILLIAM GREIDER, author, "Secrets of the Temple": You could say, "We have to have our
meetings in secret because things will be said that are national security secrets, but we'll vet the
transcript and release it four weeks later." Why not do that? SOLMAN: A House bill ... would give
the Government Accountability Office the right to audit the Fed's interest rate decisions. Chairman
Bernanke opposes it as compromising the Fed's independence.
Note: If you look at the top of any U.S. currency, you will see the words "Federal Reserve Note."
U.S. dollars are issued and controlled by the Federal Reserve, which is privately owned, though
subject to minimal federal oversight. To see just how much control the Federal Reserve has over
the issuance of U.S. currency, see their webpage at this link. For lots more on hidden
manipulations of the Federal Reserve, click here.

New Fed powers not matched with accountability

2009-06-25, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55O6EZ20090625
President Barack Obama's proposal for a regulatory overhaul of the financial industry vastly
expands the reach of the Federal Reserve, yet fails to make policy-makers more accountable for
their actions. Critics argue that the new legislation fundamentally misses the problems that led to
the financial crisis. It was a lack of enforcement by supervisors, they say, not insufficient rules, that
fostered a cowboy culture of rampant risk-taking on Wall Street. "Obama is letting the Fed and
everyone else off the hook by saying that the problem was with the regulations and not the
regulators," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research in
Washington. "If regulators know that even if they totally fail on the job, they will face no career
consequences, then at some future point, when there is a choice between confronting the financial
industry or just going along, the regulators will just go along," said Baker. Some feel uncomfortable
with a broader role for the Fed primarily because of the Fed's closeness to the banking sector. The
Fed is not technically a public entity. Each of the Fed's 12 branches are overseen by a ninemember board of directors, two-thirds of whom are elected by the bankers in the district. "The
Federal Reserve has massive conflicts of interest that make it ill-suited for its present
regulatory functions and certainly for an expanded regulatory reach," said Robert Auerbach,
a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. "The officials leading the Fed
today preside over an organization that is run in substantial part by the bankers they
regulate."
Note: For empowering insight into the historic roots of the Federal Reserve's unaccountability,
click here.

Health Insurance Insider: 'They Dump the Sick'

2009-06-24, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Health/story?id=7911195
Frustrated Americans have long complained that their insurance companies valued the all-mighty
buck over their health care. Today, a retired insurance executive confirmed their suspicions,
arguing that the industry that once employed him regularly rips off its policyholders. "[T]hey
confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street
investors," former Cigna senior executive Wendell Potter said during a hearing on health
insurance today before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Potter,
who has more than 20 years of experience working in public relations for insurance companies
Cigna and Humana, said companies routinely drop seriously ill policyholders so they can
meet "Wall Street's relentless profit expectations." "They look carefully to see if a sick
policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for
coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never
missed a premium payment," Potter said. Small businesses, in particular, he said, have had
trouble maintaining their employee health insurance coverage, he said. "All it takes is one illness
or accident among employees at a small business to prompt an insurance company to hike the
next year's premiums so high that the employer has to cut benefits, shop for another carrier, or
stop offering coverage altogether," he said. More and more people, he said, are falling victim to
"deceptive marketing practices" that encourage them to buy "what essentially is fake insurance,"
policies with high costs but surprisingly limited benefits.
Note: For lots more on corruption in the health industry, click here.

Health care outrage goes uncovered

2009-06-19, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/19/begala.health.care/index.html
You probably have never heard of Robin Beaton, and that's what's wrong with the debate over
health care reform. Beaton, a retired nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, had health insurance -- or so
she thought. She paid her premiums faithfully every month, but when she was diagnosed with
aggressive breast cancer, her health insurance company, Blue Cross, dumped her. The insurance
company said the fact that she had seen a dermatologist for acne, who mistakenly entered a
notation on her chart that suggested her simple acne was a precancerous condition, allowed Blue
Cross to leave her in the lurch. Beaton testified before a House subcommittee this week. So did
other Americans who thought they had insurance but got the shaft. The subcommittee's chairman,
Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan, called the hearing to highlight the obnoxious and unethical
practice called rescission. His researchers produced performance reviews of insurance company
bureaucrats who were praised and rewarded for kicking people off their coverage. Then Stupak
asked three health insurance executives the big question: Will your company pledge to end
the practice of rescission except in cases of intentional fraud? All three health insurance
executives said no. It was as dramatic as congressional testimony gets. Yet it got no airtime on

the networks, nor, as far as I can tell, on cable news, although CNN.com did run a story. The story
did not make The New York Times. Nor The Washington Post, which found space on the front
page the morning after the hearing for a story on the cancellation of Fourth of July fireworks in
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, but not a story on the cancellation of health insurance for deathly ill
Americans who've paid their premiums.
Note: For lots more on corruption in the health industry, click here.

Fed Would Be Shut Down If It Were Audited, Expert Says

2009-06-10, CNBC News
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31204170
The Federal Reserve's balance sheet is so out of whack that the central bank would be shut down
if subjected to a conventional audit, Jim Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, told
CNBC. With $45 billion in capital and $2.1 trillion in assets, the central bank would not withstand
the scrutiny normally afforded other institutions, Grant said. "If the Fed examiners were set upon
the Fed's own documents ... to pass judgment on the Fed's capacity to survive the
difficulties it faces in credit, it would shut this institution down," he said. "The Fed is
undercapitalized in a way that Citicorp is undercapitalized." Grant said he would support
legislation currently making its way through Congress calling for an audit of the Fed. Moreover, he
criticized the way the Fed has managed the financial crisis, saying the central bank's target rate
should not be around zero. "I think zero is the wrong rate for almost any economy," Grant said,
adding the Fed has "embarked on a vast experiment in moral hazard. Interest rates are the traffic
signals in a market economy, and everything's green. ... You have to wonder whether these
interest rates are the right clearing rate or rather they are the imposition of a central bank." Amid a
disparity between analysts predicting there will be no rate hikes soon and the fed funds futures
indicating tightening by the end of the year, Grant said he thinks the Fed indeed will begin raising
rates as inflation creeps into the picture. Fed funds futures have fully priced in as much as a halfpoint rise in the target rate from its current range of zero to 0.25 percent. "If the hairs on the back
of your neck stand up when there's too much unanimity of opinion, then one begins to worry about
this," he said. "The Fed proverbially has been late."
Note: For an astonishing five-minute video clip of a Congressional hearing where the Inspector
General of the Fed acknowledges she knows almost nothing about trillions of dollars missing from
the Fed, click here. For many more important reports shedding light on the hidden realities of the
economic crisis, click here.

Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'

2009-05-28, The Telegraph (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/Abu-Ghraib...

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include
images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged. At least one picture shows an
American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male
translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on
prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently
shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts. Detail of the
content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who
conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. Allegations of rape and abuse were
included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has
now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. The graphic nature of
some of the images may explain the US Presidents attempts to block the release of an estimated
2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them
to be published. Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the Presidents
decision, adding: These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency. I am not sure
what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to
imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them. The mere
description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.

The danger of drugs and data

2009-05-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/bad-science-medical-journ...
A fascinating court case in Australia has been playing out around some people who had heart
attacks after taking the Merck drug, Vioxx. This medication turned out to increase the risk of heart
attacks in people taking it, although that finding was arguably buried in their research, and Merck
has paid out more than 2bn to 44,000 people in America. The first ... thing to emerge in the
Australian case is email documentation showing staff at Merck made a "hit list" of doctors who
were critical of the company, or of the drug. This list contained words such as "neutralise",
"neutralised" and "discredit" next to the names of various doctors. "We may need to seek
them out and destroy them where they live," said one email, from a Merck employee. Staff
are also alleged to have used other tactics, such as trying to interfere with academic appointments,
and dropping hints about how funding to institutions might dry up. Worse still, is the revelation that
Merck paid the publisher Elsevier to produce a publication. This time Elsevier Australia went the
whole hog, giving Merck an entire publication which resembled an academic journal, although in
fact it only contained reprinted articles, or summaries, of other articles.
Note: For a superb overview of corruption in the pharmaceutical industry by a leading MD and
former medical journal editor, click here.

JPMorgan's Dangerous Derivatives

2009-05-07, Bloomberg/Businessweek

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_20/b4131069034013.htm
Gillian Tett [is the author of] Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was
Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe. Tett is a respected business
journalist at the Financial Times. Tett successfully pieces together the colorful backstory of
the bank's work to win acceptance in the market for its brainchild, turning credit derivatives
"from a cottage industry into a mass-production business." With the benefit of hindsight, we
know that while these inventions were intended to control risk, they amplified it instead. This novel
idea turned noxious when applied broadly to residential mortgages, a game that the rest of Wall
Street later entered into with gusto. We learn in deep detail about not only how collateralized debt
obligations are assembled but also their many iterations. Perhaps it's noteworthy that Tett's book
begins when JPMorgan had the face-value equivalent of $1.7 trillion in derivatives on its
books. Today that number has jumped to a mind-boggling $87 trillion. Part of that portfolio
includes almost $8.4 trillion in credit derivatives, more than Bank of America's (BAC), Citi's, and
Goldman Sachs' (GS) holdings combined.
Note: So JP Morgan has $87 trillion in derivatives, a mass market it helped to create. That is
greater than the GDP for the entire world! To verify this, click here. For a New York Times
review of this revealing book, click here.

Some see media flu coverage as overblown

2009-05-03, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MN3B17CKP7.DTL
After a few days of breathless H1N1 flu coverage - some of it on his own network - CNN
commentator Jack Cafferty noted that 13,000 people have died from the "regular ol' flu" this year in
the United States, compared with just one confirmed H1N1 flu death. Cafferty then asked his
audience to respond to his online poll asking "if swine flu coverage was overblown." He waited a
moment, then said, "Hint: Yes." For a week, the flu story has whet cable TV's bloodlust with
what the 24-hour cable news vacuum craves: mystery, death and great visuals that inspire
fear. "Frankly, I've been a little horrified by how sensationalist and scare-mongering it is,"
said Vivian Schiller, chief executive officer of National Public Radio. No detail about the flu often delivered without context - has been too tiny to go unreported, which means that cable TV
viewers are getting coverage that is moment-to-moment but often not terribly useful. Conservative
talk radio hosts have used fear about the flu to segue to anti-immigrant remarks and calls to close
the U.S.-Mexico border.Just when the coverage appeared to be calming a bit Thursday, Vice
President Joe Biden helped rekindle fears by saying on the "Today'" show that he "would tell
members of my family - and I have - I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now." Health
stories always attract huge audiences, said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
But viewers shouldn't expect as much breathless coverage when Congress begins debating an
overhaul of the U.S. health care system over the next few months.
Note: For an excellent article showing how media fear-mongering of this and past flu emergencies
have brought unprecedented profits to the pharmaceutical companies, click here.

Are UFOs real? Famous people who believed

2009-04-22, The Telegraph (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/5201410/Are-UFOs-real-Famous-...
The former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell has claimed that aliens exist and their visits are being
covered up by the United States government. Mitchell is in good company in his beliefs. Here we
highlight 12 other public figures who believe that extraterrestrials may have been visiting our planet
over the last 100 years. Jimmy Carter, US President from 1976 to 1980, promised while on the
campaign trail that he would make public all documents on UFOs if elected. He said: "I don't laugh
at people any more when they say they've seen UFOs. I've seen one myself." General Douglas
MacArthur, the Korean and Second World War soldier, said in 1955 that "the next war will be an
interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must someday make a common front against attack by
people from other planets. The politics of the future will be cosmic, or interplanetary". J Edgar
Hoover, head of the FBI from its inception in 1935 to 1972, said of a famous incident when
flying saucers were allegedly fired at over Los Angeles in 1942: "We must insist upon full
access to disks recovered. For instance, in the LA case the Army grabbed it and would not
let us have it for cursory examination." Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a Vatican theologian, said:
"Extraterrestrial contact is a real phenomenon. The Vatican is receiving much information about
extraterrestrials and their contacts with humans from its embassies in various countries, such as
Mexico, Chile and Venezuela." Professor Stephen Hawking: "Of course it is possible that UFO's
really do contain aliens as many people believe, and the Government is hushing it up."
Note: For a concise summary of evidence for UFOs and extra-terrestrial visitors presented by
many highly-respected and credible former government and military officials, click here.

Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A.

2009-04-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17detain.html?partner=rss&emc=r...
The Justice Department ... made public detailed memos describing brutal interrogation techniques
used by the Central Intelligence Agency, as President Obama sought to reassure the agency that
the C.I.A. operatives involved would not be prosecuted. In dozens of pages of dispassionate legal
prose, the methods approved by the Bush administration for extracting information from senior
operatives of Al Qaeda are spelled out in careful detail like keeping detainees awake for up to
11 straight days, placing them in a dark, cramped box or putting insects into the box to exploit their
fears. The interrogation methods were authorized beginning in 2002, and some were used
as late as 2005 in the C.I.A.s secret overseas prisons. The United States prosecuted some
Japanese interrogators at war crimes trials after World War II for waterboarding and other
methods detailed in the memos. Together, the four memos give an extraordinarily detailed
account of the C.I.A.s methods and the Justice Departments long struggle, in the face of graphic
descriptions of brutal tactics, to square them with international and domestic law. Passages
describing forced nudity, the slamming of detainees into walls, prolonged sleep deprivation and the

dousing of detainees with water as cold as 41 degrees alternate with elaborate legal arguments
concerning the international Convention Against Torture. The revelations may give new momentum
to proposals for a full-blown investigation into Bush administration counterterrorism programs and
possible torture prosecutions.
Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on increasing threats to civil liberties,
click here.

Fed Shrouding $2 Trillion in Bank Loans in Secrecy, Suit Says

2009-04-16, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aS89AaGjOplw
U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the Federal Reserves $2 trillion in lending to
financial institutions because the public is now an involuntary investor in the nations banks,
according to a court filing by Bloomberg LP. The Fed refuses to name the borrowers, the amounts
of loans or assets banks put up as collateral under 11 programs, arguing that doing so might set
off a run by depositors and unsettle shareholders. The largest U.S. banks have tapped more than
$125 billion in government aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program in the past seven months.
Assets, including loans and securities, on the Fed balance sheet totaled $2.09 trillion as of April 9.
Banks oppose any release of information because that might signal weakness and spur shortselling or a run by depositors, the Fed argued in its March 4 response. The release of the
information can fuel market speculation and rumors, including a drop in stock price and a run on
the bank, the Fed said. Bloomberg replied yesterday that these speculative injuries relate only to
the reactions of customers, shareholders and other members of the public, not to competitors use
of the borrowers proprietary information to their advantage, the exception to disclosure under the
FOIA law. Government loans, spending or guarantees to rescue the U.S. financial system
total more than $12.8 trillion since the international credit crisis began in August 2007,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg as of March 31. The total includes about $2
trillion on the Feds balance sheet.
Note: For an extensive archive of key reports on the hidden realities of the Wall Street bailout,
click here.

Investments Can Yield More on K Street, Study Indicates

2009-04-12, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/11/AR20090411020...
In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week
found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they spent on the
issue -- a 22,000 percent rate of return on their investment. The study by researchers at the
University of Kansas underscores the central reason that lobbying has become a $3 billion-a-year
industry in Washington: It pays. The paper by three Kansas professors examined the impact of a

one-time tax break approved by Congress in 2004 that allowed multinational corporations to
"repatriate" profits earned overseas, effectively reducing their tax rate on the money from 35
percent to 5.25 percent. More than 800 companies took advantage of the legislation, saving an
estimated $100 billion in the process, according to the study. The largest recipients of tax
breaks were concentrated in the pharmaceutical and technology fields, including Pfizer,
Merck, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson and IBM. Pfizer alone repatriated $37 billion,
representing 70 percent of its revenue in 2004, the study found. The now-beleaguered
financial industry also benefited from the provision, including Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase,
Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, all of which have since received tens of billions of dollars in
federal bailout money. The researchers calculated an average rate of return of 22,000 percent for
those companies that helped lobby for the tax break.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Swiss hold '$150m Nigeria bribes'

2009-04-09, BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7991447.stm
US investigators have traced $150m in bribes given to Nigerian officials to Swiss banks, Nigeria's
justice minister has said. Michael Kase Aondoakaa said the money was part of $180m in bribes
given by US construction company Halliburton to Nigerian officials. The Nigerian government says
it has asked the US to release the names of officials who negotiated the bribes. Halliburton
admitted paying the bribes to top officials between 1994 and 2004. "We have discovered that $150
million of the bribe money is in Zurich. That is the first shocking discovery. The entire money is
$180 million. $150 million is already trapped in Zurich," Mr Aondoakaa said. Halliburton and its
engineering subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root negotiated bribes with "three successive
holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the government of Nigeria" during
that time, according to the plea agreement the company made with the US Department of Justice.
The Nigerian government has come under pressure from the media to follow up the findings of the
US court and prosecute the Nigerian bribe-takers. Mr Aondoakaa said they had requested the
court unseal the judgement and pass on the names of the officials. Albert "Jack" Stanley, the
former chief executive of KBR who pleaded guilty to making the bribes in order to secure $6bn in
contracts, is to be sentenced on 6 May. KBR has agreed to pay more than $402m in fines, of
which Halliburton, as the former parent company, agreed to pay $302m.
Note: Why doesn't the public know that Halliburton bribed top government officials, and why aren't
those officials being prosecuted? For major reports from reliable sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

No-Risk Insurance at F.D.I.C.

2009-04-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/business/07sorkin.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was set up 76 years ago with the important but simple
job of insuring bank deposits. Now, because of what could politely be called mission creep, its
elbowing its way into the middle of the financial mess as an enabler of enormous leverage. In the
fine print of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithners plan to lend as much as $1 trillion to
private investors to help them buy toxic assets from our nations banks, youll find some
details of how the F.D.I.C is trying to stabilize the system by adding more risk, not less, to
the system. Its going to be insuring 85 percent of the debt, provided by the Treasury, that private
investors will use to subsidize their acquisitions of toxic assets. These loans, while controversial,
were given a warm welcome by the market when they were first announced. And why not? The
terms are hard to beat. They are, for example, nonrecourse, which means that if an investor
loses money, he owes taxpayers nothing. Its the closest thing to risk-free investing with
leverage! around. But, as weve learned the hard way these last couple of years, risk-free
investing is an oxymoron. So where did the risk go this time? To the F.D.I.C., and ultimately, to us
taxpayers. A close reading of the F.D.I.C.s statute suggests the agency is using a unique some
might call it plain wrong reading of its own rule book to accomplish this high-wire act. Somehow,
in the name of solving the financial crisis, the F.D.I.C. has seemingly been given a blank check,
with virtually no oversight by Congress.
Note: For a powerfully revealing archive of reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of
the financial bailout, click here.

Vioxx maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list

2009-04-01, The Australian (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25272600-2702,00.html
An international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or
discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant
produced. Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly
researchers and academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a
recommended course of action. The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne
yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise",
"neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names. It is also alleged the company used
intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to
institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments. "We may need to seek them out
and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt
read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff. Merck & Co and its Australian
subsidiary, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, are being sued for compensation by more than 1000
Australians, who claim they suffered heart attacks or strokes as a result of Vioxx. The drug was
launched in 1999 and at its height of popularity was used by 80 million people worldwide because
it did not cause stomach problems as did traditional anti-inflammatory drugs. It was voluntarily
withdrawn from sale in 2004 after concerns were raised that it caused heart attacks and strokes

and a clinical trial testing these potential side affects was aborted for safety reasons. Merck last
year settled thousands of lawsuits in the US over the effects of Vioxx for $US 4.85 billion, but
made no admission of guilt.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots

2009-03-29, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/28/AR20090328020...
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and
other harsh interrogation methods, they ... succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of alQaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads. In the end, though, not a
single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions,
according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations.
Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most
of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates
-- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said. Moreover, within weeks of his
capture, U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had [falsely accused] Abu
Zubaida. Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the
man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law
enforcement and military sources. Rather, he was a "fixer" for radical Muslim ideologues, and he
ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United
States stood ready to invade Afghanistan. Since 2006, Senate intelligence committee members
have pressed the CIA, in classified briefings, to provide examples of specific leads that were
obtained from Abu Zubaida through the use of waterboarding and other methods, according to
officials familiar with the requests. The agency provided none, the officials said.
Note: Was the torture of Abu Zubaida an error, or was it for some other purpose than extracting
information from him? For many reports which raise similar questions about the so-called "Global
War on Terror", click here.

Robot killers might be allowed to fire on their own

2009-03-29, Sacramento Bee (the leading newspaper of California's capital city)
http://www.sacbee.com/838/story/1737623.html
The unmanned bombers that frequently cause unintended civilian casualties in Pakistan are a step
toward an even more lethal generation of robotic hunters-killers that operate with limited, if any,
human control. The Defense Department is financing studies of autonomous, or self-governing,
armed robots that could find and destroy targets on their own. On-board computer programs, not
flesh-and-blood people, would decide whether to fire their weapons. "The trend is clear: Warfare
will continue and autonomous robots will ultimately be deployed in its conduct," Ronald Arkin, a

robotics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, wrote in a study commissioned by
the Army. Autonomous armed robotic systems probably will be operating by 2020, according to
John Pike, an expert on defense and intelligence matters and the director of the security Web site
GlobalSecurity.org in Washington. This prospect alarms experts, who fear that machines will
be unable to distinguish between legitimate targets and civilians in a war zone. "We are
sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where and when to kill," said
Noel Sharkey, an expert on robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield,
England. Human operators thousands of miles away in Nevada, using satellite communications,
control the current generation of missile-firing robotic aircraft, known as Predators and Reapers.
Armed ground robots, such as the Army's Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System, also require
a human decision-maker before they shoot.
Note: For further reports from reliable sources on new weapons under development for future
wars, click here.

Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told'

2009-03-28, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5067351/Rise-...
If there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world, it is the
Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mrner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International
Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mrner, who for 35
years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that
all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story. Despite fluctuations down
as well as up, "the sea is not rising," he says. "It hasn't risen in 50 years." If there is any
rise this century it will "not be more than 10cm (four inches), with an uncertainty of plus or
minus 10cm". The reason why Dr Mrner, formerly a Stockholm professor, is so certain that ...
claims about sea level rise are 100 per cent wrong is that they are all based on computer model
predictions, whereas his findings are based on "going into the field to observe what is actually
happening in the real world". When running the International Commission on Sea Level Change,
he launched a special project on the Maldives, whose leaders have for 20 years been calling for
vast sums of international aid to stave off disaster. Six times he and his expert team visited the
islands, to confirm that the sea has not risen for half a century.
Note: Though evidence shows that most glaciers have rapidly been melting over the past three
decades, and ice in the Arctic Ocean reached a record low in 2007, there is strikingly little
evidence this is causing any shift in sea level. The frequently quoted 1972 Club of Rome report
"Limits to Growth" warned of a potential major rise in sea level wreaking havoc by the year 2000.
Where is it? Why all the fear-mongering about rising sea levels when there is so little evidence of
any rise? For many reports on global warming from reliable sources, click here.

CIA expert: Electronic voting not secure

2009-03-25, Miami Herald/McClatchy News

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/966214.html
The CIA, which has been monitoring foreign countries' use of electronic voting systems, has
reported apparent vote-rigging schemes in Venezuela, Macedonia and Ukraine and a raft of
concerns about the machines' vulnerability to tampering. In a presentation that could provide
disturbing lessons for the United States, where electronic voting is becoming universal, [CIA
cybersecurity expert] Steve Stigall summarized what he described as attempts to use computers to
undermine democratic elections in developing nations. His remarks have received no news media
attention until now. Stigall told the Election Assistance Commission ... that computerized
electoral systems can be manipulated at five stages, from altering voter registration lists to
posting results. Stigall said voting equipment connected to the Internet could be hacked,
and machines that weren't connected could be compromised wirelessly. Eleven U.S. states
have banned or limited wireless capability in voting equipment, but Stigall said elections officials
didn't always know it when wireless cards were embedded in their machines. Stigall said that most
Web-based ballot systems had proved to be insecure. The commission has been criticized for
giving states more than $1 billion to buy electronic equipment without first setting performance
standards. Numerous computer-security experts have concluded that U.S. systems can be
hacked, and allegations of tampering in Ohio, Florida and other swing states have triggered a
campaign to require all voting machines to produce paper audit trails.
Note: For key articles from reliable sources exposing the many flaws in electronic voting systems,
click here.

The City that Ended Hunger

2009-03-20, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3330
A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.
More than 10 years ago, Brazils fourth-largest city, Belo Horizonte, declared that food was a
right of citizenship and started working to make good food available to all. One of its
programs puts local farm produce into school meals. This and other projects cost the city
less than 2 percent of its budget. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its
population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in
1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The new mayor, Patrus
Ananiasnow leader of the federal anti-hunger effortbegan by creating a city agency, which
included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives
to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular
citizens directly in allocating municipal resourcesthe participatory budgeting that started in the
1970s and has since spread across Brazil. During the first six years of Belos food-as-a-right
policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging

in the citys participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000. The city agency
developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving
together the interests of farmers and consumers.
Note: Why not take this movement to each of our states and provinces? Are you willing to make a
difference? To contact your local and national media and political representatives, click here.

Quantum weirdness: What we call 'reality' is just a state of mind

2009-03-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/mar/17/templeton-quantum-entangl...
What quantum mechanics tells us ... is surprising to say the least. It tells us that the basic
components of objects the particles, electrons, quarks etc. cannot be thought of as "selfexistent". The reality that they, and hence all objects, are components of is merely "empirical
reality". This reality is something that, while not a purely mind-made construct as radical
idealism would have it, can be but the picture our mind forces us to form of [a] mysterious,
non-conceptualisable "ultimate reality", not embedded in space and (presumably) not in
time either. The quantum mechanical formalism ... compels us to consider that two particles that
have once interacted always remain bound in a very strange, hardly understandable way even
when they are far apart, the connection being independent of distance. Even though this
connection-at-a-distance does not permit us to transmit messages, clearly it is real. In other words
space, so essential in classical physics, seems to play a considerably less basic role in quantum
physics. [Erwin] Schrdinger had even given [this reality] a name: entanglement, and had claimed
entanglement is essential. A real breakthrough took place [when John Bell] published his famous
inequalities, which - for the first time - opened a possibility of testing whether or not entanglementat-a-distance had experimentally testable consequences. Entanglement-at-a-distance does
physically exist, in the sense that it has physically verifiable (and verified) consequences. Which
proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that some of our most engrained notions about space and
causality should be reconsidered.
Note: For lots more intriguing scientific information suggesting reality is much more fluid and
miraculous than most might suspect, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which
will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid

2009-03-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/us/03prison.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewa...
One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to
the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study. Criminal correction spending is
outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and
federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which

quadrupled in the past two decades, according to [a new report] by the Pew Center on the
States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years.
The increases in the number of people in some form of correctional control occurred as
crime rates declined by about 25 percent in the past two decades. As states face huge budget
shortfalls, prisons, which hold 1.5 million adults, are driving the spending increases. Pew
researchers say that as states trim services like education and health care, prison budgets are
growing. Those priorities are misguided, the study says. States are looking to make cuts that will
have long-term harmful effects, said Sue Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the
States. Corrections is one area they can cut and still have good or better outcomes than what
they are doing now. About $9 out of $10 spent on corrections goes to prison financing (that
includes money spent to house 780,000 people in local jails). One in 11 African-Americans, or 9.2
percent, are under correctional control, compared with one in 27 Latinos (3.7 percent) and one in
45 whites (2.2 percent).
Note: Crime is down 25%, yet prison spending is 400% of what it was 20 years ago. Is there
anything strange here? The prison-industrial complex is mighty big and in many ways mighty
corrupt.

Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus

2009-02-27, Toronto Sun
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday
that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World
Health Organization's European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into
the events that took place at Baxter International's research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. The
contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was
supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then
sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany. The
contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light
when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died.
Ferrets shouldn't die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses. Public health authorities
concerned about what has been described as a "serious error" on Baxter's part have assumed the
death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter
International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about
the event. On Friday, the company's director of global bioscience communications
confirmed what scientists have suspected. "It was live," Christopher Bona said in an email.
Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire
consequences.
Note: How on earth did the avian flu virus ever get into vaccines? Could it be that this was
planned? For a powerful book by a Harvard-trained dentist suggesting there may be a hidden force
behind the spread of deadly infectious diseases, click here. For more revealing reports on bird flu,

click here.

Vaccine Makers Enjoy Immunity

2009-02-23, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB123535050056344903
A special "vaccines court" hears cases brought by parents who claim their children have
been harmed by routine vaccinations. The court buffers Wyeth and other makers of
childhood-disease vaccines from ... litigation risk. The legal shield, known as the National
Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, was put into place in 1986. Vaccines ... are
poised to generate $21.5 billion in annual sales for their makers by 2012, according to France's
Sanofi-Aventis SA, a leading producer of inoculations. Vaccines' transformation into a lucrative
business has some observers questioning whether the shield law is still appropriate. Critics ...
underscored the limited recourse families have in claiming injury from vaccines. "When
you've got a monopoly and can dictate price in a way that you couldn't before, I'm not sure you
need the liability protection," said Lars Noah, a specialist in medical technology. Kevin Conway, an
attorney at Boston law firm Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan PC, which specializes in vaccine cases
and brought one of the recent autism suits, says the lack of liability for the pharmaceutical industry
compromises safety. Even if they had won their cases, the families of autistic children wouldn't
have been paid by the companies that make the vaccines. Instead, the government would have
footed the bill, using the funds from a tax levied on inoculations.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on
vaccines from reliable major media sources showing huge corruption and deception.

Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors

2008-12-21, Times of London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5375668.ece
The [U.K.] government has been accused of trampling on individual liberties by proposing wideranging new powers for bailiffs to break into homes and to use reasonable force against
householders who try to protect their valuables. Under the regulations, bailiffs for private firms
would for the first time be given permission to restrain or pin down householders. They would also
be able to force their way into homes to seize property to pay off debts, such as unpaid credit card
bills and loans. These laws strip away tried and tested protections that make a persons
home his castle, and which have stood for centuries, said Paul Nicolson, chairman of the
Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, a London-based welfare charity. They could clearly lead to violent
confrontations and undermine fundamental liberties. Bailiffs have for hundreds of years been
denied powers to break into homes for civil debt or to use force against debtors, except in selfdefence. Ministers have now proposed bailiffs be given powers to physically remove debtors who
try to defend their property, for example by draping themselves over a car or blocking the door of
their home. Details of the new guidelines were obtained under freedom of information laws.

Reasonable grounds for breaking down the door include the movement of a curtain, a radio being
heard or a figure being spotted inside which may be the offender. In one case, an 89-year-old
grandmother returned home to find a bailiff sitting in her chair having drawn up a list of her
possessions. He was pursuing a parking fine owed by her son, who did not even live at the
address.
Note: For many disturbing reports from reliable sources on threats to civil liberties, click here.

Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion

2008-12-12, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=apx7XNLnZZlc
The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more
than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is
accepting as collateral. Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act
requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest
financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying its allowed to
withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information.
If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government
may take and thats what they dont want us to know, said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing
director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC. The Fed stepped into a rescue role that was the
original purpose of the Treasurys $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The central bank
loans dont have the oversight safeguards that Congress imposed upon the TARP. Total Fed
lending exceeded $2 trillion for the first time Nov. 6. It rose by 138 percent, or $1.23 trillion, in the
12 weeks since Sept. 14, when central bank governors relaxed collateral standards to accept
securities that werent rated AAA. There has to be something they can tell the public because we
have a right to know what they are doing, said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Arlington,
Virginia-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

It's official: Men really are the weaker sex

2008-12-07, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/its-official-men-really-are-the-wea...
The male [sex] is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling
scientific research from around the world reveals. The research ... shows that a host of common
chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals,
including people. Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red
flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a
particularly sensitive time for ministers. It also follows hard on the heels of new American research
which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy
are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals. "This research shows that the basic
male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health

effects of chemicals, who wrote the report. Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than
100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per
cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per
cent of them. Many have been identified as "endocrine disrupters" or gender-benders because
they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and
baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs,
a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many
pesticides.
Note: For many key reports on health issues from reliable sources, click here.

Financial Bailout Balloons to the Trillions

2008-11-25, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6332892
The government's financial bailout will be the most expensive single expenditure in American
history, potentially costing around $7.5 trillion -- or half the value of all the goods and services
produced in the United States last year. In comparison, the total U.S. cost of World War II adjusted
for inflation was $3.6 trillion. The bailout will cost more than the total combined costs in
today's dollars of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the Korean War, the Vietnam
War and the entire historical budget of NASA, including the moon landing, according to data
compiled by Bianco Research. It remains to be seen whether the government's multipronged
approach to bail out banks, stimulate spending and buy up mortgages will revive the economy, but
as the tab continues to grow so does concern over where the government will find the money.
Monday the government guaranteed an additional $306 billion to bail out Citigroup, and today
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pledged $800 billion to make credit more available to
consumers and small businesses, and to buy up mortgages from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Congress last month allocated $700 billion for an emergency bailout of some of Wall Street's most
storied firms by purchasing their troubled assets. The funds allocated through the Troubled Assets
Relief Program are but a small part of the government's overall bailout spending. Bailout programs
also include a Federal Reserve plan to buy as much as $2.4 trillion in short-term notes called
commercial paper that began Oct. 27, and an FDIC plan to spend $1.4 trillion to guarantee bankto-bank loans that commenced Oct. 14, according to Bloomberg News, which first compiled the
total cost of the bailout.
Note: $7.5 trillion amounts to about $25,000 for every person in the U.S. What's going on here?
For many revealing reports on the realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Paulson makes it clear: He's in charge

2008-11-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/13/BUUK1439IF.DTL

Henry Paulson's speech Wednesday made it pretty clear: The Treasury secretary has seized
control of the financial system. "He is absolutely the most powerful person in the country.
Maybe the world," says Wall Street accounting expert Robert Willens. The most telling line in
his speech came when Paulson was explaining why he did a 180-degree turn with money
approved by Congress under the $700 billion bailout bill. Instead of using it to buy troubled
mortgage assets from banks, as clearly envisioned, he scrapped that idea and used it to make
equity investments in banks. "In consultation with the Federal Reserve, I determined that the most
timely, effective step to improve credit market conditions was to strengthen bank balance sheets
quickly through direct purchases of equity in banks," he said. If Paulson bothered consulting with
President Bush, he didn't mention it. In fact, he didn't even mention the president until the tail end
of his speech, when he talked about the global summit Bush is hosting this weekend. I can
understand why Paulson wants to distance himself from an unpopular president, especially one
who has little facility for complex financial matters. But Bush is [the] president and even Presidentelect Barack Obama knows there can be only one president at a time. And his last name is not
Paulson. In September, when Paulson asked for a $700 billion blank check from Congress to fix
the financial markets, he got a lot of blowback. By the time Congress was done with his
proposal, it had grown from 2 1/2 pages to more than 450. Yet it now appears that Paulson
got the blank check he wanted.
Note: Why doesn't Congress have some say in what is done with this $700 billion? That's over
$3,000 for every taxpayer in the U.S. which is being spent with practically no accountability. Is this
what democracy looks like? For many key articles revealing the hidden realities of the bailout, click
here.

Has Anyone Seen a Stray H-Bomb?

2008-11-11, New York Times Blog
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/has-anyone-seen-a-stray-h-bomb
A hydrogen bomb is missing from the United States' arsenal and has been, evidently, for 40 years.
When last seen, the bomb was one of four aboard an Air Force B-52 bomber that crashed on a
frozen bay near Thule Air Force Base in northern Greenland on Jan. 21, 1968. Two years later, the
United States and Denmark reported that they agreed "that the accident caused no danger to man
or animal and plant life in the area." The 96-page report of the investigation indicated that all four
nuclear warheads aboard the plane had disintegrated on impact. Case closed. Well, maybe not,
the BBC says this week. Declassified documents that the BBC obtained under the United
States Freedom of Information Act indicate that only three of the bombs were accounted
for, and that the United States searched secretly for the fourth bomb, without success. By
April [1968], a decision had been taken to send a Star III submarine to the base to look for the lost
bomb, which had the serial number 78252. (A similar submarine search off the coast of Spain two
years earlier had led to another weapon being recovered.) But the real purpose of this search was
deliberately hidden from Danish officials. One document from July reads: "Fact that this operation
includes search for object or missing weapon part is to be treated as confidential NOFORN", the
last word meaning not to be disclosed to any foreign country. "For discussion with Danes, this

operation should be referred to as a survey repeat survey of bottom under impact point," it
continued. And what does the Pentagon have to say about all this now? It had no comment for the
BBC.
Note: To read the original New York Times article from Jan. 22, 1968 on this incident, click here.

Government Rescue Spending: Clear or Cloudy?

2008-11-11, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6225744&page=1
After weeks of sometimes frenzied efforts by the federal government to rescue the financial system
... critics say there are many questions but few answers about the work performed by the Treasury
Department and the Federal Reserve. "The bailout, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve -- it's
like a three-card monte game, you don't know where the money's coming from, you don't
know who it's going to, and I think the public has every right to be outraged by this," said
Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency watchdog
group. Gerald O'Driscoll, a former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas ... said he
worried that the failure of the government to provide more information about its rescue spending
could signal corruption. "Nontransparency in government programs is always associated with
corruption in other countries, so I don't see why it wouldn't be here," he said. Questions about
transparency at the Federal Reserve, in particular, have prompted a lawsuit: Bloomberg L.P.,
which operates the news agency Bloomberg News, is suing the Fed for the release of information
on its lending to private financial institutions. "We really don't know anything," Matthew Winkler, the
editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, told ABCNews.com. "All we know is something close to 2
trillion is being used and that money is the taxpayers'. ... We don't know whom it's being lent to and
for what purpose because we can't see it because it isn't disclosed."
Note: For many revealing and reliable reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Warning: King Henry's bailout like Rummy's Iraq

2008-11-10, MarketWatch (A Wall Street Journal Digital Network Website)
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/reagonomics-hides-sleeper-cells-harbori...
So you thought Barack Obama's victory signaled the death of Reaganomics? Wrong, wrong:
Reaganomics is very much alive. In a subtle, bloodless coup, the Reaganomics ideology magically
pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat in the meltdown. The magic happened fast and quietly, in
the shadows, while you were in a trance, distracted by the election drama. Recently Naomi Klein,
author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, framed the issue perfectly: "Has
the Treasury partially nationalized the private banks, as we have been told? Or is it the
other way around?" The question was rhetorical, the answer painfully clear. In a few weeks
Wall Street did the old bait and switch, emerging from an economic and market disaster
with new powers, in total control of America. And thanks to Treasury Secretary Henry

Paulson's brilliant bailout coup, Reaganomics is now the new "sleeper cell" quietly hidden inside
the Obama White House and America's Treasury, where it will be for a long time to come. Listen
closely folks: You and your government are and will continue being conned out of trillions. Klein
further exposed this insanity in a recent Rolling Stone article, "The New Trough: The Wall Street
bailout looks a lot like Iraq, a 'free-fraud zone' where private contractors cash in on the mess they
helped create." Paulson's privatization, outsourcing and management of the $700 billion bailout
has the exact same Reaganomics ideological, strategic and deceptive footprints that President
George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used to privatize, outsource and
mismanage the costly Iraq War blunder.
Note: For the powerfully revealing article by Naomi Klein mentioned in the article above, click
here. Speaking on Tulsa Oklahomas 1170 KFAQ, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma
(Republican) has revealed that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was the source of the threat of
martial law in the US if the $700 billion bailout bill was not passed that was exposed on the House
floor by Rep. Brad Sherman. For many key articles revealing the hidden realities of the bailout,
click here.

White House defends money for banks

2008-10-30, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR20081030022...
Under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike, the White House ... defended giving billions of
bailout dollars to banks that plan to reward shareholders and executives -- or even buy other
banks. Allowing banks to engage in such normal business activities actually could help loosen
lending and revive the sagging economy, said Ed Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers. He said the administration would not impose any conditions on banks beyond those
required when Congress created the bailout program, which authorized the government to buy
stock in financial institutions. Lazear was put before the cameras in the White House briefing room
amid a rising chorus of complaints from lawmakers about the latitude that banks will have when
they receive bailout money from Washington. That bailout was originally sold by the administration
as a plan for the government to purchase toxic mortgage-based assets from financial institutions,
to get them off their books and inspire the resumption of normal lending. After passage, though,
the administration decided the better course would be to devote $250 billion into buying ownership
stakes in banks. With taxpayers' money flowing into their vaults, banks are going ahead with
paying dividends to shareholders, giving bonuses to top executives and acquiring
competitors. Lawmakers are asking why banks with the money to do those things need
taxpayer-funded help. The rescue legislation included some limits on executive compensation,
considered weak by many. And while it does not allow institutions receiving the money to increase
dividends, it does not prevent them from paying those dividends.
Note: For extensive coverage of continuing revelations about the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Bernanke Is Fighting the Last War

2008-10-18, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122428279231046053.html
"Nothing," [famed economist] Anna Schwartz says, "seems to have quieted the fears of either the
investors in the securities markets or the lenders and would-be borrowers in the credit market."
The credit markets remain frozen, the stock market continues to get hammered, and deep
recession now seems a certainty -- if not a reality already. [Recently, according to Schwarz,
Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson has] shifted from trying to save the banking system to
trying to save banks. These are not, Ms. Schwartz argues, the same thing. In fact, by keeping
otherwise insolvent banks afloat, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have actually
prolonged the crisis. "They should not be recapitalizing firms that should be shut down."
Rather, "firms that made wrong decisions should fail," she says bluntly. "You shouldn't
rescue them. Everything works much better when wrong decisions are punished and good
decisions make you rich." How did we get into this mess in the first place? As in the 1920s, the
current "disturbance" started with a "mania." But manias always have a cause. "In every case, it
was expansive monetary policy that generated the boom in an asset. The particular asset varied
from one boom to another. But the basic underlying propagator was too-easy monetary policy and
too-low interest ratest. And then of course if monetary policy tightens, the boom collapses."
Today's crisis isn't a replay of the problem in the 1930s, but our central bankers have responded
by using the tools they should have used then. They are fighting the last war. The result, she
argues, has been failure.
Note: Anna Schwarz and Nobel-winner Milton Friedman authored A Monetary History of the
United States. It's the definitive account of how misguided monetary policy turned the stock-market
crash of 1929 into the Great Depression. The excellent article above mentions that Fed Reserve
Chairman Bernanke once said "I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great
Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. We won't do it again." Top bankers and their
cronies have been aware of what causes the boom/bust cycle for over 100 years and taken full
advantage of it. Try to find one top banker who lost significant money in any bust cycle.

Reports Link Karzais Brother to Afghanistan Heroin Trade

2008-10-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html
The White House says it believes that Ahmed Wali Karzai is involved in drug trafficking, and
American officials have repeatedly warned President Karzai that his brother is a political liability.
Numerous reports link Ahmed Wali Karzai to the drug trade, according to current and former
officials from the White House, the State Department and the United States Embassy in
Afghanistan, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. Neither the Drug Enforcement
Administration, which conducts counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, nor the fledgling Afghan
anti-drug agency has pursued investigations into the accusations against the presidents brother.
Several American investigators said senior officials at the D.E.A. and the office of the

Director of National Intelligence complained to them that the White House favored a handsoff approach toward Ahmed Wali Karzai. The concerns about Ahmed Wali Karzai have surfaced
recently because of the imprisonment of an informant who tipped off American and Afghan
investigators to [a] drug-filled truck outside Kabul in 2006. The informant, Hajji Aman Kheri, ... said
he had been an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and United States intelligence
agencies, an assertion confirmed by American counternarcotics and intelligence officials. Ever
since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, critics have charged that the Bush
administration has failed to take aggressive action against the Afghan narcotics trade.
Note: For revealing information suggesting the CIA is directly involved in the lucrative opium trade
in Afghanistan, click here and here.

Heroes of the Environment - Annie Leonard

2008-09-24, Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_184178...
Annie Leonard [has] been relentlessly explaining the absurdity of our throwaway culture [for]
decades. While her mastery of detail is impressive, it's her passionate style that transforms bleak
facts into emotive stories that compel you to take action. Leonard knew her story needed to reach
as many people as possible to make a real difference. So, in 2007, she made it viral through an
infectious online film called "The Story of Stuff". Within six months, more than 3 million viewers
from around the world watched the film. "The Story of Stuff" effectively and often humorously
explains where all our stuff comes from, what resources are used to create it, whose lives
are affected during its production, and where it goes when we discard it. While this all
sounds familiar enough, it's Leonard's poignant questions and provocative truth-telling that help us
see the profound stupidity of this system. Leonard has spent the last 20 years raising awareness
of environmental health and justice issues, working with organizations such as the Global AntiIncinerator Alliance, Health Care Without Harm, Greenpeace International and the Funders
Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, which brings together grant makers
committed to building a more sustainable future. She has spent nearly half of her life traveling to
more than 30 countries to witness the environmental impact of casual consumerism and the
travails of those who make what we consume; and she has spent countless hours working to right
these injustices. Which is why when Leonard talks trash, people cannot help but listen.
Note: For Annie's excellent website filled with inspiring ideas on how you can make a difference,
click here. For a longer article in Yes! Magazine written by Annie, click here. For a treasure trove of
great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Israeli ex-agent: We allowed Nazi doc to escape

2008-09-03, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26505933/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/israeli...

Israeli agents who kidnapped Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960
found the notorious death camp doctor Josef Mengele but let him get away, one of the
operatives said Tuesday. Mengele was one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, a doctor
who conducted cruel experiments on twins and dwarves at the Auschwitz concentration camp and
killed children with lethal injections. He selected prisoners who would be subjected to his
experiments and sent others straight to their death in gas chambers. Rafi Eitan, now an 81-yearold Israeli Cabinet minister, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he and other Mossad
agents located Mengele living in a Buenos Aires apartment with his wife at the time of Eichmann's
capture in 1960. But they decided that trying to nab him would risk sabotaging the capture of
Eichmann, who implemented Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to kill European Jewry and was deemed
a more important target. Mengele was infamous for his sadistic experiments in the death
camps. He injected dye into the eyes of twins to change their color and sewed them together to try
to create artificially conjoined twins. He ordered twins killed simultaneously and then dissected for
examination of their organs. His horrors earned him the title "Angel of Death." After the war,
Mengele fled Germany under an assumed name and ended up in Argentina ... in 1949 but left in
1959 and became a naturalized citizen of Paraguay. After Eichmann was captured in May 1960,
Mengele moved to Brazil, according to the report by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI),
which tracks Nazis.
Note: It is suspected by many who have researched government mind control programs that after
he escaped capture as mentioned above, Mengele was secretly brought to the U.S., where he
trained top operatives of the infamous MKULTRA program in mind control techniques he perfected
while experimenting without ethical limitations on live humans at Auschwitz. For more on this, click
here and here.

Israeli ex-agent: We allowed Nazi doc to escape

2008-09-02, NBC News/Associated Press
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26505933/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/israeli-e...
Israeli agents who kidnapped Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960 found the
notorious death camp doctor Josef Mengele but let him get away, one of the operatives [has] said.
Mengele was one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, a doctor who conducted cruel
experiments on twins and dwarves at the Auschwitz concentration camp and killed children with
lethal injections. He selected prisoners who would be subjected to his experiments and sent others
straight to their death in gas chambers. Rafi Eitan, now an 81-year-old Israeli Cabinet minister,
told The Associated Press ... that he and other Mossad agents located Mengele living in a
Buenos Aires apartment with his wife at the time of Eichmann's capture in 1960. But they
decided that trying to nab him would risk sabotaging the capture of Eichmann, who
implemented Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to kill European Jewry and was deemed a more
important target. It was known that Mengele was living in Buenos Aires around the time of
Eichmann's capture. But Eitan's comments indicated the Israelis were closer to him than had been
previously thought and shed light on why they decided to abandon an attempt to catch him.
Mengele was infamous for his sadistic experiments in the death camps. He injected dye into the

eyes of twins to change their color and sewed them together to try to create artificially conjoined
twins. He ordered twins killed simultaneously and then dissected for examination of their organs.
His horrors earned him the title "Angel of Death." After the war, Mengele fled Germany under an
assumed name and ended up in Argentina.
Note: There is ample verifiable evidence that Mengele perfected mind control through his horrific
experiments and then was secretly brought in by the CIA to teach them this disturbing technology.
For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing mind control news articles from
reliable major media sources.

A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading

2008-08-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/20/AR20080820038...
Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that
primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses. But when the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol's books last month, it found that the firm was in fact
more of a speculator, holding oil contracts as a profit-making investment rather than a means of
lining up the actual delivery of fuel. Even more surprising to the commodities markets was the
massive size of Vitol's portfolio -- at one point in July, the firm held 11 percent of all the oil
contracts on the regulated New York Mercantile Exchange. The discovery revealed how an
individual financial player had gained enormous sway over the oil market without the knowledge of
regulators. Other CFTC data showed that a significant amount of trading activity was concentrated
in the hands of just a few speculators. The CFTC ... now reports that financial firms
speculating for their clients or for themselves account for about 81 percent of the oil
contracts on NYMEX, a far bigger share than had previously been stated by the agency.
That figure may rise in coming weeks as the CFTC checks the status of other big traders. Some
lawmakers have blamed these firms for the volatility of oil prices, including the tremendous run-up
that peaked earlier in the summer. "It is now evident that speculators in the energy futures markets
play a much larger role than previously thought, and it is now even harder to accept the agency's
laughable assertion that excessive speculation has not contributed to rising energy prices," said
Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

Solar Energy, All Night Long

2008-07-31, Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/30/nocera-solar-power-biz-energy-cz_jf_0731sola...
MIT professor Daniel G. Nocera has long been jealous of plants. He desperately wanted to do
what they do--split water into hydrogen and oxygen and use the products to do work. That, he
figures, is the only way we humans can solve our energy problems; enough energy pours down
from the sun in one hour to power the planet's energy needs for a year. Nocera's discovery
[is] a cheap and easy way to store energy that he thinks will be used to change solar power

into a mainstream energy source. Plants catch light and turn it into an electric current, then use
that energy to excite catalysts that split water into hydrogen and oxygen during what is called
photosynthesis' light cycle. The energy is then used during the dark cycle to allow the plant to build
sugars used for growth and energy storage. Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in
Nocera's lab, focused on the water-splitting part of photosynthesis. They found cheap and simple
catalysts that did a remarkably good job. They dissolved cobalt and phosphate in water and then
zapped it with electricity through an electrode. The cobalt and phosphate form a thin-film catalyst
around the electrode that then use electrons from the electrode to split the oxygen from water. The
oxygen bubbles to the surface, leaving a proton behind. A few inches away, another catalyst,
platinum, helps that bare proton become hydrogen. The hydrogen and oxygen, separated and onhand, can be used to power a fuel cell whenever energy is needed.
Note: This amazing breakthrough resulted in a $4 million government grant for further
development. For more, click here and here.

Bracelet Promises Air Safety, At A Price

2008-07-31, CBS4-TV (Miami, FL CBS affiliate)
http://cbs4.com/iteam/security.bracelet.security.2.784127.html
Flying today can be stressful, inconvenient and downright difficult. But what if there was a way to
make it all easier? What if you had one small device, say a bracelet, which carried all your flight
information and other data to make things easier? This bracelet could even track you and your
luggage. Former United States Air Marshal Jeffrey Denning describes the idea this way: "The
bracelets would take the place of boarding tickets. [They] would also work as a GPS to track air
travelers and their luggage." Denning says airline passengers might use this bracelet technology in
place of a boarding pass but the government could use it for something else. "And here's the
shocking part," Denning said. "No pun intended. If the passengers act up it (the bracelet) would
shock and immobilize them for several minutes." That's right. If the flight crew decides that
you're getting out of control or posing a threat, to them or the plane, they could simply
engage a computer, press a button which would activate this bracelet, shocking and
incapacitating you for as long as several minutes. "I guess the design was ... for any air
passengers who would become a terrorist or be a terrorist," Denning told [CBS4-TV]. "The bracelet
has a capacity to shock ... whoever is wearing it kind of like a police 'taser.'"
Note: What will they think of next? To watch this revealing CBS news broadcast, click here.

Are Our Leading Pediatricians Drug Industry Shills?

2008-07-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/12/IN7G11L6TL.DTL

Most parents have never heard of him, but Joseph Biederman of Harvard may be the United
States' most influential doctor when it comes to determining whether their children are normal or
mentally ill. In 1996, for example, Biederman suggested that drugs like Ritalin might serve 10
percent of American kids for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. By 2004, one in nine 11-yearold boys was taking the drug. Biederman and his team also are more responsible than anyone for
a child bipolar epidemic sweeping America (and no other country) that has 2-year-olds on three or
four psychiatric drugs. The science of children's psychiatric medications is so primitive and
Biederman's influence so great that when he merely mentions a drug during a presentation, tens of
thousands of children within a year or two will end up taking that drug, or combination of drugs.
This happens in the absence of a drug trial of any kind - instead, the decision is based upon word
of mouth among the 7,000 child psychiatrists in America. That's why [the] recent revelation that
Biederman did not declare $1.6 million in drug company consulting fees is so important, scary and
tragic. American medicine, with psychiatry the most culpable, has fallen back to a time more than
100 years ago. Now once again, drug company money is corrupting medical practice and
the maintenance of our country's health. Virtually all doctors who receive drug company
money say they are not influenced, but every independent study examining the effects of
such money says they are.
Note: For lots more on health issues from reliable, verifiable sources, click here.

The evolution of a conspiracy theory

2008-07-04, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7488159.stm
Nearly seven years after the terrible events of that September day, the US authorities are due to
publish the final report on a third tower that also collapsed on 9/11. Unlike the Twin Towers, this
47-storey, 610-foot skyscraper was not hit by a plane. The official explanation is that ordinary
fires were the main reason for the collapse of Tower 7. That makes this the first and only tall
skyscraper in the world to have collapsed because of fire. Yet despite that all the thousands
of tonnes of steel from the building were carted away and melted down. The way official
bodies have investigated Tower 7 at the World Trade Center has made some people think they're
hiding something. Its destruction was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report. An inquiry
by the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the building collapsed because intense fires
had burned for hours, fed by thousands of gallons of diesel stored in the building for emergency
generators. But its report said this had "only a low probability of occurrence" and more work was
needed. That was in May 2002. The task has now fallen to the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) based at a sprawling campus near Washington DC. For more than two-and-ahalf years, scientists there have been studying Tower 7. The officials have been criticised for being
slow and even of being frightened to publish. Steven Jones, a former physics professor at Brigham
Young University, who has become [a] leading academic voice in the movement, first watched a
video of the collapse of Tower 7 in the spring of 2005. But when he did, he said he was taken
aback as a physicist.

Note: For a two-page summary of some unanswered questions about what really happened on
9/11, click here.

Controversy and conspiracies

2008-07-02, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/07/controversy_conspiracies_iii.html
World Trade Center Building 7 has become the subject of heated speculation and a host of
conspiracy theories suggesting it was brought down by a controlled demolition. And some people
suggest it was not just the government and foreign intelligence, but ... even the media that were
involved. It is certainly true that on 9/11 the BBC broadcast that WTC7 had collapsed when it
was still standing. Then the satellite transmission seemed to cut out mysteriously when the
correspondent was still talking. Then [head of BBC News] Richard Porter admitted in his blog
last year that the BBC had lost those key tapes of BBC World News output from the day.
The internet movie Loose Change has been viewed by more than 100 million people according to
its makers and it asks this question in the latest film release: "Where did CNN and the BBC get
their information especially considering the building was still standing directly behind their
reporters?" It turns out that the respected news agency Reuters picked up an incorrect report and
passed it on. They have issued this statement: "On 11 September 2001 Reuters incorrectly
reported that one of the buildings at the New York World Trade Center, 7WTC, had collapsed
before it actually did. The report was picked up from a local news story and was withdrawn as
soon as it emerged that the building had not fallen." And the reason the interview with the BBC
correspondent, Jane Standley, ended so abruptly? The satellite feed had an electronic timer, which
cut out at 1715 exactly.
Note: How many "coincidences" does it take for people to start to ask questions? How could
people know that the building was going to collapse when a skyscraper had never collapsed
before from fire? For a useful BBC FAQ on 9/11 alternative theories, click here.

Video star can't stop dancing

2008-06-29, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-dancing-matt-0629jun29,...
The new Web video from Matt Harding, accidental professional dancer, is up, and it is spectacular,
a cry of life and brotherhood and joy. As Harding toured the world ... filming the third installment in
his "Where the Hell Is Matt?" video series, you might have thought that the trick would have played
itself out. An ordinary guy doing a kind of running-in-place dance at 69 earthly locales with an
ethereal song as soundtrack shouldn't be endlessly endearing and deeply inspiring. But this musicvideo-length wonder works in surprising ways, especially amid the predominantly crass
environment of YouTube. Part of the charm of the video (also at Harding's own
wherethehellismatt.com) is his new twist for it. At each stop on his latest set of travels, Harding
invited locals to come dance with him. In Chicago, that meant more than 100 people bobbed up

and down in front of The Bean sculpture. In Poria, Papua New Guinea, it was a handful of people
in full tribal garb accompanying Harding. The collection of disparate peoples doing essentially
the same pointless yet joyful thing is a reminder of what's universal in humankind. The
teasing glimpse of so many gorgeous spots is a goad to renew your own passport and get
moving. Part of the charm comes from the unadorned simplicity of Harding himselfhe just looks
damned happy to be wherever he isand the delight that is his story. A video game designer
disaffected by the industry's trend toward violence, he quit his job in early 2003 and began
traveling. At the suggestion of a friend, he used the video function of a point-and-shoot digital
camera and taped himself dancing at all his stops.
Note: Don't miss Matt's inspiring five-minute video available here. For a New York Times article on
this fun piece, click here.

McCain's 'big advantage'

2008-06-25, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/24/EDPC11EHS4.DTL
Charlie Black, senior adviser to John McCain, caused a fluff by saying that a terrorist attack on
U.S. soil would be a "big advantage" to his candidate. No one mentioned that eight years ago, the
Project for a New American Century called for "a new Pearl Harbor" that could move the American
people to accept the neoconservative vision of militarized global domination. Then 9/11 happened,
lifting George W. Bush from the shadows of a disputed election to the heights of a "war
presidency." Bush has taken on unprecedented powers since the events of 9/11. On that day, the
president issued his "Declaration of Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks" under the
authority of the National Emergencies Act. This declaration, which can be rescinded by joint
resolution of Congress, has instead been extended six times. In 2007, the declaration was quietly
strengthened with the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 51, which gave the
president the authority to do whatever he deems necessary in a vaguely defined
"catastrophic emergency," including everything from canceling elections to suspending the
Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Not a single congressional hearing was held on
this directive. Will Congress act decisively to remove the president's emergency powers,
challenge the directive and defend the Constitution?

Capitol Chaos
2008-06-08, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/INFS114789.DTL
[California] Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi had no intention of voting for AB2818, a bill that the
Castro Valley Democrat feared could undermine its stated goal of protecting affordable housing.
But on May 28, she nearly approved it - without her knowledge, and without her presence on the
Assembly floor. As the roll call began, Hayashi was engaged in a budget subcommittee meeting on
the Capitol's fourth floor. Suddenly, two floors below, the light next to her name on the big

electronic voting board in the Assembly chamber turned green, a "yes" vote. Seconds later, it
turned red. Then green. Red. Green. Finally, after 22 seconds of alternating colors, the space next
to Hayashi's name went blank. While there are conflicting accounts of exactly what caused this
dizzying sequence, this much is clear: Two people had their hands on Hayashi's voting switches
during the roll call on AB2818 - and one was acting against her will. "Ghost voting" was not the
only disturbing episode as the Assembly took up 316 bills in the three days leading up to
the deadline for measures to pass their house of origin. In the frenzied treadmill, there was
little or no debate on most matters, important bills died when legislators failed to vote, and
votes were being cast for members without their express consent. In the Hayashi case,
eyewitnesses said her initial "yes" vote was cast by Assemblyman Kevin de Len, D-Los Angeles,
an assistant majority floor leader who colleagues said had taken the liberty of voting for other
missing members as bills were being rushed to beat the deadline. "I don't recall it, but I don't deny
it either," de Len said.
Note: For lots more on problems with voting systems, click here.

Investors' Growing Appetite for Oil Evades Market Limits

2008-06-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR20080605043...
Hedge funds and big Wall Street banks are taking advantage of loopholes in federal trading
limits to buy massive amounts of oil contracts, ... helping to push oil prices to record highs.
The federal agency that oversees oil trading, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
has exempted these firms from rules that limit speculative buying. The CFTC has also
waived regulations over the past decade on U.S. investors who trade commodities on some
overseas markets, freeing those investors to accumulate large quantities of the future oil supply by
making purchases on lightly regulated foreign exchanges. Over the past five years, investors have
become such a force on commodity markets that their appetite for oil contracts has been equal to
China's increase in demand over the same period, said Michael Masters, a hedge fund manager
who testified before Congress on the subject last month. The commodity markets, he added, were
never intended for such large financial players. Commodities have become especially enticing to
investors as the credit crisis has roiled other investment opportunities such as stocks and debtrelated securities. The recent flood of investment money has transformed the markets for oil, as
well as uranium, wheat, cotton and other goods, into a volatile realm that some insiders call the
Wild West of Wall Street. Michael Greenberger, a professor at the University of Maryland and
former CFTC commissioner, said there were loopholes the agency could close without much effort.
"There's smoke here, and the CFTC hasn't wanted to look if there's a fire," he said. "But these are
dark markets. They don't even know who's doing the trading."
Note: For revealing reports on financial corruption and criminality from major media sources, click
here.

40 years after RFK's death, questions linger

2008-06-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/03/MNN110S5KH.DTL
Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of killing Robert F. Kennedy 40 years ago this week in the Ambassador
Hotel in Los Angeles, is living out his days in the California state prison at Corcoran. He is 64 and
has never fully explained what happened that night other than to say he can't remember it. "The
interesting thing is how under-examined the Robert Kennedy assassination is, compared to
President Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.," said David Talbot of San Francisco, author of
Brothers, a book that looks into Robert Kennedy's own investigation into his brother's death and
his conviction that JFK was the victim of a conspiracy. "Bobby remains the unknown territory,"
Talbot said. "But even if you look at it minimally, there are questions that come to mind." Over the
years, Sirhan has told investigators who interviewed him in prison that he was in a hypnotic trance
during the shooting and can't remember it at all. William Turner, a retired FBI agent who wrote a
book about the case, ... thinks Sirhan was "hypno-programmed to shoot" and that he was a
real-life Manchurian Candidate - [a] brainwashed dupe whose controllers want to
assassinate a presidential candidate. Turner suspects the same villains as do the JFK
conspiracy theorists - "organized crime and, predominantly, people from the CIA." [Philip Van
Praag, a retired electrical engineer and audio expert,] and a fellow investigator, former American
Academy of Forensic Scientists president Robert Joling, ... have written a book about the killing,
whose title, An Open and Shut Case, is a dig at the police investigation. Joling says an
"independent panel of forensic scientists" should be created to "reinvestigate this matter on all the
evidence."
Note: To listen to a highly revealing presentation by Sirhan's lawyer, Lawrence Teeter, on the
many lines of evidence proving Sirhan was not a lone gunman, click here. For further revealing
reports on major political assassinations, click here.

The Global Ruling Class: Billion-dollar Babies

2008-04-24, The Economist magazine
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11081878
Who rules the world? The rise of nation states produced national ruling classes. It would be odd if
the current integration of the world economy did not produce new global elites business people
and financiers who run global companies and global politicians who steer supra-national
organisations such as the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund. David
Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that these
elites constitute nothing less than a new global superclass. They have all the clubby
characteristics of the old national ruling classes, but with the vital difference that they
operate on the global stage, far from mere national electorates. They attend the same
universities. They are groomed in a handful of world-spanning institutions such as Goldman
Sachs. They belong to the same clubs the Council on Foreign Relations in New York is a
particular favourite and sit on each other's boards of directors. Many of them shuttle between

the public and private sectors. They meet at global events such as the World Economic Forum at
Davos and the Trilateral Commission or for the crme de la crme the Bilderberg meetings or
the Bohemian Grove seminars that take place every July in California. Mr Rothkopf is anything but
a crank, and he is right when he says that, these days, the most influential people around the
world are also the most global people. He is also admirably ambivalent about his subject. He
worries about surging inequality the richest 1% of humans own 40% of the planet's wealth
and about the rumbling backlash against so much unaccountable power.
Note: For reliable, verifiable information the secret societies of which the global elite are a part,
click here. Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making by David Rothkopf
is available here.

What Power Looks Like

2008-04-14, Newsweek magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130637
[In] speaking [with New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy] Geithner while I was doing
the research for my recently published book Superclass, he sketched in fascinating detail how the
world's power elite rallies when the markets quake. Recalling an earlier crisis in global securities
markets that he helped to manage, Geithner said the Fed brought together the leaders of the
world's 14 major financial firms, from five countries, representing 95 percent of all the activity in
global markets. The Swiss were there, the Germans were there, the British were there. Goldman
Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein "jokingly called them 'the 14 families,' like in 'The
Godfather'," says Geithner. "And we said to them, 'You guys have got to fix this problem. Tell us
how you are going to fix it and we will work out some basic regime.' You ... need a critical mass of
the right players. It is a much more concentrated world." Geithner's description of the financial elite
in crisis mode came many months before the recent meltdown of Bear Stearns, yet foreshadowed
[it] in an uncanny way. The people ... described by Geithner, plus a few thousand more like
them, not only in business and finance, but also politics, the arts, the nonprofit world and
other realms, are part of a new global elite that has emerged over the past several decades.
I call it the "superclass." They have vastly more power than any other group on the planet. Each
of the members is set apart by his ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in
multiple countries worldwide. Each actively exercises this power, and often amplifies it through the
development of relationships with other superclass members.
Note: For many revealing stories from reliable sources on secret societies of the world's most
powerful people, click here.

Superfast internet may replace world wide web

2008-04-09, The Telegraph (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/06/ninternet106.xml

The internet could soon be made obsolete by a new "grid" system which is 10,000 times faster
than broadband connections. Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast
replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded
within seconds. The latest spin-off from CERN, the particle physics centre that created the internet,
the grid could also provide the power needed to send sophisticated images; allow instant online
gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the
price of a local call. David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading
figure in the grid project, believes grid technology could change society. He said: "With this
kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and
communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine." The power of the grid will
be unlocked this summer with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle
accelerator designed to investigate how the universe began. The grid will be turned on at the same
time to store the information it generates, after scientists at CERN, based near Geneva, realised
the internet would not have the capacity to capture such huge volumes of data. The grid has been
built with fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated
components to slow the deluge of data, unlike the internet. There are 55,000 grid servers already
installed, a figure which is expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years. Britain has 8,000
servers on the grid system, meaning access could be available to universities as early as this
autumn.

Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail

2008-04-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR20080405020...
Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003,
senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American
policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out? Or, for
that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on
a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What
about biting? These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo
parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as
detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or
which "body part the statute specifies." But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said,
because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are
trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief. In the sober language of
footnotes, case citations and judicial rulings, the memo explores a wide range of unsavory topics,
from the use of mind-altering drugs on captives to the legality of forcing prisoners to squat on their
toes in a "frog crouch." It repeats an assertion in another controversial Yoo memo that an
interrogation tactic cannot be considered torture unless it would result in "death, organ failure or
serious impairment of bodily functions." Yoo, who is now a law professor at the University of
California at Berkeley, also uses footnotes to effectively dismiss the Fourth and Fifth amendments

to the Constitution, arguing that protections against unreasonable search and seizure and
guarantees of due process either do not apply or are irrelevant in a time of war. He frequently cites
his previous legal opinions to bolster his case.

Administration Asserted a Terror Exception on Search and Seizure

2008-04-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR20080403041...
The Justice Department concluded in October 2001 that military operations combating terrorism
inside the United States are not limited by Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable
searches and seizures, in one of several secret memos containing new and controversial
assertions of presidential power. The memo, sent on Oct. 23, 2001, to the Defense Department
and the White House by the Office of Legal Counsel, focused on the rules governing any
deployment of U.S. forces inside the country "in the event of further large-scale terrorist activities."
Administration officials declined to detail what domestic military operations were being
contemplated at the time. The memo has not been formally withdrawn. The Fourth Amendment
assertion is one of several far-reaching legal arguments revealed by the disclosure Tuesday
of a 2003 Justice Department memo that authorized harsh military interrogations. In its
footnotes, asides and central text, that 81-page memo asserted nearly unlimited
presidential powers during a time of war. The document disclosed, for example, that the
administration's top lawyers had declared that the president has unfettered power to seize
oceangoing ships as commander in chief; that Congress has no ability to pass legislation
governing the interrogations of enemy combatants; and that federal laws prohibiting assault and
other crimes did not apply to military interrogators. One section discussed to what extent the
president might be allowed to legally maim a prisoner, such as through the use of a "scalding,
corrosive, or caustic substance." A footnote argued that Fifth Amendment guarantees of dueprocess rights "do not address actions the Executive takes in conducting a military campaign
against the Nation's enemies."
Note: For further disturbing reports on threats to civil liberties, click here.

Derivatives the new 'ticking bomb'

2008-03-10, MarketWatch (Part of the Wall Street Journal's digital network)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/derivatives-are-the-new-ticking-time-bomb
"In our view, however, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers
that, while now latent, are potentially lethal." That warning was in [Warren] Buffett's 2002 letter to
Berkshire shareholders. He saw a future that many others chose to ignore. Wall Street didn't listen
to Buffett. Derivatives grew into a massive bubble, from about $100 trillion to $516 trillion by 2007.
Despite Buffett's clear warnings, a massive new derivatives bubble is driving the domestic and
global economies, a bubble that continues growing today parallel with the subprime-credit
meltdown triggering a bear-recession. Data on the five-fold growth of derivatives to $516 trillion in

five years comes from the most recent survey by the Bank of International Settlements, the world's
clearinghouse for central banks in Basel, Switzerland. Keep in mind that while the $516 trillion
"notional" value (maximum in case of a meltdown) of the deals is a good measure of the market's
size, the 2007 BIS study notes that the $11 trillion "gross market values provides a more accurate
measure of the scale of financial risk transfer taking place in derivatives markets." The fact is,
derivatives have become the world's biggest "black market," exceeding the illicit traffic in
stuff like arms, drugs, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, stolen art and pirated movies. Why?
Because like all black markets, derivatives are a perfect way of getting rich while avoiding
taxes and government regulations. And in today's slowdown, plus a volatile global market, Wall
Street knows derivatives remain a lucrative business.
Note: $516 trillion is equivalent to $75,000 for every man, woman, and child in the world! Do you
think the financial industry is out of control? For lots more powerful, reliable information on major
banking manipulations, click here. For a powerful analysis describing just how crazy things have
gotten and giving some rays of hope by researcher David Wilcock, click here.

The Language of Autism

2008-02-28, New York Times
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/the-language-of-autism
Are people with autism trapped in their own world? Or are the rest of us just trapped in ours? After
seeing 27-year-old Amanda Baggs ... you may rethink your views of the so-called "normal" world.
Ms. Baggs, who lives in Burlington, Vt., is autistic and doesnt speak. But she has become an
Internet sensation as a result of an unusual video she created called "In My Language." For the
first three minutes of the video, she rocks, flaps her hands, waves a piece of paper, buries her face
in a book and runs her fingers repeatedly across a computer keyboard, all while humming a
haunting two-note tune. Then, the words "A Translation" appear on the screen. Although Ms.
Baggs doesnt speak, she types 120 words a minute. Using a synthesized voice generated by a
software application, Ms. Baggs types out what is going on inside her head. The movement, the
noise, the repetitive behaviors are all part of Ms. Baggs own "native" language, she says via her
computerized voice. Its a language that allows her to have a "constant conversation" with her
surroundings. "My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people
to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my
environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings. Far from being
purposeless, the way that I move is an ongoing response to what is around me. The way I
naturally think and respond to things looks and feels so different from standard concepts or even
visualization that some people do not consider it thought at all. But it is a way of thinking in its own
right." [Ms. Baggs'] video is a clarion call on behalf of people with cognitive disabilities whose way
of communicating isnt understood by the rest of the world.
Note: If you want to expand your understanding of people and our world, don't miss the most
amazing eight-minute video clip at the link above, or click here to view it now.

What FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds found in translation

2008-02-17, Dallas Morning News (Dallas' leading newspaper)
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-sibe...
Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they
never will. The former FBI translator turned whistle-blower tells a chilling story of corruption at
Washington's highest levels sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms
transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. Ms. Edmonds' account is full of
dates, places and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in
American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli,
Pakistani and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in the upper echelons of the State
and Defense Departments. Her charges could be easily confirmed or dismissed if classified
government documents were made available to investigators. But Congress has refused to act,
and the Justice Department has shrouded Ms. Edmonds' case in the state-secrets privilege,
a rarely used measure so sweeping that it precludes even a closed hearing attended only by
officials with top-secret security clearances. Ms. Edmonds' revelations have attracted corroboration
in the form of anonymous letters apparently written by FBI employees. There have been frequent
reports of FBI field agents being frustrated by the premature closure of cases dealing with foreign
spying, particularly when those cases involve Israel, and the State Department has frequently
intervened to shut down investigations based on "sensitive foreign diplomatic relations." Curiously,
the state-secrets gag order binding Ms. Edmonds, while put in place by DOJ in 2002, was not
requested by the FBI but by the State Department and Pentagon which employed individuals she
identified as being involved in criminal activities. If her allegations are frivolous, that order would
scarcely seem necessary.
Note: The author of this article, Philip Giraldi, is a retired career CIA officer. For further powerful
details of Sibel Edmonds' revelations, click here.

Bill Moyers talks with [NY Times reporter] David Cay Johnston about
Free Lunch
2008-01-08, PBS Bill Moyers Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/transcript1.html
BILL MOYERS: Why do some of the most powerful and privileged people in the country get a free
lunch you pay for? You'll find some of the answers [in]: Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans
Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). The theme of the book
as I read it is that not that the rich are getting richer but that they've got the government rigging the
rules to help them do it. DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: That's exactly right. And they're doing it in a way
that I think is very crucial for people to understand. They're doing it by taking from those with
less to give to those with more. We gave $100 million dollars to Warren Buffett's company
last year, a gift from the taxpayers. We make gifts all over the place to rich people. Donald
Trump benefits from a tax specifically levied by the State of New Jersey for the poor. Part of
the casino winnings tax in New Jersey is dedicated to help the poor. But $89 million of it is being

diverted to subsidize Donald Trump's casino's building retail space. George Steinbrenner, like
almost every owner of a major sports franchise, gets enormous public subsidies. The major sports
franchises [make] 100 percent of their profits from subsidies. In fact, if it weren't for these
subsidies, the baseball, football, hockey, and basketball enterprises as a whole would be losing
hundreds of millions of dollars a year. George Bush owes almost his entire fortune to a tax
increase that was funneled into his pocket and into the use of eminent domain laws to essentially
legally cheat other people out of their land for less than it was worth to enrich him and his fellow
investors.
Note: Watch part of this amazingly revealing interview online at this link. Johnston is a prolific
writer with the NY Times; to see a list of his many articles there, click here. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click here.

Stonewalled by the C.I.A.

2008-01-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02kean.html
More than five years ago, Congress and President Bush created the 9/11 commission. Soon after
its creation, the presidents chief of staff directed all executive branch agencies to cooperate with
the commission. The commissions mandate was sweeping and it explicitly included the
intelligence agencies. But the recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped
interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond
to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those
videotapes and did not tell us about them obstructed our investigation. No one in the
administration ever told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations.
We did ask, repeatedly, for the kind of information that would have been contained in such
videotapes. Beginning in June 2003, we requested all reports of intelligence information ... that had
been gleaned from the interrogations of 118 named individuals, including both Abu Zubaydah and
Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, two senior Qaeda operatives, portions of whose interrogations were
apparently recorded and then destroyed. The C.I.A. gave us many reports summarizing
information gained in the interrogations. But the reports raised almost as many questions as they
answered. So, in October 2003, we sent another wave of questions to the C.I.A.s general counsel.
The general counsel responded in writing with non-specific replies. The agency did not disclose
that any interrogations had ever been recorded or that it had held any further relevant information,
in any form. Government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by
Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We
call that obstruction.
Note: The authors of this op-ed, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, served as chairman and
vice chairman, respectively, of the 9/11 Commission.

Was Pelosi aware of CIA's tactics?

2007-12-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/12/EDR7TS7DI.DTL
When the CIA destroyed those prisoner interrogation videotapes, were they also destroying the
truth about Sept. 11, 2001? After all, according to the 9/11 Commission report, the basic narrative
of what happened on that day - and the nature of the enemy in this war on terror that Bush
launched in response to the tragedy - comes from the CIA's account of what those prisoners told
their torturers. The commission was never allowed to interview the prisoners, or speak with those
who did, and was forced to rely on what the CIA was willing to relay instead. On the matter of the
existence of the tapes, we know the CIA deliberately lied. Why should we believe what we've
been told about what may turn out to be the most important transformative event in our
nation's history? On the basis of what the CIA claimed the tortured prisoners said,
President Bush launched ... an endless war that threatens to bankrupt our society both
financially and morally. How important were those "key witnesses" to the 9/11 Commission
report? Check out the disclaimer on page 146 about the commission's sourcing of the main
elements laid out in its narrative: "Chapters 5 and 7 rely heavily on information obtained from
captured al Qaeda members ... Assessing the truth of statements by these witnesses ... is
challenging. Our access to them has been limited to the review of intelligence reports. We
submitted questions for use in the interrogations, but ... were told that our requests might disrupt
the sensitive interrogation process." Videos were made of those "sensitive" interrogations, which
were accurately described as "torture" by one of the agents involved, John Kiriakou, in an interview
with ABC News. Yet when the 9/11 Commission and federal court judges specifically asked for
such tapes, they were destroyed by the CIA, which then denied their existence.
Note: Author Robert Scheer goes on to ask what did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other key
Congressional Democrats know about the torture techniques used by the CIA, and when did they
know it? For a powerful summary of many major-media reports raising questions about what really
happened on 9/11, click here.

Eighth wonder of the world?

2007-11-22, Daily Mail (Britain's second largest circulationdaily newspaper)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article...
Nestling in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy ... lies the valley of Valchiusella. Weaving their
way underneath the hillside are nine ornate temples, on five levels, whose scale and opulence
take the breath away. They are linked by hundreds of metres of richly decorated tunnels. The
'Temples of Damanhur' are ... the work of ... 57-year-old [Oberto Airaudi] who, inspired by a
childhood vision, began digging into the rock. From an early age, he claims to have experienced
visions of what he believed to be a past life, in which there were amazing temples. Around these
he [saw] there lived a highly evolved community who enjoyed an idyllic existence in which all the
people worked for the common good. Oberto appeared to have ... the gift of "remote viewing" - the
ability to travel in his mind's eye. Oberto - who prefers to use the name 'Falco' ... selected a remote
hillside where he felt the hard rock would sustain the structures he had in mind. A house was built

on the hillside and Falco moved in with several friends who shared his vision. Using hammers and
picks, they began their dig to create the temples of Damanhur ... in August 1978. Volunteers, who
flocked from around the world, worked ... for the next 16 years with no formal plans other than
Falco's sketches and visions. By 1991, several of the nine chambers were almost complete with
stunning murals, mosaics, statues, secret doors and stained glass windows. Esperide Ananas ...
has written a new book called Damanhur, Temples Of Humankind. Today the 'Damanhurians' even
have their own university, schools, organic supermarkets, vineyards, farms, bakeries and awardwinning eco homes. They do not worship a spiritual leader, though their temples have become the
focus for group meditation. 'They are to remind people that we are all capable of much more
than we realise and that hidden treasures can be found within every one of us once you
know how to access them,' says Falco.
Note: Click on the article link above to see many exquisite color photos of the amazing interiors of
the Damanhur temples.

Nanotubes seen as new weapon in cancer fight

2007-11-02, Houston Chronicle (Houston's leading newspaper)
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4453780
In what a dying Rick Smalley called the most important application from his Nobel Prize-winning
discovery [of fullerines], Houston researchers are using [carbon] nanotubes heated by radio waves
to kill cancer cells. In a paper posted online by the journal Cancer, a team at the University of
Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Rice University reported that the technique destroyed
liver cancer tumors in rabbits and caused no side effects. It is thought to hold the same potential
for many other cancers. "I don't want to overstate matters I'm the biggest skeptic in the world
given the challenges still ahead of us," Dr. Steven Curley, an M.D. Anderson surgical oncologist
and the paper's senior author, said Thursday. "But my hope is that this will be a very useful tool to
safely and efficiently treat a lot of types of cancer." The therapy marries two disparate disciplines:
the relatively ancient field of radio waves and nanotechnology, the cutting-edge science of the
ultra-small. The rabbit study found the therapy worked only when the two were used together. It
works not by poisoning but by creating a localized hyperthermia or small fever that destroys
the cancer cells' membranes, protein and even DNA. The cells then die and are carried out of the
body through normal kidney functions. In the experiment recounted in Cancer, the rabbits were
injected with a solution of single-walled carbon nanotubes hollow cylinders of pure
carbon measuring about a billionth of a meter across then exposed to two minutes of
radio-frequency treatment. The result, researchers said, was the thermal destruction of 100
percent of the tumors. The idea was inspired by John Kanzius, an M.D. Anderson leukemia
patient and retired Pennsylvania radio and television station owner. He developed a radiofrequency generator after undergoing chemotherapy and noting its effect on himself and other
patients.
Note: For many hopeful new developments in the search for cancer cures, click here.

FDA Science and Mission at Risk

2007-11-00, FDA Subcommittee on Science and Technology
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/AC/07/briefing/2007-4329b_02_01_FDA%20Report...
The nation is at risk if FDA science is at risk. In recognition of this threat, in December 2006, FDA
Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, MD requested that the Science Board, which is the
Advisory Board to the Commissioner, form a Subcommittee to assess whether science and
technology at the FDA can support current and future regulatory needs. This report is the product
of that assessment. The Subcommittee concluded that science at the FDA is in a precarious
position: the Agency suffers from serious scientific deficiencies and is not positioned to
meet current or emerging regulatory responsibilities. The FDA cannot fulfill its mission
because its scientific base has eroded and its scientific organizational structure is weak. The FDA
cannot fulfill its mission because its scientific workforce does not have sufficient capacity and
capability. FDA does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of food for the nation. The FDA
science agenda lacks a structure and vision, as well as effective coordination. The FDA has an
inadequate and ineffective program for scientist performance. Recommendations of excellent FDA
reviews are seldom followed.
Note: The above excerpts are all taken from the chapter headings in the initial table of contents
and the second page of the initial overview.

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

2007-10-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html?ex=1349150400...
When the Justice Department publicly declared torture abhorrent in a legal opinion in December
2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited
presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzaless arrival as
attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one
in secret. It was a very different document; according to officials briefed on it, [it was] an
expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central
Intelligence Agency. The new opinion ... for the first time provided explicit authorization to
barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including
head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures. Later that year, as Congress moved
toward outlawing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the Justice Department issued
another secret opinion. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A.
interrogation methods violated that standard. The classified opinions, never previously disclosed,
are a hidden legacy of President Bushs second term and Mr. Gonzaless tenure at the Justice
Department. Congress and the Supreme Court have intervened repeatedly in the last two years to
impose limits on interrogations, and the administration has responded as a policy matter by
dropping the most extreme techniques. But the 2005 Justice Department opinions remain in effect,

and their legal conclusions have been confirmed by several more recent memorandums, officials
said. They show how the White House has succeeded in preserving the broadest possible legal
latitude for harsh tactics.

"One of the Eeriest Moments Amid the Carnage of 9/11"

2007-09-12, CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0709/12/acd.01.html
JOHN KING: Today, six years after 9/11, a mystery endures about just what happened in the skies
over the White House that terrible day. A plane flew right over it, but why, and what was it? For
conspiracy theorists, the image is a gold mine. It appeared overhead just before 10 a.m., a fourengine jet ... in the nation's most off-limits airspace. On the White House grounds and the rooftop,
a nervous scramble. And still today, no one will offer an official explanation of what we saw. Two
government sources familiar with the incident tell CNN it was a military aircraft. They say the
details are classified. This comparison of the CNN video and an official Air Force photo
suggests the mystery plane is among the military's most sensitive aircraft, an Air Force E4B. Note the flag on the tail, the stripe around the fuselage, and the telltale bubble just
behind the 747 cockpit area. MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: There are
many commercial versions of the 747 ... that look similar, but I don't think any of them that have
the communications pod like the ... Air Force E-4 does behind the cockpit. KING: The E-4B is a
state of the art flying command post, built and equipped for one reason: to keep the government
running no matter what, even in the event of a nuclear war, the reason it was nicknamed the
doomsday plane during the Cold War. Ask the Pentagon, and it insists this is not a military aircraft,
and there is no mention of it in the official report of the 9/11 Commission. [In] sum: the lack of any
official explanation feeds an ominous conspiracy. This is from an online discussion about the plane
on the web site 911blogger.com. "I have always thought these planes were exactly that, mission
control for the 9/11 attack on our country."
Note: For many other anomalous major media reports which collectively suggest that the official
story of 9/11 may be a cover-up, click here.

Dirty Secret: Green Cars Automakers Won't Sell You

2007-09-01, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024974
On a recent run from Boston to Cape Cod, I test drove the 2008 Honda Accord, the latest version
of this family favorite. The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine
that's cleaner than many hybrid systems. There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultragreen Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless
you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher
pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that
meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short. Not only can't you buy

one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars
outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act in the kind of delicious
irony only our government can pull off anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in
an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its
dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only
for the special states. So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a
gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000
miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions
as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the
tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities. PZEV models
are already available from Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM, Subaru, Volvo and VW. But chances are,
you've never heard of them.
Note: For many exciting articles about new, efficient and clean energy inventions, click here.

Iraq corruption whistleblowers face penalties

2007-08-25, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430153/
One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the
massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted. Or worse. For daring to report
illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in
a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods. He had
thought he was doing a good and noble thing when he started telling the FBI about the guns and
the land mines and the rocket-launchers all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary,
he said. The buyers were Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi
embassy and ministry employees. The seller, he claimed, was the Iraqi-owned company he
worked for, Shield Group Security Co. It was a Wal-Mart for guns, he says. It was all illegal and
everyone knew it. So Vance says he blew the whistle, supplying photos and documents and other
intelligence to an FBI agent in his hometown of Chicago because he didnt know whom to trust in
Iraq. For his trouble, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American military prison
outside Baghdad. Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8 billion of it
has disappeared. If you do it, you will be destroyed, said William Weaver, professor of
political science at the University of Texas-El Paso and senior advisor to the National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition. Reconstruction is so rife with corruption. Sometimes people ask
me, Should I do this? And my answer is no. If theyre married, theyll lose their family.
They will lose their jobs. They will lose everything, Weaver said.

1934: The Plot Against America

2007-07-28, Harper's magazine
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000651

In November 1934, federal investigators uncovered an amazing plot involving some two dozen
senior businessmen, a good many of them Wall Street financiers, to topple the government of the
United States and install a fascist dictatorship. An alert FDR shut it down but stopped short of
retaliatory measures against the plotters. A key element of the plot involved [Smedley Butler], a
retired prominent general who was to have raised a private army of 500,000 men from
unemployed veterans and who blew the whistle when he learned more of what the plot entailed.
The plot was heavily funded and well developed and had strong links with fascist forces abroad. A
story in the New York Times and several other newspapers reported on it, and a special
Congressional committee was created to conduct an investigation. The records of this committee
were scrubbed and sealed away in the National Archives, where they have only recently been
made available. The Congressional committee kept the names of many of the participants under
wraps and no criminal action was ever brought against them. But a few names have leaked out.
And one is Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the incumbent president. Prescott Bush was ...
deep into the business of the Hamburg-America Lines, and had tight relations throughout
this period with the new Government that had come to power in Germany a year earlier
under Chancellor Adolph Hitler. It appears that Bush was to have formed a key liaison for the
group with the new German government. The role of the most powerful political dynastic family in
the nations history in this whole affair is shocking.
Note: You can listen to the highly revealing BBC Radio broadcast on Bush/Nazi ties by clicking
here. And to watch an eye-opening History Channel documentary on the coup plot, click here. U.S.
Marine Corps General Smedley Butler was the author of the landmark book "War is a Racket,"
summarized here.

State Vote Machines Lose Test To Hackers

2007-07-28, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper), Front Page
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/28/MNGP6R8TJO1.DTL
State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of
virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of
some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study. The
researchers "were able to bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested,''
said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who authorized the "top to bottom review" of every voting
system certified by the state. Neither Bowen nor the investigators were willing to say exactly
how vulnerable California elections are to computer hackers. The review included voting
equipment from every company approved for use in the state. Bowen said ... that the report is only
one piece of information she will use to decide which voting systems are secure enough to use in
February's presidential primary election.
Note: For more reliable, verifiable information on the problems with new electronic voting
machines, click here.

Agency's Strangeloves altered mind of a girl aged 4

2007-06-28, The Australian (Australia's national daily newspaper)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21980496-2703,00.html
Easily lost, on page 425, in the mass of the CIA's notorious "Family Jewels" files is a short
paragraph outlining "potentially embarrassing Agency activities". "Experiments in influencing
human behaviour through the administration of mind- or personality-altering drugs to unwitting
subjects." Of all the heinous acts committed by the CIA in the name of national security, these
experiments, done on the agency's behalf by prominent psychiatrists on innocent victims including children as young as four - may be the darkest. "We have no answer to the moral issue,"
former director Richard Helms infamously said when asked about the nature of the projects. The
release of the Family Jewels documents revealed the CIA handsomely funded these real-life Dr
Strangeloves and engaged pharmaceutical companies to help its experiments. The agency
appealed to Big Pharma to pass on any drugs that could not be marketed because of
"unfavourable side effects" to be tested on mice and monkeys. Any drugs that passed muster
would then be used ... on volunteer US soldiers. The Family Jewels files do not provide further
detail into the numerous mind-control programs, such as MKULTRA, covertly propped up by the
agency. In 1953, MKULTRA was given 6 per cent of the total CIA budget without any
oversight. The nature of the experiments, gathered from government documents and testimony in
numerous lawsuits brought against the CIA, is shocking, from testing LSD on children to implanting
electrodes in victims' brains to deliberately poisoning people with uranium. "The CIA bought my
services from my grandfather in 1952 starting at the tender age of four," wrote Carol Rutz of
her experiences.
Note: The entire body of the CIA's "Family Jewels" documents have been posted online by the
National Security Archives, and can be read by clicking here. And for a 10-page summary of Carol
Rutz's riveting book on her experiences as a government-created Manchurian candidate, click
here.

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

2007-06-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR20070623008...
Part One: 'A Different Understanding With the President': In less than an hour ... Cheney's
proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects
held by the United States were stripped of access to any court -- civilian or military, domestic or
foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed
"military commissions." "What the hell just happened?" Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
demanded ... when CNN announced the order that evening, Nov. 13, 2001. National security
adviser Condoleezza Rice, incensed, sent an aide to find out. Even witnesses to the Oval Office
signing said they did not know the vice president had played any part. "Angler," as the Secret
Service code-named him, has approached the levers of power obliquely, skirting orderly
lines of debate he once enforced as chief of staff to President Gerald R. Ford. He has

battled a bureaucracy he saw as hostile, using intimate knowledge of its terrain. He has
empowered aides to fight above their rank, taking on roles reserved in other times for a White
House counsel or national security adviser. And he has found a ready patron in George W. Bush
for edge-of-the-envelope views on executive supremacy that previous presidents did not assert.
Over the past six years, Cheney has shaped his times as no vice president has before. [The]
relationship [between Bush and Cheney] is opaque, a vital unknown in assessing Cheney's impact
on events. Officials who see them together often, not all of them admirers of the vice president,
detect a strong sense of mutual confidence that Cheney is serving Bush's aims.
Note: This is an important, in-depth investigation of the Cheney vice-presidency. It is highly
revealing and well worth reading it its entirety.

U.S. health care is bad for your health

2007-06-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/03/EDGHQP1J6K1.DTL
[A new] study ... finds that not only is the U.S. health care system the most expensive in the
world (double that of the next most costly comparator country, Canada) but comes in dead
last in almost any measure of performance. Although U.S. political leaders are fond of stating
that we have the best health-care system in the world, they fail to acknowledge an important
caveat: It is the best only for the very rich. For the rest of the population, its deficits far outweigh its
advantages. [The] study compared the United States with Australia, Canada, Germany, New
Zealand and the United Kingdom. Although the most notable way in which the United States differs
from the other countries is in the absence of universal coverage, the United States is also last on
dimensions of access, patient safety, efficiency and equity. The other five countries considered
spend considerably less on health care, both per capita and as a percent of gross domestic
product, than the United States. The United States spends $7,000 per person per year on health
care, almost double that of Australia, Canada and Germany, each of which achieve better results
on health status indicators than the United States. The United States also lags behind all
industrialized nations in terms of health coverage. 46.6 million Americans (about 15.9 percent of
the population) had no health insurance coverage during 2005. It is no wonder, then, that medical
bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States.
Note: For a treasure trove of reliable information on health, click here.

Who really did kill Kennedy?

2007-05-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/13/RVG5FPLIMF1.DTL
David Talbot, founder of Salon.com ... believes that new evidence, including his own research
encompassing more than 150 interviews, further undermines the conclusions of the Warren
Commission Report. [His new book] "Brothers" ... stresses the extent to which the Kennedy

administration faced political pressure from the extreme right, including elements of the CIA
leadership, the national security apparatus [and] anti-Castro Cubans. JFK incurred the wrath of his
enemies and incubated a desire for revenge in many of them. The author will convince many ...
that the likelihood of a conspiracy to assassinate JFK (and maybe RFK) is significant. Talbot's
highly readable, at times gripping book makes the case for releasing the classified documents
pertaining to the JFK assassination. Declassified JFK files reveal that in 1963, [CIA agent George]
Joannides was the agent in charge of one of the most powerful Cuban anti-Castro organizations in
Miami, the Revolutionary Students Directorate, or DRE. A few months before JFK's assassination,
the DRE had significant contact with Lee Harvey Oswald. In the course of four intensive
investigations of the JFK assassination, however, the CIA failed to divulge information
about this connection, or even that Joannides was the CIA officer assigned to manage the
DRE, and refused to release important parts of Joannides' personnel file. In September, on
grounds of national security, the CIA successfully thwarted a request for such information. Until it is
released, many ... will reasonably speculate that crucial information about the JFK assassination is
being concealed.
Note: For more reliable information on the Kennedy assassination and more, click here. The
History Channel also has an excellent documentary showing beyond doubt there was more than
one gunman. To order this highly revealing documentary, click here.

Ex-CIA official, contractor face new charges

2007-05-11, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18622361
New charges have been filed alleging that a former top CIA official pushed a proposed $100 million
government contract for his best friend in return for lavish vacations, private jet flights and a
lucrative job offer. The indictment [brings] charges ... against Kyle Dusty Foggo, who resigned
from the spy agency a year ago, and ... defense contractor Brent Wilkes. The charges grew from
the bribery scandal that landed former U.S. Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham in prison. The pair
now face 30 wide-ranging counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering [including that] Foggo
provided Wilkes with sensitive, internal information related to ... national security, including
classified information, to help him prepare proposals for providing undercover flights for the CIA
under the guise of a civil aviation company and armored vehicles for agency operations. Then, he
pushed his CIA colleagues to hire Wilkes companies without disclosing their friendship,
prosecutors allege. In a June 2005 e-mail to the head of CIA air operations quoted in the
indictment, Foggo offered to use some EXDIR grease on Wilkes behalf. Foggo was the
agencys executive director at the time. In return, Wilkes offered to hire Foggo after he retired
from government service. [An] initial indictment in February charged the pair with 11 counts of the
same charges in connection with a $1.7 million water-supply contract Foggo allegedly helped win
for one of Wilkes companies while he was working as a logistics coordinator at a CIA supply hub
overseas. Foggo, the former No. 3 official at the CIA, resigned from the spy agency after his house
and office were raided by federal agents.

Note: Until just a few years ago, there was a virtual blackout in the media on any negative
coverage of the CIA. The prosecution of the #3 man in the CIA is an external manifestation of huge
shake-ups going on behind the scenes. Buzzy Krongard, the previous #3 at the CIA has been
linked to the millions of dollars in suspicious stock option trades made just prior to 9/11 that were
never claimed, though this received little media coverage.

Man with tuberculosis jailed for not wearing mask

2007-04-03, CNN/Associated Press
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/04/03/tuberculosis.confinement.ap
Behind the county hospital's tall cinderblock walls, a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient ... sits in a jail
cell equipped with a ventilation system that keeps germs from escaping. Robert Daniels has been
locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged
with a crime. Instead, he suffers from an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. It is
considered virtually untreatable. County health authorities obtained a court order to lock him up as
a danger to the public because ... he did not heed doctors' instructions to wear a mask in public.
"I'm being treated worse than an inmate," Daniels said. "I'm all alone. Four walls. Even the door to
my room has been locked. I haven't seen my reflection in months." He said sheriff's deputies will
not let him take a shower -- he cleans himself with wet wipes -- and have taken away his
television, radio, personal phone and computer. His only visitors are masked medical staff
members who come in to give him his medication. Though Daniels' confinement is extremely rare,
health experts say it is a situation that U.S. public health officials may have to confront
more and more because of the spread of drug-resistant TB and the emergence of diseases
such as SARS and avian flu.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. What possible reason is there for taking away this man's
TV, radio, cell phone, and computer? Are we being prepared for mass quarantines and
imprisonment due to disease? For more, click here.

Former governor says he saw UFO

2007-03-21, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/03/former-gover...
It's not everyday a former governor tells you he witnessed a UFO that he believes came from
another world. But that's what Fife Symington, who served as governor of Arizona for six years in
the 1990s, just did. Symington ... says he saw what is now referred to as the "Phoenix Lights."
Exactly 10 years ago, thousands of Arizonans saw an object in the sky described by witnesses as
larger than a football field with brilliant lights. It was also videotaped by many. Witnesses say it
made no noise. Symington was governor at the time, and not only did he never publicly mention
that he saw it, but there are many who feel he ridiculed those who did. The governor held a news
conference after the sightings in which he claimed the case had been solved. At that point, a man
in an alien costume walked into the room. That "alien" was his chief of staff. The creators of a film

about UFOs called "Out of the Blue" contacted Symington because they are updating their
documentary. After being asked questions about the 1997 episode, Symington told the
filmmakers that he did indeed see the UFO but said nothing publicly, in part, because he
didn't want to scare Arizonans. Symington [says] what he saw in the sky that night was
"otherworldly" and he believes it was an "alien spacecraft." He is a U.S. Air Force veteran who
served in Vietnam and is highly doubtful it was some secret military craft.
Note: For a three-minute CNN video interview with the ex-governor, click here. For the CNN
transcript, click here. If you are at all open to the possibility of UFOs, the film mentioned in this
article, Out of the Blue, is a powerful, amazing collection of reliable information and video clips on
UFOs which was aired on the Sci-Fi channel and ended up being its most watched episode. To
watch this incredible documentary free, click here.

Cars that make hybrids look like gas guzzlers

2007-03-04, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/04/ING44OD4AS1.DTL
Toyota Prius owners tend to be a proud lot since they drive the fuel-efficient hybrid gas-electric car
that's ... one of the hottest-selling vehicles in America. A few, however, felt that good was not good
enough. They've made "improvements" even though the modifications voided parts of their
warranties. Why? Five words: one hundred miles per gallon. "We took the hybrid car to its logical
conclusion," [Felix] Kramer says, by adding more batteries and the ability to recharge by plugging
into a regular electrical socket at night. Compared with the Prius' fuel efficiency of 50 mpg, plug-in
hybrids use half as much gasoline by running more on cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity.
These trendsetters monkeyed with the car ... to make a point: If they could make a plug-in
hybrid, the major car companies could, too. Kramer ... and a cadre of volunteers formed the
California Cars Initiative (online at calcars.org). They added inexpensive lead-acid batteries ...
giving the car over 100 mpg in local driving and 50 to 80 mpg on the highway. The cost of
conversion is about $5,000 for a do-it-yourselfer. Several small companies like EnergyCS ...
started doing small numbers of conversions for fleets and government agencies using longerlasting, more energy-dense lithium-ion batteries. Kramer hired EnergyCS to convert his Prius and
reported on a typical day of driving. Compared with driving his Prius before the conversion, he ...
spewed out two-thirds less greenhouse gases at a total cost of $1.76 for electricity and gasoline,
instead of the $3.17 it would have required on gasoline alone. People want plug-in hybrids but
can't get them. Dealers don't sell them yet, and the few conversion services cater to fleets.
Note: For a video and educational package to guide those who want to build a 100 mpg car, see
www.eaa-phev.org. For why the car companies with their massive budgets haven't developed cars
like this, click here.

An Orwellian solution to kids skipping school

2007-02-20, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta's leading newspaper)

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/02/19/0220truants.html
Let's say your teenager is a habitual truant and there is nothing you can do about it. A
Washington area politician thinks he might have the solution: Fit the child with a Global
Positioning System chip, then have police track him down. "It allows them to get caught
easier," said Maryland Delegate Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George's), who recently co-sponsored
legislation in the House that would use electronic surveillance as part of a broader truancy
reduction plan. "It's going to be done unobtrusively. The chips are tiny and can be put into a
hospital ID band or a necklace." Niemann's legislation mirrors a bill sponsored by state Sen.
Gwendolyn Britt (D-Prince George's). Both would provide truants and their parents with better
access to social services, such as mental health evaluations and help with schoolwork. Electronic
monitoring would be a last resort. Still, the prospect of tagging children and using them in some
"catch and release" hunt by police casts a pall over everything that's good about the plan. Odd
how billions and billions of dollars keep going to a war that almost nobody wants, but there's never
enough to fund the educational programs that nearly everybody says are needed. Aimed solely at
students in Prince George's the only predominantly black county in the Washington area the
truancy effort is called a "pilot program," a first-of-its-kind experiment. It would cost $400,000 to
keep track of about 660 students a year.
Note: For more reliable information on the push to microchip the entire population, click here.

Making Martial Law Easier

2007-02-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/opinion/19mon3.html?ex=1329541200&en=b63c90...
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American
democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into
the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administrations behest that makes it easier for a
president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law. The provision,
signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the
doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law
enforcement. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which ... essentially limits a presidents use
of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a
state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights. The newly enacted
provisions upset this careful balance. The president may now use military troops as a
domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack
or to any other condition. Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a
thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without
hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the
measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nations
governors.

Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half

2007-02-18, The Telegraph (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/19/ccview19.xml
Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated
electricity. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut
oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Anil Sethi, the chief executive of the Swiss start-up
company Flisom, says he looks forward to the day - not so far off - when entire cities in America
and Europe generate their heating, lighting and air-conditioning needs from solar films on buildings
with enough left over to feed a surplus back into the grid. The secret? A piece of dark polymer foil,
as thin a sheet of paper. It is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings. It can be massproduced in cheap rolls like packaging - in any colour. The "tipping point" will arrive when the
capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. The
best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s. Mr Sethi
believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a
decade. "We don't need subsidies, we just need governments to get out of the way and do
no harm," he said. Solar use [has] increased dramatically in Japan and above all Germany,
where Berlin's green energy law passed in 2004 forces the grid to buy surplus electricity from
households at a fat premium. The tipping point in Germany and Japan came once households
[understood] that they could undercut their unloved utilities. Credit Lyonnais believes the rest of the
world will soon join the stampede. Needless to say, electricity utilities are watching the solar
revolution with horror.
Note: Why is this inspiring, important news getting so little press coverage? And why not more
solar subsidies? For a possible answer, click here. And for an amazing new energy source not yet
reported in the major media which could make even solar energy obsolete, click here.

18,000 children die every day of hunger, U.N. says

2007-02-17, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-17-un-hunger_x.htm
Some 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go
to bed every night with empty stomachs, a "terrible indictment of the world in 2007," the head of
the U.N. food agency said. James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based
groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate
and eliminate hunger especially among children. Morris, an American businessman and former
president [of] the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, one of the largest charitable organizations
in the U.S., ... said that while the percentage of people who are hungry and malnourished has
decreased from a fifth of the world's population to a sixth of the population, the actual number of
hungry people is growing by about 5 million people a year because of the rising population.
"Today 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children,"
Morris said. Morris said the largest number of malnourished children are in India more than 100

million followed by nearly 40 million in China. Elsewhere, there are probably 100 million hungry
children in the rest of Asia, another 100 million in Africa where countries have fewer resources to
help, and 30 million in Latin America, he said.
Note: Why aren't more people supporting programs to stop starvation in our world. Do we care?
Do you care? For one way you personally can help without spending any money, click here.

Nazis rode to war on GM wheels

2007-01-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/07/INGPHNCLHH1.DTL
In the late spring of 1933, concentration camps such as Dachau were generating headlines
reporting great brutality. Nonetheless, GM and Germany began a strategic business relationship.
General Motors World, the company house organ, covered [a 1934] May Day event glowingly in a
several-page cover story, stressing Hitler's boundless affinity for children. The next day, May 2,
1934, after practicing his sieg heil in front of a mirror, [President of GM Overseas Corp. James]
Mooney ... went to meet Hitler. As Mooney traversed the long approach to Hitler's desk, he began
to pump his arm in a stern-faced sieg heil. This was ... one of many contacts between the Nazis
and GM officials that are spotlighted in thousands of pages of little-known and restricted Nazi-era
and New Deal-era documents. The biggest automotive manufacturer in Germany -- indeed in all of
Europe -- was General Motors, which since 1929 had owned and operated the longtime German
company Opel. A few weeks after the [Hitler meeting], General Motors World effusively recounted
... "Hitler is a strong man, well fitted to lead the German people. He is leading them, not by force or
fear, but by intelligent planning." In 1937, almost 17 percent of Opel's Blitz trucks were sold directly
to the Nazi military. That military sales figure was increased to 29 percent in 1938. In 1938, just
months after the Nazi annexation of Austria, Mooney, head of GM's overseas operations,
received the German Eagle with Cross, the highest medal Hitler awarded to foreign
commercial collaborators and supporters.

First, do no harm (to whites)

2006-12-31, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/31/RVGNGN44B91.DTL&type=...
[Book Review of] Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black
Americans From Colonial Times to the Present. Harriet Washington opens the door on the torture
room in "Medical Apartheid". Experimental operations on the skulls of slave children, Washington
writes, were a favorite pursuit of a particularly sadistic South Carolinian doctor named J. Marion
Sims, widely revered today as the "father of gynecology." For years, Sims experimented on a
group of slave women, to whom he refused anesthesia. The most notorious post-slavery racial
crime of American medicine [was] the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, conducted by the U.S. Public
Health Service between 1932 and 1972. More than 100 black subjects ... were denied
treatment, even and especially after the discovery of penicillin in 1943. The research

required that they suffer and die, the more slowly the better. Tuskegee was hardly unique. The
Rockefeller Institute ... conducted a study in 1910 that saw 470 black syphilitics injected with a
deadly strain of malaria. Black Americans were also disproportionately used ... as subjects in
government inquiries into the effects of radiation. Washington's chilling history ends with
contemporary case studies. At the Incarnation Children's Center in New York, Columbia University
doctors continue to administer experimental AIDS drugs to minority orphans, even after many
develop painful and debilitating reactions. As for current clinical trials in Africa, Washington
describes the continent as the new "laboratory for the West," where unsuspecting patients
regularly receive experimental therapies that might never receive state sanction in the United
States or Europe.
Note: For more reliable, verifiable information on major corruption in the health industry, click here.
It's also interesting to not that no other major media chose to review this important book.

Eli Lilly Said to Play Down Risk of Top Pill

2006-12-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/business/17drug.html
The drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down the health risks of
Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, according to hundreds of internal Lilly
documents and e-mail messages among top company managers. The documents ... show that
Lilly executives kept important information from doctors about Zyprexas links to obesity and its
tendency to raise blood sugar both known risk factors for diabetes. Lillys own published data,
which it told its sales representatives to play down in conversations with doctors, has
shown that 30 percent of patients taking Zyprexa gain 22 pounds or more after a year on
the drug, and some patients have reported gaining 100 pounds or more. But Lilly was
concerned that Zyprexas sales would be hurt if the company was more forthright about the fact
that the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes, according to the documents,
which cover the period 1995 to 2004. Zyprexa has become by far Lillys best-selling product, with
sales of $4.2 billion last year, when about two million people worldwide took the drug. Critics,
including the American Diabetes Association, have argued that Zyprexa, introduced in 1996, is
more likely to cause diabetes than other widely used schizophrenia drugs. As early as 1999, the
documents show that Lilly worried that side effects from Zyprexa, whose chemical name is
olanzapine, would hurt sales. Olanzapine-associated weight gain and possible hyperglycemia is a
major threat to the long-term success of this critically important molecule, Dr. Alan Breier wrote in
a November 1999 e-mail message to two-dozen Lilly employees.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Opium, thugs bloom under U.S. policies in Afghanistan war

2006-12-17, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/17/ING08MTPMB1.DTL

The Taliban ... briefly banned poppy cultivation in 2000 in an effort to gain U.S. diplomatic
recognition and aid. When the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan in October 2001,
poppies were grown on only 7,600 hectares. Under the American occupation ... poppy
cultivation spread to every province, and overall production has increased exponentially
ever since -- this year by 60 percent. Within Afghanistan, where perhaps 3 million people draw
direct income from poppy, profits may reach $3 billion this year. In-country profit adds up to an
estimated 60 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, or more than half the country's
annual income. Afghanistan provides 92 percent of the world's heroin. Through many
administrations, the U.S. government has been implicated in the Afghan drug trade. Before the
American and Pakistani-sponsored mujahedeen took on the Soviets in 1979, Afghanistan
produced a very small amount of opium for regional markets, and no heroin at all. By the end of
the jihad against the Soviet army, it was the world's top producer of both drugs. The CIA made it all
possible by providing legal cover for these operations. The United States [encouraged] Islamist
extremists (then "our" soldiers) and ... set the stage for the Taliban. [Currently,] President Hamid
Karzai['s] strategy is to avoid confrontation, befriend potential adversaries and give them offices,
often in his Cabinet. The trade penetrates even the elected Parliament. Among the 249 members
of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) are at least 17 known drug traffickers, in addition to 40
commanders of armed militias, 24 members of criminal gangs, and 19 men facing serious
allegations of war crimes.
Note: Could it be that some U.S. officials are turning a blind eye, or even supporting this drug
trade? For some very strong evidence of this from a former award-winning DEA agent turned
journalist and author, click here.

Government Accountability Office Report

2006-12-15, Comptroller General of the United States
http://fms.treas.gov/fr/06frusg/06gao2.pdf
The Secretary of the Treasury ... is required annually to submit financial statements for the U.S.
government to the President and the Congress. GAO is required to audit these statements. Certain
material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted
in conditions that continued to prevent us from expressing an opinion on the accompanying
consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2006 and 2005. The
federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. While we are
unable to express an opinion ... the following key items deserve emphasis. The U.S.
governments total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal
exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing
approximately four times the Nations total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about
$20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000. The retirement of thebaby boom generation
is [also] closer to becoming a reality with the first wave of boomers eligible for early retirement
under Social Security in 2008. It seems clear that the nations current fiscal path is unsustainable
and that tough choices by the President and the Congress are necessary in order to address the
nations large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance. Other material weaknesses were the federal

governments inability to: determine the full extent to which improper payments exist; identify and
resolve information security control weaknesses; and effectively manage its tax collection
activities.
Note: The full 172-page report is available here. Why didn't any of the media cover this eyeopening report? Is the fact that the national debt has risen 150% since 2000 not news? For a
possible answer, click here. To learn of the trillions of unaccounted for dollars in the military, click
here.

Nobel Winner Urges Defeat Of Poverty

2006-12-10, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/world/main2244007.shtml
Economist Muhammad Yunus ... received the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday for his efforts to
relieve poverty as a cornerstone for building peace. Yunus, 66, often called the banker to the
poor, shared the coveted award with his creation, Grameen Bank, for helping people, even
beggars, rise above poverty by giving them microcredit small, usually unsecured loans.
The Bangladeshi economist is the developer and founder of the concept of microcredit. In his
Nobel lecture Yunus said the world must overcome poverty if it ever wants to achieve peace. "We
must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time to come. I believe that putting
resources into improving the lives of the poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns,"
he said. Grameen Bank, set up in 1983, was the first lender to provide microcredit, giving very
small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No
collateral is needed, and repayment is based on an honour system, with nearly a 100 percent
repayment rate. Yunus said the idea has spread around the world, with similar programmes in
almost every country. "Grameen Bank gives loans to nearly seven million poor people, 97 per cent
of them are women, in 73,000 villages in Bangladesh," said Yunus. Villagers, many of whom have
benefited from Grameen Bank's small-loan programs [watched the Nobel ceremony] in groups at
local shops. "We are so happy, wish we could all have gone there," said Samida Begum, talking by
telephone from Kelia village. Begum runs a phone call shop started with a Grameen Bank loan
almost 18 years ago. Her family also owns a poultry shop started with a loan from Grameen.
Note: If you are interested in a wonderful, empowering, secure vehicle in which to place your
investments that helps to directly pull families out of poverty in a big way through microcredit and
microloans, click here.

Insiders' stock sale-purchase ratio widens

2006-12-07, Chicago Tribune/Bloomberg
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0612070153dec07,0,3801935.story

Stock sales by America's corporate leaders exceeded purchases last month by the widest ratio in
nearly 20 years. Executives sold $63.18 of shares for every $1 they bought in November, the
largest ratio since at least January 1987. U.S. securities laws require company executives and
directors to disclose stock purchases or sales within two business days. Insiders sold $8.4 billion in
shares last month, according to data compiled from SEC filings. Buying was ... $133 million. The
overall insider-selling amount was the fifth-highest since 1987. Selling peaked at $13.9 billion in
March 2000. The data have "value for investors," said Wayne Reisner at Carret Asset
Management in New York. "It's people who are very familiar with their company and their stock."
Insiders executed 6.34 sales transactions for each purchase transaction in the eight weeks ended
Dec. 1. That's up from 2.45 in the period ended Aug. 4 and above the ratio of 2.25 he considers
neutral for the market. Microsoft ranked first among U.S. companies, with $594.2 million in sales
by insiders in November. Seagate Technology and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. ranked
second and third, at $311.8 million and $224.2 million, respectively. Google Inc. was fourth, at
$182.1 million.
Note: Isn't it interesting that the NASDAQ stock index reached it's all-time high in March 2000,
the exact month executive stock selling hit its record, and just prior to the huge NASDAQ
crash. Is it possible that corporate executives knew something the rest of us didn't?

World's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers

2006-12-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/dec/06/business.internationalnews
The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet's wealth, according to the largest
study yet of wealth distribution. The report also finds that those in financial services and the
internet sectors predominate among the super rich. Europe, the US and some Asia Pacific nations
account for most of the extremely wealthy. More than a third live in the US. Japan accounts for
27% of the total, the UK for 6% and France for 5%. The global study - from the World Institute for
Development Economics Research of the United Nations - is the first to chart wealth distribution in
every country as opposed to just income, for which more comprehensive date is available. It
included all the most significant components of household wealth, including financial assets and
debts, land, buildings and other tangible property. Together these total $125 trillion globally. The
report found the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total of global assets.
Half the world's adult population, however, owned barely 1% of global wealth. "These levels
of inequality are grotesque," said Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam. "It is impossible to
justify such vast wealth when 800 million people go to bed hungry every night."
Note: For highly informative graphs showing the details of rising wealth inequality in the United
States, click here.

Pentagon resists pleas for help in Afghan opium fight

2006-12-05, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-fg-afghandrugs5dec05,...
The Pentagon ... has resisted entreaties from U.S. anti-narcotics officials to play an aggressive
role in the faltering campaign to curb the country's opium trade. Military units in Afghanistan
largely overlook drug bazaars, rebuff some requests to take U.S. drug agents on raids and
do little to counter the organized crime syndicates shipping the drug to Europe, Asia and,
increasingly, the United States. Poppy cultivation has exploded, increasing by more than half
this year. Afghanistan supplies about 92% of the world's opium. "It is surprising to me that we have
allowed things to get to the point that they have," said ... a former top State Department counternarcotics official. Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that Afghanistan's
flourishing opium trade is a law enforcement problem, not a military one. The opium trade is onethird of the country's economy. Several dozen kingpins ... have become more brazen, richer and
powerful. [They] openly run huge opium bazaars and labs that turn opium into heroin. [The] head
of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said ... that the location of major drug operations
were "well-known to us and to the authorities." The Pentagon has balked at drug interdiction efforts
even when it had the resources, said a former senior U.S. anti-drug official. "There were [drug]
convoys where military people looked the other way," the former official said. "DEA would identify a
lab to go hit or a storage facility and [the Pentagon] would find a reason to ground the helicopters."
A recent congressional report said the DEA asked the Pentagon for airlifts on 26 occasions in
2005, and the requests were denied in all but three cases.
Note: Some observers and insiders believe the reason Afghanistan was attacked is because the
Taliban had virtually stopped the opium trade in 2001. For reliable evidence supporting these
allegations, click here.

World's wealth gap grows; poorest half has 1% of assets

2006-12-05, Denver Post (Denver's leading newspaper)
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_4785148
The richest 2 percent of adults still own more than half of the world's household wealth,
perpetuating a yawning global gap between rich and poor, according to research published
Tuesday. The report from the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research
shows that in 2000 the richest 1 percent of adults - most of whom live in Europe or the
United States - owned 40 percent of global assets. The richest 10 percent of adults
accounted for 85 percent of assets. By contrast, the bottom 50 percent of the world's adult
population owned barely 1 percent of the world's wealth. "Income inequality has been rising
for the past 20 to 25 years, and we think that is true for inequality in the distribution of wealth," said
James Davies, a professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario, one of the report's
authors. But ... there are some hopeful signs: China and India, which are developing rapidly, are
gaining wealth, and in countries such as Bangladesh, the spread of microcredit institutions is
helping people increase their personal wealth.
Note: If you are interested in a secure vehicle in which to place your investments which helps to
directly pull families out of poverty in a big way through microcredit and microloans, click here.

Blowing the Whistle on Big Oil

2006-12-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/business/yourmoney/03whistle.html?ex=132280...
During a 22-year career, Bobby L. Maxwell routinely won accolades and awards as one of the
Interior Departments best auditors in the nations oil patch. Mr. Maxwells career has been
characterized by exceptional performance and significant contributions, wrote Gale A. Norton,
then the secretary of the interior, in a 2003 citation. Less than two years later, the Interior
Department eliminated his job. That came exactly one week after a federal judge in Denver
unsealed a lawsuit in which Mr. Maxwell contended that a major oil company had spent years
cheating on royalty payments. Invoking a law that rewards private citizens who expose fraud
against the government, Mr. Maxwell has filed a suit [which] contends that the Interior Department
ignored audits indicating that Kerr-McGee was cheating. Maxwell says his first serious doubts
about the Interior Department originated in 1998, when the agency reluctantly began to investigate
accusations of systematic cheating on royalties for oil. Several of the nations biggest oil
companies eventually settled that investigation by paying nearly $440 million. Mr. Maxwell said,
There have always been people who dont want to pursue things. But now its grown into a major
illness. Broader investigations by Congress and the Interior Departments own inspector general
[are investigating] whether the agency properly collects the money for oil and gas pumped from
public land. The Interior Departments inspector general told a House subcommittee in September
that senior officials at the agency had repeatedly glossed over ethical lapses. Short of crime,
anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior, declared Earl E.
Devaney, the inspector general.
Note: If you want to understand how corruption can grow and fester in large government agencies,
this entire article is highly educational and revealing.

Experts Concerned as Ballot Problems Persist

2006-11-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/us/politics/26vote.html?ex=1322197200&en=0d...
After six years of technological research, more than $4 billion spent by Washington on new
machinery and a widespread overhaul of the nations voting system, this months midterm election
revealed that the country is still far from able to ensure that every vote counts. Tens of thousands
of voters, scattered across more than 25 states, encountered serious problems at the polls. The
difficulties led to shortages of substitute paper ballots and long lines that caused many voters to
leave without casting ballots. Voting experts say it is impossible to say how many votes were not
counted that should have been. In Florida alone, the discrepancies ... amount to more than 60,000
votes. In Colorado, as many as 20,000 people gave up trying to vote ... as new online
systems for verifying voter registrations crashed repeatedly. In Arkansas, election officials
tallied votes three times in one county, and each time the number of ballots cast changed
by more than 30,000. Election experts say that with electronic voting machines, the potential

consequences of misdeeds or errors are of a [great] magnitude. A single software error can affect
thousands of votes, especially with machines that keep no paper record. In Ohio, thousands of
voters were turned away or forced to file provisional ballots by poll workers puzzled by voteridentification rules. In Pennsylvania, the machines crashed or refused to start, producing many
reports of vote-flipping [where] voters press the button for one candidate but a different candidates
name appears on the screen. In Ohio, even a congressman, Steve Chabot, a Republican, was
turned away from his polling place because the address listed on his drivers license was different
than his home address.

Assault on Press Freedom

2006-11-26, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/26/INGAKMHOCV1.DTL
In a nation that preaches the virtues of democracy, the United States government has consistently
eroded the media's ability to report. U.S. press freedom has been slipping away since Sept. 11,
2001. Many other countries are now ranked freer than the United States. In the most recent survey
by Freedom House [the U.S.] tied for 17th place. International free-press advocates Reporters
Without Borders ranked us 53rd, tied with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. Now that we are in a
seemingly permanent "war" on terrorism, the government claims wartime powers that
result in restricting press freedom. The Bush administration has multiplied exponentially the
number of documents it classifies as secret. The office of Vice President Dick Cheney claims to be
exempt from reporting even the numbers of records it brands with the "classified" stamp. Within
weeks after 9/11, President Bush issued Executive Order 13233, allowing him to veto public
release not only of his own presidential papers but those of former [presidents]. One of former
Attorney General John Ashcroft's first post-Sept. 11 acts was to issue a directive to federal
agencies restricting access to government records under the Freedom of Information Act. Cheney
[refused] to disclose even the identity of the corporate executives he met with to determine the
administration's energy policy. The U.S. Supreme Court held ... that there is no such thing as a
First Amendment right of access to government information or facilities. The Bush administration
did not advance press freedom by producing ... favorable "news" stories with fake reporters. It is
hard to stomach the hypocrisy of claiming to spread democracy abroad while restricting at home
the very freedoms that make democracy possible.

Drug Industry Is on Defensive as Power Shifts

2006-11-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/washington/24drug.html?ex=1322024400&en=55e...
Hoping to prevent Congress from letting the government negotiate lower drug prices for millions of
older Americans on Medicare, the pharmaceutical companies have been recruiting Democratic
lobbyists [and] lining up allies in the Bush administration and Congress. Many drug company
lobbyists concede that the House is likely to pass a bill intended to drive down drug prices, but
they are determined to block such legislation in the Senate. If that strategy fails, they are counting

on President Bush to veto any bill that passes. With 49 Republicans in the Senate next year, the
industry is confident that it can round up the 34 votes normally needed to uphold a veto. They
began developing strategy last week at a meeting of the board of the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America. Billy Tauzin, president of that group [and] a former
congressman...met with Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who has been trying
for six years to allow drug imports from Canada. The industry vehemently opposes such
legislation. The 2003 Medicare law prohibits the federal government from negotiating drug prices
or establishing a list of preferred drugs. Drug makers have not set a budget for their campaign.
They and their trade groups already spend some $100 million a year on lobbying in
Washington. Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey [said] The 2003
Medicare law was essentially written by the drug industry. Drug companies may be open to some
changes in the Medicare drug benefit, but they say they cannot accept any form of price
negotiation.
Note: For lots of verifiable information on the power of the drug industry to corrupt Congress, click
here.

When Votes Disappear

2006-11-24, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/opinion/24krugman.html
There were many problems with voting in this election. In at least one Congressional race, the
evidence strongly suggests that paperless voting machines failed to count thousands of votes, and
that the disappearance of these votes delivered the race to the wrong candidate. [In] Floridas 13th
Congressional District .. according to the official vote count, the Republicans [won] narrowly. The
problem is that the official vote count isnt credible. In much of the 13th District, the voting pattern
looks normal. But in Sarasota County, which used touch-screen voting machines ... almost 18,000
voters nearly 15 percent of those who cast ballots using the machines supposedly failed to
vote for either candidate in the hotly contested Congressional race. That compares with undervote
rates ranging from 2.2 to 5.3 percent in neighboring counties. The Herald-Tribune of Sarasota ...
interviewed hundreds of voters. About a third of those interviewed by the paper reported that
they couldnt even find the Congressional race on the screen. Moreover, more than 60
percent of those interviewed ... reported that they did cast a vote in the Congressional race
but that this vote didnt show up on the ballot summary page. An Orlando Sentinel
examination of other votes cast by those who supposedly failed to cast a vote ... shows that they
strongly favored Democrats, and Mr. Buchanan won the official count by only 369 votes. For the
nation as a whole, the important thing isnt who gets seated to represent Floridas 13th District. Its
whether the voting disaster there leads to legislation requiring voter verification and a paper trail.
Ive been shocked at how little national attention the mess in Sarasota has received.

The Power of Positive Thinking

2006-11-16, CNN Larry King Live

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0611/16/lkl.01.html
Want to find true love, make more money, have the life of your dreams? Then think about it. The
power of your thoughts can improve your life. [JAMES] RAY: Science tells us that every single
thing that appears to be solid is actually energy. You put it under a high-powered microscope [and]
it's nothing more than a field of energy and a rate of vibration. Like vibrations are attracted to each
other and dissimilar vibrations repel. JOE VITALE: Whatever you focus on you get more of. If
you're focusing on lack, you're going to get more lack. If you focus on abundance, you ... get more
abundance. RAY: If you want to create [something], your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions
all need to be firing simultaneously. VITALE: You see yourself experiencing it as if it's right now.
You feel it. You live it. When you do that you accelerate the manifestation process. RAY: The whole
concept of soul mate is often inherently flawed because it says that your completion or your better
half resides outside yourself. Intellectually we know better than that. Your completion resides
inside yourself. KING: Why ... is maintaining a happy relationship [so hard]? [JACK]
CANFIELD: Because we tend to project ... the unaccepted parts of ourself out onto the
other person. We keep trying to get them to change so that we'll be happy. RAY: How can
you ever expect anyone else to enjoy your company if you don't enjoy your own? Most people are
in love with their misery. They're attending to it all the time. It's like a roaring bonfire and they're
throwing another log on it every day. VITALE: Find things to be grateful for right now. Out of that
gratitude you will find more things to be grateful for. And out of that gratitude you will find
happiness right now.
Note: To watch this highly inspiring, 45-minute program online, click here and scroll down to
"Beyond the Power of Positive Thinking 2" on the right side. Read the entire transcript at the link
above and you may very well find tools to make your life richer and fuller all the time. For
empowering ideas and suggestions on how to find and develop your life purpose, click here.

Counting the Vote, Badly

2006-11-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/opinion/16thur1.html?ex=1321333200&en=73e0e...
Last weeks elections provided a lot of disturbing news about the reliability of electronic voting. In a
Congressional race...Sarasota County [Florida] reported that more than 18,000 people, or one in
eight, did not choose either candidate. That undervote of nearly 13 percent is hard to believe,
given that only about 2.5 percent of absentee voters did not vote. Ms. Jennings trails Mr.
Buchanan by about 400 votes. The serious questions about the Buchanan - Jennings race only
add to the high level of mistrust that many people already feel about electronic voting. Congress
has resisted all appeals to pass a law that would ensure that electronic voting is honest and
accurate across the nation. Partisan secretaries of state continue to skew the rules to favor
their parties and political allies. States are adopting harsh standards for voter registration drives
to make it harder for people to register. Some states have adopted an indefensible rule that
provisional ballots cast at the wrong table of the correct polling place must be thrown out.

Congress has failed to address these and other important flaws with the mechanics of the election
system. But this...may be about to change. Senator Feinstein is saying that providing fair access to
the ballot will be among her committees top priorities in the coming year. Election reform has
tended to be a partisan issue, with Democrats arguing for reform and Republicans resisting it. It
shouldnt be. Congressional Democrats should make fixing this countrys broken system of
elections a top priority, and Republicans should join them.

Human Research Protection Program

2006-11-06, Department of the Navy
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/navy/secnavinst/3900_39d.pdf
"The Under Secretary of the Navy (UNSECNAV) is the Approval Authority for research
involving: (a) Severe or unusual intrusions, either physical or psychological, on human
subjects (such as consciousness-altering drugs or mind-control techniques). (b) Prisoners.
(c) Potentially or inherently controversial topics (such as those likely to attract significant media
coverage or that might invite challenge by interest groups). The UNSECNAV forwards to the
Director, Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) for final determination: (a) All proposed
research involving exposure of human subjects to the effects of nuclear, biological or chemical
warfare agents or weapons, as required by reference (a)."
Note: This 2006 US Department of the Navy document shows that the US military continues to
develop mind control techniques, use mind-altering drugs, and expose individuals to lethal nuclear,
biological, and chemical agents while keeping it all out of the media's eye. For lots more showing
blatant disregard for human rights on this topic, click here and here.

FDA rejects new limits on mercury in vaccines

2006-10-24, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15405274
Federal health officials wont put new restrictions on the use of a mercury-based preservative in
vaccines and other medicines. A group called the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs petitioned
the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 seeking the restrictions on thimerosal, citing
concerns that the preservative is linked to autism. The FDA rejected the petition. Thimerosal,
about 50 percent mercury by weight, has been used since the 1930s to kill microbes in vaccines.
There have been suspicions that thimerosal causes autism. However, studies that tracked
thousands of children consistently have found no association between the brain disorder and the
mercury-based preservative. Critics contend the studies are flawed. Since 2001, all vaccines given
to children 6 and younger have been either thimerosal-free or contained only trace amounts of the
preservative. Thimerosal has been phased out of some, but not all, adult vaccines as well. Most
doses of the flu vaccine still contain thimerosal. There also are minute amounts of mercury, as
thimerosal or phenylmercuric acetate, in roughly 45 eye ointments, nasal sprays and nasal
solutions, the FDA said.

Note: Why are they still using mercury in flu shots when it is not necessary? Heavy metals are well
known to be toxic to the human body. The studies mentioned above are almost entirely funded by
pharmaceutical interests and government bodies working with them. For lots more on this major
cover-up, click here.

Getting closer to Uncle Sam

2006-09-20, Toronto Star (One of Canada's top newspapers)
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Articl...
Public kept in dark as business leads talks about North American integration. Away from the
spotlight, from Sept. 12 to 14, in Banff Springs, Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day and
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor met with U.S. and Mexican government officials and business
leaders to discuss North American integration at the second North American Forum. The guest list
included such prominent figures as U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mexican Secretary
of Public Security Eduardo Medina Mora and Canadian Forces chief General Rick Hillier. The
event was chaired by former U.S. secretary of state George Schultz, former Alberta premier, Peter
Lougheed and former Mexican finance minister Pedro Aspe. Organizers did not alert the media
about the event. Our government ... refuses to release any information about the content of
the discussions or the actors involved. The event was organized by the Canadian Council
of Chief Executives. The media have paid little attention to this far-reaching agreement, so
Canadians are unaware that a dozen working groups are currently "harmonizing" Canadian
and U.S. regulations on everything from food to drugs to the environment and even more
contentious issues like foreign policy. This process ... is about priming North America for better
business by weakening the impacts of such perceived obstacles as environmental standards and
labour rights. This is why the public has been kept in the dark while the business elite has played a
leading role in designing the blueprint for this more integrated North America.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. Why has the U.S. media not covered this key topic? For a
second article discussing this secret meeting on a top Canadian TV website, click here. To learn
about other secret meetings of the power elite, click here

Classified intelligence bills often are unread

2006-08-06, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/08/06/classified_i...
Nearly all members of the House of Representatives opted out of a chance to read this year's
classified intelligence bill, and then voted on secret provisions they knew almost nothing about.
The bill, which passed by 327 to 96 in April, authorized the Bush administration's plans for fighting
the war on terrorism. Many members say they faced an untenable choice: Either consent to a
review process so secretive that they could never mention anything about it in House
debates, under the threat of prosecution, or vote on classified provisions they knew
nothing about. Most chose to know nothing. A Globe survey sent to all members of the House,

[revealed] the vast majority of the respondents ... said they typically don't read the classified parts
of intelligence bills. The failure to read the bill, however, calls into question the vows of many
House members to provide greater oversight of intelligence. The rules make open debate on
intelligence policy and funding nearly impossible, lawmakers say. Revealing classified secrets has
long been a crime, punishable by expulsion from the House and criminal prosecution. Operating
largely in secret, the intelligence panels have a limited staff because of the security clearances
involved. Further, committee members can't go to outside experts to vet policies or give advice,
leaving members with no way to fact-check the administration's assertions. Democratic and
Republican leaders are no longer briefed together, raising questions about whether the two leaders
are being told the same things.
Note: If above link fails, click here. If you want to understand how U.S. Congressional
representatives are kept in the dark and easily manipulated when it comes to intelligence matters,
this article is a must read.

Protesters challenge the powerful at exclusive California retreat

2006-07-22, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/07/22/state/n163157D01.DTL
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside an exclusive California retreat for government and
business leaders Saturday to challenge the right of a "ruling elite" to make policy decisions without
public scrutiny. The annual Bohemian Grove retreat has attracted powerful men such as
Ronald Reagan, George Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, philanthropist
David Rockefeller, former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich. It's also become a magnet for all types of activists who increasingly use
the event to network and organize their campaigns. The men who attend the Bohemian Grove
retreat spend two weeks performing plays, eating gourmet camp grub, listening to speakers and
power-bonding at the 2,700-acre compound near the Russian River in Sonoma County. The
retreat is organized by the exclusive San Francisco-based Bohemian Club. The club and event are
shrouded in mystery, much like Yale University's most-famous secret society, Skull and Bones,
whose members include President George W. Bush and his presidential rival Sen. John Kerry.
Note: This article strangely has been removed from the San Francisco Chronicle website. To see it
in the Internet Archive, click here. For an informative five-minute ABC news clip on the power elite
gathering Bohemian Grove reported in 1981, click here. And for reliable information on the most
secretive meeting of the world's elite reported by the major media, see our Bilderberg Group
compilation available here.

Vitamin C: Cancer cure?

2006-06-18, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia's leading newspaper)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/14842932.htm

Government nutrition researcher [Dr. Mark Levine] has published new evidence that
suggests vitamin C can work like chemotherapy - only better. But so far, he hasn't been
able to interest cancer experts in conducting the kind of conclusive studies that, one way
or the other, would advance treatment. "If vitamin C is useful in cancer treatment, that's
wonderful. If it's not, or if it's harmful, that's fine, too," said Levine, a Harvard-educated physician at
the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The distinction between oral
and intravenous is crucial. The body automatically gets rid of extra C through urine. Levine's lab
has shown that, at high concentrations, the vitamin is toxic to many types of cancer cells in lab
dishes. But to get that much C into the body before it's eliminated, it must be put directly into the
blood. Five out of nine types of cancer cells that were put in simulated body-cavity fluid died when
concentrated ascorbate or peroxide was added to the dish. And the best part: This same lethal
marinade had no effect on healthy cells. "Interest is definitely growing," said Kenneth Bock,
physician and president of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, an alternativemedicine society that teaches ascorbate infusion protocols. The American Cancer Society and the
American Association of Clinical Oncologists warn patients against high-dose C, as do leading
cancer centers such as the University of Pennsylvania's and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
Note: If the above link does not work, the article is also available on the website of the San Diego
Union-Tribune. For why this is not making major headlines in the news, click here and here.

Nationwide Child Abuse Ring In Free Discovery Channel Documentary

2006-05-01, Discovery Channel/WantToKnow.info
http://www.WantToKnow.info/060501conspiracyofsilence
"Conspiracy of Silence" is a powerful, disturbing documentary revealing a nationwide child
abuse and pedophilia ring that leads to the highest levels of government. Featuring intrepid
investigator John DeCamp, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and 16-year Nebraska state
senator, "Conspiracy of Silence" reveals how rogue elements at all levels of government have
been involved in systematic child abuse and pedophilia to feed the base desires of key politicians.
Based on DeCamp's riveting book, The Franklin Cover-up, "Conspiracy of Silence" begins with the
shut-down of Nebraska's Franklin Community Federal Credit Union after a raid by federal agencies
in November 1988 revealed that $40 million was missing. When the Nebraska legislature launched
a probe into the affair, what initially looked like a financial swindle soon exploded into a startling
tale of drugs, money laundering, and a nationwide child abuse ring. Nineteen months later, the
legislative committee's chief investigator died suddenly and violently, like more than a dozen other
people linked to the Franklin case.

How Serious Is the Risk of Avian Flu?

2006-03-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/health/28qna.html?ex=1301202000&en=ce4ccbd2...

A human pandemic caused by A(H5N1) is by no means inevitable. Many researchers doubt

it will ever happen. The virus does not infect people easily, and those who do contract it
almost never spread it to other humans. Bird flu is what the name implies: mostly an avian
disease. It has infected tens of millions of birds but fewer than 200 people, and nearly all of them
have caught it from birds. But when A(H5N1) does get into people, it can be deadly. It has killed
more than half of its known human victims -- an extraordinarily high rate. The virus lacks just one
trait that could turn it into a pandemic: transmissibility. Everything hangs on transmissibility. But it is
impossible to predict whether A(H5N1) will become contagious among people. Most bird flu
viruses do not jump species to people. Some experts say that since A(H5N1) has been around for
at least 10 years and the shift has not occurred, it is unlikely to happen. Others refuse to take that
bet. The best protection in any flu pandemic will come from a vaccine, but scientists cannot tell
ahead of time what strain the vaccine should protect against. There is no assurance that the next
pandemic will even involve A(H5N1). It may involve a different strain of bird flu, and an A(H5N1)
vaccine would not work for it.
Note: Many thanks to the Times for this rare article which largely dispels fears rather than
increasing
them.
For
more
excellent
information
on
the
avian
flu,
see
http://www.WantToKnow.info/avianflu

How To Steal an Election

2006-03-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/03/16/GR20060316002...
It's easier to rig an electronic voting machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says
University of Pennsylvania visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots
are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines, Freeman writes in a
book, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official
Count, that argues, among other things, that President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an unfair
vote count. Software: Slot Machine: State of Nevada has access to all software. Illegal to use
software that is not on file. Voting Machine: Software is a trade secret. Spot Checking: Slot
Machine: State gaming inspectors show up unannounced at casinos to compare computer chips
with those on file. If there is a discrepancy, the machine is shut down and investigated. Voting
Machine: No checks are required. Election officials have no chip to compare with the one found in
the machine. Background Security: Slot Machine: Manufacturers subjected to background
checks. Employees are investigated for criminal records. Voting Machine: Citizens have no way of
knowing, for example, whether programmers have been convicted of fraud. Equipment
Certification: Slot Machine: By a public agency at arm's length from manufacturers. Public
questions invited. Voting Machine: By for-profit companies chosen and paid by the manufacturers.
No public information on how the testing is done.
Note: For many revealing major media reports on the corruptibility of electronic voting systems,
click here.

Sustained Improvement in Federal Financial Management Is Crucial to

Addressing Our Nation's Financial Condition and Long-term Fiscal
Imbalance
2006-03-01, Government Accountability Office (GAO) Website
http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-06-406T
GAO is required by law to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S.
government. Until the problems discussed in GAO's audit report on the U.S. government's
consolidated financial statements are adequately addressed, they will continue to...hinder the
federal government from having reliable financial information to operate in an economical, efficient,
and effective manner. For the ninth consecutive year, certain material weaknesses in internal
control and in selected accounting and financial reporting practices resulted in conditions
that continued to prevent GAO from being able to provide the Congress and American
people an opinion as to whether the consolidated financial statements of the U.S.
government are fairly stated in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting
principles. Major impediments to an opinion on the consolidated financial statements continued to
be (1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense. The federal
government's fiscal exposures now total more than $46 trillion, representing close to four times
gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2005 and up from about $20 trillion or two times GDP
in 2000.
Note:For the official .pdf version on the GAO website click here. Why didn't this become headline
news? Why isn't anyone being assigned to seriously investigate these continually unresolved core
issues and report to the public that the largest, most powerful country in the world is a long way
from being able to track its own finances. For lots more major media articles on major government
corruption, click here. You can help to build a better world by sharing this vital information with your
friends and colleagues and contacting members of the media and your government
representatives asking them to address this pervasive problem. Thanks for caring.

Bird Flu Victims Die ... After Becoming Resistant to Tamiflu

2005-12-22, CBS/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/21/health/main1156563.shtml
In a development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients in Vietnam died
after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that governments are stockpiling in
case of a large-scale outbreak. The experts said the deaths were disturbing because the two
girls had received early and aggressive treatment with Tamiflu and had gotten the recommended
doses. Since 2003, avian flu has killed about 70 people, mostly in Vietnam and Thailand, and
nearly all involved close contact with infected birds. Health experts fear the virus could morph into
a form that spreads easily between people. The new report involved eight Vietnamese bird flu
patients given Tamiflu upon being hospitalized in 2004 or 2005. Half of the patients died. Lab tests
showed two of those who died...had developed resistance.

Note: If the above link fails, click here.

Why did the 9/11 Commission ignore 'Able Danger'

2005-11-17, Wall Street Journal Article by Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007559
The Able Danger intelligence, if confirmed, is undoubtedly the most relevant fact of the entire post9/11 inquiry. Even the most junior investigator would immediately know that the name and photo ID
of Atta in 2000 is precisely the kind of tactical intelligence the FBI has many times employed to
prevent attacks. Yet the 9/11 Commission inexplicably concluded that it "was not historically
significant." This astounding conclusion -- in combination with the failure to investigate Able
Danger and incorporate it into its findings -- raises serious challenges to the commission's
credibility and, if the facts prove out, might just render the commission historically
insignificant itself. The Able Danger team had identified Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers by
mid-2000 but were prevented by military lawyers from giving this information to the FBI. The
Pentagon...blocked several military officers from testifying...about the Able Danger program. The
chairman of the 9/11 Commission reacted to Able Danger with the standard Washington PR
approach. [He] demanded that the Pentagon conduct an "investigation" to evaluate the "credibility"
of Col. Shaffer and Capt. Phillpott. The final 9/11 Commission report...concluded that "American
intelligence agencies were unaware of Mr. Atta until the day of the attacks." This now looks to be
embarrassingly wrong. The Joint Intelligence Committees should reconvene and, in addition to
Able Danger team members, we should have the 9/11 commissioners appear as witnesses so the
families can hear their explanation why this doesn't matter.
Note: If the above link fails, click here.

Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu

2005-10-31, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's
proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically
connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to
Tamiflu. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the
Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million
and $25 million. In the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu
have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the
wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer. Rumsfeld isn't the only political
heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu. Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is
on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.

Military Bars 9/11 Intel Testimony

2005-09-21, CBS/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/21/terror/main871800.shtml
The Department of Defense forbade a military intelligence officer to testify Wednesday
about a secret military unit that the officer says identified four Sept. 11 hijackers as
terrorists more than a year before the attacks, according to the man's attorney. The Judiciary
Committee was hearing testimony about the work of a classified unit code named "Able Danger."
Zaid, appearing on behalf of Shaffer and contractor John Smith [stated] that Able Danger, using
data mining techniques, identified four of the terrorists who struck on Sept. 11, 2001 - including
mastermind Mohamed Atta. "At least one chart, and possibly more, featured a photograph of
Mohamed Atta," Zaid said. Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Defense Department spokesman, said
Wednesday that open testimony would not be appropriate. "There's nothing more to say than that,"
Swiergosz said. "It's not possible to discuss the Able Danger program because there are security
concerns." Zaid also charged that records associated with the unit were destroyed during 2000
and March 2001, and copies were destroyed in spring 2004. Former members of the Sept. 11
commission have dismissed the "Able Danger" assertions.

9/11 Commission's Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief

Hijacker
2005-08-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/politics/11intel.html?ex=1281412800&en=3c4c...
The Sept. 11 commission was warned by a uniformed military officer 10 days before issuing
its final report that the account would be incomplete without reference to what he described
as a secret military operation that by the summer of 2000 had identified as a potential threat
the member of Al Qaeda who would lead the attacks more than a year later. The officials said
that the information had not been included in the report because aspects of the officer's account
had sounded inconsistent with what the commission knew about that Qaeda member, Mohammed
Atta, the plot's leader. [Republican Congressman Curt] Weldon has accused the commission of
ignoring information that would have forced a rewriting of the history of the Sept. 11 attacks. He
has asserted that the Able Danger unit ... sought to call their superiors' attention to Mr. Atta and
three other future hijackers in the summer of 2000. In a letter sent Wednesday to members of the
commission, Mr. Weldon criticized the panel in scathing terms, saying that its "refusal to
investigate Able Danger after being notified of its existence, and its recent efforts to feign
ignorance of the project ... brings shame on the commissioners." Al Felzenberg, who served as the
commission's chief spokesman, said earlier this week that staff members who were briefed about
Able Danger at a first meeting, in October 2003, did not remember hearing anything about Mr. Atta
or an American terrorist cell. On Wednesday, however, Mr. Felzenberg said the uniformed officer
who briefed two staff members in July 2004 had indeed mentioned Mr. Atta.

John K. Vance; Uncovered LSD Project at CIA

2005-06-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/15/AR20050615026...
John K. Vance [was] a member of the Central Intelligence Agency inspector general's staff in the
early 1960s who discovered that the agency was running a research project that included
administering LSD and other drugs to unwitting human subjects. Code-named MKULTRA (and
pronounced m-k-ultra), the project Mr. Vance uncovered was the brainchild of CIA Director
Allen Dulles, who was intrigued by reports of mind-control techniques allegedly conducted
by Soviet, Chinese and North Korean agents on U.S. prisoners of war during the Korean
War. The CIA wanted to use similar techniques on its own POWs and perhaps use LSD or other
mind-bending substances on foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro a few years after the
project got underway in 1953. Heading MKULTRA was a CIA chemist named Sidney Gottlieb. In
congressional testimony, Gottlieb, who died in 1999, acknowledged that the agency had
administered LSD to as many as 40 unwitting subjects, including prison inmates and patrons of
brothels set up and run by the agency. At least one participant died when he jumped out of a 10thfloor window in a hotel; others claimed to have suffered serious psychological damage. Mr. Vance
learned about MKULTRA in the spring of 1963 during a wide-ranging inspector general survey of
the agency's technical services division. The inspector general's report said: "The concepts
involved in manipulating human behavior are found by many people both within and outside the
agency to be distasteful and unethical." MKULTRA came to public light in 1977 as a result of
hearings conducted by a Senate committee on intelligence chaired by Sen. Frank Church (DIdaho).
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For an excellent two-page summary of reliable verifiable
information on CIA mind control programs which clearly violated ethical and moral standards, click
here.

Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real

2005-06-06, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2005/0606/p25s01-stss.html
A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles ... has
initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a
breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, it looks like the real thing. The
whole trick with fusion is you've got to get protons close enough together for the strong force to
overcome their electrical repulsion and merge them together into a nucleus. Instead of using high
temperatures and incredible densities to ram protons together, the scientists at UCLA cleverly used
the structure of an unusual crystal. Crystals are fascinating things; the atoms inside are all lined up
in a tightly ordered lattice, which creates the beautiful structure we associate with crystals.
Stressing the bonds between the atoms of some crystals causes electrons to build up on one side,
creating a charge difference over the body of the crystal. Instead of using intense heat or pressure
to get nuclei close enough together to fuse, this new experiment used a very powerful electric field

to slam atoms together. This experiment has been repeated successfully and other scientists have
reviewed the results. For the time being, don't expect fusion to become a readily available energy
option. The current cold fusion apparatus still takes much more energy to start up than you get
back out. But it really may not be long until we have the first nuclear fusion-powered devices in
common use.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. Why wasn't this widely reported? For a possible answer,
click here.

Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq

2005-05-05, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00914FC3C540C768CDDAC0894DD4...
There was a close-up of a soldier who was holding someone's severed leg. There were photos of
G.I.'s happily posing with the bodies of dead Iraqis. This is what happens in war. It's the sickening
reality that is seldom seen in the censored, sanitized version of the conflict that Americans typically
get from the government and the media. Mr. Delgado, 23, is a former Army reservist who was
repelled by the violence and dehumanization of the war. He completed his tour in Iraq. But he
sought and received conscientious objector status and was honorably discharged last January.
Some of the most disturbing photos in his possession were taken after G.I.'s at Abu Ghraib
opened fire on detainees who had been throwing rocks at guards during a large protest. Four
detainees were killed. The photos show American soldiers posing and goofing around with the
bodies of the detainees. In one shot ... a G.I. is leaning over the top of the body bag with a spoon
in his right hand, as if he is about to scoop up a portion of the dead man's wounded flesh. "These
pictures were circulated like trophies," Mr. Delgado said. Some were posted in command
headquarters. But while at work in a headquarters office, he said, he learned that most of the
detainees at Abu Ghraib had committed only very minor nonviolent offenses, or no
offenses at all. (Several investigations would subsequently reveal that vast numbers of
completely innocent Iraqis were seized and detained by coalition forces.) His goal, he said, is to
convince his listeners that the abuse of innocent Iraqis by the American military is not limited to "a
few bad apples," as the military would like the public to believe.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For more on war manipulations and the suffering of our
soldiers by a highly decorated U.S. general, click here.

FBI to Fire Dissident Agent

2005-04-23, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10381-2005Apr22.html
The FBI has moved to fire a veteran agent who alleged that the bureau had mishandled
domestic investigations. On Thursday, Robert Wright was ordered by superiors at an FBI
counterterrorism command office in Washington to hand over his badge and weapon, was

suspended and was told he would be fired within 30 days, said an official with Judicial Watch, a
government watchdog group whose attorneys represent Wright. Wright was told he was being
dismissed for, among other things, publicly discussing sensitive FBI matters in 2003, the official
said. Wright has been under disciplinary investigation for almost three years. He has two lawsuits
pending against the FBI. Yesterday, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick J. Leahy (DVt.) sent FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III a letter repeating their support for Wright and
expressing concern that the FBI was retaliating against him for his public statements.
Note: What the Post article completely fails to mention is that Robert Wright was hot on the
trail of key terrorists before 9/11, yet he was ordered to stop the investigation by his FBI
supervisors. For past media stories on this with links to original sources, click here, here, and here.
Mr. Wright is one of the FBI agents who approached renowned attorney David Schippers just
weeks before 9/11 to warn that a major terrorist attack was going to take place in lower Manhattan.
For more, click here.

Lost: One H-Bomb. Call Owner

2005-04-17, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59703-2005Apr16
Just after midnight on Feb. 5, 1958, two U.S. Air Force jets, each traveling 500 mph, collided
35,000 feet over the Georgia countryside. Improbably, all four crew members survived and
the accident might have passed into dim memory if not for the thermonuclear weapon
jettisoned off Tybee Island, Ga. The bomb is still there. After a weeks-long search, it was
"declared irretrievably lost on 16 April 1958," the Air Force reported four years ago in an
assessment of whether to conduct a new search and recovery mission. It concluded that "it is in
the best interest of the public and the environment to leave the bomb in its resting-place." The
Navy Supervisor of Salvage, the report noted, didn't think the bomb could be found. Energy
Department engineers' best guess was that it lay "buried nose-down, probably 5-15 feet below the
seabed." Clearly, the Air Force would have been glad to let it go at that. However, it did not count
on the determination of Derek Duke, a 60-year-old retired Air Force officer who lives nearby and
for more than six years has been searching for the bomb in the waters around Tybee Island, about
16 miles from Savannah. Responding to Duke's claim that he had found an area of high radiation
the Air Force returned last September to look again. The report on the new search has not been
released. Any danger still presented by the Tybee bomb is from the 400 pounds of conventional
explosives or from humans somehow ingesting uranium that might escape from the bomb and its
silt prison.
Note: For another interesting article on this in USA Today on Oct. 19, 2004, click here. For a much
more in-depth article on this incident, click here.

New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis After 9/11

2005-03-27, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27exodus.html?ex=1269579600&en=e2d...
In the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of
well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the
United States on specially chartered flights. Newly released government records show
previously undisclosed flights ... and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure. The F.B.I. gave personal airport
escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, and several other Saudis were
allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed. The material ... provides details about
the F.B.I.'s interaction with at least 160 Saudis who were living in or visiting the United States and
were allowed to leave the country. Some of the departing Saudis were related to Osama bin
Laden. In several ... cases, Saudi travelers were not interviewed before departing the country, and
F.B.I. officials sought to determine how what seemed to be lapses had occurred. "From these
documents, [the Saudi interviews that did occur] look like they were courtesy chats, without the
time that would have been needed for thorough debriefings," said Christopher J. Farrell, who is ...
a former counterintelligence interrogator for the Army. "It seems as if the F.B.I. was more interested
in achieving diplomatic success than investigative success." The F.B.I. documents left open the
possibility that some departing Saudis had information relevant to the Sept. 11 investigation.
Note: For lots more crucial, verifiable information suggesting a 9/11 cover-up, click here.

United States Interventions: What For?

2005-03-21, Revista: Harvard Review of Latin America
http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/828
In the slightly less than a hundred years from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government has
intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America a total of at least 41 times.
That amounts to once every 28 months for an entire century. Direct intervention occurred in 17
of the 41 cases. These incidents involved the use of U.S. military forces, intelligence agents or
local citizens employed by U.S. government agencies. In another 24 cases, the U.S. government
played an indirect role. That is, local actors played the principal roles, but either would not have
acted or would not have succeeded without encouragement from the U.S. government. The 41
cases do not include incidents in which the United States sought to depose a Latin American
government, but failed in the attempt. The most famous such case was the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion of April 1961. Also absent from the list are numerous cases in which the U.S. government
acted decisively to forestall a coup detat or otherwise protect an incumbent regime from being
overthrown. In nearly every case, U.S. officials cited U.S. security interests, either as
determinative or as a principal motivation. With hindsight, it is now possible to dismiss most
these claims as implausible. In many cases, they were understood as necessary for generating
public and congressional support, but not taken seriously by the key decision makers.

Fans of GM Electric Car Fight the Crusher

2005-03-10, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21991-2005Mar9.html
What's at stake, they say, is no less than the future of automotive technology, a practical solution
for driving fast and fun with no direct pollution whatsoever. GM agrees that the car in question,
called the EV1, was a rousing feat of engineering that could go from zero to 60 miles per
hour in under eight seconds with no harmful emissions. The market just wasn't big enough,
the company says, for a car that traveled 140 miles or less on a charge before you had to plug it in
like a toaster. Some 800 drivers once leased EV1s, mostly in California. After the last lease ran out
in August, GM reclaimed every one of the cars, donating a few to universities and car museums
but crushing many of the rest. Enthusiasts discovered a stash of about 77 surviving EV1s behind a
GM training center in Burbank and last month decided to take a stand. Mobilized through Internet
sites and word of mouth, nearly 100 people pledged $24,000 each for a chance to buy the cars
from GM. On Feb. 16 the group set up a street-side outpost of folding chairs that they have staffed
ever since in rotating shifts, through long nights and torrential rains, trying to draw attention to their
cause. GM refuses to budge. Toyota is aware of a growing fad among do-it-yourselfers who put a
new battery in their Prius so it can be plugged in at home and then travel about 20 miles on electric
power alone.
Note: Why would GM simply crush cars for which people are willing to pay $24,000? For a
possible answer to this important question, click here. To learn how to convert a Toyota Prius to get
100 mpg, click here.

Does Deep Earth Host Untapped Fuel?

2005-01-19, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=421532
Thomas Gold was not your typical radical. Far from being a mad scientist, he was a brilliant
professor of astronomy at Cornell University, but he succeeded in driving many others mad with
theories that flew in the face of conventional wisdom. His most controversial idea was among his
last, and geologists and petroleum experts around the world still rage against Gold for suggesting
they were dead wrong in their understanding of how oil and gas are formed in the Earth's crust.
Now, a couple of decades after Gold first suggested that hydrocarbons are formed deep
underground by geological processes and not just below the surface by biological decay, there is
increasing evidence that he may have been on to something. Gold argued that all hydrocarbons
are formed in the intense pressure and high heat near the Earth's mantle, around 100 miles under
the ground. Oil and gas fields are continually replenished by hydrocarbons manufactured far below
the Earth, he argued. Several prestigious organizations have found evidence that methane, the
main component of natural gas, can indeed be formed under conditions like those found deep in
the Earth. "All we've done is show experimentally that at the pressure at the Earth's mantle
and pretty high temperatures you can indeed make methane," says Henry Scott, a physics
and geology professor at Indiana University and lead author of a report on the research in a recent
issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Gold said that when you

squeeze things down at very high pressures, the basic chemistry can change," he says.
"That's exactly what we are doing." Lawrence Livermore [National Laboratory] picked up at that
point and found that methane production was most productive at 900 degrees Fahrenheit and
70,000 atmospheres of pressure. That's still hot, and it's still deep, but it suggests that methane
may be abundant throughout the planet.
Note: Thomas Gold has written two books on the "abiotic" origins of oil, Power From the Earth and
The Deep Hot Biosphere. His intriguing theories have been unsettling mainstream scientists for
decades. He also proposed and advanced the now-accepted explanation of the strange stars
called pulsars years ahead of anyone else. Read more about his work by clicking here. Could it be
that oil is not as limited as some would have us believe?

Inspector General Rebukes F.B.I. over Espionage Case and Firing of

Whistle-Blower
2005-01-15, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F60F15F73F5C0C768DDDA...
The F.B.I. has failed to aggressively investigate accusations of espionage against a translator at
the bureau and fired the translator's co-worker in large part for bringing the accusations, the
Justice Department's inspector general concluded. In a long-awaited report that the Justice
Department sought for months to keep classified, the inspector general issued a sharp
rebuke to the F.B.I. over its handling of claims of espionage and ineptitude made by Sibel
Edmonds, a bureau translator who was fired in 2002 after superiors deemed her conduct
"disruptive." The report [came] from the office of Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's
inspector general. Mr. Fine's investigation found that many of Ms. Edmonds's accusations "were
supported, that the F.B.I. did not take them seriously enough and that her allegations were, in fact,
the most significant factor in the F.B.I.'s decision to terminate her services." Ms. Edmonds's case
has become a cause clbre for critics who accused the bureau of retaliating against her and other
whistle-blowers who have sought to expose management problems related to the campaign
against terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union joined her cause earlier this week, asking an
appellate court to reinstate a whistle-blower lawsuit she brought against the government. The suit
was dismissed last year after Attorney General John Ashcroft, invoking a rarely used power,
declared her case to be a matter of "state secret" privilege, and the Justice Department
retroactively classified a 2002 Congressional briefing about it.
Note: What this article completely fails to mention is that Ms. Edmonds has claimed
repeatedly that she has key information revealing major corruption related to 9/11. For a
highly revealing report written by Ms. Edmonds to the 9/11 Commission chairman, click here.
Another highly revealing article is available here. The Times link above requires payment. To view
the above article free, click here.

Are They Here to Save the World?

2005-01-12, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/fashion/thursdaystyles/12INDIGO.html?ex=129...
If you have not been in an alternative bookstore lately, it is possible that you have missed the news
about indigo children. They represent "perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic
human nature that has ever been observed and documented," Lee Carroll and Jan Tober write in
"The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived." The book has sold 250,000 copies since 1999
and has spawned a cottage industry of books about indigo children. In "The Indigo Children," Mr.
Carroll and Ms. Tober define the phenomenon. Indigos, they write, share traits like high I.Q.,
acute intuition, self-confidence, resistance to authority and disruptive tendencies, which
are often diagnosed as attention-deficit disorder, known as A.D.D., or attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D. "These children are the answers to the prayers we all have
for peace," said Doreen Virtue, a former psychotherapist for adolescents who now writes books
and lectures on indigo children. She calls the indigos a leap in human evolution. "They're vigilant
about cleaning the earth of social ills and corruption, and increasing integrity." Marjorie Jackson, a
tai chi and yoga teacher....said that schools should treat children more like adults, rather than
placing them in "fear-based, constrictive, no-choice environments, where they explode."
Note: ABC has a six-minute news clip on these special children available here. For another
amazingly inspiring video clip of one of these unusual children, click here. For a website dedicated
to indigo children, click here

A Hidden Story Behind Sept. 11? One Man's Ad Campaign Says So

2004-11-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/nyregion/08ads.html?ex=1257656400&en=730dbc...
The grainy 30-second commercials ... suggest a government cover-up of the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks. The advertisements, which ran repeatedly ... on several cable networks, including CNN,
Fox News and ESPN, offer a Web site, an address and a phone number. The ads are the latest
salvo from James W. Walter ... who over the years has financed programs promoting voter
registration in low-income neighborhoods and prison reform. The television commercials, as well
as ads in magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and
The Daily News, are part of a $3 million national campaign paid for by Mr. Walter in an effort to
press for the reopening of the investigation by the independent Sept. 11 commission. "We've
never gotten solid answers on why Tower 7 collapsed when it was two full blocks away
from where the planes hit," he said. "We've also never received an answer for how such a large
plane left such a small hole in the side of the Pentagon." A Zogby poll of New Yorkers' opinions
about the 9/11 investigation, released last month, indicated that 49 percent of New York City
residents and 41 percent of New York state residents believed that some federal officials "knew in
advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously
failed to act." The poll also found that 66 percent of New York City residents and 56 percent of
state residents wanted a fuller investigation of the "still unanswered questions."
Note: For lots more reliable information suggesting a major cover-up of 9/11, click here.

Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons

2004-10-04, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/04/MNGM393GPK1.DTL
The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power
source -- antimatter, the eerie "mirror" of ordinary matter -- in future weapons. The most powerful
potential energy source presently thought to be available to humanity, antimatter is a term normally
heard in science-fiction films. But antimatter itself isn't fiction. During the Cold War, the Air Force
funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. Following an initial inquiry
from The Chronicle this summer, the Air Force forbade its employees from publicly
discussing the antimatter research program. Still, details on the program appear in
numerous Air Force documents distributed over the Internet prior to the ban. It almost defies
belief, the amount of explosive force available in a speck of antimatter. One millionth of a gram of
positrons contain as much energy as 37.8 kilograms (83 pounds) of TNT. A simple calculation,
then, shows that about 50-millionths of a gram could generate a blast equal to the explosion ... in
Oklahoma City in 1995. Officials at Eglin Air Force Base initially agreed enthusiastically to try to
arrange an interview with ... Kenneth Edwards, director of the "revolutionary munitions" team at the
Munitions Directorate at Eglin. "We're all very excited about this technology," spokesman Rex
Swenson [said] in late July. But Swenson backed out in August after he was overruled by higher
officials in the Air Force and Pentagon. Reached by phone in late September, Edwards repeatedly
declined to be interviewed. His superiors gave him "strict instructions not to give any interviews
personally. "I'm sorry about that -- this (antimatter) project is sort of my grandchild."

Indicting the Drug Industry's Practices

2004-09-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/books/06masl.html?ex=1252209600&en=1accf3fe...
Dr. Marcia Angell is a former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine and
spent two decades on the staff of that publication. Her new book is a scorching indictment
of drug companies and their research and business practices. "Despite all its excesses, this is
an important industry that should be saved - mainly from itself," she writes. Dr. Angell's case is
tough, persuasive and troubling. "The Truth About the Drug Companies" ... is devoted to
assertions of shady, misleading corporate behavior. In the past, drug discoveries made through
government research remained in the public domain. Beginning in 1980 those breakthroughs could
be patented, even if their research was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. As a
consequence, Dr. Angell says, patent shenanigans have reshaped the drug business, as have the
recent government regulations that expedite direct-to-consumer drug advertising. "Once upon a
time, drug companies promoted drugs to treat diseases," Dr. Angell writes. "Now it is often the
opposite. They promote diseases to fit their drugs." Why all the advertising? "If prescription drugs
are so good, why do they need to be pushed so hard?" she asks. Dr. Angell is now a senior
lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Note: For an excellent 10-page summary of this revealing book written by the esteemed author,
click here. For more reliable information on the health cover-up, click here.

Secretive testing firms certify nation's vote count machines

2004-08-23, MSNBC News/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5762054/from/RL.4
The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and
refuse to discuss flaws in the machines to be used by nearly one in three voters in
November. Federal regulators have virtually no oversight over testing of the technology. The
certification process, in part because the voting machine companies pay for it, is described as
obsolete by those charged with overseeing it. Despite concerns over whether the so-called
touchscreen machines can be trusted, the testing companies won't say publicly if they have
encountered shoddy workmanship. They say they are committed to secrecy in their contracts with
the voting machines' makers even though tax money ultimately buys or leases the machines.
Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist and electronic voting expert, told
lawmakers in Washington, D.C. "I find it grotesque that an organization charged with such a heavy
responsibility feels no obligation to explain to anyone what it is doing." The system for "testing and
certifying voting equipment in this country is not only broken, but is virtually nonexistent," Shamos
added. More than a decade ago, the Federal Election Commission authorized the National
Association of State Election Directors to choose the independent testers. On its Web site, the
association says the three testing outfits "have neither the staff nor the time to explain the process
to the public, the news media or jurisdictions."

The Pakistan connection

2004-07-22, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1266520,00.html
There is evidence of foreign intelligence backing for the 9/11 hijackers. Why is the US
government so keen to cover it up? Omar Sheikh, a British-born Islamist militant, is waiting to
be hanged in Pakistan for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit - of the Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Both the US government and Pearl's wife have since acknowledged
that Sheikh was not responsible. Significantly, Sheikh is also the man who, on the instructions of
General Mahmoud Ahmed, the then head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), wired
$100,000 before the 9/11 attacks to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker. It is extraordinary that
neither Ahmed nor Sheikh have been charged and brought to trial on this count. Ahmed, the
paymaster for the hijackers, was actually in Washington on 9/11, and had a series of pre-9/11 toplevel meetings in the White House, the Pentagon, the national security council, and with George
Tenet, then head of the CIA. Why hasn't the US demanded that he be questioned and tried in
court? [Another] witness is Sibel Edmonds ... former FBI translator of intelligence. She tried to blow
the whistle on the cover-up of intelligence that names some of the culprits who orchestrated the
9/11 attacks, but is now under two gagging orders that forbid her from testifying in court or

mentioning the names of the people or the countries involved. The FBI, illegally, [also] continues to
refuse the to release of their agent Robert Wright's 500-page manuscript Fatal Betrayals of the
Intelligence Mission, and has even refused to turn the manuscript over to Senator Shelby, vicechairman of the joint intelligence committee charged with investigating America's 9/11 intelligence
failures.
Note: The above article was written by Michael Meacher, who served as the U.K. Minster of
Environment from 1997 to 2003. For lots more reliable information suggesting a major cover-up
around 9/11, click here.

Skull And Bones

2004-06-13, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/02/60minutes/main576332.shtml
As opposite as George Bush and John Kerry may seem to be, they do share a common secret one they've shared for decades. The secret: details of their membership in Skull and Bones, the
elite Yale University society whose members include some of the most powerful men of the 20th
century. Bonesmen, as they're called, are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum.
Bones has included presidents, cabinet officers, spies, Supreme Court justices, [and] captains of
industry. They'd responded to questions with utter silence until an enterprising Yale graduate,
Alexandra Robbins, managed to penetrate the wall of silence in her book, Secrets of the Tomb. "I
spoke with about 100 members of Skull and Bones. They were members who were tired of the
secrecy, says Robbins. But probably twice that number hung up on me, harassed me, or
threatened me. Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832. Since
then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become ... lifetime members of
the ultimate old boys' club. A lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power. President
Bush ... tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Bonesmen have [included]
William Howard Taft, the 27th President; Henry Luce, the founder of Time Magazine; and W.
Averell Harriman, the diplomat and confidant of U.S. presidents. Mr. Bush, like his father
and grandfather before him, has refused to talk openly about Skull and Bones. But as a
Bonesman, he was required to reveal his innermost secrets to his fellow Bones initiates. They're
supposed to recount their entire sexual histories in ... a dimly-lit cozy room.
Note: For a highly revealing, four-minute CNN News clip on Skull and Bones, click here. For other
major media news clips reporting on this powerful secret society, click here. And for lots more
reliable information from major media sources on powerful, secret groups like this, click here.

Defense Department drops $100M on unused airline tickets

2004-06-09, USA Today/New York Times/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-06-09-pentagon-flights_x.htm

The Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used
over a six-year period and failed to seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable,
congressional investigators say. The GAO estimated that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense
Department bought at least $100 million in tickets that were not used or used only partially by a
passenger who did not complete all legs of a flight. The waste went undetected because the
department relied on individuals to report the unused tickets. They did not do so. "The millions of
dollars wasted on unused airline tickets provides another example of why DOD financial
management is one of our high-risk areas, with DOD highly vulnerable to fraud, waste and
abuse," the GAO said. Two of the three lawmakers who asked for the study were Republicans,
and both were highly critical of the Pentagon's lack of financial control. Sen. Charles Grassley, RIowa, said, "It's outrageous that the Defense Department would be sending additional federal tax
dollars to the airlines by way of unused passenger tickets." While one GAO report focused on the
unused tickets, the second investigation found potential fraud. It said the department paid travelers
for tickets the department already bought and reimbursed employees for tickets that had not been
authorized. It is a crime for a government employee knowingly to request reimbursement for goods
and services he or she did not buy. To demonstrate how easy it was to have the Pentagon pay for
airline travel, the investigators posed as Defense employees, had the department generate a ticket
and showed up at the ticket counter to pick up a boarding pass.
Note:To read this astonishing article on the New York Times website, click here.

NORAD had drills of jets as weapons

2004-04-18, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm
In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense
Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at
the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass
casualties. One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center. In another exercise ... the
target was the Pentagon but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic,
NORAD and Defense officials say. NORAD, in a written statement, confirmed that such hijacking
exercises occurred. "Numerous types of civilian and military aircraft were used as mock hijacked
aircraft," the statement said. "These exercises tested track detection and identification; scramble
and interception; hijack procedures; internal and external agency coordination and operational
security and communications security procedures." On April 8, the commission investigating the
Sept. 11 attacks heard testimony from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that the White
House didn't anticipate hijacked planes being used as weapons. President Bush said ... "Nobody
in our government ... could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale." One
operation, planned in July 2001 ... involved planes from airports in Utah and Washington state that
were "hijacked." NORAD officials have acknowledged that "scriptwriters" for the drills included the
idea of hijacked aircraft being used as weapons. "Threats of killing hostages or crashing were left
to the scriptwriters to invoke creativity and broaden the required response," Maj. Gen. Craig
McKinley, a NORAD official, told the 9/11 commission.

Note: This highly revealing news was reported on the front page of USA Today, yet no other major
media even picked up the story. Why? For lots more, click here and here.

Bush: 'Had I Known, We Would Have Acted'

2004-04-12, CNN News
http://articles.cnn.com/2004-04-11/politics/911.investigation_1_intelligence-...
President Bush said Sunday that an intelligence memo he read shortly before September 11,
2001, contained no "actionable intelligence" that would have helped him to try to prevent the 9/11
attacks. "The (August 6, 2001 memo) was no indication of a terrorist threat," Bush said. But a
member of the independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks said ... the memo
-- the president's daily briefing, or PDB -- should have alerted Bush to the strong possibility of such
an attack. Richard Ben-Veniste [said] the memo and other reports and incidents made up a
"substantial body of information" about Osama bin Laden's possible plans. The briefing was
headlined, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US." "The CIA was reminding the president -- with
the headline ... 'don't just look overseas for the possibility of this spectacular event that everyone
was predicting,' " Ben-Veniste told reporters. Ben-Veniste also took issue with national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the committee ... that the White House had no
inkling al Qaeda would use planes as missiles. He said he would "be surprised if Dr. Rice
didn't know" about a no-fly zone in place over Genoa, Italy, for the spring 2001 G8 meeting,
spurred by fears terrorists could crash planes "into the buildings where the leaders were meeting."
Note: To see the daily presidential briefing which shows beyond any doubt that Bush was not
telling the truth on this, click here. For excerpts from many major media articles suggesting a 9/11
cover-up, click here.

FBI let innocents get death sentences

2003-11-22, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/21/1069027333534.html
The FBI used murderers as informants in Boston for three decades, even allowing innocent men to
be sentenced to death to protect the secret operation, a government report has found. The FBI's
policy "must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement"
and had "disastrous consequences", the report by the House Committee on Government Reform
said. More than 20 people were murdered by FBI informants in Boston from 1965, often with
the help of FBI agents, it said. But no FBI agent or official has ever been disciplined. The
FBI's policy of using murderers grew out of a belated effort by a former director, J. Edgar Hoover,
to go after the Mafia, which Hoover had earlier denied even existed. In the early 1960s, the bureau
began recruiting underworld informers in its new campaign. The report focuses heavily on one
episode, the 1965 murder of Edward Deegan, a small-time hoodlum who was killed by Jimmy
Flemmi and Joseph Barboza, who had just been recruited by an FBI agent in Boston. The FBI
knew the two men were the killers because it had been using an unauthorised wire tap and had

heard Flemmi ask the Mafia boss, Raymond Patriarca, for permission to kill Deegan. A few days
later, Deegan was shot dead. Four men who had nothing to do with the killing were tried and
convicted, with two sentenced to death and two to life in prison. Two of the men died in prison and
two had their sentences commuted and were freed after serving 30 years behind bars. Hoover was
kept fully informed about this murder and the wrongful convictions, the report said.

Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection

2003-11-09, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-11-09/opinion/17517477_1_eugenics-ethnic-clea...
Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a
so-called Master Race. But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race
didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California,
decades before Hitler came to power. Eugenics would have been so much bizarre parlor talk
had it not been for extensive financing by corporate philanthropies, specifically the
Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. They
were all in league with some of America's most respected scientists from such prestigious
universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. These academicians espoused race
theory and race science, and then faked and twisted data to serve eugenics' racist aims. Stanford
President David Starr Jordan originated the notion of "race and blood" in his 1902 racial epistle
"Blood of a Nation," in which the university scholar declared that human qualities and conditions
such as talent and poverty were passed through the blood. The Rockefeller Foundation helped
found the German eugenics program and even funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in
before he went to Auschwitz.
Note: Josef Mengele's US-funded eugenics research laid the foundation for his experimentation
on human subjects before and during World War II. He went on to participate in CIA-funded mindcontrol experimentation after that war. For more on Mengele, click here.

Did LBJ Cover For Israel?

2003-10-23, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/23/national/main579649.shtml
A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the
USS Liberty that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon Johnson and his
defense secretary, Robert McNamara, ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an
accident. Retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy's
inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite overwhelming
evidence to the contrary." Boston was senior legal counsel to the Navy's original 1967 review of
the attack. He said in the sworn statement that he stayed silent for years because ... "when orders
come ... I follow them." The USS Liberty was an electronic intelligence-gathering ship that was
cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967. Israeli planes and torpedo

boats opened fire on the Liberty. It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said Ret.
Adm. Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year
investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former
military officials. The panel also included a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James
Akins. David Lewis of Lemington, Vt., was on the Liberty when it was attacked. In an interview, he
said Israel had to know it was targeting an American ship. He said a U.S. flag was flying that day
and Israel shot it full of holes. The sailors on the ship, he said, quickly hoisted another American
flag, a much bigger one, to show Israel it was a U.S. vessel.
Note: For lots more on this major cover-up by a U.S. president and top military officers, click here.
ABC producer James Bamford, who exposed the Operation Northwoods cover-up, also has an
excellent chapter on this event in his highly revealing book, Body of Secrets, about the National
Security Agency.

This war on terrorism is bogus (by past U.K. Minister of Environment)

2003-09-06, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1036571,00.html
At least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks. Two senior Mossad
experts were sent to Washington in August 2001 to alert the CIA and FBI to a cell of 200 terrorists
said to be preparing a big operation. The list they provided included the names of four of the 9/11
hijackers, none of whom was arrested. In November 2001 the US airforce complained it had
had al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in its sights as many as 10 times over the previous six
weeks, but had been unable to attack because they did not receive permission quickly enough.
The BBC reported [that] a former Pakistan foreign secretary was told by senior American officials
at a meeting in Berlin in mid-July 2001 that "military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by
the middle of October". Zacarias Moussaoui ... was arrested in August 2001. One agent wrote, a
month before 9/11, that Moussaoui might be planning to crash into the Twin Towers. US agents ...
sought a warrant to search his computer. They were turned down by the FBI. [A] PNAC blueprint
supports an earlier document ... which said the US must "discourage advanced industrial nations
from challenging our leadership". The document also calls for the creation of "US space forces" to
dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent "enemies" using the internet. It also
hints that the US may consider developing biological weapons "that can target specific genotypes
[and] may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool". The
conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the "global war on terrorism" has the hallmarks of
a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda - the US goal of world
hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the
whole project.
Note: This is one of the very few articles recommended as a must read. Michael Meacher
was the U.K. Minister of Environment from May 1997 to June 2003. Mr. Meacher lays out a wealth
of highly revealing information backed by reliable sources. To confirm most of his statements on

our 9/11 timeline, click here. Mr. Meacher's cliams were reported on BBC News, as well, though
the BBC mentioned amazingly little on his claims of U.S. involvement in 9/11. To see the BBC
article click here.

FBI Agent Probed After Criticizing Bureau

2003-06-12, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=90548#.UZznatjfKSo
A 12-year veteran FBI agent is under investigation for alleged insubordination following his
appearances on ABC News programs and a recent press conference in Washington, D.C., in
which he criticized the bureau's efforts to combat terrorism, according to the agent's attorney.
Special Agent Robert Wright ... began tracking terrorists in the Chicago area in the mid-1990s for
the Terrorism Task Force. He says he soon became frustrated when he was ordered by his
superiors at the FBI Intelligence Division not to make any arrests of suspected terrorists. According
to Wright, he was ordered to drop his investigation into a suspected terror financier whose name
had arisen during the investigation into the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in
1998, in which at least 224 people were killed. Wright and his partner John Vincent, who has since
retired from the FBI, said that the money trail uncovered in the embassy bombing probe led to,
among others, a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman, Yassin Qadi, who had extensive business
and financial ties in Chicago. "Two months after the embassies are hit in Africa they want to
shut down the criminal investigation. They wanted to kill it," Wright said. Last year, Wright
told ABC News that he had more to say about the failures of the Terrorism Task Force.
"There's so much more," he said. "God, there's so much more."
Note: For other media articles giving more detailed information on Wright's allegations, click here
and here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on intelligence agency
corruption, click here.

Maybe It Stands for War's Mission Disputed

2003-06-08, WantToKnow.info/Minneapolis Star Tribune
http://www.WantToKnow.info/disappearededitorial
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction." Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002 [White House website] "Our
intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500
tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." President Bush, Jan. 28, 2003 [St. Petersburg Times
website] "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime
continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." President
Bush, March 17, 2003 [White House website] "There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam
Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will
be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them." Gen.
Tommy Franks, March 22, 2003 [Washington Post] "They may have had time to destroy them, and

I don't know the answer." Donald Rumsfeld, May 27, 2003 [Washington Post website]"For
bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction [as justification for
invading Iraq] because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, May 28, 2003 [CNN website]
Note: This article was published on the front page of the editorial section in the June 8, 2003
edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Yet within weeks of its publication it disappeared from their
website. Why have the media so avoided these most important facts? For an enlightening
answer to this question, a powerful article by a highly decorated U.S. general is available here.

The Kissinger Commission

2002-11-29, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60812FB395C0C7A8EDDA80994DA4...
In naming Henry Kissinger to direct a comprehensive examination of the government's failure to
prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush has selected a consummate Washington insider.
Unfortunately, his affinity for power and the commercial interests he has cultivated since leaving
government may make him less than the staunchly independent figure that is needed for this
critical post. Indeed, it is tempting to wonder if the choice of Mr. Kissinger is not a clever
maneuver by the White House to contain an investigation it long opposed. It seems
improbable to expect Mr. Kissinger to report unflinchingly on the conduct of the
government, including that of Mr. Bush. He would have to challenge the established order and
risk sundering old friendships and business relationships. The new inquiry will be undone if the 10member panel is hesitant to call government organizations and officials to account. There can be
no place for the kind of political calculation and court flattery that Mr. Kissinger practiced so
assiduously during his tenure as Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state.
Nor is there any tolerance for the kind of cynicism that Mr. Kissinger applied to the prosecution of
the Vietnam War.
Note: Kissinger was later forced to decline this offer as it was revealed that he was a paid advisor
to members of the bin Laden family. To confirm this, watch minutes 15 to 18 of the amazing 84minute 9/11 documentary, "9/11: Press for Truth," available here. This excellent video is focused on
the revealing investigations of the "Jersey Girls," who lost their husbands in the attacks and
uncovered Kissinger's bin Laden connections. Yet though the major media reported widely that
Kissinger resigned for "conflict of interest" reasons, none of the media mentioned that it was
because of his bin Laden connections. To find out why, click here

Revealed: The Taliban minister, the US envoy and the warning of

September 11 that was ignored
2002-09-07, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newpapers)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=331115

Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United
Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was
planning a huge attack on American soil. The warnings were delivered by an aide of Wakil
Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban Foreign Minister at the time, who was known to be deeply unhappy
with the foreign militants in Afghanistan, including Arabs. The minister then ordered him to alert the
US and the UN about what was going to happen. The message was disregarded because of
what sources describe as "warning fatigue". At the same time, the FBI and the CIA failed to
take seriously warnings that Islamic fundamentalist students had enrolled in flight schools across
the US. Mr Muttawakil's aide, who has stayed on in Kabul and who has to remain anonymous for
his security, described in detail to The Independent how he alerted first the Americans and then
the United Nations of the coming calamity of 11 September.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For many other revealing major media articles raising
serious questions about what happened on 9/11, click here.

Ashcroft Travel Alert Didn't Involve Bin Laden

2002-05-16, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52982,00.html
Attorney General John Ashcroft was urged in May 2001 by his top security experts not to fly
aboard commercial aircraft because of personal threats on his life, not out of fears about terrorist
hijackings, the Justice Department said. The department moved quickly to quell suggestions
that Ashcroft, who routinely flies aboard a small jet operated by the FBI, took precautions
for his own safety in the months before Sept. 11 based on warnings of any threats involving
Usama bin Laden or the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Ashcroft declined to discuss the issue while
visiting ... with Bulgarian justice officials in his office. Ashcroft walked from the room without
comment when a reporter asked about it. An FBI security review after Ashcroft took office
recommended that the attorney general eschew flying on commercial planes whenever possible,
citing nonspecific threats against Ashcroft's life. Since July 2001, Ashcroft has typically flown
aboard an FBI jet or aboard other jets leased by U.S. agencies, although he occasionally has
traveled on commercial flights.
Note: For more on this bizarre news, see the CBS report available here. Did Ashcroft have access
to information about an impending air disaster that others didn't? For many other major media
reports suggesting that rogue elements of government were involved in 9/11, click here.

Millions were in germ war tests

2002-04-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalscience

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series
of secret germ warfare tests on the public. A government report just released provides for the first
time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.
Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over
vast swaths of the population without the public being told. While details of some secret trials have
emerged in recent years, the 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100
covert experiments. The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any
'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution.
The tests [were] carried out by government scientists at Porton Down. In most cases, the
trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives which scientists believed would mimic germ
warfare and which the MoD claimed were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country
who have children with birth defects are demanding a public inquiry.
Note: Military personnel were ordered to lie to cover-up potentially dangerous experiments on the
public. So how can we trust that these people have the public interest as a priority?

Blunders that let bin Laden slip away

2002-02-23, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1385794/Blunders-t...
In retrospect, and with the benefit of dozens of accounts from the participants, the battle for
Tora Bora looks more like a grand charade, a deliberate ploy to cover bin Laden's quiet
escape. The US strategy bore little logic for those suffering the brunt of the attacks. "When
we round up a pack of stray sheep, we send in shepherds from four sides, not just one," said Malik
Osman Khan, a one-eyed tribal chief whose 16-year-old son Wahid Ullah was one of more than
100 Afghan civilians killed in the intense US bombing. "At first, we thought that the US military was
trying to frighten the Arabs out, since they were only bombing on one side." Haji Zahir, one of the
three Afghan commanders whose ill-prepared fighters led the charge up the southern slopes of
Tora Bora, agreed that the US bombing worked against his efforts on the ground. "They started the
bombing before they surrounded the area." Bin Laden had left some days previously, and even as
the US military's proxy war got under way, the rush of his fighters out of Tora Bora, which had been
a trickle and then a stream, now became a mad dash for freedom. The eastern Afghanistan
intelligence chief for the country's new government, Pir Baksh Bardiwal, was astounded that the
Pentagon planners of the battle for Tora Bora had failed to even consider the most obvious exit
routes. He said: "The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it. AlQa'eda escaped right out from under their feet."
Note: For many questions raised about the official account of 9/11 by highly respected individuals,
click here and here.

Parallel Universes
2002-02-14, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/paralleluni.shtml
Everything you're about to read here seems impossible and insane, beyond science fiction.
Scientists now believe there may really be a parallel universe - in fact, there may be an infinite
number of parallel universes, and we just happen to live in one of them. These other universes
contain space, time and strange forms of exotic matter. For years parallel universes were a staple
of the Twilight Zone. Science fiction writers loved to speculate on the possible other universes
which might exist. Serious scientists dismissed all this speculation as absurd. But now it seems the
speculation wasn't absurd enough. It all started when superstring theory, hyperspace and dark
matter made physicists [conclude] that the three dimensions we thought described the
Universe weren't enough. By the time they had finished they'd come to the conclusion that
our Universe is just one bubble among an infinite number of membranous bubbles which
ripple as they wobble through the eleventh dimension. Now imagine what might happen if two such
bubble universes touched. Neil Turok from Cambridge, Burt Ovrut from the University of
Pennsylvania and Paul Steinhardt from Princeton believe that has happened. The result? A very
big bang indeed and a new universe was born - our Universe. The idea has shocked the scientific
community; it turns the conventional Big Bang theory on its head. It may well be that the Big Bang
wasn't really the beginning of everything after all. Time and space all existed before it. In fact Big
Bangs may happen all the time.
Note: To watch this mind-boggling program on BCC, click here.

CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July

2001-11-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/01/afghanistan.terrorism
Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the
American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French
newspaper Le Figaro. Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in
Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology
department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi
personalities, and the CIA. The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden,
and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. Intelligence sources say that
another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal,
then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. The
American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there. Washington
last night also denied the story. Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some
accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.
According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base
at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Note: For many unanswered questions about the official account of 9/11 asked by highlyrespected professors and officials, click here and here.

Fearing Harm, bin Laden Kin Fled From U.S.

2001-09-30, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60F14F63F590C738FDDA00894D94...
In the first days after the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Saudi Arabia supervised the
urgent evacuation of 24 members of Osama bin Laden's extended family from the United States,
fearing that they might be subjected to violence. Most of Mr. bin Laden's relatives were attending
high school and college. They are among the 4,000 Saudi students in the United States. King
Fahd, the ailing Saudi ruler, sent an urgent message to his embassy here saying there were "bin
Laden children all over America" and ordered, "Take measures to protect the innocents," the
ambassador said. The young members of the bin Laden clan were driven or flown under
F.B.I. supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where
they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the
attacks. A majority of the men who hijacked four airliners in the attacks carried Saudi passports.
Surprisingly, Osama bin Laden was not a stranger even to a royal family member like Prince
Bandar. In the early 1980's, bin Laden came to greet the prince and thank him for helping to build
the coalition that fought against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. Mr. bin Laden is one of 52
children of a Yemeni-born migrant who made a vast fortune building roads and palaces in Saudi
Arabia.
Note: Should the above link fail to function, click here. For a Boston Globe article on this key topic,
click here. For more detailed information which both the Times and Globe neglected to report, click
here.

FBI Knew Terrorists Were Using Flight Schools

2001-09-23, The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A10...
Federal authorities have been aware for years that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin
Laden were receiving flight training at schools in the United States and abroad, according to
interviews and court testimony. Three days after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III described reports that several of the hijackers had
received flight training in the United States as "news, quite obviously," adding, "If we had
understood that to be the case, we would have -- perhaps one could have averted this." A senior
government official yesterday acknowledged law enforcement officials were aware that ... a dozen
people with links to bin Laden had attended U.S. flight schools. Abdul Hakim Murad ... was
arrested in Manila in 1995 and later convicted in New York of plotting to blow up a dozen
U.S. airliners over the Pacific, then crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters. According to
law enforcement officials and press reports, the 19 suspected terrorists received flight training from
at least 10 U.S. flight schools. At least 44 people sought by the FBI for questioning received some
flight instruction.

Note: Why did the upper levels of the FBI "not know" about the suspicious people in US flight
schools, when so many lower-level FBI personnel were desperately trying to inform them of these
facts? For many other unanswered questions about the official account of 9/11 from highly
respected professionals, click here and here.

US 'planned attack on Taleban'

2001-09-18, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against
Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks. Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani
Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against
Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October. Mr Naik said US officials told him of the
plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin. Mr
Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was
handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the
Taleban leader, Mullah Omar. The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the
Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place. Mr Naik
was told that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American
advisers were already in place. He was told that Uzbekistan would also participate in the operation
and that 17,000 Russian troops were on standby. Mr Naik was told that if the military action
went ahead it would take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the
middle of October at the latest. He said that he was in no doubt that after the World Trade
Center bombings this pre-existing US plan had been built upon and would be implemented
within two or three weeks. And he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even
if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban.
Note: For many questions raised about the official account of 9/11 by highly respected individuals,
click here and here.

Blind To Failure
2001-06-18, Time Magazine (Cover story)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000120.html
Scaling Everest requires the enthusiasm and boosterism of a physical-education teacher
combined with the survival instinct of a Green Beret. You have to want that summit. Erik
Weihenmayer, 33, wasn't just another yuppie trekker. Blind since he was 13 ... he began
attacking mountains in his early 20s. For Erik ... excelling as an athlete was the result of
accepting his disability rather than denying it." Climbing with Erik isn't that different from climbing
with a sighted mountaineer. You wear a bell on your pack, and he follows the sound ... using his
custom-made climbing poles to feel his way along the trail. His climbing partners shout out helpful
descriptions: "Death fall 2 ft. to your right!" Almost 90% of Everest climbers fail to reach the

summit. Many--at least 165 since 1953--never come home at all. When Erik and the team began
the final ascent from Camp 4 ... they had been on the mountain for two months ... getting used to
the altitude and socking away enough equipment [before they made the final, successful] summit
push. "He was the heart and soul of our team," says Eric Alexander. "The guy's spirit won't let you
quit." It could be called the most successful Everest expedition ever, and not just because of
Erik's participation. A record 19 climbers from the N.F.B. team summited, including the oldest man
ever to climb Everest--64-year-old Sherman Bull. Perhaps the point is really that there is no way to
put what Erik has done in perspective because no one has ever done anything like it. It is a unique
achievement, one that in the truest sense pushes the limits of what man is capable of.
Note: Don't miss the entire inspiring blind to failure story at the link above. For an inspiring video of
Erik in Peru, click here.

Aliens Over DC?

2001-05-22, National Geographic
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/when-aliens-attack/all/Overview#...
Early in the morning of July 19, 1952, two former Air Force personnel were driving down Highway
211 near Centerville, VA, when their car was struck by an object falling from the sky, which left
powder burns on the hood. The two veterans were puzzled about the object, but inexplicably, left it
behind on the road without getting out of the car and examining it. That bizarre incident [was] the
beginning of ... a series of sightings in July and early August 1952 in the vicinity of Washington
DC. Occurring disturbingly close to the epicenter of the nations political and military
power, the sightings aroused a public and media frenzy, and prompted inquiries all the way
up the chain of command to President Truman himself. Declassified government documents,
books on UFO history and other sources ... provide ample details, but no ultimate explanation for
what multiple eyewitnesses and radar screens saw. The first major event occurred at 20 minutes to
midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, when an air traffic controller at Washington National Airport
spotted seven mysterious unidentified aircraft on his radar screen. The aircraft were flying about
15 miles to the southwest of the nations capital and not following any approved flight paths. Then,
other objects appeared, all over the screen. They were moving toward the White House and the
U.S. Capitol.
Note: Don't miss the video footage of this historic event at the link above. This is part of National
Geographic feature program titled "When Aliens Attack"? To see this on their website, click here
and here. Some of the videos in the first link are particularly interesting. The title brings to mind Dr.
Carol Rosin's prediction of a staged alien attack, which you can read here.

A Conspiracy So Vast; How Crimes Become Obsessions

2001-05-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/13/weekinreview/the-nation-a-conspiracy-so-vas...

The disclosure that the Federal Bureau of Investigation withheld documents from Timothy
McVeigh's lawyers seems certain to ignite a controversy that will burn for years, perhaps
decades. ''If any questions or doubts remain about this case, it would cast a permanent cloud over
justice,'' said Attorney General John D. Ashcroft in delaying Mr. McVeigh's execution until at least
June 11. But for some people the cloud has been there all along, and always will be. They will
never accept the government's assertion that the withholding of the documents was simple human,
bureaucratic error. And so the 1995 bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City seems
likely to join the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as
events whose truth -- in the eyes of some Americans -- is forever untold. ''Gee, how did that
happen?'' Charles Key, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, said in
sarcastic response to the news that the McVeigh defense team had been denied evidence held by
the government. Mr. Key, who lives in Oklahoma City, said he has always been convinced that Mr.
McVeigh had accomplices beyond Terry Nichols, the other person convicted in the bombing. The
government has not pursued the case aggressively, he said, because the full truth would be too
damning.
Note: There is an abundance of solid information that the Oklahoma City bombing was
manipulated in major ways. For two revealing AP articles on the FBI concealing evidence, click
here and here. For news reports that there were undetonated bombs in the building, sharply
contradicting the official story click here and here.

What Did the C.I.A. Do to His Father?

2001-04-01, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9D02E2DE113CF932A35...
For a quarter of a century, [Eric Olson] has believed that the Central Intelligence Agency murdered
his father, a United States government scientist. On Nov. 28, 1953, around 2 a.m. [the] night
manager at the Statler Hotel ... in New York rushed out the front door ... to find a middle-aged man
lying on the sidewalk. The man had fallen from the 10th floor -- apparently after crashing through a
closed window. [In late July, 1975] the C.I.A.'s director, William Colby [provided Olson's] family ...
declassified documents relating to Frank Olson's death. Olson had not been a civilian employee of
the Department of the Army. He had been a C.I.A. employee working at Fort Detrick. Olson's
specialty, it turned out, had been the development of aerosols for the delivery of anthrax. The
Colby documents were ... full of unexplained terms like the ''Artichoke'' and ''Bluebird'' projects.
These turned out to be the precursors of what became known as MK-ULTRA, a C.I.A. project,
beginning in the Korean War, to explore the use of drugs like LSD as truth serums, as well as
botulism and anthrax, for use in covert assassination. The documents claimed that during a
meeting between the C.I.A. and Fort Detrick scientists ... on Nov. 19,1953, Sidney Gottlieb of the
C.I.A. slipped LSD into Olson's glass of Cointreau. Olson, a scientist by training, would have
known that he was working for a government that had put Nazi scientists on trial at
Nuremberg for immoral experiments on human beings. Now, in the late summer of 1953,

[Olson] faced up to the possibility that his own government was doing the same thing.
Slipping LSD into Olson's Cointreau was ... designed to get him to talk ... to assess what kind of
risk he posed and then eliminate him if necessary.
Note: For those interested in this vital, yet disturbing topic, the entire Times article is well worth
reading. For further verifiable information on the CIA mind control programs mentioned in this
article, click here.

'Psychic' parrot expected to ruffle scientific feathers

2001-02-12, USA Today
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/2001-02-12-parrot.htm
N'Kisi may look like an ordinary Congo African gray parrot, but she's the subject of a series of
telepathy experiments by a former Cambridge University researcher who says the results are
"astounding." "The parrot seems to be able to pick up her owner's thoughts with an amazing
degree of accuracy," says Rupert Sheldrake, a former Royal Society researcher at Cambridge and
author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers
of Animals. N'Kisi's owner, Aimee Morgana of Manhattan, ... says she first noticed N'Kisi's
psychic abilities when she saw an explicit picture in the Village Voice personals. "I was
thinking, 'Wow, that's a pretty naturalistic work.' " Then, she says, N'Kisi spoke from the
parrot's cage across the room: "Oh, look at the pretty naked body." Sheldrake was interested.
He explored N'Kisi's psychic abilities using a double-blind test. He asked Morgana to look at
photographs in one room while the parrot was in a cage in another. One camera videotaped
Morgana looking at photographs, another camera about 55 feet away videotaped the parrot, who
made comments that seemed to correspond to many of the photos Morgana was looking at. N'Kisi
made 123 comments during the test sessions, and 32 of those were "direct hits" corresponding to
the images Morgana was looking at. The chances of that occurring, Sheldrake says, are less than
1 in a billion. Telepathy is made possible, he says, by the emotional bonds between people and
animals. "In the case of N'Kisi, there's a very strong connection between her and Aimee."
Note: For a nine-minute video of this fascinating experiment, click here. For a sample of N'Kisi
talking, click here. For a brilliant lecture by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, the above-mentioned researcher,
questioning the rigid dogmas of the current scientific paradigm, click here.

CIA Reveals Covert Acts In Chile

2000-09-11, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-reveals-covert-acts-in-chile/
The CIA is acknowledging for the first time the extent of its deep involvement in Chile, where it
dealt with coup-plotters, false propagandists and assassins. The agency [released] a declassified
report required by the U.S. Congress. Despite the disclosures, the CIA report admits to no abuses
or cover-up by CIA agents. But it chronicles clandestine contacts authorized by then-U.S.

President Richard Nixon and other top U.S. officials which it said would violate standards now
upheld by the agency. Among the disclosures: The CIA had prior knowledge of the plot that
overthrew Allende three years later. The CIA supported a kidnapping attempt of Chile's
army chief in October 1970, as part of a plot to prevent the congressional confirmation of Allende
as president. The kidnapping attempt failed, and Gen. Rene Schneider was shot and killed. The
CIA later paid $35,000 to the kidnappers in what it termed "humanitarian" assistance. The CIA
made a one-time payment to secret police head Gen. Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, the head
of the military regime's feared secret police. He was sentenced in 1993 for killing Chilean
socialist leader Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976. Contreras has said the CIA was
behind the assassination. The report also describes efforts to influence news media in Chile
against Allende and to continue anti-leftist propaganda efforts by successor Pinochet, "including
support for news media committed to creating a positive image for the military Junta" now accused
of an array of abuses during his 17-year rule, including more than 3,000 killings.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

The C.I.A. in Iran -- How a Plot Convulsed Iran in '53 (and in '79)
2000-04-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html
The Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of its covert operation to overthrow Iran's
government in 1953 offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a
series of mishaps that derailed its original plans. Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief
planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that
returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist.
The document shows that: * The C.I.A. and S.I.S., the British intelligence service, handpicked Gen.
Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and covertly funneled $5
million to General Zahedi's regime two days after the coup prevailed. * Iranians working for the
C.I.A. and posing as Communists harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of
one cleric's home in a campaign to turn the country's Islamic religious community against
Mossadegh's government.
Note: For the complete text of this major report in single-page format, click here.

A Consensus on King's Life, if Not His Death; Conspiracy Verdict

2000-01-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/17/nyregion/consensus-king-s-life-if-not-his-d...
A jury in Memphis decided last month that Dr. King was not the victim of a gunman acting
alone, but was instead the victim of a far-reaching conspiracy that included the United
States government. This year's national holiday ... comes just weeks after the controversial

verdict was delivered. At Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King preached his gospel
of nonviolence, the Rev. Joseph L. Roberts Jr. said the verdict confirmed what he had always
suspected: that Dr. King's assassination was a conspiracy. Dr. King's widow and children have
long questioned Mr. Ray's 1969 conviction, and hoped that their civil suit would change the legal
and historical record of the assassination. And on Dec. 8, a Memphis jury seemed to give them
what they wanted. The jury declared that Loyd Jowers, 73, a retired Memphis restaurant owner,
was liable in Dr. King's death for purportedly hiring a Memphis police officer, now dead, to kill Dr.
King. The jury also found that unnamed others, including government agencies, had been
involved, in effect accepting the King family's contention that Mr. Ray was innocent, despite his
guilty plea. Mr. Jowers, through his lawyer, has said he participated in a conspiracy but did not
know it was a plot to kill Dr. King. The jury awarded the King family members the damages they
had sought: $100, which they say they will donate to charity. The Memphis jury was the first to hold
someone accountable for playing a role in Dr. King's assassination.
Note: Why haven't you heard about this stunning trail verdict? And why wasn't this front page
news? For an excellent, six-minute Canadian news broadcast on this amazing court case and
verdict, click here. For the complete transcript of this highly revealing trial, click here. And for
dozens of major media articles suggestion that the assassinations of both Kennedys and King
were not the work of a lone gunman, click here. For some of the awesome and inspiring quotes
and audio and video clips of Martin Luther King, Jr., click here.

Experimental bomb to create huge tidal wave was tested in 1944

1999-09-27, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/experimental-bomb-to-create-huge-tidal-wave...
Secret wartime experiments were conducted off the New Zealand coast to perfect a bomb
that could trigger devastating tidal waves, according to government files declassified in
Auckland. The New Zealand Herald, citing the files, said that senior United States defence
officials believed the weapon had the potential to be as deadly as the atomic bomb. But the
tsunami bomb, as it was known, was never fully tested and the war ended before the project was
completed. Its mastermind was Thomas Leech, an Australian professor who as the dean of
engineering at Auckland University from 1940 to 1950. He was seconded to the New Zealand
Army during the Second World War. He set off a series of underwater explosions that triggered
mini tidal waves at Whangaparaoa, just north of Auckland, in 1944 and 1945. Details of the
research, known as Project Seal, are contained in 53- year-old documents released by the New
Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. What happened to Project Seal once the final report
was forwarded to Wellington in the late 1940s is not clear.
Note: For a revealing, well researched article presenting solid evidence that elements within the
military have much more control over the weather than is generally believed, click here.

Interview with John Mack Psychiatrist, Harvard University

1999-01-01, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/johnmack.html
The idea [of alien abductions] was simply not part of the world view that I had been raised in. I
came very reluctantly to the conclusion that this was a true mystery. I did everything I could to rule
out other sources. Some of these people are abused. But they're able to ... distinguish clearly the
abduction trauma from other forms of abuse. Some forms of psychosis or people making up
stories - I could reject that on the basis that there was no gain in this for the vast majority of
these people. I've now worked with over a hundred experiencers intensively, which involves an
initial two-hour or so screening interview before I do anything else. And in case after case after
case, I've been impressed with the consistency of the story, the sincerity with which people
tell their stories, the power of feelings connected with this, the self-doubt - all the
appropriate responses that these people have to their experiences. There are aspects of this
which I believe we are justified in taking quite literally. That is, UFOs are in fact observed, filmed on
camera at the same time that people are having their abduction experiences. People, in fact, have
been observed to be missing at the time that they are reporting their abduction experiences. They
return from their experiences with cuts, ulcers on their bodies, triangular lesions, which follow the
distribution of the experiences that they recover, of what was done to them in the craft by the
surgical-like activity of these beings.
Note: Prof. John Mack was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor at Harvard Medical
School who initially rejected the possibility of alien abductions. Only after thorough investigation
did he reluctantly come to the conclusion that this was a real phenomenon. For a powerful
documentary featuring Mack's work on alien abductions, click here. For a fascinating summary of
evidence presented by top government and military professionals on the possible presence of
extraterrestrials here on Earth, click here.

Professor Feels Himself Become Closer to the Machine

1998-09-23, ABC News
http://web.archive.org/web/20001109140100/http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections...
When Kevin Warwick enters his office building on the campus of Reading University, strange
things happen. As Warwick heads down the main hall, lights turn on. When he turns to the right, an
office door unbolts and opens. Each step is clocked and recorded. The building knows who he is,
where he is, and what he expects to happen. The building [even] says, Hello Professor
Warwick. The structure knows Warwick because of the electrical fuse-sized smart card
implanted in his left arm. In Britain, hes been dubbed The Cyborg Man, the first person
known to have a microchip implanted in his body for communication with outside machines.
Warwick predicts chip implants will one day replace time cards, criminal tracking devices, even
credit cards. Capable of carrying huge amounts of data, they may, he says, one day be used to
identify individuals by Social Security numbers, blood type, even their banking information. No one
knows yet how the body will respond to this type of invasion. Warwick is not blind to the ethical
questions of this technology. Implants ostensibly designed to clock workers in and out might be

misused to monitor where people are at all times and who they are meeting. Governments could
move to use implants instead of I.D. cards and passports, but what would stop them from using
this new science to invade privacy? I feel mentally different. When I am in the building I feel much
more closely connected with the computer.
Note: Those who would like to control the public named these implants "smart cards" to
encourage us to accept them. For more reliable information on important topic, click here and
here.

Bin Laden comes home to roost

1998-08-24, MSNBC News
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3340101
At the CIA, it happens often enough to have a code name: Blowback. Simply defined, this is the
term describing an agent, an operative or an operation that has turned on its creators. Osama bin
Laden, our new public enemy Number 1, is the personification of blowback. And the fact that he is
viewed as a hero by millions in the Islamic world proves again the old adage: Reap what you sow.
There are times when the United States, faced with ... moral dilemmas, should have resisted the
temptation to act. Arming a multi-national coalition of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the
1980s ... was one of those times. Bin Laden is the heir to Saudi construction fortune who ... has
used that money to finance countless attacks on U.S. interests. Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight
the Soviet army in Afghanistan. By 1984, he was running a front organization known as ... the MAK
- which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. MAK was
nurtured by Pakistans state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the
CIAs primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscows occupation. The CIA ... had
conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of the deepening crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet
Union. The CIA, as its deputy director Robert Gates acknowledged under congressional
questioning in 1992, had decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top
advisors and instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and technological
capabilities. Given that context, a decision was made to provide Americas potential enemies with
the arms, money - and most importantly - the knowledge of how to run a war of attrition violent and
well-organized enough to humble a superpower. That decision is coming home to roost.
Note: The #2 man (who later became #1) at the CIA acknowledges that the CIA deceived the
president in order to forward its own confrontational objectives. How often do you think this might
happen? Who's really in charge here? For a highly revealing documentary titled "Secrets of the
CIA," click here.

Inside the CIA: An interview with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman
1998-01-00, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/goodman/

Melvin Goodman was a senior analyst in Soviet affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency, where
he worked for two decades (1966-1986). He currently is professor of international studies at the
National War College. [In the CIA], not only do you have political assassinations -- attempts at
least -- throughout the Fifties and the Sixties ... but you even have assassination attempts against
international leaders: the Mongoose operation in Cuba [and] assassination attempts in Chile,
where you were dealing with a country that wasn't even in the vital national interests or concerns
of the United States. All of these assassination attempts were done with the authorization of the
White House. I think the major problem at the CIA -- and it exists to this day -- is that you have two
cultures. You have an intelligence or analytical culture that must remain open. The opposite of that
is the clandestine side: it's secret, it's a policy branch of the government. The White House
basically uses the operational component of the CIA to do its bidding. It's very useful to
have a clandestine corps to carry out military or paramilitary actions very cheaply, without
the hand of the United States or a particular president being obvious. In many ways, you're
getting worst-case assessments, because quite often the contacts of the CIA are people on the
CIA payroll, telling the CIA what these people believe the CIA wants to know -- in return for
payment. So the whole tradecraft is somewhat suspicious and somewhat corrupt from the very
outset.
Note: Melvin Goodman is one of many senior government officials who question the government's
9/11 story. For his comments on this, click here. For other senior officials with similar sentiments,
click here.

The Opium War's Secret History

1997-06-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/28/opinion/the-opium-war-s-secret-history.html
In 1823 a 24-year-old Yankee, Warren Delano, sailed to Canton. Within seven years he was a
senior partner in Russell & Company. Delano's problem, as with all traders, European and
American, was that China had much to sell but declined to buy. The British struck upon an
ingenious way to reduce a huge trade deficit. Their merchants bribed Chinese officials to
allow entry of chests of opium from British-ruled India, though its importation had long
been banned by imperial decree. Nearly every American company followed suit. As addiction
became epidemic, and as the Chinese began paying with precious silver for the drug, their
Emperor finally in 1839 named an Imperial Commissioner to end the trade. Commissioner Lin Tsehsu proceeded to Canton, seized vast stocks of opium and dumped the chests in the sea. This ...
furnished the spark for the Opium War, initiated by Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister, and
waged with determination to obtain full compensation for the opium. The Celestial Empire was
humbled, forced to open five ports to foreign traders and to permit a British colony at Hong Kong.
Warren Delano returned to America rich. He eventually gave his daughter Sara in marriage to ...
the father of Franklin Roosevelt. The old China trader was close-mouthed about opium, as were
his partners in Russell & Company. It is not clear how much F.D.R. knew about this source of his
grandfather's wealth.

Note: So FDR's grandfather struck it rich by dealing opium in China. Note that Samuel Russell,
who founded Russell & Company, the most powerful opium trader of the time, was the cousin of
William Russell, who founded Yale's Skull and Bones society, which counted among its members
Presidents William Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

The Unscientific F.B.I. Lab

1997-04-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/17/opinion/the-unscientific-fbi-lab.html
A new report from [FBI] inspector general, Michael Bromwich [says] that much of the vaunted
laboratory's work was amateurish, and, worse, that lab officials who appeared at trials were overly
eager to help the prosecution. It discovered, among other things, substandard performances by
the laboratory's explosives, chemistry-toxicology and materials analysis units, forcing F.B.I. officials
to review several hundred past and current cases -- including the Oklahoma City bombing case -to determine how many might have been jeopardized by unprofessional work. The inquiry found
numerous instances in which untrained F.B.I. agents had been allowed to take part in scientific
work. In some cases lab reports were inadequately documented and exaggerated the evidence
against defendants. Supervisors provided only the most cursory oversight, giving their
subordinates freedom to reach unsupported findings, which then went unchallenged. Specifically,
the F.B.I. apparently offered cooked testimony in at least two major cases. In the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing case, an examiner in the explosives lab, David Williams, gave
inaccurate testimony that ''exceeded his expertise, was unscientific and speculative, was
based on improper nonscientific grounds and appeared to be tailored to correspond with
his estimate of the amount of explosive used in the bombing.'' That should have been cause
for Mr. Williams's dismissal. Instead he was assigned to the Oklahoma City bombing, where, the
inspector general found, he committed ''many of the same errors.''
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

Modern art was CIA 'weapon'

1995-10-22, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html
For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The
Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as
Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the
Cold War. The CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the
world for more than 20 years. This was a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the great majority
of Americans disliked or even despised modern art. Why did the CIA support them? Because in
the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of
the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into

the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete. The existence of this policy, rumoured
and disputed for many years, has now been confirmed for the first time by former CIA officials. The
decision to include culture and art in the US Cold War arsenal was taken as soon as the CIA was
founded in 1947. Dismayed at the appeal communism still had for many intellectuals and artists in
the West, the new agency set up a division, the Propaganda Assets Inventory, which at its
peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines and public information
organisations. They joked that it was like a Wurlitzer jukebox: when the CIA pushed a
button it could hear whatever tune it wanted playing across the world. Unknown to the artists,
the new American art was secretly promoted under a policy known as the "long leash." [This]
centrepiece of the CIA campaign ... a vast jamboree of intellectuals, writers, historians, poets, and
artists ... was set up with CIA funds in 1950 and run by a CIA agent. At its height, it had offices in
35 countries and published more than two dozen magazines.
Note: Read the entire article at the link above to learn how the CIA secretly funnels money through
cooperative millionaires. To this day, the CIA has agents in key press positions to stop stories they
don't want or to promote their own pieces widely in the media. For more along these lines, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing media corruption news articles and intelligence agency
news articles, all from reliable major media sources.

Canada Will Pay '50s Test Victims

1992-11-19, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E0CE7DD173AF93AA25...
Canada has agreed to compensate victims of psychiatric experiments carried out mainly in the
1950s and financed in part by the Central Intelligence Agency. An institute at McGill University in
Montreal, headed by Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist, ... was one of the centers where such
experiments were carried out. Now, the Canadian Government says the 80 or so patients who
underwent the so-called "psychic driving" treatment in Montreal ... can receive almost $80,000
each. The patients at the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill were put into a drugged sleep for
weeks or months, subjected to electroshock therapy until they were "de-patterned," knowing
neither who or where they were, and forced to listen repeatedly to recorded messages broadcast
from speakers on the wall or under their pillows. Linda Macdonald, 55 years old, an employment
counselor now in Vancouver, is one of those who sued for compensation. "I walked through those
doors with a husband on one arm and a guitar on the other and was a healthy person and
coherent," she said. She spent 86 days in the "sleep room" and was subjected to 109 shock
treatments and megadoses of barbiturates and other drugs. When she got out of the
experiment, she could not read or write, had to be toilet-trained and could not remember
her husband, her five children or any part of the first 26 years of her life. John Marks, a
former State Department official whose 1979 book, The Search For the Manchurian Candidate,
called attention to the experiments, said that a C.I.A. front called the Society for the Investigation of
Human Ecology funneled more than $60,000 to Dr. Cameron for the studies. Ottawa gave him
more than $200,000.

Note: Dr. Cameron was once President of the American and World Psychiatric Associations. For a
concise summary of the CIA's mind control experiments, click here.

A dark history revealed

1992-08-14, CBC News (Canada's Public Broadcasting Network)
http://archives.cbc.ca/society/youth/topics/1633/
During the reign of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis in the 1940s and 1950s, an alarming
number of healthy children living in sanctuaries were hastily diagnosed as mentally
incompetent, psychotic patients. The diagnoses were always swift the children went to bed
orphans and woke up psychiatric patients. The reason? Shrewd fiscal planning; federal subsidies
paid out more to hospitals than to orphanages. Some children allegedly endured lobotomies,
electroshock, straitjackets and abuse. For the rest of their lives they would struggle to bring
attention to their story and demand compensation. They called themselves the Duplessis Orphans.
Born out of wedlock and deemed "children of sin," [these] thousands of Quebec children were cut
off from society and sent to orphanages during the 1940s and 1950s. Many were improperly
diagnosed as mentally incompetent. The diagnosis would be a lifelong sentence; the orphans
endured a difficult and sometimes abusive childhood. Fifty years later, the orphans who are now in
their 40s and 50s have organized and are seeking compensation.
Note: For more on this most bizarre story, click here. To learn how these children were likely being
used for secret mind control experiments, click here.

The BCCI whitewash

1991-11-06, Baltimore Sun
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-11-06/news/1991310167_1_bcci-sununu-whi...
Relax, everybody -- the White House counsel has "investigated" the case of the departing
Sununu aide with no legal experience who was hired for $600,000 by a BCCI figure, and
rendered this verdict: Nobody did anything wrong. Influence peddling? An attempt by
intermediaries to obstruct justice? Forget it. Sununu's man agrees to give back the money;
case closed. Much relieved, the Republican Justice Department hastily announces it accepts the
predetermined result of the White House "inquiry" and will not investigate. To date, nobody has
been asked a single question under oath. Let's see what Sheik Kamal Adham, the ex-Saudi
spymaster at the center of the BCCI conspiracy, thought he would get by hiring the person closest
to Bush's chief of staff. Since late spring, Plato Cacheris, Kamal's legitimate criminal defense
lawyer, has been trying to get various prosecutors to ... come to a place of the sheik's choosing,
where he cannot be arrested and extradited, to listen to an unsworn proffer of evidence that will
deflect prosecution from him. Nothing doing, said Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,
the only lawman getting real results in the BCCI swindle; bring him in -- we'll get his story in front of
a grand jury. Then Sununu's right-hand man departs the White House and is immediately retained,

reportedly paid $136,000 in advance. Justice suddenly has a change of heart; though Ed Rogers'
hand doesn't show, David Eisenberg, an assistant U.S. attorney, is dispatched from Washington to
Cairo to meet Kamal on the sheik's terms.
Note: For more on the huge scandals of the powerful BCCI, click here. For lots more from reliable
sources on government corruption, click here.

Iran-Contra Hearing; North's Testimony: 'Fall Guy' and Foreign Policy

1987-07-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/14/world/iran-contra-hearings-north-s-testimon...
REPRESENTATIVE JACK BROOKS, Democrat of Texas. Colonel North, in your work at the
N.S.C., were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in
the event of a major disaster? SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE, Democrat of Hawaii. I believe that
question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch
upon that. MR. BROOKS. I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in
Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same
agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American
Constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was the area in which he
had worked. I believe that it was, and I wanted to get his confirmation. MR. INOUYE. May I most
respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon, at this stage. If we wish to get into this,
I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.
Note: Why was the chairman not allowing a discussion of the fact that plans were being made in
the event of an emergency for the suspension of the U.S. Constitution? To watch a two-minute
video which includes this testimony, click here.

Underwater Exploring Is Banned In Brazil

1985-06-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/25/science/underwater-exploring-is-banned-in-b...
A dispute between the Brazilian Navy and an American marine archeologist has led Brazil to bar
the diver from entering the country and to place a ban on all underwater exploration. The dispute
involves Robert Marx, a Florida author and treasure hunter, who asserts that the Brazilian Navy
dumped a thick layer of silt on the remains of a Roman vessel that he discovered inside Rio de
Janeiro's bay. The reason he gave for the Navy's action was that proof of a Roman presence
would require Brazil to rewrite its recorded history, which has the Portuguese navigator
Pedro Alvares Cabral discovering the country in 1500. All ... permits for underwater exploration
and digging, a prolific field in Brazil, have been canceled as a result of the Marx controversy ...
Navy officials said. The story goes back to 1976 when lobster divers first found potsherds studded
with barnacles. Then a Brazilian diver brought up two complete jars with twin handles, tapering at
the bottom, the kind that ancient Mediterranean peoples widely used for storage and are known as

amphoras. According to Elizabeth Will, a professor of classics and specialist in ancient Roman
amphoras at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the jars are very similar to the ones
produced at Kouass, a Roman Empire colony that was a center for amphora-making on the
Atlantic coast of Morocco. Reached by telephone, Professor Will said of the fragments she had
studied: ''They look to be ancient and because of the profile, the thin-walled fabric and the shape
of the rims I suggested they belong to the third century A.D..''
Note: Many archeological finds which don't match accepted history have been suppressed and
covered up. For five revealing BBC articles showing more manipulation around this, click here. For
a compilation of 10 mysteries that hint at ancient civilizations which have largely been ignored,
click here.

Did Psychic Powers Give Firm a Killing In the Silver Market?

1984-10-22, Wall Street Journal
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/170098492.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&dat...
Delphi Associates ... is a struggling three-man partnership formed to cash in on the fruits of its
founders' psychic research. "This is not just an amusing exercise," says Anthony R. White, a
Stanford University M.B.A., art investor and manager of a family fortune. The research
heavyweight is Russell Targ, a physicist who built sophisticated lasers for GTE Sylvania Inc. until
1972, then spent the next 10 years doing hush-hush, still "classified," psychic research for the
federal government at SRI [Stanford Research Institute], the sober California think tank. At SRI,
[Targ] concentrated on remote-viewing, the ability of one viewer to "see" what another person -the "beacon" -- is looking at even though the beacon may be thousands of miles away. By 1982,
Mr. Targ says, "We'd shown unequivocally that people could describe distant locations as
well as events that lie in the future." One of Delphi's first commercial ventures was its foray into
the silver-futures market. Delphi tried to forecast roughly how much silver prices would change
between Thursday's closing and Monday's closing prices. In all of the first nine tries, Keith
Harary, the most psychic partner, made correct predictions. The investors ... made "in the
middle six figures," and Delphi got a commission. Alas, the power proved fickle. "Our major client
suffered an attack of hubris and started pressing us for more predictions," says Mr. White. Delphi
failed on the next two tries. "It was a difficult blow for all of us," Mr. White says. "The existence of
psychic functioning shows that there is something fundamentally incorrect about the prevailing
view of how space and time are understood," Mr. Targ says.
Note: The above link requires a small payment. To view the full article free, click here. For a great
Washington Post article with valuable information on remote viewing, click here. For other amazing
and intriguing information on the now-declassified government remote viewing program, click here.

Car Burnings and Assaults on Radicals Linked to F.B.I. Agents in Last 5

Years

1976-07-11, New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60716FA3D59157493C3A8178CD85...
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation committed widespread acts of unauthorized
lawlessness including the burning of automobiles, assaults and illegal wiretapping, while
conducting internal security investigations in the last five years, law enforcement sources said.
Militant antiwar activists at Queens College in Flushing were one target of illegal and unauthorized
electronic surveillance. Agents placed illegal "wildcat" telephone taps and electronic bugs, the
sources said, ... because these were often the best methods of getting intelligence on militant
leftist activity. Agents would disguise the source of the information in their reports to make it
appear that it came from live informants. One source said, however, that he believed that
supervisory F.B.I. personnel were "aware" that information was coming from taps but did nothing
about it. Car burnings and assaults upon individuals in the radical left were efforts to disrupt
antiwar activity. The cars were set afire with "Molotov cocktails" made from glass bottles
filled with gasoline. This was done in such a manner as to appear to have been an attack by
another extremist group. Cars were also disabled to strand suspects during a surveillance.
Agents, the sources said, from time to time "roughed up" radical antiwar figures to frighten them or
to disrupt a demonstration or protest activity. At least one radical was kidnapped for the same
reason. One source said that the victim of a beating was never seriously hurt because agents did
not want to create a situation that might be traced to the bureau. The victim, this source said,
would not know he was attacked by bureau men.
Note: The above link requires a small payment to view the article on the Times website. To view it
free, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on intelligence
agency corruption, click here.

The Intra-Administration War in Vietnam

1963-10-02, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0A11FA3B541A7B93C1A9178BD95F47...
Almost every day now [we read] dispatches from reportersin close touch with intraAdministration critics of the C.I.A.with excellent reputations for reliability. One reporter in this
category is Richard Starnes of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Today, under a Saigon dateline,
he related that, "according to a high United States source here, twice the C.I.A. flatly refused to
carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge ... [and] in one instance frustrated a
plan of action Mr. Lodge brought from Washington because the agency disagreed with it." Among
the views attributed to United States officials on the scene, including one described as a "very high
American official ... who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy ... are the following:
The C.I.A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high official was not sure
even the White House could control ... any longer." "If the United States ever experiences
[an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C.I.A. and not the
Pentagon." The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to
anyone." Whatever else these passages disclose, they most certainly establish that

representatives of other Executive branches have expanded their war against the C.I.A. from the
inner government councils to the American people via the press. And published simultaneously are
details of the agency's operations in Vietnam that can come only from the same critical official
sources.
Note: This revealing article, published less than two months before the JFK assassination,
effectively suggests the CIA was behind the assassination. For an informative four-minute clip on
this, click here. For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Flying Saucers
1952-09-07, CIA Website (declassified document)
http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp?pageNumber=2&txtSearch=flying+saucers&sort...
OSI [Office of Scientific Intelligence] has investigated the work currently being performed on flying
saucers. Since 1947, ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] has received approximately 1500
official reports of sightings plus an enormous volume of letters, phone calls and press reports.
During the month of July 1952 alone, official reports totaled 250. Of the 1500 reports, Air Force
carries 20% as unexplained. A study should be instituted to determine what, if any, utilization could
be made of these phenomena by United States psychological warfare planners, and what, if any,
defenses should be planned in anticipation of Soviet attempts to utilize them. A national policy
should be established as to what should be told the public regarding the phenomena, in order to
minimize risk of panic. It is recommended that: a. The Director of Central Intelligence advise the
National Security Council of the security implications inherent in the flying saucer problem. b. CIA,
under its assigned responsibilities, and in cooperation with the psychological strategy
board, immediately investigate possible offensive or defensive utilization of the phenomena
for psychological warfare purposes both for and against the United States.
Note: To access this document on the CIA website, click on the link above and then click on the
first link listed, with the title "FLYING SAUCERS," or see a full copy with comments at this link.
Why was the CIA interested in using the UFO phenomenon for psychological warfare? How did
that play out? For lots more reliable, verifiable information on this intriguing topic, click here.

Moore Asks Inquiry Into Charges on Preparedness Campaign

1917-02-14, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9504E7DA1538EE32A25757C1A9649C...
A demand for an investigation of charges printed in the Congressional Record by Representative
Oscar Callaway of Texas, a pacifist Democrat, that the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel
shipbuilding, and powder interests had purchased control of twenty-five great newspapers to
further the preparedness campaign, was made in the House today by Representative J. Hampton
Moore, a Pennsylvania Republican. Mr. Callaways speech, as inserted in The Record charged: In

March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding and powder interests, and
their subsidiary organizations got together twelve men high up in the newspaper world and
employed them to select from the most influential papers in the United States in sufficient
numbers of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States. They
found it was only necessary to purchase the control of twenty-five of the greatest newspapers. [An]
editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the
questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and
international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers. The policy also included the
suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served."
Note: For more showing how the media is controlled by carefully selected people placed by big
money and the power elite, click here and here. For a short video of Congressional testimony from
the 1970s proving CIA media manipulation, click here. The full text of this revealing article is
available free at this link.

Media Lessons from Snowden Reporting: LA Times Editors Advocate

Prosecution of Sources
2015-06-07, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/07/la-times-editors-advocate-impri...
Two years ago, the first story based on the Snowden archive was published in The
Guardian, revealing a program of domestic mass surveillance, which, at least in its original
form, ended this week. To commemorate that anniversary, Edward Snowden himself reflected in a
New York Times op-ed on the power of an informed public. The debate provoked by these
disclosures [examined] the role journalism ought to play in a democracy and the proper
relationship of journalists to those who wield the greatest political and economic power. Of all the
revelations over the last two years, one of the most illuminating and stunning has been the
reaction of many in the American media to Edward Snowden as a source. There was plenty of
journalistic support for the disclosures. But huge numbers of journalists went on the
warpath against transparency. The Los Angeles Times ... believes leaking is criminal and those
who do it belong in prison. The LA Times itself constantly publishes illegal leaks, though the ones it
publishes usually come from top government officials. Have the LA Times editors called for the
criminal prosecution of Leon Panetta, and John Brennan, and the endless number of senior
officials who leak not (as Snowden did) to inform the public but in order to propagandize them? Of
course not, and therein lies the key media lesson from all of this. These journalists are literally
agents of political power.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in the intelligence community and the manipulation of public perception.

Why hardly anyone dies from a drug overdose in Portugal

2015-06-05, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-...
Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it -Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health
issue, not a criminal one. Whenever we debate similar measures in the U.S. - marijuana
decriminalization, for instance - many drug-policy makers predict dire consequences. But in
Portugal, the ... prevalence of past-year and past-month drug use among young adults has
fallen since 2001. Overall adult use is down slightly too. And new HIV cases among drug
users are way down. Now, numbers just released from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addiction paint an even more vivid picture of life under decriminalization: drug overdose
deaths in Portugal are the second-lowest in the European Union. Among Portuguese adults, there
are 3 drug overdose deaths for every 1,000,000 citizens. Comparable numbers in other countries
range from 10.2 per million in the Netherlands to 44.6 per million in the U.K., all the way up to
126.8 per million in Estonia. The E.U. average is 17.3 per million. Perhaps more significantly, the
report notes that the use of ... so-called "synthetic" marijuana, "bath salts" and the like is lower in
Portugal than in any of the other countries for which reliable data exists. This is arguably a positive
development for public health in the sense that many of the designer drugs that people develop to
skirt existing drug laws have terrible and often deadly side effects.
Note: Portugal's inspiring approach has contributed to public health outcomes that starkly contrast
U.S. trends.

In the Fog of War, the U.S. Has Armed ISIS

2015-06-02, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/02/van-buren-iraq-idUSL1N0YO25X20150602
Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern
city of Mosul in June 2014. Coupled with previous losses of American weapons, the conclusion is
simple: The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war the militant group
cannot otherwise hope to acquire. Losses to Islamic State include at least 40 M1A1 main battle
tanks ... 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems. To help
replenish Iraq's motor pool, the U.S. State Department last year approved a sale to Iraq of 1,000
Humvees, along with their armor upgrades, machine guns and grenade launchers. The United
States previously donated 250 Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers (MRAPs) to Iraq, plus
unaccountable amounts of material left behind when American forces departed in 2011. The
United States is currently in the process of moving to Iraq 175 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks,
55,000 rounds of main tank-gun ammunition, $600 million in howitzers and trucks, $700 million
worth of Hellfire missiles and 2,000 AT-4 rockets. The Hellfires and AT-4's, anti-tank weapons,
are presumably going to be used to help destroy the American armor in the hands of
Islamic State. It's a surreal state of affairs in which American weaponry is being sent into
Iraq to destroy American weaponry previously sent into Iraq.

Note: Remember that many in power want perpetual war to keep the profits flowing. Read a
verifiable and carefully researched report on the covert origins of ISIS. Explore a powerful article
titled "Ex-US Intelligence Officials Confirm: Secret Pentagon Report Proves US Complicity In
Creation Of ISIS." For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Hastert's hush money was to cover up sexual misconduct with former

student
2015-06-01, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/29/politics/dennis-hastert-indictment-questions
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was paying a former student to keep quiet
about allegations of sexual abuse from the time when Hastert was a teacher and wrestling
coach in Illinois, two sources with knowledge of the federal government investigation told CNN on
Friday afternoon. Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois between 1965 and
1981 before entering politics. Federal prosecutors indicted Hastert on Thursday for lying to
the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed person to "cover up past
misconduct." A federal law enforcement official confirmed to CNN early Friday evening that the
former student was a male and a minor when the alleged abuse took place. Federal law
enforcement officials also said that investigators decided not to pursue a possible extortion case in
the matter. Much remains unclear in the seven-page indictment federal officials lodged against the
former Republican House speaker. The indictment lists relevant facts as including Hastert's time
working as a teacher and coach in Yorkville for 16 years. But Hastert was not approached by
"Individual A" until 2010. From 2010 until 2014, Hastert first negotiated with and then made secret
payments to the unknown subject. Charges were not filed against Hastert until Thursday, a half
century after the first relevant date listed in the indictment.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major
media sources.

Pope's commissioner for child protection says Cardinal Pell is a

'dangerous individual' and 'almost sociopathic'
2015-06-01, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/national/popes-commissioner-for-child-protection-says-c...
Cardinal George Pell is "a dangerous individual" and "almost sociopathic" in his response
to child sexual abuse victims, Pope Francis' specially-appointed commissioner for the
protection of children, Peter Saunders, says. Pope Francis last December appointed Mr
Saunders, a British survivor of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, to the new Pontifical

Commission for the Protection of Minors to ensure the Catholic Church acted with greater
accountability and transparency in relation to child sexual abuse. Mr Saunders said that ...
Cardinal Pell was "making a mockery of the Papal Commission, of the Pope himself, but most of
all, of the victims and the survivors". "I think anybody who is a serious obstacle to the work of the
commission and to the work of the Pope in trying to clean up the church's act over this matter, I
think they need to be taken aside very, very quickly and removed from any kind of position of
influence." Cardinal Pell was appointed to manage the Vatican's finances in February last
year, making him one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church. Questions have been
raised over whether Cardinal Pell had supported notorious paedophile priests, including Gerald
Ridsdale, instead of protecting victims and their families. Cardinal Pell has previously apologised
to the commission for accompanying Ridsdale to court in 1993, but has denied he tried to bribe a
victim to keep quiet as part of a cover-up and that he was dismissive of victims and their families.
Note: Watch a revealing 60 Minutes video on Pell's case. These accusations were originally made
back in 2002, but were later dismissed. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

U.N. Reports About 200 Million Fewer Hungry People Than in 1990
2015-05-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/world/united-nations-reports-global-hunger-...
The number of hungry people globally has declined from about one billion 25 years ago to
about 795 million today, or about one person out of every nine, despite a surge in
population growth, the United Nations reported Wednesday. In developing regions, the
number of hungry people has fallen to 780 million today, or 12.9 percent of the population, from
991 million 25 years ago, or 23.3 percent of the population at the time. Despite the finding that
nearly 800 million people in the world remain hungry, the report described the progress made as a
significant achievement. It said that 72 of the 129 nations monitored by the Food and Agriculture
Organization had achieved the target under the so-called Millennium Development Goals of
halving the percentages of hungry people in their populations and that developing regions had
missed the target by only a small margin. The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight
international objectives, including hunger eradication, established by the United Nations in 2000.
The near-achievement of the M.D.G. hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the
scourge of hunger in our lifetime, said Jos Graziano da Silva, the director general of the Food
and Agriculture Organization. Progress was most pronounced in East Asia, Southeast and Central
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. But the report also illustrated failures, especially in parts of
Africa, where ... extreme weather events, natural disasters, political instability and civil strife have
all impeded progress.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Why NSA surveillance is worse than youve ever imagined

2015-05-11, Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/05/11/if-youre-not-outraged-about-...
Last summer ... I spent three days in Moscow hanging out with Edward Snowden for a Wired cover
story. He told me that what finally drove him to leave his country and become a whistleblower was
his conviction that the National Security Agency was conducting illegal surveillance on every
American. Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ... ruled that the NSA
program that secretly intercepts the telephone metadata of every American who calls
whom and when was illegal. Its now up to Congress to vote on whether or not to modify the
law ... by June 1, when they need to reauthorize the Patriot Act. A PEW survey in March revealed
that 52 percent of the public is now concerned about government surveillance, while 46 percent is
not. There is now a sort of acceptance of highly intrusive surveillance as the new normal, [while]
the American public [remains] unaware of many of the agencys long list of abuses. It is little
wonder that only slightly more than half the public is concerned. For that reason, I agree with
Frederick A. O. Schwartz Jr., the former chief counsel of the Church Committee, which conducted
a yearlong probe into intelligence abuses in the mid-1970s, that we need a similarly thorough ...
investigation today. Now it is time for a new committee to examine our secret government closely
again, he wrote in a recent Nation magazine article, particularly for its actions in the post-9/11
period.
Note: The author of this excellent article is James Bamford, the former ABC News producer who
broke the story on Operation Northwoods and has written landmark books on the NSA. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about intelligence
agency corruption and the erosion of privacy rights from reliable major media sources.

The Vindication of Edward Snowden

2015-05-11, The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/the-vindication-of-edward...
Edward Snowdens most famous leak has just been vindicated. Since June 2013, when he
revealed that the telephone calls of Americans are being logged en masse, his critics have
charged that he took it upon himself to expose a lawful secret. They insisted that Congress
authorized the phone dragnet when it passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act. A panel of judges on the
Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the program Snowden exposed was never
legal. The Patriot Act does not authorize it, contrary to the claims of George W. Bush, Barack
Obama, Michael Hayden, Keith Alexander, and James Clapper. Statutes to which the government
points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping
surveillance at issue here, Judge Gerard E. Lynch declared. Consider what this means. For many
years, the executive branch carried out a hugely consequential policy change that the
legislature never approved. Tens of millions of innocent U.S. citizens were thus subject to
invasions of privacy that no law authorized. Officials classified the program as a state secret,
keeping it out of Article III courts. By doing so, they prevented the judiciary from reviewing the

statutory legitimacy of NSA surveillance, subverting a core check in our system of government.
The consequence: An illegal program persisted for years. This is a perfect illustration of why secret
government programs are an abomination in our democracy.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
government corruption and the erosion of privacy rights from reliable major media sources.

Patents for technology to read peoples minds hugely increasing

2015-05-08, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/patents-for-tec...
Companies are taking out a huge amount of patents related to reading brainwaves ... with a
range of different applications. Patents include technology to artificially alter peoples
mood and control video games, as well as more conventional healthcare applications. Fewer than
400 neuro-technology related patents were filed between 2000-2009. But in 2010 alone that
reached 800, and last year 1,600 were filed, according to research company SharpBrains. The
patents are for a range of uses, not just for the healthcare technology that might be expected. The
company with the most patents is market research firm Nielsen, which has 100. Microsoft also has
89 related patents. Uses of the technology that have been patented include devices that can
change the thoughts [or] feelings of those that they are used on. But there are still medical
uses some of those patents awarded include technology to measure brain lesions and improve
vision. The volume and diversity of the patents shows that we are at the beginning of the
pervasive neurotechnology age, the companys CEO Alvaro Fernandez said. "Neurotech has
gone well beyond medicine, with non-medical corporations, often under the radar, developing
neurotechnologies to enhance work and life," said Fernandez.
Note: Technology that can control behavior has been under development for several decades, and
has reportedly been used for secret mind control programs undertaken by Soviet intelligence, and
US authorities. Increasingly, these technologies take the form of microchip implants.

F.E.C. Cant Curb 2016 Election Abuse, Commission Chief Says

2015-05-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/us/politics/fec-cant-curb-2016-election-abu...
The leader of the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with regulating the way
political money is raised and spent, says she has largely given up hope of reining in abuses
in the 2016 presidential campaign. The likelihood of the laws being enforced is slim, Ann M.
Ravel, the chairwoman, said in an interview. People think the F.E.C. is dysfunctional. Its worse
than dysfunctional. Her unusually frank assessment reflects a worsening stalemate among the
agencys six commissioners. They are perpetually locked in 3-to-3 ties along party lines on key
votes because of a fundamental disagreement over the mandate of the commission, which was
created 40 years ago in response to the political corruption of Watergate. The F.E.C.s paralysis

comes at a particularly critical time because of the sea change brought about by the Supreme
Courts decision in 2010 in the Citizens United case, which freed corporations and unions to spend
unlimited funds in support of political candidates. Experts predict that the 2016 race could produce
a record fund-raising haul of as much as $10 billion, with the growth fueled by well-financed
outside groups. On their own, the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch have
promised to spend $889 million through their political network.
Note: Read about how Citizens United paved the way for billionaire oligarchs to become their own
political party. For more, see concise summaries of deeply revealing electoral process corruption
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Audi creates green 'e-diesel fuel of the future' using just carbon dioxide
and water
2015-04-27, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/audi-creates-green-e-diesel-fuel-future-using-just-c...
German car manufacturer Audi says it has created the "fuel of the future" made solely from
water, carbon dioxide and renewable sources. The synthetic "e-diesel" was made following a
commissioning phase of just four months at a plant in Dresden, Germany. Unlike regular diesel,
the clear fuel does not contain any sulphur or fossil oil, while it has an overall energy efficiency of
around 70%. Creation of the fuel, which Audi and Sunfire are calling blue crude, first requires
heating water to 800C (1,472F) to trigger a high temperature electrolysis to break down the steam
to hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen then reacts with the CO2 in synthesis reactors, again
under pressure and at a high temperature. The reaction product is a ... synthetic fuel, which is free
from sulphur and aromatic hydrocarbons, [that] is suitable for mixing with fossil diesel or being
used as a fuel in its own right. Reiner Mangold, head of sustainable product development at Audi,
said: "In developing Audi e-diesel we are promoting another fuel based on CO2 that will
allow long-distance mobility with virtually no impact on the climate."
Note: Read exciting news from major media sources on other amazing new energy
breakthroughs. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference.

Rise of robotic killing machines has a cautious world talking

2015-04-23, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Rise-of-robotic-killing-machines-has-a-...
Theyre called lethal autonomous weapons, or LAWs, and their military mission would be to seek
out, identify and kill a human target independent of human control. Representatives of 60
nations ... met in Geneva during the third week of April in an attempt to define the level of
artificial intelligence needed for an international definition of robotic autonomy. The Panel of
Experts, under the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), will meet again next year to

continue the discussion. None of the industrial nations admits having a LAW, but theres really no
way to confirm the nonexistence of a weapon that would be classified as secret. The U.S.
Department of Defense has had a directive in place for three years that outlines the chain of
command that would approve their deployment on a case-by-case basis. Its called Directive
3000.09. On April 15, the third day of the panel meeting, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus ...
announced the creation of a new office for unmanned warfare systems. According to Stuart
Russell, who addressed the panel, Devices in the 1-gram range might be able to selectively
kill a chosen human target on contact using a shaped explosive charge. Im not sure what
countermeasures one might try against a swarm of 5-gram robots. There will be ... a LAWs arms
race."
Note: Current surveillance drones can be hacked, hijacked, and redirected while flying in some
cases. Under human guidance, current killer drones almost always miss their intended targets.
What will happen when tiny lethal flying robots begin operating without being controlled by human
decision makers?

The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life

2015-04-15, New York Times Blog
Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little,
too much or just the right amount to improve health and longevity. Two new, impressively largescale studies provide some clarity. In the broader of the two studies, researchers ... found that,
unsurprisingly, the people who did not exercise at all were at the highest risk of early death. But
those who exercised a little, not meeting the recommendations but doing something,
lowered their risk of premature death by 20 percent. The sweet spot for exercise benefits,
however, came among those who tripled the recommended level of exercise, working out
moderately, mostly by walking, for 450 minutes per week, or a little more than an hour per day.
Those people were 39 percent less likely to die prematurely than people who never exercised. At
that point, the benefits plateaued, the researchers found, but they never significantly declined. The
other new study of exercise and mortality reached a somewhat similar conclusion, [and found that]
if someone engaged in even occasional vigorous exercise, he or she gained a small but not
unimportant additional reduction in mortality.
Note: For some great ideas on healthy exercises, see this article by WantToKnow.info founder
Fred Burks.

Former F.B.I. Agent Sues, Claiming Retaliation Over Misgivings in

Anthrax Case
2015-04-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/ex-fbi-agent-claims-retaliation-for-diss...

When Bruce E. Ivins, an Army microbiologist, took a fatal overdose of Tylenol in 2008, the
government declared that he had been responsible for the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, which
killed five people and set off a nationwide panic, and closed the case. Now, a former senior F.B.I.
agent who ran the anthrax investigation for four years says that the bureau gathered a staggering
amount of exculpatory evidence regarding Dr. Ivins that remains secret. The former agent,
Richard L. Lambert, who spent 24 years at the F.B.I., says he believes it is possible that Dr. Ivins
was the anthrax mailer, but he does not think prosecutors could have convicted him had he lived to
face criminal charges. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee last Thursday, Mr. Lambert
accused the bureau of trying to railroad the prosecution of Ivins and, after his suicide, creating
an elaborate perception management campaign to bolster its claim that he was guilty. Mr.
Lamberts lawsuit accuses the bureau and the Justice Department of forcing his dismissal
from a job as senior counterintelligence officer ... in retaliation for his dissent on the
anthrax case. The anthrax letters were mailed to United States senators and news organizations
in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The bureaus investigation ... focused on a
former Army scientist and physician, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, who was subsequently cleared and given
a $4.6 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit.
Note: There is more strong evidence that the anthrax scare was fabricated by inside sources.
Read an excellent article with more on this strange case.

Billion dollar lawsuit filed over study on sexually transmitted diseases

2015-04-02, CBS/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/billion-dollar-lawsuit-filed-study-on-sexually-tr...
More than 750 plaintiffs are suing the Johns Hopkins Hospital System Corp. over its role in a
series of medical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and 1950s during which subjects were
infected with venereal diseases. The lawsuit in Baltimore seeks $1 billion in damages for
individuals, spouses and children of people infected with syphilis, gonorrhea and other
sexually transmitted diseases through a U.S. government program between 1945 and 1956.
The suit claims Johns Hopkins officials had "substantial influence" over the studies, controlling
some advisory panels, and were involved in planning and authorizing the experiments. A Hopkins
spokesperson ... confirmed that faculty members took part in reviewing funding applications, but
said this did not warrant a lawsuit against the medical center. The statement expressed "profound
sympathy for individuals and families impacted by the deplorable 1940s syphilis study conducted
by the U.S. Government in Guatemala," and noted that the ethical standards for conducting
medical research have changed significantly in the decades since then. It's the latest in a series of
lawsuits over the studies. A federal judge in 2012 dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. government
involving the same study.
Note: Explore an excellent list of dozens of studies over the years in which humans were used
unknowingly as guinea pigs in clear breach of ethical standards. Links are provided for verification
of each study. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news
articles about corruption in the medical industry and in government.

Recruitment a big benefit for B Corps

2015-04-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Recruitment-a-big-benefit-for-B-Corps-...
Change.org is a B Corporation a for-profit company committed to social or environmental goals
in addition to its financial obligations. Because the San Francisco firm tries to benefit not just its
shareholders, but also society, Change.org is an especially appealing place to work for civicminded job-seekers, said David Hanrahan, head of global human resources. Hanrahan has an eye
toward recruiting Millennials. B (for beneficial) Corporations are the creation of B Lab, a
Pennsylvania nonprofit that awards the certification to companies that meet its standards
of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. A 2014
Brookings Institution report, How Millennials Could Upend Wall Street and Corporate America,
found that the desire on the part of Millennials for their daily work to reflect and be a part of their
societal concerns will make it impossible for corporate chieftains to motivate Millennial employees
simply by extolling profits. In 2012 ... California [became] the 28th state to provide a legal
structure allowing companies to become certified B Corps. Since then, such firms have
flocked to the Bay Area. The region is home to the highest concentration of certified B Corps on
the planet. The certification process is a way to tell the difference between good companies and
good marketing, [consultant Ryan] Honeyman wrote in his book, "The B Corp Handbook: How to
Use Business as a Force for Good." Many companies want to do good, but they dont know how to
do it, said Honeyman. The B Corp certification process gives them the tools to do so.
Note: For more along these lines, see this article about B Corps and "stakeholder capitalism" as a
solution to the problem of growing income inequality.

Child sex abuse: Judges, MPs, media entertainers, actors, police and
clergy implicated in Met Police corruption probe
2015-03-29, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/child-sex-abuse-judges-mps-media-e...
The Metropolitan Police is being investigated over further allegations of corruption in
relation to child sex offences dating back to the 1970s, including the claim that evidence gathered
against MPs, judges, media entertainers, police, clergy and actors was dropped due to police
intervention. The fresh allegations are in addition to the 14 cases being investigated by the
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), revealed earlier this month, dating from the
1970s to the 2000s. The three new investigations relate to allegations about police
suppressing evidence, hindering or halting investigations, and covering up offences due to
the involvement of members of parliament and police officers. One case addressed the
allegation that a child abuse investigation in central London, which gathered evidence against
MPs, judges, media entertainers, police, actors, clergy, and others, was dropped. It has been
claimed that two months after the file had been submitted to start proceedings against those
identified, an officer was called in by a senior Met officer and told to drop the case. The two further

allegations relate to a child abuse investigation conducted in the 1980s, with one relating directly to
police actions in the case. The IPCC said it was also assessing a further six referrals it had
received from the Met relating to similar matters.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Upset by Warren, US banks debate halting some campaign donations

2015-03-27, CNBC/Reuters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102540490
Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for
them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate
Democrats in symbolic protest. Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and
Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio
Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party's tone toward Wall Street. Citigroup has decided to
withhold donations for now to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over concerns that
Senate Democrats could give Warren and lawmakers who share her views more power, sources
inside the bank told Reuters. The Massachusetts senator's economic populism and take-noprisoners approach has won her a strong following. Warren, a former Harvard Law professor who
joined the Senate Banking Committee after taking office in 2013, has accused big banks and other
financial firms of unfair dealings that harm the middle class and help the rich grow richer. In a Dec.
12 speech, she mentioned Citi several times as an example of a bank that had grown too large,
saying it should have been broken apart by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. In January,
Warren angered Wall Street when she successfully blocked the nomination of a banker Antonio
Weiss to a top post at the Treasury Department. She argued that as a regulator he would likely be
too deferential to his former Wall Street colleagues.
Note: Read Sen. Warren's response in this Boston Globe article. For more along these lines, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about the systemically corrupt banking
industry.

Court Accepts DOJs State Secrets Claim to Protect Shadowy

Neocons: a New Low
2015-03-26, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/26/new-low-obama-doj-federal-court...
An anti-Iranian group calling itself United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) ... is very likely a
front for some combination of the Israeli and U.S. intelligence services. When launched, NBC
described its mission as waging economic and psychological warfare against Iran. The group

was founded and is run and guided by a roster of ... neocon extremists such as Joe Lieberman,
former Bush Homeland Security adviser (and current CNN analyst) Fran Townsend, former CIA
Director James Woolsey, and former Mossad Director Meir Dagan. In May 2013, UANI launched a
name and shame campaign designed to publicly identify and malign any individuals or
entities enabling trade with Iran. One of the accused was the shipping company of Greek
billionaire Victor Restis, who ... sued UANI for defamation in a New York federal court. Then
something quite extraordinary happened: In September of last year, the U.S. government, which
was not a party, formally intervened in the lawsuit, and demanded that the court ... dismiss the
lawsuit against UANI before it could even start, on the ground that allowing the case to proceed
would damage national security. Why would such a group like this even possess state secrets? It
would be illegal to give them such material. The U.S. government provide no clue as to what the
supposedly endangered state secrets are. As a result of the DOJs protection, UANI cannot
be sued. This group of neocon extremists now has a license to defame anyone they want.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in government and in the intelligence community.

Stock market rigging is no longer a conspiracy theory

2015-03-25, New York Post
http://nypost.com/2015/03/25/us-stock-market-is-just-way-too-riggin-easy/
The stock market is rigged. With stock prices rushing far ahead of economic reality over
the last six or so years, more experts in the financial markets are coming to the same
conclusion. Ed Yardeni, a longtime Wall Street guru ... said flat out last week that the market was
being propped up. These markets are all rigged, and I dont say that critically. I just say that
factually, he asserted on CNBC. Yardenis claim is the most basic one: that the Federal Reserve
wont do anything that will upset Wall Street and, in fact, is doing all it can to help the stock market.
The Bank of Japan [has been] aggressively purchasing stock funds. The benefits, Japans central
bank believes, will then trickle down to the rest of the economy. One American exchange has
made intervention in rigging foreign governments easier and cheaper to accomplish. CME
Group, the Chicago exchange that trades options and commodities, had an incentive program
under which foreign central banks could buy stock market derivatives like the Standard & Poors
futures contracts at a discount. S&P futures contracts are the vehicle of choice for rigging the
market. Theres another kind of market rigging ... being done by companies themselves. Since
corporate profits and revenues arent growing enough to justify current high stock prices,
companies have been aggressively buying back massive quantities of their own shares. By doing
this, companies reduce the number of their shares owned by the public [to boost] the calculation of
profit-per-shares. Todays markets arent fair [and] stock prices are artificially inflated.
Note: Don't forget that Bernie Madoff was once the head of the NASDAQ exchange. When it
comes to international banking, it appears that almost everything is rigged. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about the systemically corrupt
financial industry.

'God's Bankers,' by Gerald Posner

2015-03-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/books/review/gods-bankers-by-gerald-posner....
"God's Bankers" provides an exhaustive history of financial machinations at the center of the
church in Rome. The final unification of Italy in 1870 ... deprived the church of its lands and feudal
income, leading to several decades of acute financial insecurity. Popes of this period ... publicly
denounced lending money at interest (usury) while at the same time accepting massive loans from
the Rothschilds and making their own interest-bearing loans to Italian Catholics. Beginning with
Bernardino Nogara, appointed by Pius XI in 1929, the church also empowered a series of often
shady financial advisers to engage in financial wheeling and dealing around the globe. "So long as
the balance sheets showed surpluses," [author of God's Bankers Gerald] Posner writes, "Pius and
his chief advisers were pleased." That pattern would continue through the rest of the 20th century.
The American archbishop Paul Marcinkus, [who] ran the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989 ...
ended up implicated in several sensational scandals. The biggest by far was the collapse of
Italy's largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano, in 1982 - an event preceded by mob hits on
a string of investigators looking into corruption in the Italian banking industry. Marcinkus ...
also served as a spy for the State Department, providing the American government with
"personal details" about John Paul II, and even encouraging the pope "at the behest of embassy
officials" to publicly endorse American positions on a broad range of political issues.
Note: The Vatican Bank was implicated in a scheme to smuggle tens of millions of euros out of
Switzerland in 2013, and was used to launder money for the mafia as recently as 2012. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing financial industry corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

US sets new record for denying federal files under Freedom of

Information Act
2015-03-18, The Guardian/Associated Press
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/us-new-record-denying-files-fr...
The US has set a new record for denying and censoring federal files under the Freedom of
Information Act, analysis by the Associated Press reveals. For the second consecutive year, the
Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access
to them under the open-government legislation. The government took longer to turn over files
when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents, and refused a
record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also
acknowledged in nearly one in three cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records
were improper under the law - but only when it was challenged. Its backlog of unanswered
requests at year's end grew remarkably by 55% to more than 200,000. Citizens, journalists,
businesses and others made a record 714,231 requests for information. The US spent a record
$434m trying to keep up. The government responded to 647,142 requests, a 4% decrease over

the previous year. "What we discovered reaffirmed what we have seen all too frequently in recent
years," [The AP's chief executive, Gary] Pruitt wrote in a column published this week. "The
systems created to give citizens information about their government are badly broken and getting
worse all the time."
Note: It appears the the UK's Guardian was the only major media to pick up this AP article. Is this
a form of censorship? For more, read how the US government now blocks specific journalists from
accessing information, or see concise summaries of news articles about mass media manipulation.

Top cop in Britain questioned by his own detectives for role in alleged
cover-up of sex abuse claims against Tony Blair minister
2015-03-18, New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/top-uk-questioned-role-sex-abuse-coveru...
Top British detectives are questioning an unlikely suspect in a high-stakes child abuse
investigation: their boss. Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is getting grilled
by his own detectives over an alleged police cover-up connected to former Prime Minister
Tony Blair's administration. Hogan-Howe was an Assistant Chief Constable for the Merseyside
Police in 1998, when the department uncovered claims that one of Blairs ministers was a
suspected pedophile. Hogan-Howe now says he does not recall details about the investigation
or any suspects, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police Service. But a source close
to the investigation [said] it is inconceivable that Hogan-Howe and his cohorts werent aware of
the accusations. "The senior investigating officer at the time would have been expected to have
reported to his senior officers the fact a serving government minister had come under suspicion,"
the source said. Even as he is apparently being questioned within his own department, the MPS
said in a statement that Hogan-Howe "absolutely refutes any suggestion he would have stopped or
inhibited a criminal investigation of the nature suggested, including politicians. It would be wrong to
suggest otherwise." MPS opened an investigation into the cover-up claims just two years ago. The
minister was one of several men suspected of sexually abusing children at a Brixton home in the
early '80s.
Note: It's quite interesting that few mainstream media in the UK or US have picked up this
important article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news
articles about sexual abuse scandals and government corruption from reliable major media
sources.

Hogwarts-inspired middle school in the heart of Atlanta

2015-03-15, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ron-clark-academy-atlanta-sets-success-confidence...

Math and history are just some of the subjects at the Ron Clark Academy. The Atlanta
middle school teaches everything from eye contact to the value of friendly competition - a
method that makes kids want to attend class. "It is a place that's about passion, energy," cofounder Ron Clark said. "I wanted to create a school where you could feel the spirit, wanted kids to
walk into this school and say, 'I love coming here.'" The building is a 50,000 square foot
warehouse ... transformed into the sort of place J.K. Rowling dreamed up for "Harry Potter."
Every classroom has an elaborate theme - there's a dragon and a two-story bungee jump and all
112 kids have to be "slide-certified" - a symbol they've signed on for something different. "I love
Hogwarts and 'Harry Potter' and the kids do too and so we wanted to bring that book to life and
that feeling to life for these kids," Clark said. But there's a rigor to the magic, a drive to thrive. Clark
has 55 rules, a code of conduct that covers shaking hands, maintaining eye contact and answering
questions in complete sentences. Clark sets the bar high and holds his kids accountable. For
Clark, his aim is for his students to walk into the world without any sense of fear. "I want them to go
out into this world and to know, 'I am confident because I have the ability, I can achieve this.' I want
kids to leave here and go for it and make an impact," he said. At the Ron Clark Academy, they go
for it every day, like no other school in America.
Note: Watch this amazing clip of this most untraditional, yet successful school.

Child sex abuse is 'woven into British society'

2015-03-14, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31885906
Child sex abuse is "woven, covertly, into the fabric" of British society, Theresa May has warned.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the home secretary said the public were yet to grasp the full scale of
the problem. Her comments come after a new panel was announced for the parliamentary inquiry
into historical child abuse. Mrs May said the inquiry marked a "new beginning", but warned
allegations made so far were only the "tip of the iceberg". The inquiry was set up in July 2014 to
find out whether public bodies had covered up or neglected allegations of abuse, following claims
that a paedophile ring had operated in Westminster in the 1980s. Mrs May said: "We already
know the trail will lead into our schools and hospitals, our churches, our youth clubs and
many other institutions that should have been places of safety but instead became the
setting for the most appalling abuse. "However, what the country doesn't yet appreciate is
the true scale of that abuse." The inquiry will have statutory powers to compel witnesses to
appear to determine whether institutions took seriously their duty of care to protect children from
sexual abuse in England and Wales. Mrs May said she felt it was a "once-in-a-generation" chance
to uncover institutional abuse, which she called "the darkness in our midst".
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals from
reliable major media sources.

Chilean accused of murder, torture taught 13 years for Pentagon

2015-03-12, Miami Herald (Miami's leading newspaper)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article13814051.html
A member of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochets brutal secret police whos been
accused of murder taught for more than a decade at the Pentagons premier university,
despite repeated complaints by his colleagues about his past. Jaime Garcia Covarrubias is
charged in criminal court in Santiago with being the mastermind in the execution-style slayings of
seven people in 1973, according to court documents. An accuser ... identified Garcia Covarrubias
as the person who sexually tortured him. Despite knowing of the allegations, State and Defense
department officials allowed Garcia Covarrubias to retain his visa and continue working at a school
affiliated with the National Defense University until last year. Human rights groups also question
the schools selection of a second professor, Colombias former top military commander. Some
Latin America experts said the hirings by the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense
Studies reflected a continuing inclination by the U.S government to overlook human rights
violations in Latin America, especially in countries where it funded efforts to quash leftists. Those
experts were especially troubled by Garcia Covarrubias long tenure at one of the nations most
renowned defense institutions. His case is one of 108 involving tortured, disappeared or murdered
supporters of the deposed elected president, Salvador Allende. More than 3,000 people died at the
hands of the regime. Despite very graphic torture accusations against Garcia Covarrubias,
U.S. officials are rallying behind him.
Note: The Pinochet regime successfully carried out an assassination in Washington D.C. in 1976
despite US Government foreknowledge of the plot. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, graduated more than 500 human
rights abusers. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Establishment child abuse: Council staff feared civil servant was

murdered for planning to expose colleagues
2015-03-11, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/establishment-child-abuse-council-...
Police investigating a historic sex abuse ring in Westminster are attempting to uncover whether a
man was murdered in the Nineties because he planned to expose child abuse at a London council.
An unpublished internal investigation into abuse by staff within Lambeth council ... reveals claims
that a civil servant was planning to expose how council property was used to carry out sexual
assaults. Bulic Forsythe was beaten to death at his flat in 1993 after he reportedly told a
colleague that he knew about a sex ring operating at childrens homes. Police appealed for
help in tracking down three smartly dressed men who left the flat the day after the murder,
but the case remains unsolved. It was feared he was killed as a possible outcome for anyone
who asked too many questions. Other shocking allegations detailed in the document include
senior Lambeth civil servants using council premises to carry out rapes, with one female staff

member claiming she was raped alongside children and animals by senior council staff. Although
the report recommends a criminal investigation, its findings were not formally investigated by
police at the time. The revelations come after Labour MP John Mann last year called on police to
investigate the suspicious deaths of Forsythe and an unnamed whistleblower who was said to
have obtained videos of child sex parties. The inquiry was announced last summer in the wake of
a series of child-abuse scandals and claims a paedophile ring operated at Westminster in the
1980s.
Note: If you think this is only a problem in the UK, watch a revealing five-minute video presenting
solid evidence that Child Protective Services is involved in organized U.S. child sex trafficking
rings. See this webpage for more information. For more along these lines, see concise summaries
of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

Utilities wage campaign against rooftop solar

2015-03-07, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/utilities-sensing-threa...
Three years ago, the nations top utility executives gathered at a Colorado resort to hear
warnings about ... rooftop solar panels. According to a presentation prepared for the group,
Industry must prepare an action plan to address the challenges. Three years later, the industry
and its fossil-fuel supporters are waging a determined campaign to stop a home-solar
insurgency that is rattling the boardrooms of the countrys government-regulated electric
monopolies. Recently, the battle has shifted to public utility commissions, where industry backers
have mounted a ... successful push for fee hikes that could put solar panels out of reach for many
potential customers. In a closely watched case last month, an Arizona utility voted to impose a
monthly surcharge of about $50 for net metering, a common practice that allows solar customers
to earn credit for the surplus electricity they provide to the electric grid. Net metering makes home
solar affordable by sharply lowering electric bills to offset the $10,000 to $30,000 cost of rooftop
panels. A Wisconsin utilities commission approved a similar surcharge for solar users last year,
and a New Mexico regulator also is considering raising fees. In some states, industry officials [are
now] arguing that solar panels hurt the poor. Its really about utilities fear that solar customers are
taking away demand, said Angela Navarro, an energy expert with the Southern Environmental
Law Center.
Note: In Arizona, traditional utility companies are brazenly manipulating the law to attack solar
power installation companies. Meanwhile, the Rockefellers have stopped investing in fossil fuels.
Does this mean that the renewable energy revolution is now in full swing?

Health costs of hormone disrupting chemicals over 150bn a year in

Europe, says study
2015-03-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/06/health-costs-hormone-disru...
Lower IQ, adult obesity and 5% of autism cases are all linked to exposure to endocrine disruptors
found in food containers, plastics, furniture, toys, carpeting and cosmetics, says new expert study.
Europe is experiencing an explosion in health costs caused by endocrine-disrupting
chemicals (EDCs) that is comparable to the cost of lead and mercury poisoning, according
to the most comprehensive study of the subject yet published. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals
that interfere with the human hormone system, and can be found in food containers, plastics,
furniture, toys, carpeting and cosmetics. The new series of reports by 18 of the worlds foremost
experts on endocrine science pegs the health costs of exposure to them at between 157bn270bn (113bn-195bn), or at least 1.23% of the continents GDP. The shocking thing is that
the major component of that cost is related to the loss of brain function in the next
generation, one of the reports authors, Professor Philippe Grandjean of Harvard
University, told the Guardian. After IQ loss, adult obesity linked to exposure to phthalates, a group
of chemicals used in plastics, was the second largest part of the overall cost, with an estimated
price tag of 15.6bn a year. The study attributes at least 5% of European autism cases to EDC
exposure. These studies tell a frightening and expensive story equivalent to a 7,500 cost for
every man, woman and child in the EU every year, said Genon Jensen, the director of the Health
and Environment Alliance.
Note: Recently, a major report showing the dangers of many common pesticides was suppressed
by EU officials. Federal regulators in the US claim to have no data on over 62,000 industrial
chemicals that US consumers are exposed to.

How Thatchers Government Covered Up a VIP Pedophile Ring

2015-03-06, The Daily Beast (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/06/britain-s-horrific-vip-pedop...
An inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse rings, murder, and cover-ups has been
launched by the British government. Victims [claim] they were systematically abused as
young boys at sex abuse parties attended by judges, politicians, intelligence officers, and
staff at the royal palaces. In the late 80s and early 90s, [Liz Davies] was a social worker ... with
an unusual problem: Teenage boys, usually so reluctant to seek help, would line up outside her
office on Hornsey Road waiting to come inside. She would later discover that the international
office of the Paedophile Information Exchange was just a few hundred yards from her desk, and
her patch was home to a host of prolific child attackers linked into a network of powerful abuse
rings that stretched from Westminster to Northern Ireland, Wales, and the island of Jersey in the
Channel. [By 1991] she had amassed evidence of abuse perpetrated against 61 victims. Council
officials [told] her to stop causing trouble. A year later she finally quit social services when she
says she discovered that the boys she had been trying to save were being sent back into the
Islington care home system only to suffer yet more sexual abuse. I was networking these children
into another network which was running within the care homes. I was handing over the most
vulnerable, sexually exploited children to more pedophiles, she said. Davies took a suitcase

stuffed with evidence, including graphic photographs, to the Metropolitan Police. She said the wellintentioned superintendent looked at her haul and mournfully confessed that powerful figures still
controlled what might be exposed. I wont be able to investigate here at Scotland Yard, he said.
Note: The above article provides a comprehensive history of attempts to expose a child abuse ring
that the Home Secretary, head of MI-6, and other top officials participated in and covered up. If you
think this is only a problem in the UK, watch a revealing five-minute video presenting solid
evidence that Child Protective Services is involved in organized U.S. child sex trafficking rings.
See this webpage for more information. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

Report says procedures put a chilling effect on potential FBI

whistleblowers
2015-03-03, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/report-says-procedu...
Jane Turner loved being a FBI agent. But once she became a whistleblower, the FBI turned on
her. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) cites [Turner's] case in a report that will be the
focus of a Senate hearing Wednesday. Compared with other feds, FBI whistleblowers have less
protection against retaliation by management, the GAO says, and current procedures could
discourage whistleblowing. Anytime a whistleblower is punished for pointing out waste or
misconduct, it sends the signal to other employees that doing the right thing will be met with
potentially harsh repercussions, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, told Federal Diary. Unfortunately, many who come to me express fear of reprisal for
raising the alarm and are even unclear of their rights as whistleblowers. In fact, one potential
witness for Wednesdays hearing backed out for fear of retaliation. Another problem the GAO
identified [is] the time it takes to resolve some complaints. In 2002, Turner, based in
Minneapolis, blew the whistle on colleagues who allegedly stole items from Ground Zero
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. How did her bosses respond? After making this
whistleblower disclosure, she was ... placed on leave, and given a notice of proposed
removal, the GAO reported. Like a tenacious FBI agent, Turner fought back and won. But not
until 2013, when the Justice Department ruled in her favor more than a decade after her
complaint.
Note: Jane Turner was one of several people that courageously stepped forward to expose the
cover-up of federal employee misconduct after 9/11. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing news articles about the 9/11 cover-up and government corruption
from reliable major media sources.

Jeremy Hunt to apologise to Savile victims as 'horrific' scale of abuse

emerges

2015-02-25, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/11434635/Jeremy-Hun...
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, will apologise to dozens of hospital patients who were abused
by Jimmy Savile amid new allegations about the "horrific" scale of abuse. An official report,
published by barrister Kate Lampard on Thursday, will disclose allegations that Savile assaulted
and raped at least 44 victims at Stoke Mandeville hospital. The victims, some of whom were
as young as eight, say that their complaints about Savile's behaviour were ignored by the
authorities. A former children's doctor has also been convicted of sexually assaulting young girls at
the hospital in the 1970s and 1980s, raising fears that there may have been a paedophile ring
operating at the hospital. The report will also examine allegations about Savile's activity at
a further 43 hospitals across the country. One woman told the inquiry that she was abused
when she was eight-years-old and recovering from cancer surgery. At the time she had 144
stitches across the lower part of her body as a result of an operation. She says that when she
raised her complaint with a ward sister, she was met with the response: "Be quiet, you silly girl. Do
you realise how much he has done for the hospital." Savile, the former Radio 1 DJ and television
personality, began volunteering as a porter at Stoke Mandeville in the 1970s and had free use of a
flat on site while he helped to raise 40 million for its spinal injuries centre. Many people say times
have changed but it is still not illegal to cover-up claims of abuse to protect an organisations
profitability and reputation.
Note: For lots more revealing how deep this sex abuse scandal runs, read another Telegraph
article on how hospital staff covered up the abuse, and a BBC report on how Jimmy Savile's
brother used his family name to sexually abuse psychiatric patients at a London hospital where
abuse was also systematically covered up. For solid evidence of a pedophile ring reaching to the
highest levels of government, don't miss this powerful documentary. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major
media sources.

The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden

'black site'
2015-02-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-american...
The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound. The facility, a
nondescript warehouse on Chicagos west side known as Homan Square, has long been the
scene of secretive work by special police units. Police practices at Homan Square [allegedly]
include: Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases; Beating by police, resulting in
head wounds; Shackling for prolonged periods; Denying attorneys access to the secure
facility; Holding people [as young as 15] without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours.
Unlike a precinct, no one taken to Homan Square is said to be booked. Jacob Church learned
about Homan Square the hard way. On May 16 2012, he and 11 others were taken there after
police infiltrated their protest against the Nato summit. After serving two and a half years in prison,

Church ... and his co-defendants were found not guilty in 2014 of terrorism-related offenses. Tracy
Siska, a criminologist and civil-rights activist with the Chicago Justice Project, said that Homan
Square, as well as the unrelated case of ex-Guantnamo interrogator and retired Chicago
detective Richard Zuley, showed the lines blurring between domestic law enforcement and
overseas military operations. The real danger in allowing practices like Guantnamo or Abu
Ghraib is the fact that they ... creep into domestic law enforcement, either with weaponry like with
the militarization of police, or interrogation practices. Thats how we ended up with a black site in
Chicago.
Note: Church was one of three young activists charged with 'terrorism' after police manufactured
evidence against peaceful Occupy Wall St protesters in Chicago in 2012. For more, read about the
increasing militarization of police in the U.S. after 9/11, or see concise summaries of deeply
revealing civil liberties news articles.

Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher

2015-02-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-chang...
For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate change have bolstered their
arguments by pointing to the work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gasses
pose little risk to humanity. One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as
Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He has often appeared on
conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at
conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming. But newly released documents show
the extent to which Dr. Soons work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.
He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade
while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers
he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he
appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work. The documents
show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his
scientific papers as deliverables that he completed in exchange for their money. He used
the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress. Dr. Soon has found a warm
welcome among politicians in Washington and state capitals who try to block climate action. United
States Senator James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who claims that climate change is a
global scientific hoax, has repeatedly cited Dr. Soons work over the years.
Note: One of Dr Soon's primary funding sources is Donors Trust, a secretive organization found to
have orchestrated a vast climate denial conspiracy. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing science corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Senior London Telegraph Writer Peter Oborne Quits Over HSBC

Allegations

2015-02-20, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/peter-oborne-resignation-senior...
A senior writer at the Daily Telegraph has dramatically quit the newspaper after accusing its
owners, the Barclay Brothers, of suppressing reports about the HSBC scandal out of fear of
losing advertising revenue. Peter Oborne, the papers chief political commentator and an awardwinning author, announced his resignation [and] accused the Telegraph of committing a fraud on
readers. Mr Oborne detailed a series of investigations about HSBC, and other financial scandals,
which he said executives at the newspaper had closed down. Mr Oborne wrote: From the start of
2013 onwards stories critical of HSBC were discouraged [because] HSBC [had] suspended its
advertising with the Telegraph. Its account ... was extremely valuable. HSBC, as one former
Telegraph executive told me, is the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend. Winning back
the HSBC advertising account became an urgent priority. It was eventually restored after
approximately 12 months. Executives say that Murdoch MacLennan [chief executive of Telegraph
Media Group] was determined not to allow any criticism of the international bank. As a result of a
2012 investigation into accounts held by HSBC in Jersey, he claimed: Reporters were ordered
to destroy all emails, reports and documents related to the HSBC investigation. I [resigned]
as a matter of conscience. The past few years have seen the rise of shadowy executives who
determine what truths can and what truths cant be conveyed across the mainstream media."
Note: Oborne's online resignation provides a unique window into some of the ways that big money
is used to manipulate the media. Read lots more on HSBC's empire of corruption in a Rolling
Stone article by Matt Taibbi. HSBC was founded to service the international drug trade in the 19th
century, and launders money for mobsters and terrorists on a massive scale.

How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle

2015-02-19, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist
American and British spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest
manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the
privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents
provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The hack
was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart
Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010
GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion
of the worlds cellular communications, including both voice and data. The company targeted by
the intelligence agencies, Gemalto, is a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands. With
these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without
seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the
keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless
providers network that the communications were intercepted.

Note: In an article that updates the story above, The Intercept reports that Gemalto has now
acknowledged this security breach, but is misrepresenting its significance to prevent client and
investor fears from harming the company's profitability. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing news articles about corruption in intelligence agencies and
government.

Rabbis' absolute power: how sex abuse tore apart Australia's Orthodox
Jewish community
2015-02-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/19/rabbis-absolute-power-h...
From a Melbourne courtroom, the torment of the Chabad rabbis was streamed live to the
world as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse probed
the citys secretive and powerful Yeshivah community. Sharp divisions in the Jewish world
have been exposed. Two rabbis, including one of the nations most prominent, have been forced
from their posts. Whistleblowers, humiliated and ostracised for years by Yeshivah, have been
dramatically vindicated. More victims have come forward. More criminal charges may follow.
Yeshivah schools face a nightmare of civil litigation. The cast is Jewish, yet the bones of this story
are familiar to anyone who has followed the scandal of child abuse in Christian schools and
parishes. The witness stand of a royal commission is a cruel place for men of any faith. Cardinals
and preachers are not used to being held to account. In their world, facts dont necessarily matter.
Belief is everything. Up against the law, compelled to answer, they find themselves trapped in
daylight. Over 10 long days of hearings in Melbourne, rabbi after rabbi apologised for the failings of
the Chabad-Lubavitcher communities of St Kilda and Bondi. Some did so bluntly. Some only when
they were cornered by tough questioning. Only Rabbi Moshe Gutnick seized the opportunity. I and
many of my so-called ultra-Orthodox friends and colleagues share the outrage as to what has
gone on here, he told the commissioners.
Note: For more on this disturbing story read this article also in the UK's Guardian. For more along
these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Delhi election: Why an idealistic 'Common Man' beat PM Modi's party

2015-02-10, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2015/0210/Delhi-election-Wh...
India's two political giants were defeated Tuesday by an anti-corruption party led by a former tax
inspector. Arvind Kejriwal, a youthful-looking former tax inspector and winner of Asias equivalent
of the Nobel Prize, has pulled off a stunning near-sweep in New Delhi's local elections on Tuesday.
The Aam Aadmi, or "Common Man," party won 67 of 70 seats in New Delhi, the largest
single victory ever in India's capital. The party's victory also marks the first major loss for the
Hindu nationalist BJP party since its own sweep of India last spring, [and] the first time that

Congress, the venerable party associated with the liberation movement of Mohandas Gandhi,
failed to win a single seat in Delhi. The success of the Common Man party stems from its
sustained campaign against corruption combined with a dedicated army of volunteers.
Analysts say Kejriwal also benefited from the perceived arrogance or overconfidence of the BJP.
Kejriwal existed for years under the political radar in India, surfacing from time to time to take up
transparency issues like clarifying the Right to Information Act. He was born in 1968 in a middle
class family from Haryana state in the north and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology
with a degree in mechanical engineering, moving then to work for the Tata group and then the
Indian public tax service. Kejriwal entered politics in 2012 and championed transparency and anticorruption. He launched a party that brought together activists, youth, and poor people, and his
anti-graft ideas caused a stir nationwide. His partys symbol is a broom, a reference to its origins
as an anti-graft campaign group.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

We dream about drones, said 13-year-old Yemeni before his death in a

CIA strike
2015-02-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/drones-dream-yemeni-teenager-moh...
A 13-year-old boy killed in Yemen last month by a CIA drone strike had told the Guardian
just months earlier that he lived in constant fear of the death machines in the sky that had
already killed his father and brother. I see them every day and we are scared of them, said
Mohammed Tuaiman. He died two weeks ago. In 2011 an unmanned combat drone killed his
father and teenage brother as they were out herding the familys camels. The drone that would kill
Mohammed struck on 26 January in Hareeb, about an hour from his home. The drone hit the car
carrying the teenager, his brother-in-law Abdullah Khalid al-Zindani and a third man. I saw all the
bodies completely burned, like charcoal, Mohammeds older brother Maqded said. US
government officials told Reuters that the strike had been carried out by the CIA and had killed
three men believed to be al-Qaida militants. Maqdad said the family had been wrongly
associated with al-Qaida. Speaking from al-Zur the day after his brothers death, Meqdad said:
After our father died, al-Qaida came to us to offer support. But we are not with them. We will do
anything go to court, whatever in order to prove that [Mohammed] was not with al-Qaida.
When the Guardian interviewed Mohammed last September, he spoke of his anger towards the
US government: They tell us that these drones come from bases in Saudi Arabia and also from
bases in the Yemeni seas and America sends them to kill terrorists, but they always kill innocent
people. We dont know why they are killing us."
Note: How is it that the US gets away with killing so many innocent civilians and there is not an
uproar? For a possible answer, read what a top US general had to say in this article . For more,
read a summary of the revealing Los Angeles Times report "Living with death by drone".

HSBC files show how Swiss bank helped clients dodge taxes and hide
millions
2015-02-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-expose-swiss-bank-...
HSBCs Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars
of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent
domestic tax authorities, according to a huge cache of leaked secret bank account files. HSBC
was headed during the period covered in the files by Stephen Green now Lord Green who
served as the global banks chief executive, then group chairman until 2010 when he left to
become a trade minister in the House of Lords for David Camerons new government. The files
show how HSBC in Switzerland keenly marketed tax avoidance strategies to its wealthy
clients. The bank proactively contacted clients in 2005 to suggest ways to avoid a new tax
levied on the Swiss savings accounts of EU citizens, a measure brought in through a treaty
between Switzerland and the EU to tackle secret offshore accounts. The documents also show
HSBCs Swiss subsidiary providing banking services to relatives of dictators, people implicated in
African corruption scandals, arms industry figures and others. HSBC is already facing criminal
investigations and charges in France, Belgium, the US and Argentina as a result of the leak of the
files, but no legal action has been taken against it in Britain.
Note: Read lots more excellent information in a Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi. US Senator
Elizabeth Warren is working hard to bring justice in this case. HSBC was founded to service the
international drug trade following the 19th century opium war, and continues to launder money for
drug cartels and terrorists on a massive scale. Now we learn that HSBC also provides financial
services related to conflict diamonds, weapons trafficking, political corruption, and other organized
criminal activities. Perhaps these criminal bankers are tolerated because the global economy
might collapse without their cash.

CEO of Gallup calls jobless rate 'big lie' created by White House, Wall
Street, media
2015-02-05, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/05/ceo-venerable-gallup-calls-jobless...
The chairman of the venerable Gallup research and polling firm says the official U.S.
unemployment rate is really an underestimation and a big lie" perpetuated by the White House,
Wall Street and the media. What CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton revealed in his blog Tuesday
about how the Labor Department arrives at the monthly unemployment rate is no secret -including that Americans who have quit looking for work after four weeks are not included in the
survey. The department's current rate of 5.6 percent unemployment is the lowest since June 2008,
with President Obama using his State of the Union address and campaign-style stops across the
country to tout an economic recovery. There's no other way to say this, Clifton says. The official
unemployment rate amounts to a big lie. His arguments are similar to those made by

Washington Republicans after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the rate each month
during the height of the recession. However, Gallup is an 80-year-old, nonpartisan firm. Clifton
suggests the biggest misconception about the official rate is that it doesnt denote good full-time
jobs. When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the
truth -- the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real -- then we will
quit wondering why Americans aren't feeling something that doesn't remotely reflect the
reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class, he said.
Note: Read the article by Gallup CEO Jim Clifton showing that the US official unemployment rate
of 5.6% is very misleading. Gallup research finds 44% of US citizens available to work are not
getting enough work. Fox News was the only media source to report on this story without attacking
Clifton for his comments.

Why does Obama keep trade deal details secret?

2015-02-05, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Why-does-Obama-keep-trade-deal-details-...
The trade rules of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership ... would cover nearly 40 percent of the
world economy. Access to the text of the proposed deal is highly restricted. At last months World
Economic Forum in Switzerland, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman defended the ...
refusal to release the full text of the proposed trade pact. It is incomprehensible to me that
leaders of major corporate interests who stand to gain enormous financial benefits from
this agreement are actively involved in the writing of the TPP, while at the same time, the
elected officials of this country, representing the American people, have little or no
knowledge of whats in it, wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent-Vt., in a letter to Froman last
month. Congressional lawmakers are permitted to view the text of the agreement only in the U.S.
trade representatives office, without their own staff members or experts present. They are not
allowed to take copies of the agreement back to Capitol Hill for deeper, independent evaluation.
Despite those restrictions, specific details of the agreements text have surfaced from unauthorized
leaks. One of the leaks showed the U.S. proposing to empower corporations to attempt to overturn
domestic regulations, while ... another leaked provision would help the pharmaceutical industry
inflate the price of medicines.
Note: For more, watch an excellent, two-minute video by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert
Reich on the TPP titled "The Worst Trade Deal You've Never Heard of," or read leaked draft texts
of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for yourself.

Office puts chips under staff's skin

2015-01-29, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31042477

Felicio de Costa ... arrives at the front door and holds his hand against it to gain entry. Inside he
does the same thing to get into the office space he rents [at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office
development in Sweden]. He can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier. That's all
because he has a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip, about the size of a grain of rice,
implanted in his hand. On the day of the building's official opening, the developer's chief
executive was, himself, chipped live on stage. The whole process is being organised by a
Swedish bio-hacking group. While some of the people around the building were looking forward to
being chipped, others were distinctly dubious. An older woman ... saw little point in being chipped
just to get through a door. But [Epicenter official] Hannes Sjoblad says he and the Swedish
Biohacking Group have another objective - preparing us all for the day when others want to
chip us. "We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big
government come to us and say everyone should get chipped - the tax authority chip, the
Google or Facebook chip." Then, he says, we'll all be able to question the way the technology is
implemented from a position of much greater knowledge.
Note: Read about the agenda to chip all people in this powerful essay and these news articles.

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling convicted in leak case

2015-01-26, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/jurors-tell-judge-they-cant-agree-i...
Former CIA officer [Jeffrey Sterling] was convicted Monday of providing classified
information about his work to a New York Times reporter. Guilty verdicts were read on all nine
criminal counts. The prosecution ... spawned a First Amendment confrontation between a Pulitzer
Prize-winning reporter and the Justice Department. It might be one of the greatest courtroom
successes of a presidential administration that has pursued more leak cases than all of its
predecessors combined. Other leak cases have resulted in pleas, at least one with terms favorable
to the defendant. Sterling ... faced charges under the Espionage Act. [He] was first accused in
2010 of giving classified information to New York Times reporter and author James Risen for his
2006 book, State of War. Sterling, who was fired in the early 2000s, had sued the agency
over alleged discrimination and also sparred with officials about publishing a memoir
describing some of his work. The trial itself was something of a spectacle, with CIA officers
testifying behind a retractable gray screen. The case against Sterling was largely circumstantial.
There were no recorded phone conversations or captured e-mail exchanges that show that he
leaked classified information to Risen. Defense attorneys posited several people other than
Sterling who could have served as Risens sources, and ... argued that some information in the
book could not have come from Sterling, because it addressed things that happened after he left
the CIA.
Note: James Risen tried to help Jeffrey Sterling expose CIA racism, and later wrote an unrelated
book exposing some questionable government practices. Now Sterling is going to prison for what
Risen wrote then. Risen's journalistic courage remains intact, and his latest book exposes major
government corruption related to the war on terror.

King Abdullah dead: We can't afford not to hold Saudi Arabia's royals to
account
2015-01-25, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/king-abdullah-dead-we-cant-afford-not-to-...
What do you call the unelected leader of a state that beheads people in public, permits only one
faith and exports an extreme form of Islam to other countries? If he happens to be Abu Bakr al
Baghdadi, self-appointed caliph of Islamic State (Isis), the answer is one of the worlds most
wanted terrorists. If he is King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the proper form of address is Your
Majesty. Yesterday, the Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister turned up in Riyadh to pay their
respects to Salmans half-brother, King Abdullah, whose death was announced on Friday. Flags
flew at half-mast in Whitehall while David Cameron ... praised the deceased despots efforts
towards strengthening understanding between faiths. This is the same David Cameron who
marched in Paris two weeks ago in solidarity with the victims of al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism.
Barack Obama ... found the time to praise the absolute monarch and hailed the US-Saudi
relationship as a force for stability and security in the Middle East. Few of the people hailing
Abdullah as a reformer said anything about [how] the Saudi royal family promoted the
puritanical ideology that created al-Qaeda and its offshoots, [and] sent Osama bin Laden
and other young Saudis to fight in Afghanistan, creating a worldwide jihadist movement.
Since then, Wahhabist ideology has inspired horrific attacks on civilians in the Middle East, Africa,
the US and a string of European capitals.
Note: Read how several current and former US government officials have been trying to expose
the Saudi government money behind terrorism. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing government corruption articles from reliable major media sources.

Barrett Brown sentenced to 63 months for 'merely linking to hacked

material'
2015-01-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-trial-warns-d...
Journalist and former Anonymous member ... Barrett Brown was sentenced to 63 months in
prison by a federal judge in Dallas on Thursday. The judge also ordered him to pay more
than $890,000 in restitution and fines. An investigative journalist, essayist and satirist who has
written for the Onion, Vanity Fair and the Huffington Post, as well as for the Guardian, Brown
claims to have split with Anonymous in 2011. Brown also founded Project PM, a crowdsourced
investigative thinktank dedicated to looking into abuses by companies in the area of surveillance.
In September 2012, Brown was arrested by the FBI. In October 2012, after being held for two
weeks without charge, he was indicted on charges of making an online threat, retaliating against a
federal officer and conspiring to release personal information about a government employee. Two
months later, he was indicted on 12 further charges related to the hacking of private intelligence

contractor Stratfor in 2011. Jeremy Hammond, the hacker who actually carried out the Stratfor
breach, was sentenced to the maximum possible 10 years. Brown, who was accused of sharing a
link to the data Hammond obtained from the breach ... at one point faced a possible sentence of
105 years. He will reportedly be eligible for supervised release after one year, and once released
will have his computer equipment monitored. The $890,250 in restitution payments will go to
Stratfor and other companies targeted by Anonymous.
Note: Even after being targeted by a high level conspiracy, jailed on spurious charges, and forced
to pay nearly a million dollars to Stratfor for merely writing about the hack of their private spy
agency, Brown states that he remains committed to exposing corruption as a journalist from within
the US prison system.

Prince Andrew under renewed pressure to speak about 'sex abuse'

claims after flight logs emerge
2015-01-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/11359788/Prince-Andrew-...
The Duke of York is under renewed pressure to speak publicly about sex abuse allegations after
flight records backed up his accusers claims of having met him three times. Flight logs from
the private jet of the Dukes friend Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, show Virginia
Roberts and the Duke were both in the locations where she claims to have had sex with him, at the
relevant times. The Duke had no doubt hoped that interest in claims made by Miss Roberts
in US court documents, which emerged at the start of the month, would have died down by
the time he arrived in Davos, but new disclosures continue to emerge. Flight logs for
Epsteins Gulfstream jet, published by Mail Online, together with public information about the
Dukes movements, show that Miss Roberts and the Duke were both in London in March
2001, when she claims they first had sex, and in New York and the US Virgin Islands the following
month, the locations where she says their other sexual encounters happened. Meanwhile fresh
legal papers [were] submitted to a Florida court on Tuesday. The Miami US attorneys office ...
is seeking to prevent [Roberts from] joining an existing case in which two other victims are trying to
overturn a plea bargain which enabled Epstein to serve an 18-month prison sentence in return for
pleading guilty to procuring a 14-year-old girl for prostitution. In exchange [for this plea], all federal
investigations into his alleged widespread sex abuse were halted.
Note: An ABC News article on this case states Roberts "declined to name others in her statement
- but her lawyers noted in a cryptic footnote that, if she had, the names would 'have created
significantly more media attention than the names that she did include.'" For more along these
lines, watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government.

Air Force UFO files land on Internet

2015-01-20, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/us/feat-air-force-ufo-project-blue-book
Nearly 130,000 pages of declassified Air Force files on UFO investigations and sightings are now
available in one place online. Declassified government records about UFOs have long existed on
microfilm in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Many of them also live on websites devoted
to the topic. But UFO enthusiast John Greenewald says his database, Project Blue Book
Collection, is the first to compile every single declassified document from the Blue Book
project -- headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio from 1947 to 1969 -- in
one place for anyone to search or download for free. The collection consists of files from
Project Blue Book, Project Sign and Project Grudge, the names given to official investigations into
unidentified flying objects by the United States military. Greenewald's ... says he's just driven by
curiosity. "I'm a history buff. I think this stuff should be accessible," he said. "It defied explanation,"
he said, "and 5,000 FOIAs later my curiosity hasn't gone away." The collection contains 10,000
PDFs, each representing a different case. The files include the details of some of the most famous
UFO cases, including the Exeter incident, the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the Mantell crash. Still,
Greenewald believes the contents are "just the tip of the iceberg." "It's all a puzzle," he said. "Just
when you think you've got all the pieces to make a picture, you realize it's only a piece of a bigger
puzzle."
Note: Explore Greenewald's revealing searchable archive of Air Force UFO files. For more along
these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our comprehensive UFO Information
Center.

Oxfam Study Finds Richest 1% Is Likely to Control Half of Global Wealth

by 2016
2015-01-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/business/richest-1-percent-likely-to-contro...
The richest 1 percent are likely to control more than half of the globes total wealth by next
year, the charity Oxfam reported in a study released on Monday. The warning about deepening
global inequality comes just as the worlds business elite prepare to meet this week at the
annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The 80 wealthiest people in the world
altogether own $1.9 trillion, the report found, nearly the same amount shared by the 3.5 billion
people who occupy the bottom half of the worlds income scale. And the richest 1 percent of
the population, who number in the millions, control nearly half of the worlds total
wealth, a share that is also increasing. The type of inequality that currently characterizes
the worlds economies is unlike anything seen in recent years, the report explained.
Between 2002 and 2010 the total wealth of the poorest half of the world in current U.S. dollars
had been increasing more or less at the same rate as that of billionaires, it said. However
since 2010, it has been decreasing over that time. Investors with interests in finance, insurance
and health saw the biggest windfalls, Oxfam said. Using data from Forbes magazines list of

billionaires, it said those listed as having interests in the pharmaceutical and health care industries
saw their net worth jump by 47 percent. The charity credited those individuals rapidly growing
fortunes in part to multimillion-dollar lobbying campaigns to protect and enhance their interests.
Note: A single ticket to the World Economic Forum event in Davos costs a small fortune. Will the
global elites that attend this event pay attention to Oxfam's latest paper, and make it a priority to
reduce income inequality?

Inequality isn't inevitable, it's engineered. That's how the 1% have taken
over
2015-01-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/19/inequality-inevitable-1-...
The [richest] 1% of the worlds population will own more global wealth than the 99% [by
next year]. Oxfam executive director, Winnie Byanyima, is arguing that this increasing
concentration of wealth ... is bad for growth and bad for governance. Whats more,
inequality is bad not just for the poor, but for the rich too. Thats why we have the likes of the
IMFs Christine Lagarde kicking off with warnings about rising inequality. Visceral inequality ...
is still seen as somehow being [a] moral failure of the poor. This in turn sustains the idea that rich
people deserve their incredible riches. Most wealth, though, is not earned: huge assets, often
inherited, simply get bigger [for] deliberate and systemic reasons. Inequality is not
inevitable, its engineered. Many mainstream economists do not question the degree of
this engineering. Neoliberalism [has been] a stage of capitalism in which the financial markets
were deregulated, public services privatised, welfare systems run down, laws to protect working
people dismantled, and unions cast as the enemy. Oxfams suggestions at Davos are attempts
to claw back some basic rights. But isnt it rather incredible that a charity has to do this?
Note: Oxfam's complete report "identifies the two powerful driving forces that have led to the rapid
rise in inequality" as "market fundamentalism and the capture of politics by elites." For more along
these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Prison Dispatches from the War on Terror: Ex-CIA Officer John Kiriakou
Speaks
2015-01-19, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/19/cia-agent-jailed-john-kiriakous...
John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee to go to prison in connection with the agencys
torture program. Not because he tortured anyone, but because he revealed information on
torture to a reporter. Kiriakou is the Central Intelligence Agency officer who told ABC News in
2007 that the CIA waterboarded suspected al-Qaeda prisoners after the September 11 attacks.
Kiriakou was sentenced in January 2013 to 30 months in prison. That sentence made him the

second CIA employee ever to be locked up under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The
first was Sharon Scranage, who in 1985 pled guilty to disclosing the identities of intelligence
agents in Ghana after giving classified information to a Ghanaian, reportedly her lover. Kiriakou is
not without support. His friend and former boss, Bruce Riedel, sent a letter to President Obama,
signed by other CIA officers, urging him to commute Kiriakous prison sentence. That did not
happen. A father of five children, Kiriakou says the CIA asked his wife to resign from her job
at the agency immediately following his arrest, and he is in major debt. "As part of this
conviction, I lost my pension. I had $770,000 saved in that pension. And its just gone. And I
still owe my lawyers almost a million dollars."
Note: Kiriakou himself was misled about the extent and effectiveness of the torture program, but
still felt the moral obligation to reveal its existence. The CIA spun his revelation into a pro-torture
media narrative, took his money, put him in prison, and fired his wife from her job. Are the many
ethical intelligence agents working for the U.S. able to trust their corrupt bosses after this? Watch
the powerful documentary "Secrets of the CIA" in which five CIA agents describe how their initial
pride at serving their nation turned to anguish and remorse, as they realized that they were
actually subverting democracy and killing innocent civilians.

Defense contractor pleads guilty in massive bribery case

2015-01-15, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/navy-captain-enters-gui...
Malaysian defense contractor [Leonard Glenn Francis] pleaded guilty [to bribing] scores of
U.S. Navy officials [while] presiding over a decade-long corruption scheme. His Singapore-based
firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia ... bilked the service out of tens of millions of dollars. Five current
and former Navy officials have pleaded guilty so far. Francis, 50, agreed to forfeit $35 million in illgotten proceeds and could face up to 25 years in prison. [He also] provided evidence against two
more Navy officials who have yet to be charged: a lieutenant commander and a ... civilian official
[that] worked as a mole for Glenn Defense Marine. The Navy says that [Frances] was repeatedly
able to thwart criminal investigators by bribing a senior agent with the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service, who fed him sensitive files and helped to cover his tracks. A Navy captain,
Daniel Dusek, admitted to disclosing military secrets to Francis and his firm in exchange
for prostitutes, cash and visits to luxury hotels. Dusek provided classified information about
Navy ship schedules dozens of times. According to court records, in October 2010, Dusek [as
deputy director of operations for the 7th Fleet] persuaded the Navy to send an aircraft carrier, the
USS Abraham Lincoln, and its strike group to visit a port in Malaysia that was largely controlled by
Glenn Defense Marine. As a result, the company was able to easily inflate invoices and
overcharge the Navy.
Note: Frances bribed Naval officials to redirect an aircraft carrier, and avoided prosecution for
years by also bribing military investigators. If he could do this, and if Brent R. Wilkes could
persuade the #3 Official at the CIA to award him millions in suspicious agency contracts, what else
have corrupt government officials been bribed to do?

Philadelphia Pizza Lovers Pay It Forward One Slice At A Time

2015-01-14, NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/01/14/377033772/philadelphia-pizza-love...
At Rosa's Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia, the shop is adorned with Post-it notes and letters. The
messages are from customers who gave $1 so homeless members in the community could get a
slice, which costs $1. The pay-it-forward pizza program started about a year ago, [owner Mason]
Wartman says, when one paying customer asked if he could buy a slice for a homeless person. "I
said, 'Sure.' I took his dollar and ran out and got some Post-it notes and put one up to signify that a
slice was purchased," he recalls. Pay-it-forward pizza was born. Over the past nine months,
Wartman says, clients have bought 8,400 slices of pizza for their homeless neighbors. He
kept track of the prepaid slices with Post-it notes on the walls until he hit about 500 free slices. He
now keeps track at the register. Wartman says the customer who started it all was inspired by
a practice in Italy called "suspended coffee" where customers purchase an extra cup for
someone who can't afford it. Pay-it-forward generosity isn't limited to Italian cafes or one Philly
pizza shop. Even mega-chains, including the bakery and sandwich chain Panera, have gotten into
the giving act. Other chains' pay-it-forward systems have grown organically. Starbucks Coffee Co.
spokeswoman Sanja Gould says some people just offer to pay for the person behind them in line,
while others "might load a certain dollar amount onto a Starbucks card and the store partners have
it on hand and they keep adding to it as the line goes on." Wartman says ... people want to help
but aren't sure what to do. "This is a super-easy way, a super-efficient way and a supertransparent way to help the homeless."
Note: Watch a great video on this inspiring pizza shop.

Mass Animal Die-Offs Are on the Rise, Killing Billions and Raising
Questions
2015-01-13, National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150113-mass-die-off-disease-a...
Mass die-offs are individual events that kill at least a billion animals, wipe out over 90
percent of a population, or destroy 700 million tonsthe equivalent weight of roughly 1,900
Empire State Buildingsworth of animals. According to new research, such die-offs are on
the rise. The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
is the first to examine whether mass die-offs have increased over time. Researchers reviewed
historical records of 727 mass die-offs from 1940 to 2012 and found that over that time, these
events have become more common for birds, marine invertebrates, and fish. Disease, humancaused disturbances, and biotoxins ... are three major culprits. Big die-offs can permanently
change food webs. Massive die-offs can also endanger human activities like farming by disrupting
insects that pollinate plants, like bees. "Such events can reshape the ecological and evolutionary
trajectories of life on Earth," the study authors write. It's unclear what's making diseases more
common. Climate change and environmental degradation are some contenders. Researchers also

don't know why die-off rates differ between animal groups. What's clear is that lack of coordinated
attention from scientists is a problem, the study authors say. There needs to be better monitoring
of these events.
Note: A combination of GMO crops and common pesticides was reported by Reuters to cause
mass honeybee deaths. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
mass animal deaths from reliable major media sources.

Prince Andrew sex allegations: Jeffrey Epstein 'the most dangerous

sexual predator America has ever seen', lawyer's letter claims
2015-01-07, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/prince-andrew-sex-allegations-lawyers-lette...
The FBI allegedly possesses "secret documents" about the American billionaire [Jeffrey
Epstein] that could provide evidence for under-age "sex slave" accusations against him,
[which include] forcing a 17-year-old girl to have sex with Prince Andrew, Duke of York. FBI
documents are said to show that Epstein controlled under-age girls who could provide evidence
about the claims. In May last year, prosecutors surrendered 541 pages of correspondence with
Epsteins lawyers leading up to a 2008 non-prosecution agreement. A letter released by the court
last year showed Brad Edwards, [alleged victim Virginia] Robertss lawyer, telling the US attorneys
office that Epstein "may be the most dangerous sexual predator that the country has ever seen".
The letter continued: "The evidence suggests that for at least four years he was sexually abusing
as many as three to four girls a day. "He uses his extraordinary wealth and power to lure in poor,
underprivileged little girls and then also uses his wealth to shield himself from prosecution and
liability." Lawyers for Virginia Roberts ... have said that evidence against the billionaire was
covered up after lobbying by his political and social connections. Epstein pleaded guilty in
2008 to a single charge of soliciting prostitution.
Note: An FBI investigation has identified 40 female victims of Epstein's elite criminal enterprise.
For more along these lines, watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel
documentary showing that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government,
or read concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable
major media sources.

The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was convincing the world America
isn't still at war
2015-01-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/06/obama-america-still-at-w...
The [recent] holiday headlines blared: End of War and Mission Ends and U.S. formally
ends the war in Afghanistan." Great news! Except: the fighting is as intense as it has ever been
since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, according to the Wall Street Journal. And about 10,000 troops

will remain there for the foreseeable future. Theyll continue to engage in combat regularly. This is
the new reality of war: As long as the White House doesnt admit the United States is at war, were
all supposed to pretend as if thats true. This ruse is not just the work of the president. Members of
Congress [are also] letting the public think were Definitely Not at War. Another place the United
States is Definitely Not at War? Pakistan, where, according to the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, the US conducted multiple drone strikes between Christmas and New Years Eve,
killing at least nine people. Another six militants were reportedly killed in a drone strike in
Pakistan on Sunday. There was yet another American drone strike in Somalia on 30 December.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department quietly announced ... that, later this month, another 1,300
troops will deploy to Iraq in its ever-expanding undeclared war on Isis. The US continues to
launch airstrikes against Isis and various other groups in Syria as well. Legal experts across the
political spectrum believe this war is without precedent.
Note: Although 21st Century military combat operations may no longer be called war, war has
been called a racket since the era of General Smedley Butler, one of the most highly decorated US
generals ever. Read General Butler's eye-opening essay "War is a Racket." For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war news articles from reliable major media
sources.

Prince Andrew sex case claim denied

2015-01-02, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30659629
Buckingham Palace has denied "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors" by
Prince Andrew, after he was named in US court papers. This is [part of] a long-running,
complicated legal action which began in 2011 against an American businessman called Jeffrey
Epstein. In these court documents ... an unnamed woman alleges she was forced to have sexual
relations with Prince Andrew when she was a minor, three times in three different locations. The
court document, first reported on by Politico Magazine, alleges: "Epstein also sexually trafficked
the then-minor Jane Doe ... making her available for sex to politically connected and financially
powerful people. "Epstein's purposes in 'lending' Jane Doe (along with other young girls) to such
powerful people were to ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political, and financial
gain, as well as to obtain potential blackmail information." Prince Andrew ... is named as part of
evidence relating to a wider case of an alleged sex trafficking scheme, involving US
businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who spent time in jail in 2008-9 for a sex offence with a
minor. Two women (known as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2) are suing the US government,
saying it failed to protect their rights when it entered into a plea deal with Epstein. Now, two further
women (Jane Doe #3 and #4) want to join this case, and it's Jane Doe #3 who has made claims
against the Duke of York, as part of this. The prince strongly denies the allegations.
Note: Read the full legal text of the claims against Prince Andrew in this article in the UK's
Telegraph. Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these

lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Florida congressman denied access to censored pages from 9/11 report

2014-12-29, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article5114082.html
The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has denied [Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando], a
Florida congressman ... access to 28 classified pages from the 2002 report of Congress
Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. [Grayson] made his request at the suggestion of
House colleagues who have read them. The 28 pages concern ... the role of Saudi Arabia in
funding 9/11, according to former Florida Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the Joint Inquiry
and helped write the 28 pages. Graham has long called for declassifying those pages. House
Resolution 428 ... asks President Obama to release the 28 pages of the Joint Inquirys report.
In 2003, 46 senators including now Vice President Joe Biden, Sam Brownback, Hillary Rodham
Clinton and John Kerry wrote to President Bush asking him to declassify the pages. In a party
line vote, the House Intelligence Committee voted 8-4 on Dec. 1 to deny Democrat Grayson
access to the 28 pages. The same day, the committee unanimously approved requests to access
classified committee documents not necessarily the 28 pages by 11 other House members.
Grayson, an outspoken liberal and a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said his
denial was engineered by outgoing Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Chairman Rogers told the
committee that I had discussed classified information on the floor. I was discussing what was
reported in the newspaper, said Grayson. He clearly misled the committee.
Note: Alan Grayson questions the lies that intelligence agencies tell congress, and has made it
clear to the public how common such lies are. He is now being prevented from helping those who
are trying to expose the Saudi government money behind terrorism. For more along these lines,
read concise summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 investigation news from reliable major media
sources.

The Government Problem

2014-12-23, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201412230900--tms--amvoices...
Consider the new spending bill Congress and the president agreed to a few weeks ago. Under the
$1.1 trillion measure, government spending doesn't rise as a percent of the total economy. If the
economy grows as expected, government spending will actually shrink over the next year. The
problem with the legislation is who gets the goodies and who's stuck with the tab. Only about 12
percent of federal spending goes to individuals and families. An increasing portion goes to
corporate welfare. In addition to the provisions in the recent spending bill that reward Wall Street,
health insurers, the travel industry, food companies and defense contractors, other corporate
goodies have long been baked into the federal budget. Big agribusiness gets price supports.

Hedge-fund and private-equity managers get their own special "carried-interest" tax loophole. The
oil and gas industry gets its special tax subsidies. Big Pharma gets a particularly big benefit: a
prohibition on government using its vast bargaining power under Medicare and Medicaid to
negotiate low drug prices. The new spending legislation, just enacted, makes it easier for wealthy
individuals to write big checks to political parties. Much of government is no longer working for the
vast majority it's intended to serve. Unless or until we can reverse the vicious cycle of big
money getting political favors that makes big money even bigger, we can't get the
government we want and deserve.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption and income inequality news articles from reliable major media sources.

A Brief History of the CIA's Unpunished Spying on the Senate

2014-12-23, The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/a-brief-history-of-the-ci...
Last March, Senator Dianne Feinstein accused the CIA of spying on the Senate intelligence
committee as it labored to finalize its report on the torture of prisoners. CIA Director John Brennan
denied the charge. Nothing could be further from the truth, he said. We wouldnt do that. Thats
just beyond the scope of reason in terms of what wed do. His denial was publicly proved false.
"An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer
network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the
C.I.A.s detention and interrogation program," The New York Times reported. "The report ...
found that C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to
the Justice Department based on false information." "A panel investigating the C.I.A.s search of a
computer network used by staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee ... will recommend
against punishing anyone," The New York Times reports. "The panel will make that
recommendation after the five C.I.A. officials who were singled out by the agencys inspector
general this year for improperly ordering and carrying out the computer searches staunchly
defended their actions, saying that they were ... done at the behest of John O. Brennan."
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

Secret CIA report: Drone strikes and targeted killings 'boost support for
terror groups'
2014-12-18, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/secret-cia-report-drone-strikes-targeted-killings-bo...
Drone strikes and "targeted killings" of terror targets by the United States can be
counterproductive and bolster the support of extremist groups, the CIA has admitted in a
secret report released by WikiLeaks. The document, by the intelligence agency's Directorate of

Intelligence, said that despite the effectiveness of "high value targeting" (HVT), air strikes
and special forces operations had a negative impact by boosting the popular support of terror
organisations. The CIA report is dated 2009 and talks of operations conducted in countries such as
Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen. Operations against terror targets "may increase
support for the insurgents, particularly if these strikes enhance insurgent leaders' lore, if noncombatants are killed in the attacks, if legitimate or semi-legitimate politicians aligned with the
insurgents are targeted, or if the government is already seen as overly repressive or violent," the
report said. "Senior Taliban leaders' use of sanctuary in Pakistan has also complicated the HVT
effort," it reveals. "Moreover, the Taliban has a high overall ability to replace lost leaders ...
especially at the middle levels." It speaks of drone strikes also having limited effect in Iraq.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, US drone strikes have killed between 2,400
and 3,888 people in Pakistan in the years 2004 to 2014 and between 371 and 541 people in
Yemen in the years 2002 to 2014.
Note: This report proves that the CIA has been aware that drone strikes are ineffective since at
least 2009. If drones help terrorists, almost always miss their intended targets, and may be used to
target people in the US in the future, what are the real reasons for the US government's drone
program?

U.S. TV Provides Ample Platform for American Torturers, But None to

Their Victims
2014-12-16, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/16/u-s-tv-media-gives-ample-platfo...
Ever since the torture report was released last week, U.S. television outlets have endlessly
featured American torturers and torture proponents. But there was one group that was almost
never heard from: the victims of their torture. The War on Terror generally has been reported
for 13 years and counting by completely silencing those whose lives are destroyed or
ended by U.S. crimes. In 2002, Maher [Arar], a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent who worked
as an engineer, was travelling back home to Ottawa when he was abducted by the U.S.
Government at JFK Airport, [secretly] interrogated for weeks, then rendered to Syria where the
U.S. arranged to have him brutally tortured ... for 10 months. He was completely innocent, [and
was] unceremoniously released back to his life in Canada as though nothing had happened. U.S.
courts refused even to hear his case, accepting the Obama DOJs claim that it was too secret to
safely adjudicate. The Canadian government ... publicly apologized for its role, and paid him $9
million. There are hundreds if not thousands of Maher Arars the U.S. media could easily and
powerfully interview. The detainees held without charges, tortured, and then
unceremoniously released from Guantanamo and Bagram are rarely if ever heard from on
U.S. television, even when the U.S. Government is forced to admit that they were guilty of
nothing.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
government corruption that is supported by equally corrupt mass media.

Undercover CHP officer pulls gun at Oakland protest after outing

2014-12-11, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Undercover-cops-outed-attacked-at-Oakla...
An undercover California Highway Patrol officer who was attempting to infiltrate a
demonstration against police brutality in Oakland pulled a gun on the protesters after he
and his partner were outed. "About 50 people were marching near Lake Merritt just after 11:30
p.m. Wednesday when some of the demonstrators began calling out two men who were walking
with the group," said [news photographer] Michael Short. Just as we turned up 27th Street, the
crowd started yelling at these two guys, saying they were undercover cops, Short said Thursday.
Somebody snatched a hat off the shorter guys head and he was fumbling around for it. A guy ran
up behind him, knocked him down on the ground. The crowd began surging on them. The other
taller guy... as the crowd started surging on them, he pulled out a gun. Chief Browne said the
officer also pulled out a badge ... though Short, other members of the media and protesters
reported that they did not see a badge. The officers, who Browne said he is not identifying, had
been trailing the crowd in an unmarked car and began following on foot. Short said the officers
were wearing street clothes and had their faces covered with bandannas. Browne
confirmed this and ... said it was common. Several protesters took to Twitter to say that the
officers had actually instigated acts of vandalism and were banging on windows alongside others.
Note: Here is proof that the police are infiltrating marches by protesters and wearing masks to
cover their identities. Often those promoting violence are using masks. Could the police in some
instances actually be provoking violence among protesters to discredit the movement?

10 Craziest Things in the Senate Report on Torture

2014-12-10, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/10-craziest-things-in-the-senate-re...
The release of the Feinstein report [places] the end of the American "torture" regime in January of
2009. I'm not sure I'm buying that the U.S. government suddenly got religion about mistreatment of
terror suspects once Obama took office, particularly since this government massively accelerated
a drone-assassination program. Still, the end result [shows] that we approved behaviors far worse,
and far weirder, than was ever admitted to previously. CIA detainees were subjected to "rectal
rehydration" or rectal feeding ... to put them in a talking mood. The interrogators gave pet names
to all of their ... permitted techniques, as outlined in the report: (1) attention grasp, (2)
walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall
standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box,
and (10) the waterboard. A small confinement box ... had a width of 21 inches, a depth of 2.5
feet, and a height of 2.5 feet. They didn't just put people in these boxes. They [added] insects.
Detainees at COBALT were subjected to what was described as a "rough takedown" [wherein] five

CIA officers would scream at a detainee, drag him outside of his cell, cut his clothes off, and
secure him with Mylar tape. The detainee would then be hooded and [repeatedly] slapped and
punched. Gul Rahman was said to have died after one of these choreographed scare-scenes.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

Ex-CIA Operative Says Prison Was Punishment for Whistleblowing on

Torture
2014-12-09, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/International/cia-operative-prison-punishment-whistlebl...
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee connected to its interrogation
program to go to prison. But he was prosecuted for providing information to reporters, not
for anything connected to ... torture. No other person connected to the program has been
charged with a crime, after the Justice Department said their actions had been approved legally
or that there was not sufficient admissible evidence in a couple cases of potential wrongdoing,
even in light of the death of two detainees in the early 2000s. Kiriakou was the first person with
direct knowledge of the CIA interrogation program to publicly reveal its existence, in an interview
with ABC News in 2007. He is now serving a nearly-three-year prison sentence for violating the
Intelligence Identities Protection Act, but he says thats only what the government wants people to
believe. In truth, this is my punishment for blowing the whistle on the CIAs illegal torture program
and for telling the public that torture was official U.S. government policy, Kiriakou said in a letter
last May from a prison in Loretto, Penn. In his groundbreaking interview with ABC News and later
with other news outlets, Kiriakou described the details of the program. In some cases, it turned out
that even Kiriakou ... was misled or kept in the dark about the extent of the program.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

The Red Cross CEO Has Been Misleading About Where Donors' Dollars
Are Going
2014-12-04, MSN News
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-red-cross-ceo-has-been-misleading-about-...
The American Red Cross regularly touts how responsible it is with donors' money. "We're
very proud of the fact that 91 cents of every dollar that's donated goes to our services,"
Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern said in a speech in Baltimore last year. The problem with
that number: It isn't true. After inquiries by ProPublica and NPR, the Red Cross removed the
statement from its website. In recent years, the Red Cross' fundraising expenses alone have been
as high as 26 cents of every donated dollar. But even that understates matters. The charity spends
additional money on "management and general" expenses. That means the portion of donated

dollars going to overhead is even higher. After being contacted by ProPublica and NPR, the charity
changed the wording on its website to another formulation it frequently uses: that 91 cents of every
dollar the charity "spends" goes to humanitarian services. But that too is misleading to donors. The
charity spent $467 million, or 14 percent of total spending, on its famous domestic disaster
response programs, including the expensive Sandy relief effort. The Red Cross doesn't break
down its spending on overhead and declined ProPublica and NPR's request to do so. Other
figures the Red Cross frequently cites also appear to be unreliable.
Note: This ongoing NPR/ProPublica investigation has also found that the Red Cross used courts
to hide its spending habits, and diverted funds from disaster relief to manipulate the media. For
more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing articles about corporate
corruption from reliable sources.

U.S. Government Has a Secret System for Stalling Patents

2014-12-03, Yahoo Tech
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/the-u-s-government-has-a-secret-system-for-1042496...
Entrepreneurs and established companies alike depend on the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office. Newly released documents reveal that the office, tasked with evaluating and
protecting the rights to intellectual property, has a covert system for delaying controversial
or inconvenient patents. Its a system that ... could function as a way to limit or stomp out
emerging companies. Before today, the program named the Sensitive Application Warning
System (SAWS) has been mentioned only anecdotally by examiners who work in or with the
office, and in a government memo that was leaked in March 2006. However, a new 50-page
document obtained by a law firms Freedom of Information Act request shows the sweeping scope
and conflicting interests of this particular set of rules. The law firm behind the request, Kilpatrick
Townsend & Stockton LLP, frequently represents major tech companies, including Apple, Google,
Twitter, and Oracle. For Thomas Franklin, a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend, applications that he
prosecutes typically issue as patents 22 months after filing. Any application that is categorized in
SAWS, however ... can be delayed for years. There is no official channel to notify an applicant
once her patent is placed in the system. Franklin told Yahoo Tech., Thats what piqued my interest
as a constitutional issue. Theres a secret program that theyre not supposed to talk about.
Note: When the government has a "property interest" in any patent application, it may be rejected,
stolen, or classified according to secret criteria. Among new energy technology researchers, it is
well known that the patent office can block patents of amazing inventions that could cost oil and
energy companies billions of dollars. Read this excellent summary for more on this.

Ohio Men Wrongly Convicted of Murder After 39 Years Released

2014-11-21, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/ohio-men-wrongly-convicted-murder-af...

Two Ohio men wrongly accused of murder experienced freedom for the first time in nearly four
decades on Friday morning, but said they dont harbor bitterness over their unjust imprisonment. A
Cleveland judge on Wednesday had dropped all charges against Ricky Jackson, 57, and
Wiley Bridgeman, 60, allowing for the pairs release. Jackson was 19 when he was
convicted along with Bridgeman and Bridgemans brother, Ronnie, in the 1975 shooting
death and robbery of Harold Franks, a Cleveland-area money order salesman. Testimony from
a 12-year-old witness helped point to Jackson as the triggerman and led a jury to convict. The
witness, Edward Vernon, now 53, recanted his testimony last year, saying he was coerced by
detectives, according to Cuyahoga County court documents. Vernon wrote in a 2013 affidavit that
he never saw the murder take place, but he was told by detectives that if he didnt testify against
Jackson, his parents would be arrested. The Ohio Innocence Project, which took up the case, said
Jackson had been the longest-held U.S. prisoner to be exonerated. Jackson was originally
sentenced to death, but that sentence was vacated because of a paperwork error. The
Bridgeman brothers remained on death row until Ohio declared the death penalty unconstitutional
in 1978. One of them came within 20 days of execution before Ohio ruled the death penalty
unconstitutional said Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project.
Note: Watch an inspiring five-minute video of this beautiful man who was originally sentenced to
death based largely on the testimony of a 12 year old, who it turns out was coerced by police to
blame him. And how many have been wrongly executed that we will never know about? For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing civil liberties articles from reliable
major media sources.

Disabled Ugandan teenager beams as he overcomes the odds and finds

his voice for the very first time
2014-11-21, Daily Mail (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2844368/The-heart-warming-moment-br...
15-year-old Patrick Otema, from Kampala in Uganda, found his voice for the very first time.
Patrick, who was born deaf, was unable to even express himself to his family and, had
things not changed, would have been condemned to a life of silence. But thanks to a
pioneering new programme, he has finally been taught to communicate using sign
language. But Patrick has been lucky. His teacher is Raymond Okkelo who is deaf himself - and
who is one of the few Ugandans to use sign language. 'In the past I was also like him,' he explains.
'I couldnt use sign language, the only thing I could do was hide in fear.' Raymond became deaf as
a child after a bout of malaria. Six months ago, he travelled to the Ugandan capital Kampala for
intensive training in sign language. Now able to communicate with the outside world, Raymond is
determined to change the lives deaf people in sub-Saharan Africa, many of whom have never
been taught sign language. Raymond ... has also opened the very first sign language school in the
country - which Patrick now attends. But nothing is as heart-warming as the moment that Patrick
finally realises he can communicate, with joy spreading across his face as he grasps the

significance of what he has learned. Patrick's transformation is nothing short of breathtaking. But
Patrick won't be the only deaf child to benefit. Buoyed by the success of his first cohort of students,
Raymond hopes to take his school on tour and help many more children on the way.
Note: Don't miss the incredibly moving video of his first words and a great follow-up video about
this inspiring story.

Westminster child abuse claims: what do we know?

2014-11-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/19/westminster-child-abuse-claims...
Police are investigating possible murders linked to Elm Guest House in south-west London after
claims of a cover-up. A number of allegations have been made. So far the only politician to have
been implicated is the Liberal MP Cyril Smith, who died in 2010, but other unnamed politicians
were also alleged to have been involved in a Westminster paedophile ring. Smith is alleged to
have abused boys at Knowl View residential school in Rochdale and at Elm Guest House, in
Barnes in south-west London, in the 1970s and 80s. Greater Manchester police are investigating
allegations of abuse by Smith at Knowl View, where Smith was a governor. Other MPs were said
to have attended the Elm Guest House. After claims made by the Labour MP Tom Watson in 2012,
the Metropolitan police launched Operation Fairbank into child abuse at the guesthouse. Watson
said there was clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to
parliament and No 10. A dossier of evidence of an alleged paedophile ring, involving
several MPs, including Smith, and other public figures, was handed to the Home Office in
1983, by the Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens, who died in 1995. The 40-page dossier has since
been destroyed or lost, according to a Home Office review. At least three MPs were reported to
have been questioned in 1982 after a police raid on the guesthouse. It was reported at the time
that it was being used as a brothel where children as young as 10 were abused. Two children
living in the house were taken into care.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals also reach to the highest levels of government in the US. And
read an abundance of major media news articles showing rampant child sexual abuse at high
levels in many prominent organizations.

The growing wealth and clout of the richest .01 percent

2014-11-18, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201411181330--tms--amvoices...
According to new research by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley and
Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics, the richest one-hundredth of one percent
of Americans now hold more than 11 percent of the nation's total wealth. That's a higher
share than the top .01 percent held in 1929, before the Great Crash. We're talking about

16,000 people, each worth at least $110 million. This explosion of wealth at the top has been
accompanied by an erosion of the wealth of the middle class and the poor. Some might think [that]
if those at the top are winning big while the bottom 90 percent is losing, too bad. That's the way the
game is played. But the top .01 percent have also been ... changing the game. Their political
investments have paid off in the form of lower taxes on themselves and their businesses,
subsidies for their corporations, government bailouts, federal prosecutions ... where
executives don't go to jail, watered-down regulations, and non-enforcement of antitrust laws. Since
the top .01 began investing big time in politics, corporate profits and the stock market have risen to
record levels. That's enlarged the wealth of the richest .01 percent. But the bottom 90 percent ...
rely on wages, which have been trending downward. Politicians don't seem particularly intent on
reversing this trend. If you want to know what's happened to our democracy, follow the richest .01
percent. They'll lead you to the politicians who have been selling our democracy.
Note: For more along these lines, see these summaries of deeply revealing income inequality
news articles.

15 Falmouth High Students Diagnosed With Whooping Cough

2014-11-14, CBS News (Boston affiliate)
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/11/14/whooping-cough-outbreak-on-cape-cod/
A number of children on Cape Cod have been diagnosed with whooping cough. These new cases
are all being reported in Falmouth. Massachusetts is one of just 18 states that allow a parent to
exempt their children from vaccines on philosophical grounds. Data examined by the I-Team
showed the number of exemptions has quadrupled over the past 25 years. Public health officials
tell WBZ that once those exemption rates start to climb, so does the risk of an outbreak. All of the
whooping cough patients in this outbreak, 15 in total, go to Falmouth High School. The ITeam obtained new data from the Public Health Department and found the number of Cape Cod
kindergarten students exempted from immunizations is almost five percent and up from last year.
Once vaccination rates go down, the likelihood of an outbreak increases and this has happened
both in Minnesota and California, says Dr. Sharon Daley, Chief of Pediatrics at Cape Cod
Hospital. No one knows for sure why exemption rates are so high on the Cape. But in this case, a
school official tells WBZ that all the students had been immunized.
Note: This article is being used to push the agenda to force vaccinations on all children. Yet isn't it
amazing that all 15 students had been immunized, which gets mentioned in one small sentence in
the article. The vaccines failed. Why isn't this even being discussed, and why instead is this being
used to promote vaccines? Read powerful evidence that some vaccines are not safe nor effective.
Remember that big Pharma makes billions in profit from vaccines.

Government planes mimic cellphone towers to collect user data

2014-11-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/14/government-planes-mimic-cellphon...

The US justice department is reportedly using electronic equipment on aircraft to simulate

cellphone towers so it can collect phone location and identifying information on a mass scale from
users on the ground below. The US Marshals Service has for seven years flown Cessna
aircraft ... that mimic cellular towers, permitting the collection of thousands of unique IDs
and location data from users. The planes operate from at least five metropolitan airports,
permitting a flying range covering most of the US population. [This] indiscriminate collection
would permit ... justice department agencies to avoid having to seek records from the phone
companies themselves, especially in criminal investigations where a court order may be required.
The legal basis for the previously undisclosed program is unclear. It is not reportedly a national
security or counterterrorism program. Michael German, a former FBI agent now with New York
University Law School, said: The governments attitude seems to be if it can, it should, without
regard to the violation of Americans rights, so long as nobody knows. This program is being kept
secret so that the thousands of innocent Americans whose data is being collected improperly wont
complain. We shouldnt have to just trust that the government will handle the data it intercepts
about our communications properly.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption and privacy news articles from reliable sources.

New Orleans Police Routinely Ignored Sex Crimes

2014-11-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/us/new-orleans-police-special-crimes-unit-i...
A scathing examination of this citys Police Department has concluded that five detectives
tasked with investigating sex crimes failed to pursue hundreds of reported cases. It was a
persistent, systemic problem, said Howard Schwartz, the inspector generals lead investigator.
The report described how victims charges of sexual assault were ignored, referrals from medical
personnel were dismissed, and evidence was not processed; in some cases the detective would
mark down in a report that evidence had been sent to the state laboratory, though no records could
be found that the laboratory received anything. In one case, a 2-year-old was brought to the
emergency room on suspicion of having been the victim of a sexual assault and was found
to have a sexually transmitted disease. The detective did no follow-up and closed the case.
In another, a nurse collected DNA evidence from a victim in a rape kit, but the detective apparently
never submitted the kit for testing. That same detective, the report said, told at least three different
people that he or she did not believe that simple rape should be a crime. These findings are not
new to the New Orleans police force, which is under federal court supervision after having been
found to have a pattern of inefficient, abusive and corrupt police work.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption and sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable sources.

UK intelligence agencies spying on lawyers in sensitive security cases

2014-11-07, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/intelligence-agencies-lawyer-cli...
The intelligence services have routinely been intercepting legally privileged communications ...
according to internal MI5, MI6 and GCHQ documents. The information obtained may even have
been exploited unlawfully and used by the agencies in the fighting of court cases in which
they themselves are involved, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has been told. MP David
Davis, a former shadow home secretary, said past practice was to delete such material
immediately if it was ever picked up. 28 extracts of internal intelligence policies showing how
legally privileged material is handled by security officials were released to lawyers pursuing a claim
through the IPT. The claim has been brought by two Libyans, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj and Sami
Al Saadi. They were abducted in a joint MI6-CIA operation and ... tortured by Colonel
Muammar Gaddafis regime in 2004. Belhaj has been given permission to sue the
government for his mistreatment. Davis, who attended the hearing, said: In the past, when a
bug or intercept on a criminal accidentally picked up a conversation with the criminals lawyer, the
rule was that it was immediately deleted. Todays hearing shows that is no longer the case.
Agencies are clearly keeping records of legal privileged material, and have explicit policies to
handle it. In the case of MI5 that policy includes concealing ... that they have the material. This
change has been carried out without changing the law or telling parliament. This is an enormous
breach of defendants judicial rights.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency
corruption news articles from reliable sources.

Teal Swan's story of Satanic Ritual abuse

2014-10-30, ABC6/Fox9 (Boise, Idaho affiliate)
http://www.jrn.com/kivitv/news/Teal-Swans-story-of-Satanic-Ritual-abuse-PART-...
The topic of Satanic Ritual has long been taboo. Criminal cases are rare. One former Idaho
woman says she was a victim of Satanic Ritual abuse while growing up in Eastern Idaho. Teal
Swan says her life consisted of abuse, both physically and sexual - and murder. What Teal
shared ... is the focus of dozens of investigations around the country. A Department of
Justice report on cult rituals ... admits these crimes are hard to prove, but says it is
imperative the cases be solved. In most documented cases of ritual abuse, the FBI says it is
often a close friend or family who commits the crime. Teal [said] that she truly believes what she
shared happened to her. She was taken in at age six. She escaped during a ritual in Eastern Idaho
when she was 19. She left the state and found refuge with her friend in Utah. Teal says things
started to turn around from there, but it took time. "It is because you have been traumatized and
you have no option. It is too difficult to talk to someone who has been in a space of freedom. You
can't explain to them what it is like to be in a situation where you would do anything you were told
to do because you don't have another option," she [said]. Teal now lives in Utah and refuses to
step foot back in Idaho. She spends much of her time providing assistance to those who claim to
have been a part of cult.

Note: It is very rare that the major media will report on Satanic abuse. Watch the full, 10-minute
news report. For powerful evidence that satanic abuse is real from reliable sources, watch this
video to hear U.S. army colonel Michael Aquino defend his being a satanist. If you are open to
more, read this essay by a professor who exposed the destruction being caused by these groups
only then to be shut down. Then explore the reliable, verifiable sources in our Mind Control
Information Center.

Video emerges of 'Lockheed Martin scientist' claiming aliens are REAL

and that he worked at Area 51 on UFO technology
2014-10-30, Daily Mail (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2814013/Video-emerges-Lockheed...
A scientist who apparently worked in some capacity for Lockheed Martin has claimed aliens on
Earth are real and have made contact with Earth in a video posted shortly before his death. Boyd
Bushman apparently drew on his own personal experiences to reveal that extraterrestrials
were in Area 51. And in a bizarre interview he also claims anti-gravity is one of several
technologies being hidden by the government. The controversial video was apparently made
shortly before Mr Bushman died on 7 August 2014. He had several patents attributed to him that
were assigned to Lockheed Martin, and he was apparently also a senior scientist at the company although that claim is disputed. These patents include a magnetic drive, an light beam to find
objects, a thermally energised electrical power source and a heat radiation detection system. Was
Bushman delusional or telling the truth? Certainly, Bushman believed in what he was saying. As
long ago as 2008 he passed a polygraph test, during which he claimed he had worked on
antigravity projects, alien technologies and had even met and photographed an alien, and
examined at least eight different types of alien spacecraft. Bushman also revealed that he had
received death threats and that security personnel had attempted to discredit him and tried to keep
him from talking to the public.
Note: Read about some of Mr. Bushman's inventions while working at Lockheed on this webpage.
And don't miss the intriguing interview with him. For lots more verifiable evidence that UFOs are
real, see our UFO Information Center.

Hard-Nosed Advice From Veteran Lobbyist: Win Ugly or Lose Pretty

2014-10-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-al...
The oil and gas industry ... must be prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits
about environmentalists and liberal celebrities, a veteran Washington political consultant told a
room full of industry executives in a speech that was secretly recorded. The blunt advice from
Richard Berman, the founder and chief executive of the Washington-based Berman & Company
consulting firm, came as Mr. Berman solicited up to $3 million from oil and gas industry executives
to finance an advertising and public relations campaign called Big Green Radicals. Executives ...

must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the
environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should
not worry about offending the general public. Think of this as an endless war, Mr. Berman
told the crowd ... whose members include Devon Energy, Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum,
which specialize in extracting oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. I
get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions, Mr. Berman said in
his speech. People always ask: "How do I know that I wont be found out as a supporter of what
youre doing?" Mr. Berman told the crowd, We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations
that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People dont know
who supports us.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
manipulation of mass media and corporate corruption from reliable sources.

Too Big to Tax: Settlements Are Tax Write-Offs for Banks

2014-10-27, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/giant-penalties-are-giant-tax-write-offs-w...
At the Justice Department, senior officials like to congratulate themselves on the headlinemaking, big bucks settlements they have imposed upon banks and lenders. Those
settlement figures are not quite what they seem, because settlements can be deducted from
tax liabilities. For nearly every dollar a bank or lender has pledged to pay ... up to 35 cents will
find its way back into bank coffers. Under Attorney General Eric Holder, whose agency has not
prosecuted a single major bank or executive in the aftermath of the 2008 meltdown, the Justice
Department has [allowed] windfall tax deductions [to be] set against the civil settlements imposed.
[These may] total more than $44 billion. Astonishingly, for an economic crisis estimated to have
cost the U.S. economy anywhere from $6 trillion to $14 trillion in lost output and value if not
twice that, according to a September 2013 study by the Dallas Federal Reserve bank tracking
the settlements and the deductions against taxes via government websites is almost impossible.
Theres [a] self-serving reason for the Justice Department to hike civil settlement payments while
allowing for most of the sum to be tax-deductible. The agency receives a cut of up to 3 percent of
its share of the total settlements for its Working Capital Fund, a slush fund common across major
government agencies. The Justice Departments slush fund ... signals an institutional interest in
getting big numbers.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing articles about
widespread corruption in government and banking and finance.

US used Nazis as Cold War spies

2014-10-27, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29795749

Declassified US records reveal the nation's intelligence chiefs used hundreds of Nazis as spies
and informants after World War Two. Academics studying the documents say America used at
least 1,000 ex-Nazis. Some had served at the highest levels of the Nazi Party, and were recruited
to work as spies for the US in Europe. Former SS officer Otto von Bolschwing reportedly wrote
policy papers on how to terrorise Jews, but was hired by the CIA to spy in Europe after World War
Two. The agency is said to have relocated him and his family to New York in the 1950s as a
reward for loyal service. Nazi collaborator Aleksandras Lileikis - linked to the massacres of
tens of thousands of Jews in Lithuania - was recruited by the US as a spy in East Germany
and later brought over to Boston. There is evidence the CIA even tried to intervene when Mr
Lileikis became the subject of a war crimes investigation. Records indicate long-time FBI
director J Edgar Hoover not only approved of the use of ex-Nazis as spies, he also dismissed the
horrific acts they had been involved in during the war as Soviet propaganda. The revelations come
one week after an Associated Press investigation found the US government had paid dozens of
suspected Nazi war criminals millions of dollars in Social Security benefits.
Note: Explore powerful evidence that the CIA secretly smuggled Nazi war criminals into the US to
teach them mind control techniques.

Stand Tall, America, We're No. 1!

2014-10-23, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-engelhardt/america-is-number-one_b_6034626....
Here's the beginning of a little post-9/11 list: six incontestable areas where America is #1.
Investment in our military and our national security state! No other country comes within a light
year of us! In 2011, the defense budgets of the next 13 countries combined didn't quite equal
ours and we've been dumping up to a trillion dollars yearly into the national security budget
since 9/11. We're #1 in "renditions" ("kidnappings")! Post-9/11, at least 136 "terror suspects"
(some certifiably innocent) were taken by the CIA and other American outfits off the streets of
global cities. We're #1 in knocking off wedding parties from the air! At least eight of them in three
countries! Bridal parties, brides and grooms, hundreds of wedding goers obliterated by American
air power! We're #1 in military bases on foreign soil! We have hundreds of them across the planet,
some the size of small American towns. We're number #1 in invading, occupying, and/or
bombing Muslim countries, 14 of them since 1980! I challenge you, find me another country
with such an accomplishment. We're number #1 in investing in militaries that won't "stand up"! At
least $25 billion for the Iraqi military alone (and you know how successful we were there, since it
recently collapsed, allowing us to rearm it and stand it up again). And that's nothing compared to
the Afghan military into which our country had poured $51 billion by 2011 and billions more
thereafter.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing war news
articles from reliable sources.

Your Taxes Funding Nazi War Criminals' Retirement?

2014-10-20, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nazi-war-criminal-social-security-benefits-ap-inv...
Dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards collected millions of dollars in U.S. Social
Security benefits after being forced out of the United States. Among those receiving benefits
were armed SS troops who guarded the network of Nazi camps where millions of Jews
perished; a rocket scientist who used slave laborers to advance his research in the Third
Reich; and a Nazi collaborator who engineered the arrest and execution of thousands of
Jews in Poland. The deals allowed the Justice Department's former Nazi-hunting unit, the Office
of Special Investigations, to skirt lengthy deportation hearings. Social Security benefits became
tools, U.S. diplomatic officials said, to secure agreements. The Social Security Administration
expressed outrage in 1997 over the use of benefits. Austrian authorities were furious upon learning
after the fact about a deal made with Martin Bartesch, a former SS guard at the Mauthausen
concentration camp in Austria. "It was not upfront, it was not transparent, it was not a legitimate
process," said James Hergen, an assistant legal adviser at the State Department from 1982 until
2007. "This was not the way America should behave." Neal Sher, a former OSI director, said the
State Department cared more about diplomatic niceties than holding former members of Adolf
Hitler's war machine accountable.
Note: Explore powerful evidence that the CIA secretly smuggled Nazi war criminals into the US to
teach them mind control techniques.

Afghan Poppies Hit Record High Despite $7 Billion US Campaign

2014-10-20, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/afghan-opium-poppies-hit-record-hi...
Opium poppy cultivation has hit an all-time high in Afghanistan despite a 10-year, $7.6
billion effort by the U.S. government to fight it, according to a new report. The Special
Inspector General for Afghanistan, who authored the report, warned Secretary of State John Kerry,
Attorney General Eric Holder and other top U.S. officials that the gap between expenditures and
results should make them rethink their approach. "Given the severity of the opium problem and its
potential to undermine U.S. objectives in Afghanistan," said Special Inspector General John Sopko
in a letter to the officials, "I strongly suggest that your departments consider the trends in opium
cultivation and the effectiveness of past counternarcotics efforts when planning future initiatives."
According to SIGAR's report, the value of the opium produced in Afghanistan reached $3
billion in 2013, a 50 percent increase from 2012, and is likely to increase still further in 2014.
Some of the increase is due to the use of affordable deep well technology over the past decade
to turn 200,000 hectares of former desert in southwestern Afghanistan into arable land. Some of
the land is now being used to grow opium poppies. Opium poppy cultivation is used to fund the
Taliban and other insurgent groups and stokes corruption, says the report.

Note: A 2002 news article shows that "the Taliban in July 2000, coupled with severe droughts last
year, reduced the country's opium yield by 91% in 2001." Yet once the allies defeated the Taliban,
opium production hit new records. Do you really think the plan was to eradicate opium? This huge
source of income is used to fund all kinds of secret projects. Read powerful evidence that the CIA
and US military are directly involved in the drug trade.

The Cost of Campaigns

2014-10-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/us/the-cost-of-campaigns.html
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010 tossed aside decades of legislative
restrictions, freeing corporations and unions to spend as much as they wished. Six months ago,
the Supreme Court took its Citizens United decision further. In McCutcheon v. Federal Election
Commission, it struck down long standing caps on what an individual may contribute to all federal
candidates, collectively, in any two-year election cycle. With conservative justices dominant, the
court expanded the concept that money is equivalent to speech, protected by the First
Amendment. Corporations, it said, enjoy the same political rights as individuals. A study by
the Sunlight Foundation, an advocate for government transparency, found that 31,385 people
that is 1 percent of 1 percent of the United States population accounted for 28 percent of
all disclosed contributions in the 2012 elections. This year, an analysis by The New York
Times shows, more than half of broadcast advertising in the midterm elections has been paid for
by groups that reveal little or nothing about their donors. Overwhelmingly, the main beneficiaries
have been conservative organizations.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing election news
articles from reliable major media sources. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable
resources provided in our Elections Information Center.

American higher education skewed toward elite private universities

2014-10-13, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201410141100--tms--amvoices...
Imagine a system of college education supported by high and growing government spending on
elite private universities that mainly educate children of the wealthy and upper-middle class, and
low and declining government spending on public universities that educate large numbers of
children from the working class and the poor. You can stop imagining. That's the American system
right now. The annual government subsidy to Princeton University, for example, is about
$54,000 per student, according to an estimate by economist Richard Vedder. Other elite
privates aren't far behind. Public universities, by contrast, have little or no endowment income.
They get almost all their funding from state governments. But these subsidies have been shrinking.
State and local financing for public higher education came to about $76 billion last year, nearly 10
percent less than a decade before. Since more students attend public universities now than ten

years ago, that decline represents a 30 percent drop per student. That means the average annual
government subsidy per student at a public university comes to less than $4,000, about
one-tenth the per student government subsidy at the elite privates. So what justifies the high
per-student government subsidies at the elite private universities, and the low per-student
subsidies in public universities? There is no justification.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
income inequality from reliable major media sources.

Investigation Into Missing Iraqi Cash Ended in Lebanon Bunker

2014-10-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/world/investigation-into-missing-iraqi-cash...
In 2003, caravans of trucks began to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on a
regular basis, unloading an unusual cargo pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills. The cash,
withdrawn from Iraqi government accounts held in the United States, was loaded onto Air Force C17 transport planes bound for Baghdad. Exactly what happened to that money after it arrived?
Finding the answer became first the job and then the obsession of Stuart W Bowen Jr. His
investigators finally had a breakthrough, discovering that $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion had
been stolen and moved to a bunker in rural Lebanon. Bowen kept the discovery and his
investigation of the cash-filled bunker ... secret. He has never publicly discussed it until now.
Billions of dollars have been taken out of Iraq over the last ten years illegally, he said. The money
... came from the Development Fund of Iraq, which was created by a United Nations resolution in
May 2003 to hold Iraqi oil revenue. An advantage of using the cash from the Development Fund
instead of money appropriated by Congress for Iraq was that there were not a lot of rules
governing its use, and no federal regulations or congressional oversight of what happened
to it. The CIA expressed little interest in pursuing the matter, and the FBI said it lacked
jurisdiction, Bowen recalled. An informant told [Bowen] about the bunker, which in addition to the
cash, was believed to also have held approximately $200 million in gold belonging to the Iraqi
government.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
wartime deceptions and government secrecy from reliable major media sources.

Moral Courage & The Story of Sister Megan Rice

2014-10-01, Daily Good
http://www.dailygood.org/story/857/moral-courage-and-the-story-of-sister-mega...
The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oakridge, Tennessee, is supposed to be impregnable. But on
July 28th 2012, an 84 year-old nun called Sister Megan Rice broke through a series of highsecurity fences surrounding the plant and reached a uranium storage bunker at the center of
the complex. She was accompanied by Greg Boertje-Obed (57) and Michael Walli (63). The trio ...

sat down for a picnic. When the security guards arrived they offered them some bread. Two years
later, Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed were sentenced to federal prison terms of between three and
five years, plus restitution in the amount of $53,000 for damage done to the plant - far in excess of
the estimates produced at their trial. When questioned about her actions at her trial by Judge Amul
Thapar, Rice told him that her actions were intended to draw attention to the US stockpile of
nuclear weapons that she and her co-defendants felt was illegal and immoral. They also
wanted to expose the ineffectiveness of the security systems that were supposed to protect these
weapons from theft or damage. We were acutely mindful of the widespread loss to humanity that
nuclear weapons have already caused, wrote Rice afterwards in a letter to her supporters, and
we realize that all life on earth could be exterminated through intentional, accidental or technical
error. Our action exposed the storage of weapons-making materials deliberately hidden from the
general public. All three defendants were found guilty of sabotage of the national defense. Just
before they were sentenced, Rice made a statement to the court which ended like this: We have
to speak, and were happy to die for that. To remain in prison for the rest of my life is the greatest
honor that you could give me. Please dont be lenient with me. It would be an honor for that to
happen.
Note: If you would like to receive copies of Sister Rices letters to her supporters, please email
nukeresister@igc.org. Mailing addresses for Sister Rice and her co-defendants can be found here
and here. You can also sign a petition requesting their pardon.

Syria Becomes the 7th Predominantly Muslim Country Bombed by 2009

Nobel Peace Laureate
2014-09-23, The Intercept With Glenn Greenwald
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/23/nobel-peace-prize-fact-day-syri...
The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of
five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan. That means
that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate
Barack Obamaafter Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq. The utter lack of
interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb
who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya
even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force). It was just over a year ago
that Obama officials were insisting that bombing and attacking Assad was a moral and strategic
imperative. Instead, Obama is now bombing Assads enemies while politely informing his regime of
its targets in advance. It seems irrelevant on whom the U.S. wages war; what matters is that it
be at war, always and forever. Six weeks of bombing hasnt budged ISIS in Iraq, but it has
caused ISIS recruitment to soar. Thats all predictable: the U.S. has known for years that
what fuels and strengthens anti-American sentiment is exactly what they keep doing:
aggression in that region. They do all of this not despite triggering those outcomes, but because
of it. Continuously creating and strengthening enemies is a feature, not a bug. It is what justifies

the ongoing greasing of the profitable and power-vesting machine of Endless War. As the
disastrous Libya intervention should conclusively and permanently demonstrate, the U.S. does
not bomb countries for humanitarian objectives. Humanitarianism is the pretense, not the purpose.
Note: Read this powerful essay showing how the US has fed Islamic extremism in order to fill the
pockets of those who run the war machine. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing war news articles from reliable major media sources.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Fined $488.8 Million for 'Massive Bribery

Network' in China
2014-09-19, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/International/glaxosmithkline-gsk-fined-4888-million-ma...
China has fined the British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) $488.8 million (3 billion
Yuan) for a "massive bribery network" to get doctors and hospitals to use its products. Five former
employees were sentenced to two to four years in jail, but ordered deported instead of imprisoned,
according to state news agency Xinhua today. The fine was the biggest ever imposed by a
Chinese court. The court gave Mark Reilly, former head of GSK Chinese operations, a three-year
prison sentence with a four-year reprieve, which meant he is set to be deported instead of serving
his time in a Chinese jail. Reilly was accused of operating a massive bribery network in May. The
police said it is believed Reilly authorized his salespeople to pay doctors, hospital officials and
health institutions to use GSKs products since 2009. Throughout 2012 a stream of anonymous
emails alleging bribery authorized by senior staff at GSK were sent to Chinese regulators. At the
beginning of 2013, the anonymous emails began to arrive at GSK headquarter in London, along
with a sex tape of Mark Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend. The charges claim that GSK hired
Shanghai-based investigator Peter Humphrey and his American wife, Yu Yingzeng, to locate the
whistleblower. The Humphreys were detained and charged with illegally obtaining phone logs,
travel records and other data which then they put in a report to GSK. GSK released a statement
of apologies to the Chinese government and people on its website. "GSK Plc has reflected
deeply and learned from its mistakes, has taken steps to comprehensively rectify the
issues identified at the operations of GSKCI, and must work hard to regain the trust of the
Chinese people," the statement said.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Whos Paying the Pro-War Pundits?

2014-09-16, The Nation Magazine
http://www.thenation.com/article/181601/whos-paying-pro-war-pundits#

Retired General Anthony Zinni [has demanded] up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to
battle ISIS. Retired General Jack [Keane has made] more vague demands, such as for offensive
air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region. Many of these former
Pentagon officials [have a vested interest] as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest
military contractors in the world. Ramping up Americas military presence in Iraq and directly
entering the war in Syria, along with greater military spending more broadly, is a debatable solution
to a complex political and sectarian conflict. But those goals do unquestionably benefit one player
in this saga: Americas defense industry. Keane is a great example of this phenomenon. His think
tank, the Institute for the Study of War, ... has provided the data on ISIS used for multiple stories
by The New York Times, the BBC and other leading outlets. Keane has appeared on Fox News at
least nine times over the last two months to promote the idea that the best way to stop ISIS is
through military actionin particular, through air strikes deep into ISIS-held territory. Left unsaid
during his media appearances ... are Keanes other gigs: as special adviser to Academi, the
contractor formerly known as Blackwater; as a board member to tank and aircraft
manufacturer General Dynamics; a venture partner to SCP Partners, an investment firm
that partners with defense contractors, including XVionics, an operations management
decision support system company used in Air Force drone training; and as president of
his own consulting firm, GSI LLC. Retired General Anthony Zinni, perhaps the loudest advocate
of a large deployment of American soldiers into the region to fight IS, is a board member to BAE
Systems US subsidiary, and also works for several military-focused private equity firms.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Snowden: New Zealands Prime Minister Isnt Telling the Truth About
Mass Surveillance
2014-09-15, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/15/snowden-new-zealand-surveillance
Prime Minister John Key ... has denied that New Zealands spy agency GCSB engages in mass
surveillance, mostly as a means of convincing the country to enact a new law vesting the agency
with greater powers. Let me be clear: any statement that mass surveillance is not performed in
New Zealand, or that the internet communications are not comprehensively intercepted and
monitored, or that this is not intentionally and actively abetted by the GCSB, is categorically false.
If you live in New Zealand, you are being watched. At the NSA I routinely came across the
communications of New Zealanders in my work with a mass surveillance tool we share with
GCSB, called XKEYSCORE. It allows total, granular access to the database of communications
collected in the course of mass surveillance. It is not limited to or even used largely for the
purposes of cybersecurity, as has been claimed, but is instead used primarily for reading
individuals private email, text messages, and internet traffic. I know this because it was my fulltime job in Hawaii, where I worked every day in an NSA facility with a top secret clearance. The
prime ministers claim to the public, that there is no and there never has been any mass

surveillance is false. The GCSB, whose operations he is responsible for, is directly involved in the
untargeted, bulk interception and algorithmic analysis of private communications sent via internet,
satellite, radio, and phone networks. It means they have the ability see every website you visit,
every text message you send, every call you make, every ticket you purchase, every
donation you make, and every book you order online. From Im headed to church to I
hate my boss to Shes in the hospital, the GCSB is there. Your words are intercepted,
stored, and analyzed by algorithms long before theyre ever read by your intended
recipient.
Note: New Zealand's prime minister has acknowledged that Snowden may be right, as reported in
this article. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Buddha seems to bring tranquility to Oakland neighborhood

2014-09-15, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Buddha-seems-to-bring-tranquill...
Dan Stevenson is neither a Buddhist nor a follower of any organized religion. The 11th Avenue
resident in Oakland's Eastlake neighborhood was simply feeling hopeful in 2009 when he went to
an Ace hardware store, purchased a 2-foot-high stone Buddha and installed it on a median strip in
a residential area at 11th Avenue and 19th Street. He hoped that just maybe his small gesture
would bring tranquility to a neighborhood marred by crime. What happened next was nothing
short of stunning. Area residents began to leave offerings at the base of the Buddha:
flowers, food, candles. A group of Vietnamese women in prayer robes began to gather at
the statue to pray. And the neighborhood changed. People stopped dumping garbage. They
stopped vandalizing walls with graffiti. And the drug dealers stopped using that area to
deal. The prostitutes went away. Since 2012, when worshipers began showing up for daily
prayers, overall year-to-date crime has dropped by 82 percent. Robbery reports went from 14
to three, aggravated assaults from five to zero, burglaries from eight to four, narcotics from three to
none, and prostitution from three to none. To this day, every morning at 7, worshipers ring a chime,
clang a bell and play soft music as they chant morning prayers. The original statue is now part of
an elaborate shrine that includes a wooden structure standing 10 feet tall and holding religious
statues, portraits, food and fruit offerings surrounded by incense-scented air. On weekends, the
worshipers include more than a dozen people: black folks, white folks, all folks, said Andy
Blackwood, a neighborhood resident.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Book review: Acid Test, on psychedelic drug therapy for PTSD

2014-09-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-acid-test-on-lsd-as-therap...

LSD, ecstasy (MDMA) and other psychedelics are powerful, mind-altering drugs that, as described
by former Washington Post Magazine editor Tom Shroder, intrinsically [challenge] the rationalist,
materialist underpinnings of Western culture. For most of a century, our society has struggled to
come to grips with these profoundly threatening drugs, largely without success. Theyve all been
made illegal. For decades, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement
Administration have strictly banned scientific investigations into their potential benefits which is
unfortunate, since these psychoactive drugs also seem able to do incredible good, particularly in
the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Every year, as many as 5 million
Americans suffer from its effects. Frequent consequences include depression, drug and alcohol
abuse, and a host of associated health problems. In both humanitarian and economic terms, the
costs are staggering. And PTSD stubbornly resists treatment. Psychoactive drugs such as LSD
and MDMA seem to bring powerful healing energies to bear on the underlying issues. But despite
a growing mountain of evidence supporting the therapeutic benefits delivered by these
drugs, government authorities have blocked scientific and therapeutic explorations of their
potential. Fortunately, the governments prohibitions may be loosening, thanks to a cadre
of psychedelic advocates who have steadfastly refused to surrender to the taboos. The
story of those people and their efforts to win scientific and therapeutic approval for psychedelic
drugs is the central thrust of Shroders strangely wonderful new book, Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy,
and the Power to Heal.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing mind-altering drugs news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Scientists Say the Ozone Layer Is Recovering

2014-09-10, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/scientists-ozone-layer-recovering-...
Earth's protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phase-out since the
1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported
[on September 10] in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet. For the first time
in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase
in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radiation that causes skin
cancer, crop damage and other problems. From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4
percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scientist Paul A.
Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the
United Nations. "It's a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to
work together," said chemist Mario Molina. In 1974, Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland wrote a
scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion problem. They won the 1995 Nobel Prize in
chemistry for their work. The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Man-made
chlorofluorocarbons, called CFCs, released chlorine and bromine, which destroyed ozone
molecules high in the air. After scientists raised the alarm, countries around the world agreed to a
treaty in 1987 that phased out CFCs.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing global warming news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The U.S. Governments Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations

2014-09-05, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/05/us-governments-plans-use-econom...
Throughout the last year, the U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that it does not engage in
economic and industrial espionage, in an effort to distinguish its own spying from Chinas
infiltrations of Google, Nortel, and other corporate targets. [But] the NSA was caught spying on
plainly financial targets such as the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras; economic summits; international
credit card and banking systems; the EU antitrust commissioner investigating Google, Microsoft,
and Intel; and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In response, the U.S. modified its
denial to acknowledge that it does engage in economic spying, but unlike China, the spying is
never done to benefit American corporations. But a secret 2009 report issued by [Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper's] office explicitly contemplates doing exactly that. The
document, the 2009 Quadrennial Intelligence Community Reviewprovided by NSA whistleblower
Edward Snowdenis a fascinating window into the mindset of Americas spies. One of the
principal threats raised in the report is a scenario in which the United States technological and
innovative edge slips in particular, that the technological capacity of foreign multinational
corporations could outstrip that of U.S. corporations. How could U.S. intelligence agencies
solve that problem? The report recommends a multi-pronged, systematic effort to gather
open source and proprietary information through overt means, clandestine penetration
(through physical and cyber means), and counterintelligence.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Tales of the Dead Come Back: How Modern Medicine Is Reinventing

Death
2014-09-03, National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140903-near-death-experiences...
They can fly through walls or circle the planets, turn into pure light or meet long-dead relatives.
Many have blissful experiences of universal love. Most do not want to return to the living. When
they do, they're often endowed with special powers: They can predict the future or intuit people's
thoughts. These are the testimonies of people who have had near death experiences (NDEs) and
returned from the other side to tell the tale. Journalist Judy Bachrach decided to listen to their
stories. [National Geographic:] Your book, Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of Life
After Death, [describes] one scientist [who] suggests that NDEs may simply result from the brain
shutting down, ... that, for instance, the brilliant light often perceived at the end of a tunnel is
caused by loss of blood or hypoxia, lack of oxygen. How do you counter these arguments?

[Bachrach:] The problem with the lack of oxygen explanation is that when there is a lack of
oxygen, our recollections are fuzzy and sometimes non-existent. The less oxygen you have,
the less you remember. But the people who have died, and recall their death travels,
describe things in a very clear, concise, and structured way. Lack of oxygen would mean you
barely remember anything. [NG:] You suggest there is a difference between brain function and
consciousness. Can you talk about that idea? [Bachrach:] The brain is possibly ... not the only area
of consciousness. Even when the brain is shut down, on certain occasions consciousness
endures. One of the doctors I interviewed, a cardiologist in Holland, believes that consciousness
may go on forever. So the postulate among some scientists is that the brain is not the only locus of
thought.
Note: Watch a profound BBC documentary on near-death experiences. For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing NDE news articles from reliable major media sources.
Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

A brief history of psychedelic psychiatry

2014-09-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2014/sep/02/psychedelic-ps...
On 5th May, 1953, the novelist Aldous Huxley dissolved four-tenths of a gram of mescaline in a
glass of water, drank it, then sat back and waited for the drug to take effect. Huxley took the drug
in his California home under the direct supervision of psychiatrist Humphry Osmond, to whom
Huxley had volunteered himself as a willing and eager guinea pig. Osmond was one of a small
group of psychiatrists who pioneered the use of LSD as a treatment for alcoholism and various
mental disorders in the early 1950s. He coined the term psychedelic, meaning mind manifesting
and although his research into the therapeutic potential of LSD produced promising initial results, it
was halted during the 1960s for social and political reasons. While at St. Georges [Hospital after
WWII], Osmond and his colleague John Smythies learned about Albert Hoffmans discovery of
LSD at the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company in Bazel, Switzerland. Osmond and Smythies started
their own investigation into the properties of hallucinogens. Osmond tried LSD himself and
concluded that the drug could produce profound changes in consciousness. Osmond and [Abram]
Hoffer also recruited volunteers to take LSD and theorised that the drug was capable of inducing a
new level of self-awareness which may have enormous therapeutic potential. In 1953, they began
giving LSD to their patients, starting with some of those diagnosed with alcoholism. Their first
study involved two alcoholic patients, each of whom was given a single 200-microgram dose of the
drug. One of them stopped drinking immediately after the experiment. The other stopped 6 months
later. Osmond and Hoffer were encouraged, and continued to administer the drug to
alcoholics. Their studies seemed to show that a single, large dose of LSD could be an
effective treatment for alcoholism, and reported that between 40 and 45% of their patients
given the drug had not experienced a relapse after a year.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing mind-altering drugs news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Guantanamo Defense Lawyer Resigns, Says U.S. Case Is 'Stacked'

2014-08-31, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/31/344576895/guantanamo-defense-lawyer-resigns-say...
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [is] facing a military commission at Guantanamo Bay and potentially the
death penalty. He was captured in 2003 but his case still hasn't gone to trial. Last week, Maj.
Jason Wright one of the lawyers defending Mohammed resigned from the Army. He has
accused the U.S. government of "abhorrent leadership" on human rights and due process
guarantees and says it is crafting a "show trial." For nearly three years, he served on Mohammed's
defense team. Wright formally resigned on Aug. 26. Wright [says] that it's hard to gain any client's
trust, but it was especially hard with Mohammed. His former client is one of six "high-value
detainees" being prosecuted at Guantanamo for offenses that could carry the death penalty. "All
six of these men have been tortured by the U.S. government," he says. Wright says Mohammed in
particular has faced a level of torture "beyond comprehension." He says his client was
waterboarded by the CIA 183 times and subjected to over a week of sleep deprivation; there
were threats that his family would be killed. "And those are just the declassified facts that
I'm able to actually speak about," Wright says. Wright wasn't allowed to discuss too many
details of the detainee abuse in court. "The CIA tortured these men. They've gone to extraordinary
lengths to try to keep that completely hidden from public view," Wright says. "So the statute that
Congress passed has a number of protections to ensure that no information about the U.S.
torture program will ever come out."
Note: Why hasn't this been covered by other major media in the US? For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing terrorism news articles from reliable major media sources.

Mysterious Phony Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Calls

2014-08-27, Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/mysterious-phony-cell-towers-could-b...
Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America [marketers of the Crytophone 500], points me to a map
that he and his customers have created, indicating 17 different phony cell towers known as
interceptors, detected by the CryptoPhone 500 around the United States during the month of July
alone. Interceptors look to a typical phone like an ordinary tower. Once the phone connects
with the interceptor, a variety of over-the-air attacks become possible, from
eavesdropping on calls and texts to pushing spyware to the device. Interceptor use in the
U.S. is much higher than people had anticipated, Goldsmith says. One of our customers took a
road trip from Florida to North Carolina and he found 8 different interceptors on that trip. We even
found one at South Point Casino in Las Vegas. Who is running these interceptors and what are
they doing with the calls? Goldsmith says we cant be sure, but he has his suspicions. Are some

of them U.S. government interceptors? [asks] Goldsmith. Interceptors vary widely in expense
and sophistication but in a nutshell, they are radio-equipped computers with software that can
use arcane cellular network protocols and defeat the onboard encryption. For governments or
other entities able to afford a price tag of less than $100,000, says Goldsmith, high-quality
interceptors are quite realistic. Some interceptors are limited, only able to passively listen to either
outgoing or incoming calls. But full-featured devices like the VME Dominator, available only to
government agencies, can not only capture calls and texts, but even actively control the phone,
sending out spoof texts, for example.
Note: Do you think the government might have put up fake cell towers to nab more data? For
more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
2014-08-25, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/25/icreach-nsa-cia-secret-google-c...
The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government
agencies with a Google-like search engine built to share more than 850 billion records about
phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats, according to classified documents
obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first definitive evidence that the NSA has for
years made massive amounts of surveillance data directly accessible to domestic law enforcement
agencies. ICREACH [as the search engine is called] contains information on the private
communications of foreigners and, it appears, millions of records on American citizens who have
not been accused of any wrongdoing. Details about its existence are contained in the archive of
materials provided to The Intercept by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Earlier revelations
sourced to the Snowden documents have exposed a multitude of NSA programs for collecting
large volumes of communications. The NSA has acknowledged that it shares some of its collected
data with domestic agencies like the FBI, but details about the method and scope of its sharing
have remained shrouded in secrecy. ICREACH has been accessible to more than 1,000
analysts at 23 U.S. government agencies that perform intelligence work, according to a
2010 memo. Information shared through ICREACH can be used to track peoples
movements, map out their networks of associates, help predict future actions, and
potentially reveal religious affiliations or political beliefs.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Cause of New Mexico nuclear waste accident remains a mystery

2014-08-24, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-waste-accident-20140824-story.htm...

A 55-gallon drum of nuclear waste, buried in a salt shaft 2,150 feet under the New Mexico desert,
violently erupted late on Feb. 14 and spewed mounds of radioactive white foam. The flowing mass,
... laced with plutonium, went airborne, traveled up a ventilation duct to the surface and delivered
... radiation doses to 21 workers. The accident contaminated the nation's only dump for nuclear
weapons waste ... and gave the nation's elite ranks of nuclear chemists a mystery they still cannot
unravel. Six months after the accident, the exact chemical reaction that caused the drum to burst is
still not understood. Indeed, the Energy Department has been unable to precisely identify the
chemical composition of the waste in the drum. The accident at the facility near Carlsbad, N.M.,
known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is likely to cause at least an 18-month shutdown
and possibly a closure that could last several years. A preliminary Energy Department investigation
found more than 30 safety lapses at the plant, including technical shortcomings and failures in the
overall approach to safety. The accident raises tough questions about the Energy
Department's ability to safely manage the nation's stockpiles of deadly nuclear waste. "The
accident was a horrific comedy of errors," said James Conca, a scientific advisor and
expert on the WIPP. "This was the flagship of the Energy Department, the most successful
program it had. The ramifications of this are going to be huge. Heads will roll."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing nuclear weapons dangers
news articles from reliable major media sources.

CDC Autism Whistleblower Admits Vaccine Study Fraud

2014-08-22, CNN
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1164046
William W. Thompson, ... Senior Scientist with the CDC, has stepped forward and admitted
[that] the 2004 paper entitled "Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children
with autism and school-matched control subjects", ... which has been used repeatedly by
the CDC to deny the MMR-autism connection, was a fraud. Dr. Thompson has admitted [that]
the 340% increase in boys receiving the MMR vaccine "on time," as opposed to delayed, was
buried by himself, Dr. DeStefano, Dr. Bhasin, Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp, and Dr. Boyle. Dr. Thompson
first called and spoke with Dr. Brian Hooker, who then revealed the information to Dr. Andrew
Wakefield and the Autism Media Channel. The video containing Dr. Thompson's recorded
conversation can be found here, beginning at the 2 minute, 45 second mark.
Note: CNN iReport is the networks user-generated news community. This story was initially pulled
for further review after it was flagged by the community. CNN has reached out to the CDC for
comment and is working to confirm the claims in this iReport. Watch an intriguing video supporting
claims in this article. And see a 12-minute news report on this by WHDT TV. For more on this
whistleblower, see this article. For more on this topic, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
vaccines news articles from reliable major media sources.

Welcome to the Integratron

2014-08-20, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/20/style/tmagazine/welcome-to-the-...
In the wee hours of Aug. 24, 1953, George Van Tassel, a 43-year-old former aviation engineer,
was awakened by a man from outer space. The spaceman looked like a human. He informed Van
Tassel that his name was Solganda and that he was 700 years old. (He looked no older than 28,
Van Tassel said.) Van Tassel was ushered onto the spacecraft where he was told that Earthlings
reliance on metal building materials was interfering with radio frequencies and disrupting
interplanetary thought transfers. Solganda also divulged a secret: a formula that Van Tassel could
use to build a remarkable machine, a device that would generate electrostatic energy to suspend
the laws of gravity, extend human life and facilitate high-speed time travel. A circular, dometopped building, 38 feet tall and 55 feet in diameter, [was] constructed by Van Tassel over
the course of nearly two decades in accordance with the instructions of his extraterrestrial
architectural patron. The name that Van Tassel gave to his time machine: the Integratron. It
... was constructed without nails, screws, flashing or weather stripping. But its not the way the
Integratron looks that draws thousands to Landers each year. Its how the place sounds. You may
not subscribe to Van Tassels [beliefs], but an Integratron sound bath will startle your ears, and,
perhaps, awaken your imagination. Beneath the wooden dome, it seems at moments that youre
not listening to sound so much as inhabiting it. It is, aesthetically speaking, extraterrestrial: a
transportative encounter with music, an experience of pure sound not quite of this earth.
Note: Watch an incredible video interview from 1964 of George Van Tassel. In this interview, Van
Tassel shares the equation he claims given to him by an ET: F=1/T, Frequency = 1/Time. For more
fascinating equations received in a similar method, explore Wilbur Smith's essay "The New
Science." Read more on the Integraton in this 2015 article in the Atlantic. And if you are eager for
more, listen to a very informative and revealing 50-minute interview with Van Tassel. Fascinating
stuff!!!

The Peace Corps' Awful Secret

2014-08-16, The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/16/the-peace-corps-awful-secret...
The Peace Corps inspector general says she cant oversee the agency properly without access to
sex-assault records it refuses to hand over. Since 2008, Peace Corps Inspector General Kathy
Buller has led internal investigations that have led to 21 criminal convictions for crimes such as
rape, attempted rape, abuse of minors, embezzlement, theft and possession of narcotics. Buller
charged the Peace Corps with [hindering] her offices oversight efforts, and said the agency
was not fully disclosing its sexual assault reports. In 2011, [ABC News] reported that more
than 1,000 female Peace Corps volunteers have been raped or sexually assaulted in the
past decade, and that some victims felt the agency either sought to cover up incidents or
treated victims with insensitivity. The murder of Peace Corps volunteer Kate Puzey in Benin seized
public attention in 2011. The volunteer was found dead after she reported her suspicions that a
Peace Corps contractor was sexually harassing students at the school where she taught. Less

than a year after her death, Congress passed reforms to protect whistleblowers like Puzey and to
improve the agencys sexual assault practices. But even after Puzeys murder, sexual assault still
remains a problem for the Peace Corps and the thousands of volunteers they send abroad.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The Day Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie

2014-08-15, The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-c...
The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anywaywith getting his blood on their
uniforms. Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for
bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him. [A] 52-year-old welder named
Henry Davis ... had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another
man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number. The booking
officer had no other reason to hold Davis, who ended up in Ferguson only because he missed the
exit for St. Charles and then pulled off the highway because the rain was so heavy he could not
see to drive. The cop who had pulled up behind him must have run his license plate and assumed
he was that other Henry Davis. Davis said the cop approached his vehicle, grabbed his cellphone
from his hand, cuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car, without a word of
explanation. The booking officer ... proceeded to escort him to a one-man cell that already had a
man in it asleep on the lone bunk. Davis balked at being a second man in a one-man cell. The
booking officer summoned a number of fellow cops. One opened the cell door while another
suddenly charged, propelling Davis inside and slamming him against the back wall. [A] female
officer allegedly lifted Davis head as the cop who had initially pushed him into the cell reappeared.
He ran in and kicked me in the head, Davis recalled. Paramedics came. They said it was too
much blood. I had to go to the hospital. A federal magistrate ruled that the [police] perjury
about the property damage charges was too minor to constitute a violation of due
process and that Davis injuries were ... too minor to warrant a finding of excessive force.
Never mind that a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed that he had suffered a concussion.
Note: If you are willing to know how bad it gets, read the entire article at the link above. Then read
an educational article on the skewed reporting of the New York Times on the Michael Brown
murder. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance
news articles from reliable major media sources.

After A Traffic Stop, Teen Was 'Almost Another Dead Black Male'
2014-08-15, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/15/340419821/after-a-traffic-stop-teen-was-almost-...

Alex Landau, who is African-American, was adopted by a white couple as a child and grew up in
largely white, middle-class suburbs of Denver. "I thought that love would conquer all and skin color
really didn't matter," [his mother, Patsy] Hathaway [said, speaking to her son]. "I had to learn the
really hard way when they almost killed you." That was in 2009, when Landau, then a college
student, was stopped by Denver police officers and severely beaten. Landau was 19 at the time,
driving around Denver with a friend in the passenger seat. He noticed red and blue lights behind
him. The officer who pulled him over "explained I had made an illegal left turn, and to step out of
the car," Landau says. Landau thought he was safe. He wasn't in handcuffs, he says, and he'd
already been patted down. "Plus there's three officers on the scene. And I had never had a
negative interaction with police in my life. "So I ask them, 'Can I please see a warrant before you
continue the search?' " Landau says. "And they grab me and began to hit me in the face. I was hit
several times, and I remember gasping for air" and spitting blood, he says. "And then I hear an
officer shout out, 'He's reaching for a gun,' " he tells his mother. "I immediately started
yelling, 'No, I'm not. I'm not reaching for anything.' " Landau felt a gun against his head, he
says. "And I expected to be shot. And at that point I lost consciousness. ... It took 45
stitches to close up the lacerations in my face alone," Landau says. I was just another black
face in the streets, and I was almost another dead black male." In 2011, Alex was awarded a
$795,000 settlement by the City of Denver.
Note: Listen to the very moving three-minute audio of this white mother and her black son who
was nearly killed by police simply for being black. Then read an educational article on the skewed
reporting of the New York Times on the Michael Brown murder. For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing police corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Stakeholder capitalism the antidote to shareholder greed

2014-08-15, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/Stakeholder-capitalism-the-antido...
In recent weeks, the managers, employees and customers of a New England chain of
supermarkets called Market Basket have joined together to oppose the board of directors' decision
in June to oust the chain's popular chief executive, Arthur T. Demoulas. Their demonstrations and
boycotts have emptied most of the chain's 71 stores. What was so special about Arthur T., as he's
known? Mainly, his business model. He kept prices lower than his competitors, paid his
employees more, and gave them and his managers more authority. Late last year, he
offered customers an additional 4 percent discount, arguing they could use the money
more than the shareholders. In other words, Arthur T. viewed the company as a joint
enterprise from which everyone should benefit, not just shareholders. Which is why the
board fired him. Patagonia, a large apparel manufacturer based in Ventura, has organized itself as
a "B corporation." That's a for-profit company whose articles of incorporation require it to take into
account the interests of workers, the community and the environment as well as shareholders. The
performance of B corporations according to this measure is regularly reviewed and certified by a
nonprofit entity called B Lab. To date, more than 500 companies in 60 industries have been
certified as B corporations, including the household products firm Seventh Generation. In addition,

27 states have passed laws allowing companies to incorporate as "benefit corporations." This
gives directors legal protection to consider the interests of all stakeholders rather than just the
shareholders who elected them.
Note: What would the world be like if each corporation put the welfare of its workers and quality of
its products at the same level of priority as profits for its stockholders? For more on this, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality news articles from reliable major media
sources.

Billionaire Found in Middle of Bribery Case Avoids U.S. Probe

2014-08-14, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-08-14/billionaire-found-in-middle-of-br...
In January, a unit of Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, pleaded guilty to foreign
bribery charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department. Alcoa also settled claims by the
Securities and Exchange Commission and agreed to pay a $384 million fine -- the fifth-largest
such penalty ever. The Alcoa subsidiary admitted to paying bribes to government officials in
Bahrain for more than a decade to win contracts to sell alumina, a compound essential in making
aluminum, to the Persian Gulf states processing plant. Not named and not charged in the case
was the person who made those payments, whom the Justice Department identified in court only
as Consultant A. In the thriving business of global bribery -- which the World Bank says
amounts to $1 trillion in illicit payments annually -- guilty pleas like the one by Alcoas unit
are rare. Rarer still are convictions against the people who actually arrange and deliver the
payments. Most of the time, these brokers arent even named. The Alcoa guilty plea -together with related cases in the U.K. and Norway -- provides an unusual window into the modus
operandi of the middlemen who shuttle between companies and governments striking deals.
Before the U.S. announced the fine against Alcoa, U.K. prosecutors in October 2011 charged
Victor Dahdaleh, a London-based businessman, with laundering money and making improper
payments to officials in Bahrain related to Alcoa contracts. Dahdaleh was acquitted in December
after the prosecution dropped its case. While the U.S. plea agreement doesnt identify Dahdaleh
as Consultant A, it does show that a company owned by Dahdaleh played a role in the Alcoa unit
payments to Alba.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Campaign Mounts to Declassify 9/11 Reports References to Alleged

Saudi Involvement
2014-08-07, Vice News
https://news.vice.com/article/campaign-mounts-to-declassify-911-reports-refer...

Nearly 13 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the extent of Saudi involvement in the deaths of
almost 3,000 people remains unclear but according to members of Congress and the families of
victims, information about this has been suppressed ever since the publication of a 2002
congressional investigation into the plot. Prior to the release of the final report of the Joint Inquiry
into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11,
2001, the Bush administration classified a 28-page section in the name of national security. The 28
pages make up part four of the report, a section titled Finding, Discussion and Narrative
Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters. They are widely believed to implicate
Saudi officials or describe support from Saudi intelligence for the hijackers, 15 of whom were
Saudi citizens. Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who co-chaired the joint Senate-House
investigation, dispensed with the equivocation and told VICE News that the redactions are a cover
up. Ive said this since the first classification of the 28 pages, he remarked. Its become more
and more inexplicable as to why two administrations have denied the American people
information that would help them better understand what happened on 9/11. Graham said
that the 28 pages describe the financing of the attacks. Follow the money, he said. That
will illuminate other significant aspects of 9/11. The Saudi kingdom has always denied any
complicity in the attacks.
Note: Watch a video of Congressman Massie telling how shocked he was to read these 28 pages.
Why aren't the major media reporting this important news? For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 news articles from reliable major media sources.

Kentucky State president to share his salary with schools lowest-paid

workers
2014-08-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/08/05/kentucky-stat...
This summer, [Raymond Burse,] the interim president at Kentucky State University, made a large
gesture to his school's lowest-paid employees. Burse announced that he would take a 25 percent
salary cut to boost their wages. The 24 school employees making less than $10.25 an hour, who
mostly serve as custodial staff, groundskeepers and lower-end clerical workers, will see their pay
rise to that new baseline. Some had been making as little as $7.25, the current federal minimum.
Burse, who assumed the role of interim president in June, says he asked the school's chief
financial officer how much such an increase would cost. The amount: $90,125. "I figured it was
easier for me to forgo that amount, rather than adding an additional burden on the institution,"
Burse says. The school ratified his employment contract on the spot decreasing it from
$349,869 to $259,744. He has pledged to take further salary cuts any time new minimum-wage
employees are hired on his watch, to bring their hourly rate to $10.25. Burse describes himself as
someone who believes in raising wages, and who also has high expectations and demands for his
staff. "I thought that if I'm going to ask them to really be committed and give this institution

their all, I should be doing something in return," Burse says. "I didnt have any examples of
it having been done out there and I didnt do it to be an example to anyone else," Burse
says. "I did it to do right by the employees here."
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Did This City Bring Down Its Murder Rate by Paying People Not to Kill?
2014-08-00, Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/richmond-california-murder-rate-g...
It was a crazy idea, but Richmond, California, wouldn't have signed off on DeVone Boggan's plan if
it had been suffering from an abundance of sanity. For years, the Bay Area city had been battling
one of the nation's worst homicide rates and spending millions of dollars on anti-crime programs to
no avail. Boggan, who'd been working to keep teen offenders out of prison ... wondered:
What if we identified the most likely perpetrators and paid them to stay out of trouble? In
late 2007, Boggan launched the Office of Neighborhood Safety, an experimental public-private
partnership that's introduced the "Richmond model" for rolling back street violence. It has done it
with a mix of data mining and mentoring, and by crossing lines that other anti-crime initiatives have
only tiptoed around. The program's street team sifts through police records and its own intelligence
to determine, with actuarial detachment, the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone
and to be shot themselves. ONS tracks them and approaches the most lethal (and vulnerable) on
the list, offering them a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around. So far,
the results have been promising. In 2007, when Boggan's program began, Richmond was
America's ninth most dangerous city, with 47 killings among its 106,000 residents. In 2013, it saw
its lowest number of homicides in 33 years, and its homicide rate fell to 15. In exchange for
shunning dangerous behavior, ONS fellows receive anywhere from $300 to $1,000 per month.
Note: For more on this amazing crime-reduction program, read this article. Explore a treasure
trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference.

WikiLeaks reveals Australian gagging order over political bribery

allegations
2014-07-30, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/30/wikileaks-australia-super-injunc...
A sweeping [gag] order issued in Australia to block reporting of any bribery allegations involving
several international political leaders in the region has been exposed by WikiLeaks. The prohibition
emerged from a criminal case in the Australian courts and applies throughout the country. It was
issued by the criminal division of the supreme court of Victoria in Melbourne. The Australia-wide
[gag] order is a superinjunction, which means it also contains a clause insisting that the terms of

the order itself should remain secret. [It] states: "Subject to further order, there [shall] be no
disclosure, by publication or otherwise, of any information derived from or prepared for the
purposes of these proceedings including the terms of these orders." In a statement published with
the leak, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said the gagging order relates to a case that
"concerns the subsidiaries of the Australian central bank". He said it was the first blanket
suppression order of this nature in Australia since 1995. "With this order, the worst in living
memory, the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the
Australian public," said Assange, who is himself Australian. "This is not simply a question of the
Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny
it is due. Foreign minister Julie Bishop must explain why she is threatening every
Australian with imprisonment in an attempt to cover up an embarrassing corruption
scandal involving the Australian government".
Note: Very few media were even willing to report on the reasons for this gag order, which were
clearly to cover up corruption at the highest levels. See the CNN article for how no mention is even
made of what was revealed. It seems that the higher up the corruption goes, the more vehemently
courts rule to keep the investigations secret. Could there be a double standard here? For more on
this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Your chicken is about to get more full of feces

2014-07-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/28/chicken-regulations-obam...
Most chickens spend the bulk of their short lives covered or standing in feces, ... and the way in
which they are dispatched in the modern era is so sordid that farm states are actually passing laws
to keep you from ever bearing witness to the slaughter. The one small hope for human health has
been that the US Department of Agriculture has inspectors to watch over [chicken] processing
plants and make sure we don't eat sick chickens or chickens covered in their own feces as they
make their way through the processing plant. That is, it's been the one hope until now. The USDA
is moving toward final approval of a rule that would replace most government inspectors with
untrained company employees, and to allow companies to slaughter chickens at a much faster
rate. The rule is called the "Modernization of Poultry Slaughter Inspection", but advocates
like the Center for Food Safety and Food and Water Watch are calling it the "Filthy Chicken
Rule". "It's really letting the fox guard the chicken coop", says Tony Corbo of Food and
Water Watch. And there are already plenty of problems. The rule comes in the midst of a yearslong increase in the number of food-born illnesses, driven in part by a shortage of government
inspectors. Salmonella "is estimated to cause 1.2 million illnesses in the United States, with about
23,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths" each year, according to a recent report by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist

2014-07-23, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/23/blacklisted/
The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist
system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither concrete facts nor irrefutable
evidence to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist. The March 2013 Watchlisting
Guidance, a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells
out the governments secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as
the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border
crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of
terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such
organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place
entire categories of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It
broadens the authority of government officials to nominate people to the watchlists based on
what is vaguely described as fragmentary information. It also allows for dead people to be
watchlisted. The rulebook ... was developed behind closed doors by representatives of the nations
intelligence, military, and law-enforcement establishment, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and
FBI. Emblazoned with the crests of 19 agencies, it offers the most complete and revealing look into
the secret history of the governments terror list policies to date.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

'The Singing Doctor' Croons to Newborns in the Delivery Room

2014-07-22, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/singing-doctor-croons-newborns-delivery-room/story?i...
When newborn babies come into the world at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, the first thing
they hear is a song. The soothing melodies come not from a CD, an iPod or even their own
parents, but from the very doctor who delivered them. Ive delivered about 8,000 babies and I
must have sung ... to six or [seven thousand] of them, Dr. Carey Andrew-Jaja told ABC News. Dr.
Andrew-Jaja began the practice of singing to the tiny humans he just delivered while he was a
young resident and learning from a physician who did the same. He was about to retire. He asked
me to continue the tradition, he said. And Ive done it ever since. Dr. Andrew-Jajas repertoire of
songs includes everything from the expected Happy Birthday to the more unexpected like What
a Wonderful World." Sometimes the pregnancy has been difficult, the delivery has been complex
and yet most of the time out comes this beautiful baby and its a moment when you forget that
fear, he [said]. Dr. Andrew-Jajas talent put him in the spotlight last year when his employer, the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, posted a video on his singing tradition to YouTube. When
I'm singing to those babies I think that I'm singing to a future important person, Dr.

Andrew-Jaja says in the video. That's the credit I give to all of them. So, to me, it's a
wonderful thing in my hand, the miracle of life," he said. You forget about all the crisis
going on everywhere, for a moment, when you see that miracle of life in front of you.
Note: Watch the beautiful video of this amazing doctor. Explore a treasure trove of concise
summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Mythical Numbers and Satanic Ritual Abuse

2014-07-11, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-cheit/mythical-numbers-and-sata_b_5578078....
It's a mythical number that skeptics never question. And it's come up again and again in the
national press for decades. It's purportedly the number of victims from the infamous child sexual
abuse cases of the 1980s and 1990s. Not child victims, though. The victims are said to be adults
who were falsely charged and often convicted of sexual abuse, victims of a witch-hunt. Christina
Hoff Sommers used the number just a few weeks ago in a Time column, referring to those cases
and writing that "hundreds of innocent adults faced charges of ritual child abuse." The number of
accused or jailed is always impressive. The abuse is always dismissed as imaginary. The cases
are always cast as witch-hunts, with a narrative typically full of lurid details. The alarming words
ritual or satanic -- sometimes both -- are often added for good measure. The witch-hunt narrative
has been bolstered by scores of articles and books. But the numbers don't add up. There's no
evidence of hundreds of cases of false convictions of child sexual abuse in this era. In my
new book, The Witch-Hunt Narrative, I examine dozens of specific cases from the 1980s and
early 90s. In many of the cases proclaimed to be witch hunts, looking closely at the record
revealed substantial evidence of abuse and compelling reasons that jurors voted to
convict. It's true that I also found cases where people were charged who shouldn't have been. Yet
even in some of those cases, there was strong evidence of abuse. A crime was committed and a
child was assaulted by someone who was never apprehended, but only the false accusation story
lives on.
Note: The author of this essay, Ross E. Cheit, is professor of political science and public policy at
Brown University. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse
scandals news articles from reliable major media sources.

The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control

2014-07-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/the-ultimate-goal-of-the...
William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers [to] emerge from the NSA. He was a
leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after
September 11, disgusted by Washingtons move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at
a conference in London organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism and revealed the

extent of the surveillance programs unleashed by the Bush and Obama administrations. At least
80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US, Binney said. This is no accident and allows the
US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are
recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores. Binney ... described a
future where surveillance is ubiquitous and government intrusion unlimited. The ultimate
goal of the NSA is total population control, Binney said. He praised the revelations and
bravery of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Unlike Snowden, Binney didnt take any
documents with him when he left the NSA. He now says that hard evidence of illegal spying would
have been invaluable. The latest Snowden leaks, featured in the Washington Post, detail private
conversations of average Americans with no connection to extremism. It shows that the NSA is not
just pursuing terrorism, as it claims, but ordinary citizens going about their daily communications.
The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone, Binney said, and its said to be about terrorism but
inside the US it has stopped zero attacks.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news
articles from reliable major media sources.

CIA employees quest to release information destroyed my entire

career
2014-07-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-employees-quest-to-...
His CIA career included assignments in Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, but the most perilous posting
for Jeffrey Scudder turned out to be a two-year stint in a sleepy office that looks after the agencys
historical files. It was there that Scudder discovered a stack of articles, hundreds of histories of
long-dormant conflicts and operations that he concluded were still being stored in secret years
after they should have been shared with the public. To get them released, Scudder submitted a
request under the Freedom of Information Act a step that any citizen can take, but one that is
highly unusual for a CIA employee. Four years later, the CIA has released some of those articles
and withheld others. It also has forced Scudder out. His request set in motion a harrowing
sequence. He was confronted by supervisors and accused of mishandling classified
information while assembling his FOIA request. His house was raided by the FBI and his
familys computers seized. Stripped of his job and his security clearance, Scudder said he
agreed to retire last year after being told that if he refused, he risked losing much of his pension. I
submitted a FOIA and it basically destroyed my entire career, Scudder said. Scudders case ..
highlights the risks to workers who take on their powerful spy-agency employers. Scudders
actions appear to have posed no perceptible risk to national security, but he found himself in the
cross hairs of the CIA and FBI.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Leaders Get Immunity at New African Rights Court

2014-07-01, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/leaders-immunity-african-rights...
Leaders at an African summit have voted to give themselves and their allies immunity from
prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide at a new African Court
of Justice and Human Rights. The continent ... has two sitting presidents and one ousted
president facing charges at the International Criminal Court. Amnesty International called it "a
backward step in the fight against impunity and a betrayal of victims of serious violations
of human rights." The decision came [on June 27] at an African Union summit vote in Equatorial
Guinea from which journalists were excluded, Amnesty International said. News of the vote was
imparted obliquely in a statement [on June 30] about the summit outcomes. A paragraph listing
legal instruments agreed at the meeting included the "Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on
the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights." That amendment bars the court
from prosecuting sitting African leaders and vaguely identified "senior officials." Forty-two African
and international civil society and rights groups had objected to the amendment, noting in an open
letter before the summit that the impunity violates international and domestic laws as well as the
constitution of the African Union.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war crimes news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Court gave NSA broad leeway in surveillance, documents show

2014-06-30, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/court-gave-nsa-broad-le...
A classified 2010 legal certification and other documents indicate the NSA has been given a far
more elastic authority than previously known, one that allows it to intercept through U.S.
companies not just the communications of its overseas targets but any communications about its
targets as well. The certification approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and
included among a set of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lists
193 countries that would be of valid interest for U.S. intelligence. The certification also permitted
the agency to gather intelligence about entities including the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The documents
underscore the remarkable breadth of potential foreign intelligence collection. An affidavit in
support of the 2010 foreign-government certification said the NSA believes that foreigners who
will be targeted for collection possess, are expected to receive and/or are likely to
communicate foreign intelligence information concerning these foreign powers. That
language could allow for surveillance of academics, journalists and human rights
researchers. A Swiss academic who has information on the German governments position in the
run-up to an international trade negotiation, for instance, could be targeted if the government has

determined there is a foreign-intelligence need for that information. If a U.S. college professor emails the Swiss professors e-mail address or phone number to a colleague, the Americans e-mail
could be collected as well, under the programs court-approved rules.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency news
articles from reliable major media sources.

This Is Why Your Local Police Department Might Have a Tank

2014-06-24, Time Magazine
http://time.com/2907307/aclu-swat-local-police/
As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have wound down, police departments have been obtaining
military equipment, vehicles and uniforms that have flowed directly from the Department of
Defense. According to a new report by the ACLU, the federal government has funneled $4.3 billion
of military property to law enforcement agencies since the late 1990s, including $450 million worth
in 2013. Five hundred law enforcement agencies have received Mine Resistant Ambush Protected
(MRAP) vehicles, built to withstand bomb blasts. More than 15,000 items of military protective
equipment and battle dress uniforms have been transferred. More Americans are becoming
aware of the militarization of policing, but the use of paramilitary tactics to fight the war on drugs
has been going on for a very long time, says the ACLUs Kara Dansky. As police departments
have added military gear, theyve also upped the number of SWAT deployments, especially for use
in drug warrants. Almost two-thirds of SWAT deployments between 2011 and 2012 were for drug
raids. Many of those units, says Kraska, base their strategy and tactics on military special
operations like Navy SEALs. When people refer to the militarization of police, its not in a
pejorative or judgmental sense, [Peter Kraska, a criminal justice professor at Eastern Kentucky
University] says. Contemporary police agencies have moved significantly along a
continuum culturally, materially, operationally, while using a Navy SEALs model. All of
those are clear indications that theyre moving away from a civilian model of policing.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex

CIA spy
2014-06-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/19/open-source-...
Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps
intelligence activity, is ... widely recognised as the leader of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
paradigm. In 1992, despite opposition from the CIA, he obtained Marine Corps permission to
organise a landmark international conference on open source intelligence the paradigm of
deriving information to support policy decisions not through secret activities, but from open public

sources available to all. The conference was such a success it brought in over 620 attendees from
the intelligence world. But the CIA ... ensured that Steele was prohibited from running a second
conference, [prompting] him to resign from his position as second-ranking civilian in Marine Corps
intelligence. Last month, Steele presented a startling paper at the Libtech conference in New York.
Drawing on principles set out in his latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto ... he told
the audience that all the major preconditions for revolution set out in his 1976 graduate thesis
were now present in the United States and Britain. Steele's book ... connects up the increasing
corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability of the intelligence system and its political and
financial masters with escalating inequalities and environmental crises. But he also offers a
comprehensive vision of hope. "Sharing, not secrecy, is the means by which we ... can create a
nonzero win-win Earth that works for one hundred percent of humanity."
Note: Watch an excellent video showing Mr. Steele believes that most terrorist attacks are false
flag operations.

An expanding Koch network aims to spend $300 million to shape Senate

fight and 2016
2014-06-18, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/an-expanding-koch-network-aims-to-spen...
The political network backed by the Koch brothers, already spending tens of millions of dollars this
year to boost Republicans chances of retaking the Senate, is expanding its national playbook as
part of a long-term strategy designed to strengthen conservatives heading into the 2016
presidential campaign. The effort, part of an overall budget that organizers expect to total nearly
$300 million this year, includes broadening outreach to veterans, viewed as an energized
constituency in the wake of the recent Veterans Affairs scandal, and messages tailored for Latinos
and young people, long considered core Democratic constituencies. The strategy for 2014
includes a new super PAC that can pour all its money into overt election activity. The plan
underscores the huge reach of the Koch-backed operation, a singular force in American
politics that has functioned outside the traditional campaign finance system. The Kochbacked network, a coalition of nonprofit organizations not required to disclose their donors, raised
$407 million in the 2012 cycle, a presidential election year in which outside spending increased
greatly on both sides of the aisle. This year, the network is likely to outstrip other organizations on
both the left and the right with spending on television ads and on-the-ground organizing. Its main
political organ, the free-market advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, has 240 full-time
employees in 32 states, more than double the size of its 2012 staff.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing elections news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Lift Assange out of legal limbo

2014-06-17, USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/06/17/assange-wikileaks-espionage-...
A whistle-blower living in exile in Russia. A publisher seeking the asylum he has already been
granted while his sources are imprisoned. This isn't the cast of a summer blockbuster. It's a perfect
storm of real-life cases that make it clear that constitutional guarantees of a free press and
government accountability are rhetorical devices, not political realities. The whistle-blower is
Edward Snowden. This month marks the first anniversary of his disclosures of massive National
Security Agency surveillance. The publisher is Julian Assange. Thursday marks two years since
he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Meanwhile, two of Assange's sources,
Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) and Jeremy Hammond, remain in prison
for providing WikiLeaks with confidential documents. Harassment, targeting and prosecution of
whistle-blowers, journalists and publishers have become a dangerous new normal one
we should refuse to accept, especially in a time when governments are becoming more
powerful and less accountable. It's time to end this assault, starting with granting Snowden
amnesty and withdrawing the threat of U.S. criminal prosecution of Assange. Similar harsh
treatment and excessive punishments haven't applied to the people in government who
perpetrated the crimes exposed by these whistle-blowers and published by WikiLeaks. In fact,
people such as national intelligence director James Clapper, who lied under oath to Congress,
have avoided consequences altogether.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing civil liberties news articles
from reliable major media sources.

Inside the Koch Brothers Secret Billionaire Summit

2014-06-17, The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/article/180267/exclusive-behind-koch-brothers-secret...
Charles and David Koch wrapped up their annual summer seminar on June 16. [Their] combined
net worth is more than $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The highly
secretive mega-donor conference, called American Courage: Our Commitment to a Free Society,
featured a whos who of Republican political elites. 300 individualsworth at least a billion each
were present. The explicit goal was to raise $500 million to take the Senate in the 2014 midterms
and another $500 million to make sure Hillary Clinton is never president. The Koch network
raised an estimated $407 million in the 2012 presidential election, according to an analysis by The
Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics. Intriguing in its ambiguity was the
Energy: Changing the Narrative session, presumably meant to change the narrative of climate
change to one of energy independence. The Kochs are investing large sums in a new energy
initiative with what looks like a deregulatory, pro-consumer spin to combat President Obamas
new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions and liberal billionaire Tom Steyers $100 million
commitment to fight climate change. It is not hard to see why the Kochs, as the owners of a
large carbon-based energy conglomerate with interests in oil, natural gas and coal, are
some of the most vocal climate deniers. In 2013, Forbes listed Koch Industries as the

second largest privately held company in the country. This conclave of billionaires is
determined to roll back Obamacare and carbon restrictions. In an America where money equals
speech, Koch is king.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing elections news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Study asserts startling numbers of insider trading rogues

2014-06-17, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101764568
There is often a tip. Before many big mergers and acquisitions, word leaks out to select investors
who seek to covertly trade on the information. Stocks and options move in unusual ways that
aren't immediately clear. Then news of the deals crosses the ticker, surprising everyone except for
those already in the know. Sometimes the investor is found out and is prosecuted, sometimes not.
That's what everyone suspects, though until now the evidence has been largely anecdotal. Now, a
groundbreaking new study finally puts what we've instinctively thought into hard numbers and
the truth is worse than we imagined. A quarter of all public company deals may involve some
kind of insider trading, according to the study by two professors at the Stern School of Business
at New York University and one professor from McGill University. The study, perhaps the most
detailed and exhaustive of its kind, examined hundreds of transactions from 1996 through the end
of 2012. The professors examined stock option movements when an investor buys an option to
acquire a stock in the future at a set price as a way of determining whether unusual activity took
place in the 30 days before a deal's announcement. The professors are so confident in their
findings of pervasive insider trading that they determined statistically that the odds of the
trading "arising out of chance" were "about three in a trillion." But, the professors conclude,
the Securities and Exchange Commission litigated only "about 4.7 percent of the 1,859 ... deals
included in our sample."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing financial corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

US Pushing Local Cops to Stay Mum on Surveillance

2014-06-12, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-pushing-local-cops-stay-mum-surve...
The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about
surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire
neighborhoods. Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records
cases and criminal trials regarding use of the technology. This has resulted in police departments
withholding materials or heavily censoring documents in rare instances when they disclose any
[information] about the purchase and use of such powerful surveillance equipment. One well-

known type of this surveillance equipment is known as a Stingray. The equipment tricks
cellphones into identifying some of their owners' account information, like a unique
subscriber number, and transmitting data to police as if it were a phone company's tower.
That allows police to obtain cellphone information without having to ask for help from
service providers ... and can locate a phone without the user even making a call or sending
a text message. The Obama administration is asking agencies to withhold common information
about the equipment, such as how the technology is used and how to turn it on. "These extreme
secrecy efforts are in relation to very controversial, local government surveillance practices using
highly invasive technology," said Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the American Civil
Liberties Union, which has fought for the release of these types of records. "People should have
the facts about what the government is doing to them."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government surveillance news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Guys, Your Smartphone Is Hurting Your Sperm

2014-06-10, Time Magazine
http://time.com/2850594/guys-your-smartphone-is-hurting-your-sperm/
Even while the debate over whether cell phones cause cancer rages on, researchers are starting
to explore other potentially harmful effects that the ubiquitous devices may have on our health.
Because they emit low-level electromagnetic radiation (EMR), its possible that they can disturb
normal cell functions and even sleep. And with male infertility on the rise, Fiona Mathews at the
University of Exeter, in England, and her colleagues decided to investigate what role cell phones
might play in that trend. In their new research, they analyzed 10 previous studies, seven of
which involved the study of sperm motility, concentration and viability in the lab, and three
that included male patients at fertility clinics. Overall, among the 1,492 samples, exposureto-cell-phone EMR lowered sperm motility by 8%, and viability by 9%. Exactly how much the
cell phones are contributing to lower-quality sperm isnt clear yet the researchers note that how
long the phones are kept in pockets, as well as how much EMR the phones emit (most are legally
required to stay below 2.0 W/kg) are also important things to consider when figuring out an
individuals risk. But the lab-dish studies do show that sperm are affected by the exposure, and
that provides enough reason to investigate the possibility that cell phones may be contributing to
lower-quality sperm and potentially some cases of infertility.
Note: Remember how for decades the tobacco industry claimed cigarettes caused no harm even
while they were hiding studies which proved the opposite. For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

War Gear Flows to Police Departments

2014-06-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html

As President Obama ushers in the end of what he called Americas long season of war, the
former tools of combat M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more are ending up in
local police departments, often with little public notice. During the Obama administration, according
to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns;
nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision
equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. The equipment has been
added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units.
Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for
routine jobs. Police departments ... are adding more firepower and military gear than ever. Some,
especially in larger cities, have used federal grant money to buy armored cars and other tactical
gear. And the free surplus program remains a favorite of many police chiefs who say they could
otherwise not afford such equipment. The number of SWAT teams has skyrocketed since the
1980s, according to studies by Peter B. Kraska, an Eastern Kentucky University professor who has
been researching the issue for decades. Recruiting videos feature clips of officers storming into
homes with smoke grenades and firing automatic weapons. In Springdale, Ark., a police recruiting
video is dominated by SWAT clips, including officers throwing a flash grenade into a house and
creeping through a field in camouflage.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight: Oil rig worker Mike McKay loses job
after MH370 'fire in the sky' report
2014-06-09, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-oil-rig-worker-m...
Reports from an oil rig worker who saw a fire in the sky on the night Malaysia Airlines flight 370
disappeared are being taken seriously, police sources have confirmed. But New Zealander Mike
McKay, 55, has lost his job in the circus that developed after his report to authorities was leaked.
Mr McKay had been working on the Songa Mercur oil rig in the South China Sea when he saw an
orange light on an especially clear night. The object was still in one piece and close to where
MH370 first dropped off radar between Malaysia and Vietnam on March 8 with 239 people on
board. He emailed his employer and Vietnamese authorities about his sighting, but his statement
was leaked, which included his full name, email, passport number, and full details of the company
operating the rig. In the ensuing media storm, Mr McKay said the Japanese-based petroleum
company, Idemitsu, was flooded with emails and he was taken off the rig. He is now unemployed
and disappointed his efforts at reporting potentially vital information turned into such a
circus. I was only trying to privately help, he told Fairfax Media during a series of
interviews. If it was the aeroplane I saw, then it must have been an external fire. How far
would an aeroplane stay in the air after such a fire?

Note: So much strangeness here. Why was this man fired for reporting simply what he saw? And
why isn't this getting more media attention? For possible answers, see our essay on media
corruption.

Pope Francis hosts Israeli, Palestinian leaders at prayer summit

2014-06-08, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-hosts-israeli-palestinian-le...
Pope Francis brought together the presidents of Israel and the Palestinian Authority ... at the
Vatican to join in prayer and promise to seek peace though their governments are officially not
talking. Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas concluded the
two-hour ceremony by kissing each other on the cheek and then planting an olive tree, gestures
intended to signal a commitment to trying to end one of the longest-running, most intractable
conflicts in the world. Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare, Pope Francis
said during the gathering, dubbed a prayer summit. Instill in our hearts the courage to take
concrete steps to achieve peace. The meeting was historic. The prayer summit was a remarkable
show of the new popes intention to mix spiritual matters and real-world diplomacy. Francis was
visiting the Holy Land just two weeks ago when he invited the two leaders to come to the Vatican.
No one is presumptuous enough to think peace will break out on Monday, the Rev.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a church official in charge of Catholic sites in the Holy Land, [said].
The intention of this initiative is to reopen a road that has been closed for some time; to
re-create a desire, a possibility; to make people dream, he said. During the service, Jewish,
Christian and Muslim prayers were recited in English, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew. The words were
intended to thank God for His creation, to seek forgiveness for the failure to act as brothers and
sisters, and to ask for peace in the Holy Land.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Vodafone: governments use secret cables to tap phones

2014-06-06, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10880208/Vodafone-gov...
Government agencies are able to listen to phone conversations live and even track the location of
citizens without warrants using secret cables connected directly to network equipment, admits
Vodafone today. The company said that secret wires have been connected to its network and
those belonging to competitors, giving government agencies the ability to tap in to phone and
broadband traffic. In many countries this is mandatory for all telecoms companies, it said.
Vodafone is today publishing its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report which will describe
exactly how the governments it deals with are eavesdropping on citizens. It is calling for an end to
the use of direct access eavesdropping and transparency on the number of warrants issued
giving access to private data. Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, said:

"Vodafone is taking a commendable step by taking this issue on at an international scale. And they
are trying to identify the legal basis for governments' claimed powers. Governments around the
world are unashamedly abusing privacy by demanding access to communications and
data, and alarmingly, sometimes granting themselves direct access to the networks. Now
that Vodafone has been more open, the entire industry has cover to take the necessary next
step of pushing back. Pushing back against bad requests is a start, pushing back against bad
laws is the next step. The usefulness of transparency reports hinges on governments abiding by
the rule of law. We now know that these reports only provide a limited picture of what is going on.
Note: For more on government surveillance of the world's population, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Ireland Investigates Alleged Discovery of 800 Babies in Sewer Tank

2014-06-05, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ireland-investigates-alleged-discovery-800-...
Reports that nearly 800 dead babies were discovered in the septic tank of a home run by nuns
[have] sparked calls for accountability from government and Catholic Church officials. Some 796
children were secretly buried in the sewage tank of the home in Tuam, County Galway,
where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the
country's devout Catholic image. The home was run by nuns from the Bon Secours Sisters
congregation between 1925 and 1961. People who lived near the home said they have known
about the unmarked mass grave for decades, but a fresh investigation was sparked this week after
research by local historian Catherine Corless ... showed that of the hundreds of children who died
at the home, only one was buried at a cemetery. She also said that health board records from the
1940s said conditions at the home were dire, with children suffering malnutrition and neglect and
dying at a rate four times higher than in the rest of Ireland. The claims came to light after Corless
obtained death records for the home and cross checked them with local cemetery records.
According to Eoin O'Sullivan, associate professor at Trinity College Dublin, "Tuam was a former
workhouse and conditions were pretty bleak," said O'Sullivan, co-author of the 2001 book Suffer
the Little Children: The inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools. "Ireland's first mother and baby
home, at Bessborough, in Cork, had an even worse infant mortality rate of around 82 percent: In
the year ending March 31, 1944, 124 children were born or admitted there, and 102 died."
Note: For more on institutional abuse of children, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Fasting for three days can regenerate entire immune system, study
finds
2014-06-05, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-re...

Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly,
scientists have found in a breakthrough. Although fasting diets have been criticised by nutritionists
for being unhealthy, new research suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing
new white blood cells, which fight off infection. Scientists at the University of Southern California
say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from damaged immune
systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy. It could also help the elderly whose immune
system becomes less effective as they age, making it harder for them to fight off even common
diseases. The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative switch" which prompts stem cells to
create brand new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the entire immune system. "It gives
the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,"
said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of
California. "And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might
be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system
heavily damaged by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new
immune system." Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of glucose and fat but also
breaks down a significant portion of white blood cells. During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of
white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune
system cells.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

How did Alexander Shulgin become known as the Godfather of

Ecstasy?
2014-06-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2014/jun/03/alexander-shulgin-ma...
The explosion of dance music culture during the late '80s and early '90s conferred fame on some
unlikely people, but few were quite as unlikely as Alexander Shulgin, who died on 2 June at his
home in California at the age of 88. He was nearly 70 by the time he became known as the
Godfather of Ecstasy, a title that made it sound like he had invented MDMA, which he hadn't:
Shulgin had only introduced the drug to west coast psychotherapists in the late 70s. But, he had
created more than 200 psychoactive compounds in his home laboratory, tested them all on himself
and his wife and written about them in a 1991 book titled Phenethylamines I Have Known and
Loved. The combination of the book, his association with ecstasy, and that drug's burgeoning
popularity made him a hugely celebrated figure. Shulgin thought all drugs should be
legalised, but he seemed about as far removed from the bug-eyed psychedelic proselyte of
popular myth as it was possible to get. His writing was measured, calm and witty. He did not
court the attention of the rave generation. If anything, he seemed faintly exasperated by the way
MDMA was being used. "Go banging about with a psychedelic drug for a Saturday night turn-on,
and you can get into a really bad place, psychologically," he had warned. Later he was to lament
that MDMA had been "sidetracked into the Yahoo generation". None of the drugs Shulgin invented

became as famous as the one he didn't. In the late '90s, there was talk that a compound called
2CB was "the new ecstasy" but it never attained the ubiquity of E. Nevertheless, Shulgin's legend
was assured.
Note: To see Shulgin's fun and iconoclastic character, watch this fun four-minute video. Explore
major media articles showing breakthroughs in therapy from an excellent compilation of news
articles on mind altering drugs. And read the personal journey to healing of courageous CNN
reporter Amber Lyon using these "medicines."

IMF chief says banks haven't changed since financial crisis

2014-05-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/27/imf-chief-lagarde-bankers-eth...
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, told an audience in London that
six years on from the deep financial crisis that engulfed the global economy, banks were resisting
reform and still too focused on excessive risk taking to secure their bonuses at the expense of
public trust. She said: "The behaviour of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally
in a number of dimensions since the crisis. The industry still prizes short-term profit over
long-term prudence, today's bonus over tomorrow's relationship. Some prominent firms
have even been mired in scandals that violate the most basic ethical norms - Libor and
foreign exchange rigging, money laundering, illegal foreclosure." Lagarde warned the toobig-to-fail problem among some of the world's largest financial institutions was still unresolved and
remained a major source of systematic risk, with implicit subsidies of $70bn (42bn) in the US, and
up to $300bn in the eurozone. Lagarde said international progress to reform the financial system
was too slow. Lagarde told [the] conference that rising inequality was also a barrier to growth, and
could undermine democracy and human rights. The issue has risen up the agenda in recent
months with the publication of the French economist Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the TwentyFirst Century. "One of the leading economic stories of our time is rising income inequality, and the
dark shadow it casts across the global economy," Lagarde said.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Europe's Secret Success

2014-05-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/opinion/krugman-europes-secret-success.html
European economies, France in particular, get very bad press in America. Our political discourse is
dominated by reverse Robin-Hoodism the belief that economic success depends on being nice
to the rich, who wont create jobs if they are heavily taxed, and nasty to ordinary workers, who
wont accept jobs unless they have no alternative. And according to this ideology, Europe with
its high taxes and generous welfare states does everything wrong. So Europes economic

system must be collapsing, and a lot of reporting simply states the postulated collapse as a fact.
The reality, however, is very different. Yes, Southern Europe is experiencing an economic crisis
thanks to [a money muddle caused by Europe's premature adoption of a single currency]. But
Northern European nations, France included, have done far better [than America]. French adults
in their prime working years (25 to 54) are substantially more likely to have jobs than their
U.S. counterparts. Frances prime-age employment rate overtook Americas early in the
Bush administration. Other European nations with big welfare states, like Sweden and the
Netherlands, do even better. On the core issue of providing jobs for people who really should be
working, at this point old Europe is beating us hands down despite social benefits and regulations
that, according to free-market ideologues, should be hugely job-destroying.
Note: For more on the collusion of the US government with financial corporations to maintain their
profitability, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

End Mass Incarceration Now

2014-05-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/opinion/sunday/end-mass-incarceration-now.html
For more than a decade, researchers across multiple disciplines have been issuing reports on the
widespread societal and economic damage caused by Americas now-40-year experiment in
locking up vast numbers of its citizens. Several recent reports provide some of the most
comprehensive and compelling proof yet that the United States has gone past the point where the
numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits, and that mass incarceration itself
is a source of injustice. That is the central conclusion of a two-year, 444-page study prepared by
the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The report highlights many well-known
statistics: Since the early 1970s, the nations prison population has quadrupled to 2.2
million, making it the worlds biggest. That is five to 10 times the incarceration rate in other
democracies. A report by Human Rights Watch notes that ... in its embrace of incarceration, the
[US] seems to have forgotten just how severe a punishment it is. The severity is evident in the
devastation wrought on Americas poorest and least educated, destroying neighborhoods and
families. From 1980 to 2000, the number of children with fathers in prison rose from 350,000 to 2.1
million. Since race and poverty overlap so significantly, the weight of our criminal justice
experiment continues to fall overwhelmingly on communities of color, and particularly on young
black men. After prison, people are sent back to the impoverished places they came from, but are
blocked from re-entering society.
Note: For more on the prison-industrial complex in the US, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

From Rwandan Garbage Dump To Harvard

2014-05-24, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tp-allen/rwanda-orphans_b_5357352.html

Life -- indeed, survival -- was always difficult for 8-year-old Justus Uwayesu. During the 1994
Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Justus' father was executed for being born into a family
whose identity cards had the Tutsi box arbitrarily checked. His mother vanished shortly thereafter.
By the time Justus was 8, he [was living] in the garbage dump for Kigali, the capital of
Rwanda. One Sunday ... a taxi [rattled down the dusty road] transporting Clare Effiong, a visitor
from the U.S. She was on a mission, "letting the Spirit lead" in a way that causes many to feel very
uncomfortable and even suspicious. Through an interpreter Clare ... asked little Justus [what he
wanted]. He said, "I want to go to school." Clare drove Justus to a friend's home in Gikondo
and told him, "Educate this boy and I will send money to pay for school fees, school materials,
uniform, shoes -- whatever." From his first day of school, Justus' most distinctive attribute has been
(and remains) his ever-present conviction that it is a precious privilege to learn. Justus obsessively
studied, [and received] guidance in applying to colleges and universities in the United States. On
[college admissions] "decision day," at 11 PM Rwandan time (5 PM EST), Justus ... fumbled and
struggled at first to get into the secure admissions site. Then the letter began to load, and Justus
read the first word: "CONGRATULATIONS!" Justus screamed with joy and fell to the floor. When
he composed himself, he borrowed my phone to call Clare in the U.S. "Mom, MOM!" he yelled.
"I'm going to Harvard!"
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Fine Line Seen in U.S. Spying on Companies

2014-05-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/business/us-snooping-on-companies-cited-by-...
The National Security Agency has never said what it was seeking when it invaded the computers
of Petrobras, Brazils huge national oil company, but angry Brazilians have guesses: the
companys troves of data on Brazils offshore oil reserves, or perhaps its plans for allocating
licenses for exploration to foreign companies. Nor has the N.S.A. said what it intended when it got
deep into the computer systems of China Telecom, one of the largest providers of mobile phone
and Internet services in Chinese cities. But documents released by Edward J. Snowden, the
former agency contractor now in exile in Russia, leave little doubt that the main goal was to learn
about Chinese military units, whose members cannot resist texting on commercial networks. The
agencys interest in Huawei, the giant Chinese maker of Internet switching equipment, and Pacnet,
the Hong Kong-based operator of undersea fiber optic cables, is more obvious: Once inside those
companies proprietary technology, the N.S.A. would have access to millions of daily conversations
and emails that never touch American shores. The [US] government does not deny it routinely
spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of
how it protects American national security. While the N.S.A. cannot spy on Airbus and give
the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the
results to help American trade officials and, by extension, ... American industries.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Londons silver price fix dies after nearly 120 years

2014-05-14, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/db3188b8-db46-11e3-94ad-00144feabdc0.html
It was born in the late 19th century when a handful of London bullion dealers agreed to meet daily
under a cloud of cigar smoke to set the price for the devils metal. But now, after 117 years of
operation, the London silver fix an integral part of the citys $1.6tn-a-year silver market is on its
deathbed. The three banks that arrange silvers global benchmark said on [May 14] that prices
would be fixed for the final time at noon on August 14. The move comes on the heels of
increased scrutiny by European and US regulators into precious metals price-setting following the
Libor scandal and probe into possible forex market abuse. Deutsche Bank last month resigned its
seats on the silver and gold fixes, after failing to find buyers, leaving just HSBC and Bank of Nova
Scotia on the silver fix. The three banks said there would be discussions to explore whether the
market wishes to develop an alternative to the benchmark. The regulatory attention has
removed the lustre from the once-prestigious precious metals fixes, while legal action in
the US has been an additional deterrent for potential new members. US lawyers have filed
at least 20 class lawsuits alleging manipulation by the banks responsible for the gold fix.
The demise of the silver fix will raise questions about the future of the other precious metals
benchmarks platinum, palladium and, especially, gold. Following Deutsche Banks withdrawal,
the gold fix can continue to operate effectively with four member banks, but critics say the process
is old-fashioned and opaque, and needs to be overhauled.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

U.S. alone in West on lack of paid maternity leave

2014-05-13, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/U-S-alone-in-West-on-lack-of-paid-matern...
The United States is the only Western country - and one of only three in the world - that
does not provide some kind of monetary payment to new mothers who have taken
maternity leave from their jobs, a new U.N. study reports. Two other countries share the U.S.
position of providing "no cash benefits during maternity leave," according to the report, which was
released ... by the International Labor Organization: Oman, an absolute monarchy in the Persian
Gulf; and Papua New Guinea, a South Pacific nation where the U.S. State Department says
violence against women is so common that 60 percent of men in a U.N. study acknowledged
having committed a rape. The other 182 countries surveyed provide either a Social Security-like
government payment to women who have recently given birth or adopted a child or require
employers to continue at least a percentage of the worker's pay. In 70 countries, paid leave is also

provided for fathers, the report said, including Australia, which introduced 14 days of paid paternity
leave last year, and Norway, which expanded its paternity leave from 12 to 14 weeks. The United
States also provides for fewer weeks of maternity leave than what other Western countries
mandate, the report said. Under U.S. law, businesses are required to allow a new mother to take
as many as 12 weeks of unpaid leave. In New Zealand, the leave is 14 weeks; in Australia, it's 18
weeks. Switzerland has allowed women workers to take 18 weeks off since 2005; they're paid 80
percent of their salaries under a government program similar to Social Security in the United
States.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

British Spy Chiefs Secretly Begged to Play in NSAs Data Pools

2014-04-30, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/04/30/gchq-prism-nsa-fisa-uns...
Britains electronic surveillance agency, Government Communications Headquarters [GCHQ], has
long presented its collaboration with the National Security Agencys massive electronic spying
efforts as proportionate, carefully monitored, and well within the bounds of privacy laws. But
according to a top-secret document in the archive of material provided to The Intercept by NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden, GCHQ secretly coveted the NSAs vast troves of private
communications and sought unsupervised access to its data as recently as last year. The
document, dated April 2013, reveals that GCHQ requested broad new authority to tap into data
collected under a law that authorizes a variety of controversial NSA surveillance initiatives,
including the PRISM program. PRISM is a system used by the NSA and the FBI to obtain the
content of personal emails, chats, photos, videos, and other data processed by nine of the
worlds largest internet companies, including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook,
and Skype. The arrangement GCHQ proposed would also have provided the British agency with
greater access to millions of international phone calls and emails that the NSA siphons directly
from phone networks and the internet. The Snowden files do not indicate whether NSA granted
GCHQs request, but they do show that the NSA was supportive of the idea, and that GCHQ was
permitted extensive access to PRISM during the London Olympics in 2012. The request for the
broad access was communicated at leadership level.
Note: For more on the construction of a total surveillance state, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Vermont Ups the Ante on Genetically Modified Foods

2014-04-25, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/vermont-ups-ante-genetically-modified-...

Vermont has raised the stakes in the debate over genetically modified foods by becoming the first
state to pass a bill requiring that they be labeled as such in the grocery aisle, making the move
despite the opposition of the powerful U.S. food industry. The Vermont bill says genetically
modified foods "potentially pose risks to health, safety, agriculture, and the environment" and
includes $1.5 million for implementation and defense against lawsuits expected from the food and
biotech industries. It's unclear how GMO labeling might affect consumers' wallets or food
companies' bottom line if shoppers reject labeled foods. The labels will say "produced with genetic
engineering" for packaged raw foods, or "partially produced with genetic engineering" or "may be
produced with genetic engineering" for processed food that contains products of genetic
engineering. Meat and dairy would be exempt. A national New York Times poll in January 2013
found that 93 percent of respondents said foods containing GMOs should be labeled.
Twenty-nine other states have proposed bills recently to require GMO labeling, according to
the National Conference of State Legislatures. More than 60 countries require such
labeling, according to the Vermont Right to Know campaign. Some farmers in Vermont, known for
its organic food operations, see the bill's passage as a David-vs.-Goliath victory. "This vote is a
reflection of years of work from a strong grass-roots base of Vermonters who take their food and
food sovereignty seriously and do not take kindly to corporate bullies," Will Allen, manager of
Cedar Circle Farm in Thetford, said.
Note: For more on the good reasons to require GMO labels on foods, see the excellent summary
of the risks from GMOs available here.

IG: Agency didnt report polygraph admissions of child molestations

2014-04-22, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/04/22/ig-agency-didnt...
The federal governments spy-satellite agency failed to alert authorities after some of its
employees and contractors admitted during polygraph tests to crimes including child molestation
and lying on security-clearance questionnaires, according to a watchdog. The intelligence
communitys inspector general released two reports ... saying the National Reconnaissance Office
did not refer some of the cases because of confusion about reporting expectations and
requirements. According to one of the reports, an Air Force lieutenant colonel admitted during a
2010 lie-detector test to touching a child in a sexual way and downloading child pornography on
his work computer. The NRO only reported that case to the Air Force division that oversees
security clearances instead of the Justice Department or the Air Forces special-investigations
office, the inspector general said. The NRO is not legally required to report certain state
crimes such as child molestation. Thirty individuals who took NRO lie-detector tests from
2009 through 2012 admitted to child abuse or using child pornography, according to the
report. The NRO failed to report three of those cases. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who
requested the review after a McClatchy news investigation raised concerns about the matter in
2012, said the NRO showed a complete lack of common sense in failing to require reporting of
serious state crimes of this sort.

Note: The NRO is the agency that was running a drill on the morning of 9/11 of an airplane
crashing into one of its Washington, DC buildings, as reported in this USA Today article. It has also
allegedly been involved in the UFO cover-up, as reported in this testimony.

Goodbye, Oil: US Navy Cracks New Renewable Energy Technology To

Turn Seawater Into Fuel, Allowing Ships To Stay At Sea Longer
2014-04-08, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/goodbye-oil-us-navy-cracks-new-renewable-energy-techno...
After decades of experiments, U.S. Navy scientists believe they may have solved one of the
worlds great challenges: how to turn seawater into fuel. The development of a liquid
hydrocarbon fuel could one day relieve the militarys dependence on oil-based fuels and is being
heralded as a game changer because it could allow military ships to develop their own fuel and
stay operational 100 percent of the time, rather than having to refuel at sea. The new fuel is
initially expected to cost around $3 to $6 per gallon, according to the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory, which has already flown a model aircraft on it. The Navys 289 vessels all rely on oilbased fuel, with the exception of some aircraft carriers and 72 submarines that rely on nuclear
propulsion. The breakthrough came after scientists developed a way to extract carbon
dioxide and hydrogen gas from seawater. The gasses are then turned into a fuel by a gasto-liquids process with the help of catalytic converters. The next challenge for the Navy is to
produce the fuel in industrial quantities. It will also partner with universities to maximize the amount
of CO2 and carbon they can recapture. For the first time we've been able to develop a technology
to get CO2 and hydrogen from seawater simultaneously. That's a big breakthrough," said Dr.
Heather Willauer, a research chemist who has spent nearly a decade on the project, adding that
the fuel "doesn't look or smell very different."
Note: Strangely, the major media networks appear to be largely silent on this important
breakthrough, except for Forbes, which downplays the whole thing, as you can see at this link. For
a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

BlackLight Power, Inc. Announces Sustained Production of Electricity

Using Photovoltaic Conversion of Millions of Watts of Brilliant Plasma
2014-04-03, Yahoo News
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blacklight-power-inc-announces-sustained-201700...
BlackLight Power, Inc. [has] achieved sustained electricity production from a primary new energy
source by using photovoltaic technology to transform brilliant plasma, with power comprising
millions of watts of light, directly into electricity. By applying a very high current through its
proprietary water-based solid fuel in BlackLight Powers breakthrough Solid Fuel-Catalyst-InducedHydrino-Transition (SF-CIHT) technology, water ignites into brilliant plasma, a ... bright flash of
extraordinary optical power that has a power density of over 1,000,000 times that of any prior

controllable reaction. BlackLight Power has now successfully converted the brilliant plasma directly
into electricity using photovoltaic cells (solar cells). Simply replacing the consumed H2O
regenerated the fuel, and the fuel can be continuously fed into the electrodes to continuously
output optical power that can be converted into electricity. [This] safe, non-polluting powerproducing system catalytically converts the hydrogen of the H2O-based solid fuel into a nonpolluting ... lower-energy state hydrogen called Hydrino, by allowing the electrons to fall to
smaller radii around the nucleus. The energy release is 200 times that of burning the equivalent
amount of hydrogen with oxygen. Using readily-available components, BlackLight has
developed a system engineering design of an electric generator that is closed, except for
the addition of H2O fuel, and generates ten million watts of electricity, enough to power ten
thousand homes. Remarkably, the device is less than a cubic foot in volume.
Note: How strange that the major media are not picking up on this story of major proportions. For
a 2008 CNN article showing Blacklight had attracted $60 million and was no longer seeking
funding, click here. For more on Blacklight Power, click here. For more evaluation of this
development, click here.

NSA performed warrantless searches on Americans' calls and emails

Clapper
2014-04-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/01/nsa-surveillance-loophole-americ...
US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has [performed]
warrantless searches on Americans communications. The NSA's collection programs are
ostensibly targeted at foreigners, but in August the Guardian revealed a secret rule change
allowing NSA analysts to search for Americans' details within the databases. Now, in a letter to
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, the director of national
intelligence, James Clapper, has confirmed the use of this legal authority to search for data related
to US persons. The legal authority to perform the searches, revealed in top-secret NSA
documents provided ... by Edward Snowden, was denounced by Wyden as a backdoor search
loophole. Many of the NSA's most controversial programs collect information under the law
affected by the so-called loophole. These include Prism, which allows the agency to collect data
from Google, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo and other tech companies, and the agency's Upstream
program a huge network of internet cable taps. Confirmation that the NSA has searched for
Americans communications in its phone call and email databases complicates President Barack
Obamas initial defenses of the broad surveillance in June. Wyden and Udall [said] Todays
admission by the Director of National Intelligence is further proof that meaningful
surveillance reform must include closing the back-door searches loophole and requiring
the intelligence community to show probable cause before deliberately searching through
... the communications of individual Americans."
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Diet Drinks Linked With Heart Disease, Death

2014-03-29, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/diet-drinks-linked-heart-disease-d...
Women who drink the most diet sodas may also be more likely to develop heart disease and even
to die, according to a new study. Researchers found women who drank two or more diet
drinks a day were 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular
event, and 50 percent more likely to die, than women who rarely touch such drinks. The
findings, being presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, dont suggest that
the drinks themselves are killers. But women who toss back too many diet sodas may be trying to
make up for unhealthy habits, experts say. Our study suggests an association between higher diet
drink consumption and mortality, said Dr. Ankur Vyas, a cardiovascular disease expert at the
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic, who led the study. Research has long shown that artificially
sweetened drinks are not health drinks. While they may help people avoid more dangerous
sugary sodas, studies show they don't help people lose weight. Vyass team studied nearly
60,000 middle-aged women taking part in a decade-long study of womens health. They filled out a
questionnaire on food and drinks as part of the study, including detailed questions on diet sodas
and diet fruit drinks. After just under nine years, the researchers checked to see what happened to
the women's health. They found that 8.5 percent of the women who drank two or more diet drinks
a day had some sort of heart disease. The women who drank the most drinks were also more
likely to smoke, to be overweight, to have diabetes and to have high blood pressure, Vyas noted.
Note: What this article fails to mention is that aspartame, used in most diet drinks, has been
shown to be dangerous for health. Explore the mountain of evidence showing this. For more on
this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media
sources.

Der Spiegel: NSA Put Merkel on List of 122 Targeted Leaders

2014-03-29, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/29/der-spiegel-nsa-ghcq-ha...
Secret documents newly disclosed by the German news magazine Der Spiegel ... shed more light
on how aggressively the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have targeted
Germany for surveillance. A series of classified files from the archive provided to reporters by NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden ... reveal that the NSA appears to have included Merkel in a
surveillance database alongside more than 100 other foreign leaders. The documents also confirm
for the first time that, in March 2013, the NSA obtained a top-secret court order against Germany
as part of U.S. government efforts to monitor communications related to the country. [A]
document, dated 2009, indicates that Merkel was targeted in a broader NSA surveillance
effort. She appears to have been placed in the NSAs so-called Target Knowledge Base
(TKB), which Der Spiegel described as the central agency database of individual targets. An
internal NSA description states that employees can use it to analyze complete profiles of

targeted people. But the NSAs surveillance of Germany has extended far beyond its leader. A
separate document from the NSAs Special Source Operations unit ... shows that the Obama
administration obtained a top-secret court order specifically permitting it to monitor
communications related to Germany. Special Source Operations is the NSA department that
manages what the agency describes as its corporate partnerships with major US companies,
including AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, and Google.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Wealth Over Work

2014-03-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/opinion/krugman-wealth-over-work.html
It seems safe to say that Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the magnum opus of the French
economist Thomas Piketty, will be the most important economics book of the year and maybe of
the decade. Mr. Piketty, arguably the worlds leading expert on income and wealth inequality, does
more than document the growing concentration of income in the hands of a small economic elite.
He also makes a powerful case that were on the way back to patrimonial capitalism, in
which the commanding heights of the economy are dominated not just by wealth, but also
by inherited wealth, in which birth matters more than effort and talent. Six of the 10
wealthiest Americans are already heirs rather than self-made entrepreneurs, and the children of
todays economic elite start from a position of immense privilege. As Mr. Piketty notes, the risk
of a drift toward oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism. Business income, and
income from capital in general, is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. In 1979
the top 1 percent of households accounted for 17 percent of business income; by 2007 the same
group was getting 43 percent of business income, and 75 percent of capital gains. Both Koch
brothers are numbered among the 10 wealthiest Americans, and so are four Walmart heirs. Great
wealth buys great political influence and not just through campaign contributions. Many
conservatives live inside an intellectual bubble of think tanks and captive media that is ultimately
financed by a handful of megadonors.
Note: For more on income and wealth inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Seems like the whole world is 'Happy'

2014-03-20, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/showbiz/music/happy-pharrell-williams-song/inde...
There are happy songs -- and then there is "Happy." The bouncy tune by
singer/composer/producer/rapper Pharrell Williams has occupied the No. 1 spot on the
charts for more than a month. It's spurred countless covers -- including one by Academy

Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her guest star role in the 100th episode
of "Glee." There is even a YouTube version of "Happy" that has gone completely to the
dogs. It has managed to seemingly capture the rush of happiness in its lyrics and melody. Not a
bad trick for a tune that slowly grew from a single on last summer's "Despicable Me 2" soundtrack
to such popularity that Robert Morast, a writer for the Virginian-Pilot, recently entered into a debate
of whether it should be considered for the official state song of Virginia. "Pharrell's hit track is a jolt
of mood-lifting music," wrote Morast. "And while it's fine to be happy, the best art is crafted with a
range of emotional perspectives." Even with its slow build, "Happy" caught ears from the
beginning. Upon release it was quickly dubbed "an instant contender for 2013's Song of the
Summer" by Rolling Stone. Since then, it's topped the charts in more than a dozen countries
besides the United States, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland. Williams
has partnered with the United Nations Foundation in celebration of Thursday's International Day of
Happiness, encouraging fans to donate to the organization and submit content to his 24Hoursof
Happiness.com site.
Note: To watch this awesome four-minute happy video which has had over 100 million views, click
here. To see the website which has great videos of people in happy dance 24 hours a day based
on this song, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

NSA surveillance program reaches into the past to retrieve, replay

phone calls
2014-03-18, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-surveillance-progra...
The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording 100
percent of a foreign countrys telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review
conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct
knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden. A senior
manager for the program compares it to a time machine one that can replay the voices from any
call without requiring that a person be identified in advance for surveillance. The voice interception
program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for retrospective retrieval, and
related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents
two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere. In the initial deployment, collection
systems are recording every single conversation nationwide, storing billions of them in a 30-day
rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive, according to a classified summary.
Analysts listen to only a fraction of 1 percent of the calls, but the absolute numbers are high. Each
month, they send millions of voice clippings, or cuts, for processing and long-term storage. At the
request of U.S. officials, The Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify
the country where the system is being employed or other countries where its use was envisioned.

Note: Though technically it is illegal for the NSA to snoop on Americans without good cause, all
they have to do is to share this technology with another country like the UK, and then ask the UK
to do the snooping and send the results back to them, thereby circumventing the law. For more on
NSA surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Malaysian investigators conclude missing airliner hijacked

2014-03-15, CBS News/Associated Press
"http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-more-sinister-theor...
Malaysia's prime minister says the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 appears to be
"deliberate." The latest evidence suggests the plane didn't experience a catastrophic incident over
the South China Sea as was initially suspected. Prime Minister Najib Razak said the investigation
has refocused onto the crew and passengers aboard the missing plane. He added that ... all
possibilities are still being investigated. A Malaysian government official who is involved in the
investigation said investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying
experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. The official said that hijacking was no longer
a theory. "It is conclusive." A Malaysian official, who also declined to be identified because he is
not authorized to brief the media, said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was
flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea. The official said it had been
established with a "more than 50 percent" degree of certainty that military radar had picked
up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar. Malaysian officials have said radar data
suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after
setting out toward the Chinese capital. The flight altered its course more than once after it lost
contact with ground control and that it made significant changes in altitude. Investigators say
there's further evidence suggesting the jet did not crash immediately after being lost on radar; a
transmitter on the plane tried for another four hours to ping satellites.
Note: Why is the military radar 50% certain? How could a transmitter on the plane ping for four
hours, yet no one on the plane made a phone call? Remember that after Flight 93 was hijacked on
9/11, many phone calls were made by passengers on the plane. There is an abundance of high
strangeness to this airplane's disappearance. For valuable speculation on the missing flight not
well covered in the major media, click here. For some very unusual radar evidence of its
disappearance, click here.

Scientists' hidden links to the GM food giants

2014-03-14, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581387/Scientists-hidden-links-GM-fo...
The authors of a study calling for GM crops to be fast-tracked into Britains farms and
kitchens all have links to the industry. The report was presented as the work of
independent scientists and was published on [March 13] by a government advisory body.

It was used to support a bid to speed up the development of the controversial crops in the UK, but
it has emerged that all five authors have a vested interest in promoting GM crops and food and
some are part-funded by the industry. Critics of GM [have] described the report as biased and
downright dangerous, and accused the biotech giants and the Government of mounting a crude
propaganda campaign to overturn public opposition. The academics behind the study were chosen
by the Council for Science and Technology, the body that advises the Prime Minister on science
policy issues. They include Professor Sir David Baulcombe, from Cambridge University, who works
as a consultant for GM firm Syngenta, which gives his department research funding. Syngenta is
behind a genetically modified maize or corn, called GA21, which could go into UK farms as early
as next spring, making it Britains first commercially grown GM crop. Also on the list is Professor
Jonathan Jones, of the Sainsbury Laboratory, which is at the centre of Britains GM research. It is
part-funded by former Labour science minister, Lord Sainsbury, who is one of the countrys biggest
supporters of the technology. Another co-author was Professor Jim Dunwell, of the University of
Reading. He was a founder member of CropGen, which describes its mission as to make the case
for GM crops and foods
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here. For an excellent summary of the risks and dangers from GMO
foods, click here.

How the NSA Plans to Infect Millions of Computers with Malware

2014-03-12, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millio...
Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability
to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level
of human oversight in the process. The classified files provided previously by NSA whistleblower
Edward Snowden contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency
has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware implants. The
clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data
from foreign Internet and phone networks. The covert infrastructure that supports the hacking
efforts operates from the agencys headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and from
eavesdropping bases in the United Kingdom and Japan. GCHQ, the British intelligence agency,
appears to have played an integral role in helping to develop the implants tactic. In some cases
the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a
launching pad to infect a targets computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it
has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record
audio from a computers microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems
have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or
denying access to websites.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Snowden: Feinstein a Hypocrite for Blasting CIA Spying

2014-03-12, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-senate-snooping/snowden-feinstein-hypocr...
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden accused Sen. Dianne Feinstein of hypocrisy ... for
complaining about alleged CIA spying on U.S. senators while tolerating government spying on
private citizens. "It's clear the CIA was trying to play 'keep away' with documents relevant to an
investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that's a serious constitutional concern, said
Snowden in a statement to NBC News. But it's equally if not more concerning that we're seeing
another 'Merkel Effect,' where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of
millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a
politician finds out the same thing happens to them." Snowden was ... referring to German
Chancellor Angela Merkels indignation at reports that the U.S. had listened in on her personal
conversations, but her failure to condemn the NSA for mass surveillance of communications of
German citizens. Both were revealed by the release of documents that Snowden took from NSA
computers and distributed to journalists.
Note: For more on the out-of-control activities of intelligence agencies, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956,

Advocates Report
2014-03-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/us/use-of-public-transit-in-us-reaches-high...
More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service
improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile
for trips within metropolitan areas, the American Public Transportation Association said in a report.
10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post1950s peak of 10.59 billion in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon. The ridership in
2013, when gas prices were lower than in 2008, undermines the conventional wisdom that transit
use rises when those prices exceed a certain threshold, and suggests that other forces are
bolstering enthusiasm for public transportation, said Michael Melaniphy, the president of the
association. "People are riding transit in record numbers, Mr. Melaniphy said in an interview.
Were seeing a fundamental shift in how people are moving about their communities.
From 1995 to 2013, transit ridership rose 37 percent, well ahead of a 20 percent growth in
population and a 23 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled, according to the associations data.
Overall public transit ridership increased by 1.1 percent from 2012, with the biggest gains in rail
service and in bus service for smaller cities. In New York, where use of all modes of transit in the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority increased 3.6 percent last year. Todd Litman, an analyst at

the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in Victoria, British Columbia, [said] A lot of people would
prefer to drive less and rely more on walking, cycling and public transit, provided that those
are high-quality options.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

U.S. Nuclear Agency Hid Concerns, Hailed Safety Record as Fukushima

Melted
2014-03-10, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/fukushima-anniversary/u-s-nuclear-agency-hid...
In the tense days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power
plant in Japan on March 11, 2011, staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a
concerted effort to play down the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis to Americas aging nuclear
plants, according to thousands of internal emails reviewed by NBC News. The emails, obtained via
the Freedom of Information Act, show that the campaign to reassure the public about Americas
nuclear industry came as the agencys own experts were questioning U.S. safety standards and
scrambling to determine whether new rules were needed to ensure that the meltdown occurring at
the Japanese plant could not occur here. At the end of that long first weekend of the crisis three
years ago, NRC Public Affairs Director Eliot Brenner thanked his staff for sticking to the talking
points that the team had been distributing to senior officials and the public. "While we know more
than these say," Brenner wrote, "we're sticking to this story for now." There are numerous
examples in the emails of apparent misdirection or concealment in the initial weeks after the
Japanese plant was devastated: When asked to help reporters explain what would happen during
the worst-case scenario -- a nuclear meltdown -- the agency declined to address the questions.
The emails pull back the curtain on the agencys efforts to protect the industry it is
supposed to regulate. The NRC officials didn't lie, but they didn't always tell the whole truth
either. When someone asked about a topic that might reflect negatively on the industry,
they changed the subject.
Note: For more on corruption in the nuclear power industry, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

I got 30 months in prison. Why does Leon Panetta get a pass?

2014-03-09, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kiriakou-panetta-whistleblowe...
The confirmation in December that former CIA Director Leon Panetta let classified information slip
to "Zero Dark Thirty" screenwriter Mark Boal during a speech at the agency headquarters should
result in a criminal espionage charge if there is any truth to Obama administration claims that it
isn't enforcing the Espionage Act only against political opponents. I'm one of the people the

Obama administration charged with criminal espionage, one of those whose lives were torn apart
by being accused, essentially, of betraying [their] country. The president and the attorney general
have used the Espionage Act against more people than all other administrations combined, but not
against real traitors and spies. The law has been applied selectively, often against whistleblowers and others who expose illegal, corrupt government actions. After I blew the whistle
on the CIA's waterboarding torture program in 2007, I was the subject of a years-long FBI
investigation. In 2012, the Justice Department charged me with "disclosing classified information
to journalists, including the name of a covert CIA officer and information revealing the role of
another CIA employee in classified activities." I had revealed no more than others who were never
charged, about activities ... that were hardly secret. I am serving a 30-month sentence. The
Espionage Act, the source of the most serious charges against me, was written and passed during
World War I and... is so outdated that it refers only to "national defense information" rather than
"classified information," because the classification system had not yet been invented.
Note: The author of this article, John Kiriakou, is a former CIA counter-terrorism officer and former
senior investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is incarcerated in the Federal
Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa. You can read about his case at http://www.defendjohnk.com.
For more on the out-of-control activities of intelligence agencies, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Report: CIA spied on Senate committee staff

2014-03-05, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-cia-spied-on-senate-committee-staff/
As staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee gathered information to conduct oversight of the
CIA, the CIA was secretly monitoring them, according to reports from McClatchy [News] and the
New York Times. The committee staff was reviewing documents in a secure room at CIA
headquarters as part of its investigation into the CIA's now-defunct detention and interrogation
program, but the agency was secretly monitoring their work, according to reports. Complaints
about the spying have reportedly prompted the CIA inspector general -- the agency's internal
watchdog -- to look into the agency's behavior. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., seemed to reference the
surveillance in a letter to President Obama ... in which he urged the president to support the fullest
declassification of the committee's CIA report. "As you are aware, the C.I.A. has recently taken
unprecedented action against the committee in relation to the internal C.I.A. review, and I
find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the committee's oversight responsibilities
and for our democracy," Udall wrote. "It is essential that the Committee be able to do its
oversight work -- consistent with our constitutional principle of the separation of powers -- without
the CIA posing impediments or obstacles as it is today." Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., another
member of the intelligence committee, declared in a statement Wednesday, "The Senate
Intelligence Committee oversees the CIA, not the other way around."
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Report reveals 'extensive' violence against women in EU

2014-03-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/violence-against-women-eu
Violence against women is "an extensive human rights abuse" across Europe with one in three
women reporting some form of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15 and 8% suffering
abuse in the last 12 months, according to the largest survey of its kind on the issue. The survey,
based on interviews with 42,000 women across 28 EU member states, found extensive abuse
across the continent, which typically goes unreported and undetected by the authorities.
Morten Kjaerum, director of FRA, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, which was
responsible for the survey, said: "Violence against women ... is an extensive human rights
abuse that the EU cannot afford to overlook." The FRA study provides ample evidence of the
size of the problem, as well as suggestions on how to fix it. In a foreword to the report, Kjaerum
calls for all member states to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Istanbul convention, which
demands more protection for women, as well as action from private and public organisations.
Among the findings: One in 10 women have experienced some form of sexual violence since the
age of 15, while one in 20 has been raped. One in 10 women have been stalked by a previous
partner. Most violence is carried out by a current or former partner, with 22% of women in
relationships reporting partner abuse. Violence against women is one of the least reported
crimes. Only 14% of women reported their most serious incident of partner violence to the police,
while a similar percentage (13%) reported their most serious incident of non-partner violence.
Just over one in 10 women experienced some form of sexual violence by an adult before they
were 15.
Note: For more on sexual abuse and violence against women, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Brain-Damaged UK Victims of Swine Flu Vaccine to Get 60 Million

Compensation
2014-03-02, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/brain-damaged-uk-victims-swine-flu-vaccine-get-60-mi...
Patients who suffered brain damage as a result of taking a swine flu vaccine are to receive multimillion-pound payouts from the UK government. Following the swine flu outbreak of 2009, about
60 million people, most of them children, received the vaccine. It was subsequently revealed that
the vaccine, Pandemrix, can cause narcolepsy and cataplexy in about one in 16,000 people, and
many more are expected to come forward with the symptoms. Across Europe, more than 800
children are so far known to have been made ill by the vaccine. The Pandemrix vaccine was
manufactured by pharmaceuticals giant Glaxo Smith Kline, which refused to supply
governments unless it was indemnified against any claim for damage caused. "There's no
doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in
children," Emmanuelle Mignot, a specialist in sleep disorder at Stanford University in the United

States told Reuters. Among those affected are NHS medical staff, many of whom are now unable
to do their jobs because of the symptoms brought on by the vaccine. They will be suing the
government for millions in lost earnings. However, the vast majority of patients affected - around
80% - are children. Despite a 2011 warning from the European Medicines Agency against using
the vaccine on those under 20 and a study indicating a 13-fold heightened risk of narcolepsy in
vaccinated children, GSK has refused to acknowledge a link.
Note: Read about people in other countries who were damaged by the vaccine on this webpage.
See powerful media reports suggesting that both the avian flu and swine flu were manipulated to
promote fear and boost pharmaceutical sales. And watch a powerful CBS video describing how
4,000 Americans in 1976 sued for neurological damages caused by a swine flu vaccine that they
agreed to take after falling for fear mongering about the flu by the government. 300 people
allegedly died from the vaccine. For more, see the excellent resources in our Health Information
Center.

Fed knew about Libor rigging in 2008

2014-02-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/libor-scandal/10654977/Fed-knew-about-Libo...
The US Federal Reserve knew about Libor rigging three years before the financial scandal
exploded but did not take any firm action, documents have revealed. According to newly published
transcripts of the central banks meetings in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the collapse
of Lehman Brothers, a senior Fed official first flagged the issue at a policy meeting in April 2008.
William Dudley expressed fears that banks were being dishonest in the way they were
calculating the London interbank offered rate a global benchmark interest rate used as the
basis for trillions of pounds of loans and financial contracts. Three years after his remarks, it
emerged that traders at more than a dozen banks, including Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and
Barclays, had routinely been trying to fix the official Libor rate in order to boost their own bonuses
and profits. The transcript of the Feds April 2008 meeting raises questions about why the
central bank did not move to properly tackle the scandal. There was no official regulator for
Libor at the time, and officials at the US Federal Reserve tried to blame British authorities for
allowing the benchmark interest rate to get out of control in the first place. The Fed declined to
comment on the transcripts or why it had not taken firm action..
Note: For more on government collusion with the biggest banks, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Discipline With Dignity: Oakland Classrooms Try Healing Instead of

Punishment
2014-02-19, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of...

Tommy, an agitated 14-year-old high school student in Oakland, Calif., was in the hallway cursing
out his teacher at the top of his lungs. A few minutes earlier, in the classroom, hed called her a
b___ after she twice told him to lift his head from the desk. Eric Butler, the school coordinator for
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) heard the ruckus and rushed to the scene. They
walked together to the restorative justice room. Slowly, the boy began to open up and share what
was weighing on him. His mom, who had been successfully doing drug rehabilitation, had
relapsed. Shed been out for three days. The 14-year-old was going home every night to a
motherless household and two younger siblings. He had been holding it together as best he could,
even getting his brother and sister breakfast and getting them off to school. He had his head down
on the desk in class that day because he was exhausted from sleepless nights and worry. Eric ...
facilitated a restorative justice circle with [Tommy's mom], Tommy, the teacher, and the principal.
Punitive justice asks only what rule of law was broken, who did it, and how they should be
punished. It responds to the original harm with more harm. Restorative justice asks who
was harmed, what are the needs and obligations of all affected, and how does everyone
affected figure out how to heal the harm. Tommy ... told his story. On the day of the incident, he
had not slept, and he was hungry and scared. He felt the teacher was nagging him. Hed lost it.
Tommy apologized.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

NSA monitored US law firm and overseas client

2014-02-16, Boston Globe/New York Times
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/02/16/eavesdropping-ensnared-law-...
The list of those caught up in the global surveillance net cast by the National Security Agency and
its overseas partners, from social media users to foreign heads of state, now includes another
entry: US lawyers. A top-secret document, obtained by former NSA contractor Edward J.
Snowden, shows that a US law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in
trade disputes with the United States. The disclosure offers a rare glimpse of a specific
instance of Americans ensnared by the eavesdroppers and is of particular interest because
US lawyers with clients overseas have expressed growing concern that their confidential
communications could be compromised by such surveillance. The government of Indonesia
had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, according to the February 2013 document. The
NSAs Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, notified the agency that it was
conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and
the US law firm, and offered to share information. The NSA is banned from targeting Americans,
including businesses, law firms, and other organizations based in the United States, for
surveillance without warrants, and intelligence officials have repeatedly said the NSA does not use
spy services of its partners in the so-called Five Eyes alliance Australia, Britain, Canada, and
New Zealand to skirt the law. The Australians told officials at an NSA liaison office in Canberra,

that information covered by attorney-client privilege may be included in the intelligence gathering.
Most attorney-client conversations do not get special protections under US law from NSA
eavesdropping.
Note: For more on intense deception perpetrated by the intelligence community, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms

2014-02-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/health/study-adds-new-doubts-about-value-of...
One of the largest and most meticulous studies of mammography ever done, involving
90,000 women and lasting a quarter-century, has added powerful new doubts about the
value of the screening test for women of any age. It found that the death rates from breast
cancer and from all causes were the same in women who got mammograms and those who
did not. And the screening had harms: One in five cancers found with mammography and treated
was not a threat to the womans health and did not need treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery
or radiation. The study, published Tuesday in The British Medical Journal, is one of the few
rigorous evaluations of mammograms conducted in the modern era of more effective breast
cancer treatments. It randomly assigned Canadian women to have regular mammograms and
breast exams by trained nurses or to have breast exams alone. Researchers sought to determine
whether there was any advantage to finding breast cancers when they were too small to feel. The
answer is no, the researchers report. Many cancers, researchers now recognize, grow slowly, or
not at all, and do not require treatment. Some cancers even shrink or disappear on their own. But
once cancer is detected, it is impossible to know if it is dangerous, so doctors treat them all.
Note: For more on issues that matter to our health, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Bank of England 'knew about' forex markets price fixing

2014-02-07, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/07/bank-england-forex-price-fixing
The Bank of England has been dragged into the mounting controversy over allegations of price
fixing in the 3tn-a-day foreign exchange markets after it emerged that a group of traders had told
the Bank they were exchanging information about their clients' position. The latest twist in the
unfolding saga ... puts the focus on a meeting between key officials at the central bank and leading
foreign exchange dealers in April 2012, when they discussed the way they handled trades ahead
of the crucial setting of a benchmark in the prices of major currencies. This benchmark is used to
price a wide variety of financial products and is the subject of regulators' attention amid allegations
that traders at rival banks were sharing information about their orders from clients to manipulate
the price. The Bank of England has previously released brief details of the April 2012 meeting, but

Bloomberg reported that a senior trader who attended the meeting had made notes showing
that officials did not believe it was improper to share customer orders. There had been a 15minute conversation on currency benchmarks during which traders said they used
chatrooms ... to trade ahead of the volatile period when the benchmarks were set. The Bank
would not provide any additional information. Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the FCA, told
MPs on the Treasury select committee ... that the allegations were "every bit as bad" as those
surrounding Libor. The chairman of that committee ... said the allegations were "extremely
serious". The scrutiny of the foreign exchange markets has put a fresh focus on dealers leaving
banks. More than 20 traders at banks around the world are said to have been suspended or left
roles in connection with the forex investigations.
Note: For more on huge financial manipulations and corruption, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Let Banks Fail Is Iceland Mantra as 2% Joblessness in Sight

2014-01-27, Washington Post/Bloomberg News
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-MZURR66S973B01-76OMQ0EAA8SI8FK...
Iceland let its banks fail in 2008 because they proved too big to save. Now, the island is finding
crisis-management decisions made half a decade ago have put it on a trajectory thats turned 2
percent unemployment into a realistic goal. While the euro area grapples with record joblessness,
led by more than 25 percent in Greece and Spain, only about 4 percent of Icelands labor force is
without work. Prime Minister Sigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson says even thats too high. The islands
sudden economic meltdown in October 2008 made international headlines as a debt-fueled
banking boom ended in a matter of weeks when funding markets froze. Policy makers
overseeing the $14 billion economy refused to back the banks, which subsequently
defaulted on $85 billion. The governments decision to protect state finances left it with the
means to continue social support programs that shielded Icelanders from penury during
the worst financial crisis in six decades. Of creditor claims against the banks, Gunnlaugsson
says this is not public debt and never will be. Successive Icelandic governments have forced
banks to write off mortgage debts to help households. The governments 2014 budget sets aside
about 43 percent of its spending for the Welfare Ministry, a level that is largely unchanged since
before the crisis. Inflation, which peaked at 19 percent in January 2009, ... was 4.2 percent in
December. To support households, Gunnlaugsson in November unveiled a plan to provide as
much as 7 percent of gross domestic product in mortgage debt relief. The government intends to
finance the plan, which the OECD has criticized as being too blunt, partly by raising taxes on
banks.
Note: Why is Iceland's major success in letting banks fail getting so little press coverage? For a
possible answer, click here. For more on government responses to the banking crisis and their
impacts on people, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

The Koch Party

2014-01-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/the-koch-party.html
Democrats have been staggered by a $20 million advertising blitz produced by Americans for
Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group organized and financed by the Koch brothers,
billionaire industrialists. The ads take aim at House and Senate candidates for re-election who
have supported the health law, and blame them for the hyped-up problems with the laws rollout
that now seem to be the sole plank in this years Republican platform. In 2012 ... the Koch
network raised $407 million, which was secreted among 17 groups with cryptic names and
purposes that were designed to make it impossible to figure out the names of donors the
Kochs worked with. As one tax expert told [The Washington Post], its designed to make it
opaque as to where the money is coming from and where the money is going. The
Democrats have smaller versions of these operations, though they are more focused on building a
super PAC to collect unlimited donations supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016, and they lack
the resources to compete with the Kochs at this stage. The clandestine influence of the Kochs ...
would be much reduced if they were forced to play in the sunshine. The Internal Revenue Service
and several lawmakers are beginning to step up their interest in preventing social welfare
organizations and other tax-sheltered groups from being used as political conduits, but they have
encountered the usual resistance from Republican lawmakers. Considering how effectively the
Koch brothers are doing their job, its easy to see why.
Note: For more on major flaws in the US electoral system, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End

2014-01-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/politics/watchdog-report-says-nsa-progra...
An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agencys
program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only minimal benefits in counterterrorism
efforts, is illegal and should be shut down. The findings are laid out in a 238-page report [that
represents] the first major public statement by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board,
which Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational.
The Obama administration has portrayed the bulk collection program as useful and lawful. But in
its report, the board lays out what may be the most detailed critique of the governments oncesecret legal theory behind the program: that a law known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which
allows the F.B.I. to obtain business records deemed relevant to an investigation, can be
legitimately interpreted as authorizing the N.S.A. to collect all calling records in the country. The
program lacks a viable legal foundation under Section 215, implicates constitutional
concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and
civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value, the report said. As a
result, the board recommends that the government end the program. The report also sheds

light on the history of the once-secret bulk collection program. It contains the first official
acknowledgment that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court produced no judicial opinion
detailing its legal rationale for the program until last August, even though it had been issuing
orders to phone companies for the records and to the N.S.A. for how it could handle them since
May 2006.
Note: The PCLOB report is titled "Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under
Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court," and is available here. For more on government attacks to privacy, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

China's princelings storing riches in Caribbean offshore haven

2014-01-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jan/21/china-british-vir...
More than a dozen family members of China's top political and military leaders are making
use of offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands, leaked financial documents
reveal. The brother-in-law of China's current president, Xi Jinping, as well as the son and son-inlaw of former premier Wen Jiabao are among the political relations making use of the offshore
havens, financial records show. The documents also disclose the central role of major
Western banks and accountancy firms ... in the offshore world, acting as middlemen in the
establishing of companies. The Hong Kong office of Credit Suisse, for example, established the
BVI company Trend Gold Consultants for Wen Yunsong, the son of Wen Jiabao, during his father's
premiership while PwC and UBS performed similar services for hundreds of other wealthy
Chinese individuals. The disclosure of China's use of secretive financial structures is the latest
revelation from "Offshore Secrets", a two-year reporting effort led by the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which obtained more than 200 gigabytes of leaked financial data
from two companies in the British Virgin Islands, and shared the information with the Guardian and
other international news outlets. In all, the ICIJ data reveals more than 21,000 clients from
mainland China and Hong Kong have made use of offshore havens in the Caribbean. Between
$1tn and $4tn in untraced assets have left China since 2000, according to estimates.
Note: Read the ICIJ's full report of the latest offshore links. For more on financial corruption, see
the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global

sweep
2014-01-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messa...

The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from
across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit
card details, according to top-secret documents. The NSA program, codenamed Dishfire,
collects pretty much everything it can, according to GCHQ documents, rather than merely
storing the communications of existing surveillance targets. The NSA has made extensive use of
its vast text message database to extract information on peoples travel plans, contact books,
financial transactions and more including of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity. On
average, each day the NSA was able to extract: More than 5 million missed-call alerts, for use in
contact-chaining analysis (working out someones social network from who they contact and when)
Details of 1.6 million border crossings a day, from network roaming alerts More than 110,000
names, from electronic business cards, which also included the ability to extract and save images.
Over 800,000 financial transactions, either through text-to-text payments or linking credit cards to
phone users The agency was also able to extract geolocation data from more than 76,000 text
messages a day, including from requests by people for route info and setting up meetings.
Note: For more on government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal

2014-01-15, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/truth-israels-secret-nuclear-ars...
In an extraordinary feat of subterfuge, Israel managed to assemble an entire underground nuclear
arsenal now estimated at 80 warheads, on a par with India and Pakistan and even tested a
bomb nearly half a century ago, with a minimum of international outcry or even much public
awareness of what it was doing. Despite the fact that the Israel's nuclear programme has been an
open secret since a disgruntled technician, Mordechai Vanunu, blew the whistle on it in 1986, the
official Israeli position is still never to confirm or deny its existence. When the former speaker of the
Knesset, Avraham Burg, broke the taboo last month, declaring Israeli possession of both nuclear
and chemical weapons and describing the official non-disclosure policy as "outdated and childish"
a rightwing group formally called for a police investigation for treason. Meanwhile, western
governments have played along with the policy of "opacity" by avoiding all mention of the issue.
Israel ... almost certainly broke a treaty banning nuclear tests, as well as countless national and
international laws restricting the traffic in nuclear materials and technology. The list of nations
that secretly sold Israel the material and expertise to make nuclear warheads, or who
turned a blind eye to its theft, include today's staunchest campaigners against proliferation:
the US, France, Germany, Britain and even Norway. Israeli agents charged with buying fissile
material and state-of-the-art technology found their way into some of the most sensitive industrial
establishments in the world.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Study Suggests Wi-Fi Exposure More Dangerous To Kids Than

Previously Thought
2014-01-13, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2015/01/13/study-suggests-wi-fi-ex...
Uh-oh. Not another diatribe about the dangers of our modern communication systems? Even if we
want to, we cant eliminate our exposure, or our childrens, to RF/EMF. But we may need to limit
that exposure when possible. That was among the conclusions of a report published in the Journal
of Microscopy and Ultrastructure entitled Why children absorb more microwave radiation than
adults: The consequences. From an analysis of others' studies, the authors argue that
children and adolescents are at considerable risk from devices that radiate microwaves
(and that adults are at a lower, but still significant, risk). Children and fetuses absorb more
microwave radiation, according to the authors, because their bodies are relatively smaller, their
skulls are thinner, and their brain tissue is more absorbent. They also note that the average time
between exposure to a carcinogen and a resultant tumor is three or more decades, thus making it
difficult to arrive at definitive conclusions. This is not a call to throw out all electronic devices.
However, at the very least, it should open up the discussion about different safety levels for adults
versus children. In a Network World opinion article ominously titled Is Wi-Fi killing usslowly?
columnist Mark Gibbs makes the point that laws and warnings are all very well but its pretty
much certain that all restrictions on products that use microwave technology will err on ...
the side thats safe for industry, not the side of whats safe for society.
Note: On a list of Top Stories Subjected to Press Censorship in 2014, 'evidence of ongoing
wireless technology health hazards' was number 14. For more on the dangers of over-exposure to
electromagnetic field radiation, see this summary of a 2010 LA Times article.

Group Unveils Satan Statue Design for Oklahoma

2014-01-07, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/satanists-unveil-design-okla-capitol-monum...
A satanic group unveiled designs ... for a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan it wants to put at the
Oklahoma state Capitol, where a Ten Commandments monument was placed in 2012. The
New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees
the Capitol grounds, including an artist's rendering that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goatheaded figure with horns, wings and a long beard that's often used as a symbol of the occult. In
the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.
"The monument has been designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and
beyond," temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said in a statement. "The statue will also have a
functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration
and contemplation." The Satanic Temple maintains that the Oklahoma Legislature's decision to
authorize a privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol opened the door for its
statue. The Ten Commandments monument was placed on the north steps of the building in 2012,
and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to have it removed.

Similar requests for monuments have been made by a Hindu leader in Nevada, an animal rights
group and the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. In response, the Oklahoma Capitol
Preservation Commission recently placed a moratorium on considering any new requests.
"Anybody can still make their request, but we'll hold off on considering them until the lawsuit is
adjudicated," commission Chairman Trait Thompson said.
Note: We include this article because so many people ignore the existence of the Satanists among
us, some of whom have even had high rank in the U.S. military. Watch this video to hear U.S. army
colonel Michael Aquino defend his being a satanist. If you are open to more, read this essay by a
professor who exposed the destruction being caused by these groups.

Cheerios drops genetically modified ingredients

2014-01-02, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/01/02/cheerios-gmos-cereals...
Under pressure from consumers and activist groups, General Mills says it will stop using
genetically modified ingredients to make its original Cheerios cereal. While the oats used to make
Cheerios have never contained any genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the company did
make changes to its sourcing and now, for example, only uses non-GMO pure cane sugar
instead of beet sugar, says spokesman Mike Siemienas. The move is being hailed by anti-GMO
activist groups as a major victory. It comes at a time activists have been increasingly pressuring
American food makers to remove GMOs from all foods or, at the very least, label all foods that
do contain GMOs. Last year, Whole Foods became the first national grocery chain to require all of
its suppliers to label all products that contain GMOs by 2018. In the past year, Chipotle announced
plans to phase out GMOs and Kashi is also is taking action to phase out GMOs. "This is a big
deal," says Todd Larsen, corporate responsibility director at Green America, a green economy
activist group. "Cheerios is an iconic brand and one of the leading breakfast cereals in the U.S."
What's more, he adds, "We don't know of any other example of such a major brand of
packaged food, eaten by so many Americans, going from being GMO to non-GMO. " One
year ago, the group used social media efforts to rally consumers to pressure General Mills
to make Cheerios without GMOs. Cheerios was picked, in part, because it's one of the first
foods given to many toddlers.
Note: For more on the health risks of GMO foods, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

For Foster Kids, 'One Simple Wish' Makes Big Impact

2013-12-30, NBC News
http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/30/22113537-for-foster-kids-one...

She doesn't wear a fairy costume or carry a magic wand, but for many children who don't have a
lot to begin with, she might just be their fairy godmother. Danielle Gletow is the founder and
executive director of One Simple Wish, a Trenton, N.J., charity that fulfills wishes for foster children
in 44 states. The wishes can be big, like horseback riding lessons, or small and simple like a
backpack or shampoo. The children are asking for things like bicycles, skateboards, prom tickets,
and gymnastic lessons, things that most would consider normal childhood requests and activities,
yet they have no one to provide them. Thats where One Simple Wish fills the void, matching
wishes from children, caseworkers and foster parents with donations from individuals and
corporate donors. For 14-year-old Blessing Williams, who has been in the foster care system for
more than a decade, the wish was dance lessons. On a recent Friday afternoon, her wish was
fulfilled. With the beat of hip-hop music in the background and a grin on her face, Blessing glided
across the floor as part of a class at the Watson-Johnson Dance Theatre. Her wish was donated
by 15-year-old Cassidy Mack, who was also a foster child before finding a forever family. As
much as weve been growing, and our reach has been expanding, the core of our mission
hasnt changed, its about one child. I love that thats resonated with people. They can
come to our site, www.onesimplewish.org and they can make change for one individual and
thats what it's all about.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Agent: FBI key in border agent Terry slaying

2013-12-26, Arizona Republic (AZ's leading newspaper)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131226fast-furious-agent-terry-killi...
A federal agent who exposed the Justice Departments flawed gun-trafficking investigation
known as Operation Fast and Furious says the FBI played a key role in events leading to
the 2010 murder near Nogales, Ariz., of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. John Dodson, a
special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, contends that the
bandits who killed Terry were working for FBI operatives and were sent to the border to do a drug
rip-off using intelligence from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. I dont think the
(FBI) assets were part of the rip-off crew, Dodson said. I think they were directing the rip
crew. Dodsons comments to The Arizona Republic amplify assertions he made in his recently
released book, The Unarmed Truth, about his role as a whistle-blower in the Fast and Furious
debacle. In his book, Dodson uses cautious language to characterize his account of circumstances
surrounding Terrys death, saying the information is based on firsthand knowledge, personal
opinion and press reports. He asserts that the DEA had information about, and may have
orchestrated, a large drug shipment through Peck Canyon that December night. He alleges that
DEA agents shared that intelligence with FBI counterparts, who advised criminal informants from
another cartel that the load would be theirs for the taking. Stealing such a shipment would
increase the clout of the FBI informants in the cartel organization they had penetrated, Dodson
wrote, and thus lead to better intel for them in the future.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

2013-12-20, CNBC/Reuters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101290438
As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used
computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with
RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry. Documents leaked by
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed
formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New
York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important
distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance
security in personal computers and many other products. Undisclosed until now was that RSA
received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for
number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract.
Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue that the
relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year. The RSA deal shows one
way the NSA carried out what Snowden's documents describe as a key strategy for
enhancing surveillance: the systematic erosion of security tools. NSA documents released
in recent months called for using "commercial relationships" to advance that goal, but did
not name any security companies as collaborators.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

What's wifi doing to us? Experiment finds that shrubs die when placed
next to wireless routers
2013-12-16, Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2524598/Experiment-finds-plant...
A group of schoolgirls claims to have made a scientific breakthrough that shows wifi signals could
damage your health by experimenting with cress. The 15-year-olds set out to test whether
mobile phone signals could be harmful. They say the result could affect millions of people around
the world. An experiment in Denmark claims to show that Wi-Fi signals are powerful enough to kill
cress seeds after just 12 days of exposure. Pupil Lea Nielsen said: We all thought we experienced
concentration problems in school if we slept with our mobile phones at the bedside, and
sometimes we also found it difficult sleeping. However, because they were not able to monitor
their brain activity at their school in Denmark, they chose to monitor plants near wireless routers,
which emit similar radio waves to mobile phones. When the girls grew trays of garden cress
next to wifi routers, they found that most of the seedlings died. In the experiment, they

placed six trays in a room without any equipment and another six trays in a room next to
two routers. Over 12 days many of the seedlings in the wifi room turned brown and died,
whereas those in the others room thrived. Kim Horsevad, the students biology teacher at
Hjallerup School, said: This has sparked quite a lively debate in Denmark regarding the potential
adverse health effects from mobile phones and wifi equipment. The results will bolster the findings
of researchers in Holland, who found that trees exposed to wireless radio signals suffered from
damaged bark and dying leaves.
Note: For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev believed in

'majestic mind control'
2013-12-16, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alleged-boston-marathon-bomb...
Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev heard voices inside his head and had an
alter-ego, a report published in The Boston Globe claimed yesterday. Donald Larking, 67, who
attended the same Boston mosque as the suspected bomber, said Tsarnaev believed the voices
were part of a majestic mind control, which was a way of breaking down a person and
creating an alternative personality with which they must coexist." Larking also told the Globe
that Tsarnaev was torn between himself and an alter-ego. You can give a signal, a phrase
or a gesture, and bring out the alternate personality and make them do things, he said;
Tamerlan thought someone might have done that to him. According to the report, the voices
came to [Tsarnaev] at unexpected times, an internal rambling that he alone could hear. Alarmed,
he confided to his mother that the voice 'felt like two people inside of me. As he got older, the
voice became more authoritative, its bidding more insistent. Tamerlan confided in a close friend
that the voice had begun to issue orders and to require him to perform certain acts, though he
never told his friend specifically what those acts were. Tamerlan, 26, and his younger brother
Dzhokhar, 20, are alleged to have planted the two pressure cooker bombs that killed three and
injured more than 260 at the Boston Marathon in April. While Tamerlan was later killed in a
shootout with police, his brother was captured and now potentially faces the death penalty under
charges of terrorism.
Note: Many have long suspected that most mass murderers are mind control victims subject to top
secret mind control programs, like those revealed in declassified government documents on this
webpage. For the full investigative report in the Boston Globe, click here. For lots more verifiable
information on these mind control programs, click here.

The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

2013-12-15, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/health/the-selling-of-attention-deficit-dis...
After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith
Conners could be celebrating. Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad
seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have
largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping
youngsters succeed in school and beyond. But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he
addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15
percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder
had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and
called them a national disaster of dangerous proportions. The numbers make it look like an
epidemic. Well, its not. Its preposterous, Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor
emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. This is a concoction to justify
the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels. The rise of A.D.H.D.
diagnoses and prescriptions for stimulants over the years coincided with a remarkably successful
two-decade campaign by pharmaceutical companies to publicize the syndrome and promote the
pills to doctors, educators and parents. With the childrens market booming, the industry is now
employing similar marketing techniques as it focuses on adult A.D.H.D., which could become even
more profitable.
Note: For more on corruption in the medical industry, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup

2013-12-15, New York Post
http://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/
After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors. But the
White House never let it see an entire section of Congress investigative report on 9/11 dealing
with specific sources of foreign support for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. It
was kept secret and remains so today. President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the
800-page report. The pages are completely blank. Some information already has leaked from the
classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi
Arabia, a presumed ally. The Saudis deny any role in 9/11. The findings, if confirmed, would back
up open-source reporting showing the hijackers had, at a minimum, ties to several Saudi officials
and agents while they were preparing for their attacks inside the United States. Is the federal
government protecting the Saudis? Case agents [say] they were repeatedly called off
pursuing 9/11 leads back to the Saudi Embassy, which had curious sway over White House
and FBI responses to the attacks. Just days after Bush met with the Saudi ambassador in the
White House, the FBI evacuated from the United States dozens of Saudi officials, as well as

Osama bin Laden family members. [Ambassador Bandar ibn-Saud] made the request for
escorts directly to FBI headquarters on Sept. 13, 2001 just hours after he met with the
president.
Note: For verifiable evidence the bin Ladens were evacuated shortly after 9/11, click here. Why
are most media not reporting this important story? A search showed only one other major media
outlet in the US (Boston Globe at this link) that covered this news. The appearance of this article in
the most popular tabloid in New York is being interpreted by some observers as a sea change in
public attitudes to the tragedy of 9/11. Of course the most important question is whether there was
US government involvement in the attacks. For abundant evidence implying this, see the deeply
revealing reports available at our 9/11 Information Center.

Meditation Has the Power to Influence Your Genes

2013-12-09, Psychology Today
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201312/meditation-has-th...
In a groundbreaking discovery, a collaborative team of researchers from Wisconsin, Spain, and
France reported in December 2013 the first evidence of specific molecular changes at a genetic
level following a period of mindfulness meditation. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness
meditation practice," says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for
Investigating Healthy Minds. The study compared the effects of a single day of intensive
mindfulness practice between a group of experienced meditators and a group of untrained control
subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After an intensive day of mindfulness
practice, the meditators showed a dramatic range of genetic and molecular differences.
Meditation was found to alter levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of
pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a
stressful situation. "Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current
targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs," says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article
and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona in Spain, where the
molecular analyses were conducted. In past studies, mindfulness-based training has been shown
to have beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders. Meditation is endorsed by the American Heart
Association as an effective way to lower [the] risk for heart disease. Another study from April 2011
found that meditation produces powerful pain-relieving effects in the brain.
Note: For an excellent and inspiring book on how your thinking and feeling can change your
genes, check out Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief, available here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

9/11 Link To Saudi Arabia Is Topic Of 28 Redacted Pages In Government

Report; Congressmen Push For Release

2013-12-09, International Business Times

http://www.ibtimes.com/911-link-saudi-arabia-topic-28-redacted-pages-governme...
[Since] Sept. 11, 2001, victims loved ones, injured survivors, and members of the media have all
tried without much success to discover the true nature of the relationship between the 19 hijackers
15 of them Saudi nationals and the Saudi Arabian government. Many news organizations
reported that some of the terrorists were linked to the Saudi royals and that they even may have
received financial support from them as well as from several mysterious, moneyed Saudi men
living in San Diego. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied any connection. But earlier this year,
Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., were given access to the 28
redacted pages of the [Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the
Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001] issued in late 2002, which have been thought to hold
some answers about the Saudi connection to the attack. Last week, Jones and Lynch introduced a
resolution that urges President Obama to declassify the 28 pages, which were originally classified
by President George W. Bush. It has never been fully explained why the pages were blacked out,
but President Bush stated in 2003 that releasing the pages would violate national security. Some
of the information has leaked out over the years ... that the 28 pages in fact clearly portray
that the Saudi government had at the very least an indirect role in supporting the terrorists
responsible for the 9/11 attack. In addition, these classified pages clarify somewhat the
links between the hijackers and at least one Saudi government worker living in San Diego.
Note: For more on the government cover-up of the truth behind 9/11, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

New Yorker, Washington Post Passed On Seymour Hersh Syria Report

2013-12-08, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/seymour-hersh-syria-report_n_4409674...
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh accused the Obama administration ... of having
cherry-picked intelligence regarding the Aug. 21 chemical attack in Syria that served as evidence
for an argument in favor of striking President Bashar Assad's government. Though President
Barack Obama eventually decided not to strike Syria, the administration made a public case for
war by saying that Assads regime was responsible for a poison gas attack in the outskirts of
Damascus. The U.N. later concluded the attack had involved the nerve agent sarin. In his piece -titled "Whose Sarin?" -- Hersh reported that al-Nusra, a jihadi group fighting in Syrias longrunning civil war, had also "mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of
manufacturing it in quantity. Therefore, he wrote, Obama did not tell the whole story
when stating with certainty that Assad had to be responsible, crossing a so-called "red
line" that would trigger U.S. retaliation. Hersh is a freelancer, but he's best known these days
for his work in The New Yorker, where he helped break the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004. In an
email, Hersh wrote that there was little interest for the story at The New Yorker. Hersh then took
the story to The Washington Post. Hersh wrote that he was told by email that Executive Editor
Marty Baron decided that the sourcing in the article did not meet the Post's standards. Hersh

[then] sent the Syria story to editors at the London Review of Books, LRB Senior Editor Christian
Lorentzen [said]. Lorentzen said the piece was not only edited, but thoroughly fact checked by a
former New Yorker fact checker who had worked with Hersh in the past.
Note: For more on government lies to provide pretexts for war, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Smelling a rat: GM maize, health and the Sralini affair

2013-12-07, The Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21591159-study-suggested...
Genetically modified maize causes cancer: that was the gist of one of the most controversial
studies in recent memory, published in September 2012 by Food and Chemical Toxicology. [But]
on November 28th the journal retracted it. The article was by Gilles-Eric Sralini of the University
of Caen, in France, and his colleagues. It described what happened to rats fed with NK603 maize,
a variety made resistant to a herbicide called glyphosate by a genetic modification made by
Monsanto. Monsanto also discovered glyphosates herbicidal properties. It sells it under the trade
name Roundup. In Dr Sralinis experiment, rats fed with the modified maize were reckoned
more likely to develop tumours than those which had not been. Females were especially badly
affected: their death rates were two or three times as high as those of control groups. The
article was explosive. Jean-Marc Ayrault, Frances prime minister, said that if its results were
confirmed his government would press for a Europe-wide ban on NK603 maize. Russia suspended
imports of the crop. Kenya banned all GM crops. Though the paper has been retracted, that is
unlikely to be end of the matter. The journals publisher said there was no evidence of fraud
or intentional misrepresentation of the data, which are the usual justifications for
retraction. Scientific opinion runs strongly against the conclusion that GM foods are harmfulbut
not universally so. A group called the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental
Responsibility backed Dr Sralini.
Note: Over 100 scientists have signed a pledge to boycott Elsevier, the publisher of the journal
which retracted the GMO study, as you can see at this link. For an excellent video review of the
study, click here. For more on the health risks of GMO foods, see the deeply revealing report
available here.

EU fines banks record $2.3B over Libor

2013-12-04, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/04/news/companies/libor-europe-fines
The European Union has levied a record antitrust fine of 1.71 billion ($2.3 billion) on six European
and U.S. banks and brokers for rigging benchmark interest rates. Deutsche Bank was hit with the
single biggest penalty of 725.4 million for participating in illegal cartels to manipulate the Euro
Interbank Offered Rate, or Euribor, and London interbank offered rate, or Libor. "What is

shocking about the Libor and Euribor scandals is ... the collusion between banks who are
supposed to be competing with each other," said Joaquin Almunia, Europe's top antitrust
official. Other banks fined [were] Societe Generale (446 million), Royal Bank of Scotland (391
million), JP Morgan (79.9 million) and Citigroup (70 million). U.K.-based broker RP Martin was
fined 247,000 for facilitating one infringement. EU investigators said the Euribor cartel operated
for nearly three years between 2005 and 2008, as traders discussed submissions used to
calculate the benchmark rate, and compared trading and pricing strategies. They also discovered
illegal collusion in the setting of Libor in Japanese yen between 2007 and 2010. UBS and
Barclays, [which] have already been fined by regulators in the U.K. and U.S. for Libor rigging, were
spared further punishment because they cooperated with the European Commission investigation.
They dodged new fines of 2.5 billion and 690 million respectively. The scandal broke in the
middle of 2012 when Barclays admitted trying to manipulate Libor, which together with related
rates is used to price trillions of dollars of financial products around the world.
Note: Notice that no one is going to jail and no one is being personally fined for these incredibly
outrageous manipulations. For an analysis that argues the "record fines" are really just a "slap on
the wrist" for the big banks, click here. For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

As Hospital Prices Soar, a Stitch Tops $500

2013-12-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/health/as-hospital-costs-soar-single-stitch...
In a medical system notorious for opaque finances and inflated bills, nothing is more convoluted
than hospital pricing, economists say. Hospital charges represent about a third of the $2.7 trillion
annual United States health care bill, the biggest single segment, according to government
statistics, and are the largest driver of medical inflation, a new study in The Journal of the
American Medical Association found. A day spent as an inpatient at an American hospital costs on
average more than $4,000, five times the charge in many other developed countries, according to
the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurance industries. The
most expensive hospitals charge more than $12,500 a day. And at many of them ...
emergency rooms are profit centers. That is why one of the simplest and oldest medical
procedures closing a wound with a needle and thread typically leads to bills of at least
$1,500 and often much more. At Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, Daniel Diaz, 29, a public
relations executive, was billed $3,355.96 for five stitches on his finger after cutting himself while
peeling an avocado. At a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., Arch Roberts Jr., 56, a former government
employee, was charged more than $2,000 for three stitches after being bitten by a dog. Insurers
and patients negotiated lower prices, but those charges were a starting point. The main reason
for high hospital costs in the United States, economists say, is fiscal, not medical:
Hospitals are the most powerful players in a health care system that has little or no price
regulation in the private market.

Note: For more on corruption in the health industry, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal

2013-12-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/transatlantic-free-trade...
[The European Commission's] plans to create a single market incorporating Europe and the United
States, progressing so nicely when hardly anyone knew, have been blown wide open. All over
Europe people are asking why this is happening; why we were not consulted; for whom it is being
done. The Commission insists that its Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership should
include a toxic mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement. Where this has been forced
into other trade agreements, it has allowed big corporations to sue governments before secretive
arbitration panels composed of corporate lawyers, which bypass domestic courts and override the
will of parliaments. This mechanism could threaten almost any means by which governments
might seek to defend their citizens or protect the natural world. Already it is being used by
mining companies to sue governments trying to keep them out of protected areas; by
banks fighting financial regulation; by a nuclear company contesting Germany's decision to
switch off atomic power. No longer able to keep this process quiet, the European commission
has instead devised a strategy for lying to us. The message is that the trade deal is about
"delivering growth and jobs" and will not "undermine regulation and existing levels of protection in
areas like health, safety and the environment". Just one problem: it's not true. From the outset, the
transatlantic partnership has been driven by corporations and their lobby groups, who boast of
being able to "co-write" it.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Who Is Watching the Watch Lists?

2013-12-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/sunday-review/who-is-watching-the-watch-lis...
The federal governments main terrorist watch list has grown to at least 700,000 people, with little
scrutiny over how the determinations are made or the impact on those marked with the terrorist
label. The government refuses to confirm or deny whether someone is on the list, officially called
the Terrorist Screening Database, or divulge the criteria used to make the decisions. Even less is
known about the secondary watch lists that are derived from the main one, including the no-fly list
(used to prevent people from boarding aircraft), the selectee and expanded selectee lists (used to
flag travelers for extra screening at airport checkpoints), the TECS database (used to vet people
entering or leaving the United States), the Consular Lookout and Support System (used to screen
visa applications) and the known or suspected terrorists list (used by law enforcement in routine
police encounters). For people who have landed on these lists, the terrorist designation has

been difficult to challenge legally. The Terrorist Screening Center, which administers the
main terrorist watch list, declined to discuss its procedures, or to release current data
about the number of people on various watch lists, and how many of them are American
citizens.
Note: For more on government threats to civil liberties, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Stories of life, death and faith: 'To Heaven and Back' - Anita Moorjani
2013-11-29, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/29/us/to-heaven-and-back
On February 2, 2006, Anita Moorjani was in a coma. With her body riddled with cancer, doctors
told her husband that her organs were shutting down and she likely would not make it beyond the
next 36 hours. "I was just so tired of fighting to try to stay alive," she said. So she said she let go.
The next morning, she didn't wake up. Her husband rushed her to the hospital, where the family
was told the bad news: Moorjani was in a coma and not expected to wake again. Moorjani can't
put her finger on the exact minute that she says she left her body. She saw her husband standing
next to her hospital bed. Moorjani could also hear conversations that took place between her
husband and her doctors, far from her hospital room. She heard them, she said, discuss her
pending death. "Your wife's heart might be beating, but she's not really in there," a doctor told her
husband -- a conversation, she said, he would later confirm to her after she asked. Hovering
between life and death, she said she was surrounded by people who loved her. Her
[deceased] best friend, Soni, was there. So was her father, who had died years earlier from
heart failure. There were others there, too. She knew they loved her and cared for her. It was
a feeling unlike anything she says she had ever felt. "At first, I did not want to come back. Why
would I want to come back into this sick body?" she said. About 30 hours after being hospitalized,
Moorjani awoke. Within days, she said, her organs began to function again. Within weeks, doctors
could find no evidence of cancer in her body, she said.
Note: For more on Anita's incredible journey through death, click here. For a treasure trove of
inspiring news articles on near-death experiences, click here.

Anonymous Vs. Steubenville

2013-11-27, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/anonymous-vs-steubenville-20131127
On November 25th, the most notorious rape case in recent memory took yet another shocking
twist. In Steubenville, Ohio, where a 16-year-old girl was raped by two high school football players
in August 2012, a grand jury indicted the city's School Superintendent, Michael McVey, on felony
charges of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice. An elementary school principal and
two coaches in the district were indicted as well, facing misdemeanor charges including failure to

report child abuse and making false statements. Shortly after the news hit that morning, Deric
Lostutter, a ... 26-year-old programmer in Lexington, Kentucky, [sent] me a message. "We were
called liars and more," he wrote, but "we were right about it." He had reason to feel vindicated. As
one of the most notorious members of the hacker collective, Anonymous, Lostutter battled
to bring justice to Steubenville, exposing secrets of a town that's still reeling from the
fallout today. He just never expected that he'd get raided by the FBI, and face more prison
time than the rapists in the end. Anonymous is a purposefully chaotic and leaderless collective.
Anyone can proclaim themselves a member or declare an "operation" against a target. But getting
others to [care] is another story. This is what makes Lostutter stand out. Less than two months
after creating his alter ego as KYAnonymous, he launched and organized two of group's most
renowned and righteous operations yet: battling the Westboro Baptist Church and, most famously,
the town of Steubenville, Ohio, after the high-profile rape of a teenage girl by players on the high
school football team.
Note: On the final page of this revealing report, Lostutter claims he is facing 25 years in prison for
his heroic acts. To learn about some of the disturbing forces which perpetuate sexual abuse in our
society, watch the eye-opening Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this
link. For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Intel officials believe Snowden has 'doomsday' cache

2013-11-26, MSN/Reuters
http://news.msn.com/us/intel-officials-believe-snowden-has-doomsday-cache
British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly
classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor
Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The cache contains documents generated by the
NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven
current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said. One source
described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's "insurance policy" against
arrest or physical harm. U.S. officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the
classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA
has been made public. Some Obama Administration officials have said privately that Snowden
downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories. "The worst is yet to come,"
said one former U.S. official who follows the investigation closely. Snowden ... is believed to have
downloaded between 50,000 and 200,000 classified NSA and British government documents. [It is]
estimated that the total number of Snowden documents made public so far is over 500. Glenn
Greenwald, who met with Snowden in Hong Kong and was among the first to report on the leaked
documents for the Guardian newspaper, said the former NSA contractor had "taken extreme
precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure
the stories will inevitably be published."

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

CIA turned some Guantanamo Bay prisoners into double agents against
al-Qaeda
2013-11-26, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-turned-some-guantan...
In the early years after Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA turned some Guantanamo Bay prisoners into
double agents, sending them home to help the United States kill terrorists, current and former U.S.
officials said. The CIA promised the prisoners freedom, safety for their families and millions of
dollars from the agencys secret accounts. It was a gamble. Officials knew there was a chance
that some prisoners might quickly spurn their deal and kill Americans. Nearly a dozen
current and former U.S. officials described aspects of the program to the Associated Press.
Dozens of prisoners were evaluated, but only a handful, from a variety of countries, were turned
into spies who signed agreements to work for the CIA. Prisoners agreed to cooperate for a variety
of reasons, officials said. Some received assurances that the United States would resettle their
families. Another agreed to cooperate after the agency insinuated that it would harm his children, a
former official said, a threat similar to those interrogators made to self-proclaimed Sept. 11
mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. All were promised money. Exactly how much each
received remains unclear. But altogether, the government paid millions for their services,
officials said. The money came from a secret CIA account, code-named Pledge, that is used
to pay informants, officials said. Officials said the program ended in 2006 as the flow of detainees
to Guantanamo Bay slowed to a trickle. The last prisoner arrived there in 2008.
Note: There is no doubt that the CIA used mind control techniques to control and likely program
some of the prisoners. To read verifiable documentation on the U.S. governments secret mind
control programs, click here. For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

John F. Kennedy's Vision of Peace

2013-11-20, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-201...
Despite the Cold War rhetoric of his campaign, JFK's greatest ambition as president was to break
the militaristic ideology that has dominated our country since World War II. He told his close friend
Ben Bradlee that he wanted the epitaph "He kept the peace," and said to another friend, William
Walton, "I am almost a 'peace at any price' president." Hugh Sidey, a journalist and friend, wrote
that the governing aspect of JFK's leadership was "a total revulsion" of war. Nevertheless, as
James W. Douglass argues in his book JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It
Matters, JFK's presidency would be a continuous struggle with his own military and intelligence
agencies, which engaged in incessant schemes to trap him into escalating the Cold War into a hot

one. His first major confrontation with the Pentagon, the Bay of Pigs catastrophe, came only three
months into his presidency and would set the course for the next 1,000 days. From the start, JFK
recoiled at the caper's stench, as CIA Director Allen Dulles has acknowledged, demanding
assurances from CIA and Pentagon brass that there was no chance of failure and that there would
be no need for U.S. military involvement. Dulles and the generals knowingly lied and gave him
those guarantees. When the invasion failed, JFK refused to order airstrikes against Castro.
JFK was realizing that the CIA posed a monumental threat to American democracy. As the
brigade faltered, he told Arthur Schlesinger that he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a
thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."
Note: For more on the powerful social forces that assassinated JFK, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

JPMorgan settlement is a payout to victims

2013-11-20, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/JPMorgan-settlement-is-a-pay...
When the fires from the 2007-08 financial crisis were still being fought, JPMorgan Chase looked
like a winner. Not only was JPMorgan Chase able to scoop up former rivals Washington Mutual
and Bear Stearns for bargain basement prices, but its stock value shot up by nearly 31 percent
over the past 4 1/2 years. But this year has been a little less kind to JPMorgan Chase. On
[November 20) JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $13 billion settlement with the federal government
over selling toxic mortgage investments. It also admitted to wrongdoing in knowingly peddling the
instruments. Both settlements are for the "incomplete information" JPMorgan Chase gave to the
pension funds for their purchases of toxic securities during the years 2004 to 2008. Even for a
colossus such as JPMorgan Chase, $13 billion is a lot of money - about half of its annual profit.
Forcing JPMorgan to admit wrongdoing - a rare concession - may open the door to more
headaches for the company, especially because the government is continuing a criminal probe into
its mortgage prices. The scale of the devastation is still so enormous that the only question left
for the Justice Department to answer is why no one from any of the big banks has yet to go
to jail. Wall Street's wrongdoing was about more than a dollar cost - it was about the
widespread human suffering that remains with us today. Jail time would be more than
appropriate, but so far the banks have been able to pay their way out of it.
Note: Because JP Morgan Chase can write off $11 billion of the fine as tax deductible, the real fine
is actually reduced by $4 billion to about $7 billion, just one-third of Chase's $21 billion profit in the
year 2012. For more on financial fraud, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Child abuse report reveals a betrayal of trust 'beyond comprehension'

2013-11-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/child-abuse-report-reveals-a-bet...

We have called our report Betrayal of Trust, said [Victoria, Australia MP] Georgie Crozier as she
presented the findings of the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and
other non-government organisations. Children were betrayed by trusted figures in organisations of
high standing and suffered unimaginable harm, she said. Parents of these children experienced a
betrayal beyond comprehension. And the community was betrayed by the failure of organisations
to protect children in their care. The reports criticism of the Catholic church is unsparing. Its
recommendations are radical. If adopted they would strip the Catholic church of its virtual immunity
in the courts and compel religious leaders of all faiths to report child abuse to the police. The
committee has recommended that priests and other religious leaders face imprisonment if
they fail to report or if they conceal criminal child abuse; or if they knowingly put a child at
risk of abuse or fail to remove children to safety. Even more radical are recommendations
that would open the courts to victims of abuse by clergy. All faiths would be exposed by legal
changes that gave victims more time to take action and clarified the legal responsibility to protect
children from offenders. But the particular legal protection now enjoyed by the Catholic church may
be swept away if the Victorian government accepts the recommendation that the church like
other churches becomes a legal entity under Australian law.
Note: For more on child abuse by trusted institutions, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here. For an in-depth report showing how even police
assigned to investigate child abuse were intimately involved in the cover-up, click here.

Fukushima fallout: Should the West Coast be concerned?

2013-11-07, KABC-TV (Los Angeles ABC affiliate)
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/world_news&id=9317789
The Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to spew radiation. It's 5,300 miles from Los Angeles
-- and still not far enough. Fukushima is an enormous problem that's getting bigger. Nuclear
Engineer Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research,
confirmed that ocean currents are carrying the radioactive water to the West Coast. "There are
several hundred tons of radioactive water that are pouring into the ocean at the site every day,"
Makhijani said. According to a study published in the journal Deep Sea Research 1, it will begin
arriving this March [2014]. But Makhijani says there's no need to panic. The radiation will be
diluted, and levels found on the West Coast are very low and not considered dangerous so far. But
the question is, will we really know? "I think we should be doing a better monitoring of food. I don't
think the EPA and FDA are doing a good enough job," Makhijani said. The scariest part of
Fukushima is not what has already happened; it's what could still happen. Every day is a
desperate effort to keep the plant from melting down. Fukushima is potentially the biggest
ticking time bomb in human history. The damaged plant is in no condition to withstand another
massive earthquake or tsunami. Just last week, Dr. David Suzuki, one of Canada's top
environmental scientists, stunned the audience when he described what will happen if a massive
quake did hit today. "It's bye bye Japan, and everybody on the West Coast of North America
should evacuate," Suzuki said.

Note: For more on the Fukushima meltdowns and the dangers of nuclear power, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Billionaires Received U.S. Farm Subsidies, Report Finds

2013-11-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/billionaires-received-us-farm-subsidies-...
The federal government paid $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies from 1995 to 2012 to
50 billionaires or businesses in which they have some form of ownership, according to a report
released [on November 7] by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based research
organization. The billionaires who received the subsidies or owned companies that did include the
Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen; the investment titan Charles Schwab; and S. Truett Cathy,
owner of Chick-fil-A. The billionaires who got the subsidies have a collective net worth of
$316 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The Working Group said its findings were likely to
underestimate the total farm subsidies that went to the billionaires on the Forbes 400 list because
many of them also received crop insurance subsidies. The authors of the report said it is timely,
given that lawmakers are debating a House proposal that would cut nearly $40 billion over 10
years from the food stamp program, which helps provide food for nearly 47 million people. A
Senate provision would cut $4.5 billion over the same period. A report released [on November 6]
by the Center for American Progress ... found that food stamps kept about five million people
above the poverty line last year. The food stamp program was cut by about $5 billion on Nov. 1
when a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill that added funding for the program expired. The irony
is that farm subsidies are going to billionaires at the same time that there are proposals to
kick three to five million people off of food stamps, said Scott Faber, vice president for
government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The Biggest, Baddest Prison Profiteer of Them All

2013-11-05, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-lava/the-biggest-baddest-priso_b_4219372....
"CCA" has become a dirty word. Kanye West cited it when rapping about America's class of "New
Slaves." Anonymous invoked it to describe a bad financial investment that undermines justice. And
for state after state, the word represents a failed approach to public safety. Profiting off mass
incarceration is a dirty business. Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America
[CCA] squanders taxpayer money and runs facilities rife with human rights abuses. All private
prison companies have corrupting incentives. One is to save money by cutting corners.
Another is to promote their bottom line. Although CCA isn't the only company with these
incentives, it has done more than any other corporation to [make] the private prison
industry into a behemoth plagued by abuse and neglect and profiting off our nation's over-

reliance on incarceration. CCA routinely shirks its responsibility to comply with basic standards.
In Idaho, CCA employees falsified nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records. In Ohio, auditors found
outrageous violations like prison without running water for toilets, in which prisoners had no choice
but to use plastic bags for defecation and cups for urination. And yet, CCA made $1.7 billion in just
the last year -- more than any other private prison company. The company pours money into both
lobbying and campaign contributions. From 2002 to 2012, CCA devoted more than $19 million to
lobbying Congress, and its PAC shelled out over $1.4 million to candidates for federal office during
the same time period.
Note: CCA is just one of the many powerful entities getting rich off mass incarceration. Meet the
other Prison Profiteers and take action to fight their abuses at PrisonProfiteers.org. For a video
exposing this craziness, click here. For more on corruption in the government-prison-industrial
complex, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Learning is something we do together

2013-11-01, The Intelligent Optimist Magazine
http://theoptimist.com/learning-we-do-together
Guest teacher Toshiro Kanamori captivates the students at the Amstelveen College high school in
the Netherlands. Though he is almost a head shorter than most of the students, he holds their
attention as he speaks passionately with the help of a translator. But that's almost unnecessary; as
someone says later, with his hand gestures, you could almost understand him without the
translator. Kanamori speaks with his face, his hands, his whole body. Kanamori is no ordinary
teacher. In his vision of education, school is not so much a preparation for life; he believes children
should be participating in life. Life itself forms the foundation for learning. Thanks to the
heartwarming documentary "Children Full of Life", Kanamori, 67, is known all over Japan
and the world. The documentary follows Kanamori and an elementary school class for a
year as he teaches his students how to talk about feelings, be compassionate and be
happy. That last lesson, according to Kanamori, should be the reason kids go to school.
Kanamori teaches elementary school children at the Hokuriku Gaikun University in the Japanese
city of Kanazawa, and in the 38 years he's been -- as he puts it -- in, not in front of, the class, he's
brought the outside world into the curriculum. For instance, for a sex education lesson, he invited a
pregnant woman to class and let the kids ask any questions they might have. He also brought in a
terminal cancer patient to talk about her feelings about dying and death. Lessons about death?
According to Kanamori, death is not too heavy a subject for kids around ages 9 and 10.
Note: For a profoundly moving video of Mr. Kanamori working his magic with a group of Japanese
children, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

How economic growth has become anti-life

2013-11-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/how-economic-growth-has-...
Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians. It is seen as a measure
of progress. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to measure the wealth
of nations, has emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times.
However, economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction of nature, which in
turn leads to communities lacking the capacity to provide for themselves. In effect, growth
measures the conversion of nature into cash, and commons into commodities. Today, economics
is separated from and opposed to both ecological processes and basic needs. While the
destruction of nature has been justified on grounds of creating growth, poverty and dispossession
[have] increased. While being non-sustainable, it is also economically unjust. The dominant model
of economic development has in fact become anti-life. Nobel-prize winning economists Joseph
Stiglitz and Amartya Sen have admitted that GDP does not capture the human condition
and urged the creation of different tools to gauge the wellbeing of nations. This is why
countries like Bhutan have adopted the gross national happiness in place of gross domestic
product to calculate progress. We need to create measures beyond GDP, and economies
beyond the global supermarket, to rejuvenate real wealth. We need to remember that the real
currency of life is life itself.

GCHQ and European spy agencies worked together on mass

surveillance
2013-11-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/gchq-europe-spy-agencies-mass-...
The German, French, Spanish and Swedish intelligence services have all developed methods of
mass surveillance of internet and phone traffic over the past five years in close partnership with
Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency. The bulk monitoring is carried out through direct taps
into fibre optic cables and the development of covert relationships with
telecommunications companies. A loose but growing eavesdropping alliance has allowed
intelligence agencies from one country to cultivate ties with corporations from another to facilitate
the trawling of the web, according to GCHQ documents leaked by the former US intelligence
contractor Edward Snowden. The files also make clear that GCHQ played a leading role in
advising its European counterparts how to work around national laws intended to restrict
the surveillance power of intelligence agencies. US intelligence officials have insisted the mass
monitoring was carried out by the security agencies in the countries involved and shared with the
US. The Guardian revealed the existence of GCHQ's Tempora programme, in which the electronic
intelligence agency tapped directly into the transatlantic fibre optic cables to carry out bulk
surveillance. GCHQ officials expressed admiration for the technical capabilities of German
intelligence to do the same thing, [saying] the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) had "huge
technological potential and good access to the heart of the internet they are already seeing some
bearers running at 40Gbps and 100Gbps". Bearers is the GCHQ term for the fibre optic cables,
and gigabits per second (Gbps) measures the speed at which data runs through them.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Twenty-Six Countries Ban GMOsWhy Wont the US?

2013-10-29, The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blog/176863/gmo-wars-global-battlefield
The 2013 World Food Prize was awarded to three chemical company executives, including
Monsanto executive vice president and chief technology officer, Robert Fraley, responsible for
development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The choice of Fraley was widely
protested, with eighty-one members of the prestigious World Future Council calling it an affront to
the growing international consensus on safe, ecological farming practices that have been
scientifically proven to promote nutrition and sustainability. The choice of Monsantos man
triggered accusations of prize buying. From 1999 to 2011, Monsanto donated $380,000 to the
World Food Prize Foundation, in addition to a $5 million contribution in 2008. For some, the award
to Monsanto is actually a sign of desperation on the part of the GMO establishment. The
arguments of the critics are making headway. Owing to concern about the dangers and
risks posed by genetically engineered organisms, many governments have instituted total
or partial bans on their cultivation, importation, and field-testing. A few years ago, there were
sixteen countries that had total or partial bans on GMOs. Now there are at least twenty-six,
including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg,
Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico and Russia. Significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about
sixty other countries. Already, American rice farmers face strict limitations on their exports to the
European Union, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, and are banned altogether from Russia
and Bulgaria because unapproved genetically engineered rice escaped during open-field trials on
GMO rice.
Note: For more on the risks from GMO foods, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Canada should investigate Dick Cheney for war crimes

2013-10-29, Toronto Star (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/10/29/canada_should_investigat...
As vice-president of the United States, Dick Cheney was a key architect of a post-9/11 response
that featured waterboarding and other acts of torture, a global secret detention program where
people were held for years without charge, and extraordinary rendition, by which innocent men
such as Maher Arar were sent to countries like Syria to be tortured. His legacy of endless war
continues today. Dick Cheneys $500-a-person book tour appearance in Vancouver in September
2011 resulted in protests, with demonstrators calling for Cheney to be banned or prosecuted as a
war criminal. Instead of returning to Canada last year, Cheney cancelled a trip to Toronto, deeming
Canada too dangerous because of the likely demonstrators that would greet him. Its unclear why

Cheney now feels safe enough to venture north to Toronto. Bush was also met by hundreds of
protestors seeking his arrest when he spoke at a business forum in Surrey, British Columbia in
October 2011. In addition, with the support of the Canadian Centre for International Justice and the
New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, four men who were tortured at Guantnamo
initiated a private prosecution for torture against Bush. Canada is a signatory to the United
Nations Convention Against Torture. Under the Torture Convention, Canada is obligated to
investigate and prosecute known torturers present in its territory (or, when possible,
extradite them elsewhere for prosecution). Canada has incorporated this obligation into its
domestic criminal code.
Note: How amazing to read an article like this in one of Canada's most respected newspapers!
The times they are a-changin'!

Kenya petition over 'grass cutting for gang-rape' tops 1m

2013-10-28, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24707802
More than a million people have signed an online petition demanding justice after three men
accused of brutally gang-raping a girl in Kenya were ordered to cut grass as punishment. The
policemen who ordered the punishment should be disciplined for failing to investigate rape
charges, the petition said. The 16-year-old was gang-raped and dumped in a pit latrine in Busia.
When her case came to light earlier this month, it caused national outrage. The director of public
prosecutions has ordered the national police to investigate why the local force, known as
administration police, did not fully investigate the alleged rape, and instead ordered the suspects to
cut grass. The alleged rapists are reported to have gone into hiding. The petition - published by
online campaign group Avaaz called on Kenya's police chief David Kimaiyo to "deliver justice" for
the girl, named Liz. Her alleged attackers should be immediately arrested and prosecuted and
disciplinary action should be instituted against police officers who "dismally failed to handle her
case", the petition said. "By holding these police officers to account you will send a strong
message to police everywhere that rape is not a misdemeanour, it is a serious crime, and if
police do not uphold the law they will be held to account," it added. "We call on you to
ensure Liz's case is a turning point to end the war on girls." The 16-year-old was attacked
after returning from a grandfather's funeral in a village in Busia, western Kenya, the local Daily
Nation newspaper reported.
Note: For more on sex crimes, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

New book reveals how much FBI, CIA knew about Oswald before
Kennedy assassination
2013-10-27, CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57609489/new-book-reveals-how-much-fbi-c...
It has long been known that the Warren Commission ... was flawed in ways that led to generations
of conspiracy theories about what happened on Nov. 22, 1963. A [new] book from former New
York Times reporter Philip Shenon digs into exactly what the commission got wrong, both by
intentional concealment, or, in Shenon's view, extensive attempts by both the CIA and FBI to
withhold just how much they knew about Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. "Much of the
truth about the Kennedy assassination has still not been told, [and] much of the evidence
about the president's murder was covered up or destroyed - shredded, incinerated, or
erased - before it could reach the commission," Shenon writes in the prologue to A Cruel and
Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, which draws its title from the first
sentence of the commission's report. Shenon tells the story of how Navy pathologist James
Humes threw his blood-stained notes from Kennedy's autopsy into the fire after he transcribed a
fresh copy of the report. He said that he wanted to keep the documents from falling into the hands
of "ghouls," and gave a similar rationale for ordering that the sheets that covered Kennedy's head
wounds in Dallas be laundered during the autopsy. The commission's investigators never even
saw the photos and X-rays from the autopsy. Shenon also points to the CIA as having taken great
steps to cover up their knowledge of Oswald's visit to Mexico City before the assassination.
Note: As the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination approaches see our powerful JFK
assassination information center and the best videos and news articles on the topic. For more on
political assassinations, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Curbing antibiotics on farms taking too long: Our view

2013-10-27, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/10/27/antibiotics-farms-drug-resis...
Want to ensure that miracle drugs can no longer perform miracles? Then do what some physicians
and industrial livestock farmers have done for years: Overprescribe antibiotics to people, and use
them cavalierly in farm animals to promote growth or prevent infections before they even occur.
Last month, federal officials quantified that danger: At least 23,000 people die from antibioticresistant bacteria each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
which said that's a conservative figure. For more than four decades, scientists and
government health agencies have warned about the danger this poses for development of
drug-resistant bugs. Yet last week, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future reported
that little progress has been made on limiting the use of antibiotics on farms. The agriculture
industry maintains that the connection is murky between antibiotic use in animals and drug
resistance in people. On the other side of the debate is a long list of scientists, public health
officials and veterinarians whose views carry more sense and less self-interest. In 2011 alone, 1.9
million pounds of penicillins and 12.3 million pounds of tetracyclines were sold for use in food
animals. It's hard to believe that wouldn't have an effect. According to the CDC, humans can pick

up drug-resistant bugs through contact with animals or by eating contaminated food. But neither
Congress nor the FDA has acted to curtail the broad dangers. The well-financed agriculture
industry has won most rounds. And regulators have dragged their feet.
Note: For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Prison Gardens Grow New Lives for Inmates

2013-10-23, ABC News blog
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/10/prison-gardens-grow-new-lives-f...
From Enfield, Conn., to New York City and the San Francisco Bay, lush gardens filled with ripe
fruits, vegetables and flowers are growing in unexpected places prison yards. Prisons use them
to rehabilitate inmates and to teach them basic landscaping skills that they can use to get jobs. For
the last three years, all 18 state prisons in Connecticut have had garden programs. None cost
taxpayers money. Last year, Connecticut prisons produced more than 35,000 pounds of produce
saving taxpayers $20,000 a year by putting produce back into the prison system. We believe that
everybody has a heart and everybody has a chance for transformation, said Beth Waitkus, the
director of the Insight Garden Program that started 10 years ago at San Quentin prison. What
happens with gardening is they reconnect to themselves. They reconnect to their feelings. They
reconnect to each other as a community, a small community in the prison, and they really
reconnect to nature. And, I think that offers a huge opportunity for transformation when we
reconnect to ourselves and to the natural world. While Waitkus spends her time in San Quentin
teaching inmates how to plant flowers, take care of soil and prune plants, she also keeps the
connection strong once they leave prison. Nationally, the recidivism rate is more than 60
percent, according to the 2011 Annual Recidivism Report. For garden prisoners at San
Quentin, Waitkus said the return rate is less than 10 percent, and most other prison
gardens report return rates in the single digits. In Connecticut, officials say not one of the
garden graduates has returned.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report

2013-10-22, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/civilian-deaths-in-drone-strikes...
[In] Miram Shah, the frontier Pakistani town that has become a virtual test laboratory for drone
warfare, ... residents paint a portrait of extended terror and strain within a tribal society caught
between vicious militants and the American drones hunting them. Their claims of distress are now
being backed by a new Amnesty International investigation that found, among other points, that at
least 19 civilians in the surrounding area of North Waziristan had been killed in just two of the

drone attacks since January 2012 a time when the Obama administration has held that strikes
have been increasingly accurate and free of mistakes. Miram Shah ... has become a fearful and
paranoid town, dealt at least 13 drone strikes since 2008 more than any other urban
settlement in the world. Even when the missiles do not strike, buzzing drones hover day
and night, scanning the alleys and markets with roving high-resolution cameras. The
strikes in the area mostly occur in densely populated neighborhoods. The drones have hit a
bakery, a disused girls school and a money changers market, residents say. The constant
presence of circling drones and accompanying tension over when, or whom, they will strike
is a crushing psychological burden for many residents. Sales of sleeping tablets, antidepressants
and medicine to treat anxiety have soared, said Hajji Gulab Jan Dawar, a pharmacist in the town
bazaar. Women were particularly troubled, he said, but men also experienced problems. State
services have virtually collapsed. At the local hospital, corrupt officials are reselling supplies of
medicine and fuel in the town market, doctors said.
Note: For more on the illegal killing worldwide of innocent men, women, and children by missile
strikes from US drones, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Edward Snowden is no traitor

2013-10-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-edward-snowden-is-no-tra...
What are we to make of Edward Snowden? I know what I once made of him. He was no real
whistleblower, I wrote, but ridiculously cinematic and narcissistic as well. As time has proved,
my judgments were just plain wrong. Whatever Snowden is, he is curiously modest and has bent
over backward to ensure that the information he has divulged has done as little damage as
possible. As a traitor, he lacks the requisite intent and menace. But traitor is what
Snowden has been roundly called. Harry Reid: I think Snowden is a traitor. John Boehner:
Hes a traitor. Rep. Peter King: This guy is a traitor; hes a defector. And Dick Cheney
not only denounced Snowden as a traitor but also suggested that he might have shared
information with the Chinese. This innuendo, as with Saddam Husseins weapons of mass
destruction, is more proof of Cheneys unerring determination to be cosmically wrong. The early
denunciations of Snowden now seem both over the top and beside the point. If he is a traitor, then
which side did he betray and to whom does he now owe allegiance? Snowden seems to have sold
out to no one. In fact, a knowledgeable source says that Snowden has not even sold his life story
and has rebuffed offers of cash for interviews. Maybe his most un-American act is passing up a
chance at easy money. Someone ought to look into this. Snowdens residency in Russia has been
forced upon him he had nowhere else to go. Snowden insists that neither the Russians nor,
before them, the Chinese have gotten their grubby hands on his top-secret material.
Note: For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Drone strikes by US may violate international law, says UN

2013-10-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/18/drone-strikes-us-violate-law-un
A United Nations investigation has so far identified 33 drone strikes around the world that have
resulted in civilian casualties and may have violated international humanitarian law. The report by
the UN's special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, calls on the
US to declassify information about operations co-ordinated by the CIA and clarify its position on
the legality of unmanned aerial attacks. The 22-page document examines incidents in Afghanistan,
Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan and Gaza. It has been published to coincide with a related
report [by] Professor Christof Heyns, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, which warned that the technology was being misused as a form of "global
policing". Emmerson, who travelled to Islamabad for his investigation, said the Pakistan ministry
of foreign affairs has records of as many as 330 drone strikes in the country's northwestern tribal areas since 2004. Up to 2,200 people have been killed of whom at least 400
were civilians according to the Pakistan government. In Yemen, Emmerson's report says
that as many as 58 civilians are thought to have been killed in attacks by UAVs (unmanned aerial
vehicles). Emmerson criticises the CIA's involvement in US drone strikes for creating "an almost
insurmountable obstacle to transparency". He adds: "One consequence is that the United States
has to date failed to reveal its own data on the level of civilian casualties inflicted through the use
of remotely piloted aircraft in classified operations conducted in Pakistan and elsewhere."
Note: If just one citizen were killed in the U.S. or Europe by a foreign drone, there would be an
absolute uproar. Why the double standard? For more on the use of drones to kill abroad and spy at
home, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Jimmy Savile NHS abuse probe: 'Up to 30' hospitals involved

2013-10-14, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24520001
Up to 30 hospitals are now under investigation as part of the inquiry into Jimmy Savile's
alleged abuse of patients at NHS hospitals. Inquiries had originally just focused on
Broadmoor and Stoke Mandeville and Leeds General Infirmary. Revelations that Savile had
sexually abused children prompted hundreds of victims to come forward, including those who said
they were attacked on BBC premises and at a number of other institutions. Savile had a bedroom
at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, an office and living quarters at Broadmoor, and widespread access
to Leeds General Infirmary. Liz Dux, an abuse lawyer who represents more than 70 of the
claimants, told the BBC she was worried the extension would prolong the distress of her clients.
"These hospitals were known about - all my clients gave their evidence some time ago to
the NHS investigation. These victims want the investigation concluded, naturally as efficiently
as possible, but they want it over, they need closure," she said. The revelations about Savile have
led to a number of inquiries. The police investigation, Operation Yewtree, ... has three strands.
One looking specifically at the actions of Savile is due to report in the new year. The BBC

understands it will put the number of alleged victims at over 500. The second strand concerns
allegations against "Savile and others". The third relates to complaints against other people
unconnected to the Savile investigations, made by people who came forward after widespread
coverage of the scandal
Note: For more on sexual abuse of children in institutional settings, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Privacy Fears Grow as Cities Increase Surveillance

2013-10-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/technology/privacy-fears-as-surveillance-gr...
Federal grants of $7 million, initially intended to help thwart terror attacks at the port in Oakland,
Calif., are instead going to a police initiative that will collect and analyze reams of surveillance
data. The new system ... is the latest example of how cities are compiling and processing large
amounts of information, known as big data, for routine law enforcement. And the system
underscores how technology has enabled the tracking of people in many aspects of life. Like the
Oakland effort, other pushes to use new surveillance tools in law enforcement are supported with
federal dollars. The New York Police Department, aided by federal financing, has a big data
system that links 3,000 surveillance cameras with license plate readers, radiation sensors, criminal
databases and terror suspect lists. Police in Massachusetts have used federal money to buy
automated license plate scanners. And police in Texas have bought a drone with homeland
security money. [Critics] of the Oakland initiative, formally known as the Domain Awareness
Center, [say] the program, which will create a central repository of surveillance information,
will also gather data about the everyday movements and habits of law-abiding residents.
Oakland has a contract with the Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, to
build its system. That company has earned the bulk of its $12 billion in annual revenue from
military contracts.
Note: For more on government privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Tax the rich? IMF sparks a mini revolution

2013-10-11, Yahoo!/Agence France Presse
http://news.yahoo.com/tax-rich-imf-sparks-mini-revolution-020128173.html;_ylt...
Tax the rich and better target the multinationals: The IMF has set off shockwaves this week in
Washington by suggesting countries fight budget deficits by raising taxes. Guardian of financial
orthodoxy, the International Monetary Fund, which is holding its annual meetings with the World
Bank this week in the US capital, typically calls for nations in difficulty to slash public spending to
reduce their deficits. But in its Fiscal Monitor report, subtitled "Taxing Times", the Fund advanced
the idea of taxing the highest-income people and their assets to reinforce the legitimacy of

spending cuts and fight against growing income inequalities. "Scope seems to exist in
many advanced economies to raise more revenue from the top of the income distribution,"
the IMF wrote, noting "steep cuts" in top rates since the early 1980s. According to IMF
estimates, taxing the rich even at the same rates during the 1980s would reap fiscal revenues
equal to 0.25 percent of economic output in the developed countries. "The gain could in some
cases, such as that of the United States, be more significant," around 1.5 percent of gross
domestic product, said the IMF report, which also singled out deficient taxation of multinational
companies. In the US alone, legal loopholes deprive the Treasury of roughly $60 billion in receipts,
the global lender said. The IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, kept up the sales pitch for a
more just fiscal policy. "It's clearly something finance ministers are interested in, it's something that
is necessary for the right balance of public finances," said Lagarde, a former French finance
minister.
Note: Yahoo! was the only major media in the US to pick up this eye-opening news, with the
possible exception of a Forbes article which shows how afraid they are of this development. For
more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Pentagon unit held 'phony' ceremonies for MIAs, using planes that can't
fly
2013-10-10, NBC News
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/10/20889368-pentagon-unit-hel...
A unit of the U.S. Department of Defense has been holding so-called "arrival ceremonies" for
seven years, with an honor guard carrying flag-draped coffins off of a cargo plane as though they
held the remains of missing American service men and women returning that day from old
battlefields. After NBC News raised questions about the arrival ceremonies, the Pentagon
acknowledged Wednesday that no honored dead were in fact arriving, and that the planes
used in the ceremonies often couldn't even fly but were towed into position. The ceremonies
have been attended by veterans and families of MIAs, led to believe that they were witnessing the
return of Americans killed in World War II, Vietnam and Korea. The ceremonies also have been
known, at least among some of the military and civilian staff here, as The Big Lie. Photos behind
the scenes show that the flag-draped boxes had not just arrived on military planes. The Pentagon
insisted that the flag-draped cases do contain human remains recently recovered, just not ones
that arrived that day. The Pentagon statement did not explain why the rituals were called "arrival
ceremonies" if no one was arriving, or why the public had been told that remains removed that
morning from the lab were about to go to the lab to "begin the identification process."
Note: For a revealing book by Robert Kirkconnell, a 27-year USAF veteran who personally
witnessed heroin being smuggled in the bodies of dead GIs, click here. For more on military
corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Meet the Medical Company Making $1.4 Billion a Year Off Sick Prisoners
2013-10-08, The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blog/176533/meet-medical-company-making-14-billion-y...
The healthcare provider Corizon makes an estimated $1.4 billion off sick prisoners every
year. With profits like those, you would think it was actually treating prisoners. But in states
that are using Corizon to provide healthcare in their prisonsand right now twenty-nine are
medical neglect and abuse run rampant. Corizons attitude toward the debilitating virus
Hepatitis C is especially alarming: They just dont treat it. Last year alone, no fewer than seven
sick prisoners died at Metro Corrections, a jail in Louisville, Kentucky, while on Corizons watch.
The company made headlines when six employees quit their jobs, according to local press, amid
an investigation by the jail that found that the workers may have contributed to two of the deaths.
This summer, it was announced that the contract between Corizon and the city would not be
renewed. The Nations Liliana Segura gives an overview of the massive scope of the crisis of
companies profiting off mass incarceration: With 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United
States, she writes, prisons are big business.
Note: For a video exposing this craziness, click here. Corizon is just one of the many powerful
entities getting rich off mass incarceration. Meet the other Prison Profiteers and take action to fight
their abuses at PrisonProfiteers.org. For more on corruption in the government-prison-industrial
complex, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Google searching for new ways to give back

2013-10-07, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Google-searching-for-new-ways-to-give-back...
Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, made giving back a company priority from the
beginning. Their hope was that "someday this institution (under the rubric of 'Google.org') may
eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and
significant resources to the largest of the world's problems." Google has firmly established itself as
a powerful and innovative player on the corporate philanthropy scene. Google's philanthropic entity
was initially formed with a pledge of 3 million shares to make grants in several broad areas,
including global poverty, disease and renewable energy. In 2009, Google announced a major
strategic shift: to not only fund traditional nonprofits through cash grants, but also to
concentrate on using Google's strengths in data-driven technologies and information
aggregation to address the world's problems - to, in effect, engineer for social benefit.
Google gave away $105 million in grants during 2012, plus $1 billion more in product donations,
principally productivity apps and advertising grants for nonprofits. The company was the 12thlargest U.S. corporate cash donor in 2011 and 2012, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Between $45 million and $50 million of that 2012 total [was] directed toward disaster relief,
university research and community organizations in Silicon Valley - with $23 million dedicated to
Google's Global Impact Awards. Last year's Impact Awardees include Charity: Water, which

Google granted $5 million to install remote sensors at 4,000 water points across Africa by 2015.
The low-cost sensors will monitor and record actual water flow rate to ensure better maintenance
of and access to clean water for more than 1 million people.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Malala Yousafzai: The Bravest Girl in the World

2013-10-05, Parade Magazine
http://www.parade.com/170557/parade/malala-yousafzai-the-bravest-girl-in-the-...
In this exclusive excerpt from her autobiography, I Am Malala, young activist Malala Yousafzai
recounts the day she was shot by the Taliban. "Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, wasnt the best of days to
start with, as it was the middle of exams. We had been getting threats all year. Some were in the
newspapers, and some were messages passed on by people. I was more concerned the Taliban
would target my father, as he was always speaking out against them. His friend and fellow
campaigner Zahid Khan had been shot in the face in August on his way to prayers. When our bus
was called, we ran down the school steps. Inside the bus it was hot and sticky. Then we suddenly
stopped. A young bearded man had stepped into the road. The man was wearing a peaked cap
and had a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. Then he swung himself onto the tailboard and
leaned in over us. Who is Malala? he demanded. No one said anything, but several of the girls
looked at me. I was the only girl with my face uncovered. Thats when he lifted up a black pistol.
My friends say he fired three shots. The first went through my left eye socket and out under my left
shoulder. I slumped forward, blood coming from my left ear, so the other two bullets hit the girls
next to me." Malala has undergone a recovery that is nothing short of miraculous. The bullet
narrowly missed her brain [and she] suffered no major permanent neurological damage.
The ordeal did, however, solidify her will: It feels like this life is not my life. Its a second
life. People have prayed to God to spare me and I was spared for a reasonto use my life
for helping people.
Note: Malala was only 11 when she took on the Taliban, demanding that girls be given full access
to school. Her campaign led to a blog for the BBC, a New York Times documentary, and a
Pakistani peace prize. But all that was only a prelude to even more extraordinary events, the
Taliban's assassination attempt and her miraculous recovery. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Brian Williams' Iran propaganda

2013-09-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/28/brian-williams-iran-prop...

There is ample reason for skepticism that anything substantial will change in Iran-US relations,
[but] whatever one's views are on the prospects for improving relations, the first direct
communications in more than 30 years between the leaders of those two countries is a historically
significant event. Here is what NBC News anchor Brian Williams told his viewers about this event:
"This is all part of a new leadership effort by Iran - suddenly claiming they don't want nuclear
weapons!" Yes, Iran's claim that they don't want nuclear weapons sure is "sudden" - if you pretend
that virtually everything that they've said on that question for the past ten years does not exist. The
country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a 2005 religious edict banning
the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and in January of this year, Iranian official Ramin
Mehmanparast declared: "We are the first country to call for a Middle East free of nuclear
weapons." The following month, Khamenei himself said: "We believe that nuclear weapons must
be eliminated. We don't want to build atomic weapons." Iran's top leadership has been making
similarly unambiguous statements for almost a full decade, even taking out a full page ad in the
New York Times in 2005 to counter the growing clamor in the US for a military attack by
proclaiming that Iran had no desire for nuclear weapons, was not pursuing them, and wanted
transparency, accountability and peace. US intelligence agencies have repeatedly though secretly
concluded that they do not believe that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, and even top Israeli
military officials have expressed serious doubts that Iran is building, or will build, a nuclear
weapon.
Note: For more on mass media corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media

2013-09-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-n...
[Seymour] Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the
1960s and who was once described by the Republican party as "the closest thing American
journalism has to a terrorist", ... is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to
challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth. Don't even get him started
on the ... death of Osama bin Laden. "Nothing's been done about that story, it's one big lie,
not one word of it is true," he says of the dramatic US Navy Seals raid in 2011. Hersh is
writing a book about national security and has devoted a chapter to the bin Laden killing. He says
a recent report put out by an "independent" Pakistani commission about life in the Abottabad
compound in which Bin Laden was holed up would not stand up to scrutiny. "The Pakistanis put
out a report, don't get me going on it. Let's put it this way, it was done with considerable
American input. It's a bullshit report," he says hinting of revelations to come in his book. The
Obama administration lies systematically, he claims, yet none of the leviathans of American media,
the TV networks or big print titles, challenge him. He is certain that NSA whistleblower Edward
Snowden "changed the whole nature of the debate" about surveillance. "But I don't know if it's

going to mean anything in the long [run] because the polls I see in America the president can still
say to voters 'al-Qaida, al-Qaida' and the public will vote two to one for this kind of surveillance,
which is so idiotic," he says.
Note: For a powerful analysis by scholar David Ray Griffin of the years-long Osama bin Laden
psyop, arguing that bin Laden probably died in December 2001, see his book Osama Bin Laden:
Dead or Alive?. For more on media cover-ups of important realities, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

FBI calls half of populace with 9/11 doubts potential terrorists

2013-09-19, Digital Journal
http://digitaljournal.com/article/358624
A Department of Justice memo [distributed by the FBI] instructs local police, under a program
named "Communities Against Terrorism," to consider anyone who harbors "conspiracy theories"
about 9/11 to be a potential terrorist. The memo thus adds 9/11-official-story skeptics to a
growing list of targets described by federal law enforcement [as] security threats, such as
those who express "libertarian philosophies," "Second Amendment-oriented views,"
interest in "self-sufficiency," "fears of Big Brother or big government," and "Declarations of
Constitutional rights and civil liberties." A newly released national poll shows that 48 percent of
Americans either have some doubts about the official account of 9/11, or do not believe it at all.
The FBI memo entitled "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Sleepers" says that
people who should be 'considered suspicious' [for] possible involvement in "terrorist activity"
include those who hold the "attitude" described as "Conspiracy theories about Westerners." The
memo continues: "e.g. (sic) the CIA arranged for 9/11 to legitimize the invasion of foreign lands."
"Sleepers" refers to "sleeper cells," in FBI jargon, which are terrorists awaiting orders to be
activated into terrorist activity. According to the polling firm YouGov, 38% of Americans have some
doubts about the official account of 9/11, 10% do not believe it at all, and 12% are unsure about it.
Among well-known doubters of the official 9/11 account are many military officers, law enforcement
personnel, firefighters, and pilots.
Note: We don't normally use Digital Journal as a news source, but this article is too important to
not include, and no major media source is covering the story. For evidence that search engines are
actively blocking 9/11 truth videos, click here. For more on the questions raised about the official
explanation of the 9/11 events by highly respected professors and former government and military
officials, click here and here.

Report: Capitol Police thwarted from aiding at Navy Yard

2013-09-18, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/18/navy-yard-capitol-police...

The U.S. Capitol Police have launched an investigation into whether an elite tactical team was
abruptly recalled from responding to [the] Navy Yard shooting massacre before D.C. Metropolitan
Police officers confronted the shooter. Two Metropolitan Police officers entered the Navy Yard
without the Capitol Police team and one was wounded by the gunman, Aaron Alexis. The elite
Capitol Police Containment & Emergency Response Team [CERT] is based just a few blocks from
the Navy Yard. A law enforcement source told WUSA-TV the unit was less than 30 seconds from
the gate and responded as Metropolitan Police pleaded for help. A Capitol Police watch
commander "wouldn't let them go in and stop people from being slaughtered," one officer told the
Washington TV station. An officer told The Washington Post that the officers' union had filed a
complaint. The Capitol Police have launched an investigation into the allegation "We were
definitely the closest tactical team in the city," the unidentified officer told the newspaper. "
[The team] was at the scene very early on, within a couple of minutes. They were ordered to
disengage and turn back. For what reason, we don't know." The CERT, created in 1978,
consists of three "cells" two assault teams of at least six officers each, plus and a countersniper unit. Two teams were on duty [at the time of the shooting incident].
Note: How strange that the Capitol Police commander would order the CERT to go back to its
base in such a situation! Could there be more than just an error of judgement here?

Eric Schlosser on the Secret History of America's Nuclear Arsenal

2013-09-16, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/q-a-eric-schlosser-on-the-secret-hi...
In his new book, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the
Illusion of Safety, award-winning investigative journalist [Eric Schlosser] challenges and expands
on the U.S. government's secretive record regarding nuclear accidents. Let's get the big question
out of the way: How many times have we just barely avoided nuclear armageddon in the U.S.? It's
a very secretive subject, and I did my best, through interviews and through the Freedom of
Information Act, to get as much information as I could on these accidents. The Pentagon lists 32
broken arrows, which are their official nuclear weapon accidents that they consider really serious.
A lot of other accidents [posed the] threat of accidental detonation on American soil. For
many years, there were safety flaws with our nuclear weapons which weren't being
addressed and which were being covered up. We're just very, very ... fortunate that a major
city has not been destroyed by a nuclear weapon since Nagasaki. But there's no guarantee
that that luck will last. Very little has been written about the ordinary servicemen and women who
often took great risks. I tell the story of a guy whose job it was to walk over to a nuclear weapon
damaged in an accident and dismantle it basically a bomb squad guy trained to handle nuclear
weapons. That takes a lot of nerve to do. People like that put themselves at risk in order to prevent
catastrophes. I think their stories are really worth telling. It was important to me to show, not just
the bureaucratic incompetence in many cases, but also the incredible heroism of these ordinary
servicemen. So it's not a simplistic, black-and-white anti-military thing at all.

Note: For more on the dangers of nuclear technologies, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Japan's Nuclear Migraine: A Never-Ending Disaster at Fukushima

2013-09-14, ABC News/Spiegel Online
http://abcnews.go.com/International/japans-nuclear-migraine-ending-disaster-f...
Japan is stumbling helplessly from one crisis to the next as it battles the ongoing disaster at the
Fukushima nuclear power plant. The situation at Fukushima two and a half years after the nuclear
meltdown can at best be described as tenuous. Rather than implementing a clearly thought-out
disaster management plan, TEPCO's approach has been a haphazard patchwork. Every day,
TEPCO pumps 400 tons of contaminated cooling water and groundwater out of the radioactive
wreckage of Fukushima. TEPCO stores the liquid in numerous tanks, the largest of which are
12 meters (40 feet) across and 11 meters high, hastily riveted together rather than welded.
Currently, there are over 1,000 such tanks, with plans for over 2,000 of them by 2015.
TEPCO is veritably drowning in contaminated water. When one of these makeshift containers
recently sprang a leak, it apparently took weeks before the company's two-person foot-patrol
passed by and noticed it, by which time 300 tons of highly contaminated water had seeped out of
the tank. There's little question that more of these tanks will develop leaks, with a number of them
approaching their expiration dates and only some of the tanks outfitted with sensors to provide
early warning of leakage. "These are the wrong containers in the wrong place, made of the
wrong material and built in the wrong way," declares nuclear expert Mycle Schneider, one of
the lead authors of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report.
Note: For more on the grave risks of nuclear technologies, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Group Of Engineers Believe Controlled Detonations Took Down World

Trade Center
2013-09-11, CBS Philly (Philadelphia CBS affiliate)
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/09/11/group-of-engineers-believe-contro...
Theres been a growing movement led by some architects and engineers to take a second look at
the collapse of the New York City skyscrapers in the attacks on September 11th 2001. Architects
and Engineers for 9/11 Truth focuses primarily on Building 7 of the World Trade Center. Not many
people know that a third building fell on 9/11. Tony Szamboti is a mechanical engineer from
Blackwood, New Jersey. He says the 47 story skyscraper was not hit by a planeyet collapsed
into its own footprint at 5:20 in the afternoon. Its in absolute freefall. Theres no resistance to it for
the first 2.25 seconds and then it slows down a little bit, Szambotti said. The actual
measurements are somewhere around 6.6 to 7 seconds for that 610 foot building to collapse
completely to the ground. Szamboti and some 2,000 [of] his colleagues contend that it was
not scientifically possible for an office fire to be hot enough to melt steel girders and

columns. Which brings these highly educated, white-collar professionals to a disturbing

conclusion. We believe there were pre-planted charges in the building. The group doesnt
speculate as to who may have planted charges, but its launching a new campaign today to spur a
new investigation. We would like, whoever had access to those buildings to be investigated and
that has never been done. Rethink 9/11" features a daylong rally beneath a new billboard in
Times Square and 11 other cities to drum up support for the investigation.
Note: For more on the reasons to believe the official account of 9/11 is false, see the many
questions raised by highly respected professors and former government officials available here
and here.

5 years after crash, wealthy are better off

2013-09-11, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/5-years-after-crash-wealthy...
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Bros., heralding the Great
Recession. The better off are better off than ever. Most of the rest are right where they started, or
worse. For example, earnings of the top 1 percent (those families making more than $394,000
a year) commanded 95 percent of the income gains generated between 2009 and 2012.
Their earnings grew by 31 percent in the period, compared with 0.4 percent for the less
fortunate. That's according to a study published last week by UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel
Saez, whose finding in 2011 that income inequality in the United States is the widest since 1928
was highly publicized. In fact, according to the latest study by Saez, whose numbers are drawn
from IRS data, America's top 10 percent (those households earning above $114,000) account
for more than half of the nation's total income, the highest percentage since 1917. Despite
improvements in the economy, "it seems unlikely that U.S. income concentration will fall much in
the coming years," Saez concludes. Or it could intensify. Factoring in inflation, median household
income ($52,000) has actually fallen by 4.4 percent since June 2009, according to Sentier
Research, a Maryland consultancy, in a report last week based on government statistics. Then
there's the Federal Reserve, which reported that American families have recovered just 45 percent
of the $16 trillion in wealth that went down the tubes in the recession. And most of the recovery
has gone to the wealthy, whose income bounced back largely thanks to the recovery of the stock
market, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in May.
Note: To read the UC Berkeley report on extreme income disparities, click here. For more on
income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Lawsuit asks FBI to release Sarasota 9/11 documents

2013-09-10, Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota FL's leading newspaper)
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130910/ARTICLE/130919971/-1/news?p=all...

Twelve years after the 9/11 attacks that included three hijacker pilots trained in Venice [FL], the
terrorists' alleged interaction with a high-echelon Saudi family that lived in Sarasota remains
shrouded in secrecy. But Sunshine law and Freedom of Information Act requests filed by an
independent South Florida news organization have chipped away at the FBI's position that
information related to the family remain secret. Broward Bulldog editor Dan Christensen and
former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham say the documents could shed light on how the locally trained
terrorists were managed and supported. Graham, former Florida governor and a co-chair of
[the] Congressional body that investigated the attacks, believes the FBI has covered up
Saudi support of the terrorists. The former senator wants more disclosure about what happened
in Sarasota because he feels it may add to a bigger, largely censored subject: Who financed and
supported the 9/11 terror attacks? "The FBI is aggressively resisting the release of any
additional documents," he said. "The question is, why are they doing this? What interest
does the FBI have in denying the existence of its own documents? Beyond that, they have
thrown a blanket of national security over virtually everything, and why are they doing that for an
event that occurred, soon to be, 12 years ago?" At the time of the 9/11 attacks, President George
W. Bush was visiting a school in Sarasota. Then came the revelation that three of the hijackers
learned to fly at Venice Airport.
Note: For lots more reliable information suggesting a major cover-up around the events of 9/11,
click here and here.

Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and

security
2013-09-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security
US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption
relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online
transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward
Snowden. The files show that the National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have
broadly compromised the guarantees that internet companies have given consumers to reassure
them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable to
criminals or governments. The agencies, the documents reveal, have adopted a battery of
methods in their systematic and ongoing assault on what they see as one of the biggest threats to
their ability to access huge swathes of internet traffic "the use of ubiquitous encryption across the
internet". Those methods include covert measures to ensure NSA control over setting of
international encryption standards, the use of supercomputers to break encryption with
"brute force", and the most closely guarded secret of all collaboration with technology
companies and internet service providers themselves. Through these covert partnerships, the
agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities known as backdoors or trapdoors into commercial
encryption software. "Backdoors are fundamentally in conflict with good security," said Christopher

Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Backdoors expose all users of a backdoored system, not just intelligence agency targets, to
heightened risk of data compromise."
Note: For an excellent article in the New York Times on this, click here. For a guide from the
Guardian on "How to remain secure against NSA surveillance", click here.

Greg Palast: Potential Fed Chair Summers at Heart of Global Economic

Crisis
2013-09-03, Truthout
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18555-revealed-potential-fed-chair-summers...
Investigative journalist Greg Palast has obtained a secret memo authored by then deputy Treasury
secretary Larry Summers and his protg Timothy Geithner detailing their plans to roll back
financial regulation. In the piece, titled "The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial
Crisis", [Palast] writes: "The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy: that in the late
1990s, the top U.S. Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to
rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3 percent unemployment in
Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to
this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears." [Palast:] This is really important right
now because Larry Summers is President Obama's top choice to become head of a Federal
Reserve Board. He would take Ben Bernanke's place. And what this memo is--they call it the "end
game memo". Geithner calls it the "end game". And what's the game being played? The memo
asks Summers to get back to the five biggest, most powerful bankers in the United States to act on
and determine what our policy should be for world governance of the banking system. Basically,
there were secret calls going between Larry Summers and the head of Bank of America, the
head of Goldman Sachs, the head of Citibank and Merrill, the five big boys, to find out what
should happen to the world financial policing order. And the answer was: smash it.
Summers was holding secret meetings with the big bankers to come up with a scheme to
eliminate financial regulation across the planet.
Note: Greg Palast is a New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the British
Broadcasting Corporation as well as the British newspaper The Observer. He is one of the few
journalists uncovering the deepest layers of secrecy in our world. For a key past report of his on
elections corruption, click here.

U.S. spy networks successes, failures and objectives detailed in black

budget summary
2013-08-29, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-de...

U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national
security threats, according to the governments top-secret budget. The $52.6 billion black budget
for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward
Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public
scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending
since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses the money or how it performs against the goals set by
the president and Congress. The 178-page budget summary for the National Intelligence Program
details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the U.S.
intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees. Among the notable revelations in the
budget summary: Spending by the CIA has surged past that of every other spy agency, with
$14.7 billion in requested funding for 2013. The figure vastly exceeds outside estimates and
is nearly 50 percent above that of the National Security Agency, which conducts
eavesdropping operations and has long been considered the behemoth of the community.
The CIA and the NSA have begun aggressive new efforts to hack into foreign computer networks
to steal information or sabotage enemy systems, embracing what the budget refers to as
offensive cyber operations.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence operations, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

NYPD's massive mosque spying operations revealed

2013-08-28, MSN/Associated Press
http://news.msn.com/us/nypds-massive-mosque-spying-operations-revealed
The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations,
a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often
without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism
enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an
investigation and fair game for surveillance. Since the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD has opened at
least a dozen "terrorism enterprise investigations" into mosques, according to interviews
and confidential police documents. Many TEIs stretch for years, allowing surveillance to
continue even though the NYPD has never criminally charged a mosque or Islamic
organization with operating as a terrorism enterprise. The documents show in detail how, in its
hunt for terrorists, the NYPD investigated countless innocent New York Muslims and put
information about them in secret police files. As a tactic, opening an enterprise investigation on a
mosque is so potentially invasive that while the NYPD conducted at least a dozen, the FBI never
did one, according to interviews with federal law enforcement officials. The revelations about the
NYPD's massive spying operations are in documents recently obtained by The Associated Press
and part of a new book, Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit... The book ... is
based on hundreds of previously unpublished police files and interviews with current and former
NYPD, CIA and FBI officials.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence operations, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater

2013-08-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html?...
It is one of the most common components of emergency medicine: an intravenous bag of sterile
saltwater. Luckily for anyone who has ever needed an IV bag to replenish lost fluids or to receive
medication, it is also one of the least expensive. The average manufacturers price, according to
government data, has fluctuated in recent years from 44 cents to $1. Yet there is nothing either
cheap or simple about its ultimate cost, as [revealed by] the commercial path of IV bags from the
factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food poisoning in
upstate New York. Some of the patients bills would later include markups of 100 to 200 times the
manufacturers price, not counting separate charges for IV administration. And on other bills, a
bundled charge for IV therapy was almost 1,000 times the official cost of the solution. At
every step from manufacturer to patient, there are confidential deals among the major
players, including drug companies, purchasing organizations and distributors, and
insurers. These deals so obscure prices and profits that even participants cannot say what the
simplest component of care actually costs, let alone what it should cost. And that leaves taxpayers
and patients alike with an inflated bottom line and little or no way to challenge it. The real cost of a
bag of normal saline, like the true cost of medical supplies from gauze to heart implants,
disappears into an opaque realm of byzantine contracts, confidential rebates and fees that would
be considered illegal kickbacks in many other industries.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing medical corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

FBI director does not deny al-Awlaki may have been government asset
2013-08-23, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/23/did-us-government-try-to-recruit-r...
Newly declassified documents obtained [by] Judicial Watch, are raising questions over the U.S.
government's handling of Anwar al-Awlaki, and whether it [recruited] the radical American cleric as
an intelligence source in 2002. Director Robert Mueller did not dismiss the possibility. "I am
not personally familiar with any effort to recruit Anwar al-Awlaki as an asset -- that does not
mean to say there was not an effort at some level of the Bureau (FBI) or another agency to
do so," Mueller said. Fox's ongoing reporting ... shows that in 2002 he was released from
custody at JFK international airport -- despite an active warrant for his arrest -- with the okay of FBI
Agent Wade Ammerman. Within days of his re-entry, al-Awlaki showed up in Ammerman's
counter-terrorism investigation in Virginia into Ali al-Timimi, who is now serving a life sentence on
non-terrorism charges. None of the information about al-Awlaki's release from federal custody at

JFK, a sudden decision by the Justice Department in October 2002 to rescind an arrest warrant for
the cleric, nor the cleric's connection to Ammerman was provided to the defense during Timimis
2005 trial. Documents ... show the FBI Director was more deeply involved in the post-9/11
handling of al-Awlaki than previously known. One memo from Mueller to then-Attorney General
John Ashcroft on Oct. 3, 2002 -- seven days before the cleric re-entered the U.S. and was
detained at JFK -- is marked "Secret" and titled "Anwar Aulaqi: IT-UBL/AL-QAEDA." "Why would
al-Awlaki get the attention of the FBI Director? Why would a warrant for his arrest be pulled when
he's trying to reenter the country?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Note: Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and was a US citizen, died in a U.S. drone attack in
Yemen nearly two years ago, the first American targeted for death by the CIA, by its own
admission. With the confirmation that he had been an intelligence asset for the US government as
early as 2002, his assassination takes on new significance. For more on the murky background of
Al-Awlaki, click here and here.

Fukushima leak is 'much worse than we were led to believe'

2013-08-22, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561
A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much
worse than the authorities have stated. Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has
previously advised the French and German governments. He says water is leaking out all over the
site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. Meanwhile the chairman of Japan's
nuclear authority said that he feared there would be further leaks. The ongoing problems at the
Fukushima plant increased in recent days when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco)
admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the
site. The Japanese nuclear energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the
international scale that measures the severity of atomic accidents. This was an acknowledgement
that the power station was in its greatest crisis since the reactors melted down after the tsunami in
2011. But some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either
Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit. "The quantities of water they are
dealing with are absolutely gigantic," [said] Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of
organisations and countries on nuclear issues. "What is worse is the water leakage everywhere
else - not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the
cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that. It is much worse than we have been led
to believe, much worse," said Mr Schneider, who is lead author for the World Nuclear Industry
status reports.
Note: For more on the environmental devastation caused by nuclear power, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

U.S. must protest Britain's press crackdowns

2013-08-20, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/U-S-must-protest-Brita...
It has been an infuriating few days for anyone who values the freedom of the press, as authorities
in the United Kingdom resorted to the tactics of tyrants and thugs to squelch reporting that they
simply don't like. In acts clearly calibrated for optimal intimidation, they have detained the
partner of a journalist, threatened to shut down a reporting operation that has prompted a
critical public debate over government spying and forced the destruction of a major
publication's hard drives. It's breathtaking in its audacity - and if it comes to light that the U.S.
government took any part in organizing, encouraging or supporting these acts, it will warrant
immediate congressional investigation. As it is, the accelerating assaults on investigative
journalism [indicate the need for] stronger protections for journalists and their sources. Using laws
designed to ferret out suspected terrorists to detain a person aiding acts of journalism is a cut-anddried abuse of government power, an act of intimidation that may well be illegal - and certainly
should be. It gives the lie to the naive but oft-repeated notion that if you've done no wrong, you
have nothing to fear. Such attacks on investigative journalism here and abroad appear to be
escalating. The Justice Department has been caught spying on reporters at the Associated Press,
and named a Fox News reporter a "co-conspirator" in a leak inquiry. Judges have threatened
reporters at both the New York Times and Fox News with jail time for refusing to disclose their
sources.
Note: For more on government attacks on civil liberties, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Why are the JFK files still sealed after 50 years?

2013-08-17, MSN/Associated Press
http://news.msn.com/us/why-are-the-jfk-files-still-sealed-after-50-years
Five decades after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot and long after official inquiries
ended, thousands of pages of investigative documents remain withheld from public view. The
contents of these files are partially known and intriguing and conspiracy buffs are not the
only ones seeking to open them for a closer look. Some serious researchers believe the off-limits
files could shed valuable new light on nagging mysteries of the assassination including what
U.S. intelligence agencies knew about accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald before Nov. 22,
1963. It turns out that several hundred of the still-classified pages concern a deceased CIA agent,
George Joannides, whose activities just before the assassination and, fascinatingly, during a
government investigation years later, have tantalized researchers for years. "This is not about
conspiracy, this is about transparency," said Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post
reporter and author embroiled in a decade-long lawsuit against the CIA, seeking release of the
closed documents. "I think the CIA should obey the law. I don't think most people think that's
a crazy idea." But so far, the Joannides files and thousands more pages primarily from the CIA
remain off-limits at a National Archives center in College Park, Md. Anthony Summers, a British

author whose sequel to his JFK book Not In Your Lifetime will be released this year, [said] "By
withholding Joannides material, the agency continues to encourage the public to believe
they're covering up something more sinister."
Note: For more on the strange secrecy around Joannides and his checkered past, see the New
York Times article summarized here. For more on political assassinations, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Government officially acknowledges existence of Area 51, but not the

UFOs
2013-08-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/government-officially-acknowled...
For reasons unknown, the government finally has admitted that Area 51 the Shangri-La of alien
hunters and a sturdy trope of science-fiction movies is a real place in the Mojave Desert about
100 miles north of Las Vegas. Area 51 is confirmed in declassified CIA documents posted
online [by] the National Security Archive at George Washington University. A dogged
researcher pried from the CIA a report on the history of the U-2 spy plane, which was tested and
operated at Area 51. The military, which runs the base, always denied that Area 51 was called by
its famous moniker. Your honor, there is no name, an Air Force attorney told a federal judge in
1995. There is no name for the operating location near Groom Lake. The hearing was part of an
environmental poisoning case brought by Area 51 workers who said that they had been sickened
by exposure to toxic chemicals ... burned in open pits on the base. The men could tell no one what
they did; they had signed national-security oaths barring any disclosures about the black-budget
facility, where the stealth bomber also was tested. National Security Archive fellow Jeffrey
Richelson [filed a FOIA] request in 2005 and the documents arrived about a month ago. Therein,
the first-ever reference to Area 51. Why was the veil finally lifted? It is something we do not
know the answer to, Richelson said. One of the things I want to find out is the genesis of
this decision: Why did they not redact it? The secrecy surrounding Area 51 amplified
conspiracy theories claiming it was infested with extraterrestrials a notion popularized in movies
such as Independence Day and, more recently, Super 8.
Note: After denying its existence for so many years, the government admits it was lying all along.
What else aren't they telling us? For powerful, reliable information suggesting a major cover-up
around UFOs, click here.

Email service used by Snowden shuts itself down, warns against using
US-based companies
2013-08-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/09/lavabit-shutdown-snowden...

A Texas-based encrypted email service recently revealed to be used by Edward Snowden Lavabit - announced yesterday it was shutting itself down in order to avoid complying with what it
perceives as unjust secret US court orders to provide government access to its users' content.
"After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations," the company's founder,
Ladar Levinson, wrote in a statement to users posted on the front page of its website. He said the
US directive forced on his company "a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes
against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting
down Lavabit." He chose the latter. CNET's Declan McCullagh ... speculates that Lavabit was
served "with [a] federal court order to intercept users' passwords" to allow ongoing monitoring of
emails; specifically: "the order can also be to install FedGov-created malware." After challenging
the order in district court and losing - all in a secret court proceeding, naturally - Lavabit shut itself
down to avoid compliance while it appeals to the Fourth Circuit. What is particularly creepy
about the Lavabit self-shutdown is that the company is gagged by law even from
discussing the legal challenges it has mounted and the court proceeding it has engaged. In
other words, the American owner of the company believes his Constitutional rights and those of his
customers are being violated by the US Government, but he is not allowed to talk about it. Lavabit
has been told that they would face serious criminal sanctions if they publicly discuss what is being
done to their company.
Note: For more on government and corporate privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Is The FDA Being Compromised By Pharma Payments?

2013-08-07, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2013/08/07/is-the-fda-being-comprom...
In ... the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (JLME), Donald W. Light of the School of Public
Health, University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ, wrote an article entitled Risky Drugs: Why The
FDA Cannot Be Trusted. The bulk of his essay focuses not on his views about pharmas
competence but rather on his issues with the FDA. While I found a number of his comments
troubling, the following stood out. The ... article in JLME also presents systematic,
quantitative evidence that since the industry started making large contributions to the FDA
for reviewing its drugs, as it makes large contributions to Congressmen ... drugs approved
are significantly more likely to cause serious harm, hospitalizations, and deaths. This is a
pretty damning comment. Basically, Light is saying that pharma paid congressmen to sponsor
legislation that results in the FDA being beholden to pharma for funding for its work. Implicit in this
is that, as a result of these large contributions, the grateful FDA is rapidly approving medicines
that are harmful.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
big pharma profiteers and government corruption.

In 21st century America, Samsung TV watches YOU!

2013-08-05, Houston Chronicle (Houston's leading newspaper)
http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2013/08/in-21st-century-america-samsung-tv-wat...
During last weeks Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas, researchers from iSEC
Partners demonstrated a vulnerability in 2012 models of Samsungs line of Smart TVs, particularly
the ones with that come with cameras designed for teleconferencing. The problem with the
Samsung TVs highlights a much larger issue: The number of devices connected to the Internet
is growing exponentially, and many of them have little or no security in place. Flaws may be
found in almost any application on an Internet-connected platform that, if exploited, could allow
access to the entire device, and then the users full network. Many of these unsecured devices can
be found with a simple search. In fact, theres a search engine devoted just to scouring the socalled Internet of things called Shadon. Playing around with it is an eye-opener. For example, in
late July a writer for Forbes discovered an entire home automation product line with Internetconnected features that could be set up without a default password, and were visible to search
engines. This would enable a hacker to search and find these systems on the Net, then access
them at will. To prove her point, Kashmir Hill breached the home automation systems of
random strangers, called them on the phone and demonstrated the vulnerability by turning
their lights on and off.
Note: For more on corporate and government privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Is your television watching you?

2013-08-03, CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1308/03/cnnitm.02.html
When you're watching TV ... you probably don't think someone could be on the other side watching
you back. An alarming security flaw in Samsung's Smart-TVs makes this scenario possible.
LAURIE SEGALL [CNN Money/Technology Correspondent]: We've spoken to a lot of folks and
they're saying there are major vulnerabilities. YAVOR: One of the things we were able to do with
the Smart-TV platform was abuse the browser so that we could actually gain access to the camera
that's built into the TV. What we can prove here is that with a little bit of extra code, we can turn
the camera on in your browser. This is something we can do invisibly and actually have it
run behind the web page you're looking at. I could be sitting at a laptop in a cafe in Paris,
and as long as I have a web connection, I would be able to get into your TV and access your
camera. AARON GRATTAFIORI [security consultant]: The scary thing about it is that it doesn't
give an indication that the camera is on and there is no LED that shows up when the camera is on.
So they could actually be watching you and you would never even know. SEGALL: What is a
Smart-TV, and why is it a playground, essentially, for hackers? GRATTAFIORI: It's a computer. So
instead of being a tube and some other electronics, now it has a web browser and it has a lot of
devices running Linux.

Note: To watch this video clip on CNN News, click here.

CIA 'running arms smuggling team in Benghazi when consulate was

attacked'
2013-08-02, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/10218288...
The CIA has been subjecting operatives to monthly polygraph tests in an attempt to
suppress details of a reported US arms smuggling operation in Benghazi that was ongoing
when its ambassador was killed by a mob in the city last year, according to reports. Up to 35 CIA
operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US consulate that
resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to CNN.
The television network said that a CIA team was working in an annex near the consulate on a
project to supply missiles from Libyan armouries to Syrian rebels. Sources said that more
Americans were hurt in the assault ... than had been previously reported. CIA chiefs were actively
working to ensure the real nature of its operations in the city did not get out. So only the losses
suffered by the State Department in the city had been reported to Congress. Frank Wolf, a US
congressman who represents the district that contains CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, is
one of 150 members of Congress for a new investigation into the failures in Benghazi. "I think it is
a form of a cover-up, and I think it's an attempt to push it under the rug," he said. "We should have
the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And
there really isn't any national security issue involved with regards to that."
Note: For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

California duped on energy buys again

2013-08-01, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/California-duped-on-ene...
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay federal regulators $410 million to settle allegations that
the giant bank manipulated energy markets in California and Michigan. About $285 million of the
settlement will go to the U.S. Treasury for civil penalties, and about $124 million will be refunded to
California ratepayers. The remainder will be refunded to Michigan ratepayers. If this story sounds
familiar, that's because it is. Californians who remember the Enron energy debacle of 2000-01
won't be surprised to learn that JPMorgan's traders have been accused of fraudulent
behavior. Once again, the fraud was performed by manipulating the auction system that was
developed by a quasi-state agency, the California Independent System Operator, to handle
California's electricity needs. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that JPMorgan
engaged in 12 manipulative bidding strategies, which wound up forcing ratepayers to pay
higher amounts than they should have - all because the bank wanted to find a cheap way to
profit off of aging power plants in Southern California. JPMorgan used a variety of bait-and-

switch strategies - duping Cal-ISO into paying exorbitant fees for running the plants at a low level,
for instance, or manipulating the bidding system so that Cal-ISO was forced to pay rates that were
many times higher than market rate. The fact that this kind of manipulation is still happening is
upsetting. And while $410 million is a record settlement for the FERC, it's a drop in the bucket to
JPMorgan, which reported $6.5 billion in quarterly profits this month.
Note: Remember Enron, which scammed millions and then went bankrupt, wiping out pensions of
its many employees? To read CBS reports on how Enron purposely shut down power plants so
they could cause and then cash in on the energy crisis, click here.

The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

2013-07-31, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/the-public-private-surveillance-part...
Computers and networks inherently produce data, and our constant interactions with them allow
corporations to collect an enormous amount of intensely personal data about us as we go about
our daily lives. Sometimes we produce this data inadvertently simply by using our phones, credit
cards, computers and other devices. Sometimes we give corporations this data directly on Google,
Facebook, [or] Apples iCloud ... in exchange for whatever free or cheap service we receive from
the Internet in return. The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized
its far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. The result
is a corporate-government surveillance partnership, one that allows both the government
and corporations to get away with things they couldnt otherwise. There are two types of laws
in the U.S., each designed to constrain a different type of power: constitutional law, which places
limitations on government, and regulatory law, which constrains corporations. Historically, these
two areas have largely remained separate, but today each group has learned how to use the
others laws to bypass their own restrictions. The government uses corporations to get around
its limits, and corporations use the government to get around their limits. This partnership
manifests itself in various ways. The government uses corporations to circumvent its prohibitions
against eavesdropping domestically on its citizens. Corporations rely on the government to ensure
that they have unfettered use of the data they collect.
Note: For more on government and corporate privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Scientists Seek to Rein In Diagnoses of Cancer

2013-07-29, New York Times
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/report-suggests-sweeping-changes-to-...
A group of experts advising the nations premier cancer research institution has recommended
changing the definition of cancer and eliminating the word from some common diagnoses as part
of sweeping changes in the nations approach to cancer detection and treatment. The

recommendations, from a working group of the National Cancer Institute, were published [in] The
Journal of the American Medical Association. They say, for instance, that some premalignant
conditions, like one that affects the breast called ductal carcinoma in situ, which many doctors
agree is not cancer, should be renamed to exclude the word carcinoma so that patients are less
frightened and less likely to seek what may be unneeded and potentially harmful treatments that
can include the surgical removal of the breast. The group, which includes some of the top
scientists in cancer research, also suggested that many lesions detected during breast, prostate,
thyroid, lung and other cancer screenings should not be called cancer at all but should instead be
reclassified as IDLE conditions, which stands for indolent lesions of epithelial origin. The
impetus behind the call for change is a growing concern among doctors, scientists and
patient advocates that hundreds of thousands of men and women are undergoing needless
and sometimes disfiguring and harmful treatments for premalignant and cancerous lesions
that are so slow growing they are unlikely to ever cause harm. Once doctors and patients are
aware a lesion exists, they typically feel compelled to biopsy, treat and remove it, often at great
physical and psychological pain and risk to the patient.
Note: Isn't it interesting that a diagnosis which might not even be accurate can so change a
person's life? For more on promising cancer cures which are being suppressed by the medicalindustrial complex, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

A Philadelphia School's Big Bet on Nonviolence

2013-07-18, The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/a-philadelphia-schools-bi...
Last year when American Paradigm Schools took over Philadelphia's infamous, failing John Paul
Jones Middle School, they did something a lot of people would find inconceivable. The school was
known as "Jones Jail" for its reputation of violence and disorder, and because the building
physically resembled a youth correctional facility. Situated in the Kensington section of the city, it
drew students from the heart of a desperately poor hub of injection drug users and street level
prostitution where gun violence rates are off the charts. But rather than beef up the already
heavy security to ensure safety and restore order, American Paradigm stripped it away.
During renovations, they removed the metal detectors and barred windows. The police
predicted chaos. But instead, new numbers seem to show that in a single year, the number
of serious incidents fell by 90%. The school says it wasn't just the humanizing physical
makeover of the facility that helped. Memphis Street Academy also credits the Alternatives to
Violence Project (AVP), a noncoercive, nonviolent conflict resolution regimen originally used in
prison settings that was later adapted to violent schools. AVP, when tailored to school settings,
emphasizes student empowerment, relationship building and anger management over institutional
control and surveillance. There are no aggressive security guards in schools using the AVP model;
instead they have engagement coaches, who provide support, encouragement, and a sense of
safety.

Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

UFO Cover-Ups Must End, Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell Says

2013-07-16, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-16/ufo-cover-ups-must-end-moonwalker...
On Feb. 5, 1971, Edgar Mitchell became the sixth of only 12 men to step on the moon. Of that elite
dozen, ... Mitchell is the only one to go on record about his controversial belief in extraterrestrial
UFOs -- and of a possible government cover-up. While on active duty as a test pilot for the U.S.
Navy, he completed an M.S. in aeronautical engineering at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
and a doctorate in aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mitchell also served
in combat during the Korean War as a fighter pilot. In 1970, he was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. After retiring from NASA in 1972, he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
[Q]: Youre ... known for your views on UFOs. Whats your experience regarding the Roswell, New
Mexico, incident of 1947? Mitchell: After my space flight, I was contacted by descendants of the
original Roswell observers, including the person who delivered the child-sized coffins to the Air
Force [alleged] to contain alien bodies. They all seemed credible with their stories that the bodies
found were alien. [Q.]: If thats the case, why has it been hushed up? Mitchell: Initially I think
there was justification in that leadership officials thought people werent ready to handle it.
But we are well past that now. But its not just military. Its a cabal of organizations primarily
for a profit motive. Think of what that could mean in terms of space travel with control of
UFO machinery, technology. Theres a lot of money involved.
Note: For Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gordon Cooper on his personal experience with UFOs,
click here. Edgar Mitchell wrote The Way of the Explorer to document his experiences with
mysticism and space. For a more detailed description of his thoughts on UFOs, click here and
here. For other reliable information on UFOs and the related cover-up, see our UFO Information
Center available here.

The truth behind the child abuse cover-ups

2013-07-13, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10177681/The-truth-behind-the-ch...
Seventeen years ago, a nervous-sounding woman rang and asked me to publicise a top-secret
report. She was not the whistleblower, she explained, but a go-between. She would not give me
her name: Its safer if you dont know. That secret report revealed the extensive rape and
savage beating of countless children in North Wales childrens homes. It was titled Child
Abuse: An independent investigation commissioned by Clwyd County Council, period 1974-1995.
Last week, John Jillings report on the Clwyd scandal was finally published. But Flintshire county
council successor to Clwyd has heavily censored it. I dug out the original and discovered,
unsurprisingly, that the cover-up continues. At least one paper and a news channel independently

acquired the report: clearly, others whistle-blew. The coverage was widespread, and the
whistleblowers drip-feed strategy worked: no one was arrested or sued. Clamour mounted, and
the Government announced a public inquiry. The late judge, Sir Ronald Waterhouse, took
evidence over three years, and in 2000 produced a report, Lost in Care. His tribunal had cost
millions and ultimately achieved little, other than fat fees for lawyers. It amplified the horrors
described by Jillings but it did not lead to arrests or managers being disciplined or struck off. The
authorities had issued such stern libel threats to Jillingss panel that it only named a few of
the accused staff who were allowed to resign unpunished. But he exposed the excuses of
the jobsworths who allowed sadists to control these terrible homes. This is the real censored
dynamite in the report.
Note: For more on sex abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Against Their Will looks at children used for tests

2013-07-08, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/07/07/book-review-against-their-wi...
Pop quiz: Name a state residential school where children were enrolled in medical experiments
over an almost 20-year period, in which they were unknowingly fed a steady diet of radioactive
isotopes, subjected to regular blood draws, and placed in solitary confinement if they refused to
cooperate. Answer: the Walter E. Fernald State School in Waltham [Mass.} during the mid 20th
century. Unfortunately, as Allen Hornblum, Judith Newman, and Gregory Dober painfully describe
in their chilling new book, Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on
Children in Cold War America, Fernald was not the only institution in the country, or even in
the state, where children were conscripted into sometimes deadly medical experiments.
These were conducted by ambitious physicians and scientists whose belief in what they
were trying to accomplish often blinded them to the potentially horrific consequences of
their actions. Against Their Will opens with an overview of the eugenics movement in the United
States, which found sympathizers among many luminaries of American medicine in the 19th and
early 20th centuries. With its disdain for the disabled, who were considered genetically inferior, the
movement paved the way for use of defective children in research. The book then provides
multiple examples of medical experiments perpetrated on developmentally delayed and physically
disabled children at multiple institutions across the country over the course of decades, often
reading like case studies straight out of the 1947 Nazi doctors trial.
Note: For a long list of verifiable incidents where unknowing citizens were used as guinea pigs on
a massive scale, click here.

Bin Laden Records Kept in the Shadows

2013-07-08, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/secret-move-bin-laden-records-shadow...

The top U.S. special operations commander, Adm. William McRaven, ordered military files about
the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department
computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made
public. The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, set
off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal
rules and perhaps also the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The CIA, noting that the bin Laden
mission was overseen by then-CIA Director Leon Panetta before he became defense secretary,
said that the SEALs were effectively assigned to work temporarily for the CIA, which has
presidential authority to conduct covert operations. The records transfer was part of an effort by
McRaven to protect the names of the personnel involved in the raid, according to the inspector
general's draft report. But secretly moving the records allowed the Pentagon to tell The Associated
Press that it couldn't find any documents inside the Defense Department that AP had requested
more than two years ago, and would represent a new strategy for the U.S. government to shield
even its most sensitive activities from public scrutiny. "Welcome to the shell game in place of
open government," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a private
research institute at George Washington University. "Guess which shell the records are under.
If you guess the right shell, we might show them to you. It's ridiculous."
Note: For a powerful analysis of the strong evidence that Osama bin Laden most likely died in
Afghanistan in December 2001, long before he was "killed" by the SEALs raid in Pakistan, read
David Ray Griffin's Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? For more on government secrecy, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Sen. Warren Leads Charge to Break Up Big Banks

2013-07-07, CNBC
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000182337
CNBCs BRIAN SULLIVAN: Is there anyone else in the Senate that is a professor? ELIZABETH
WARREN: I don't think so. ... We had the big crash in 2008. What does everyone say about it?
They say too much concentration in financial services creates too big to fail. It puts us at bigger
risk. And what's happened since 2008? The four biggest financial institutions are now 30%
bigger than they were in 2008. The central premise behind a 21st century Glass-Steagall is
to say if you want to get out there and take risks, go ahead and do it. But ... you can't get
access to FDIC insured deposits when you do. That way ... at least one portion of our
banking sector stays safe. From 1797 to 1933, the American banking system crashed about
every 15 years. In 1933, we put good reforms in place, for which Glass-Steagall was the
centerpiece, and from 1933 to the early 1980s, thats a 50 year period, we didnt have any of that
none. We kept the system steady and secure. And it was only as we started deregulating, [you hit]
the S&L crisis, and what did we do? We deregulated some more. And then you hit long-term
capital management at the end of the 90s, and what did we do as a country? This country
continued to deregulate more. And then we hit the big crash in 2008. You are not going to defend

the proposition that regulation can never work, it did work. SULLIVAN: I didnt say regulation never
worked, Senator. By far and away, and I agree, there were fewer bank failures in that time after
Glass-Steagall. ELIZABETH WARREN: Fewer, as in, of the big ones, zero.
Note: Sen. Warren is one of the few bright lights in Congress. Watch this interview to see why. To
read about later censorship of this interview by NBC, click here.

In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.

2013-07-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-o...
In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nations surveillance court has created a secret body of
law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans.
The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more
expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important
judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny. The 11-member Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving caseby-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial
oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become
almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and
delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come. In one of the
courts most important decisions, the judges have expanded the use in terrorism cases of a legal
principle known as the special needs doctrine and carved out an exception to the Fourth
Amendments requirement of a warrant for searches and seizures. Unlike the Supreme Court, the
FISA court hears from only one side in the case the government and its findings are almost
never made public.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement

2013-07-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?pagewanted...
Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: a handwritten card,
apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the
letters and packages sent to his home. Show all mail to supv supervisor for copying prior
to going out on the street, read the card. It included Mr. Pickerings name, address and the type of
mail that needed to be monitored. The word confidential was highlighted in green. It was a bit of
a shock to see it, said Mr. Pickering, who with his wife owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More
than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental
group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As the world focuses on the

high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside
the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service. Mr. Pickering
was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, a forerunner of a vastly
more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal
Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in
the United States about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the
government saves the images. The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was created after
the anthrax attacks in late 2001. It enables the Postal Service to retrace the path of mail at the
request of law enforcement. No one disputes that it is sweeping.
Note: The exposure by whistleblower Edward Snowden of the NSA's massive domestic and global
spying operations seems to have triggered a series of other revelations about surveillance of the
US population, like this report on the US Postal Service's photographing all mail. Hardly a week
goes by without another major revelation, such as a new digital photo-ID database utilized by the
FBI and police forces, and the development by US police of a national DNA database on all
"potential suspects". Since very few US citizens are terrorists, what is the real purpose behind this
total surveillance?

Army reportedly blocking military access to Guardian coverage of NSA

leaks
2013-06-27, NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/27/19177709-army-reportedly-blocking-...
The Army is blocking all access to The Guardian newspaper's reports about the National Security
Agency's sweeping collection of data about Americans' email and phone communications, an
Army spokesman said Thursday. The Monterey (Calif.) Herald reported that employees at the
Presidio of Monterey, an Army public affairs base about 100 miles south of San Francisco, were
unable to gain access to The Guardian's articles on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and
his professed leaks of classified information about the intelligence programs. Late Thursday, an
Army spokesman told The Herald by email that the newspaper's NSA reports were, in fact,
being blocked across the entire Army. He wrote that it's routine for the Defense Department
to take "network hygiene" action to prevent disclosure of classified information, The Herald
reported. "We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with
operational security," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. "However there are strict
policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information."
Note: To read the full story in the Monterey Herald, click here. For the Guardian's coverage of this,
click here. Does the military have the right to censor its members' access to information?

What Airline Whistleblowers Have to Say About the New Theory on

Flight 800

2013-06-25, Time Magazine

http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/25/what-airline-whistleblowers-have-to-say-abou...
A cadre of six government and non-government experts who served the National Transportation
Safety Board when that independent federal agency investigated the explosion of a Boeing 747 off
the coast of Long Island in July 1996 ... are the protagonists of a new documentary, "TWA Flight
800". After four years of investigation, the NTSB claimed the cause of Flight 800's explosion
was a mechanical defect, but the new documentary, written and directed by journalist
Kristina Borjesson, claims the FBI, NTSB and other government agencies may have
covered up that the plane was brought down by a missile strike. Participants in the film have
called on the NTSB to reopen the case based on altered physical evidence, suppressed data, and
unexamined testimony from hundreds of eyewitnesses. [The] book Attention All Passengers: The
Airlines Dangerous Descentand How to Reclaim Our Skies ... published last year ... thanked
the brave men and women who are Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security
Administration, and airline whistleblowers. These whistleblowers confirmed such problems as
defective airline maintenance outsourcing, FAA oversight failures, TSA waste, and many other
important findings. After watching the documentary, I believe there are enough smoking guns to
warrant an unbiased reexamination. Last week one major news site was in near hysterics about
the documentary, employing the term conspiracy ten times. Kristina Borjesson ... wasnt
surprised, noting that reexamining hot topics discredits previous reporting.
Note: Kristina Borjesson is a long-time supporter of WantToKnow.info who has written a great
piece on Flight 800, which we have posted at this link. She's also the editor of what may be the
best book ever on media corruption and manipulation, Into the Buzzsaw. You can find an excellent
two-page summary of the book at this link. For the engaging trailer to this film, click here.

Rigged-Benchmark Probes Proliferate From Singapore to UK

2013-06-16, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-16/rigged-benchmark-probes-prolifera...
The probe of Libor manipulation is proving to be the tip of the iceberg as inquiries into assets from
derivatives to foreign exchange show that if theres a chance to rig benchmark rates in world
markets, someone is usually willing to try. Singapores monetary authority last week censured 20
banks for attempting to fix interest rate levels in the island state and ordered them to set aside as
much as $9.6 billion. Britains markets regulator is looking into the $4.7 trillion-a-day currency
market after Bloomberg News reported that traders have manipulated key rates for more than a
decade, citing five dealers. Its happened time and again: all of these markets have been
influenced by major market-makers, which is a polite way of saying theyve been rigged,
Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, said. While the
indexes under scrutiny are little known to the public, their influence extends to trillions of
dollars in securities and derivatives. Barclays, UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland have been
fined about $2.5 billion in the past year for distorting the London interbank offered rate, which is
tied to $300 trillion worth of securities. Regulators are also probing ISDAfix, a measure used in the

$370 trillion interest-rate swaps market, as well as how some oil products prices are set. Inquiries
are broadening into the transparency of benchmarks whose levels can be determined by the same
people whose income they affect. In the case of Libor, traders who stood to profit worked with bank
employees responsible for submissions for the benchmark to rig the price.
Note: To read highly revealing major media articles showing just how crazy and unregulated the
derivatives market is, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on
financial corruption, click here.

NSA surveillance played little role in foiling terror plots, experts say
2013-06-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/nsa-surveillance-data-terror-attack
Lawyers and intelligence experts with direct knowledge of two intercepted terrorist plots that the
Obama administration says confirm the value of the NSA's vast data-mining activities have
questioned whether the surveillance sweeps played a significant role, if any, in foiling the attacks.
The defence of the controversial data collection operations ... has been led by Dianne Feinstein,
chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, and her equivalent in the House, Mike Rogers.
The two politicians have attempted to justify the NSA's use of vast data sweeps such as Prism and
Boundless Informant by pointing to the arrests and convictions of would-be New York subway
bomber Najibullah Zazi in 2009 and David Headley, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for
his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. But court documents lodged in the US and UK, as well as
interviews with involved parties, suggest that data-mining through Prism and other NSA
programmes played a relatively minor role in the interception of the two plots. Conventional
surveillance techniques, in both cases including old-fashioned tip-offs from intelligence services in
Britain, appear to have initiated the investigations. The Headley case is a peculiar choice for the
administration to highlight as an example of the virtues of data-mining. The fact that the
Mumbai attacks occurred, with such devastating effect, in itself suggests that the NSA's
secret programmes were limited in their value as he was captured only after the event.
Headley ... had been an informant working for the Drug Enforcement Administration perhaps as
recently as 2005. There are suggestions that he might have then worked in some capacity for the
FBI or CIA.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the realities of
intelligence agency activity, click here.

America's 50 worst charities rake in nearly $1 billion for corporate

fundraisers
2013-06-06, Tampa Bay Times (one of Florida's largest newspapers)
http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/worst-charities1.page

You've given them more than $1 billion. They've given almost nothing to the needy. The 50 worst
charities in America devote less than 4 percent of donations raised to direct cash aid. Some
charities give even less. Over a decade, one diabetes charity raised nearly $14 million and gave
about $10,000 to patients. The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind
a gas station. Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the
name of dying children and their families. Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the
dollar helping kids. Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity's operators and the
for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. In the past decade alone, Kids
Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An
additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity's founder and his own consulting firms. But Kids
Wish is not an isolated case, a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for
Investigative Reporting has found. These nonprofits adopt popular causes or mimic well-known
charity names that fool donors. Then they rake in cash, year after year. Even as they plead for
financial support, operators at many of the 50 worst charities have lied to donors about where their
money goes, taken multiple salaries, secretly paid themselves consulting fees or arranged
fundraising contracts with friends. One cancer charity paid a company owned by the president's
son nearly $18 million over eight years to solicit funds.
Note: For lots more excellent reporting on this important subject, click here. For a webpage which
shows that many of those who call asking you for donations (including Firefighters Charitable
Foundation, International Union of Police Associations, and National Veterans Service Fund) are
not using your money for the causes they claim to represent, click here.

The world is a better place than you think

2013-06-06, The Intelligent Optimist (Formerly Ode Magazine)
http://www.theoptimist.com/stories/society/the-world-is-a-better-place-than-y...
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of armed conflicts in the world has fallen by 40 percent,
according to Simon Fraser Universitys Human Security Report. And those conflicts have resulted
in strikingly low numbers of fatalities. While that statement may sound odd ... the numbers are
nonetheless telling. Since 1988, the number of wars killing more than 1,000 people a year has
gone down by 78 percent. What explains this spectacular reduction in violence? In The Better
Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Harvard professor Steven Pinker cites a
number of reasons. Nation-forming curbed peoples inclination to steal their neighbors land and
reduced the threat of enemy invasion, allowing geopolitical stability to take root. The emergence of
democracy curbed tyrannical government excesses. International trade turned countries into
business partners, and peace became economically attractive. A general process of civilization
brought about more and more self-control. Not every indicator shows a steadily falling line, but
enough measurements do register a continuous drop in brutality. Its human to remember grisly
periods like world wars and senseless outbreaks of savagery and forget how many people died
violently in past centuries. Its a fact, though, that we experience considerably less violence

today than our forebears did. Youre more likely to drown in a swimming pool than to die a
brutal death. Thats a luxury no one knew in generations past. We do, indeed, live in
historys most peaceful era.
Note: One of the most under-reported positive stories is that global violent crime has dropped
dramatically in the last two decades. For FBI statistics showing violent crime in the U.S. dropped to
1/3 the rate of 1993, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to
make a difference, click here.

Bilderberg Group? No conspiracy, just the most influential group in the

world
2013-06-06, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10102168/Bilderberg-Group-No-conspir...
No [encounters with demonstrators] will take place in Watford this week, as the Bilderberg, the
annual conference for 140 of the worlds most powerful, meet for four days at The Grove, a 300a-night golf hotel. The entire hotel has been booked out, and a high fence erected around the
exclusion zone. Armed checkpoints have been set up on local roads, and locals must show their
passports to enter their own driveways. The Bilderberg was founded in 1954 ... at the Bilderberg
Hotel, near Arnhem. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was the chair. In that first meeting, the
participants ... debated the Communist threat and the prospect of European integration. Publicly,
the group says it is still merely a debating society a forum for leaders to "listen, reflect and gather
insights" unbound by official policy positions. But while they rankle at the conspiracy theorists,
former leaders of the Bilderberg conferences says they were the most important events
they ever went to, and the freedom of speaking away from the ears of Whitehall officials
meant the discussions that took place decisively shaped modern Europe. On the agenda is
economic growth, big data, Africa, medical research and the rise of cyber warfare. The future of
the welfare state is likely to be discussed, as one topic is titled "jobs, entitlement and debt".
Another session is called simply "current affairs".
Note: For a list of this year's Bilderberg participants, which include 90-year-old Henry Kissinger,
click here. For lots more on secret societies from reliable sources, click here.

Everything you need to know about the NSAs phone records scandal
2013-06-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/06/everything-you-nee...
The Guardian [has] released a classified court order requiring Verizon to turn over records of all
domestic phone calls to the National Security Agency. The revelation has led to a renewed debate
over the legality and policy merits of indiscriminate government surveillance of Americans. The
court order, issued by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, only sought metadata a
fancy word for information like what numbers you called, what time you made the calls, and how

long the calls were. The order does not seek the audio of calls. Of course, its possible the NSA
has other programs collecting the contents of calls. In 2006 a whistleblower reported the existence
of a secret, NSA-controlled room in an AT&T switching facility in San Francisco. So its possible
the NSA is using rooms like that to listen to everyones phone calls. But all we know for sure is that
the NSA has been requesting information about our phone calls. We only have proof of spying
on Verizon customers, but its hard to imagine the NSA limiting its surveillance program to
one company. There are probably similar orders in effect for AT&T and CenturyLink, the
other major telephone companies. The order includes hints that the NSA is also collecting
information from cellular customers. In addition to phone numbers and call times, the order
seeks information about the specific cell phone tower the customer used to connect to the network
during each call. Cellphones make calls using the closest tower. So if the NSA knows you made a
call using a specific tower, they can safely assume you were near that tower at the time of the call.
Note: For graphs and lots more on the Prism program, see the Guardian article at this link.
Technically, U.S. officials are not allowed to mine personal data from U.S. citizens. Yet if U.K.
authorities mine data on U.S. citizens, they can share it freely with officials in the U.S. and vice
versa. There is evidence that this happens quite frequently, thus circumventing privacy protections.
For an excellent article which goes deep into this issue, click here.

The week ahead: Bilderberg 2013 comes to the Grove hotel, Watford
2013-06-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/02/week-ahead-bilderberg-2013-watford
On [June 6], a heady mix of politicians, bank bosses, billionaires, chief executives and European
royalty will swoop up the elegant drive of the Grove hotel, north of Watford, to begin the annual
Bilderberg conference. The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell will hop from his limo, delighted to be
spending three solid days in policy talks with the head of HSBC, the president of Dow Chemical,
his favourite European finance ministers and US intelligence chiefs. The conference is the
highlight of every plutocrat's year and has been since 1954. The only time Bilderberg skipped a
year was 1976, after the group's founding chairman, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was
caught taking bribes from Lockheed Martin. It may seem odd, as our own lobbying scandal
unfolds, amid calls for a statutory register of lobbyists, that a bunch of our senior politicians will be
holed up for three days in luxurious privacy with the chairmen and CEOs of hedge funds, tech
corporations and vast multinational holding companies, with zero press oversight. Michael
Meacher, MP ... describes the conference as "an anti-democratic cabal of the leaders of western
market capitalism meeting in private to maintain their own power and influence outside the reach
of public scrutiny". The Bilderberg conference is paid for, in the UK, by an officially registered
charity: the Bilderberg Association (charity number 272706). The charity receives regular fivefigure sums from two kindly supporters of its benevolent aims: Goldman Sachs and BP.
The most recent documentary proof of this is from 2008, since when the charity has omitted
its donors' names from its accounts.

Note: For a list of this year's Bilderberg participants, which include 90-year-old Henry Kissinger,
click here. For lots more on secret societies from reliable sources, click here.

Look for more cooperation as Millennials gain power

2013-05-20, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Millennials-may-break-political-g...
Baby Boomers - the protest-loving generation that didn't trust anyone over 30 - are approaching
retirement by the millions, an evolution that many say could be the last best hope for a hopelessly
gridlocked Washington. Replacing the Boomers are the Millennials, a get-it-done group born
roughly between the early 1980s and 2000s, who make up the largest and most diverse
generation in history. It's a generation that proudly rises above party loyalty and is driving
the surge in the number of decline-to-state voters, who now make up 1 in 5 Californians, experts
say. They are less divided, and they have a much greater "unity of belief" on social issues such as
same-sex marriage, which 70 percent of them support, said author Morley Winograd, a former
White House policy adviser under President Bill Clinton and a demographics expert. Their
political mind-set ... is: "We want to change the world - what can we do together?" The
legacy they are beginning to inherit, and fundamentally change, is a political culture that is rabidly
partisan and all but frozen in animosity. The politics of an unpopular Congress suggest that lasting
solutions will come not from the once-influential Boomers, but instead from their kids. "American
politics will never be the same - because it is the end of the Boomer-dominated era," said
Winograd. Winograd, co-author of a new book with Michael Hais called Millennial Majority: How a
New Coalition Is Remaking American Politics, said, "The new Millennial-driven majority coalition in
the United States will change almost everything."
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Teen's invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds

2013-05-18, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/teens-invention-could-charge-your-phon...
Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old
high-school student's invention. She won a $50,000 prize ... at an international science fair for
creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds. The fast-charging
device is a [type of] so-called supercapacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny
space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time. What's more, it can last for 10,000
charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries,
according to [the inventor] Eesha Khare of Saratoga, Calif. Supercapacitors also allowed her to
focus on her interest in nanochemistry "really working at the nanoscale to make significant
advances in many different fields." To date, she has used [her] supercapacitor to power a lightemitting diode, or LED. The invention's future is even brighter. She sees it fitting inside

cellphones and the other portable electronic devices that are proliferating in today's world,
freeing people and their gadgets for a longer time from reliance on electrical outlets. "It is
also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric," Khare added. "It
has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense." Khare's invention
won her the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at the Intel International Science and
Engineering Fair, conducted ... in Phoenix, Ariz.
Note: Now let's see if it actually makes it to market or is blocked by the companies that profit from
selling many chargers. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

Assault Prevention NCO Investigated for Sex Crimes

2013-05-15, Military.com
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/05/15/assault-prevention-nco-investig...
For the second time this month, a uniformed military official whose job was to prevent sex abuse
has come under investigation for a sex crime. Agents from the Armys Criminal Investigation
Division were looking into allegations that an Army sergeant first class at Fort Hood, Texas,
sexually abused females in his unit and ran a prostitution ring on the base. Officials said
that the soldier, who was not identified, had been assigned as an Equal Opportunity
Adviser and Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program
coordinator at Fort Hood with the Armys III Corps when the allegations surfaced. The CID
investigation was looking into allegations that the sergeant was involved in abusive sexual
contact, pandering, assault and maltreatment of subordinates in his oversight of a unit of about
800 soldiers. The allegations against the sergeant surfaced a week after Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski,
branch chief of the Air Forces Sexual Assault and Prevention Office, was arrested and charged by
Arlington County, Va., police for allegedly being drunk and groping a woman in a parking lot near a
strip club one mile from the Pentagon. Krusinski has been charged with sexual battery, and a
hearing on his criminal case has been set for July. The charges against Krusinski rocked the Air
Force, which was already dealing with numerous courts-martial stemming from the alleged abuse
of female recruits at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. .
Note: So the officer in charge of sexual harassment and assault was also running a prostitution
ring? And this according to military.com. Do we have a serious problem here? If you are ready to
see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to the highest levels of
government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence,"
available here.

Gov't Probe Obtains Wide Swath of AP Phone Records

2013-05-13, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-p...

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters
and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a
"massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news. The
records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone
numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and
Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery.
In all, the government seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to
AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The government would not say why it sought the
records. Officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is
conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7,
2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen
that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for
the United States. Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure
of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and
an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

The Soul of Teamwork

2013-05-13, Daily Good
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?sid=430
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jacksonby percentage (.738) the winningest coach in NBA
historyis renowned for his ability to turn megastars into team players. And his secret is spiritual.
The most effective way to forge a winning team, he writes in Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of
a Hardwood Warrior, is to call on the players' need to connect with something larger than
themselves. Before Jackson arrived, both the Bulls and the Lakers were teams that, despite the
presence of breathtaking talent, had failed to achieve the harmony needed to win championships.
Yet under his guidance, schooled in his characteristically unselfish, team-oriented style, they went
on to record-breaking success. So what does this remarkable head coach have to say about the
heightened group consciousness that can awaken when teams come together beyond the divisive
forces of the ego? [Q.] In Sacred Hoops you write about the energy that's unleashed when
players put their egos aside and work toward a common goal. You also refer to a powerful group
intelligence [that] emerges that is greater than the coach's ideas or those of any individual on the
team. What is that powerful energy and intelligence that emerges in a collective when the ego is
set aside? PHIL JACKSON: When a player surrenders his self-interest for the greater good,
his fullest gifts as an athlete are manifested. It's funnyby playing within his natural
abilities, he activates a higher potential beyond his abilities, a higher potential for the team.
It changes things for everybody.

Note: DailyGood is an inspiring website that also offers a daily inspiration email. To learn more and
subscribe, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

Sexual Assaults in Military Raise Alarm in Washington

2013-05-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/us/politics/pentagon-study-sees-sharp-rise-...
The Pentagon [has] released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were
sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010. The study, based on a confidential
survey sent to 108,000 active-duty service members, was released two days after the officer
in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and
charged with sexual battery for grabbing a womans breasts and buttocks in an Arlington, Va.,
parking lot. In a separate report ... the military recorded 3,374 sexual assault reports last year, up
from 3,192 in 2011, suggesting that many victims continue not to report the crimes for fear of
retribution or a lack of justice under the departments system for prosecution. The numbers come
as the Pentagon prepares to integrate women formally into what had been all-male domains of
combat, making the effective monitoring, policing and prosecuting of sexual misconduct all the
more pressing. In 2010, a similar Pentagon survey found that 4.4 percent of active-duty women
and fewer than 0.9 percent of active-duty men had experienced sexual assault. Pentagon officials
could not explain the jump in assaults of women, although they believed that more victims, both
men and women, were making the choice to come forward. In the general population, about 0.2
percent of American women over age 12 were victims of sexual assault in 2010, the most recent
year for which data is available, according to the Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Air Force's sexual assault prevention chief arrested for sexual assault
2013-05-06, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57583128/air-forces-sexual-assault-prev...
An Air Force officer was arrested for sexual assault. The remarkable thing is the accused
man was the chief of the Air Force sexual assault prevention unit. The mug shot of Lt. Col.
Jeff Krusinski shows signs of struggle on his face. The police report alleges that a drunken
Krusinski "approached a female victim in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks." The
victim fought the suspect off as he attempted to touch her again and alerted police. News of the
incident in the Virginia suburbs of Washington broke the day before the Pentagon is scheduled to
release new figures showing a continuing rise in sexual assaults in the military: A six-percent
increase from 3,192 to 3,374 reports of sexual assault in fiscal year 2012 compared to the
previous year. Estimates of the actual numbers of what is a notoriously underreported crime go
much higher. According to the Pentagon figures, an estimated 26,000 servicewomen experienced

unwanted sexual contact, up from 19,300 two years ago. Krusinski has been removed from his
job, but that will not change the reality that the Pentagon's own figures show sexual
assaults are on the rise in the military.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Long-term unemployed pushed to margins

2013-05-05, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/bottomline/article/Long-term-unemployed-p...
George Ross is no longer an official member of the labor force. Out of work for the past two years,
he didn't figure in the government's [latest] employment numbers. He's a "marginally attached"
worker, although he doesn't see himself that way. Ross, 60, is among the 12.2 million Americans
classified as "not in the labor force" by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the monthly
reports. Why? Because if they have been looking for a job for more than a year - but not in the
past four weeks - they're considered "discouraged" - they just don't feel they can find a job. Or
they're "marginally attached," those like Ross, who had to stop looking for other reasons, like
family responsibilities. Or they're working fewer than 35 hours a week - their employer cut their
hours, it's the best they can find - which means they're "part time for economic reasons" or
"involuntary part time." None of them is counted, but if you added the 2.3 million "discouraged"
and "marginally attached" to the 11.7 million officially unemployed, you'd have an
unemployment rate closer to 9 percent - not the 7.5 percent reported [on May 3]. Add in the
reluctant part-timers (7.2 million) and the rate jumps to 13.9 percent. For the long-term
unemployed - those out of work for more than six months - like Ross and 4.4 million others, the
prospects are especially daunting. The longer you're out of work the less likely prospective
employers will even take a look at you. That goes double if you're older. A Government
Accountability Office report last year found "employer reluctance to hire older workers as a key
challenge" to reducing unemployment.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on extremes of income
inequality, click here.

The giants of the green world that profit from the planet's destruction
2013-05-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/03/giants-green-world-profit...
The movement demanding that public interest institutions divest their holdings from fossil
fuels is on a serious roll. Chapters have opened up in more than 100 US cities and states as
well as on more than 300 campuses, where students are holding protests, debates and sit-ins to
pressure their [universities] to rid their endowments of oil, gas and coal holdings. Some schools [in
the UK], including University College London, ... already have active divestment campaigns. Four

US colleges have announced their intention to divest their endowments from fossil fuel
stocks and bonds and, in late April, 10 US cities made similar commitments, including San
Francisco [and Seattle]. To quote the mission statement of the Fossil Free movement: "If it is
wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that
educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve
the public good should divest from fossil fuels." An important target is missing from the list: the
environmental organisations themselves. Some of the most powerful and wealthiest environmental
organisations have long behaved as if they had a stake in the oil and gas industry. They led the
climate movement down various dead ends: carbon trading, carbon offsets, natural gas as a
"bridge fuel" what these policies all held in common is that they created the illusion of progress
while allowing the fossil fuel companies to keep mining, drilling and fracking with abandon.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on global warming, click
here.

Leaks, Rats and Radioactivity: Fukushimas Nuclear Cleanup Is

Faltering
2013-05-01, Time Magazine
http://science.time.com/2013/05/01/leaks-rats-and-radioactivity-why-fukushima...
Honestly, if the consequences werent potentially so dire, the ongoing struggles to clean up the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan would be the stuff of comedy. In March, an
extended blackout disabled power to a vital cooling system for days. The cause: a rat that had
apparently been chewing on cables in a switchboard. Another dead rat was found in the plants
electrical works just a few weeks ago, which led to another blackout. The dead rats were just the
latest screwups in a series of screwups by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). But its not funny,
not really, because the consequences of the meltdown and TEPCOs mismanagement are very
real. The latest threat comes from nearby groundwater that is pouring into the damaged reactor
buildings. Once the water reaches the reactor it becomes highly contaminated by radioactivity.
TEPCO workers have to pump the water out of the reactor to avoid submerging the important
cooling system. TEPCO cant simply dump the irradiated groundwater into the nearby sea ... so
the company has been forced to jury-rig yet another temporary solution, building hundreds of
tanks, each able to hold 112 Olympic-size pools worth of liquid, to hold the groundwater. So
TEPCO finds itself in a race: Can its workers build enough tanks and clear enough nearby
space to store the irradiated water water that keeps pouring into the reactor at the rate of
some 75 gal. a minute? More than two years after the tsunami, TEPCO is still racing against
time and just barely staying ahead.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the grave risks from the
nuclear power industry, click here.

Top economist Jeffrey Sachs says Wall Street is full of 'crooks' and

hasn't changed since the financial crash

2013-04-29, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/top-economist-jeffrey-sachs-...
One of the world's most respected economists has said Wall St is full of "crooks" and hasn't
reformed its "pathological" culture since the financial crash. Professor Jeffrey Sachs told a highpowered audience at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve earlier this month that the lack of reform
was down to a docile president, a docile White House and a docile regulatory system that
absolutely cant find its voice. Sachs, from Columbia University, has twice been named one of
Time magazines 100 Most Influential People in the World, and is an adviser to the World
Bank and IMF. What has been revealed, in my view, is prima facie criminal behavior, he
said. Its financial fraud on a very large extent. Theres also a tremendous amount of
insider trading. We have a corrupt politics to the core, I am afraid to say, and . . . both parties
are up to their neck in this. This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans." Sachs
described an environment of Wall Street influencing politicians with growing campaign
contributions. In the 2012 election cycle, political contributions by the securities and investment
sector hit $271.5 million, compared with $176 million in 2008, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. I am going to put it very bluntly: I regard the moral environment as
pathological. They have no responsibility to pay taxes; they have no responsibility to their clients;
they have no responsibility to people, to counterparties in transactions, he said. They are tough,
greedy, aggressive and feel absolutely out of control in a quite literal sense, and they have gamed
the system to a remarkable extent.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on criminal practices of Wall
Street corporations, click here.

Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore

2013-04-29, Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-29/billionaires-flee-as-tax-district...
Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, Russias 14th-richest person, and his wife, Elena Rybolovleva, have
been brawling for almost five years in at least seven countries over his $9.5 billion fortune. In a
divorce complaint originated in Geneva in 2008, Rybolovleva accused her husband of using a
multitude of third parties to create a network of offshore holding companies and trusts to place
assets -- including about $500 million in art, $36 million in jewelry and an $80 million yacht -beyond her reach. She has brought legal action against the 48-year-old Rybolovlev in the British
Virgin Islands, England, Wales, the U.S., Cyprus, Singapore and Switzerland, and is seeking $6
billion. The suits provide a window into the offshore structures and secrecy jurisdictions the worlds
richest people use to manage, preserve and conceal their assets. According to Tax Justice
Network, a U.K.-based organization that campaigns for transparency in the financial system,
wealthy individuals were hiding as much as $32 trillion offshore at the end of 2010. Fewer
than 100,000 people own $9.8 trillion of offshore assets. More than 30 percent of the worlds
200 richest people, who have a $2.8 trillion collective net worth ...control part of their

personal fortune through an offshore holding company or other domestic entity where the
assets are held indirectly. These structures often hide assets from tax authorities or provide legal
protection from government seizure and lawsuits.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on failure of governments to
regulate great accumulations of wealth, click here.

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever

2013-04-25, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-fi...
Conspiracy theorists of the world, ... we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The world is
a rigged game. The world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.
You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which ... perhaps as many as 16 ... banks have been
manipulating global interest rates, in the process [manipulating] the prices of upward of $500
trillion ... worth of financial instruments. Now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out
that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being
investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess.
Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have
worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark
number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps. Interest-rate
swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage
their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. [It's] a $379 trillion market,
meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the
United States federal budget. It should surprise no one that among the players implicated in this
scheme to fix the prices of interest-rate swaps are the same megabanks including Barclays,
UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland that serve on the Libor
panel that sets global interest rates.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the criminal practices of
the financial industry, click here.

Congressman: Boston bombs triggered by remote control

2013-04-24, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57581244/boston-marathon-bombs-possibly-t...
Two U.S. officials say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect [in the Boston Marathon
bombings], was unarmed when police captured him hiding inside a boat in a neighborhood
back yard. Authorities originally said they had exchanged gunfire with Dzhokhar for more
than one hour Friday evening before they were able to subdue him. The officials tell The
Associated Press that no gun was found in the boat. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said
earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat. Investigators also believe the brothers helped

finance their plot through drug sales. Sources say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was unemployed,
made money selling marijuana. Police think the brothers killed a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology campus police officer for his weapon while they were the subjects of last week's
massive manhunt. The brothers only had one real gun and one pellet gun when they were on the
run Thursday. Investigators now believe that Officer Sean Collier was killed Thursday because the
two bombing suspects wanted to take his gun. Investigators believe because the officer's holster
had a locking system, they apparently couldn't get the gun out. Collier was shot in the head
execution-style while sitting in his patrol car. In his questioning in the hospital, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
said they were self-taught and self-radicalized.
Note: Don't these details released by investigators sound odd? If Dzhokhar was not armed, why
did authorities say they exchanged gunfire for an hour? And previous reports claimed Dzhokhar
was shot in the throat, so that he could not speak about his version of what happened. High
strangeness here. For powerful evidence from a respected researcher that the uncle of the Boston
bombers was a top CIA official, click here. This is evidence supporting the theory that the brothers
may have been CIA-controlled Manchurian Candidates. For more on this, click here.

Evian's dancing babies are back!

2013-04-24, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/04/24/evian-dancing-babies-are...
Remember the Roller Babies craze in 2009? That Evian video has been viewed more than 65
million times. Now, Evian Natural Spring Water has just launched a follow-up video, Baby & Me,
and it's already got nearly 30 million views on YouTube. The new video, which features adults
walking on a busy street when they suddenly see their "inner babies" in a storefront window
reflection, launched simultaneously in 14 countries on Friday. The adult characters interact with
their baby selves, mostly through dance. "You can't not smile watching this," said GMA anchor
Lara Spencer this morning during a piece on the video. "This type of commercial is about
happiness and energy," the ad's director, Remi Babinet, told GMA. Produced by creative agency
BETC, and directed by We are from LA, the Baby & Me video is remixed by electronic music
producer, Yuksek, notes Evian in a release about the ad. And the music? The '90s dance hit Here
comes the Hotstepper serves as the soundtrack.
Note: Click on the link above to watch the video. For a video diving deeper into this by ABC, click
here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

When military law looks the other way

2013-04-22, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/When-military-law-looks...

There are few cases that better illustrate why the military needs to create an independent office to
investigate rape than that of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson. Wilkerson, a fighter pilot, was sentenced to
a year in prison and dismissed from military service after being found guilty of aggravated sexual
assault by a jury of his peers. His commanding officer then threw out the conviction and reinstated
Wilkerson at full rank. Under the military code of justice ... the commanding officer's
discretion and bias may overrule legal decisions. In this case, Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, the
commander of the 3rd Air Force, declined to approve Wilkerson's conviction by a jury of senior
officers, all men. His decision suggests the Air Force doesn't take sexual assault seriously. Yet, an
estimated 19,000 rapes or sexual assaults occur each year in the military, although just 8
percent of sexual assaults are referred to military court, according to a Department of
Defense survey of active-duty members. That compares with 40 percent in the civilian court
system. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-[CA], last week reintroduced legislation that calls for overhauling
how the military justice system handles rape and sexual assault by taking prosecution, reporting,
oversight, investigation and victim care out of the chain of command and putting it in an
autonomous office housed in the military but staffed by both civilian and military personnel.
"Victims of rape and sexual assault should not have to choose between career-ending retaliation
and seeking judicial action against their attackers," said Speier.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Boston suspect was under FBI surveillance, mother says

2013-04-20, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-explosions-boston-motherbre9...
One of the two ethnic Chechens suspected by U.S. officials of being behind the Boston Marathon
bombings had been under FBI surveillance for at least three years, his mother said. Zubeidat
Tsarnaeva told the English-language Russia Today state television station in a phone interview, a
recording of which was obtained by Reuters, that she believed her sons were innocent and had
been framed. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police and his 19-year-old
brother Dzhokhar was captured after a day-long manhunt. "He (Tamerlan) was controlled by the
FBI, like, for three to five years," she said, speaking in English. "They knew what my son
was doing, they knew what sites on the Internet he was going to," she said. Tsarnaeva
echoed the boys' father, Anzor, who said ... that he believed they had been framed.
Tsarnaeva suggested FBI officers had visited her home when she still lived in the United States
and told her that Tamerlan "was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him. It is
really, really a hard thing to hear. And being a mother, what I can say is that I am really sure, I am,
like, 100 percent sure, that this is a set-up," she said. U.S. government officials have said the
brothers were not under surveillance as possible militants. But the FBI said in a statement on
Friday that in 2011 it interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government, which it did not
identify. The FBI statement was the first evidence that the family had come to security officials'
attention after they emigrated to the United States from Dagestan about a decade ago.

Note: For a sharp analysis of unanswered questions raised by the official account of the bombings
in Boston, click here. For the local NBC station report that bomb-sniffing dogs were present at the
finish line of the Boston Marathon before the bombs exploded, watch this video clip. And for a
Washington Times article raising more questions on the bombing, including government agents
seen at the scene with suspicious backpacks, click here.

Gitmo Is Killing Me
2013-04-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html
Ive been detained at Guantnamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with
any crime. I have never received a trial. Last month, on March 15, I was sick in the prison hospital
and refused to be fed. A team from the E.R.F. (Extreme Reaction Force), a squad of eight military
police officers in riot gear, burst in. They tied my hands and feet to the bed. They forcibly inserted
an IV into my hand. I spent 26 hours in this state, tied to the bed. During this time I was not
permitted to go to the toilet. They inserted a catheter, which was painful, degrading and
unnecessary. I was not even permitted to pray. I will never forget the first time they passed the
feeding tube up my nose. I cant describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust
in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldnt. There was agony in my chest,
throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel
punishment upon anyone. I am still being force-fed. Two times a day they tie me to a chair in my
cell. My arms, legs and head are strapped down. When they come to force me into the chair, if I
refuse to be tied up, they call the E.R.F. team. So I have a choice. Either I can exercise my right
to protest my detention, and be beaten up, or I can submit to painful force-feeding. The only
reason I am still here is that President Obama refuses to send any detainees back to
Yemen. This makes no sense. I am a human being ... and I deserve to be treated like one.
Note: Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, has been a prisoner at Guantnamo Bay since 2002. For an
illuminating analysis of this situation by the Washington Post, click here.

Waste picker wins Goldman prize

2013-04-15, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/Waste-picker-wins-Goldman-prize-44...
Fourteen years ago, Blanca Cecilia Lopez began combing the streets of [Bogota, Colombia] in
search of sellable articles to feed her family. She typically earned only a few dollars a day
scavenging bottles, cans, paper and any other reusable items that she could find. Two years ago,
however, her life changed dramatically thanks to a grassroots organization that found her a
position at a city recycling center with a monthly salary and health benefits. The 50-year-old
mother of seven owes her new life to Nohra Padilla, who began organizing waste pickers like
Lopez in 1990 into the Bogota Recyclers' Association. For her work, Padilla is one of six recipients
of the [2013] Goldman Environmental Prize. Over the years, the association, which has 2,000

members, has battled city officials and private sanitation companies vying to monopolize trash
collection from Bogota's 8 million inhabitants. In the 1980s and 1990s, Padilla and other
organizers were threatened by right-wing paramilitaries who regarded organizing the poor
as subversive. Several waste pickers were murdered in what the militias called "social
cleansing." A talent for organizing and motivating others emerged, turning Padilla into a
leader of an estimated 17,000 waste pickers who are a common sight on Bogota streets
pushing hand carts or riding on horse carts piled high with scavenged trash. "If she (Padilla)
weren't around, the recyclers would have to compete with the big trash companies," said Federico
Parra, regional coordinator for a global nonprofit that helps improve conditions for the working
poor.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Big banks 'more dangerous than ever', IMF's Christine Lagarde says
2013-04-10, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9985280/Big-b...
Europe needs to recapitalise, restructure or shut down its banks as part of a vital clean-up of the
industry, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said as she warned
that the threat from worlds biggest lenders was more dangerous than ever. Speaking in New
York ahead of next weeks IMF Spring meeting, Ms Lagarde launched a broadside against the
financial services industry for resisting urgent reform. In too many cases from the United States
in 2008 to Cyprus today we have seen what happens when a banking sector chooses the quick
buck ..., backing a business model that ultimately destabilizes the economy. We simply cannot
have pre-crisis banking in a post-crisis world. We need reform, even in the face of intense
pushback from an industry sometimes reluctant to abandon lucrative lines of business.
Almost five years since Lehman Brothers collapsed, she claimed: The 'oversize banking
model of too-big-to-fail is more dangerous than ever. We must get to the root of the problem
with comprehensive and clear regulation. Regulators have forced banks to increase significantly
their loss-absorbing capital buffers since the crisis, but are still working on "resolution"
mechanisms that will allow giant lenders to fail without hitting the taxpayer and threatening
financial stability. Regulators must also work together, she added, amid evidence that some
countries are caving into pressure from the banking lobby.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

The extraordinary range of people using offshore hideaways

2013-04-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/04/secrets-offshore-hideaways-laid-bare

The secret records obtained by ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] lay bare
an extraordinary range of people using offshore hideaways. They include ... families of despots,
Wall Street swindlers, eastern European and Indonesian billionaires, Russian executives, [and]
international arms dealers. The leaks illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has aggressively
spread around the globe. The records detail offshore holdings in more than 170 territories; this
represents the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a
media organisation. Eighty-six journalists from 46 countries used both hi-tech data crunching and
traditional reporting to sift through emails and account ledgers covering nearly 30 years.
"Everything is much more geared toward business," David Marchant, publisher of OffshoreAlert,
an online journal, said. "If you're dishonest, you can take advantage of that in a bad way." ICIJ's
15-month investigation found that ... the secrecy and lax oversight offered by the offshore
world appears to allow fraud, tax-dodging and political corruption to thrive. A study by
James S Henry, former chief economist at McKinsey & Company [and a board member of the Tax
Justice Network], estimates that wealthy individuals have $21-$32tn tucked away in offshore
havens roughly equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.
Note: To learn more about how all of this incredibly revealing data was obtained and processed,
click here. For a powerfully revealing documentary showing how huge corporations park profits
offshore to avoid taxes, click here.

Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore

2013-04-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the
first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from
presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of
concealing assets from his ex-wife. The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the
offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands, has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide
to the booming offshore trade. The naming project may be extremely damaging for confidence
among the world's wealthiest people, no longer certain that the size of their fortunes
remains hidden from governments and from their neighbours. As well as Britons hiding
wealth offshore, an extraordinary array of government officials and rich families across the world
are identified, from Canada, the US, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, China, Thailand and former
communist states. The Caribbean micro-state has incorporated more than a million such offshore
entities since it began marketing itself worldwide in the 1980s. Owners' true identities are never
revealed. Even the island's official financial regulators normally have no idea who is behind them.
The British Foreign Office depends on the BVI's company licensing revenue to subsidise this
residual outpost of empire, while lawyers and accountants in the City of London benefit from a
lucrative trade as intermediaries.
Note: For profiles of a few leading secret account holders, click here. For a powerfully revealing
documentary showing how huge corporations park profits offshore to avoid taxes, click here.

Dental amalgam: Anti-mercury movement pushes for shifts in dentistry

2013-03-31, Chicago Tribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-31/business/ct-biz-0324-dental-ama...
Silver [tooth] fillings, commonly called dental amalgam, contribute mercury pollution to the
environment. Recent developments suggest momentum is building against silver fillings based on
environmental concerns: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Japan and Finland have either banned
dental amalgam or restricted its use within the last five years. Twelve states have mandatory
dental amalgam reduction programs. About half the mercury entering municipal wastewater
treatment plants, or about 3.7 tons annually, comes from dental amalgam waste. While treatment
plants capture about 90 percent of amalgam, some mercury settles into sewage sludge that is
deposited in landfills, incinerated, applied as fertilizer or flushed into waterways. Once in water, it
can transform into methylmercury, a neurotoxin that builds up in fish, shellfish and animals that eat
fish, including humans. Several studies have linked methylmercury to health and developmental
problems, especially in pregnant women, fetuses, infants and children. High exposure to
methylmercury has been linked to permanent damage in children's brains and nervous systems
and to increased risk of kidney problems in adults. Research shows that the human body
absorbs mercury vapor released from dental amalgam. Numerous studies raise concerns
about mercury exposure from amalgam. In toxic doses, elemental mercury breathed in as
vapor can cause symptoms including tremors, mood swings, neuromuscular changes and
cognitive deficits.
Note: For a great report by Dr. Mercola and Dr. Oz on the risks of mercury-based dental amalgam,
click here.

UFO memos most popular of old FBI case files

2013-03-29, CBS Atlanta
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/21825027/ufo-memos-most-popular-of-old-fbi-ca...
Forget about gangsters and bank robbers, the most popular document in old FBI case files has to
do with UFOs. At "the vault," the FBI's digital reading-room, anyone can go online and view the
bureau's most notorious cases. "Since we opened the vault, it's been this memo about flying disks
or flying saucers, and it relates to an allegation that we heard from a third-hand, saying that the Air
Force had found a couple of saucers out in the New Mexico desert," John Fox, FBI historian, said.
The memo's all of two paragraphs. Agent Guy Hottel, then head of the FBI's Washington Field
Office, writes that an Air Force investigator "...stated that three so-called flying saucers had
been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised
centers, approximately 50-feet in diameter. ... Each one was occupied by three bodies of
human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body
was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots." It's
not just the Guy Hottel memo that's a favorite. There are hundreds of other pages of memos and

files in the FBI vault - in the "unexplained phenomenon" section, all about alien and UFO sightings
- that are more popular online than the FBI's files on Bonnie and Clyde, serial killer Ted Bundy and
other famous cases that have become part of FBI lore.
Note: For a three-minute CNN video of this amazing news, click here. You can view the
declassified memorandum described above on the FBI website at this link. Or download this
revealing document and view it on our website at this link. For lots more reliable information
suggesting a major cover-up of the reality of ET visitation, click here.

Overseas stashes complicate tax reform

2013-03-28, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/bottomline/article/Overseas-stashes-compl...
According to a new report, most of the 30 companies listed on the Dow Jones industrial
average are paying a far lower proportion of their profits in federal taxes - at a time when
the Dow is reaching new highs - than they have in past decades. The main reason: not so
much those yawning tax loopholes, but the multinationals' ability to stash more of their money
overseas, where it's taxed at a lower rate and the feds can't touch it. Hewlett-Packard, according to
the analysis, experienced the steepest percentage reduction in federal taxes - 47 percent since
1969. Intel's share of income paid in taxes has fallen by 29.6 percent since 1973, and Cisco
Systems by 24.7 percent since 1989. U.S. multinationals ... often pay far less than the standard 35
percent corporate tax rate - a rate many of these companies are pushing to have significantly
lowered. In its year-end report, Intel recorded $13 billion in profit - a record - and said its tax rate
was approximately 29 percent. In 2010 HP paid $1.75 billion in income taxes on $9.4 billion of
pretax income, a tax rate of 18.6 percent. As a share of the nation's GDP, U.S. corporate income
tax has fallen by more than half, from 5.5 percent in 1946 to 2.6 percent in 2011.
Note: The statement about corporate income tax falling from 5.5 percent of GDP in 1946 to 2.6
percent in 2011 is quite misleading, making it appear that corporate taxes are a small percentage
of total income. It is much more accurate to compare the total annual amount of corporate taxes to
individuals' taxes. As this historical tax chart clearly shows, in 1946 corporate income tax
receipts were 74% of the amount received from individual income taxes. By 2011, corporate
taxes dropped to less than 17% of the amount paid in individual income taxes. That is a huge
percentage drop in corporate taxes.

Pesticide makes bees forget the scent for food, new study finds
2013-03-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/27/pesticide-bees-scent-food-n...
Widely used pesticides have been found in new research to block a part of the brain that bees use
for learning, rendering some of them unable to perform the essential task of associating scents
with food. Bees exposed to two kinds of pesticide were slower to learn or completely forgot

links between floral scents and nectar. These effects could make it harder for bees to
forage among flowers for food, thereby threatening their survival and reducing the
pollination of crops and wild plants. The findings add to existing research that neonicotinoid
pesticides are contributing to the decline in bee populations. The new findings on the effect of
pesticides on bee brains showed that within 20 minutes of exposure to neonicotinoids the neurons
in the major learning centre of the brain stopped firing. Christopher Connolly at the University of
Dundee, who led the peer-reviewed work published in the online journal Nature Communications,
said it was the first to show the pesticides had a direct impact on pollinator brain physiology. A
parallel peer-reviewed study on the behaviour of bees subjected to the same insecticides found
the bees were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and
food rewards. "Disruption in this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony
survival, because bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food," said Dr Geraldine Wright, at
Newcastle University, who led the work.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on GMOs, click here.

True Story Inspires Tale of Sex Trade

2013-03-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/movies/eden-depicts-sex-trafficking-in-the-...
Enough films about human trafficking have been made in recent years that the outlines of Eden
should be painfully familiar. But that familiarity doesnt cushion this movies excruciating vision of
under-age women conscripted into sexual slavery by a criminal enterprise from which there is
seemingly no escape. The movie, directed by Megan Griffiths, is loosely based on the true
story of Chong Kim, who was born in South Korea and moved to the United States as a
toddler. As a teenager in the mid-1990s, she became a captive of the domestic sex trade.
She eventually survived her ordeal and has become a crusader against human trafficking.
In the film she is a Korean-American teenager named Hyun Jae (Jamie Chung), who works in her
parents New Mexico gift shop. She is picked up in a bar by a handsome, friendly young firefighter
who offers her a ride home. Along the way, he makes a stop and exits the vehicle. Moments later
she is kidnapped and drugged and has her identification and possessions confiscated. Renamed
Eden, she soon finds herself in a regiment of sex slaves, most of them immigrants, imprisoned
under close guard in a converted storage facility. The women are suspended from the ceiling and
whipped. After an incident in which Eden ... desperately tries to flee, she is handcuffed and thrown
into a bathtub filled with ice cubes. We learn late in the film that the babies of the girls who become
pregnant are sold. And it is suggested that by the age of 20, when a girl is considered to have
outlived her commercial shelf life, she faces execution and burial in the desert.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here.

The FBI's anticipatory prosecution of Muslims to criminalize speech

2013-03-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/19/preemptive-prosecution-mu...
One of the major governmental abuses denounced by the 1976 final report of the Church
Committee was the FBI's domestic counter intelligence programs (COINTELPRO). Under that
program, the FBI targeted political groups and individuals it deemed subversive and dangerous ...
and infiltrated them with agents who, among other things, attempted to manipulate members into
agreeing to commit criminal acts so that the FBI could arrest and prosecute them. What made the
program so controversial was that the FBI was attempting to create and encourage crimes rather
than find actual criminals - all in order to punish those whose constitutionally protected political
activism the US government found threatening. Over the past decade, US Muslims have been
routinely targeted with precisely this same tactic of preemptive or anticipatory prosecution.
It's all designed to take people engaged in political and religious advocacy which the US
government dislikes ... and use paid informants to trick them into saying just enough to
turn them into criminals who are then prosecuted and imprisoned for decades. The same
pattern repeats itself over and over. The FBI ensnares some random Muslim in a garden-variety
criminal investigation involving financial fraud or drugs. Rather than prosecute him, the FBI puts
the Muslim criminal suspect on its payroll, sending him into Muslim communities and mosques in
order not only to spy on American Muslims, but to befriend them and then actively manipulate
them into saying just enough to make their prosecution possible.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on illegal activities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

New Pope Tied up in Argentina's 'Dirty War' Debate

2013-03-14, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/papal-election-stirs-argentinas...
It's beyond dispute that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, [the new Pope], failed to openly confront the 19761983 military junta as it kidnapped and killed thousands of people in a "dirty war" to eliminate leftist
opponents. But human rights activists differ on how much responsibility Pope Francis personally
deserves for the Argentine church's dark history of supporting the murderous dictatorship. Some
leading Argentine human rights activists agree that Bergoglio, now 76, doesn't deserve to be
lumped together with other church figures who were closely aligned with the dictatorship. "Perhaps
he didn't have the courage of other priests, but he never collaborated with the dictatorship," Adolfo
Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for documenting the junta's atrocities, said.
But others say Bergoglio's rise through the Argentine church since then has put him in
many positions of power where he could have done more to atone for the sins of Catholic
officials who did actively conspire with the dictators. Some priests even worked inside
torture centers, and blessed those doing the killing. Bergoglio twice invoked his right under
Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court in trials involving torture and murder inside the
feared Navy Mechanics School and the theft of babies from detainees.

Note: An entire edition of Democracy Now! was devoted to the record of Bergoglio, including an
interview with the Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky. For more analysis, click here, here and
here.

Court Docs Reveal Blackwaters Secret CIA Past

2013-03-14, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/14/exclusive-erik-prince-on-bla...
Last month a three-year-long federal prosecution of Blackwater collapsed. The governments 15felony indictmenton such charges as conspiring to hide purchases of automatic rifles and other
weapons from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosivescould have led to years
of jail time for Blackwater personnel. In the end, however, the government got only misdemeanor
guilty pleas by two former executives, each of whom were sentenced to four months of house
arrest, three years probation, and a fine of $5,000. Prosecutors dropped charges against three
other executives named in the suit and abandoned the felony charges altogether. But the most
noteworthy thing about the largely failed prosecution wasnt the outcome. It was the tens of
thousands of pages of documentssome declassifiedthat the litigation left in its wake. These
documents illuminate Blackwaters defense strategy: to defeat the charges it was facing,
Blackwater built a case not only that it worked with the CIAwhich was already widely knownbut
that it was in many ways an extension of the agency itself. [CEO Erik] Prince [said] recently,
Blackwaters work with the CIA began when we provided specialized instructors and
facilities that the Agency lacked. In the years that followed, the company became a virtual
extension of the CIA because we were asked time and again to carry out dangerous
missions, which the Agency either could not or would not do in-house.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the growing privatization
of intelligence agency functions, click here.

U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances

2013-03-13, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-13/business/chi-us-to-let-spy-agen...
The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a
massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the
country, according to a Treasury Department document. The proposed plan represents a major
step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down [targeted persons] by bringing together
financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. Financial institutions that operate in
the United States are required by law to file reports of "suspicious customer activity," such as large
money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury's Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the
database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the
National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to

FinCEN. The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw
financial data than they have ever had before. Financial institutions file more than 15 million
"suspicious activity reports" every year, according to Treasury. Banks, for instance, are
required to report all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the games intelligence
agencies play, click here.

Catholic officials break into a sweat over news that priests share 23m
building with huge gay sauna
2013-03-11, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/as-cardinals-gather-to-elect-p...
Faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy
See had purchased a 23 million (21 million) share of a Rome apartment block that houses
Europes biggest gay sauna. The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely
proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation
for Evangelisation of Peoples. This 76-year-old prince of the church enjoys a 12-room apartment
on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor
entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of
which house priests. The Holy See is still reeling from allegations that the previous pontiff,
Benedict XVI, had quit in reaction to the presence of a gay cabal in the curia. La Repubblica
newspaper noted that the presence of Italys best known gay sauna in the premises is an
embarrassment. There was further embarrassment for the Holy See when the press observed
that thanks to generous tax breaks it received from the last Berlusconi government, the church will
have avoided hefty payments to the Italian state. The properties are recognised as part of the Holy
City. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Emeritus Benedicts widely disliked right-hand man, ...
was said to have been the brains behind the purchase of 2 Via Carduccio in 2008.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on secrecy, click here.

Father Marcial Maciel And The Popes He Stained

2013-03-11, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/11/father-marcial-maciel-and-th...
A life ... out of moral bounds, is how Pope Benedict XVI described Maciel in a 2010 interview, two
years after Maciels death. A wasted, twisted life. And a life that exposed shocking flaws in the
Vatican and the papacy. The saga of Father Maciel opens a rare view onto the flow of money in
the Roman Curia across the last half century. In the late 1940s, Maciel began sexually
plundering teenage seminarians in the religious order he founded, the Legion of Christ. He
also shuttled between Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain ... portraying his Legionaries as a
force of resurgent orthodoxy, himself a fearless foe of Communism. Maciel won government

support for seminary scholarships in Madrid, after the Spanish Civil War cemented ties between
Francisco Francos dictatorship and the Catholic hierarchy. Wealthy industrialists and patricians
from the Spanish-speaking world poured money into Maciels fledgling order. Legionaries called
their leader Nuestro Padre (Our Father). They were taught that their founder was a living saint.
They took private vows, swearing never to criticize Maciel or their superiors and to report on
anyone who did. The cultlike insular culture Maciel molded would reward spying as an act of faith
and shield Nuestro Padre from scrutiny as the youngest victims grew up and left the order,
returning to Mexico and years of grappling with his traumatic impact on their lives.
Note: Jason Berry is author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic
Church.

How the US public was defrauded by the hidden cost of the Iraq war
2013-03-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/us-public-defrauded-hidde...
When the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration estimated that it would
cost $50-60bn to overthrow Saddam Hussein and establish a functioning government. This
estimate was catastrophically wrong: the war in Iraq has cost $823.2bn between 2003 and
2011. Some estimates suggest that it may eventually cost as much as $3.7tn when ... the longterm costs of caring for the wounded and the families of those killed [are factored in]. The most
striking fact about the cost of the war in Iraq has been the extent to which it has been kept
"off the books" of the government's ledgers and hidden from the American people. This was
done by design. The most obvious way in which the true cost of this war was kept hidden was with
the use of supplemental appropriations to fund the occupation. By one estimate, 70% of the costs
of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2008 were funded with supplemental or
emergency appropriations approved outside the Pentagon's annual budget. With the Iraq war
treated as an "off the books" expense, the Pentagon was allowed to keep spending on high-end
military equipment and cutting-edge technology. The Bush administration masked the cost of the
war with deficit spending to ensure that the American people would not face up to its costs while
President Bush was in office. [It] encouraged the American people to keep spending and "enjoy
life", while the government paid for the occupation of Iraq on a credit card they hoped never to
have to repay.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Three Democratic myths used to demean the Paul filibuster

2013-03-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/10/paul-filibuster-drones-pr...

Commencing immediately upon the 9/11 attack, the US government ... has spent 12 straight years
inventing and implementing new theories of government power in the name of Terrorism. Every
year since 9/11 has ushered in increased authorities of exactly the type Americans are
inculcated to believe only exist in those other, non-free societies: ubiquitous surveillance,
impenetrable secrecy, and the power to imprison and even kill without charges or due
process. The Obama administration has already exercised the power to target even its own
citizens for execution far from any battlefield. [This] has prompted almost no institutional resistance
from the structures designed to check executive abuses: courts, the media, and Congress. Last
week's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director by GOP Sen. Rand Paul
was one of the first ... Congressional efforts to dramatize and oppose just how radical these
Terrorism-justified powers have become. For the first time since the 9/11 attack, even lowly cable
news shows were forced ... to extensively discuss the government's extremist theories of power.
All of this put Democrats ... in a very uncomfortable position. The politician who took such a unique
stand in defense of these principles was not merely a Republican but a leading member of its
dreaded Tea Party wing. Some Democrats, to their credit, publicly supported Paul. But most
Democratic Senators ran away as fast as possible from having anything to do with the debate.
Paul was doing nothing more than voicing concerns that have long been voiced by leading civil
liberties groups such as the ACLU. But almost without exception, progressives who defend
Obama's Terrorism policies steadfastly ignore the fact that they are embracing policies that are
vehemently denounced by the ACLU.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the loss of civil liberties in
the US, click here.

Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content

2013-03-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/business/grocery-chain-to-require-labels-fo...
Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain, on [March 8] became the first retailer in the United
States to require labeling [by 2018] of all genetically modified foods sold in its stores, a
move that some experts said could radically alter the food industry. The announcement
ricocheted around the food industry and excited proponents of labeling. Fantastic, said Mark
Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, an organic advocacy group that favors labeling. The
Grocery Manufacturers Association, the trade group that represents major food companies and
retailers, issued a statement opposing the move. The labeling requirements announced by Whole
Foods will include its 339 stores in the United States and Canada. Since labeling is already
required in the European Union, products in its seven stores in Britain are already marked if they
contain genetically modified ingredients. The labels currently used show that a product has been
verified as free of genetically engineered ingredients by the Non GMO Project, a nonprofit
certification organization. Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It, a campaign for a federal
requirement to label foods containing genetically modified ingredients, called the Whole Foods

decision a game changer. He compared the potential impact of the Whole Foods announcement
to Wal-Marts decision several years ago to stop selling milk from cows treated with growth
hormone. Today, only a small number of milk cows are injected with the hormone.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on GMO labeling and the
dangers posed by GMO foods, click here.

Sugar industry's secret documents echo tobacco tactics

2013-03-08, CBC News (Canada's public broadcasting company)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/03/08/f-vp-crowe-big-sugar.html
When Cristin Couzens went on the hunt for evidence that Big Sugar had manipulated public
opinion, she had no idea what she was doing. She was a dentist, not an investigative reporter. But
she couldn't let go of the nagging suspicion that something was amiss. Her obsession started in an
unlikely place, at a dental conference in Seattle in 2007 about diabetes and gum disease. When
one speaker listed foods to avoid, there was no mention of sugar. "I thought this was very strange,"
Couzens said. She quit her job, exhausted her savings and spent 15 months scouring library
archives. Then one day she found what she was looking for, in a cardboard box at the Colorado
State University archives. What Couzens found was something food industry critics have been
seeking for years documents suggesting that the sugar industry used Big Tobacco tactics to
deflect growing concern over the health effects of sugar. "So I had lists of their board reports,
their financial statements, I had names of their scientific consultants, I had a list of research
projects they funded, and I had these memos where they were describing how their PR men
should handle conflict of interest questions from the press," she said. As Couzens sorted through
the documents, the full extent of that campaign to forge public opinion emerged. The
documents describe industry lobby efforts to sponsor scientific research, silence media
reports critical of sugar, and block dietary guidelines to limit sugar consumption.
Note: Cristin Couzens publicized secret sugar industry documents in a magazine article titled "Big
Sugar's Sweet Little Lies." For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on
corporate corruption, click here.

Elizabeth Warren Wants HSBC Bankers Jailed for Money Laundering

2013-03-07, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/03/elizabeth-warren-wants-hsbc-bank...
Elizabeth Warren has a question: How much money does a bank have to launder before people go
to jail? Warren ... posed that question numerous times to financial regulators at a Senate Banking
Committee hearing [on] banks and money laundering. In December, U.S. Justice Department
officials announced that HSBC, Europes largest bank, would pay a $1.92 billion fine after
laundering $881 million for drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia. The two regulators, Under
Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen and Federal Reserve Governor

Jerome H. Powell, deflected Warrens questions, saying that criminal prosecutions are for the
Justice Department to decide. An exasperated Warren said, as she wrapped up her questioning,
If youre caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good youre going to jail. If it
happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life. But evidently, if you launder
nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your
company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night every single
individual associated with this and I just think thats fundamentally wrong.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between
government and finance, click here.

The FBIs shameful recruitment of Nazi war criminals

2013-03-06, Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/03/06/the-fbis-shameful-recruitmen...
A trove of recently declassified documents leads to several inescapable conclusions about the
FBIs role in protecting both proven and alleged Nazi war criminals in America. First, there can be
no doubt that J. Edgar Hoover collected Nazis and Nazi collaborators like pennies from heaven.
Unlike the military and its highly structured Operation Paperclip with its specific targets,
systematic falsification of visa applications, and creation of bogus biographies Hoover had no
organized program to find, vet, and recruit alleged Nazis and Nazi collaborators as confidential
sources, informants, and unofficial spies in migr communities around the country. Each Nazi
collaborator that his agents stumbled upon, or learned about from the CIA, was both a
potential spy and a potential anticommunist leader. Once they were discovered, Hoover
sought them out, used them, and protected them. He had no interest in reporting alleged Nazi
war criminals to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Justice Department, or the
State Department for possible deportation or extradition. He appeared smug in his simplistic
division of Americans into shadeless categories of bad guys and good guys, communists and
anticommunists. Hoover was careful about the number of former Nazis and Nazi collaborators he
placed on the FBI payroll. If Congress or its investigative arm, the Government Accountability
Office, ever insisted on a tally, he could say with a straight face that there were only a handful of
paid confidential sources and informants. But if one adds the war criminals he informally cultivated
and used, the number ranges well into the hundreds.
Note: This essay is adapted from Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door
Policy for Nazi War Criminals by Richard Rashke. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources on the games intelligence agencies play, click here.

President Could, In Theory, Order Drone Strike Inside U.S., Holder Says
2013-03-05, NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/05/173572444/president-could-in-t...

Attorney General Eric Holder has said in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul that the president could in an
"entirely hypothetical" situation authorize the military to use lethal force within U.S. territory. The
letter to Paul came in response to three inquiries the Kentucky Republican sent to John Brennan,
President Obama's nominee for CIA director. Paul's letters asked if it was legal for the U.S.
government to use lethal force, including in the form of drone strikes, on Americans inside the
country. Here's Holder's response, in part: "As members of this Administration have previously
indicated, the U.S. government has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and
has no intention of doing so. The question you have posed is therefore entirely
hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no President will ever have to confront. It
is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary
and appropriate for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of
the United States. For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize
the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a
catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the loss of civil liberties in
the US, click here.

FBI's apparent entrapment of San Jose man continues its track record
2013-02-27, San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley's leading newspaper)
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_22665506/fadi-saba-fbis-apparent-entrap...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a track record of attacking the undesirables of the time. In
the early part of the 20th century, immigrants from Italy were the focus; in the 1940s, it was
Japanese-Americans; in the 1950s, it was Americans who questioned U.S. foreign policy; in the
1960s, civil rights activists. Today, it's ... the Arab. It's the South Asian. And often, the FBI uses
entrapment to create a terror case out of thin air and then claim to have foiled it. San Jose
resident Matthew Llaneza, who converted to Islam in 2011, is accused of attempting to bomb a
bank building in Oakland. However, many feel that the FBI used entrapment, which, in criminal law,
is a legal defense. It is the act by law enforcement officers of inducing or encouraging a person to
commit a crime when the potential criminal is not otherwise predisposed to committing the crime.
Over the past several years, the FBI has repeatedly manufactured terror plots by targeting
vulnerable members of the Arab, South Asian and Muslim communities. The target is
usually an individual or a small group of people with a troubled past, psychological issues
or financial problems. Llaneza's is a classic case of entrapment. [It] closely follows the pattern.
[He] has a history of psychological problems. This presumed inability to make sound judgment is
perfect for entrapment. His bombing plot seems to first emerge in a conversation with law
enforcement, and his history of mental illness indicates he didn't have the capacity to commit acts
of terror on his own.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the games intelligence
agencies play, click here.

Drug Overdose Deaths up for 11th Consecutive Year

2013-02-20, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/drug-overdose-deaths-11th-consecutive-...
Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were
accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines.
"The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas
Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gathered and analyzed
the data. In 2010, the CDC reported, there were 38,329 drug overdose deaths nationwide.
Medicines, mostly prescription drugs, were involved in nearly 60 percent of overdose
deaths that year, overshadowing deaths from illicit narcotics. The report [in the] Journal of the
American Medical Association ... details which drugs were at play in most of the fatalities. As in
previous recent years, opioid drugs which include OxyContin and Vicodin were the biggest
problem, contributing to 3 out of 4 medication overdose deaths. Medication-related deaths
accounted for 22,134 of the drug overdose deaths in 2010. Anti-anxiety drugs including Valium
were among common causes of medication-related deaths, involved in almost 30 percent of them.
Among the medication-related deaths, 17 percent were suicides. The report's data came from
death certificates, which aren't always clear on whether a death was a suicide or a tragic attempt
at getting high. Frieden said the data show a need for more prescription drug monitoring programs
at the state level, and more laws shutting down "pill mills" doctor offices and pharmacies that
over-prescribe addictive medicines.
Note: Over 38,000 drug deaths are more than the 32,000 automobile deaths in the US. This
means that the risk of dying from drugs is now greater than the risk of car accidents. For lots more
reliable information showing how the medical industry can actually be dangerous to your health,
click here.

A Personal Nightmare of Assault in India

2013-02-19, New York Times
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/a-personal-nightmare-of-assault-i...
In a hotel in southern India, in the midst of a dreamless sleep, I awoke inside a nightmare. I heard
someone screaming. Im not sure how much time passed before I realized that it was my scream. I
had traveled to India on behalf of a U.S.-based organization to film a documentary about political
street theatre and how art is used as a tool for social change. But I found myself awake in this
nightmare, with a man violently gripping my mouth shut, attempting to rape me. I was biting and
kicking, using every ounce of my energy to fight for my life. I continued to scream and fight
incessantly, until finally he relented. [He] said, Ill leave. Dont tell the manager. He counted on
the fact that he lived in a culture that blamed the victim that the stigma associated with sexual
assault would force a woman to keep quiet. And although I had escaped the worst-case scenario,
and prevented a rape, the nightmare was far from over. For several weeks, I tried to get a
response from several American and Indian bureaucracies, but they all responded the same
way: by doing nothing. Despite my formal complaints, in which I detailed the attack in full,

these institutions offered no assistance not even a single follow up call. I was devastated.
I traveled to India on part of an American organization, and received no mental, physical or
emotional support.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

Small loans big in Bangladesh, Bay Area

2013-02-04, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Small-loans-big-in-Bangladesh-Bay-Area...
After five years running her party-supply store out of her Hayward house with the help of her
extended family, [Sandra] Rodriguez was finally moving into her own commercial space thanks to
a $1,500 loan from Grameen America. Drawing on the same philosophy as Bangladesh's
Grameen Bank, which pioneered "microlending" small sums to help impoverished women run their
own businesses, Grameen America opened a branch in Oakland last spring. Grameen started its
U.S. presence in New York in 2008, and now has offices in Omaha, Neb., Indianapolis, Charlotte,
N.C., and Los Angeles, as well as Oakland and New York. Grameen's small walk-up office ... has
already made microloans to 600 women for such businesses as operating food carts, making
baked goods or other food, cleaning houses, selling merchandise, and renting chairs in hair or nail
salons. So far, it has a 100 percent repayment record. While Grameen's loans are small starting around $1,500 in the U.S. - the impact is big. Studies affirm the effectiveness of
microloans in helping people lift themselves out of poverty. Grameen Bank and its founder,
economics professor Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Its model has
been replicated for millions of people in more than 100 countries. Grameen also helps its
members with financial education and requires them to set up a savings account at a commercial
bank.
Note: For other excellent articles of the transformative practices of microlending, click here.

Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on

Americans
2013-02-04, NBC News
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16843014-exclusive-justice-de...
A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing
of American citizens if they are believed to be senior operational leaders of al-Qaida or an
associated force -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to
attack the U.S. The 16-page memo ... provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one
of the Obama administrations most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased
use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens.
In March, Attorney General Eric Holder specifically endorsed the constitutionality of targeted
killings of Americans, saying they could be justified if government officials determine the target

poses an imminent threat of violent attack. But the confidential Justice Department white paper
introduces a ... broader concept of imminence than actual intelligence about any ongoing plot
against the U.S. homeland. The condition that an operational leader present an imminent
threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have
clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the
immediate future, the memo states. Instead, it says, an informed, high-level official of the U.S.
government may determine that the targeted American has been recently involved in activities
posing a threat of a violent attack and there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or
abandoned such activities. The memo does not define recently or activities.
Note: To read the entire 'white paper' on drone strikes on Americans, click here. For detailed
analysis by a distinguished lawyer, click here.

Police spies stole identities of dead children

2013-02-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/03/police-spies-identities-dead-children
Britain's largest police force stole the identities of an estimated 80 dead children and
issued fake passports in their names for use by undercover police officers. The
Metropolitan police secretly authorised the practice for covert officers infiltrating protest
groups without consulting or informing the children's parents. Over three decades generations of
police officers trawled through national birth and death records in search of suitable matches.
Undercover officers created aliases based on the details of the dead children and were issued with
accompanying identity records such as driving licences and national insurance numbers. Some of
the police officers spent up to 10 years pretending to be people who had died. The technique of
using dead children as aliases has remained classified intelligence for several decades, although it
was fictionalised in Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal. As a result, police have
internally nicknamed the process of searching for suitable identities as the "jackal run". One former
undercover agent compared an operation on which he was deployed to the methods used by the
Stasi. The practice was introduced 40 years ago by police to lend credibility to the backstory of
covert operatives spying on protesters, and to guard against the possibility that campaigners would
discover their true identities. Since then dozens of SDS [Special Demonstration Squad] officers,
including those who posed as anti-capitalists, animal rights activists and violent far-right
campaigners, have used the identities of dead children.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on police corruption, click
here.

Why Police Lie Under Oath

2013-02-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/why-police-officers-lie-unde...

Are police officers necessarily more trustworthy than alleged criminals? I think not. Not just
because the police have a special inclination toward confabulation, but because, disturbingly, they
have an incentive to lie. In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldnt be trusted any more
than any other witness, perhaps less so. That may sound harsh, but numerous law enforcement
officials have put the matter more bluntly. Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police
commissioner, wrote [that] Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is
commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is
undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the
American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of
doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America. The New York City Police Department
is not exempt from this critique. New York City officers have been found to engage in patterns of
deceit in cases involving charges as minor as trespass. Jeannette Rucker, the chief of
arraignments for the Bronx district attorney, explained in a letter that it had become apparent that
the police were arresting people even when there was convincing evidence that they were
innocent. To justify the arrests, Ms. Rucker claimed, police officers provided false written
statements, and in depositions, the arresting officers gave false testimony.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on police and prisons
corruption, click here.

10 things you might not know about love

2013-01-24, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/24/health/love-psychology-book/index.html
In writing the book Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do,
and Become, here are 10 lessons I have learned: 1. It can be hard to talk about love in scientific
terms because people have strong pre-existing ideas about it. Love, as your body experiences it,
is a micro-moment of connection shared with another. 2. Love is not exclusive. In reality, you can
experience micro-moments of connection with anyone -- whether your soul mate or a stranger. 3.
Love doesn't belong to one person. Love is a biological wave of good feeling and mutual care that
rolls through two or more brains and bodies at once. 4. Making eye contact is a key gateway for
love. Meeting eyes is a key gatekeeper to neural synchrony. 5. Love fortifies the connection
between your brain and your heart, making you healthier. When we ... learn ways to create more
micro-moments of love in daily life, we lastingly improve the function of the vagus nerve, a key
conduit that connects your brain to your heart. 6. Your immune cells reflect your past experiences
of love. People who build more micro-moments of love in daily life also build healthier immune
cells. 7. Small emotional moments can have disproportionately large biological effects. Little by
little, love begets love by improving your health. 8. Don't take a loving marriage for granted. Love is
something we should re-cultivate every single day. 9. Love and compassion can be one and the
same. Compassion is the form love takes when suffering occurs. 10. Simply upgrading your
view of love changes your capacity for it. When people take just a minute or so each day to
think about whether they felt connected and attuned to others, they initiate a cascade of
benefits.

Note: Barbara Fredrickson is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and director of the
Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.

Justice for the PayPal WikiLeaks protesters: why DDoS is free speech
2013-01-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/paypal-wikileaks-proteste...
In December 2010, the hacktivist collective Anonymous voiced their displeasure with PayPal, over
that company's part in the banking blockade of Wikileaks. A reported 10,000 protesters around the
world took to the internet with a protest method known as DDoS (distributed denial of service)
the functional equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a computer. With enough
people refreshing enough times, the site is flooded with traffic, slowed, or even temporarily
knocked offline. No damage is done to the site or its backing computer system; and when the
protest is over, the site resumes business as usual. This is not "hacking". It is protest, and it is
speech. Or it was until the United States government decided to serve 42 warrants and indict 14
protesters. While protest charges have typically been seen as tantamount to nuisance crimes, like
trespassing or loitering, these were different. The 14 PayPal defendants, some of whom were
teenagers when the protest occurred, find themselves looking at 15 years in federal prison
for exercising their free speech rights; for redressing their grievances to PayPal, a major
corporation; for standing up for what they believed was right. Instead of being handed a $50
fine, as one would face for traditional protest crimes such as a sit-in, the PayPal defendants'
freedoms are in real jeopardy. Since the PayPal prosecution, there have been no DDoS protests
on that scale. Speech has been chilled. Supreme court Justice William O Douglas said:
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one
un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Urban Homesteading Video: Growing What You Eat

2013-01-21, Urban Gardening Digest
http://urbangardeningdigest.com/5272/urban-homesteading-video-growing-what-yo...
Urban homesteading differs from urban gardening in that it is a way of living that endeavors to be
as self reliant as is possible in our modern age. The video [available at the above link] shows one
familys commitment to urban homesteading and how they have freed themselves from the urban
rat race, grow their own food, and much, much more. In Pasadena, California, is a 4,000 sq. ft.
urban homestead, owned by the Dervaes family. This homestead feeds a family of four,
producing about 6,000 lbs. of food annually, on just 1/10th acre [1/25th hectare]. 63 year old
Jules Dervaes, started this backyard urban farm 10 years ago. It is a deliberate throw back to the
story days of self reliant rural America. Jules and his children grow almost all of the food they
need and everyone pitches in. At the time of this video, they were also raising eight chickens,

four ducks, and two goats. The ducks and chickens lay thousands of eggs a year and keep the
bugs in check. Over 400 varieties of vegetables, fruits, and edible flowers are grown in this
compact space. Enough [is grown] to feed themselves with plenty left over for local chefs looking
for organic, pesticide-free produce. Front porch sales net the family about $20,000 a year, which
they use to purchase things that they can not grow on their urban homestead, such as wheat, rice,
and oats. In addition to growing their own food, Dervaes family has gone off the grid. Their gizmos
are all hand powered. What little electricity that they do use is generated by solar panels.
Note: Watch the full, nine-minute video at the link above to get a closer look at this urban
homesteading lifestyle. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

Fiscal Footnote: Big Senate Gift to Drug Maker

2013-01-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/medicare-pricing-delay-is-political-win-...
Just two weeks after pleading guilty in a major federal fraud case, Amgen, the worlds largest
biotechnology firm, scored a largely unnoticed coup on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers inserted a
paragraph into the fiscal cliff bill that did not mention the company by name but strongly favored
one of its drugs. The language buried in Section 632 of the law delays a set of Medicare price
restraints on a class of drugs that includes Sensipar, a lucrative Amgen pill used by kidney dialysis
patients. The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government
controls. The news was so welcome that the companys chief executive quickly relayed it to
investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period.
Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to
argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.
Supporters of the delay, primarily leaders of the Senate Finance Committee who have long
benefited from Amgens political largess, said it was necessary to allow regulators to prepare
properly for the pricing change.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on collusion and corruption
between government and the pharmaceutical industry, click here.

A Hospital Network With a Vision

2013-01-16, New York Times blog
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/in-india-leading-a-hospital-f...
In 1976, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy known as Dr. V retired. He decided to devote his
remaining years to eliminating needless blindness among Indias poor. Twelve million people are
blind in India, the vast majority of them from cataracts, which tend to strike people in India before
60. Blindness robs a poor person of his livelihood and with it, his sense of self-worth; it is often a
fatal disease. Dr. V started by establishing an 11-bed hospital with six beds reserved for patients

who could not pay and five for those who would pay modest rates. He persuaded his siblings to
join him in mortgaging their houses, pooling their savings and pawning their jewels to build it.
Today, the Aravind Eye Care System is a network of hospitals, clinics, community outreach efforts,
factories, and research and training institutes in south India that has treated more than 32 million
patients and has performed 4 million surgeries. Aravinds story is well-told in depth in a new book,
Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World's Greatest Business Case for Compassion. Aravind
is not just a health success, it is a financial success. Aravinds core services are sustainable:
patient care and the construction of new hospitals are funded by fees from paying patients. And at
Aravind, patients pay only if they want to. The majority of Aravinds patients pay only a
symbolic amount, or nothing at all. Dr V was guided by the teachings of the radical Indian
nationalist[, philosopher] and mystic Sri Aurobindo ... who located mans search for his
divine nature not in turning away from the world, but by engaging with it.
Note: For lots more on this most inspiring business model, click here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Some With Autism Diagnosis Can Overcome Symptoms, Study Finds

2013-01-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/health/some-with-autism-diagnosis-can-recov...
Doctors have long believed that disabling autistic disorders last a lifetime, but a new study has
found that some children who exhibit signature symptoms of the disorder recover completely. The
study, posted online ... by the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, is the largest to date of
such extraordinary cases and is likely to alter the way that scientists and parents think and talk
about autism, experts said. The findings suggest that the so-called autism spectrum contains a
small but significant group who make big improvements in behavioral therapy for unknown,
perhaps biological reasons, but that most children show much smaller gains. Deborah Fein of the
University of Connecticut at Storrs recruited 34 people who had been diagnosed before the age of
5 and no longer had any symptoms. They ranged in age from 8 to 21 years old and early in their
development were in the higher-than-average range of the autism spectrum. The team conducted
extensive testing of its own, including interviews with parents in some cases, to gauge current
social and communication skills. On measures of social and communication skills, the recovered
group scored significantly better than 44 peers who had a diagnosis of high-functioning autism or
Aspergers syndrome. Dr. Fein emphasized the importance of behavioral therapy. These
people did not just grow out of their autism, she said. I have been treating children for 40
years and never seen improvements like this unless therapists and parents put in years of
work.
Note: There are numerous documented cases where an abundance of acceptance and love led to
autistic children being able to lead normal or near normal lives. As one example, the excellent
book Giant Steps by Barry Kaufman relates the story of how he was able to heal his own fully

autistic child. You can read the relevant excerpt from the book at this link. In the book, he also
relates the stunning story of the cure of another severely autistic child by fully accepting the
behavior of the child as normal. Great book!

The ability to persuade people that the US opposes tyranny is a

testament to the potency of propaganda
2013-01-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/12/us-saudi-arabia-libya-fre...
The most significant problem in political discourse is not that people embrace destructive beliefs
after issues are rationally debated. It's that the potency of propaganda, by design, often precludes
such debates from taking place. Consider how often one hears the claim that the US is committed
to spreading democracy and opposing tyranny in the Middle East. The single most repressive
regime in that region is also America's closest ally: while Saudi [Arabian] leaders have exploited
the rhetoric of the Arab Spring to undermine leaders its dislikes (primarily in Syria and Iran), its
only direct action was to send its troops into Bahrain "to stave off a popular revolt and prop up the
Bahraini monarchy" and use "its influence in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the alliance of
autocratic Persian Gulf states, to pull together support for the beleaguered royal houses of
Morocco and Jordan." The US has been there every step of the way with its close Saudi allies
in strengthening these same tyrannies. As the Bahraini regime has systematically killed,
tortured, and imprisoned its own citizens for the crime of demanding democracy, the
Obama administration has repeatedly armed it and trumpeted the regime as "a vital US
partner in defense initiatives" and "a Major Non-NATO Ally". The US continues to be a close
partner of the Yemeni dictator ("elected" as the only candidate allowed on the ballot). And it stands
as steadfastly as ever behind the Gulf State monarchies of Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar as, to
varying degrees, they repress democratic movements and imprison dissidents.

A Pedophile in Plain Sight

2013-01-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/opinion/sunday/at-poly-prep-a-pedophile-in-...
Poly Prep Country Day School [has] settled a lawsuit alleging a more than 40-year cover-up of the
predatory pedophilia of its legendary football coach, Philip Foglietta. The lawsuit charged that
school administrators were repeatedly informed from the 1960s until his forced retirement in 1991
that Mr. Foglietta was sexually abusing boys on campus, in his apartment and during trips. Mr.
Foglietta, who died in 1998, fondled and raped dozens, if not hundreds, of children. The case
raises difficult questions for a generation of Poly boys: What did we know about Coach Phil?
What should we have done? Coach was often a bully. Kids who had quit the team, he would
suggest, deserved to be beaten up. He would talk about the fruits and homos on the male
faculty. Many of us also knew that Coach Phil showered with the fifth graders. We knew that he
hung around the locker room and checked that each of us had thoroughly rinsed off. Most of us

knew he invited kids for car rides to Coney Island in his green Chevy Impala and for overnight
stays at the apartment he shared with his mother. We knew something was going on. We joked
with one another about the showers and the car rides. One of my teammates wrote on a
Web site created for Coachs victims, How is it that as a 14-year-old Poly freshman, I just
knew that something was very wrong?
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Why Americans are dying earlier than their international peers

2013-01-09, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/health/international-health-report/index.html
Despite spending more per person on health care than any other country, Americans are getting
sicker and dying younger than our international peers -- a problem persisting across all ages and
both genders. [The National Research Council and Institute Of Medicine] panel released its report,
titled "U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health," on [January 9]. "Our
panel was unprepared for the gravity of the finding we uncovered," chair Steven Woolf wrote in the
report's preface. Data from 2007 show Americans' life expectancy is 3.7 years shorter for men and
5.2 years shorter for women than in the leading nations -- Switzerland for men and Japan for
women. As of 2011, 27 countries had higher life expectancies at birth than the United States. "The
tragedy is not that the United States is losing a contest with other countries," the report
states, "but that Americans are dying and suffering from illness and injury at rates that are
demonstrably unnecessary." The report outlines nine health areas where the United States lags
behind other rich nations, including infant mortality, homicides, teen pregnancy, drug-related
deaths, obesity and disabilities. And our children are less likely than children in peer countries to
reach their fifth birthday. "Many of these conditions have a particularly profound effect on young
people, reducing the odds that Americans will live to age 50," the report states.
Note: For a much deeper analysis of the reasons behind this, see Dr. Mercola's insightful
comments at this link.

I Was Wounded; My Honor Wasnt

2013-01-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/after-being-raped-i-was-wounded-my-...
When I fought to live that night, I hardly knew what I was fighting for. A male friend and I had gone
for a walk up a mountain near my home. Four armed men caught us and made us climb to a
secluded spot, where they raped me for several hours, and beat both of us. At 17, I was just a
child. Life rewarded me richly for surviving. I stumbled home, wounded and traumatized, to a
fabulous family. With them on my side, so much came my way. I found true love. I wrote books. I
had a shining child. Too many others will never experience that. They will not see that it gets

better, that the day comes when one incident is no longer the central focus of your life. One day
you find you are no longer looking behind you, expecting every group of men to attack. One day
you are not frightened anymore. Rape is horrible. But it is not horrible for all the reasons that
have been drilled into the heads of Indian women. It is not horrible because you lose your
virtue. It is not horrible because your father and your brother are dishonored. I reject the
notion that my virtue is located in my vagina, just as I reject the notion that mens brains are in their
genitals. If we take honor out of the equation, rape will still be horrible, but it will be a personal, and
not a societal, horror. We will be able to give women who have been assaulted what they truly
need: not a load of rubbish about how they should feel guilty or ashamed, but empathy for going
through a terrible trauma.
Note: The author, Sohaila Abdulali, wrote the novel Year of the Tiger. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse of women, click here.

Global Campaign ONE BILLION RISING To Stop Violence Against

Women and Girls
2013-01-07, 11alive.com (Atlanta's NBC affiliate)
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/271399/25/-ATLANTA-JOINS-GLOBAL-CAMPAIGN-...
On February 14, 2013 ... activists around the world [will join] ONE BILLION RISING, the largest
day of action in the history of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women
and girls. Valentine's Day 2013 will be an official ONE BILLION RISING DAY OF ACTION for the
City of Atlanta, declaring Atlanta a Rape and Violence Free Zone. ONE BILLION RISING began
as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be
beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to
more than one billion women and girls. V-Day Atlanta will bring together a coalition of
organizations, businesses, schools, entertainers, and elected representatives to work to end
violence and empower women. At 12:00 noon, thousands of Atlantans will dance down Peachtree
Street in a flash mob choreographed by the legendary Debbie Allen to the One Billion Rising
anthem "Break the Chain." V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women
and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve
Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. To date, the V-Day
movement has raised over $90 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against
women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns,
reopened shelters, and funded over 14,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe
houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
Note: For a powerful three-minute video on women breaking free, click here. To join the "One
Billion Rising" movement, see their inspiring website here. Another article on this in the UK's
Guardian is available here.

123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified -- one just 19 days old,

US officials say
2013-01-03, NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16327023-123-child-victims-of-inte...
In just over a month, more than 120 sexually exploited children -- one just 19 days old -were identified in an international operation that found them depicted in child pornography
on the Internet, U.S. officials said. In Operation Sunflower, led by agents from Immigration and
Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigation unit from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, 123 victims of
child sexual exploitation were identified, ICE Director John Morton said at a press conference in
Washington. Of that group, 44 children had been living with their abusers, and 79 children were
exploited by people outside of their home or were victimized as children and are now adults.
Seventy female and 53 male victims [were] rescued; 110 of the victims were identified in 19 U.S.
states and the rest were identified in six foreign countries. Of the victims identified during
Operation Sunflower, five were under the age of 3, and one of those was just 19 days old. Thirty
others were below the age of 10, officials said. Younger children were more often abused and
more women were directly involved in carrying out the abuse. Additionally, the victims of child
sexual exploitation increasingly have an international nexus, said John Ryan, CEO of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The problem of child exploitation is hardly
confined to the United States, Ryan said.
Note: If you are ready to look at just how ugly this gets, watch the Discovery Channel
documentary showing child sex abuse rings at the highest levels of government, available here.
For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

414 Homicides in 12 Is a Record Low for New York City

2012-12-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/nyregion/414-homicides-is-a-record-low-for-...
Murders in New York have dropped to their lowest level in over 40 years, city officials announced
on [December 28]. There were 414 recorded homicides so far in 2012, compared with 515 for
the same period in 2011, city officials said. That is a striking decline from murder totals in
the low-2,000s that were common in the early 1990s, and is also below the record low: 471,
set in 2009. Shootings are also down for the year so far. The number of murders is the lowest
since 1963, when improvements in the recording of data were made. In the last two decades,
trumpeting declines in crime trends has become an annual end-of-the-year event, even when the
numbers inched up. There were also several anomalies in the 2012 homicide tally, including a
serial killer who murdered three shopkeepers in Brooklyn. But overall killings have dropped to such
a low level that more New Yorkers now commit suicide than are the victims of homicides. About
475 New Yorkers kill themselves each year, according to the citys health department. Nearly 70
percent of the victims had prior criminal arrests, the police said. Domestic-related homicides
dropped to 68, from 94 in 2011. The likelihood of being killed by a stranger was slight. The vast
majority of the homicides ... grew out of disputes between a victim and killer who knew each
other.

Note: Though most American believe murder and violent crime rates are increasing, these rates in
fact have decreased dramatically in the last 20 years, by over 2/3 in many cases. For more great
information on this trend, click here. For other inspiring reasons for hope and optimism in the new
year, click here.

Victims of child pornography seek restitution from men who

downloaded and traded horrific images
2012-12-27, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/12/27/victims-child-pornography-seek-r...
The woman, now in her twenties, lives in relative anonymity on the West Coast, but to child
pornography collectors worldwide she will always be known as Vicky, a little girl raped by her
father in a series of videos illegally disseminated online thousands of times during more than a
decade. Now the woman and a small but growing number of other child pornography
victims are seeking restitution from those who collected or traded pictures and videos
depicting their abuse, filing claims for damages against convicted child pornographers in
Massachusetts and around the country. In court papers, victims describe living with the
knowledge that their images can never be cleansed from the Internet. Since 2008, six federal child
pornography cases in Massachusetts have resulted in defendants being ordered to pay restitution,
according to the US attorneys office in Boston. The amounts range between $2,000 and $2.5
million. The recent restitution efforts come as the scourge of child pornography has accelerated
during the last decade, aided by improved technology and the Webs promise of anonymity. While
most sexually exploited children go unidentified, nearly 5,000 nationwide have been located during
the last 10 years by law enforcement officials and the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children. The Virginia nonprofit manages a database to aid prosecutors and help identify exploited
children.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse of children,
click here.

The coming drone attack on America

2012-12-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/21/coming-drone-attack-america
With the importation of what will be tens of thousands of drones, by both US military and
by commercial interests, into US airspace, with a specific mandate to engage in
surveillance and with the capacity for weaponization which is due to begin in earnest at
the start of the new year it means that the police state is now officially here. In February of
this year, Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization Act, with its provision to deploy fleets of
drones domestically. Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that
this followed a major lobbying effort, "a huge push by the defense sector" to promote the use of
drones in American skies: 30,000 of them are expected to be in use by 2020, some as small as

hummingbirds. Others will be as big as passenger planes. Business-friendly media stress their
planned abundant use by corporations: police in Seattle have already deployed them. An
unclassified US Air Force document reported by CBS News expands on this unprecedented and
unconstitutional step one that formally brings the military into the role of controlling domestic
populations on US soil. This document accompanies a major federal push for drone deployment
this year in the United States, accompanied by federal policies to encourage law enforcement
agencies to obtain and use them locally, as well as by federal support for their commercial
deployment. That is to say: now HSBC, Chase, Halliburton etc can have their very own fleets of
domestic surveillance drones.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Got Its Way in Mexico

2012-12-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/business/walmart-bribes-teotihuacan.html?pa...
After years of study, [San Juan Teotihuacn]s elected leaders had just approved a new zoning
map. The leaders wanted to limit growth near the pyramids, and they considered the towns main
entrance too congested already. As a result, the 2003 zoning map prohibited commercial
development [there]. But 30 miles away in Mexico City, at the headquarters of Wal-Mart de Mexico,
executives were not about to be thwarted by an unfavorable zoning decision. Instead, records and
interviews show, they decided to undo the damage with one well-placed $52,000 bribe. The plan
was simple. The zoning map would not become law until it was published in a government
newspaper. So Wal-Mart de Mexico arranged to bribe an official to change the map before it was
sent to the newspaper. Sure enough, when the map was published, the zoning ... was redrawn to
allow Wal-Marts store. Problem solved. Wal-Mart de Mexico broke ground months later, provoking
fierce opposition. The Timess examination reveals that ... Wal-Mart de Mexico was an
aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise
prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance public votes, open debates,
transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect
Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals. Through
confidential Wal-Mart documents, The Times identified 19 store sites across Mexico that were the
target of Wal-Mart de Mexicos bribes.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

Keep thimerosal in vaccines, pediatricians urge

2012-12-17, NBC News/Reuters
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/17/15970621-keep-thimerosal-in-vaccin...

A mercury-containing preservative should not be banned as an ingredient in vaccines, U.S.

pediatricians said [on December 17], in a move that may be controversial. In its statement, the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed calls from a World Health Organization
(WHO) committee that the preservative, thimerosal, not be considered a hazardous source
of mercury that could be banned by the United Nations. Back in 1999, a concern that kids
receiving multiple shots containing thimerosal might get too much mercury - and develop autism or
other neurodevelopmental problems as a result - led the AAP to call for its removal, despite the
lack of hard evidence at the time. In a 2004 safety review ... the independent U.S. Institute of
Medicine concluded there was no evidence thimerosal-containing vaccines could cause autism. A
study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to the same conclusion in 2010.
Thimerosal contains a type of mercury called ethyl mercury. Toxic effects have been tied to its
cousin, methyl mercury, which stays in the body for much longer. Earlier this year, the WHO said
replacing thimerosal with an alternative preservative could affect vaccine safety and might cause
some vaccines to become unavailable. Mercury, however, is still on the list of global health
hazards to be banned in a draft treaty from the United Nations Environment Program - which
would mean a ban on thimerosal.
Note: Can you believe that a group of doctors is advocating for continued use of mercury in
vaccines? For two informative articles raising serious questions about vaccines in general and
thimerosal in particular, click here and here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on the risks of vaccines, click here.

Sweeping Torture Under the Rug

2012-12-14, New York Times
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/sweeping-torture-under-the-rug/
In Strasbourg, France, a 17-judge panel of the European Court of Human Rights ruled
unanimously on Thursday that U.S. intelligence did in fact kidnap a German citizen in Macedonia.
The court said he was locked in a hotel room for 23 days, then handed over to a C.I.A. rendition
team at an airport, where he was severely beaten, sodomized, shackled and hooded. Later he
was sent to Afghanistan and illegally detained for months. The German citizen, Khaled el-Masri,
had no connection to terrorism, unless you count the fact that U.S. officials were seeking an Al
Qaeda operative with a similar name. The court ordered Macedonia to pay Mr. Masri $78,000 in
damages. He has been refused a day in American courts on flimsy claims of national secrets (that
the names of the men who broke the law brutalizing him might be revealed). No official has been
held accountable for his illegal detention and torture or for that matter for the similar beastly
treatment of other prisoners. The detention camp in Guantanamo Bay remains open, an indelible
stain on the American justice system. There is no plausible reason to keep the prison open. There
has been no official accounting of the Bush administrations detention policies, and
perhaps there never will be because in 2009, when he took office, President Obama
decided to sweep that whole period of lawlessness and brutality under the rug. Disclosure

did not suit his political agenda. He wanted, we were all told ad nauseam, to look forward and
not back. The torturers, and the men who gave orders to torture, have been absolved of
responsibility.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on illegal activities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

Iceland president: Letting banks fail helped recovery

2012-12-13, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/13/business/iceland-recovery
Four years after the country let its debt-ridden banks fail, and as the country's growth looks set to
far outpace the eurozone, [Iceland's president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson] said the decision not
to save the banks was "the most difficult I ever had to make," but maintained it was the
right one. "Allowing the banks to fail is one of the fundamental reasons Iceland is now in a
strong recovery with respect to other European countries," he said. Now, according to
Grimsson, "Iceland is better placed to benefit by maintaining our present position, rather than to let
the EU speak on our behalf." The 69-year-old president pointed to Norway and Greenland -- two
other Arctic economies and non-European Union members -- as role models. However, Grimsson
said he was not sure whether Iceland's strategy with its banks could have been replicated by other
countries with similar problems, such as Ireland. "Being part of the eurozone, they couldn't devalue
their currency. But they could have adopted our policy with respect to the banks," he said. The
Icelandic krona fell sharply as a result of the financial collapse, helping the country recover by
increasing demand for exports. "There are still scars," Grimsson said, "but on the whole, the will of
the Icelandic people has enabled us to recover and move confidently towards the future."
Note: Watch a great video interview of Iceland's president discussing this matter. Iceland has gone
through tremendous transformation that has greatly supported both the people and the economy of
this nation. Why is this getting so little press coverage?

Child Abuse Drops for Fifth Straight Year

2012-12-12, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/child-abuse-drops-straight-year-179453...
Reports of child abuse and neglect have dropped nationwide for the fifth consecutive year,
and abuse-related child fatalities also are at a five-year low. The latest annual report from the
Department of Health and Human Services, released [on December 12], estimates that there were
681,000 cases of child abuse or neglect across the nation in the 2011 fiscal year. That's down from
695,000 in 2010 and from 723,000 in 2007. The number of abuse-related fatalities was estimated
at 1,570 down from 1,580 in 2010 and from 1,720 in 2007. About four fifths of those killed were
younger than 4, and parents were deemed responsible for nearly four fifths of the deaths.
Regarding types of maltreatment, 78.5 percent of the victims suffered neglect, nearly 18 percent

were physically abused and 9.1 percent were sexually abused. The report tallied 61,472 children
who were sexually abused in 2011 down dramatically from the peak of about 150,000 in
1992. The report, formally known as the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, is based
on input from child protection agencies in every state. Sociologist David Finkelhor, director of the
University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, says he finds the
annual reports frustrating because of the lack of analysis of the trends. "But at the same time, it
does appear remarkable that overall child maltreatment has declined given that unemployment has
been so high, the housing and mortgage crisis has continued, and state and local budgets for
family and child services have been cut," he wrote.
Note: For more details on this inspiring news, see a government article at this link. Just 50 years
ago, child sexual abuse was virtually a taboo topic. There was nowhere to report such things. Now
that there is a protective net and awareness has skyrocketed, far fewer children are being abused.
This has powerful, positive implications as more children grow up healthy and knowing that they
are protected. For many other great reasons for hope and optimism in these uncertain times, click
here.

Malala Fund launched to help girls go to school

2012-12-10, KGO-TV Channel 7 (San Francisco ABC affiliate)
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=8915510
A plan to motivate girls around the world to enroll in school was launched ... by the United Nations
and Pakistan. The fund is named for Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani activist who was
shot by the Taliban. One of Malala's quotes is, "Education is our basic right." The Pakistani
Government donated $10 million to the Malala Fund for girls' right to education. That will help the
UN with its goal, to ensure that all girls have access to schools by the end of 2015. "The idea that
a girl, simply for going to school or wanting to go to school, was shot by the Taliban is just so
unspeakable," said Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for global education. Her cause to
educate all girls got the attention of Washington-based Vital Voices, which promotes extraordinary
women and girls around the world. An estimated 32 million girls around the world don't have
access to an education. Malala has certainly inspired many young people. "I have a right to sing, I
have the right to talk, I have the right to go to market, I have the right to speak," said Malala. The
song "Richochet" was written by 12-year-old Lafayette resident Samantha Martin in honor
of Malala. Two days ago Malala's father emailed Samantha saying, "I and Malala watched
the song and I could not control my tears."
Note: Samantha Martin emailed WantToKnow.info with her truly amazing song, which you can
listen to at this link. To sign the petition supporting Malala, click here. For more on the Malala fund,
click here. For an inspiring 30-minute New York Times documentary on Malala, click here.

Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry

job

2012-12-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist...
When the legislation that became known as "Obamacare" was first drafted, the key legislator was
the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, whose committee took
the lead in drafting the legislation. As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that
legislation was Elizabeth Fowler, his chief health policy counsel; indeed,... it was Fowler who
actually drafted it. What was most amazing about all of that was that, before joining Baucus' office
as the point person for the health care bill, Fowler was the Vice President for Public Policy and
External Affairs (i.e. informal lobbying) at WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurance provider
(before going to WellPoint, as well as after, Fowler had worked as Baucus' top health care aide).
And when that health care bill was drafted, the person whom Fowler replaced as chief health
counsel in Baucus' office, Michelle Easton, was lobbying for WellPoint as a principal at Tarplin,
Downs, and Young. Whatever one's views on Obamacare were and are, the bill's mandate that
everyone purchase the products of the private health insurance industry, unaccompanied
by any public alternative, was a huge gift to that industry. More amazingly still, when the
Obama White House needed someone to oversee implementation of Obamacare after the bill
passed, it chose . . . Liz Fowler. She then became Special Assistant to the President for
Healthcare and Economic Policy at the National Economic Council.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Watch "Peter the Elephant" try to play a piano duet

2012-11-28, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-peter-the-elephant-try-to-play-a-piano-duet/
[An] utterly adorable, caught-on-tape performance was posted by YouTube user PaulBartonPiano
who writes about it: "I was actually playing [the piano] for Soi, a 5 year elephant, when [another
elephant named] Peter came by with his mahout on his regular evening trip to the river for a bath.
Peter heard the music and [deviated] from the mud road (behind the tree) to the piano. I suddenly
felt something strange sucking the back of my head and had an unexpected duet partner. In
another video he plays piano and my back as a drum. The mahout you can hear occasionally
isn't giving commands in any way to Peter, rather voicing a tiny bit [of] concern for the piano's
survival. Okay, so admittedly Peter might not be the best partner to have on a piano duet. But he
definitely makes up for his lack of training by giving it his all and being just so darn cute!
Note: To watch this amazing, two-minute video of a piano duet with an elephant, click here. To see
Peter try his trunk at another instrument, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

U.S. overseeing mysterious construction project in Israel

2012-11-28, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-overseeing-mysteriou...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground
facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named Site 911, at an Israeli Air Force base
near Tel Aviv. Only U.S. construction firms are being allowed to bid on the contract and proposals
are due Dec. 3, according to the latest Corps of Engineers notice. Site 911 is the latest in a long
history of military construction projects the United States has undertaken for the IDF under the
U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority has led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of military facilities for the
Israelis, most of them initially in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert. Over the years, the
Corps has built underground hangers for Israeli fighter-bombers, facilities for handling
nuclear weapons (though Israel does not admit having such weapons), command centers,
training bases, intelligence facilities and simulators. Site 911 ... appears to be one of the
largest projects. Each of the first three underground floors is to be roughly 41,000 square feet,
according to the Corps notice. The lower two floors are much smaller and hold equipment. The
purpose of Site 911 is far less clear.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government secrecy,
click here.

What tyrants fear most: social media

2012-11-27, Chicago Tribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-27/news/sns-201211271500--tms--amv...
Most of the world's dictators share a common fear, and it's not of the United States, NATO, the
United Nations or any outside entity. No, the force that most threatens them is social media.
Originally designed as enhanced online chat forums for young Americans, Facebook, Twitter,
blogs and the rest have spread around the world and are now being used as cudgels
against authoritarian leaders in places like Vietnam, Russia, Belarus and Bahrain. In those
states and so many others, the leaders are attacking tweeters and bloggers as if they were
armed revolutionaries. And the repression is spreading. In India ... a 21-year-old medical
student posted a mildly critical comment about a Hindu political figure who'd just died. Within 24
hours, police arrested her and a friend who had "liked" the student's Facebook post and charged
them with engaging in hateful, offensive speech -- this in one of the world's strongest democracies.
Recently, Ecuador's Supreme Court turned down an extradition request from Belarus for a blogger
who fled there after the government charged him with fraud. Alexander Barankov had been
blogging about widespread government corruption. Iran, not surprisingly, is even tougher. Bloggers
are given long prison terms or sentenced to death, charged with "enmity against God" and
subverting national security. But the sad truth is, the dictators whose people are the most
repressed -- locked in abject poverty -- don't have to worry about the social-media problem.

Push to step up domestic use of drones

2012-11-27, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspapers)
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Push-to-step-up-domestic-use-of-drones-4...
Are unmanned aircraft, known to have difficulty avoiding collisions, safe to use in America's
crowded airspace? And would their widespread use for surveillance result in unconstitutional
invasions of privacy? Experts say neither question has been answered satisfactorily. Yet the
federal government is rushing to open America's skies to tens of thousands of the drones - pushed
to do so by a law championed by manufacturers of the unmanned aircraft. The 60-member House
of Representatives' "drone caucus" - officially, the House Unmanned Systems Caucus - has
helped push that agenda. And over the last four years, caucus members have drawn nearly
$8 million in drone-related campaign contributions. Domestic use of drones began with limited
aerial patrols of the nation's borders by Customs and Border Patrol authorities. But the industry
and its allies pushed for more, leading to provisions in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act,
signed into law on Feb. 14 of this year. The law requires the FAA to fully integrate the unmanned
aerial vehicles into national airspace by September 2015. The FAA has predicted that 30,000
drones could be flying in the United States in less than 20 years. House members from
California, Texas, Virginia and New York on the bipartisan "drone caucus" received the lion's share
of the funds channeled to lawmakers from dozens of firms that are members of the Association for
Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on drone killings and other
war crimes committed by the US in its wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click
here.

Workers Raise 1st Section of New Chernobyl Shelter

2012-11-27, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/section-shelter-chernobyl-ready...
Workers have raised the first section of a colossal arch-shaped structure that eventually will cover
the exploded nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power station. Upon completion, the shelter will be
moved on tracks over the building containing the destroyed reactor, allowing work to begin on
dismantling the reactor and disposing of radioactive waste. The shelter, shaped like a gargantuan
Quonset hut, will be 257 meters by 150 meters (843 feet by 492 feet) when completed and at its
apex will be higher than the Statue of Liberty. The shelter is to be moved over the reactor
building by the end of 2015 a deadline that no one wants to miss given that the so-called
sarcophagus hastily built over the reactor building after the 1986 explosion has an
estimated service life of about 30 years. The arch now under construction is only one of two
segments that will eventually form the shelter, and so far it's only been raised to a height of 22
meters (72 feet). More structural elements have to be added before it reaches its full height of 108
meters (354 feet), and the work so far has taken seven months. The overall shelter project is

budgeted at 1.54 billion ($2 billion) 1 billion ($1.3 billion) of that for the structure itself and
much uncertainty lies ahead. Even when the shelter is in place, the area around the reactor
building will remain hazardous.
Note: It is now over 25 years since the massive Chernobyl disaster and the site is still not safe.
Why are we gambling our own health and the health of the planet with such risky technology when
there are other alternatives that are much safer and more friendly to the environment? For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the environmental and health impacts of
nuclear power, click here.

Obama: a GOP president should have rules limiting the kill list
2012-11-26, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/26/obama-drones-kill-list-fr...
For the last four years, Barack Obama has not only asserted, but aggressively exercised,
the power to target for execution anyone he wants, including US citizens, anywhere in the
world. He has vigorously resisted not only legal limits on this assassination power, but
even efforts to bring some minimal transparency to the execution orders he issues. This
claimed power has resulted in four straight years of air bombings in multiple Muslim countries in
which no war has been declared using drones, cruise missiles and cluster bombs ending the
lives of more than 2,500 people, almost always far away from any actual battlefield. They are
typically targeted while riding in cars, at work, at home, and even while rescuing or attending
funerals for others whom Obama has targeted. A substantial portion ... have been civilians,
including dozens of children. President Obama was recently convinced that some limits and a real
legal framework might be needed to govern the exercise of this assassination power. What was it
that prompted Obama finally to reach this conclusion? It was the fear that he might lose the
election, which meant that a Big, Bad Republican would wield these powers, rather than a
benevolent, trustworthy, noble Democrat - i.e., himself. The core premise is that the political world
is shaped by a clean battle of Good v. Evil. The side of Good is the Democratic Party; the side of
Evil is the GOP. All political truths are ascertainable through this Manichean prism. It is genuinely
inconceivable that a leader as noble, kind and wise as Barack Obama would abuse his
assassination and detention powers.
Note: If any other nation were using drones to kill terrorists in the U.S. or Europe, there would be a
huge public uproar. Why do people care so little about these indiscriminate killings elsewhere? For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on drone killings and other war crimes
committed by the US in its wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click here.

A worldwide mission of kids helping kids

2012-11-25, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57553738/a-worldwide-mission-of-kids-he...

Craig Kielburger ... was in seventh grade when the death of a boy changed his life. It was a
change so profound that, through Kielburger, it has now saved and transformed lives around the
globe. He read about the murder of a boy his age in Pakistan. Iqbal Masih was a slave in a carpet
factory. Masih escaped to lead a campaign against servitude. But within two years he was
silenced. Kielburger ... made Iqbal Masih's fight his own. He talked to classmates, to Congress, to
Parliament. Kielburger wanted to free children from slavery. So he went to Asia recruiting activists
and government authorities to bust child sweatshops and sex traffickers. There were early
successes, [but] kids he freed were being pulled back into servitude, years later, by centuries old
culture and traditions shaped by poverty and illiteracy. Today, Free The Children is in 45
countries. A $30 million a year charity building schools, providing clean water, and
connecting local craftsmen to world markets where their traditions bring in good money.
There are two million volunteers nearly all of them under the age of 18. Free the Children
today is the world's largest network of children helping children. "What that means in practice
is we inspire kids. Then we give them all the tools they need to learn about these issues: speaking
tours, summer leadership camps, curriculum every week. Our bet that we're making is if you give
kids the inspiration and the tools to change the world, it'll change their own lives also in the
process," [Kielburger said].
Note: This is a powerful example of how the younger generation is making a big difference in our
world. Kielburger's charity is now in 45 countries and takes in $30 million per year. It's the largest
organization of children helping children in the world. For the highly inspiring, 12-minute video of
this segment, click here.

Whiz kid from Sierra Leone built own battery, radio transmitter
2012-11-20, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/whiz-kid-sierra-leone-built-own-battery-rad...
Kelvin Does neighborhood in Sierra Leone has power lines, but they seldom deliver electricity. So,
the 16-year-old whiz kid built his own battery out of acid, soda, and metal parts scavenged from
trash bins that he now uses to light up area homes and help him work on his own inventions.
Among other gadgets to his credit are a homemade radio transmitter, plus a generator to
power it, that he uses to run his own community radio station under the handle DJ Focus.
People normally call me DJ Focus in my community because I believe if you focus you can
do invention perfectly, he said in a video. Does engineering prowess was noticed by David
Monina Sengeh, a graduate student MIT Media Lab, during a summer innovation camp called
Innovate Salone that he runs in Sierra Leone. Sengeh arranged for Doe to visit the top-flight
engineering school this fall. Its an opportunity for him to create the future that he wants to live in,
Sengeh said in the video. Check it out below to learn more about Does inspirational story and his
inventions.
Note: Don't miss the awesome video of Kelvin at this link. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

A Party Drug May Help the Brain Cope With Trauma

2012-11-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/health/ecstasy-treatment-for-post-traumatic...
Hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress have recently contacted a
husband-and-wife team who work in suburban South Carolina to seek help. Many are desperate,
pleading for treatment and willing to travel to get it. The soldiers have no interest in traditional
talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an
alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, a party drug that surfaced in the 1980s and 90s that
can induce pulses of euphoria and a radiating affection. Government regulators criminalized the
drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in
recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research
purposes. In a paper posted online ... by the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Michael and
Ann Mithoefer, the husband-and-wife team offering the treatment which combines
psychotherapy with a dose of MDMA write that they found 15 of 21 people who recovered
from severe post-traumatic stress in the therapy in the early 2000s reported minor to
virtually no symptoms today. The Mithoefers he is a psychiatrist and she is a nurse
collaborated on the study with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the
nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The patients in this group included
mostly rape victims, and experts familiar with the work cautioned that it was preliminary, based on
small numbers, and its applicability to war trauma entirely unknown.
Note: For the paper on this remarkable study published published online in the Journal of
Psychopharmacology, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
on beneficial mind-altering drugs, click here.

US battles Iraq and Afghanistan over detention without charges

2012-11-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/20/iraq-afghanistan-daqduq-i...
For several decades, the US government - in annual "human rights" reports issued by the State
Department (reports mandated by the US Congress) - has formally condemned nations around the
globe for the practice of indefinite detention: imprisoning people without charges or any fixed
sentence. [The] 2011 report condemned numerous nations for indefinite detention, including Libya
("abuse and lack of review in detention"), Uzbekistan ("arbitrary arrest and detention"), Syria
("arbitrary arrest and detention"), and Iran ("Authorities held detainees, at times incommunicado,
often for weeks or months without charge or trial"). In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government
is engaged in a fierce and protracted battle over the fundamental right to be free of
indefinite detention. Specifically, the US is demanding that the governments of those two
nations cease extending this right to their citizens. The US has long been demanding that the
Afghan government continue the American practice of indefinite detention without charges, and
still presses this demand even after the top Afghan court in September ruled that such detentions

violate Afghan law. Human rights workers in Afghanistan have long pointed out that America's
practice of imprisoning Afghans without charges is a major source of anti-American sentiment in
the country.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on war crimes carried out by
the US in its illegal wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click here.

How Free Speech Died on Campus

2012-11-16, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578115440209134854.html
At Yale University, you can be prevented from putting an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on your T-shirt.
At Tufts, you can be censured for quoting certain passages from the Quran. Welcome to the most
authoritarian institution in America: the modern university"a bizarre, parallel dimension," as Greg
Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education [FIRE], calls it. In his new
book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, Mr. Lukianoff
notes that baby-boom Americans who remember the student protests of the 1960s tend to
assume that U.S. colleges are still some of the freest places on earth. But that idealized
university no longer exists. It was wiped out in the 1990s. Today, university bureaucrats
suppress debate with anti-harassment policies that function as de facto speech codes. FIRE
maintains a database of such policies on its website, and Mr. Lukianoff's book offers an eyeopening sampling. What they share is a view of "harassment" so broad and so removed from its
legal definition that, Mr. Lukianoff says, "literally every student on campus is already guilty."
Conservatives and libertarians are especially vulnerable to such charges of harassment.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

FBI's abuse of the surveillance state is the real scandal needing

investigation
2012-11-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/13/petraeus-surveillance-sta...
The Petraeus scandal is receiving intense media scrutiny. Several of the emerging revelations are
genuinely valuable, particularly those involving the conduct of the FBI and the reach of the US
surveillance state. The FBI investigation began when Jill Kelley - a Tampa socialite friendly with
Petraeus (and apparently very friendly with Gen. John Allen, the four-star U.S. commander of the
war in Afghanistan) - received a half-dozen or so anonymous emails that she found vaguely
threatening. She then informed a friend of hers who was an FBI agent, and a major FBI
investigation was then launched that set out to determine the identity of the anonymous emailer.
What is most striking is how sweeping, probing and invasive the FBI's investigation then
became, all without any evidence of any actual crime - or the need for any search warrant.
The FBI traced all of [Paula] Broadwell's physical locations, learned of all the accounts she uses,

ended up reading all of her emails, investigated the identity of her anonymous lover (who turned
out to be Petraeus), and then possibly read his emails as well. They also discovered "alleged
inappropriate communication" to Kelley from Gen. Allen, who is not only the top commander in
Afghanistan but was also just nominated by President Obama to be the Commander of US
European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe (a nomination now "on hold"). This
is a surveillance state run amok. It also highlights how any remnants of internet anonymity
have been all but obliterated by the union between the state and technology companies.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government surveillance,
click here.

CNN claims Iran shot at a US drone, revealing the news network's

mindset
2012-11-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/08/cnn-iran-drones-gulf
Barbara Starr, CNN's Pentagon reporter (more accurately known as: the Pentagon's reporter at
CNN), has an exciting exclusive today. Exclusively relying upon "three senior officials" in the
Obama administration (all anonymous, needless to say), ... the CNN report on this incident is
revealing indeed. Every paragraph - literally - contains nothing but mindless summaries of the
claims of US government officials. There is not an iota of skepticism about any of the
assertions, including how this incident happened, what the drone was doing at the time, or
where it took place. Most notably, CNN does not even bother with the pretense of trying to
include the claims of the Iranian government about what happened. There is no indication
that the self-described news outlet even made an effort to contact Tehran to obtain their rendition
of these events or even confirmation that it occurred. It simply regurgitates the accusations of
anonymous US officials that Iran, with no provocation, out of the blue decided to shoot at a US
drone in international airspace. (Although CNN does not mention it, last December Iran shot down
a US drone which, it claims (and the US does not deny) was in Iranian air space). That CNN's
prime mission is to serve the US government is hardly news. [The Christian Science Monitor,
however, noted]: "There was no way to independently confirm the Pentagon's account, and correct
facts have not always been initially forthcoming in past US-Iran incidents in the Persian Gulf." It
then detailed several historical events when the US government's claims about Iran were proven
to be false.
Note: Iran denies that the drone was in international airspace, as claimed by the US. For more on
this, click here.

Rove Biggest Super-PAC Loser

2012-11-07, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-07/rove-biggest-super-pac-loser-trum...

Karl Rove and his investors were the biggest losers on Election Day. The Republican strategist
created the model for outside money groups that raised and spent more than $1 billion on the Nov.
6 elections -- many of which saw almost no return for their money. Rove, through his two political
outfits, American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, backed unsuccessful
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney with $127 million on more than 82,000 television
spots. Down the ballot, 10 of the 12 Senate candidates and four of the nine House candidates the
Rove groups supported also lost their races. The Election Day results showed Roves strategy of
bringing in huge donations from a few wealthy benefactors and spending that money almost
completely on television advertising failed. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates the
two Crossroads groups spent about $176 million, making them the top non-candidate and
non-party spender of the election. Rove has bragged of raising more than $300 million for
his groups. American Crossroads, a super-political action committee, discloses its contributors
and spending to the Federal Election Commission. Its affiliate, Crossroads GPS, is organized as a
nonprofit social-welfare group that conceals its donors and reports only a fraction of its political
activities. The return on investment for American Crossroads donors was 1 percent, according to
an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based group that advocates for open
government.
Note: This article fails to mention Rove's highly disturbing involvement in clandestine manipulation
of the vote count, which has been documented by excellent researchers such as Bob Fitrakis and
Harvey Wasserman. For more on this most important news that never got reported in the major
media, click here and here. And for an excellent, incisive essay showing how the elections integrity
movement helped to protect the recent U.S. elections, click here.

Alleged Pedophile Ring: Connections to Senior Public Figures Mount

2012-11-06, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/06/alleged-pedophile-ring-conne...
Allegations of [a] disturbing pedophile ring with connections to the highest ranks of
government have come to light. Campaigning Labor MP Tom Watson [has] rocked the
House of Commons by airing allegations from child-protection professionals of a "powerful
pedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10. Watsons co-author of Dial M for Murdoch:
News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain, Martin Hickman, [said] on the eve of [Watson's]
parliamentary statement this is much darker and more disturbing than phone hacking We have
no idea where it will go." Within days, Steven Messham, one of the alleged victims, went on
camera on a BBC Newsnight documentary to say that he and other children were sexually abused
on a regular basis at a care home by a circle of men that included a leading Thatcher-era politician
during the 1970s and 1980s. Messham claimed to have been raped by the senior political figure at
least a dozen times, and his accusations were echoed by [an] anonymous victim, who told
Newsnight that in 2000 he was abused by the same man. Watson, who for years led a lonely
campaign to expose phone hacking at Murdoch tabloid News of the World, described this new
scandal as potentially worse. In a blog post titled "10 Days That Shook My World," Watson wrote

... that these allegations go way beyond the claims made on BBC Newsnight yesterday ... It
sounds like Ive taken leave of my senses, Watson admitted, Just like they said I had during the
early days of the hacking scandal.
Note: To learn about a widespread pedophile ring which reaches to the top levels of government,
watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link. For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

Jimmy Savile, who may have abused as many as 300 children, was so
close to Prince Charles
2012-11-04, London Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/newsuknewssavileinquiry/arti...
Late TV presenter Jimmy Savile, who may have abused as many as 300 children, was so close to
Prince Charles that he advised him on the appointment of one of his most senior aides. In an
indication of the power and privilege extended to Savile by the royal family, Charles asked the DJ
and television presenter for advice before selecting Sir Christopher Airy to be his private secretary
in 1990. The revelation shows the close friendship between the heir to the throne and the
television presenter, who the prince grew to rely on in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The two
men became unlikely friends after meeting in the late 1970s while working with wheelchair sports
charities. Former palace aides have described how Savile inveigled his way into the royal
family, dropping in to see Charles when it suited him. While the prince seemed amused by
Savile's eccentricity, Diana, Princess of Wales seemed more cautious. Despite this, the
friendship between Charles and Savile grew closer over the years, in part due to Savile's
charity work. In 1990, Charles brought Savile into his home in an attempt to help smooth over his
relationship with Diana when it became clear their marriage was beginning to fall apart. Charles
even dispatched the presenter to help the Duchess of York keep a low profile as her marriage to
his brother Prince Andrew deteriorated. Savile's tasks also included helping Charles pick his
private secretary. After consultation with Savile, Airy was appointed private secretary and treasurer
to the prince and Diana. When Savile died last year, Charles led the tributes to him, saying his
death had left him "incredibly saddened".
Note: This article requires payment to view in its entirety on the Times website. To read the full
article on another website, click here. If you want to understand how these sex scandals reach to
the highest levels of government with impunity, don't miss the Discovery Channel's powerful
documentary Conspiracy of Silence available here. For lots more from reliable sources on the
Savile case and other major sexual abuse scandals, click here.

A cure for America's corruptible voting system

2012-11-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/03/cure-america-corruptible-...

The secret vote was, in its time, a great idea. Before the secret ballot was popularized, it was
standard practice to intimidate and threaten voters. But few know that America hasn't always had
secret ballots. Indeed, the secret ballot didn't even originate in the US the system we use is
known, actually, as the "Australian ballot". The majority of US states did not move to that system
in which publicly-provided, printed ballots with the names of the candidates are marked in secret
until after 1884. By now, reams of solid reporting have documented the aberrations, high jinks,
missing hard drives, voting machines that weirdly revert to one candidate, voting machines owned
by friends of the candidate of one party, and other aspects of systematic corruption that attend
America's voting. Solid reporting on the war on voting, and on the corruption of the voting
infrastructure, continues to mount. It is crazy to ask Americans to have pure faith that the system is
incorruptible, and to ask them to just drop their votes into a black hole and trust in the Lord or
Diebold. Here is my modest proposal: let us end the secret ballot, because we have reached
a point, with the internet, in which transparency and accountability is more important than
absolute secrecy. The votes get tallied and posted with their corresponding numbers
online on a public site, and major media reproduce the lists. And I can check my number
(unidentifiable to anyone else) to check whether my vote was correctly registered. This would
allow, in one sweep, all citizens to watch the watchers.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on elections corruption, click
here.

MU professor revisits decades-old fusion project

2012-11-03, Kansas City Star/Associated Press
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/03/3899586/mu-professor-revisits-decades.html
A University of Missouri professor has resurrected his two-decade-old work in the contested field of
cold fusion. In 1991, Mark Prelas was part of a research team that conducted a fusion experiment
that emitted a burst of millions of neutrons. The work stopped when funding was cut off. At the
time, cold fusion claims had been dismissed as junk science. Prelas shifted to other work. But his
neutron-producing experiment resumed this year, and he presented his findings at a cold fusion
conference in August in South Korea. Prelas, now a professor in the university's Nuclear Science
and Engineering Institute, received funding from the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear
Renaissance at MU. In the original experiment, the team created an emitted neutron-recording
device and expected to count about 10 neutrons a second. They reached a million neutrons in a
second. With SKINR funding, [Prelas] re-created the experiment. More technologically advanced
equipment has allowed for a better counting system, and in one run, his research team saw
neutron emissions at similar levels to the 1991 observation. Rob Duncan, MU's vice chancellor of
research, said ... "We've got to understand what this is. The focus clearly has to be on an
opportunity to discover new physics and to understand new science. That really is our aim
here at SKINR.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on new energy inventions,
click here.

Feigning Free Speech on Campus

2012-10-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/opinion/feigning-free-speech-on-campus.html
Colleges and universities are supposed to be bastions of unbridled inquiry and expression, but
they probably do as much to repress free speech as any other institution in young peoples lives.
Since the 1980s ... colleges have enacted stringent speech codes. From protests and rallies to
displays of posters and flags, students have been severely constrained in their ability to
demonstrate their beliefs. The speech codes are at times intended to enforce civility, but they often
backfire, suppressing free expression instead of allowing for open debate of controversial issues.
In a study of 392 campus speech codes last year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
... found that 65 percent of the colleges had policies that in [their] view violated the
Constitutions guarantee of the right to free speech. Some elite colleges in particular have
Orwellian speech codes that are so vague and broad that they would never pass
constitutional muster at state-financed universities. A 2010 study by the American Association
of Colleges and Universities of 24,000 college students and 9,000 faculty and staff members found
that only 35.6 percent of the students and only 18.5 percent of the faculty and staff strongly
agreed that it was safe to hold unpopular positions on campus. Colleges have promulgated
speech codes that are not only absurd in their results but also detrimental to the ideals of free
inquiry. Students cant learn how to navigate democracy and engage with their fellow citizens if
they are forced to think twice before they speak their mind.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Trans-Pacific Partnership: The biggest trade deal youve never heard of

2012-10-23, Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/everything_you_wanted_to_know_about_the_trans...
A huge but little-known trade agreement could transform America's foreign relations. The TransPacific Partnership [could] be the most significant foreign and domestic policy initiative of the
Obama administration. More than any other policy, the trends the TPP represents could restructure
American foreign relations, and potentially the economy itself. On the core question of these trade
agreements, the parties basically agree. The Trans-Pacific Partnership ... would be the largest
one since the 1995 World Trade Organization. It would link Australia, Brunei, Chile,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada into a free trade
zone similar to that of NAFTA. The subject matter being negotiated extends far beyond
traditional trade matters. TPPs 29 chapters would set binding rules on everything from servicesector regulation, investment, patents and copyrights, government procurement, financial
regulation, and labor and environmental standards, as well as trade in industrial goods and
agriculture. As with other such agreements, Congress must vote to approve it, most likely under a
Fast Track provision that prohibits any amendments and limits debate. The public has no
access to the text [of the agreement]. Congress has extremely limited access. Trade, though

constitutionally a congressional prerogative, is now firmly in the hands of the executive branch.
And trade negotiations have become a venue for rewriting wide swaths of domestic non-trade
policy traditionally determined by Congress and state legislatures.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That

Could Decide The Election Causing Concern
2012-10-20, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/10/20/romney-family-investment-tie...
The [electronic voting] machines used in Hamilton County, Ohio the county home of Cincinnati
are supplied by Hart Intercivic, a national provider of voting systems in use in a wide variety of
counties scattered throughout the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Colorado and Ohio. A test
conducted in 2007 by the Ohio Secretary of State revealed that five of the electronic voting
systems the state was looking to use in the upcoming 2008 presidential election had failed badly,
each easily susceptible to chicanery that could alter the results of an election. As reported in the
New York Times, At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access
memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of
election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers. It turns out that Hart
Intercivic is owned, in large part, by H.I.G. Capital a large investment fund with billions of dollars
under management that was founded by a fellow named Tony Tamer. H.I.G. employees hold at
least two of the five Hart Intercivic board seats. Tony Tamer, H.I.G.s founder, turns out to be a
major bundler for the Mitt Romney campaign, along with three other directors of H.I.G. who are
also big-time money raisers for Romney. Two of those directors Douglas Berman and Brian
Schwartz were actually in attendance at the now infamous 47 percent fundraiser in
Boca Raton, Florida. Two members of the Hart Intercivic board of directors, Neil Tuch and
Jeff Bohl, have made direct contributions to the Romney campaign.
Note: The author of this article was attacked by National Review Online for this piece. To see his
rebuttal, click here. To sign a petition to launch an investigation on this critical matter, click here.
For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on serious problems with the US
elections system, click here.

Sexual Abuse Scandal Turns the Tables on BBC

2012-10-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/world/europe/jimmy-savile-scandal-turns-the...
The story seemed perfect for the British Broadcasting Corporations hard-hitting Newsnight
program: a nationally beloved television host, it seemed, had also been a pedophile who for
decades preyed on young teenagers in hospitals, in childrens homes and in the halls of the

BBC itself. But last December, as the segment neared completion, it was abruptly canceled by the
editor in charge, who said there was not enough evidence to justify going ahead. That decision,
and the BBCs earlier failure over four decades to investigate rumors about Mr. Saviles behavior,
is now the subject of three independent investigations. But they are just the latest and most
explosive elements in a scandal that seems to widen by the hour. With new victims of Mr. Savile
coming forth daily, George Entwistle, who took over as the BBCs director general just a month
ago, is facing embarrassing questions about what the corporation knew and why it did nothing.
The Savile affair is by no means restricted to the BBC, drawing in some of Britains most
important institutions. Scotland Yard has opened an investigation involving 14 other police
forces and no fewer than 340 lines of inquiry; it said that from 1959 to 2006, Mr. Savile
might have molested 60 or more underage girls. But politically the primary focus is on the BBC.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

Martin Sheen and Woody Harrelson set for 9/11 'truther' film September
Morn
2012-10-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/17/martin-sheen-woody-harrelson-9-11-...
Hollywood is to court controversy with a film that will challenge the official version of the events of
9/11, a previously taboo topic for the industry mainstream. Martin Sheen, Woody Harrelson and
Ed Asner, who have all supported conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks, have
signed up to the movie, which is entitled "September Morn". The film's advance publicity
note hints at a cover-up, saying: "We the people demand that the government revisit and
initiate a thorough and independent investigation to the tragic events of 911." Details of the
film ... are expected to be revealed at an American Film Market conference in Los Angeles next
week. The production has been set up by Fleur de Lis Film Studios, which has also made the
documentary "A Noble Lie", about the Oklahoma City bombing, and "Operation: Dark Heart", a
feature based on an intelligence agent's memoirs. Until now Hollywood has steered clear of claims
that the Bush administration, or other elements in the government, may have been behind the 9/11
attacks. "September Morn" has assembled a cast linked to the [9/11 truth] movement, which
alleges official inconsistencies, complicity and cover-up. Sheen, who starred in "Apocalypse Now"
and television's "The West Wing", has long questioned whether Islamist hijackers single-handedly
brought down the Twin Towers. He said: "However, there have been so many revelations that now
I have my doubts, and chief among them is Building 7 how did they rig that building so that it
came down on the evening of the day?"
Note: This exciting movie will also star Daniel Sunjata, Michelle Phillips, Valerie Harper, Dick
Gregory and other members of Actors and Artists for 9/11 Truth. For the website of "September
Morn," click here. For the complete cast and crew lists, click here.

Predators on Pedestals

2012-10-15, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/keller-predators-on-pedestals.html
[Jimmy] Saviles case is worth mulling, if only because the institution in which his serial child abuse
took place is one of the most respected media organizations in the world: the BBC. Gossip about
Saviles fondling of young teenagers was rife, but never rose to a level deemed newsworthy
during his life. To appreciate Jimmy Saviles place in English culture, imagine a
combination of Dick Clark of American Bandstand and Jerry Lewis, maestro of the
muscular dystrophy telethon. Savile was the longest-serving host of the immensely popular
BBC music show Top of the Pops, and the star of another long-running show called Jimll Fix It,
in which he pulled strings to grant the wishes of supplicants, mostly children. He buffed his
reputation by throwing himself into charity work. He seems to have used his philanthropy both to
identify vulnerable children for his personal sport and to inoculate himself against suspicion. The
good deeds helped earn Savile two knighthoods, one bestowed by the queen, the other by the
pope. He was Sir Jimmy, confidant or at least photo-op accessory of royals, prime ministers,
even Beatles. He cultivated an aura of flamboyant eccentricity. Being the man-child Pied Piper of
the pubescent was his shtick, his job, and cover for a brutal cunning. London police now say they
are pursuing more than 300 leads, and that they believe Savile abused girls as young as 13 over
the course of four decades in his BBC dressing room, in hospitals where he was a benefactor,
in the back of his white Rolls-Royce.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

The case for Prop. 37

2012-10-11, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-imhoff-prop-37-gmo-label...
Proposition 37 ... is rooted in a simple premise: Consumers have the right to know if their food is
produced using genetic engineering. It's been standard practice in all member countries of the
European Union for years. The latest published research shows that 61 countries have some
form of mandatory labeling for foods containing genetically modified crop ingredients. The
companies that sell genetically modified seeds and manufactured foods argue that American
consumers don't need such detailed labels. They say, "Just trust us." That is a lot to ask. Product
labels are the front line of consumer protection. Research and development on genetically
engineered products ... are largely done by private sector, not public sector, scientists
because companies very aggressively protect their patents. The level of secrecy and the
combative nature of the industry fuel public distrust. Unfortunately, consumers cannot look to the
federal government to increase their trust. Some government officials in positions that make policy
on genetically engineered products may hold biases born of their previous jobs with GMO seed
companies. Distrust is amplified by questions over who really benefits from GMO foods. As we
saw in the multibillion-dollar tobacco case settlement in 1998, companies cannot always be trusted
to put health before profit. Another concern is the skyrocketing price of seed for farmers. Finally,

GMO products on the market offer American consumers no clear benefits. Proposition 37 simply
requires basic transparency and truthful packaging, and companies would have 18 months to
implement it. And it would protect consumers' right to know in a product category central to health.
Note: For a powerful essay showing the harmful effects of genetically modified foods, click here.

Kids in solitary confinement: America's official child abuse

2012-10-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/children-solitary-confine...
Thousands of teenagers, some as young as 14 or 15, are routinely subjected by US prisons to
[the] psychological torture [of solitary confinement]. One teen who participated in the Human
Rights watch report wrote that being in isolation felt like 'a slow death from the inside out'. Molly J
said of her time in solitary confinement: "[I felt] doomed, like I was being banished. Like you
have the plague or that you are the worst thing on earth. I guess [I wanted to] feel like I was
part of the human race not like some animal." Molly was just 16 years old when she was placed
in isolation in an adult jail in Michigan. She described her cell as being "a box": "There was a bed
the slab. It was concrete There was a stainless steel toilet/sink combo The door was solid,
without a food slot or window There was no window at all." Molly remained in solitary for several
months, locked down alone in her cell for at least 22 hours a day. No other nation in the
developed world routinely tortures its children in this manner. And torture is indeed the word
brought to mind by a shocking report released today by Human Rights Watch and the American
Civil Liberties Union. Growing Up Locked Down documents, for the first time, the widespread use
of solitary confinement on youth under the age of 18 in prisons and jails across the country, and
the deep and permanent harm it causes to kids caught up in the adult criminal justice system.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the injustices rampant in
prisons, click here.

Mexico orders HPV vaccinations for all 5th-grade girls, saying it will end
threat of cervical cancer
2012-10-03, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/03/3032961/mexico-orders-hpv-vaccinations....
Mexico on [October 3] launched a massive program to vaccinate fifth-grade girls against human
papillomavirus, making it one of the few nations in the world with a universal campaign against the
sexually transmitted virus. One million schoolgirls ages 11 or 12 will receive the HPV vaccination
this week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said. Another 200,000 girls who arent in school also
will be given the vaccine. Mexico becomes one of the few countries in the world to follow in the
footsteps of Greece, which in 2007 made the HPV vaccination mandatory for girls entering seventh
grade. All fifth-grade girls will be given an initial shot, then a second shot six months later.
A third and final dose will be given to girls in ninth grade. Mexico began an obligatory

vaccination program of schoolchildren and pregnant women in 1991, and currently

[administers] 14 types of vaccines, Health Secretary Salomon Chertorivski said. During
weeklong periods three times a year, thousands of doctors and nurses spread across the country
to schools and rural clinics to administer the free vaccinations.
Note: Once again the pharmaceutical companies are persuading governments to force the public
to take their questionable vaccines. For an excellent report endorsed by dozens of respected
doctors and nurses on the serious risks and dangers of vaccines, click here. Read about a key
scientific study which showed that monkeys given standard human vaccines developed autism
symptoms, at this link. For powerful evidence presented in major media articles that some
vaccines are much more dangerous than the health industry will acknowledge, click here.

Why the US demonises Venezuela's democracy

2012-10-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/03/why-us-dcemonises-venezue...
On 30 May, Dan Rather, one of America's best-known journalists, referred to [Venezuelan
president Hugo] Chvez as "the dictator" a term that few, if any, political scientists familiar with
the country would countenance. Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela's "dictatorship" a
few weeks ago: "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the
election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." Carter won a Nobel prize for his work
through the election-monitoring Carter Center, which has observed and certified past Venezuelan
elections. The opposition will probably lose this election ... because the living standards of the
majority of Venezuelans have dramatically improved under Chvez. Since 2004, when the
government gained control over the oil industry and the economy had recovered from the
devastating, extra-legal attempts to overthrow it (including the 2002 US-backed military
coup), poverty has been cut in half and extreme poverty by 70%. And this measures only
cash income. Millions have access to healthcare for the first time, and college enrolment has
doubled, with free tuition for many students. Inequality has also been considerably reduced. By
contrast, the two decades that preceded Chvez amount to one of the worst economic failures in
Latin America, with real income per person actually falling by 14% between 1980 and 1998. In
Washington, democracy has a simple definition: does a government do what the state department
wants it to do?
Note: For a powerful movie which shows how much our media distorts our perception of global
events, watch "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez at this
link. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on mass media corruption,
click here.

Top 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened in U.S.

2012-10-02, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg News
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Top-1-Got-93-of-Income-Growt...

The U.S. has gone through two recoveries. The 1.2 million households whose incomes put them in
the top 1 percent of the U.S. saw their earnings increase 5.5 percent last year, according to
estimates released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Earnings fell 1.7 percent for the 96
million households in the bottom 80 percent -- those that made less than $101,583. The recovery
that officially began in mid-2009 hasnt arrived in most Americans paychecks. In 2010, the top 1
percent of U.S. families captured as much as 93 percent of the nations income growth, according
to a March paper by Emmanuel Saez, a University of California at Berkeley economist who studied
Internal Revenue Service data. The earnings gap between rich and poor Americans was the
widest in more than four decades in 2011, Census data show, surpassing income inequality
previously reported in Uganda and Kazakhstan. The notion that each generation does better
than the last -- one aspect of the American Dream -- has been challenged by evidence that
average family incomes fell last decade for the first time since World War II. In this recovery its
proved better to own stock than a house. For stockholders ... the value of all outstanding shares
has soared $6 trillion to $17 trillion since June 2009, the recessions end. Even after a recent
rebound, the value of owner-occupied housing, the chief asset of most middle- income families,
has dropped $41 billion in the same period, part of a $5.8 trillion loss in home values since 2006.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on income inequality, click
here.

Rented computers secretly photographed users having sex

2012-09-26, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19726954
Rented computers from seven different companies secretly took photographs of their
users, US authorities have said. The companies used software made by US company
Designerware which could track key strokes and other personal data. The software, called
PC Rental Agent, captured people engaging in "intimate acts", including sex. It is believed
that PC Rental Agent has been installed in approximately 420,000 computers worldwide. The
Federal Trade Commission ruling concerned a feature in the software, called Detective Mode,
which would typically become activated if the user was late in returning equipment, or failed to pay
for use. Detective Mode would assist the rental store in locating the overdue computer in order to
pursue its return. Part of the process involved a pop-up window designed to look like a software
registration screen. It would request personal information such as email addresses and telephone
numbers that could then be used to pursue the users for payment and/or the return of equipment.
In addition, the FTC said the software had access to much more sensitive information, including:
usernames and passwords for email accounts, social media websites, and financial institutions.
Among the other data collected were social security numbers; medical records; private emails to
doctors; bank and credit card statements. Webcam pictures of children, partially undressed
individuals, and intimate activities at home were also found. In the FTC's formal complaint
document, it said the software had captured "couples engaged in sexual activities".

Note: Do you think other companies or intelligence agencies might be conducting similar
monitoring? For more on this, click here.

Drone strikes in Pakistan have killed many civilians, study says

2012-09-24, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/24/world/la-fg-drone-study-20120925
Far more civilians have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas than U.S.
counter-terrorism officials have acknowledged, a new study by human rights researchers at
Stanford University and New York University contends. The report, "Living Under Drones," also
concludes that the classified CIA program has ... turned the Pakistani public against U.S. policy in
the volatile region. "Real people are suffering real harm" but are largely ignored in government or
news media discussions of drone attacks, said James Cavallaro of Stanford, one of the study's
authors. Cavallaro said the study was intended to challenge official accounts of the drones as
precise instruments of high-tech warfare with few adverse consequences. The study concludes
that only about 2% of drone casualties are top militant leaders. The study authors did not estimate
overall civilian casualties because of limited data, Cavallaro said. But it cites estimates by the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has reported extensively on drone strikes, of 474
to 884 civilian deaths since 2004, including 176 children. In April, Obama's top counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, described civilian casualties from drone strikes as
"exceedingly rare." The study challenges official versions of three attacks between 2009 and
2011, including a drone strike on March 17, 2011, that killed an estimated 42 people.
Note: Imagine the uproar if another country killed innocent civilians in the US while using drones to
kill terrorists in the country. Visit the Living Under Drones website here. For a Democracy Now!
report on the results of this study click here. For more analysis click here and here.

To Catch Government Workers With Ties to Child Porn, Call the IRS
2012-09-19, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/09/19/to-catch-government-workers-w...
There is a national crisis of federal employees engaged in the child porn industry and a related
epidemic at the state level. Two states, Vermont and Maine, ... appear to be running stateprotected child trafficking rings, with evidence of cops, judges, lawyers, clergy and government
employees covering for each other. This kind of racketeering creates powerful, and extremely
profitable, pedophile rings. Money drives the crime. Half of all global child porn is produced in
America. Estimates of the global profits from child porn range from $3-20 billion. The Department
of Justice (DOJ)s Child Exploitation and Obscenities unit has been, by many accounts, totally
disabled under. With so many police, judges, clergy, state and federal employees across
America involved in the child porn industry Americans should be able to turn to the IRSs
Whistleblower program. Richard Weber, Chief of IRSs Criminal Division in Washington DC,
is one point of contact. Apparently, the IRS cares about trafficked children. Child trafficking and

porn are the fastest growing crimes in America. With billions being laundered in black money it
makes solid economic sense for the IRS to focus on the child porn industry. The IRS should be
given substantial resources to compensate for DOJs disgraceful failure.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Is Trying To Go Broke

2012-09-18, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/09/18/chuck-feeney-the-billion...
Chuck Feeney is the James Bond of philanthropy. Over the last 30 years hes crisscrossed the
globe conducting a clandestine operation to give away a $7.5 billion fortune derived from hawking
cognac, perfume and cigarettes in his empire of duty-free shops. His foundation, the Atlantic
Philanthropies, has funneled $6.2 billion into education, science, health care, aging and civil rights
in the U.S., Australia, Vietnam, Bermuda, South Africa and Ireland. Few living people have given
away more, and no one at his wealth level has ever given their fortune away so completely during
their lifetime. The remaining $1.3 billion will be spent by 2016, and the foundation will be shuttered
in 2020. While the business worlds titans obsess over piling up as many riches as possible,
Feeney is working double time to die broke. Feeney embarked on this mission in 1984, in the
middle of a decade marked by wealth creationand conspicuous consumptionwhen he slyly
transferred his entire 38.75% ownership stake in Duty Free Shoppers to what became the Atlantic
Philanthropies. I concluded that if you hung on to a piece of the action for yourself youd always
be worrying about that piece, says Feeney, who estimates his current net worth at $2 million (with
an m). People used to ask me how I got my jollies, and I guess Im happy when what Im
doing is helping people and unhappy when what Im doing isnt helping people. Hes not
waiting to grant gifts after hes gone nor to set up a legacy fund that annually tosses pennies at a
$10 problem. He hunts for causes where he can have dramatic impact and goes all-in.
Note: For lots more on this great philanthropist, click here. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Pot compound seen as tool against cancer

2012-09-18, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Pot-compound-seen-as-tool-against-cancer...
Marijuana, already shown to reduce pain and nausea in cancer patients, may be promising as a
cancer-fighting agent against some of the most aggressive forms of the disease. A growing body of
early research shows a compound found in marijuana - one that does not produce the plant's
psychotropic high - seems to have the ability to "turn off" the activity of a gene responsible for

metastasis in breast and other types of cancers. Two scientists at San Francisco's California
Pacific Medical Center Research Institute first released data five years ago that showed how this
compound - called cannabidiol - reduced the aggressiveness of human breast cancer cells in the
lab. "The preclinical trial data is very strong, and there's no toxicity. There's really a lot of
research to move ahead with and to get people excited," said Sean McAllister, who along with
scientist Pierre Desprez, has been studying the active molecules in marijuana - called
cannabinoids - as potent inhibitors of metastatic disease for the past decade. Martin Lee, director
of Project CBD, [a] group that works to raise awareness of the scientific promise of the compound,
described the cannabidiol research as potent both as a medicine and a myth buster. "It debunks
the idea that medicinal marijuana is really about people wanting to get stoned," said Lee,
author of Smoke Signals, a book published last month about the medical and social history of
marijuana. "Why do they want it when it doesn't even get them high?"
Note: For an educational, 45-minute documentary on this topic titled "What if Cannabis Cured
Cancer?," click here. For an informative 15-minute documentary on the health benefits of juicing
raw cannabis, click here. For deeply inspiring reports from reliable sources, click here.

Lessons from the 'World's Ugliest Woman': 'Stop Staring and Start
Learning'
2012-09-13, Yahoo
http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/lessons-worlds-ugliest-woman-stop-staring-start...
When she was in high school, Lizzie Velasquez was dubbed "The World's Ugliest Woman" in an 8second-long YouTube video. Born with a medical condition so rare that just two other people in the
world are thought to have it, Velasquez has no adipose tissue and cannot create muscle, store
energy, or gain weight. She has zero percent body fat and weighs just 60 pounds. In the
comments on YouTube, viewers called her "it" and "monster" and encouraged her to kill herself.
Instead, Velasquez set four goals: To become a motivational speaker, to publish a book, to
graduate college, and to build a family and a career for herself. Now 23 years old, she's been a
motivational speaker for seven years and has given more than 200 workshops on embracing
uniqueness, dealing with bullies, and overcoming obstacles. She's a senior majoring in
Communications at Texas State University in San Marcos, where she lives with her best friend.
Her first book, Lizzie Beautiful, came out in 2010 and her second, Be Beautiful, Be You, was
published earlier this month. She's even reclaimed YouTube, video blogging about everything from
bullying to hair-styling tips to staying positive. Of course, the horrible comments left on that old
YouTube video stung. "I'm human, and of course these things are going to hurt," she said. "Their
judgments of me isn't who I am, and I'm not going to let these things define me. I didn't sink
down to their level," she said in a follow-up video on YouTube last year. "Instead, I got my
revenge through my accomplishments and determination. In the battle between the 'World's
Ugliest Woman' video vs. me, I think I won."

Note: Though looking at this woman can be disturbing for some, consider that you can see
beneath the surface to the beauty within. Watch Lizzie share some of her wisdom in a threeminute video at this link.

Gaeton Fonzi, Investigator of Kennedy Assassination, Dies at 76

2012-09-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/us/gaeton-fonzi-76-investigated-kennedy-ass...
Gaeton Fonzi was one of the most relentless investigators on the House Select Committee on
Assassinations in the late 1970s, remembered by former colleagues with [awe at] his pursuit of the
full story behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Fonzi was also the staff
member most publicly dismayed by the committees final report, which concluded in 1979 that the
president was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. Of course it was a conspiracy,
said Mr. Fonzi, a journalist recruited mainly on the strength of scathing magazine critiques he had
written about the Warren Commission and its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone
in killing the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. But who were the conspirators? What was
their motive? How could the committee close its doors without the answers? Mr. Fonzi ...
nailed those questions to the committees locked doors, figuratively, in a long article he wrote
the next year for Washingtonian magazine and in a 1993 book, The Last Investigation. In both, he
chronicled the near-blanket refusal of government intelligence agencies, especially the C.I.A., to
provide the committee with documents it requested. And he accused committee leaders of folding
under pressure from Congressional budget hawks, political advisers and the intelligence
agencies themselves just as promising new leads were emerging. Is it unrealistic to desire,
for something as important as the assassination of a president, an investigation unbound
by political, financial or time restrictions? he asked.
Note: For the government report stating that Kennedy's assassination was like the result of a
conspiracy and other revealing reports from reliable major media sources on political
assassinations, click here.

Big Pharma's Offshore Fraud Strategy

2012-09-11, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2012/09/11/big-pharmas-offshore-fraud...
One of [the big drug companies'] bright spots has been emerging markets where in recent years
percentage growth in sales has caught up to and in many instances galloped ahead of other
regions. But with pharmaceutical companies continuing to pay record civil and criminal fines in the
U.S. for illegal marketing practices, recent scrutiny of similar practices abroad raises questions as
to whether pharma has simply exported its fraudulent marketing playbook to Europe, Asia, the
Middle East and elsewhere. Those sales and marketing tactics are bad news for patients around
the world, as financial inducements and bribes should not be permitted to corrupt medical
treatment decisions. The good news is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

whistleblower program will undoubtedly accelerate exposure of corrupt practices overseas and
bring greater transparency into pharmas business practices generally. Pharma companies already
are being investigated for U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. The FCPA makes
it illegal to bribe foreign officials to win business. Pfizer, the worlds largest drugmaker, paid
$60.2 million last month to the U.S. to settle charges that the company bribed government
officials including hospital administrators, government doctors and members of
regulatory and purchasing committees in China, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia
and Kazakhstan to approve and prescribe Pfizer products. Other pharma companies are
under scrutiny by the U.S. for their practices elsewhere.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical industry
corruption, click here.

Once-jailed banker gets $104 million whistleblower payout

2012-09-11, NBC News
http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/11/13804631-once-jailed-banker-ge...
Attorneys for jailed former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced [on September 11] that the
IRS will pay him $104 million as a whistleblower reward for information he turned over to the US
government. The information Birkenfeld revealed detailed the inner workings of the secretive
private wealth management division of the Swiss bank UBS, where the American-born Birkenfeld
helped his US clients evade taxes by hiding wealth overseas. Tuesday's announcement
represents an astonishing turn of fortune for Birkenfeld, who was released from federal prison in
August after serving 31 months on charges relating to his efforts to help a wealthy client avoid
taxes. Birkenfeld attorney Stephen Kohn said the information the former Swiss banker turned over
to the IRS led directly to the $780 million fine paid to the US by his former employer, UBS, as well
as leading over 35,000 taxpayers to participate in amnesty programs to voluntarily repatriate their
illegal offshore accounts. That resulted in the collection of over $5 billion dollars in back
taxes, fines and penalties that otherwise would have remained outside the reach of the
government. Birkenfeld's disclosures also led to the first cracks in the legendarily secretive
Swiss banking system, and ultimately the Swiss government changed its tax treaty with the
United States. UBS turned over the names of more than than 4,900 U.S. taxpayers who held
illegal offshore accounts. Investigations into those accounts are ongoing.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between
financial corporations and government regulators, click here.

Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects, Researchers

Find
2012-09-06, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/06/marijuana-fights-cancer-and-...

Mounting evidence shows cannabinoids in marijuana slow cancer growth, inhibit

formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor, and help manage pain, fatigue, nausea, and
other side effects. Peer-reviewed studies in several countries ... show that THC and other
marijuana-derived compounds, known as cannabinoids, are effective not only for cancersymptom management (nausea, pain, loss of appetite, fatigue), they also confer a direct
antitumoral effect. A team of Spanish scientists led by Manuel Guzman conducted the first clinical
trial assessing the antitumoral action of THC on human beings. THC treatment was associated
with significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in every test subject. Harvard University scientists
reported that THC slows tumor growth in common lung cancer and significantly reduces the ability
of the cancer to spread. Whats more ... THC selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while
leaving healthy cells unscathed. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, by contrast, are highly toxic;
they indiscriminately damage the brain and body. There is mounting evidence ... that cannabinoids
represent a new class of anticancer drugs that retard cancer growth, inhibit angiogenesis [the
formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor] and the metastatic spreading of cancer cells.
Within the medical science community, the discovery that cannabinoids have anti-tumoral
properties is increasingly recognized as a seminal advancement in cancer therapeutics.
Note: Yet treatment with cannabinoids continues to be largely illegal in the US. For an informative
15-minute documentary on the health benefits of juicing raw cannabis, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on promising cancer-cure research, click here.

The modern US army: unfit for service?

2012-08-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/31/us-army-racism-iraq-afghanistan
Gone are the days of the all-American army hero. These days, the US military is more like a
sanctuary for racists, gang members and the chronically unfit. In the relatively halcyon days of
the first Gulf war in 1990, the US military blocked the enlistment of felons. It spurned men
and women with low IQs or those without a high school diploma. It would either block the
enlistment of or kick out neo-Nazis and gang members. It would treat or discharge
alcoholics, drug abusers and the mentally ill. No more. Many of the wars' worst atrocities are
linked directly to the loosening of enlistment regulations on criminals, racist extremists, and gang
members, among others. By 2005, the US had 150,000 troops deployed in Iraq and 19,500 in
Afghanistan. But the military wasn't prepared in any way for this kind of extended deployment. The
slim forces needed fattening up and what followed constituted a complete re-evaluation of who
was qualified to serve. Information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act ... found the
number of convicted criminals enlisting in the US military had nearly doubled in two years, from
824 in 2004 to 1,605 in 2006. A total of 4,230 convicted felons were enlisted, including those guilty
of rape and murder. On top of this, 43,977 soldiers signed up who had been found guilty of a
serious misdemeanour, which includes assault. Another 58,561 had drug-related convictions, but
all were handed a gun and sent off to the Middle East. [And] since its inception, the leaders of the
white supremacist movement have encouraged their members to enlist. They see it as a way for
their followers to receive combat and weapons training, courtesy of the US government.

Note: Extracted from Irregular Army: How The US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members,
And Criminals To Fight The War On Terror, by Matt Kennard. For deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources on military corruption, click here.

SEAL's book contradicts official report

2012-08-29, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/SEAL-s-book-contradicts-official-report-3...
A Navy SEAL's firsthand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden pulls back the veil on the
secret operations conducted almost nightly by elite American forces against terrorist suspects.
Former SEAL Matt Bissonnette's account contradicted in key details the account of the raid
presented by administration officials in the days after the May 2011 raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan.
Bissonnette wrote that the SEALs spotted bin Laden at the top of a darkened hallway and
shot him in the head even though they could not tell whether he was armed. Administration
officials have described the SEALs shooting bin Laden only after he ducked back into a
bedroom because they assumed he might be reaching for a weapon. Bissonnette wrote the
book, No Easy Day, under the pseudonym Mark Owen, as one of the men in the room when they
killed bin Laden. In [one] scene, a terrified mother clutches her child and a young girl identifies the
dead man as Osama bin Laden. The SEAL author says he did "not disclose confidential or
sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way."
Note: Isn't it interesting that the SEAL team "spotted bin Laden at the top of a darkened hallway
and shot him in the head." If it was a darkened hallway, how did they know it was bin Laden? The
articles states "a young girl identifies the dead man as Osama bin Laden." Is that really how they
ID'd this guy? And why did they then dump his body into the ocean, so that there could never be
definitive proof that the body was indeed bin Laden? So many questions remain. For more
evidence bin Laden was not killed by SEALs, click here.

Freedom of Choice Includes the Right to Know

2012-08-26, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (One of Seattle's leading newspapers)
http://blog.seattlepi.com/timigustafsonrd/2012/08/26/freedom-of-choice-includ...
In California ... voters will decide in the November election whether consumers should have the
right to know what goes in their food. Proposition 37, if it passes, will require food manufacturers to
disclose whether their products contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). It is estimated
that 40 to 70 percent of foods currently sold in grocery stores in California contain some
genetically altered ingredients. The [FDA] does not require safety studies, and no long-term
research on potential health effects has been conducted yet, although there are reports of
preliminary studies that have linked GMOs to allergies and other health risks. Proposition 37
does not intend to impose any bans. Its simply saying: Lets give consumers information so we
can choose for ourselves whether or not we want to eat genetically engineered foods. Consumers
in 50 other countries including all of Europe, Japan, China and Russia all have this right,

argued Grant Lundberg, the CEO of Lundberg Family Farms, and Kathryn Phillips, Director of the
Sierra Club California. Having started as a grassroots movement, Proposition 37 has a good
chance of succeeding. A whopping 65 percent of registered voters in California say they support
the measure. But so far, less than 3 million dollars have been raised by the organizers. Opponents,
mainly chemical and food-processing companies, including Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Dow, Nestle,
Coca Cola and Pepsico, have raised more than nine times as much. Ignoring facts and keeping
information secret is not a sustainable strategy in the long run. Californias Right-to-Know
movement could morph into something like that with the potential of spreading across the whole
country.
Note: This article neglects to mention scientific studies which have shown that lab animals got
very sick and some even died after being fed GM food. For a well researched and footnoted paper
on this, click here. For a great collection of past major media articles revealing the serious risks
and dangers of genetically modified foods, click here.

USDA panel gets altered-crops pay plan

2012-08-24, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/USDA-panel-gets-altered-crops-pay-plan-...
California voters this fall will decide a ballot measure that would require labeling of foods
containing genetically engineered material. But the Department of Agriculture is already tied in
knots over how to deal with the contamination of organic and conventional foods by biotech crops.
On [August 27], a USDA advisory panel will consider a draft plan to compensate farmers whose
crops have been contaminated by pollen, seeds or other stray genetically engineered material.
The meeting is expected to be contentious, pitting the biotechnology and organic industries against
each other. The draft report acknowledged the difficulty of preventing such material from
accidentally entering the food supply and concerns that the purity of traditional seeds may be
threatened. It also cited fears on both sides that official action to address contamination could send
a signal to U.S. consumers and export markets in Europe, Japan and elsewhere that the purity and
even safety of U.S. crops are suspect. Bioengineered crops dominate U.S. commodities,
including 90 percent of U.S. corn. In some states, penetration is all but complete, including
99 percent of the Arkansas cotton crop. Most processed foods contain genetically
engineered material. The organic industry said biotech companies should be responsible for
containing their own genes and that contamination threatens the right of farmers to choose how to
farm.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the dangers of
genetically-modified foods, click here. For more on the California ballot measure to require GM
labelling called the "right to know," click here.

Man Who Armed Black Panthers Was FBI Informant

2012-08-20, MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48721445/ns/local_news-san_francisco_bay_area_ca/...
The man who gave the Black Panther Party some of its first firearms and weapons training which
preceded fatal shootouts with Oakland police in the turbulent 1960s was an undercover FBI
informer, according to a former bureau agent and an FBI report. One of the Bay Areas most
prominent radical activists of the era, Richard Masato Aoki was known as a fierce militant who
touted his street-fighting abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining and
arming the Panthers. But unbeknownst to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI
intelligence informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area political groups,
according to the bureau agent who recruited him, [Burney Threadgill Jr.]. Aokis work for the FBI ...
was uncovered and verified during research for the book, Subversives: The FBIs War on Student
Radicals, and Reagans Rise to Power. The FBI ... released records about Aoki in response to a
Freedom of Information Act request. A Nov. 16, 1967, intelligence report on the Black Panthers
lists Aoki as an informant with the code number T-2. Aoki gave the Panthers some of their
first guns. As [Bobby] Seale recalled in his memoir, Seize the Time, the group approached
Aoki, a Third World brother we knew, a Japanese radical cat. He had guns .357
Magnums, 22s, 9mms, what have you. In early 1967, Aoki joined the Black Panther Party and
gave them more guns, Seale wrote. Aoki also gave Panther recruits weapons training.
Note: For a Democracy Now! video report on the discovery that Aoki was an FBI infiltrator,
informer and provocateur, click here. This is more solid evidence that elements within government
have consistently instigated violence within progressive movements in order to discredit them.
Sadly, this policy appears to continue up to the present.

The new totalitarianism of surveillance technology

2012-08-15, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/15/new-totalitarianism-surve...
Last week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to unveil a
major new police surveillance infrastructure, developed by Microsoft. The Domain Awareness
System links existing police databases with live video feeds, including cameras using vehicle
license plate recognition software. No mention was made of whether the system plans to use or
already uses facial recognition software. But, at present, there is no law to prevent US
government and law enforcement agencies from building facial recognition databases. And we
know from industry newsletters that the US military, law enforcement, and the department of
homeland security are betting heavily on facial recognition technology. As PC World notes,
Facebook itself is a market leader in the technology but military and security agencies are close
behind. According to Homeland Security Newswire, billions of dollars are being invested in the
development and manufacture of various biometric technologies capable of detecting and
identifying anyone, anywhere in the world via iris-scanning systems, already in use; footscanning technology (really); voice pattern ID software, and so on. What is very obvious is that
this technology will not be applied merely to people under arrest, or to people under

surveillance in accordance with the fourth amendment. No, the "targets" here [include]
everyone. In the name of "national security", the capacity is being built to identify, track and
document any citizen constantly and continuously.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Why Goldman Sachs, Other Wall Street Titans Are Not Being Prosecuted
2012-08-14, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/14/why-goldman-sachs-other-wall...
On [August 9] the Department of Justice announced it will not prosecute Goldman Sachs or any of
its employees in a financial-fraud probe. Despite the Obama administrations promises to
clean up Wall Street in the wake of Americas worst financial crisis, there has not been a
single criminal charge filed by the federal government against any top executive of the elite
financial institutions. Why is that? In a word: cronyism. Take Goldman Sachs, for example. In
2008, Goldman Sachs employees were among Barack Obamas top campaign contributors, giving
a combined $1,013,091. [Attorney General] Eric Holders former law firm, Covington & Burling,
also counts Goldman Sachs as one of its clients. Furthermore, in April 2011, when the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a scathing report detailing Goldmans
suspicious Abacus deal, several Goldman executives and their families began flooding Obama
campaign coffers with donations, some giving the maximum $35,800. The individuals the DOJs
Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force has placed in its prosecutorial crosshairs seem
shockingly small compared with the Wall Street titans the Obama administration promised to bring
to justice. To be sure, financial fraud of any kind is wrong and should be prosecuted. But locking up
pygmies is hardly the kind of financial-fraud crackdown Americans expected in the wake of the
largest financial crisis in U.S. history. Increasingly, there appear to be two sets of rules: one for the
average citizen, and another for the connected cronies who rule the inside game.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corporations'
control over government, see our Banking Bailout archive here.

Modified food will be on voters' menu

2012-08-10, Houston Chronicle (One of Houston's leading newspapers)
http://www.chron.com/business/article/Modified-food-will-be-on-voters-menu-37...
In November, voters will decide whether to make California the first state in the nation to
require labels on most genetically modified food products. At least 18 states, including
California, have tried to pass similar laws through their legislatures and failed. This time, however,
the measure made it to the statewide ballot with 1 million citizen signatures; recent polls
show Proposition 37 winning by a significant margin. Food activists across the country are
watching the California battle closely, with opponents of genetic modification hoping to make the
proposition a model for other states. Supporters of the law, including organic trade groups and

environmentalists, say consumers have a right to know if the food they're eating contains
genetically modified material - particularly when the long-term health effects are unclear. Seventy
percent to 80 percent of processed foods sold in the U.S. are made with genetically engineered
ingredients, including corn, soybeans, sugar beets and cotton oil. If the California measure passes,
processed genetically engineered food products would include the words "Partially produced with
genetic engineering" on the front or back label. For whole foods such as sweet corn or salmon,
grocers would be required to have a sign on the shelf. Alcohol, most meat, eggs and dairy
products would be exempt. Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of the Institute for Responsible
Technology based in Iowa, said "Based on the evidence - damage to virtually every organ
evaluated and immune and gastrointestinal problems - labels are needed."
Note: If you read this entire article, you will detect a clear bias against GMO labelling. It quotes a
UCLA professor stating, "There is not one credible scientist working on this that would call it
unsafe." Yet the article fails to mention the many scientists who have provided solid evidence that
GMOs are unsafe. For a powerful essay showing the grave risks and dangers of GMOs, click here.
For a New York Times article listing several scientists who raised serious questions about GMOs,
click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on genetically modified
foods, click here.

Inquiry of Leaks Is Casting Chill Over Coverage

2012-08-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/national-security-leaks-lead-to-fbi-hunt...
F.B.I. agents on a hunt for leakers have interviewed current and former high-level government
officials from multiple agencies in recent weeks, casting a distinct chill over press coverage of
national security issues as agencies decline routine interview requests and refuse to provide
background briefings. The criminal investigation, which has reached into the White House, the
Pentagon, the National Security Agency and the C.I.A., appears to be the most sweeping inquiry
into intelligence disclosures in years. It coincides with Senate consideration of new legislation
designed to curb intelligence officials exchanges with reporters. The legislation approved last
week by the Senate Intelligence Committee would reduce to a handful the number of people at
each agency permitted to speak to reporters on background, or condition of anonymity; require
notice to the Senate and House intelligence committees of authorized disclosures of intelligence
information; and permit the government to strip the pension of an intelligence officer who illegally
discloses classified information. The Obama administration has set a record for prosecuting
leaks of classified information to the news media, with six cases to date, more than under
all previous presidents combined. The F.B.I. appears to be focused on recent media
disclosures on American cyberattacks on Iran, a terrorist plot in Yemen that was foiled by a
double agent and the so-called kill list of terrorist suspects approved for drone strikes.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government secrecy,
click here.

French Lawmakers Pass Trading Transaction Tax

2012-08-01, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-31/french-lawmakers-pass-budget-bill...
Frances parliament passed President Francois Hollandes revised 2012 budget, including a 0.2
percent transaction tax on share purchases that takes effect today. The bills passage into law
marks the first step toward fiscal reform and a move toward justice, Finance Minister
Pierre Moscovici said in a statement. With the vote, France becomes the first European
country to impose a transaction tax on share purchases. The Hollande government is
doubling the levy to 0.2 percent from the 0.1 percent tax initially advocated by former President
Nicolas Sarkozy. Many institutional investors may escape the tax using so-called contracts for
difference, or CFDs, offered by prime brokers that let them bet on a stocks gain or loss with
owning the shares. The transaction tax, aimed at curbing market speculation, will be paid on the
purchase of 109 French stocks with market values of more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion),
including Pernod Ricard SA and Vivendi SA. The new budget law will be applied to transactions
resulting in a transfer of property of companies trading in Paris, regardless of where the buyer or
seller is based, and may be expanded next year along with some European partners. France
estimated that the doubling of the tax will bring in an additional 170 million euros in 2012 and 500
million euros next year. The state will start collecting the tax in November, Budget Minister Jerome
Cahuzacs press office said. The government estimated that the doubling of the tax will cut the
volume of stock purchases to 800 billion euros from 1.05 trillion euros with a 0.1 percent levy and
1.3 trillion euros with no transaction tax.
Note: This exciting news is one of the most underreported events of the year. A universal FTT
would stop much of the craziness in the derivatives market. The EU is also seriously considering
implementing an FTT. Click here for more.

Top official admits FBI had al-Awlaki in custody before letting him go in
2002
2012-08-01, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/01/top-official-admits-fbi-had-al-awl...
The FBI, for the first time, has admitted publicly that it knew the radical Muslim cleric Anwar alAwlaki was returning to the U.S. in October 2002 and that an FBI agent discussed the American's
return with a U.S. attorney before he was detained and then abruptly released from federal
custody. Al-Awlaki, who would become the first American targeted for death by the CIA, eventually
was killed last September in Yemen by a U.S. drone strike. Mark Giuliano, the FBI's assistant
director for national security, testified [on August 1] that the FBI knew in advance that he was
making his way back to the United States. Al-Awlaki was detained at New York City's JFK airport
because a customs database flagged him based on an outstanding arrest warrant. Former FBI
agents say there are only likely two explanations: The bureau let the cleric into the country to track
him for intelligence, or the bureau wanted to work with him as a friendly contact. The FBI has
never explained why it let al-Awlaki walk free at a time when dozens of young Muslim men

were being held in detention centers on material witness warrants in the wake of the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks. Al-Awlaki was under a full FBI investigation by the Washington office
when he was invited to lunch at an executive dining room at the Pentagon in February 2002.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

Drug money funds voter fraud in Kentucky

2012-07-25, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/25/drug-money-funds-voter-fraud-in-ke...
Voter fraud has a shocking new meaning in eastern Kentucky [where] major cocaine and
marijuana dealers admitted to buying votes to steal elections. "We believe that drug money did buy
votes," Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said. He described a
stunning vote-buying scheme that includes "very extensive, organized criminal activity, involving
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in many cases that involves drug money." He says the
problem is rooted in economic woes, which is why votes are routinely for sale. In that part of the
state, jobs are scarce and poverty is high. Controlling local government means controlling jobs.
These folks go out and hijack the local elections for their own purposes and then they use those
jobs to enrich themselves and their confederates. It really is a terrible problem and it has to be
stopped, Harvey explains. In Clay County, according to court testimony, some of the funds to
purchase votes came from massive cocaine and marijuana drug trafficking operations. I always
bought votes, Kenneth Day testified. The 60-year-old was serving 18 years in federal
prison for multimillion-dollar drug trafficking. Prosecutors say he dealt in "millions of dollars in
drugs, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine and had developed one of the most
successful drug trafficking businesses in the whole entire region. He also dealt in votes. Day
was not only an admitted drug trafficker, but he also had served as the longtime Clay
County Republican commissioner of the Board of Elections.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on serious problems with the
US elections process, click here.

Pediatricians Say Cell Phone Radiation Standards Need Another Look

2012-07-20, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/20/pediatricians-call-on-the-fcc-to-recons...
Its been 18 years since the U.S. government assessed the standards for cell phone radiation.
That was back in 1996. Both cell-phone technology and cell-phone use have changed in the
interim, which is why last week the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urged the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to reconsider its radiation standards. Current guidelines
specify that the specific absorption rate (SAR) the amount of radiofrequency (RF) energy
absorbed by the body when using a cell phone cant exceed 1.6 watts per kilogram. The

standard tells cell-phone makers how much radiation their products are allowed to emit. This all
sounds pretty technical; why, you may wonder, is the AAP getting involved in deliberations over RF
and SARs? It comes down to childrens health and well-being, writes AAP President Dr. Robert
Block, who notes that standards are based on the impact of exposure on an adult male, not on
women or kids: "Children, however, are not little adults and are disproportionately impacted
by all environmental exposures, including cell phone radiation. In fact, according to [the
International Agency for Research on Cancer], when used by children, the average RF
energy deposition is two times higher in the brain and 10 times higher in the bone marrow
of the skull, compared with mobile phone use by adults." Block points out that standards for
all cell phones even those not aimed at children or teens need to be based on protecting the
youngest and most vulnerable populations to ensure they are safeguarded throughout their
lifetimes.
Note: For more on risks from cell phones and other important health issues, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Parties Perpetuate Illusion of Differences

2012-07-19, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Tax-debate-is-over-1-butler-or-3-372121...
For all the superheated rhetoric of yet another election cycle, it's as clear as ever that the
Republican and Democratic parties in Washington pretty much support the same economic
policies. Indeed, any honest perusal of congressional votes proves that the party establishments
are roughly the same when it comes to financial deregulation (less of it), job-killing free trade (more
of it), bailouts (more of them) and corporate taxes (less of them). Politicians and partisan media
outlets deny this obvious reality, of course. But they do so because they have a vested interest in
the red-versus-blue "polarization" narrative from which they generate campaign contributions and
ratings, respectively. It's also why more Americans are tuning out of politics. Pretending this is
some big divide is a farce. Both parties are proposing to enrich the already rich while hiding the
two-headed monster behind a mask of conflict.
Note: For a powerful essay revealing the deeper agenda behind largely fabricated polarizations,
click here.

FDA spied on whistle-blowing scientists

2012-07-14, San Francisco Chronicle/New York Times
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/FDA-spied-on-whistle-blowing-scientists-...
A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a
group of its own scientists utilized an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured
thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress,
lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records

show. What began as a narrow investigation into the possible leaking of confidential agency
information by five scientists quickly grew in mid-2010 into a much broader campaign to counter
outside critics of the agency's medical review process, according to the cache of more than 80,000
pages of computer documents generated by the surveillance effort. Moving to quell what one
memo called the "collaboration" of the FDA's opponents, the surveillance operation identified 21
agency employees, congressional officials, outside medical researchers and journalists thought to
be working together to put out negative and "defamatory" information about the agency. The
agency, using so-called spy software designed to help employers monitor workers,
captured screen images from the government laptops of the five scientists as they were
being used at work or at home. The extraordinary surveillance effort grew out of a bitter, yearslong dispute between the scientists and their bosses at the FDA over the scientists' claims that
faulty review procedures at the agency had led to the approval of medical imaging devices for
mammograms and colonoscopies that exposed patients to dangerous levels of radiation.
Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government corruption, click here.

FBI to review thousands of old cases for flawed evidence

2012-07-12, NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/12/12708918-fbi-to-review-thousands-o...
The Justice Department is going through thousands of cases from the days before DNA testing to
see whether the government exaggerated the significance of the FBI's hair analysis. The review,
the largest in U.S. history, will focus on work by FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at
least 1985, the Washington Post reported. A reporter at the Post had been working on a story
about Donald Gates, a D.C. man released after DNA evidence proved his innocence, when he
learned about Frederic Whitehurst, an FBI lab chemist who blew the whistle on the FBI Laboratory
in the mid-1990s. Whitehurst said he watched colleagues contaminate evidence and, in court,
overstate the significance of their matches. When Whitehurst, a chemist with a doctoral degree
from Duke, arrived at the FBI crime lab in 1986, the first thing he noticed was that the place was,
as he called it, a pigsty. The equipment was outdated and there was a film of black soot coating
the counters a dust from the vents that the agents called black rain. After the first World
Trade Center bombing, Whitehurst testified that supervisors pressured him to concoct
misleading scientific reports. When he refused to testify that a urea nitrate bomb had been
the source of the explosion, the FBI found another lab technician to testify. He learned that
an agent had, for the previous nine years, rewritten his scientific reports to support the
prosecution.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on intelligence agency
corruption, click here.

Court Papers Undercut Ratings Agencies' Defense

2012-07-03, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/business/documents-seem-to-endanger-ratings...
For years, the ratings agencies have contended that the grades they assign debt securities are
independent opinions and therefore entitled to First Amendment protections, like those afforded
journalists. But newly released documents in a class-action case ... cast doubt on the
independence of the two largest agencies, Moodys Investors Service and Standard & Poors. The
case, filed in 2008 by a group of 15 institutional investors against Morgan Stanley and the two
agencies, involves a British-based debt issuer called Cheyne Finance. Cheyne collapsed in August
2007 under a load of troubled mortgage securities. Even though Cheynes portfolio was bulging
with residential mortgage securities, some of its debt received the agencies highest ratings, a
grade equal to that assigned to United States Treasury securities. When the primary analyst at
S.& P. notified Morgan Stanley that some of the Cheyne securities would most likely receive
a BBB rating, not the A grade that the firm had wanted, the agency received a blistering email from a Morgan Stanley executive. S.& P. subsequently raised the grade to A. After the
institutions that bought Cheynes debt sued Morgan Stanley and the ratings agencies, Moodys
and S.& P. immediately mounted a First Amendment defense. But Shira A. Scheindlin, the federal
judge overseeing the matter ... argued that the ratings were not opinions but were
misrepresentations that were possibly a result of fraud or negligence.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

A court of, by and for the 1%

2012-07-03, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/roberts-court-is-still-a-conservative-...
Nearly 70 percent of voters think super PACs should be outlawed, and more than half
strongly do. We can hardly believe that the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch
will spend more this year than John McCains entire presidential campaign raised in 2008.
We cant stand the constant flood of negative ads on every channel or the ominous anonymity of
the interests behind them. The Roberts Court sees all this and refuses to acknowledge that it
give[s] rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. Fortunately, if on the question of
campaign finance the Supreme Court is immune to the court of public opinion, progressives are
fighting through other avenues to transform todays corrupt system into one that is fair, transparent
and participatory. In [the] state of New York, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched a
path-breaking investigation of tax-exempt groups that might be fraudulently funneling funds into
politics, including a charitable foundation affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is partnering with Protect Our Democracy ... to apply
the same successful, grass-roots pressure they used in getting same-sex marriage passed to our
campaign finance system. They have joined with citizen activists who are looking to New York
Citys successful, multiple-match public financing system. A Brennan Center for Justice study
showed that this system promoted diversity among candidates and donors and reduced the
influence of corporate money.

Note: For key reports from major media sources on problems with US elections, click here.

The Fate Of A World Bank Whistle-Blower

2012-06-27, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2012/06/27/the-sad-fate-of-a-world-b...
The World Bank is a place where whistle-blowers are shunned, persecuted and bootednot always
in that order. Consider John Kim, a top staffer in the banks IT department, who in 2007
leaked damaging documents ... after he determined that there were no internal institutional
avenues to honestly deal with wrongdoing. Sometimes you have to betray your country in
order to save it, Kim says. In return bank investigators probed his phone records and e-mails, and
allegedly hacked into his personal AOL account. After determining he was behind the leaks the
bank put him on administrative leave for two years before firing him on Christmas Eve
2010. With nowhere to turn Kim was guided into the offices of the Washington, D.C.-based
Government Accountability Projectthe only game in town for public-sector leakers. [They] helped
Kim file an internal case for wrongful termination (World Bank staffers have no recourse to U.S.
courts) and in a landmark ruling a five-judge tribunal eventually ordered the bank to reinstate him
last May. Despite the decision, the bank retired him in September after 29 years of service.
Note: For the video of another major World Bank whistleblower, Karen Hudes, click here. For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click here.

Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism: Mondragon shows the way

2012-06-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/alternative-capitalism-mo...
Capitalism's recurring tendencies toward extreme and deepening inequalities of income, wealth,
and political and cultural power require resignation and acceptance. [It] entails and reproduces a
highly undemocratic organization of production inside enterprises. Believers insist that no
alternatives to ... capitalist organizations of production exist or could work nearly so well. Of
course, alternatives exist. The city of Arrasate-Mondragon, in the Basque region of Spain ... is the
headquarters of the Mondragon Corporation (MC). MC is composed of many co-operative
enterprises grouped into four areas: industry, finance, retail and knowledge. In each enterprise, the
co-op members (averaging 80-85% of all workers per enterprise) collectively own and direct the
enterprise. The largest corporation in the Basque region, MC is also one of Spain's top ten
biggest corporations (in terms of sales or employment). And MC has expanded
internationally, now operating over 77 businesses outside Spain. MC has proven itself able
to grow and prosper as an alternative to and competitor of capitalist organizations of
enterprise. MC worker-members collectively choose, hire and fire the directors, whereas in
capitalist enterprises the reverse occurs. One of the co-operatively and democratically adopted

rules governing the MC limits top-paid worker/members to earning 6.5 times the lowest-paid
workers. In US corporations, CEOs can expect to be paid 400 times an average worker's salary
a rate that has increased 20-fold since 1965.

Obama claims executive privilege; Holder held in contempt

2012-06-20, USA Today
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/06/obama-team-fast-...
A Republican-run House committee voted today to cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt
after President Obama asserted executive privilege over documents in the "Fast and Furious"
operation. The "decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either
involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed," said Michael Steel, a
spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The administration has always insisted
that wasn't the case. Agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious lost track of some
weapons. Two guns were later found at the scene of the killing of a U.S. border patrol agent,
Brian Terry. In a statement issue by their attorney, Terry's parents condemned the Obama
administration for invoking executive privilege. "Our son, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, was
killed by members of a Mexican drug cartel armed with weapons from this failed Justice
Department gun trafficking investigation," said Josephine Terry and Kent Terry Sr. "For more than
18 months we have been asking our federal government for justice and accountability." The Terrys
also said that "our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are
now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather
than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious." The investigation into the operation
was spurred after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, inquired into whistle-blower allegations that the
government had allowed the transfer of illegally purchased weapons.
Note: For more about the Fast and Furious ATF operation that provided US guns to criminal
gangs, see this news summary from a reliable major media source.

Jamie Dimon, welfare recipient

2012-06-19, MSN
http://money.msn.com/investing/jamie-dimon-welfare-recipient-bloomberg.aspx
When JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in the U.S. House today, he presented himself
as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government. His position
would be more convincing if his bank weren't such a beneficiary of corporate welfare. JPMorgan
receives a government subsidy worth about $14 billion a year, according to research published by
the International Monetary Fund. The money helps the bank pay big salaries and bonuses. More
important, it distorts markets, fueling crises such as the recent subprime-lending disaster and the
sovereign-debt debacle that is now threatening to destroy the euro and sink the global economy. In
recent decades, governments and central banks around the world have developed a consistent
pattern of behavior when trouble strikes banks that are large or interconnected enough to threaten

the broader economy: They step in to ensure that all the bank's creditors, not just depositors, are
paid in full. With each new banking crisis, the value of the implicit subsidy grows. JPMorgan's
share of the subsidy is $14 billion a year, or about 77% of its net income for the past four
quarters. In other words, U.S. taxpayers helped foot the bill for the multibillion-dollar
trading loss that is the focus of today's hearing. When Dimon pushes back against capital
requirements or the Volcker rule, it's worth remembering that he's pushing for a form of corporate
welfare that, left unchecked, could lead to a crisis too big for the government to contain.
Note: For more vitally important information on this, explore the excellent, reliable information in
our Banking Corruption Information Center available here. For other key major media articles
showing blatant financial corruption, click here.

Morgellons Study Cited by Faculty of 1000

2012-06-19, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/06/19/prweb9616173.DTL
A recent study of Morgellons disease has been cited as a "must read" by the Faculty of 1000
(F1000). The article entitled "Morgellons Disease: A Chemical and Light Microscopic Study", by MJ
Middelveen, EH Rasmussen, DG Kahn and RB Stricker, was published in the open-access online
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology Research. In 2011, veterinary microbiologist
Marianne J. Middelveen from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and internist Raphael B. Stricker, MD
published a study documenting similarities between Morgellons disease and a veterinary illness
known as bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) that causes lameness, decreased milk production, weight
loss, and skin lesions near the hooves of affected cattle. That study revealed that the unusual
fibers seen in the animal disease were similar to those seen in and under the skin of people
worldwide who suffer from Morgellons disease. The new study confirms that Morgellons disease is
not a delusional illness, as some in the medical community maintain. The latest findings confirm
that fibers from both bovine and human samples were similar in formation at the cellular level and
had the chemical and physical properties of keratin. Fibers from human patients were found to be
biological in origin and are produced by keratinocytes in epithelial and follicular tissues. "This
study puts the final nail in the coffin of delusional disease that these patients have been
labeled with," stated Dr. Stricker. "It proves that Morgellons disease is a physiologic illness.
From here on, scientists will be able to move forward in finding a cause and a cure."
Note: To read this important study on Morgellons Disease, click here. For key reports from reliable
sources on important health issues, click here.

Italian court reignites MMR vaccine debate after award over child with
autism
2012-06-17, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/itali...

The controversial row surrounding alleged links between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
vaccine and autism is set to be reignited following a court ruling in Italy. Judges in Rimini, northeast Italy awarded the Bocca family 174,000 Euros (140,000) after the Italian Health Ministry
conceded the MMR vaccine caused autism in their nine-year-old son Valentino. Up to 100 similar
cases are now being examined by Italian lawyers and experts suggest the case could lead to other
families pursuing cases. The ruling in Italy is likely to re-open a debate which first made the
headlines in Britain over a decade ago when the respected medical journal The Lancet published
an article in 1998, making a connection between the triple vaccine and autism. Valentino Bocca
was 15 months old when he received an MMR jab in 2004. His parents said the change in
him, after the jab, from a healthy boy to one who was in serious discomfort, was immediate.
The number of autism cases has risen sharply since the 1970s, with one in 64 British children
affected.
Note: Other key media articles exposing the serious risks of vaccines are available here. For lots
more important information on this vital topic, click here. For an abundance of powerful information
on the little-known risks of vaccination, click here. For a German study showing the vaccinated
children had two to five times as many diseases as those not vaccinated, click here.

A culture of coverup: rape in the ranks of the US military

2012-06-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/14/culture-coverup-rape-rank...
A new documentary by director Kirby Dick, "The Invisible War," about systemic rape of women in
the military and the retaliations and coverups victims face, has won awards in many film festivals,
and recently even triggered congressional response. The examples of what happens to women
soldiers who are raped in the military are stunning, both in the violence that these often young
women face, and in the viciousness they encounter after attacks. The level of sex assault in the
military [is] staggering. There is so much of this going on in the US military that women soldiers'
advocacy groups have created a new term for it: military sexual trauma or MST. Last year, there
were 3,158 cases of sexual assault reported within the military. The Service Women's Action
Network notes that rape is always under-reported, and that a military context offers additional
hurdles to rape victims: the Department of Defense, they point out, estimates that these numbers
are misleading because fewer than 14% of survivors report an assault. The DoD estimates that in
2010 alone, over 19,000 sexual assaults occurred in the military. "Prosecution rates for sexual
predators are astoundingly low," they note. In 2011, "officials received 3,192 sexual assault
reports. But only 1,518 of those reports led to referrals for possible disciplinary action, and
only 191 military members were convicted at courts martial."
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on the prevalence of rape in the US military
and other institutional settings, click here.

Opportunistic countries ready to cash in on Afghanistan

2012-06-12, Chicago Tribune

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-12/news/sns-201206121330--tms--amv...
Even before NATO forces begin leaving Afghanistan, [other countries are] trying to win access to
the nation's vast natural resources after Western troops leave. Chief among them are China, Iran
and India. For example, in Beijing late last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Chinese
President Hu Jintao signed a deal allowing China to pursue mineral resources, energy
development and agricultural opportunities. Over the past decade, China has given the Afghan
government $246 million in aid -- while spending $3.5 billion to develop a cooper mine there. India
... has won rights to mine iron ore. And Iran ... is promising copious aid and assistance after NATO
leaves. Underlying all of this is the discovery that Afghanistan holds at least $1 trillion in
untapped natural resources, including oil, cobalt, iron ore, gold and precious metals,
among them lithium, used to power batteries. An internal Pentagon memo, now widely
quoted, calls Afghanistan "the Saudi Arabia of lithium."

Ernestine Shepherd: The 75-year-old bodybuilding grandma

2012-06-10, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18346128
The world's oldest female bodybuilder wakes up every day at 02:30 to fit in a 10 mile (16km) run
before hitting the gym. But 75-year-old Ernestine Shepherd insists that "age is nothing but a
number". "Miss Ernie", as she is known in the world of competitive bodybuilding, began training at
the tender age of 71. She says her true calling in life, however, is helping others to follow a
more healthy lifestyle. The BBC caught up with her at an exercise class at her church in the US
city of Baltimore, Maryland, to find out why she started bodybuilding.
Note: Click on the link above to watch an amazing three-minute video with this inspiring
grandmother.

Looking For 10% Yields? Go Online For Peer To Peer Lending

2012-06-06, Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2012/06/06/looking-for-10-yields-go-on...
Today a tidal wave of aging boomers want income, but traditional sources are lacking. But theres
[a] source of high yield that relatively few consider. Peer-to-peer lending, or making personal loans
via the Internet using websites like LendingClub.com and Prosper.com. After six years of
experience and some bumps, including a financial crisis and ensuing recession, peer-topeer (P2P) lending has finally earned its place on an income investors menu. The basic
premise of these bank disintermediaries is that they harness the networking power of the Web to
match people who have excess cash with people in need of it or those who simply want to
refinance credit card debt. The key to its success has been how the sites have managed the
inherent riskiness of unsecured personal loans. Believe it or not, it is now possible to earn
yields of 6% or more, making relatively safe loans to complete strangers. San Franciscos

Lending Club is the largest P2P lender, followed by its crosstown rival Prosper. Lending Club and
Prosper have loaned a total of more than $1 billion since inception, in 112,000 loans. Lending Club
currently issues about $45 million in loans a month versus Prospers $13 million per month. Of
course defaults happen. Lending Clubs top-rated three-year loans expect a default rate of around
1.4%, and the riskiest loans, offering rates as high as 25%, have a 9.8% default rate.
Note: A 1.4 default rate is much lower than that of the average bank. For those who want to
borrow or loan money free of the banks with excellent rates, check out www.lendingclub.com and
www.prosper.com.

Tea Party and Occupy activists rub shoulders at Bilderberg protest

2012-06-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/bilderberg-virginia-tea-party-occupy
A protest targeting a secretive meeting of powerful international leaders entered a third day
Saturday, with numbers swelling well into the hundreds ... gathered outside the Westfield Marriott
hotel in Chantilly, Virginia where members of the Bilderberg group are meeting. Scores of
protesters gathered at the entrance of the hotel, launching into a chorus of jeers each time a
vehicle suspected of carrying Bilderberg attendees entered or exited the property. Protesters view
the annual off-the-record Bilderberg meeting - which draws dozens of influential figures in
finance, national security and politics with suspicion. Some go as far as to suggest that
those invited plan the establishment of an oppressive "new world order". The protest
marked the gathering of a diverse cross-section of contemporary US activist movements.
Chris McCarron stood outside the fence surrounding the Marriott with a 99% flag, an overt nod to
the Occupy movement. For McCarron, who participated in Occupy protests in Colorado, the
motivation for attending the rally was simple: "A shadowy group of rich people gathering together,
making their plans for the world; I'm not going to sit on my ass and let them do it. They're gonna
hear my voice." [He] hoped the movements could find common ground and come together. "It was
funny, earlier today me and a Tea Party guy, we threw our arms over each other like 'Hey, here we
are, we're working together on this." "We're all kind of protesting the same thing, just different
segments of it," he said. "Whenever we can we should get together."
Note: For lots more on secret societies from reliable sources, click here.

The crime of punishment at Pelican Bay State Prison

2012-05-31, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/30/EDO81OPJ9O.DTL
For the past 16 years, I have spent at least 22 1/2 hours of every day completely isolated within a
tiny, windowless cell in the Security Housing Unit at California's Pelican Bay State Prison in
Crescent City. Eighteen years ago, I committed the crime that brought me here: burgling an
unoccupied dwelling. Under the state's "three strikes" law, I was sentenced to between 25 years

and life in prison. The circumstances of my case are not unique; in fact, about a third of Pelican
Bay's 3,400 prisoners are in solitary confinement; more than 500 have been there for 10 years,
including 78 who have been here for more than 20 years. Unless you have lived it, you cannot
imagine what it feels like to be by yourself, between four cold walls, with little concept of time, no
one to confide in, and only a pillow for comfort - for years on end. It is a living tomb. I eat alone and
exercise alone in a small, dank, cement enclosure known as the "dog-pen."I have not been
allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995. I have developed severe insomnia,
I suffer frequent headaches, and I feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically
tortured. Now fellow SHU inmates and I have joined together with the Center for Constitutional
Rights in a federal lawsuit that challenges this treatment as unconstitutional. I understand I broke
the law, and I have lost liberties because of that. But no one, no matter what they've done,
should be denied fundamental human rights, especially when that denial comes in the form
of such torture. Our Constitution protects everyone living under it; fundamental rights must
not be left at the prison door.
Note: For more on the unbridled cruelty and corruption of the prison-industrial complex, click here.

Chevron-Ecuador Fight Comes to Canada

2012-05-31, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-31/chevron-ecuador-fight-comes-t...
A peripatetic, two-decade-old pollution lawsuit against Chevron has bounced from New York to
Ecuador, back to New York, and now on to the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, Canada. There
is no end in sight for the highly mobile litigation. The case began in federal court in New York in
1993, when lawyers representing residents of the rainforest in eastern Ecuador filed suit against
Texaco, blaming the multinational oil company for contamination of the Amazon beginning in the
late 1960s. Texaco fought for nine years to get the case dismissed based on the argument that it
ought to have been brought in Ecuador. In 2001, near the end of Texacos ultimately successful
campaign to avoid a U.S. legal battle, Chevron acquired Texaco. Having promised the U.S.
judiciary it would abide by the dictates of the Ecuadorian courts, Chevron discovered itself
on a slippery slope toward legal disaster. In February 2011, a trial judge in Lago Agrio
[Ecuador] entered an $18 billion verdict against Chevron, the largest environmental judgment
ever. Chevron had declared that the Ecuadorian judicial proceedings were shot through with fraud
and that it would not pay a dime to the plaintiffs or their team of American and Ecuadorian lawyers.
Now the plaintiffs have launched a fresh suit in Toronto, asking a Canadian judge to enforce the
Ecuadorian verdict against Chevron in Canada, where the company has a subsidiary and ample
assets.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate corruption, click here.

Rothschild and Rockefeller families team up for some extra wealth

creation

2012-05-30, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9300784/Roths...
The Rothschild and Rockefeller families have teamed up to buy assets from banks and other
distressed sellers in a union between two of the best-known names in financial history. RIT Capital
Partners, which is chaired by Lord Rothschild, has taken a 37pc stake in Rockefeller Financial
Services, the familys wealth advisory and asset management wing. It has snapped up the holding
from French bank Socit Gnrale for less than 100m. The transatlantic alliance cements a
five-decade acquaintance between the now ennobled Jacob Rothschild, 76, and David
Rockefeller, 96, the grandson of the ruthlessly acquisitive American oilman and
philanthropist John D Rockefeller. The two patricians now plan to capitalise on their family
names to buy other asset managers or their portfolios, using their networks of top-notch contacts
to ensure they get a seat at the table for any deal. The Rockefeller group goes back to 1882, set
up to invest the family money made by John D Rockefellers Standard Oil, the forerunner for
todays Exxon Corporation, which he built with a Darwinian aggression. Do you know the only
thing that gives me pleasure? Its to see my dividends coming in, he once said. The Rothschild
banking dynasty has its roots in the 18th century when Mayer Amschel Rothschild set up a
business in Frankfurt. That sprang to fame in 1815 when it bought government bonds in
anticipation of Napoleons defeat at Waterloo.
Note: Why is that these two hugely wealthy families get so little press coverage? Could it be that
their wealth and influence exerts control over the major media? For more on secret societies which
command huge hidden power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Secret Kill List Proves a Test of Obamas Principles and Will

2012-05-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda....
Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret "nominations" process to designate
terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. Mr. Obama ...
insisted on approving every new name on an expanding "kill list," poring over terrorist suspects'
biographies. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises -- but his family is
with him -- it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation. In interviews
with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama's
evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally
overseeing the shadow war. They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative dealmaking required to close the detention facility at Guantnamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal
action without hand-wringing. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is
usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign ... even when it comes to killing an
American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was "an easy one."
Beside the president at every step is his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, who is
variously compared by colleagues to a dogged police detective, tracking terrorists from his

cavelike office in the White House basement, or a priest whose blessing has become
indispensable to Mr. Obama, echoing the president's attempt to apply the "just war" theories of
Christian philosophers to a brutal modern conflict.
Note: For further analysis of Obamas role in the selection of drone missile targets, click here.

America's murderous drone campaign is fuelling terror

2012-05-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/29/americas-drone-campaign-t...
From Pakistan to Somalia, CIA-controlled pilotless aircraft rain down Hellfire missiles on an everexpanding hit list of terrorist suspects they have already killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
civilians in the process. At least 15 drone strikes have been launched in Yemen this month, as
many as in the whole of the past decade, killing dozens; while in Pakistan, a string of US attacks
has been launched against supposed "militant" targets in the past week, incinerating up to 35
people and hitting a mosque and a bakery. But then Predators and Reapers are Barack Obama's
weapons of choice and coercion, deployed only on the territory of troublesome US allies, such as
Pakistan and Yemen and the drone war is Obama's war. In his first two years in office, the US
president more than tripled the number of attacks in Pakistan alone. Since 2004, between 2,464
and 3,145 people are reported to have been killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan, of whom up to
828 were civilians (535 under Obama) and 175 children. Some Pakistani estimates put the civilian
death toll much higher plausibly, given the tendency to claim as "militants" victims later
demonstrated to be nothing of the sort. The US president insisted recently that the civilian
death toll was not a "huge number". These killings are, in reality, summary executions and
widely regarded as potential war crimes by international lawyers. The CIA's now retired
counsel, John Rizzo, who authorised drone attacks, himself talked about having been
involved in "murder".
Note: For a deep analysis of how killer drone technology and the concept of remote war have
altered the balance of options available to our political and military leaders and made the political
cost of military intervention much lower than it had previously been, click here.

Legion of Christ leader knew priest fathered child

2012-05-23, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/22/MNC71OLU9T.DTL
The Legion of Christ religious order, already discredited for concealing the crimes of its pedophile
founder, suffered another blow to its credibility Tuesday after its superior admitted he knew in 2005
that his most prominent priest had fathered a child, yet allowed him to keep teaching and
preaching about morality. The admission by the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera is likely to enrage members
of the Legion and its lay branch who have endured years of apologies, hypocrisy and explanations
for the crimes of the Catholic order's founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused his

seminarians and fathered three children with two women. The Rev. Thomas Williams, the public
face of the Legion in America, admitted last week that he had violated his vow of celibacy and
fathered a child several years ago, going public with a statement after the Associated Press
presented the Legion with the accusation. On Tuesday, Corcuera wrote a letter to all Legion
members admitting that he had heard rumors of the child before he became superior in 2005 but
took Williams' word that they were false. Williams is a well-known U.S. television personality,
author and moral theologian. Corcuera said that after becoming superior in 2005, he
confirmed Williams' paternity and asked him to withdraw from public ministry. Yet he did
nothing to prevent him from teaching morality to seminarians or preaching about ethics on
television, in his many speaking engagements or in his 14 books, including Knowing Right
From Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on sexual abuse scandals within elite
institutions like churches and governments, click here. And for a shocking Discovery Channel
documentary showing that sophisticated child abuse rings lead to the very highest levels of
government, click here.

Emanuela Orlandi 'was kidnapped for sex parties for Vatican police'
2012-05-22, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/928340...
A teenage girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped
for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic
Church's leading exorcist has claimed. The tomb of a mafia don buried in a basilica in Rome is to
be opened in an attempt to solve a mystery that has dogged the Vatican for three decades.
Emanuela Orlandi, who was 15 at the time of her disappearance, was the daughter of a Vatican
employee. Father Gabriele Amorth, who was appointed by the late John Paul II as the Vatican's
chief exorcist and claims to have performed thousands of exorcisms, said Emanuela Orlandi was
later murdered and her body disposed of. In the latest twist in one of the Holy See's most enduring
mysteries, he said the 15-year-old schoolgirl was snatched from the streets of central Rome
in the summer of 1983 and forced to take part in sex parties. "This was a crime with a
sexual motive. Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the 'recruiter' of
the girls. "The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy
See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle," Father Amorth, the honorary president of
the International Association of Exorcists, told La Stampa newspaper.
Note: Though Father Amorth is a controversial figure, these claims most certainly deserve to be
investigated. For deeply revealing reports from reliable sources on sexual abuse scandals within
elite institutions like the Vatican and governments, click here. And for a shocking Discovery
Channel documentary showing that sophisticated child abuse rings lead to the very highest levels
of government, click here.

Where Shoes Listen and Coins Kill

2012-05-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/arts/design/spy-secret-world-of-espionage-a...
In 1953 ... the Central Intelligence Agency began a top-secret program called MK Ultra. It included
exotic projects that decades later provided much critical fodder for commentators and comedians:
exploding cigars, poison-laced toothpaste, hallucinogenic serums. And as [revealed] in a video
interview with professional spies at the exhibition "Spy: The Secret World of Espionage," ... at
Discovery Times Square, it even included the hiring of a magician, John Mulholland, as a C.I.A.
consultant. Drawn from the immense private collection of the intelligence historian H. Keith Melton,
and the collections of the C.I.A., the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National
Reconnaissance Office, are objects ranging from a poisoned needle, hidden inside a coin, to
[a] well-preserved rat with a velcroed body cavity that was used by Americans in Moscow
for exchanges of information without agents' actually meeting. The rodent, treated with hot
pepper sauce to discourage scavenging cats, was easily tossed from a passing car for
these "dead drops." The gadgets here are full of concealments and misdirection; nothing is what
it seems. But the objects selected by Mr. Melton - whose collection of over 9,000 spy devices,
books and papers has also helped stock the International Spy Museum in Washington - are not
presented simply for sensation's sake. We end up glimpsing what these ordinary objects actually
accomplished and what was at stake when they were used. The show could have been stronger if
that context had been made clearer, but even with its gadget-centered focus, we learn that this
great bag of tricks was no mere game.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the games intelligence
agencies play, click here.

FBI Investigates Media Leaks in Yemen Bomb Plot

2012-05-16, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/fbi-investigates-media-leaks-in-...
FBI director Robert S. Mueller III today disclosed that the FBI is investigating leaks to the news
media about the recently disrupted plot by Al Qaedas Yemen affiliate to smuggle a bomb designed
to be concealed in underwear onto a U.S. bound jet. The plans for the attack, which featured a
more sophisticated version of the device the underwear bomber of Christmas 2009 was arrested
with, were first revealed by the AP. But a day later, it was revealed that the individual at the
center of the plot was a double agent working for Britains MI-6 secret intelligence service
and the CIA along with Saudi Arabian intelligence assets. We have initiated an
investigation into this leak, Mueller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday. Justice Department officials and an FBI spokesman declined to comment on the
nature of the investigation. The CIA also declined comment. Matthew Olsen, director of the
National Counterterrorism Center, addressed the issue of media leaks relating to the plot and
called it devastating.

Note: Yes, it's devastating to the image of the FBI to be caught aiding terrorist plots. Now why isn't
the government investigating why the FBI is doing such things? For lots more from reliable sources
on the games intelligence agencies play, click here.

The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death
2012-05-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death
Antonin Scalia, one of the nine justices on the US supreme court, made a bold statement. There
has not been, he said, "a single case not one in which it is clear that a person was executed for
a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred the innocent's name would be
shouted from the rooftops." It is now clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not
commit, and his name Carlos DeLuna is being shouted from the rooftops of the Columbia
Human Rights Law Review. Carlos DeLuna was arrested, aged 20, on 4 February 1983 for the
brutal murder of a young woman, Wanda Lopez. From the moment of his arrest until the day of his
death by lethal injection six years later, DeLuna consistently protested he was innocent. The
august journal has cleared its entire spring edition, doubling its normal size to 436 pages, to carry
an extraordinary investigation by a Columbia law school professor and his students. The book sets
out in precise and shocking detail how an innocent man was sent to his death on 8 December
1989, courtesy of the state of Texas. Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, is
based on six years of intensive detective work by Professor James Liebman and 12 students.
What they discovered stunned even Liebman, who, as an expert in America's use of capital
punishment, was well versed in its flaws. "It was a house of cards. We found that
everything that could go wrong did go wrong," he says.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the built-in injustices and corruption within the
prison-industrial complex, click here.

Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse

2012-05-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/ultra-orthodox-jews-shun-their-own...
The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son
was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis
complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested. Old friends started walking stonily
past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their
apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning
in a fellow Jew. By cooperating with the police, and speaking out about his sons abuse, Mr.
Jungreis, 38, found himself at the painful forefront of an issue roiling his insular Hasidic community.
There have been glimmers of change as a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, taking on
longstanding religious and cultural norms, have begun to report child sexual abuse accusations
against members of their own communities. But those who come forward often encounter intense

intimidation from their neighbors and from rabbinical authorities, aimed at pressuring them to drop
their cases. Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and
synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended
to destroy their businesses. Some victims families have been offered money, ostensibly to
help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims
advocates said.
Note: For key reports on sexual abuse from reliable sources, click here.

'Underwear bomber' was working for the CIA

2012-05-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/09/underwear-bomber-working-for-cia
A would-be "underwear bomber" involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as
an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged. The revelation is the
latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida
to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an
attacker. The news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in fact an informer for US
intelligence is likely to raise just as many questions as it answers. Citing US and Yemeni
officials, Associated Press reported that the unnamed informant was working under cover
for the Saudis and the CIA when he was given the bomb, which was of a new non-metallic
type aimed at getting past airport security. The informant then turned the device over to his
handlers and has left Yemen, the officials told the news agency.
Note: For more on this bizarre news, see the CBS report at this link. Isn't it amazing how many
terrorist groups have undercover FBI and CIA agents involved in actually pushing plots forward?
One has to wonder how far the plots would go without prompting by intelligence insiders. For a
powerful BBC documentary suggesting that terrorism is pushed and sold by politicians for a
deeper agenda, click here.

Rape victims say military labels them 'crazy'

2012-04-14, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/military-sexual-assaults-personality-dis...
Stephanie Schroeder joined the U.S. Marine Corps not long after 9/11. A year and a half later, the
Marines diagnosed her with a personality disorder and deemed her psychologically unfit for the
Corps. Anna Moore enlisted in the Army after 9/11 and planned to make a career of it. She was
diagnosed with a personality disorder and dismissed from the Army. Jenny McClendon was
serving as a sonar operator on a Navy destroyer when she received her personality disorder
diagnosis. These women joined different branches of the military but they share a common
experience: Each received the psychiatric diagnosis and military discharge after reporting a
sexual assault. CNN has interviewed women in all branches of the armed forces, including

the Coast Guard, who tell stories that follow a similar pattern -- a sexual assault, a
command dismissive of the allegations and a psychiatric discharge. Despite the Defense
Department's "zero tolerance" policy, there were 3,191 military sexual assaults reported in 2011.
Given that most sexual assaults are not reported, the Pentagon estimates the actual number was
probably closer to 19,000. Anu Bhagwati, a former company commander in the Marines and
executive director of Service Women's Action Network, a veterans advocacy group, says she sees
a pattern of the military using psychiatric diagnoses to get rid of women who report sexual
assaults. From 2001 to 2010, the military discharged more than 31,000 service members because
of personality disorder, according to documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act
request by the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on sexual abuse in institutional settings, click
here.

Can a hallucinogen from Africa cure addiction?

2012-04-13, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17666589
Since the 1960s a disparate group of scientists and former drug addicts have been advocating a
radical treatment for addiction - a hallucinogen called ibogaine, derived from an African plant, that
in some cases seems to obliterate withdrawal symptoms from heroin, cocaine and alcohol. So why
isn't it widely used? The drug, derived from the root of a central African plant called iboga, had
been used for centuries by the Bwiti people of Gabon and Cameroon, as part of a tribal initiation
ceremony. But it wasn't until 1962, when a young heroin addict called Howard Lotsof stumbled
upon ibogaine, that its value as an addiction treatment was uncovered. Lotsof took it to get high
but when the hallucinogenic effects wore off, he realised he no longer had the compulsion
to take heroin. He became convinced that he had found the solution to addiction and
dedicated much of his life to promoting ibogaine as a treatment. Ibogaine affects the brain in
two distinct ways. The first is metabolic. It creates a protein that blocks receptors in the brain that
trigger cravings, stopping the symptoms of withdrawal. With normal detox this process can take
months. Its second effect is much less understood. It seems to inspire a dream-like state that is
intensely introspective, allowing addicts to address issues in their life that they use alcohol or
drugs to suppress.
Note: For more news articles from reliable sources on mind-altering drugs, click here.

615 dead dolphins found on Peru beaches; acoustic tests for oil to
blame?
2012-04-04, MSNBC News
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/04/11016438-615-dead-dolphins-fo...

Conservationists counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches in Peru ... and the
leading suspect is acoustic testing offshore by oil companies. "If you can count 615 dead dolphins,
you can be sure there are a great many more out at sea and the total will reach into the
thousands, Hardy Jones, head of the conservation group BlueVoice.org, said in a statement after
he and an expert with ORCA Peru walked the beaches. BlueVoice.org stated that "initial tests ...
show evidence of acoustical impact from sonic blasts used in exploration for oil." The
ORCA Peru expert, veterinarian Carlos Yaipen Llanos, said that while "we have no definitive
evidence," he suspects acoustic testing created ... a sonic blast that led to internal bleeding, loss
of equilibrium and disorientation. Another possibility is that the dolphins suffered from a disease
outbreak, Yaipen Llanos said. "It is a horrifying thought that these dolphins would die in
agony over a prolonged period if they were impacted by sonic blast," said Jones. Numerous
dolphins first started washing ashore in January, with the largest amount coming in early February.
Thousands of dead anchovies were also seen. BlueVoice.org noted that the U.S. has suspended
similar testing in the Gulf of Mexico due to recent sightings of dead and sick dolphins. The ban was
set to last through the dolphins' calving season, which ends in May.
Note: A San Francisco Chronicle article on this a few days later states, "All of the 20 or so animals
... examined showed middle-ear hemorrhage and fracture of the ear's periotic bone. ... Most of the
dolphins apparently were alive when they beached." Clearly sonic blasts of some sort are driving
these intelligent animals to beach themselves and commit suicide. For clear evidence this is the
result of oil exploration, click here. For many other excellent media articles on whales on dolphins,
click here.

Geriatric gymnast impresses crowd at German competition

2012-03-30, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/gymnastics/9175746/Geriatric-gymnas...
Johanna Quaas performed an impressive parallel bar and floor demonstration after finals
concluded at Germany's Cottbus Challenger Cup. Displaying balance, strength and flexibility that
would be the envy of someone a quarter her age, Quaas's floor routine included a handstand
forward roll, cartwheel, backward roll and headstand while on the bars she performed a full
planche, holding her body taught and parallel to the ground. A multiple time senior champion of
artistic gymnastics in Germany, Quaas, from Halle in Saxony only took up gymnastics when
she was 30, putting paid to the belief that the sport is the preserve of the young.
Note: Don't miss the amazing video of this highly inspiring woman at the link above.

Tycoon arrests rock Hong Kong

2012-03-30, CNN International
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/30/business/hong-kong-tycoon-arrest-explainer

Brothers at the helm of a company that helped build Hong Kong's skyline and the man who
once was the city's number two official were arrested in an investigation of a bribery case
[that] has shocked the former British colony. Thomas Kwok, 60, and Raymond Kwok, 58, and their
families control Sun Hung Kai Properties, which built the city's three tallest skyscrapers. The
billionaires were taken into custody by the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption
[ICAC]. According to local media, the ICAC also arrested Rafael Hui, 64, who was Hong Kong's
Chief Secretary from 2005 to 2007, and a former advisor to Sun Hung Kai. In a city where property
is king, the sight of local royalty being taken into the ICAC headquarters riveted Hong Kong media,
and comes at a time where the city's reputation for transparency has been tainted by a number of
scandals. The Kwok brothers and their family are the 27th richest in the world, with an
estimated wealth of $18.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The family has controlling
interest of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the world's second largest property developer by market
capitalization.
Note: This is stunning news! The fact that two of the richest people in world were arrested is
unprecedented. Could this be a part of the prediction of David Wilcock and others coming true
about major arrests? To see a verifiable list of literally hundreds of high level resignations from
financial firms in the last few months, click here. A recent Fiscal Times article at this link also dives
further into this question.

CDC: U.S. kids with autism up 78% in past decade

2012-03-29, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/29/health/autism
The number of children with autism in the United States continues to rise, according to a new
report released ... by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest data estimate that
1 in 88 American children has some form of autism spectrum disorder. That's a 78% increase
compared to a decade ago, according to the report. In 2000 and 2002, the autism estimate was
about 1 in 150 children. Two years later 1 in 125 8-year-olds had autism. In 2006, the number
was 1 in 110, and the newest data -- from 2008 -- suggests 1 in 88 children have autism.
Boys with autism continue to outnumber girls 5-to-1, according to the CDC report. It estimates
that 1 in 54 boys in the United States have autism. A child or adult with an autistic spectrum
disorder might: --Repeat actions over and over --Not look at objects when another person points to
them --Avoid eye contact and want to be alone --Prefer not to be held or cuddled or might cuddle
only when they want to --Appear to be unaware when other people talk to them but respond to
other sounds.
Note: Children with autistic characteristics were extremely rare until just the last 50 years or so,
when vaccines first started. For dozens of major media articles showing a link between autism and
vaccines, click here. For an MSNBC article featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. showing a very strong
correlation between vaccines and autism, click here.

Vatican Leaks Raise Questions Over Finances

2012-03-29, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/29/149614995/vatican-leaks-raise-questions-over-fi...
The Vatican has launched a rare criminal investigation to uncover who is behind leaks of highly
sensitive documents that allege corruption and financial mismanagement in Vatican City. The
documents also shed light on purported infighting over the Vatican Bank's compliance with
international money-laundering regulations. A television show in late January on an independent
network first revealed letters addressed last year to Pope Benedict XVI from the then-deputy
governor of Vatican City, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. Vigano complained of corruption within
the church and protested orders to remove him from his post and send him to be the papal nuncio,
or ambassador, to Washington. Under Vigano's watch, the Holy See balance sheet went from $10
million in the red to almost $45 million in the black in just 12 months. By being kicked upstairs,
Vigano wrote, his efforts to clean up the Vatican would be stopped and would also tarnish the
pontiff's image by bringing into question his resolve to establish transparency inside the Vatican.
Italian authorities are investigating the origin of $33 million in Vatican funds deposited in
Italian banks. The Italian media have reported that JP Morgan Chase is closing the Vatican
Bank's account with its Milan branch because it felt the Holy See had failed to provide
sufficient data on money transfers.
Note: The fact that JP Morgan is closing it's Vatican accounts is a major sign of the intense
changes happening behind the scenes.

A Single Antibody to Treat Multiple Cancers?

2012-03-28, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/28/a-single-antibody-to-treat-multiple-can...
A single treatment to cure all cancers? Scientists may be one step closer. In a recent study,
scientists reported that they successfully tested an antibody treatment that shrank human
breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into mice. The
antibody blocks a protein called CD47, which normally sits on the cell surface and issues a dont
eat me signal that prevents the bodys immune system from attacking it. About a decade ago,
scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine, led by professor of pathology Irving
Weissman, discovered that using an antibody to block CD47 cured some cases of leukemia and
lymphoma in mice by allowing macrophages to seek and destroy the cancerous cells. In the new
study, Weissmans Stanford team showed that the CD47-blocking antibodies may also work
against a number of other cancers. The researchers found that CD47 existed on nearly every cell,
which suggests that the protein may be common to all cancers. Cancer cells expressed about
three times more CD47 than healthy cells. If the tumor was highly aggressive, the antibody also
blocked metastasis. Its becoming very clear that, in order for a cancer to survive in the body, it has
to find some way to evade the cells of the innate immune system, said Weissman in a statement.

The antibody treatment didnt work in all cases. Some mice injected with breast cancer cells from a
human patient showed no changes after treatment. Yet in five mice with breast cancer, the
antibody treatment cured them, with no signs of recurrence four months after treatment.
Note: With millions around the world dying of cancer every year, why aren't the most promising
treatments being fast tracked? Why did it take 10 years form Weissman to reach this stage? Why
isn't the very promising treatment of DCA, which is both cheap and incredibly promising, being
given many millions to move rapidly forward? To read major media articles describing other
potential cures not being adequately funded, click here. To understand why some treatments are
suppressed, click here.

Israel Loves Iran Campaign Gains Force

2012-03-23, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/israel-loves-iran-campaign-gain...
As diplomats and journalists dissect every word spoken by top Israeli, Iranian and American
officials for signs of a potential Israeli military strike on Irans nuclear program, an online campaign
to prevent just that has gained steam in Israel. The Israel Loves Iran campaign [was launched
last week by] Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir. For there to be a
war between us, we must first be afraid of one another, we must hate, Edry says. Im not
afraid of you. I dont hate you. I dont even know you. No Iranian ever did me harm. The site
and its accompanying Facebook page are filled with photos of Israelis from all walks of life and the
Iranians, We Love You slogan, with the subheader: We will never bomb you. On Friday
evening, the page had almost 28,000 likes, and the campaign has raised more than
$16,000 to print posters and keep the movement grow[ing]. Organizers say responses from
Iranians around the world have poured in. Unfortunately, the stupid politicians in both countries
are trying to separate these two rich cultures! wrote one responder. One of the more popular
posts ricocheting around Facebook is of a man and woman kissing, with him holding up his Israeli
passport as she flaunts her Iranian passport. Persian girls are sexy and adorable, the boyfriend
wrote. Our cultures and backgrounds have never got in the way. We actually share the same
ideals. According to a recent poll, [only] 19 percent of Israelis support a unilateral strike on Iran.
Participant Talia Gorodess [commented], the more people join this campaign, the more, I hope,
my government will think twice before doing anything foolish.
Note: To see the inspiring website of this campaign, click here. For the facebook page, click here.
For a highly inspiring two-minute video of the campaign, click here. For the beautiful response from
Iranians, click here. This is how we transform our world! To understand how the politicians and
military leaders manage to manipulate us into war after war, read what a highly decorated general
had to say at this link.

Pope's visit to Mexico refocuses attention on narco-church relations

2012-03-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/22/popes-visit-mexico-narco-church
Photographs of a plaque thanking [a drug cartel] kingpin for building [a] new modernist
church with a 20-metre high metal cross ... caused a scandal when they were published in a
national newspaper in October 2010. The scandal has faded but the plaque remains an
uncomfortable reminder of the influence of the drugs culture in the Mexican Catholic
church. Narco-church relations are nothing new. In 1993 the leaders of the Tijuana cartel held a
secret meeting with the papal nuncio in Mexico City as part of an effort to distance themselves
from a chaotic shootout that had killed a cardinal. The meeting was brokered by a Tijuana priest
who had received bountiful donations over the years. Pope Benedict [expressed] concern about
such relations at the start of his papacy. But while the bishops have since periodically stressed that
drug money can never be purified ... they have done little else. While the pope is expected to talk
about the violence battering Mexico during his three-day visit ... observers believe he is unlikely to
make more than a passing reference to corrosion of the church itself. In the meantime one cartel
has sought to take propagandistic advantage of the visit. Banners signed by the Knights Templar
cartel hung up around Guanajauto on Sunday welcomed the pope and promised to refrain from
"acts of war" during his visit. That same cartel was suspected to be responsible for the appearance
of 10 severed heads outside a slaughterhouse in another state on the same day.

Vatican bank image hurt as JP Morgan closes account

2012-03-19, CNBC/Reuters
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46784687/Vatican_bank_image_hurt_as_JP_Morgan_closes_a...
JP Morgan Chase is closing the Vatican bank's account with an Italian branch of the U.S. banking
giant because of concerns about a lack of transparency at the Holy See's financial institution,
Italian newspapers reported. The move is a blow to the Vatican's drive to have its bank included in
Europe's "white list" of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and
money-laundering. The bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), enacted
major reforms last year in an attempt to get Europe's seal of approval and put behind it scandals
that have included accusations of money laundering and fraud. The IOR, founded in 1942 by Pope
Pius XII, handles financial activities for the Vatican, for orders of priests and nuns, and for other
Roman Catholic religious institutions. The IOR was entangled in the collapse 30 years ago of
Banco Ambrosiano, with its lurid allegations about money-laundering, freemasons, mafiosi
and the mysterious death of Ambrosiano chairman Roberto Calvi - "God's banker". The IOR
then held a small stake in the Ambrosiano, at the time Italy's largest private bank and investigators
alleged that it was partly responsible for the Ambrosiano's fraudulent bankruptcy. Several
investigations have failed to determine whether Calvi, who was found hanging under Blackfriars
Bridge near London's financial district, killed himself or was murdered. The IOR denied any role in
the Ambrosiano collapse but paid $250 million to creditors in what it called a "goodwill gesture".
Note: The fact that JP Morgan is closing it's Vatican accounts is a major sign of the intense
changes happening behind the scenes.

Project Unbreakable: from victim to victor

2012-03-13, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/project-unbreakable-from-victim-to-victo...
Grace Brown was sick of hearing about sexual assault. Having spoken with so many survivors
over the years, she grew increasingly frustrated by her inability to help. Then, one night last
October, another friend confessed that she too had been abused and it turned out to be the final
straw. Brown went to bed determined to act and in the morning Project Unbreakable was born. The
project uses photography to help survivors of sexual assault take back the power of the words
used against them by their attacker/s and aid in the healing process. Participants write these
phrases on a piece of cardboard and Brown, a 19-year-old freshman at The School of Visual Arts
in New York City, takes their picture and uploads it on the project's website. Just as powerful are
the images she creates. Amassing a tremendous amount of followers from around the world in just
five short months, women and men as far as Australia, Europe and the Middle East have
submitted their own photos to the site. What's especially striking is the number of people willing to
show their faces, essentially outing themselves as survivors of sexual assault. "In the beginning
most people didn't show their faces. It wasn't until maybe a month in. People are getting braver
and it's been really amazing to watch it grow." Taking part in the project doesn't resolve the
problem but it enables the healing to begin. For some, knowing they're not alone or
confiding in someone can help kick-start the process and exposing the words used against
you can release the hold that they have.
Note: To see powerful photos from Project Unbreakable, click here and here. For the moving
website of Project Unbreakable, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference, click here.

MF Global Still Set to Pay Bonuses

2012-03-12, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203961204577269841477216320.html
Three top executives of MF Global Holdings Ltd. when it collapsed could get bonuses of as much
as several hundred thousand dollars each under a plan by a trustee overseeing the securities
firm's bankruptcy case. Louis Freeh, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director now in
charge of unwinding what is left of the New York company, is expected to ask a bankruptcy-court
judge as soon as this month to approve performance-related payouts for the chief operating officer,
finance chief and general counsel at MF Global. Under the expected pay plan, the three
executives and as many as 20 other MF Global employees working for Mr. Freeh would get the
bonuses only if they hit specified targets such as increasing the value of MF Global's estate for
creditors. The bonus plan could face fierce resistance. One reason: Criminal and civil
investigators are scrutinizing the role of top executives and others at MF Global in money
transfers that resulted in a $1.6 billion shortfall in customer accounts. So far, many hedge
funds, farmers and other investors who bought and sold through MF Global have gotten about 72
cents out of every $1 held by the firm when it collapsed. Hopes for additional recoveries have

dimmed as the probe grinds on. Neal Wolkoff, a former executive at the New York Mercantile
Exchange who now works as a consultant, said it "is shocking" that Messrs. Abelow and
Steenkamp still work at MF Global and could earn bonuses "because it represents a conflict of
interest."
Note: For an abundance of major media articles revealing major financial manipulations, click
here.

Mueller grilled on FBI's release of al-Awlaki in 2002

2012-03-08, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/07/mueller-grilled-on-fbis-release-al...
Several congressional committees want the FBI director to explain why one of his agents ordered
the release of Anwar al-Awlaki from federal custody on Oct. 10, 2002, when there was an
outstanding warrant for the American Muslim clerics arrest. The cleric was held by customs
agents at JFK International Airport in New York City in early morning of Oct. 10, 2002, until FBI
Agent Wade Ammerman ordered his release even though a warrant for the clerics arrest on
passport fraud was still active. The warrant was generated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in
San Diego, which considered the cleric a tier one target because of his connections to at least
three of the 9/11 hijackers. The passport fraud warrant was described ... as a holding charge that
would allow federal investigators to pressure al-Awlaki over his 9/11 contacts. The warrant was
pulled by a judge in Colorado, after the cleric entered the U.S.. After al-Awlaki re-entered the U.S.
in the fall of 2002 with the FBIs help, the cleric then appeared in a high-profile investigation, in
which Agent Ammerman was a lead investigator. Former FBI agents say Ammerman would have
needed permission from higher up in the bureau to let al-Awlaki go. Former FBI agents, familiar
with al-Awlakis re-entry in October 2002, say only two scenarios seem to explain what
happened. The FBI was tracking the cleric for intelligence or the FBI was working with the
cleric and saw him as a friendly contact.
Note: For further details of the FBI's release of al-Awlaki, click here. How interesting that "al-Awlaki
re-entered the U.S. in 2002 with the FBIs help." What may be happening is that individuals like alAwlaki are CIA assets programmed to be Manchurian Candidates using mind control techniques
perfected by intelligence agencies. They are then released to do what they've been programmed
to do to forward a hidden shadow-government agenda. Many terrorists and mass murderers may
actually be Manchurian Candidates programmed to engage in acts which keep the public in fear.
For more on this, click here.

Female service members sue U.S. military for alleged rape, sexual
assault
2012-03-07, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/06/us/military-sex-assaults-lawsuit/index.html

Eight current and former U.S. service members filed a lawsuit [on March 6] alleging they were
raped, sexually assaulted or harassed while serving in the military and were retaliated against
once they reported the abuse. Among the defendants named in the suit are current and former
Defense and Navy secretaries and Marine Corps commandants. "Although defendants testified
before Congress and elsewhere that they have 'zero tolerance' for rape and sexual assault,
their conduct and the facts demonstrate the opposite: They have a high tolerance for
sexual predators in their ranks, and 'zero tolerance' for those who report rape, sexual
assault and harassment," according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington.
The suit outlines a pattern of abuse and portrays, in grim detail, the alleged experiences of the
eight female service members -- two former Marine Corps officers, one active duty enlisted Marine,
one former enlisted member of the Marine Corps and four former enlisted members of the Navy.
"At first it was easy to laugh it off," plaintiff Elle Helmer, one of the former officers, said about her
superiors' advances. "When you finally said, you know, I'm really not interested, I'd rather we be
friends -- that's when you became the target. They hated you for standing up for yourself," she
[said]. The lawsuit alleges Helmer was raped by her superior at his office in March 2006 after a
required pub crawl.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on sexual abuse by the powerful, click here.

Dire Poverty Falls Despite Global Slump, Report Finds

2012-03-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/world/extreme-poverty-down-despite-recessio...
A World Bank report shows a broad-based reduction in extreme poverty - and indicates that the
global recession, contrary to economists' expectations, did not increase poverty in the developing
world. The report shows that for the first time the proportion of people living in extreme poverty - on
less than $1.25 a day - fell in every developing region between 2005 and 2008. And the biggest
recession since the Great Depression seems not to have thrown that trend off course, preliminary
data from 2010 indicate. The progress is so dramatic that the world has met the United Nations'
Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme poverty in half five years before its 2015 deadline.
That is contrary to the World Bank's own expectations. In a year-end 2008 report, the Washingtonbased development institution warned: "Unemployment is on the rise in industrial countries and
poverty is set to increase across low- and middle income countries, bringing with it a substantial
deterioration in conditions for the world's most vulnerable." But that did not happen. Surveys for
2010 show that the proportion of people in the developing world living in extreme poverty
fell. That is because of strong growth in countries like Brazil, India and especially China,
growth that helped buoy economies in Africa and South America.

Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France

2012-03-03, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/why-an-mri-costs-1080-in-am...

There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else:
The prices are higher. In 2009, Americans spent $7,960 per person on health care. Our neighbors
in Canada spent $4,808. The Germans spent $4,218. The French, $3,978. If we had the perperson costs of any of those countries, Americas deficits would vanish. There are many possible
explanations for why Americans pay so much more. It could be that were sicker. Or that we go to
the doctor more frequently. But health researchers have largely discarded these theories.
Americans dont see the doctor more often or stay longer in the hospital than residents of other
countries. Quite the opposite, actually. We spend less time in the hospital than Germans and see
the doctor less often than the Canadians. The International Federation of Health Plans ... surveyed
its members on the prices paid for 23 medical services and products in different countries, asking
after everything from a routine doctors visit to a dose of Lipitor to coronary bypass surgery. And in
22 of 23 cases, Americans are paying higher prices than residents of other developed
countries. Usually, were paying quite a bit more. In America, ... its a free-for-all. Providers
largely charge what they can get away with, often offering different prices to different
insurers, and an even higher price to the uninsured.
Note: And why are the prices higher in the U.S.? Could it be that the U.S. is the only developed
nation that doesn't have nationalized health care, so that profit is no longer a motive in caring for
people's health? For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption in
the medical industry, click here.

Japan Leader Points to Disaster Response Failures

2012-03-03, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/japan-leader-points-disaster-respons...
Japan's prime minister acknowledged Saturday the government failed in its response to
last year's earthquake and tsunami, being too slow in relaying key information and
believing too much in "a myth of safety" about nuclear power. "We can no longer make the
excuse that what was unpredictable and outside our imagination has happened," Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda said. "Crisis management requires us to imagine what may be outside our
imagination." Noda was speaking to reporters at his official residence ahead of the anniversary of
the March 11 disaster that killed nearly 20,000 people in northeastern Japan and set off the worst
nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. The phrase "soteigai," or "outside our imagination," was used
repeatedly by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran the plant, as the reason why it was not
prepared for the giant tsunami that hit after the magnitude-9.0 quake. Although some scholars had
warned about such tsunami risks, both the utility and regulators did little and kept backup
generators in basements where they could be flooded. Japan has also drawn criticism as having
been slow with information about the meltdowns and about radiation leaks into the air and the
ocean. "We can say in hindsight that the government, business and scholars had all been seeped
in a myth of safety," Noda said of the oversights in the accident. "The responsibility must be
shared."

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the corruption in the nuclear power industry, click
here.

Saudi Arabia May Be Tied to 9/11, 2 Ex-Senators Say

2012-03-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/us/graham-and-kerrey-see-possible-saudi-9-1...
For more than a decade, questions have lingered about the possible role of the Saudi government
in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, even as the royal kingdom has made itself a crucial
counterterrorism partner in the eyes of American diplomats. Now, in sworn statements that seem
likely to reignite the debate, two former senators who were privy to top secret information on the
Saudis' activities say they believe that the Saudi government might have played a direct role in the
terrorist attacks. "I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the
terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,"
former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, said in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit
brought against the Saudi government and dozens of institutions in the country by families of Sept.
11 victims and others. Mr. Graham led a joint 2002 Congressional inquiry into the attacks. His
former Senate colleague, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a Democrat who served on the separate 9/11
Commission, said in a sworn affidavit of his own in the case that "significant questions remain
unanswered" about the role of Saudi institutions. "Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of
possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued,"
Mr. Kerrey said. Their affidavits ... are part of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that has wound its way
through federal courts since 2002.
Note: Much evidence exists implicating not only Saudi Arabia, but also Pakistan, Israel and the UK
in the 9/11 attacks. Could the purpose behind these high-profile claims from former US senators
be to create a "limited hangout" to deflect attention from the real perpetrators, traitors in high
positions within the US government? As WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin has
exhaustively demonstrated, almost all of the evidence for "Islamic hijackers" vanishes on close
examination. For more serious questions on 9/11, click here.

Ritual abuse of children: a hidden and under-reported crime

2012-03-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/01/witchcraft-ritual-abuse-hidden-crime
In the past 10 years police in greater London have investigated 83 incidents of child abuse
and torture linked to witchcraft and other religious rituals. Of these children, four ... were
murdered during ritualised violence. One police source said more cases of this kind were coming
to light either because the problem was increasing or because the light shone on the issue had
led to increased reporting of incidents. The horrific cases of child abuse are often familial and often
emerge from within the African diaspora. While most of the child killings have led to perpetrators
being brought to justice, others remain mysteries. Ritualised abuse involves witchcraft-style

exorcisms within many different cultures, including Caribbean, Congolese and Asian
communities, according to the Met. The police set up Project Violet seven years ago to target the
problem and work with other agencies to raise awareness of children at risk. "We know this is an
under-reported crime, we know this is a hidden crime," said Det Supt Terry Sharpe, head of
Scotland Yard's child abuse investigation command. "That is why Project Violet is working with
communities to try to raise the awareness within the community and among professionals so
people can see the danger signs."
Note: Sadly very few people are willing to look into these very dark shadows. If you are one of the
few, please don't miss the most important documentary on this available here. For lots more
powerful information from one who escaped from a powerful cult involved in ritual abuse, click
here.

Cop-cadet sex case has precedents

2012-03-01, Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Associated Press
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/AP-ENTERPRISE-Cop-cadet-sex-case-has-pr...
When an on-duty police officer was shot and killed by a colleague a month ago, residents of [Santa
Maria, CA, an] agricultural community north of Santa Barbara were horrified. Outrage grew when
they learned the shooting occurred as fellow officers tried to arrest the policeman on suspicion he
was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in the city's "Police Explorers" program. But
inappropriate relationships between officers and youths in the junior police program aren't all that
rare. No organization keeps statistics but an Associated Press examination of news accounts
during the 21 years since the Explorers was spun off from the Boy Scouts of America found
at least 97 cases involving officers accused of sexual assault on minor girls, and
sometimes boys, in the program. And that's likely a fraction of all such incidents, said Samuel
Walker, a University of Nebraska-Omaha criminal justice professor and expert on police
misconduct and accountability. Most relationships never become public because a youth is unlikely
to report it and even if fellow officers are aware, they're reluctant to do anything. "More often than
not other officers know that something wrong is going on and they don't report it," Walker said.
"Police departments are like villages: everybody gossips and everybody knows." The Explorer
program is run by Learning for Life, a subsidiary of Boy Scouts of America.
Note: When a Chilean friend of this website's founder was facing a serious traffic ticket which
could have gotten her kicked out of the country, the police officer offered to let her go if she would
have sex with him later. She accepted but then managed to escape. She never reported the
incident. This type of sexual abuse by authorities is likely much more common than most people
would imagine. For more powerful evidence of this, click here and here.

Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story

2012-02-28, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-28/icelandic-anger-brings-debt-forgi...

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer
for the countrys economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger. Since the
end of 2008, the islands banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic
product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report
published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. You could safely say that
Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief, said Lars Christensen, chief
emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. Iceland followed the textbook
example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that. Most polls now show
Icelanders dont want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year. The
islands households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks,
which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home
values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign
currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.
Note: The amazing story of the Icelandic people demanding bank reform is one of the most
underreported stories in recent years. Why isn't this all over the news? To see what top journalists
say about news censorship, click here. For blatant manipulations of the big banks reported in the
major media, click here.

Almost year after tsunami, Fukushima nuclear plant in shambles,

running on makeshift equipment
2012-02-28, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/investigation-finds-japan-wi...
Japans tsunami-hit Fukushima power plant remains fragile nearly a year after it suffered multiple
meltdowns, its chief said [on February 28], with makeshift equipment some mended with tape
keeping crucial systems running. An independent report, meanwhile, revealed that the
government downplayed the full danger in the days after the March 11 disaster and secretly
considered evacuating Tokyo. Journalists given a tour of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant on Tuesday
... saw crumpled trucks and equipment still lying on the ground. A power pylon that collapsed in the
tsunami, cutting electricity to the plants vital cooling system and setting off the crisis, remained a
mangled mess. The equipment that serves as the lifeline of the cooling system is shockingly
feeble-looking. Plastic hoses cracked by freezing temperatures have been mended with
tape. A set of three pumps sits on the back of a pickup truck. Along with the pumps, the
plant now has 1,000 tanks to store more than 160,000 tons of contaminated water. The Unit 3
reactor, whose roof was blown off by a hydrogen explosion, resembles an ashtray filled with a
heap of cigarette butts. Officials say radiation hot spots remain inside the plant and minimizing
exposure to them is a challenge.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the corruption in the nuclear power industry, click
here.

Lawyers: Bevilacqua ordered memo on priests to be shredded

2012-02-24, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia's leading newspaper)
http://articles.philly.com/2012-02-24/news/31095897_1_church-lawyers-priests-...
Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35
Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new
court filing. The order, outlined in a handwritten note locked away for years at the archdiocese's
Center City offices, was disclosed Friday by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church
administrator facing trial next month. They say the shredding directive proves what Lynn has
long claimed: that a church conspiracy to conceal clergy sex abuse was orchestrated at
levels far above him. The cardinal died Jan. 31. The revelation is likely to further cloud
Bevilacqua's complicated legacy in the handling of clergy sex abuse and could shape what
happens at the historic trial, the first for a cleric accused of covering up sex abuse. Prosecutors
say that Lynn, as the secretary for clergy, recommended priests for assignments despite knowing
or suspecting that they would sexually abuse children. Facing trial with him are two former parish
priests accused of molesting a boy in the 1990s, the Rev. James J. Brennan and Edward Avery.
Lynn's lawyers argue that the new documents show he was one of the few church officials trying to
confront the issue of abuse. After becoming secretary for clergy in 1992, they say, Lynn began
combing the secret personnel files of hundreds of priests to gauge the scope of
misconduct involving children. The result was his February 1994 memo that identified 35
priests suspected of abuse or pedophilia.
Note: For lots more on sexual abuse scandals from reliable sources, click here.

Leaked Vatican documents cloud cardinal ceremony

2012-02-17, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57380254/leaked-vatican-documents-cloud-c...
A scandal over leaked Vatican documents and reports of political infighting, financial
mismanagement and administrative chaos in its frescoed halls have cast a cloud over this
weekend's ceremony to create 22 new cardinals. Reports abound in the Italian media of cardinals
and their supporters jockeying for prominence ahead of a future papal election, and of a Vatican
bureaucracy in disarray as [84-year-old Pope] Benedict focuses his waning strength on other
matters. The Vatican spokesman has been doing serious damage control of late amid
reports and leaked documents alleging corruption in the running of the Vatican city state
and money laundering at the Vatican bank. The scandal began last month with the
publication of letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator, who begged the pope not to
be transferred after he exposed millions of euros in cost overruns in the Vatican administration. He
was then removed and named the Vatican's U.S. ambassador in Washington. Subsequent news
reports focused on four priests under investigation for allegedly using Vatican bank accounts to
launder cash. The pope's top banker, meanwhile, remains under investigation for allegedly
breaking Italy's anti-money laundering law by trying to transfer cash from two Vatican bank
accounts without identifying the sender or the recipient.

Note: For other revealing news articles on major child abuse scandals in the Catholic church, click
here.

Arrests made in Italy after discovery of $6 trillion in fake U.S. bonds

2012-02-17, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/world/europe/italy-counterfeit-bonds/index....
Italian authorities on [February 17] arrested eight people in possession of an estimated $6 trillion in
counterfeit U.S. Treasury bonds, according to Italian paramilitary police and an Italian news
agency. The discovery of the fake bonds -- made to look as if they were printed by the U.S.
Federal Reserve in 1934 -- came about as part of an investigation into a local mafia association.
The arrest order for the alleged criminals was issued by a preliminary investigative judge in
the southern Italian city of Potenza, police noted. Italian authorities, working with their
Swiss counterparts, learned about the counterfeit bonds by way of eavesdropping on
wiretapped phones, police said. The total of $6 trillion is more than twice the Italy's national debt.
The Italian news agency, ANSA, reported that the bonds were also discovered "alongside copies
of the Treaty of Versailles rolled inside lead cylinders."
Note: Who would be stupid enough to fake bonds in denominations of hundreds of billions of
dollars? This is highly unlikely, as no one would ever cash them, unless there is much more to this
than meets the eye. Could this be part of the arrests David Wilcock has been predicting in his
powerful essay at this link? Wilcock has lots of corroborated information on these very strange
bonds worth astronomical figures.

Butterball Workers Arrested on Animal Cruelty Charges

2012-02-16, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/butterball-workers-arrested-animal-cruelty-char...
Six workers at a Butterball turkey farm in North Carolina face criminal charges after an undercover
video revealed alleged animal abuse, and a state employee who tipped off Butterball before a
police raid on the farm has pled guilty to obstruction of justice. Butterball ... accounts for 20
percent of total turkey production in the U.S.. Mercy for Animals [is] the animal rights group that
shot the undercover video. "Unfortunately, every time we send an investigator they emerge with
shocking evidence of animal abuse," said MFA executive director Nathan Runkle. "Before ending
up in restaurants and grocery stores, turkeys killed for Butterball are routinely crowded into
filthy warehouses, neglected to die from infected, bloody wounds, and thrown, kicked, and
beaten by factory farm workers." In addition, Dr. Sarah Mason, a veterinarian at the North
Carolina Department of Agriculture, was suspended from her job ... and was sentenced to 45 days
in the Hoke County jail after pleading guilty to obstructing justice and obstructing a public officer.
Mason admitted calling a friend who worked at Butterball prior to the raid. Though she initially
denied talking to the Butterball employee, Dr. Mason later admitted telling him about the existence
of the Mercy for Animals video showing alleged abuse. In the video, workers can be seen kicking

and stomping on turkeys, as well as dragging them by their wings and necks. The video also
shows injured birds with open wounds and exposed flesh. Butterball ... has said it was "shocked"
by the undercover video, is taking the animal cruelty investigation seriously.
Note: For two excellent and fun short videos showing both the problem and solutions for cruel
factory farming, click here and here. For lots more little-known, excellent information to promote
your health, click here.

The Boy Who Played With Fusion

2012-02-14, Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/boy-who-played-fusion?page=all
Taylor Wilson always dreamed of creating a star. Now he [has] become one. For the past three
years, Taylor has dominated the international science fair, walking away with nine awards ... and
more than $100,000 in prizes. At 14, [he was] the youngest individual on Earth to achieve
nuclear fusion. [He attends] Davidson Academy ... a subsidized public school for the nations
smartest and most motivated students. When he began at Davidson, he found the two advocates
he needed ... to build a fusion reactor. Atomic physicist Ronald Phaneuf ... introduced him to
technician Bill Brinsmead. With Brinsmead and Phaneufs help, Taylor stretched himself, applying
knowledge from more than 20 technical fields. Shortly after his 14th birthday, Taylor and
Brinsmead loaded deuterium fuel into the machine [Taylor had created], brought up the power, and
confirmed the presence of neutrons. With that, Taylor became the 32nd individual on the planet to
achieve a nuclear-fusion reaction. When I meet Taylor Wilson, he is 16 and busy. Taylors reactor
... dominates the far corner of Phaneufs lab. Peering through the small window into the reaction
chamber, I can see the golf-ball-size grid of tungsten fingers that will cradle the plasma. Taylor
nudges the power up to 50,000 volts, bringing the temperature of the plasma inside the core to an
incomprehensible 580 million degrees. There it is, Taylor says, his eyes locked on the
machine. The birth of a star.
Note: The full article about this amazing genius will boggle your mind. Could Taylor be one of the
many indigo children talked about in the New York Times article available at this link?

Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and
politics
2012-02-11, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rothschild-loses-libel-case-an...
Nathaniel Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty and friend of seemingly everyone in the
spheres of finance, business and politics, ... has lost his libel case against the Daily Mail, which he
sued for "substantial damages" over its account of his and [Lord] Mandelson's extraordinary trip to
Russia in January 2005. Mr Rothschild claimed he was subjected to "sustained and unjustified"
attacks in the May 2010 article, which portrayed him as a "puppet master", dangling his friend Lord

Mandelson in front of the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to ease the passage of colossal
business deals. It began on Mr Rothschild's private jet from the World Economic Forum in Davos
to Moscow, where they met Mr Deripaska, the aluminium plant manager who became the richest
oligarch of them all, and continued on Mr Deripaska's private jet to his chalet in Siberia. The judge
rejected the notion that Mr Rothschild and Mr Mandelson had flown out as friends, not business
associates, and said Mr Rothschild's behaviour had in part been "inappropriate". "That conduct
foreseeably brought Lord Mandelson's public office and personal integrity into disrepute," the judge
said. That leading politicians, bankers and businessmen associate with each other in
fashions that blur the boundaries between work and pleasure is a secret too great to be
maintained with any success, but it doesn't make the details, on the rare occasions they
actually emerge, any more palatable.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click here
and here.

White Coats, White Lies: How Honest Is Your Doctor?

2012-02-09, Time Magazine
http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/09/white-coats-white-lies-how-honest-is-yo...
Is your doctor telling you the truth? Possibly not, according to a new survey in Health Affairs of
nearly 1,900 physicians around the country. The researchers found that 55% of doctors said that in
the last year they had been more positive about a patients prognosis than his medical history
warranted. And 10% said they had told patients something that wasnt true. About a third of the
MDs said they did not completely agree that they should disclose medical errors to
patients, and 40% said they didnt feel the need to disclose financial ties to drug or device
companies. Nearly 20% of the doctors admitted that they didnt disclose a medical error to
their patients because they were afraid of being sued for malpractice. Doctors fear of
malpractice suits may often be misplaced. Studies suggest that in cases where physicians are
open about their mistakes, patients are more likely to be understanding and refrain from suing. So
how can doctors learn to be more honest with their patients? More training about how to
communicate with people about their health is critical especially when it comes to delivering bad
news. Patients also need to be clear and firm about how honest they want their doctors to be.
Communication is a two-way street, after all, even in the doctors office.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

88 million out of work and not looking for a job

2012-02-09, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/08/BUIQ1N3RH8.DTL

88 million. That's how many working-age Americans don't have a job and aren't trying to find one.
The increase in people dropping out of the labor market altogether skews the otherwise-positive
unemployment numbers released last week. While the jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent in
January - a three-year low - it doesn't [take into account] this army of nonworking
Americans. The percentage of people participating in the labor market dropped to 63.7
percent last month, the lowest level since May 1983.
Note: This one small article reveals an astounding statistic the media and government are all but
ignoring. The actual rate of jobless Americans is well over 30%. The U.S. government definition of
unemployed covers only those who "do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4
weeks, and are currently available for work."

NASA satellites reveal colossal ice melt, greenhouse gasses blamed

2012-02-08, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0208/NASA-satellites-reveal-colossal-ic...
Data collected for the years 2003 through 2010 indicate that melting ice raised sea levels
worldwide by an average of 1.48 millimeters (0.06 inches) each year. The loss of ice from
Greenland and Antarctica has already been measured using satellite data, but the new analysis
revealed that melting ice elsewhere accounted for about 0.41 mm (0.016 inches) of the annual
rise. Until now, satellite measurements from only selected places were used to extrapolate the
overall ice loss outside Greenland and Antarctica. The new data confirmed that most of the melting
happened on ice-covered Greenland and Antarctica. GRACE consists of two satellites that travel
around the Earth together, picking up on changes in the Earth's gravitational field, which are linked
to changes in mass. The researchers devised a way to separate out the changes in mass for icecovered regions around the globe. Their results yielded two surprises: The melt rate for
glaciers and ice caps outside Antarctica and Greenland made a smaller contribution to sealevel rise than had been estimated, and the melt rate in the Asian mountains, including the
Himalayas, was dramatically lower: 4 billion tons annually versus up to 50 billion. "The Earth
is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us
answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet's cold regions are
responding to global change," [said] study researcher John Wahr.
Note: If the rates above are correct and glacial melt continues at the same rate, in 100 years sea
levels will have risen a total of 148 millimeters or about six inches. So even though massive
amounts of glacial water are being added to the oceans, the overall sea level rise continues to be
quite slow.

In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower

2012-02-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/army-colonel-challenges-pentagon...

Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis ... returned [from Afghanistan] in October of last year with a fervent
conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not
leveled with the American public. Late last month, Colonel Davis, 48, began an unusual
one-man campaign of military truth-telling. He wrote two reports, one unclassified and the other
classified, summarizing his observations on the candor gap with respect to Afghanistan. He briefed
four members of Congress and a dozen staff members, spoke with a reporter for The New York
Times, sent his reports to the Defense Departments inspector general and only then informed
his chain of command that he had done so. How many more men must die in support of a mission
that is not succeeding? Colonel Davis asks in an article summarizing his views titled "Truth, Lies
and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down." Colonel Davis says his experience
has caused him to doubt reports of progress in the war from numerous military leaders, including
David H. Petraeus, who commanded the troops in Afghanistan before becoming the director of the
Central Intelligence Agency in June.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the realities of the various wars, click here.

JFK mistress Mimi Alford reveals new details in book

2012-02-05, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16900106
A book by a former mistress of President John F Kennedy has revealed new details of their
relationship. Extracts in the US media of Once Upon A Secret by Mimi Alford recount the affair she
had with the president whilst an intern at the White House. The previewed parts of the book
contain graphic details of the president's milieu, including tales of drug use. Excerpts
published in the New York Post also describe how Ms Alford - then 19-year-old Mimi Beardsley lost her virginity to the president in 1962, after she had been invited to swim at the White House
pool. The affair went on to last 18 months. The relationship apparently continued even after Ms
Alford left Washington, and she claims to have slept with Mr Kennedy just days before he was
assassinated. Ms Alford, now 69, also recalls consoling Mr Kennedy after the death of his baby
son Patrick. "There was a stack of condolence letters on the floor next to his chair, and he picked
each one up and read it aloud to me. Occasionally, tears rolling down his cheeks, he would write
something on one of the letters, probably notes for a reply. But mostly he just read them and cried.
I did, too," Ms Alford writes. Ms Alford's decision to write the memoir came after being exposed in
"a tabloid frenzy" in 2003 when a Kennedy biographer had referred to "a 19-year-old... White
House intern" as one his affairs, according to her publisher, Random House.
Note: If you want to understand how sex and power can corrupt even great men, read the full New
York Post article at this link.

2012: The Year of the Cooperative

2012-02-01, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/2012-the-year-of-the-cooperative

The United Nations has named 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, and indeed, coops seem poised to become a dominant business model around the world. Today, nearly one
billion people worldwide are cooperative member-owners. In Ethiopia, cooperation helps women
and men rise above poverty. In Germany, half of renewable energy is owned by citizens. In
America, 93 million credit union member-owners control $920 billion in assets. And in Basque
Country, a 50-year-old worker co-op has grown to become a multinational, cooperative
corporation. Founded in 1956 ... Mondragn is the worlds largest cooperative, and Spains
seventh largest business. Mondragn has operations in 19 countries and employs 83,000
worker-owners. Yet for every international job the company creates, it employs two people
in Spain. The UN ... in 2012 will dedicate its efforts to raising awareness of co-ops, helping them
grow and influencing governments to support them legislatively. Thirty percent of Americans
belong to cooperatively-owned credit unions, the largest of which serves 3.4 million Department of
Defense employees and has $45 billion in assets. Cooperatives ... promote the fullest possible
participation in the economic and social development of all people. [They] are becoming a major
factor of economic and social development and contribute to the eradication of poverty. - UN
Resolution 64/136, 2010. The cooperative model is expected to be the worlds fastest-growing
business model by 2025. UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon [says] Cooperatives are a reminder
to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social
responsibility.
Note: How sad that we've heard hardly a peep out of the major media about this inspiring trend
towards cooperatives. For an abundance of other inspiring major media articles, click here.

Genetically engineered fish should be labeled

2012-01-19, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/18/EDOL1MQHV5.DTL
The first genetically engineered animal may be about to enter the food supply. This is also the
moment for consumers to demand to know what's in their food. Consumers Union, the advocacy
arm of Consumer Reports, believes that genetically engineered fish should not be allowed into the
food supply unless it is proved safe for humans and the environment. At the very least, it should be
labeled. One of the most critical issues before the [Food and Drug Administration] is the potential
for genetically engineered fish to cause consumers to experience increased allergic responses.
Unfortunately, the FDA allowed AquaBounty Technologies, the company developing the
genetically engineered salmon, to declare that there was no increase in allergy-causing
potential in their AquAdvantage salmon, based on data from just six engineered fish - even
when the data suggested the genetic engineering process itself did increase the allergycausing potential. Public opinion clearly and consistently supports mandatory labeling. Our
polling found that 95 percent of the public wants labeling of genetically engineered animals, while
other polls found that only 35 percent of the public said that they would be willing to eat seafood
that has been genetically engineered. Consumers sent nearly 400,000 comments to the FDA
demanding the agency reject genetically engineered salmon, or at least require that it be labeled.

Note: For an excellent overview of the threats to health from genetically-modified foods, click here.

Calif. HS student devises possible cancer cure

2012-01-13, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57358994/calif-hs-student-devises-possi...
Born to Chinese immigrants, 17-year-old Angela Zhang of Cupertino, California is a typical
American teenager. She's really into shoes and is just learning how to drive. But there is one thing
that separates her from every other student at Monta Vista High School, something she first
shared with her chemistry teacher, Kavita Gupta. It's a research paper Angela wrote in her spare
time -- and it is advanced, to say the least. "Cure for cancer -- a high school student," said Gupta.
"It's just so mind-boggling. I just cannot even begin to comprehend how she even thought about it
or did this." When she was a freshman, she started reading doctorate level papers on bioengineering. By sophomore year she'd talked her way into the lab at Stanford, and by junior year
was doing her own research. Angela's idea was to mix cancer medicine in a polymer that
would attach to nanoparticles -- nanoparticles that would then attach to cancer cells and
show up on an MRI, so doctors could see exactly where the tumors are. Then she thought
[of aiming] an infrared light at the tumors to melt the polymer and release the medicine,
thus killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed. It'll take years
to know if it works in humans -- but in mice -- the tumors almost completely disappeared. Angela
recently entered her project in the national Siemens science contest. It was no contest. She got a
check for $100,000.
Note: If this technique has already melted tumors in mice, why is CBS saying it will take years to
know if it works in humans? Why wouldn't millions be poured in to fast track research on this
exciting technology?

Two Degrees energy bars support famine relief

2012-01-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/BUPV1MN09D.DTL
For every Two Degrees energy bar purchased, the company provides a peanut-paste packet
to a starving child in Malawi through its partnership with Valid Nutrition. The idea of feeding
starving children through business came from a pairing of two entrepreneurs at opposite ends of
their career. Will Hauser, a 2008 graduate of Harvard University, did a yearlong stint at Goldman
Sachs before settling on his true passion - entrepreneurship. His business partner, Lauren Walters,
is a seasoned entrepreneur. But both are fairly new to tackling some of the world's most serious

problems like famine and hunger. A decade ago, Walters became involved with Boston nonprofit
group Partners in Health, and six years ago he had his first encounter with malnourished children.
During a trip with the organization in Rwanda, he was struck by the severity of the situation and the
lack of ready-to-use therapeutic foods being made locally. The therapeutic foods are packets of
a nutrition paste fortified with vitamins and minerals designed to reverse malnutrition. Four
years later, Walters met Steve Collins, a doctor who had worked in famine relief for two decades,
at the Oxford Skoll Forum. There, Walters' business acumen combined with Collins' humanitarian
ambitions. Collins and his business partner, Paul Murphy, had started Valid Nutrition, which
produces the packets of nutrition paste in Africa, relying on local farmers, labor and suppliers.
Note: For many other highly inspiring articles reported in the major media, click here.

Montana bucks U.S. ruling on corporate contributions

2012-01-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/11/EDLD1MO3AO.DTL
The Montana Supreme Court issued a stunning ruling Dec. 30 that rejected arguments that the
U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC applied to Montana's century-old
ban on corporate election spending. The 5-2 ruling overturned a lower court and reinstated
Montana's Corrupt Practices Act, a citizen initiative passed to confront some of the most
overt corporate corruption in American history. Citizens United struck down a federal law that
prohibited corporations from directly spending company funds to advocate for or against political
candidates. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Citizens United ... asserted that "independent
expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the
appearance of corruption." That astounding claim promptly birthed super PACs, which can accept
unlimited donations to support their favored candidate and attack his or her opponents. By the time
the public knows the people or corporations behind the super PAC attacks, four primaries will be
complete and the winner may be apparent. The Montana ruling is cause for celebration, but its
value can only be realized if other states and courts follow. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court is likely and, without far more visible public advocacy for the democratic republic promised
by our Constitution, the Roberts court is unlikely to veer from its agenda of steadily enlarging
corporate privilege.
Note: For illuminating analyses from reliable sources of the threats to democracy from corporate
money in the US elections, click here.

Electronic Pickpocketing
2012-01-10, WREG-TV (Memphis, TN CBS affiliate)
http://wreg.com/2012/01/10/electronic-pickpocketing/

Call it high-tech hijacking. Thieves now have the capabilities to steal your credit card
information without laying a hand on your wallet. Its new technology being used in credit
and debit cards, and its already leaving nearly 140 million people at-risk for electronic
pickpocketing. It all centers around radio frequency identification technology, or RFID. Its
supposed to make paying for things faster and easier. You just wave the card, and youve paid. But
now some worry its also making life easier for crooks trying to rip you off. In a crowd, Walt
Augustinowicz blends right in. And thats the problem. If Im walking through a crowd, I get near
peoples back pocket and their wallet, I just need to be this close to it and theres [their] credit card
and expiration date on the screen, says Augustinowicz demonstrating how easily cards containing
RFID can be hacked. Armed with a credit card reader he bought for less than $100 on-line and a
netbook computer ... for about an hour he patrolled Beale Street, looking for RFID chips to read,
and credit card information to steal. Even scarier, Augustinowicz says bad guys could work a
crowd, stealing numbers and then e-mail them anywhere in the world. Its not just your credit and
debit cards at-risk. While they are harder to hack, all US passports issued since 2006 contain
RFID technology that can be read, and swiped. It gives me a lot of personal information like your
date of birth, your photo if I wanted to make some sort of ID, said Augustinowicz demonstrating
with his reader.
Note: For an excellent video showing how easy it is for someone to hijack your credit card
information if the card has an RFID, click here.

Child sexual abuse cases in Hollywood attract attention

2012-01-08, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-hollywood-molesters-20120109,0,53890...
In his private journal, Jason Michael Handy once described himself as a "pedophile, full blown."
His job as a production assistant at one of the nation's most prominent producers of children's
television programs, Nickelodeon, gave him access to child actors on and off the set, and allowed
him to exchange email addresses and phone numbers with them. He used the hopes of at least
two girls who dreamed of careers in TV to sexually exploit them. Handy was sentenced to six
years in prison after pleading no contest in 2004 to two felony counts, one of lewd acts on a child
and one of distributing sexually explicit material by email, and to a misdemeanor charge related to
child sexual exploitation. His arrest and prosecution received scant media attention at the time but
are attracting renewed interest now, after the recent arrest of a talent manager on molestation
charges and reports by The Times that a registered sex offender was working with children as a
casting associate. The Handy case, which in part prompted Nickelodeon to toughen its
background checks for all employees, is among at least a dozen child molestation and child
pornography prosecutions since 2000 involving actors, managers, production assistants
and others in the industry, according to court documents and published accounts.
Note: For released government documents showing sexual abuse in secret mind control programs
that make these Hollywood child sex abuse cases look mild in comparison, click here.

Insurance profits soar after health care overhaul

2012-01-06, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg News
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/05/BUUH1MLB31.DTL
Insurance companies spent millions of dollars trying to defeat the U.S. health care overhaul,
saying it would raise costs and disrupt coverage. Instead, profit margins at the companies widened
to levels not seen since before the recession, a Bloomberg Government study shows. Insurers led
by WellPoint ... recorded their highest combined quarterly net income of the past decade after the
law was signed in 2010, said Peter Gosselin, the study author. "The industry that was the
loudest, most persistent critic of this law, the industry whose analysts and executives
predicted it would suffer immensely because of the law, has thrived," Gosselin said. Health
insurers contributed $86.2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose the law after
Obama administration officials criticized the [corporations'] plans for enriching themselves by
raising customer premiums. Companies are changing their business focus to gain from provisions
in the law that will expand the size of Medicaid, the $401 billion government health plan for the
poor.
Note: Is it surprising that health insurance companies are raking in big profits from the new health
care legislation?

Wild Old Women Close San Francisco Bank Of America Branch

2012-01-05, KCBS (CBS News San Francisco Affiliate)
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/05/wild-old-women-close-san-francisc...
It was a slow-moving Occupy Wall Street protest, but it was an effective one. A dozen senior
citizens calling themselves the wild old women succeeded in closing a Bank of America branch in
Bernal Heights Thursday. The women, aged 69 to 82, who live at the senior home up Mission
street from the Bernal Heights Bank of America branch, decided to hold their own protest by doing
what they called a run on the bank. Tita Caldwell, 80, who led the charge of women with walkers
and wheelchairs, said that theyre demanding the bank lower fees, pay higher taxes, and stop
foreclosing on, and evicting, homeowners. Were upset about what the banks are doing,
particularly in our neighborhood and neighboring areas, in evicting people and foreclosing on their
homes, said Caldwell. Were upset because the banks are raising their rates because it really
affects seniors who are on a fixed income. As they arrived, Bank of America closed and
locked its doors, to the surprise and delight of the elderly protestors, who said that they
had no intention of storming the bank. The women waved signs, but didnt march or chant,
with one woman on supplemental oxygen adding that the group was too old for that.

The NDAA's historic assault on American liberty

2012-01-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/02/ndaa-historic-...

President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing
him to indefinitely detain citizens. Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in
the history of our country. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White
House since the law first came to light. The White House told citizens that the president would
not sign the NDAA because of the provision. [But] sponsor Senator Carl Levin ... went to
the floor and disclosed that it was the White House [that] insisted that there be no
exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision. The almost complete failure of
the mainstream media to cover this issue is shocking. Reporters continue to mouth the claim
that this law only codifies what is already the law. That is not true. The administration has fought
any challenges to indefinite detention to prevent a true court review. Moreover, most experts agree
that such indefinite detention of citizens violates the constitution. The White House conducted a
misinformation campaign to secure this power while portraying the president as some type of
reluctant absolute ruler, or, as Obama maintains, a reluctant president with dictatorial powers. Most
Democratic members joined their Republican colleagues in voting for this un-American measure.
Some Montana citizens are moving to force the removal of these members who, they insist,
betrayed their oaths of office and their constituents.
Note: For important analyses of the implications of Obama's signing of the NDAA legislation, click
here, here and here.

Decades later, a Cold War secret is revealed

2011-12-25, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-25/news/30557217_1_satellites-pacific-ocea...
At one point in the 1970s there were more than 1,000 people in the Danbury area working on The
Secret. And though they worked long hours under intense deadlines, sometimes missing family
holidays and anniversaries, they could tell no one not even their wives and children what
they did. They were engineers, scientists, draftsmen and inventors. It was dubbed Big Bird and it
was considered the most successful space spy satellite program of the Cold War era. From 1971
to 1986 a total of 20 satellites were launched, each containing 60 miles of film and sophisticated
cameras that orbited the earth snapping vast, panoramic photographs of the Soviet Union, China
and other potential foes. The film was shot back through the earths atmosphere in buckets that
parachuted over the Pacific Ocean, where C-130 Air Force planes snagged them with grappling
hooks. The scale, ambition and sheer ingenuity of Hexagon KH-9 was breathtaking. So too is the
human tale of the 45-year-old secret that many took to their graves. Hexagon was declassified in
September. The question became, how do you hide an elephant? a National
Reconnaissance Office report stated at the time. It decided on a simple response: What
elephant? Employees were told to ignore any questions from the media, and never confirm
the slightest detail about what they worked on.
Note: This is another excellent example of how government is able to keep huge projects secret,
and how top secret military technology is often decades ahead of anything which has been publicly
revealed. Note that even the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office, founded in 1960,

was completely denied until it's existence was declassified in 1992. Does government lie to us?
Without a doubt.

Japan releases ambitious 40-year roadmap to fully close crippled

Fukushima nuclear plant
2011-12-20, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-releases-new-40-year-p...
Japans government [has said] that it could take 40 years to clean up and fully decommission [the
Fukushima reactors]. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start removing spent fuel rods
within two to three years from their pools. After that is completed, TEPCO will start removing the
melted fuel, most of which is believed to have fallen to the bottom of the core or even down to the
bottom of the larger, beaker-shaped containment vessel, a process that is expected to begin in
10 years and [be] completed 25 years from now. Completely decommissioning the plant
would require five to 10 more years after the fuel debris removal, making the entire process
up to 40 years. The process still requires the development of robots and technology that can do
much of the work remotely because of extremely high radiation levels inside the reactor buildings.
The operator and the government would also have to ensure a stable supply of workers and save
them from exceeding exposure limits while keeping the long process going. They also have to
figure out ways to access each containment vessel and assess the extent of damage, as well as
locate holes and cracks through which cooling water is leaking and flooding the area. Another
problem is huge volume of radioactive waste and debris that will come out of the plant during its
dismantling process. Officials said they have not decided what to do with them and that part is not
covered by the 40-year roadmap.
Note: For lots more on corporate and government corruption from reliable sources, click here and
here.

Medical Journal Article: 14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor

Disaster Fallout
2011-12-19, Sacramento Bee (the leading newspaper of California's capitol)
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/19/4132989/medical-journal-article-14000.html
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from
the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the
December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peerreviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.
Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S.
deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess
deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths
after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for

infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the
preceding 14 weeks. The IJHS article [is] available online ... at http://www.radiation.org. Internist
and toxicologist Janette Sherman, MD, said: "Based on our continuing research, the actual death
count [in the US] may be as high as 18,000, with influenza and pneumonia, which were up five-fold
in the period in question as a cause of death. Deaths are seen across all ages, but we continue to
find that infants are hardest hit because their tissues are rapidly multiplying, they have
undeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for
adults."
Note: To read the report (in pdf format) on excess mortality in the US already caused by the
Fukushima meltdowns, click here.

Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial

2011-12-15, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detenti...
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to
indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be
shipped to Guantnamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his
principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic
policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the
stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end". The law ...
effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the
established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention. The law's
critics describe it as a draconian piece of legislation that extends the reach of detention
without trial to include US citizens arrested in their own country. "It's something so radical
that it would have been considered crazy had it been pushed by the Bush administration," said
Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "It establishes precisely the kind of system that the
United States has consistently urged other countries not to adopt. At a time when the United
States is urging Egypt, for example, to scrap its emergency law and military courts, this is not
consistent."
Note: The implications of the passage of this bill to authorize the US military to carry out domestic
arrest and imprisonment of US citizens have hardly been reported on by the major media. The
defense authorization bill undermines protections established by the Bill of Rights and the Posse
Comitatus Act against use of US military forces in domestic control and arrest. For further analysis
of the implications of this legislation, click here and here.

Does Hollywood face a child-molestation crisis in casting?

2011-12-06, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-abuse-hollywoodtre7b51l1-201...

A new child-abuse scandal in Hollywood is raising questions over the safety of minors in the
entertainment business and sparking calls for new child-labor regulations. Last week Martin Weiss,
a longtime manager of young talent, was arrested on suspicion of child molestation after an 18year-old former client told police he had been abused by Weiss 30 to 40 times from 2005 to 2008.
"This problem is more pervasive than people want to believe," said Paula Dorn, co-founder of the
BizParentz Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the families of children working in
the entertainment industry. "We have children trying to interact in an adult world." Paul Petersen, a
former child actor on "The Donna Reed Show" and founder of A Minor Consideration, a
nonprofit that supports former child stars, said the situation is "worse today than it was in
the '30s, and there was a lot of dirty stuff going on then." Petersen [said] that his group is
pushing for new regulations, including background checks and fingerprinting for talent agents, and
a stronger enforcement of the California Talent Agencies Act, which is intended to protect artists
from contract exploitation.
Note: For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here.

Critics: 'Tough' Sheriff Botched Sex-Crime Cases

2011-12-04, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/critics-tough-sheriff-botched-sex-crime-ca...
More than 400 sex-crimes reported to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office during a threeyear period ending in 2007 including dozens of alleged child molestations ... were
inadequately investigated and in some instances were not worked at all, according to current and
former police officers familiar with the cases. Many of the victims, said a retired El Mirage police
official who reviewed the files, were children of illegal immigrants. The botched sex-crimes
investigations have served as an embarrassment to a department whose sheriff is the selfdescribed "America's Toughest Sheriff" and a national hero to conservatives on the immigration
issue. Bill Louis, then-assistant El Mirage police chief who reviewed the files after the sheriff's
contract ended, believes the decision to ignore the cases was made deliberately by supervisors in
Arpaio's office and not by individual investigators. "I know the investigators. I just cannot
believe they would wholesale discount these cases. No way," Louis said. "The direction had
to come (from) up the food chain." Louis said he believes whoever made the decision knew that
illegal immigrants who are often transient and fear the police were unlikely to complain about
the quality of investigations.
Note: For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here.

Reactor Core Melted Fully, Japan Says

2011-12-01, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204262304577069302835999204.html

Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear-power complex came closer to a catastrophic meltdown than

previously indicated by its operator [which on November 30] described how one reactor's molten
nuclear core likely burned through its primary containment chamber and then ate as far as threequarters of the way through the concrete in a secondary vessel. The [new] assessmentoffered
by Japan's government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., ... marked Japan's most sobering reckoning
to date of the nuclear disaster sparked by the country's March 11 earthquake and tsunami. But it
came nearly six months after U.S. and international nuclear experts and regulators had reached
similar conclusions. For the first time, Tokyo Electric ... said that nuclear-fuel rods in the
complex's No. 1 reactor had likely melted completely, burning through their so-called
pressure vessel and then boring through concrete at the bottom of a second containment
vessel. That brought the fuel closer than previously believed to breaching the containment
vessel and foundation and continuing to burn through the ground below a scenario
sometimes described as the "China Syndrome." The findings are the latest reminder of how
much remains unknown about the extent of the mid-March Fukushima Daiichi accident.
Note: For further information on the developing understanding of the severity of the meltdowns at
Fukushima, see these reports at The Guardian and The New York Times. For key reports from
major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click here and here.

Mercury fillings 'filled' with controversy

2011-11-30, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-1130-dental-fillings-20111130,...
Silver amalgam fillings, which have plugged American cavities for more than 150 years, have lost
their luster over the last couple of decades thanks to the rise of more attractive tooth-colored
fillings and concerns about the environmental and health impact of their chief ingredient: mercury.
Although use of amalgam fillings has dropped 30 percent in the last decade, according to the
American Dental Association, these fillings are still sitting in hundreds of millions of mouths, and
dentists continue to fill some 50 million teeth with amalgam each year especially in children.
Mercury, a known neurotoxin, makes up 50 percent (in weight) of amalgam fillings, which also
contain silver, copper and tin. For some dentists, toxicologists and advocates, the fact that
mercury has been shown to hurt the neurological system, kidneys and other organs is
reason enough to keep it out of people's mouths. "When you plant a neurotoxin two inches
from the brain, can you say no one is ever harmed from that?" said Charlie Brown, director of
Consumers for Dental Choice. His group advocates that dentists be required to disclose the
mercury content of amalgam fillings to patients. The buildup of mercury from vapors 24 hours a
day, over a lifetime, is the greatest concern, said Boyd Haley, retired professor emeritus at the
University of Kentucky. Eighty percent of mercury vapor stays in body tissue for days, months,
even years, because the body doesn't have a good system for excreting it, he said.
Note: For an informative article by Dr. Mercola showing that there is no reason to put mercury in
your mouth and plenty of risk, click here.

Congress, legislate thyself on insider trading

2011-11-28, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-28/opinion/30453157_1_insider-trading-laws...
It ought to be illegal for members of Congress to buy and sell based on inside information
... but it is not illegal because Congress has exempted itself from insider-trading laws. In 2006,
when Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., introduced the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge or STOCK - Act to prohibit members of Congress and their staff from trading stocks based on
nonpublic information, her bill attracted only 14 co-sponsors. Peter Schweizer, a fellow at
Stanford's Hoover Institution, believes that some in Congress see the public trust as a "venture
opportunity" that allows them to leverage information not available to the general public.
Slaughter's STOCK Act would not stop members or staffers from dabbling in the markets. The
legislation, however, would make Capitol Hill insiders subject to prosecution if they buy or sell
securities based on nonpublic information. It also would cut into K Street's latest boutique business
practice - "political intelligence" - that allows lobbyists to gather inside financial information which
they can give to hedge-fund clients.
Note: Congress exempts itself from all kinds of laws which apply to the remainder of US citizens. If
you don't believe this, read the Time magazine article at this link. It's time for a change.

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

2011-11-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth...
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of
our political class's venality. US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of
unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities
across the nation this past week. But just when Americans thought we had the picture was this
crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? the picture
darkened. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked,
shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. In
New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in
Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The
Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an
18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests. I noticed
that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all
on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed
lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this
kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. As the puzzle pieces fit together,
they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the reasons why people nationwide are occupying
their city centers in protest against the collusion between powerful corporate and government
elites, click here.

G20 case reveals 'largest ever' police spy operation

2011-11-22, CBC News (Canada's Public Broadcasting Channel)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/11/22/g20-police-operation.html
Police organizations across the country co-operated to spy on community organizations and
activists in what the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] called one of the largest domestic
intelligence operations in Canadian history, documents reveal. Information about the extensive
police surveillance in advance of last year's G8 and G20 meetings in southern Ontario comes from
evidence presented in the case of 17 people accused of orchestrating street turmoil during the
summits. Two undercover police officers ... spent 18 months infiltrating southern Ontario
community groups ahead of the June 26-27, 2010, gathering of world leaders. They were part
of a much larger so-called joint intelligence group (JIG) operation [which] employed more than 500
people at its peak. "The 2010 G8 summit in Huntsville ... will likely be subject to actions taken by
criminal extremists motivated by a variety of radical ideologies," reads a JIG report. "The
important commonality is that these ideologies ... place these individuals and/or
organizations at odds with the status quo and the current distribution of power in society."
The RCMP-led intelligence team made a series of presentations to private-sector corporations,
including one to "energy sector stakeholders" in November 2011. Other corporations that received
intelligence from police included Canadas major banks, telecom firms, airlines, downtown property
companies and other businesses seen to be vulnerable to the effects of summit protests.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on government attacks on civil liberties, click here.

News Organizations Complain About Treatment During Protests

2011-11-21, New York Times
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/news-organizations-complain-...
A cross-section of 13 news organizations in New York City lodged complaints ... about the New
York Police Departments treatment of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Separately, ten press clubs, unions and other groups that represent journalists called for an
investigation and said they had formed a coalition to monitor police behavior going forward. [The]
actions were prompted by a rash of incidents on Nov. 15, when police officers impeded and even
arrested reporters during and after the evictions of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti
Park, the birthplace of the two-month-old movement. The news organizations said in a joint
letter to the Police Department that officers had clearly violated their own procedures by
threatening, arresting and injuring reporters and photographers. The letter said there were
numerous inappropriate, if not unconstitutional, actions and abuses by the police against
both credentialed and noncredentialed journalists in the last few days. The letter was written by

George Freeman, vice president and assistant general counsel for The New York Times Company,
and signed by representatives for The Associated Press, The New York Post, The Daily News,
Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones & Company, and three local television stations, WABC, WCBS and
WNBC. It was also signed by representatives for the National Press Photographers Association,
New York Press Photographers Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and
the New York Press Club.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the reasons why people nationwide are occupying
their city centers in protest against the collusion between powerful corporate and government
elites, click here.

Retired Supreme Court Judge shoved up against a wall and threatened

by NYPD at Occupy Wall Street clashes
2011-11-20, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063716/You-want-arrested-lady-The-re...
A retired New York Supreme Court judge has claimed she was manhandled by a policeman after
watching him beat a woman at the Zuccotti Park raids. Karen Smith was working as a legal
observer when she saw a distressed woman pushed to the ground and beaten by an officer,
she said. When she demanded he [stop], the unidentified cop pushed her against a wall and
threatened her with arrest. Ms Smith had attended the raids ... to note down the names of people
arrested as the Occupy Wall Street camp was cleared. She was wearing a fluorescent green
baseball cap bearing the words 'National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer' to show she was not
taking part in the protests. Ms Smith, who was also carrying a pad and pen, said the incident
happened at around 1.30am on Tuesday at Dey Street and Broadway Street in New York City.
Speaking to Democracy Now, she described the scene as a paramilitary operation if there ever
was one. It was what we call a stealth eviction, she added. Ms Smith explained her son had
participated in Occupy Wall Street and she had been very concerned about his safety.
Note: We don't normally use the UK's Daily Mail as a reliable source, but as no other major media
are reporting this story, we felt it warranted inclusion. The judge gives her own testimony in a video
near the bottom of the article.

Activists Call for End to 'Cruel' Battery Cages for Chickens

2011-11-19, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/activists-call-end-cruel-battery-cages-chickens...
In the wake of an ABC News investigation into alleged unsanitary and inhumane practices at one
of the nation's largest egg farms, animal rights activists are calling for an end to the egg industry's
widespread use of so-called "battery cages," in which birds live six to a cage in long stacks of wire
cages. "The battery cage system is inherently cruel," said Nathan Runkle of Mercy for Animals,
who estimated that 95 percent of the hens used in egg production are kept in battery cages. He

urged the industry to adopt more humane methods of egg production, and urged McDonald's, the
nation's largest egg buyer, to stop buying eggs from battery cage farms. Undercover video shot by
a Mercy for Animals activist who worked at one of the nation's largest egg producers, Sparboe
Farms, shows the battery cages in use. "Scott," the activist who made the tape, said that the five
to seven birds were kept in each cage, with their beaks cut at an early cage so they
wouldn't peck each other, and that each bird lived its life in an area smaller than a standard
sheet of paper. He said the birds "can't fully spread their wings, they can't walk around.
There were [dead] birds that were left in the cages that were decomposing for weeks or months at
a time," claimed Scott. Until the ABC News investigation and the FDA's warning, McDonald's drew
all its eggs for restaurants west of the Mississippi River from Sparboe. Just before the ABC News
report aired, McDonald's announced that it would no longer get its eggs from Sparboe Farms.
Activists, however, are now asking why McDonald's won't stop buying eggs from any producer that
uses battery cages.
Note: To watch a video of this sad scene, click here. To learn how this report resulted in both
McDonald's and Target canceling their contracts with Sparboe Farms, click here.

OTC derivatives market activity in the first half of 2011

2011-11-16, Bank for International Settlements (Intergovernmental organization of
central banks)
http://www.bis.org/press/p111116a.htm
After an increase of only 3% in the second half of 2010, total notional amounts outstanding of
over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives rose by 18% in the first half of 2011, reaching $708
trillion by the end of June 2011.
Note: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an intergovernmental organization of central
banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for
central banks." It is not accountable to any national government. Their accounting shows a total
global derivatives market controlled by the banks of over $700 trillion. That's $100,000 for every
man, woman, and child on the planet. As reported in Reuters, the derivatives market is largely
unregulated. Do you think there is any manipulation going on here? BIS helps the bankers to work
together to keep their hidden power.

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment'

questioned
2011-11-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots
In May, 2009, David Williams was arrested ... and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. Williams and
three other struggling ... men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of
an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.

Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot
did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to
pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. Lawyers
for the so-called Newburgh Four have now launched an appeal that will be held early next year.
Advocates hope the case offers the best chance of exposing the issue of FBI "entrapment" in
terror cases. "We have as close to a legal entrapment case as I have ever seen," said Susanne
Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams. "The target, the motive, the
ideology and the plot were all led by the FBI," said Karen Greenberg, a law professor at Fordham
University in New York, who specialises in studying the new FBI tactics. But the issue is one that
stretches far beyond Newburgh. Critics say the FBI is running a sting operation across America,
targeting to a large extent the Muslim community by luring people into fake terror plots.
Note: For a powerful BBC documentary showing clearly that much of the war on terror is a
fabrication to forward a political agenda, watch Power of Nightmares at this link. For many reports
from major media sources on the fake terror behind the "global war on terror", click here.

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

2011-11-13, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-smallpox-20111113,0,4293...
Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy
an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior
officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies
Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest
men. Siga ... was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga
to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation's biodefense stockpile. The price of
approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government's specialists had earlier
said was reasonable. Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was
eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian
scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or
a terrorist group possesses smallpox. If there were an attack, the government could draw on $1
billion worth of smallpox vaccine it already owns to inoculate the entire U.S. population and quickly
treat people exposed to the virus. The vaccine, which costs the government $3 per dose, can
reliably prevent death when given within four days of exposure.
Note: This is pure and blatant corruption to pad the pockers of Siga and those involved. For key
reports from reliable sources on government corruption, click here. For more on corrupt drug
companies, click here.

Pedophiles infiltrate respected institutions to find victims

2011-11-13, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-11-13/pedophiles-breach-truste...

The Penn State allegations may seem unthinkable: revered assistant coach and prominent
community activist Jerry Sandusky preying on eight children. But such abuses of trust play out in
the USA over and over again. Respected people who set up charitable or social groups for
children, only to be implicated in some form of child sexual abuse, are a frightening reality.
Washington, D.C., journalist Patrick Boyle, author of the 1994 book Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse
in America's Most Trusted Institution, says reaction to Catholic church sex abuse complaints and
those against the Boy Scouts of America were similar. "In both cases, there was a lot of willful
ignorance among the higher-ups," he says. "They almost tried not to know things." In the Penn
State case, Boyle says, "everybody seems to have done the minimum, instead of doing the
maximum or more, which is what we'd expect of these institutions." "If you can give 110%
on the field, why can't you give 110% for the victims?"
Note: For powerful evidence that this kind of abuse is much more widespread than expected, click
here. To understand how this relates to secret societies and deep hidden knowledge of our world,
click here.

Graham: Still no FBI records on Sarasota 9/11 probe

2011-11-10, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/10/2496033/graham-still-no-fbi-records-on....
In September, news about a previously unknown FBI investigation into possible ties between 9/11
hijackers and a Saudi family living near Sarasota led the agency to deny there was any connection
and assert that it made all of its files available to congressional investigators a decade ago. But
two months later, the FBI has been unable or unwilling to substantiate that it disclosed any
information regarding its Sarasota investigation to Congress, says former Florida U.S. Sen. Bob
Graham. He has long contended the FBI stonewalled Congress about what it knows about
possible Saudi support for the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI investigation began shortly after 9/11
when residents of the gated community of Prestancia, south of Sarasota, called to report the
abrupt departure from their luxury home of a Saudi family about two weeks before [9/11]. The most
important information came when the FBI examined gatehouse security logs and photographs of
license plates, according to then-homeowners association administrator Larry Berberich and a
counterterrorism agent involved in the investigation. They said the security records revealed
that the home was visited by vehicles used by 9/11 terrorist leader Mohamed Atta and
fellow hijacker-pilot Ziad Jarrah.
Note: For key questions about the official account of 9/11 raised by respected government officials
and academics, click here and here.

A Murmuration of Starlings
2011-11-03, The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/video-a-murmuration-of-...

This is your moment of zen today. Two adventurers set out in a canoe and happened upon a [flock
of] starlings (collectively known as a murmuration) doing their amazing collective dance in the sky.
Watch the video. Just take it in. The starlings' coordinated movements do not seem possible, but
then, there they are, doing it. Scientists have been similarly fascinated by starling movement.
Those synchronized dips and waves seem to hold secrets about perception and group dynamics.
Last year, Italian theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi took on the challenge of explaining the
[phenomenon]. What he found ... is that the math equations that best describe starling movement
are borrowed "from the literature of 'criticality,' of crystal formation and avalanches -- systems
poised on the brink, capable of near-instantaneous transformation." They call it "scale-free
correlation," and it means that no matter how big the flock, "If any one bird turned and changed
speed, so would all the others." It's a beautiful phenomenon to behold. And neither biologists
nor anyone else can yet explain how starlings seem to process information and act on it so
quickly. It's precisely the lack of lag between the birds' movements that make the flocks so
astonishing.
Note: Don't miss the hauntingly beautiful video at the link above. For more, click here. For a
treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Israeli PM orders investigation into Iran leak

2011-11-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/03/israeli-pm-investigation-iran-leak
Israel's prime minister [Benyamin Netanyahu] has ordered an investigation into alleged leaks of
plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida, the main
suspects are the former heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet, respectively Israel's foreign and
domestic intelligence agencies. Netanyahu is said to believe that the two, Meir Dagan and
Yuval Diskin, wanted to torpedo plans being drawn up by him and Ehud Barak, the defence
minister, to hit Iranian nuclear sites. The purpose of the leaks was to prevent an attack,
which had moved from the stage of discussion to implementation. Both Dagan and Diskin
oppose military action against Iran unless all other options primarily international diplomatic
pressure and perhaps sabotage have been exhausted. In January the recently retired Dagan, a
hawk when he was running the Mossad, called an attack on Iran "the stupidest idea I've ever
heard". The Kuwait paper has a track record of running stories based on apparently high-level
leaks from Israeli officials. Even well-informed Israeli observers admit to being confused about
what is going on behind the scenes. "It seems that only Netanyahu and Barak know," commented
Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, both respected Haaretz writers. "While many people say
Netanyahu and Barak are conducting sophisticated psychological warfare and don't intend to
launch a military operation, top officials are still afraid."
Note: The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that "U.S. officials are concerned that Israel will not
warn them before taking military action against Iran's nuclear facilities."

Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?

2011-10-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/friedman-did-you-hear-the-on...
Citigroup had to pay a $285 million fine to settle a case in which, with one hand, Citibank
sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers
securities that it knew were likely to go bust and, with the other hand, shorted the same
securities that is, bet millions of dollars that they would go bust. It doesnt get any more
immoral than this. James Stewart, a business columnist for The [New York] Times, noted that
Citigroups flimflam made Goldman Sachs mortgage traders look like Boy Scouts. This gets to
the core of why all the anti-Wall Street groups around the globe are resonating. Our financial
industry has grown so large and rich it has corrupted our real institutions through political
donations. Our Congress today is a forum for legalized bribery. One consumer group using
information from Opensecrets.org calculates that the financial services industry, including real
estate, spent $2.3 billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990 to 2010, which was more
than the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined. Why are
there 61 members on the House Committee on Financial Services? So many congressmen want
to be in a position to sell votes to Wall Street.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the collusion between financial interests and
government, click here.

Ex-Abramoff associate Ring sentenced to 20 months in 1 of scandals

harshest punishments
2011-10-26, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-abramoff-associate-faces-possib...
A former lobbyist who was a rising star under Jack Abramoffs tutelage was sentenced ... to nearly
two years in prison for giving public officials meals and event tickets. Kevin Ring argued up until
his emotional sentencing hearing that he was operating in a corrupt Washington environment
controlled by people with money and that he did not break the law. U.S. District [Judge] Ellen
Segal Huvelle said Rings conduct was not nearly as egregious as ringleader Abramoff or some of
the others involved in a scandal that resulted in stricter lobbying rules in Washington. But the judge
gave Ring a sentence of 20 months, one of the stiffest terms among the 21 defendants in the
investigation. Most others involved cooperated with prosecutors and got plea deals that
avoided prison. Huvelle said she did not consider Rings conduct [nearly as] bad as that of
Abramoff and his business partner, Michael Scanlon, who bilked their American Indian tribal clients
out of $20 million in fees, or former Rep. Bob Ney, who accepted golf and gambling trips, tickets to
sporting events, free meals and campaign donations. But Abramoff, Scanlon and Ney all
reached plea agreements with prosecutors that helped cut their sentences while Ring
fought at trial. His sentence ranks with theirs Abramoff got 48 months, Ney 30 months
and Scanlon also was sentenced to 20 months.

Note: A petty thief steals three times for a total value of a few thousand dollars and by the "three
strikes" law ends up in jail for life. Abramoff, along with his assistants, successfully corrupt U.S.
Senators and Congress members and serve less than four years in jail. Many get off with no jail
time. Is the US justice system biased towards the rich?

A Grass-Roots Newscast Gives a Voice to Struggles

2011-10-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/business/media/a-grass-roots-newscast-gives...
Democracy Now!, the 15-year-old public radio and television program ... distinguishes itself by
documenting social movements, struggles for justice and the effects of American foreign policy,
along with the rest of the days developments. Operated as a nonprofit organization and distributed
on a patchwork of stations, channels and Web sites, Democracy Now! is proudly independent, in
that way appealing to hundreds of thousands of people who are skeptical of the news
organizations that are owned by major media companies. Though it has long had a loyal audience,
Democracy Now! has gained more attention recently for methodical coverage of two news events
the execution of the Georgia inmate Troy Davis and the occupation of Wall Street and other
symbolic sites across the country. [Host Amy] Goodman broadcast live from Georgia for six hours
on Sept. 21, the evening of the execution, and Democracy Now! reporters were fanned out in
Manhattan from the first day of the protests against corporate greed. The media, Ms. Goodman
said in an interview last week, can be the greatest force for peace on earth for it is how
we come to understand each other. But she asserted that the views of a majority of
Americans had been silenced by the corporate media. Which is why we have to take it
back, she said.
Note: Up until now, there has been a virtual ban on mentioning the important work of Amy
Goodman and Democracy Now. Could this be a signal of some real change?

U.S. airstrike that killed American teen in Yemen raises legal, ethical
questions
2011-10-22, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-airstrike-that-kille...
One week after a U.S. military airstrike killed a 16-year-old American citizen in Yemen, no one in
the Obama administration, Pentagon or Congress has taken responsibility for his death, or even
publicly acknowledged that it happened. The absence of official accountability for the demise
of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a Denver native and the son of [Anwar al-Awlaki], deepens the
legal and ethical murkiness of the Obama administrations campaign to kill alleged enemies
of the state outside of traditional war zones. Officials throughout the U.S. government ... have
refused to answer questions for the record about how or why Awlaki was killed Oct. 14 in a remote
part of Yemen, along with eight other people. The official silence about the death of the American
teenager contrasts with the Obama administrations eagerness to trumpet another airstrike in

Yemen two weeks earlier. In that case, armed drones controlled by the CIA killed the teens father,
Anwar al-Awlaki. [A] U.S. official said the airstrike was launched by the militarys secretive Joint
Special Operations Command, or JSOC. The younger Awlaki was the third U.S. citizen killed by
the U.S. government in Yemen in recent weeks.
Note: For deep background on reasons why the US government may have wanted to eliminate
Anwar al-Awlaki and his son, click here.

Doctor's street medicine helps cure homelessness

2011-10-21, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-street-medicine-helps-cure-homelessness/
Dr. Jim Withers has been caring exclusively for [Pittsburgh, PA's] homeless since 1992. Night after
night, he and his team make their rounds at homeless camps. They treat everything, head to toe -from mental illness to frostbitten feet. What little money Withers makes comes mostly from grants
and teaching at a medical school. But he doesn't think about money. In fact, he doesn't think at all
like a typical doctor. "The essence of healthcare is going to where people are. Either physically or
even more importantly spiritually, emotionally," he said. "When they're shown that they matter,"
Withers said, ... "then hope grows. And amazing things happen. That's why we've been able
to house well over 700 people. You know, if I could I'd write a prescription for a house for all the
street people because it is immensely important for health." Jim Ellis, 49, was on the streets for
eight years until he met Withers, who first treated his back pain and then helped cure his
homelessness. Through a non-profit Withers started called Operation Safety Net, he and his staff
have been remarkably successful at finding apartments for people like Jim. Over the years,
Operation Safety Net has been able to help so many that today homelessness in Pittsburgh
is literally half the problem it used to be - half as many people on the streets. About a dozen
cites in America are now trying to copy the program, in firm belief that this doctor definitely knows
best.
Note: For a great video on this man and his inspiring work, click here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Questions Linger Over Why CIA Operative Is at NYPD

2011-10-17, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/cia-nypd-depends-14750628
Working inside the New York Police Department is one of the CIA's most experienced
clandestine operatives. He arrived in July as the special assistant to the deputy commissioner of
intelligence. While his title is clear, his job responsibilities are not. Federal and city officials have
offered differing explanations for why this top CIA officer was assigned to a municipal police
department. The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically, and its unusual partnership
with the NYPD has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation. The last

time a CIA officer worked so closely with the NYPD, beginning in the months after the 9/11 attacks,
he became the architect of aggressive police programs that monitored Muslim neighborhoods.
With that earlier help from this CIA official, the police put entire communities under a microscope
based on ethnicity rather than allegations of wrongdoing. On Monday, New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg defended the arrangement. "If the CIA can help us I'm all for getting any information
they have and then letting the police department use it," he said. All of this has troubled
lawmakers, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, who has said the CIA has "no business or authority in domestic spying, or in advising
the NYPD how to conduct local surveillance."
Note: While it is quite amazing that this information was reported in the major media, well-informed
people have known that CIA operatives are secretly inserted in police stations across the US. They
are also deployed in key positions in every major media outlet in the U.S. and many around the
world, where they can stop reporting of information which reveals too much. To read the
fascinating accounts of two award-winning journalist providing clear evidence of this, click here.

'Occupy Wall Street' -- It's Not What They're for, But What They're
Against
2011-10-14, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/14/understanding-occupy-wall-street/
Critics of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement complain that the protesters dont have a
policy agenda and, therefore, dont stand for anything. They're wrong. The key isnt what
protesters are for but rather what theyre against -- the gaping inequality that has poisoned our
economy, our politics and our nation. In America today, 400 people have more wealth than the
bottom 150 million combined. Thats not because 150 million Americans are pathetically
lazy or even unlucky. In fact, Americans have been working harder than ever -- productivity
has risen in the last several decades. Big business profits and CEO bonuses have also
gone up. Worker salaries, however, have declined. Most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters
[want] an end to the crony capitalist system now in place, that makes it easier for the rich and
powerful to get even more rich and powerful while making it increasingly hard for the rest of us to
get by. The question is not how Occupy Wall Street protesters can find that gross discrepancy
immoral. The question is why every one of us isnt protesting with them. According to polls, most
Americans support the 99% movement, even if theyre not taking to the streets.
Note: For lots more on the reasons why people all over the world are occupying their city centers,
check out our "Banking Bailout" news articles.

Can Liberals and Libertarians Find Common Ground?

2011-10-12, Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2011/10/12/can-liberals-and-libe...

The Occupy Wall Street movement has the potential to turn into a political firestorm. We have
become so divided as a nation that it is very difficult to prognosticate if anything good will come out
of these protests from a political perspective. Lets examine a number of issues that have been
raised by Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party and liberals and libertarians and see where
there is agreement. Get Corporate Money Out Of Politics This is the issue that really kick
started Occupy Wall Street. Americans are sick and tired of mega-corporations and Wall Street
banks being in bed with our politicians in Washington D.C. End the Federal Reserve The
Federal Reserve is directly responsible for the Too Big To Fail banking cartel, the U.S. debt, the
perpetual deficits, and ... the Fed has also robbed the poor and working class blind as a result of
their inflationary policies. End The Wars The American people are fed up with these conflicts,
and even large percentages of the military believe that the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan were
not worth fighting in the first place. It is time for our troops to come home. End The Drug War The drug war is an absolute failed policy. The U.S. incarcerates a higher percentage of its
population than any country on Earth, yet we call ourselves The Home of the Free. Repeal The
Patriot Act The assault on our civil liberties in the wake of 9/11 has been swift and draconian.
These are the types of things that go on in totalitarian states, and now, apparently the United
States as well.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the reasons why people worldwide are
occupying the financial centers of their cities, check out our "Banking Bailout" news articles.

Goldman Sachs let off paying 10m interest on failed tax avoidance
scheme
2011-10-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/11/goldman-sachs-interest-tax-avo...
Britain's tax authorities have given Goldman Sachs an unusual and generous Christmas present,
leaked documents reveal. In a secret London meeting last December with the head of Revenue,
the wealthy Wall Street banking firm was forgiven 10m interest on a failed tax avoidance scheme.
HM Revenue and Customs sources admit privately that the interest-free deal is "a cock-up" by
officials, but refuse to say who was responsible. Documents leaked to Private Eye magazine
and published in full by the Guardian record that Britain's top tax official, HMRC's
permanent secretary Dave Hartnett, personally shook hands on a secret settlement last
December. Hartnett also refused to give the facts about Goldman Sachs to MP Jesse Norman on
the Treasury committee last month, claiming disclosure would be illegal. He also refuses to brief
ministers on the details. The 10m Christmas gift for Goldman was the culmination of a prolonged
attempt by the US firm to avoid paying national insurance on huge bonuses for its bankers working
in London. The sum was pocket change to Goldman, whose employees received $15.3bn (9.5bn)
in pay and bonuses last year.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate and government corruption, click here and
here.

World facing worst financial crisis in history, Bank of England Governor

says
2011-10-06, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8812260/World-facing-worst...
The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s if not ever, the Governor of
the Bank of England said last night. Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Banks
Monetary Policy Committee to put 75billion of newly created money into the economy in a
desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK recession. Economists said the Banks
decision to resume its quantitative easing [QE] showed it was increasingly fearful for the economy,
and predicted more such moves ahead. Sir Mervyn said the Bank had been driven by growing
signs of a global economic disaster. This is the most serious financial crisis weve seen, at least
since the 1930s, if not ever. Were having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act
calmly to this and to do the right thing. Announcing its decision, the Bank said that the
eurozone debt crisis was creating severe strains in bank funding markets and financial
markets. Financial experts said the committees actions would be a Titanic disaster for
pensioners, savers and workers approaching retirement. Under QE, the Bank electronically
creates new money which it then uses to buy assets such as government bonds, or gilts, from
banks. By increasing the demand for gilts, QE pushes down the interest rate yields paid to holders
of these and other bonds. Critics of the policy say it pushes up inflation and drives down sterling.
Note: For lots more on the global financial crisis from reliable sources, click here.

Secret panel can put Americans on 'kill list'

2011-10-06, MSNBC/Reuters
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44794516/ns/today-today_news/t/secret-panel-can...
American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of
senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.
There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White
House's National Security Council. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out
the rules by which it is supposed to operate. The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki ... to
the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month. The White House is
portraying the killing of Awlaki as a demonstration of President Barack Obama's toughness toward
militants who threaten the United States. But the process that led to Awlaki's killing has drawn
fierce criticism from both the political left and right. Obama, who ran for president
denouncing predecessor George W. Bush's expansive use of executive power in his "war
on terrorism," is being attacked in some quarters for using similar tactics. They include
secret legal justifications and undisclosed intelligence assessments. Liberals criticized the
drone attack on an American citizen as extra-judicial murder. Conservatives criticized Obama for
refusing to release a Justice Department legal opinion that reportedly justified killing Awlaki.

Note: State assassination of a citizen without due process would seem to be the ultimate attack on
civil liberties. For lots more on such threats from reliable sources, click here.

Can U.S. legally kill a citizen overseas without due process?

2011-09-30, MSNBC
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/30/8063632-can-us-legally-kill...
Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been
charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar alAwlaki, but many legal scholars say it is justified. No U.S. court has ever weighed in on the
question, because judges consider these sorts of issues exclusively matters for the president.
Anwar al-Awlaki's father, Nasser, with the help of the ACLU, sued President Barack Obama,
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta a year ago, when it became clear
that the U.S. was targeting the younger al-Awlaki. But U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the
case out, ruling that federal courts were in no position to evaluate whether someone was a terrorist
whose activities threatened national security and against whom the use of deadly force could be
justified. The ACLU lawyer who handled the case, Jameel Jaffer, said Friday that the U.S. program
that targeted al-Awlaki was a violation of both U.S. and international law. "The government's
authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in
which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent. It is a mistake to invest the
president, any president, with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems
to present a threat to the country," Jaffer said.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the illegal prosecution of the "Global War on Terror",
click here.

British soldiers in Afghanistan shown 'war snuff movies'

2011-09-25, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-soldiers-in-afghanista...
Disturbing footage of Apache attack helicopters killing people in Afghanistan is being shown to
frontline British soldiers in "Kill TV nights" designed to boost morale. The discovery of the practice
... casts fresh questions over the conduct of soldiers deployed abroad and has provoked a furious
response from peace campaigners. Andrew Burgin from Stop the War ... described it as the
"ultimate degradation of British troops", comparing it to the desensitisation to death of US soldiers
in the final stages of the Vietnam War. The footage ... shows ground troops at the British
headquarters in Helmand province, Camp Bastion, gathered for a get-together said to be called
"Kill TV night". It shows an Apache helicopter commander admitting possible errors of judgement
and warning colleagues not to disclose what they have seen. "This is not for discussion with
anybody else; keep it quiet about what you see up here," he says. "It's not because we've done
anything wrong. But we might have done." Much of the footage is along the lines of the now

infamous video of a US Apache helicopter strike on civilians in Baghdad in 2007, first

released on WikiLeaks last year. In one clip an Afghan woman is targeted after a radio
dialogue between pilots refers to her as a "snake with tits".
Note: For reliable reports on war atrocities by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, click
here.

Bolivian anti-drugs cop jailed for cocaine trafficking

2011-09-23, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15039500
The former chief of Bolivia's anti-narcotics police has been jailed by an American court for cocaine
trafficking. A Miami federal judge imposed the 14-year sentence on Rene Sanabria, 54. Gen
Sanabria was head of Bolivia's anti-drug agency until 2009, and was an intelligence adviser
to the government at the time of his arrest. He pleaded guilty in June to taking part in a
conspiracy to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Bolivia to Chile and then on to
Miami. The court heard the plot was set up by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as
an undercover sting operation. Sanabria was detained in Panama and taken to the United States
by DEA agents for trial. He had served for 32 years in Bolivia's police force. The charge carries a
required minimum 10-year sentence. But US District Judge Ursula Ungaro said he was giving
Sanabria a higher sentence because of his leadership role, and to send an anti-corruption
message to other government officials.
Note: So the former chief of anti-narcotics was dealing drugs. What does this say about the war on
drugs? For powerful evidence from award-winning reporters that elements within the CIA and DEA
are involved in the drug trade, click here.

Tony Blair 'visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan'

2011-09-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8772418/Tony-Blair-visite...
Tony Blair used visits to Libya after he left office to lobby for business for the American investment
bank JP Morgan. New questions over Tony Blair's ties to Col Muammar Gaddafi and his role in the
release of the Lockerbie bomber have emerged from documents discovered in Tripoli. A senior
executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil
money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt
with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader. Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the
activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he
said. The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they
were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former
American diplomat. "Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP
Morgan," he said. Documents found by The Sunday Telegraph published this weekend

showed Mr Blair had made at least three visits to Tripoli, twice in the lead-up to the release
of the alleged Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi in 2008 and 2009 and once last year.
On the first two occasions he was flown to the country on planes arranged by Col Gaddafi.
Note: For a two-page summary of US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler's explanation of the
profiteering behind modern wars, click here. For key reports on corporate and government
corruption from major media sources, click here and here.

US sees big drop in violence despite economic woes

2011-09-17, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44559363/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
The number of violent crimes fell by a surprising 12 percent in the United States last year, a far
bigger drop than the nation has been averaging since 2001, the Justice Department said. The
Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were 3.8 million violent crimes last year, down from 4.3
million in 2009. Experts aren't sure why. The expectation had been that crime would increase in a
weak economy with high unemployment like that seen in 2010. The big drop dwarfs the 3 percent
yearly decline in violent crimes the nation averaged from 2001 through 2009. More than 80 percent
of the decline in violent crime was attributed to a plunge in simple assaults, by 15 percent. Those
assaults accounted for nearly two-thirds of all violent crimes in 2010. The combined total of
property crimes and violent crimes was down 6.6 percent last year, from 20 million to 18.7 million.
From 1993 through 2010, the rate of violent crime has declined by a whopping 70 percent:
from 49.9 violent crimes per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to only 14.9 per 1,000 in 2010.
Note: A 70 percent drop in violent crime in the last 20 years - that's amazing! Why isn't this
inspiring news making top headlines? For excellent FBI graphs and more showing this dramatic
decrease in crime, click here.

National Archives sits on 9/11 Commission records

2011-09-08, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/us-sept11-archive-idUSTRE7872QI2011...
Ten years after [the 9/11 attacks], the vast majority of the 9/11 Commission's investigative records
remain sealed at the National Archives in Washington, even though the commission had directed
the archives to make most of the material public in 2009. The National Archives' failure to release
the material presents a hurdle for historians and others seeking to plumb one of the most dramatic
events in modern American history. Matt Fulgham, assistant director of the archives' center for
legislative affairs..., said that more than a third of the material has been reviewed for possible
release. But many of those documents have been withheld or heavily redacted, and the released
material includes documents that already were in the public domain, such as press articles.
Commission items still not public include a 30-page summary of an April 29, 2004 interview
by all 10 commissioners with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney,

conducted in the White House's Oval Office. This was the only time the two were formally
questioned about the events surrounding the attacks. The information could shed light on
public accounts the two men have given in recent weeks of their actions around the time of the
attacks. The still-sealed documents contain source material on subjects ranging from actions by
President Bush on the day of the attacks to ... vast amounts of information on al Qaeda and U.S.
intelligence efforts in the years preceding the attacks.
Note: For lots more on government secrecy from major media sources, click here.

Cuba Announces Release of the World's First Lung Cancer Vaccine

2011-09-08, Popular Science Magazine
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/cuba-releases-worlds-first-lung...
From the island nation known for the quality of its cigars comes some pretty big news today:
Cuban medical authorities have released the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. CimaVaxEGF is the result of a 25-year research project at Havanas Center for Molecular Immunology, and
it could make a life or death difference for those facing late-stage lung cancers. CimaVax-EGF isnt
a vaccine in the preventative sense--that is, it doesnt prevent lung cancer from taking hold in new
patients. Its based on a protein related to uncontrolled cell proliferation--that is, it doesnt prevent
cancer from existing in the first place but attacks the mechanism by which it does harm. As such it
can turn aggressive later-stage lung cancer into a manageable chronic disease by creating
antibodies that do battle with the proteins that cause uncontrolled cell proliferation, researchers
say. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still recommended as a primary means of destroying
cancerous tissue, but for those showing no improvement the new vaccine could be a literal
lifesaver. The vaccine has already been tested in 1,000 patients in Cuba and is being
distributed at hospitals there free of charge. Thats a big deal for a country where smoking
is part of the national culture and a leading cause of death. If it proves as successful as
researchers say it is, it should give those suffering from lung cancer reason to celebrate-just not with a Cohiba.
Note: For lots more on important health issues from reliable sources, click here.

Secret trial revelations prompt US-Israeli diplomatic storm

2011-09-07, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-trial-revelations-pro...
A court case against a translator who leaked US government secrets was conducted in secret
because it centred on the revelation that the FBI had eavesdropped on Israeli embassy phone
calls, it was revealed yesterday. The extraordinary limitations in place for the prosecution of
Shamai Leibowitz, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison for disseminating classified
information, meant that even the judge sentencing him did not know what he was supposed
to have leaked. "All I know is that it's a serious case," Judge Alexander Williams said last year. "I

don't know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have
no idea." But now Richard Silverstein, the blogger to whom Leibowitz passed his information, has
come forward to defend his source. Leibowitz passed him about 200 pages of verbatim records of
phone calls and conversations between embassy officials, saying that he believed the documents
revealed Israeli officials trying unlawfully to influence US policy and edging towards
military action against Iran. There has been dismay among civil liberties and open government
advocates who point to pledges made by Mr Obama before his election to seek new transparency
in Washington. Instead, his administration has launched a record number of prosecutions under
the Espionage Act five including the Leibowitz case. Previously, there had been only four such
prosecutions opened by all previous administrations.
Note: For lots more on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here.

Oil boom poses environmental challenge to U.S.

2011-09-04, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-04/opinion/30108735_1_west-texas-intermedi...
Step aside, Saudi Arabia and Alaska. A major oil boom is under way in the U.S. lower 48 states
and Canada. Oil rigs are sprouting across American corn fields and backyards, bringing a surge in
greenhouse gas emissions and new public worries about local environmental effects. Oil
companies and their supporters are grandly predicting a new age of North American petroleum,
and it's no lie. U.S. reserves of oil that is ultra-heavy ... add up to more than 2 trillion barrels, with
2.4 trillion more in Canada - far greater than the conventional Middle Eastern and North African
reserves of 1.2 trillion barrels. For decades, these supplies of ultra-heavy oil were viewed as
exorbitantly expensive to extract. But in the past few years, a revolution in oil-field technology has
made a significant portion of these reserves accessible at competitive costs. [In] 2005 the
country's net petroleum imports peaked at 60.3 percent of total consumption. Net imports
[shrank] to 49.3 percent by 2010. The number of rigs drilling for oil in the [US] is eight times
greater than a decade ago. Already, the price gap between the international oil benchmark ... and
the U.S. standard ... has grown in the past year alone to about $20 per barrel. Peak oil ... may be
in the offing internationally but is nowhere to be seen in North America. Beckoning are two
visions of our future. On one side is a surge of dirty oil that is likely to embolden a new crop of
business-as-usual politicians. On the other is the emerging gamut of technologies for energy
efficiency and renewable power that have already made California a clean-tech leader. Can
America go beyond oil, or will it embrace the old status quo?
Note: Though it may be encouraging that peak oil is not an imminent threat, let us hope that clean
energy technologies replace oil-based energy generation before too long.

'Anti-cancer virus' shows promise

2011-08-31, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14730608

An engineered virus, injected into the blood, can selectively target cancer cells throughout the
body in what researchers have labelled a medical first. The virus attacked only tumours, leaving
the healthy tissue alone, in a small trial on 23 patients, according to the journal Nature.
Researchers said the findings could one day "truly transform" therapies. Cancer specialists said
using viruses showed "real promise". Using viruses to attack cancers is not a new concept, but
they have needed to be injected directly into tumours in order to evade the immune system. The
virus, named JX-594 ... was injected at different doses into the blood of 23 patients with cancers
which had spread to multiple organs in the body. Prof John Bell, lead researcher and from the
University of Ottawa, said: "We are very excited because this is the first time in medical
history that a viral therapy has been shown to consistently and selectively replicate in
cancer tissue after intravenous infusion in humans. Intravenous delivery is crucial for
cancer treatment because it allows us to target tumours throughout the body as opposed to just
those that we can directly inject."
Note: With millions of people dying of cancer every year, why isn't this being fast tracked like the
AIDS drugs were? For exciting information from reliable sources on promising new cancer cure
possibilities, click here.

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says

2011-08-31, Miami Herald/McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/31/2384554/wikileaks-iraqi-children-in-us....
A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at
least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an
airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of
Ishaqi. The unclassified cable, which was posted on WikiLeaks' website last week, contained
questions from a United Nations investigator about the incident. U.S. officials denied at the time
that anything inappropriate had occurred. But Philip Alston, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said in a communication to American officials dated
12 days after the March 15, 2006, incident that autopsies performed in the Iraqi city of Tikrit
showed that all the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head. Among the dead were
four women and five children. The children were all 5 years old or younger. Alston said that
as of 2010 - the most recent data he had - U.S. officials hadn't responded to his request for
information and that Iraq's government also hadn't been forthcoming. He said the lack of response
from the United States "was the case with most of the letters to the U.S. in the 2006-2007 period,"
when fighting in Iraq peaked. Alston said he could provide no further information on the incident.
"The tragedy," he said, "is that this elaborate system of communications is in place but the (U.N.)
Human Rights Council does nothing to follow up when states ignore issues raised with them."
Note: For lots more on the atrocities and secret realities of the "Endless War" launched by the 9/11
false-flag operation, click here.

Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

2011-08-29, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-the-fukushima-disaster-is-wo...
The triple meltdown and its aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant [have] elevated Japan
into unknown, and unknowable, terrain. Across the northeast, millions of people are living with its
consequences and searching for a consensus on a safe radiation level that does not exist. Experts
give bewilderingly different assessments of its dangers. Some scientists say Fukushima is worse
than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding
scale of nuclear disasters. Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster ... said the
disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. "Fukushima is still boiling its
radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is
worse." Slowly, steadily, and often well behind the curve, the government has worsened its
prognosis of the disaster. Last Friday, scientists affiliated with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety
Agency said the plant had released 15,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing Cesium, equivalent
to about 168 times the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event that ushered in the nuclear
age. [But] Professor Busby says the release is at least 72,000 times worse than Hiroshima.
Note: For key reports on corporate and government corruption from major media sources, click
here and here.

CIAs Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare

2011-08-27, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/27/2377593/cias-bay-of-pigs-foreign-policy...
A once-secret CIA history of the Bay of Pigs invasion lays out in unvarnished detail how the
American spy agency came to the rescue of and cut deals with authoritarian governments in
Central America, largely to hide the U.S. role in organizing and controlling the hapless Cuban exile
invasion force. The most powerful people in Central American embassies were the CIA station
chiefs. Ambassadors step aside and allow the CIA to negotiate deals for covert paramilitary bases
in a newly released portion of the CIAs Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. What
youre reading in this report shows again that in the hypocritical name of democracy the
United States and CIA were willing to prop up some of the most cut-throat dictatorships,
says researcher Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
He sued the CIA for release of the Top Secret document that dissects one of the agencys greatest
failures. Using secret interviews, cables and memos, CIA historian Jack B. Pfeiffer wrote the
classified account of the disastrous operation to topple Fidel Castro. Its unusually candid because
nobody except spies were expected read it. Both the Eisenhower and Kennedy governments
wanted to be able to deny responsibility for the invasion.
Note: To read the formerly-secret CIA history of the Bay of Pigs operation, just released by the
National Security Archive, click here.

Budd Hopkins, Abstract Expressionist and U.F.O. Author, Dies at 80

2011-08-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/arts/design/budd-hopkins-abstract-artist-an...
Budd Hopkins, a distinguished Abstract Expressionist artist who after what he described as a
chance sighting of something flat, silver, airborne and unfathomable became the father of the
alien-abduction movement, died on Aug. 21 at his home in Manhattan. He was 80. After what he
described as his own U.F.O. sighting, on Cape Cod in 1964, he began gathering the stories of
people who said they had not only seen spaceships but had also been spirited away in them on
involuntary and unpleasant journeys. As the first person to collect and publish such stories in
quantity, Mr. Hopkins is widely credited with having begun the alien-abduction movement, a
subgenre of U.F.O. studies. Later high-profile writers on the subject, including Whitley
Strieber and the Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, credited him with having ignited their
interest in the field. In eliciting the narratives many obtained under hypnosis of people who
said they had been abducted, Mr. Hopkins was struck by the recurrence of certain motifs: the
lonely road, the dark of night, the burst of light, the sudden passage through the air and into a
waiting craft, and above all the sense of time that could not be accounted for. He went in search of
that lost time.
Note: Prof. John Mack, mentioned in this article as inspired by the work of Budd Hopkins, was a
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor at Harvard Medical School who initially rejected the
possibility of alien abductions. Only after thorough investigation did he reluctantly come to the
conclusion that this was a real phenomenon. For a powerful documentary featuring Mack's work
on alien abductions, click here. For a fascinating summary of evidence presented by top
government and military professionals on the possible presence of extraterrestrials here on Earth,
click here.

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas

2011-08-24, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/08/24/with_cia_hel...
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department has become one of the
nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies, targeting ethnic communities in ways that
would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government. The operations have
benefited from unprecedented help from the CIA, a partnership that has blurred the line between
foreign and domestic spying. The department has dispatched undercover officers, known as
"rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to
officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars,
cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor
sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. Many of these operations were built with
help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in
transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit. A veteran CIA officer, while still on the agency's payroll,
was the architect of the NYPD's intelligence programs. The CIA trained a police detective at the

Farm, the agency's spy school in Virginia, then returned him to New York, where he put his new
espionage skills to work inside the United States. And just last month, the CIA sent a senior officer
to work as a clandestine operative inside police headquarters.
Note: For more on this important story from NPR, click here. For lots more from reliable sources
on government threats to civil liberties, click here.

The explosive truth behind Fukushima's meltdown

2011-08-17, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-explosive-truth-behind-fukus...
It is one of the mysteries of Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis: How much damage did the 11 March
earthquake inflict on the Fukushima Daiichi reactors before the tsunami hit? The stakes are high: if
the earthquake structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every
similar reactor in Japan may have to be shut down. Throughout the months of lies and
misinformation, one story has stuck: it was the earthquake that knocked out the plant's electric
power, halting cooling to its six reactors. The tsunami then washed out the plant's back-up
generators 40 minutes later, shutting down all cooling and starting the chain of events that would
cause the world's first triple meltdown. But what if recirculation pipes and cooling pipes burst
after the earthquake before the tidal wave reached the facilities; before the electricity went
out? This would surprise few people familiar with the 40-year-old reactor one, the
grandfather of the nuclear reactors still operating in Japan. Problems with the fractured,
deteriorating, poorly repaired pipes and the cooling system had been pointed out for years. In
September 2002, Tepco admitted covering up data about cracks in critical circulation pipes.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on corporate and government corruption,
click here and here.

Land of the Free, Home of the Poor

2011-08-16, PBS Newshour
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec11/makingsense_08-16.html
Inequality in America. It's a subject that's getting more attention in light of the weak economy and
the ongoing debate around budget cuts and raising revenues. Billionaire businessman ... Warren
Buffett, who has argued in favor of higher taxes on the wealthiest, [discusses] the growing
disparity. WARREN BUFFETT: It should be a land of opportunity. But the ... market system has led
to extremes. Everybody in this country owes their good fortune in some way to the rest of the
country. DAN ARIELY: People don't understand how much wealth the top 20 percent have.
They actually have 84 percent of the wealth. And more disturbingly, people don't
understand how little wealth the bottom of the distribution have. The bottom 40 percent of
the U.S. have about 0.3 percent of the wealth, basically zero. RICHARD FREEMAN: In the last
30 years or so, the share of national [income] -- of income that has gone to the upper 0.1 percent -

- not to the upper 1.0 percent -- 0.1 percent -- rose by 10 percentage points. That is one of the
most astounding patterns I have ever seen in data. People sometimes say, oh, the rich, it's the
upper 10 percent, it's the upper 5 percent. No, no, this is the 0.1 percent. Warren Buffett has this
wonderful statement where he says: Yes, there's been a class war in the United States. And my
class, namely the super rich people, have won.
Note: For key articles from major media sources on the extreme income inequality in the US, click
here.

New leukemia treatment exceeds 'wildest expectations'

2011-08-10, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44090512/ns/health-cancer/t/new-leukemia-treatmen...
Doctors have treated only three leukemia patients, but the sensational results from a single shot
could be one of the most significant advances in cancer research in decades. Doctors at the
University of Pennsylvania say the treatment made the most common type of leukemia
completely disappear in two of the patients and reduced it by 70 percent in the third. In each
of the patients as much as five pounds of cancerous tissue completely melted away in a few
weeks, and a year later it is still gone. The results of the preliminary test exceeded our wildest
expectations, says immunologist Dr. Carl June a member of the Abramson Cancer Center's
research team. Chemotherapy and radiation can hold this form of leukemia at bay for years, but
until now the only cure has been a bone marrow transplant. A bone marrow transplant requires a
suitable match, works only about half the time, and often brings on severe, life-threatening side
effects such as pain and infection. So why has this remarkable treatment been tried so far on
only three patients? Both the National Cancer Institute and several pharmaceutical
companies declined to pay for the research. Neither applicants nor funders discuss the reasons
an application is turned down.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on hopeful new cancer treatments, click here.

30 Americans Killed Including 22 SEALs When Afghan Insurgents Shoot

Down Helicopter
2011-08-06, ABC/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/helicopter-shot-25-navy-seals-dead-crash-...
A helicopter was shot down today by Afghan insurgents as it was rushing to aid troops in a
firefight, killing 30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, most of whom belonged to Team
6, the unit whose members were involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, U.S.
officials said. It's unclear how far away the helicopter was from the initial firefight when it went
down and unclear how the troops in the firefight got to the crash location, the official said. Although
the Taliban have claimed to have shot the helicopter down, U.S. officials have only identified the

attackers as insurgents. The last worst one-day U.S. casualty record in Afghanistan was on June
28, 2005 when 16 U.S. soldiers were killed in Kunar province after a helicopter was shot down by
Taliban insurgents.
Note: Many scholars claim Osama bin Laden was already dead long before he was allegedly
killed by the Navy Seal Team 6. Isn't it strange the his body was buried at sea, so that the identity
of the dead body could never be certain, when those in charge knew about theories that bin Laden
wasn't dead. And now, many members of the team that took part in the raid may be dead, so that
they can't tell their side of the story. For more evidence that bin Laden died long before the raid,
see BBC articles here and here, a Washington Post article, and an article in New Zealand's
leading newspaper showing the published death photo was a fake.

Top Gear's electric car shows pour petrol over the BBC's standards
2011-08-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/aug/05/top-gear-bbc
What distinguishes the BBC from the rest of this country's media? Perhaps the most important
factor is its editorial guidelines, which are supposed to ensure that the corporation achieves "the
highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality and strive[s] to avoid knowingly and materially
misleading our audiences." Woe betide the producer or presenter who breaches these guidelines.
Unless, that is, they work for Top Gear. Take, for example, Top Gear's line on electric cars.
Casting aside any pretence of impartiality or rigour, it has set out to show that electric cars
are useless. If the facts don't fit, it bends them until they do. It's currently being sued by
electric car maker Tesla. Now it's been caught red-handed faking another trial, in this case
of the Nissan LEAF. Last Sunday, an episode of Top Gear showed Jeremy Clarkson and James
May setting off for Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, 60 miles away. The car unexpectedly ran out of
charge when they got to Lincoln, and had to be pushed. They concluded that "electric cars are not
the future". But it wasn't unexpected: Nissan has a monitoring device in the car which transmits
information on the state of the battery. This shows that, while the company delivered the car to Top
Gear fully charged, the programme-makers ran the battery down before Clarkson and May set off,
until only 40% of the charge was left.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on promising new energy and automotive technologies,
click here. For more on corruption in the mass media, click here.

How Paul Stephenson and PM fell out over hacking scandal

2011-07-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/david-cameron-paul-stephenson-hac...
David Cameron flew abroad last night for a long-arranged trip to Africa leaving behind the carnage
inside Britain's most important police force, tumult inside the news organisation with which he has
closest links, and open disdain from his deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, over his appointment of

Andy Coulson to No 10. The "firestorm" he himself described is still raging, and as the body count
rises in the form of arrests or resignations, he looks increasingly exposed. Every day as the crisis
continues, his judgment, and that of the chancellor, George Osborne, in appointing the former
editor of the News of the World Andy Coulson as his director of communications looks increasingly
inexplicable. The problems Cameron faces come from all directions. There is no evidence that the
Conservative party either in the Home Office or in the London mayoralty of Boris Johnson took
seriously the suggestion, repeatedly raised by Labour, that the connections between News
International and the Met were unhealthy. Thirdly, the record of meetings between Cameron
and News International executives released on Friday does not reveal a modernising prime
minister governing in the national interest, but a victim of a vested interest. His meetings
with News International executives in a year exceed those with all other news organisations
put together. Not a single figure from the BBC was granted an audience.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click
here and here.

Scotland Yard Chief Quits Over Hacking in Britain

2011-07-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/world/europe/18hacking.html
Britains top police official resigned on [July 17], the latest casualty of the phone-hacking
scandal engulfing British public life, just hours after Rebekah Brooks, the former chief
executive of Rupert Murdochs News International, was arrested on suspicion of illegally
intercepting phone calls and bribing the police. The official, Sir Paul Stephenson,
commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, commonly known as the Met or Scotland Yard,
said that he had decided to step down [but] that he had done nothing wrong and that he would not
lose sleep over my personal integrity. The commissioners resignation came as the London
political establishment was still digesting the stunning news about the arrest of Ms. Brooks who
apparently was surprised herself. A consummate networker who has always been assiduously
courted by politicians and whose friends include Prime Minister David Cameron, Ms. Brooks, 43, is
the 10th and by far the most powerful person to be arrested so far in the phone-hacking scandal.
The arrest was a shock to the News Corporation, the parent company of News International, and
the other properties in Mr. Murdochs media empire, which is reeling from the traumas of last week:
the forced withdrawal of its cherished $12 billion takeover bid for British Sky Broadcasting and the
resignations not only of Ms. Brooks but also of Les Hinton, a longtime Murdoch ally and friend who
was the chairman of Dow Jones and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Note: For lots more on media and government corruption click here and here.

Phone hacking: Police probe suspected deletion of emails by NI

executive

2011-07-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/phone-hacking-emails-news-interna...
Police are investigating evidence that a News International executive may have deleted millions of
emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the
phone-hacking scandal. The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005, revealing
daily contact between News of the World editors, reporters and outsiders, including private
investigators. A senior executive is believed to have deleted "massive quantities" of the archive on
two separate occasions, leaving only a fraction to be disclosed. The allegation directly contradicts
NI claims that it is co-operating fully with police in order to expose its history of illegal
newsgathering. Rupert Murdoch is planning to fly into London on [July 9] to confront the crisis. The
scandal brought a number of arrests on [July 8], with the prime minister's former PR chief
Andy Coulson held under suspicion of involvement in phone hacking. As he was released
on bail, he told reporters: "There is an awful lot I would like to say, but I can't at this time."
Clive Goodman, the NoW's former royal reporter, was also arrested in relation to the alleged
payment of bribes to police, and subsequently bailed.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

House OKs $649B Defense Spending Bill

2011-07-08, Time Magazine/Associated Press
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2082156,00.html
The House on [July 8] overwhelmingly passed a $649 billion defense spending bill that boosts the
Pentagon budget by $17 billion and covers the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While
House Republican leaders slashed billions from all other government agencies, the
Defense Department is the only one that will see a double-digit increase in its budget. Amid
negotiations to cut spending and raise the nation's borrowing limit, the House rejected several
amendments to cut the Pentagon budget, including a measure by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to
halve the bill's increase in defense spending. "We are at a time of austerity. We are at a time when
the important programs, valid programs, are being cut back," Frank said. Scoffing at the
suggestion that "everything is on the table" in budget negotiations between the Obama
administration and congressional leaders, Frank said, "The military budget is not on the table.
The military is at the table, and it is eating everybody else's lunch." Still, the overall bill is $9
billion less than President Barack Obama sought. The White House has threatened a veto, citing
limits on the president's authority to transfer detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, and money for defense programs it didn't want. The measure includes $119 billion for the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Note: For a powerful summary of the real reasons behind the endless series of US wars in the last
century, click here.

Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

2011-07-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/opinion/02hotchner.html
Early one morning, 50 years ago today, while his wife, Mary, slept upstairs, Ernest Hemingway
went into the vestibule of his Ketchum, Idaho, house, selected his favorite shotgun from the rack,
inserted shells into its chambers and ended his life. There were many differing explanations at the
time: that he had terminal cancer or money problems, that it was an accident, that hed quarreled
with Mary. None were true. As his friends knew, hed been suffering from depression and paranoia
for the last year of his life. This man, who had stood his ground against charging water buffaloes,
who had flown missions over Germany, who had refused to accept the prevailing style of writing
but, enduring rejection and poverty, had insisted on writing in his own unique way, this man, my
deepest friend, was afraid afraid that the F.B.I. was after him. Decades later, in response to a
Freedom of Information petition, the F.B.I. released its Hemingway file. It revealed that beginning in
the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover had placed Ernest under surveillance because he was suspicious of
Ernests activities in Cuba. Over the following years, agents filed reports on him and tapped his
phones. In the years since, I have tried to reconcile Ernests fear of the F.B.I., which I
regretfully misjudged, with the reality of the F.B.I. file. I now believe he truly sensed the
surveillance, and that it substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide.
Note: The view that FBI harassment contributed to Hemingway's suicide is similar to the
conclusion of many observers that the FBI hounded microbiologist Bruce Ivins to death by
investigating him for involvement in the anthrax attacks that occurred just after 9/11. For an
important analysis of the reality of the anthrax attacks by Prof. Graeme MacQueen of McMaster
University, which makes it clear they could not have been carried out by a "lone nut" as claimed by
the FBI, click here.

How two shell companies duped the Pentagon

2011-06-28, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/us-usa-shell-companies-pentagon-idU...
Two companies incorporated at a little house in Cheyenne, Wyoming, won Pentagon contracts
after their owner took advantage of the state's liberal incorporation laws to create the firms using
an alias, and then represented them as minority-owned to win favorable treatment as a military
supplier. The firms and their owner were later banned from doing business with the Pentagon for
providing knock-off parts. A Reuters investigation has found that more than 2,000 companies are
registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue in Cheyenne, the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate
Services, a business incorporation company that specializes in corporate anonymity. A Reuters
review of federal contracting databases found nine firms registered at 2710 Thomes Avenue
have been awarded 93 contracts worth more than $1.6 million by a half dozen government
agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Treasury's Internal Revenue
Service, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. More than
90 percent of the contracts were awarded by the Department of Defense. The companies were

created by Atilla C. Kan, an employee of another Pentagon supplier called New York Machinery.
Kan formed the companies in Wyoming under the name John Ryan. He later used the alias, and a
description of the companies as "minority-owned," "woman-owned" and "Hispanic-owned," when
applying to supply military parts, the documents show.
Note: For more on this showing a vast level of corruption, click here and watch the Reuters video
available here. For a powerful and deep analysis by David Wilcock on this important topic, which
he calls the ultimate ponzi scheme, click here.

A little house of secrets on the Great Plains

2011-06-28, MSN/Reuters News
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20110628&id=138...
The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne,
Wyoming. At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are
registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list
corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the
State Capitol. A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a
little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a
business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as "shell" companies,
paper entities able to hide assets. Wyoming Corporate Services will help clients create a company,
and more: set up a bank account for it; add a lawyer as a corporate director to invoke attorneyclient privilege; even appoint stand-in directors and officers as high as CEO. Among its offerings
is a variety of shell known as a "shelf" company, which comes with years of regulatory
filings behind it, lending a greater feeling of solidity. All the activity at 2710 Thomes is part
of a little-noticed industry in the U.S.: the mass production of paper businesses. Scores of
mass incorporators like Wyoming Corporate Services have set up shop.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate corruption, click here.

The women of India's Barefoot College bring light to remote villages

2011-06-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/jun/24/india-barefoot-colle...
Santosh Devi is [a] 19-year-old, semi-literate woman from the backwaters of Rajasthan [who] has
broken through India's rigid caste system to become the country's first Dalit solar engineer. While
differences of caste have begun to blur in the cities, in rural India Dalits also known as
"untouchables" are still impoverished and widely discriminated against. Santosh trained to be a
solar engineer at the Barefoot College in Tilonia, 100km from Jaipur. The college was set up in
1972 by Sanjit "Bunker" Roy to teach rural people skills with which they could transform their
villages, regardless of gender, caste, ethnicity, age or schooling. The college claims to have
trained 15,000 women in skills including solar engineering, healthcare and water testing. Roy, 65,

says his approach low cost, decentralised and community driven works by "capitalising on the
resources already present in the villages". The college, spread over eight acres, runs entirely on
solar energy, maintained by the Barefoot solar engineers. Since the solar course was launched
in 2005, more than 300 Barefoot engineers have brought power to more than 13,000 homes
across India. A further 6,000 households, in more than 120 villages in 24 countries from
Afghanistan to Uganda, have been powered on the same model. Only villages that are
inaccessible, remote and non-electrified are considered for solar power. A drop in the ocean,
perhaps 44% of rural households in India have no electricity but these women are making an
important contribution to the nation's power needs.
Note: For a very inspiring TED talk filled with great stories by the founder of this college, click
here.

Bipolar label soars among kids

2011-06-23, Star Tribune (Minneapolis' leading newspaper)
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/wellness/124136764.html
The number of American children diagnosed with bipolar disorder increased 40-fold in a recent 10year span, one study found. In Minnesota, spending on powerful antipsychotic drugs to treat
bipolar and other disorders in children has risen 17-fold since 2000 and exceeds $6 million
annually -- just in one state-funded health program. Now, in a medical reversal with few
parallels, psychiatrists are backing away from the diagnosis. While some feel bipolar was
once under-diagnosed in children, they worry that thousands of kids have since received the
diagnosis in error, due to overzealous doctors, desperate parents, quirks in the health
insurance system and aggressive marketing by drug companies. This summer, in a sign of
the profession's second thoughts, the manual that psychiatrists use to make diagnoses is being
rewritten and field-tested with a new disorder that would replace bipolar in many cases. The
profession's about-face could help the next generation of troubled children, but it also raises
questions about the harm done to children who shouldn't have received either the diagnosis or the
potent drugs used to treat it. While antipsychotics can be lifesavers for patients who truly are
bipolar, they come with increased risks of obesity, diabetes, muscle spasms and other serious side
effects.
Note: For a powerful analysis of corruption in medicine by a leading medical researcher, click
here. For key reports on health from reliable sources, click here.

NC Forced Sterilization Victims Voice Grief, Pain

2011-06-22, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13905732

There is nothing the state of North Carolina can do, Elaine Riddick says, to make up for forcing her
to be sterilized when she was 14 years old. "They cut me open like I was a hog," [she said]. About
7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program. Roughly 85 percent of
the victims were women or girls. Unlike most states, North Carolina ramped up its sterilizations
after World War II, despite associations between eugenics and Nazi Germany, which took
eugenics to even more horrifying lengths. Around 70 percent of all North Carolina's sterilizations
were performed after the war, peaking in the 1950s, according to state records. Nationwide, there
were more than 60,000 known victims of sterilization programs, with perhaps another
40,000 sterilized through "unofficial" channels like hospitals or local health departments
working on their own initiative. Eugenics was aimed at creating a better society by filtering out
people considered undesirable, ranging from criminals to those imprecisely designated as "feebleminded." People as young as 10 in North Carolina were sterilized for not getting along with
schoolmates, being promiscuous or running afoul of local social workers or doctors. "Where did all
this come from? This came from doctors, medical practitioners, professors, not guys in pickup
trucks wearing white sheets," said Edwin Black, author of the eugenics history War Against the
Weak.

Nuke plant averts shutdown from swelled Missouri

2011-06-20, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/20/national/main20072590.shtml
The bloated Missouri River rose to within 18 inches of forcing the shutdown of a nuclear power
plant in southeast Nebraska but stopped and ebbed slightly [on June 20], after several levees in
northern Missouri failed to hold back the surging waterway. The river has to hit 902 feet above sea
level at Brownville before officials will shut down the Cooper Nuclear Plant, which sits at 903 feet,
Nebraska Public Power District spokesman Mark Becker said. Becker said the river rose to 900.56
feet at Brownville on Sunday, then dropped to 900.4 feet later in the day and remained at that level
Monday morning. The Cooper Nuclear Plant is operating at full capacity Monday, Becker
said. The Columbus-based utility sent a "notification of unusual event" to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission when the river rose to 899 feet early Sunday morning. The
declaration is the least serious of four emergency notifications established by the federal
commission. The Cooper Nuclear Station is one of two plants along the Missouri River in eastern
Nebraska. The Fort Calhoun Station, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, is about 20
miles north of Omaha. It issued a similar alert to the regulatory commission June 6.
Note: This same plant narrowly avoided a shutdown just a couple weeks prior due to an electrical
fire. For the AP article on this, click here. On Monday, June 27, floodwaters collapsed a berm
protecting the plant and flooded a building onsite. Authorities, however, still claim there are no
dangers.

Restoring Memory, Repairing Damaged Brains

2011-06-17, University of Southern California, School of Engineering

http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2011/restoring-memory-repairing.htm
Scientists have developed a way to turn memories on and off - literally with the flip of a switch.
Using an electronic system that duplicates the neural signals associated with memory, they
managed to replicate the brain function in rats associated with long-term learned behavior, even
when the rats had been drugged to forget. "Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off,
and the rats forget," said Theodore Berger of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department
of Biomedical Engineering. Using embedded electrical probes, the [team] recorded changes in the
rat's brain activity between the ... divisions of the hippocampus, known as subregions CA3 and
CA1. During the learning process, the hippocampus converts short-term memory into long-term
memory. In a dramatic demonstration, the experimenters blocked the normal neural
interactions between the two areas using pharmacological agents. The previously trained
rats then no longer displayed the long-term learned behavior. But long-term memory
capability returned to the pharmacologically blocked rats when the team activated the
electronic device programmed to duplicate the memory-encoding function.
Note: With the flip of a switch, researchers can now change, delete, or augment memories. And
remember that any public research is generally at least a decade behind what is happening in
secret government research labs. For key reports from reliable sources on mind control, click here.

Pentagon Papers out 40 years after leak

2011-06-13, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/13/national/main20070759.shtml
Four decades ago, [Daniel Ellsberg] leaked a top-secret study packed with damaging revelations
about U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War. On [June 13] that study, dubbed the Pentagon Papers,
finally came out in complete form. The National Archives and a trio of presidential libraries
released the papers 40 years after The New York Times published the first in its series on the
report. Most of the 7,000-page study has been out for years. Monday's release draws it together
for the first time, and online. The study reveals a pattern of deception as the Johnson,
Kennedy and prior administrations secretly escalated the Vietnam conflict. The declassified
report includes 2,384 pages missing from what was regarded as the most complete version
of the Pentagon Papers, published in 1971 by Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska.
Ellsberg served with the Marines in Vietnam and came back disillusioned. A proteg of Nixon
adviser Henry Kissinger, who called the young man his most brilliant student, Ellsberg served the
administration as an analyst, tied to the Rand Corporation. The report was by a team of analysts.
To this day, Ellsberg regrets staying mum for as long as he did. "I was part, on a middle level, of
what is best described as a conspiracy by the government to get us into war," he said. His
message to whistleblowers now: Speak up sooner. "Don't do what I did. Don't wait until the bombs
start falling."

Note: Forty years later, both Democratic and Republican administrations continue to escalate war
expenses while telling the public they are doing the opposite. For the powerful revelations of a top
US general exposing the manipulations behind the war machine, click here. Senator Gravel is
spearheading the call for an independent 9/11 investigation and prosecution of Bush and Cheney.
For more on this, click here and here.

Nuclear fuel has melted through base of Fukushima plant

2011-06-09, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8565020/Nuclear-fuel-has-melted-through-base-...
The nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has melted
through the base of the pressure vessels and is pooling in the outer containment vessels,
according to a report by the Japanese government. The findings of the report, which has been
given to the International Atomic Energy Agency, were revealed by the Yomiuri newspaper,
which described a "melt-through" as being "far worse than a core meltdown" and "the
worst possibility in a nuclear accident." Water that was pumped into the pressure vessels to
cool the fuel rods, becoming highly radioactive in the process, has been confirmed to have leaked
out of the containment vessels and outside the buildings that house the reactors. Elevated levels
of radiation have been confirmed in the ocean off the plant. The radiation will also have
contaminated the soil and plant and animal life around the facility, making the task of cleaning up
more difficult and expensive, as well as taking longer. The pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor is
now believed to have suffered damage just five hours after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Melt-downs of the fuel in the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors followed over the following days with the
molten fuel collecting at the bottom of the pressure vessels before burning through and into the
external steel containment vessels.
Note: The UK Telegraph has been consistently reporting the bad news about the Fukushima
catastrophe, but many other major media outlets have not kept the spotlight on this vital issue.
Could that be because they are protecting the nuclear industry and its plans for expansion from the
fallout of public opinion?

An Archbishop Burns While Rome Fiddles

2011-06-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05dowd.html
[When Diarmuid Martin], the archbishop of Dublin, ... was sent home to Dublin in 2003 after 27
years in the Vatican bureaucracy and diplomatic corps, [he] found the Irish church in crisis, reeling
from a cover-up [sexual abuse of minors] that spanned the tenures of four past Dublin
archbishops. In February, Martin held an unprecedented Liturgy of Lament and Repentance at a
Dublin cathedral, where he asked forgiveness from God and victims of abuse and praised the
courage of those who had come forward. In return for doing the right thing, he has been ostracized
by fellow bishops in Ireland and snubbed by the Holy See. Martin is standing alone against the

tide right now, but hes on the right side of history, said Jason Berry, who has written two books on
the church scandal. I think he is probably the single best hope for the church within the hierarchy.
Yet Martin, famous protector of victims, is an outlier of the club, while Cardinal Bernard
Law, notorious protector of pedophiles, has a cushy Vatican sanctuary. And Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, who was in league with the notorious abuser of seminarians and
inseminator of women, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, is the dean of the College of
Cardinals in Rome.

Senators sound alarm over Patriot Act extension

2011-06-02, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politicsnow/la-pn-patriot-act-alarm-201106...
When two senators warned that the Patriot Act is being interpreted in a secret way that would
alarm Americans if they knew the details, civil liberties activists could only speculate about what
they meant. The activists' fear: that the government is using the anti-terrorism law to collect vast
troves of personal information, including cellphone records, on Americans who have no link to
terrorism. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, proclaimed
that the Patriot Act's surveillance powers are being used far more expansively than most
Americans realize. "Today the American people do not know how their government
interprets the language of the Patriot Act," Wyden said. "Someday they are going to find
out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their
senators: 'Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn't you know? Wasn't it your job to
know, before you voted on it?'" The warnings by two lawmakers with access to secret
information underscore the extent to which government surveillance is shielded from view,
in an age when nearly every American leaves a digital trail through the Internet and mobile
devices. A clue about Wyden's concerns may be found in a separate bill he is proposing, to forbid
the government from tracking, without a court order, the location of Americans through the GPS
signals given out by their cellphones.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on government surveillance and other threats to
privacy and civil liberties, click here and here.

Gbekli Tepe: The Birth of Religion

2011-06-01, National Geographic
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text
Every now and then the dawn of civilization is reenacted on a remote hilltop in southern Turkey.
Dozens of massive stone pillars [at this site are] arranged into a set of rings, one mashed up
against the next. Known as Gbekli Tepe ... the site is [made] from cleanly carved limestone pillars
splashed with bas-reliefs of animalsa cavalcade of gazelles, snakes, foxes, scorpions, and
ferocious wild boars. The assemblage was built some 11,600 years ago, seven millennia before
the Great Pyramid of Giza. It contains the oldest known temple. Indeed, Gbekli Tepe is the

oldest known example of monumental architecture. Archaeologists are still excavating

Gbekli Tepe and debating its meaning. What they do know is that the site is the most
significant in a volley of unexpected findings that have overturned earlier ideas about our
species' deep past. Just 20 years ago most researchers believed they knew the time, place, and
rough sequence of the Neolithic Revolutionthe critical transition that resulted in the birth of
agriculture, taking Homo sapiens from scattered groups of hunter-gatherers to farming villages and
from there to technologically sophisticated societies with great temples and towers and kings and
priests who directed the labor of their subjects and recorded their feats in written form. But in
recent years multiple new discoveries, Gbekli Tepe preeminent among them, have begun forcing
archaeologists to reconsider.
Note: Other discoveries reported in BBC and elsewhere suggest civilizations on Earth much
earlier than most archeologists believe. For more on this, click here. As this fascinating article
indicates, the early site uncovered at Gbekli Tepe may be related to a number of newly-excavated
sites in the Levant from the "Natufian" period, yet archeologists are still puzzling over this one.

Tepco confirms meltdowns at 2 more Fukushima reactors

2011-05-24, MSNBC/Reuters News
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43145372/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
The operator of the nuclear power plant at the center of a radiation scare after being disabled by
Japan's earthquake and tsunami confirmed ... that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three
of its reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co said meltdowns of fuel rods at three reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred early in the crisis triggered by the March 11 disaster. The
government and outside experts had said previously that fuel rods at three of the plant's six
reactors had likely melted early in the crisis, but the utility, also known as Tepco, had only
confirmed a meltdown at the No.1 reactor. Tepco officials said a review since early May of data
from the plant concluded the same happened to reactors No.2 and 3. Some analysts said the
delay in confirming the meltdowns at Fukushima suggested the utility feared touching off a
panic by disclosing the severity of the accident earlier. "Now people are used to the
situation. Nothing is resolved, but normal business has resumed in places like Tokyo," said
Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Tokyo's Sophia University. Nakano said that by
confirming the meltdowns now, Tepco may be hoping the news will have less impact.
Note: Very few major media have given TEPCO's confirmation of the world's worst fears about the
severity of the Fukushima nuclear disaster the attention it deserves. Are the major media burying
this story because of the potential harm it will do to plans for the expansion of the nuclear power
industry?

Latest target in FDA war on raw milk

2011-05-22, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/22/MNVN1JH966.DTL

Pennsylvania Amish farmer Dan Allgyer has become a cause celebre for raw milk drinkers as the
target of a Food and Drug Administration campaign - using sting operations and guns-drawn raids
usually reserved for terrorists and drug lords - to eliminate unpasteurized milk. Such milk, also
known as raw or fresh milk, is legal in California and considered essential to Europe's finest
cheeses, creams and butters. Allgyer is the latest to feel the force of a yearslong Food and Drug
Administration campaign against raw milk that has focused on tiny farms and consumer co-ops.
Raw milk drinkers say cooking milk diminishes its flavor and nutrients. They said similar
sterilization standards, if applied across the American diet, would ban sushi, medium-rare steaks,
oysters on the shell and most raw fruits and vegetables. The Food Safety and Modernization Act
approved by Congress last year and signed by President Obama in January has vastly enhanced
the agency's powers. Starting July 3, the agency can confiscate any food at any farm that it deems
unsafe or mislabeled. Throughout Europe, uncooked milk is the norm, dispensed in vending
machines in Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and the Netherlands. It is healthy,
adherents say, because it contains fat that is not broken down by homogenization and is
free of antibiotics and hormones, because cows are raised in small herds on pastures.

Shocking photo created a hero, but not to his family

2011-05-16, CNN News
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-16/us/Zwerg.freedom.rides_1_greyhound-bus-bus...
The mob was already waiting for James Zwerg by the time the Greyhound bus eased into the
station in Montgomery, Alabama. Looking out the window, Zwerg could see men gripping baseball
bats, chains and clubs. They had sealed off the streets leading to the bus station and chased away
news photographers. They didn't want anyone to witness what they were about to do. Zwerg
accepted his worst fear: He was going to die today. Only the night before, Zwerg had
prayed for the strength to not strike back in anger. He was among the 18 white and black
college students from Nashville who had decided to take the bus trip through the
segregated South in 1961. They called themselves Freedom Riders. Their goal was to
desegregate public transportation. Zwerg had not planned to go, but the night before, some
students had asked him to join them. To summon his courage, Zwerg stayed up late, reading
Psalm 27, the scripture that the students had picked to read during a group prayer before their trip.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I fear?" the Psalm began. But there was
another passage at the end that touched Zwerg in a place the other students didn't know about:
"Though my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me." Zwerg's parents had
forsaken him for joining the civil rights movement.
Note: For another amazingly inspiring story of a man in the civil rights movement who faced death
by hatred with compassion, click here. And for a powerfully inspiring New York Times article on the
50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders, click here. We have clearly come a long way in building
more harmony between races.

Ban mobile phones and wireless networks in schools, say European

leaders
2011-05-14, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8514380/Ban-mobile-phones...
Mobile phones and computers with wireless internet connections pose a risk to human
health and should be banned from schools, a powerful European body has ruled. A Council
of Europe committee examined evidence that the technologies have "potentially harmful"
effects on humans, and concluded that immediate action was required to protect children.
In a report, the committee said it was crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes made when public
health officials were slow to recognise the dangers of asbestos, tobacco smoking and lead in
petrol. The report also highlighted the potential health risks of cordless telephones and baby
monitors, which rely on similar technology and are widely used. Fears have been raised that
electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless devices can cause cancers and affect the developing
brain.
Note: Consider using a wired headset with your cellphone to decrease any cancer risk. For other
safety suggestions, click here. For key articles on health issues from reliable sources, click here.

Nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant

2011-05-12, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8509502/Nuclear-meltdown...
One of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant did suffer a nuclear meltdown,
Japanese officials admitted for the first time today, describing a pool of molten fuel at the bottom of
the reactor's containment vessel. Engineers from the Tokyo Electric Power company (Tepco)
entered the No.1 reactor at the end of last week for the first time and saw the top five feet or
so of the core's 13ft-long fuel rods had been exposed to the air and melted down. Now the
company is worried that the molten pool of radioactive fuel may have burned a hole
through the bottom of the containment vessel, causing water to leak. Tepco has not clarified
what other barriers there are to stop radioactive fuel leaking if the steel containment vessel has
been breached. Greenpeace said the situation could escalate rapidly if "the lava melts through the
vessel". However, an initial plan to flood the entire reactor core with water to keep its temperature
from rising has now been abandoned because it might exacerbate the leak. Tepco said ... that it
had sealed a leak of radioactive water from the No.3 reactor after water was reportedly discovered
to be flowing into the ocean. A similar leak had discharged radioactive water into the sea in April
from the No.2 reactor. Greenpeace said significant amounts of radioactive material had been
released into the sea and that samples of seaweed taken from as far as 40 miles of the Fukushima
plant had been found to contain radiation well above legal limits.
Note: Why hasn't the Japanese government's admission of the meltdown of nuclear reactors at
Fukushima been more widely reported in the press? Are the major media burying this story
because of the potential harm it will do to plans for the expansion of the nuclear power industry?

Study: US Quietly Paid Families For Vaccine-Linked Autism Cases

2011-05-11, CBS Los Angeles
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/05/11/study-us-quietly-paid-families-for-...
Federal health officials may have only recently called autism a national health emergency, but a
new study released [on May 11] showed the U.S. has been quietly compensating families with
autism for nearly two decades. The report from SafeMinds.org a group that believes
scientific evidence has linked autism to vaccinations alleges that a fund set up by the U.S.
government to compensate those injured by vaccines has paid out claims to dozens of
families of autistic kids. The study conducted by the Pace Environmental Law Review revealed
that since the late 1980s, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) has paid
money for 83 cases involving autism out of approximately 1,300 cases of vaccine injury that
resulted in childhood brain injury. In that same time period, federal officials have maintained that
autism which now affects an estimated one in 110 individuals is still rare and has publicly
conceded to only one vaccine-induced autism case involving nine-year-old Hannah Poling. The
studys authors stand behind the findings and warn they are only the tip of the iceberg. Currently,
there are over 5,000 vaccine court cases pending that claim autism as a result of vaccine injury.
Note: For more information from major media sources on the dangers of vaccines, click here. And
for a fascinating study suggesting that vaccines are much less effective than is publicly
acknowledged, click here.

Exxon Leads Defense of Oil Tax Breaks Democrats Want to Repeal

2011-05-11, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/11/bloomberg1376-LL1...
Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex W. Tillerson and four counterparts defended $21
billion in U.S. tax breaks that Democrats are seeking to recapture to reduce the federal deficit.
Senate Democrats are proposing to raise oil and gas taxes by about $2 billion a year for 10 years,
arguing that widening deficits are a threat to the economy and sacrifice is required. College
students are giving up federal help, and so should the companies, said Senator Charles
Schumer, a New York Democrat. "We have to choose priorities and right now we have a huge
budget deficit," Schumer said to ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva. "Do you think that your
subsidy is more important than the financial aid that we give to students to go to college?" To build
their case, Democrats have cited rising gasoline prices and quarterly earnings reports that
put the five companies on pace to generate more than $125 billion in profits this year, which
would be a record. The Democrats' proposal would raise about $13 billion by blocking the five
largest oil and gas companies from receiving a domestic-manufacturing deduction for exploration
and extraction in the U.S. The Senate Democrats' proposal would generate $6.5 billion by
curtailing the oil companies' ability to claim tax credits for royalty payments made to foreign
governments.

Note: We are paying near-record prices for gas, while the oil companines are making record
profits, just as they did when gas prices spiked several years ago. So why are oil companies still
getting tax breaks?

Report of bin Ladens death spurs questions from conspiracy theorists

2011-05-02, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/report-of-bin-ladens-death-spur...
While much of America celebrated the dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden, the Sept. 11
conspiracy theorists still had questions. For them and a growing number of skeptics, the plot only
thickened. Could the public trust bin Ladens DNA samples? Why was [his body disposed of] in an
undisclosed location in the northern Arabian Sea? This has not put a single of the 9/11 questions
to bed, said Steven Jones, a retired Brigham Young University physics professor and contributor
to the 9/11 Truth Movement. I dont know how you can have closure, when there are hundreds of
contradictions to the stories that you were told. The story doesnt end here because we are told bin
Laden is dead, said Mike Berger, who works with 911Truth.org, an organization founded to
examine facts around the attack. Alex Jones, a radio personality out of Austin, who gives voice to
the 9/11 Truth Movement and runs the Web site Infowars.com, sent out a Web headline, Red
Alert. Inside Sources: Bin Laden Corpse Has Been on Ice for Nearly a Decade. He lists FBI
officials and counterintelligence leaders from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who have said
for years that bin Laden was dead. Former Council on Foreign Relations member Steve R.
Pieczenik even told Jones on the air in 2002 that bin Laden had been dead for months.
Note: For intriguing BBC News reports from 2010 and 2007 which claim bin Laden was already
dead at that time, click here and here. WantToKnow team member David Ray Griffin's book
establishing the likelihood that Osama bin Laden died in December 2001, Osama bin Laden: Dead
or Alive?, is available here.

Osama Bin Laden never charged for 9/11

2011-05-02, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/140099/20110502/osama-bin-laden-never-charged...
Osama Bin Laden's death is being celebrated, and everyone seems to repeat the old conspiracy
theory that he was indeed the mastermind behind the terror attacks of 9/11. But that was never
proven, and there is not even evidence hinting at such a connection according to the FBI. Osama
Bin Laden was never formally charged, because the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation didn't
deliver the necessary evidence to the Department of Justice. Read ... what Rex Tomb, FBI Director
of Investigative Publicity, stated in 2006 about the FBI's position: The FBI gathers evidence. Once
evidence is gathered, it is turned over to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice
then decides whether it has enough evidence to present to a federal grand jury. In the case of the
1998 United States Embassies being bombed, bin Laden has been formally indicted and
charged by a grand jury. He has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with

9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11." The connection
between Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks was made by the Bush-Cheney administration, [on] the
morning of the attacks, before the first tower even collapsed. Nearly ten years later, after intensive
investigation, a government commission, two wars and the interrogation under torture of some 750
people detained in Guantanamo Bay without charges, no hard evidence could be found that would
confirm the initial allegation.
Note: The International Business Times is an online global business newspaper, published in
thirteen editions in twelve countries across eight languages. It is among the top-ten online
business newspapers in the world. WantToKnow team member David Ray Griffin's book
establishing the likelihood that Osama bin Laden died in December 2001, Osama bin Laden: Dead
or Alive?, is available here.

World's media tricked by fake bin Laden photo

2011-05-02, New Zealand Herald (New Zealand's leading newspaper)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10723030
An image of Osama bin Laden after his death yesterday has been revealed as a fake. The photo,
which shows a bloodied bin Laden with a gun wound to the head, is the photo-shopped
combination of two images - one of the al Qaeda founder alive in 1998 and another of an unnamed
corpse. The image has reportedly been circulating for two years, but that did not stop the
image being picked up by media across the world in the wake of the terrorist's death. Britain's
Daily Mail, Times of London, Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mirror ... all used the image of their
websites' front pages, the Guardian reported, although they were quickly taken down. Associated
Press had placed the image on its wires, but soon retracted the photo as it could not verify its
authenticity. The picture appears to have first been published by the Middle East online newspaper
themedialine.org on April 29, 2009, although the site's editor then said they could not ascertain
whether it was genuine. A US official revealed the body was photographed before being
buried at sea, although no images have been released by the Obama administration. It is not
clear whether photos of bin Laden's body will be released.
Note: How did this photo become accepted by the media? And why was bin Laden's body buried
at sea? Could it be that those involved did not want anyone to be able to investigate whether the
body was indeed that of bin Laden? For two BBC reports suggesting that bin Laden may already
have been dead, click here and here.

Former Miss USA: I was 'molested' by the TSA

2011-04-29, USA Today
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/04/susie-castillo-dallas-fort-wo...

Weeks after generating an uproar for the aggressive screening of a six-year-old child in New
Orleans, the TSA is again facing criticism for an enhanced pat-down. Former Miss USA Susie
Castillo says she was "molested" by a TSA screener at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after
declining to go through a body scanner due to radiation concerns. According to a detailed account
from the Dallas Morning News, Castillo wrote "My private area was grazed four times!" on a
complaint card after the screening. Castillo immediately shot a tearful video recounting the episode
more explicitly and posted it on YouTube. The Boston Herald quotes from the video: "That's why
I'm crying, that's why I'm so upset. They're making me choose to either get molested,
because that's what I feel like, or go through this machine that's completely unhealthy and
dangerous." TSA spokesman Luis Casanova defended the screening procedure. "Everything [the
screener] did was according to protocol," Casanova said.
Note: For key articles on increasing reductions of civil liberties by governments, click here.

SF Chronicle video prompts White House threat

2011-04-29, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/28/MNA51J994T.DTL
The White House threatened [on April 28] to exclude The San Francisco Chronicle from
pooled coverage of its events in the Bay Area after the paper posted a video of a protest at
a San Francisco fundraiser for President Obama last week, Chronicle Editor Ward Bushee
said. White House guidelines governing press coverage of such events are too restrictive, Bushee
said, and the newspaper was within its rights to film the protest and post the video. Chronicle
senior political reporter Carla Marinucci was invited by the White House to cover the Obama
fundraiser on April 21. About 200 donors paying $5,000 to $38,500 each attended the event at the
St. Regis Hotel in the city, a day after Obama visited Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley
touting the proliferation of "new media" breaking the confines of traditional journalism. At the St.
Regis event, a group of protesters who paid collectively $76,000 to attend the fundraiser
interrupted Obama with a song complaining about the administration's treatment of Pfc. Bradley
Manning, the soldier who allegedly leaked U.S. classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.
Note: This is an excellent example of how politicians can control the press. Top reporters are
under threat of losing their connections to top officials if they report anything negative about them.

Are CFL Light Bulbs Eco-Friendly or Human Hazards?

2011-04-28, Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/cfl-light-bulbs-eco-friendly-human-hazards-205800837.html
Via the Clean Energy Act of 2007, the new "go-green" eco-friendly standards are set to thrust
mandatory use of CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) upon American citizens by the year 2013
or 2014. Some reports say the mercury-filled CFLs are harmful to humans. Are CFL bulbs ecofriendly but human hazards? What about the economy of cleaning up the the new bulbs, and the

erosion of our American "choices"? Information has circulated that CFLs will be dangerous to
humans due to mercury content. It seems to have started with a 2007 claim by a family who was
gung-ho to "go green." They installed CFLs in their home but broke one, resulting in
various illnesses for a child and a $2,000 clean-up process that could only be done by
experts. According to EPA guidelines [in 2007] there were 16 steps to cleaning up a broken,
mercury-filled CFL bulb and then cleaning up the cleaning materials used. According to the
EPA website today, there are only eight steps. The process appears toned down. The EPA claims
that breakage of one bulb is not dangerous to occupants. Clean-up doesn't have to cost $2,000.
Energy Star, a division of the EPA, ... acknowledges certain health and environmental hazards,
stating "we must be responsible in cleaning up." They offer several sheets of directions, including
this: Humans must leave the premises for three hours after removing a broken bulb.
Livestrong.com is a leading go-to health and wellness website. Its research about CFLs shows that
prolonged exposure to fluorescent lighting causes migraines, eye strain and other eye discomfort.
Note: For a CBS affiliate report confirming these hazards, click here.

U.S. to continue Pakistan strikes despite protests

2011-04-23, San Francisco Chronicle/Los Angeles Times
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/04/23/MN921J5V20.DTL
A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan region killed at least 25 people on [April 22],
sending a clear sign that Washington's use of drones against militants along the Afghan border will
continue despite rising opposition from Islamabad's top civilian and military leaders. The strike in
the village of Spinwam came two days after Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, held tense talks with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani amid a pall of
mistrust that has weakened relations between Washington and Islamabad in recent months.
Pakistan intensified its criticism of the drone campaign after a March 17 strike killed more than 40
people in the North Waziristan village of Datta Khel. Pakistani military leaders said that missile
strike killed civilian tribal elders meeting to discuss a dispute over local mining rights, though the
U.S. maintains that the people killed were militants. The Datta Khel strike came a day after the
release of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor whose arrest in connection with the shooting deaths
of two Pakistanis brought relations between Washington and Islamabad to one of their lowest
points in years. Officials in North Waziristan said [the April 22] strike killed 18 suspected militants,
though seven of the dead were civilians - three women and four children. Four missiles were fired,
two of which struck a guest house with the suspected militants, the officials said. The other two
missiles hit another building where the women and children were.
Note: Imagine if another country were flying unmanned flights in the US and killing US citizens
who they suspected were terrorists along with innocent civilians as collateral damage. There would
be an uproar. Why isn't anyone talking about the legality of a foreign country killing citizens of
another country without any judicial process at all, especially when the government of the invaded
country opposes the attacks?

Is that JFK memo to the CIA about UFOs real?

2011-04-21, MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42704241/ns/today-today_tech/t/jfk-memo-cia-abo...
A story that combines UFO cover-ups with the assassination of John F. Kennedy is ... just what
author William Lester says he uncovered while conducting research for a new book on Kennedy: a
memo written by JFK and addressed to the CIA in which the president requests confidential
information about UFOs. In the never-before-seen, top secret memo supposedly written on
Nov. 12, 1963, the president ordered the CIA director to organize the agency's intelligence
files relating to UFOs, and to debrief him on all "unknowns" by the following February. Ten
days later, Kennedy was assassinated. Lester, a paranormal researcher and author of the new
book A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier ... said he obtained the memo along
with two others from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act. "The government regularly
declassifies documents after a certain amount of time goes by, and then you have to file a request
for those documents," Lester [said]. "When I was in the process of filing, those letters had just
become declassified and released to the public." This happened in 2006 or 2007, Lester said. "At
the time, I think other people were getting them too." Some archivists question its authenticity. A
research technician at the JFK Library in Boston, who asked not to be named, was unable to find a
carbon copy of it in its presidential archive, which holds copies of all of JFK's letters.
Note: Fred made an FOIA request for this document and received response, "the CIA Information
Act ... exempts CIA operational files from the search, review, publication, and disclosure
requirements of the FOIA." Very interesting. To see the memo and more, click here. For an
excellent selection of news article excerpts suggesting a major cover-up of UFOs, click here. For
an abundance or resources from reliable sources on UFOs, see our UFO information center
available here.

iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go

2011-04-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-priv...
Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go and
saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer
when the two are synchronised. The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's
recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the
computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program. For some
phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to
have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.
"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody a jealous spouse, a private detective
with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've
been," said Pete Warden, one of the researchers. Only the iPhone records the user's location in

this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are
presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on [April 20]. "Alasdair has
looked for similar tracking code in [Google's] Android phones and couldn't find any," said Warden.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on threats to privacy, click here.

Senate panel concludes Goldman Sachs profited from financial crisis

2011-04-14, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-crisis-probe-20110414,0,6709903.story
A Senate panel has concluded that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. profited from the financial
crisis by betting billions against the subprime mortgage market, then deceived investors
and Congress about the firm's conduct. Some of the findings in the report by the Senate's
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will be referred to the Justice Department and the
Securities and Exchange Commission for possible criminal or civil action, said Sen. Carl Levin (DMich.), the panel's chairman. The giant investment bank was just one focus of the subcommittee's
probe into Wall Street's role in the financial crisis. The 639-page report based on internal
memos, emails and interviews with employees of financial firms and regulators casts broad
blame, saying the crisis was caused by "conflicts of interest, heedless risk-taking and failures of
federal oversight." Among the culprits cited by the panel are Washington Mutual, a major mortgage
lender that failed in 2008, as well as the Office of Thrift Supervision, a federal bank regulator, and
credit rating firms. Asked if he was disappointed that no Wall Street figures had gone to jail in
connection with the crisis, Levin responded, "There's still time."
Note: For many key reports from major media sources illuminating how major financial
corporations knowingly brought about the global financial crisis and profited from it, click here.

New engine sends shock waves through auto industry

2011-04-06, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541/ns/technology_and_science-innovation
Hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the
internal combustion engine. However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a
prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel
compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly
improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions
up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor
that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins.
These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave
that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy. The Wave Disk Generator uses 60
percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the
generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines. Researchers

estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car's weight currently taken
up by conventional engine systems. Last week, the prototype was presented to the energy
division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is backing the Michigan State
University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding. Michigan State's team of
engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the
year.
Note: For many inspiring new developments on automotive technology, click here.

Marc Gold travels Asia paying it forward through little acts of kindness
2011-04-04, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2011/0404/Marc-Gold-travel...
Marc Gold spends most of his time on the road. One month he may be in India or Afghanistan; the
next he's in Cambodia or Vietnam, both of which he's visited numerous times. But he doesn't travel
to see the sights. The retired community-college professor from San Francisco pursues his own
brand of tourism: philanthropic travel. "I go where the poor people are," Mr. Gold says. Everywhere
he goes, Gold performs acts of kindness, both random and preplanned. He rarely spends more
than a few hundred dollars. "For people who live on a dollar or less a day, $50 can make a big
difference," says Gold, who has been dubbed "the shoestring philanthropist." [Traveling to India in
1989] led to an epiphany. "I'd thought you had to be rich to do such things," he recalls. "I realized I
had the power to help change people's lives." Back home, he asked a hundred friends for small
donations and was soon back in India with $2,200. He then set up a nonprofit charity and called it
100 Friends. Two decades later, 100 Friends has some 4,000 members worldwide, and last year
Gold raised $200,000. He continues fundraising via his portable office: a laptop, a digital camera,
and a cellphone. "This is 80 percent of what I own," Gold says during a stopover in Bangkok,
pointing at two duffel bags stuffed with his clothes, dog-eared paperbacks, and his large
collection of wacky rubber masks. The latter he uses for clowning around with children
from Tibet to Thailand. "I don't need much, and I'm free."
Note: For a great collection of highly inspiring news articles, click here. For a treasure trove of
inspiring resources calling us all to our greatness, click here.

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug

gangs
2011-04-03, The Observer (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the
Internal Revenue Service and others [beginning in 2006], it emerged [that drug cartels had
laundered huge sums of money] through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia,
now part of the giant Wells Fargo. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought

under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year's
"deferred prosecution" has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. The bank was sanctioned for
failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn a sum equivalent
to one-third of Mexico's gross national product into dollar accounts from ... currency exchange
houses with which the bank did business. [The case demonstrates] the role of the "legal" banking
sector in swilling hundreds of billions of dollars the blood money from the murderous drug trade
in Mexico and other places in the world around their global operations, now bailed out by the
taxpayer. At the height of the 2008 banking crisis, Antonio Maria Costa, then head of the United
Nations office on drugs and crime, said he had evidence to suggest the proceeds from drugs
and crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to banks on the brink of
collapse. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade," he
said. "There were signs that some banks were rescued that way."
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the illegal activities routinely engaged in by the
largest banks and financial corporations, click here.

Transocean Execs Get Bonuses after Best Year in Safety, Despite Gulf
Oil Disaster
2011-04-02, Forbes blog
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/02/transocean-bonuses-deepwater-h...
Transocean Ltd., owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, awarded millions of dollars in bonuses to
its executives after the best year in safety performance in our companys history, according to an
annual report and proxy statement released yesterday. Eleven people were killed, including nine
Transocean employees, in the April 20 explosion and collapse of the rig, which gushed crude oil
into the Gulf of Mexico for 86 days. Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of
Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total
recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate, Transocean states in the filing.
Transocean President and Chief Executive Officer Steven L. Newman received about $4.3 million
in cash bonuses and stock and option awards. With other compensationsuch as pension
increases and cost of living, housing, and automobile allowancesNewman earned $6.6 million in
2010, almost $1 million more than in 2009. His base salary, $900,000 in 2010, will increase 22
percent to $1.1 million in 2011. Transocean built and staffed the Deepwater Horizon. It was leased
by BP, which denied most executives bonuses in 2010. In justifying the bonuses, Transocean cites
the increased burden on executives of responding to the spill.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate corruption, click here.

Mortgage paperwork mess: Next housing shock?

2011-04-01, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/01/60minutes/main20049646.shtml

It's bizarre but, it turns out, Wall Street cut corners when it created those mortgage-backed
investments that triggered the financial collapse. Now that banks want to evict people, they're
unwinding these exotic investments to find, that often, the legal documents behind the
mortgages aren't there. Caught in a jam of their own making, some companies appear to be
resorting to forgery and phony paperwork to throw people - down on their luck - out of their
homes. This past January in Los Angeles, 37,000 homeowners facing foreclosure showed up to
an event to beg their bank for lower payments on their mortgage. In February in Miami, 12,000
people showed up to a similar event. For many that's when the real surprise comes in: these same
banks have fouled up all of their own paperwork to a historic degree. There were a million
foreclosures last year. And there will be another million this year - those lawsuits are forcing open
those bundled, mortgage-backed securities that Wall Street cooked up in the mid 2000s, and
exposing a lack of ownership documents all across the country. Banks are defensive because all
50 state attorneys general want to punish them: the states are seeking about $20 billion in
damages for what they say is the irresponsible, perhaps criminal way, that some mortgage
companies handled what is, for most folks, the most important investment of their lives.
Note: To watch the amazing 14-minute video of this article, click here. Learn how banks paid a
company which hired people off the streets to pretend they were bank vice presidents and sign
thousands of documents fraudulently. For lots more from reliable sources on the criminal practices
of mortgage lenders, click here.

Ultrasound at $59,490 Is Outrage in Aetna Claim Against Doctors

2011-03-24, Bloomberg/BusinessWeek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-24/ultrasound-at-59-490-is-outrage-i...
Aetna Inc. is suing six New Jersey doctors over medical bills it calls unconscionable,
including $56,980 for a bedside consultation and $59,490 for an ultrasound that typically
costs $74. The lawsuits could help determine what pricing limits insurers can impose on out-ofnetwork physicians who dont have contracts with health plans that spell out how much a service
or procedure can cost. One defendant billed $30,000 for a Caesarean birth, and another raised his
fee for seeing a critically ill patient in a hospital to $9,000 in 2008 from $500 the year before, the
insurer alleges in the suits. Aetna tried in 2007 to impose caps on some out-of-network payments,
prompting doctor complaints to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. The
agency sided with the doctors, fined the company $2.5 million, and ordered it to pay out-of-network
practitioners enough so that patients wouldnt be asked to pay balances other than co-pays. In
2009, Aetna, UnitedHealth Group Inc., Cigna Corp. and WellPoint Inc. were accused by the New
York attorney general of underpaying out-of-network physicians by manipulating a database used
to calculate payments. They paid a total of $90 million in settlements without admitting
wrongdoing. UnitedHealthcare agreed that year to pay $350 million to settle a lawsuit by the
American Medical Association over the same issues. Similar AMA lawsuits against Aetna, Cigna
and Wellpoint are pending.

Note: Is the American health care system out of control? For lots more from reliable sources on
corporate corruption, click here.

War on drugs has failed, say former heads of MI5, CPS and BBC
2011-03-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8393838/War-on-drugs-has...
The "war on drugs" has failed and should be abandoned in favour of evidence-based policies that
treat addiction as a health problem, according to prominent public figures including former heads
of MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service. Leading peers including prominent Tories say that
despite governments worldwide drawing up tough laws against dealers and users over the past 50
years, illegal drugs have become more accessible. Vast amounts of money have been
wasted on unsuccessful crackdowns, while criminals have made fortunes importing drugs
into this country. The increasing use of the most harmful drugs such as heroin has also led
to enormous health problems, according to the group. The MPs and members of the House of
Lords, who have formed a new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, are calling
for new policies to be drawn up on the basis of scientific evidence. It could lead to calls for the
British government to decriminalise drugs, or at least for the police and Crown Prosecution Service
not to jail people for possession of small amounts of banned substances.
Note: If you examine topics on which the government has declared war, what is being fought
against often increases instead of decreasing. Could it be that the best way to deal with serious
problems is not to wage war?

ATF gunwalking scandal: Second agent speaks out

2011-03-21, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/21/eveningnews/main20045609.shtml
South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico's side of the border, lies Juarez - the most dangerous city in
the world. ATF [U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] Special Agent Rene
Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked
into Mexico. "That's what we do as an agency," Jaquez said. "ATF's primary mission is to make
sure that we curtail gun trafficking." That's why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear
his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected
traffickers for Mexico's drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons "walk" onto the
street - to see where they'd end up - would help them take down a cartel. Jaquez is so opposed to
the strategy, he's speaking out. "You don't let guns walk. I've never let a gun walk." Yet ATF agents
told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. But ATF wasn't working alone on the
case known as "Fast and Furious." Documents show ATF had conference calls with "DHS"
(Homeland Security). "USMS" (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An "ICE," or Customs agent, was

on ATF's Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an "AUSA," or Assistant U.S.
Attorney under the Justice Department. Jaquez says he's left wondering whether runaway
violence in Mexico can be partly blamed on the agency tasked with stopping it.
Note: For many reports from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

U.S. Declines to Give Details on Radiation

2011-03-19, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208840531837916-sea...
U.S. government officials, in private sessions on Capitol Hill [on Friday, March 18], repeatedly
declined to give details of radiation measurements at the stricken Japanese nuclear complex,
saying the situation is shrouded in a "fog of war." Separately, the Obama administration said ...
"miniscule quantities" of radiation from the Japanese nuclear accident were detected Friday at a
monitoring station in Sacramento, Calif., a day after similar traces of radiation were detected in
Washington state. The administration said the levels of the radioactive isotope xenon 133 were
approximately equivalent to one-millionth the dose received from the sun, rocks or other natural
sources. The Obama administration's reluctance to detail in public what it is learning from
radiation-detection operations around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi complex in Japan ...
comes after statements Wednesday by the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission that painted a grimmer picture of the nuclear crisis than Japanese officials
had offered, and suggested that the U.S. didn't trust the information coming from the Japanese
government.
Note: Shouldn't the title be something more like "U.S. Refuses to Give Radiation Details for Fear
of Industry Repercussions"? How sad that money often continues to trump public health in matters
like this.

The Michigan Monarchy Legislates Financial Martial Law -- Nation

Yawns
2011-03-18, Forbes blog
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/03/18/the-michigan-monarchy-legislates...
This week, the Michigan legislature passed and the governor signed into law a bill that would
permit Governor Rick Snyder to push aside elected city officials and replace them with emergency
financial managers in any municipality or school district facing financial difficulties. The law would
include virtually every town and city in the state as those cities that arent bankrupt already soon
will be once the governors proposed budget which cuts billions in aid to municipalities and
school districts is approved by the legislature. One of the most shocking, Draconian, democracydestroying measures in the history of this country has became law and the nation has seemingly
slept through it. The new law, described by one of the GOP legislators sponsoring the bill as
financial martial law, empowers the governors appointees [referred to as Emergency

Financial Managers] to fire duly elected local officials, cancel labor contracts and even
dissolve entire communities and school districts. This is about so much more than collective
bargaining agreements and unions. This law gives an appointee of the governor which, by the
way, may be a corporation the authority to dismiss any or all of a municipalitys elected
government officials.
Note: For a treasure trove of reports by major media sources on the collusion between
government and financial powers against the public interest, click here.

The myth of the panicking disaster victim

2011-03-18, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the...
Before the Second World War, the Ministry of War confidently predicted what would happen when
London was bombed from the air by Nazi planes. There would be, they warned, "a mass outbreak
of hysterical neurosis among the civilian population". The same predictions are made about every
disaster that once the lid of a tightly policed civilization is knocked off for a second, humans will
become beasts. But the opposite is the case. It sounds grotesque to say we should see reasons
for hope as we watch in real time while the earth is shaken six inches on its axis, tsunamis roar,
and nuclear power stations teeter on meltdown. But it is true. From this disaster, we can learn
something fundamental about our species. The evidence gathered over centuries of disasters,
natural and man-made, is overwhelming. The vast majority of people, when a disaster hits,
behave in the aftermath as altruists. They organise spontaneously to save their fellow
human beings, to share what they have, and to show kindness. They reveal themselves to
be better people than they ever expected. When the social scientist Enrico Quarantelli tried to
write a thesis on how people descend into chaos and panic after disasters, he concluded: "My
God! I can't find any instances of it." On the contrary, he wrote, in disasters "the social order does
not break down... Co-operative rather than selfish behaviour predominates".
Note: For a beautiful example of how people come together to help and support each other in the
face of a major crisis, read the inspiring "Letter from Sendai" which has gone viral on the Internet
at this link.

Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear industry

2011-03-17, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42129558/ns/business-world_business
Behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy
relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses. Leaks of radioactive
steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents
that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all. In one case,
workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine,

so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.
"Everything is a secret," said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who
now lives in California. "There's not enough transparency in the industry." In 1989 Sugaoka
received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video
being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but
nothing happened for years. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their
jobs. The legacy of scandals and cover-ups over Japan's half-century reliance on nuclear power
has strained its credibility with the public. That mistrust has been renewed this past week with the
crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The vagueness and scarcity of details offered by the
government and Tepco and news that seems to grow worse each day are fueling public
anger and frustration.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and
here.

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media

2011-03-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-netw...
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by
using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American
propaganda. A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central
Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia,
to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US
serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world. Critics are
likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online
conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not
correspond with its own objectives. The discovery that the US military is developing false online
personalities known to users of social media as "sock puppets" could also encourage other
governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same. Once
developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one
location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated
messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions.
Note: The Pentagon claims that the "fake persona" software will not be used on social networks in
the United States, because that would break laws against using propaganda on US citizens. How
much credence should be given to this assurance?

'World's largest paedophile ring' uncovered

2011-03-16, BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12762333

International police led by a UK team say they shut down the largest internet paedophile ring yet
discovered. The global forum had 70,000 followers at its height, leading to 4,000 intelligence
reports being sent to police across 30 countries. The operation has so far identified 670
suspects and 230 abused children. Detectives say 184 people have been arrested - 121 of
them were in the UK. Some 60 children have been protected in the UK. The three-year
investigation, Operation Rescue, was led by investigators from the UK's Child Exploitation and
Online Protection Centre (Ceop). The members of the network went into a private channel,
boylover.net, and then used its secret systems to share films and images of abused children, said
Rob Wainwright, director of European police agency Europol. In the UK, the 240 suspects include
police officers, teachers and a karate teacher. One of the suspects in the UK is a woman. The
internet has proved to be fertile territory for people with a sexual interest in children. Taking
advantage of the anonymity modern computer technology provides, paedophiles download and
exchange vile images of abuse unaware of the reality of the suffering.
Note: For powerful evidence that this kind of abuse is much more widespread than believed, and
even goes to the highest level of government, click here.

Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit

In Protest
2011-03-15, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fukushima-mark-nuclear-reactor-design-caused-ge...
Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric
resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor
design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating
accident. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since
Friday's earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s. "The problems we identified
in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the
dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant," Bridenbaugh [said]. "The impact
loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the
containment apart and create an uncontrolled release." Questions persisted for decades about the
ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling
power. In 1986, for instance, Harold Denton, then the director of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, spoke critically about the design during an industry conference. Today that design is
being put to the ultimate test in Japan.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and
here.

Solar power market tops $71 billion in 2010

2011-03-14, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-14/business/28686980_1_solar-market-solar-...
Ten years ago, when Ron Pernick predicted that solar power would be a $23.5 billion
industry by the decade's end, skeptics scoffed. After all, worldwide sales of photovoltaic
solar equipment in 2000 were just $2.5 billion. Pernick's prediction had to be wrong. It was.
The global solar market last year hit $71.2 billion. Pernick is co-founder and managing director
of the Clean Edge Inc. market research firm, and for the last 10 years, his outfit has produced
annual tallies of alternative energy sales around the world. The latest report, released today,
shows a decade of remarkable growth. The market for solar power, wind power and biofuels still
pales when compared with that for fossil fuels (Exxon Mobil, for example, made $383.2 billion last
year). But clean-energy technology is no longer stuck in a niche. "It went from relative obscurity 10
years ago to being one of the dominant market forces today," said Pernick. Wind power has grown
from a $4 billion global market in 2000 to $60.5 billion in 2010. Ten years ago, alternative energy
firms received less than 1 percent of the venture capital invested in the United States. Last year,
they got 23 percent, with investments totaling $5.1 billion. For biofuels, the report's data only
stretch back to 2005. But in that time, the worldwide market for ethanol, biodiesel and other
biofuels has grown from $15.7 billion to $56.4 billion.
Note: For many reports from reliable sources on promising new energy technologies, click here.

Scotland Yard officers in 'false arrest' investigation

2011-03-14, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8380815/Scotland-Yard-officers-in-fals...
Three Metropolitan Police officers are under investigation after they were alleged to have
inadvertently recorded themselves arranging to falsely arrest a protester during the student fees
demonstrations. The officers, who have not been named, are alleged to have conspired to arrest a
20-year-old man who had broken through the police cordon during the protests at Parliament
Square in December. The man was chased and caught and, it is alleged, was then struck in the
face with a police riot shield which chipped his tooth. The officers are then alleged to have
discussed how to arrest the man and are believed to have concocted a story in which they
claimed the man had threatened to cause criminal damage to a nearby building. However
one of the officers was wearing sound recording equipment which recorded the chase and
arrest of the man and the subsequent conversation between the officers. The officers have
each been served with letters telling them that they are now being investigated for gross
misconduct and criminal matters believed to be assault and false arrest. A total of 113 complaints
were received by the IPCC about police officers behaviour during the four demonstrations. One of
them concerns 20-year-old student Alfie Meadows, who needed brain surgery after he was
allegedly struck on the head during a protest in December.
Note: For lots more on government corruption, click here.

Oranges and Sunshine: an illuminating true-life drama

2011-03-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oranges-and-sunshine/oranges-sunshine-emily-watson-...
How could more than 130,000 children be shipped from Britain to Australia and other
Commonwealth countries, often without their parents' knowledge, and the world not know about it?
[This is] the chilling poser at the heart of Jim Loach's debut film, Oranges and Sunshine, which
centres on a policy that saw children from poor and struggling families sent halfway across the
world to a promised new life. Instead, many endured virtual slave labour and, in some extreme
cases, serial abuse. In the film, we follow Margaret [as] she gradually uncovers the devastating
effects that the deportation has had on its victims. In Australia, Margaret's efforts amass evidence
that defenceless children, in the care of the Roman Catholic Christian Brotherhood, have been
physically and sexually abused by members of the order. However, Margaret is seen as a
troublemaker, an outsider stirring up long-forgotten memories. Back in the UK, charities
and government officials are refusing to accept responsibility for sending the children
abroad. She receives death threats. Margaret eventually finds personal solace as her efforts
finally come to fruition. Families are brought back together after decades apart, and the now
grown-up children are able to establish their true identities. Finally, in 2009-10, after many years of
official denial and vacillation, there are full public apologies from the Australian and British
governments. Loach's film intelligently explores a grave injustice. The title, Oranges and Sunshine,
refers to the inviting picture of a new life sold to the children in advance of their long journey to the
other side of the world. It is a shattering, yet inspiring story.
Note: For more on this huge scandal of child abduction and abuse, click here. For another scandal
of major child abuse based in Australia that has yet to be fully exposed, click here. For more on
child sexual abuse, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Financial meltdown culprits seem too big to jail

2011-03-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/06/EDPG1I481K.DTL
What's wrong with this picture: Years have passed since Wall Street's financial meltdown. Due to
the crisis, the economy tanked, the mortgage market has yet to recover, and millions of jobs were
lost. Many of those jobs losses will be permanent. The only person who went to jail for any of this
was Bernie Madoff. When he accepted his Academy Award for the documentary "Inside Job,"
Berkeley filmmaker Charles Ferguson reminded Americans that the lack of criminal prosecutions
for the financial crisis is, simply, "wrong." No matter what kinds of logical, legal explanations that
the Justice Department has trotted out to explain why all of these senior financial executives are
too big to jail, it's outrageous that there has not been and will not be any comeuppance for the men
who plunged the American economy into chaos. The fact that some of these executives have or
will receive some financial punishment in civil court is of little consequence - if ruining the economy
isn't worth a little jail time, then what is? The Obama administration has not made it a priority

to prosecute financial executives. Its reticence to punish was prominently on display last
month, when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Angelo Mozilo, the former
CEO of Countrywide Financial. Mozilo left an e-mail trail detailing his feelings about
Countrywide's "toxic" mortgage products and negotiated a $67.5 million payout in a civil suit that
was brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission. If the feds don't go after
him, it's unlikely that they'll go after anyone else. It's a bitter contrast to the 1980s savings-andloan crisis, when the federal government threw enormous resources at criminal prosecutions and
sent even well-connected executives, like Charles Keating, to jail.
Note: For other highly revealing major media articles showing just how much control big bankers
have over government, click here.

In Philadelphia, New Cases Loom in Priest Scandal

2011-03-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/us/05church.html
Three weeks after a scathing grand jury report said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had provided
safe haven to as many as 37 priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate
behavior toward minors, most of those priests remain active in the ministry. The possibility that
even one predatory priest, not to mention three dozen, might still be serving in parishes
on duty in the archdiocese today, with open access to new young prey, as the grand jury
put it has unnerved many Roman Catholics here and sent the church reeling in the latest
and one of the most damning episodes in the American church. The situation in Philadelphia is
Boston reborn. The Boston Archdiocese was engulfed in a scandal starting in 2002 involving
widespread sexual abuse by priests and an extensive cover-up that reached as high as the
cardinal. The church has not explained directly why these priests ... are still active. Cardinal Justin
Rigali initially said there were no active priests with substantiated allegations against them, but six
days later, he placed three of the priests ... on administrative leave. Philadelphia is unusual in that
the archdiocese has been the subject of not one but two grand jury reports. The first, in 2005,
found credible accusations of abuse by 63 priests, whose activities had been covered up by the
church. But there were no indictments, mainly because the statute of limitations had expired. The
thing that is significant about Philadelphia is the assumption that the authorities had made changes
and the system had been fixed, said Terence McKiernan, the president of
BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents from the abuse scandal in dioceses across
the country. But the headline is that in Philadelphia, the system is still broke.
Note: For powerful evidence that this kind of abuse is much more widespread than believed, and
goes beyond the Catholic Church, click here.

Are America's Best Days Behind Us?

2011-03-03, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2056610-1,00.html

Most Americans operate on the assumption that the U.S. is still No. 1. But is it? Yes, the U.S.
remains the world's largest economy, and we have the largest military by far, the most dynamic
technology companies and a highly entrepreneurial climate. But ... the decisions that created
today's growth decisions about education, infrastructure and the like were made decades
ago. The following rankings come from various lists, but they all tell the same story. Our 15-yearolds rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. We rank 12th among developed
countries in college graduation (down from No. 1 for decades). We come in 79th in
elementary-school enrollment. Our infrastructure is ranked 23rd in the world, well behind that of
every other major advanced economy. American health numbers are stunning for a rich country:
based on studies by the OECD and the World Health Organization, we're 27th in life expectancy,
18th in diabetes and first in obesity. Only a few decades ago, the U.S. stood tall in such rankings.
No more. There are some areas in which we are still clearly No. 1, but they're not ones we usually
brag about. We have the most guns. We have the most crime among rich countries. And, of
course, we have by far the largest amount of debt in the world. Reducing funds for things like
education, scientific research, air-traffic control, NASA, infrastructure and alternative energy will
not produce much in savings, and it will hurt the economy's long-term growth. It would happen at
the very moment that countries from Germany to South Korea to China are making large
investments in education, science, technology and infrastructure.
Note: In discussing how the U.S. can reduce it's staggering debt, this article, like almost every
major media article, fails to even mention the possibility of cutting our huge military budget. For
why this is, click here.

UFO files reveal 'Rendlesham incident' papers missing

2011-03-02, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12613690
Intelligence papers on a reported UFO sighting known as the "Rendlesham incident" have gone
missing, files from the National Archives reveal. The missing files relate to a report of mysterious
lights from US servicemen at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk in 1980. The disappearance came to
light with the release of 8,000 previously classified documents on UFOs. Officials found a "huge"
gap where defence intelligence files relating to the case should be, the papers show. The incident
took place near the fence of RAF Woodbridge - at that time being used by the US Air Force. A
group of servicemen reported seeing strange lights in the trees near the base and after
investigating found marks on the ground and damage to vegetation. The files reveal the MoD
received a request for its own records of the incident in 2000, but when officials looked they
discovered a "huge" gap where defence intelligence files relating to it should be. But it is not the
only gap in the official record. In 2002 the MoD received a request for information from Lord HillNorton. He wanted to know about reports of a UFO sighting made by HMS Manchester while on
exercise in the 1990s. It emerged in the file that HMS Manchester's log for one of the periods
was lost overboard after "a gust of wind".

Note: Something major is missing from this article, too. The servicemen at Rendlesham not only
found marks, they saw a craft up close. One man even touched the vehicle. These military men
have all gone on record with their experience and all claim a cover-up. For an intriguing
documentary on this landmark case, click here. For other key information and documents on the
Rendlesham incident, click here. For a two-page summary of testimony from top military and
government officials on their personal involvement with UFOs, click here.

The figure in the new budget proposal nobody in power wants you to
notice
2011-03-01, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/01/opinion/main20038078.shtml
Normally, in media accounts, you hear about the Pentagon budget and the war-fighting
supplementary funds passed by Congress for our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That already
gets you into a startling price range -- close to $700 billion for 2012 -- but that's barely more than
half of it. If Americans were ever presented with the real bill for the total U.S. national
security budget, it would actually add up to more than $1.2 trillion a year. Take that in for a
moment. It's true; you won't find that figure in your daily newspaper or on your nightly newscast,
but it's no misprint. It's the real thing when it comes to your tax dollars. The simplest way to
grasp just how Americans could pay such a staggering amount annually for "security" is to go
through what we know about the U.S. national security budget, step by step, and add it all up.
[Click here for details] Still, don't for a second think that $1.2 trillion is the actual grand total for
what the U.S. government spends on national security. Former Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld once famously spoke of the world's "known unknowns." Explaining the phrase this way:
"That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know." It's a concept that couldn't apply
better to the budget he once oversaw. American taxpayers should know just what they are paying
for.
Note: When discussing budget cuts, why is it we never hear about cuts to the massive national
security budget? Donald Rumsfeld also once admitted that the Pentagon couldn't track $2.3 trillion
in transactions, as reported by CBS News in this video clip. For lots more on the rampant
corruption of military funds, click here. And for a top US general revealing how bankers and
industry tycoons rake in profits from war, click here.

Mass. company making diesel with sun, water, CO2

2011-02-27, BusinessWeek/Associated Press
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LLD31G1.htm
A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet
engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow. Joule Unlimited has invented a
genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol
wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. [The] company says it can manipulate

the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in
facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels. What can it mean? No
less than "energy independence," Joule's web site tells the world, even if the world's not quite
convinced. "We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we've validated," said
Joule chief executive Bill Sims. Joule was founded in 2007. In the last year, it's roughly doubled
its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of private funding in April and added
John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of
directors. The company worked in "stealth mode" for a couple years before it recently began
revealing more about what it was doing. This month, it released a peer-reviewed paper it says
backs its claims. Joule says its organisms secrete a completed product, already identical to
ethanol and the components of diesel fuel, then live on to keep producing it at remarkable rates.
Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per
acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they
say they can do it at $30 a barrel. The company plans to break ground on a 10-acre demonstration
facility this year, and Sims says they could be operating commercially in less than two years.
Note: For many other fascinating new energy inventions reported in the major media which should
be making news headlines, click here. For a powerful two-page summary showing why these
amazing inventions get so little attention and are sometimes even suppressed, click here.

Military to investigate claim that psy-ops team was used to influence

U.S. senators
2011-02-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/24/AR20110224053...
The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan intends to order an investigation into whether a
three-star general responsible for training Afghan security forces inappropriately used members of
a psychological operations team to influence visiting U.S. senators into providing more funding for
the war. The U.S. command in Kabul issued a statement Thursday saying Gen. David H. Petraeus
"is preparing to order an investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the
issue." The investigation stems from an article published ... on the Web site of Rolling Stone
magazine alleging that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the head of the U.S. and NATO training
operation for Afghan forces, used an "information operations" team to "manipulate visiting
American senators" and other visitors, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Adm. Mike Mullen. The article is based on the claims of a lieutenant colonel who served on a
psychological operations team in Afghanistan last year and who alleges he was subjected to
retribution when he resisted the assignment.
Note: To read Rolling Stone's fascinating report on how the US military used a secret program to
pressure Senators to support the war, click here.

U.S. Gov't Software Creates 'Fake People' to Spread Message via Social

Networking
2011-02-19, Fox News
http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/02/19/us-gov-t-software-creates-fake-p...
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software
to manage "fake people" on social media sites. Private security firms employeed by the
government have used the accounts to create the illusion of consensus on controversial
issues. The contract calls for the development of "Persona Management Software" which would
help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. According to the
contract, the software would "protect the identity of government agencies" by employing a number
of false signals to convince users that the poster is in fact a real person. A single user could
manage unique background information and status updates for up to 10 fake people from a single
computer. The software enables the government to shield its identity through a number of different
methods including the ability to assign unique IP addresses to each persona and the ability to
make it appear as though the user is posting from other locations around the world. The document
describes how they would 'friend' real people on Facebook as a way to convey government
messages.
Note: To read the government contract for "Persona Management" software, click here.

Iraqi Says He Made Up Tale of Biological Weapons Before War

2011-02-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/world/middleeast/16curveball.html
The Iraqi defector whose claims that Saddam Husseins government had biological weapons
became part of the Bush administrations justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq has admitted
that he fabricated his story. The defector, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who was code-named
Curveball by the Central Intelligence Agency and German intelligence officials, told the British
newspaper The Guardian on [February 15] that he had concocted his tale that Iraq was hiding
mobile bioweapons laboratories. The strange case of Curveball has become one of the most
infamous episodes in the Bush administrations case for war. Mr. Janabis claim about the
mobile laboratories was featured prominently in Secretary of State Colin L. Powells
address to the United Nations in February 2003, when he laid out the administrations case that
Mr. Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The United States invaded Iraq in March
2003, and eventually determined that Iraq did not have any such weapons. It later became clear
that the Bush administration had relied heavily on bogus information from unreliable exiles like Mr.
Janabi.
Note: For background information on "Curveball" in the runup to the Iraq war, click here.

WikiLeaks: U.S. Spied on NATO's Top Official

2011-02-11, CBS News/Associated Press

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/11/501364/main20031493.shtml
Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables appear to show that the United States has been snooping on
NATO's top official using secret sources on his own staff. Confidential cables from the U.S. mission
to NATO released [on February 11] by WikiLeaks, ... said American diplomats received
information on the private conversations of Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
from "a member of the NATO international staff." Instead of the staffer's name, the phrase
"strictly protect" was inserted in a cable dated Sept. 10, 2009. The cable dealt with Fogh
Rasmussen's proposal to improve ties with Russia by establishing contacts with the Collective
Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated security alliance. The cable was signed off by
U.S. ambassador Ivo Daalder. There has been no known [previous] case in the past of a nation
spying on the secretary-general.

Equal Rights Takes to the Barricades

2011-02-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/middleeast/02iht-letter02.html
CAIRO People here are not afraid anymore and it just may be that a woman helped break
that barrier of fear. Asmaa Mahfouz was celebrating her 26th birthday on Tuesday among tens of
thousands of Egyptians as they took to the streets, parting with old fears in a bid to end President
Hosni Mubaraks three decades of authoritarian, single-party rule. As long as you say there is no
hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope.
That was what Ms. Mahfouz had to say in a video she posted online more than two weeks ago.
She spoke straight to the camera and held a sign saying she would go out and protest to
try to bring down Mr. Mubaraks regime. It was a woman who dared put a face to the
message, unfazed by the possibility of arrest for her defiance. Do not be afraid, she said. To
her surprise, dozens of other people picked up on the spirit of her message and started to post
their own pictures, holding similar signs to their chests that declared their intent to take to the
streets. Ms. Mahfouz is one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, a group of young,
Internet-savvy activists who have been credited with a leading role in organizing the mass
protests. She uses Facebook and Twitter as convenient methods for organizing and disseminating
messages but finds that talking to people face to face is the best way to motivate them. Although it
is still overwhelmingly men demonstrating, there is a new quality to the way Egyptians walk the
streets now. Everyone used to say there is no hope, that no one will turn up on the street, that the
people are passive, Ms. Mahfouz said. But the barrier of fear was broken!
Note: Watch this video and learn how without this one woman, Mubarak might still be in power.
One person can make a huge difference. For powerful and inspiring information on the
military/industrial complex and what we can do to make a difference, click here.

America's favorite bankers have outdone themselves yet again

2011-01-30, CNN

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/30/money-for-nothing-at-goldman/
How might you compensate management for a year in which profits plunged, you spent
$550 million of shareholder money to settle a fraud investigation and your stock ended up more or
less exactly where it started? You might be tempted to nix raises or withhold bonuses to send a
responsible message about linking pay to performance. But if so, you wouldn't be Goldman Sachs.
It just had the year described above and responded by tripling everyone's base salary while
boosting bonuses by 40%. Is this a great country or what? Goldman said in a filing [on January 28]
that CEO Lloyd Blankfein will make $2 million this year, and his top lieutenants will each make
$1.85 million. Top Goldman brass had been making $600,000 annually in salary since the firm's
1999 initial public offering. All 470 of Goldman's partners will get higher salaries. The top five
officers will also get $12.6 million each in bonuses. That's up from $9 million each last year.
That may seem like a high price to pay for a pretty lousy year and one that ended with a Fedinspired reminder that Goldman, just in case anyone forgot, took billions upon billions of dollars in
bailout loans in 2008 and 2009.
Note: For key articles from reliable sources detailing the outrageous compensation awarded to the
highest officers of Wall Street financial corporations after they were bailed out by the government,
click here.

The Day Part of the Internet Died: Egypt Goes Dark

2011-01-28, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12783053
About a half-hour past midnight [on January 28] in Egypt, the Internet went dead. Almost
simultaneously, the handful of companies that pipe the Internet into and out of Egypt went dark as
protesters were gearing up for a fresh round of demonstrations calling for the end of President
Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule, experts said. Egypt has apparently done what many
technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It
unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent. Experts say it's unlikely
that what's happened in Egypt could happen in the United States because the U.S. has numerous
Internet providers and ways of connecting to the Internet. Coordinating a simultaneous shutdown
would be a massive undertaking. But the idea of a single "kill switch" to turn the Internet on and off
has seduced some American lawmakers, who have pushed for the power to shutter the Internet in
a national emergency. The Internet blackout in Egypt shows that a country with strong control over
its Internet providers apparently can force all of them to pull their plugs at once. It also sets a
precedent for other countries grappling with paralyzing political protests though censoring the
Internet and tampering with traffic to quash protests is nothing new.
Note: For information on how a Israeli company bought out by Boeing facilitated the shutdown of
the Internet in Egypt, click here. And to learn about a bill being proposed which would give the US
president power over an Internet "kill switch," click here.

A Hefty Price for Entry to Davos

2011-01-25, New York Times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/a-hefty-price-for-entry-to-davos/?_r=0
The World Economic Forums annual meeting [in Davos, Switzerland is] a heady power
gathering that mixes business, politics and Champagne in the Swiss Alps. It is an event that
draws a wide range of [chief executives, government leaders and academics], ostensibly to
contemplate how to solve the worlds problems. An invitation to the meeting is supposed to be
considered an exclusive honor. But for corporate executives, the cost of being a Davos Man, or,
yes, a Davos Woman, even for just a couple of days, does not come cheap. Just to have the
opportunity to be invited to Davos, you must be invited to be a member of the World Economic
Forum. There are several levels of membership: the basic level, which will get you one invitation to
Davos, costs 50,000 Swiss francs, or about $52,000. The ticket itself is another 18,000 Swiss
francs ($19,000), plus tax, bringing the total cost of membership and entrance fee to $71,000.
But that fee just gets you in the door. To participate in private sessions among your industrys
peers, you need to step up to the Industry Associate level. That costs $137,000, plus the price of
the ticket, bringing the total to about $156,000.
Note: After attending this event, author David Rothkopf quoted AOL's founder as saying,"You
always feel like ... the real Davos is happening in secret somewhere." Might this suggest that
Davos is a breeding ground for the secret plots of the global elite? For more along these lines, see
concise summaries of news articles on secret societies which manipulate global politics.

Italian Scientists Claim (Dubious) Cold Fusion Breakthrough

2011-01-24, Fox News/Popular Science
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/24/italian-scientists-claim-cold-fusio...
Two Italian scientists claim to have successfully developed a cold fusion reactor that produces
12,400 watts of heat power per 400 watts of input. Not only that, but theyll be commercially
available in just three months. Cold fusion is a tricky business -- some say a theoretically
implausible business. Hypothetically (and broadly) speaking, the process involves fusing two
smaller atomic nuclei together into a larger nucleus, a process that releases massive amounts of
energy. If harnessed, cold fusion could provide cheap and nearly limitless energy with no
radioactive byproduct or massive carbon emissions. Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi claim [their
reactor] fuses atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen using about 1,000 watts of electricity which,
after a few minutes, is reduced to an input of just 400 watts. This reaction purportedly can turn
292 grams of 68 degree water into turbine-turning steam -- a process that would normally
require 12,400 watts of electricity, netting them a power gain of about 12,000 watts. They say
that commercially scaled, their process could generate eight units of output per unit of input and
would cost roughly one penny per kilowatt-hour, drastically cheaper than your average coal plant.

Note: For a balanced and informative article on this, see the Technology News article available
here. Sadly, the only other media report on this fascinating news was a Washington Times article
available here. For lots more useful information and videos on this exciting discovery, click here.

Former Spy With Agenda Operates a Private C.I.A.

2011-01-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/world/23clarridge.html
Duane R. [Dewey] Clarridge parted company with the Central Intelligence Agency more than two
decades ago, but from poolside at his home near San Diego, he still runs a network of spies. Over
the past two years, he has fielded operatives in the mountains of Pakistan and the desert badlands
of Afghanistan. Since the United States military cut off his funding in May, he has relied on likeminded private donors to pay his agents to continue gathering information about militant fighters
[and] Taliban leaders. Mr. Clarridge, 78, ... was indicted on charges of lying to Congress in the
Iran-contra scandal and later pardoned. His dispatches an amalgam of fact, rumor, analysis and
uncorroborated reports have been sent to military officials who, until last spring at least, found
some credible enough to be used in planning strikes against militants in Afghanistan. They are
also fed to conservative commentators, including Oliver L. North, a compatriot from the Iran-contra
days and now a Fox News analyst, and Brad Thor, an author of military thrillers and a frequent
guest of Glenn Beck. Mr. Clarridges operation ... is a startling demonstration of how private
citizens can exploit the chaos of combat zones and rivalries inside the American
government to carry out their own agenda. It also shows how the outsourcing of military
and intelligence operations has spawned legally murky clandestine operations.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the role of private contractors in the illegal US wars
of aggression in Afganistan and Iraq, click here.

Undercover police cleared 'to have sex with activists'

2011-01-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/22/undercover-police-cleared-sex-activists
Undercover police officers routinely adopted a tactic of "promiscuity" with the blessing of senior
commanders, according to a former agent who worked in a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police
for four years. The former undercover policeman claims that sexual relationships with activists
were sanctioned for both men and women officers infiltrating anarchist, leftwing and
environmental groups. Sex was a tool to help officers blend in, the officer claimed, and was
widely used as a technique to glean intelligence. He said undercover officers, particularly those
infiltrating environmental and leftwing groups, viewed having sex with a large number of partners
"as part of the job". His comments contradict claims last week from the Association of Chief Police
Officers that operatives were absolutely forbidden to sleep with activists. The claims follow the
unmasking of undercover PC Mark Kennedy, who had sexual relationships with several women
during the seven years he spent infiltrating a ring of environmental activists. Another two covert

officers have been named in the past fortnight who also had sex with the protesters they were sent
to spy on, fuelling allegations that senior officers had authorised sleeping around as a legitimate
means of gathering intelligence.
Note: For a comprehensive overview of the still-ongoing revelations about police provocateur Mark
Kennedy and his cohorts in the UK police infiltration of environmental and related activist groups,
click here.

Learning from a '50s Housewife on Acid

2011-01-18, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/1950s-housewife-acid/story?id=12640926
A video [that went viral] featured footage of a mid-1950s housewife on an acid trip during an LSD
experiment. In the film, a researcher, Dr. Sidney Cohen, is shown interviewing, and then dosing, a
volunteer at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Los Angeles. The woman, who is identified
only as the wife of a hospital employee, is in her late 20s or early 30s and appears fairly typical of
her time. LSD was a legal pharmaceutical drug until 1966. Journalist Don Lattin says he came
across the video in the archives of philosopher Gerald Heard while researching a group biography
on him, the British writer Aldous Huxley, and Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. In
the video that Lattin posted online, [the housewife] is clearly under the influence and appears to be
rather enjoying it. She says: "Everything is alive. This is reality. I wish you could see it. I wish I
could talk in technicolor." "This shows that very early on in the 1950s, researchers were aware that
there were possible beneficial uses, rather than military or more nefarious uses," he says. In the
early 1950s and into the '60s the Army and CIA secretly funded a lot of research to see if
LSD could be used as a chemical weapon or a truth serum, says Lattin. But Cohen and his
ilk were pursuing a different line of study. They wanted to understand how it works, how the
mind works and the connection between the psychotic state and a spiritually enlightened
state." Indeed, Wilson, the AA co-founder, did a fair amount of LSD in the 50s , says Lattin. "This
surprises people, but he wasn't doing it to get high," he adds. "It was to achieve that spiritual
awakening."
Note: The video of this session is quite inspiring. See it at this link. For more on mind-altering
drugs, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The state's pedlars of fear must be brought to account

2011-01-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/11/police-reform-mark-stone-...
[Mark] Kennedy moved from undercover agent to agent provocateur. He worked for a murky
organisation called the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). With a budget of 5m this
operates as a branch of the National Domestic Extremism Unit (NDEU) which, in turn, works
alongside the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU). Ask where this stands,

and you will be told it reports to the Association of Chief Police Officers' Terrorism and Allied
Matters Committee, codenamed Acpo(TAM). Kennedy's bosses in the NPOIU work for Acpo, but
this is not what it seems. It is not, as its name suggests, the police officers' staff club, nor is it a
public body of any sort. [ACPO] is a private company, incorporated in 1997. It is subcontracted by Whitehall to operate the police end of the government's counterterrorism and
"anti-extremism" strategies. It is thus alongside MI5, but even less accountable. It now runs
its own police forces under a police chief boss, Sir Hugh Orde, like a British FBI. It trades on
its own account, generating revenue by selling data from the police national computer for 70 an
item (cost of retrieval, 60p). It owns an estate of 80 flats in central London. As a private company,
Acpo need not accede to Freedom of Information requests and presumably could distribute its
profit to its own board. The whole operation is reminiscent of the deals set up by the Pentagon with
private firms to run the Iraq and Afghan wars, free of publicity or accountability.
Note: For further information on the amazing undercover career of UK agent provocateur Mark
Kennedy, click here and here and here.

U.S. says too much fluoride in water

2011-01-07, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2011-01-07-too-much-fluoride_...
Fluoride in drinking water credited with dramatically cutting cavities and tooth decay may
now be too much of a good thing. Getting too much of it causes spots on some kids' teeth. A
reported increase in the spotting problem is one reason the federal government will announce
[that] it plans to lower the recommended levels for fluoride in water supplies the first such
change in nearly 50 years. About 2 out of 5 adolescents have tooth streaking or spottiness
because of too much fluoride, a surprising government study found recently. In some extreme
cases, teeth can even be pitted by the mineral. Maryland is the most fluoridated state, with nearly
every resident on a fluoridated water system. In contrast, only about 11% of Hawaii residents are
on fluoridated water, according to government statistics. Fluoridation has been fought for
decades by people who worried about its effects, including conspiracy theorists who feared
it was a plot to make people submissive to government power. "It's amazing that people have
been so convinced that this is an OK thing to do," said Deborah Catrow, who successfully fought a
ballot proposal in 2005 that would have added fluoride to drinking water in Springfield, Ohio.
Note: This article fails to mention a key recent study showing "about 28 percent of the children in
the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in
the 'high' fluoride area. In the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation
and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city." For a truly awesome, revealing interview with a BBC
producer on the major deceptions, risks, and dangers of fluoride in water, click here. For more on
this key topic from Dr. Mercola, click here. And for the top website on the risks and dangers of
flouride in water, click here.

When Insurers Put Profits Between Doctor and Patient

2011-01-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/health/views/06chen.html
In articles, interviews, op-eds and testimony on Capitol Hill, Wendell Potter has described the dark
underbelly of the health care insurance industry unkept promises of care, canceled coverage of
those who get sick and fearmongering campaigns designed to quash any change that might
adversely affect profits. He should know what he is talking about. For 20 years, Mr. Potter was
the head of corporate communications at two major insurers, first at Humana and then at
Cigna. Now Mr. Potter has written a fascinating book that details the methods he and his
colleagues used to manipulate public opinion and describes his transformation from the
idealistic son of working-class parents in eastern Tennessee to top insurance company executive,
to vocal critic and industry watchdog. Using little of the fiery rhetoric or lurid prose that usually
marks corporate exposs or memoirs of redemption, the book, Deadly Spin ... is an evenhanded
yet riveting account of the inner workings of the health care insurance industry, a cautionary tale
that doctors and patients would be wise not to miss. Mr. Potter [describes] the myth-making he did,
interspersing descriptions of front groups, paid spies and jiggered studies with a deft retelling of
the convoluted (and usually eye-glazing) history of health care insurance policies.
Note: Mr. Potter has written a powerful condemnation of health care industry practices at this link.
For other major media articles on this courageous whistleblower, click here. And for other highly
informative reports on important health issues, click here.

Glaxo Whistle-Blower Lawsuit: Bad Medicine

2011-01-02, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/29/60minutes/main7195247.shtml
Of all the things that you trust every day, you want to believe your prescription medicine is safe
and effective. The pharmaceutical industry says that it follows the highest standards for quality. But
in November, we found out just how much could go wrong at one of the world's largest drug
makers. A subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty to distributing adulterated drugs.
Some of the medications were contaminated with bacteria, others were mislabeled, and
some were too strong or not strong enough. It's likely Glaxo would have gotten away with it
had it not been for a company insider: a tip from Cheryl Eckard set off a major federal
investigation. Eckard worked in Glaxo quality control and over ten years she had risen to become
a manager of global quality assurance. In 2002, Eckard was assigned to help lead a quality
assurance team to evaluate one of Glaxo's most important plants, in Cidra, Puerto Rico. Nine
hundred people worked there, making 20 drugs for patients in the U.S. But Eckard says that when
she saw what was happening to some of the company's most popular drugs, she couldn't believe
it. "All the systems were broken, the facility was broken, the equipment was broken, the processes
were broken. It was the worst thing I had run across in my career," she [said]. As her team
continued its evaluation of the plant, Eckard says ... that powerful medications were getting mixed
up.

Note: For lots more on how this major pharmaceutical is endangering lives, watch the 60 Minutes
video segment at the above link.

Terrorist watch list: One tip now enough to put name in database
2010-12-29, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR20101229015...
A year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they
have made it easier to add individuals' names to a terrorist watch list. The failure to put Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab on the watch list last year renewed concerns that the government's system
to screen out potential terrorists was flawed. Even though Abdulmutallab's father had told U.S.
officials of his son's radicalization in Yemen, government rules dictated that a single-source tip was
insufficient to include a person's name on the watch list. Since then, senior counterterrorism
officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip, as long as it is deemed
credible, can lead to a name being placed on the watch list. But civil liberties groups argue that
the government's new criteria, which went into effect over the summer, have made it even
more likely that individuals who pose no threat will be swept up in the nation's security
apparatus, leading to potential violations of their privacy and making it difficult for them to
travel. "They are secret lists with no way for people to petition to get off or even to know if they're
on," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. The list, which
stands at 440,000 people, [is now] about 5 percent larger than last year.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on growing threats to civil liberties, click here.

So Young and So Many Pills

2010-12-28, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576046073896475588.html
These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and
teens are taking a medication on a [longterm] basis. Nearly 7% are on two or more such
drugs. Doctors and parents warn that prescribing medications to children can be
problematic. There is limited research available about many drugs' effects in kids. And
health-care providers and families need to be vigilant to assess the medicines' impact, both
intended and not. Although the effects of some medications, like cholesterol-lowering statins, have
been extensively researched in adults, the consequences of using such drugs for the bulk of a
patient's lifespan are little understood. Many medications kids take on a regular basis are well
known, including treatments for asthma and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But children
and teens are also taking a wide variety of other medications once considered only to be for
adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall
Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm. Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19
and younger could hit 5.5 million this year.

Note: For a powerful article by Dr. Mercola showing how the drug companies get away with killing
literally tens of thousands of people, click here.

Children who lend a helping hand show they can make a difference and
change the world
2010-12-27, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/making-a-difference/2010/1227/Children-who-len...
Parents want their kids and teens to care about others. The good news is that children "are sort of
hard-wired" to want to help others, says Michael Ungar, author of "The We Generation: Raising
Socially Responsible Kids." While adults do wonderful things to help others, even more amazing is
the number of children and teens who are "making a difference". Danielle Gram spent her
childhood in Maryland in the years following the 9/11 attacks. "I really didn't understand why
people from different cultures wanted to kill each other," says Ms. Gram, now 21 years old and a
senior at Harvard University. In 2006, together with Jill McManigal ... Gram, then 16, founded Kids
for Peace, a nonprofit, child-led group that inspires kids to work together toward a more peaceful
world. Today Kids for Peace has more than 75 chapters. In August, its Great Kindness Challenge,
where children try to see how many acts of kindness they can perform in a single day, drew
thousands of participants in 50 countries. In November, she was named a winner of the World of
Children award. "The passion to create a less violent world has really followed me
throughout my life," Gram says. But a family tragedy last year brought it closer to home.
Her only brother was murdered while on vacation. "It's certainly been a struggle. But every
single one of my immediate family members has a deeper conviction that nonviolence is the way
to respond." After graduation next spring, Gram hopes to work on peace issues in Bangladesh or
at a refugee camp in Africa. Either way, she'll carry on with Kids for Peace, too.
Note: For a great collection of other inspiring news articles, click here.

C.I.A. Secrets Could Surface in Swiss Nuclear Case

2010-12-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/world/europe/24nukes.html
A seven-year effort by the Central Intelligence Agency to hide its relationship with a Swiss family
who once acted as moles inside the worlds most successful atomic black market hit a turning
point on [December 23] when a Swiss magistrate recommended charging the men with trafficking
in technology and information for making nuclear arms. The prospect of a prosecution, and a
public trial, threatens to expose some of the C.I.A.s deepest secrets if defense lawyers try
to protect their clients by revealing how they operated on the agencys behalf. The three
men Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, Urs and Marco helped run the atomic
smuggling ring of A. Q. Khan, an architect of Pakistans nuclear bomb program, officials in
several countries have said. In return for millions of dollars, according to former Bush
administration officials, the Tinners secretly worked for the C.I.A. as well, not only providing

information about the Khan networks manufacturing and sales efforts, which stretched from Iran to
Libya to North Korea, but also helping the agency introduce flaws into the equipment sent to some
of those countries. A trial ... could also expose in court a tale of C.I.A. break-ins in Switzerland, and
of a still unexplained decision by the agency not to seize electronic copies of a number of nuclear
bomb designs found on the computers of the Tinner family. Ultimately, copies of those blueprints
were found around the globe on the computers of members of the Khan network.
Note: This report establishes yet another connection between a secret nuclear materials network
linking both Khan and US government officials, parts of which were divulged by FBI whistleblower
Sibel Edmonds, who identified moles working with Khan in both the US State Department and the
Pentagon. For more on these highly suspicious networks, click here.

Monitoring America
2010-12-20, Washington Post
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-ame...
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic
intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state
homeland security offices and military criminal investigators. The system, by far the largest and
most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes
information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been
accused of any wrongdoing. The months-long investigation [by The Washington Post], based on
nearly 100 interviews and 1,000 documents, found that: * Technologies and techniques honed for
use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have migrated into the hands of law enforcement
agencies in America. * The FBI is building a database with the names and certain personal
information, such as employment history, of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom a local
police officer or a fellow citizen believed to be acting suspiciously. * Law enforcement agencies
have hired as trainers self-described experts whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are
considered inaccurate and counterproductive by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies. * The
Department of Homeland Security sends its state and local partners intelligence reports with little
meaningful guidance, and state reports have sometimes inappropriately reported on lawful
meetings.
Note: This report is part of a series, "Top Secret America," by The Washington Post. For more,
click here.

State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning

2010-12-19, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/19/60minutes/main7166220.shtml

There is [a] financial crisis looming involving state and local governments. In the two years since
the "great recession" wrecked their economies and shriveled their income, the states have
collectively spent nearly a half a trillion dollars more than they collected in taxes. There is
also a trillion-dollar hole in their public pension funds. The states have been getting by on
billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds, but the day of reckoning is at hand. The debt crisis
[could] cost a million public employees their jobs and require another big bailout package that no
one in Washington wants to talk about. "The most alarming thing about the state issue is the level
of complacency," Meredith Whitney, one of the most respected financial analysts on Wall Street. "It
has tentacles as wide as anything I've seen. I think next to housing this is the single most
important issue in the United States, and certainly the largest threat to the U.S. economy," she
[said]. California, which faces a $19 billion budget deficit next year, has a credit rating approaching
junk status. It now spends more money on public employee pensions than it does on the state
university system, which had to increase its tuition by 32 percent. Arizona is so desperate it sold
off the state capitol, Supreme Court building and legislative chambers to a group of investors
and now leases the buildings from their new owner. The state also eliminated Medicaid funding for
most organ transplants.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the devastating consequences for Main Street
of the criminal bailout of Wall Street, click here.

Senate panel ban seen as double standard

2010-12-19, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR20101218035...
Gordon R. England's appointment to a top Pentagon post in 2006 came at a high price. The
Senate committee overseeing his confirmation demanded that he give up lucrative stocks and
options he held in companies that do business with the military. England said he took a big hit
on his taxes and lost out on more than $1 million in potential profits that year when he
divested himself of interests in companies that included General Dynamics. If he had been
a senator, he would not have had to sell anything. The Senate Armed Services Committee
prohibits its staff and presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation from owning stocks or
bonds in 48,096 companies that have Defense Department contracts. But the senators who sit on
the influential panel are allowed to own any assets they want. And they have owned millions in
interests in these firms. The committee's prohibition is designed to prevent high-ranking Pentagon
officials from using inside information to enrich themselves or members of their immediate family.
But panel members have access to much of the same inside information, because they receive
classified briefings from high-ranking defense officials about policy, contracts and plans for combat
strategies and weapons systems. "I think Congress should live by the rules they impose on other
people," said England, who served as deputy defense secretary under George W. Bush until 2009.
Note: Congress is amost always exempt from it's own rules, as further described in this powerful
Time magazine article. This is one major source of rampant corruption in US government. For
more on government corruption, click here.

ACLU lawsuit: Military won't release rape records

2010-12-13, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/12/13/aclu_lawsuit_military_w...
Sexual assault pervades the military, but the Pentagon refuses to release records that fully
document the problem and how it is handled, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups
said in a federal lawsuit that seeks access to the records. Tens of thousands of service members
have reported some form of sexual assault, harassment or trauma in the past decade, according to
the lawsuit filed [on December 13] in New Haven against the departments of Defense and
Veterans Affairs. "The government's refusal to even take the first step of providing comprehensive
and accurate information about the sexual trauma inflicted upon our women and men in uniform ...
is all too telling," said Anuradha Bhagwati, a former Marine captain. The government prosecutes
8 percent of military sex offenders, while 40 percent of civilian sex offenders are
prosecuted. The lawsuit contends sexual assaults are nearly twice as common within
military ranks as in civilian society, and surveys show that nearly one in three women report
being sexually assaulted during their time in the military. About 80 percent of unwanted or
threatening sexual acts are not reported, according to the lawsuit. Victims who report abuse to
their superiors often face social isolation, retribution and counteraccusations, the lawsuit says.
Note: Sexual abuse in the military is much more pervasive than most people would think. For
some shocking revelations by the wife of a US Marine Corps colonel's wife, Kay Griggs, click here
and here.

Brooksley Born foresaw disaster but was silenced

2010-12-05, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/05/BUHC1GLHFA.DTL
There's a brief scene in "Inside Job," the locally produced documentary on the Great Financial
Meltdown, in which a colleague of the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in
1997 describes how "blood drained from her face" after receiving a phoned-in tongue-lashing from
deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. The target of Summers' wrath was Brooksley Born, ...
the first female president of the Stanford Law Review and a recognized legal expert in the area of
complex financial instruments. Her crime: Born had the temerity to push for regulation of the
increasingly wild trading in derivatives, which, as we learned a decade later, helped bring
the U.S. economy, and much of the world's, to its knees. Summers, with 13 bankers in his
office, told Born to get off it "in a very grueling fashion," said the colleague. The story is told
in much more detail in All the Devils are Here, the latest, but eminently worthwhile, book on the
roots of the crisis, by Bethany McLean and ... Joe Nocera. It makes for dispiriting, even appalling,
reading. Responding to growing evidence of manipulation and fraud in unregulated derivatives
trading - "the hippopotamus under the rug," as Born and others referred to it - Born suggested the
commission should perhaps be given some sort of oversight. She had a 33-page policy paper
drawn up, full of questions and suggestions, like, for example, whether establishing a public

exchange for derivatives might not be a bad idea. Responding to the policy paper, Summers,
"screaming at her," according to the book, told Born the bankers sitting in his office "threatened to
move their derivatives business to London," if she didn't stop.
Note: For key reports on financial fraud from reliable sources, click here.

WikiLeaks' War on Secrecy: Truth's Consequences

2010-12-02, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2034488,00.html
WikiLeaks' publication starting Nov. 28 of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables was the largest
unauthorized release of contemporary classified information in history. It contained 11,000
documents marked secret. The WikiLeaks revelations could change history. The number of
documents and other communications [classified as secret] has skyrocketed nearly 10 times, from
5,685,462 in 1996 to 54,651,765 in 2009. Governments are calling more things secret when they
are really not. The number of people with access to that Everest of information has grown too. In
its deep investigation of American secrecy earlier this year, the Washington Post found that some
854,000 people inside and out of government had top-secret clearance, the highest classification.
[Julian Assange] has launched a crusade predicated on the idea that nearly all information should
be free and that confidentiality in government affairs is an affront to the governed. In the process,
he has published everything from a video of U.S. troops killing civilians in Iraq to the documents
behind the so-called Climategate scandal. "When trusted insiders no longer have faith in the
judgment of government regarding secrets, then they start to substitute their own judgment," says
William J. Bosanko, head of the Information Security Oversight Office. "The world is moving
irreversibly in the direction of openness, and those who learn to operate with fewer secrets
will ultimately have the advantage over those who futilely cling to a past in which millions
of secrets can be protected," says a former intelligence-community official.
Note: For an abundance of major media articles showing the problems with excessive secrecy,
click here.

Senator Bernie Sanders on the War Between the Shrinking Middle Class
and the Wealthy
2010-11-30, U.S. Senate Testimony
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=c8f26b05-01e7-429f-a5e0-a9a6bd1a0f40
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, there is a war going on in this country, and I am not referring to the
wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. I am talking about a war being waged by some of the wealthiest and
most powerful people in this country against the working families of the United States of America,
against the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country. The reality is, many of the
Nation's billionaires are on the warpath. They want more, more, more. Their greed has no end,
and apparently there is very little concern for our country or for the people of this country if it gets

in the way of the accumulation of more and more wealth and more and more power. The
percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled since the 1970s. In the mid1970s, the top 1 percent earned about 8 percent of all income. In the 1980s, that figure jumped to
14 percent. In the late 1990s, that 1 percent earned about 19 percent. And today, as the middle
class collapses, the top 1 percent earns 23 1/2 percent of all income--more than the bottom
50 percent. Today, if you can believe it, the top one-tenth of 1 percent earns about 12 cents
of every dollar earned in America.
Note: To see a video of this amazing speech by courageous Senator Bernie Sanders
(Independent), click here.

Why does the FBI Orchestrate Fake Terror Plots?

2010-11-30, Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22175
The latest one snared Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American teenager in Portland, Oregon. The
Associated Press report by William Mall and Nedra Pickler (11-27-10) ... makes it clear that it was
a plot orchestrated by federal agents. Two sentences into the news report we have this: "The
bomb was an elaborate fake supplied by the [FBI] agents and the public was never in danger,
authorities said." The teenager was supplied with a fake bomb and a fake detonator. Documents
released by US Attorney Dwight Holton "show the sting operation began in June." Obviously, the
targeted Portland teenager was not hot to trot. The FBI had to work on him for six months. The
reporters compare "the Portland sting" to the recent arrest in Virginia of Faroque Ahmed who was
ensnared in a "bombing plot that was a ruse conducted over the past six months by federal
officials." Think about this. The FBI did a year's work in order to convince two people to
participate in fake plots. When the US government has to go to such lengths to create
"terrorists" out of hapless people, an undeclared agenda is being served. What could this
agenda be? The answer is many agendas. One agenda is to justify wars of aggression that are
war crimes under the Nuremberg standard created by the US government itself. Another agenda is
to create a police state. A police state can control people who object to their impoverishment for
the benefit of the superrich much more easily than can a democracy endowed with constitutional
civil liberties. Another agenda is to get rich. Terror plots, whether real or orchestrated, have created
a market for security.
Note: Though the source of this article is not considered major media, the writer, Paul Craig
Roberts, served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, earning
fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street
Journal, Business Week, and Scripps-Howard News Service. Roberts has been a critic of both
Democratic and Republican administrations.

Winning the Class War

2010-11-27, The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27herbert.html
The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated. Even as millions of out-of-work
and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nations elite are
lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.
Recessions are for the little people, not for the corporate chiefs and the titans of Wall Street
who are at the heart of the American aristocracy. They have waged economic warfare
against everybody else and are winning big time. The ranks of the poor may be swelling and
families forced out of their foreclosed homes may be enduring a nightmarish holiday season, but
American companies have just experienced their most profitable quarter ever. The corporate fat
cats are becoming alarmingly rotund. Their profits have surged over the past seven quarters at a
pace that is among the fastest ever seen, and they can barely contain their glee. On the same day
that The Times ran its article about [record corporate] profits, it ran a piece on the front page that
carried the headline: With a Swagger, Wallets Out, Wall Street Dares to Celebrate. Anyone who
thinks there is something beneficial in this vast disconnect between the fortunes of the American
elite and those of the struggling masses is just silly. Its not even good for the elite. The rich may
think that the public wont ever turn against them. But to hold that belief, you have to ignore the
turbulent history of the 1930s.
Note: For many reports from reliable souces on corporate profiteering, click here.

In Hunt for Nazis, an Incomplete History

2010-11-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/14/us/14documents.html
A secret internal history of the Justice Departments Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special
Investigations, chronicles numerous hidden chapters in the offices 31-year-existence. But a
heavily redacted version of the report turned over by the Justice Department in response to a
lawsuit deletes more than 1,000 passages in the report, including many of the most intriguing
references. Here is a sampling of the original passages in the unredacted report, obtained by the
New York Times, as compared with the deleted versions. The full report details how the United
States became a safe haven for some Nazis, with some American officials actively
working to help persecutors gain entry to the United States and conceal their identities and
crimes. But the redacted version prepared by the Justice Department omits many of the
central elements of these cases. The redacted report omits the debate within the CIA in 1953
over what Otto von Bolschwing, a Nazi associate of Adolph Eichmann who became a CIA asset,
should tell immigration officials or others in the United States if confronted about his Nazi past. It
also deletes references to what American officials knew about his atrocities, including the assertion
from a Justice Department officials that he might be guilty of acts more heinous than anyone else
currently under investigation. [many additional examples follow]
Note: This suppressed report contains clear evidence that top Nazi war criminals were given
aliases and allowed to escape prosecution by elements both outside and inside of government.
For even more powerful evidence from released US government documents that top government

leaders felt the need for mind control techniques developed by the Nazi's warranted secretly
protecting and eventually working with some of the most heartless of the Nazis, click here.

No charges for destroying CIA interrogation videos

2010-11-09, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40091824/ns/us_news-security/40091824
A special prosecutor cleared CIA employees ... of any criminal charges for destroying videotapes
that showed waterboarding of terror suspects, even though two sources close to the case say a
key witness was never questioned. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that
special counsel John Durham never issued a grand jury subpoena for testimony from Jose
Rodriguez, the CIA's former top clandestine officer, who approved the destruction of the
tapes. Rodriguez' lawyer, Bob Bennett, had made clear that his client would not testify without a
grant of immunity. But Durham's failure to call Rodriguez, or even question him as a witness,
surprised one lawyer close to the case, indicating it could raise questions about the special
counsel's claim that he had conducted a "thorough" investigation. The decision not to prosecute
anyone in the videotape destruction came five years to the day after the CIA destroyed its cache of
92 videos of two al-Qaida operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri, being subjected to
waterboarding, which evokes the sensation of drowning. The deadline for prosecuting someone
under most federal laws is five years. Jamell Jaffer, a lawyer for the ACLU, criticized the decision.
"The problem here is not just the destruction of the tapes, but what the tapes depicted
interrogators using barbaric methods endorsed at the highest levels of the government."
Note: It appears that the courts are not willing to put a stop to the increasing criminality and
usurpations of power of the National Security State. For abundant documentation from major
media sources of the illegalities and atrocities committed by US intelligence and military in the
GWOT, click here.

D.E.A. Deployed Mumbai Plotter Despite Warning

2010-11-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/asia/08terror.html
American authorities sent David C. Headley, a small-time drug dealer and sometime
informant, to work for them in Pakistan months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite a
warning that he sympathized with radical Islamic groups. Not long after Mr. Headley arrived
there, he began training with terrorists, eventually playing a key role in the 2008 attacks that
left 164 people dead in Mumbai. The October 2001 warning was dismissed, the authorities said,
as the ire of a jilted girlfriend and for lack of proof. Less than a month later, those concerns did not
come up when a federal court in New York granted Mr. Headley an early release from probation so
that he could be sent to work for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in Pakistan. It
is unclear what Mr. Headley was supposed to do in Pakistan for the Americans. Two of the former
drug dealers ex-wives had gone to American authorities between 2005 and 2008, before the

Mumbai attacks, to say they feared he was plotting with terrorists. Combined with the earlier
warning from the former girlfriend, three of the women in Mr. Headleys life reported his ties to
terrorists, only to have those warnings dismissed. An examination of Mr. Headleys story
shows that his government ties ran far deeper and longer than previously known. One senior
American official knowledgeable about the case said he believed that Mr. Headley was a D.E.A.
informant until at least 2003, meaning that he was talking to American agencies even as he was
learning to deal with explosives and small arms in terrorist training camps.
Note: This story certainly raises the question whether the Mumbai attacks were not in fact a falseflag operation. For many reports from reliable sources that reveal similar ties between government
agencies running clandestine operations and terrorist attacks, click here.

Look out, your medicine is watching you

2010-11-08, Fox News/Reuters
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/11/09/smart-pill-embedded-microchip
Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval within 18 months for a pioneering tablet containing
an embedded microchip, bringing the concept of "smart-pill" technology a step closer. The initial
program will use one of the Swiss firm's established drugs taken by transplant patients to avoid
organ rejection. But Trevor Mundel, global head of development, believes the concept can be
applied to many other pills. Novartis agreed in January to spend $24 million to secure access to
chip-in-a-pill technology developed by privately owned Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City,
California, putting it ahead of rivals. The biotech start-up's ingestible chips are activated by
stomach acid and send information to a small patch worn on the patient's skin, which can
transmit data to a smartphone or send it over the Internet to a doctor. Because the tiny chips
are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to
prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they
are the same as the original. A bigger issue may be what checks should be put in place to
protect patients' personal medical data as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by
wireless and Bluetooth.
Note: It's interesting that Fox News was the only major media to pick up this revealing Reuters
story. This article seriously underplays the privacy concerns raised by this new corporate strategy.
For more on this, click here. For many key reports on corporate and governmental threats to
privacy, click here. For more on the dangers of microchips from reliable sources, click here.

Ballard man recalls pulling girl from fiery car and a vision days later
2010-10-27, Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013277039_rescue28m.html

It would take an unusual man to decide, in a split second after witnessing a car crash, to crawl into
the Subaru that had erupted into flames 8 feet high to try to save a little girl and her dad. Early
Thursday evening in Ballard, that is what Kenny Johnson did. He remembers talking to himself as
he went into the Subaru: "Oh, my God, this car is gonna blow up and I'm going to be in it. Well, if
does blow up, I guess I'm going straight to heaven because I'm trying to save that little girl." He did
save the 3-year-old, Anna Kotowicz, who suffered a broken arm and some bruising. Her dad, Andy
Kotowicz, 37, who had just picked up his daughter at day care, died at Harborview Medical Center
three days later. Amid the crackling and popping of the car on fire, Johnson says he heard the
cries of the 3-year-old, "a beautiful princess with blonde hair and blue eyes. I go to the passenger
side. I don't remember this, but people afterward told me that when I couldn't open the door, I
ripped it off the hinges. I jump into the car. For a few seconds, it's like there is no sound, no smell,
everything is in slow motion. I can't explain it any other way." Days passed, and Johnson went
back to his routine. That is, until Tuesday morning around 6, he says. "Then there is this man
standing right by the bed. He says he needs help with a few things. He says he wants me to
give a message to his wife and to his daughter. He also tells me to talk to the people at Sub
Pop [his workplace], he wants to let them know not to be mad at the driver that caused the
accident. That's his message." Johnson says that later that day, he went to the Sub Pop website,
and there it was, a memorial photo of the man who had stood by his bed: Kotowicz.

Humiliate, strip, threaten: UK military interrogation manuals discovered

2010-10-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/25/uk-military-interrogation-manuals
The British military has been training interrogators in techniques that include threats, sensory
deprivation and enforced nakedness in an apparent breach of the Geneva conventions. Training
materials drawn up secretly in recent years tell interrogators they should aim to provoke
humiliation, insecurity, disorientation, exhaustion, anxiety and fear in the prisoners they are
questioning, and suggest ways in which this can be achieved. A manual prepared in April
2008 suggests that "Cpers" captured personnel be kept in conditions of physical discomfort
and intimidated. Sensory deprivation is lawful, it adds, if there are "valid operational reasons". It
also urges enforced nakedness. More recent training material says blindfolds, earmuffs and plastic
handcuffs are essential equipment for military interrogators, and says that while prisoners should
be allowed to sleep or rest for eight hours in each 24, they need be permitted only four hours
unbroken sleep. It also suggests that interrogators tell prisoners they will be held incommunicado
unless they answer questions. The 1949 Geneva conventions prohibit any "physical or moral
coercion", in particular any coercion employed to obtain information. All the British classified
training material was produced after the death of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi hotel receptionist tortured
to death by British troops in Basra in September 2003.
Note: For a survey of historic and contemporary uses of torture, click here. For more disturbing
information on how Nazi torture techniques were eventually used by the CIA for mind control, click
here.

17,000 doctors cash in drug company money, report finds

2010-10-19, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39742328/ns/health-health_care/
More than 17,000 doctors and other health care providers have taken money from seven major
drug companies to talk to other doctors about their products, a joint investigation by news
organizations and non-profit groups found. More than 380 of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists
and other professionals took in more than $100,000 in 2009 and 2010, according to the
investigation. The report said far more doctors are likely to have taken such payments, but it
documented these based on information from seven drugmakers. The investigation by journalism
group ProPublica, Consumer Reports magazine, NPR radio and [other] publications showed
doctors were sometimes urged to recommend "off-label" prescriptions of drugs, meaning using
them for conditions they are not approved for. "Tens of thousands of U.S. physicians are paid
to spread the word about pharma's favored pills and to advise the companies about research
and marketing," the group says in its report. "This investigation begins to pull back the shroud on
these activities," Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, said in
a statement. "The amount of money involved is astounding, and the ProPublica report's account of
the background of some of the physicians is disturbing."
Note: This important report is available here. For more on corporate corruption, click here.

Cancer is a man-made disease, controversial study claims

2010-10-15, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39687039/ns/health-cancer
Is the common nature of cancer worldwide purely a man-made phenomenon? That is what some
researchers now suggest. Scientists have only found one case of the disease in investigations of
hundreds of Egyptian mummies, researcher Rosalie David at the University of Manchester in
England said in a statement. The rarity of cancer in mummies suggests it was scarce in antiquity,
and "that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialization,"
researcher Michael Zimmerman at Villanova University in Pennsylvania said in a statement. "In an
ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases."
Zimmerman was the first to diagnose cancer in an Egyptian mummy by analyzing its tissues on a
microscopic level, identifying rectal cancer in an unnamed mummy who had lived in the Dakhleh
Oasis during the Ptolemaic period 1,600 to 1,800 years ago. As they analyzed ancient literature,
they did not find descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers until the 17th
century, and the first reports in the scientific literature of distinctive tumors have only
occurred in the past 200 years, such as scrotal cancer in chimney sweepers in 1775, nasal
cancer in snuff users in 1761 and Hodgkin's disease in 1832. David and Zimmerman therefore
argue that cancer nowadays is largely caused by man-made environmental factors such as
pollution and diet. They detailed their findings in the October issue of the journal Nature Reviews
Cancer.

Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

WikiLeaks and 9/11: What if?

2010-10-15, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/15/opinion/la-oe-rowley-wikileaks-20101015
If WikiLeaks had been around in 2001, could the events of 9/11 have been prevented? The idea is
worth considering. There were a lot of us in the run-up to Sept. 11 who had seen warning signs
that something devastating might be in the planning stages. One of us, Coleen Rowley, was a
special agent/legal counsel at the FBI's Minneapolis division and worked closely with those who
arrested would-be terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui on an immigration violation less than a month
before the World Trade Center was destroyed. Following up on a tip from flight school instructors
who had become suspicious of the French Moroccan who claimed to want to fly a jet as an "ego
boost," Special Agent Harry Samit and an INS colleague had detained Moussaoui. A foreign
intelligence service promptly reported that he had connections with a foreign terrorist group, but
FBI officials in Washington inexplicably turned down Samit's request for authority to search
Moussaoui's laptop computer and personal effects. Later, testifying at Moussaoui's trial,
Samit testified that he believed the behavior of his FBI superiors in Washington constituted
"criminal negligence." WikiLeaks might have provided a pressure valve for those agents who
were terribly worried about what might happen and frustrated by their superiors' seeming
indifference.
Note: For questions raised about the official account of 9/11 by many courageous professionals,
click here and here.

Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion

2010-10-11, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518104575546542463746562.html
Compensation on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive
year, as more than three dozen top banks and securities firms will pay $144 billion in salary
and benefits ... a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009. Compensation was
expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms. Overall, Wall Street is expected to pay 32.1% of its
revenue to employees, the same as last year, but below the 36% in 2007. Profits, which were
depressed by losses in the past two years, have bounced back from the 2008 crisis. But the
estimated 2010 profit of $61.3 billion for the firms surveyed still falls about 20% short from the
record $82 billion in 2006. Over that same period, compensation across the firms in the survey
increased 23%. "Until focus of these institutions changes from revenue generation to long-term
shareholder value, we will see these outrageous pay packages and compensation levels," said
Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.
Note: For many key reports from reliable sources on Wall Street's profiteering, click here.

Congressional Staffers Gain From Trading in Stocks

2010-10-11, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522434188603198.html
Chris Miller nearly doubled his $3,500 stock investment in a renewable-energy firm in 2008. It was
a perfectly legal bet, but he's no ordinary investor. Mr. Miller is the top energy-policy adviser to
Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who helped pass legislation that wound
up benefiting the firm. Mr. Miller isn't the only Congressional staffer making such stock bets. At
least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle traded shares of companies that their bosses help
oversee, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than 3,000 disclosure forms covering
trading activity by Capitol Hill staffers for 2008 and 2009. The Journal analysis showed that an aide
to a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee bought Bank of America Corp. stock
before results of last year's government stress tests eased investor concerns about the health of
the banking industry. A top aide to the House Speaker profited by trading shares of Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae in a brokerage account with her husband two days before the government
authorized emergency funding for the companies. The aides identified by the Journal say they
didn't profit by making trades based on any information gathered in the halls of Congress. Even if
they had done so, it would be legal, because insider-trading laws don't apply to Congress.
Unlike many Executive Branch employees, lawmakers and aides don't have restrictions on
their stock holdings and ownership interests in companies they oversee.
Note: Why is Congress exempt from so many of its own laws? Who is willing to start a movement
to stop this? For lots more on government corruption from major media sources, click here.

Witnesses in Defense Dept. Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings

2010-10-04, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/04/exclusive-witnesses-defense-depart...
A document obtained and witnesses interviewed by Fox News raise new questions over whether
there was an effort by the Defense Department to cover up a pre-9/11 military intelligence program
known as "Able Danger." At least five witnesses questioned by the Defense Department's
Inspector General told Fox News that their statements were distorted by investigators in the final
IG's report -- or it left out key information, backing up assertions that lead hijacker Mohammed Atta
was identified a year before 9/11. Lt. Col Tony Shaffer, an operative involved with Able Danger
[and author of Operation Dark Heart, a recent book which discussed the Able Danger operation,
and all copies of which were destroyed by the Pentagon] said, "My last interview was very, very
hostile." When asked why the IG's report was so aggressive in its denials of his claims and those
of other witnesses -- that the data mining project had identified Atta as a threat to the U.S. before
9/11 -- Shaffer said [the] Defense Department was worried about taking some of the blame
for 9/11. Specifically, the Defense Intelligence Agency ... wanted the removal of references
to a meeting between Shaffer and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip
Zelikow, removed. Shaffer alleges that in that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, the

commission was told about Able Danger and the identification of Atta before the attacks. Shaffer,
who was undercover at the time, said there was "stunned silence" at the meeting. No mention of
this was made in the final 9/11 Commission report.
Note: Able Danger was the program which identified Mohamed Atta and three other alleged 9/11
hijackers as a potential terror threat before 9/11. To read major media reports on the intense
controversy around this program (which is likely why Shaffer's book is being burned by the
Pentagon), click here. For a highly revealing Fox News interview with Col. Shaffer on these major
deceptions, click here.

CIA hired Karzai brother before 9/11, Woodward says

2010-09-30, Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/09/cia_hired_karzai_brother_befo...
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of Afghanistans president and boss of the strategically
important Kandahar province, has been on the CIA payroll for over a decade, Bob Woodward
writes in his new book, Obamas Wars. By the fall of 2008, Woodward says, Ahmed Wali Karzai
had been on the CIA payroll for years, beginning before 9/11. He had belonged to the CIA's
small network of paid agents and informants inside Afghanistan. In addition, the CIA paid
him money through his half-brother, the president. Hamid Karzai was plucked from obscurity
and installed as president after U.S.-backed Afghan forces chased the Taliban from power
following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. There have been many accounts of his brothers relationship
with the CIA over the years, leaving the impression that he is a CIA agent, i.e., a controlled asset
of the spy agency. But Woodwards account of the CIAs relationship with Karzai, who has also
been accused repeatedly -- but not charged with -- protecting the illicit opium trade, is more
nuanced. He was not in any sense a controlled agent who always responded to U.S. and CIA
requests and pressure, Woodward writes. He was his own man, playing all sides against the
others -- the United States, the drug dealers, the Taliban and even his brother if necessary.
Note: What this article fails to mention is that President Karzai was also an employee of the major
oil company Unocal, as reported in this Chicago Tribune article.

Side effects worse than the disease

2010-09-18, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/side-effects-worse-than-the-disease...
Public health experts have called for an independent body to monitor drug safety after it emerged
that young children were more likely to end up in hospital because of side effects from a flu
vaccine than they were from the disease itself. More than 1000 adverse responses in children
under five were reported ... by June this year, including nearly 100 instances of febrile convulsions,
a seizure which in a small number of cases has been associated with long-term adverse health
outcomes. The side effects were linked to one of the three seasonal flu vaccines, Fluvax and

Fluvax junior, from the drug company CSL, but the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] maintained
despite that, that "the overall risk-benefit balance of both products remains positive". Research
published yesterday in the journal Eurosurveillance showed Fluvax might have caused two
to three hospital admissions due to seizure for every admission from flu it prevented. The
chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia, Michael Moore, said further
examination of risks was needed, at arm's length from the TGA. The government should
consider creating an independent centre. "There is a concern that the TGA is the body that
approves vaccines and is also the body that determines what the risks and benefits are when
concerns are raised," he said.
Note: For lots more from reliable souces on the dangers of many types of vaccines, click here.

Civil Rights Photographer Unmasked as Informer

2010-09-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/us/14photographer.html
That photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. riding one of the first desegregated buses in
Montgomery, Ala.? He took it. The well-known image of black sanitation workers carrying I Am a
Man signs in Memphis? His. He was there in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel, Dr. Kings
room, on the night he was assassinated. But now an unsettling asterisk must be added to
the legacy of Ernest C. Withers, one of the most celebrated photographers of the civil rights
era: He was a paid F.B.I. informer. On [September 12], The Commercial Appeal in Memphis
published the results of a two-year investigation that showed Mr. Withers, who died in 2007 at age
85, had collaborated closely with two F.B.I. agents in the 1960s to keep tabs on the civil rights
movement. From at least 1968 to 1970, Mr. Withers, who was black, provided photographs,
biographical information and scheduling details to two F.B.I. agents in the bureaus Memphis
domestic surveillance program, Howell Lowe and William H. Lawrence, according to numerous
reports summarizing their meetings. The reports were obtained by the newspaper under the
Freedom of Information Act and posted on its Web site. While he was growing close to top civil
rights leaders, Mr. Withers was also meeting regularly with the F.B.I. agents, disclosing details
about plans for marches and political beliefs of the leaders, even personal information like the
leaders car tag numbers.
Note: For a fascinating CNN interview with civil rights leader and former Atlanta mayor Andrew
Young on this issue, click here. For key reports from reliable sources raising unanswered
questions about the assassination of Martin Luther King and other major US political leaders, click
here.

US soldiers killed Afghan civilians for sport

2010-09-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and
shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. Five of the soldiers
are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in
separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a
recruit who exposed the murders. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge
from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker
infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. According to investigators
and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant
Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's
criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in
Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them". Investigators
said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the
unit to form a "kill team". The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the
fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.
Note: For analysis of this latest report of US military atrocities in Afghanistan, click here and here.
For an analysis of how this and other US atrocities in Afghanistan have been systematically
suppressed by the US media, click here. For a powerful analysis of "Why America Cannot Win the
War in Afghanistan" by a former high-ranking Pakistani general, Hamid Gul, click here.

German journalist's fight for secret govt files on Nazi Adolf Eichmann
heads back to court
2010-09-08, Fox News/AP
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/07/german-journalists-fight-secret-govt-...
Germanys intelligence service has turned over thousands of files on top Nazi Adolf Eichmanns
whereabouts after World War II to a journalist who sued for them. But with so many passages
blacked out and pages missing, shes taking the matter back to court. An attorney for freelance
reporter Gabriele Weber said ... he was confident that she would win greater access eventually,
even though Chancellor Angela Merkels office has argued that some Eichmann files should stay
secret. Last week, Weber went to see the government files on the man known as the architect of
the Holocaust for coordinating the Nazis genocide policy. She was surprised to find some 1,000
pages missing, despite a federal courts order in April that the intelligence agency, the BND, could
not keep all of the documents secret. Of the pages she did receive, much of the information was
blacked out. Weber hopes the files will shed more light on missing pieces of the [Eichmann]
puzzle. Who helped him escape? How much did Germany know about where he was? Is
there more to the story of his capture?
Note: Why are these documents from over 60 years ago still being censored? Could it be that the
Vatican and allies were secretly working together to allow key German leaders to escape? For lots
more on this learn about Operation Paperclip here and here.

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child

pornography
2010-09-03, Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declin...
A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child
pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense
Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit
cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated
only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show. The cases turned up during a
2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn
payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card
information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child
pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses
with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions. In a related inquiry, the
Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against
military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to
be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of
defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program
manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened
investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in
prosecuting just a handful.

A town crier in the global village

2010-09-02, The Economist magazine
http://www.economist.com/node/16943875?story_id=16943875
Nearly four years ago, a web-based political movement set itself the modest task of closing the
gap between the world we have and world most people everywhere want. Calling their group
Avaaz, which means voice in several languages, ... the movement, using 14 languages and
engaged in a mind-boggling list of causes, has had some spectacular successes. Within the next
few months, membership will top 6m. The number of individual actions taken (from
bombarding a politician with a well-aimed message, or funding a poster campaign, to
helping provide satellite phones to Burmese monks) is estimated at over 23m. Among the
recent developments Avaaz claims to have influenced are a new anti-corruption law in Brazil; a
move by Britain to create a marine-conservation zone in the Indian Ocean; and the spiking of a
proposal to allow more hunting of whales. Avaazs campaign against the death sentence for
adultery imposed on an Iranian woman asks members to phone Iranian embassies (and provides
numbers); members are also being urged to put pressure on the leaders of Brazil and Turkey to
intercede with Iran. Avaaz is collecting funds for a campaign in the Brazilian and Turkish press,

too. Avaazs other demands range from the simple - close Guantnamo - to the very broad:
fight climate change, avoid a clash of civilisations. Despite the risk of blurred signals, the variety of
causes is also a strength.
Note: Consider signing up at Avaaz.org to join in the powerful advocacy work they are doing.

Botox Maker to Pay $600M to Resolve Investigation

2010-09-02, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cosmetic/wireStory?id=11532864
Allergan Inc., the maker of wrinkle-smoothing Botox, has agreed to pay $600 million to settle a
yearslong federal investigation into its marketing of the top-selling, botulin-based drug. The Justice
Department and the company said Wednesday in a statement it will plead guilty to one
misdemeanor charge of "misbranding," in which the company's marketing led physicians to use
Botox for unapproved uses. Those included the treatment of headache, pain, spasticity and
cerebral palsy in children. Companies are prohibited from promoting drugs for unapproved, or "offlabel," uses. Allergan said it will pay $375 million in connection with the plea, which includes the
forfeiture of $25 million in assets. Additionally, the company will pay $225 million in civil fines
$210 million to the federal governments and the rest to several states related to the
investigation, although the company denies liability for the civil claims. Allergan "paid kickbacks
to induce [physicians] to inject Botox for off-label uses and Allergan also taught doctors
how to bill for off-label uses, including coaching doctors how to miscode Botox claims
leading to millions of dollars of false claims being to submitted to federal and state
programs," Assistant Attorney General Tony West said.
Note: $600 million is nothing to sneeze at, yet this kind of find is becoming almost commonplace in
the pharmaceutical industry. Could it be that industry chieftains are more interested in profit that
public health? For more powerful information along these lines, see our two-page health summary.

US, UK Roles in Iran's Mass Executions

2010-08-31, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/08/sources-say-cia-...
With Mir Hossein Mousavi as the de facto leader of the opposition movement, the mass executions
of the 1980s have become a hot topic among Iranians and Iran watchers, including many readers
of this site. Mousavi was prime minister in that decade. Though this article was first published in
1986, it lends a new perspective to the issue, at least with respect to the thousands of executions
that took place in the early 1980s. The CIA's assistance to Ayatollah Khomeini, which apparently
prompted the executions, is not a well-known fact: The Reagan administration's secret overtures
and arms shipments to Iran are part of a seven-year-long pattern of covert Central Intelligence
Agency operations -- some dating back to the Carter administration -- that were designed both to
curry favor with the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and support Iranian exiles who seek to

overthrow it, according to informed sources. In 1983, for example, the CIA participated in a
secret operation to provide a list of Soviet KGB agents and collaborators operating in Iran
to the Khomeini regime, which then executed up to 200 suspects. Khomeini also expelled 18
Soviet diplomats, imprisoned the Tudeh party leaders and publicly thanked God for "the miracle"
leading to the arrests of the "treasonous leaders." At the same time, secret presidential intelligence
orders, called "findings," authorized the CIA to support Iranian exiles opposed to the Khomeini
regime, the sources said.

Karzai Aide in Corruption Inquiry Is Tied to C.I.A.

2010-08-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/asia/26kabul.html
The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption
investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American
officials. Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council,
appears to have been on the payroll for many years, according to officials in Kabul and
Washington. It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether
providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace,
or both. Mr. Salehis relationship with the C.I.A. underscores deep contradictions at the heart
of the Obama administrations policy in Afghanistan, with American officials
simultaneously demanding that Mr. Karzai root out the corruption that pervades his
government while sometimes subsidizing the very people suspected of perpetrating it.
Other prominent Afghans who American officials have said were on the C.I.A.s payroll include the
presidents half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, suspected by investigators of playing a role in
Afghanistans booming opium trade. Over the course of the nine-year-old war, the C.I.A. has
enmeshed itself in the inner workings of Afghanistans national security establishment. From 2002
until just last year, the C.I.A. paid the entire budget of Afghanistans spy service, the National
Directorate of Security.
Note: For key reports on the corruption and profiteering that are the real fuels for war, click here.

Pont-Saint-Esprit poisoning: Did the CIA spread LSD?

2010-08-23, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10996838
Nearly 60 years ago, a French town was hit by a sudden outbreak of hallucinations, which left five
people dead and many seriously ill. On 16 August 1951, postman Leon Armunier was doing his
rounds in the southern French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit when he was suddenly overwhelmed by
nausea and wild hallucinations. "It was terrible. I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and
the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms," he remembers. Leon, now 87, fell off his bike
and was taken to the hospital in Avignon. Over the coming days, dozens of other people in the
town fell prey to similar symptoms. Doctors at the time concluded that bread at one of the town's

bakeries had become contaminated by ergot, a poisonous fungus that occurs naturally on rye.
That view remained largely unchallenged until 2009, when an American investigative journalist,
Hank Albarelli, revealed a CIA document labelled: "Re: Pont-Saint-Esprit and F.Olson Files. SO
Span/France Operation file, inclusive Olson. Intel files. Hand carry to Belin - tell him to see to it that
these are buried." F. Olson is Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who, at the time of the Pont St
Esprit incident, led research for the agency into the drug LSD. David Belin, meanwhile, was
executive director of the Rockefeller Commission created by the White House in 1975 to
investigate abuses carried out worldwide by the CIA. Albarelli believes the Pont-Saint-Esprit
and F. Olson Files, mentioned in the document, would show - if they had not been "buried" - that
the CIA was experimenting on the townspeople, by dosing them with LSD.
Note: Frank Olson later had his drink spiked with LSD and allegedly committed suicide shortly
thereafter. Yet many believe he was "suicided" as he was having misgivings about his involvement
in this program and considering spilling the beans, as reported in this news article. For an overview
of CIA mind-control experimentation, click here.

Probe finds hundreds of cases of mishandled evidence in N. Carolina

2010-08-18, Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/18/2159656/probe-finds-hundreds-of-cases.html
The North Carolina justice system shook [on August 18] as an audit commissioned by state
Attorney General Roy Cooper revealed that the State Bureau of Investigation withheld or distorted
evidence in more than 200 cases at the expense of potentially innocent men and women. The full
impact of the disclosure will reverberate for years to come as prosecutors and defense attorneys
re-examine cases as much as two decades old to figure out whether these errors robbed
defendants of justice. Some of the injustices can be addressed as attorneys bring old cases
back to court. For others, it's too late. Three of the defendants in [corrupt] cases have been
executed. Two former FBI agents, Chris Swecker and Mike Wolf, examined more than 15,000
cases at the invitation of Cooper, a Democrat who has been attorney general since 2001. The
exoneration of Greg Taylor, a Wake County man imprisoned 17 years for a murder he didn't
commit, prompted the review. SBI analyst Duane Deaver admitted in February that he failed to
report tests indicating a substance on Taylor's SUV was not blood. Swecker's findings, he said,
signal potential violations of the U.S. Constitution and North Carolina laws by withholding
information favorable to defendants.
Note: Three innocent individuals were likely executed in this one US state. How many more are
there like this around the world?

Plaintiff who challenged FBI's national security letters reveals concerns

2010-08-10, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR20100809062...

For six years, Nicholas Merrill has lived in a surreal world of half-truths, where he could not tell
even his fiancee, his closest friends or his mother that he is "John Doe" -- the man who filed the
first-ever court challenge to the FBI's ability to obtain personal data on Americans without judicial
approval. No one knew he was the plaintiff challenging the FBI's authority to issue "national
security letters," as they are known, and its ability to impose a gag on the recipient. Now, following
the partial lifting of his gag order 11 days ago as a result of an FBI settlement, Merrill can speak
openly for the first time about the experience, although he cannot disclose the full scope of the
data demanded. "One of the most dangerous and troubling things about the FBI's national
security letter powers is how much it has been shrouded in secrecy," said Melissa Goodman,
a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who helped Merrill sue the government in April
2004 and was one of only a handful of people outside the FBI -- all lawyers -- who knew Merrill had
received a letter. The FBI between 2003 and 2006 issued more than 192,500 letters -- an average
of almost 50,000 a year. The Justice Department inspector general in 2007 faulted the bureau for
failing to adequately justify the issuance of such letters.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the erosion of civil liberties by government,
click here.

The Giving Pledge: Billionaires Promise to Donate at Least Half Their

Fortunes to Charity
2010-08-04, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bill-gates-warren-buffett-organize-billionaire-givin...
At the urging of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, forty of the world's richest families have promised to
give at least half of their fortunes to philanthropy. By taking the "Giving Pledge," the forty families
or individuals, most of whom are billionaires, are promising a collective sum of at least $125 billion
to charitable causes, based on Forbes' current estimates of their net worth and other data sources.
According to the pledge, the giving can occur either during donors' lifetimes or after their passing.
Each has committed at least 50 percent of their net worth, but many have committed to larger
percentages, Buffett said. The men and women taking the pledge are free to direct their money to
causes of their choice, and the organization is not pooling any money or dictating areas of need. In
fact, the pledge is non-binding, though the organizers say the billionaires are making a "moral
commitment," publicly signing their names to letters posted on a website, GivingPledge.org. Buffett
and Bill and Melinda Gates reached out to some 80 members of the Forbes billionaires list, asking
them to sign on. Buffett wrote that by spending any more than one percent of his fortune on
his own family, "neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast,
that remaining 99 percent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others."
Note: For one of the great organizations behind this cause, click here.

U.S. regulators lack data on health risks of most chemicals

2010-08-02, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/01/AR20100801034...
This summer, when Kellogg recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Pops and
Honey Smacks, the company blamed elevated levels of a chemical in the packaging. Dozens of
consumers reported a strange taste and odor, and some complained of nausea and diarrhea.
Federal regulators, who are charged with ensuring the safety of food and consumer products, are
in the dark about the suspected chemical, 2-methylnaphthalene. The [FDA and EPA have] no
scientific data on its impact on human health. The cereal recall hints at a larger issue: huge
gaps in the government's knowledge about chemicals in everyday consumer products,
from furniture to clothing to children's products. Under current laws, the government has
little or no information about the health risks posed by most of the 80,000 chemicals on the
U.S. market today. The information gap is hardly new. When the Toxic Substances Control Act
was passed in 1976, it exempted from regulation about 62,000 chemicals that were in commercial
use -- including 2-methylnaphthalene. In addition, chemicals developed since the law's passage do
not have to be tested for safety. Instead, companies are asked to volunteer information on the
health effects of their compounds.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima'

2010-07-24, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-legacy-of-us-assaul...
Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was
bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that
were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study. Iraqi doctors in
Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious
birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they
were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops
and insurgents. Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all
cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more
than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait. Dr Chris
Busby, ... one of the authors of the survey of 4,800 individuals in Fallujah, said ... "to produce an
effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the
attacks happened". US Marines first besieged and bombarded Fallujah, 30 miles west of
Baghdad, in April 2004 after four employees of the American security company Blackwater were
killed and their bodies burned. After an eight-month stand-off, the Marines stormed the city in
November using artillery and aerial bombing against rebel positions. US forces later admitted that
they had employed white phosphorus as well as other munitions.
Note: For many reports from major media sources of the horrific impacts of the US wars of
aggression in the Middle East and Central Asia, click here.

Inquiry into Ian Tomlinson's death at a G20 protest in London prompts

more questions than answers
2010-07-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/22/ian-tomlinson-story-justice-denied
When Ian Tomlinson's widow watched video footage of his last moments alive for the first time on
a laptop 16 months ago, she was speechless. Julia Tomlinson had been told by police her
husband had died of natural causes as he tried to get home through the G20 protest in London,
and there was nothing suspicious about the death. But as she watched [video] footage ...a different
story unfolded. Tomlinson, hands in pockets, was walking away from police. An officer who was
not displaying his badge number, and whose face was concealed behind a balaclava, lunged at
her husband from behind and, without provocation, struck him on the leg and pushed him to the
ground. The police disregard for Tomlinson was [evident] on footage of the aftermath of the attack,
which left him lying on the ground in front of a line of riot police shortly after 7.25pm on 1 April.
None of the officers went to the aid of the 47-year-old, who was clearly in distress. Looking
disoriented, Tomlinson then stumbled 100 yards down the road before collapsing and dying. The
initial police response was to accuse protesters of wrongdoing. Within four hours, Scotland Yard
had released a statement saying officers had gone to the victim's aid and called an ambulance,
and were attempting to save his life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the following days, City
of London police, which was investigating the death, would receive information from
witnesses that suggested Tomlinson might have been assaulted by an officer. His family
were not told about this, and were advised instead that he had died after being caught up in
a fracas prompted by anarchist demonstrators attacking police.
Note: This excellent article shows all too clearly how police departments will lie and severely
manipulate evidence to defend their own, even when they know they are in the wrong.

27,000 Abandoned Gulf Oil Wells May Be Leaking

2010-07-07, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/07/national/main6653016.shtml
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an
environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one - not industry, not government
- is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows. The oldest of
these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing
jobs are already failing. The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the
neglected wells - those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."
More than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About
three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year,
and many since the 1950s and 1960s - even though sealing procedures for temporary
abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures. As a forceful reminder of the
potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement

for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst
environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in
the Gulf, according to government data.
Note: For lots more on government and corporate corruption, click here and here.

Insider Trading Inside the Beltway

2010-07-02, UCLA School of Law
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1633123
A 2004 study of the results of stock trading by United States Senators during the 1990s found that
Senators on average beat the market by 12% a year. In sharp contrast, U.S. households on
average underperformed the market by 1.4% a year and even corporate insiders on average beat
the market by only about 6% a year during that period. A reasonable inference is that some
Senators had access to and were using material nonpublic information about the
companies in whose stock they trade. Under current law, it is unlikely that Members of
Congress can be held liable for insider trading. The proposed Stop Trading on Congressional
Knowledge Act addresses that problem by instructing the Securities and Exchange Commission to
adopt rules intended to prohibit such trading. This article analyzes present law to determine
whether Members of Congress, Congressional employees, and other federal government
employees can be held liable for trading on the basis of material nonpublic information. It argues
that there is no public policy rationale for permitting such trading and that doing so creates
perverse legislative incentives and opens the door to corruption. The article explains that the
Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution is no barrier to legislative and regulatory
restrictions on Congressional insider trading.
Note: Do you think that these highly successful investors in the US Senate might have a vested
interest in protecting the existing financial and legal structure that makes their profits possible and
protects them from criminal charges?

U.S. banks' role in Mexican drug trade

2010-06-30, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg News
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/29/BU2L1E6LV2.DTL
Wachovia [Bank] ... made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. San
Francisco's Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit
failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers - including the
cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine. The admission ... sheds
light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that
has convulsed Mexico for the past four years. Wachovia admitted it didn't do enough to spot
illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican currency exchange houses from 2004 to
2007. That's the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S.

history - a sum equal to one-third of Mexico's current gross domestic product. "Wachovia's
blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte
blanche to finance their operations," said Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled
the case. "It's the banks laundering money for the cartels that finances the tragedy," said Martin
Woods, director of Wachovia's anti-money-laundering unit in London from 2006 to 2009. Woods
says he quit the bank in disgust after executives ignored his documentation that drug dealers were
funneling money through Wachovia's branch network. "If you don't see the correlation between the
money laundering by banks and the 22,000 people killed in Mexico, you're missing the point," he
said.
Note: For abundant reports from reliable sources on the many dubious ways in which major
financial firms make their profits, click here.

Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up

2010-06-29, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/28/MNRF1E68UI.DTL
The Vatican on [June 28] issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the
retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man
who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal
Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and long considered a papal contender, drew
heated criticism from clerical abuse victims. They said the Vatican should be honoring
Schoenborn, not publicly humiliating him, for his calls for greater transparency and demands for a
crackdown on priests who rape and sodomize children. Schoenborn has also called for an open
discussion of priestly celibacy, views that the Vatican said he "clarified" on Monday during an
audience with the pope. Schoenborn had accused the former Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, in April of blocking a church investigation into the late Austrian Cardinal Hans
Hermann Groer, who was accused by victims in 1995 of abusing boys at a seminary. "With his
words, Benedict professes concern for victims. But by his actions, Benedict shows
concern for his colleagues," said David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP, the Survivors
Network of those Abused by Priests.
Note: For more on sex crimes and the Vatican, click here.

Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists

2010-06-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/world/middleeast/24saudi.html
Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of
extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal
family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles.
The case has put the Obama administration in the middle of a political and legal dispute,

with the Justice Department siding with the Saudis in court last month in seeking to kill
further legal action. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to
Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had
the lawyers copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material.
Two federal judges and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals have already ruled against the 7,630
people represented in the lawsuit, made up of survivors of the attacks and family members of
those killed, throwing out the suit on the ground that the families cannot bring legal action in the
United States against a sovereign nation and its leaders. The Supreme Court is expected to
decide this week whether to hear an appeal, but the families prospects dimmed last month when
the Justice Department sided with the Saudis in their immunity claim and urged the court not to
consider the appeal.
Note: For many questions about the relationship between powerful Saudis, the US government
and the events of 9/11, click here.

Abramoff Free After 3 Years in Jail

2010-06-24, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10405590.stm
Former US lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was jailed on corruption charges in 2006, has landed a job
in a kosher pizza restaurant. Mr Abramoff was released into a halfway house in Baltimore two
weeks ago after serving more than three years for fraud, corruption and conspiracy. The halfway
house arranged Mr Abramoff's new job. Mr Abramoff's crimes include a fraudulent deal to buy
casino boats and conspiring to bribe public officials. As a millionaire and lobbyist, his network
reached deep into Washington's political establishment, and his investigation sent
shockwaves through the city. It also sparked off a wide-ranging public corruption probe. As
part of his plea deal, Mr Abramoff provided information to the Justice Department that helped
convict a member of Congress for taking bribes. A former Deputy Secretary of the Interior
appointed by President George W Bush - J Steven Griles - was the highest level administration
official convicted. Mr Abramoff is expected to be released from the halfway house in December.
Note: A petty thief steals three times for a total value of a few thousand dollars and by the "three
strikes" law ends up in jail for life. Abramoff successfully corrupts U.S. Senators and Congress
members and serve less than four years in jail. Is the US justice system biased towards the rich?

Lawmakers Negotiating Bank Bill Hold Industry Stocks

2010-06-17, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-17/lawmakers-negotiating-bank-bill-h...
Lawmakers writing the biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression
may have a stake in the outcome. Eight of 11 senators and six of 22 House members on a
conference committee writing the final legislation own stocks in financial companies

affected by the legislation, disclosure statements released yesterday show. One senator and
nine representatives who also sit on the committee got extensions of the filing deadline and
havent yet disclosed their holdings. Its always a concern that personal interests
influence legislation, said Lisa Gilbert, a lobbyist for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a
Boston-based organization pushing for stronger financial regulations. Senator Judd Gregg of New
Hampshire reported Bank of America stock holdings and a savings account valued between $1
million and $5 million. The 43 negotiators are trying to iron out differences between the House and
Senate versions of the legislation as they respond to an economic crisis that forced the U.S. to
provide $700 billion in bailout funds for New York-based Citigroup Inc. ... Bank of America Corp.
and other banks.
Note: For abundant reports from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

Obama Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press

2010-06-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/politics/12leak.html
Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone
revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convinced that the governments eavesdroppers were
squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on failed programs. He contacted a reporter for The
Baltimore Sun. Today, because of that decision, Mr. Drake, 53, ... faces years in prison on 10
felony charges involving the mishandling of classified information and obstruction of justice. The
indictment of Mr. Drake was the latest evidence that the Obama administration is proving more
aggressive than the Bush administration in seeking to punish unauthorized leaks. In 17 months in
office, President Obama has already outdone every previous president in pursuing leak
prosecutions. His administration has taken actions that might have provoked sharp
political criticism for his predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Drake was charged in April; in
May, an F.B.I. translator was sentenced to 20 months in prison for providing classified documents
to a blogger; this week, the Pentagon confirmed the arrest of a 22-year-old Army intelligence
analyst suspected of passing a classified video of an American military helicopter shooting
Baghdad civilians to the Web site Wikileaks.org.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on government secrecy, click here.

Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News

2010-06-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10access.html
When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast GuardFederal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in
[the] Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request. A pilot
wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of

the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone
late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied. We were
questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for? recalled Rhonda
Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. The minute we mentioned
media, the answer was: Not allowed. Journalists struggling to document the impact
of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas
affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement,
the Coast Guard and government officials. Scientists, too, have complained about the trickle of
information that has emerged from BP and government sources. Three weeks passed, for
instance, from the time the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 and the first images of
oil gushing from an underwater pipe were released by BP.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on government and corporate corruption
and collusion, click here and here.

Army Leak Suspect Is Arrested

2010-06-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/world/08leaks.html
The Department of Defense announced that Specialist [Bradley] Manning, of Potomac, Md.,
had been arrested and was under investigation [for leaking a video of a US helicopter attack
on civilians in Baghdad to a whistleblower website, Wikileaks]. The leak of the helicopter
video, which Wikileaks titled Collateral Murder, caused serious consternation at the
Pentagon, where senior officials are increasingly concerned about technology that makes it easier
to anonymously post documents, photographs and videos online. But opponents of the Iraq war
have said that the video provided irrefutable evidence of a military blunder, and that it should not
have been classified. The episode also drew wide attention to Wikileaks, a once-fringe Web site
that aims to bring to light secret information about governments and corporations. It was founded
three years ago by Julian Assange, an Australian activist and journalist, and has published
documents about toxic dumping in Africa, protocols from Guantnamo Bay and e-mail messages
from Sarah Palins personal account.
Note: In case the above video disappears, click here to view it on one of our websites. The only
reason this event made news is because the two cameramen killed were Reuters staff. US forces
then fired on an unarmed van with children in it, which was attempting to bring the dead and
wounded out of the combat zone. How many innocent civilians are killed like this and never make
the news? Please spread this important video and help others to wake up and work together to
stop the cruelty of some of the US forces. The Pentagon is working hard to shut down Wikileaks,
the organization which secured this powerful video.

Vast UFO Cover-Up a 'Cosmic Watergate,' Says Nuclear Physicist

2010-06-08, Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/08/vast-ufo-coverup-stanton-friedman
After half a century of investigation, a former nuclear physicist -- who worked on fission and fusion
rockets for companies like Westinghouse and Aerojet General Nucleonics -- is convinced that not
only are UFOs real, the government has known about them since 1947. "Some UFOs are
intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft," Stanton Friedman told AOL News, calling the
vast cover-up of their existence "the biggest story of the millennium." In 1958, UFOs caught his
attention, and Friedman has since lectured about this subject at more than 700 colleges and
professional groups in all 50 states and around the world. "After 53 years of investigation, I'm
convinced we're dealing here with a cosmic Watergate," he [said]. "That means a few
people within major governments have known since at least 1947 that some UFOs are alien
spacecraft." In Friedman's new book, Science Was Wrong: Startling Truths About Cures,
Theories, and Inventions "They" Declared Impossible, co-authored with Kathleen Marden, he
wrote, "There's been no shortage of strong, negative proclamations from debunking groups and
individuals who refuse to examine the evidence ... to support the notion that some UFOs are of
extraterrestrial origin.
Note: For the full article at AOL News, click here.

What are the Bilderberg Group really doing in Spain?

2010-06-04, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/what-are-the-bilderberg-group-...
Ordinary citizens can only guess at the goings-on at the annual meeting of the secretive Bilderberg
Group, a media-barred pow-wow of the global elite that in the past has reportedly attracted former
US President Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and David Cameron, and US treasury secretary Timothy
Geithner. The heavyweight weekend retreat kicked off yesterday with hordes of police security and
a gag order for employees at the luxury Dolce. None of the illustrious guests posed for photos or
spouted prepared statements for the media. Instead, activists, journalists and bloggers attempted
to stake out positions in the surrounding hills to catch glimpses of this year's participants, guerrillawarrior style. The cloak-and-dagger theorists scored a point this week when ... Daniel Estulin
addressed the European Parliament on the invitation of an Italian member, Mario Borghezio. Mr
Estulin, an investigative journalist who has written two best-selling books on the subject, contends
that "the Bilderberg Club" is not a classic conspiracy but a potentially dangerous meeting
of minds with a common goal: to centralise global economic power to benefit corporations.
He defined it as "a virtual spider web of interlocking financial, political and industrial
interests". "It isn't a secret society," he said. "No matter how powerful they are, no group sits
around a table holding hands and deciding the world's future. It is an ideology."
Note: Why is there so little reporting on this influential group in the major media? Thankfully, the
alternative media has had some good articles. And a Google search can be highly informative. For
many other revealing news articles from major media sources on powerful secret societies, click
here. And for reliable information covering the big picture of how and why these secret societies
are using government-sponsored mind control programs to achieve their agenda, click here.

U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take

larger role
2010-06-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR20100603049...
The Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda
and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials. Special
Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries,
compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in
the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East,
Africa and Central Asia. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around
the world. Obama, one senior military official said, has allowed "things that the previous
administration did not." Special Operations commanders have also become a far more
regular presence at the White House than they were under George W. Bush's
administration. The Special Operations capabilities requested by the White House go beyond
unilateral strikes and include the training of local counterterrorism forces and joint operations with
them. Obama has made such forces a far more integrated part of his global security strategy. He
has asked for a 5.7 percent increase in the Special Operations budget for fiscal 2011, for a total of
$6.3 billion, plus an additional $3.5 billion in 2010 contingency funding.
Note: For an analysis, click here. For lots more from reliable sources about the war crimes
committed ongoingly by the US military and Special Forces worldwide, click here.

Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range

2010-06-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-r...
Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid
flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they
were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range. Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi
Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head,
according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, [Yalcin Buyuk]. The
results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest,
hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five
times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the
back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of
the head or in the back. The new information about the manner and intensity of the killings
undermines Israel's insistence that its soldiers opened fire only in self defence and in response to
attacks by the activists. "Given the very disturbing evidence which contradicts the line from
the Israeli media and suggests that Israelis have been very selective in the way they have
addressed this, there is now an overwhelming need for an international inquiry," said
Andrew Slaughter MP, a member of the all party group on Britain and Palestine.

Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma

2010-06-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/swine-flu-experts-big-pharmace...
Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to
stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which
stood to profit. An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was
authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from
Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza.
Pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (4.8bn) as governments stockpiled
drugs. "The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process,"
said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who sits on the council's health committee. Although the experts
consulted made no secret of industry ties in other settings, declaring them in research papers and
at universities, the WHO itself did not publicly disclose any of these in its seminal 2004 guidance.
Note: For wide coverage from reliable sourcesof the swine and avian flu "fake pandemics"
designed for corporate profit, click here.

Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

2010-05-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons
Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid
regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of [Israel's] possession of nuclear
weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in
1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon
Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three
sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the
two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to
remain secret. The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha PolakowSuransky ... provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of
"ambiguity" in neither confirming nor denying their existence. The Israeli authorities tried
to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at PolakowSuransky's request.
Note: A New York Times article states that Isreal has strongly denied this story. Yet even this
articles states, "Israel has a longstanding policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor
denying that it has nuclear weapons, though it is widely believed to have developed a large
arsenal."

Former Fed chief Volcker backs change in system

2010-05-20, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/19/BU101DHAMC.DTL
The United States must curb consumption and credit and boost production and savings, but its
citizens and leaders so far lack the will to change, economist Paul Volcker said. Volcker, 82, an
adviser to the Obama administration, ... said the United States spiraled toward the Great
Recession through an excess of debt that subsidized an appetite for consumer goods, many of
them imported. The chief bugaboo, in Volcker's view, was a runaway financial sector that ...
became a factory to make money by manipulating money. He said under-regulated
financiers made big profits and bonuses by swapping derivatives and other exotic
instruments that produced few of the widespread benefits - like better jobs and wages - that
normally flow from investment. Now that this financial house of cards has collapsed, Volcker said,
U.S. and world leaders must figure out how to stop powerful mega-banks and hedge funds from
engaging in the same shenanigans that forced taxpayers to bail them out to prevent further
catastrophe. "The central issue with which we have been grappling is the doctrine of 'too big to
fail,' " Volcker said, alluding to how the United States bailed out institutions like insurer AIG to
prevent their collapse from further damaging the economy.
Note: For a great collection of reports from major media sources on the hidden realities of the Wall
Street crisis and the government bailout of big finance, click here.

Four Big Banks Score Perfect 61-Day Run

2010-05-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/business/12bank.html
It is the Wall Street equivalent of a perfect game of baseball 27 up, 27 down, the final score
measured in millions of dollars a day. Despite the running unease in world markets, four giants of
American finance managed to make money from trading every single day during the first three
months of the year. Their remarkable 61-day streak is one for the record books. Perfect trading
quarters on Wall Street are about as rare as perfect games in Major League Baseball. But
Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company produced
the equivalent of four perfect games during the first quarter. Each one finished the period
without losing money for even one day. Their showing ... underscored the outsize and
controversial role that trading has assumed at major financial institutions. It also drives home
the widening lead that a handful of big banks are enjoying over lesser rivals on post-bailout Wall
Street. The four banks ... reaped big rewards without necessarily placing big bets that stocks or
bonds would go up or down. This is not about hitting home runs, said Jaidev Iyer, who runs his
own risk management consulting firm, J-Risk Advisors. This is just, as we call it, milking the
market and your captive client base.

Note: For an astounding list on the Forbes website of the richest companies in the world by
assets, click here. All of the top 10 companies are banks, with collective assets of over $22 trillion!
Yet we as taxpayers continue to pay to bail them out when they have problems. Is something
wrong with this picture? For a graphic representation of this, click here. And for an abundance of
deep reporting in major media articles on the hidden realities of Wall Street's shadowy operations,
click here.

Norway Builds the World's Most Humane Prison

2010-05-10, Time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.html
Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($252 million) in the making, [Halden Fengsel,
Norway's newest prison,] is spread over 75 acres (30 hectares) of gently sloping forest in
southeastern Norway. The facility boasts amenities like a sound studio, jogging trails and a
freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. The
scent of orange sorbet emanates from the "kitchen laboratory" where inmates take cooking
courses. "In the Norwegian prison system, there's a focus on human rights and respect," says Are
Hoidal, the prison's governor. "We don't see any of this as unusual." Halden ... embodies the
guiding principles of the country's penal system: that repressive prisons do not work and that
treating prisoners humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society. "When they arrive,
many of them are in bad shape," Hoidal says, noting that Halden houses drug dealers, murderers
and rapists, among others. "We want to build them up, give them confidence through education
and work and have them leave as better people." Within two years of their release, 20% of
Norway's prisoners end up back in jail. In the U.K. and the U.S., the figure hovers between
50% and 60%.

Regulator Deferred to Oil Industry on Rig Safety

2010-05-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08agency.html
Federal regulators warned offshore rig operators more than a decade ago that they needed to
install backup systems to control the giant undersea valves known as blowout preventers, used to
cut off the flow of oil from a well in an emergency. The warnings were repeated in 2004 and 2009.
Yet the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency charged both with
regulating the oil industry and collecting royalties from it, never took steps to address the issue
comprehensively, relying instead on industry assurances that it was on top of the problem, a
review of documents shows. In the intervening years, numerous blowout preventers and their
control systems have failed, though none as catastrophically as those on the well the Deepwater
Horizon drilling rig was preparing when it blew up on April 20, leaving tens of thousands of gallons
of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Agency records show that from 2001 to 2007,
there were 1,443 serious drilling accidents in offshore operations, leading to 41 deaths, 302

injuries and 356 oil spills. Yet the federal agency continues to allow the industry largely to
police itself. Critics say that, then and now, the minerals service has been crippled by this
dependence on industry and by a climate of regulatory indulgence.
Note: For lots more from reliable souces on government corruption and collusion with industries it
is supposed to be regulating, click here.

Americans 'Bombarded' with Cancer Causes

2010-05-06, Fox News/Reuters
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,592303,00.html
Americans are being "bombarded" with chemicals, gases and radiation that can cause cancer, and
the federal government must do far more to protect them, presidential cancer advisers said. The
panel said many avoidable cancers were also caused by pollution, radon from the soil and medical
imaging scans. Since so little is known about the possible risks of cell phones, people would be
prudent to wear headsets and make calls quickly ... the panel advised. "The panel was particularly
concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly
underestimated," they wrote in the report. It is the first time the panel has taken such a sharp turn
into what had long been disputed territory whether pollution, cell phones and even household
objects, such as water bottles, can cause cancer. Cancer is the No. 2 killer of Americans, after
heart disease. "The incidence of some cancers, including some most common among children, is
increasing for unexplained reasons," the report reads. "With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the
market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily
lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential
environmental carcinogens is widespread," it adds.
Note: To read the President's Cancer Panel report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, click
here. For many other important reports from major media sources on potential cancer cures and
treatments, click here.

CIA drones have broader list of targets

2010-05-05, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/05/world/la-fg-drone-targets-20100506
The CIA received secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, including suspected
militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone
strikes in Pakistan's border region. The expanded authority, approved two years ago by the
Bush administration and continued by President Obama, permits the agency to rely on
what officials describe as "pattern of life" analysis ... to target suspected militants, even
when their full identities are not known, the officials said. Previously, the CIA was restricted in
most cases to killing only individuals whose names were on an approved list. Instead of just a few
dozen attacks per year, CIA-operated unmanned aircraft now carry out multiple missile strikes

each week against safe houses, training camps and other hiding places used by militants in the
tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. "There are a lot of ethical questions here about whether we know
who the targets are," said Loch Johnson, an intelligence scholar at the University of Georgia and a
former congressional aide. President Bush secretly decided in his last year in office to expand the
program. Obama has continued and even streamlined the process, so that CIA Director Leon E.
Panetta can sign off on many attacks without notifying the White House beforehand, an official
said.
Note: How can the CIA be allowed to kill people whose names aren't even known? Why are they
allowed to kill anyone without some form of judicial process? For more on this secret and
expanding CIA assassination program, click here. For analysis, click here.

'Goldman Conspiracy' must kill reforms

2010-05-04, MarketWatch (a Wall Street Journal Digital Network website)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/goldman-conspiracy-must-kill-bank-reform-201...
Capitalism is dead. The economy has a new Invisible Hand, the Goldman Conspiracy of Wall
Street bankers. This transfer of power happened suddenly. As recently as late 2008 the Invisible
Hand was on life support, near death. Suddenly, miraculously the Treasury secretary, Goldman's
former CEO, transferred the power into a new Invisible Hand of God, the free-market ideology of
Reaganomics ... a power absolutely essential to the survival of Wall Street's mega-bonus culture.
Yes, that's why the Goldman Conspiracy must kill financial reforms ... why they will kill effective
reform with the backroom support of Obama. This was predicted back in late 2008, even before
the bailouts, back when we thought Reaganomics dead. Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein
warned: "Free market ideology has always been a servant to the interests of capital ... During
boom times it's profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows
speculative bubbles ... When those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance and goes
dormant while big government rides to the rescue," then a neo-Reaganomics "ideology will come
roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail
out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis," setting up a new
bubble, bigger meltdown, and the Great Depression 2 the world narrowly avoided in 2008.
Note: For a wealth of key reporting on the hidden realities of the Wall Street's shadowy operations,
click here.

DNA referees
2010-05-03, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/health/la-he-epigenetics-20100503,0,5900529.story
Scientists are just beginning to understand the effect lifestyle choices and other environmental
factors have on altering gene behavior, a rapidly emerging field called epigenetics. Your life story
depends upon a combination of the DNA you're stuck with plus your environment, including all the

little choices and events that happen over that lifetime. But in recent years, researchers have
discovered that, while DNA lays out the options, many of those life experiences the foods
you eat, the stresses you endure, the toxins you're exposed to physically affect the DNA
and tell it more precisely what to do. The cause: a kind of secondary code carried along with the
DNA. Called the "epigenome," this code is a set of chemical marks, attached to genes, that act like
DNA referees. They turn off some genes and let others do their thing. And although the epigenome
is pretty stable, it can change meaning lifestyle choices such as diet and drug use could have
lasting effects on how the body works. "The thing I love about epigenetics is that you have the
potential to alter your destiny," says Randy Jirtle, who studies epigenetics at Duke University
Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Jirtle compares the system to a computer: The DNA is the
hardware set and unchanging and the epigenome is the software that tells it when, where
and how to work.
Note: For a fascinating article by DNA researcher Bruce Lipton delving into the intriguing finding
that our DNA can be altered by our life choices, click here.

Sempra agrees to major refund for energy crisis

2010-04-29, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/28/BUQ41D6D34.DTL
Sempra Energy has agreed to pay about $410 million to settle claims that it played Enron-style
games with California's electricity market during the 2000-01 energy crisis, state officials said.
Houston's Enron, as well as other companies, used a variety of tactics to create the
appearance of congested power lines in some instances and energy shortages in others.
Electricity prices soared, and rolling blackouts rippled across the state. Enron traders were
caught on audio tape bragging about how much their trading schemes were costing "Grandma
Millie," their derisive term for the California utility customer. The crisis forced the state to buy
expensive long-term power contracts that Californians are still paying off, month by month, on their
utility bills. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the state's largest utility, tumbled into bankruptcy as a
result of soaring wholesale power prices. And Gov. Gray Davis lost his job in a recall election
fueled by public anger over his handling of the crisis. Since then, the state government has
reached 39 settlement agreements with energy companies for a total of $3.2 billion.
Note: To see how blatant the corruption is, watch the tapes of Enron traders laughing at causing
traffic accidents at this link. For many more examples of corporate corruption reported by reliable,
verifiable sources, click here.

Goldman's White House connections raise eyebrows

2010-04-21, Miami Herald/McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/21/1591442/goldmans-connections-to-white.html

While Goldman Sachs' lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over
potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman's chief executive visited the White House at
least four times. White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to
Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential
campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's employees and their relatives. He
also met twice with Obama's top economic adviser, Larry Summers. Meanwhile, however,
Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal
team. In addition, when he worked as an investment banker in Chicago a decade ago, White
House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel advised one client who also retained Goldman as an adviser
on the same $8.2 billion deal. Goldman's connections to the White House and the Obama
administration are raising eyebrows at a time when Washington and Wall Street are dueling over
how to overhaul regulation of the financial world. Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota
political scientist, said that "almost everything that the White House has done has been haunted by
the personnel and the money of Goldman ... as well as the suspicion that the White House,
particularly early on, was pulling its punches out of deference to Goldman and its war chest."
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the corrupt relationship between the biggest
financial firms and government, click here.

How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought
down the global economy?
2010-04-16, PBS Bill Moyers Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/watch.html
Why is it so hard to hold Wall Street accountable? Even as we speak the banking industry and
corporate America are fighting against financial reform with all the money and influence at their
disposal. Their effort is to preserve a system that would enable them to ransack the country once
again. What can ordinary Americans do? That's the question I want to put to my guests, Simon
Johnson and James Kwak. They have written this new book, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street
Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. It's a must read - already a best seller -- and it couldn't
have come at a better time. This book could change the debate over financial reform by tipping it in
favor of the public. Together James Kwak and Simon Johnson run the indispensable economic
website BaselineScenario.com. [Moyers:] Let me get to the blunt conclusion you reach in your
book. You say that two years after the devastating financial crisis of '08 our country is still
at the mercy of an oligarchy that is bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation
than ever. Correct? SIMON JOHNSON: Absolutely correct, Bill. The big banks became
stronger as a result of the bailout. That may seem extraordinary, but it's really true. They're
turning that increased economic clout into more political power. And they're using that political
power to go out and take the same sort of risks that got us into disaster in September 2008.
Note: For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources on the hidden methods used by
financial corporations to manipulate the world economy and gain huge profits at the expense of
taxpayers, click here.

C.I.A. Document Details Destruction of Tapes

2010-04-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16tapes.html
Porter J. Goss, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in 2005 approved of the
decision by one of his top aides to destroy dozens of videotapes documenting the brutal
interrogation of two detainees, according to an internal C.I.A. document released [on April 15].
Shortly after the tapes were destroyed at the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the head
of the C.I.A.s clandestine service, Mr. Goss told Mr. Rodriguez that he agreed with
the decision, according to the document. He even joked after Mr. Rodriguez offered to
take the heat for destroying the tapes. PG laughed and said that actually, it would be
he, PG, who would take the heat, according to one document. A number of documents
released Thursday provide the most detailed glimpse yet of the deliberations inside the C.I.A.
surrounding the destroyed tapes, and of the concern among officials at the spy agency that the
decision might put the C.I.A. in legal jeopardy. The documents detailing those deliberations,
including two e-mail messages from a C.I.A. official whose name has been excised, were released
as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
According to one of the e-mail messages released Thursday, Mr. Rodriguez told Mr. Goss that the
tapes ... would make the C.I.A. look terrible; it would be devastating to us.
Note: For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here.

Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags

2010-04-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html
The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking
neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household
garbage and industrial waste, round the clock. Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new
type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from
mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago. In that time,
such plants have become both the mainstay of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source across
Denmark, from wealthy exurbs like Horsholm to Copenhagens downtown area. Their use has not
only reduced the countrys energy costs and reliance on oil and gas, but also benefited the
environment, diminishing the use of landfills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The
plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces
and backyard barbecues than from incineration. Across Europe, there are about 400 plants,
with Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands leading the pack in expanding them and building
new ones. By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United
States, the Environmental Protection Agency says even though the federal government and 24
states now classify waste that is burned this way for energy as a renewable fuel, in many cases
eligible for subsidies.

Note: Why isn't the US implementing this clean technology? For lots more from major media
sources on promising new clean energy developments, click here.

Kissinger Blocked Demarche On International Assassinations To

Condor States
2010-04-10, The National Security Archive, George Washington University
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB312/index.htm
Only five days before a car bomb planted by agents of the Pinochet regime rocked downtown
Washington D.C. on September 21, 1976, [assassinating Chilean exile diplomat Orlando Letelier
and his assistant Ronni Moffitt,] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rescinded instructions sent to,
but never implemented by, U.S. ambassadors in the Southern Cone to warn military leaders there
against orchestrating "a series of international murders," declassified documents obtained and
posted by the National Security Archive revealed today. The instructions effectively ended efforts
by senior State Department officials to deliver a diplomatic demarche, approved by Kissinger only
three weeks earlier, to express "our deep concern" over "plans for the assassination of
subversives, politicians, and prominent figures both within the national borders of certain Southern
Cone countries and abroad." "The September 16th cable is the missing piece of the historical
puzzle on Kissinger's role in the action, and inaction, of the U.S. government after learning
of Condor assassination plots," according to Peter Kornbluh, the Archive's senior analyst on
Chile and author of the book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and
Accountability. "We know now what happened: The State Department initiated a timely effort
to thwart a 'Murder Inc' in the Southern Cone, and Kissinger, without explanation, aborted
it," Kornbluh said.
Note: George H.W. Bush was head of the CIA when Orlando Letelier was assassinated just a few
blocks away from the director's office. For the full text of the documents click on the link above. For
an analysis, click here.

Inquiry puts spotlight on U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan

2010-04-09, Chicago Tribune/Los Angeles Times
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-afghan-special-forces9-2...
In nearly nine years of warfare in Afghanistan, U.S. Special Forces have done their fighting in the
shadows, governed by rules largely of their own making. Now, these elite and secretive troops,
their actions long shielded from public scrutiny, are the focus of a high-profile investigation that
could shed unprecedented light on their methods and tactics. American and Afghan officials are
probing a possible attempted coverup in the deaths of five Afghan civilians in February in a raid
carried out by U.S. Special Forces accompanied by Afghan troops. Three of those killed were
women and among the charges is that the bodies were tampered with by coalition forces to
conceal the cause of death. Special Forces are inextricably linked to one of the most
contentious issues between the Afghan government and Western forces: civilian deaths

and injuries. Special Forces account for a disproportionate share of civilian casualties
caused by Western troops ... though there are no precise figures because so many of their
missions are deemed secret. In mountain villages and desert hamlets, the Special Forces inspire
dread among Afghans, who tend to speak of them in whispers. Their strikes are usually swift and
violent, most often taking place in the dead of night.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on US military atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq, click
here.

Navy Submarine Runs Eternally on Thermal Power from Ocean Currents

2010-04-08, Popular Science magazine
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/submarine-runs-eternally-the...
A Navy-funded thermal engine bobbing off the coast of Hawaii is accomplishing a rare feat -- it
produces more energy than it consumes. Though it's not quite a perpetual motion machine, it
could provide scientists or the Navy with a perpetual presence on the seas. The engine is attached
to an unmanned underwater vessel, called SOLO-TREC, and uses the energy of the ocean to
derive a practically limitless energy supply. SOLO-TREC is outfitted with a series of tubes full of
waxy phase-change materials. As the float encounters warm temperatures near the ocean's
surface, the materials expand; when it dives and the waters grow cooler, the materials contract.
The expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. The motor
generates electricity and recharges the batteries, which power a pump. The pump can change the
float's buoyancy, allowing it to move up and down the water column. "In theory what you have now
is unlimited endurance for something that has this type of engine," said Thomas Swean Jr., team
leader for ocean engineering and marine systems at the Office of Naval Research, which funded
the project. "Other things can break, but as far as the energy source, it will only stop
working if the ocean ran out of energy, which is unlikely to happen."
Note: For lots more from major media sources on promising new energy inventions, click here.

Once a rising star, chef now feeds hungry

2010-04-02, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/cnnheroes.krishnan.hunger/
Narayanan Krishnan was a bright, young, award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group,
short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. But a quick family visit home [to the south Indian city of
Madurai] before heading to Europe changed everything. "I saw a very old man eating his own
human waste for food," Krishnan said. "After that, I started feeding that man and decided this is
what I should do the rest of my lifetime." Krishnan quit his job within the week and returned home
for good, convinced of his new destiny. "That spark and that inspiration is a driving force still inside
me as a flame -- to serve all the mentally ill destitutes and people who cannot take care of
themselves." Krishnan founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003. Now 29, he has served

more than 1.2 million meals -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- to India's homeless and
destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused. The hot meals
he delivers are simple, tasty vegetarian fare he personally prepares, packs and often hand-feeds
to nearly 400 clients each day. The group's operations cost about $327 a day, but sponsored
donations only cover 22 days a month. Krishnan subsidizes the shortfall with $88 he receives in
monthly rent from a home his grandfather gave him. Krishnan sleeps in Akshaya's modest kitchen
with his few co-workers.
Note: Don't miss the beautiful three-minute video of this great hero. Explore a treasure trove of
concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Once a rising star, chef now feeds hungry

2010-04-02, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/cnnheroes.krishnan.hunger/
Narayanan Krishnan was a bright, young, award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group, shortlisted for an elite job in Switzerland. But a quick family visit home before heading to Europe
changed everything. "I saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food," Krishnan said.
"It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked. After that, I started feeding that man and
decided this is what I should do the rest of my lifetime." Haunted by the image, Krishnan quit his
job within the week and returned home for good, convinced of his new destiny. "That spark and
that inspiration is a driving force still inside me as a flame -- to serve all the mentally ill destitutes
and people who cannot take care of themselves," Krishnan said. Krishnan founded his nonprofit
Akshaya Trust in 2003. Now 29, he has served more than 1.2 million meals -- breakfast, lunch and
dinner -- to India's homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and
often abused. Krishnan said the name Akshaya is Sanskrit for "undecaying" or
"imperishable," and was chosen "to signify [that] human compassion should never decay
or perish. The spirit of helping others must prevail for ever." He seeks out the homeless
under bridges and in the nooks and crannies between the city's temples. The hot meals he
delivers are simple, tasty vegetarian fare he personally prepares, packs and often hand-feeds to
nearly 400 clients each day. Krishnan carries a comb, scissors and razor and is trained in eight
haircut styles that, along with a fresh shave, provide extra dignity to those he serves.
Note: For other inspiring stories of everyday heroes like this, click here.

What's driving up oil prices again? Wall Street, of course

2010-04-01, Miami Herald/McClatchy News
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/04/1562726/whats-driving-up-oil-prices-aga...
Oil consumption has fallen, demand from U.S. motorists for gasoline is flat at best and refiners that
turn crude into fuel are operating well below capacity. Yet oil prices keep marching toward $90 a
barrel, pushing gasoline toward $3 a gallon in many markets, and prompting American drivers to

ask, "What gives?" Blame it on the same folks who brought you $140 oil and $4 gasoline in 2008:
Wall Street speculators. Experts attribute much of the recent rise in prices to flows of speculative
money into oil markets. Rising oil and gasoline prices are deja vu all over again for Michael
Masters. The hedge fund manager has crusaded for legislation that would prevent so much
speculative money in the oil markets. Wall Street is "gaming" the price of oil, he warns. "If
you're a bank, and you know there is going to be a large amount of investor inflows into the
commodities market, you are going to position yourself ahead of them. You want to be a seller at a
higher price," explained Masters, noting that large Wall Street banks invest for themselves in these
markets even as they also broker the oil investments of others. What's abundantly clear, he and
others argue, is that an oil contract's price today has little to do with the supply of and
demand for oil.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the hidden realities and destructive impacts of Wall
Street speculation, click here.

Millions of H1N1 vaccine doses may be tossed

2010-04-01, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR20100331042...
Despite months of dire warnings and millions in taxpayer dollars, less than half of the 229 million
doses of H1N1 vaccine the government bought to fight the pandemic have been administered -leaving an estimated 71.5 million doses that must be discarded if they are not used before they
expire. Between 81 million and 91 million doses of swine flu vaccine were injected into peoples'
arms or squirted up their noses through the end of February, according to federal officials, leaving
about 138 million doses unused. An estimated 60 million of those will be donated to poor countries
or saved for possible future use. But doses already in vials and syringes will be thrown away if not
used before their expiration dates pass. The prospect of millions of doses of the onceprecious vaccine being discarded is the latest twist in the $1.6 billion program -- the most
ambitious immunization campaign in U.S. history. The government-led effort produced a
vaccine in record time, but unexpected production problems delayed delivery of the bulk of
supplies until after the second wave of infections had peaked.
Note: Yet the pharmaceutical companies get to keep the huge profits from the vaccines, paid for
by the taxpayers. For key reports from major media sources on the government and
pharmaceutical corporation corruption involving bird and swine flu vaccines, click here.

Edible RFID microchip monitor can tell if you take your medicine
2010-03-31, BusinessWeek
http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-03-31/edible-rfid-microchip-monitor-can-...

Researchers at the University of Florida have combined RFID, microchips and printed nanoparticle antennas to make pills that communicate with cell phones or laptops to tell doctors
whether patients are taking their medicine. Still a prototype, the inventors hope their tattletale
technology can be applied commercially to a range of medications in clinical trials and in treatment
of patients with chronic diseases in which it is essential that the doses are taken and taken on
time. The pill is a white capsule with a microchip embedded and with an antenna printed on the
outside with ink containing silver nanoparticles. A device worn by the patient energizes the
microchip via bursts of low-voltage electricity. The chip signal confirms the pill is in the
stomach and the device sends a signal that the pill has been swallowed. The messages can
go to cell phones or laptops to inform doctors or family members.
Note: For lots more on microchips from reliable sources, click here.

Scientist: FDA suppressed imaging safety concerns

2010-03-30, Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/6936643.html
A former Food and Drug Administration scientist said [on March 30 that] his job was eliminated
after he raised concerns about the risks of radiation exposure from high-grade medical scanning.
Dr. Julian Nicholas said at a public hearing that he and other FDA staffers "were pressured to
change their scientific opinion," after they opposed the approval of a CT scanner for routine colon
cancer screening. Nicholas said that he objected to exposing otherwise healthy patients to the
cancer risks of radiation. After FDA officials pushed ahead with plans to clear the device, Nicholas,
now a physician at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, said he and eight other staffers raised their
concerns with the division's top director Dr. Jeffrey Shuren last September. "Scientific and
regulatory review process for medical devices was being distorted by managers who were
not following the laws," Nicholas said. A month later Nicholas' position was terminated, he
said.
Note: For lots more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

US Oil Company Donated Millions to Climate Sceptic Groups, Says

Greenpeace
2010-03-30, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/30/us-oil-donated-millions-cli...
A Greenpeace investigation has identified a little-known, privately owned US oil company as the
paymaster of global warming sceptics in the US and Europe. Greenpeace says that Koch
Industries donated nearly $48m (31.8m) to climate opposition groups between 1997-2008. From
2005-2008, it donated $25m to groups opposed to climate change, nearly three times as much as
higher-profile funders that time such as oil company ExxonMobil. Koch also spent $5.7m on
political campaigns and $37m on direct lobbying to support fossil fuels. Greenpeace accuses the

funded groups of "spreading inaccurate and misleading information" about climate science and
clean energy companies. "The company's network of lobbyists, former executives and
organisations has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities
produce and disseminate. The propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed
many times throughout the Koch-funded web of political front groups and thinktanks," said
Greenpeace. The groups include many of the best-known conservative thinktanks in the US, like
Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato institute, the Manhattan Institute and
the Foundation for research on economics and the environment.
Note: To read the complete Greenpeace investigative report, click here.

In Mexico, Catholic order is haunted by past

2010-03-28, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-priest28-2010mar28,...
He hobnobbed with Mexico's rich and famous, cut lucrative real estate deals and was rumored to
travel on occasion with a briefcase full of cash. He fathered at least one child, molested
seminarians and boys and is said to have boasted that he had the pope's permission to get
massages from young nuns. And all the while the conservative priest was building one of
the most influential organizations in the Roman Catholic Church. Two years after the death of
the Rev. Marcial Maciel, a Mexico native, scandals continue to unfold. Buffeted by the string of
revelations, Maciel's powerful Legion of Christ is fighting for its survival in Rome, the headquarters
of the church. But here in Mexico, where the Legion has long-standing ties with the ruling class
and an expansive network of elite schools, the organization remains strong. Rather than the
desertions that some branches of the Legion have experienced in the United States and
elsewhere, student enrollment in Legionary schools in Mexico grew by 6% to 8% last year,
spokesman Javier Bravo said. The order's assets are estimated by some to be worth $20 billion.

Russian appeal of 'weather control'

2010-03-26, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8587725.stm
Some might think that controlling the weather sounds a bit like science fiction. But military pilot
Alexander Akimenkov doesn't think so. He has seeded clouds over Moscow on important state
holidays for many years. He says the Russians use two different methods to try to drive the rain
away. "Either there's a special machine that spits out silver iodide, dry ice or cement into the
clouds, or a hatch opens and a guy with a shovel seeds the clouds manually," he explains. "As
soon as the chemicals touch the cloud, a hole appears. It becomes bigger and bigger, and it either
rains right there and then or, if the clouds aren't very dense, they disperse without any
precipitation." The Russian government has used rain prevention methods since Soviet
times, seeding clouds for major celebrations three times a year - Victory Day, City Day and,
more recently, Russia Day. There are also private companies that for some $6,000 per hour say

they can guarantee sunshine on your wedding day - or for any other private party. But when
Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov suggested the technique could shift the winter snow outside the
capital - and therefore save more than $10m in snow-clearing costs - many felt the city authorities
were going a bit too far.
Note: Weather modification may be much more advanced and frequently used than most would
suspect. For a great resource on weather modification with links to dozens of key documents, click
here.

Amid Nanotech's Dazzling Promise, Health Risks Grow

2010-03-24, AOL News
http://www.aolnews.com/nanotech/article/amid-nanotechs-dazzling-promise-healt...
For almost two years, molecular biologist Bndicte Trouiller doused the drinking water of scores
of lab mice with nano-titanium dioxide, the most common nanomaterial used in consumer products
today. Halfway through, Trouiller became alarmed: Consuming the nano-titanium dioxide was
damaging or destroying the animals' DNA and chromosomes. The biological havoc continued
as she repeated the studies again and again. It was a significant finding: The degrees of DNA
damage and genetic instability that [she] documented can be "linked to all the big killers of man,
namely cancer, heart disease, neurological disease and aging," says Professor Robert Schiestl, a
genetic toxicologist who ran the lab at UCLA's School of Public Health where Trouiller did her
research. Nano-titanium dioxide is so pervasive that the Environmental Working Group says it has
calculated that close to 10,000 over-the-counter products use it in one form or another. Other
public health specialists put the number even higher. It's "in everything from medicine capsules
and nutritional supplements, to food icing and additives, to skin creams, oils and
toothpaste," Schiestl says.
Note: For a treasure trove of key reports on health issues, click here.

A little secret about Obama's transparency

2010-03-21, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/nation/la-na-ticket21-2010mar21
The Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his predecessor, George W.
Bush, as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests
than the Republican did. Transparency and openness were so important to the new president that
on his first full day in office, he dispatched a much-publicized memo saying: "All agencies should
adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles
embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government. The presumption of disclosure
should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA." One of the exemptions allowed to deny
Freedom of Information requests has been used by the Obama administration 70,779 times in its

first year; the same exemption was used 47,395 times in Bush's final budget year. An Associated
Press examination of 17 major agencies' handling of FOIA requests found denials 466,872
times, an increase of nearly 50% from the 2008 fiscal year under Bush.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government secrecy, click here.

Nepalese doc is God of Sight to nations poor

2010-03-21, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35935864
For nearly a year, cataracts have clouded out all sight from the 70-year-old grandmother's world.
With no money, she assumed she'd die alone in darkness. But now she waits quietly outside the
operating room for her turn to meet Nepal's God of Sight. More than 500 others most of whom
have never seen a doctor before have traveled for days by bicycle, motorbike, bus and even on
their relatives' backs to reach Dr. Sanduk Ruit's mobile eye camp. Each hopes for the miracle
promised in radio ads by the Nepalese master surgeon: He is able to poke, slice and pull the
grape-like jelly masses out of an eye, then refill it with a tiny artificial lens, in about five minutes. It's
an assembly-line approach to curing blindness that's possible thanks to a simple surgical
technique Ruit pioneered, allowing cataracts to be removed safely without stitches through two
small incisions. Once condemned by the international medical community as unthinkable
and reckless, this mass surgery "in the bush" started spreading from Nepal to poor
countries worldwide nearly two decades ago. Thousands of doctors from North Korea to
Nicaragua to Nigeria have since been trained to train others, with the hope of slowly lessening
the leading cause of blindness that affects 18 million people worldwide. No one pays for
anything, and the entire cost is about $25 per surgery. That's $12,750 for all 510 patients,
equal to only about three or four surgeries in the U.S.

Lawsuit claims Boy Scouts coverup of sex abuse

2010-03-20, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR20100319046...
The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle
the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years. The "perversion files," a
nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the
public, but that could change in the coming weeks in a Portland, Ore., courtroom. The attorney for
a man who was allegedly molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy
Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began [on March 17]. The
lawyer says the files show the organization has covered up abuse for decades. The trial is
significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the organization has
responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are thought to

have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed
against the organization over sex abuse allegations, but judges for the most part have either
denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.
Note: Why isn't the leadership of the Boy Scouts being proactive in releasing these files. Do you
think they might have something to hide?

Vatican defends pope on abuse scandal

2010-03-13, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35850747/ns/world_news-europe
The Vatican ... denounced what it called aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the
spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland. The Vatican's campaign to
defend the pope's reputation and resolve in combating clergy abuse of minors followed
acknowledgment by the Munich archdiocese that it had transferred a suspected pedophile priest to
community work while Benedict was archbishop there. Benedict is also under fire for a 2001
church directive he wrote while a Vatican cardinal, instructing bishops to keep abuse cases
confidential. Germany's justice minister has blamed the directive for what she called a "wall of
silence" preventing prosecution. Skeptical about the Vatican's handling of abuse, a U.S.-based
advocacy group for abuse victims, Survivors Network of those Abused for Priests, urged faithful to
bring candles and childhood photos to vigils outside churches, cathedrals and German consulates
across the U.S. this weekend to remind people to "call police, not bishops" in cases of suspected
abuse. Meanwhile, the scandal swirling around Benedict's brother, Georg Ratzinger, escalated
with the first public allegations of abuse of choirboys during some of the 30 years he ran the boys'
choir in Regensburg.
Note: If you want to know just how deep this goes, watch the powerfully revealing documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available at this link.

Crackdown on dangerous dogs to make microchips compulsory for all

2010-03-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/dangerous-dogs-microchips-insurance
All dogs are to be compulsorily microchipped so that their owners can be more easily
traced under a crackdown on dangerous dogs. Under the scheme a microchip the size of a
grain of rice is injected under the skin of the dog between its shoulder blades. The chip contains a
unique code number, the dog's name, age, breed and health as well as the owner's name, address
and phone number. When the chip is "read" by a handheld scanner the code number is revealed
and the details can be checked on a national database. The measures will be set out by the home
secretary, Alan Johnson, who will point to rising public concern that "status dogs" are being used
by some irresponsible owners to intimidate communities or as a weapon by gangs. If the scheme
were made compulsory owners would face a fine for failing to microchip their dogs.

Note: Once all dogs are required to be microchipped, what will come next? To be informed of
some disturbing plans to microchip all of us, click here. For lots more on microchipping from
reliable sources, click here.

The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves

2010-03-04, Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-02/disconnected
Per Segerbck ... keeps limited human company, because human technology makes him
physically ill. How ill? On a walk last summer, he ran into one of his few neighbors, a man who
lives in a cottage about 100 yards away. During their chat, the man's cellphone rang, and
Segerbck, 54, was overcome by nausea. Within seconds, he was unconscious. Segerbck
suffers from electro-hypersensitivity (EHS), which means he has severe physical reactions
to the electromagnetic radiation produced by common consumer technologies, such as
computers, televisions and cellphones. Symptoms range from burning or tingling sensations on the
skin to dizziness, nausea, headaches, sleep disturbance and memory loss. In extreme cases like
Segerbck's, breathing problems, heart palpitations and loss of consciousness can result. A
cellphone has to be in use -- either making or receiving a call, or searching for a signal, when
radiation levels are highest -- for it to have this kind of effect on Segerbck. Sweden is the only
country in the world to recognize EHS as a functional impairment, and Segerbck's experience
has been important in creating policy to address the condition. Swedish EHS sufferers -- about 3
percent of the population, or some 250,000 people, according to government statistics -are entitled to similar rights and social services as those given to people who are blind or
deaf. Today, local governments will pay to have the home of someone diagnosed with EHS
electronically "sanitized," if necessary, through the installation of metal shielding.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

MoD to destroy future UFO reports

2010-02-28, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mod-to-destroy-future-ufo-repo...
The Ministry of Defence will destroy all future UFO reports it receives so it does not have to
make them public, a previously secret memo reveals. Britain's official UFO investigation unit
and hotline were closed down at the start of December. Since then reports of strange sights in the
skies sent to the MoD have been kept for 30 days before being thrown out, the newly released
policy document shows. This stance was adopted so defence officials would not have to publish
the information in response to freedom of information (FoI) requests or pass it to the National
Archives. The MoD recorded 634 UFO sightings in 2009, the second highest annual total after
1978, when there were 750, according to UFO expert Dr David Clarke. This compares with an

average of about 150 reports a year over the past decade. The document includes as an annex a
printout from the US Department of Defence website explaining that the American government
stopped collecting reports of UFO sightings in December 1969.
Note: For a concise summary of key testimony on UFO sightings by highly-credible government
and military officials, click here. For astonishing media reports revealing the existence of UFOs,
click here.

Head of IMF Proposes New Reserve Currency

2010-02-26, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9958995
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested [that] the
organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that
would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. "That day has not yet come, but I think it is
intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future
mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization. Strauss-Kahn said such an
asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the
accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major
currencies. He said having other alternatives to the dollar "would limit the extent to which the
international monetary system as a whole depends on the policies and conditions of a
single, albeit dominant, country." Several countries, including China and Russia, have called for
an alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency.
Note: For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities behind the world
financial and economic crisis, click here.

Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide

2010-02-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/business/global/25swaps.html
Bets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now
be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin. Echoing the kind of trades that nearly
toppled the American International Group, the increasingly popular insurance against the risk of a
Greek default is making it harder for Athens to raise the money it needs to pay its bills, according
to traders and money managers. These contracts, known as credit-default swaps, effectively let
banks and hedge funds wager on the financial equivalent of a four-alarm fire: a default by a
company or, in the case of Greece, an entire country. If Greece reneges on its debts, traders who
own these swaps stand to profit. Its like buying fire insurance on your neighbors house
you create an incentive to burn down the house, said Philip Gisdakis, head of credit strategy
at UniCredit in Munich. As Greeces financial condition has worsened, undermining the euro, the
role of Goldman Sachs and other major banks in masking the true extent of the countrys problems

has drawn criticism from European leaders. But even before that issue became apparent, a littleknown company backed by Goldman, JP Morgan Chase and about a dozen other banks had
created an index that enabled market players to bet on whether Greece and other European
nations would go bust.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the realities of the global financial crisis, click here.

Troubled banking industry sharply reduced lending in 2009

2010-02-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR20100223021...
Lending by the banking industry fell by $587 billion, or 7.5 percent, in 2009, the largest annual
decline since the 1940s, as the number of troubled financial institutions rose sharply, the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. [has] reported. The FDIC considered 702 banks to be in some danger of
failing as of the end of 2009, more than double the number at the beginning of the year. [FDIC
Chairman Sheila C.] Bair said that the vast majority of the lending decline was the result of
cutbacks by the nation's largest banks, which have tightened qualification standards for
borrowers and increased the proportion of money that they hold in reserve against
unexpected losses. The decline in lending is a looming issue as the economy begins to recover.
But for the recovery to continue, for businesses to expand and employment to grow, lending must
begin to expand, too. The decline also has become a major political issue amid broad public anger
that the federal rescue of the banking industry has restored profitability but not the flow of loans.
The FDIC [said] that the nation's 8,012 banks posted an aggregate profit of $12.5 billion in 2009.
The largest banks accounted for most of those profits as a growing number of smaller banks have
struggled to survive losses on commercial real estate loans.
Note: Wasn't the main purpose of the huge stimulus packages given to banks to increase lending?
Where did those trillions go? For a treasure trove of revealing reports from major media sources
on the realities of the banking bailouts that were supposedly intended to increase lending, click
here.

UFO files: MoD documents record mystery illnesses and alien residue
2010-02-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/7254648/UFO-files...
Flying Toblerones, mysterious illnesses and silky-white substances are among hundreds of close
encounters described in previously top-secret files released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
More than 6,000 pages of material spanning from 1994 to 2000 holds hundreds of other-worldly
experiences with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and apparent aliens across Britain. Aircraft of
all shapes and sizes have been witnessed flying over a wide range of locations. One man told
police he was physically sick and developed a ''skin condition'' after an eerie ''tube of light''
enveloped his car in Ebbw Vale, in Wales, at 10.40pm on January 27 1997. Other highlights

include: -- A man arrived at his Birmingham home at 4am on March 20, 1997, to discover an
illuminated blue triangle hovering over his garden. The craft shot off leaving behind a ''silky-white''
substance on the tree-tops, which he collected in a jam-jar. -- A UFO sighted by Boston and
Skegness police, in Lincolnshire, was captured on film. The police reported the sighting to
the coastguard, who in turn alerted ships in North Sea - where a crew saw more UFOs. -- A
letter from senior MoD official Ralph Noyes in which he describes seeing a film of UFOs captured
by RAF fighter pilots in 1956. Mr Noyes claims the footage was shown at a secret underground
screening arranged for Air Defence staff at the MoD Main Building in 1970.
Note: For a concise summary of key testimony on UFO sightings by highly-credible government
and military officials, click here. For astonishing media reports revealing the existence of UFOs,
click here. And for an excellent database compiled by a British police officer of intriguing UFO
sightings reported by police, click here.

Former NY police commissioner sentenced to prison

2010-02-18, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35463787/ns/politics
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, once selected to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, was sentenced ... to four years in prison for tax evasion and lying to White
House officials. Kerik, 54, who as head of the city's police worked closely with former Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, pleaded guilty to the federal
charges in November. A former police detective, and once Giuliani's driver, Kerik headed the
New York City jail system before taking charge of the police department in 2000. His career began
to unravel during background checks when President George W. Bush nominated him in 2004 to
become Secretary of Homeland Security. Kerik withdrew, but his legal troubles later embarrassed
Giuliani in his unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Along with
pleading guilty to lying and evading taxes, Kerik admitted receiving apartment renovations from a
construction firm suspected of organized crime ties and helping the company win city contracts.
The four-year sentence imposed ... exceeded the sentencing guidelines of less than three years,
as laid out in Kerik's plea deal, but fell far short of the maximum possible term of 61 years.
Note: The NY City chief of police at the time of 9/11 is now in jail. The former head of the
NASDAQ stock exchange, Bernie Madoff, is now in jail. Do you think there is corruption at the
highest levels of government? How many more have engaged in gross corruption and gotten away
with it? To see how deep it goes, click here.

More than 1,000 get mumps in New York, New Jersey since August
2010-02-09, CNN News
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/08/mumps.outbreak.northeast/index.html

More than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York, many of them adolescent Orthodox Jews,
have been sickened with mumps since August, health authorities said Monday. Almost all of those
infected with the virus are of the Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish population, and their average age is
14. The mumps outbreak began at a summer camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in Sullivan County,
New York, according to the CDC. Health officials have linked the outbreak to an 11-year-old boy at
the camp. He had recently returned from the United Kingdom, where a mumps outbreak had
spread to 4,000 people. Rabbi Yehunda Pirutinsky was surprised when his 14-year-old son
was diagnosed with mumps a week ago. "He was completely vaccinated," Pirutinsky said.
"So it was a surprise to us he came down with mumps." Of the New Jersey cases, 77 percent
were vaccinated, Terjesen said. But the vaccine is not 100 percent effective, according to the CDC.
At two doses, the vaccine is 76 to 95 percent effective, the CDC says on its Web site.
Note: 77 percent of the over 1,000 who came down with mumps had been vaccinated against the
disease, yet the CDC claims it is 76 to 95 percent effective. Hmmmm... For many reports from
reliable sources that highlight serious problems with vaccines, click here.

Secret summit of top bankers

2010-02-06, Herald Sun (Australia's largest circulation daily newspaper)
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/world-bankers-meet-in-sydney-as-recovery...
The world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the
strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets. Representatives from 24
central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European
Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports.
Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in
secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement
agencies. The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world
sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt. Fears
countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments
combined with disappointing US jobs data to spook investors. "This does feel like '08 and '07 all
over again whereby we had these sort of little fires pop up and they are supposedly contained but
in reality they are not quite contained,'' said H3 Global Advisors chief executive Andrew Kaleel.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the secret deliberations by the highest levels of
government and private elites in their attempts to bail out the biggest financial corporations, click
here.

License to Kill? Intelligence Chief Says U.S. Can Take Out American
Terrorists
2010-02-03, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/license-kill-intelligence-chief-us-american-te...

The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence
community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a
direct terrorist threat to the United States. "We take direct actions against terrorists in the
intelligence community; if we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific
permission to do that," Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence
Committee. "Whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that
American ... is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved." Blair explained.
According to U.S. officials, only a handful of Americans would be eligible for targeting by U.S.
intelligence or military operations. The DNI said that Internet and social media sites have become
critical to terrorism recruitment efforts. "The homegrown radicalization of people in the United
States is a relatively new thing." Blair said U.S. intelligence was rapidly working to counter the
emerging problem.
Note: To read a valuable commentary on Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's claimed
"war exception" to the Constitution, permitting assassination of American citizens by the US
military and intelligence services without judicial review or legal process of any kind, click here. For
the views of several legal experts, click here.

U.S. citizen in CIA's cross hairs

2010-01-31, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/31/world/la-fg-cia-awlaki31-2010jan31
The CIA sequence for a Predator strike ends with a missile but begins with a memo. Usually no
more than two or three pages long, it bears the name of a suspected terrorist, the latest
intelligence on his activities, and a case for why he should be added to a list of people the agency
is trying to kill. No U.S. citizen has ever been on the CIA's target list. But that is expected to
change as CIA analysts compile a case against a Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico but
now resides in Yemen. He is a U.S. citizen and until recently was mainly known as a preacher
espousing radical Islamic views. Awlaki's status as a U.S. citizen requires special
consideration, according to former officials familiar with the criteria for the CIA's targeted
killing program. But while Awlaki has not yet been placed on the CIA list, the officials said it
is all but certain that he will be. The CIA has carried out Predator attacks in Yemen since at least
2002, when a drone strike killed six suspected Al Qaeda operatives traveling in a vehicle across
desert terrain. The agency knew that one of the operatives was an American, Kamal Derwish, who
was among those killed. Derwish was never on the CIA's target list, officials said, and the strike
was aimed at a senior Al Qaeda operative.
Note: As the last few sentences of this long report indicate, assassination of their own citizens by
US military and intelligence agencies has been going on for years. For many key reports from
reliable sources on assassination as state policy, click here.

Drug firms 'drove swine flu pandemic warning to recoup billions spent

on research'
2010-01-27, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246370/Drug-firms-drove-swine-flu-pa...
Drug companies manipulated the World Health Organisation into downgrading its definition of a
pandemic so they could cash in on a swine flu outbreak, it is claimed. An inquiry heard
yesterday that the WHO allegedly softened its criteria for declaring a H1N1 flu pandemic
last spring - just weeks before announcing there was a worldwide outbreak. Critics said the
decision was driven by pharmaceutical companies desperate to recoup the billions of pounds they
had invested in researching and developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares in 2006
and 2007. As a result, millions of people have been vaccinated against a mild illness, and money
that could have been used to prevent and treat major killers such as heart disease has been
squandered. The claims, which emerged during the first of several Council of Europe hearings into
the handling of the swine flu pandemic, were strongly rejected by the WHO. Following the
organisation's declaration of a pandemic, the Department of Health warned of 65,000 deaths, set
up a special advice line and website, and suspended normal rules so anti-flu drugs could be given
without prescription. But with just 250 or so deaths in Britain and 14,000 worldwide, the WHO is
being asked to account for its actions.
Note: For lots more on the swine flu "false pandemic" from reliable sources, click here.

Iraq invasion had no 'legal basis in international law'

2010-01-26, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/7078079/Chilcot-inq...
The invasion of Iraq had no "legal basis in international law", the senior government lawyer Sir
Michael Wood has told the Chilcot inquiry. Sir Michael ... was the most senior legal adviser at the
Foreign Office at the time of the invasion. "I considered that the use of force against Iraq in
March 2003 was contrary to international law," he said in a written statement. "In my
opinion, that use of force had not been authorised by the (United Nations) Security Council,
and had no other basis in international law." Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary, rejected
advice that the war would be unlawful, the inquiry heard. Sir Michael wrote to Mr Straw on January
24, 2003 to express concerns about comments [Straw] made to then-US vice president Dick
Cheney. Mr Straw told Mr Cheney that Britain would "prefer" a second resolution but it would be
"OK" if they tried and failed to get one "a la Kosovo". Sir Michael commented that this was
"completely wrong from a legal point of view". Sir Michael said this was "probably the first and only
occasion" that a minister rejected his legal advice in this way.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the real reasons behind the invasion of Iraq,
click here.

1,000 Architects & Engineers Call for a Real 9/11 Investigation

2010-01-25, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth

http://www.ae911truth.org/info/152
AE911Truth will hold a press conference on Friday, February 19, at 11:00 AM at the Marines
Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco. We will announce and honor the milestone of our
achievement of obtaining 1,000 architects and engineers petitioning for a real investigation
into the destruction of the 3 World Trade Center skyscrapers. The press conference will
include a large-screen scrolling display of all 1,000 A/E's; statements by Richard Gage, AIA,
founder of AE911Truth and several petition signers; and a short ten-minute presentation of "9/11:
Blueprint for Truth" the explosive evidence for the engineered destruction of the 3 World Trade
Center skyscrapers. A press kit including the AE911Truth DVD will be made available to all
attendees. We will also be inviting various leaders in the 9/11 Truth movement to this milestone
event. We are working with We Are Change and other 9/11 Truth organizations to deliver hardcopy
petition evidence press kits to every member of Congress. Join us on February 19 in San
Francisco to honor this remarkable achievement and meet some of those who have made
AE911Truth one of the most respected voices in the 9/11 Truth movement.
Note: For a powerful 10-minute video clip by the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth,
click here. WantToKnow team member, Dr. David Ray Griffin, and Dr. Steven Jones will deliver
keynote speeches at the press conference luncheon at noon.

Doctor claims he has evidence of the afterlife

2010-01-20, MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34953759/ns/today-today_people?gt1=43001/from
A clinical psychologist, [Mary Jo] Rapini had long worked with terminal cancer patients. When they
told her of their near-death experiences, she would often chalk their stories up as a reaction to
their pain medication. But in April 2003, she faced her own mortality. She suffered an aneurysm
while working out [in] a gym and was rushed to the hospital. She was in an intensive care unit for
three days when she took a turn for the worse. All of a sudden [doctors] were rushing around me
and inserting things into me, and they called my husband, she [said]. I looked up and I saw this
light; it wasnt a normal light, it was different. It was luminescent. And it grew. I kept looking at it
like, What is that? Then it grew large and I went into it. I went into this tunnel, and I came into
this room that was just beautiful. God held me, he called me by name, and he told me, Mary
Jo, you cant stay. And he said, Let me ask you one thing have you ever loved another the
way youve been loved here? And I said, No, its impossible. Im a human. And then he just held
me and said, You can do better. While Rapinis account may seem far-fetched, [Dr. Jeffrey] Long
[in his book Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences] says her
recollections mirror nearly all stories of near-death experiences.
Note: For a powerfully inspiring online lesson focused on near-death experiences, click here. For
intriguing investigations into the nature of reality from reliable sources, click here.

Swine flu taskforce's links to vaccine giant: More than half the experts
fighting the 'pandemic' have ties to drug firms
2010-01-14, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243034/Swine-flu-taskforces-links-va...
More than half the scientists on the swine flu taskforce advising the [UK] Government have ties to
drug companies. Eleven of the 20 members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
(SAGE) have done work for the pharmaceutical industry or are linked to it through their
universities. Many have declared interests in GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine maker expected to be
the biggest beneficiary of the pandemic. The disclosure of the register of interests comes just days
after a health expert branded the swine flu outbreak a 'false pandemic' driven by the drug
companies which stood to profit. The Government is now trying to offload up to 1billion worth of
unwanted swine flu vaccine. Last July, the Department of Health warned of up 65,000 deaths,
with 350 a day at the pandemic's peak. But the death toll now stands at just 251. SAGE was
created to give Ministers recommendations on how to control and treat the virus. Official
documents show some members are linked to vaccine manufacturer Baxter and to Roche, which
makes Tamiflu. GSK, Baxter and Roche stand to make up to 1.5billion between them from
Government contracts related to swine flu.
Note: For lots more on the Swine Flu "false pandemic," click here.

WHO to Study H1N1 Response Amid False Pandemic Debate

2010-01-13, BusinessWeek/Bloomberg News
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-12/who-to-review-swine-flu-response-...
The World Health Organization said it plans to conduct a review of its response to swine flu as
policymakers in Europe prepare for an urgent debate on the influenza pandemic. Yesterday, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said false pandemics, a threat to health will be
a major theme of its next plenary session. Health authorities worldwide are assessing whether
their response to swine flu is justified by its threat as cases retreat in the U.S. and Western
Europe. The new H1N1 virus, which has targeted children and younger adults, has so far resulted
in fewer deaths than attributed to seasonal strains, which kills mostly the frail elderly. Council of
Europe parliamentarian Wolfgang Wodarg said last week he and several colleagues had
called for a commission of inquiry into a false pandemic and the way it was handled at
national and European levels, claiming pressure from pharmaceutical firms. The WHO
moved to the top level of its six-step pandemic alert in June after the discovery of swine flu in
Mexico and the U.S. in April.
Note: BusinessWeek deleted this article days after posting it. Could someone have pressured
them to do this? If you click the above link, the article is gone, though you can still see a promo
here and read it on BusinessWeek in the Google cache available here. For a link to the article on
the Bloomberg website, click here. For revealing reports of the corruption surrounding the swine flu
and previous health scares, click here.

Foxy 'Roxxxy': worlds first 'sex robot' can talk about football
2010-01-11, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6963383/Foxy-Roxxxy-w...
The worlds first sex robot, a life-size rubber doll called Roxxxy who can have real conversations
with her owner, including about football, has been unveiled. The dark-haired, negligee-clad, lifesize robotic girlfriend comes complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin.
Standing five feet, seven inches tall, the doll weighs 120 pounds, comes with five
personalities, [and] is ready for action her developers said. Aspiring partners can
customise her features, including race, hair colour and breast size. Coming with a laptop the doll,
priced between US$7,000 (4,350) to US$9,000 (5,993), was unveiled at the AVN Adult
Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Douglas Hines, the robots football loving inventor, said the real
aim was to make the doll someone the owner can talk to and relate to. She can't vacuum, she
can't cook but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean, the New Jerseybased artificial intelligence engineer said. Mr Hines said it was not only a recreational innovation
but also something that shy people with sexual dysfunction, and those who want to experiment
without risk, could use. In a 2007 book, Love and Sex with Robots, British chess player and
artificial intelligence expert David Levy argues that robots will become significant sexual partners
for humans, answering needs that other people are unable or unwilling to satisfy.

The Other Plot to Wreck America

2010-01-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/opinion/10rich.html
In the 16 months since ... the crash precipitated by the ... failure of Lehman Brothers, most of us
are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the financial weapons of mass destruction that
wrecked our economy. What we dont know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a ... devastating
scale. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the
housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. And
without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can
count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks
secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses. The window for change is
rapidly closing. [The] voices of Americans who have lost pay, jobs, homes and savings are either
patronized or drowned out entirely by a political system where the banking lobby rules in both
parties and the revolving door between finance and government never stops spinning.
Note: For many reports from reliable sources which reveal how the biggest Wall Street firms
intentionally created and then cashed out on the financial crisis which destroyed the livelihoods
and wealth of millions, click here.

What happened to Obamas government transparency pledge?

2010-01-09, Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0109/What-happened-to-Oba...
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency in government. Specifically,
Obama said, well have [healthcare reform] negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can
see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on
behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. But now, the White House seems to be
pulling back from that pledge. The House and Senate each of which have passed versions of
healthcare reform were putting the final bill together behind closed doors according to an
agreement by top Democrats. Not so fast, cry Republicans, who are feeling left out even though
their general approach on the issue has been just say no. The negotiations are obviously
being done in secret and the American people really just want to know what they are trying
to hide, said Rep. Tom Price, (R) of Georgia.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on government secrecy, click here.

Five-year-old's 911 call saves dad's life

2010-01-06, WTHR-TV (Indianapolis NBC affiliate)
http://www.wthr.com/story/11780155/five-year-olds-911-call-saves-dads-life
It took a five-year-old girl to save her father's life. She talked to 911 dispatchers when she thought
her father was having a heart attack. About 9:30 Monday night, Hancock county dispatcher Jason
Bonham got a call. At first, he couldn't understand the person who was on the line. A man was in
distress and unable to speak. That's when Savannah, the man's five-year-old daughter, picked up
the phone. "My dad can't hardly breathe," she told Bonham. The call to 911 came from a cell
phone, so dispatchers didn't automatically have an address. With her father's help, the little voice
clearly repeated their street address, and with time of the essence, gave dispatchers all the
information they needed. "Is your Daddy still awake?" "Yeah." "Most people when you talk to them,
they're hysterical," said Bonham. Her calm was not nearly as surprising as her tender age. "How
old are you?" "I'm five years old." For nearly ten minutes she stayed on the line, handling a scary
situation with courage and grace. "He looks like he's real shaky," Savannah said. "You're doing a
good job, all right, Savannah? They should be there in a few minutes." "How many minutes?"
"Okay, you have to stay awake they'll be here in a couple minutes." "It's okay, Dad." Savannah is
now credited for saving her father's life. The girl's father was back at work Wednesday as
doctors try to figure out what happened.
Note: For an awesome four-minute video of this inspiring event, click here.

The future of brain-controlled devices

2010-01-04, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/30/brain.controlled.computers/index.html

Researchers are already using brain-computer interfaces to aid the disabled, treat diseases like
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and provide therapy for depression and post-traumatic stress
disorder. Work is under way on devices that may eventually let you communicate with friends
telepathically, give you superhuman hearing and vision or even let you download data directly into
your brain, a la "The Matrix." Researchers are practically giddy over the prospects. "We don't know
what the limits are yet," says Melody Moore Jackson, director of Georgia Tech University's
BrainLab. At the root of all this technology is the 3-pound generator we all carry in our head. It
produces electricity at the microvolt level. But the signals are strong enough to move robots,
wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs -- with the help of an external processor. One of the more
controversial uses under development is telepathy. It would require at least two people to be
implanted with electrodes that send and receive signals. DARPA, the Pentagon's technology
research division, is currently working on an initiative called "Silent Talk," which would let
soldiers on secret missions communicate with their thoughts alone. This stealth component
is attractive, but naysayers fear that such soldiers could become manipulated for evil means.
Note: Remember that secret military research such as that undertaken by DARPA is often years
ahead of capabilities publicly acknowledged.

Fewer Law Enforcement Officers Died on Job in 2009

2009-12-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/28/us/politics/AP-US-Police-Fatalitie...
Law enforcement deaths this year dropped to their lowest level since 1959, while the
decade of the 2000s was among the safest for officers -- despite the deadliest single day for
police on Sept. 11, 2001. Through Dec. 27, the report by the National Law Enforcement Officers
Memorial Fund found [the following]. 124 officers were killed this year, compared to 133 in 2008.
The 2009 total represents the fewest line-of-duty deaths since 108 a half-century ago. Firearms
deaths rose to 48, nine more than in 2008. However, the 39 fatalities in 2008 represented the
lowest annual figure in more than five decades. One female officer was killed in 2009, compared
with 13 the previous year. There was no explanation for the decline. An average of 162 officers a
year died in the 2000s, compared with 160 in the 1990s, 190 in the 1980s and 228 in the 1970s -the deadliest decade for U.S. law enforcement. Seventy-two officers died on Sept. 11.
Note: Why wasn't this article titled something like "Law Enforcement Deaths Lowest in 50 Years"?
Why is this inspiring news given so little attention? Did you know that violent crime nationwide in
the US has decreased by 50% in the last 15 years? Click here to read about this. Why is news that
inspires fear given such prominence while inspiring news gets so little notice? For a possible
answer, click here.

Advisers on Vaccines Often Have Conflicts

2009-12-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/health/policy/18cdc.html

A new report finds that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a poor job of screening
medical experts for financial conflicts when it hired them to advise the agency on vaccine safety.
Most of the experts who served on advisory panels in 2007 to evaluate vaccines for flu and
cervical cancer had potential conflicts that were never resolved, the report said. Some were
legally barred from considering the issues but did so anyway. In the report ... Daniel R.
Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that the
centers failed nearly every time to ensure that the experts adequately filled out forms confirming
they were not being paid by companies with an interest in their decisions. The report found that 64
percent of the advisers had potential conflicts of interest that were never identified or were left
unresolved by the centers. Thirteen percent failed to have an appropriate conflicts form on file at
the agency at all, which should have barred their participation in the meetings entirely, Mr.
Levinson found. And 3 percent voted on matters that ethics officers had already barred them from
considering.
Note: For lots more on corporate and government corruption from reliable sources, click here and
here.

UFO pyramid reported over Kremlin

2009-12-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/6837200/UFO-pyram...
A giant pyramid which appears to be a UFO hovering over the Kremlin has caused frenzied
speculation in Russia that it is an alien spacecraft. The object has been compared to an
Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile
wide. Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly
playing on Russian television news channels. The shots, one taken at night from a car and one
during the day, were both filmed by amateurs. The 'craft' was said to have hovered for hours over
Red Square in the Russian capital. The clips of the 'invasion' have gone to the top of the country's
version of YouTube. The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a
UFO but police refused to comment. Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defence UFO analyst, said it
was "one of the most extraordinary UFO clips I've ever seen. At first I thought this was a reflection
but it appears to move behind a power line, ruling out this theory." A spokesman for aerospace
journal Jane's News said: "We have no idea what it is."
Note: Go to the link above to view the fascinating videos of this UFO over Moscow. For a powerful
summary of evidence for UFOs presented by highly credible military and government officials, click
here.

Release of secret reports delayed

2009-11-29, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/11/29/declassifica...

President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on millions of pages of military and
intelligence documents that were scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year. The
missed deadline spells trouble for the White Houses promises to introduce an era of government
openness, say advocates, who believe that releasing historical information enforces a key check
on government behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency
during the Cold War, including domestic spying and assassinations of foreign officials, that were
publicly outlined in a set of agency documents known as the "family jewels." The White House has
given the agencies ... an extension beyond Dec. 31 of an undetermined length - possibly years. It
will be the third such extension: Clinton granted one in 2000 and Bush granted one in 2003. The
documents, dating from World War II to the early 1980s, cover the gamut of foreign relations,
intelligence activities, and military operations. The records in question are held by the Central
Intelligence Agency; the National Security Agency; the departments of Justice, State, Defense,
and Energy; and other security and intelligence agencies. None of the agencies involved
responded to requests for comment. Steven Aftergood, a specialist on government secrecy at the
Federation of American Scientists in Washington [said] "If binding deadlines can be extended
more or less at will, then any new declassification requirements will be similarly subject to
doubt or defiance."
Note: These documents are all more than 25 years old. Why can't the public know what their
government is trying to hide from them? For lots more on government secrecy, click here.

Was 9/11 a conspiracy? Truthers' make their case

2009-11-26, The Globe and Mail (One of Toronto's leading newspapers)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/was-911-a-conspiracy-truthers-make-t...
Though rarely shown on TV these days ... 9/11 footage is replayed more than once in "The
Unofficial Story" [on the CBC News program the fifth estate]. The documentary follows up on some
fairly startling public-opinion polls of late. To wit: More than half of all Americans believe the Bush
administration had advance knowledge of 9/11, and did nothing to stop it; slightly more than onethird of the Canadian population believes likewise. The number of people who believe the U.S.
government was involved in the attacks appears to be growing, says fifth estate veteran Bob
McKeown, who helms the report. Most of them believe there are still questions that have
gone unanswered. Among the group's more prominent proponents is Richard Gage, a wellregarded architect interviewed by McKeown in the program. Gage is fervent in his belief that the
destruction was intentional, and was not accomplished with airplanes, but with explosives. Also
speaking out for the Truthers movement is academic and Nobel Peace Prize nominee David Ray
Griffin who questions the lack of NORAD response after the first plane struck the tower and
Canadian professor Kee Dewdney, who insists the fabled on-board struggle between hijackers and
passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 could only be a hoax. The really interesting thing to me is
that you cannot get these people to speculate, observes McKeown. They will say, That is not my
job.'

Note: Watch this first-ever North American major media network news documentary on the 9/11
truth movement by clicking here. And for what may be the best ever documentary on 9/11 for
opening people's eyes, click here.

Signs of Hope
2009-11-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/opinion/24herbert.html
Is the economic, social and physical deterioration that has caused so much misery in the Motor
City a sign of whats in store for larger and larger segments of the United States? I found real
reason to hope when a gentleman named Stan Ovshinsky took me on a tour of a remarkably quiet
and pristine manufacturing plant ... about 30 miles north of Detroit. What is being produced in the
plant is potentially revolutionary. A machine about the length of a football field runs 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, turning out mile after mile after mile of thin, flexible solar energy material, from
which solar panels can be sliced and shaped. Mr. Ovshinsky ... developed the technology and
designed the production method that made it possible to produce solar material by the mile. He
invented the nickel metal hydride battery that is in virtually all hybrid vehicles on the road today.
When I pulled into the parking lot outside his office ... he promptly installed me in the drivers seat
of a hydrogen hybrid prototype a car in which the gasoline tank had been replaced with a safe
solid-state hydrogen storage system invented by Mr. Ovshinsky. Whats weird is that this man,
with such a stellar track record of innovation on products and processes crucial to the
economic and environmental health of the U.S., gets such little attention and so little
support from American policy makers. In addition to his work with batteries, photovoltaics and
hydrogen fuel cells, his inventions have helped open the door to flat-screen televisions, new forms
of computer memory and on and on.
Note: Ovshinsky has been at the forefront of new energy breakthroughs for years, yet has
received very little press, likely because his inventions threaten the established oil industry. For a
powerful, three-minute video showing how some of his key inventions have been shelved because
they threatened profits, click here.

Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses

2009-11-20, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704533904574545981008841004.html
Some of the largest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have urged the Wall Street firm to
reduce the size of its bonus pool, arguing that it should pass along more of its blockbuster
earnings to investors, according to people familiar with the situation. Their complaints in private
conversations with the company and at analyst meetings show how anger over its big-money
culture is spilling into the ranks of investors who typically shy away from debates over Wall Street
pay. Despite record net income and compensation at Goldman as markets rebound and the firm
outmuscles weakened rivals for business, analysts expect its 2009 earnings per share to be 22%

lower than in 2007 and roughly equal to its 2006 earnings, according to Thomson Financial. The
decline is caused by issuing more than 100 million shares in the past year to bolster Goldman's
financial position and capital. Some major Goldman shareholders also are concerned about a littlenoticed change in the company's financial statements that increased the firm's total head count by
adding temporary employees and consultants. The change reduced per-employee
compensation, making it look like Goldman employees earn less than they actually do. The
figure is a lightning rod for criticism of Goldman because its staff is on pace to earn about
$717,000 apiece for 2009. Excluding temporary employees and consultants would increase
compensation per employee to about $775,000.
Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on the realities behind the Wall Street
bailout, click here.

Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform

2009-11-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/16drugprices.html
Even as drug makers promise to support Washingtons health care overhaul by shaving $8
billion a year off the nations drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been
raising its prices at the fastest rate in years. In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale
prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That
will add more than $10 billion to the nations drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion
this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since
1992. The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which
has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher
price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming
years. When we have major legislation anticipated, we see a run-up in price increases,
says Stephen W. Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of
Minnesota. A Harvard health economist, Joseph P. Newhouse, said he found a similar pattern of
unusual price increases after Congress added drug benefits to Medicare a few years ago, giving
tens of millions of older Americans federally subsidized drug insurance. Just as the program was
taking effect in 2006, the drug industry raised prices by the widest margin in a half-dozen years.
They try to maximize their profits, Mr. Newhouse said.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corporate corruption, click here.

In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists

2009-11-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of
many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident. Statements by more than a
dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working
for Genentech, one of the worlds largest biotechnology companies. E-mail messages
obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and
another for Republicans. The lobbyists ... were remarkably successful in getting the statements
printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.
Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked
up some of its talking points 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for
lobbyists. In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: I
regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was. He said he got his statement from
his staff and did not know where they got the information from. In recent years, Genentech
s political action committee and lobbyists for Roche and Genentech have made campaign
contributions to many House members. And company employees have been among the hosts at
fund-raisers for some of those lawmakers.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Swine flu skepticism demands deft response

2009-11-12, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE5A52FU20091112
European scientists and health authorities are facing angry questions about why H1N1 flu has not
caused death and destruction on the scale first feared, and they need to respond deftly to ensure
public support. Accusations are flying in British and French media that the pandemic has
been "hyped" by medical researchers to further their own cause, boost research grants and
line the pockets of drug companies. Britain's Independent newspaper this week asked
"Pandemic? What Pandemic?." France's Le Parisien newspaper ran the headline: "Swine flu:
why the French distrust the vaccine" and noted a gap between the predicted impact of H1N1 and
the less dramatic reality. "Dangerous liaisons between certain experts, the labs and the
government, the obscurity of the contracts between the state and the pharma firms have added to
the doubt." In Britain, health authorities' original worst-case scenario -- which said as many as
65,000 could die from H1N1 -- has twice been revised down and the prediction is now for around
1,000 deaths, way below the average annual toll of 4,000 to 8,000 deaths from seasonal winter flu.
Note: It's quite interesting and telling that a thorough Internet seach showed that no major media
picked up this article from Reuters News Agency

Who's in Big Brother's Database?

2009-11-05, New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23231

On a remote edge of Utah's dry and arid high desert ... hard-hatted construction workers with topsecret clearances are preparing to build [a] mammoth $2 billion structure. It's being built by the
ultra-secret National Security Agency ... to house trillions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and
[electronic data trails of all kinds]. The NSA is also completing work on another data archive, this
one in San Antonio, Texas, which will be nearly the size of the Alamodome. Just how much
information will be stored in these windowless cybertemples? A recent report prepared by the
MITRE Corporation, a Pentagon think tank, [states] "Sensor data volume could potentially increase
to the level of Yottabytes [10-to-the-24th-power bytes] by 2015." Once vacuumed up and stored
in these near-infinite "libraries," the data are then analyzed by powerful infoweapons,
supercomputers running complex algorithmic programs, to determine who among us may
be or may one day become a terrorist. Emerging [after 9/11] as the most powerful chief
the spy world has ever known was the director of the NSA. He is in charge of an organization three
times the size of the CIA and empowered in 2008 by Congress to spy on Americans to an
unprecedented degree. These new centers in Utah, Texas, and possibly elsewhere will likely
become the centralized repositories for the data intercepted by the NSA in America's version of the
"big brother database."
Note: James Bamford, the author of this review of a new book on the history of the NSA, has
himself written three important books on the agency. For many revealing reports from reliable
sources on the developing capacity by government and corporate surveillance to construct a "Big
Brother" states, click here.

Study appears to support theory of abiotic oil

2009-11-04, Houston Chronicle (Houston's leading newspaper)
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2009/11/new-study-appears-to-support-theory-of-a...
You may have heard of abiotic oil, the notion that oil is not the result of ancient biomass hence
the term fossil fuels but rather from compressed methane seeping up from the Earths mantle.
Most petroleum engineers spurn abiotic oil as a crackpot idea, but the notion has percolated along
and been popularized by books such as Thomas Golds Deep Hot Biosphere. Setting aside the
climate issue of burning petroleum, the idea of naturally replenished oil supplies is alluring
considering oil is by far the most portable, energy dense fuel around. [A] paper published in
Energy & Fuels, a peer-reviewed publication, supports the theory of abiotic oil. For their study
geochemists at the Carnegie Institution of Washington combined the key ingredients for the
abiotic synthesis of methane in a device and then simulated the high pressures and
temperatures near the interface between the Earths crust and mantle. They found it highly
plausible that methane could form from chemical reaction in this environment, writing that
their experiment strongly suggests that it is likely that, in deep earth geologic systems, some
methane generation is inevitable. The theory of abiotic oil holds that rapidly rising streams of
compressed methane gas reach the crust from the mantle, and when they strike pockets of high
temperature they condense into heavier hydrocarbons like crude oil.

Note: For more on the intriguing abiotic oil theory, click here. For key reports from major media
sources on promising energy sources, click here.

Whos Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?

2009-11-01, The American Conservative
http://amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/0000
Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI
five days after 9/11. She was fired from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised concerns that one of
the translators in her section was a member of a Turkish organization that was under investigation
for bribing senior government officials and members of Congress, drug trafficking, illegal weapons
sales, money laundering, and nuclear proliferation. On Aug. 8, she was finally able to testify under
oath in a court case filed in Ohio and agreed to an interview with The American Conservative
based on that testimony. PHILIP GIRALDI: You map out a corruption scheme involving U.S.
government employees and members of Congress and agents of foreign governments. So the
network starts with a person like [Marc] Grossman in the State Department providing information
that enables Turkish and Israeli intelligence officers to have access to people in Congress, who
then provide classified information that winds up in the foreign embassies? EDMONDS:
Absolutely. And we also had Pentagon officials doing the same thing. We were looking at Richard
Perle and Douglas Feith. They had a list of individuals in the Pentagon broken down by access to
certain types of information. Some of them would be policy related, some of them would be
weapons-technology related, some of them would be nuclear-related. Perle and Feith would
provide the names of those Americans, officials in the Pentagon, to Grossman, together
with highly sensitive personal information: this person is a closet gay; this person has a
chronic gambling issue; this person is an alcoholic. The files on the American targets
would contain things like the size of their mortgages or whether they were going through
divorces.
Note: Sibel Edmonds is the founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. For lots
more on her key testimony, click here. Philip Giraldi is a former CIA officer and The American
Conservatives Deep Background columnist. An ever increasing number of people are waking up
to the truth of 9/11.

TARP on steroids
2009-10-30, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/30/EDTG1ACEDE.DTL
It was 9/29/08 - a moment when a rare blast of populist democracy briefly singed the economic
terrorists who hold the Capitol hostage. It had been a dark and stormy month of financial collapse,
culminating in an attempted power grab. Pushed by his fellow Wall Street Ponzi schemers,
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - a former Goldman Sachs CEO - was threatening
Armageddon unless Congress ratified his ... decree for a no-strings-attached bank bailout. Today,

the episode seems merely to have set minimum standards for chicanery. As evidenced by two
little-noticed sections of the Obama administration's Wall Street "reform" bill, presidents and their
bank benefactors are back to thinking they can pilfer whatever they want by burying their demands
in the esoterica of lengthier bills. Finding this latest giveaway means digging all the way down to
sections 1109 and 1604 of the White House's mammoth proposal. At a recent hearing, Rep. Brad
Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles County), called the language "TARP on steroids,"
noting the provisions would deliberately let the executive branch enact even bigger, more
unregulated bailouts than ever - and by unilateral fiat. TARP on Steroids includes no specific
oversight or executive pay constraints. TARP on Steroids allows taxpayer cash to go only to the
behemoths (which, not coincidentally, tend to make the biggest campaign contributions). TARP on
Steroids would let [the Treasury Secretary] spend as much as he wants.
Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on the continuing Wall Street bailout, click
here.

Suzanne Somers questions chemo in new book

2009-10-19, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33387002/ns/health-cancer
Suzanne Somers is at it again. She's back with a new book [on an] emotional topic: Cancer
treatment. Specifically, she argues against what she sees as the vast and often pointless use of
chemotherapy. Somers, who has rejected chemo herself, seems to relish the fight. "Cancer's an
epidemic," said the 63-year-old actress ... a day before [the] release of Knockout: Interviews with
Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place, her 19th book.
"And yet we keep going back to the same old pot, because it's all we've got. Well, this is a
book about options." Though she may be one of the most visible, Somers is hardly the only
celebrity who's advocated alternative treatments recently. The late Farrah Fawcett underwent a
mix of traditional and alternative treatments, and made a poignant plea for supporting alternative
methods in her film, "Farrah's Story." Actress Jenny McCarthy advocates a special dietary regime,
supplements, metal detox and delayed vaccines to treat autism. In fact, Somers does view
chemotherapy as effective for some cancers, but not for the most common, including lung and
breast cancer. Diagnosed with breast cancer a decade ago, she had a lumpectomy and radiation,
but declined chemotherapy, as she did more recently when briefly misdiagnosed with pervasive
cancer.
Note: To watch a video clip of this, click here. For her harrowing experience of being misdiagnosed
with stage four cancer, click here. And if you want to understand how big money sometimes
ruthlessly acts to stop cancer cures, click here. For media articles discussing potentially powerful
cancer cures and how industry sometimes will not support them, click here.

Gulf-trotting Tony Blair cashes in on his war contacts

2009-10-18, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6879436.ece
Tony Blair has been cashing in on his contacts from the Iraq conflict and his role as Middle East
peace envoy for a private business venture expected to earn him more than 5m a year. The
former prime minister has sold his political and economic expertise to two countries, Kuwait and
the United Arab Emirates, via his fledgling private consultancy. He also represents the investment
bank JP Morgan in the region. Blair has been ... amassing a fortune from the American lecture
circuit. By offering himself to the Arab states as a statesman for hire, he could comfortably double
his annual earnings. His consultancy, the London-based Tony Blair Associates (TBA), emulates
the New York partnership Kissinger Associates, which was founded by Henry Kissinger, the former
national security adviser to President Nixon. Peter Brierley, 59, of Batley, West Yorkshire, whose
28-year-old son Shaun was killed near the Kuwait-Iraq border in 2003 and who refused to shake
Blairs hand at a memorial service this month, said: This beggars belief. Its absolutely
scandalous that hes now trying to make money from his contacts in the region. Its money
from the blood and lives of the soldiers who died in Iraq. His fees for talks, along with
contracts with JP Morgan and Zurich Financial Services, are estimated to put his earnings
excluding [a big] book deal well in excess of 5m a year.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

Drugmakers, Doctors Rake in Billions Battling H1N1 Flu

2009-10-14, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/big-business-swine-flu/story?id=8820642
Americans are still debating whether to roll up their sleeves for a swine flu shot, but companies
have already figured it out: vaccines are good for business. Drug companies have sold $1.5
billion worth of swine flu shots, in addition to the $1 billion for seasonal flu they booked
earlier this year. These inoculations are part of a much wider and rapidly growing $20
billion global vaccine market. "The vaccine market is booming," says Bruce Carlson,
spokesperson at market research firm Kalorama, which publishes an annual survey of the vaccine
industry. "It's an enormous growth area for pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not
doing so well," he says. As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check
for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be
distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more
than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's progress and educate the public
about prevention. Drugmakers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales. But some say it's not
just drugmakers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copayments for special office visits to inject
shots, and there have been assertions that these doctors actually profit handsomely from these
vaccinations. Pharmacies also charge co-payments or full price of about $25 to those without
insurance.
Note: For a revealing article questioning the efficacy of vaccines, click here. And for a powerful
CBS '60 Minutes' news clip clearly showing how the profit motive in vaccines endangers public
health, click here.

Do-nothing committees at state Capitol

2009-10-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/12/EDUN1A3LQ7.DTL
It's always interesting to look behind the curtain at the state Capitol and marvel at the California
Legislature's ingenuity at spending our money or avoiding accountability. It's just too bad this
creative brilliance could not be applied to addressing fiscal crises or solving the state's water
problems. The latest little outrage came in the scrutiny of the Legislature's 77 select committees by
Chronicle staff writers Wyatt Buchanan and Matthew Yi. What they found was that 32 of these
committees have paid staffers, with a combined payroll of $4.3 million. It may not be a lot of money
in the context of a state that keeps encountering deficits in the tens of billions, but it does seem to
represent a bit of clever accounting. To put it in plain terms: It's a way for elected officials to pad
their staffs. For example, state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, has six people working for him who
are paid through three select committees. Total number of hearings those committees have held
this year: zero. Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairs two select committees ... with four paid
staff members. Total number of hearings this year: zero. Californians who are not so immersed
in the culture of the Legislature might wonder why it needs 77 select committees in addition
to the standing committees that are assigned to cover areas such as transportation, energy
and myriad other issues. At least 19 of the 32 with paid staff have not met at all this year.
Note: For lots more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

In Harsh Reports on S.E.C.s Fraud Failures, a Watchdog Urges

Sweeping Changes
2009-09-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/30sec.html
The Securities and Exchange Commissions independent watchdog called for a sweeping
overhaul of the agencys investigation and enforcement practices on Tuesday, after a
blistering report on the S.E.C.s failure to detect Bernard L. Madoffs extensive Ponzi
scheme. Two reports, released by the S.E.C.s inspector general, H. David Kotz, recommended
dozens of changes in the way the agency evaluates tips, trains investigators and documents
examinations of securities firms. The first report, which covers the S.E.C.s inspections and
examinations office, outlines 37 improvements that would revamp nearly every aspect of the
divisions operations, including how investigators follow up on tips and creating step-by-step
procedures in identifying potential violations of securities laws. Mr. Kotz also issued 21
recommendations to the S.E.C.s division of enforcement, including the start of a formal process
for handling complaints and improving working relationships within the division. One measure
would mandate that tips and complaints be reviewed by at least two individuals experienced in the
subject before taking further action. The proposed changes come after Mr. Kotzs office completed
an exhaustive investigation this month of the S.E.C.s failure to detect the Madoff fraud despite
many warnings and a flood of complaints from credible sources. At nearly every turn, the

investigation found, the agency had failed to properly examine Mr. Madoffs firm and had not
adequately followed up on tips from as far back as 1992 that could have unearthed the estimated
$65 billion scheme.
Note: For a treasure trove of key revelations on the realities behind the Wall Street crash and
bailout, click here. Contact your political representatives urging them to support these
recommendations.

Health Care Workers Protest Mandatory H1N1 Vaccination

2009-09-29, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/29/taking_liberties/entry5349581.shtml
Health care workers are planning to take to the streets Tuesday at a rally in front of the Albany,
N.Y. state capitol to protest mandatory vaccination. The rally is intended to call for "freedom of
choice in vaccination and health care" and to protest mandatory vaccination for influenza and the
H1N1 swine flu. "This vaccine has not been clinically tested to the same degree as the regular flu
vaccine," Tara Accavallo, a registered nurse on Long Island, told Newsday. "If something happens
to me, if I get seriously injured from this vaccine, who's going to help me?" While physicians,
nurses, and medical technicians may not be known for their willingness to march on state capitols,
a recent New York Department of Health requirement has sparked an unusually intense response.
The August 13 regulations say that all health care workers who "could potentially expose patients"
must be vaccinated for influenza by November 30 unless it would be "detrimental" to the recipient's
health. This raises an obvious and important question: Under what circumstances can
government officials order mandatory vaccination? And could the general public be
ordered to roll up their sleeves for injections, even if there might be side effects beyond a
sore arm or mild fever? The concern in New York also comes as skepticism of vaccination in
general seems to be on the rise.
Note: For more on this protest, click here. Note that the U.S. government has granted immunity
from lawsuits to the drug companies manufacturing the vaccines. So who will be responsible if
there is a repeat of the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, where hundreds died and thousands
were paralyzed by the vaccines?

State lifts limit on mercury preservative in swine-flu shots

2009-09-25, Seattle Times (Seattle's leading newspaper)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2009938638_vaccine25m.html
In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, Washington's Health Department ...
temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative [called
Thimerosal] in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.
Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, but it will be
added to the bulk of the swine-flu vaccine. A vocal minority believes the compound could be

linked to autism. About 15 percent of the vaccine supply will be mercury-free. Thimerosal will be
added to the vaccine because it is being produced in vials that contain enough medication for 10
shots. The mercury compound kills bacteria, lowering the risk that the drug will be contaminated by
needles used to withdraw separate doses. "Every time you introduce a needle, you run a risk of
introducing a potential contaminant," said Dr. Tony Marfin, state epidemiologist for infectious
disease. Mercury-free vaccine will be produced in single-dose vials. Nasal sprays do not contain
mercury but are not recommended for children under the age of 2 and pregnant women, because
they contain live, weakened virus. The law limiting the mercury preservative will be suspended for
six months and applies only to the swine-flu vaccines. Once common in vaccines, thimerosal has
been largely phased out in most wealthy nations. Children's vaccines in the United States are
almost exclusively mercury-free, single-dose injections. After 1976's mass vaccination against a
different swine-flu strain, about 500 people developed a neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre
Syndrome (GBS), and some died. Scientists still haven't figured out why.
Note: To watch a vitally important 10-minute clip from CBS's 60 Minutes revealing government
complicity in the deaths of 300 Americans and permanent paralysis of thousands more from the
vaccine during the 1976 swine flu scare, click here. This is the most revealing clip by far on the
swine flu that we've seen. For much more information on the dangers of thimerosal in vaccines,
click here.

Patriot Act Provisions Get Obama Support

2009-09-15, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-supports-extending-patriot-act/story?id=...
The Justice Department has indicated that the Obama administration is in support of renewing
[three] controversial sections of the USA Patriot Act that expire later this year. The provisions that
will expire in December include Section 206, that allows "roving" wiretaps so FBI agents can tap
multiple phones or computers (with court authorization) that a specific person (target) may use.
Another expiring provision, Section 215, is the so-called "library provision," which allows
investigators to obtain [library, medical, business, banking and other] records with approval from
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And the final provision which was nicknamed the
"Lone Wolf" authorization, allows intelligence gathering of people not suspected of being part of a
foreign government or known terrorist organization. Critics of the Patriot Act protested loudly
that the FBI could obtain individuals' library records under the legislation. [But] section 215
is much more expansive than reviewing a suspected terrorist's summer reading list. [It]
allows the FBI to obtain any business record, "any tangible things," like credit card and
bank statements and also allows access to medical and mental health records. The provision
has been used to obtain communication and subscriber information to help set up surveillance and
monitoring of computers and telephones.
Note: The American Library Association, the national organization of professional librarians, was
the first and strongest defender of civil liberties after the passage of the PATRIOT Act. For a
discussion of the concerns of professional librarians over this decision by the Obama

administration, click here.

Peanut Butter Plan to feed the homeless spreads

2009-09-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/15/DD1Q19MDQO.DTL
The world is getting better, one peanut butter and jelly sandwich at a time. It's called the
Peanut Butter Plan. Like many of the best plans, it's simple: Strangers get together, make
peanut butter sandwiches and immediately pass them out to homeless people. No federal
subsidy, no foundation, no vouchers. No official sanction from anybody. Just strangers, good
will and peanut butter. Jory John, a San Francisco children's book writer, got the idea for the PBJ
stealth campaign this spring. John put forth the idea on Facebook and, over the past few months,
PBJ handouts have taken place in Los Angeles; Berkeley; Phoenix; Little Rock, Ark.; Grand
Rapids, Mich.; Austin, Texas; and London. "People are joining from all over the place," John said.
"I thought it was about time to use a social networking site to do some good." The monthly
gathering took place the other evening around a conference table inside a publishing house that
had donated its office for the cause. Some sandwich-laden volunteers [went] to the Tenderloin and
some others to the Haight and South of Market.There was no shortage of people who found the
idea of a complimentary peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich to be just the thing. Outside the BART
station at 16th and Mission streets, a dozen folks accepted sandwiches. When the sandwiches
were gone, [the] sandwich makers retired to a nearby tavern for a beer. The camaraderie of doing
something nice, along with the beers, made everyone feel pretty good and some of the strangers
exchanged phone numbers. "The smallest actions make the biggest difference," [John] said.
"There are some cynics who say it's not really curing hunger, and it isn't curing hunger. But it's
curing one person's hunger. There's nothing wrong with that."
Note: Information on the Peanut Butter Plan and its operations in various cities around the U.S. is
available at www.peanutbutterplan.org.

Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years - and are the U.S. and
Britain covering it up to continue war on terror?
2009-09-11, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212851/Has-Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-seve...
[President] Barack Obama has launched a fresh operation to find [Osama bin Laden]. Working
with the Pakistani Army, elite squads of U.S. and British special forces were sent into Waziristan
this summer to 'hunt and kill' the shadowy figure intelligence officers still call 'the principal target' of
the war on terror. This new offensive is, of course, based on the premise that the 9/11 terrorist is
alive. Yet what if he isn't? What if he has been dead for years, and the British and U.S.
intelligence services are actually playing a game of double bluff? What if everything we
have seen or heard of him on video and audio tapes since the early days after 9/11 is a fake
- and that he is being kept 'alive' by the Western allies to stir up support for the war on

terror? Incredibly, this is the breathtaking theory that is gaining credence among political
commentators, respected academics and even terror experts. Still more questions have been
raised with the publication in America and Britain of a book called Osama Bin Laden: Dead or
Alive? Written by political analyst and philosopher Professor David Ray Griffin, ... it is provoking
shock waves - for it goes into far more detail about his supposed death and suggests there has
been a cover-up by the West. The book claims that Bin Laden died of kidney failure, or a linked
complaint, on December 13, 2001, while living in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains close to the
border with Waziristan. His burial took place within 24 hours, in line with Muslim religious rules,
and in an unmarked grave, which is a Wahhabi custom. The author insists that the many Bin
Laden tapes made since that date have been concocted by the West to make the world believe
Bin Laden is alive. Could it be that, for years, he's just been smoke and mirrors?
Note: Hundreds of scholars, officials and professionals have raised questions about bin Laden, Al
Qaeda, and other aspects of the official conspiracy about the events of 9/11. Click here and here
to read their concerns.

Take a Tour of Masonic Washington: What Does It All Mean?

2009-09-10, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR20090909025...
Does the layout of Washington reveal some hidden Masonic influence? Masons first appeared in
Britain in the early 1400s as members of craft guilds. The Masons encouraged free thought and
religious tolerance. They helped invent America: George Washington, Ben Franklin, nine signers
of the Declaration of Independence and 13 signers of the Constitution were Masons. Both
Presidents Roosevelt and 11 other presidents besides Washington were, too. Also J. Edgar
Hoover, Will Rogers, Ty Cobb, John Wayne. [There are] roughly 1.5 million Masons in the
United States today. But you only have to visit any number of anti-Masonic Web sites to find the
darker claims of conspiracies to rule the world. A persistent rumor involves secret symbols in the
map of the city. The White House, Washington Circle, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and Mount
Vernon Square: Draw lines on the avenues connecting the points (pretend Rhode Island doesn't
stop at Connecticut) and you get a five-pointed star. It's also possible to divine a six-pointed star
on the map east of the Capitol. 16th Street is Washington's "Rose Line." The intersecting line from
the Capitol across the Potomac River [takes you to] a place called Rosslyn, which ... is also the
name of the sacred Templar chapel in Scotland. The Masonic headquarters ... is on Washington's
Rose Line. In September 1793, Washington donned a ceremonial Masonic apron and helped lay
the cornerstone of the Capitol. High on the Capitol Rotunda's domed ceiling is Brumidi's dramatic
portrayal of the "Apotheosis of Washington" -- the Mason ascending to heaven. Of 100 or so
statues in Statuary Hall and elsewhere in the building, [there are] at least 30 Masons.
Note: Without the secret meetings of the Masons, the U.S. likely would not have been able to
throw off the oppressive yoke of the British king. Yet they became so powerful and corrupt by the
1820s that there was a huge anti-Masonic movement which swept the nation. For an abundance of
reliable information on a number of secret societies and the power they wield, click here.

Explosive Theory
2009-09-09, MetroActive (Silicon Valley's leading weekly newspaper)
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/09.09.09/cover-0936.html
Just a few years ago Ed Munyak, a fire protection engineer for the city of San Jose, seemed like a
lonely, out-there figure, a sometimes-target because of his outspoken position on the events of
Sept. 11, 2001. These days, hundreds of other building trade professionals have joined him in
challenging the official narrative about the collapse of three buildings at New York's World Trade
Center (WTC) on that fateful, traumatic day. Munyak, of Los Altos Hills, is a mechanical and fire
engineer whose job is to review building plans to ensure they comply with the California Building
and Fire Code. In 2007, after speaking out on his own for a few years, Munyak signed on with a
then-fledging organization called Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, founded by Bay Area
architect Richard Gage. Today, far from being isolated, Munyak now counts as allies 804
professional architects and building engineers from around the country. Collectively, they have
joined Munyak's call for an independent technical investigation of the causes of the WTC buildings
collapse. In doing so, they reject the federal government's conclusions that two airplanes alone
brought the buildings downwithout the aid of pre-planted explosives. Munyak and his fellow
AE911 supporters recently received acknowledgement from the FBI's counterterrorism
division, which concluded that the organization's core evidence deservesand will get
FBI scrutiny. In a letter, Deputy Director Michael J. Heimbach assessed AE911's
presentation as "backed by thorough research and analysis."
Note: WantToKnow Team member David Ray Griffin has just published a detailed critique of the
fraudulent "science" in the latest government publication defending the official account of the
collapse of WTC 7.

Diebold Exits US Voting-Machine Business

2009-09-03, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090903-714997.html
Diebold Inc. has sold its money-losing U.S. election-systems business, just seven years after
acquiring it amid hopes of rising demand for voting technology upgrades in the wake of the 2000
presidential election fiasco. Diebold [said] it sold the voting-machine unit to privately held Election
Systems & Software Inc. for $5 million, about one-fifth of what it paid in 2002. "There were
assumptions we made in that space that didn't materialize," Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen
said. Diebold, which was the industry's biggest maker of electronic voting machines heading into
the 2004 presidential election, was in the spotlight as concerns increased about the reliability and
security of the electronic systems. Diebold also suffered from a perception problem when the
company's then-Chief Executive Walden O'Dell very publicly supported and fundraised for
President George W. Bush in his re-election campaign.

Note: This article fails to mention that the merger of Diebold and ES&S creates a major monopoly
on US voting machines in the hands of companies owned by staunch conservatives. For more vital
information on this and the suspicious death of the principal witness related to Karl Rove in an key
Ohio elections case, click here.

'Moon rock' given to Holland by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin is fake
2009-08-29, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/6105902/Moon-rock-given-to-Holl...
A moon rock given to the Dutch prime minister by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 has turned
out to be a fake. Curators at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum ... discovered that the "lunar rock",
valued at 308,000, was in fact petrified wood. Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the
investigation, said the museum would continue to keep the stone as a curiosity. "It's a good story,
with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it." The rock was
given to Willem Drees, a former Dutch leader, during a global tour by Neil Armstrong, Michael
Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin following their moon mission 50 years ago. J. William Middendorf,
the former American ambassador to the Netherlands, made the presentation to Mr Drees and the
rock was then donated to the Rijksmuseum after his death in 1988. "I do remember that Drees was
very interested in the little piece of stone. But that it's not real, I don't know anything about that," Mr
Middendorf said. Nasa gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries following lunar missions in
1969 and the 1970s. The United States Embassy in The Hague is carrying out an investigation into
the affair. Researchers [from] Amsterdam's Free University were able to tell at a glance that the
rock was unlikely to be from the moon, a conclusion that was borne out by tests. "It's a
nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," said Frank Beunk, a geologist involved in the
investigation.
Note: High strangeness alert! Why would NASA and Apollo astronauts be giving out fake
moonstones? And how could it be that NASA lost the original videos of the first lunar landings?

Fed Urges Secrecy on Banks in Bailout Programs

2009-08-27, ABC News/Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8426669
The U.S. Federal Reserve asked a federal judge not to enforce her order that it reveal the names
of the banks that have participated in its emergency lending programs and the sums they received,
saying such disclosure would threaten the companies and the economy. The central bank filed its
request ... two days after Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan
ruled in favor of Bloomberg News, which had sought information under the federal
Freedom of Information Act. Preska said the Fed failed to show that revealing the names
would stigmatize the banks and result in "imminent competitive harm." Underlying this case
and a similar one involving News Corp's Fox News Network is a question of how much the public
has a right to know about how the government is bailing out a financial system in a crisis. The case

arose when two Bloomberg reporters submitted FOIA requests about actions the Fed took to shore
up the financial system in 2007 and early 2008, including an expansion of lending programs and
the sale of Bear Stearns Cos to JPMorgan.
Note: Don't tax payers have a right to know to which bankds the trillions of tax dollars are going in
the bank bailout? For lots more on government secrecy, click here.

Secret process benefits pet projects

2009-08-26, Houston Chronicle (One of Houston's leading newspapers)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6587768.html
A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day will
get $15 million under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. A government priority list
ranked the project as marginal, but two powerful Democratic senators persuaded the
administration to make it happen. Despite Obama's promises that the stimulus plan would be
transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border
upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. It
wasn't supposed to be that way. In 2004, Congress ordered Homeland Security to create a list,
updated annually, of the most important repairs at checkpoints nationwide. But the Obama
administration continued a Bush administration practice of considering other, more subjective
factors when deciding which projects get money. The results: A border station in Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's home state of Arizona is getting $199 million, five times
more than any other border station. A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than
55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, is rated among the government's highest priorities but
was passed over for stimulus money. The Westhope, N.D., checkpoint, which serves about 73
people a day and is among the lowest-priority projects, is set to get nearly $15 million for
renovations. The Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a
Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester.
Note: For lots more on government corruption, click here.

Healthy people with swine flu should not be given Tamiflu, says WHO
2009-08-21, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/6066444/Healthy-people-with-swine...
Healthy people who catch swine flu but show only mild symptoms should not be given
Tamiflu, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. The advice contradicts British
policy on the issue, which has seen hundreds of thousands of doses of the antiviral given
to people with the virus. Today's advice, published on the WHO website, said most patients were
experiencing typical flu symptoms and would get better within a week. It said Tamiflu (also called
oseltamivir) and another antiviral Relenza (also called zanamivir) should not be given to healthy
people who have only mild symptoms. The latest WHO advice, from a panel of international

experts, comes as new figures show that 45,986 courses of antivirals were given to patients in
England in the week ending August 18. In the previous week, 90,363 courses of antivirals were
given out. There have been fears that mass use of Tamiflu will encourage the virus to become
resistant to the antiviral. Researchers have also expressed concern over the side effects of the
drug, including sickness, nightmares and insomnia in children. A team from Oxford University said
earlier this month children with mild symptoms should not be given the antiviral to combat swine flu
and urged the Department of Health to urgently rethink its policy.
Note: To read an article showing Tamiflu and Relenza may not be safe for children, click here. For
other incisive articles revealing major manipulations involving the swine flu, click here.

California's Prison Crisis: Be Very Afraid

2009-08-14, Time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1916427,00.html
To some criminal-justice experts the violence that erupted [at a prison] located about 40 miles east
of Los Angeles, was an inevitable consequence of a state prison system long hobbled by massive
overcrowding, program cuts and understaffed facilities. And given the state's ongoing budget woes
with $1.2 billion in cuts mandated to the prison budget the situation is likely to only get worse.
"Overcrowding is the first issue," says Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime
and Delinquency. "You're talking about hundreds of men moved into triple bunks in what used to
be gyms and cafeterias. They're not even cells. They're just empty places where we're shoving
people." In addition to overcrowding, the state's corrections efforts are the nation's most
expensive and one of the least effective. The state spends $10 billion annually, or
$49,000 per inmate for a year in custody, according to statistics from the nonpartisan policyadvising group Legislative Analyst's Office. Yet, California's recidivism rate is 70%, one of the
worst in the country.
Note: At $49,000 per year per inmate, do you think there might be a better way to rehabilitate
these people?

Oliver Stone: JFK and the Unspeakable

2009-07-23, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-stone/jfk-and-the-unspeakable_b_243924.html
The murder of President Kennedy was a seminal event for me and for millions of Americans. It
changed the course of history. It was a crushing blow to our country and to millions of people
around the world. Today, ... profound doubts persist about how President Kennedy was killed and
why. My film "JFK" was a metaphor for all those doubts, suspicions and unanswered questions.
Now an extraordinary new book offers the best account I have read of this tragedy and its
significance. That book is James Douglass's JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It
Matters. In his beautifully written and exhaustively researched treatment, Douglass lays out the

"motive" for Kennedy's assassination. Simply, he traces a process of steady conversion by

Kennedy from his origins as a traditional Cold Warrior to his determination to pull the world
back from the edge of destruction. Many of these steps are well known, such as Kennedy's
disillusionment with the CIA after the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion, and his refusal to follow the
reckless recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis. But
many of his steps remain unfamiliar: Kennedy's back-channel dialogue with Khrushchev and their
shared pursuit of common ground; his secret opening to dialogue with Fidel Castro (ongoing the
very week of his assassination); and his determination to pull out of Vietnam after his probable reelection in 1964. All of these steps caused him to be regarded as a virtual traitor by elements
of the military-intelligence community. These were the forces that planned and carried out
his assassination.
Note: For more on this important book, click here. For an excellent collection of the best
information, videos, books, and essays on the John F. Kennedy assassination, click here.

A Whole Industry Is Waiting For A Pandemic

2009-07-21, Der Spiegel (Germany's leading news magazine)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,637119,00.html
In an interview with SPIEGEL, epidemiologist Tom Jefferson speaks about dangerous fearmongering, misguided, money-driven research and why we should all be washing our hands a lot
more often. SPIEGEL: Do you consider the swine flu to be particularly worrisome? Jefferson:
There are some people who make predictions year after year, and they get worse and worse.
None of them so far have come about, and these people are still there making these predictions.
Sometimes you get the feeling that there is a whole industry almost waiting for a pandemic to
occur. SPIEGEL: Who do you mean? Jefferson: The WHO and public health officials, virologists
and the pharmaceutical companies. They've built this machine around the impending pandemic.
And there's a lot of money involved, and influence, and careers, and entire institutions! And all it
took was one of these influenza viruses to mutate to start the machine grinding. SPIEGEL: Do you
think the WHO declared a pandemic prematurely? Jefferson: Don't you think there's something
noteworthy about the fact that the WHO has changed its definition of pandemic? The old
definition was a new virus, which went around quickly, for which you didn't have immunity,
and which created a high morbidity and mortality rate. Now the last two have been dropped,
and that's how swine flu has been categorized as a pandemic.
Note: For lots more on the Swine Flu "false pandemic," click here.

Swine flu vaccine rushed through safety checks

2009-07-13, Times of London (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6694046.ece

A swine flu vaccine will be fast-tracked for use in Britain within five days once it is developed, and
130 million doses are on order. The Department of Health expects to have enough vaccine this
year to give it to half the population. Further supplies will be available if needed. Each person will
need two doses of the vaccine, unless one single jab is found to provide high rates of immunity.
The first doses specific to the H1N1 swine flu virus are set to arrive in September and could be
given regulatory approval in less than a week. The move came after the first British patient without
underlying health problems died from swine flu, taking the number of swine flu-linked deaths in
Britain to 15. Peter Holden, the British Medical Associations lead negotiator on swine flu, said that
... although swine flu was not generally causing serious illness in patients, health officials
were eager to start a mass vaccination campaign, starting first on groups that were
susceptible to infection or prone to complications. It is likely that the elderly would be given a
seasonal flu jab to guard against other circulating flu strains as happens every year as well
as the swine flu vaccination. The high-risk groups will be done at GPs surgeries. People are still
making decisions over this, but we want to get cracking before we get a second wave, which is
traditionally far more virulent, Dr Holden said. It takes several weeks or months to make flu
vaccines, which are cultured using chicken eggs. The European Medicines Agency said the fasttracked approval procedure has involved trials of a mock-up vaccine and that the speed would
not compromise patient safety. The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management
plan, the agency said.
Important Note: Don't be fooled by this media propaganda. The same rushed attitude is what led
to hundreds of deaths from the swine flu vaccine in 1976. Click here for a powerful CBS 60
Minutes video showing how a huge vaccine propaganda campaign by the government led to these
deaths. And a recent article in The Scotsman quotes a spokesperson for the Scottish government
saying "We have said that a vaccine is being worked on and the plan is to vaccinate everybody."
Remember that the media is beholden to pharmaceutical companies for billions of dollars in
advertising income. For lots more powerful information on this vital topic, click here.

Ignore the health scare professionals: you won't die of swine flu
2009-07-12, The Telegraph blogs (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100002999/ignore-the-health-sc...
Swine flu is a nasty disease, but no nastier than other strains of influenza. True, it has killed
hundreds of people in Mexico; but even there, other variants of flu virus have been far more lethal.
Why, then, the urgent need to inoculate the entire British population? Perhaps Im being overly
cynical, but I cant help wondering whether were being pushed into a wrong-headed course of
action by the health scare industry. Were told that Tamiflu needs to be taken at once, without a
moments delay meaning that anyone with a sniffle is likely to start glugging the stuff. Were also
told that the virus may mutate, meaning conveniently that well soon need a new variety of
medicine. In any case, these flu vaccines have short shelf lives. Good news for the drug
manufacturers and their lobbyists; bad news for the taxpayer. Ministers must suspect that
the danger is being exaggerated. Yet they would rather spend gazillions than run the
slightest risk of being accused of not having done enough. And, needless to say, there isnt a

medical advisory body in the world that will say: Actually, minister, considering everything in the
round, the danger posed by this virus is minor, and we recommend the disbandment of this panel.
You may think I am being unconscionably flippant. But back in April, when newspapers were filling
their pages with science fiction scenarios of a deadly epidemic, I suggested that, taking everything
together, we werent going to die of swine flu. Who has the better track record so far: the Big
Pharma doom mongers, or this blog?

Watching Whales Watching Us

2009-07-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12whales-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rs...
Scientists have now documented behaviors like tool use and cooperative hunting strategies among
whales. Orcas, or killer whales, have been found to mourn their own dead. Just three years ago,
researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York discovered, in the brains of a number
of whale species, highly specialized neurons that are linked to, among other things, the use of
language and were once thought to be the exclusive property of humans and a few other primates.
Indeed, marine biologists are now revealing not only the dizzying variety of vocalizations among a
number of whale species but also complex societal structures and cultures. Whales, we now know,
teach and learn. They scheme. They cooperate, and they grieve. They recognize themselves and
their friends. They know and fight back against their enemies. And perhaps most stunningly, given
all of our transgressions against them, they may even, in certain circumstances, have learned to
trust us. For all of their inherent elusiveness, the gray whales of Baja baffle scientists for the
opposite reason: They cant seem to get enough of us humans. The question of why
present-day gray-whale mothers, some of whom still bear harpoon scars, would take to
seeking us out and gently shepherding their young into our arms is a mystery that now
captivates whale researchers and watchers alike. There may be something far more compelling
going on in the lagoons of Baja each winter and spring. Something, lets say, along the lines of that
time-worn plot conceit behind many a film, in which the peaceable greetings of alien visitors are
tragically rebuffed by human fear and ignorance. Except that in this particular rendition, the aliens
keep coming back, trying, perhaps, to give us another chance.
Note: For many important reports from reliable sources on the amazing capabilities of marine
mammals, as well as serious threats to their well-being and survival from human activities, click
here.

Street Farmer
2009-07-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html?pagewanted=all
Like others in the so-called good-food movement, [Will] Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial
food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad
calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn't

mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto
two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee's northwest side, less than half a
mile from the city's largest public-housing project. And this is why Allen is so fond of his
worms. When you're producing a quarter of a million dollars' worth of food in such a small space,
soil fertility is everything. Without microbe- and nutrient-rich worm castings (poop, that is), Allen's
Growing Power farm couldn't provide healthful food to 10,000 urbanites through his on-farm
retail store, in schools and restaurants, at farmers' markets and in low-cost market baskets
delivered to neighborhood pickup points. He couldn't employ scores of people, some from the
nearby housing project; continually train farmers in intensive polyculture; or convert millions of
pounds of food waste into a version of black gold. With seeds planted at quadruple density and
nearly every inch of space maximized to generate exceptional bounty, Growing Power is an
agricultural Mumbai, a supercity of upward-thrusting tendrils and duct-taped infrastructure.
Note: For another excellent article on this most amazing man and the urban farming movement,
click here.

Kelly's Book of Secrets

2009-07-05, Daily Express (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/111971/Kelly-s-book-of-secrets
Weapons inspector David Kelly was writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets
before his mysterious death. He was intending to reveal that he warned Prime Minister Tony Blair
there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq weeks before the British and
American invasion. He had several discussions with a publisher in Oxford and was seeking advice
on how far he could go without breaking the law on secrets. Following his death, his computers
were seized and it is still not known if any rough draft was discovered by investigators and, if so,
what happened to the material. Dr Kelly was also intending to lift the lid on a potentially
bigger scandal, his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South
Africa. US television investigators have spent four years preparing a 90-minute
documentary, Anthrax War, suggesting there is a global black market in anthrax and
exposing the mystery suicides of five government germ warfare scientists from around
the world. Director Bob Coen said: The deeper you look into the murky world of governments
and germ warfare, the more worrying it becomes. We have proved there is a black market in
anthrax. David Kelly was of particular interest to us because he was a world expert on anthrax and
he was involved in some degree with assisting the secret germ warfare programme in apartheid
South Africa. Dr Kelly was found dead in woods near his Oxfordshire home on July 17 2003. His
apparent suicide came two days after he was interrogated in the Commons over his behind-thescenes role in exposing the flaws in the sexed-up Number 10 dossier which justified Britain going
to war with Iraq. Conspiracy theorists have claimed he was murdered.
Note: For more on the CBC documentary Anthrax War, click here. And to read about the strange
deaths of 13 renowned microbiologists in the space of less than five months, click here.

Pay-for-Chat Plan Falls Flat at Washington Post

2009-07-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/media/03post.html
For generations, The Washington Post has been a scrupulous watchdog over the capitals cozy
world of power networking. For a short time, it almost became the networks host. The Post
decided Thursday to cancel plans to charge lobbyists and trade groups $25,000 or more to
sponsor private, off-the-record dinner parties at the home of its publisher, Katharine Weymouth,
events that would have brought together lobbyists, business leaders, Post journalists and officials
from the Obama administration and Congress. The revelation of the parties early Thursday
morning by Politico.com appalled members of The Post newsroom and put the paper squarely in
the cross hairs of journalism ethicists. In response, Ms. Weymouth canceled the first dinner,
scheduled for July 21. A flier describing the events promised corporate sponsors conversation
(Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No.) at the Washington home of Ms. Weymouth. Sponsors
were asked to pay $25,000 to attend an event, or underwrite a series of 11 for $250,000. The
July 21 event, focusing on health care reform, guaranteed a collegial evening with
health industry advocates, Post journalists covering the field and administration officials
involved with its policies. The Politico article prompted an immediate newsroom reaction. The
Posts ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, wrote on his blog that this comes pretty close to a public
relations disaster. With the print business in tough straits, many news organizations have turned
to conferences and other events to raise revenue and their profiles. But the planned Post events
seem particularly audacious, not only acting essentially as a paid conduit between lobbyists and
government officials, but also providing sponsors the opportunity to make their case to Post
journalists.
Note: This article shows the blatant manipulations going on behind the scenes in our major media.
To learn just how compromised the media have been for a long time, click here to read about
former Post owner Katharine Graham's connections with the CIA. And to understand how major
news is suppressed, click here.

Senate Bill Would Fine People More Than $1,000 for Refusing Health
Care Coverage
2009-07-02, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/02/senate-democrats-trim-cost-health-...
Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than
$1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to
fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated
the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be
modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a
year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay
higher penalties than individuals. In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers,
people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now.

The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those
who still refuse to sign up would face penalties. Called "shared responsibility payments," the
fines would be set at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the
legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not
wait until they get sick. The legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines. The
fines would be collected through the income tax system. Obama wants a bill this year that would
provide coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans who lack it and reduce medical costs. In a
statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it "reflects many of the principles I've laid out."
The government's costs would be covered by a combination of higher taxes and cuts in projected
Medicare and Medicaid spending.
Note: How can Congress even consider forcing people to buy insurance with threat of a major
fine? What happened to the country of freedom and liberty? And is the people or the HMOs who
benefit here?

Pentagon Exam Calls Protests 'Low-Level Terrorism,' Angering Activists

2009-06-17, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526972,00.html
A written exam administered by the Pentagon labels "protests" as a form of low-level terrorism
enraging civil liberties advocates and activist groups who say it shows blatant disregard of the First
Amendment. The written exam, given as part of Department of Defense employees routine
training, includes a multiple-choice question that asks: Which of the following is an example
of low-level terrorism? Attacking the Pentagon IEDs Hate crimes against racial
groups Protests. The correct answer, according to the exam, is "Protests." Its part of a
pattern of equating dissent and protest with terrorism," said Ann Brick, an attorney with the
American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained a copy of the question after a Defense Department
employee who was taking the test printed the screen on his or her computer terminal. "It
undermines the core constitutional values the Department of Defense is supposed to be
defending, Brick said, referring to the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble. She said the
ACLU has asked the Defense Department to remove the question and send out a correction to all
employees who took the exam. There were other employees who were unhappy with it and
disturbed by it, Brick said. Anti-war protesters, who say they have been targets of federal
surveillance for years, were livid when they were told about the exam question. Thats illegal,
said George Martin, national co-chairman of United for Peace and Justice. Protest in terms of
legal dissent has to be recognized, especially by the authorities. Its not terrorism or a lack of
patriotism. We care enough to be active in our government.
Note: For lots more on the continually-escalating government threats to civil liberties, click here.

Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?

2009-05-21, NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710
For the past decade, [Sheri] Kaplan has been coming every few months to see Gail Ironson, a
professor at the University of Miami. Ironson, an AIDS researcher, runs down a battery of
questions. Kaplan has never taken medicine, yet the disease has not progressed to AIDS (and she
is not part of the population that has a mutation in the CCR5 gene that prevents progression of HIV
to AIDS). In the mid-1990s, when having HIV was akin to a death sentence, Ironson noticed that a
number of patients like Kaplan never got sick. Ironson wanted to know why. And she found
something surprising. "If you ask people what's kept you going so long, what keeps you healthy,
often people would say spirituality," she says. "It was something that just kept coming up in the
interviews, and that's why I decided to look at it." Ironson began to zero in on a patient's
relationship with God in an attempt to predict how fast the disease would progress. Ironson says
over time, those who turned to God after their diagnosis had a much lower viral load and
maintained those powerful immune cells at a much higher rate than those who turned away
from God. "In fact, people who felt abandoned by God and who decreased in spirituality
lost their CD4 cells 4.5 times faster than people who increased in spirituality," Ironson says.
"That was actually our most powerful psychological predictor to date."

How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

2009-05-21, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-how-mi5-blackmails-b...
Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and
harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants. The men claim they were given a choice
of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas.
They have made official complaints to the police, to the body which oversees the work of the
Security Service and to their local MP Frank Dobson. Now they have decided to speak publicly
about their experiences in the hope that publicity will stop similar tactics being used in the future.
Three of the men say they were detained at foreign airports on the orders of MI5 after leaving
Britain on family holidays last year. After they were sent back to the UK, they were interviewed by
MI5 officers who, they say, falsely accused them of links to Islamic extremism. On each occasion
the agents said they would lift the travel restrictions and threat of detention in return for their cooperation. When the men refused some of them received what they say were intimidating phone
calls and threats. Two other Muslim men say they were approached by MI5 at their homes
after police officers posed as postmen. Each of the five men, aged between 19 and 25, was
warned that if he did not help the security services he would be considered a terror
suspect. A sixth man was held by MI5 for three hours after returning from his honeymoon in Saudi
Arabia. He too claims he was threatened with travel restrictions if he tried to leave the UK."
Note: For lots more on the "war on terror" from reliable sources, click here.

A Battle to Preserve a Visionarys Bold Failure

2009-05-05, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tesla.html
In 1901, Nikola Tesla began work on a global system of giant towers meant to relay through the air
not only news, stock reports and even pictures but also, unbeknown to investors such as J.
Pierpont Morgan, free electricity for one and all. It was the inventors biggest project, and his most
audacious. The first tower rose on rural Long Island and, by 1903, stood more than 18 stories tall.
Tesla, who lived from 1856 to 1943, made bitter enemies who dismissed some of his claims as
exaggerated, helping tarnish his reputation in his lifetime. Today, his work tends to be poorly
known among scientists, though some call him an intuitive genius far ahead of his peers. He was
widely celebrated for his inventions of motors and power distribution systems that used the form of
electricity known as alternating current, which beat out direct current (and Thomas Edison) to
electrify the world. Around 1900 ... inventors around the world were racing for what was
considered the next big thing wireless communication. [Tesla's] own plan was to turn
alternating current into electromagnetic waves that flashed from antennas to distant
receivers. The scale of his vision was gargantuan. Investors, given Teslas electrical
achievements, paid heed. The biggest was J. Pierpont Morgan, a top financier. He sank
$150,000 (today more than $3 million) into Teslas global wireless venture. But Morgan was
[eventually] disenchanted. Margaret Cheney, a Tesla biographer, observed that Tesla had seriously
misjudged his wealthy patron, a man deeply committed to the profit motive. The prospect of
beaming electricity to penniless Zulus or Pygmies, she wrote, must have left the financier less
than enthusiastic.
Note: This article underplays a number of things about Tesla. Morgan stopped funding him
primarily because he eventually realized that there would be no way to charge for the electricity
Tesla was generating. If successful, electricity would be available virtually for free to those supplied
by his tower. Tesla was then shunned by the power elite and his rightful claim as inventor of the
radio (not Marconi) was erased in the history books. As stated on the PBS website, "It wasn't until
1943 a few months after Tesla's death that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tesla's radio
patent number 645,576." For more on this amazing man, click here and here.

666: Goldman's latest bonus bears the mark of the beast

2009-05-03, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/666-goldmans...
Something strange is afoot when Popbitch provider of a weekly email beloved of students,
stuffed full of celebrity tittle-tattle and links to the silliest miscellany of the web breaks off from
such glorious trivia to encourage readers to support GoldmanSachs666.com, a deadly serious
website measuring the political tentacles of the mighty investment bank. The credit-market
catastrophe that has plunged the world into recession is everywhere stirring new ways of thinking
about how banking relates to the wider world, but nowhere more so than among a generation
coming into political consciousness in these searing times. Something is brewing, some argue,
that could make the "regulatory-financial complex" something to rail against in the same way that

the military-industrial complex was in the Cold War. This should worry Goldman Sachs. More so
than any other firm, it exists at the intersection of politics and high finance. "It was listening to the
news coming out of AIG that got me fired up," says Mike Morgan, founder of
GoldmanSachs666.com. "While politicians were screaming about $165m paid out to AIG
executives in bonuses, $180bn was walking out the door." The Federal Reserve and the thentreasury secretary, Hank Paulson, decided to funnel public funds to AIG, and its counterparties
were paid in full. You don't have to scratch far into the internet to find conspiracy theories:
Mr Paulson was chief executive of Goldman before going into government; he appointed
Edward Liddy, formerly of Goldman, to run AIG; Goldman was AIG's biggest counterparty,
receiving $12.9bn from AIG after the bailout.
Note: For lots more on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Modern Pied Piper Cheats Death

2009-05-01, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/modern-pied-piper-cheats-death/
Every time 70-year-old Andy Mackie draws a breath, it's music to his ears - whether there's a
harmonica there or not. Mackie's just glad to be alive. Mackie jokes, "I guess they don't need a
harmonica player in heaven yet." Mackie, a Scottish-born retired horse trainer, lives in a camper in
northwest Washington state - he lives there, even though technically -- medically -- he should have
died long ago. After his ninth heart surgery, Mackie's doctors had him on 15 different medicines.
But the side effects made life miserable. So one day he quit taking all 15 and decided to spend his
final days doing something he always wanted to do. He used the money he would have spent on
the prescriptions to give away 300 harmonicas, with lessons included. "I really thought it was the
last thing I could ever do," he says. And when he didn't die the next month, he bought a few
hundred more. Harmonicas in hand, he explains, "I just started going from school to school." It's
now 11 years and 13,000 harmonicas later. Today there's nary a kid in the county who hasn't
gotten a free harmonica from Mackie, or played one of his strum sticks. To keep the kids
interested in music as they get older, Mackie now spends the bulk of his Social Security
check making them beginner string instruments. He also buys store-made instruments for kids
that show a special interest. He provides free lessons to everyone by getting the older kids to
teach the younger kids. Mackie says, "I tell them music is a gift, you give it away - you give it away
and you get to keep it forever." The end result is something truly unique to his corner of
Washington. It seems everywhere you look, everyplace you go, every kid you meet has the same
genuine passion for fiddle music.
Note: Don't miss the inspiring video of this story at the link above. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

How to Deal with Swine Flu: Heeding the Mistakes of 1976

2009-04-27, Time Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1894129,00.html
In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a
devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost
of $135 million (some $500 million in today's money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people
developing Guillain-Barr syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the
vaccine. By April, more than 30 people had died of the condition. Facing protests, federal officials
abruptly canceled the program on Dec. 16. The epidemic failed to materialize. Medical historians
and epidemiologists say ... the decisions made in the wake of the '76 outbreak and the public's
response to them provide a cautionary tale for public health officials, who may soon have to
consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease. "I think 1976 provides an
example of how not to handle a flu outbreak," says Hugh Pennington, an emeritus professor of
virology at Britain's University of Aberdeen. Despite modern advances in microbiology, today's
health officials still make decisions in a "cloud of uncertainty," Pennington says. "At the
moment, our understanding of the current outbreak is similarly limited. For example, we
don't yet understand why people are dying in Mexico but not elsewhere." Howard Markel,
director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and a historical
consultant to the CDC on flu pandemics, says the most vexing decision facing health officials is
when to institute mass vaccination programs.
Note: To watch two short commercials made in 1976 showing clear scare tactics, click here. Only
one person died from the actual flu in this 1976 "epidemic," yet more than 30 died of the flu
vaccine. To explore the serious risks of vaccines reported in the media, click here. For lots more on
bird and swine flu scares, click here.

Control of Cybersecurity Becomes Divisive Issue

2009-04-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17cyber.html?partner=rss&emc=rs...
The National Security Agency has been campaigning to lead the governments rapidly growing
cybersecurity programs, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns among some officials who fear
that the move could give the spy agency too much control over government computer networks.
The security agencys interest in taking over the dominant role has met resistance, including the
resignation of the Homeland Security Department official who was until last month in charge of
coordinating cybersecurity efforts throughout the government. Rod Beckstrom, who resigned in
March as director of the National Cyber Security Center at the Homeland Security Department,
said ... that he feared that the N.S.A.s push for a greater role in guarding the governments
computer systems could give it the power to collect and analyze every e-mail message, text
message and Google search conducted by every employee in every federal agency. Mr.
Beckstrom said he believed that an intelligence service that is supposed to focus on foreign targets
should not be given so much control over the flow of information within the United States
government. To detect threats against the computer infrastructure including hackers, viruses

and intrusions by foreign agents and terrorists cybersecurity guardians must have virtually
unlimited access to networks. Mr. Beckstrom argues that those responsibilities should be divided
among agencies. I have very serious concerns about the concentration of too much power in one
agency, he said. Power over information is so important, and it is so difficult to monitor, that we
need to have checks and balances.
Note: For further disturbing reports from reliable sources on government efforts to establish total
surveillance systems, click here.

Why Creditors Should Suffer, Too

2009-04-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/business/economy/05view.html?partner=rss&em...
The Obama administrations proposals to reform financial regulation sound ambitious enough as
they aim to bring companies like A.I.G. under a broader umbrella of government rule-making and
scrutiny. But there is a big hole in these proposals, as there has already been in the governments
approach to bailing out failing financial companies. Even as they focus on firms deemed too big to
fail, the new proposals immunize the creditors and counterparties of such firms by
protecting them from their own lending and trading mistakes. This pattern has been evident
for months, with the government aiding creditors and counterparties every step of the way.
Yet this has not been explained openly to the American public. In truth, its not the shareholders of
the American International Group who benefited most from its bailout; they were mostly wiped out.
The great beneficiaries have been the creditors and counterparties at the other end of A.I.G.s
derivatives deals firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Socit Gnrale,
Barclays and UBS. These firms engaged in deals that A.I.G. could not make good on. The bailout,
and the regulatory regime outlined by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, would give firms
like these every incentive to make similar deals down the road. In both the bailouts and in the new
proposals, the government is effectively neutralizing creditors as a force for financial safety. This
suggests a scary possibility that the next regulatory regime could end up even worse than the
last.
Note: For a powerfully revealing archive of reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of
the financial bailout, click here.

Big Bonuses at Fannie and Freddie Draw Fire

2009-04-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/business/04bonus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&p...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two troubled companies at the heart of the nations mortgage
market, are set to pay their employees retention bonuses totaling $210 million, despite calls from
lawmakers to cancel the payments. The bonuses, which were made public on Friday, were
defended by the companies federal regulator, James B. Lockhart, who said he intended to let

them proceed. In a letter sent last week to Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, Mr.
Lockhart disclosed that 7,600 Fannie and Freddie workers were scheduled to receive payouts
aimed at retaining those employees most critical to keep and difficult to replace. Under the plan,
213 employees will receive retention bonuses worth more than $100,000 this year, and one
Freddie Mac executive will receive $1.3 million. Those figures drew sharp rebukes from Mr.
Grassley and other lawmakers, who noted that Fannie and Freddie had received pledges of $400
billion from taxpayers to offset huge losses since they were seized by the government in
September. Similar bonuses paid by the American International Group, which was also bailed out
by taxpayers, incited fiery attacks from the White House and legislators when they were revealed
last month. Its hard to see any common sense in management decisions that award
hundreds of millions in bonuses when their organizations lost more than $100 billion in a
year, Mr. Grassley said in a statement. Its an insult that the bonuses were made with an
infusion of cash from taxpayers.
Note: For many revealing reports on the realities behind the Wall Street bailouts, click here.

Obamas Ersatz Capitalism

2009-04-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01stiglitz.html?partner=rss&emc=rss...
The Obama administrations $500 billion or more proposal to deal with Americas ailing banks has
been described by some in the financial markets as a win-win-win proposal. Actually, it is a winwin-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win and taxpayers lose. Treasury hopes to get us
out of the mess by replicating the flawed system that the private sector used to bring the world
crashing down, with a proposal marked by overleveraging in the public sector, excessive
complexity, poor incentives and a lack of transparency. In theory, the administrations plan is based
on letting the market determine the prices of the banks toxic assets including outstanding
house loans and securities based on those loans. The reality, though, is that the market will not be
pricing the toxic assets themselves, but options on those assets. The two have little to do with
each other. The government plan in effect involves insuring almost all losses. Since the private
investors are spared most losses, then they primarily value their potential gains. This is exactly
the same as being given an option. Under the plan by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
the government would provide about 92 percent of the money to buy the asset but would
stand to receive only 50 percent of any gains, and would absorb almost all of the losses.
Some partnership! What the Obama administration is doing is far worse than nationalization: it is
ersatz capitalism, the privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses. It is a partnership in which
one partner robs the other.
Note: The author of this analysis, Joseph E. Stiglitz, is a professor of economics at Columbia
University. He was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1997, and was
awarded the Nobel prize in economics in 2001. For many revealing reports on the realities behind
the Wall Street bailouts, click here.

Torture tests say battery power's hardly nerdy

2009-03-30, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/03/30/torture_tests_s...
Bill Dub gets giddy when he talks about batteries and speed. After all, his 500-horsepower
Killacycle electric motorcycle goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under a second. He
claims it is the fastest electric vehicle on the planet. In October, the Killacycle traveled a
quarter mile in 7.89 seconds, topping out at 174 mph, a record. Dub, 56, an engineer and
Rhode Island native whose day job is designing air chemistry instruments at the University of
Colorado, is the bike's designer, owner, and builder. He is out to prove that electric vehicles do not
have to be "nerd-mobiles." At the heart of electric vehicles like the Killacycle are the batteries.
A123 Systems Inc., based in Watertown, sponsors the Killacycle and provides its battery. Dub
read about A123's lithium-ion battery technology in 2003 and decided to approach company
officials. He thought drag racing was a great way to torture-test the company's innovative battery
cells. "I told them I'll take the battery cells out to the drag strip and set a world record," he said.
Electric-vehicle racing hit the start line about 15 years ago, when pioneers like Dub began
building the machines. "Bill is quite amazing and does pretty good promoting electric-vehicle
racing in general," said Mike Willmon, president of the National Electric Drag Racing Association,
based in Santa Rosa, Calif. The mission of the group, whose membership stands at 100, is to
increase public awareness about the performance side of electric vehicles.
Note: Why such a weak title for this amazing bike? Why not a title like "Electric motorcycle goes 0
to 60 in one second"? Could it be the media doesn't want us to know things like this? For lots more
suggesting this may be the case, click here. And for more on this amazing motorcyle and an
unassuming electric car that does the quarter mile in under 12 seconds, click here.

Powerful proponent of psychiatric drugs for children primed for a fall

2009-03-27, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/27/EDAF16N963.DTL
Dr. Joseph Biederman, chief of the Massachusetts General Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic,
is already under investigation by Harvard University and the National Institutes of Health for failing
to report income received from drug companies. Biederman has strongly pushed treating children's
mental illnesses with powerful antipsychotic medicines. Diagnoses like ADHD and pediatric bipolar
disorder, along with psychiatric drug use in American children, have soared in the last 15 years. No
other country medicates children as frequently. Now, in newly released court documents,
Biederman appears to be promising drugmaker Johnson & Johnson in advance that his studies on
the antipsychotic drug risperidone will prove the drug to be effective when used on preschool age
children. Biederman's status at Harvard and his research have arguably made him, until recently,
America's most powerful doctor in child psychiatry. Reports from court actions, along with an
ongoing investigation of conflict of interest charges led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, threaten
to topple Biederman from his heretofore untouchable Olympian heights. Biederman's conflict of
interest problems have exposed his strong pro-drug views to the public for scrutiny. Until now,

fear of the Biederman team has operated quietly on the small club of child psychiatric
researchers. Only when 2-year-olds started taking three psychiatric drugs simultaneously
under a Biederman protocol for bipolar disorder did the emperor's clothes become so
invisible as to begin the naming of names. Biederman's personal travails tragically inform us
about a crisis in academic medicine that must be resolved.
Note: For a powerful overview of corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, click here.

Canada blocks outspoken British MP

2009-03-20, Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/605682
Canadian officials have denied outspoken anti-war British MP George Galloway entry into Canada
on grounds he poses a threat to national security. Alykhan Velshi, a spokesperson for Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney, said today Galloway has openly supported Hamas, classified as a terrorist
group in Canada, as well as other terrorists. Galloway, who was expected to begin a Canadian
speaking tour in Toronto on March 30, called the ban outrageous. Galloway said his supposed
support for Hamas amounted to leading an aid convoy into Gaza to break the "illegal siege"
following the month-long Israeli incursion in January. "I led a convoy of 110 British vehicles,
more than 300 British citizens, to break the illegal siege of Gaza just a few days ago. Most
people in the world think that feeding people under siege is something to be commended
rather than something to get you banned," he told the Star in a telephone interview from his
London office. He noted that when news he was being denied entry to visit Canada first appeared
in the British press, it was supposedly because he had expressed opposition to the NATO-led
Afghan war. Some critics have called the government's decision to bar Galloway an attack on free
speech. Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 for urging British soldiers not to fight
in Iraq. He formed his own party, Respect, and won re-election to the Commons in 2005.

A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout

2009-03-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pag...
The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer
bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in
bonuses by Sunday to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to
the brink of collapse last year. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the firm they were
unacceptable and demanded they be renegotiated, a senior administration official said. But the
bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them.
The payments to A.I.G.s financial products unit are in addition to $121 million in previously
scheduled bonuses for the companys senior executives and 6,400 employees across the
sprawling corporation. The payment of so much money at a company at the heart of the financial
collapse that sent the broader economy into a tailspin almost certainly will fuel a popular backlash

against the governments efforts to prop up Wall Street. A.I.G., nearly 80 percent of which is now
owned by the government, defended its bonuses, arguing that they were promised last year before
the crisis and cannot be legally canceled. Of all the financial institutions that have been propped up
by taxpayer dollars, none has received more money than A.I.G.. The bonuses will be paid to
executives at A.I.G.s financial products division, the unit that wrote trillions of dollars worth of
credit-default swaps that protected investors from defaults on bonds backed in many cases by
subprime mortgages. Seven executives at the financial products unit were entitled to receive more
than $3 million in bonuses.
Note: For many revelations of the amazing realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.

The 9/11 Commission and Torture

2009-03-14, Newsweek Magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/189251
Powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill are clamoring for creation of a bipartisan "9/11 style"
commission to investigate the legality of the Bush administration's antiterrorism tacticsespecially
its use of harsh interrogation techniques. The case for a "truth" commission was bolstered by
the disclosure this month that the CIA had destroyed 92 videotapes of the interrogations
and confinement of Al Qaeda suspects. A dozen showed the use of ... torture. Lawmakers
say the obvious model for such an inquiry would be the 9/11 Commission. [But] the commission
appears to have ignored obvious clues throughout 2003 and 2004 that its account of the 9/11 plot
and Al Qaeda's history relied heavily on information obtained from detainees who had been
subjected to torture, or something not far from it. The [Commission] raised no public protest over
the CIA's interrogation methods. In fact, the Commission demanded that the CIA carry out new
rounds of interrogations in 2004 to get answers to its questions. That has troubling implications for
the credibility of the commission's final report. In intelligence circles, testimony obtained through
torture is typically discredited; research shows that people will say anything under threat of intense
physical pain. Former senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a Democrat on the commission, told me
last year he had long feared that the investigation depended too heavily on the accounts of Al
Qaeda detainees who were physically coerced into talking. Kerrey said it might take "a
permanent 9/11 commission" to end the remaining mysteries of September 11.
Note: For key statements by hundreds of respected scholars and professionals questioning the
accuracy of the 9/11 Commission's report, click here.

Some Banks, Feeling Chained, Want to Return Bailout Money

2009-03-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/economy/11bailout.html?partner=rss...

Financial institutions that are getting government bailout funds have been told to put off evictions
and modify mortgages for distressed homeowners. They must let shareholders vote on executive
pay packages. They must slash dividends, cancel employee training and morale-building
exercises, and withdraw job offers to foreign citizens. As public outrage swells over the rapidly
growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the Obama administration and lawmakers are
attaching more and more strings to rescue funds. The conditions are necessary to prevent Wall
Street executives from paying lavish bonuses and buying corporate jets, some experts say.
Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the
bailout money. The list includes small banks ... as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and
Wells Fargo. They say they plan to return the money as quickly as possible or as soon as
regulators set up a process to accept the refunds. A senior Treasury official involved in the bailout
effort said the administration was carefully trying not to do anything that could harm the banks and
was giving financial incentives to modify mortgages. But by keeping weak banks operating, the
markets continue to sink and taxpayer costs are mounting, outside experts said. The current
policy is likely to result in weaker banks, Mr. Seidman said. And keeping insolvent banks in
operation does not benefit the system.
Note: Could it be that that the main reason top bank executives are now talking about giving
money back is that don't want to give up their lavish bonuses and corporate jets? What about all
the talk about how the whole world would go to pot if they didn't get this bailout money? Somehow
this is not surprising.

Wars, Endless Wars

2009-03-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/opinion/03herbert.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&...
The U.S. economy is in free fall, the banking system is in a state of complete collapse and
Americans all across the country are downsizing their standards of living. The nation as weve
known it is fading before our very eyes, but were still pouring billions of dollars into wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq with missions we are still unable to define. Even as the U.S. begins plans to
reduce troop commitments in Iraq, it is sending thousands of additional troops into Afghanistan.
The strategic purpose of this escalation, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged, is not
at all clear. We invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago. We dont even have an
escalation strategy, much less an exit strategy. An honest assessment of the situation ...
would lead inexorably to such terms as fiasco and quagmire. Instead of cutting our losses,
we appear to be doubling down. As for Iraq, President Obama announced last week that
substantial troop withdrawals will take place over the next year and a half and that U.S. combat
operations would cease by the end of August 2010. But, he said, a large contingent of American
troops, perhaps as many as 50,000, would still remain in Iraq for a period of transition. Thats a
large number of troops, and the cost of keeping them there will be huge. I can easily imagine a
scenario in which Afghanistan and Iraq both heat up and the U.S., caught in an extended
economic disaster at home, undermines its fragile recovery efforts in the same way that societies
have undermined themselves since the dawn of time with endless warfare.

Note: The strategic purpose of keeping the wars going is well known by the bankers and power
elite. A top U.S. general revealed it all in a powerful book, of which we have a two-page summary
available here. For revealing reports from reliable sources on the realities of the Iraq and Afghan
wars, click here.

Placebo Effect: A Cure in the Mind

2009-02-25, Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=placebo-effect-a-cure-in-the...
Mr. Wright was dying from cancer of the lymph nodes ... and his doctors had exhausted all
available treatments. Nevertheless, Mr. Wright was confident that a new anticancer drug called
Krebiozen would cure him. [He] was bedridden and fighting for each breath when he received his
first injection. But three days later [his] tumors had shrunk by half, and after 10 more days of
treatment he was discharged from the hospital. Over the next two months, however, Mr. Wright
became troubled by press reports questioning the efficacy of Krebiozen and suffered a relapse.
His doctors decided to lie to him: an improved, doubly effective version of the drug was
due to arrive the next day, they told him. Mr. Wright was ecstatic. The doctors then gave him
an injection that contained not one molecule of the drugand he improved even more than
he had the last time. Soon he walked out of the hospital symptom-free. He remained healthy
until two months later, when, after reading reports that exposed Krebiozen as worthless, he died
within days. As Mr. Wrights experience illustrates, a patients expectations and beliefs can greatly
affect the course of an illness. When psychological factors tied to an inactive substance such as
Krebiozen lead to recovery, doctors call the improvement a placebo effect. In recent decades
reports have confirmed the efficacy of [these] treatments in nearly all areas of medicine. Placebos
can help not only to alleviate illnesses with an obvious psychological component, such as pain,
depression and anxiety, but also to lessen the symptoms of Parkinsons disease and inflammatory
disorders. Occasionally, as in Mr. Wrights case, placebos have shrunk tumors.
Note: To view this article in full, click here. With such dramatic results, why isn't more money being
poured into research on the power of the mind and our beliefs to affect our health?

Microlending: Do Good, Make Money?

2009-02-17, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/microlending-do-good-make-money/
I've long been a fan of microfinance or microlending where a small loan can make a big difference.
To date, I've made several small investments via both Microplace.com and Kiva.org. And, in
addition to doing good, I'm doing well. The money is loaned to poor people--mostly women--in
various parts of the world. Microlending, like other uninsured investments, is subject to all
sorts of risks. But, based on past performance, the odds of seeing your money again are
pretty high. Historically, 97 percent of low-income borrowers have paid back their
microfinance loans. Kiva.org is a not-for-profit organization. From a user perspective, one of the

big differences between the two organizations is that Kiva doesn't pay interest. Also, Kiva is a bit
more "peer to peer" in that its Web site shows you information about the specific entrepreneur who
will be receiving your loan. One feature I like about Kiva is that you can purchase gift certificates
for as little as $25. That's what I'm now doing for the children in my life. By giving them a Kiva gift
certificate they and their parents get to chose who to loan it to and, eventually, the child gets the
$25 back. It's a good long-term investment in social consciousness. And, yes, I've put my money
where my words are. After a couple of years investing in both Kiva and Microplace, I have nothing
but happy (albeit small) returns.
Note: For lots more on microlending, click here and here. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

A 'fraud' bigger than Madoff

2009-02-16, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-fraud-bigger-than-madoff-1...
In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to
investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn ... in a US -directed
effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be
clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it
may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme.
"I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and
not by people from the slums of Baghdad," said one US businessman active in Iraq since
2003. Iraqi leaders are convinced that the theft or waste of huge sums of US and Iraqi government
money could have happened only if senior US officials were themselves involved in the corruption.
American federal investigators are now starting an inquiry into the actions of senior US officers
involved in the programme to rebuild Iraq. In the expanded inquiry by federal agencies, the
evidence of a ... US businessman called Dale C Stoffel who was murdered after leaving the US
base at Taiji north of Baghdad in 2004 is being re-examined. Before he was killed, Mr Stoffel, an
arms dealer and contractor, was granted limited immunity from prosecution after he had provided
information that a network of bribery linking companies and US officials awarding contracts
existed within the US-run Green Zone in Baghdad. He said bribes of tens of thousands of dollars
were regularly delivered in pizza boxes sent to US contracting officers.
Note: To read a former Marine Corps general's exposure of the high-level criminality and
profiteering that is the real purpose behind war, click here. For many powerful revelations from
reliable sources of government corruption, click here.

Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq?

2009-02-11, CBS News 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

[Former Treasury Secretary Paul] O'Neill - who is known for speaking his mind - talks for the first
time about his two years inside the Bush administration. His story is the centerpiece of a new book
being published this week about the way the Bush White House is run. Entitled The Price of
Loyalty, the book by [Ron Suskind,] former Wall Street Journal reporter, draws on interviews with
high-level officials who gave the author their personal accounts of meetings with the president,
their notes and documents. But the main source of the book was Paul O'Neill. What happened at
President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling
revelations. "From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad
person and that he needed to go," says O'Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic
"A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. "From the very first
instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime," says
Suskind. "Day one, these things were laid and sealed." As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a
permanent member of the National Security Council. He says in the book he was surprised at the
meeting that questions such as "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked. "It was all
about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do
this,'" says O'Neill.
Note: Most wars in the 20th Century were started by false-flag operations; could 9/11 have been
yet another one, on a scale large enough to launch a "global" and "endless" war? For an overview,
click here.

Cancer Miracles
2009-02-11, Forbes magazine
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0302/074_cancer_miracles.html
Spontaneous tumor regressions are among the rarest and most mysterious events in medicine,
with only several hundred cases in the literature that can be considered well documented.
Regressions have most often been reported in melanoma and in kidney cancer. But the
phenomenon may, in fact, be an everyday one, taking place beyond doctors' eyes. A recent study
suggests that as many as 1 in 3 breast tumors may vanish on their own before being detected by a
doctor. Why do some patients get lucky? Scientists are finding tantalizing evidence that the
immune system, the body's defense against disease-causing microbes, kicks in to play a critical
role in combating cancer. The evidence includes the fact that some unexplained remissions have
occurred after infections, which may propel the immune system into high gear--possibly attacking
the cancer tumor as well as the infection. The role of the immune system in controlling cancer has
been hotly debated for decades--and indeed many scientists remain unconvinced. But Jedd D.
Wolchok, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, thinks there is a
connection. A spontaneous remission, he says, is "either divine intervention or the immune
system." While few researchers directly study such cases--they are far too rare--they
provide hints of what the immune system might be able to do if we could harness it.

Note: The number of these cancer miracles are likely far more than suggested in this article. The
problem is that most doctors ignore or consider them insignificant. For a most fascinating example
of this, click here. For many exciting reports from major media sources describing potentially
promising new cancer treatments, click here.

New Bank Bailout Could Cost $2 Trillion

2009-01-29, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319689681827391.html
Government officials seeking to revamp the U.S. financial bailout have discussed spending
another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to help restore banks to health, according to people familiar with the
matter. President Barack Obama's new administration is wrestling with how to stem the continuing
loss of confidence in the financial system, as it divides up the remaining $350 billion from the $700
billion Troubled Asset Relief Program launched last fall. The potential size of rescue efforts being
discussed suggests the administration may need to ask Congress for more funds. The
administration is expected to take a series of steps, including relieving banks of bad loans and
distressed securities. The so-called "bad bank" that would buy these assets could be seeded
with $100 billion to $200 billion from the TARP funds, with the rest of the money -- as much
as $1 trillion to $2 trillion -- raised by selling government-backed debt or borrowing from
the Federal Reserve. The administration is also seeking more effective ways to pump money into
banks, and is considering buying common shares in the banks. Government purchases so far
have been of preferred shares, in an effort to both protect taxpayers and avoid diluting existing
shareholders' stakes. Given the weakened state of the banking industry, with bank share prices
low and their capital needs high, economists say the government probably can't avoid owning at
least some banks for a temporary period.
Note: Note that the U.S. government has to borrow from the Federal Reserve, which most people
don't realize is privately owned by the richest banks. For more on this, click here. The $2 trillion of
taxpayer money for Wall Street's toxic assets revealed here is in addition to over $7 trillion already
committed according to CNN and others. Wouldn't government debt of this magnitude threaten a
broad range of government services and risk seriously weakening the dollar? For many other
revealing reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

You are being lied to about pirates

2009-01-05, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you...
Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates?
The British Royal Navy backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to
China is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder
pantomime villains. But behind ... this tale there is an untold scandal. In 1991, the government of
Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since and the

ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food
supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas. Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government
was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast
barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange
rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the
dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation
sickness, and more than 300 died. At the same time, other European ships have been looting
Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by
overexploitation and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp,
and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving.
This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to
try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them.

Coming to the Battlefield: Stone-Cold Robot Killers

2009-01-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR20090102021...
Armed robotic aircraft soar in the skies above Pakistan, hurling death down. Soon -- years, not
decades, from now -- American armed robots will patrol on the ground as well, fundamentally
transforming the face of battle. The detachment with which the United States can inflict death upon
our enemies is surely one reason why U.S. military involvement around the world has expanded
over the past two decades. The Future Combat Systems program is aimed at developing an array
of new vehicles and systems -- including armed robots. These killers will be utterly without
remorse or pity when confronting the enemy. Armed robots will all be snipers. Stone-cold
killers, every one of them. They will aim with inhuman precision and fire without human
hesitation. They will not need bonuses to enlist or housing for their families or expensive training
ranges or retirement payments. Commanders will order them onto battlefields that would mean
certain death for humans, knowing that the worst to come is a trip to the shop for repairs.
Note: For lots more on developing war technologies from reliable sources, click here.

Execs of bailed-out banks got $1.6B last year, AP finds

2008-12-21, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-12-21-bank-execs-bail...
Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in
salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals. The
rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent
them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to
lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages. Benefits
included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home
security, country club memberships and professional money management. The total amount

given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that
have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines. The AP compiled total
compensation based on annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The 116 banks have so far received $188 billion in taxpayer help. Among the
findings: Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home
nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company's top five executives received a total of
$242 million. The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it
went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28. John A. Thain, chief
executive officer of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last
year. Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28.
Note: For many reports on the realities of the Wall Street bailout from reliable sources, click here.

The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It's time to stop the mission

creep.
2008-12-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/19/AR20081219027...
We no longer have a civilian-led government. The most unnerving legacy of the Bush
administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of
aspects of civilian government. Our Constitution is at risk. President-elect Barack Obama's
selections of James L. Jones, a retired four-star Marine general, to be his national security adviser
and, it appears, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair to be his director of national intelligence ...
could complete the silent military coup d'etat that has been steadily gaining ground below the radar
screen of most Americans and the media. While serving the State Department in several senior
capacities over the past four years, I witnessed firsthand the quiet, de facto military takeover of
much of the U.S. government. The first assault on civilian government occurred in faraway places - Iraq and Afghanistan. As military officers sought to take over the role played by civilian
development experts abroad, Pentagon bureaucrats quietly populated the National Security
Council and the State Department with their own personnel ... to ensure that the Defense
Department could keep an eye on its rival agencies. The encroachment within America's borders
continued with the military's increased involvement in domestic surveillance and its attempts to
usurp the role of the federal courts in reviewing detainee cases. The Pentagon also resisted
ceding any authority over its extensive intelligence operations to the ... director of national
intelligence. Now the Pentagon has drawn up plans to deploy 20,000 U.S. soldiers inside our
borders by 2011.
Note: The author of this piece, Thomas A. Schweich, served the Bush administration as
ambassador for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan and deputy assistant secretary of state for
international law enforcement affairs.

Illinois governor seems to be growing stronger

2008-12-21, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/21/BAG314QRPO.DTL
I got a call from Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich the other day. The first thing I said to him was, "You
know, this call is probably being taped." Blagojevich said he had read my column in The Chronicle
last week, in which I raised questions about the "pay to play" charges being leveled against him in
connection with his pending appointment of someone to fill Barack Obama's now-empty U.S.
Senate seat. I think he liked how I raised questions about the timing and manner of U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald's decision to charge him over what appears to be little more than loose
conversations he had with his staff. I wouldn't bet on him stepping aside anytime soon. If anything,
his hand is getting stronger by the day. I can't go into details, but my impression is that the whole
mess started because the governor had been considering appointing a political rival,
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to the Senate so she wouldn't be able to run against
him when he went up for re-election in 2010. Apparently, Obama's people weren't happy
about the idea of Madigan coming to Washington, and there were some pretty heated
conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand
will burn your ears off. It was pretty clear that Blagojevich is going to hang tough, especially after
the Illinois Supreme Court shot down Madigan's request that he be forced from office because he
supposedly can't carry out his duties. It is also pretty clear that despite all the screaming over his
appearing to be "selling" the seat in return for political favors or financial considerations, his fellow
Democrats are not going to strip him of his power to appoint someone to replace Obama.
Note: The author of this article is insider Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco and powerbroking speaker of California's assembly for 15 years. For an alleged transcript of the actual
conversation between Blagojevich and Rahm Emanuel, click here. If this is true, watch for some
big shifts.

People 'still willing to torture'

2008-12-19, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7791278.stm
Decades after a notorious experiment, scientists have found test subjects are still willing to inflict
pain on others - if told to by an authority figure. US researchers repeated the famous "Milgram
test", with volunteers told to deliver electrical shocks to another volunteer - played by an actor.
Even after faked screams of pain, 70% were prepared to increase the voltage, the American
Psychologist study found. Both may help explain why apparently ordinary people can commit
atrocities. Dr Jerry Burger, of Santa Clara University, used a [format similar to Milgram's], although
he did not allow the volunteers to carry on beyond 150 volts after they had shown their willingness
to do so, suggesting that the distress caused to the original volunteers had been too great. Again,
however, the vast majority of the 29 men and 41 women taking part were willing to push the button
knowing it would cause pain to another human. Even when another actor entered the room and
questioned what was happening, most were still prepared to continue. He told Reuters: "What we
found is validation of the same argument - if you put people in certain situations, they will

act in surprising and maybe often even disturbing ways." He said that it was not that there
was "something wrong" with the volunteers, but that when placed under pressure, people
will often do "unsettling" things. Even though it was difficult to translate laboratory work to the
real world, he said, it might partly explain why, in times of conflict, people could take part in
genocide.
Note: For more on the famous Milgram experiment, click here. For powerfully inspiring information
on how we can change this and build a better world, click here.

Charting the psychology of evil, decades after 'shock' experiment

2008-12-19, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/19/milgram.experiment.obedience/index.html
If someone told you to press a button to deliver a 450-volt electrical shock to an innocent person in
the next room, would you do it? Common sense may say no, but decades of research suggests
otherwise. In the early 1960s, [Stanley Milgram,] a young psychologist at Yale began what became
one of the most widely recognized experiments in his field. In the first series, he found that about
two-thirds of subjects were willing to inflict what they believed were increasingly painful shocks on
an innocent person when the experimenter told them to do so, even when the victim screamed and
pleaded. A new study to be published in the January issue of American Psychologist confirmed
these results in an experiment that mimics many of Milgram's original conditions. This and other
studies have corroborated the startling conclusion that the majority of people, when placed in
certain kinds of situations, will follow orders, even if those orders entail harming another person.
"It's situations that make ordinary people into evil monsters, and it's situations that make
ordinary people into heroes," said Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford
University and author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. "Most
heroes are everyday people who do a heroic deed once in their lifetime because they
[happen] to be in a situation of evil or danger," he said.
Note: What's amazing about this is the willingness of many people responding to nothing more
that verbal authority to deliver shocks up to 450 volts to victims who are writhing in pain, screaming
and begging for them to stop. What would you do? For more, click here.

House Arrest for Madoff in $7 Million Apartment

2008-12-17, abcnews.com
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6480363
Bernard Madoff, accused of the largest fraud in U.S. history, will be allowed to remain in his $7
million Park Avenue apartment instead of being sent to jail, under terms of an agreement
announced today by federal prosecutors. Madoff was unable to meet the bond conditions set last
week by a federal magistrate which required him to get four people to sign his personal
recognizance bond. According to the U.S. Attorney's office, only Madoff's wife and brothers were

willing to sign the document. But instead of ordering him held in jail, prosecutors agreed to
home detention with electronic monitoring. Madoff and his luxury apartment on
Manhattan's upper east side will be fitted with an electronic monitoring device by the
court's pre-trial services and Madoff will be under a curfew of between 7 p.m. through 9
a.m. Madoff's wife agreed to post the mansions in her name in Palm Beach, Florida and in
Montauk on New York's Long Island. The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman said
today the agency has found "no evidence of wrongdoing by any SEC personnel" in connection with
Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme and that the SEC intends to get to the bottom of where
it may have gone wrong. "I was very concerned to learn this week that credible allegations about
Mr. Madoff had been made over nearly a decade and yet never referred to the commission for
action," Commissioner Christopher Cox said at a press conference. Yesterday, Cox acknowledged
what amounted to a generational failure on the part of the SEC to discover any hint of Madoff's
scheme, despite allegations dating back to 1999.
Note: Why is the criminal responsible for the largest single banking scandal in history given house
arrest rather than jail before his trial? Isn't it remarkable that the hands-off treatment Madoff
received over the years from the SEC seems to be continuing from the Federal prosecutors? For
more on Wall Street corruption, click here.

Why AIG Gets Billions, GM Gets Scorn

2008-12-12, U.S. News & World Report blog
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/flowchart/2008/12/12/why-aig-gets-billions-gm-get...
AIG, the huge insurance company, has so far gotten $173 billion worth of federal aid, because
traders at one small division made bets on exotic securities that were so calamitous they
threatened to bring down the whole company. So far, the amount of money the feds have pledged
to this one firm equals nearly one-third of the nations defense budget. General Motors,
Americas biggest automaker, has asked for a $10 billion federal loan, equal to oneseventeenth of what AIG has gotten and Congress has said no. There were no rogue
traders at GM, and the companys problems have intensified in plain view, over several months,
instead of coming from out of nowhere in a single, cataclysmic episode. Make sense? Doesnt to
me. So maybe if we look at each company a bit more closely, it will be clearer why the government
favors companies like AIG over ones like GM. Does have AIG have friends in high places? You
could say that. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
both support the AIG bailout, and theyve steered money to the company without Congressional
approval. GMs most important friends in Washington have been the Michigan Congressional
delegation, which obviously doesnt have the clout it used to. Paulson has actually argued against
using part of the huge $700 billion financial bailout fund to help the automakers, because they
cant pass a viability test proving theyll stay in business long enough to pay back the loans. But
AIG hasnt passed a viability test either, and without federal help theres little doubt it would be in
bankruptcy.

Note: At least someone is asking the right questions! For many highly revealing reports from
reliable sources on the realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff arrested over '$50 billion Ponzi
scheme'
2008-12-12, Times of London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5331997.ece
Shock and panic spread through the country clubs of Palm Beach and Long Island after Bernard L
Madoff, a trading powerbroker for over four decades, allegedly confessed to a massive fraud that
will cost his wealthy investors at least $50 billion, perhaps the largest swindle in Wall Street history.
Mr Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock chairman, was apparently turned in by his two sons and
arrested on Thursday morning at his Manhattan apartment by the FBI. The FBI claims that three
senior employees of Mr Madoff's investment firm - once a towering presence on Wall Street turned up at his apartment on Wednesday to ask questions about the company's solvency. Two of
them are believed to be his sons, Andrew and Mark, who have worked for their father for two
decades. Mr Madoff told them that he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing", and
that "it's all just one big lie". He said the investment arm of his firm was "basically a giant
Ponzi scheme," and that it had been insolvent for years. A Ponzi scheme, named after the
swindler Charles Ponzi, is a fraudulent investment operation that pays abnormally high returns to
investors paid from money put into the scheme by subsequent investors, rather from real profits
generated by share trading. The FBI complaint states that Mr Madoff told his sons he believed the
losses from his scheme could exceed $50 billion. If that is the case, his fraud would be far greater
than past Ponzi schemes and easily the greatest swindle perpetrated by one man.
Note: If a former Nasdaq chairman was committing this kind of blatant fraud while still the
chairman of Nasdaq, what does it say about the level of corruption on Wall Street? For a treasure
trove of reports from reliable sources exposing the realities of the Wall Street corruption, click here.

Canadian leader suspends Parliament to stay in power

2008-12-04, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/12/04/canada.crisis/index.html
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that Canada's governor general has
allowed him to suspend Parliament, postponing a no-confidence vote from his opponents that he
was likely to lose. Harper called on his opponents to work with his government on measures to aid
the nation's economy when Parliament returns on January 26. Had Governor General Michaelle
Jean -- who represents Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state -- denied Harper's request,
Monday's vote would have likely brought down Harper's government, less than two months after
his Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in federal elections. The Liberal Party and
the leftist New Democratic Party announced plans earlier this week to form a governing coalition
with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, which supports independence for French-speaking

Quebec. "For the first time in the history of Canada, the prime minister of Canada is running
away from the parliament of Canada," said [Liberal Party Leader Stephane] Dion, accusing the
premier of placing "partisan politics ahead of the interest of all Canadians." New Democratic Party
leader Jack Layton said Harper had used a "maneuver to escape accountability." "He refuses to
face the people of Canada through their elected representatives," he said. "The prime
minister is choosing to protect his own job rather than focusing on the jobs of Canadians
who are being thrown out of work today."
Note: What gives Canada's governor general the right to suspend parliament? The governor
general is the representative of the queen of England. Few know that the queen has this power
over all commonwealth nations. Canada is not truly independent of England, nor are the other
commonwealth nations, including Australia. For more intriguing information on this, click here.

One Mans Military-Industrial-Media Complex

2008-11-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?partner=rss&emc=r...
Through seven years of war an exclusive club has quietly flourished at the intersection of network
news and wartime commerce. Its members, mostly retired generals, have had a foot in both camps
as influential network military analysts and defense industry rainmakers. It is a deeply opaque
world, a place of privileged access to senior government officials, where war commentary can fit
hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests and network executives are sometimes
oblivious to possible conflicts of interest. Few illustrate the submerged complexities of this world
better than Barry McCaffrey. General McCaffrey, 66, has long been a force in Washingtons power
elite. A consummate networker, he cultivated politicians and journalists of all stripes as drug czar in
the Clinton cabinet, and his ties run deep to a new generation of generals, some of whom he
taught at West Point or commanded in the Persian Gulf war. But it was 9/11 that thrust General
McCaffrey to the forefront of the national security debate. In the years since he has made
nearly 1,000 appearances on NBC and its cable sisters, delivering crisp sound bites in a
blunt, hyperbolic style. He commands up to $25,000 for speeches, his commentary regularly
turns up in The Wall Street Journal, and he has been quoted or cited in thousands of news articles,
including dozens in The New York Times. His influence is such that President Bush and
Congressional leaders from both parties have invited him for war consultations. At the same time,
General McCaffrey has immersed himself in businesses that have grown with the fight against
terrorism.
Note: This in-depth article on the "military-industrial-media complex" is worth reading in its entirety.
For lots more on war profiteering from reliable sources, click here.

FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula

2008-11-27, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/26/AR20081126003...

Public health groups, consumer advocates and members of Congress blasted the Food and Drug
Administration yesterday for failing to act after discovering trace amounts of the industrial chemical
melamine in baby formula sold in the United States. "This FDA, this Bush administration,
instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (DConn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. "We're
talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry." The FDA
found melamine and cyanuric acid, a related chemical, in samples of baby formula made by major
U.S. manufacturers. Melamine can cause kidney and bladder stones and, in worst cases, kidney
failure and death. If melamine and cyanuric acid combine, they can form round yellow crystals that
can also damage kidneys and destroy renal function. Melamine was found in Good Start Supreme
Infant Formula With Iron made by Nestle, and cyanuric acid was detected in Enfamil Lipil With Iron
infant formula powder made by Mead Johnson. The FDA has been testing hundreds of food
products for melamine in the aftermath of a scandal this year involving Chinese infant formula
tainted with melamine. Chinese manufacturers deliberately added the chemical to watered-down
formula to make it appear to contain higher levels of protein. More than 50,000 Asian infants were
hospitalized, and at least four died.
Note: For many reports on government corruption from major media sources, click here.

Legislators taking hard look at oil trading

2008-11-26, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/26/BU70149LTD.DTL
For a few months this summer, the oil market speculator ... helped push oil prices steadily higher,
shattering records that had lasted for decades. As oil topped $145 per barrel, Congress started
looking for ways to rein the speculators in. Then oil prices plunged, and interest in the issue
fizzled. But that may soon change. "This will remain an issue," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.,
who introduced oil market legislation this year. "Because when the price of oil has gone from
$50 to $147 and back, it's clear to me and everyone else that this has nothing to do with
supply and demand. It has to do with speculation." Among possible changes, Congress may
try to assert more authority over unregulated oil swaps that don't take place on any formal market.
Many factors helped shove prices higher, including the growth of China's economy and the decline
of the American dollar. But oil kept rising even as gasoline sales fell in the United States, the
world's largest oil consumer. That wouldn't have happened if supply and demand really were
driving the market, many analysts say. "The entire move from $70 (per barrel) to $147 was people
fleeing the dollar and looking at oil as an asset class," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy research
fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute. "It was speculators, so when they exited the market,
we went right back to $70." Speculators are investors who trade in oil or other commodities
strictly as a financial investment. They include hedge funds and investment banks as well as
retirement funds.
Note: For lots more reports on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Study Suggests Some Cancers May Go Away

2008-11-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25breast.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pa...
Cancer researchers have known for years that it was possible in rare cases for some cancers to
go away on their own. There were occasional instances of melanomas and kidney cancers that
just vanished. And neuroblastoma, a very rare childhood tumor, can go away without treatment.
But these were mostly seen as oddities an unusual pediatric cancer that might not bear on
common cancers of adults, a smattering of case reports of spontaneous cures. And since almost
every cancer that is detected is treated, it seemed impossible even to ask what would happen if
cancers were left alone. Now, though, researchers say they have found a situation in Norway that
has let them ask that question about breast cancer. And their new study, to be published Tuesday
in The Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that even invasive cancers may sometimes go
away without treatment and in larger numbers than anyone ever believed. Robert M. Kaplan, the
chairman of the department of health services at the School of Public Health at the University of
California, Los Angeles, [is] persuaded by the analysis. The implications are potentially
enormous, Dr. Kaplan said. If the results are replicated, he said, it could eventually be
possible for some women to opt for so-called watchful waiting, monitoring a tumor in their
breast to see whether it grows. People have never thought that way about breast cancer, he
added. Dr. Kaplan and his colleague, Dr. Franz Porzsolt, an oncologist at the University of Ulm,
said in an editorial that accompanied the study, If the spontaneous remission hypothesis is
credible, it should cause a major re-evaluation in the approach to breast cancer research and
treatment.
Note: For reports from major media sources on many hopeful new developments in the battle
against cancer, click here.

15 corporate chieftains each top $100 million in 5 years

2008-11-20, Denver Post/Wall Street Journal
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_11036514
The credit bubble has burst. The economy is tanking. Investors in the U.S. stock market have lost
more than $9 trillion since its peak a year ago. But in industries at the center of the crisis, plenty of
top officials managed to emerge with substantial fortunes. Fifteen corporate chieftains of large
home-building and financial-services firms each reaped more than $100 million in cash
compensation and proceeds from stock sales during the past five years, according to a Wall Street
Journal analysis. Four of those executives, including the heads of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
and Bear Stearns Cos., ran companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection or seen their share
prices fall more than 90% from their peak. The study ... showed that top executives and
directors of the firms cashed out a total of more than $21 billion during the period. The issue
of compensation and other rewards for corporate executives is front-and-center in the wake of the
financial meltdown. In the tech bubble of the late 1990s, more than 50 individuals each made

more than $100 million from selling shares just prior to the crash. Many had just founded
companies that had never turned a profit. "The system tends to reward people for participating in
bubbles," says Roy C. Smith, a finance professor at New York University's business school.
Note: For many revealing reports on the Wall Street bailout from reliable sources, click here.

A.I.G. Secures $150 Billion Assistance Package

2008-11-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/business/11insure.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&...
The American International Group said on Monday that it ... had secured a new $150 billion
government assistance package intended to stem the bleeding from its complex financial
contracts. A central component of the new package will be to get the most tainted assets out of the
company, in an effort to stop the collateral calls that have been rapidly draining A.I.G.s cash.
A.I.G.s trading partners in these financial contracts will largely be made whole in the process. [An]
important feature will be government investments of about $50 billion to create special-purpose
entities to relieve the company of its most tainted assets. About $30 billion of the government
money will be used to buy complex debt securities that were insured by A.I.G. and about $20
billion more will be used to buy securities backed by home loans. A.I.G.s counterparties
financial institutions in the United States and Europe have not borne significant losses on the
financial contracts that led A.I.G. to the brink, and the new program suggests they will not. Were
funding somebody on the other side of A.I.G.s derivatives contracts, said Lynn E. Turner, a
former chief accountant with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither A.I.G. nor the
federal government has been willing to provide the names of the companys biggest
counterparties, or their amount of exposure. Weve had way too many things here that
nobody knows anything about, said Mr. Turner, who is on the Treasurys Advisory Committee
on the Auditing Profession. Thats why no one has faith in the capital markets.
Note: The culture of secrecy around this bailout using nearly $1 trillion of taxpayer money is
appalling. For many revealing and reliable reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

2008-11-10, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY
The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans
from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Fed
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would
comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking
system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs
that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is
going or what securities the banks are pledging in return. Bloomberg News has requested

details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal
lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure. The Fed made the loans under terms of 11
programs, eight of them created in the past 15 months. The Fed's lending is significant because
the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion
Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan -- without safeguards put into the TARP
legislation by Congress. Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has
risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the
collateral standards on Sept. 14. The nation's biggest banks, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp.,
JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, declined to
comment on whether they have borrowed money from the Fed. They received $120 billion in
capital from the TARP, which was signed into law Oct. 3.
Note: For many revealing and reliable reports on the Wall Street bailout, click here.

State off course on 'personal genomics'

2008-11-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/02/INUO12K51K.DTL
California officials recently ordered two "personal genomics" firms to cease and desist operations
within the state. The companies eventually were allowed to continue operations - with a few more
regulatory conditions - but why did the state demand that they shut down in the first place? Why
would a state that regards itself as progressive and high-tech act to censor what we can know
about ourselves? Though regulators may shut down unscrupulous firms, the services offered by
Navigenics and 23andMe meet the highest standards of accuracy, validity and reliability. The
laboratories employed by both companies are fully licensed and trusted by researchers around the
world. These companies give individuals the ability to take a "snapshot" of their DNA. The state
objected, determining that doctors are gatekeepers of the human body, and Californians need a
prescription to access their genetic blueprint. Doctors have a powerful lobby in Sacramento,
and these technologies directly threaten their profits. Personal genomics aims to empower
the individual, not line the pockets of an elite medical establishment. This establishment
believes that individuals cannot be trusted with their own genetic information. The genome
is vast, complicated and poorly understood, the argument goes, and therefore customers could be
inundated with raw information of little or no practical use. Forbidding us from looking at our genes
because we don't yet understand them, however, is contrary to science, innovation and human
nature.
Note: For revealing reports of government corruption from reliable, verifiable sources, click here.

Was There a Loan It Didnt Like?

2008-11-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/business/02gret.html?partner=rssuserland&em...

As a senior mortgage underwriter, Keysha Cooper was proud of her ability to spot fraud and other
problems in a loan application. But as a senior mortgage underwriter at Washington Mutual during
the late, great mortgage boom, Ms. Cooper says she found herself in a vise. Brokers squeezed her
from one side, her superiors from the other, she says, and both pressured her to approve loans, no
matter what. At WaMu it wasnt about the quality of the loans; it was about the numbers, Ms.
Cooper says. They didnt care if we were giving loans to people that didnt qualify. Instead,
it was how many loans did you guys close and fund? When underwriters refused to approve
dubious loans, they were punished, she says. In February 2007 ... the pressure became intense.
WaMu executives told employees they were not making enough loans and had to get their
numbers up, she says. They started giving loan officers free trips if they closed so many loans, fly
them to Hawaii for a month, Ms. Cooper recalls. One of my account reps went to Jamaica for a
month because he closed $3.5 million in loans that month. If a loan came from a top loan officer,
they didnt care what the situation was, you had to make that loan work, she says. One loan file
was filled with so many discrepancies that she felt certain it involved mortgage fraud. She
turned the loan down, she says, only to be scolded by her supervisor. Ms. Cooper says that
her bosses placed her on probation for 30 days for refusing to approve the loan and that her team
manager signed off on the loan.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Known Unknowns: Uncoventional

2008-11-01, U.S. Army Website, Strategic Studies Institute
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB890.pdf
Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to
reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security. Deliberate
employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen
economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or
insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters
are all paths to disruptive domestic shock. An American government and defense establishment
lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or
most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at
home. Already predisposed to defer to the primacy of civilian authorities in instances of domestic
security and divest all but the most extreme demands in areas like civil support and consequence
management, DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the
disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility.
Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against
hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential
enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or
disturbance.

Note: For an analysis which deconstructs the opaque military jargon in which this revealing
strategic document is written, click here. Use of military forces to maintain domestic order has
been forbidden since 1878 by the Posse Comitatus Act. The Pentagon appears to be planning to
abrogate this key support of civil liberties.

Panel grills credit raters over inflated ratings

2008-10-23, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27326652
Executives and employees at the major credit ratings agencies were often aware of problems in
the AAA grades awarded to thousands of mortgage-related securities whose downgrades helped
plunge the nation into a financial meltdown. The companies Standard & Poor, Moodys and
Fitch, Inc. made enormous profits as they evaluated a ballooning number of mortgage-backed
bonds, many of which were given top marks as long as housing prices went up. The story of the
credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure, said Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The California Democrat said, Millions of
investors rely on them for independent, objective assessments. The rating agencies broke
this bond of trust, and federal regulators ignored the warning signs and did nothing to
protect the public. The result is that our entire financial system is now at risk. The
companies are important because their high assessments assured investors that their money
should be safe. The inflated ratings awarded to securities backed up by subprime loans led
investors to buy them in enormous numbers. But now, most of these securities have been
downgraded and the market for them has largely evaporated, contributing to the current crisis. The
panel also heard former ratings agency executives say theres an inherent conflict of interest in the
industry because theyre paid by bond issuers instead of investors who trust their ratings to make
smart investments.
Note: For many reports on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Sorry, I Cant Find Your Name

2008-10-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/opinion/23thu1.htm
Voting rolls, which are maintained by local election officials, are one of the weakest links in
American democracy and problems are growing. Republicans have been pressing for sweeping
voter purges in many states. They have also fought to make it harder to enroll new voters. Voting
experts say there could be serious problems at the polls on Nov. 4. A number of states including
the battleground state of Florida have adopted no match, no vote rules. Voters can be removed
from the rolls if their names do not match a second list, such as a Social Security or drivers
license database. But (like the U.S. mail) lists of this kind are notoriously mistake-filled, and one
typo can cause a no match. In Ohio, Republicans recently sued the secretary of state, demanding
that she provide local officials with a dubious match list. As many as 200,000 new voters could

have been blocked from casting ballots. The Supreme Court rejected the suit, but Republicans are
still looking for ways to use the list on Election Day. For this election, voters need to be
prepared to fight for their right to cast a ballot. They should try to confirm before Nov. 4 that
they are on the rolls something that in many states can be done on a secretary of state
or board of elections Web site. If their state permits it, they should vote early. If voters find on
Election Day that their names are not on the rolls, they should contact a voters rights group like
Election Protection, at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Note: A recent report in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast details many of
these tactics to eliminate voters from the rolls. To watch a related video by Greg Palast click here.
For many disturbing reports from major media sources on threats to free and fair elections in the
US, click here. And for a powerful, five-minute video showing both the ways your vote can
disappear and what you can do about it, click here.

This Bailout Doesnt Pay Dividends

2008-10-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/opinion/21stein.html?partner=rssuserland&em...
Secretary Paulson [has been] described as playing the role of the Godfather, making the banks [a
bailout] offer they could not refuse. But in one important respect, he was more Santa Claus than
Vito Corleone: the agreement allowed the banks to continue paying dividends to common
shareholders. These dividends, if they are paid at current levels, will redirect more than $25 billion
of the $125 billion to shareholders in the next year alone. A significant fraction of [the bailout]
money will wind up in shareholders pockets and thus be unavailable to plug the large
capital hole on the banks balance sheets. The officers and directors of the nine banks will
be among the leading beneficiaries of the dividend payout. Their personal take of the
dividends will amount to approximately $250 million in the first year. Why would the banks
want to maintain large dividend payouts when theyve had such a hard time borrowing, are starved
of cash, and the credit markets believe that they run a significant risk of defaulting? Shouldnt
these distressed banks be marshalling all of the financial resources available to them to ensure
their viability? Heres why: Each dollar paid out as a dividend today is a dollar that cannot be
seized by creditors in the event of bankruptcy. For a distressed company, dividends are not in the
interest of the enterprise as a whole (shareholders and lenders taken together), but only in the
interest of shareholders. They are an attempt by shareholders to beat creditors out the door. The
government should close the door by putting an immediate stop to the dividend payouts of any
banks receiving direct federal support.
Note: Is the fox guarding the hen house? For many revealing, reliable reports on the banking
bailout, click here.

Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'

2008-10-21, MarketWatch.com (owned by Dow Jones)

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/14-reasons-main-street-loses/story.aspx...
Sorry to pop your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president. Why? The real "game
changer" already happened. Democracy has been replaced by Wall Street's new "disaster
capitalism." That's the big game-changer historians will remember about 2008, masterminded by
Wall Street's ultimate "Trojan Horse," Hank Paulson. Congress simply handed over voting power
and the keys to trillions in the Treasury to Wall Street's new "Disaster Capitalists" who now control
"democracy." We let it happen. In one generation America has been transformed from a
democracy into a strange new form of government, "Disaster Capitalism." Three decades of
influence peddling in Washington ... accelerated under Reaganomics and went into hyperspeed
under Bushonomics, both totally committed to a new disaster capitalism run privately by Wall
Street and Corporate America. No-bid contracts in wars and hurricanes. A housing-credit bubble -while secretly planning for a meltdown. Finally, the coup de grace: Along came the housing-credit
crisis, as planned. Press and public saw a negative, a crisis. Disaster capitalists saw a huge
opportunity. Yes, opportunity for big bucks and control of America. This end game was
planned for years in secret war rooms on Wall Street, in Corporate America, in Washington
and the Forbes 400. Naomi Klein summarizes the game in Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster
Capitalism. This "new economy" generates enormous profits feeding off other peoples' misery:
Wars, terror attacks, natural catastrophes, poverty, trade sanctions, subprime housing meltdowns
and all kinds of economic, financial and political disasters.
Note: The author of this highly critical commentary, Paul B. Farrell, is a well-known writer on
finance and investment and a long-time columnist at The Wall Street Journal's sister-site
MarketWatch.

We can stop the cancer epidemic

2008-09-19, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/opinion/19iht-edservan.1.16308287.html
There is an epidemic of cancer today. One in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer, often
before the age of 65. Since 1940, we have seen in Western societies a marked and rapid increase
in common types of cancer. In fact, cancer in children and adolescents has been rising by 1 to 1.5
percent a year since the 1960's. And these are cancers for which there is no screening. For most
common cancers - prostate, breast, colon, lung - rates are much higher in the West than in Asian
countries. Yet Asians who emigrate to the United States catch up with the rates of Americans
within one or two generations. While in Asia, Asians are protected not by their genes, but by their
lifestyle. We continue to invest 97 percent of our cancer research funds in better treatments and
early detection. Only 3 percent is invested in tackling causes. The World Cancer Research Fund
published a report in 2007 concluding that a majority of cancer cases in Western societies
could be avoided with life-style measures: 40 percent from changes in diet and physical
activity (more vegetables and fruits, less sugar, less red meat, regular walking or the
equivalent activity 30 minutes six times per week), 30 percent from smoking cessation, and
about 10 percent from reduced alcohol consumption. We now even have data about how

specific foods such as broccoli and cabbages, garlic and onions, green tea or the spice turmeric
directly help kill cancer cells and reduce the growth of new blood vessels they need to develop into
tumors.
Note: The author of this article, Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at
the University of Pittsburgh and a founding board member of Doctors Without Borders, USA, and
author of Anticancer - A new way of life. For an excellent, inspiring 10-minute video interview with
this doctor, click here.

Apocalypse now? 30 days when the world didn't end

2008-09-09, Times of London (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4717864.ece
The beginning of the first serious experiments using CERNs Large Hadron Collider this week has
given rise to a welter of fanciful scare stories about the obliteration of the Earth by a pocket black
hole or a cascade reaction of exotic particles. Similar predictions have been made around the
launch of several other particle physics experiments and even the first atomic weapons tests.
Predictions of the worlds end are nothing new though. Weve picked out 30 of the most
memorable apocalypses that never, for one reason or another, quite happened. 1: 2,800BC: The
oldest surviving prediction of the worlds imminent demise was found inscribed upon an
Assyrian clay tablet which stated: "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are
signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." 4:
Mar 25, 970 AD. The Lotharingian computists believed they had found evidence in the Bible that a
conjunction of certain feast days prefigured the end times. They were just one of a wide scattering
of millennial cults springing up in advance of that first Millennium. The millennial panic endured for
at least 30 years after the fateful date had come and gone, with some adjustment made to allow
1,000 years after the crucifixion, rather than the nativity. 8: 1648: Having made close study of the
kabbalah, theTurkish rabbi Sabbatai Zevi predicted that the Messiah would make a miraculous
return in 1648, and that his name would be Sabbatai Zevi. 9: 1666: A year packed with apocalyptic
portent. With a date containing the figures commonly accepted as the biblical Number of the Beast
and following a protracted period of plague in England, it was little surprise that many should
believe the Great Fire of London to be a herald of the Last Days.

Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit

2008-08-05, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121789293570011775.html
Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce
Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in
September/October 2001. But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed
suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to
explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and

the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone. The
spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it.
Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute. The
product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter.
There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling
the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this
case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled. They were also tailored to make them
potentially more dangerous. The spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound
hydrophilic silica to each particle. Each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing
the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in
the air, and increased their retention in the lungs. In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this
case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare
Program.

Out of Space or Out of Mind?

2008-07-28, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5451107
Only 12 [people] have ever set foot on the moon, providing them the unique opportunity to peer at
the Earth from hundreds of thousands of miles away. For many, the experience appears to have
changed them. The select group has returned to regular life and dispersed into a wide array of
careers, [and] spiritual and philosophical leanings. Most recently, NASA astronaut Edgar
Mitchell, a member of the Apollo 14 mission that landed on the moon in 1971, elaborated on
his own fluid thoughts on the universe, arguing that alien visits to Earth have been covered up by
governments for more than 60 years. "I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact
that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real," Mitchell said. "It
has been covered up by governments for quite some time now," added Mitchell, who grew up
in Roswell, N.M., the location of the controversial 1947 incident in which some believe the U.S.
military covered up the crash scene of an alien spacecraft. Alan Bean, who flew the second moon
landing on Apollo 12 in 1967, became a painter after returning to Earth. Astronaut Gene Cernan,
who made the last moon-landing in 1972, said he became a believer in the idea of a greater power
after traveling to outer space. "I felt that the world was just too beautiful to have happened by
accident. There has to be something bigger than you and bigger than me." said Cernan. "There
has to be a creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we ourselves create to
govern our lives."
Note: For an engaging Reuters video report on Edgar Mitchell's recent statements, click here. For
more detailed testimony of Dr. Mitchell on UFOs, click here. For a powerful summary of evidence
for UFOs presented by highly credible government and military professionals, click here.

4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images

2008-07-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?partner=rssu...
The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he
posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say
is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war. Zoriah Miller,
the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them
on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the
country. After five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews
turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers. Opponents of
the war, civil liberties advocates and journalists argue that the public portrayal of the war is being
sanitized and that Americans who choose to do so have the right to see in whatever medium
the human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans. Journalists say
it is now harder ... to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. And while publishing photos of
American dead is not barred under the embed rules in which journalists travel with military units,
the Miller case underscores what is apparently one reality of the Iraq war: that doing so, even
under the rules, can result in expulsion from covering the war with the military. "It is absolutely
censorship, Mr. Miller said. I took pictures of something they didnt like, and they
removed me. Deciding what I can and cannot document, I dont see a clearer definition of
censorship."
Note: For more coverage of war censorship and the realities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
click here.

Pentagon Auditors Pressured To Favor Contractors, GAO Says

2008-07-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR20080723014...
Auditors at a Pentagon oversight agency were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on
major defense contractors to make them look more favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and
charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report released yesterday by the Government
Accountability Office. The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which oversees contractors for the
Defense Department, "improperly influenced the audit scope, conclusions and opinions" of reviews
of contractor performance, the GAO said, creating a "serious independence issue." The report
does not name the projects or the contractors involved, but staff members on the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who were briefed on the findings cited
seven contractors, some of whom are among the biggest in the defense industry: Boeing, Northrop
Grumman, Fluor, Parker Hannifin, Sparta, SRS Technologies and a subsidiary of L3
Communications. Supervisors at DCAA attempted to intimidate auditors, prevented them
from speaking with GAO investigators and created a "generally abusive work environment,"
the report said. It cited incidents of "verbal admonishments, reassignments and threats of

disciplinary action" against workers who "raised questions about management guidance." The
GAO said it launched the two-year inquiry after complaints on a fraud hotline. Its investigators
conducted more than 100 interviews of 50 people involved in audits between 2003 and 2007.
Note: For eye-opening reports on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Prosecutor turned up on U.S. terror watch list

2008-07-14, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-07-14-justice-terror-list_N.htm
The Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor says the U.S. government's terror watch
list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise
hassled. Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he is one of them.
Robinson joined [with] the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge fixing the list that's
supposed to identify suspected terrorists. "It's a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with
my travel arrangements," said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division
during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on
the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying despite having his own government
top-secret security clearances renewed last year. He [said] "I expect my story is similar to
hundreds of thousands of people who are on this list who find themselves inconvenienced." [The
watch list] was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to consolidate 12 existing lists. Audits of
the watch list over the last several years ... have concluded that it has mistakenly flagged innocent
people whose names are similar to those on it. More than 30,000 airline passengers had asked
the Homeland Security Department to clear their names from the list as of October 2006.
The ACLU predicted the watch list would include 1 million names as early as Monday. The
civil liberties group reached that number by citing the 700,000 records on the watch list as of last
September and adding 20,000 names each month, as forecast by the Justice Department's
inspector general.
Note: For many disturbing reports on threats to civil liberties, click here.

VW May Produce 282 MPG Two-Seat Car

2008-07-02, US News & World Report
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/080702-VW-May-Pro...
Volkswagen has a new car in pre-production that, the automaker estimates, could get up to 282
mpg. That's not a misprint. Autoblog explains, "A few years back, Volkswagen introduced a
concept vehicle," known as the VW 1L, "which derived its name from its stated goal of using just
one liter of fuel per one-hundred kilometers traveled." The concept "actually beat its lofty goal
rather handily as it managed to achieve a miserly 282 miles per gallon in testing. Much of
its amazing fuel-saving capability stemmed from its 660 pounds (300 kilograms) curb
weight. The concept also featured a single cylinder engine and a 1+1 seating arrangement down

the center of the car." The U.K.'s Car Magazine reports, "At the time the chairman of VW's
supervisory board predicted that the super-economical two-seater would go into productionin
2012. Now the VW 1L will hit the market two years ahead of schedule, in 2010." Whether the 1L
would be sold in the U.S. market isn't yet clear.
Note: Any bets on whether this car will actually go into production and be promoted? Check out
what happened to the Eco Spirit, which got over 100 mpg at this link.

Civil liberties group criticizes new FBI authority

2008-07-02, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/07/02/civil_libert...
Nearly 40 years ago, the FBI was roundly criticized for investigating Americans without evidence
[that] they had broken any laws. Now, critics fear the FBI may be gearing up to do it again.
Tentative Justice Department guidelines, to be released later this summer, would let agents
investigate people whose backgrounds -- and potentially their race or ethnicity -- match the traits of
terrorists. Such profiling ... echoes the FBI's now-defunct COINTELPRO, an operation under
Director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s and 1960s to monitor and disrupt groups with communist
and socialist ties. Before it was shut down in 1971, the domestic spying operation -- formally
known as Counterintelligence Programs -- had expanded to include civil rights groups, anti-war
activists, ... state legislators and journalists. Among the FBI's targets were Martin Luther King Jr.,
Malcolm X, and John Lennon, along with members of black [political] groups ... and student
protesters. The new proposal to allow investigations of Americans with no evidence of
wrongdoing is "COINTELPRO for the 21st century," said Barry Steinhardt of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "But this is much more insidious because it could involve more
people. In the days of COINTELPRO, they were watching only a few people. Now they could be
watching everyone."
Note: For many disturbing reports on threats to civil liberties, click here.

Students increase fuel-efficiency

2008-06-22, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/20/MTTF114KJO.DTL
What we drive in the future may not be designed in Detroit, or Tokyo or Stuttgart, but on the
college campuses of North America. Teams of students from 17 colleges and universities in the
United States and Canada have spent the last three years taking apart models of a Chevrolet
Equinox, and re-designing and re-fitting the crossover SUV to get better fuel efficiency than the
engineers and designers at General Motors have been able to achieve. It's called Challenge X. So
what did these college teams come up with? They came up with bio-diesel, ethanol, hydrogen,
hybrid electric, plug-in electric - with most of the teams using two of these energy sources together.
The team from Penn State created an Equinox that runs on three fuels: bio-diesel, hydrogen and

electric hybrid power. "The way it's designed, it's always burning hydrogen and bio-diesel together,
and the hybrid motor turns on and off," explained Nate Simmons. The team from San Diego State
created a bio-diesel electric hybrid, and transformed the transmission from automatic to manual for
even better gas mileage. They were able to boost the EPA rating for the conventional Equinox from
a rating of 23 miles per gallon highway up into the low 30s. "We set out to produce the most
powerful vehicle in the competition," said faculty advisor James Burns. This year's winner was
Mississippi State University, for its bio-diesel hybrid electric design. The MSU vehicle is
powered by a 1.9-liter GM direct injection turbo-diesel engine, fueled by bio-diesel (B20). It
won for achieving a whopping 38 percent increase in fuel economy over the productionmodel Equinox.
Note: College and even high school students have been beating car manufacturers for years, yet
the media seem to largely ignore this. For striking examples, click here and here.

General Accuses White House of War Crimes

2008-06-18, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/18/BL2008061801546....
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib
has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability. In his 2004
report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of
sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the
abuse "systemic and illegal." And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in The New Yorker, he was
rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement. Now, in a preface to a Physicians for
Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an
epilogue to his own investigation. The new report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story
of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under
him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is
scrawled for the rest of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds. The profiles of
these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they
were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. In
order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government
policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of
Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately
ignored. There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war
crimes."
Note: For many revealing reports on the brutal realities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, click
here.

Guantanamo: Policy goals trumped law

2008-06-18, Miami Herald/McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/574074.html
The framework under which detainees were imprisoned for years without charges at Guantanamo
and in many cases abused in Afghanistan wasn't the product of American military policy or the
fault of a few rogue soldiers. It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice
Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney,
reinterpreted or tossed out the U.S. and international laws that govern the treatment of prisoners in
wartime, according to former U.S. defense and Bush administration officials. The Supreme Court
now has struck down many of their legal interpretations. The quintet of lawyers, who called
themselves the War Council," drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code
of justice, the federal court system and America's international treaties in order to prevent
anyone ... from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been
considered war crimes. The international conventions ... to which [the US is] a party, were
abandoned in secret meetings among the five men in one another's offices: ... David Addington,
the ... longtime legal adviser and now chief of staff to Cheney [whose] primary motive, according to
several former administration and defense officials, was to push for an expansion of presidential
power that Congress or the courts couldn't check; Alberto Gonzales, first the White House counsel
and then the attorney general; William J. Haynes II, the former Pentagon general counsel; former
Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, [and] Timothy E. Flanigan, a former deputy to Gonzales.
Note: Virtually no major media other than the Herald picked up this key story.

Documents indicate U.S. hid terror suspects from Red Cross

2008-06-17, Miami Herald/McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/574075.html
The U.S. military hid the locations of ... detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the
scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate
committee released. "We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is
better not to expose them to any controversial techniques," Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military
lawyer, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Her comments were
recorded in minutes of the meeting. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that
U.S. officials at another detention facility Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan were using sleep
deprivation to "break" detainees. "True, but officially it is not happening," she is quoted as having
said. [Another] person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA's
Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of
the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world. "In the past when the ICRC
has made a big deal about certain detainees, the DOD (Defense Department) has 'moved' them
away from the attention of the ICRC," Fredman said. The document, along with two dozen others,
shows that top administration officials pushed relentlessly for tougher interrogation
methods. Fredman of the CIA also appeared to be advocating the use of techniques harsher
than those authorized by military field guides. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong,"
the minutes report Fredman saying at one point.

Note: For many revealing reports on the brutal realities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, click
here.

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir

2008-06-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/washington/17contractor.html?partner=rssuse...
The Army official who managed the Pentagons largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted
from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable
charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other
services to American troops. The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing
the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the
first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that
the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi
operations. Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than
$1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. They had
a gigantic amount of costs they couldnt justify, he said in an interview. But he was suddenly
replaced, he said, and his successors after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside
contractor to consider KBRs claims approved most of the payments he had tried to block. Mr.
Smiths account fills in important gaps about the Pentagons handling of the KBR contract, which
has cost more than $20 billion so far and has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers. Mr.
Smith ... is giving his account just as the Pentagon has recently awarded KBR part of a 10-year,
$150 billion contract in Iraq.
Note: For a summary of US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler's book on war profiteering,
click here.

Wealthy Americans Under Scrutiny in UBS Case

2008-06-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06tax.html?partner=r...
One afternoon in April, six dozen wealthy Americans were entertained at a luncheon party in
Midtown Manhattan, along with a special guest from Paris: Henri Loyrette, the director of the
Louvre. The host of the exclusive gathering was the Swiss bank UBS, whose elite private bankers
built a lucrative business in recent years by discreetly tending the fortunes of American millionaires
and billionaires. But now, as the federal authorities intensify an investigation into offshore bank
accounts, the secrets of this rarefied world are being dragged into the open and UBSs
privileged clients are running scared. Under pressure from the authorities, UBS is considering
whether to divulge the names of up to 20,000 of its well-heeled American clients, according
to people close to the inquiry, a step that would have once been unthinkable to Swiss
bankers, whose traditions of secrecy date to the Middle Ages. Federal investigators believe
some of the clients may have used offshore accounts at UBS to hide as much as $20 billion in

assets from the Internal Revenue Service. Doing so may have enabled these people to dodge at
least $300 million in federal taxes on income from those assets, according to a government official
connected with the investigation. The case could turn into an embarrassment for Marcel Rohner,
the chief executive of UBS and the former head of its private bank, as well as for Phil Gramm, the
former Republican senator from Texas who is now the vice chairman of UBS Securities, the Swiss
banks investment banking arm. It also comes at a difficult time for UBS, which is reeling from $37
billion in bad investments, many of them linked to risky American mortgages.
Note: For an illuminating overview of the secret world of banking and finance, click here.

Canadian teen's process decomposes plastic bags

2008-06-05, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN0535499620080605
As countries and cities around the world move to ban plastic bags, a Canadian teenager is
tackling the problem of what to do with them. High school student Daniel Burd successfully
isolated microorganisms from soil and used them to help degrade 43 percent of his
polyethylene sample within a few weeks in a science project that recently won him the
C$10,000 ($9,800) top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. "The purpose of my project was to
first of all prove that it's possible to do the degradation, and I just wanted to develop a beginning
procedure that could be used," said the 17-year-old Grade 11 student, who also walked away with
nearly C$35,000 in university scholarship offers. "We know that after 40 to 100,000 years, the
plastic bags will be degraded naturally. Some type of microbe must be responsible for this. So the
first step was to isolate this microbe and that's what I did," said Burd, who began his research in
December 2006. To isolate the microorganism, he turned the plastic bags into a powder -- an
important step, Burd said, because it increases the surface area and helps the microorganisms
that can use the plastic to grow. Once he had the powder, he collected soil samples from a landfill,
and combined the two with a home-made solution that would encourage microorganism growth.
After months of experimenting, he isolated two microbial strains from the genuses sphingomonas
and pseudomonas. Burd worked with the microbes to find the combination that would degrade
strips of plastic bags best, and optimized the process by factoring in elements such as temperature
and concentration of microbes. "In the end I was able to find that after six weeks incubation 43
percent of my plastic bag is degraded."
Note: Why wasn't this all over the news? Very few media outlets covered this highly inspiring story.
For a more recent article on this fascinating topic, click here.

Was Press a War Enabler? 2 Offer a Nod From Inside

2008-05-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/washington/30press.html?partner=rssuserland...

In his new memoir, What Happened, Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary,
said the national news media neglected their watchdog role in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq,
calling reporters complicit enablers of the Bush administrations push for war. Surprisingly, some
prominent journalists have agreed. Katie Couric, the anchor of CBS Evening News, said ... that
she had felt pressure from government officials and corporate executives to cast the war in a
positive light. Speaking on The Early Show on CBS, Ms. Couric said the lack of skepticism
shown by journalists about the Bush administrations case for war amounted to one of the most
embarrassing chapters in American journalism.She also said she sensed pressure from the
corporations who own where we work and from the government itself to really squash any
kind of dissent or any kind of questioning of it. At the time, Ms. Couric was a host of Today
on NBC. Another broadcast journalist also weighed in. Jessica Yellin, who worked for MSNBC in
2003 and now reports for CNN, said ... that journalists had been under enormous pressure
from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that
was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation. For five years, antiwar activists and
media critics have claimed that the national news media failed to keep the White House
accountable before the invasion. Greg Mitchell, the author of So Wrong for So Long, a book about
press and presidential failures on the war, argues that some media organizations have yet to come
to terms with their role.
Note: For a powerful overview of the media cover-up by top, award-winning journalists, click here.

Lou Dobbs Tonight: NAFTA Superhighway

2008-05-28, CNN News
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/28/ldt.01.html
[News anchor LOU DOBBS:] Open borders advocates are refusing to acknowledge rising
evidence of plans for a NAFTA superhighway. Many in the mainstream media absolutely
refuse to acknowledge the reality. The plans could be a major step toward that North
American Union of the United States, Canada and Mexico. BILL TUCKER, CNN
Correspondent: There is no NAFTA superhighway. Not officially. In Texas planning a development
is under way for what are officially called transportation corridors. The Trans Texas Corridor, I-69, a
combination of rail lines, utility lines, car and truck lanes, [is planned] to be as wide as three
football fields laid end to end. It will be financed by a private foreign company ... who will then own
the lease on the road and the revenue generated by the tolls. Texas may use eminent domain to
lay claim to some of the land needed to build it. For an imaginary road there's a lot of money and
effort involved [and] some very real opposition. TERRI HALL, TEXASTURF.ORG: There's just no
doubt that this is happening. We've been to the public hearings. We've seen the presentations.
We've seen the documents. We waded through them and there's a whole lot more groups besides
just ours. And we've got Farm Bureau, Sierra Club, a whole host of groups from the left and the
right. TUCKER: In Kansas a resolution opposing the superhighway overwhelmingly passed the
State House.
Note: To watch a video of this Lou Dobbs Tonight segment, click here.

They Rule the World

2008-05-25, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR20080522033...
David Rothkopf's Superclass [can be viewed] as a map of how the world really works. Rothkopf, a
former managing director of Kissinger Associates and an international trade official in the Clinton
Administration, has identified roughly 6,000 individuals who have "the ability to regularly influence
the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide" ... with a growing allegiance ... to
each other rather than to any particular nation. Rothkopf [cites] the Pareto principle of distribution,
or the "80/20 rule," whereby 20 percent of the causes of anything are responsible for 80 percent of
the consequences. That means 20 percent of the money-makers make 80 percent of the
money and 20 percent of the politicians make 80 percent of the important decisions. That
20 percent belongs to the superclass. Superclass ... is as much about who is not part of the
superclass as who is. As I read Rothkopf's chronicles of elite gatherings -- Davos, Bilderberg, the
Bohemian Grove (all male), Fathers and Sons (all male) -- I was repeatedly struck by the near
absence of women. When Rothkopf summarizes "how to become a member of the superclass,"
his first rule is "be born a man." Only 6 percent of the superclass is female. Superclass is written in
part as a consciousness-raising exercise for members of the superclass themselves. Rothkopf
worries that "the world they are making" is deeply unequal and ultimately unstable. But it's likely to
take more than exhortation. In the words of former Navy Secretary John Lehman, "Power corrupts.
Absolute power is kind of neat." Why would the superclass want to give it up?
Note: The website www.theyrule.net allows visitors to trace the connections between individuals
who serve on the boards of top corporations, universities, think thanks, foundations and other elite
institutions. For lots more on secret societies, click here.

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand

2008-04-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?ex=1366344000&en...
In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over
Guantnamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded the gulag of our times by
Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights
experts and calls were mounting for its closure. The administrations communications experts
responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of
the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully
orchestrated tour of Guantnamo. To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity,
presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as military analysts whose long
service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing
issues of the post-Sept. 11 world. Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a
Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate
favorable news coverage of the administrations wartime performance. The effort, which

began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological
and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to
military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. Those
business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers. But collectively, the men on the
plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either
as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants.
Note: This excellent article should be read in its entirety. For a related video presentation, click
here. For an analysis, click here.

In Rwanda, visionary doctor is moving mountains again

2008-04-13, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/04/13/in_rwanda_visionary_docto...
It was November 2004, and Dr. Paul Farmer had agreed to bring his world-renowned Partners in
Health model to Rwanda, which was still reeling from the aftershocks of the genocide a decade
earlier. Now here he was, with Rwandan health officials, to scout out a location for a hospital to
serve the poorest of the poor. Farmer, who teaches at Harvard, was taken to Ruhengeri, in the
country's northwest corner. But there was already a clean hospital there, with employees and even
an X-ray machine. "No, no, no. You don't understand," Farmer recalls saying. "Find me the worst
possible place in the country." So they took him to Rwinkwavu, a remote area two hours
east of Kigali. Even Farmer - who works in the world's worst regions - was taken aback.
There were no beds, no patients, no staff, no medical equipment. "It was abandoned, dirty
and scary," Farmer says. There were 200,000 people in the district and not a single doctor. It was
the perfect place for Farmer. In the summer of 2005, the doors opened at Rwinkwavu Hospital,
which now sees 250 patients a day, some of them walking hours to get there. Farmer, [Dr. Michael
Rich, who is Rwanda country director for Partners in Health], and their Rwandan counterparts
have built a second hospital in an equally remote area of 200,000 - also without a single doctor and built or renovated 19 health centers that feed patients to them. A third hospital is on the
drawing board, designed by Harvard architecture students. Ultimately, they plan to expand rural
medical services to the entire country. Now 20 years old, Partners in Health, with its emphasis on
treating poverty as well as disease, has expanded to nine countries.
Note: Five years ago, Farmer became reluctantly famous with the publication of Tracy Kidder's
best-selling book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, which told the story of the brash Harvard Medical
School graduate who changed the face of healthcare in rural Haiti.

Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'

2008-04-09, ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4583256

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush
administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda
suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News. The
so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined"
interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one
method at a time -- on [captives] who proved difficult to break, sources said. The high-level
discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources
said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of
times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. The advisers were members of the National Security
Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise
President Bush on issues of national security policy. At the time, the Principals Committee
included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA
Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft. Rice chaired the meetings, which
took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the
principals or their deputies. According to multiple sources, it was members of the Principals
Committee that not only discussed specific plans and specific interrogation methods, but approved
them. The Principals also approved interrogations that combined different methods, pushing the
limits of international law and even the Justice Department's own legal approval in the [infamous]
2002 memo.

Jenny McCarthy: My son's recovery from autism

2008-04-02, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/
We've met some of the most amazing moms and dads who are forging their own path to
prevention and recovery. When our son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism we were lucky enough
to benefit from their knowledge and experience. Evan has been healed to a great extent by many
breakthroughs that, while perhaps not scientifically proven, have definitely helped Evan and many
other children who are recovering from autism. We believe what helped Evan recover was
starting a gluten-free, casein-free diet, vitamin supplementation, detox of metals, and antifungals for yeast overgrowth that plagued his intestines. Once Evan's neurological function
was recovered through these medical treatments, speech therapy and applied behavior
analysis helped him quickly learn the skills he could not learn while he was frozen in
autism. After we implemented these therapies for one year, the state re-evaluated Evan for further
services. They spent five minutes with Evan and said, "What happened? We've never seen a
recovery like this." Evan is now 5 years old and what might surprise a lot of you is that we've never
been contacted by a single member of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, or any other
health authority to evaluate and understand how Evan recovered from autism. When Evan meets
doctors and neurologists, to this day they tell us he was misdiagnosed -- that he never had autism
to begin with. It's as if they are wired to believe that children can't recover from autism.

Note: This article is written by Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, actors and parents actively
involved in autism-related causes. McCarthy is the author of the book Louder Than Words: A
Mother's Journey in Healing Autism. Don't miss a great three-minute video of McCarthy on CNN
talking about her experience with vaccines and autism. Explore a treasure trove of concise
summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Veterans recall horrors of war in live broadcast

2008-03-16, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/16/veterans_recall_horrors_...
Jeffery Smith recalled how his Army unit beat and humiliated Iraqi prisoners. Former Marine Bryan
Casler recounted how fellow Marines urinated and defecated into food and gave it to Iraqi children.
Former Marine Matthew Childers talked about how he used to humiliate Iraqi civilians during
predawn raids on their homes. When he described turning away an Iraqi father who was asking
American troops to help the badly burned baby he carried in his arms, Jackson began to weep
silently. "These soldiers are saying: 'I'm complicit,' " said [Liz] Jackson, 29, a community organizer
from Cambridge. "But every American citizen who saw this happen and isn't out there protesting is
complicit. I include myself." Hundreds of soldiers and Marines from across the country are
testifying this weekend in the "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" hearings, a four-day event
held at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. The event is named after the 1971 Winter
Soldier hearings in which Vietnam War veterans testified in a Detroit hotel about war crimes they
had participated in or witnessed. The hearings, which began Thursday and end today, were
organized by the Iraq Veterans Against War, a national antiwar organization, and broadcast live in
locations across the country. The veterans who testified called for an immediate withdrawal of US
troops from Iraq. On Friday, more than a dozen Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from Massachusetts
drove to Silver Spring to observe and participate in the hearings. One of them, Ian J. Lavallee, an
Iraq war veteran from Jamaica Plain, said in a phone interview, "We dehumanized people. The
way we spoke about them, the way we destroyed their livelihoods, their families, doing
raids, manhandling them, throwing the men on the ground while their family was crying. I
became a person I never thought I would become," he said.
Note: To listen to audio archives of the live Winter Soldier broadcasts, click here. For a powerful
essay by a former highly decorated U.S. general on how war is meant to dehumanize both soldiers
and civilians, click here.

9/11 Commission Chief's Ties to White House

2008-03-08, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/they-knew-but-did-nothing/2008/03/07/1204780...
The members of Mike Hurley's [9/11 Commisson investigative] team were ... alarmed by the
revelations, week by week, month by month, of how close the commission's chief director, Philip
Zelikow, was to Rice and others at the White House. They learned early on about Zelikow's

work on the Bush transition team in 2000 and early 2001, and about how much antipathy
there was between him and ["Counterterrorism Czar"] Richard Clarke. They heard the
stories about Zelikow's role in developing the "pre-emptive war" strategy at the White
House in 2002. Zelikow's friendships with Rice and others were a particular problem for Warren
Bass, since Rice and Clarke were at the heart of his part of the investigation. It was clear to some
members of team that they could not have an open discussion in front of Zelikow about Rice and
her performance as National Security Adviser. For Hurley's team, there was a reverse problem
with Clarke. It was easy to talk about Clarke in Zelikow's presence, as long as the conversation
centred on Clarke's failings at the NSC and his purported dishonesty. Long before Bass had seen
Clarke's files, Zelikow made it clear to the team's investigators that Clarke should not be believed,
that his testimony would be suspect. He argued that Clarke was a braggart who would try to
rewrite history to justify his errors and slander his enemies, Rice in particular.
Note: This critique of the close ties to the White House of Philip Zelikow, Executive Director of the
9/11 Commission, is an excerpt from Philip Shenon's new book, The Commission: The
Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. For an even deeper analysis of the Commission's
failings, read WantToKnow.info team member David Ray Griffin's book, The 9/11 Commission
Report: Omissions and Distortions.

Prozac, used by 40m people, does not work say scientists

2008-02-26, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/26/mentalhealth.medicalresearch
Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and
nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today. The study
examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the
manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients
taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill. When all the data was pulled together,
it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as
those on the drugs. The only exception is in the most severely depressed patients, according to
the authors - Prof Irving Kirsch from the department of psychology at Hull University and
colleagues in the US and Canada. But that is probably because the placebo stopped working so
well, they say, rather than the drugs having worked better. "Given these results, there seems little
reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients,
unless alternative treatments have failed," says Kirsch. "This study raises serious issues that need
to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported." The paper,
published today in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine, is likely to have a
significant impact on the prescribing of the drugs. The National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence already recommends that counselling should be tried before doctors prescribe
antidepressants.
Note: For many key reports on health issues from reliable sources, click here.

The three trillion dollar war

2008-02-23, The Telegraph (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/articl...
The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs
of the war. The president and his advisers [forecast] a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have
a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of direct US military
operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already
exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean
War. And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the
cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of
the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when
16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars,
after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion. Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The
price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in
treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised
to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the
illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter.
But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been
deferred, possibly to another generation. From the unhealthy brew of emergency funding, multiple
sets of books, and chronic underestimates of the resources required to prosecute the war, we have
attempted to identify how much we have been spending - and how much we will, in the end, likely
have to spend. The figure we arrive at is more than $3 trillion. Our calculations are based on
conservative assumptions.
Note: For many reports from major media sources which reveal massive war profiteering, click
here.

U.S. Payments To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny

2008-02-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/20/ST2008022002819...
Once a month, Pakistan's Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S.
Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to
100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border. No receipts are
attached. In response, the Defense Department has disbursed about $80 million monthly, or
roughly $1 billion a year for the past six years, in one of the most generous U.S. military
support programs worldwide. But vague accounting, disputed expenses and suspicions
about overbilling have recently made these payments to Pakistan highly controversial -even within the U.S. government. Questions have already been raised about where the money
went and what the Bush administration got in return. In perhaps the most disputed series of
payments, Pakistan received about $80 million a month in 2006 and 2007 for military operations
during cease-fires with pro-Taliban tribal elders along the border, including a 10-month truce in

which troops returned to their barracks. U.S. officials say the payments to Pakistan -- which over
the past six years have totaled $5.7 billion -- were cheap compared with expenditures on Iraq,
where the United States now spends at least $1 billion a week on military operations alone.
Congressional officials and others are concerned that the administration has been so eager to
prop up Musharraf that it overlooked U.S. foreign aid and accounting standards. A congressional
oversight subcommittee is also set to begin an investigation next month, while the Government
Accountability Office plans to finish its own inquiry in April.

Jamie Johnson On ''The One Percent''

2008-02-20, Forbes magazine
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/20/wealth-jamie-johnson-biz-cx_lr_0219johnson1....
For most of the moneyed class, an inquiry into their wealth elicits silence and cringes. Not so with
28-year-old Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. For the
Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, wealth is the focus of his life's work. In Johnson's first
documentary, Born Rich, he exposed how 10 children from families like the Trumps and the
Newhouses spent their time and their fortunes. Now he turns the camera on his own family in
The One Percent. Johnson's documentary ... offers a rarefied view of the scandalously
secretive world of "the one percent," a small segment of the U.S. population that owns
roughly 40% of the country's wealth. Through a series of interviews with high-profile figures like
Bill Gates Sr., U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and economist Milton Friedman, Johnson
explores the disparity of wealth in America. Forbes.com: You got your own father, as well as other
phenomenally wealthy people, to talk to you. How did you get these folks to open up about such
an intensely private topic? Johnson: It wasn't easy. A lot of patience there was a lot of waiting
around. Forbes: I imagine you'll have critics who will call this "rich boy's guilt." What do you say to
them? Johnson: That both liberal and conservative economists agree that there is a growing
wealth gap, and that it's a problem. It's important to get wealthy people to think about this and think
about solving this problem. They are the most influential people in our society and therefore, they
should be working on treating this and coming up with a solution.
Note: The films of Jamie Johnson give very rare views into the lives of the upper crust that are
incredibly revealing. For another article at CNN on his excellent documentary Born Rich, click
here. To see revealing video clips, click here.

Advertisers using 'directed sound' to get in your head

2008-02-19, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta's leading newspaper)
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/business/stories/2008/02/18/sound_0219.html
If you hear mysterious voices in your head the next time you stroll down the street, they may be
trying to sell you something. That was the case recently in New York when people walking beneath
a billboard for the A&E show "Paranormal State" suddenly heard a woman's disembodied voice
whisper: "Who's there? Who's there?" and "It's not your imagination." The creepy effect was

caused by technology called Audio Spotlight that projects sound in a focused beam so only
people in a certain spot can hear it. "The idea of directing sound was a real uphill battle
when we first started, but all of a sudden people are coming to us saying, 'We have to have
directional sound. We don't want all this noise in our store,' " said Woody Norris, founder of
American Technology Corp. in San Diego. Norris said he has sold many units for use with video
screens in checkout lines in ... grocery stores so audio can reach waiting customers without
constantly bombarding store workers. While some of the advertising applications are recent,
directed sound is often used in museums and other places where sound must be focused on
people standing in front of an exhibit or display without disturbing those around them. Smithsonian
museums in Washington have used [such] systems [as have] the New York Public Library, the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts and ... the observation deck of the Seattle Space Needle. Directedsound devices ... use narrow beams of ultrasound waves that can't be heard by human ears. The
beam distorts air as it passes through, generating sound people can hear along its length.
Note: It's not hard to imagine non-advertising uses for this invasive technology. Could it possibly
be used to influence people's thinking in ways other than advertising?

U.S. Officials Divulge Reports On Confidential U.N. Audits

2008-02-17, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/16/AR20080216022...
The Bush administration has been posting hundreds of highly confidential U.N. audits and
investigation reports on a U.S. government Web site, opening the United Nations' inner workings
and some of its more colorful scandals to unusual public scrutiny. Together, the nearly 500
documents and thousands of pages constitute a trove of U.N. secrets stretching back over five
years, including allegations of bribes paid for tsunami relief projects in Indonesia, of sexual
harassment in Gaza and a revelation that a U.N. anti-drug official ran a presidential campaign
while receiving a U.N. paycheck. The pages also document a spree of alleged criminal activities,
including a bribery scheme at the airport in Pristina, Kosovo, gold trading by U.N. peacekeepers in
Congo, and the theft and resale of food rations by Ukrainian pilots serving the United Nations in
Liberia. Mark D. Wallace, the U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform, has posted
477 documents. Most of the names of those targeted in the reports have been redacted by the
United Nations, but the identities are easily deciphered. For years, the United Nations has
guarded the confidentiality of its audits, saying they are meant as constructive criticism for
managers. Their disclosure by the United States has generated a mixed reaction from U.N.
officials: One said it was ironic that an administration that has placed such a premium on
secrecy would be so transparent about the United Nations.
Note: For many reliable reports on increasing government secrecy, click here.

How the spooks took over the news

2008-02-11, The Independent (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-the-spooks-took-over-the-news-780...
On the morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story.
The paper's Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the
"inner circle" of al-Qa'ida's leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in
Iraq was effectively to start a civil war. The story went on to news agency wires and, within 24
hours, it was running around the world. There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a
fake and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one
product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the
United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. For the first time
in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the
mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it. The
sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural
weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. The "Zarqawi letter" which made it on to
the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect
documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into
news media. This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to
work without effective oversight; and also by a new ... structure of "strategic communications"
which was originally designed ... in the Pentagon and Nato.
Note: This article is an edited excerpt from investigative journalist Nick Davies' new book, Flat
Earth News: an award-winning reporter exposes falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the
global media. To read about or purchase it, click here. For a highly revealing two-page summary of
20 award-winning journalists describing how huge stories they tried to report were shut down by
corporate media ownership, click here.

Dallas hospital room where JFK died now stored in Kansas

2008-02-07, Dallas Morning News (Dallas' leading newspaper)
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/020708dnmet...
A piece of JFK assassination history now lies buried in the most unlikely of places: a former
limestone quarry in Kansas. It is the end at least for now in the long and sometimes strange
journey of Parkland Memorial Hospital Trauma Room No. 1, where President John F. Kennedy
died on Nov. 22, 1963. The entire room was purchased by the federal government 35 years ago,
when Parkland officials decided to modernize their emergency facilities. It was dismantled and the
contents all of them, the examination table, clocks, floor tiling, lockers, trash cans, surgical
instruments, gloves, cotton balls, even a towel dispenser were placed in a locked vault in a Fort
Worth warehouse run by the National Archives and Records Administration. The artifacts lay
undisturbed there until September, when they were moved to an archives facility in Lenexa, Kan.,
a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. "It's in a secure location," Reed Whitaker, the agency's Central
Plains Region administrator, confirmed last week. And in a comment guaranteed to get the
conspiracy theorists going, he added: "Basically, it's not to be examined, not to be shown

to the press, not to be photographed, not to be exhibited to the public." Under the sale
agreement between Parkland and the federal government, archives officials agreed to close the
trauma room and its contents to the public, saying that they wanted to shield the pieces from
exploitation. A formal request in 2000 from The Dallas Morning News to view and photograph the
artifacts was summarily rejected.
Note: For a treasure trove of revealing stories from reliable sources on major assassinations, click
here.

Rule by fear or rule by law?

2008-02-04, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/04/ED5OUPQJ7.DTL
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has
assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and
noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an
emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed
locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several
companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles,
ostensibly to transport detainees. According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the
KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal
the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists." What kind of "new programs"
require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union
with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people? The 2007 National Defense Authorization
Act (NDAA) ... gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. The Military Commissions Act
of 2006 ... allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who ... speaks out against the
government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike. What could
the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without
recourse millions of its own citizens?
Note: This important warning from former U.S. Congressman Dan Hamburg and Lewis Seiler
should be read in its entirety. For more chilling reports on serious threats to our civil liberties, click
here.

Turning physics on its ear

2008-02-04, Toronto Star (Toronto's leading newspaper)
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/300042

Thane Heins is nervous and hopeful. In four days the Ottawa-area native will travel to Boston
where he'll demonstrate an invention that appears ... to operate as a perpetual motion machine.
The audience, esteemed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Markus Zahn, could
either deflate Heins' heretical claims or add momentum to a 20-year obsession. Zahn is a leading
expert on electromagnetic and electronic systems. In a rare move for any reputable academic, he
has agreed to give Heins' creation an open-minded look rather than greet it with outright dismissal.
The invention ... could moderately improve the efficiency of induction motors, used in everything
from electric cars to ceiling fans. At best it means a way of tapping the mysterious powers of
electromagnetic fields to produce more work out of less effort, seemingly creating electricity from
nothing. Heins has modified his test so the effects observed are difficult to deny. He holds a
permanent magnet a few centimetres away from the driveshaft of an electric motor, and the
magnetic field it creates causes the motor to accelerate. Contacted by phone a few hours after the
test, Zahn is genuinely stumped and surprised. He said the magnet shouldn't cause
acceleration. "It's an unusual phenomenon I wouldn't have predicted in advance. But I saw
it. It's real. To my mind this is unexpected and new," he [said]. "There are an infinite number of
induction machines in people's homes and everywhere around the world. If you could make them
more efficient, cumulatively, it could make a big difference."
Note: For a treasure trove of reports on new energy breakthroughs from reliable, verifiable
sources, click here.

Stimulus Plan a Scam to Benefit the Rich

2008-02-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/IN8LUO095.DTL
Congress is about to sell us the biggest fraud in American history. It's been highly touted as an
economic stimulus bill that will help millions of Americans. As part of the bill, Congress is set to
rush through an increase in the mortgage loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and
Federal Housing Administration insurance, too) - from $417,000 to $729,750 - the first step toward
a massive financial disaster in which taxpayers will end up paying through the nose. Now, thanks
to Congress, junk bond investors will be able to pawn off their bad debt to Fannie and
Freddie. This shift will certainly doom Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so don't be surprised if
we, the taxpayers, have to bail out poor Fannie and Freddie - to the tune of more than $1
trillion. The irony here is that the collapse in housing prices could make Fannie insolvent even
without raising the loan limit. Increasing Fannie's limit is like going on a spending spree with your
credit cards because you know you are going to file for bankruptcy in a few months. Only here the
taxpayer is left holding the bag. Our children will pay interest on this debt in perpetuity. It is our
debt. It is inescapable. In the coming months, Fannie and Freddie will buy up mortgages based on
old, fraudulent appraisals and on loans with bogus inflated incomes. Unfortunately, many of these
loans will still default. Expansion of Fannie and Freddie's reckless lending is exactly what
Congress wants because it's plausibly deniable. Teary-eyed lawmakers can take to the airwaves a

year from now and declare: "We had no idea Fannie could go under, but we can't cut and run now.
Those same lawmakers won't mention the fact that they get paid far more by real estate lobbyists
than they do from our Treasury.
Note: The author wrote this article seven months before the collapse of Fannie Mae and eight
months before the huge banking bailout. For more news articles suggestion major manipulations to
transfer public tax monies to the banking sector, click here.

Humming a greener tune for vehicles

2008-01-24, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/24/it.greentech
In 2000 Jonathan Goodwin, a self-described "gearhead", bought his first Hummer, an old H1, in
Denver, Colorado. "The thing did eight miles to the gallon and nought to 60 in about two days," he
recalls. On his drive home to Wichita, Kansas, it broke down three times. The engine died. Rather
than fix the engine, he replaced it with a new Duramax diesel and doubled the fuel economy to 20
miles per US gallon (equivalent to 24 miles per Imperial gallon), tripled the horsepower to 600 and
quadrupled the torque to 1,200ft lbs. Driven by his quest for more power and less consumption he
had inadvertently stumbled across a solution for America's SUV-loving masses. The byproduct of
the system he installed is lower emissions - a greener output for these thirsty beasts. "Now we can
have our cake and eat it," he says. "It's difficult for these huge companies. The technology is there
to make cars that have vastly improved consumption figures already, but they're driven by the
need to sell all the cars they currently make," Goodwin says. "If they announced they were
bringing out a 100mpg car then no-one would buy the old line." Goodwin sees three stages to a
process of change: converting all autos to diesel which can then run on biofuel, making the
step to bio-electric and finally to hydroelectric, meaning cars will run on water.
Note: For more on this amazing man and his cool inventions, click here.

For Modern Kids, 'Philanthropy' Is No Grown-Up Word

2007-12-30, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR20071229018...
In lieu of presents at her 12th birthday party this year, Maddie Freed of Potomac asked her friends
to bring money, and she raised $800 for Children's Hospital. Eight-year-old Jenny Hoekman saves
a third of what she makes walking dogs, and this month the Takoma Park girl donated it to help her
Brownie troop sponsor an immigrant family. And in Club Penguin, a popular online game club for
the elementary school set, more than 2.5 million kids gave their virtual earnings to charities in a
contest this month. In response, the site's founders are giving $1 million to charities based on the
children's preferences. Young children and teenagers across the nation are getting involved in
philanthropy more than ever, according to research and nonprofit experts, who credit new
technologies with the rise of the trend. As young people increasingly become exposed to and

connected with the problems of the world via the Internet and television, experts said, parents are
finding new ways to instill in their children the value of giving. At the same time, technology is
democratizing philanthropy so giving is not only easier for people of all ages and means, but also
trendier. And children are starting to organize at the grass-roots level to give. "We've globalized
technology, we've globalized commerce, but we haven't globalized compassion," said Craig
Kielburger, founder of Free the Children, a nonprofit network of kids helping kids. "But
we're seeing a generation of kids, ages 10 to 15, who are aware of global problems, and
they're really searching to help. The next step is to help kids move from that awareness to
action." Eileen Barber, 10, of Charlottesville said she gave her Club Penguin coins to the World
Wildlife Fund to help animals. "It sort of seemed like they have a lot more needs than us," Barber
said. "With global warming and stuff, I figured it would be nicer to look beyond just myself."

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics

2007-12-22, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR20071221025...
The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of
peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities
to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and
palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it
receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to
rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and
talk, to ... identify [people]. The increasing use of biometrics for identification is raising questions
about the ability of Americans to avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who
worry that people's bodies will become de facto national identification cards. "It's going to
be an essential component of tracking," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology
and Liberty Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's enabling the Always On
Surveillance Society." The FBI's biometric database ... communicates with the Terrorist
Screening Center's database of suspects and the National Crime Information Center database,
which is the FBI's master criminal database of felons, fugitives and terrorism suspects. At the West
Virginia University Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) ... researchers are
working on capturing images of people's irises at distances of up to 15 feet, and of faces from as
far away as 200 yards. Soon, those researchers will do biometric research for the FBI. Covert irisand face-image capture is several years away, but it is of great interest to government agencies.
Note: For many important major-media reports on threats to privacy, click here.

Senator Reveals Secret Bush Legal Opinions

2007-12-07, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/07/politics/main3591448.shtml

A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said ... President Bush is standing by "feverish
legal theories" to justify actions which are unconstitutional. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.,
made the comments on the Senate floor during debate. Whitehouse said that ... he had examined
"highly classified secret legal opinions" issued by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal
Counsel [OLC]. Whitehouse recounted that, "Sitting in that secure room, as a lawyer, as a former
U.S. Attorney, legal counsel to Rhode Islands Governor, and State Attorney General, I was
increasingly dismayed and amazed as I read on." Whitehouse related three OLC legal opinions
which he got declassified: "An executive order cannot limit a President. There is no
constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to
depart from the terms of a previous executive order."; ... "The President ... can determine
whether an action is a lawful exercise of the Presidents authority"; [and] "The Department
of Justice is bound by the Presidents legal determinations." "Imagine a general counsel to a
major U.S. corporation telling his board of directors, 'In this company the counsels office is bound
by the CEOs legal determinations,'" Whitehouse said. "The board ought to throw that lawyer out its malpractice, probably even unethical." We are a nation of laws, not of men. This nation was
founded in rejection of the royalist principles that ... 'The King can do no wrong'."
Note: To hear the revealing Senate speech on this vital topic by Senator Whitehouse, a member of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, click here. For Whitehouse's comments on this topic on his
Senate website, click here.

A way to squeeze oil and gas from just about anything

2007-12-00, Popular Science magazine
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html
Everything that goes into Frank Pringles recycling machine a piece of tire, a rock, a
plastic cup turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. Ive been told the oil companies
might try to assassinate me, Pringle says without sarcasm. The machine is a microwave
emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects. Every hour, the first
commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste tires, plastic, vinyl into enough natural gas
to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).
Pringle created the machine about 10 years ago after he drove by a massive tire fire and thought
about the energy being released. He went home and threw bits of a tire in a microwave emitter
hed been working with for another project. It turned to what looked like ash, but a few hours later,
he returned and found a black puddle on the floor of the unheated workshop. Somehow, hed
struck oil. Or rather, he had extracted it. Petroleum is composed of strings of hydrocarbon
molecules. When microwaves hit the tire, they crack the molecular chains and break it into its
component parts: carbon black (an ash-like raw material) and hydrocarbon gases, which can be
burned or condensed into liquid fuel. If the process worked on tires, he thought, it should work on
anything with hydrocarbons. The trick was in finding the optimum microwave frequency for each
material. In 2004 he teamed up with engineer pal Hawk Hogan to take the machine commercial.

Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. Its a $5.1-million microwave machine
the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. Oil
companies are looking to the machines to gasify petroleum trapped in shale.
Note: For many exciting breakthroughs in new energy technologies, click here.

Get kids vaccinated or go to jail?

2007-11-17, USA Today/Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-17-vaccines-school_N.htm
Scores of grumbling parents facing a threat of jail lined up at a courthouse Saturday to either prove
that their school-age kids already had their required vaccinations or see that the youngsters
submitted to the needle. The get-tough policy in the Washington suburbs of Prince George's
County was one of the strongest efforts made by any U.S. school system to ensure its youngsters
receive their required immunizations. Two months into the school year, school officials realized that
more than 2,000 students in the county still didn't have the vaccinations they were supposed to
have before attending class. So Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols ordered parents in a letter to
appear at the courthouse Saturday and either get their children vaccinated on the spot or risk up to
10 days in jail. They could also provide proof of vaccination or an explanation why their kids didn't
have them. "It was very heavy handed," [school mom Aloma Martin] said of the county's action.
"From that letter, it sounded like they were going to start putting us in jail." Any children who still
lack immunizations could be expelled. Their parents could then be brought up on truancy charges,
which can result in a 10-day jail sentence for a first offense and 30 days for a second. Maryland,
like all states, requires children to be immunized against several childhood illnesses including
polio, mumps and measles. In recent years, it also has required that students up to high school
age be vaccinated against hepatitis B and chicken pox. Several organizations opposed to mass
vaccinations demonstrated outside the courthouse. While the medical consensus is that vaccines
are safe and effective, some people blame immunizations for a rise in autism and other
medical problems. "People should have a choice" in getting their children immunized, said
Charles Frohman, representing a physicians' group opposed to vaccines.
Note: For more revealing major media reports on the complex issues surrounding vaccinations,
click here.

Analysts See Merck Victory in Vioxx Settlement

2007-11-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/business/10merck.html
Three years after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market, Merck has agreed
to pay $4.85 billion to settle 27,000 lawsuits by people who claim they or their family
members suffered injury or died after taking the drug. The settlement, one of the largest ever
in civil litigation, comes after nearly 20 Vioxx civil trials over the last two years from New Jersey to

California. After losing a $253 million verdict in the first case, Merck has won most of the rest of the
cases that reached juries, giving plaintiffs little choice but to settle. Based on the fact that the
27,000 suits cover about 47,000 sets of plaintiffs, the average plaintiff will receive just over
$100,000 before legal fees and expenses, which usually swallow between 30 and 50 percent of
payments to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs who do not want to accept the settlement can pursue their own
claims, but with so many of the top trial lawyers in the United States agreeing to the deal, they may
have difficulty doing so. The settlement does not end the government investigations that Merck
faces, which include both civil and criminal inquires from several states and the Justice
Department. But for Merck, which has already spent more than $1.2 billion on Vioxx-related legal
fees, the settlement will put to rest any fears that Vioxx lawsuits might bankrupt the company, or
even have a significant financial impact.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, click here.

Symington: I saw a UFO in the Arizona sky

2007-11-09, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/09/simington.ufocommentary/
In 1997, during my second term as governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and
challenged my reality. I witnessed a massive delta-shaped craft silently navigate over Squaw
Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking. As a pilot and a
former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any manmade object I'd ever seen. The incident was witnessed by hundreds -- if not thousands -- of
people in Arizona, and my office was besieged with phone calls from very concerned Arizonians.
The growing hysteria intensified when the story broke nationally. I decided to lighten the mood of
the state by calling a press conference where my chief of staff arrived in an alien costume. We
managed to lessen the sense of panic but, at the same time, upset many of my constituents. I
would now like to set the record straight. I never meant to ridicule anyone. My office did make
inquiries as to the origin of the craft, but to this day they remain unanswered. Eventually the Air
Force claimed responsibility stating that they dropped flares. This is indicative of the attitude from
official channels. We get explanations that fly in the face of the facts. Explanations like weather
balloons, swamp gas and military flares. I was never happy with the Air Force's silly explanation. I
now know that I am not alone. There are many high-ranking military, aviation and government
officials who share my concerns. While on active duty, they have either witnessed a UFO incident
or have conducted an official investigation into UFO cases relevant to aviation safety and national
security. By speaking out with me, these people are putting their reputations on the line.
Investigations need to be re-opened, documents need to be unsealed and the idea of an open
dialogue can no longer be shunned.
Note: For a two-page summary of UFO testimony by top government and military officials, click
here.

Plan 9 from outer space

2007-11-03, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/plan-9-from-outer-space/2007/11/02/119361914...
In January 1979, The New York Times reported that despite repeated, feverish denials, the CIA
had indeed investigated the UFO phenomenon. The report is said to have so upset the then CIA
director, Stansfield Turner, that he reportedly asked his staff: "Are we in UFOs?" The answer was
yes. This year a raft of newly unclassified CIA documents revealed that the remote
possibility of alien invasion elicited greater fear than the threat of a Soviet nuclear attack.
The subject of UFOs ... not only focused the attention of the US government elite for 50
years, but of some of the greatest scientific and military minds of the era. The CIA
documents show that despite decades of repeated public denials, behind the scenes there raged a
series of inter-agency feuds that involved the highest levels of the US government. UFO files cover
everything from "flying saucers over Belgian Congo uranium mines" to Nazi "flying saucers". A
1953 memo shows that the physicist John Wheeler, while critically involved with Edward Teller in
the creation of the hydrogen bomb, was available to the "CIA attack on the flying saucer" problem.
A secret 1995 report was titled: CIA's role in the study of UFOs 1947-90: a diehard issue. Written
by Gerald Haines, the CIA's National Reconnaissance Office historian, its detailed summary of CIA
involvement inadvertently undermined its "UFOs-don't-exist" conclusion. Although the air force was
the agency given the task of investigating UFOs from 1948 onwards, the CIA remained deeply
involved. Some of their highlights, quoting directly from the documents, include: "[Since] 1947
there have been about 1500 official reports of sightings and [of these] the air force carries 20 per
cent as unexplained."
Note: For a concise summary of UFO evidence from highly-respected former US government and
military officials, click here.

U.S. Medical Schools, Drug Makers Share Strong Ties

2007-10-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR20071016014...
More than half of department chairs at U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals have financial
ties with the drug industry, a new study finds. "There is not a single aspect of medicine in which the
drug companies do not have substantial and deep relationships, [including] doctors-in-training,
resident physicians, researchers, physicians-in-practice, the people who review drugs for the
federal government and the people who review studies," said lead researcher Eric Campbell,
associate professor at the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital and
Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Drug companies have relationships with everyone," he
continued. "They're involved in every aspect of medicine. Someone has to decide which of these is
OK." The study, the first to examine the extent of these institutional relationships, is published in
the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "I think the paper is a very
valuable contribution, in that it provides what's probably the first comprehensive documentation of
the extent of relationships that involve department chairs, and department chairs are certainly the

key agents of overseeing and maintaining the day-to-day operations of a medical school or
teaching hospital," said Dr. David Korn ... at the Association of American Medical Colleges in
Washington, D.C. The issue of medicine's ties to industry has been a hot one of late. One study
found that third-year medical students get, on average, one gift or attend one activity sponsored by
a drug maker each week. "Now it's up to the policymakers and people who run medical
schools," said Campbell. "They need to come up with some rules and they need to be new
rules. I believe there's very little reasonable justification for why drug companies should be
involved in the education of medical students."
Note: For a powerful overview of medical corruption, click here.

CIA director investigating watchdog

2007-10-12, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/12/MNP1SOQI9.DTL
CIA Director Michael Hayden has mounted a highly unusual challenge to his agency's chief
watchdog, ordering an internal investigation of an inspector general who has issued a series of
reports sharply critical of top CIA officials. Hayden is seeking to rein in an inspector general who
has used the office to bring ... scrutiny upon CIA figures from former Director George Tenet to
undercover operatives running secret overseas prison sites. The investigation is focused on ... CIA
Inspector General John Helgerson and his office, particularly whether they were fair and impartial
in their scrutiny of the agency's terrorist detention and interrogation programs. Officials said that
the investigation also will span other subjects and that it already has expanded since its start
months ago. U.S. intelligence officials concerned about the inquiry said it is unprecedented
and could threaten the independence of the inspector general position. The investigation
"could at least lead to appearances he's trying to interfere with the IG, or intimidate the IG,
or get the IG to back off," one U.S. official familiar with the investigation said. Frederick Hitz, who
served as the CIA's inspector general from 1990 to 1998, said the move will be perceived as an
attempt by Hayden "to call off the dogs." "What it would lead to is an undercutting of the inspector
general's authority and his ability to investigate allegations of wrongdoing," Hitz said. "The rank
and file will become aware of it, and it will undercut the inspector general's ability to get the truth
from them." Hayden has been a staunch defender of the Bush administration's counterterrorism
programs.
Note: What does it say about an agency when they accuse their own internal investigator of being
corrupt?

New revelations in attack on American spy ship

2007-10-02, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-liberty_tuesoct02-story.html#page=1

Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for
heroism: "I'm angry! I'm seething with anger! Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!" Lockwood
was aboard the USS Liberty, a super-secret spy ship on station in the eastern Mediterranean,
when four Israeli fighter jets flew out of the afternoon sun to strafe and bomb the virtually
defenseless vessel on June 8, 1967, the fourth day of what would become known as the Six-Day
War. Four decades later, many of the more than two dozen Liberty survivors located and
interviewed by the Tribune cannot talk about the attack without shouting or weeping. Their anger
has been stoked by the declassification of government documents and the recollections of former
military personnel. In declassifying the most recent and largest batch of materials last June 8, the
40th anniversary of the attack, the NSA ... acknowledged that the attack had "become the center of
considerable controversy." It was not the agency's intention, it said, "to prove or disprove any one
set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material." Air Force
Capt. Richard Block was ... monitoring Middle Eastern communications [on June 8, 1967]. "Some
of the pilots did not want to attack," Block said. "The pilots said, 'This is an American ship. Do
you still want us to attack?'" And ground control came back and said, 'Yes, follow orders.'"
Note: The Jerusalem Post has now confirmed that Israel knew the USS Liberty was American.
Watch the powerfully incriminating documentary "The Day Israel Attacked America" about the
1967 intentional attack on the USS Liberty which was virtually erased from all historical accounts.

New revelations in attack on American spy ship

2007-10-02, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/chi-lib...
Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for
heroism, ordained Baptist minister, is shouting into the phone. "I'm angry! I'm seething with anger!
Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!" Lockwood was aboard the USS Liberty, a super-secret
spy ship on station in the eastern Mediterranean, when four Israeli fighter jets flew out of the
afternoon sun to strafe and bomb the virtually defenseless vessel on June 8, 1967, the fourth day
of what would become known as the Six-Day War. Four decades later, many of the more than two
dozen Liberty survivors located and interviewed by The Tribune cannot talk about the attack
without shouting or weeping. Their anger has been stoked by the declassification of government
documents and the recollections of former military personnel, including some quoted in this article
for the first time, which strengthen doubts about the U.S. National Security Agency's position
that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots -communications, according to those who remember seeing them, that showed the Israelis
knew they were attacking an American naval vessel. The documents also suggest that the U.S.
government, anxious to spare Israel's reputation and preserve its alliance with the U.S., closed the
case with what even some of its participants now say was a hasty and seriously flawed
investigation. In declassifying the most recent and largest batch of materials last June 8, the 40th
anniversary of the attack, the NSA, this country's chief U.S. electronic-intelligence-gatherer and
code-breaker, acknowledged that the attack had "become the center of considerable controversy

and debate." It was not the agency's intention, it said, "to prove or disprove any one set of
conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material," available at
http://www.nsa.gov/liberty.
Note: For photos, a BBC documentary, and more excellent information on this major cover-up,
click here.

Report Assails F.D.A. Oversight of Clinical Trials

2007-09-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/health/policy/28fda.html?ex=1348632000&en=d...
The Food and Drug Administration does very little to ensure the safety of the millions of people
who participate in clinical trials, a federal investigator has found. The inspector general of the
Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials did not
know how many clinical trials were being conducted, audited fewer than 1 percent of the testing
sites and, on the rare occasions when inspectors did appear, generally showed up long after the
tests had been completed. The F.D.A. has 200 inspectors, some of whom audit clinical trials part
time, to police an estimated 350,000 testing sites. Even when those inspectors found serious
problems in human trials, top drug officials in Washington downgraded their findings 68 percent of
the time, the report found. Among the remaining cases, the agency almost never followed up with
inspections to determine whether the corrective actions that the agency demanded had occurred.
In many ways, rats and mice get greater protection as research subjects in the United
States than do humans, said Arthur L. Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at
the University of Pennsylvania. Animal research centers have to register with the federal
government, keep track of subject numbers, have unannounced spot inspections and
address problems speedily or risk closing, none of which is true in human research, Mr.
Caplan said. Because no one collects the data systematically, there is no way to tell how safe the
nations clinical research is or ever has been. The drug agency oversees just the safety of trials by
companies seeking approval to sell drugs or devices. Using an entirely different set of rules, the
Office for Human Research Protections oversees trials financed by the federal government.
Privately financed noncommercial trials have no federal oversight.
Note: For further information on corruption in the health care industry, click here.

It's all Friedman's doing

2007-09-09, Toronto Star (Toronto's leading newspaper)
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/254550
[Naomi Klein in her new book The Shock Doctrine] argues persuasively that over the last 40 years,
no single thinker has shaped the economic and political policies of corporate CEOs, military
dictators, presidents, prime ministers and bankers more than [Milton] Friedman. His thesis was
simple: The job of governments is to facilitate the free flow of capital across national borders by

removing any impediments to trade [and establishing] a drastic regimen of market deregulation,
free trade treaties, spending cuts to social programs, the breaking of labour unions and mass
privatization of publicly owned resources and industries ... chiefly through the careful manipulation
of collective crises such as wars, military coups, natural disasters and economic recessions and
depressions. For Friedman's ideas to be implemented, a nation's existing economy and civic
society must first be reduced to a state of tabula rasa before being rebuilt according to the
[Chicago School] model. [Klein contends] that this capitalist doctrine also has its roots in a series
of mind-control experiments performed on often unwilling patients by psychiatrist Ewan Cameron,
working out of McGill University in the late 1950s. He imposed a sustained regimen of sensory
deprivation, isolation, enforced sleep and a cocktail of LSD, PCP, insulin and barbiturates [and] a
barrage of electroshock therapy. The CIA, which paid for Cameron's experiments, modified
these techniques for use in prisoner-interrogation sessions. The results were so good that
the CIA taught the methods to the Latin American security forces in charge of
reprogramming anyone who dared resist the devastating free market "reforms" that swept
through South and Central America after Augusto Pinochet's successful, Chicago-School inspired
(and CIA-sponsored) coup of populist leader Salvador Allende in 1973.
Special Note: For an incredibly revealing interview on the role of the Milton Friedman and the
Chicago school of economists in promoting radical change against democracy by using states of
public shock to push through unwanted changes, don't miss the powerful talk with Naomi Klein
available here.

The 50% MPG Gain That Detroit Won't Touch

2007-08-26, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR20070823016...
Gerald Rowley keeps his dreams in his garage. There ... he stores an aging Mazda 626 sedan
[specially outfitted with a] one-gallon steel box in the trunk connected to fuel lines leading to a
gasoline vaporizing device under the hood. The steel box holds one gallon of regular unleaded
gasoline. The device beneath the hood is called the VFS, Vaporizing Fuel System. I came here to
drive Rowley's VFS-equipped car. For years, I had spurned the invitations of homespun inventors
worldwide to travel to distant points to witness first-hand machines that could deliver 100 miles per
gallon or 200 miles per gallon. The claims sounded too incredible to believe -- ridiculous, in fact. If
such devices really worked, really did what their inventors said they did, why would they still be
sitting on shelves in anonymous workshops -- ignored by the driving public and all of the vehicle
manufacturers who serve them? What automobile manufacturer in its right mind, especially
with rising concerns about future oil availability and with gasoline prices escalating
worldwide, would not jump at the opportunity to acquire a device that delivered 100 miles
per gallon? Rowley's patented device is nothing new. It's just the latest iteration of an idea already
developed by others -- the notion that you could get more miles per gallon out of a traditional
gasoline engine if you pre-heated the fuel to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, thus turning it into a
vapor before it enters the combustion chamber. Vaporized fuel, when properly mixed with air,

burns more efficiently, saves fuel and emits fewer tailpipe pollutants than traditional fuel-air
mixtures in which gasoline is sprayed into a combustion chamber in tiny droplets and then mixed
with air before burning. All car companies know this.
Note: Why won't the car manufacturers develop this amazing, proven technology? For a possible
answer, click here. And for a treasure trove of exciting reports on new energy developments, click
here.

BeliefWatch: Reincarnate
2007-08-15, Newsweek Magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/2007/08/15/beliefwatch-reincarnate.html
In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet
from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State
Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly
stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize
management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the
influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's
Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan
country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the
law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose
soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering. "It
will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama
has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle
for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."

U.S. Military May Implant Chips In Troops' Brains

2007-08-02, KUTV (CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah)
http://www.kutv.com/local_story_215001119.html
Imagine a day when the U.S. government implants microchips inside the brains of U.S. soldiers.
Well you don't have to think too far into the future. The defense department is studying the idea
now. The chip would be the size of a grain of rice. How far is too far when it comes to privacy? The
department of defense recently awarded $1.6 million to Clemson University to develop an
implantable biochip. It would go into the brain using a new gel that prevents the human body from
rejecting it. The overall idea is to improve the quality and speed of care for fallen soldiers. "It's just
crazy. To me, it's like a bad sci-fi movie," says Yelena Slattery [from] the website
www.WeThePeopleWillNotBeChipped.com. Slattery says, "Soldiers can't choose not to get
certain things done because they become government property once they sign up. When
does it end? When does it become an infringement on a person's privacy?" Once the chip
is in, she says, could those soldiers be put on surveillance, even when they're off-duty? A

spokesman for veterans of foreign wars also urged caution. Joe Davis said, "If you have a chip
that's holding a gigabyte, or 10 gigs, like an iPod, what kind of information is going to be on there?
How could this be used against you if you were taken captive?"
Note: For a treasure trove of recent and reliable information on the increasing penetration of
microchips into our lives, click here.

For this club, life begins at 50 (%)

2007-07-29, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/07/29/for_this_club_life_b...
When David Ludlow's wife died in a climbing accident 11 years ago, her death transformed him
into a multimillionaire: He inherited Vanda Sendzimir's share of her family fortune, a $5 million trust
that generates an annual interest of about $300,000. Then a freelance photographer with a
passion for social justice issues, the Jamaica Plain man was plunged into a swirl of shock, guilt,
and confusion. "I've always been very left-wing politically and all of a sudden I was living incredible
inequality," said Ludlow, 64. "Suddenly I was in the upper 1 percent of the population in terms
of wealth, and I felt terrible about that for a long time." So he did something radical, and
something that many people might consider insane: He decided to give away half his
annual income. In doing so, Ludlow joined a small, unusual, and growing community: The 50%
League, an Arlington-based group of people who contribute at least half their income, business
profits, or net worth to charity. Members from across the country have been welcomed into an elite
circle of givers and asked to share their stories publicly, even if anonymously, to inspire other
givers. Their motivations are manifold: Some give out of a sense of fairness, personal satisfaction
or a desire for simplicity; others are driven by religious faith or dedication to a cause. Many are
anonymous philanthropists, and not all of them have great wealth: Some are members of the
middle class, but have chosen to survive on less so they can give more. Above all, they aim to
stand as role models, and to encourage others of all income levels to think about their giving
potential. "I feel incredibly privileged, and I still feel guilty about that," said Ludlow, who has used
much of the money he inherited from his late wife ... to fund grass-roots groups led by low-income
people of color. "But it's given me tremendous meaning in my life to give as much as I can away."
Note: The wonderful man featured in this article, David Ludlow, is a major supporter of our work in
the form of a large monthly donation (http://www.peerservice.org/donations#monthly). This is a
powerful example of how one inspired individual can make a big difference in the world. Let us all
do our best to use our money in support of personal and global transformation to the best of our
ability. We also invite you to make a difference by donating to support our empowering work at
http://www.peerservice.org/donations. For two inspiring media clips of David and this great
organization, click here and here.

Are UFOs Real?

2007-07-13, CNN

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/13/lkl.02.html
LARRY KING: A return to Roswell, New Mexico, where the UFO controversy began 60 years
ago with the man who says his father showed him debris from an alien spacecraft. Dr. Jesse
Marcel ... was shown UFO debris by his father, Major Jesse Marcel. Tell us about your dad. DR.
JESSE MARCEL, JR.: He was the base intelligence officer for the 509th Bomb Group, which is the
bomb group that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan that won the war. KING: They were based at
Roswell? MARCEL: They were. As the intelligence officer, his job was to investigate unusual
events. He found a large area of strange looking debris. This was not remains of a weather
balloon. He picked up a certain representative portion of the debris, brought it in to Roswell. KING:
Julie Shuster ... your father was ... Walter Haut. He was public information officer. JULIE
SHUSTER: My father ... issued the press release [which] basically said ... we have in our
possession a flying saucer. And he used the words "not of this Earth." KING: Julie, did your father
go to his grave believing? SHUSTER: Yes. He was very firm in the fact that he said it was not of
this Earth. FIFE SYMINGTON, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA: I saw the Phoenix Lights
along with hundreds if not thousands of people. To my astonishment this large sort of deltashaped, wedge-shaped, craft moved silently over the valley ... dramatically large, very distinctive
leading edge with some enormous lights. I was absolutely stunned. It was definitely not an
airplane. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares because flares don't fly in formation. We have
a lot of evidence, a lot of photographs, a lot of news media coverage of it. You can't just [say]
everybody in Phoenix was hallucinating.
Note: Isn't it interesting that Roswell happened to be the military base for what at the time was the
only nuclear-equipped jet squadron in the world? For Dr. Marcel's book The Roswell Legacy, click
here. This interview also includes Dr. Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who has spent many
years studying Roswell and has little doubt that the military covered up the incident. Note that CNN
fails to mention in the entire interview that Friedman is a respected nuclear physicist who worked
numerous years with top corporations in this capacity. For lots more reliable, verifiable information
on this intriguing topic, see our UFO Information Center.

Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.

2007-07-08, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR20070706019...
The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow
travelers. They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence
operations today. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize
a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was
inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want
you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It
has penetrated the CIA and is running the show. Over the past five years (some say almost a
decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing.
Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune ... of more than $42

billion a year. Intelligence professionals [say] that more than 50 percent of the National
Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to
private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. These
firms recruit spies, create non-official cover identities and control the movements of CIA
case officers. They also provide case officers and watch officers at crisis centers and regional
desk officers who control clandestine operations worldwide. As The Los Angeles Times first
reported last October, more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations -- Baghdad and
Islamabad, Pakistan -- is made up of industrial contractors, or "green badgers," in CIA parlance.
Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry.

Judges OK warrantless monitoring of Web use

2007-07-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/07/BAGMNQSJDA1.DTL
Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine
the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled
Friday. In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco likened computer surveillance to the "pen register" devices that officers use to pinpoint
the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves. In Friday's
ruling, the court said computer users should know that they lose privacy protections with e-mail
and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries
the messages. The search is no more intrusive than officers' examination of a list of phone
numbers or the outside of a mailed package, neither of which requires a warrant, Judge Raymond
Fisher said in the 3-0 ruling. Defense lawyer Michael Crowley disagreed. His client, Dennis Alba,
was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted of operating a laboratory in Escondido
that manufactured the drug ecstasy. Some of the evidence against Alba came from agents'
tracking of his computer use. The court upheld his conviction and sentence. Expert evidence in
Alba's case showed that the Web addresses obtained by federal agents included page numbers
that allowed the agents to determine what someone read online, Crowley said. The ruling
"further erodes our privacy," the attorney said. "The great political marketplace of ideas is
the Internet, and the government has unbridled access to it."
Note: So now every email you send and read can be monitored legally. Why didn't this make news
headlines?

Congress Scrutinizes Spending At CDC

2007-07-02, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/02/eveningnews/main3008131.shtml
The Center for Disease Control's main mission is to prevent disease, and the agency has been
credited with some terrific strides in public health. But a startling analysis from Congress says the
CDC is squandering hundreds of millions of ... tax dollars. To talk about fat in the CDC budget, you

can start 2,000 miles away in Hollywood, where CDC pays a liaison to help TV dramas and soap
operas write accurate medical plots. The service is free of charge to Tinseltown moguls, through
the generosity of $1.7 million of ... tax dollars. There's the new $109 million headquarters filled
with nearly $10 million in furniture, which the report says works out to $12,000 per person
in the building. A top Democrat, Sen. Thomas Harkin, gets his name on the new $106 million
communications and visitors center, complete with waterfalls, plasma TV's and more. The
$200,000 fitness center rivals the most posh private clubs with $30,000 saunas, "quiet rooms" and
"zero gravity chairs" complete with "mood-enhancing light shows" for stressed out employees. As
for disease prevention, your money's being spent there too, but too often with disappointing
results, says the report. The CDC spent $5 billion over seven years on AIDS prevention, but the
infection rate didn't drop a bit. After it spent $269 million tax dollars on an effort to eliminate
syphilis, syphilis rates went up 68 percent.
Note: For key reports on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Anger at deadly Nigerian drug trials

2007-06-29, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6768799.stm
In school, Anas Mohammadu's mates call him "horror" and make fun of him. But Anas is lucky to
be alive. Other children who were used in the controversial 1996 drug trial by US pharmaceutical
giant Pfizer died. Anas, then only three years old, was the first child to be given the experimental
antibiotic Trovan at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano, during the drug trial. Pfizer tested the
then unregistered drug in Nigeria's north-western Kano State during an outbreak of meningitis
which had affected thousands of children. Officials in Kano say more than 50 children died in the
experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities. But Pfizer says only 11
of the 200 children used in the drug trial died. Following pressure from rights groups and
families affected by the trial, the Nigerian government set up an expert medical panel to
review the drug trial. The experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug", the
Nigerian panel concluded, and a "clear case of exploitation of the ignorant". After more than
a decade of silence, the Nigerian government has decided to sue Pfizer, seeking $7bn (3.5bn) in
damages for the families of children who allegedly died or suffered side-effects in the experiment.
Kano State government has also filed separate charges against Pfizer.
Note: Pfizer settled the case out of court, as reported by BBC at this link.

Psychiatrists Top List in Drug Maker Gifts

2007-06-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/health/psychology/27doctors.html?ex=1340596...

As states begin to require that drug companies disclose their payments to doctors for lectures and
other services, a pattern has emerged: psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than
doctors in any other specialty. How this money may be influencing psychiatrists and other
doctors has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. For instance, the
more psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have prescribed a new class of
powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially
risky and mostly unapproved. Vermont officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to
psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average of $45,692 each from $20,835
in 2005. Antipsychotic medicines are among the largest expenses for the states Medicaid
program. Over all last year, drug makers spent $2.25 million on marketing payments, fees and
travel expenses to Vermont doctors, hospitals and universities, a 2.3 percent increase over the
prior year, the state said. The number most likely represents a small fraction of drug makers total
marketing expenditures to doctors since it does not include the costs of free drug samples or the
salaries of sales representatives and their staff members. According to their income statements,
drug makers generally spend twice as much to market drugs as they do to research them.
Endocrinologists received the second largest amount, according to the Vermont analysis, earning
an average of $33,730. Since the state identified the specialties of only the top 100 earners, these
averages represent the money earned by only some of the states specialists. There were 11
psychiatrists and 5 endocrinologists in that top group of 100.
Note: For much more reliable, verifiable information on corruption in the pharmaceutical industry,
click here.

Project Mockingbird: Spying on Reporters

2007-06-26, New York Times
http://washington.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/project-mockingbird
The C.I.A. monitoring of journalists in 1963, 1971 and 1972, including wiretapping their phones
and setting up observation posts across the street from their offices to track their comings and
goings and their visitors, was a practice that the White House itself employed during the Nixon
administration. The description of Project Mockingbird [details] C.I.A. wiretapping of two
Washington reporters (unnamed) from March 12, 1963 to June 15, 1963. As with other
questionable or illegal C.I.A. activities that were endorsed by top government officials, this account
shows that spying on reporters was approved at the highest levels of the Kennedy administration.
According to the transcripts of the tapes that President John F. Kennedy secretly recorded in
the Oval Office, shortly after 6 p.m. on August 22,1962, JFK and Director of Central
Intelligence John McCone discussed a plan for the CIA to wiretap members of the
Washington press corps. The president told McCone to set up a domestic task force to stop
the flow of secrets from the government to the newspapers. The order violated the agencys
charter, which specifically prohibits domestic spying. By ordering the director of central intelligence
to conduct a program of domestic surveillance, Kennedy set a precedent that Presidents Johnson,
Nixon, and George W. Bush would follow.

Note: This fascinating report discusses only a limited aspect of Operation Mockingbird, which
included as well the placing of CIA agents in news organizations in decision-making positions for
purposes of propaganda and information control.

Nuking Iran: The Republican Agenda?

2007-06-06, Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/06/nuking_iran_the_republica...
At the Republican debate, almost all the candidates said that they would not rule out a nuclear
attack on Iran as a means to prevent it from getting its own nuclear weapons. Only one [candidate]
would say that attacking Iran -- indeed even threatening to nuke Iran -- is not the right strategy.
"We have to come to our senses about this issue of war and preemption," he said. The audience
applauded, but he didn't get much support from his fellow candidates. Rep. Duncan Hunter of
California was the starkest: "I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no
other way to preempt those particular centrifuges," he said. Former New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani ... added that "you can't rule out anything and you shouldn't take any option off the table."
Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore also [stated] "all options are on the table" with regard to Iranian
nuclear weapons. Said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: "I wouldn't take any options off
the table." After the debate, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who did not particpate,
added his name to the list of candidates who would consider a preemptive attack against Iran.
Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the "Dennis the Menace" of his party, said he opposed a
nuclear strike on moral grounds and because he believed Iran "has done no harm to us
directly and is no threat to our national security." The Iraq war and the war against terrorism
are the central battles of our time, these candidates say. They all profess their faith in God and the
United States, and speak of a moral struggle between good and evil, between the United States
and "radical Islam." Yet they are not willing to say that nuclear weapons have no place in modern
confrontations.
Note: For what a top US general has to say about war manipulations, click here.

RUDY, INTERRUPTED
2007-05-29, MSNBC
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/05/29/206666.aspx
On what should [have been] a happy day of fundraising in the four boroughs of New York City ...
for Rudy Giuliani's 63rd birthday, a few protestors ruined his first event. At City Island's Sea Shore
Restaurant in the Bronx, a young woman named Sabrina approached the Mayor with a prepared
question, reading it word for word off of a notepad. "You reported to Peter Jennings on 9/11 that
the World Trade Center towers were going to collapse. No steel structure in history has ever
collapsed due to fire. How come the people in the buildings weren't notified and who else knew
about this? How do you sleep at night?" Matthew Lepaceak, who stood on the other side of
Giuliani, joined in. "But you said on ABC video with Peter Jennings in an interview that you were

aware the towers were going to collapse in advance. Who told you the towers were going to
collapse in advance, sir?" During this time, Giuliani had an incredulous look on his face,
completely caught off guard. The statement they were referring to is from a phoner Giuliani had
with Jennings. "We set up headquarters at 75 Barclay Street which was right there with the
police commissioner and the fire commissioner, the head of emergency management, and
we were operating out of there when we were told the World Traded Center was going to
collapse." After being interrupted again, Giuliani responded with an explanation. "Our
understanding was that over a long period of time, the way other buildings collapse, the towers
could collapse. Meaning over a seven-, eight-, nine-, ten-hour period. No one that I knew of had
any idea that they would implode. That was a complete surprise."
Note: To view a video clip of Rudy Giuliani describing how he was told of the Towers' collapse
ahead of time, click here. To watch him deny what he said on this clip, watch this one. When so
many have said no one could have predicted the fall of the towers, how is it that Giuliani knew
otherwise -- and then denied ever knowing it?

Pentagon restricting testimony in Congress

2007-05-10, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/10/pentagon_res...
The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress,
reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats
from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed. The
guidelines, described in an April 19 memo to the staff director of the House Armed Services
Committee, adds that all field-level officers and enlisted personnel must be "deemed appropriate"
by the Department of Defense before they can participate in personal briefings for members of
Congress or their staffs. In addition, according to the memo, the proceedings must not be
recorded. Any officers who are allowed to testify must be accompanied by an official from the
administration. Veterans of the legislative process -- who say they have never heard of such
guidelines before -- maintain that the Pentagon has no authority to set such ground rules. A
Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the guidelines are new. The memo has fueled complaints
that the Bush administration is trying to restrict access to information about the war in Iraq. [A]
special House oversight panel, according to aides, has written at least 10 letters to the Pentagon
since February seeking information and has received only one official reply. Nor has the Pentagon
fully complied with repeated requests for all the monthly assessments of Iraqi security forces.
Note: When the military begins to control the legislative, democracy begins to shift towards
dictatorship. And for reliable information how the Pentagon cannot account for hundreds of billions
of dollars, click here.

Cancer clusters at phone masts

2007-04-22, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687491.ece
Seven clusters of cancer and other serious illnesses have been discovered around mobile phone
masts, raising concerns over the technologys potential impact on health. Studies of the sites show
high incidences of cancer, brain haemorrhages and high blood pressure within a radius of 400
yards of mobile phone masts. One of the studies, in Warwickshire, showed a cluster of 31
cancers around a single street. A quarter of the 30 staff at a special school within sight of
the 90ft high mast have developed tumours since 2000, while another quarter have suffered
significant health problems. Phone masts have provoked protests throughout Britain with
thousands of people objecting each week to planning applications. There are about 47,000 masts
in the UK. Dr John Walker, a scientist who compiled the cluster studies with the help of local
campaigners in Devon, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands, said he was convinced
they showed a potential link between the angle of the beam of radiation emitted from the masts
antennae and illnesses discovered in local populations. Masts should be moved away from
conurbations and schools and the power turned down, he said. Studies in other European
countries suggest a rise in cancers close to masts.
Note: For many highly important articles from reliable sources on major health issues, click here.

Audit Finds Many Faults in Clevelands 06 Voting

2007-04-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/us/20ohio.html
An audit of last Novembers general election in the Cleveland area has found that hundreds of
votes were lost, that others were recorded twice and that software used to count the ballots was
vulnerable to data problems. In a state that was pivotal to President Bushs election and reelection, Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, has seen more than its share of recent
election troubles. Lines at polls there were hours long in the 2004 general election. And in the
primaries last May, the countys first experience with electronic voting, poll workers were absent or
poorly trained, computer cards on which votes had been recorded were lost, and one polling place
opened hours late. The audit found that some batches of ballots registered in optical scan
machines had been scanned twice, producing a double count of those ballots. Other ballots were
deleted because of flawed data and, owing to human error, were not rescanned, the committee
found. The optical scan and touch-screen machines used in the county were made by Diebold
Election Systems Inc. The audit committee said Microsofts JET file-sharing database system,
which Diebold used, was known to have previously had problems that could result in corruption of
the database. The audit committee was allowed only a limited review of the data collected by
Diebold. The panel tried to gain access to the raw data, but Diebold claimed that the
information was proprietary. Barbara Simons, a ... past president of the Association for
Computing Machinery, said: There is no excuse for Diebolds having used such an insecure and
unreliable database. There were far more reliable databases available over 20 years ago. The
committee called for extensive changes to ensure the integrity of future elections, among them
streamlining the process by eliminating either optical scanner or touch-screen machines.

Note: For major media stories revealing the critical state of the US electoral system, click here.

20-year seal put on Columbine depositions

2007-04-03, Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5580190
The depositions of the parents of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold will be
kept under seal in the National Archives for 20 years, a federal judge ruled Monday. No one,
including violence prevention experts, will be able to see them until they are unsealed, U.S.
District Judge Lewis Babcock ruled. They will be kept permanently in the National Archives, where
they are considered to be of historical value. The depositions of the parents took place in 2003 in
connection with a lawsuit filed by the families of five slain Columbine High School students. Brian
Rohrbough, the father of slain student Daniel Rohrbough, said he was angered by the ruling.
Rohrbough, who watched as attorneys interviewed the parents during the deposition sessions,
said there is nothing in them that would cause any harm. Instead, their release could prevent
further school shootings, he said. Rohrbough is under court order not to divulge details. "There is
no rational reason to lock them up," Rohrbough said. "It's just the idea that it would be OK in 20
years, and can't be OK today."
Note: Why all the secrecy? Could it be to hide evidence showing it could have been stopped?

A monstrous war crime

2007-03-28, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2044345,00.html
Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week the BBC
reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on
Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. Published in the Lancet ...it estimated that 650,000
Iraqi civilians had died since the American and British led invasion in March 2003. Immediately
after publication, the prime minister's official spokesman said that the Lancet's study "was not one
we believe to be anywhere near accurate". The foreign secretary ... said that the Lancet figures
were "extrapolated" and a "leap". President Bush said: "I don't consider it a credible report".
Scientists at the UK's Department for International Development thought differently. They
concluded that the study's methods were "tried and tested". Indeed, the Johns Hopkins approach
would likely lead to an "underestimation of mortality". The Ministry of Defence's chief scientific
adviser ... recommended "caution in publicly criticising the study". When these recommendations
went to the prime minister's advisers, they were horrified. Tony Blair was advised to say: "The
overriding message is that there are no accurate or reliable figures of deaths in Iraq". At a time
when we are celebrating our enlightened abolition of slavery 200 years ago, we are continuing to
commit one of the worst international abuses of human rights of the past half-century. Two

hundred years from now, the Iraq war will be mourned as the moment when Britain violated
its delicate democratic constitution and joined the ranks of nations that use extreme preemptive killing as a tactic of foreign policy.
Note: This article is written by Richard Horton, the editor of the highly esteemed British medical
journal Lancet.

[N.Y.] City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention

2007-03-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?ex=1332475200&en...
For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New
York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert
observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and
interviews. From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police
officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists. They
made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the
departments Intelligence Division. In hundreds of reports stamped N.Y.P.D. Secret, the
Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent
intention of breaking the law. These included members of street theater companies, church
groups and antiwar organizations. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.
In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police
departments in other cities. In addition to sharing information with other police departments, New
York undercover officers were active themselves in at least 15 places outside New York
including California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montreal,
New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C. and in Europe.
To date, as the boundaries of the departments expanded powers continue to be debated, police
officials have provided only glimpses of its intelligence-gathering.

My National Security Letter Gag Order

2007-03-23, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR20070322018...
The Justice Department's inspector general revealed on March 9 that the FBI has been
systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the
expanded power to issue "national security letters." It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn
that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this
provision. It did not, however, come as any surprise to me. Three years ago, I received a national
security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting
business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There
was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had.
The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client,

that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand -- a context that the
FBI still won't let me discuss publicly -- I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power. Living
under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal
prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case -- including the mere fact
that I received an NSL -- from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my
attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers
related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I
am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in
the eye and lie. At some point -- a point we passed long ago -- the secrecy itself becomes a threat
to our democracy.

Doctors Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View

2007-03-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21drug.html?ex=1332129600&en=8ab21926768...
Dr. Allan Collins ... is president of the National Kidney Foundation. In 2004 ... the pharmaceutical
company Amgen, which makes the most expensive drugs used in the treatment of kidney disease,
underwrote more than $1.9 million worth of research and education programs led by Dr. Collins. In
2005, Amgen paid Dr. Collins at least $25,800, mostly in consulting and speaking fees. The
payments to Dr. Collins and the research center ... come from Minnesota, the first of a handful of
states to pass a law requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors. The Minnesota
records are a window on the widespread financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the
doctors who prescribe and recommend their products. From [1997] through 2005, drug makers
paid more than 5,500 doctors, nurses and other health care workers in the state at least $57
million. More than 100 people received more than $100,000. Research shows that doctors who
have close relationships with drug makers tend to prescribe more, newer and pricier drugs
whether or not they are in the best interests of patients. Drug companies want somebody who can
manipulate in a very subtle way, said Dr. Frederick R. Taylor. Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau, a
former sales representative [said] it all comes down to ways to manipulate the doctors. Some of
the doctors receiving the most money sit on committees that prepare guidelines instructing
doctors nationwide about when to use medicines. It is critical that the experts who write
clinical guidelines be prohibited from having any conflicts of interest, said Dr. Marcia Angell, a
former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Note: This article only scratches the surface of legal and illegal corruption by the powerful
pharmaceutical industry. If you care about who really controls our health system, don't miss Dr.
Marcia Angell's incredibly revealing essay showing the unbelievable wealth and influence of the
drug companies available here.

Indebted
2007-03-18, Washington Times

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20070317-113251-1533r.htm
The U.S. current-account deficit is the broadest measure of America's activity in international trade
and global finance. It totaled $857 billion last year, the Commerce Department reported last week.
For the fifth year in a row, the nation's current-account deficit set a record. As Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke testified last year before Congress: "The immediate implication [of the
nation's soaring current-account deficit] is that the U.S. economy is consuming more than it's
producing, and the difference is being made up by imports from abroad, which in turn is being
financed by borrowing from abroad." Last year's current-account deficit meant that Americans
effectively borrowed $3.3 billion every single working day to fund the gap between their spending
and their income. The accumulation of ever larger current-account deficits over the past
quarter century has played an indispensable role in transforming the United States from the
world's largest creditor nation into the planet's biggest debtor nation. Specifically, in 1982,
America's net international investment position was a positive $236 billion. That meant that
foreigners owed us nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars more than we owed them. At the end of
2005 (the latest year for which data are available), the net international investment position of the
United States was a negative $2.55 trillion. In other words, we owed foreigners more than $2.5
trillion than they owed us. Since 1994 alone, America's net international investment position has
deteriorated by more than $2.4 trillion.
Note: The Washington Times was the only media source to report on this highly important story.
Why? For a possible answer, click here. For more underreported, yet massive government
corruption, click here.

Myths and misconceptions of the AIDS pandemic

2007-03-11, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/11/...
Many myths and misconceptions about the AIDS pandemic are spread by the Joint United Nations
Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other mainstream AIDS agencies and activists. UNAIDS
continues to perpetuate the fallacy that only aggressive HIV/AIDS prevention programs ... can
prevent the eruption of heterosexual HIV epidemics. More than two decades of observation and
analysis point to far different conclusions -- there are no "next waves" of HIV epidemics just around
the corner. UNAIDS and most AIDS activists reject this analysis. However, all available
epidemiologic data show that only the highest risk sexual behavior ... drives HIV epidemics among
heterosexuals. Most AIDS activists claim, without any supporting data, that high HIV prevalence in
groups of men who have sex with men or injecting drug users will inevitably "bridge" over to the
rest of the population and lead to "generalized" HIV epidemics. This entrenched myth persists
even though there is little, if any, HIV spread into any "general" population. Global and regional
HIV rates have remained stable or have been decreasing during the past decade. HIV has
remained concentrated in groups with the riskiest behavior. HIV is incapable of epidemic spread
among the vast majority of heterosexuals. Most of the public, policymakers and media have no

inkling that the UNAIDS working assumption is inconsistent with established facts. Scarce health
resources in countries with low HIV prevalence should be targeted primarily at those who are at
the highest HIV risk, instead of being misdirected to the wider public.

Call to reopen Oklahoma bomb case

2007-03-02, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/6275147.stm
The FBI man in charge of collecting evidence from the government building destroyed by the
Oklahoma bomb has called for the case to be reopened. Former deputy assistant director Danny
Coulson ... said a federal grand jury is now needed to find out what really happened. He argues
this is the only way to prove whether other people were involved in the bombing in a wider
conspiracy beyond Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Mr Coulson spent 31 years in the FBI.
Between 1991 and 1997 he was the deputy assistant director of the Criminal Division of the FBI in
Washington, responsible for all violent crime cases in the United States. Mr Coulson said there
were some "very strong indicators" that other people were involved with Timothy McVeigh. The
FBI interviewed 24 people who claimed to have seen McVeigh in Oklahoma City with
someone else on the morning of the attack, yet the only known accomplice of McVeigh,
Terry Nichols, was at home in Kansas over 200 miles away on that day. The FBI's
investigation concluded that the eyewitnesses were unreliable. However, Danny Coulson says they
were "extremely credible" and had no reason to make it up. "If only one person had seen it, or two
of three, but 24?" he said. "I know FBI headquarters told [agents] to close down the investigation in
Elohim City which has some very significant connections to Mr McVeigh. "Never in my career did I
have FBI headquarters tell me not to investigate something." Last December a US Congressional
report found no conclusive evidence of a wider conspiracy, but the report concluded that
"questions remain unanswered and mysteries remain unsolved."
Note: Don't miss a highly revealing four-minute video-clip showing live media coverage of the
Oklahoma City bomb available here. The official story is that one truck with a huge bomb was
parked in front of the Oklahoma City federal building and only Timothy McVeigh and his partner
were involved. The news footage proves that others must have been involved, as multiple
unexploded bombs were recovered from points inside the building. Yet none of this was
questioned in later testimony.

A genius explains
2007-02-12, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1409903,00.html
Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at
breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe
how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now
scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism.

Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been obsessed with
counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a
calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. He also happens to be autistic, which is why he
can't drive a car, wire a plug, or tell right from left. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see
numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a
clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change
and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. An estimated 10% of the autistic
population - and an estimated 1% of the non-autistic population - have savant abilities, but
no one knows exactly why. A number of scientists now hope that Tammet might help us to
understand better. The blind American savant Leslie Lemke played Tchaikovsky's Piano
Concerto No1, after he heard it for the first time, and he never had so much as a piano lesson. And
the British savant Stephen Wiltshire was able to draw a highly accurate map of the London skyline
from memory after a single helicopter trip over the city. Even so, Tammet could still turn out to be
the more significant.
Note: Could the human mind be much more powerful than even science is willing to admit? For an
astounding documentary showing how this unusual man managed to become conversant in a
difficult language in one week and lots more, click here.

Carlyle Changes Its Stripes

2007-02-12, BusinessWeek
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_07/b4021001.htm
In the two decades since private equity firms first stormed the business world, they've been called
a lot of things, from raiders to barbarians. But only [the Carlyle Group] has been tagged in the
popular imagination with warmongering, treason, and acting as cold-eyed architects of government
conspiracies. Carlyle, founded 20 years ago in the shadow of Washington's power centers, long
went about its business far from the public eye. Its ranks were larded with the politically
connected, including former Presidents, Cabinet members, even former British Prime
Minister John Major. It used its partners' collective relationships to build a lucrative business
buying, transforming, and selling companies -- particularly defense companies that did business
with governments. Carlyle's radical makeover has turned the firm into the biggest fund-raising
juggernaut the private equity world has ever seen. By the end of this year it expects to have an
unprecedented $85 billion in investor commitments under management, up sixfold from 2001 and
more than any other firm. [Founder David] Rubenstein sees the total swelling to as much as $300
billion by 2012. Make no mistake -- Carlyle is already massive. It owns nearly 200 companies that
generate a combined $68 billion in revenue and employ 200,000 people. Last year it bought a new
company approximately once every three days and sold one almost once a week -- all while
dabbling in increasingly esoteric investments. Since its founding in 1987 it has generated
annualized after-fee returns of 26%, compared with the industry average in the mid-teens.

Note: With former presidents including George H.W. Bush and many other top world politicians
helping to sway huge military contracts, could this be considered a form of insider trading? Those
26% yearly returns are placing our tax monies in the hands of individuals and companies that are
already among the wealthiest in the world. For lots more on manipulation of your tax money, click
here. And for a Washington Post article showing Osama Bin Laden's brother met with George
H.W. Bush at a Carlyle meeting one day before 9/11, click here.

House Panel Questions Monitoring of Cash Shipped to Iraq

2007-02-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07bremer.html?ex=1328504400&en=a...
A House committee report on Tuesday questioned whether some of the billions of dollars in cash
shipped to Iraq after the American invasion mostly in huge, shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills
might have ended up with the insurgent groups now battling American troops. Democrats
sharply questioned the former American civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, about lax
management of the nearly $12 billion in cash shipped to Iraq between May 2003 and June 2004.
Mr. Bremer defended his performance as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, noting
that the United States had to bring tons of American dollars into Iraq because the country had no
functioning banking system. Government auditors have repeatedly criticized the American and
Iraqi governments for failing to monitor the money once it reached Iraq. We have no way of
knowing if the cash that was shipped into the Green Zone ended up in enemy hands, [Committee
Chairman Henry Waxman] said. We owe it to the American people to do everything we can to find
out where the $12 billion went. Mr. Waxman, whose panel is pursuing investigations of fraud and
abuse by the federal government and its contractors in Iraq, said he found it remarkable that the
Bush administration had decided to send billions of dollars of American currency into Iraq so
quickly after the United States occupied the country. The committee calculated that the $12
billion in cash, most of it in the stacks of $100 bills, weighed 363 tons and had to been
flown in on wooden pallets aboard giant C-130 military cargo planes. Who in their right
mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone? Mr. Waxman said.
Note: Think about Bremer's assertion that Iraq needed U.S. dollars as the banking system had
collapsed. Banking systems have collapsed in numerous countries in the last century, yet that has
never stopped the country from functioning, nor has the U.S. ever offered to send huge amounts of
cash to help out in the past.

Do-Gooders With Spreadsheets

2007-01-30, New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/opinion/30kristof.html
The World Economic Forum here in Davos is the kind of place where if you let yourself get
distracted while walking by a European prime minister on your left, you could end up tripping over
a famous gazillionaire. But perhaps the most remarkable people to attend ... are the social

entrepreneurs. Nic Frances runs a group that aims to cut carbon emissions in 70 percent of
Australian households over 10 years. His group, Easy Being Green, gives out low-energy light
bulbs and low-flow shower heads after the household signs over the rights to the carbon emissions
the equipment will save. The group then sells those carbon credits to industry to finance its
activities. In the U.S., Gillian Caldwell and her group, Witness, train people around the world to use
video cameras to document human rights abuses. The resulting videos have drawn public
attention to issues like child soldiers and the treatment of the mentally ill. Now Ms. Caldwell aims
to create sort of YouTube for human rights video clips. Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel
Peace Prize last year, demonstrated with Grameen Bank the power of microfinancing. His bank
has helped raise incomes, secure property rights for women, lower population growth and raise
education standards across Bangladesh and now the success is rippling around the globe.
Politics is failing to solve all the big issues, said Jim Wallis, who wrote Gods Politics
and runs Sojourners. So when that happens, social movements rise up. A growing
number of the best and brightest university graduates in the U.S. and abroad are moving
into this area (many clutching the book How to Change the World, a bible in the field).

Drug company 'hid' suicide link

2007-01-29, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6291773.stm
Secret emails reveal that the UK's biggest drug company distorted trial results of an antidepressant, covering up a link with suicide in teenagers. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) attempted to
show that Seroxat worked for depressed children despite failed clinical trials. And that GSKemployed ghostwriters influenced 'independent' academics. GSK faces action in the US where
bereaved families have joined together to sue the company. As a result, GSK has been forced to
open its confidential internal archive. Karen Barth Menzies is a partner in one of the firms
representing many of the families. She has examined thousands of the documents which are
stored, box upon box, in an apartment in Malibu, California. She said: "Even when they have
negative studies that show that this drug Seroxat is going to harm some kids they still spin that
study as remarkably effective and safe for children." An email from a public relations executive
working for GSK ... said: "Originally we had planned to do extensive media relations surrounding
this study until we actually viewed the results. Essentially the study did not really show it was
effective in treating adolescent depression, which is not something we want to publicise." Seroxat
was banned for under 18s in 2003 after the MHRA revealed that GSK's own studies showed
the drug actually trebles the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in depressed children.
Note: For more reliable information on how the drug companies put profits ahead of your health,
click here.

How US lost billions in Wild West gamble to rebuild Iraq

2007-01-26, London Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article720217.ece
An audit of US reconstruction spending in Iraq has uncovered spectacular misuse of tens of
millions of dollars in cash, including bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who
gambled away thousands, and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without receipts. The audit
... by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction describes a country in the months
after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein awash with dollars, and a Wild West atmosphere where
even multimillion-dollar contracts were paid for in cash. The findings come after a report last
year by the inspector general which stated that nearly $9 billion (5 billion) of Iraqs oil
revenue disbursed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority ... cannot be accounted
for. The huge sums in cash were paid out with little or no supervision, and often without
any paperwork. In one case, a US soldier gambled away more than $40,000 while accompanying
the Iraqi Olympic boxing team to the Philippines. In others, one contracting officer kept
approximately $2 million in cash in a safe in his office bathroom, the report says, while a paying
agent kept approximately $678,000 in cash in an unlocked footlocker. More than 160 vehicles
worth about $3.3 million could not be traced because there was no proper documentation. Another
project, a $473,000 contract to install an internet service in Ramadi, was cancelled because
officials could not oversee it. But the contractor had already been paid.
Note: With all of the computers the military and contractors brought into Iraq, shouldn't it be
possible to track these monies? Shouldn't we as taxpayers demand accountability?

Doctor, Musician Join Fight Against Fluoride

2007-01-25, WSMV-TV (Nashville, TN NBC affiliate)
http://www.wsmv.com/health/10845643/detail.html
Fluoride has become a controversial additive to our drinking water. While no one denies it can
prevent cavities with topical application, a growing number of people, cities and countries have
decided that ingesting unknown quantities of fluoride is a bad idea. One of Tennessee's own top
health risk scientists is asking Gov. Phil Bredesen to stop adding fluoride to the water. Dr. Kathy
Thiessen makes a living assessing health risks and has worked for the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency. The deliberate exposure to
uncontrolled and unmonitored intake of fluoride is unwise at best and probably harmful to a
substantial number of people, Thiessen said. Thiessen joins Tennessee lawmaker and medical
doctor Joey Hensley as the most prominent Tennessee voices against fluoride. Chris White is a
musician with the band Loft, but his other passion is removing fluoride from Gallatin's water supply.
All parties point to the American Dental Association recommending that mothers stop using
fluoridated water for baby formula as an obvious sign that fluoride is obviously not for everyone,
he said.
Note: This article fails to mention a key recent study showing "about 28 percent of the children in
the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in
the 'high' fluoride area. In the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation
and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city." For a truly awesome, revealing interview with a BBC

producer on the major deceptions around and dangers of fluoride in water, click here. For more on
this key topic from Dr. Mercola, click here. And for the top website on the risks and dangers of
flouride in water, click here.

Rise and shine: Wake up to an enhanced life

2007-01-25, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/25/ft.newdrugs
A new breed of lifestyle drugs could allow us to choose how much we sleep, boost our memories
and even allow us to enjoy ourselves more, without any side effects. Will they unleash human
capabilities never seen before or create a dystopian 24-hour society where we are dependent on
drugs to regulate our lifestyle and behavior? One drug already available is modafinil, marketed as
the vaguely Orwellian-sounding Provigil. It enables those who take it to stay awake and alert for 48
hours. It is a eugeroic that delivers a feeling of wakefulness without the physical or mental jitter.
There is already a market for it for those without any medical need - it is developing a cult following
among workaholics and students studying for exams. The military is also very interested in
eugeroic. Their reliance on amphetamines for lengthy operations have had catastrophic
consequences in the past. The "friendly-fire" incidents in Afghanistan in 2002 when U.S.
pilots killed Canadian troops was blamed on the "go pills" they had taken. The U.S. Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tested a compound called CX717 in its quest to
find a drug that can create a "metabolically dominant war-fighter of the future" able to function for
seven days without sleep. CX717 is an ampakine, a compound that increases the brains
computing powers. It re-writes the rules of what it takes to create a memory and just how strong
those memories can be. Will cans of soda containing eugeroics or ampakines be as common as
caffeine drinks on the shelves of 24-hour stores? The potential is certainly there for a brave new
world of personality medication.

Prosecutor: Ohio County Rigged Recount

2007-01-18, ABC News/Associated Press
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2806718
Three county elections workers conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004
presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements of their trial Thursday.
Witnesses testified that, two days before a planned recount, selected ballots were counted so the
result would be determined. "The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for
political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they
could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said. Defense attorneys said
in their opening statements that the workers in Cuyahoga County didn't do anything out of
the ordinary. "They just were doing it the way they were always doing it," said defense attorney
Roger Synenberg, representing Kathleen Dreamer, a ballot manager. Charged with various counts
each of election misconduct or interference are Jacqueline Maiden, the Cuyahoga County Board of
Elections' coordinator, who was the board's third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted

last March; Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the board's ballot department; and Dreamer. Baxter
said testimony in the case will show that instead of conducting a random count, the workers chose
sample precincts for the Dec. 16, 2004, recount that did not have questionable results to ensure
that no discrepancies would emerge. "This was a very hush operation," Baxter said. There were
allegations in several counties of similar presorting of ballots for the recounts that state law
says are to be random.
Note: For lots more reliable, verifiable information on elections manipulations, click here.

Molecule offers cancer hope

2007-01-17, Toronto Star (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/171898
In results that "astounded" scientists, an inexpensive molecule known as DCA was shown
to shrink lung, breast and brain tumours in both animal and human tissue experiments. The
study was published yesterday in the journal Cancer Cell. "I think DCA can be selective for cancer
because it attacks a fundamental process of cancer that is unique to cancer cells," said Dr.
Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the Edmonton university's medical school and one of the
study's key authors. The molecule appears to repair damaged mitochondria in cancer cells. "When
a cell is getting too old or doesn't function properly, the mitochondria are going to induce the cell
death," lead study author Sebastien Bonnet said yesterday. Bonnet says DCA or dichloroacetate
appears to reverse the mitochondrial changes in a wide range of cancers. "One of the really
exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer
because all forms of cancer suppress mitochondrial function," Michelakis said. Bonnet says DCA
may also provide an effective cancer treatment because its small size allows easy absorption into
the body, ensuring it can reach areas that other drugs cannot, such as brain tumours. Because it's
been used to combat other ailments ... DCA has been shown to have few toxic effects on the body.
Its previous use means it can be immediately tested on humans. Unlike other cancer drugs, DCA
did not appear to have any negative effect on normal cells. It could provide an extremely
inexpensive cancer therapy because it's not patented. But ... the lack of a patent could lead to
an unwillingness on the part of pharmaceutical companies to fund expensive clinical trials.
Note: Even these scientists realize that though this discovery could be a huge benefit to mankind,
because the drug companies will lose profits, they almost certainly will not fund studies. Expensive
AIDS drugs with promising results, on the other hand, are rushed through the studies to market.
For more reliable, verifiable information on how hugely beneficial health advances are shut down
to keep profits high, click here and here.

Victim owed compensation in CIA case, judge told

2007-01-11, Globe and Mail (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070111.BRAINWASH11/TPStory...

Patients were put in isolation, tied down or drugged, and subjected to hours and hours of taped
recordings meant to brainwash them at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. They were
subjected to massive electroshocks, experimental drugs and LSD, most of them unwilling and
unknowingly part of the U.S. spy agency's experimentation. Now it's time for the federal
government to compensate those victims, lawyer Alan Stein argued. Mr. Stein is seeking court
approval for a class-action lawsuit on behalf of his client, Janine Huard, one of the hundreds of
patients of Ewen Cameron to be subjected to the Cold War-era experiments. "She never knew ...
that she was being used by Dr. Cameron and his staff as a guinea pig," Mr. Stein told the court.
The CIA ... recruited Dr. Cameron to experiment with mind-control techniques beginning in 1950.
The experiments ... were jointly funded by the CIA and the Canadian government. They were part
of a larger CIA program called MK-ULTRA, which also saw LSD administered to U.S. prison
inmates and patrons of brothels without their knowledge. Ms. Huard was one of nine Canadian
victims who received nearly $67,000 (U.S.) from the CIA in 1988 to compensate her for her
suffering. But her claim for compensation from the federal government ... was rejected three times.
In 1994, 77 patients were awarded $100,000 each from the federal government, but more
than 250 others were denied compensation because they were not "totally depatterned."
Note: What this article fails to mention is that Dr. Cameron was also the president of both the
American Psychicatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association. For more reliable
information, click here.

FBI Chided for OKC Bomb Investigation

2006-12-25, ABC News/Associated Press
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2749903
A two-year congressional inquiry into the Oklahoma City bombing concludes that the FBI
didn't fully investigate whether other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry
Nichols with the deadly 1995 attack, allowing questions to linger a decade later. The House
International Relations investigative subcommittee [declared that] there is no conclusive evidence
of a foreign connection to the attack, but that far too many unanswered questions remain. The
report also sharply criticizes the FBI for failing to be curious enough to pursue credible information
that foreign or U.S. citizens may have had contact with Nichols or McVeigh and could have
assisted their plot. "We did our best with limited resources, and I think we moved the
understanding of this issue forward a couple of notches even though important questions remain
unanswered," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., the subcommittee chairman, said in an interview
with The Associated Press. Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice
Department, saying officials there exhibited a mindset of thwarting congressional oversight and did
not assist the investigation fully.
Note: Should you choose to explore the deadly Oklahoma City bombing, you will find that there
are many strange inconsistencies suggesting a major cover-up. If you are interested in more, you
might start here.

Does Israel have the bomb or not? Olmert: Yes, we do.

2006-12-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15archive/&entry_id=11779
For decades, Israel coyly has refused to confirm or deny what, since 1986, the whole world has
known for sure: that is that the Jewish state is the one country in the Middle East that has a welldeveloped, nuclear arsenal. It was 20 years ago that Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at
Israel's Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev Desert, informed Britain's Sunday Times about the
weapons program, leading "defense analysts to rank the country as the [world's] sixth largest
nuclear power." Vanunu was jailed for 18 years for revealing state secrets. Israel calls its refusal to
deny or confirm the existence of its nuclear arms its "nuclear ambiguity" policy. Why? Explains the
Times (U.K.): "For many years, Israel was the only country outside the five declared nuclear
powers to have built an atomic weapon ... It wanted its enemies in the region to know that it
had nuclear capability if threatened. But it also wanted to keep the existence secret so that
it did not fall [a]foul of international action designed to halt the proliferation of nuclear
weapons, particularly strict U.S. laws which could have jeopardized billions of dollars in
annual aid." The Jerusalem Post notes that "Nuclear ambiguity was a comfortable arrangement
for both Israeli and U.S. administrations, designed to allow Israel to get on with whatever it was
doing ... without too much international pressure, and [to allow] the U.S. to not seem too
hypocritical by not demanding its Middle East ally sign the [Non-proliferation Treaty]. Ambiguity
might have worked for four decades, but ... it is now hopelessly outdated."
Note: The media has been quite reluctant to discuss these issues openly. Could it be they fear
people might question the amount of U.S. aid? Israel's population is 6.5 million. Official U.S. yearly
foreign aid to Israel has been about $2.5 to 3.0 billion for many years. If you do the math, U.S.
taxpayers are giving every man, woman, and child in Israel about $400/year -- over ten times the
per capita rate paid to any other country. That's quite a yearly gift! A Christian Science Monitor
article says if all forms of aid are considered, the figures are even higher.

Vehicle mileage estimates get real

2006-12-12, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fuel12dec12,0,1026595.story
That 55-mile-per-gallon hybrid car you've been eyeing may end up being a 44-mpg hybrid. The
federal Environmental Protection Agency announced a new system Monday for evaluating fuel
economy that will lower mileage estimates for most vehicles. On average, vehicles rated under the
2008 method will post a 12% drop in city gasoline mileage and an 8% decline in highway mileage.
With the new testing requirements, the EPA is attempting to come up with estimates that more
closely reflect the real-world mileage motorists can expect when they purchase a vehicle. Under
the current system ... actual mileage is often far lower than the posted EPA ratings. Hybrids
will be hit harder because the new test eliminates some of the all-electric driving that helped them
produce impressive results. A recent study ... found that the average mileage for passenger cars
and light trucks was about 14% less than EPA estimates. The mileage for gas-electric hybrids

probably will be 20% to 30% lower than present estimates for city driving and 10% to 20% lower
on the highway. These vehicles quickly lose their all-electric advantage when operated in cold
weather or quickly accelerated. The new EPA mileage estimates won't harm automakers' ability to
meet federal rules requiring an industrywide average fuel economy of 27.5 miles per gallon for
cars and 21 mpg for sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans.
Note: The government could easily mandate higher gas mileage, but has not significantly raised
the bar in almost 20 years. Why? The current average mileage for all cars is less than the mileage
of the 1908 Model T. With all of the incredibly technological advances in other fields, how is this
possible? For more on this vital topic, click here and here. Toyota came out with a hybrid that got
100 mpg in 2002. For what happened to it, click here. And to learn how a Toyota Prius can be
converted to get 100 miles per gallon, click here.

The 9/11 Truth Movement's Dangers

2006-12-10, CBS News/The Nation
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/08/opinion/main2242387.shtml
Tens of millions of Americans really believe their government was complicit in the murder of 3,000
of their fellow citizens. The government these Americans suspect of complicity in 9/11 has
acquired a justified reputation for deception: weapons of mass destruction, secret prisons, illegal
wiretapping. The Truth Movement's recent growth can be largely attributed to the Internetdistributed documentary "Loose Change." It's been viewed over the Internet millions of times.
Complementing "Loose Change" are the more highbrow offerings of a handful of writers and
scholars, many of whom are associated with Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Two of these academics,
retired theologian David Ray Griffin and retired Brigham Young University physics professor
Steven Jones, have written books and articles that serve as the movement's canon. The Truth
Movement's relationship to the truth may be tenuous, but that it is a movement is no longer in
doubt. For the Administration, "conspiracy" is a tremendously useful term, and can be applied even
in the most seemingly bizarre conditions to declare an inquiry or criticism out of bounds. Of
course, the ommission report was something of a whitewash Bush would only be
interviewed in the presence of Dick Cheney, the commission was denied access to other
key witnesses, and ... a meeting convened by George Tenet the summer before the attacks
to warn Condoleezza Rice about al Qaeda's plotting ... was nowhere mentioned in the
report. It's hard to blame people for thinking we're not getting the whole story. For six years, the
government has prevaricated and the press has largely failed to point out this simple truth.
Note: Though this article belittles the 9/11 movement, there is abundant evidence to support the
claim that the 9/11 Commission was a whitewash and the attacks may have been orchestrated.
For more, click here.

Sweeping Changes Expected in Voting by 2008 Election

2006-12-08, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/washington/08voting.html?ex=1323234000&en=3...
By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see sweeping changes in
how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted. New federal guidelines, along with
legislation given a strong chance to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the
paperless voting machines obsolete. Motivated in part by voting problems during the midterm
elections last month, the changes are a result of a growing skepticism among local and state
election officials, federal legislators and the scientific community about the reliability and security of
the paperless touch-screen machines used by about 30 percent of American voters. Various forms
of vote-counting software used around the country ... will for the first time be inspected by federal
authorities, and the code could be made public. Last year, New Mexico spent $14 million to
replace its touch screens. Other states are spending millions more to retrofit the machines to add
paper trails. Because some printers malfunctioned last month, election commissioners in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, said last week that they were considering
scrapping their new $17 million system of touch-screen machines. Under changes approved by
the Election Assistance Commission yesterday, voting machine manufacturers would have
to make their crucial software code available to federal inspectors. The code is now
checked mainly by private testing laboratories paid by the manufacturers.
Note: How is it possible that the government allowed voting machine companies to keep their
software secret even from the government? We may never know how many votes were
manipulated. For more, click here.

Industry 'paid top cancer expert'

2006-12-08, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6220440.stm
The scientist who first linked smoking to lung cancer was [later] paid by a chemicals firm while
investigating cancer risks in the industry. Professor Sir Richard Doll held a consultancy post with
US firm Monsanto for more than 20 years. The BBC has seen private letters which show that
Sir Richard ... received a US$1,500-a-day consultancy fee from Monsanto in the mid-1980s.
During that time he investigated the potential cancer causing properties of the powerful
herbicide Agent Orange, made by the company. Sir Richard [argued] that there was no
evidence that Agent Orange caused cancer. Professor Lennart Hardell, of the Oncology
Department at University Hospital Orebro, Sweden, has also studied the potential hazards posed
by Agent Orange. He was one of the scientists whose work was dismissed by Sir Richard. He said:
"It's quite OK to have contacts with industry, but you should be fair and say 'well, I'm [working] as a
consultant for Monsanto." Further documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper allegedly
show that Sir Richard was also paid a 15,000 fee by the Chemical Manufacturers Association,
and chemicals companies Dow Chemicals and ICI for a review of vinyl chloride, used in plastics,
which largely cleared the chemical of any link with cancers apart from liver cancer. Sir Richard's
views on the chemical were used by the manufacturers' trade association to defend it for more
than a decade.

Blind, Wheelchair-Bound Student Doesn't Fail to Inspire

2006-11-10, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Story?id=2643340
When I met 18-year old Patrick Henry Hughes, I knew he was musically talented. I had been told
so, had read that he was very able for someone his age and who had been blind and crippled
since birth. Patrick's eyes are not functional; his body and legs are stunted. He is in a wheelchair.
When we first shook hands, his fingers seemed entirely too thick to be nimble. So when he offered
to play the piano for me and his father rolled his wheelchair up to the baby grand, I confess that I
thought to myself, "Well, this will be sweet. He has overcome so much. How nice that he can play
piano." But then Patrick put his hands to the keyboard, and his fingers began to race across it -the entire span of it, his fingers moving up and back and over and across the keys so quickly and
intricately that my fully-functional eyesight couldn't keep up with them. I was stunned. The music
his hands drew from that piano was so lovely and lyrical and haunting, so rich and complex and
beyond anything I had imagined he would play that there was nothing I could say. All I could do
was listen. "God made me blind and didn't give me the ability to walk. I mean, big deal."
Patrick said, smiling. "He gave me the talent to play piano and trumpet and all that good
stuff." This is Patrick's philosophy in life, and he wants people to know it. "I'm the kind of person
that's always going to fight till I win," he said. Patrick also attends the University of Louisville and
plays trumpet in the marching band. The band director suggested it, and Patrick and his father,
Patrick John Hughes, who have faced tougher challenges together, decided "Why not?" "Don't tell
us we can't do something," Patrick's father added, with a chuckle. He looks at Patrick with a
mixture of love and loyalty and admiration, something not always seen in the eyes of a father when
he gazes at his son. "I've told him before. He's my hero."
Note: For amazingly inspiring seven-minute video clips of this unusual young musician on both
Oprah and ESPN, click here and here.

Was 9/11 an 'inside job'?

2006-08-03, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/279827_conspiracy02ww.html
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11
terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the
Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll. Suspicions that the
9/11 attacks were "an inside job"...quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old
conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's
assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens. Thirty-six percent of respondents
overall said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the
attacks...or took no action to stop them. "One out of three sounds high, but that may very well be
right," said Lee Hamilton, former vice chairman of...the 9/11 Commission. "A lot of people I've
encountered believe the U.S. government was involved," Hamilton said. "Many say the

government planned the whole thing," he said. The poll also found that 16 percent of Americans
speculate that secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the real reason the
massive twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. Twelve percent suspect the Pentagon
was struck by a military cruise missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists. "We
know that there are a lot of people now asking questions," said Janice Matthews, executive
director of 911Truth.org, one of the most sophisticated Internet sites raising doubts about official
explanations of the attacks. "We didn't have the Internet after Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin or
the Kennedy assassination. But we live in different times now."

9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon

2006-08-02, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR20060801013...
Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's
initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort
to mislead the commission and the public. Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated
referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Staff members and some
commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause
to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to
Congress and to the commission. Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican
governor who led the commission [said], "It was just so far from the truth." In an article scheduled
to be on newsstands today, Vanity Fair magazine reports aspects of the commission debate...and
publishes lengthy excerpts from military audiotapes recorded on Sept. 11. ABC News aired
excerpts last night. For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA
provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media
appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been
scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down
United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington. In fact, the commission reported a year later,
audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the
military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights.
Note: Why didn't they report this in the media when the 9/11 report was issued?

Elephant 'self-portrait' on show

2006-07-21, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/5203120.stm
Art graduate Victoria Khunapramot, 26, has brought [remarkable] paintings from Thailand,
[including] "self-portraits" by Paya, who is said to be the only elephant to have mastered
his own likeness. Paya is one of six elephants whose keepers have taught them how to hold a
paintbrush in their trunks. They drop the brush when they want a new colour. Mrs Khunapramot,

from Newington, said: "Many people cannot believe that an elephant is capable of producing any
kind of artwork, never mind a self-portrait. But they are very intelligent animals and create the
entire paintings with great gusto and concentration within just five or 10 minutes - the only thing
they cannot do on their own is pick up a paintbrush, so it gets handed to them. They are trained by
artists who fine-tune their skills, and they paint in front of an audience in their conservation village,
leaving no one in any doubt that they are authentic elephant creations." Mrs Khunapramot, who
set up the Thai Fine Art company after studying the history of art in St Andrews and business
management at Edinburgh's Napier University, said it took about a month to train the animals to
paint.
Note: For an amazing video clip of one of these elephants at work, click here. For more on this
fascinating topic, click here and here.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

2006-07-10, Popular Science magazine
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2006-07/who-killed-electric-car
Chris Paines documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" argues convincingly that there was
indeed a market for the cars and a devoted one, ... but that GM [General Motors] squashed
the EV1 because, quite simply, it threatened the livelihood of the entire automotive industry.
The car used no gasoline, no oil and no mufflers, and it required only sporadic brake
maintenance. Each of these components represents billions of dollars in profits for the
industry. GM, the oil companies and various government agencies argued that the car wasnt
practical, didnt have enough range for consumers and was less promising than the apparently
imminent hydrogen technology. The reality was exactly the opposite, Paines film suggests the
viability of hydrogen as an automotive fuel source alone is in fact almost comically optimistic. The
whisper-quiet EV1 was designed by [an] aviation pioneer, Paul MacCready of AeroVironment. In
the 1970s, MacCready built the only successful human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Condor
and the Gossamer Albatross. His solar-powered electric car Sunraycer, built for GM, won the 1987
World Solar Challenge Race in Australia. His corporate mantra is "do more with less" that is,
focus on creating vehicles that require less energy to operate, not on finding ways to pump more
power into inefficient systems. His teams battery-powered EV1 was a triumph of engineering and
a joy to operate.
Note: For lots more on key suppressed automotive and energy inventions, click here.

U.S. signs deal to stockpile anti-bird-flu drug

2006-07-01, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/01/MNGDMJNKP21.DTL&h...

Federal health authorities have signed a two-year deal to help states buy more than half a
billion dollars worth of the antiviral drug Tamiflu as a hedge against a pandemic of deadly
avian influenza, but there is a catch: States will have to pay for three-quarters of it. Under terms
of the deal negotiated with Roche by the Department of Health and Human Services, the states
can order up to 31 million packets of Tamiflu -- each containing a 10-pill course of treatment -- for a
total cost of $596 million over the next two years. The Bush administration announced late Friday
that it had contracted with Swiss drugmaker Roche Laboratories Inc. to supply Tamiflu for
stockpiles in all 50 states. The federal government, meanwhile, plans to build its own centralized
stockpile. The plan is to have enough antiviral drug in state and federal warehouses by December
2008 to treat 81 million people. Tamiflu is considered by scientists to be the first line of defense
against the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The disease is currently confined primarily to chickens, ducks
and some wild waterfowl, but researchers fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily
among humans.
Note: No mention is made here that Donald Rumsfeld has already made millions from sales of
Tamiflu, and that he was on the board of the company that developed the drug. Many top
researchers also believe there is little chance of avian flu mutating. Why are we spending
hundreds of millions of dollars to combat a virus which has not even mutated yet? To verify these
and other vital facts, see http://www.WantToKnow.info/avianflu

Ex-security officials rake it in

2006-06-18, Seattle Times/New York Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003068930_homeland18.html
Dozens of members of the Bush administration's domestic-security team...are collecting bigger
paychecks in different roles: working on behalf of companies that sell security products, many
directly to the federal agencies the officials once helped run. At least 90 officials at the Department
of Homeland Security or the White House Office of Homeland Security...are executives,
consultants or lobbyists for companies that collectively do billions of dollars' worth of domesticsecurity business. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge...stands to profit now that Savi
Technology, a maker of radio-frequency-identification equipment that the department pushed while
he was secretary, is being bought by Lockheed Martin. He was appointed to the Savi board three
months after resigning from the department. Former Homeland Security undersecretary Asa
Hutchinson...the biggest potential for profit among Hutchinson's ventures appears to come from
his role as an investor in Fortress America Acquisition. Hutchinson, before the [company's]
stock was sold publicly, bought 200,000 shares for $25,000. At Friday's trading price the
stock was worth more than $1.2 million. More than two-thirds of the department's most
senior executives in its first years have moved through the revolving door. Federal law
prohibits senior executive-branch officials from lobbying former government colleagues or
subordinates for at least a year after leaving public service. But by exploiting loopholes in the
law...it is often easy for former officials to do just that.

Experts Defining Mental Disorders Are Linked to Drug Firms

2006-04-20, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR20060419025...
Every psychiatric expert involved in writing the standard diagnostic criteria for disorders such as
depression and schizophrenia has had financial ties to drug companies that sell medications for
those illnesses, a new analysis has found. Of the 170 experts in all who contributed to the manual
that defines disorders from personality problems to drug addiction, more than half had such ties,
including 100 percent of the experts who served on work groups on mood disorders and psychotic
disorders. "I don't think the public is aware of how egregious the financial ties are in the field of
psychiatry," said Lisa Cosgrove, a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts in
Boston. The analysis comes at a time of growing debate over the rising use of medication as the
primary or sole treatment for many psychiatric disorders, a trend driven in part by definitions of
mental disorders in the psychiatric manual. Cosgrove said she began her research after
discovering that five of six panel members studying whether certain premenstrual
problems are a psychiatric disorder had ties to Eli Lilly & Co., which was seeking to market
its drug Prozac to treat those symptoms. The process of defining such disorders is far from
scientific, Cosgrove added: "You would be dismayed at how political the process can be."

Robbery, not reconstruction, in Iraq

2006-04-18, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/18/r...
We have heard various individual cases of overcharging and fraud by American firms in the
reconstruction of Iraq. A year ago, an audit by the inspector general found no evidence of work
done or goods delivered on 154 of 198 contracts. Sixty cases of potential swindles are under
investigation. Halliburton and its hundreds of millions of dollars of overcharges or baseless costs
are well known. But millions more were taken by companies that promised to build or restore
libraries or police facilities, or deliver trucks and construction equipment. US government
investigators can account for only a third of the $1.5 billion given by the CPA to the interim
government and it appears that a substantial portion of the $8 billion given to Iraqi ministries went
to "ghost employees." Because of the way the United States set things up after the invasion,
contractors are immune from prosecution by Iraqis. This is robbery, not reconstruction. It has been
three years and all Iraq has become is a "free-fraud zone," according to one of the attorneys for
whistleblowers in Iraqi swindles. Recently, the Army found that Halliburton had $263 million of
exaggerated or unexplainable costs on a $2.4 billion no-bid contract, yet still paid
Halliburton $253 million of the $263 million.

9/11 Attacks: Avoiding the hard questions

2006-02-01, Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/robert_steinback/1376072...

Our nation was irretrievably transformed by 9/11 -- and yet there remain troubling questions about
what really happened. Why did building WTC-7 fall, though no aircraft struck it? Fire alone had
never before caused a steel skyscraper to collapse. Why did no U.S. military jet intercept the
wayward aircraft? Why has there been no investigation of BBC reports that five of the alleged 9/11
hijackers were alive and accounted for after the event? A group of experts and academicians
devoted to applying the principles of scientific reasoning to the available evidence [and]
'letting the chips fall where they may,' last week accused the government of covering up
evidence that the three destroyed New York City buildings were brought down that day by
controlled demolition rather than structural failure. The group, called Scholars for 9/11 Truth,
has a website, www.st911.org.
Note: This article is also available at http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0201-28.htm

Senators: White House Stalls Katrina Probe

2006-01-24, ABC/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1537047
The White House is crippling a Senate inquiry into the government's sluggish response to
Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and failing to hand
over documents, senators leading the investigation said Tuesday. In some cases, staff at the
White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional
investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly
innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House,
the senators said. A White House spokesman said the administration is committed to working with
separate Senate and House investigations of the Katrina response but wants to protect the
confidentiality of presidential advisers. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee's Republican
chair, said "We are entitled to know if someone from the Department of Homeland Security calls
someone at the White House during this whole crisis period." She added, "It is completely
inappropriate" for the White House to bar agency officials from talking to the Senate committee.

Beam weapons almost ready for battle

2006-01-11, MSNBC
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10805240/
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching. They are labeled
"directed-energy weapons," and they may well signal a revolution in military hardware -perhaps more so than the atomic bomb. Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, highpowered microwaves and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare
depends not only on using the electromagnetic spectrum, but also upon favorable political and
budgetary wavelengths too. After more than two decades of research, the United States is on the
verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge beams of energy, such as the

Airborne Laser and the Active Denial System, as well as the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL.
Then theres Active Denial Technology -- a non-lethal way to use millimeter-wave electromagnetic
energy to stop, deter and turn back an advancing adversary. This technology, supported by the
U.S. Marines, uses a beam of millimeter waves to heat a foes skin, causing severe pain without
damage, and making the adversary flee the scene. By tuning the resonance of a laser onto Earths
ionosphere, you can create audible frequencies. Like some boom box in the sky, the laserproduced voice could bellow from above down to the target below: "Put down your weapons."

Pentagon rolls out stealth PR

2005-12-14, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-14-pentagon-pr_x.htm
A $300 million Pentagon psychological warfare operation includes plans for placing proAmerican messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the
source, one of the military officials in charge of the program says. Run by psychological warfare
experts at the U.S. Special Operations Command, the media campaign is being designed to
counter terrorist ideology and sway foreign audiences to support American policies. The program
will operate throughout the world, including in allied nations and in countries where the
United States is not involved in armed conflict. The three companies handling the campaign
include the Lincoln Group, the company being investigated by the Pentagon for paying Iraqi
newspapers to run pro-U.S. stories. (Related story: Contracts for pro-U.S. propaganda) It's legal
for the government to plant propaganda in other countries but not in the USA.

Project Paperclip: Dark side of the Moon

2005-11-21, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4443934.stm
Sixty years ago the US hired Nazi scientists to lead pioneering projects, such as the race to
conquer space. These men provided the US with cutting-edge technology which still leads the way
today, but at a cost. Major-General Hugh Knerr, deputy commander of the US Air Force in Europe,
wrote: "Occupation of German scientific and industrial establishments has revealed the fact that
we have been alarmingly backward in many fields of research. "If we do not take the opportunity to
seize the apparatus and the brains that developed it...we will remain several years behind." Thus
began Project Paperclip, the US operation which saw von Braun and more than 700 others spirited
out of Germany from under the noses of the US's allies. Its aim was simple: "To exploit German
scientists for American research and to deny these intellectual resources to the Soviet Union."
President Truman authorised Paperclip in August 1945 and, on 18 November, the first Germans
reached America. All of these men were cleared to work for the US, their alleged crimes
covered up and their backgrounds bleached by a military which saw winning the Cold War,
and not upholding justice, as its first priority.

Remember Anthrax?
2005-11-02, Newsweek
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9900947/site/newsweek
Just as President George W. Bush is launching an ambitious plan to guard against an avian flu
pandemic, an administration program to prepare for a potential anthrax attack is running into new
and unexpected hurdles. VaxGen Inc., a California biotech firm that last year was awarded an
$877.5 million contract to supply a newly invented, and so far unlicensed, anthrax vaccine,
acknowledged this week that it won't begin to start deliveries to the federal government until the
latter part of next year -- six months later than it originally intended. For months, investigators on
both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns that the administration may have invested
too big a chunk of the nation's biodefenses in one obscure and relatively untested
company. Last year's decision by HHS to award the contract to the little-known VaxGen is being
scrutinized by at least two congressional committees. The company's product will have to pass
more large-scale tests proving its safety and effectiveness on people before it is fully licensed by
the Food and Drug Administration for use on humans, and company officials say they do not
expect it to be fully licensed at least until 2007. A New York Times report last December noted
that...the company had faced lawsuits filed by investors who claimed VaxGen misinformed them
about an AIDS vaccine that the company had heavily promoted but which later failed to work.
Note: For more on how greed and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry affects your health
and wallet, see our Health Information Center.

To Fill His Shoes, Mr. Bernanke, Learn to Dance

2005-10-30, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR20051028024...
In his 18 years as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan has occasionally drawn criticism,
but no one disputes his technical prowess or sniffs at his track record of low inflation and steady,
almost uninterrupted growth. Enter Ben S. Bernanke, President Bush's nominee to take
Greenspan's place. The former Princeton economics professor is currently the chairman of the
president's Council of Economic Advisers. The following are excerpts from [a speech] by Ben S.
Bernanke. "On Milton Friedman's Ninetieth Birthday," Nov. 8, 2002: "I first read 'A Monetary History
of the United States' early in my graduate school years at M.I.T. I was hooked, and I have been a
student of monetary economics and economic history ever since. Friedman and [his co-author
Anna J.] Schwartz made the case that the economic collapse of 1929-33 was the product of the
nation's monetary mechanism gone wrong. What I take from their work is the idea that monetary
forces, particularly if unleashed in a destabilizing direction, can be extremely powerful. "I would
like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it.
We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."

Note: The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board admits here that the Federal Reserve caused
the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve is owned by powerful private banks. It was created in
1913 largely in secrecy and fought by many who understood the dangers involved. For more
reliable information on this, click here.

AIDS Drug Maker to Pay $704M in Settlement

2005-10-17, ABC/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1223871
Serono Laboratories agreed Monday to pay $704 million and plead guilty to federal conspiracy
charges that it increased the market for the AIDS drug Serostim by offering kickbacks to doctors
and manipulating a test for AIDS patients. Eighty-five percent of prescriptions written for Serostim,
accounting for roughly $615 million in sales, were unnecessary. The cost of many of those
prescriptions, $21,000 for 12 weeks of treatment, was paid by Medicaid, the joint federal-state
health program for the poor, and other government insurance plans. Serono offered doctors free
trips to the south of France in return for agreeing to write up to 30 new prescriptions for
Serostim. The company also conspired to introduce a test for AIDS wasting, despite not
having FDA approval. The test diagnosed AIDS wasting even without weight loss. Monday's
settlement is the latest in a series of whistleblower claims that have resulted in more than $3 billion
in payments from drug companies in recent years.
Note: For lots more on this vital topic: http://www.WantToKnow.info/healthcoverup

Senators Accuse Pentagon of Obstructing Inquiry on Sept. 11 Plot

2005-09-22, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/politics/22intel.html?ex=1285041600&en=be75...
Senators from both parties accused the Defense Department on Wednesday of obstructing
an investigation into whether a highly classified intelligence program known as Able
Danger did indeed identify Mohamed Atta and other future hijackers as potential threats
well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The complaints came after the Pentagon
blocked several witnesses from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a public
hearing on Wednesday. The only testimony provided by the Defense Department came from a
senior official who would say only that he did not know whether the claims were true. But members
of the panel, led by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said they regarded as
credible assertions by current and former officers in the program. The officers have said they were
prevented by the Pentagon from sharing information about Mr. Atta and others with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. The Pentagon has acknowledged that at least five members of Able
Danger have said they recall a chart produced in 2000 that identified Mr. Atta, who became the
lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot, as a potential terrorist.

Going (Down) by the Book

2005-09-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/opinion/17tierney.html?ex=1284609600&en=7a8...
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency's paperwork slowed the evacuation of
patients from the airport, Acadian's frustrated medics waited with empty helicopters. "At one point I
had 10 helicopters on the ground waiting to go," said Marc Creswell, an Acadian medic, "but FEMA
kept stonewalling us with paperwork. Meanwhile, every 30 or 40 minutes someone was dying."
The company sent in outside doctors and nurses. FEMA rejected the help because the doctors
and nurses weren't certified members of a National Disaster Medical Team. "When the doctors
asked why they couldn't help these critically ill people lying there unattended," Mr. Creswell
recalled, "the FEMA people kept saying, 'You're not federalized.' "

Rove leak is just part of larger scandal

2005-07-15, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0715/p09s02-cods.html
The underlying issue in the Karl Rove controversy is not a leak, but a war and how America was
misled into that war. In 2002 President Bush, having decided to invade Iraq, was casting about for
a casus belli. The weapons of mass destruction theme was not yielding very much until a dubious
Italian intelligence report ... provided reason to speculate that Iraq might be trying to buy so-called
yellowcake uranium from the African country of Niger. the CIA sent Joseph Wilson, an old Africa
hand, to Niger to investigate. Mr. Wilson spent eight days talking to everyone in Niger possibly
involved and came back to report no sign of an Iraqi bid for uranium. Ignoring Wilson's report,
Cheney talked on TV about Iraq's nuclear potential. And the president himself, in his 2003 State of
the Union address no less, pronounced: "The British government has learned that Saddam
Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Wilson directly challenged
the administration with a July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed headlined, "What I didn't find in
Africa," and making clear his belief that the president deliberately manipulated intelligence in order
to justify an invasion. Three days later, Bob Novak's column appeared giving Wilson's wife's
name, Valerie Plame, and the fact she was an undercover CIA officer. Enough is known to
surmise that the leaks of Rove, or others deputized by him, amounted to retaliation against
someone who had the temerity to challenge the president of the United States. The role of Rove
and associates added up to a small incident in a very large scandal - the effort to delude America
into thinking it faced a threat dire enough to justify a war.

London Bombings: Strange Coincidences Raise Serious Questions

2005-07-13, BBC/MSNBC/London Times/More
http://www.WantToKnow.info/050713londonbombingcoverup

At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a
thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the
railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my
neck standing up right now. -- Former Scotland Yard Official Peter Power on BBC Radio, 7/7/05
(the day of the bombings)
"The explosives appear to be of military origin, which is very worrying," said Christophe Chaboud,
head of the French Anti-Terrorism Coordination Unit and one of five top officials sent by Paris to
London immediately after Thursday's attacks. -- Reuters, 7/11/05
A SINGLE bombmaker using high-grade military explosives is believed to be responsible for
building the four devices that killed more than 50 people last week. Similar components from the
explosive devices have been found at all four murder sites, leading detectives to believe that each
of the 10lb rucksack bombs was the work of one man. They also believe that the materials used
were not home made but sophisticated military explosives. -- London Times, 7/12/05
Translator Jacob Keryakes, who said that a copy of the message was later posted on a secular
Web site, noted that the claim of responsibility contained an error in one of the Quranic verses it
cited. That suggests that the claim may be phony. "This is not something al-Qaida would do." he
said. - MSNBC News, 7/7/05

On the Biodiesel Bandwagon

2005-07-10, San Francisco Chronicle (Leading newspaper of San Francisco)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/10/CMGI8D65IU1.DTL
Economists have predicted that 2005 is the year of the "global oil- production peak," when the
world produces the most oil it will ever produce. And so ends the era of cheap fossil fuels, taking
with it everything we've associated with modern American living: cheap groceries, cheap electricity,
cheap construction, cheap beer, cheap everything. Because without cheap fossil fuel, nothing is
cheap; and without cheap stuff, our society will soon be a very, very different place. A better place.
At least for Ben Jordan. "The sooner we get rid of fossil fuels," explains Jordan, "the sooner we
can have alternatives like biodiesel." Using vegetable oil as fuel isn't new; in fact, it's what the
diesel engine was originally intended to run on. When Rudolf Diesel first showcased his engine
at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, he used peanut oil. Diesel engines -- operating solely on
vegetable oils -- got an average of 30 percent more miles per gallon than traditional
combustion engines, and soon became the standard for buses, trucks, freightliners and marine
craft. In the 1920s, impressed by the efficiency of the engine and eager to control the diesel
market, oil companies forced car manufacturers to modify diesel engines to run off their huge
supplies of cheap, low-grade petroleum diesel. And the world's cities have been clogged with
sooty, black, highly polluting diesel exhaust ever since.
Note: For many promising reports on new energy developments, click here.

No Boundaries
2005-06-09, CNN News
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/09/ldt.01.html
A panel sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations wants the United States to focus
not on the defense of our own borders, but rather create what effectively would be a
common border that includes Mexico and Canada. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN
CORRESPONDENT: On Capitol Hill, testimony [is] calling for Americans to start thinking like
citizens of North America and treat the U.S., Mexico and Canada like one big country. That's the
view in a report called "Building a North American Community." It envisions a common border
around the U.S., Mexico and Canada in just five years, a border pass for residents of the three
countries, and a freer flow of goods and people. [Task force member Robert] PASTOR: What we
hope to accomplish by 2010 is a common external tariff which will mean that goods can move
easily across the border. We want a common security perimeter around all of North America.
ROMANS: Security experts say folding Mexico and Canada into the U.S. is a grave breach of that
sovereignty. [The report calls for] temporary migrant worker programs expanded with full mobility
of labor between the three countries in the next five years. The idea here is to make North America
more like the European Union. [CNN Anchor Lou] DOBBS: Americans must think that our political
and academic elites have gone utterly mad at a time when three-and-a-half years, approaching
four years after September 11, we still don't have border security. And this group of elites is talking
about not defending our borders, finally, but rather creating new ones. It's astonishing.
Note: This agenda is being promoted in key political forums with practically no media reporting.
For one of the few media articles reporting on this important topic, click here.

Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind

2005-06-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/class/HYPER-FINAL.html?ex=12756240...
It is no secret that the gap between the rich and the poor has grown, but the extent to which the
richest are leaving everyone else behind is not widely known. The people at the top of America's
money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they have pulled far ahead of the rest of
the population. They have even left behind people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
The share of the nation's income earned by those in this uppermost category has more than
doubled since 1980, to 7.4 percent in 2002. The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10
percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell. Under the Bush tax
cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the
last year for which the government will release such data - now pay ... taxes amounting to
virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000. From
1950 to 1970 ... for every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01
percent earned an additional $162. From 1990 to 2002, for every extra dollar earned by those in
the bottom 90 percent, each taxpayer at the top brought in an extra $18,000. An Internal Revenue
Service study found that the only taxpayers whose share of taxes declined in 2001 and 2002 were

those in the top 0.1 percent. Some of the wealthiest Americans, including Warren E. Buffett,
George Soros and Ted Turner, have warned that such a concentration of wealth can turn a
meritocracy into an aristocracy and ultimately stifle economic growth.

Lab habits: Do depressed lab rats dictate international drug policy?

2005-06-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/jun/02/farout
The predominant model of drug addiction views it as a disease: humans and animals will use
heroin or cocaine for as long as they are available. When the drugs run out, they will seek a fresh
supply; the drugs, not the users, are in control. These conclusions, repeated frequently by
politicians and the media, are based on experiments carried out almost exclusively on animals,
usually rats and monkeys, housed in metal cages and experiencing a particularly poor quality of
life. What would happen, wondered psychologist Dr Bruce Alexander, then of British Columbia's
Simon Fraser University, if these animals were instead provided with a comfortable, stimulating
environment? In 1981, Alexander built a 200sq ft home for lab rats. Rat Park, as it became known,
was kept clean and temperate, while the rats were supplied with plenty of food and toys, along with
places to dig, rest and mate. Try as he might, Alexander could not make junkies out of his
rats. Even after being force-fed morphine for two months, when given the option, they
chose plain water, despite experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms. He laced the morphine
with sugar, but still they ignored it. Only when he added Naloxone, an opiate inhibitor, to the
sugared morphine water, did they drink it. Alexander simultaneously monitored rats kept in
"normal" lab conditions: they consistently chose the morphine drip over plain water, sometimes
consuming 16-20 times more than the Rat Parkers. Alexander's findings - that deprived rats seek
solace in opiates, while contented rats avoid them - dramatically contradict our currently held
beliefs about addiction. Nobody seemed to care. Rejected by Science and Nature, Alexander's
paper was published in the obscure Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, where it was
summarily ignored. Two decades later, Rat Park sits empty; addiction remains a disease and the
war on drugs continues.
Note: Is it possible the powers that be want us to believe addiction is much worse than it really is?

Advanced vehicles demonstrate zero oil-consumption, reduced

emissions
2005-05-18, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/cars/news/2005/may/0518_tourdesol.html
Carmakers such as Toyota and Honda can't seem to make hybrid vehicles fast enough to keep up
with public interest. Interest in this new technology is growing, and one group is highlighting these
technical marvels in a yearly event called the Tour de Sol. Top prize for the Monte-Carlo Rally went
to a modified Honda Insight driven by Brian Hardegen, of Pepperell, who broke the 100-mile-pergallon barrier over a 150-mile range. The car actually got 107 miles-per gallon. St. Mark's High

School in Southboro, and North Haven Community School, North Haven, ME, demonstrated
true zero-oil consumption and true zero climate-change emissions with their modified
electric Ford pick-up and Volkswagen bus. More than 60 hybrid, electric and biofueled vehicles
from throughout the US and Canada demonstrated that we have the technology today to power
our transportation system with zero-oil consumption and zero climate-change emissions.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. If high school students can do it, why aren't the car
companies seriously developing these technologies? And why are car manufacturers not able to
keep up with demand on hybrid vehicles? For more, click here.

Court Dismisses FBI Contractor's Suit Against U.S.

2005-05-07, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/06/AR20050506018...
A federal appeals court rejected a fired FBI contractor's bid to revive her lawsuit against the
government. Sibel Edmonds said she was fired from her job as a wiretap translator because she
told superiors she suspected that a co-worker was leaking information to targets of an ongoing FBI
investigation. The FBI said it fired her because she committed security violations and disrupted the
office. The Justice Department's inspector general said Edmonds's allegations about a
coworker "raised serious concerns that, if true, could potentially have extremely damaging
consequences for the FBI."
Note: This article doesn't even mention 9/11, yet Ms. Edmonds has stated publicly that her
testimony would put top government officials behind bars for their role in blocking information
which could have stopped the 9/11 attacks. For more eye-opening information, click here and here.
Read Ms. Edmond's open letter to the chairman of the 9/11 Commission to find out what key
people in government don't want you to know about her testimony. See also her excellent website
http://www.justacitizen.com
She was also instrumental in forming a National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition.

The ricin ring that never was

2005-04-14, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attacks/comment/0,1320,1459178,00.html
Colin Powell does not need more humiliation. But yesterday a London jury brought down another
section of the case he made for war - that Iraq and Osama bin Laden were supporting and
directing terrorist poison cells throughout Europe, including a London ricin ring. Yesterday's
verdicts on five defendants ... make clear there was no ricin ring. Nor did the "ricin ring"
make or have ricin. Not that the government shared that news with us. The public record for the
past three fear-inducing years has been that ricin was found in the Wood Green flat occupied by
some of yesterday's acquitted defendants. It wasn't. [Found there] were the internal documents of
the supposed al-Qaida cell planning the "big one" in Britain. But the recipes were untested and

unoriginal, borrowed from US sources. Moreover, ricin is not a weapon of mass destruction. It
is a poison which has only ever been used for one-on-one killings. All the information roads
led west, not to Kabul but to California and the US midwest. The recipes for ricin now seen on the
internet were invented 20 years ago by survivalist Kurt Saxon. The chemical lists found in London
were an exact copy of pages on an internet site in Palo Alto, California. But it seems this
information was not shared with the then home secretary, David Blunkett, who was still whipping
up fear two weeks later. The most ironic twist was an attempt to introduce an "al- Qaida manual"
into the case. To show that the Jihad manual was written in the 1980s ... was easy. The ricin recipe
it contained was a direct translation from a 1988 US book called the Poisoner's Handbook. We
have all been victims of this mass deception.
Note: As the above link no longer functions, click here for the full article. According to a post on
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky's excellent Center for Research on Globalization website and other
inside sources, the British government ordered the above article removed from the website
within a week of its publication. Someone doesn't want us knowing how we are manipulated into
fear. For more on this, click here.

Merck's infant vaccine stirs new controversy

2005-03-08, Newsday/Los Angeles Times
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health/ny-usglan084168623mar08,0,3713664.story
Merck & Co. continued to supply infant vaccine containing a mercury preservative for two years
after declaring that it had eliminated the chemical. Thimerosal, which is nearly 50 percent ethyl
mercury, has largely been eliminated from most routine childhood vaccines, although it is present
in most flu shots. More than 4,200 parents have filed claims in the federal Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program, alleging that their children suffered autism or other neurological
disorders from mercury in their shots.

Halliburton operates in Iran despite sanctions

2005-03-07, MSNBC News
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7119752
in January, Halliburton won a contract to drill at a huge Iranian gas field called Pars, which an
Iranian government spokesman said "served the interests" of Iran. "I am baffled that any American
company would want to have employees operating in Iran," says Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "I
would think they'd be ashamed." Halliburton says the operation videotaped by NBC News is
entirely legal. It's run by a subsidiary called "Halliburton Products and Services Limited," based
outside the U.S. In fact, the law allows foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations to do business in
Iran under strict conditions. Other U.S. oil services companies, like Weatherford and Baker
Hughes, also are in Iran. And foreign subsidiaries of NBC's parent company, General
Electric, have sold equipment to Iran. For Halliburton to have done this legally, the foreign

subsidiary operating in Iran must be independent of the main operation in Texas. Yet, when an
NBC producer approached managers in Iran, he was sent to company officials in Dubai. But they
said only Halliburton headquarters in Houston could talk about operations in Iran.

Lost in Translation: How Bush Interpreter Got Through Security

2005-02-22, Wall Street Journal (Article on website founder Fred Burks)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110901231065260117,00.html?mod=todays_us_p...
Frederick Burks believes in UFOs, communes with dolphins, [and] runs a Web site that promotes
conspiracy theories about U.S. complicity in the 9/11 attacks. And, until last October, he had the
ear of the world's most powerful man ... George W. Bush. When President Bush traveled to Bali for
a meeting with President Megawati in October 2003 ... [Karen] Brooks, then the National Security
Council's Indonesia expert, says she personally requested that he get the job because he was so
good and "Megawati loved him." Now Mr. Burks has popped up in Jakarta as a star witness for the
defense in the terrorism trial of a fundamentalist Islamic cleric. Speaking to the Jakarta court in
fluent Indonesian, Mr. Burks described a secret 2002 meeting between a U.S. presidential envoy
and Indonesia's then president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Mr. Burks's testimony, delivered last
month in a south Jakarta court, turned the former White House interpreter ... into a national
celebrity here in Indonesia. While working as Mr. Bush's Indonesian-language interpreter, Mr.
Burks set up several Web sites, including momentoflove.org, weboflove.org and WantToKnow.info.
After 9/11, he began collecting and then posting documents he believes show that parts of
the U.S. government knew an attack was coming and may even have been complicit in its
execution. "I'm sometimes labeled a conspiracy theorist, but I'm not," he says. "I'm someone who
can handle dark energy, the really ugly things that are going on behind the scenes, without getting
too upset."
Note: This article surprisingly was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The above link
requires payment to read the full article. To read it free and learn much more, click here.

FBI targets pedophilia advocates

2005-02-18, San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego's leading newspaper)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050218/news_1n18manboy.html
On its Web site and newsletters, the North American Man/Boy Love Association advocates sex
between men and boys and cites ancient Greece to justify the practice. It goes by the acronym
NAMBLA, and the FBI has been following it for years, linking it to pedophilia and recently
infiltrating it with an agent successful enough to be asked to join the group's steering committee.
While NAMBLA's membership numbers are small, the group has a dangerous ripple effect through
the Internet by sanctioning the behavior of those who would abuse children. San Diego police Sgt.
Dave Jones, who oversees a group of investigators working on Internet crimes against children,
says NAMBLA's Web site often pops up in computers on which they find child pornography.
Saturday, the FBI arrested three NAMBLA members at Harbor Island as they waited for a

boat that undercover agents told them would sail to Ensenada for a sex retreat over
Valentine's Day with boys as young as 9. The NAMBLA investigation is part of a crackdown on
people authorities have termed sex tourists, those who cross state and national borders for illicit
sex. On its Web site, NAMBLA says ... children should have the right to have sex with older men
and that such relationships are "benevolent." The 26-year-old organization wants to overturn
statutory rape laws and free molesters from prison. Critics say NAMBLA's public face hides a
network of child molesters who trade seduction techniques and child pornography and organize
overseas trips for illicit sex.
Note: To see a four-minute video clip of the FBI agent's investigation, click here. If you are ready
to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to the highest levels of
government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence,"
available here.

C.I.A. Said to Rebuff Congress on Nazi Files

2005-01-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/international/europe/30nazis.html?ex=126482...
The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to provide hundreds of thousands of pages of
documents sought by a government working group under a 1998 law that requires full disclosure of
classified records related to Nazi war criminals. Some made public last year showed a closer
relationship between the United States government and Nazi war criminals than had previously
been understood, including the C.I.A.'s recruitment of war criminal suspects or Nazi collaborators.
For nearly three years, the C.I.A. has interpreted the 1998 law narrowly and rebuffed requests for
additional records. The dispute has not previously been made public. The American government
worked closely with Nazi war criminals and collaborators, allowing many of them to live in
the United States after World War II. Historians who have studied the documents made public so
far have said that at least five associates of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, the architect of
Hitler's campaign to exterminate Jews, had worked for the CIA. The records also indicate that the
CIA tried to recruit two dozen more war criminals or Nazi collaborators. Among former Nazis who
were given refuge in the United States was Wernher von Braun, the German scientist who
developed the V-2 rocket in World War II for the Nazis and played a major role in the development
of the American space program.
Note: Operation Paperclip involved secretly importing hundreds of Nazi scientists into the U.S. and
providing them with aliases and influential work in U.S. government and intelligence services.
Some of them were known experts in mind control techniques. For more reliable information, click
here.

AIDS drug therapy connected to death

2004-12-15, Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/2949734.html

Joyce Ann Hafford died without ever holding the son she had tried to save from contracting AIDS
by taking an experimental drug regimen administered by government-funded researchers during
her pregnancy. But even before her stunned family could grieve, the 33-year-old's death was
reverberating among the government's top scientists in Washington. They quickly realized the
drugs the HIV-positive woman from Memphis, Tenn., was taking likely caused the liver failure that
killed her. Hafford's family members say they were never told NIH had concluded that the
experimental drug regimen likely caused her death until the Associated Press gave them
copies of NIH's internal case documents this month. They were left to believe Hafford had
died from AIDS complications. "They tried to make it sound like she was just sick. They never
connected it to the drug," said Rubbie King, Hafford's sister. NIH officials acknowledge that
experimental drugs, most likely nevirapine, caused her death. The study during which Hafford died
recently led researchers to conclude that nevirapine poses risks when taken over time by certain
pregnant women. The family says Hafford seemed unaware of the liver risks. They even kept the
bottle of nevirapine showing it had no safety warnings.
Note: If you want to understand just how corrupt and deceitful medical research doctors can be,
read the stunning article on this case at this link. This article mentions the little-known fact that "a
majority of HIV-positive tests, when retested, come back indeterminate or negative. In many cases,
different results emerge from the same blood tested in different labs."

Warming Up to Cold Fusion

2004-11-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54964-2004Nov16.html
Peter Hagelstein is trying to revive hope for a future of clean, inexhaustible, inexpensive energy.
Fifteen years after the scientific embarrassment of the century ... a panel of scientists gathered.
The panel's charge was simple: to determine whether [cold fusion] had even a prayer of a chance
at working. The Department of Energy went to great lengths to cloak the meeting from public view.
No announcement, no reporters. None of the names of the people attending that day was
disclosed. Since 1989, hundreds of scientists working in dozens of labs around the world have
claimed ... results. Supporters point to the written literature -- more than 3,000 papers -- as proof of
the effect. But the most credible cold fusion advocates concede that the vast majority of those
papers are of poor quality. "Brilliant," "genius" and "reclusive" were words used to describe [SRI
scientist Peter] Hagelstein 20 years ago, when he rose to prominence as one of the young
scientists behind President Ronald Reagan's plans to build a missile shield in outer space.
Hagelstein [now] describes the mainstream scientific community as "mafias" that promote and
publish their friends' work, unwilling to accept new ideas. As Hagelstein explains it, leading
physicists came out swiftly and prematurely against cold fusion. Hagelstein says his acceptance of
cold fusion was by no means immediate. It took several years before he was convinced. [Now]
Hagelstein says, he has seen enough cold fusion data to convince him that the science is
clearly real. The field's acceptance, he maintains, will be simply a matter of the scientific
community's looking at the improved experimental results in the future and coming to understand
them.

Note: If the above link fails, click here. Why all the secrecy around this important topic? To learn
why the power elite don't want cheap energy, click here.

US seizes independent media sites

2004-10-11, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3732718.stm
The FBI has shut down some 20 sites which were part of an alternative media network known as
Indymedia. A US court order forced the firm hosting the material to hand over two servers in the
UK used by the group. Indymedia says it is a news source for the anti-globalisation movement and
other social justice issues. The reasons behind the seizure are unclear but the FBI has reportedly
said the action was taken at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities. The servers affected were
run by Rackspace, a US web hosting company with offices in London. It said it had received a
court order from the US authorities last Thursday to hand over the computer equipment at its UK
hosting facility. The reasons behind the action against the Indymedia websites are unclear. The
group said the servers affected had hosted the sites of more then 20 local collectives and audio
streams for several radio stations, as well as several other projects. The seizure has sparked off
protests from journalist groups. "The constitution does not permit the government unilaterally
to cut off the speech of an independent media outlet, especially without providing a reason
or even allowing Indymedia the information necessary to contest the seizure," said EFF
[Electronic Frontier Foundation] Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl.
Note: This important news was not covered by any major U.S. media. Why? Is it a coincidence
that these websites were taken down shortly after they started promoting a video clip showing
President Bush may have been using an electronic hearing aid during the presidential election
debates with John Kerry? Website founder Fred Burks had personal experience suggesting Bush
may have used electronic feeds in high-level meetings while Burks worked as a language
interpreter for him. For more, click here.

Children Full of Life

2004-09-27, CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/feature_270904.html
In the award-winning documentary "Children Full of Life," a fourth-grade class in a primary school
in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher,
Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in
front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of
caring for their classmates. Capturing the intimate moments of the students' laughter and
tears, the film explores one teacher's approach to allowing children the opportunity to
discover the value of sharing powerful emotions. Classroom discussions include difficult
issues such as the death of a parent or being the victim of bullying. In this "school of life," the
simple message is learning to look after one another. Following Mr. Kanamori's class for a whole

school year, the cameras were kept at the children's eye-level, giving their view of the world as
they cope with troubled relationships and the loss of loved ones. Through their daily experiences,
viewers see how they develop together a spirit of co-operation and compassion. Children Full of
Life was awarded the Global Television Grand Prize at this year's 25th Anniversary Banff
Television Festival, the festival's highest honour.
Note: Don't miss this, one of the most inspiring videos on the Internet, available at this link. If you
watch nothing but the first five minutes of this touching 40-minute video, you will almost certainly
be thankful you did.

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

2004-09-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of
companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. Newly
discovered files in the US National Archives [confirm] that a firm of which Prescott Bush
was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. His business
dealings...continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the
Enemy Act. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it
inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year,
show that even after America had entered the war...he worked for and profited from companies
closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. Remarkably,
little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret
status of the documentation involving him. But now [a] multibillion dollar legal action for damages
by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books
on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue
for his grandson. Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement. All three are readily
available, thanks to the efficient US archive system. Like his son, George, and grandson, George
W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and
influential Skull and Bones student society.

On the Voting Machine Makers' Tab

2004-09-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/opinion/12sun2.html?ex=1252728000&en=dda931...
Some of electronic voting's loudest defenders have been state and local election officials. Many of
those same officials have financial ties to voting machine companies. Former secretaries of state
from Florida and Georgia have signed on as lobbyists for Election Systems and Software
and Diebold Election Systems. When Bill Jones left office as California's secretary of state in
2003, he quickly became a consultant to Sequoia Voting Systems. His assistant secretary of state
took a full-time job there. The list goes on. Even while in office, many election officials are happy to

accept voting machine companies' largess. Forty-three percent of the budget of the National
Association of Secretaries of State comes from voting machine companies and other vendors.
State governments in a growing number of states...have pushed through much-needed laws that
require electronic voting machines to produce paper records. But these groups have faced intense
opposition from election officials [who] argued that voter-verifiable paper trails...are impractical.
While they may sincerely think that electronic voting machines are so trustworthy that there is no
need for a paper record of votes, their views have to be regarded with suspicion until their conflicts
are addressed.

Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision

2004-08-14, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-turley14aug14.story
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy
combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional
menace. Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order
the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional
rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants. Ashcroft hopes to use
his self-made "enemy combatant" stamp for any citizen whom he deems to be part of a wider
terrorist conspiracy. Aides have indicated that a "high-level committee" will recommend which
citizens are to be stripped of their constitutional rights and sent to Ashcroft's new camps. Few
would have imagined any attorney general seeking to reestablish such camps for citizens. We
have learned from painful experience that unchecked authority, once tasted, easily becomes
insatiable. We are only now getting a full vision of Ashcroft's America. Ashcroft seems to dream of
a country secured from itself, neatly contained and controlled by his judgment of loyalty. For more
than 200 years, security and liberty have been viewed as coexistent values. Ashcroft and his aides
appear to view this relationship as lineal, where security must precede liberty. Every generation
has its test of principle in which people of good faith can no longer remain silent in the face of
authoritarian ambition. If we cannot join together to fight the abomination of American camps, we
have already lost what we are defending.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. This aritcle was written by Jonathan Turley, a professor of
constitutional law at George Washington University. Though Ashcroft resigned, the laws he crafted
remain in place.

Scientists 'kept body parts of 1953 nerve gas victim'

2004-07-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3343201/Scientists-kept-body-parts-of-19...
Government scientists secretly removed body parts from a national serviceman who died after
taking part in nerve gas experiments, a new inquest has been told. Up to 200 separate samples
were taken from 20-year-old Ronald Maddison's brain, spinal cord, heart and skin - without his

family's permission - days after he died at Porton Down, Wiltshire, the government top-secret
chemical warfare research base, in 1953. The body parts have since been used in a number of
experiments by scientists researching the effects of toxic chemical agents on human tissue. The
original inquest, held in secret in 1953, found that Leading Aircraftman Maddison's death was
accidental, but the new inquest will examine fresh evidence and decide whether the original verdict
still stands. Mr Maddison ... was among hundreds of national servicemen who volunteered in
the 1950s and '60s to take part in tests at Porton Down in the belief that they were helping
scientists find a cure for the common cold. The airman died less than an hour after 200mg
of the highly toxic Sarin nerve agent was placed on layers of cloth on the inside of his arm.

The Truth About the Drug Companies (Book Review)

2004-07-15, New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244
The combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than
the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion). Over the past two decades
the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of
discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell
drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution
that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers,
and the medical profession itself. The great majority of "new" drugs are not new at all but
merely variations of older drugs already on the market. Of the 78 drugs approved by the FDA in
2002, only 17 contained new active ingredients, and only seven of these were classified by the
FDA as improvements over older drugs. [The] market would collapse virtually overnight if the FDA
made approval of new drugs contingent on their being better in some important way than older
drugs already on the market. Many medical schools and teaching hospitals set up "technology
transfer" offices to ... capitalize on faculty discoveries. Medical school faculty entered into ...
lucrative financial arrangements with drug companies, as did their parent institutions. One of the
results has been a growing pro-industry bias in medical researchexactly where such bias doesn't
belong. The industry ... fought the state of Maine all the way to the US Supreme Court, which in
2003 upheld Maine's right to bargain with drug companies for lower prices. This industry is taking
us for a ride, and there will be no real reform without an aroused and determined public to make it
happen.
Note: The above book and book review was written by Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of
the prestigious The New England Journal of Medicine. For more reliable information on the health
cover-up, click here.

US Justice System Is 'Broken,' Lawyers Say

2004-06-24, The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-punish24jun24,1,72496...

The American criminal justice system relies too heavily on imprisoning people and needs to
consider more effective alternatives, according to a study released Wednesday by the American
Bar Assn., the nation's largest lawyers' organization. "For more than 20 years, we've gotten
tougher on crime," said Dennis W. Archer, a former Detroit mayor and the group's current
president. "We can no longer sit by as more and more people particularly in minority
communities are sent away for longer and longer periods of time while we make it more and
more difficult for them to return to society after they serve their time. The system is broken. We
need to fix it." Both the number of incarcerated Americans and the cost of locking them up are
massive, the report said, and have been escalating significantly in recent years. Between 1974
and 2002, the number of inmates in federal and state prisons rose six-fold. By 2002, 476 out
of every 100,000 Americans were imprisoned. In 1982, the states and federal government
spent $9 billion on jails and prisons. By 1999, the figure had risen to $49 billion. Based on
trends, a black male born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of being imprisoned during his lifetime, while
the chances for a Latino male are 1 in 6, and for a white male, 1 in 17. The report contains
numerous reform proposals. Among them: the repeal of mandatory minimum sentencing laws;
more funding for substance abuse and mental health programs; assistance for prisoners
reentering society; [and] task forces to study racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice
system.
Note: If above link fails, click here. The prison-industrial complex attracts huge profits and strongly
supports laws like "three strikes" where third time offenders are automatically imprisoned for life,
even for petty crime.

Rothschild to leave gold market

2004-04-15, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3628971.stm
NM Rothschild, one of the City's oldest merchant banks, has decided that profit takes precedence
over history and is to withdraw from London's gold market. The move is part of Rothschild's plans
to halt all commodities trading out of London as it becomes less profitable. Last year, the business
generated just 2.2% of the bank's income, down from more than 8% five years earlier.
Rothschild's departure will leave a big gap, not least because it hosts the twice-daily gold
price fixing. Started in 1919, it is a prized and bizarre tradition. Every day at 1030 and 1500
local time, five representatives of investment banks meet in a small room at Rothschild's
London headquarters on St Swithin's Lane. They are charged by the London Gold Market to
agree a price for the bullion on offer. Each sits behind a desk and gets a phone and small Union
Jack. In the centre is the chairperson, who for the past 85 years has come from Rothschild. A price
is given and relayed via phone lines to customers. Then the haggling begins. When the price is
right and buyers are matched with sellers, the flags are lowered and the price is fixed. While the
whole process harks to a bygone age, the economics of the modern gold market are far less
quaint. Many producers are no longer hedging their exposure to both currency and commodity

price movements and that has taken a large chunk of business off the table. According to bank
chairman David de Rothschild, "our income from commodities trading in London has fallen as a
percentage of our total income in each of the past five years".
Note: For more on commodity price rigging, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

State take from corporate income falls

2004-04-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/15/...
Individual Californians are shouldering an increasing percentage of the state's general fund, while
the share of revenue from corporate income taxes has declined, according to a new analysis by a
think tank in Sacramento. "Over time, the burden of paying for public services has, in a fairly
dramatic way, shifted from businesses to individuals,'' said Jean Ross, director of the nonprofit
California Budget Project in Sacramento. Ross went back more than 40 years to track how much
the state derived from its three main revenue sources: personal income tax, sales tax and
corporate income tax. Over time, income taxes paid by individuals have risen to fill half of the
state's coffers, while corporate income taxes have fallen to about 10 percent of the take. Dan
Bucks, executive director of the Multistate Tax Commission, said the decline in corporate taxes as
a share of state coffers is occurring in all 47 states that levy some form of business or corporate
tax. "Our data indicate that ... corporate income taxes were 9.7 percent of state revenues in 1980
and 4.9 percent in 2002,'' he said. Personal income taxes -- levied in more than 40 states -- have
also risen nationwide "in a virtually straight line,'' he said. Corporations have gotten better at
sheltering income from both federal and state taxes. For instance, the General Accounting
Office, watchdog agency of Congress, recently reported that more than 60 percent of U.S.
corporations paid no federal taxes from 1996 through 2000.

'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with
aeroplanes'
2004-04-04, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-saw-papers-that-show-us-kn...
A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided
information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior
officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes
happened. She said the claim [made by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice] that there
was no such information was "an outrageous lie". Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three
hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was
circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft
was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has
sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used

"state secrets privilege". Mrs Edmonds, 33, says she gave her evidence to the commission in a
specially constructed "secure" room at its offices in Washington on 11 February. She was hired as
a translator for the FBI's Washington field office on 13 September 2001, just two days after the alQa'ida attacks. Her job was to translate documents and recordings from FBI wire-taps. She said
said it was clear there was sufficient information during the spring and summer of 2001 to indicate
terrorists were planning an attack.
Note: Watch the amazing, well documented documentary "Kill the Messenger" on courageous
9/11 whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, the most gagged citizen in U.S. history, who exposes the 9/11
Commission Report as irreparably flawed. For more along these lines, read concise summaries of
deeply revealing 9/11 investigation news from reliable major media sources.

The mysterious lab off New York's shore

2004-04-02, CNN News
http://articles.cnn.com/2004-04-02/entertainment/lab.257_1_plum-island-lab-ge...
Oops. That's the word that comes to mind when reading Michael Carroll's thoroughly nervewracking book, "Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory" ...
about the federal germ facility on Plum Island. The island [is] home to some of the deadliest
microbes festering on the planet. According to Carroll's book, the island -- and laboratory -- are
also home to slipshod construction, poor safeguards, and lax security. "Lab 257" claims errors at
the facility caused Lyme disease outbreaks and health problems for the local population -claims disputed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which ran the facility until recently. Carroll
[said] that the point of the book was to expose the potential hazards of a poorly run institution; he
has nothing against better-run, more secure institutions. "You have to know how things interact,
germs, bacteria, etc. You [just] don't need to create millions of them to know how to create them
and make them more virulent. Like other government scientific facilities, it's had an aura of
mystery: Plum Island earns a mention in "The Silence of the Lambs," and thriller writer Nelson
DeMille set a novel there. Much of Carroll's research was done through interviews with nearby
residents, as well as documents and reports. While the government was "cooperative at the
outset," Carroll said ... he was later denied access to the facility. Carroll isn't the first to offer
criticism. In 2002, after a power outage on the island, New York's WABC-TV did a story on
whether containment procedures worked; several employees questioned the lab's safety. In
2003, the General Accounting Office listed security problems on the island, partially prompted by a
whistleblower, Jim McCoy, who protested the management of a private concern.
Note: At the northernmost tip of Long Island, Plum island sits directly across from the town of
Lyme, Conn., famous as the epicenter of the Lyme disease outbreak. For a powerful, multiple
award-winning film showing shocking ignorance and even political corruption on the part of the
medical community about the Lyme disease epidemic spreading across the US and even around
the world, click here. It shows evidence that Lyme may be even the cause of many cases of ALS,
Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease.

9/11 panel to get access to withheld data

2003-11-13, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://articles.boston.com/2003-11-13/news/29196061_1_commission-ashley-snee-...
The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reached an agreement with the
White House yesterday to gain restricted access to years of classified presidential briefings. A fourperson subcommittee that will have varying degrees of access to the documents known as
Presidential Daily Briefs from the Bush and Clinton administrations. But the accord includes
numerous restrictions limiting what parts of briefings can be seen and what parts can later be
shared with the rest of the bipartisan panel. The limitations prompted angry condemnations
yesterday from two Democratic commissioners -- former Georgia senator Max Cleland and former
Indiana representative Timothy Roemer -- who have argued that the commission should be more
aggressive in seeking sensitive materials from the Bush administration. Cleland called the
agreement "unconscionable" and said it "was deliberately compromised by the president of the
United States" in order to limit the panel's work. "If this decision stands, I as a member of the
commission cannot look any American in the eye, especially family members of victims,
and say the commission had full access," he said. "This investigation is now compromised.
This is `The Gong Show'; this isn't protection of national security."
Note: Cleland later resigned from the commission. For the questions of other highly-respected
former government officials who are disatisfied with the truthfulness of the 9/11 Commission
Report, click here.

Cosmic bolt probed in shuttle disaster

2003-02-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/07/CAMERA.TMP
Federal scientists are looking for evidence that a bolt of electricity in the upper atmosphere might
have doomed the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked over California. Investigators are
combing records from a network of ultra-sensitive instruments that might have detected a
faint thunderclap in the upper atmosphere at the same time a photograph taken by a San
Francisco astronomer appears to show a purplish bolt of lightning striking the shuttle. Los
Alamos National Laboratories physicist Mark Stanley said that "we've seen very strong ionization
in sprites" indicating that there were enough air molecules ionized to cause heating and an
accompanying pulse -- a celestial thunderclap, as it were. NASA administrators confirmed
Thursday that the photograph ... is being evaluated by Columbia crash investigators. The
astronomer, who has asked that his name not be used, has declined to release the digital image to
the media. [A] family of "transient" electrical effects occup[ies] this part of the sky, including sprites,
which leap from the ionosphere to the tops of thunderheads. Ironically, an experiment of Israeli
astronaut Ilan Ramon, aboard the doomed Columbia, was among the last fully funded work
conducted on sprites. Scientists have observed interaction between a blue jet and a meteor. And in
December 1999, Los Alamos National Laboratories researcher David Suszcynsky and colleagues,
including Lyons, published an account of a meteor that apparently triggered a sprite.

Note: For a second article with the subtitle "Mysterious purple streak is shown hitting Columbia 7
minutes before it disintegrated," click here. Though this most bizarre news suggested another
possible reason for the crash of the shuttle Columbia, it was virtually ignored throughout the official
investigation. Why?

Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US

2002-12-09, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html
Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today's population,
that is more than $5,700 per person. This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting
economist in Washington. Mr. Stauffer has tallied the total cost to the US of its backing of Israel in
its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians. The bill adds up to more than twice the cost of
the Vietnam War. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. It has been getting $3 billion
a year for years. Israel has been given $240 billion since 1973, Stauffer reckons. In addition, the
US has given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return for signing peace
treaties with Israel. Stauffer wonders if Americans are aware of the full bill for supporting Israel
since some costs, if not hidden, are little known. Other US help includes: Israel buys discounted,
serviceable "excess" US military equipment. Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several
billion dollars" over recent years. Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in
military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to buy Israeli-made hardware. It
also has won the right to require the Defense Department or US defense contractors to buy Israelimade equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the US gives to
Israel. US help ... has enabled Israel to become a major weapons supplier. Weapons make up
almost half of Israel's manufactured exports. US defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel
requirements and the extra competition subsidized by US taxpayers. Stauffer [has] been assisted
in this research by a number of mostly retired military or diplomatic officials who do not go public
for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.
Note: Israel has a population of 6.5 million. Yearly foreign aid to Israel has generally varied
between $2.5 to 3.0 billion for many years (it's difficult to locate these figures on U.S. government
websites). If you do the math, U.S. taxpayers are giving every man, woman, and child, in Israel
about $400/year -- over ten times the per capita rate paid to any other country. That's quite a tax
break, especially considering they are not Americans.

FBI Chief Acknowledges 9/11 Errors

2002-05-30, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/30/national/main510607.shtml
FBI Director Robert Mueller, acknowledging serious lapses in how the FBI mishandled some
information prior to Sept. 11, suggested for the first time that investigators might have detected the
terrorist plot if they had pursued leads more diligently. Mueller's acknowledgment came amid two

new disclosures of what could be missed hints about Sept. 11. The first was a warning from
another agency to the FBI that a Middle Eastern country was seeking to buy commercial
flight simulators. The second was a memo from an Oklahoma City FBI agent who reported
observing large numbers of Middle Eastern pilots and flight students in his area. Neither
memo apparently drew much attention at the time. Mueller's remarks came after his
announcement of a broad reorganization of the FBI, partly because of its failure to predict the
attacks. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced loosened restrictions on domestic spying,
handing the FBI authority to monitor Internet sites and libraries. The American Civil Liberties Union
has criticized the loosening of restrictions on domestic spying, saying they could renew abuses of
the past. Mueller, who took over as FBI director just days before Sept. 11, is the first senior official
in the Bush administration to say that counterterrorism investigators might have detected and
averted the attacks if they had recognized what they were collecting.
Note: Yet no one in the US government was held accountable for these failures.

US media cowed by patriotic fever, says CBS star

2002-05-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/may/17/terrorismandthemedia.broadcasting
Dan Rather, the star news anchor for the US television network CBS, said last night that
"patriotism run amok" was in danger of trampling the freedom of American journalists to ask tough
questions. And he admitted that he had shrunk from taking on the Bush administration over the
war on terrorism. In an interview with BBC's Newsnight, he graphically described the pressures to
conform that built up after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. "There was a
time in South Africa that people would put flaming tyres around people's necks if they
dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a
flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck," he said. "Now it is that fear that
keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions." Rather did not exempt
himself from the criticism, and said the problem was self-censorship. "One finds oneself saying: 'I
know the right question, but you know what? This is not exactly the right time to ask it.'" Such a
confession is astonishing, bearing in mind its source. He said his view of the patriotism differed
from that of the administration. "It's unpatriotic not to stand up, look them in the eye, and ask the
questions they don't want to hear - they being those who have the responsibility, the ultimate
responsibility - of sending our sons and daughters, our husbands, wives, our blood, to face death."
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on media cover-ups, click here.

Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel

2002-05-15, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/15/attack/main509096.shtml

President Bush took a few minutes during his trip to Europe ... to voice his opposition to
establishing a special commission to probe how the government dealt with terror warnings
before Sept. 11. Mr. Bush said the matter should be dealt with by congressional intelligence
committees. Mr. Bush said the investigation should be confined to Congress because it deals with
sensitive information that could reveal sources and methods of intelligence. Mr. Bush's comments
come after a two-day hearing on Capitol Hill with FBI director Robert Mueller and the agent who
wrote the so-called "Phoenix memo" last summer warning about ... Arab students training at U.S.
aviation schools. Current and former government officials, who are familiar with Williams' memo
and debriefings, told the AP the counterterrorism agent from Phoenix had ascertained that several
Arab students training at Arizona flight school held anti-American views. Williams identified several
Arab students at Arizona aviation schools, including one school in Prescott, who were seeking
training in aviation engineering, flight lessons and airport operations. He had ascertained that at
least one of the students had also made inquiries about airport security operations, the officials
said.
Note: For many questions raised by highly-respected former government officials about the
investigation that was, after four years, finally authorized, click here.

Live rats driven by remote control

2002-05-05, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,708454,00.html
Scientists have turned living rats into remote-controlled, pleasure-driven robots which can be
guided up ladders, through ruins and into minefields at the click of a laptop key. The project ... is
funded by the US military's research arm. Animals have often been used by humans in combat
and in search and rescue, but not under direct computer-to-brain electronic control. The advent of
surgically altered roborats marks the crossing of a new boundary in the mechanisation, and
potential militarisation, of nature. In 10 sessions the rats learned that if they ran forward and turned
left or right on cue, they would be "rewarded" with a buzz of electrically delivered pleasure. Once
trained they would move instantaneously and accurately as directed, for up to an hour at a time.
The rats could be steered up ladders, along narrow ledges and down ramps, up trees, and into
collapsed piles of concrete rubble. Roborats fitted with cameras or other sensors could be
used as search and rescue aids. In theory, be put to some unpleasant uses, such as
assassination. [For] surveillance ... you could apply this to birds ... if you could fit birds with
sensors and cameras. Michael Reiss, professor of science education at London's Institute of
Education and a leading bioethics thinker ... said he was uneasy about humankind "subverting the
autonomy" of animals. "There is a part of me that is not entirely happy with the idea of our
subverting a sentient animal's own aspirations and wish to lead a life of its own."
Note: Remember that secret military projects are almost always at least a decade in advance of
anything you read in the media. For lots more on this little-known subject, click here.

U.S. Forces Out Head of Chemical Arms Agency

2002-04-23, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0D91E3FF930A15757C0A9649C...
The United States succeeded today in ousting the director of the global agency charged with
ridding the world of chemical weapons after an intense diplomatic campaign that made a number
of countries uncomfortable. Jos M. Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat who was unanimously re-elected
last year as the director general of the 145-nation Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons, was voted out of office today after refusing repeated demands by the United States that
he step down. ''I clearly made some people in Washington very uncomfortable because I was too
independent,'' Mr. Bustani said afterward. ''They want somebody more obedient.'' Diplomats said
... it had opened the door further for other international bodies to come under attack. The United
States, which is responsible for 22 percent of the agency's budget, had threatened to cut off
funding until Mr. Bustani left. ''I think a lot of people swallowed this because they thought it
was better for Bustani to be removed than have the U.S. pull out and see the organization
collapse,'' said one European diplomat at the meeting. The firing of Mr. Bustani follows the
removal last week of Robert Watson, a British-born climatologist who had been outspoken on the
threat of global warming, as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He
was removed after pressure from Washington and at least one American oil company.
Note: If Bustani had not been removed, it is very likely that the accusations of WMD in Iraq would
never have stood, and the war would not have happened. For a powerful two-page essay by a
highly decorated U.S. general alleging that war is a racket orchestrated to line the pockets of the
corporations, click here.

Chemical Coup d'etat

2002-04-16, The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4394862,00.html
The US wants to depose the diplomat who could take away its pretext for war with Iraq. On
Sunday, the US government will launch an international coup. It has been planned for a
month. It will be executed quietly, and most of us won't know what is happening until it's too late. It
is seeking to overthrow 60 years of multilateralism in favour of a global regime built on force. The
coup begins with its attempt ... to unseat the man in charge of ridding the world of chemical
weapons. If it succeeds, this will be the first time that the head of a multilateral agency will have
been deposed in this manner. The coup will also shut down the peaceful options for dealing with
the chemical weapons Iraq may possess, helping to ensure that war then becomes the only means
of destroying them. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) enforces
the chemical weapons convention. Its director-general is a workaholic Brazilian diplomat called
Jose Bustani. He has, arguably, done more in the past five years to promote world peace than
anyone else on earth. His inspectors have overseen the destruction of 2 million chemical weapons
and two-thirds of the world's chemical weapon facilities. In May 2000, as a tribute to his
extraordinary record, Bustani was re-elected unanimously by the member states for a second five-

year term. Last year Colin Powell wrote to him to thank him for his "very impressive" work. But now
everything has changed. [But now] the man celebrated for his achievements has been denounced
as an enemy of the people. In January, with no prior warning or explanation, the US state
department asked the Brazilian government to recall him.
Note: The "coup" was successful. The New York Times, though reporting few of the details above,
stated six days after the above article, "Jos M. Bustani ... was voted out of office today after
refusing repeated demands by the United States that he step down because of his 'management
style.'" For why this highly revealing story received no media coverage in the U.S., click
here. For a top U.S. general's comments, click here.

US grants N Korea nuclear funds

2002-04-02, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1908571.stm
The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an
agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was
being misused. In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's
requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any
weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors. President Bush argued that the
decision was "vital to the national security interests of the United States". The head of the
Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington, a critic of the Agreed Framework, has
warned that even when the new reactors are completed they may not be tamper-proof. "These
reactors are like all reactors, They have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up
supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we're trying to
prevent it acquiring," Henry Sokolski told the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Note: Though this article is from 2002, one must ask why on earth President Bush would waive
the requirement for inspectors who would ensure no nuclear weapons development? Wasn't this
one of three countries he had already labeled as the axis of evil? For answers to these questions,
click here.

From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad

2002-03-23, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5339-2002Mar22
In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan
schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of
covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation. The primers, which were filled with talk
of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the
Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books,
though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist

code. What seemed like a good idea in the context of the Cold War is being criticized by
humanitarian workers as a crude tool that steeped a generation in violence. Many of the 4 million
texts being trucked into Afghanistan, and millions more on the way, still feature Koranic verses and
teach Muslim tenets. The White House defends the religious content, saying that Islamic
principles permeate Afghan culture and that the books "are fully in compliance with U.S.
law and policy." Legal experts, however, question whether the books violate a
constitutional ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.
Note: The author doesn't mention that these US-produced books are also openly promoting
violence and war. Of course, that is not against the law, while using US tax money to promote
religion is.

Baltimore Artist's Art, Spirit Triumph Over Disability

2002-02-03, NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=966641
Dan Keplinger was born with severe cerebral palsy. But at 30, he's already a successful artist, the
subject of an Oscar-winning film called "King Gimp," and he's finishing his second college degree.
Keplinger insists on doing everything for himself. To paint, Keplinger wiggles into headgear, then
kneels over a canvas, hugging himself tightly to keep his arms from flailing. Many of Keplinger's
works are self-portraits or reference his disability. "King Gimp" charts Keplinger's experience in a
regular public school, his discovery of art and his entry into college. The 40-minute film won an
Oscar in 1999 for best short subject documentary. His art continues to garner fans and critical
acclaim. "Many of Keplinger's paintings are in some way autobiographical," [NPR reporter
Neda] Ulaby says. "His bearded face flickers from the canvas, the eyes empty hollows. He
looks both vulnerable and blank. It isn't easy to separate Keplinger's story from his art."
Keplinger explains it simply: "Art... is... my... life."
Note: For one of the most inspiring one-minute videos ever made, watch the clip featuring Dan at
this link.

The Assisi Decalogue For Peace

2002-02-01, King's University College, University of Western Ontario
http://www.uwo.ca/kings/ccjl/docs/catholic_docs/assisi/assisi.html
What if leaders of the worlds major religions got together one day and denounced all religious
violence? What if they unanimously agreed to make this plain, clear and bold statement to the
world? Violence and terrorism are opposed to all true religious spirit and we condemn all recourse
to violence and war in the name of God or religion. It could change the world. More than 200
leaders of the worlds dozen major religions did get together January 24 in Assisi, Italy. Pope John
Paul II and a number of cardinals were at the meeting. So was Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of all
Orthodox Christians. So were a dozen Jewish rabbis, including some from Israel. So were 30

Muslim imams from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. So were dozens of ministers
representing Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Disciples of
Christ, Mennonites, Quakers, Moravians, The Salvation Army and the World Council of Churches.
So were dozens of monks, gurus and others representing Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and
Zoroastrians and native African religions. They unanimously agreed to condemn every recourse
to violence and war in the name of God or religion. They also said, No religious goal can possibly
justify the use of violence by man against man. And that Whoever uses religion to foment
violence contradicts religions deepest and truest inspiration. They called their statement the
Assisi Decalogue for Peace. Maybe you missed the story. It didnt even make the newspapers
the next day, hidden inside or not. What if leaders of the worlds major religions got
together one and denounced all religious violence - and no one cared?
Note: Why is it that news about war and terrorism so frequently makes headlines, but the amazing
news that leaders of religions from around the world got together to denounce all violence in the
name of God and religion did not even warrant an article or story in any major media?

Planning for Terror but Failing to Act

2001-12-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/30/national/30TERR.html
An extensive review of the nation's antiterrorism efforts shows that for years before Sept. 11, ... top
leaders never reacted as if they believed the country was as vulnerable as it proved to be that
morning. Dozens of interviews with current and former officials demonstrate that even as the threat
of terrorism mounted through eight years of the Clinton administration and eight months of
President Bush, the government did not marshal its full forces against it. The rising threat of the
Islamic jihad movement was first detected by United States investigators after the 1993 bombing of
the World Trade Center. The inquiry into that attack revealed a weakness in the immigration
system used by one of the terrorists, but that hole was never plugged, and it was exploited by one
of the Sept. 11 hijackers. On at least three occasions between 1998 and 2000, the C.I.A. told
the White House it had learned where Mr. bin Laden was and where he might soon be. Each
time, Mr. Clinton approved the strike. Each time, George Tenet, the director of central
intelligence, called the president to say that the information was not reliable enough to be
used in an attack, a former senior Clinton administration official said."
Note: For many unanswered questions about the official explanation of what happened before and
on 9/11 raised by highly credible officials and professionals, click here and here.

America's pipe dream

2001-12-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/23/afghanistan.terrorism11

The invasion of Afghanistan is ... a late colonial adventure. Afghanistan [is] indispensable to the
regional control and transport of oil in central Asia. Its northern neighbours ... contain reserves
which could be critical to future global supply. In 1998, Dick Cheney, now US vice-president but
then chief executive of a major oil services company, remarked: "I cannot think of a time when we
have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian." But
the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route which makes both
political and economic sense is through Afghanistan. Pipelines through Afghanistan would
allow the US both to pursue its aim of "diversifying energy supply" and to penetrate the
world's most lucrative markets. Growth in European oil consumption is slow and competition is
intense. In south Asia, by contrast, demand is booming and competitors are scarce. Pumping oil
south and selling it in Pakistan and India, in other words, is far more profitable than pumping it
west and selling it in Europe. As the author Ahmed Rashid has documented, in 1995 the US oil
company Unocal started negotiating to build oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, through
Afghanistan and into Pakistani ports on the Arabian sea. The company's scheme required a single
administration in Afghanistan, which would guarantee safe passage for its goods.
Note: Is it unusual that the president installed by the U.S. in Afghanistan once worked for Unocal?
Many details of the attempts by the US government to pressure the Taliban into going along with
Unocal's pipeline dream are revealed in Ahmed Rashid's book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and
Fundamentalism in Central Asia.

Journal axes gene research on Jews and Palestinians

2001-11-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/25/medicalscience.genetics
A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically
almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal. Academics who have already received
copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw
them away. Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing
and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of
scientific work that questions Biblical dogma. 'I have authored several hundred scientific papers,
some for Nature and Science, and this has never happened to me before,' said the article's lead
author, Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutense University in Madrid.
'I am stunned.' Arnaiz-Villena has been sacked from the journal's editorial board. The paper, 'The
Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations' [found
that] no data [exist] to support the idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other
people in the region. In doing so, the team's research challenges claims that Jews are a special,
chosen people and that Judaism can only be inherited. Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East
share a very similar gene pool and must be considered closely related and not genetically
separate, the authors state.

Warnings: Earlier Hijackings Offered Signals That Were Missed

2001-10-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/03/us/a-nation-challenged-warnings-earlier-hij...
Over and over since Sept. 11, aviation and security officials have said they were shocked that
terrorists had hijacked airliners and crashed them into landmark buildings. ''This is a whole new
world for us,'' Jane F. Garvey, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said
in testimony before a House subcommittee on Sept. 20. But the record shows that for her
and others, there were numerous warnings. In 1994, two jetliners were hijacked by people who
wanted to crash them into buildings, one of them by an Islamic militant group. And the 2000 edition
of the F.A.A.'s annual report on Criminal Acts Against Aviation, published this year, said that
although Osama bin Laden ''is not known to have attacked civil aviation, he has both the
motivation and the wherewithal to do so." The previous year's edition of that report said that an
exiled Islamic leader in Britain proclaimed in August 1998 that Mr. bin Laden would ''bring down an
airliner, or hijack an airliner to humiliate the United States.'' The authorities appeared to draw no
lessons from the two attacks in 1994.
Note: For many unanswered questions about the official explanation of what happened before and
on 9/11 raised by highly credible officials and professionals, click here and here.

Scarred Steel Holds Clues, And Remedies

2001-10-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/02/science/scarred-steel-holds-clues-and-remed...
On his first night in the city to collect scientific data on the collapsed World Trade Center buildings,
Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl looked out the window of his room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and
saw a flatbed truck parked outside. By chance, trucks hauling steel from the trade center site
paused there for an hour or two before proceeding to the docks, where the steel was loaded onto
barges. Dr. Astaneh-Asl, a professor of structural engineering at the University of California at
Berkeley, ... went downstairs for a closer look. Over the next few nights, he cataloged 30 to 40 of
the mighty beams and columns as trucks stopped in front of the hotel. ''I've found quite a number
of interesting items,'' he said. Dr. Astaneh-Asl hopes to conduct what is, in essence, an autopsy of
the buildings felled by the terrorist attacks, to understand precisely how they fell apart. One piece
Dr. Astaneh-Asl saw was a charred horizontal I-beam from 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story
skyscraper that collapsed from fire eight hours after the attacks. The beam ... had clearly
endured searing temperatures. Parts of the flat top of the I, once five-eighths of an inch
thick, had vaporized. Dr. Astaneh-Asl and other engineers had assumed that the estimated
310,000 tons of steel columns and beams were being taken to Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island
with the rest of the debris, to be sifted by investigators. But because the steel provides no clues to
the criminal investigation, New York City started sending it to recyclers.

Note: Normal fire cannot vaporize steel, so Dr. Astaneh-Asl's finding clearly contradicts the official
story. For an abundance of powerful evidence presented by respected architects and engineers
that World Trade Center 7 was brought down by explosives, click here.

Plane Lands In Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard

2001-09-11, WCPO - Cincinnati's ABC Affiliate
http://www.wcpo.com/specials/2001/americaattacked/news_local/story14.html
Reported by: 9News Staff, 9/11/01 11:43:57 AM. A Boeing 767 out of Boston made an
emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport due to concerns
that it may have a bomb aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White. White said the plane had been
moved to a secure area of the airport, and was evacuated. United identified the plane as Flight
93. The airline did say how many people were aboard the flight. United said it was also "deeply
concerned" about another flight, Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to Los
Angeles. On behalf of the airline CEO James Goodwin said: "The thoughts of everyone at United
are with the passengers and crew of these flights. Our prayers are also with everyone on the
ground who may have been involved. "United is working with all the relevant authorities, including
the FBI, to obtain further information on these flights," he said.
Note: Remember that Flight 93 reportedly crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11, with all aboard killed.
This story was posted within hours of the 9/11 attacks. Click on the link above and you will see,
"This story has been removed from WCPO.com. It was a preliminary AP story, and was factually
incorrect." However, using the powerful Internet Archive, you can see the original article here. Click
here and you can see the article continued to be posted for all dates through June 2004, and was
only removed later. How can this be?

New documents show the monkey virus is present in more recent polio
vaccine
2001-07-22, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/07/22/MN173141.DTL
A monkey virus linked to human cancers may have contaminated the oral polio vaccine for years
after the U.S. government ordered manufacturers to remove it. The Chronicle reported last week
that the simian virus SV40 had contaminated early polio vaccine given to millions of Americans.
When health officials discovered in 1961 that SV40 caused malignant tumors in lab animals, they
ordered the virus eliminated from all future vaccine. But internal memos from Lederle Laboratories,
the chief producer of polio vaccine in the United States, indicate SV40 may not have been
completely removed. According to one memo, SV40 was found in three of 15 lots of the oral
vaccine seven months after the federal directive was issued in March 1961. Lederle released the
contaminated vaccine to the public anyway, the memo shows. Scientists discovered SV40 in the
Salk polio vaccine in 1960. By then as many as 30 million Americans had been given
injections of the SV40-tainted polio vaccine, which was first licensed in 1955. In recent years

more than 60 scientific studies have found SV40 in rare human brain, bone and lung-related
cancers, the same kinds of tumors the virus caused in laboratory animals. Some scientists believe
SV40 may play a role in causing those cancers. The Lederle documents, which were obtained by
Philadelphia attorney Stanley Kops in litigation not related to SV40, raise the possibility the virus
might have been transmitted by contaminated oral vaccine, licensed for production in 1962.
Note: There are numerous major problems with how vaccines are monitored and developed, yet
the media largely fails to address this major issue. For many powerful reports from reliable sources
on the dangers of vaccines, click here. For lots more, click here and here.

Battle of Los Angeles: WWII Mass UFO Sighting?

2001-05-22, National Geographic
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/community/blogs/mysterious-scie...
Perhaps the weirdest, most inexplicable event in [World War II] was a Japanese air raid on Los
Angeles in the early morning hours of February 25, 1942. Or at least thats what people thought it
was. Radar operators saw an unidentified intruder on their screens, terrified civilians
reported seeing formations of enemy planes, and the personnel manning anti-aircraft
batteries lit up the night sky with a horrific barrage of fire. When the smoke and the
confusion cleared, however, there was no evidence that the enemy had ever been there.
Adding to the mystery, a bizarre photo appeared on an inside page of the Los Angeles Times the
next day, showing searchlights converging on what the caption described as an object in the sky
over Culver City, a suburb of LA. Its an image that has been studied ever since by UFOologists.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox told reporters at a press conference that the attack had been a
false alarm. One ET-oriented web site offers a suspiciously blurry copy of what is purported to be a
memorandum from Army chief of staff George C. Marshall to FDR, in which Marshall supposedly
concludes that, "...the mystery airplanes are in fact not earthly, and according to secret intelligence
sources they are in all probability of interplanetary origin."
Note: This is part of National Geographic feature program titled "When Aliens Attack"? To see this
on their website, click here and here. Some of the videos in the first link are particularly interesting.
The title brings to mind Dr. Carol Rosin's prediction of a staged alien attack, which you can read
here. For lots more solid evidence suggesting a major cover-up around UFOs, click here.

Life-Threatening Food?
2001-05-17, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/05/17/eveningnews/main291992.shtml
Last fall, at a business lunch with co-workers, Grace Booth enjoyed three chicken enchiladas. The
food, she recalls, was very good but then something went very wrong. "I thought, oh my God,
what is happening to me? I felt like I was going to die." In the emergency room in nearby Oakland
the diagnosis was severe allergic reaction and from here Grace Booth's story reached officials in

Washington. At the time the national corn market was in an uproar. Starlink, a gene modified corn
not approved for human food, had been found in taco shells and recalls were emptying the shelves
of corn products. The fear was possible allergic reactions. At that moment, Booth says, she had
no idea that the corn tortillas in her lunch were about to be recalled. In the wake of the
recalls more than 50 Americans, including Booth, claimed they had reactions to Starlink
corn. That forced the government to launch the first full-scale allergy investigation in the
history of biotech food. It has taken months, but the Centers for Disease Control and the Food
and Drug Administration have collected food samples and blood from two dozen people whose
cases were believed most serious. [Symptoms] "[v]aried from just abdominal pain and diarrhea [or]
skin rashes to some patients ... having very severe life-threatening reactions," said Dr. Marc
Rothenberg, the allergy chief at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. He is an adviser to the government
in the Starlink investigation. Its slow going he says because investigators first had to find the
Starlink protein and then invent a blood test.
Note: The date of this article is May 17, 2001, though on the webpage itself a different date is
listed. With so many examples of allergic reactions and more to GM foods, why does the FDA
continue to insist that these foods are safe? Could it be because many top leaders at the FDA
once worked at Monsanto?

Coruscating criticism of the free market ideology of the IMF

2001-04-27, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1312942.stm
GREG PALAST: Protesters say that what we have here is a conspiracy - the World Bank, IMF and
World Trade Organisation don't help the poor of the world, they crush them. Well, the bosses are
here today, let's ask them. Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist of the World Bank - he should
know. He was in the meetings when the World Bank and IMF met to decide the fate of nations.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: They were making the countries worse off. They'll take a strong position on
petty larceny and petty theft, but on grand larceny, they'll look the other way. PALAST: The insider
says there's a "one-size-fits-all" plan. Every nation gets the same exact four-step
programme to the free market paradise. Step one - freedom for hot money. Step two freedom to increase prices. Step three - free trade for all. Step four, where it all begins,
freedom to privatise everything. Insiders saw how it worked in Russia. JOSEPH STIGLITZ:
That was the extreme case. You turned over these assets to these oligarchs at a time when the
government didn't have enough money to pay pensions to old people. It turned over billions of
dollars to a few oligarchs for a fraction of the value of those assets. When it comes to corruption in
Russia, they were willing to turn the other way. The IMF and the US Treasury actually almost
encouraged it.
Note: To watch the eight-minute video of this BBC clip, click here. For a powerful summary of John
Perkins book describing this process in detail, click here. Perkins say he was hired to use the big
international banks' money to corrupt dictators and enrich the coffers of the biggest multinational
corporations.

Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report

2001-03-29, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/program/overview.html
Twenty-three years to the day after he went to work with vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals at
a plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Dan Ross died of a rare brain cancer. He was 46 years old,
convinced that his job had killed him. His wife, Elaine, sued her husband's former employer and,
over the next decade, the process of legal discovery led deeper and deeper into the inner
chambers of the chemical industry and its Washington trade association. Hundreds of thousands
of pages of documents were unearthed. In TRADE SECRETS: A MOYERS REPORT, journalist Bill
Moyers and producer Sherry Jones investigated the Ross archive secrets the chemical industry
never intended the public to see and discovered a shocking story. The confidential papers reveal
the industry's early knowledge of vinyl chloride's dangerous effects, as well as the industry's long
silence on the subject. The program also reports a much larger story. Buried in the thousands of
pages of documents minutes from board meetings, reports from industry scientists, internal
memoranda is a never-before-told account of a campaign to limit the regulation of toxic
chemicals and any liability for their effects, at the same that the companies work to
withhold vital information about risks from workers, the government and the public. Over
the last five decades, more than 75,000 chemicals have been produced, turned into consumer
products or released into the environment. Today, every man, woman and child has synthetic
chemicals in their bodies. No child is born free of them. Are they safe? Does anyone know?
Note: This article also mentions that even though Moyers never lived near a chemical plant, tests
showed that his body contained a chemical soup of 84 industrial chemicals, including 31 different
types of PCBs, 13 different dioxins, and pesticides such as DDT. Why are these chemicals so
poorly studied and the dangerous effects hidden from us? For lots more from reliable sources on
corporate corruption, click here.

Colorful Outsider Is Named No. 3 at the CIA

2001-03-17, Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16570-2001Mar16.html
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, a ... former investment banker ... was named yesterday executive director
of the CIA, bringing a fast-paced management style to the agency's No. 3 job. Central Intelligence
Agency Director George J. Tenet announced the appointment, saying he treasures Krongard's
"wise counsel and 'no-nonsense' business-like views." Krongard, 64, former head of Alex. Brown &
Co., an investment bank based in Baltimore, joined the agency three years ago as a counselor to
Tenet. He switched careers shortly after helping engineer the $2.5 billion merger of Alex. Brown
and Bankers Trust New York Corp., gaining $71 million in Bankers Trust stock. Few of his former
colleagues were surprised by his decision to trade a $4 million salary and stock options for the far
less remunerative job of Tenet's consigliere. A graduate of Princeton and the University of
Maryland Law School, Krongard has a fondness for extreme military-style activities. Even as a

banking executive, he trained with police SWAT teams for recreation and worked out with a kung
fu master. He maintained a shooting range on the park-like grounds of his home on the northern
edge of Baltimore. In an interview yesterday, Krongard described his past duties as those of a
"minister without portfolio" whom senior managers felt comfortable talking to about "sticky
subjects." But Krongard exhibited the requisite secretiveness when asked to explain his
interest in intelligence and how he came to land a job in Tenet's inner circle. If you go back
to the CIA's origins during World War II in the Office of Strategic Services, he explained,
"the whole OSS was really nothing but Wall Street bankers and lawyers."
Note: Buzzy Krongard was the executive director of the CIA on 9/11. His past ties to the
investment firm which placed most of the extraordinarily high volume of "put options" on United
and American Airlines stocks the week before the attacks is one of many strange "coincidences"
unexplained by the official story of what happened on that horrific day. For more on this, click here.
To read the entire article free of charge, click here.

Who pulls the strings?

2001-03-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/mar/10/extract1
So this is how it works. A tiny, shoe-string central office in Holland decides each year which
country will host the next meeting. Each country has two steering committee members. They call
up Bilderberg-friendly global corporations, such as Xerox or Heinz or Fiat or Barclays or Nokia,
which donate the hundreds of thousands of pounds needed. They do not accept unsolicited
donations from non-Bilderberg corporations. Nobody can buy their way into a Bilderberg meeting,
although many corporations have tried. Then they decide who to invite - who seems to be a
"Bilderberg person". The notion of a Bilderberg person hasn't changed since the earliest days,
back in 1954. The guests are expressly asked not to give interviews to journalists. There are two
morning sessions and two afternoon sessions. While furiously denying that they secretly ruled the
world, my Bilderberg interviewees did admit to me that international affairs had, from time to time,
been influenced by these sessions. This is how Denis Healey described a Bilderberg person to
me: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly
unfair. Bilderberg is a way of bringing together politicians, industrialists, financiers and
journalists. Politics should involve people who aren't politicians."
Note: For lots more on the highly secretive Bilderberg meeting from two later BBC News article,
click here. For many other revealing articles from major media reports on secret societies and
secret meetings of the most rich and powerful people in our world, click here.

WikiLeaks cables recount how U.S. pressured allies

2001-03-06, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/06/IN251HEQIP.DTL

They have received little attention in the United States, but a set of WikiLeaks disclosures of
confidential documents has caused an uproar in Europe by showing that U.S. officials pressured
Germany and Spain to derail criminal investigations of Americans. More than 2,500 State
Department cables ... include accounts of three cases that shed new light on U.S. responses to
allegations of wrongdoing: -- The case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen seized in Macedonia
in 2003 by officers who mistook him for an al Qaeda agent with a similar name. He said they
turned him over to U.S. authorities, who flew him in shackles, a blindfold and a diaper to a prison in
Afghanistan, where they beat him, injected him with drugs and interrogated him. The CIA analyst
who advocated el-Masri's abduction and argued against releasing him even after
colleagues reported the mistaken identity has been promoted to run the agency's al Qaeda
unit and regularly briefs CIA Director Leon Panetta. -- The case of four Spanish residents who
said they were tortured by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay before being released without
charges. -- The case of Jose Couso, a Spanish cameraman who was one of two journalists killed
in April 2003 by a U.S. artillery shell at a hotel in Baghdad. A U.S. military investigation concluded
that troops were responding to reports of rocket attacks from the building, but journalists on the
scene have said the hotel was a well-known media headquarters and was not the source of any
hostile fire. A May 2007 WikiLeaks cable quoted then-U.S. Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre as saying
that "behind the scenes we have fought tooth and nail to make the charges disappear." The
Obama administration has refused to discuss the content of the State Department documents or of
previous WikiLeaks disclosures about Iraq and Afghanistan.
Note: As mentioned in the full article, all three of these cases were dismissed or derailed due to
intense pressure by the US on the legal systems of the countries involved. For many other reliable
reports of manipulation around the war on terrorism, click here.

When Good Drugs Do Harm

2001-01-08, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/08/health/he-9609
Adverse drug reactions have reached epidemic proportions, killing more people each year than die
on the nation's highways, and doing serious damage to millions more. This problem has taken on
special significance recently: The FDA has pulled 10 drugs off the market in the past three years
for safety reasons, which is unprecedented in the agency's history. Nearly 20 million patients,
almost 10% of the U.S. population, were estimated to have been exposed to these drugs before
their removal. Few people, however, are aware that their medications could be harmful, or
know how to spot the warning signs and what to do if they suspect there's a problem. Yet a
1998 University of Toronto study found that roughly 100,000 Americans die of adverse drug
reactions each year, and 2.1 million more are hospitalized. The FDA received reports of more
than 258,000 adverse drug events in 1999, nearly quadruple the 68,000 incidents reported a
decade earlier. And FDA officials acknowledge that they're catching only a tiny fraction of these
incidents. More new therapies are being sold first in the United States, rather than in Europe and
Asia. In the early 1980s, only 2% to 3% of new drugs were introduced in the United States. By
1998, that number climbed to more than 60%, according to FDA officials, largely due to faster

approvals by the agency. Aggressive marketing of new drugs can exacerbate the problem by
persuading doctors and patients to seek out the latest therapies more quickly. And it's not just
newer drugs that can be dangerous.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Archaeologists probe legendary city

2000-10-19, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/978885.stm
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the remains of a long-lost ancient Greek
city, Helike. Classical texts suggest that all its inhabitants perished when the city sank beneath the
waves after suffering a disastrous combination of earthquake and tidal wave. Some scholars have
speculated that the catastrophe may well have been the source of Plato's story of Atlantis, a land
that supposedly suffered a similar fate. During the summer, Greek and American researchers ...
began digging 3m deep trenches within an area of modern orchards and vineyards of about one
square mile. These revealed archaic walls, classical ceramic fragments and, perhaps most
significantly, evidence that the ruins had been submerged beneath the sea. "We uncovered
archaic walls buried in clay containing sea shells," said one of the researchers, Dr Steven
Soter from the American Museum of Natural History.
Note: Here is solid evidence of ancient manmade structures that were submerged for a period
under sea water, yet now are above sea level. The evidence suggests an ancient civilization from
many thousands of years ago, yet most archeologists will not entertain this idea. For a powerful
interview that questions the consensus of archeologists, click here. For a compilation of 10
mysteries that hint at ancient civilizations which have largely been ignored, click here.

Steal a bottle of shampoo, go to prison for life

1998-12-30, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper
http://articles.sfgate.com/1998-12-30/opinion/17739678_1_third-strike-califor...
Welcome to the macabre world of California's Three Strikes Law, where 25 to life for the theft of a
disposable camera is not an aberration. The Department of Corrections projects that by 2002, 1
out of every 4 California prisoners will be a "second or third striker." CDC statistics show that as of
March 31 [1998], there were 4,076 prisoners serving third-strike sentences, but fewer than half
were imprisoned for convictions for "crimes against persons." According to the Legislative
Analyst's Office, almost half of the "third strike" offenses were nonviolent or nonserious felonies,
and the most common "second strikes" were drug possession, petty theft and burglary.
Prosecutors use the law viciously, frequently against petty, nonviolent offenders. It does not matter
that the conviction was from another state, or even another country. Perhaps most significantly,
the third strike can be any felony; it does not need to be a "violent" or "serious" one. Thus,
offenses such as petty theft can bring a life sentence. While many states have three strikes,

only California's is so uncompromising. Moreover, it is not working. According to the Justice Policy
Institute, between 1994 and 1995, violent crime in states without three strikes fell three times
faster than in states with such laws. RAND, a respected policy analysis institution, found that a
graduation incentive program is five times more effective at reducing crime than three strikes.
Note: Remember that the prison-industrial complex is a huge money-making machine for certain
connected individuals and corporations. For key reports on government corruption from reliable
sources, click here.

Scientists Urge Study Of Ufos

1998-06-30, Chicago Tribune/Boston Globe
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-06-30/news/9806300086_1_scientific-ex...
Nine scientists from major universities and research institutions in the U.S. and Europe have
reviewed a variety of UFO reports and concluded that there is no proof the reports have anything
to do with extraterrestrial intelligence, but that the subject deserves far more attention. The first
such review by a scientific panel in 28 years, the report ... was critical of scientists for their
lack of curiosity about a subject that has attracted such widespread public interest. It also
criticized scientific journals for a reluctance to publish research on the topic. But the report
had high praise for the French government, which for 21 years has had a panel devoted to
collecting scientific evidence related to new sightings. "Whenever there are unexplained
observations, there is the possibility that scientists will learn something new by studying those
observations," the panel said in its report, published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration. The
journal specializes in publishing reports by legitimate scientists on topics considered too
controversial for many other scientific journals. "It may be valuable to carefully evaluate UFO
reports to extract information about unusual phenomena currently unknown to science," the group
wrote. The panel met last fall for four days to hear various UFO investigators present their "best
case" evidence. It focused on reports where there was some kind of physical evidence:
photographs, radar recordings, damaged soil or plants or physical symptoms suffered by
witnesses.
Note: For lots more on the excellent French report (The Cometa Report), which revealed
fascinating, solid evidence of ET visitation, click here. For other key resources on UFOs, see our
UFO Information Center.

History in black and white

1997-01-26, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/history-in-black-and-white-12...
[Review of] RHODES: The Race for Africa by Antony Thomas, BBC Books. The book is ...
intelligent, detailed, well-researched and credibly nuanced. The book's aim is to kill off once and
for all the public-schoolboy perception of [Cecil] Rhodes as the model Englishman who selflessly

deployed his vast diamond wealth to the task of civilising Southern Africa while adding, virtually
single-handedly, a chunk of territory the size of Europe to Her Majesty's imperial possessions. The
picture that persuasively emerges in the book [is] of a man of immense charm and demonic singlemindedness. Rhodes ... tailored his rhetoric to suit an age when lust for acquisition had to be
dressed in the garb of moral rectitude. Thus the famous lines from his precocious personal
credo, drafted at the age of 23: "I contend that we are the finest race in the world, and the
more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race." Business ... was the
medium he employed to pursue personal power. He beat his rivals not by fighting them but by
seducing them. By bribery (Rhodes coined the expression "every man has his price") or sheer
force of personality, or more often both, he submitted members of the British cabinet, Kruger's
Boers and proud African chieftains to his colossal will. Such were his powers of persuasion that
after a smallpox epidemic struck Kimberley in 1883, he prevailed upon local doctors to sign false
documents declaring the outbreak to be a rare skin disease. Thus did he prevent the temporary
closure of his diamond mines and thus did at least 751 people needlessly, hideously die. By the
end of the book Thomas leaves us in no doubt as to Rhodes' greatness, but he concludes that it
was a misdirected greatness, a story of talents squandered and opportunities lost.
Note: Often portrayed in history books as one of the most influential men of the 19th century,
Rhodes not only believed his was the superior race, in his will he advocated "for the establishment,
promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the
extension of British rule throughout the world." For major media reports revealing other secret
societies with similar aims, click here. For more information on Rhodes and secret societies from
Caroll Quigley's epic Tragedy and Hope, click here.

WWII War Crimes List in 1996 Puzzles Japan

1996-12-13, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-13/news/mn-8706_1_wwii-war-crimes
Why has the United States decided to crack down on suspected Japanese war criminals 50 years
after granting them immunity from prosecution? Japanese scratched their heads last week at the
unexpected announcement that the U.S. Justice Department had included former members of an
infamous bacterial warfare research unit on a "watch list" of 16 suspected Japanese World War II
war criminals prohibited from entering the United States. The United States has been aware of the
identities of the Unit 731 leaders and of their gruesome experiments on human subjects since the
end of the war. Details of Unit 731 atrocities have appeared in the Western and Japanese media
for more than a decade. In secret laboratories in occupied China, Unit 731 researchers tested
poison gas and biological weapons on prisoners; froze and defrosted victims' limbs to
study frostbite; and vivisected humans without anesthetic. After the war, the United States
concluded that the results of these experiments were "of the highest intelligence value."
Fearful that those results would fall into Soviet hands, the U.S. occupation authorities gave the
head of Japan's bacterial warfare program, Dr. Shiro Ishii, and his colleagues immunity from

prosecution ... in exchange for their secret data. Many of Ishii's colleagues went on to
distinguished careers in postwar Japan, holding posts in the National Institute of Health, serving as
medical school deans and laboratory heads.
Note: The military has repeatedly condoned horrendous research on live subjects. For a revealing
list of highly unethical experimentation on human over the past 75 years, click here. For a concise
summary of the government's secret quest to control the mind and human behavior no matter what
the cost, click here.

Fuel Of Of The Future?

1996-08-06, Seattle Times
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19960806&slug=2342894
Inventors who are mixing water with fuel to power engines say they're onto something big.
German-born inventor Rudolf Gunnerman [believes] that one of the world's most common
compounds - good old tap water - can be blended with fuel to power your car, truck or lawn mower.
Gunnerman claims to have devised a means to blend water with naphtha in order to power
engines in a cleaner, cheaper, more efficient way. "New ideas and better ideas are not
necessarily found by universities or by large companies. New ideas and better ideas are
found by people who look for them," says Gunnerman, 68. "Caterpillar" is the single word that
brings a degree of credibility to Gunnerman's claims. The Peoria, Ill.-based heavy- equipment
manufacturer entered a joint venture with Gunnerman in July 1994. Together, under the name
Advanced Fuels, they've conducted experimental uses of the A-21 fuel - made up of 70 percent
naphtha, a crude-oil byproduct, and 30 percent water. And now, Paccar Inc. is throwing its trucking
weight in Gunnerman's corner. The Bellevue-based manufacturer of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks
recently sent a truck to Peoria for testing with the A-21 fuel. Paccar changed out the engine to add
a Caterpillar engine and modified the cylinders and fuel injectors to handle more fluid volume.
They also did a series of baseline tests of noise, cooling, drivability and fuel economy, said Jim
Reichman, Paccar's technology-development manager. Back at Paccar's Mount Vernon technical
center, Reichman is enthused. "We're pretty pleased with it," he said.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on new energy developments, click here.

Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025

1996-08-00, US Air Force Air University
http://csat.au.af.mil/2025/volume3/vol3ch15.pdf
In 2025, US aerospace forces can own the weather by capitalizing on emerging technologies and
focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications. Such a capability offers
the war fighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. Weathermodification is a force multiplier with tremendous power that could be exploited across the
full spectrum of war-fighting environments. From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting

those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns complete dominance of
global communications and counter-space control, weather-modification offers war fighter a widerange of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary. But, while offensive weather
modification efforts would certainly be undertaken by US forces with great caution and trepidation,
it is clear that we cannot afford to allow an adversary to obtain an exclusive weather-modification
capability.
Note: The above quote is taken from pages 6 and 35, the executive summary and conclusion of
the above US Air Force study. For a highly revealing article suggesting elements within
government have much more control over the weather than is thought, click here.

Half gas, half water: does it work?

1996-02-11, Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/96/feb/11/twr/02403339.htm
It seems too good to be true, but rigorous tests under way in Nevada, California and Illinois show a
breakthrough fuel that is more than half tap water could power the nation's vehicles, trains and
gas-powered aircraft by century's end. The milky fuel was developed by Reno inventor Rudolf
Gunnerman and is being pushed through the federal fuels-testing labyrinth by Gunnerman
and diesel giant Caterpillar Inc. It has passed every test thrown at it. In virtually all
categories, it tops conventional gasoline and diesel as a clean, cheap and safe fuel that can
be used in almost any combustion engine. If it works -- and disinterested outsiders who have
tested it say it may -- drivers could see the price of gasoline cut more than half. "Everybody said it
cannot work, that I'm a fraud,'' the German-born inventor said. No one's laughing now: Nevada last
November certified the water-based fuel as a "clean alternative fuel,'' meaning it can be used to
meet federal mandates requiring clean fuels in fleets and other vehicles. The Energy Department
is awaiting test data from trials run by Caterpillar before passing judgment. If DOE reaches the
same conclusion as Nevada, Gunnerman's concoction could be used as a clean fuel in all states.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. Why didn't this exciting development make headline news?
For lots more showing very promising results on this most intriguing invention, click here. For
exciting reports from reliable sources on highly promising new energy developments and
technologies, click here and here.

The Flu Pandemic

1992-11-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/29/magazine/the-flu-pandemic.html
The existence of the influenza vaccine ... may give us a sense of false security when it comes to
the possibility of a pandemic outbreak of influenza. In fact, the flu vaccine must be reformulated
each year to keep pace with the newest variants of this fast-mutating virus. The recipe for making
the flu vaccine is simple. Take the current year's variant of the influenza virus, throw it into a stew

with a strain of virus that leads to rapid proliferation. Incorporate the fast-growing strain into its own
genes and start replicating it. From there, it's an easy matter to take those plentiful viruses and
attenuate them for a flu vaccine. But the scientists who must determine what virus will cause
the next year's illness run a high chance of being wrong. Some observers have put the
odds of success at no better than 50-50. Even when they are right, the vaccine lasts only as
long as that year's strain. Experts thought they saw big-league trouble coming in February 1976,
when a few cases of severe swine flu broke out among young military recruits in Fort Dix, N.J. One
of them, Pvt. David Lewis, 19, died. Lewis and four others were shown to be infected with the
same H1N1 influenza virus as was responsible for the 1918 pandemic. But the swine-flu pandemic
never materialized. In retrospect, some critics now say 40 million Americans were vaccinated for
nothing. In fact, the only real illness to result from the swine flu adventure was caused by the
vaccine: about one thousand people developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a serious paralytic
disease that could be traced directly to an immunological response to the inoculation.
Note: This article also discusses how new, intensified farming techniques for chickens, pigs, and
ducks are the prime breeding ground for viruses which spread around the world. A powerful CBS
60 Minutes clip on the 1976 swine flu scare is available here. The intrepid 60 Minutes team
shows how greed and blatant corruption led to the death of hundreds and paralysis of thousands
as a direct result of the vaccine developed that year, while only one person died from the flu. For
lots more, click here.

Huge Study Of Diet Indicts Fat And Meat

1990-05-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/08/science/huge-study-of-diet-indicts-fat-and-...
Early findings from the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship
between diet and the risk of developing disease are challenging much of American dietary dogma.
The study, being conducted in China, paints a bold portrait of a plant-based eating plan that is
more likely to promote health than disease. Among the first tantalizing findings are these: Obesity
is related more to what people eat than how much. Adjusted for height, the Chinese
consume 20 percent more calories than Americans do, but Americans are 25 percent fatter.
The main dietary differences are fat and starch. The Chinese eat only a third the amount of
fat Americans do, while eating twice the starch. The body readily stores fat but expends a
larger proportion of the carbohydrates consumed as heat. Some of the differences may be
attributable to exercise. Reducing dietary fat to less than 30 percent of calories, as is currently
recommended for Americans, may not be enough to curb the risk of heart disease and cancer. To
make a significant impact, the Chinese data imply, a maximum of 20 percent of calories from fat and preferably only 10 to 15 percent - should be consumed. Eating a lot of protein, especially
animal protein, is also linked to chronic disease. Americans consume a third more protein than the
Chinese do, and 70 percent of American protein comes from animals, while only 7 percent of
Chinese protein does. Those Chinese who eat the most protein, and especially the most animal
protein, also have the highest rates of the ''diseases of affluence'' like heart disease, cancer and
diabetes.

Note: For a highly rated book about this landmark study, click here. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Profiles: Barry Goldwater

1988-04-25, The New Yorker
http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1988-04-25#folio=070
Expressing his thoughts forthrightly and indiscriminately, for better or worse, has always been the
indelible mark of the man. [Former U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee] Barry Morris Goldwater ... simply does not
have a dishonest bone in his body. At the close of his eight decade, here are some of his random
thoughts. UFOs: "I used to receive a hundred calls a year from people who wanted me to get
into the Green Room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, because that's where the Air
Force stored all the material gathered on UFOs. I once asked [USAF General] Curtis LeMay
if I could get in that room, and he just gave me holy hell. He said, 'Not only can't you get
into it but don't you ever mention it to me again.' Now, with the millions of planets that we know
are up there, it's hard for me to believe that ours is the only goddam one that has things that can
think walking around on it. So when people tell me they've seen UFOs, I don't say they haven't. In
fifteen thousand hours of flying, I've never seen one, but I've talked to pilots who have. I talked to
an airline crew that swore up and down that an object came alongside of them one night, and
before they could do anything it vanished. We lost a military pilot who went up to intercept strange
lights and never came back. His airplane disappeared, too. I won't argue for or against."
Note: For riveting testimonies of top military and political leaders who claim direct involvement in a
major cover-up of UFOs, click here.

'Urge to Investigate and Believe' Sparks New Interest in U.F.O.'s

1987-06-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/16/science/urge-to-investigate-and-believe-spa...
The aliens are here again, at least in terms of popular culture, if not fact. The hottest topic among
U.F.O. enthusiasts is what they describe as the Federal Government's experience with aliens,
especially the ''Roswell Incident.'' U.F.O. researchers cite a newly discovered document, dated
Nov. 18, 1952. It discusses a secret Federal team known as Majestic-12, or MJ-12, established by
President Truman on Sept. 24, 1947 to investgate the of the spacecraft and its crew. The
document purportedly recounts a secret briefing to President-elect Eisenhower by Rear
Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
According to the document, Admiral Hillenkoetter was a member of Majestic-12. ''It appears
to be genuine,'' said William L. Moore, who wrote a book about the incident and who investigated
the document for more than two years after a colleague received it anonymously in the mail. ''On
07 July, 1947,'' it says, ''a secret operation was begun to assure recovery of the wreckage of this
object for scientific study. Aerial reconnaissance discovered that four small human-like beings had

apparently ejected from the craft at some point before it exploded. These had fallen to earth about
two miles east of the wreckage site. All four were dead and badly decomposed due to action by
predators and exposure to the elements.'' Stanton T. Friedman, an nuclear physicist in
Frederickton, New Brunswick, Canada, said ''We're dealing with something of extraordinary
importance.'' Dr. Maccabee, the Navy physicist, conceeded that skeptics often made valid points.
''[Yet] over the past 40 years there have been 100,000 sightings, with 10 to 20 percent that are
hard to explain.'' In the case of the purposed Eisenhower documents, he said, ''maybe somebody's
been clever, but I think there's a good chance they are authentic.''
Note: Though this document has never been fully authenticated, it is highly interesting that a New
York Times article from Feb. 28, 1960 quotes the above-mentioned CIA Director Roscoe
Hillenkoetter stating behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned
about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the
unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.
Click here to read and verify this revealing article.

Trials: Sirhan through the Looking Glass

1969-04-04, Time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840003,00.html
A mirror. Two flickering candles. And Sirhan Sirhan. Focusing his mind power on the looking glass,
Sirhan soon convinced himself that he could order an inanimate object to move. He rigged a
pendulum from a fisherman's weight, and on command, he said, it began to sway. Yet telekinesis
the ability to cause objects at a distance to move through the exercise of willwas a frightening
power, and Sirhan feared that he might lose his mind. The candles swayed and changed color.
Sirhan insisted that it was no trick of imagination, reported Dr. Bernard L. Diamond. The noted
psychoanalyst, who combines professorships in law, psychiatry and criminology at the University
of California at Berkeley, was the star witness for Sirhan's defense. His testimony buttressed the
diagnoses of five other experts that Sirhan was afflicted with paranoia and schizophrenia. Sirhan
professes that he has no recollection of shooting Kennedy. Prosecutor David Fitts
peppered the diminutive professor with hostile questions, but he could not blunt the thrust
of Diamond's testimony about murder in a trance. After two more psychologists declared that
Sirhan suffers from grave mental disorders, avuncular Attorney Grant Cooper rested for the
defense. The prosecution faces an uphill struggle to refute contentions that Sirhan was either
insane or suffering from diminished mental responsibility.
Note: This article confirms that Sirhan was not mentally competent at the time Robert F. Kennedy
was assassinated, but it suggests that Sirhan's "trance state" was self-induced. Other sources,
however, have argued that he was a victim of mind control; click here for more information on this
possibility.

Secrets by the thousands

1946-10-01, Harper's magazine

http://www.harpers.org/archive/1946/10/0032777
Someone wrote to Wright Field recently, saying he understood this country had got together quite
a collection of enemy war secrets, that many were now on public sale, and could he, please, be
sent everything on German jet engines. 'The Army Air Forces' answered: "Sorry but that would
be fifty tons." Moreover, that fifty tons was just a small portion. Wright Field is working from a
documents "mother lode" of fifteen hundred tons. It is estimated that over a million separate items
... very likely contain practically all the scientific, industrial, and military secrets of Germany. What
did we find? The head of the communications unit ... showed me then what had been two of the
most closely-guarded technical secrets of the war: the infra-red device which the Germans
invented for seeing at night, and the remarkable diminutive generator which operated it. The
diminutive generator five inches across stepped up current from an ordinary flashlight battery
to 15,000 volts. It had a walnut-sized motor which spun a rotor at 10,000 rpm. The generator
then ran 3,000 hours! "As for medical secrets in this collection," one Army-surgeon has
remarked, "some of them will save American medicine years of research; some of them are
revolutionary like, for instance, the German technique for treatment after prolonged and usually
fatal exposure to cold." This discovery ... reversed everything medical science thought about the
subject. And in aeronautics and guided missiles [the secrets] proved to be downright
alarming. Army Air Force experts declare publicly that in rocket power and guided missiles
the Nazis were ahead of us by at least ten years.
Note: To read the entire fascinating article, click here. To verify this article on the Harper's
Magazine website, click here. How can the Nazi technology have been so far superior to that of
the allies? For the riveting testimony of numerous military officers on the back engineering of UFO
technologies, click here.

"Death Ray" for Planes

1940-09-22, New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9807E2DA1638E532A25751C2A96F9C94...
Nikola Tesla, one of the truly great inventors [says] that he stands ready to divulge to the United
States government the secret of his "teleforce," of which he said, "airplane motors would be melted
at a distance of 250 miles, so that an invisible 'Chinese Wall of Defense' would be built around the
country against any enemy attack by an enemy air force, no matter how large." This "teleforce" ...
would operate through a beam one-hundred-millionth of a square centimeter in diameter, and
could be generated from special plant that would cost no more then $2,000,000 and would take
only about three months to construct. A dozen such plants, located at strategic points along the
coast, according to Mr. Tesla, would be enough to defend the country against all aerial attack. The
beam would melt any engine, whether diesel or gasoline driven, and would also ignite the
explosives aboard any bomber. No possible defense against it could be devised, he asserts, as the
beam would be all-penetrating. The beam [would involve] a new method for producing "a
tremendous repelling electrical force." This would be the projector, or the gun of the

system. The voltage for propelling the beam to its objective, according to the inventor, will
attain a potential of 80,000,000 volts. With this enormous voltage, he said, microscopic electrical
particles of matter will be catapulted on their mission of defensive destruction.
Note: If you are unable to access this article at the link above, you can also find it at this link. The
technology Tesla was exploring here may well have been used in the currently functioning HAARP
facilities, which some researchers believe are being used to manipulate weather and more. For an
abundance of reliable information on HAARP, click here. For an amazing 35-page autobiography
by Tesla himself, click here.

Tesla at 75
1931-07-20, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742063,00.html
Nikola Tesla (pronounced Teshlah) [invented] the Tesla induction motor which made alternating
current practical, and the Tesla transformer which steps up oscillating currents to high potentials.
Last week was Dr. Tesla's 75th birthday. To Nikola Tesla, all the world's a power house. For 40
years he has been reasoning, calculating and arguing that the earth has a definite electrical
resonance. All that men need do to have unlimited power at their command, and that power
without the necessity of transmission wires, would be to generate electricity in tune with
the earth's. Only possible drawbacks would be the vast expense of installation ... and anyone
could tap the current. There could be no financial control of electricity. In Colorado in 1899, Tesla
built a huge induction coil by which he generated and, he says, sent out wireless waves the same
year Marconi established wireless communication. Tesla claims priority, because he conceived his
system six years earlier, in 1893. The theoretical path of Tesla's waves were through the earth, not
through the air as Hertzian waves go. [Tesla has commented] "I think that nothing can be more
important than interplanetary communication. It will certainly come some day, and the certitude
that there are other human beings in the universe, working, suffering, struggling, like ourselves, will
produce a magic effect on mankind and will form the foundation of a universal brotherhood that will
last as long as humanity itself." Dr. Tesla migrated to the U. S. in 1884 to work for Thomas Alva
Edison, whom he soon quit. His naturalization papers he keeps in a safety box, his scientific
medals and degrees in old trunks and cupboards.
Note: The above link requires a small payment. To view the full article free, click here. Though
Marconi gets major mention in the history books while Tesla is given but a footnote, the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1943 "ruled that that Tesla's radio patents had predated those of [Marconi]," as
stated in this Chicago Tribune article. There are many intriguing secrets about this mysterious
genius. To learn how the government seized his work immediately after his death and lots more,
click here. For other verifiable information on incredible new energy inventions based on Tesla
technology and more, click here.

Tesla's New Device Like Bolts of Thor

1915-12-08, New York Times

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10F15F7385B17738DDDA10894D...
Nikola Tesla, the inventor, winner of the 1915 Nobel Physics Prize, has filed patent applications on
the essential parts of a machine ... which he says will render fruitless any military expedition
against a country which possesses it. The destructive invention will go through space with a
speed of 300 miles a second, [a] manless airship without propelling engine or wings, sent
by electricity to any desired point on the globe on its errand of destruction, if destruction its
manipulator wishes to effect. Ten miles or a thousand miles, it will be all the same to the machine,
the inventor says. Straight to the point, on land or on sea, it will be able to go with precision,
delivering a blow that will paralyze or kill, as is desired. A man in a tower on Long Island could
shield New York against ships or army by working a lever, if the inventor's anticipations become
realizations. "It is perfectly practicable to transmit electrical energy without wires and produce
destructive effects at a distance. I have already constructed a wireless transmitter which makes
this possible, and have described it in my technical publications. With transmitters of this kind we
are enabled to project electrical energy in any amount to any distance and apply it for innumerable
purposes, both in peace and war. The art is already so far developed that great destructive effects
can be produced at any point on the globe, determined beforehand and with great accuracy." Dr.
Tesla then said that it would be possible with his wireless mechanism to direct an ordinary
aeroplane, manless, to any point over a ship or an army, and to discharge explosives of
great strength from the base of operations.
Note: If you are unable to access this article at the link above, you can also find it at this link or this
one. Some believe that this amazing technology was developed and then kept secret for reasons
of national security. The technology Tesla was exploring here could have played a part in the
secretive HAARP facilities, which some researchers believe are being used to manipulate weather
and more. For an abundance of reliable information on HAARP, click here. For an amazing 35page autobiography by Tesla himself, click here.

Major Questions Remain Unanswered in Boston Killing of Alleged ISIS

Beheading Plotter
2015-06-10, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/10/major-questions-remain-unanswer...
Last week in the Boston area, a 26-year-old black Muslim man was shot and killed by
agents of the FBI and Boston Police Department. A surveillance video ... was finally released
on Monday. Its virtually impossible to know what happened from this highly touted video, other
than the fact that [Usaamah] Rahim appears to have been walking peacefully when he was
approached by multiple individuals, wearing no police uniforms, in a threatening, military-style
formation. Rahims family issued a statement detailing the numerous questions raised by the
video. Early reports claimed that there was a third conspirator beyond Rahim and [his nephew and
accused co-conspirator David] Wright. The FBI affidavit filed against Wright repeatedly references
a third person who plotted with Rahim and Wright and met with them. Yet there has been no

further mention of this third person, and apparently no arrest of him. Why not? Is that third person
an FBI informant? Is this yet another case where the director and prime mover of a scary terror
plot is in fact the FBI itself. What basis exists for the highly inflammatory claim that Rahim was
linked to or inspired by ISIS? He was not only wary of being set up by the FBI, but
specifically said he was preaching AGAINST violence and terrorism. As AP noted, on social
media Rahim spoke out against the kind of violence Islamic State extremists are fomenting across
the Middle East, and made none of the violent calls to arms many supporters of armed extremist
groups espouse on social media.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
the erosion of civil liberties and the manipulation of public perception.

When Its O.K. to Pay for a Story

2015-06-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/opinion/when-its-ok-to-pay-for-a-story.html...
Last week, WikiLeaks disturbed many journalists with an initiative to crowd-source a
$100,000 bounty on the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. In traditional
newsrooms, the idea of offering a cash incentive for the leaking of confidential documents
is anathema. But WikiLeaks ... leaves us no choice but to reconsider this prohibition. The
TPP exceeds agreements like Nafta in scope and scale and involves far-reaching foreign policy
decisions. Its measures will touch the lives of every citizen in the 12 countries expected to sign the
pact. Chapters already leaked suggest that the deal restricts fair use of copyrighted material,
expands medical patents and weakens public policies that govern net neutrality. Members of
Congress can read the text in a secure room but cannot discuss its contents publicly.
Representatives from about 600 private corporations are said to have access to the document. Yet
the public is excluded. WikiLeaks has arrived at a flawed solution to a very real problem. We have
reached a point in the evolution of global democracy at which secrecy and transparency are
grotesquely imbalanced. Right now, the bounty may be the best shot we have at transforming the
TPP process from a back-room deal to an open debate. But we need a better system to
discourage unjustified secrecy, to protect sources and to encourage public-interest whistleblowing.
Note: The Trans-Pacific Partnership may be a pending disaster. But we do not know for sure,
because its contents remain secret. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing news articles about corruption in government and in the corporate world.

Canada 'cultural genocide' against First Nation

2015-06-03, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33000961

A study has found rules that required Canadian aboriginals to attend state-funded church
schools were responsible for "cultural genocide". The report released on Tuesday found that
First Nation children were often physically and sexually abused. "They were stripped of their selfrespect and they were stripped of their identity," said Murray Sinclair, one of the study's authors.
More than 130 residential schools operated across Canada. The Canadian government forced
more than 150,000 First Nation children to attend these schools from the 19th Century until
the mid-1990s. The schools sought to integrate the children into mainstream Canadian society,
but in doing so rid them of their native culture. The policies have been cited as a major factor in an
epidemic of substance abuse on reservations. Students said they were beaten for speaking their
native language and were separated from their parents and customs. Prime Minister Stephen
Harper issued a historic apology in parliament in 2008, acknowledging the physical and sexual
abuse that took place in the schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which wrote the
report, was created in 2006 as part of a $5bn (3.3bn) class action settlement between the
government, churches and the 90,000 surviving First Nation students. The report issued 94
recommendations including an investigation into missing and murdered aboriginal women and an
apology from Pope Francis on behalf of the Catholic Church.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sex abuse scandals and violations of
basic civil rights.

WikiLeaks releases documents related to controversial US trade pact

2015-06-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/03/wikileaks-documents-trade-in-ser...
WikiLeaks on Wednesday released 17 different documents related to the Trade in Services
Agreement (Tisa), a controversial pact currently being hashed out between the US and 23
other countries most of them in Europe and South America. The document dump comes at a
tense moment in the negotiations over a series of trade deals. President Barack Obama has
clashed with his own party over the deals as critics have worried about the impact on jobs and civil
liberties. Unions, which fear heavy job losses once long-standing trade protections are dismantled,
reacted with dismay following publication of the previously hidden documents. Rosa Pavanelli,
general secretary of the Public Services International union, said: It is outrageous that our
democratically elected governments will not tell us the laws they are making. What has our
democracy come to when the community must rely on Wikileaks to find out what our governments
are doing on our behalf? Nick Dearden, director of the charity Global Justice Now ... said: These
leaks reinforce the concerns of campaigners about the threat that TISA poses to vital public
services. There is no mandate for such a far-reaching programme. Its a dark day for democracy
when we are dependent on leaks like this for the general public to be informed of the radical
restructuring of regulatory frameworks that our governments are proposing.

Note: According to an investigation by The Guardian, it cost about $1,148,971 to "fast-track" the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), another secret trade deal. How much are corrupt corporations
paying to corrupt politicians to purchase their favor for TISA?

CIA sex abuse and torture went beyond Senate report disclosures,
detainee says
2015-06-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/cia-sexual-abuse-torture-majid...
The US Central Intelligence Agency used a wider array of sexual abuse and other forms of torture
than was disclosed in a Senate report last year, according to a Guantnamo Bay detainee turned
government cooperating witness. Majid Khan said interrogators poured ice water on his genitals,
twice videotaped him naked and repeatedly touched his private parts none of which was
described in the Senate report. Khans is the first publicly released account from a high-value alQaida detainee who experienced [these] enhanced interrogation techniques. The 35-year-old
Khan ... is awaiting sentencing after [confessing] to delivering $50,000 to al-Qaida operatives in
Indonesia. Khan was captured in Pakistan and held at an unidentified CIA black site from 2003 to
2006, according to the Senate report. In the interviews with his lawyers, Khan described a carnivallike atmosphere of abuse when he arrived at the CIA detention facility. He said that he experienced
excruciating pain when hung naked from poles and that guards repeatedly held his head under ice
water. In a July 2003 session, Khan said, CIA guards hooded and hung him from a metal pole for
several days and repeatedly poured ice water on his mouth, nose and genitals. When a doctor
arrived to check his condition, Khan begged for help. Instead, Khan said, the doctor
instructed the guards to again hang him from the metal bar. After hanging from the pole for
24 hours, Khan was forced to write a confession while being videotaped naked.
Note: For more, read about the 10 Craziest Things in the Senate Report on Torture and many
other questionable intelligence agency practices.

Rand Paul calls for release of 9/11 documents

2015-06-02, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/02/rand-paul-cal...
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), fresh off a fight over the Patriot Act, has turned his attention to
another national security battle: declassifying 28 pages of a 2002 Senate inquiry into the
cause of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Paul is sponsoring the "Transparency for the Families of
9/11 Victims and Survivors Act," which would require President Obama to declassify and make
public the pages. The issue is a politically charged one, with some claiming the pages will show
that Saudi Arabia financed the attacks. Paul appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference with a
bipartisan group of House sponsors, including Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Walter Jones (RN.C.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), and Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). The group were
flanked by members of the group 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism. Paul pointed

out that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, saying that information that has been
reported over the years "does raise question about their (the government's) support" and if it was
provided to the hijackers. "We cannot let page after page of blanked out documents to be
obscured by a veil, leaving these family members to wonder if there is additional information
surrounding these horrible acts," Paul said. "The 28 pages in the report of over 800 pages go to
the question of who financed 9/11and they point a strong finger at Saudi Arabia," Graham
said.
Note: Rand Paul joins several prominent current and former US politicians that are working to
expose the Saudi government money behind terrorism by declassifying this material. Explore the
statements of over 3,000 respected government officials, professors, military officers, architects,
engineers who have gone on the record raising serious questions about the 9/11 official story. For
more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing 9/11 investigation news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Questions about arms deals for Clinton Foundation donors

2015-05-28, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Questions-about-arms-deals-for-Cli...
Federal law designates the secretary of state as responsible for the continuous supervision and
general direction of sales of arms, military hardware and services to foreign countries. In practice,
that meant that [Hillary] Clinton was charged with rejecting or approving weapons deals
and when it came to Clinton Foundation donors, Hillary Clintons State Department did a
whole lot of approving. While Clinton was secretary of state, her department approved $165
billion worth of commercial arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors. That figure ... is almost
double the value of arms sales to those countries during the same period of President George W.
Bushs second term. The Clinton-led State Department also authorized $151 billion of separate
Pentagon-brokered deals for 16 of the countries that gave to the Clinton Foundation. That was a
143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations over the same time frame during the
Bush administration. The 143 percent increase in U.S. arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors
compares to an 80 percent increase in such sales to all countries over the same time period.
American military contractors and their affiliates that donated to the Clinton Foundation and in
some cases, helped finance speaking fees to Bill Clinton also got in on the action. Those firms
and their subsidiaries were listed as contractors in $163 billion worth of arms deals authorized by
the Clinton State Department.
Note: If you can not access this article at the link above, it is also available here. If you look at war
and global politics from the point of view of war profiteering, you can see why despite popular
opposition to war, it never stops. Read an excellent essay by a top US general exposing how war
is a racket.

The case for starting sex education in kindergarten

2015-05-27, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/spring-fever/
Welcome to Spring Fever week in primary schools across the Netherlands, the week of focused
sex ed classes. In the Netherlands, the approach, known as comprehensive sex education,
starts as early as age 4. Youll never hear an explicit reference to sex in a kindergarten class. In
fact, the term for whats being taught here is sexuality education rather than sex education. All
primary school students in the Netherlands must receive some form of sexuality education. The
system allows for flexibility in how its taught. But it must address certain core principles among
them, sexual diversity and sexual assertiveness. That means encouraging respect for all sexual
preferences and helping students develop skills to protect against sexual coercion, intimidation
and abuse. The underlying principle is straightforward: Sexual development is a normal
process that all young people experience, and they have the right to frank, trustworthy
information on the subject. There were societal concerns that sexualization in the media could
be having a negative impact on kids, [health promotion official Robert] van der Vlugt said. We
wanted to show that sexuality also has to do with respect, intimacy, and safety. The Dutch
approach to sex ed has garnered international attention, largely because the Netherlands boasts
some of the best outcomes. The teen pregnancy rate in the Netherlands is one of the lowest in the
world, five times lower than the U.S. Rates of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases are
also low.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Heres how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP

bill
2015-05-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators...
The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is reaching its climax and as Congress hotly
debates the biggest trade deal in a generation, its backers have turned on the cash spigot in the
hopes of getting it passed. TPP passed another crucial vote ... to give Barack Obama the authority
to speed the bill through Congress. The presidents own supporters, senior economists and a host
of activists have lobbied against a pact they argue will favor big business but harm US jobs, fail to
secure better conditions for workers overseas and undermine free speech. Fast-tracking the TPP,
meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or
amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with
senators. This chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for
TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the
TPP was being debated in the Senate. Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of
$17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 yea votes. The average Republican member received
$19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters. The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those
same donors. Almost 100% of the Republicans in the US Senate voted for fast-track.

Note: The above article shows how much it costs to purchase the favor of corrupt politicians in the
U.S.. For legislation like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it costs about $1,148,971.

UN Officials Let Child Sex Abuse Claims Linger

2015-05-26, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/officials-follow-sex-abuse-claims-months-3...
For months, the U.N.'s top human rights officials knew about allegations of child sexual abuse by
French soldiers in Central African Republic. But they didn't follow up because they assumed
French authorities were handling it ... even as France pressed the U.N. for more information about
the case. The deputy high commissioner for human rights also says that her colleague who first
informed French authorities last July did it because he didn't think the recently created U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would act on the allegations. A year after the
U.N. first heard allegations from children as young as 9 that French soldiers had sexually
abused them, sometimes in exchange for food, it seems that the only person who has been
punished is the U.N. staffer who told French authorities. The Paris prosecutor's office this
month, however, blamed the U.N. "hierarchy" for taking more than six months to supply answers to
its questions. The U.N. finally handed over written answers on April 29, the Paris prosecutor's
office said the same day that the Guardian newspaper first made the French and U.N. inquiries
public. French soldiers had been tasked with protecting civilians in Central African Republic from
vicious violence between Christians and Muslims. Thousands of scared people had crammed into
a camp for displaced people. Residents have told the AP that soldiers offered cookies, other food
or bottles of water in exchange for sodomy or oral sex. It is still not clear where the accused
soldiers are now.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

NSA Planned to Hijack Google App Store to Hack Smartphones

2015-05-21, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/21/nsa-five-eyes-google-samsung-ap...
The National Security Agency and its closest allies planned to hijack data links to Google and
Samsung app stores to infect smartphones with spyware, a top-secret document reveals. The
surveillance project was launched by a joint electronic eavesdropping unit called the Network
Tradecraft Advancement Team, which includes spies from each of the countries in the Five Eyes
alliance the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. The topsecret document, obtained from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden ... outlines a series of tactics
that the NSA and its counterparts in the Five Eyes were [using, which included] a method to hack
and hijack phone users connections to app stores so that they would be able to send malicious

implants to targeted devices. The implants could then be used to collect data from the phones
without their users noticing. The agencies ... were also keen to find ways to hijack [app stores]
as a way of sending selective misinformation to the targets handsets as part of so-called
effects operations that are used to spread propaganda or confuse adversaries. Moreover,
the agencies wanted to gain access to companies app store servers so they could secretly use
them for harvesting information about phone users. The revelations are the latest to highlight
tactics adopted by the Five Eyes agencies. Last year, The Intercept reported that the NSA ... was
shown to have masqueraded as a Facebook server in order to hack into computers.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in the intelligence community and the manipulation of public perception.

Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF

2015-05-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-gett...
Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (3.4tn) a year,
equivalent to $10m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the
International Monetary Fund. The IMF ... says the figure is an extremely robust estimate of the
true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health
spending of all the worlds governments. The vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying
the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. The biggest single
source of air pollution is coal-fired power stations and China, with its large population and heavy
reliance on coal power, provides $2.3tn of the annual subsidies. The next biggest fossil fuel
subsidies are in the US ($700bn), Russia ($335bn), India ($277bn) and Japan ($157bn), with the
European Union collectively allowing $330bn in subsidies to fossil fuels. Subsidy reforms are
beginning in dozens of countries including Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco and Thailand. In
India, subsidies for diesel ended in October 2014. Coal use has also begun to fall in China for the
first time this century. Shelagh Whitley, a subsidies expert at the Overseas Development Institute,
said: Our research shows that many of the energy subsidies highlighted by the IMF go toward
finding new reserves of oil, gas and coal, which we know must be left in the ground if we are to
avoid catastrophic, irreversible climate change.
Note: The additional cost of suppressing new energy technologies does not appear to have been
included in these IMF estimates.

Berkeley, California, to require cellphone health warnings

2015-05-13, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/berkeley-california-to-require-cellphone-health-w...

The city council of Berkeley, California, voted Tuesday night to pass a cellphone "right to
know" law requiring health warnings with the purchase of a cellphone. When it goes into
effect this summer it will be first safety ordinance of its kind in the country. Cellphone retailers will
be required to include a city-prepared notice along with the purchase of a cellphone, informing
consumers of the minimum separation distance a cellphone should be held from the body. The
Federal Communication Commission recommends keeping your phone 5 to 25 millimeters
away, depending on the model, to limit radio frequency (RF) exposure to safe levels. "If you
carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and
connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF [radio
frequency] radiation," the Berkeley safety notice reads. "This potential risk is greater for children."
Lawmakers in at least six states have also considered warnings to address cellphone radiation
concerns. The Berkeley proposal seeks to address concerns that even as cellphones become
ubiquitous in our lives, many people remain unaware of basic safety recommendations. An April
30th survey funded by the California Brain Tumor Association (CABTA) found that 70 percent of
Berkeley adults did not know about the FCC's minimum separation distance.
Note: The American Academy of Pediatrics says that mobile phone radiation is more dangerous
for children than adults, and has been petitioning the FCC to modify safety regulations accordingly.
For more, read concise summaries of revealing news articles on this and other important health
topics.

Pope Francis Explains To Children How War Profiteers Never Want

Peace
2015-05-12, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/12/pope-francis-weapons-war_n_7266688.html
Pope Francis did not mince words when he told a group of children gathered at the Vatican
that some people will never want peace because they profit off of war. "Some powerful
people earn their living off making weapons," the pope said, in a translation provided by Rome
Reports. "For this reason, many people do not want peace." He also called the weapons business
an "industry of death," according to Catholic Herald. The pontiff spoke in front of roughly 7,000
children at the Vatican on Monday, in a visit sponsored by the Fabbrica della pace (Peace
Factory), a non-governmental organization that operates educational programming in primary
schools with the purpose of promoting cross-cultural understanding. Whenever we do something
together, something good, something beautiful, everyone changes," he said. "This does us good."
The pope's strong words against the weapons industry echo the pontiff's earlier anti-war
statements. On December 7, 2014 Pope Francis sent a letter to the Vienna Conference on the
Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, stating, "Nuclear weapons are a global problem,
affecting all nations, and impacting future generations and the planet that is our home." "Spending
on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations," he continued. "To prioritize such spending
is a mistake and a misallocation of resources which would be far better invested in the areas of
integral human development, education, health and the fight against extreme poverty."

Note: Go Pope Francis! Watch the beautiful video of this event at the link above. Explore a
treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to
make a difference.

US taxpayers subsidising world's biggest fossil fuel companies

2015-05-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/12/us-taxpayers-subsidising-w...
The worlds biggest and most profitable fossil fuel companies are receiving huge and rising
subsidies from US taxpayers, a practice slammed as absurd by a presidential candidate given
the threat of climate change. A Guardian investigation of three specific projects, run by Shell,
ExxonMobil and Marathon Petroleum, has revealed that the subsidies were all granted by
politicians who received significant campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.
At a time when scientists tell us we need to reduce carbon pollution to prevent catastrophic
climate change, it is absurd to provide massive taxpayer subsidies that pad fossil-fuel companies
already enormous profits, said senator Bernie Sanders, who announced on 30 April he is running
for president. Sanders, with representative Keith Ellison, recently proposed an End Polluter
Welfare Act, which they say would cut $135bn of US subsidies for fossil fuel companies over the
next decade. Between 2010 and 2014, the oil, coal, gas, utility, and natural resource extraction
industries spent $1.8bn on lobbying, according to Sanders and Ellison. Globally in 2013, the most
recent figures available, the coal, oil and gas industries benefited from subsidies of $550bn, four
times those given to renewable energy. In 2009, President Barack Obama called on the G20 to
eliminate fossil fuel subsidies but since then US federal subsidies have risen by 45%. Every single
well, pipeline, refinery, coal and gas plant in the country is heavily subsidised.
Note: The purchase of corrupt government officials by corporate profiteers prevents renewable
energy solutions from reaching their potential.

Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL

opponents
2015-05-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/12/revealed-fbi-spied-keystone-xl...
The FBI breached its own internal rules when it spied on campaigners against the Keystone
XL pipeline, failing to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened files on individuals
protesting against the construction of the pipeline in Texas. Internal agency documents show for
the first time how FBI agents have been closely monitoring anti-Keystone activists, in violation of
guidelines designed to prevent the agency from becoming unduly involved in sensitive political
issues. The hugely contentious Keystone XL pipeline, which is awaiting approval from the Obama
administration, would transport tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast. It has been
strongly opposed for years by a coalition of environmental groups ... who have been monitored by
federal law enforcement agencies. Mike German, a former FBI agent ... said [the documents]

indicated the agency had opened a category of investigation that is known in agency parlance as
an assessment. Introduced as part of an expansion of FBI powers after 9/11, assessments
allow agents to open intrusive investigations into individuals or groups, even if they have
no reason to believe they are breaking the law. German ... said the documents also raised
questions over collusion between law enforcement and TransCanada. These documents suggest
the FBI interprets its national security mandate as protecting private industry from political
criticism, he said.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
intelligence agency corruption and the erosion of civil liberties from reliable major media sources.

Who is writing the TPP?

2015-05-11, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/05/11/elizabeth-warren-and-rosa-delau...
Congress is in an intense debate over trade bills that will shape the course of the US economy for
decades. Modern trade agreements are often less about trade and more about giant
multinational corporations finding new ways to rig the economic system to benefit themselves. The
president argues that the TPP is about who will write the rules for 40 percent of the worlds
economy the United States or China. But who is writing the TPP? The text has been classified
and the public isnt permitted to see it, but 28 trade advisory committees have been intimately
involved in the negotiations. Of the 566 committee members, 480, or 85 percent, are senior
corporate executives or representatives from industry lobbying groups. Many of the
advisory committees are made up entirely of industry representatives. A rigged process
leads to a rigged outcome. By definition, massive trade deals like the TPP override domestic laws
written, debated, and passed by Congress. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has testified before
Congress that trade negotiations involve pressure to lower standards on financial regulations and
other public interest laws, and that President Obama has resisted that pressure. But Obama will
soon leave office, and he cannot bind a future president. This legislation risks giving a future
president a powerful tool to undermine public interest regulations under the guise of promoting
commerce.
Note: US senator Elizabeth Warren and US representative Rosa DeLauro wrote the above article,
which further clarifies why the Trans-Pacific Partnership may be a pending disaster. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about corruption in
government and in the corporate world.

New report questions story behind killing of Osama bin Laden

2015-05-11, Boston Globe/Associated Press
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/05/11/new-report-questions-story...

Four years after the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of US Navy Seals in
Abottabad, Pakistan, a new report ... by journalist Seymour Hersh questions the Obama
administrations account of the killing of Osama bin Laden. The report claims that, among
the lies, the biggest was the idea that the raid in May 2011 that killed bin Laden was an allAmerican event. "The most blatant lie was that Pakistans two most senior military leaders
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director
general of the ISI were never informed of the US mission," the report says. The report also says
that Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency had been holding bin Laden as a prisoner since
2006, and that the US learned about the Al Qaeda leaders location through a former senior
Pakistani intelligence officer, who gave the information in return for the reward being offered by
American officials. The White House has said bin Laden was found through tracking his couriers.
Hershs primary US source for his story is "a retired senior intelligence official who was
knowledgeable about the initial intelligence about bin Ladens presence in Abbottabad." White
House spokesman Josh Earnest ... dismissed the Hersh piece, saying it was "riddled with
inaccuracies." Hersh, a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, is an award-winning journalist who
has won numerous prizes for his investigative reporting, including the Pulitzer Prize.
Note: There are many big problems with the official story of the killing of bin Laden. For starters,
read the review on the London Review of Books website. For more, see this ABC News article, this
BBC article and this AP article.

Families of Navy SEALs killed in 2011 attack say government is to blame

2015-05-10, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/10/families-fallen-navy-seals-in-2011...
The families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 helicopter
crash in Afghanistan blamed the government for the tragedy, during an emotional press
conference. Speaking at the National Press Club, [they] claimed President Obama turned the
SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin
Laden raid. Doug Hamburger, whose son Patrick was killed, called the incident an ambush that
could have been prevented. Were very concerned that the administration had disclosed that the
Navy SEALs had carried out a successful attack on bin Ladens compound resulting in his death.
Never before in the history of our county (had) a sitting president released that type of information
to the public, Hamburger said. In all, 38 people died that night after the chopper was shot down by
a Taliban-owned rocket-propelled grenade or RPG over the Wardak Province on Aug. 6, 2011.
Charles Strange, whose son Michael, 25, died in the attack said Obama personally
promised him a thorough investigation of what happened but has failed to deliver. Strange
also blamed top military brass for sending the troops into a situation they were allegedly illequipped and unprepared to handle. Karen Vaughn says she wants to know why her son Aaron
and his team were not using special operations aircraft. The night her son Aaron died, he was in a
helicopter that was built in the 1960s and last retrofitted in 1985.

Note: How strange that the day the most military deaths happened in Afghanistan included the
deaths of most of those on the team which allegedly killed bin Laden. Could this have been to
keep them from revealing secrets to the public about the killing? For two BBC reports suggesting
that bin Laden may already have been dead, see this webpage and this one. Why would bin
Laden's body be buried at sea? Could it be to prevent a proof of identity?

Chicago OKs $5.5M in Reparations for Police Torture Victims

2015-05-06, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chicago-approves-55m-package-police-tortur...
Chicago's leaders took a step Wednesday typically reserved for nations trying to make
amends for slavery or genocide, agreeing to pay $5.5 million in reparations to the mostly
African-American victims of the city's notorious police torture scandal and to teach schoolchildren
about one of the most shameful chapters of Chicago's history. Chicago has already spent more
than $100 million settling and losing lawsuits related to the torture of suspects by detectives under
the command of disgraced former police commander Jon Burge from the 1970s through the early
1990s. The city council's backing of the new ordinance marks the first time a U.S. city has
awarded survivors of racially motivated police torture the reparations they are due under
international law, according to Amnesty International. "It is a powerful word and it was meant to
be a powerful word. That was intentional," Alderman Joe Moore said of the decision to describe it
as reparations. "This stain cannot be removed from our city's history, but it can be used as a
lesson in what not to do," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who stressed that Chicago had to do more
than just pay the victims if it is to really get beyond this stain on its history.
Note: Jon Burge tortured false confessions out of as many as 120 prisoners, and according to the
Chicago Reader, may have learned how to do this while serving as a soldier in Vietnam. Chicago
police maintain hidden interrogation sites where brutal treatment of suspects is used to obtain
criminal confessions. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news
articles about civil liberties and government corruption from reliable major media sources.

South Yorkshire Police warned twice of Rotherham child abuse but did
not act, as commissioner claims girls were seen as 'willing'
2015-05-05, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/south-yorkshire-police-warned-...
Senior members of South Yorkshire police were warned twice of the serious child abuse
being carried out in Rotherham around a decade before it was discovered 1,400 children
had been raped, trafficked and groomed over a period of 16 years but no action was taken
at the time. The Sheffield Star has obtained reports from 2003 and 2006 detailing the organised
child sexual exploitation being carried out in Rotherham and Sheffield. Dr Angie Heal, the author of
the reports, stated at the time it was very evident that significant abuse was taking place in
Sheffield and Rotherham, in 2003, and in 2006 found that that the perpetrators of sexual abuse

had been able to carry on with impunity. The reports were sent to both South Yorkshire Police
district commanders, chief superintendents and CID and community safety superintendents at the
time, but no action was taken. As the news of the warnings emerge, South Yorkshires current
police and crime commissioner has [stated], We saw these girls not as victims but as
troublesome young people out of control, and willing participants. We saw it as child
prostitution rather than child abuse, and I think that was broadly accepted and thats why it all went
wrong. Dr Heal told the Sheffield Star that child sexual exploitation had been put in the too hard
to deal with tray and a senior police officer informed her at the time that burglary and car crime
were policing priorities set by the government.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals from
reliable major media sources.

Pentagon Accused of Withholding Information About Sex Crimes

2015-05-04, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/apnewsbreak-pentagon-accused-withhol...
In a scathing critique of the Defense Department's efforts to curb sexual assaults, a U.S. senator
warned Monday that the true scope of sex-related violence in the military communities is "vastly
underreported" and that victims continue to struggle for justice. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.,
said in a report that the Pentagon refused to provide her with all the information she requested
about sexual assaults at several major bases. The material she did receive revealed that the
spouses of service members and civilian women who live or work near military facilities are
especially vulnerable to being sexually assaulted. Yet they "remain in the shadows"
because neither is counted in Defense Department surveys to determine the prevalence of
sexual assaults, the report said. In its annual report on sexual assaults in the military released
Friday, the Defense Department reported progress in staunching the epidemic of sexual assaults.
It estimated that sex crimes are decreasing and more victims are choosing to report them a sign
there is more confidence offenders will be held accountable. To Gillibrand ... the case files
contradict the Pentagon's assertion that military commanders will be tough on service members
accused of sex crimes.
Note: The cases described in Sen. Gillibrand's report reveal a pattern of widespread sexual abuse
around U.S. military bases that is routinely covered up. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and military corruption
from reliable major media sources.

Women in Military Cite Retaliation After Assault Complaints

2015-05-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/women-in-military-cite-retaliation-after...

Nearly two-thirds of women in the military who filed sexual assault complaints last year
said they faced retaliation, according to a Pentagon report released on Friday. The study found
that the number of sexual assaults in the military declined last year, echoing the conclusion of a
Defense Department report released in December. Even as sexual assaults were reported to
have declined, the Pentagon said that more service members filed assault complaints, and
that about a third of attacks were now being reported. Despite our efforts to date, the fight against
sexual assault is far from over, [Defense Secretary Ashton B.] Carter wrote in a memo that was
released with the new study. I am concerned that far too many of those who report the crime
perceive some kind of retaliation. Using the standard of unwanted sexual contact, the Pentagon
estimated that just under 19,000 service members were assaulted last year, a drop of about 27
percent from 2012. The number of attacks actually reported last year was 6,131, an 11 percent
increase over the previous year and a 70 percent jump over 2012.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
sexual abuse scandals and military corruption from reliable major media sources.

UN aid worker suspended for leaking report on child abuse by French

troops
2015-04-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/un-aid-worker-suspended-leaking-...
A senior United Nations aid worker has been suspended for disclosing to prosecutors an
internal report on the sexual abuse of children by French peacekeeping troops in the
Central African Republic. Anders Kompass passed the document to the French authorities
because of the UNs failure to take action to stop the abuse. The report documented the sexual
exploitation of children as young as nine by French troops stationed in the country as part of
international peacekeeping efforts. The abuses took place in 2014 when the UN mission in the
country, Minusca, was in the process of being set up. The Guardian has been passed the internal
report. It was commissioned by the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights after
reports on the ground that children, who are among the tens of thousands displaced by the
fighting, were being sexually abused. Entitled Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed
Forces ... the report details the rape and sodomy of starving and homeless young boys by
French peacekeeping troops who were supposed to be protecting them at a centre for internally
displaced people in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic. The UN has faced several
scandals in the past relating to its failure to act over paedophile rings operating in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Kosovo and Bosnia. It has also faced allegations of sexual misconduct by its
troops in Haiti, Burundi and Liberia.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals from
reliable major media sources.

Tyson to End Use of Human Antibiotics in Its Chickens by 2017

2015-04-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/business/tyson-to-end-use-of-human-antibiot...
Tyson Foods, one of the countrys largest meat producers, said on Tuesday that it planned
to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in its chicken production by 2017. The company
had been working toward that goal for some time, ceasing the use of antibiotics in its hatcheries
last year and adopting feed free of antibiotics this year. Then McDonalds, the sprawling restaurant
chain that is one of Tysons biggest customers, said in March that it planned over the next two
years to rid its supply chains of chicken treated with antibiotics important to human medicine. At
that time, health advocates and investment analysts predicted Tyson would take the final steps to
eliminate the drugs from its chicken production. The company said in a news release that it would
begin meeting with groups of farmers who produce pork, turkey and beef for Tyson under contract
to come up with a plan for eliminating antibiotic use in their programs. Antibiotic-resistant
infections are a global health concern, said Donnie Smith, president and chief executive of Tyson
Foods, in a statement. Perdue, another large chicken producer, said last fall that it had eliminated
human antibiotics from its hatcheries, the last step in a long process to reduce its reliance on such
drugs. It still uses antibiotics that are not used in human medicine, as will Tyson.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

White House admits: we didn't know who drone strike was aiming to kill
2015-04-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/drone-strike-al-qaida-targets-wh...
The targets of the deadly drone strikes that killed two hostages and two suspected American
members of al-Qaida were al-Qaida compounds rather than specific terrorist suspects, the White
House disclosed on Thursday. The lack of specificity suggests that despite a much-publicized
2013 policy change by Barack Obama restricting drone killings by, among other things,
requiring near certainty that the terrorist target is present, the US continues to launch
lethal operations without the necessity of knowing who specifically it seeks to kill. Josh
Earnest, the White House spokesman, acknowledged that the January deaths of hostages Warren
Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto might prompt the tightening of targeting standards. Earnest
[confirmed that] the two US civilians killed, longtime English-language propagandist Adam Gadahn
and Ahmed Farouq of al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, were not high-value targets marked
for death. In a May 2013 speech, Obama indicated that drone strikes were only permissible when
the administration possessed near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured, the highest
standard we can set. Human-rights observers see little indication, two years after Obamas
speech, that the US meets its own stated standards. Reprieve, looking at US drone strikes in
Yemen and Pakistan, concluded last year that the US killed nearly 1,150 people while targeting 41
individuals.

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in government and in the intelligence community.

Shawn Achor's 6 exercises for happiness

2015-04-22, CBC News (Canada's Public Broadcasting System)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/shawn-achor-s-6-exercises-for-happiness-1.3040937
Psychologist and best-selling author Shawn Achor has made a career studying the science of
happiness. "Scientifically, happiness is a choice," Achor says. He explains that research has
shown you can rewire your brain to make yourself happy by practising simple happiness exercises.
Achor says in just 21 days, the exercises can transform a pessimist into an optimist. And within 30
days, those habits change the neuropathways of our brains and turn us into lifelong optimists.
These six daily happiness exercises are proven to make anyone, from a 4-year old to an 84year old, happy, or simply happier, Achor says: 1. Gratitude Exercises. Write down three
things you're grateful for that occurred over the last 24 hours. They don't have to be profound. 2.
The Doubler. Take one positive experience from the past 24 hours and spend two minutes writing
down every detail about that experience. As you remember it, your brain labels it as meaningful
and deepens the imprint. 3. The Fun Fifteen. Do 15 minutes of a fun cardio activity, like gardening
or walking the dog, every day. The effects of daily cardio can be as effective as taking an
antidepressant. 4. Meditation. Every day take two minutes to stop whatever you're doing and
concentrate on breathing. 5. Conscious act of kindness. At the start of every day, send a short
email or text praising someone you know. 6. Deepen Social Connections. Spend time with family
and friends.
Note: The three-minute video at the link above link has some good ideas on achieving greater
happiness. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference.

A veil of secrecy shields hospitals where outbreaks occur

2015-04-18, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hospital-outbreaks-secrecy-20150419-sto...
L.A. County health officials investigate and confirm an infection outbreak inside one of the
county's hospitals once or twice a month. The public rarely finds out which hospital is
involved, how many patients were stricken or whether any died. The secrecy surrounding
hospital outbreaks runs counter to the push toward more public disclosure in healthcare. In recent
years, consumers have benefited from data comparing some health outcomes by hospital, the fees
hospitals charge for various procedures and the payments doctors receive from drug and device
manufacturers. Keeping outbreaks confidential is a common practice of federal, state and local
health investigators across the country. The rationale: It encourages hospitals to be open and
quickly report suspected surges of infections. The secrecy can prevent hospitals from learning
from one another's mistakes. More than six years ago, a lethal bacteria struck two hospitals in

Florida, killing 15 patients. The case was nearly identical to the recent outbreaks at UCLA and
Cedars-Sinai medical centers. In each case, a hard-to-clean medical scope transferred the same
superbug from patient to patient. Since that 2008 Florida outbreak, investigators have tied the
same scopes to scores of patient infections in other states. Most of the outbreaks were not
disclosed until months or years later, often only when doctors wrote about them in medical
journals.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
healthcare cover-ups from reliable major media sources.

Scientists find radioactive WWII aircraft carrier off San Francisco coast
2015-04-16, San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley's leading newspaper)
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_27931161/scientists-find-radioact...
In a ghostly reminder of the Bay Area's nuclear heritage, scientists announced Thursday they have
captured the first clear images of a radioactivity-polluted World War II aircraft carrier that rests on
the ocean floor 30 miles off the coast of Half Moon Bay. The USS Independence saw combat at
Wake Island and other decisive battles against Japan in 1944 and 1945 and was later blasted with
radiation in two South Pacific nuclear tests. The Navy deliberately sank the contaminated ship in
1951 south of the Farallon Islands. The rediscovery of the USS Independence offers a
fascinating glimpse into American military history and raises old questions about the safety
of the Farallon Islands Radioactive Waste Dump ... where the federal government dumped
nearly 48,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste between 1946 and 1970. The
Independence was sunk on Jan. 26, 1951, and came to rest 2,600 feet below the ocean surface.
The Navy withheld the location of the wreck for decades, but the U.S. Geological Survey found its
likely resting place while mapping the sea floor in 1990. Retired judge and state legislator Quentin
Kopp, who many years ago demanded research into the Navy's disposal of radioactive material off
Northern California before 1970, said Thursday that the question of whether the waste posed a risk
to humans and wildlife was never resolved.
Note: A CNN article and a CBS article fail to mention anything about the Farallon Islands
Radioactive Waste Dump and CNN doesn't even mention radioactive material on the ship. Neither
mentions the many drums of radioactive material are buried within the ship. Do you think the
media is complicit in hiding key information regarding public health? For verifiable information that
this happens much more than people think, read this two-page summary.

The shroud of secrecy around US drone strikes abroad must be lifted

2015-04-15, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/15/shroud-secrecy-us-drone-...

Its been over two years since President Obama promised new transparency and
accountability rules when it comes to drone strikes. Virtually no progress has been made.
The criteria for who gets added to the unaccountable kill list is still shrouded in secrecy even
when the US government is targeting its own citizens. We know because a Texas-born man
named Mohanad Mahmoud Al Farekh recently captured overseas was arraigned in federal court
this week. It turns out, as the Times reported, that in 2013 his government debated whether he
should be killed by a drone strike in Pakistan. The CIA and military were reportedly pushing hard
to send drones to kill Al Farekh, but the Justice Department didnt think there was enough
evidence. An important new report released by the Open Society Justice Initiative this week also
shows that - despite the Obama administrations internal requirements for drone strikes that
supposedly require a near certainty that civilians wont get killed - the government quite often just
disregards its own rules, which has led to the death of dozens of civilians in Yemen in the past two
years. Though without Open Societys study, the public would have no clue, since the Obama
administration still steadfastly refuses to officially release any information on drone strikes in
Yemen. The administration has said for years it prefers capturing to killing but the data
indicates that they practice the opposite.
Note: The CIA has been aware that drone strikes are ineffective since at least 2009. If drones help
terrorists, almost always miss their intended targets, and may be used to target people in the US in
the future, what are the real reasons for the US government's drone program?

Boxer: Regulators 'heads should roll over Diablo nuclear plant

2015-04-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Boxer-Regulators-heads-should-roll-ove...
Weeks before Pacific Gas and Electric Co. released a long-awaited seismic report about the
Diablo Canyon nuclear plant last year, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials had already
drafted talking points declaring the plant safe from earthquakes, Sen. Barbara Boxer said
Wednesday. An internal commission memo showed that the agency was planning to tell the public
that the NRC had reviewed the report, and it had concluded Diablo Canyon was seismically safe
before even seeing the report. Boxer ... used it to illustrate what she called the commissions lax
attitude toward seismic safety, even in the wake of the 2011 meltdown of three reactors at Japans
Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Her comments shone new light on a controversy that has
simmered since the seismic safety reports release last fall. PG&E released the report on Sept. 10.
That same day, the commission the federal agency that regulates nuclear plants formally
rejected complaints from one of its own former inspectors at Diablo Canyon, who had argued that
the plant should be closed. Several newly discovered faults nearby, he said, could produce more
violent shaking than Diablo was designed to withstand. Environmental groups ... accused the
commission and PG&E of colluding to release both the report and the rejection of the inspectors
complaint on the same day, generating positive press about Diablos safety.
Note: Why would Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials ignore their responsibility to protect the
public from the potentially disastrous combination of earthquakes and nuclear power plants?

Cop accused of brutally torturing black suspects costs Chicago $5.5

million
2015-04-15, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/15/closing-the-book...
Whenever Chicago Police commander Jon Burge needed a confession, he would walk into the
interrogation room and set down a little black box, his alleged victims would later tell prosecutors.
The box had two wires and a crank. Burge ... would attach one wire to the suspects handcuffed
ankles and the other to his manacled hands. Then [he] would place a plastic bag over the
suspects head. Finally, he would crank his little black box and listen to the screams of pain as
electricity coursed through the suspects body. As many as 120 African-American men on
Chicagos South Side ... were allegedly tortured by Burge between 1972 and 1991. On
Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the establishment of a $5.5 million fund for
these victims. Some of the men spent years on Illinoiss death row because of confessions
allegedly obtained by Burge under duress. In 2003, Governor George Ryan pardoned four men
on death row who claimed to have been tortured by Burge, [whom] the Chicago Police Board
voted to fire [in 1993] for his alleged torture activities. [He] was allowed to keep his $4,000 per
month pension. In 2002, Cook County appointed [a special prosecutor] to investigate Burges
conduct. The investigation took four years and cost $7 million, but the 300-page report didnt
recommend bringing any charges against the former cop. The statute of limitations for the alleged
crimes had expired, Egan argued.
Note: According to the Chicago Reader, Burge may have learned how to torture prisoners while
serving as a soldier in Vietnam. Chicago police maintain hidden interrogation sites where brutal
treatment of suspects is used to obtain criminal confessions. For more along these lines, see
concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about civil liberties and government
corruption from reliable major media sources.

Gravity Payments CEO Will Live on $70,000 Worker Wage, Thinks His
Life Will Be Luxe Enough
2015-04-14, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ceo-live-70000-worker-wage-thinks-life-luxe/st...
The CEO of a credit-card payments company in Seattle said executive pay is "out of whack," so
he's cutting his own pay and creating a minimum salary for his workers. Now, he will be earning
$70,000 like many of them, and he's OK with it. Dan Price, 30, announced this week that any
employee at his company, Gravity Payments, making less than $70,000 annually will receive
a $5,000-per-year raise or be paid a minimum of $50,000, whichever is greater. The aim: By
December 2017, everyone will earn $70,000 or more. To facilitate this change, Price said his
salary will decrease to $70,000 from about $1 million. "My salary wasn't $1 million because I
need that much to live, but that's what it would cost to replace me as a CEO," Price told ABC

News. Price started the company in 2004 when he was only 19 years old, [when] the cost of living
in Seattle was much lower than it is today. When Gravity launched, the company paid $24,000 per
year even for senior positions. Today, the company, which pays an average salary of $48,000, has
120 employees. 70 of their paychecks will grow with this plan. "I may have to scale back a little bit,
but nothing Im not willing to do." Price chose the $70,000 figure based on a 2010 Princeton
University study that showed happiness, or "life evaluation," is positively impacted up to $70,000 or
$75,000 per year; but increases above that figure did not have a significant positive effect on
happiness.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Rape, child abuse and Prince Charless former school

2015-04-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/12/child-abuse-at-prince-charles-...
One of Scotlands leading schools is facing claims by former students that they were
abused by paedophiles. Gordonstoun, a famously severe Scottish institution ... was touted as a
place for spoilt or wealthy children who needed toughening up Sean Connery and David Bowies
sons went, and so did Charlie Chaplins granddaughter. Physical punishment, strict discipline and
cold showers were key ... to keeping children in line. The school was notorious not just for being
tough, but for bullying. As part of his initiation at Gordonstoun, Prince Charles, aged 13, is said to
have been caged naked in a basket and left under a cold shower. The regime at Aberlour House [a
preparatory school for Gordonstoun] was not much softer. A series of complaints ... covering 40
years reveal a dark alternative history. Too often to be excused, Gordonstoun and its junior
school appear to have let down the trust of parents and failed to respect the rights and
needs of children. Predatory paedophiles are a part of the [schools'] history. In 2013 some
[former pupils] began a private Facebook group, discussing things that had happened at the
school, that you dont see in the brochures and the class photographs, as one of them put it.
Rapes, of boys and girls, were mentioned. [One rape survivor] started to receive messages from
girls she had known, apologising for the gossip and rumours, for the bullying, and for not having
done more to help. The group eventually involved more than 100 ex-pupils.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals from
reliable major media sources.

Pope Francis Latest Mission: Stopping Nuclear Weapons

2015-04-10, Time
http://time.com/3817021/pope-francis-nuclear-disarmament/

The Vatican has long opposed nuclear weapons, but Pope Francis is making the cause one
of the top diplomatic priorities of his two-year-old papacy. In December, the Vatican submitted
a paper calling for total nuclear disarmament to the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian
Impact of Nuclear Weapons. In January, Pope Francis touted nuclear disarmament as a major
goal alongside climate change. Pope Francis has recently pushed the moral argument against
nuclear weapons to a new level, not only against their use but also against their possession,
Archbishop Bernedito Auza, the Holy Sees Ambassador to the U.N., says. Today there is no
more argument, not even the argument of deterrence used during the Cold War, that could
minimally morally justify the possession of nuclear weapons. The peace of a sort that is
supposed to justify nuclear deterrence is specious and illusory. For Francis ... inequality and
nuclear power are interwoven. Spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations,
Pope Francis wrote to the Vienna Humanitarian Conference in December. To prioritize such
spending is a mistake and a misallocation of resources which would be far better invested in the
areas of integral human development, education, health and the fight against extreme poverty.
When these resources are squandered, the poor and the weak living on the margins of society pay
the price.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Why being 'overweight' means you live longer: The way scientists twist
the facts
2015-04-10, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-bein...
Many medical "facts" are simply not true. By definition, being "overweight" must be bad for your
health or we wouldn't call it overweight. But we do not define overweight as being the weight
above which you are damaging your health; it has an exact definition. To be overweight means
having a BMI of between 25 and 30. In 2009, a German group did a painstaking meta-analysis of
all studies on overweight and obesity that they could find. As with most other researchers, they
found that being overweight was good for you. Of course, they didn't phrase it in this way. They
said: "The prevailing notion that overweight increases morbidity and mortality, as compared to socalled normal weight, is in need of further specification." In need of further specification? An
interesting phrase, but one that hints at the terrible problems researchers have when their findings
fail to match prevailing dogma; if the prevailing consensus is "if your BMI is between 25 and 29, it
is damaging your health and you should lose weight", then you challenge this at your peril.
Despite the fact that study after study has demonstrated quite clearly that "overweight"
people live the longest, no one can bring themselves to say: "Sorry, we were wrong. A BMI
between 25 and 29 is the healthiest weight of all. For those of you between 20 and 25, I say,
eat more, become healthier." Who would dare say such a thing? Not anyone with tenure at a
leading university, that's for sure.

Note: Don't miss the entire article to see how scientists severely manipulate the results of their
data when it does not fit established norms. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable
resources provided in our Health Information Center and concise summaries of deeply revealing
news articles about corruption in science.

The rich get government handouts just like the poor. Here are 10 of
them.
2015-04-09, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/09/the-rich-get-gover...
Many of the non-poor and, in fact, a lot of the rich receive benefits from government ... for
which we don't make them pee in a cup. We've rounded up some ... examples: 1. The mortgage
interest deduction for big houses and second homes. 5 million households in America making
more than $200,000 a year get a lot more housing aid than the 20 million households living
on less than $20,000. 2. The yacht tax deduction. 3. Rental property. If you're a landlord ... you
can deduct many of the expenses you incur renting a home. 4. Fancy business meals. Talking
business over an expensive dinner [is] tax deductible. That puts taxpayer spending on food stamps
into relief. 5. Investment income is taxed at a much lower rate than regular income. 6.The
estate tax. 7. Gambling loss deductions. 8. The Social Security earnings limit. Social Security
taxes only apply to income up to $118,500 anything after that is Social Security tax-free. So the
more money you make, the less your effective Social Security tax rate is, making this tax about as
regressive as they come. Social Securitys own actuaries estimate that eliminating this cap would
reduce the programs long-term deficit by about 86 percent. 9. Retirement plans. 10. Tax prep.
Note: For more, read what the Washington Post had to say about our corporate predator state in
2013, and see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality news articles from reliable
major media sources.

DEA sued over secret bulk collection of Americans' phone records

2015-04-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/08/dea-bulk-collection-phone-records
Human rights campaigners have prepared a federal lawsuit aiming to permanently shut
down the bulk collection of billions of US phone records not, this time, by the National
Security Agency, but by the Drug Enforcement Agency. The program ... served as a template
for the NSAs gigantic and ongoing bulk surveillance of US phone data after 9/11. The revelation of
mass phone-records collection in the so-called war on drugs raises new questions about whether
the Obama administration or its successors believe US security agencies continue to have legal
leeway for warrantless bulk surveillance on American citizens. Starting in 1992, the so-called
USTO effort operated without judicial approval, despite the US constitutions warrant
requirement. Attorney general Eric Holder ended USTO in September 2013 out of fear of scandal
following Snowdens disclosures. While Snowden did not expose USTO, several NSA programs he

has exposed referenced the DEA as an NSA partner, giving the DEA another secret pathway to
massive amounts of US communications records. The warrantless bulk records collection provides
prosecutors the ability to enter into evidence incriminating material that could otherwise be thrown
out of court, [and] has not stopped the upward growth of domestic narcotics consumption.
Note: In order to deny due process to people accused of crimes, the DEA's Special Operations
Division constructs lies about the origins of data obtained from warrantless mass surveillance.
Award-winning journalists have presented powerful evidence of direct DEA and CIA involvement in
and support of drug running and drug cartels. For more along these lines, see concise summaries
of deeply revealing news articles about corruption in government and in the intelligence
community.

National Scandal Over Major Child Abuse Cover-Up in French Schools

2015-04-08, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/10/national-scandal-break-france-over-decades...
Global horror over child abuse and its concealment by the Establishment, hitherto focused
squarely on the UK, now needs to be widened to France as well. Thousands of children in
French schools have been sexually abused by paedophile teachers, an international NGO
has claimed, accusing the French education authorities of a decades-long cover-up. The
French education system is set to become the focus of a national scandal after minister for
education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was forced to admit last week that 16 teachers were allowed to
work in schools last year despite holding previous convictions for paedophilia. Homayra Sellier,
founder of Innocence en Danger, an NGO dedicated to child abuse victims, says: The ministry of
education has covered this up for years. The government has never been inclined to listen to these
stories. Sellier forecasts thousands of cases will emerge, a concern echoed by another French
NGO, Lueur dEnfance, which works to support and defend the rights of children. Teachers who try
to speak out about child abuse at the hands of other teachers are silenced by school directors and
local officials, and even threatened with legal action usually defamation. Others have lost their
jobs. As for the teachers the children accuse, they usually stay at the same school, or are quietly
transferred to another.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

US Soldiers and Contractors Sexually Abused at Least 54 Children in

Colombia Between 2003 and 2007
2015-04-07, The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blog/203617/us-soldiers-and-contractors-sexually-abu...

Last week, FAIR noticed that not one major media organization in the United States has covered
the charge, reported in Colombia, that US military soldiers and contractors had sexually
abused at least fifty-four children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007 and, in all cases, the
rapists were never punishedeither in Colombia or statesidedue to American military
personnel being immune from prosecution under diplomatic immunity agreements. One of the
rapes ... was allegedly committed by Army sergeant Michael J. Coen and an employee of a private
security contractor, Csar Ruiz. The victim was a 12-year-old girl. They abducted her, they
drugged her, they took her to the air base near the town of Melgar and raped her, they took videos
of her. Colombian prosecutors issued arrest warrants [that] were not executed because of the
immunity of Coen and Ruiz. Under a series of treaties ... members of the US military stationed in
Colombia are immune from prosecution. That immunity has since been extended to private
security firms. Another serious sexual assault that, like the rape described above, was covered by
the Colombian press, both in print and on TV, but ignored in the United States: in 2004, 53
underage girls were sexually abused by mercenaries, who filmed and sold the tapes as
pornographic material. The private security firm involved [was identified as] DynCorp, a Virginiabased contractor.
Note: Dyncorp is only slightly less infamous than Blackwater, having been involved in numerous
international outrages, including a child sex slavery ring in Bosnia in 1999. Explore powerful
evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that child sexual abuse
scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals from reliable major
media sources.

The rise of the working poor and the non-working rich

2015-04-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/The-rise-of-the-working-poor-and-...
Many believe that poor people deserve to be poor because theyre lazy. In reality, a large
and growing share of the nations poor work full time sometimes 60 or more hours a
week yet still dont earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Its
also commonly believed ... that the rich deserve their wealth because they work harder than
others. In reality ... their wealth has been handed to them. The rise of these two groups the
working poor and non-working rich is relatively new. Why are these two groups growing? The
ranks of the working poor are growing because wages at the bottom have dropped, adjusted for
inflation. The real value of the federal minimum wage is lower today than it was a quarter century
ago. In addition, most recipients of public assistance must now work in order to qualify. The new
work requirements havent reduced the number or percentage of Americans in poverty. Theyve
just moved poor people from being unemployed and impoverished to being employed and
impoverished. At the same time, the ranks of the non-working rich have been swelling. A study by
the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy projects a total of $59 trillion passed down

to heirs between 2007 and 2061. This is ... about to become the major source of income for a new
American aristocracy. The tax code encourages all this by favoring unearned income over earned
income.
Note: The above article was written by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Horse whisperer Monty Roberts aids veterans and others who face
traumas
2015-04-02, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2015/0402/Horse-whisperer-...
Monty Roberts is taking his message of nonviolent communication and developing trust to
military veterans, military police, and incarcerated youths with post-traumatic stress
disorder. The key is to speak the horses language, which is gesture, he says. He has
demonstrated an uncanny ability to speak this language, eliminating the centuries-long practice
of breaking a horse with traditional methods. Roberts is considered the original horse whisperer
... spending a lifetime refining his system, teaching it globally through books, videos, TV shows,
demonstration tours, and his own Equestrian Academy. At an evening at his ranch titled Night of
Inspiration, Roberts told of overcoming an abusive father and the prickly resistance of the
traditional equestrian community to become arguably the top horse trainer in the world. Now he is
morphing into the role of advocate for the healing power of horses. Henry Schleiff, president and
general manager of the Military Channel, summed up the results after about 400 people attended
a clinic: The impressive, unique work that Monty Roberts has pioneered, using untrained horses
as a therapeutic tool for veterans who are trying to work through anger and depression, is
absolutely inspiring. Brigitte von Rechenberg, a professor of veterinary medicine, [said] There is
trust and respect; there is no winner and no loser. Montys methods leave the horse his dignity.
These concepts cause happiness to reach your soul.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

HSBC is 'cast-iron certain' to breach banking rules again, executive

admits
2015-04-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/02/hsbc-cast-iron-certain-breach...
A senior HSBC executive has privately admitted that the bank is cast-iron certain to have
another major regulatory breach in the future. Global head of sanctions Lee Hale ... was
meeting with independent lawyers monitoring HSBC as part of a controversial 2012 deal
with the US Department of Justice, in which the bank avoided prosecution over sanctions-

busting and money-laundering in its Mexican branch in exchange for paying a $1.9bn fine and
receiving additional regulatory scrutiny for a period of five years. The deferred prosecution
agreement was signed by the then US attorney for the eastern district of New York, Loretta Lynch.
During a long exchange about HSBCs new policy on sanctions and internal breaches of company
rules, Hale told the regulator that given the size and scale of HSBC, in his view it is a cast-iron
certain[ty] this will happen, at some point in the future were going to have some big breach, some
regulatory breach. He added: I hope it doesnt happen, but it is likely. The recorded monitor
discussions also touched on problems in the banks US compliance team. Hale said: The internal
audit team have done a US review and its not great in terms of what theyve found. The findings,
according to Hale, prompted the bank to terminate the employment of one of the banks senior
compliance executives in New York, a former sanctions official at the US Treasury. In 2012, a US
Senate report noted that a high turnover of compliance staff at the banks US subsidiary had made
reforms difficult to implement.
Note: Read lots more on HSBC's sweetheart deal with U.S. officials in a Rolling Stone article by
Matt Taibbi. Is it even possible to root out corruption in a bank founded to service the international
drug trade? For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles
about systemic corruption in government and the financial industry.

Why Operation Jade Helm 15 is freaking out the Internet

2015-03-31, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/03/31/why-the-new-speci...
Elite service members from four branches of the U.S. military will launch an operation this
summer in which they will operate covertly among the U.S. public and travel from state to
state in military aircraft. Texas, Utah and a section of southern California are labelled as
hostile territory, and New Mexico isnt much friendlier. Thats the scheme for Jade Helm 15, a
new Special Operations exercise that runs from July 15 to Sept. 15. Army Special Operations
Command announced it last week, saying the size and scope of the mission sets it apart from
many other training exercises. The exercise has prompted widespread conspiracy theories that
the United States is preparing to hatch martial law. In particular, some have expressed alarm about
this map, which outlines events for the exercise in unclassified documents posted online last week.
The Washington Post verified them to be legitimate by speaking to Army sources. They appear to
have been prepared for local authorities. Its also worth noting that the military has routinely
launched exercises in the past in which regions of the United States are identified as hostile for the
purpose of training.
Note: This Washington Post article is clearly playing down some important facts and
developments. Why is the US military spending so much time and money preparing for scenarios
where US soil and citizens are considered enemies? Read and educate yourself with this excellent
article on Operation Jade Helm 15, one in a string of US exercises planning for mass civilian
arrests under a variety of scenarios.

Former Blackwater gets rich as Afghan drug production hits record high
2015-03-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/blackwater-gets-rich-afghanistan...
In a war full of failures, the US counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan stands out: opiate
production has climbed steadily over recent years to reach record-high levels last year. One clear
winner in the anti-drug effort is ... the infamous mercenary company formerly known as Blackwater.
Statistics released on Tuesday reveal that the rebranded private security firm, known since 2011
as Academi, reaped over a quarter billion dollars from the futile Defense Department push to
eradicate Afghan narcotics, some 21% of the $1.5 bn in contracting money the Pentagon has
devoted to the job since 2002. The company is the second biggest beneficiary of counternarcotics
largesse in Afghanistan. Only the defense giant Northrop Grumman edged it out, with $325m.
According to the US inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, the $309m
Academi got from US taxpayers paid for training, equipment, and logistical support to
Afghan forces conducting counternarcotics. Far from eradicating the deep-rooted opiate
trade, US counternarcotics efforts have ... contributed to the opium boom. In December, the
United Nations reported a 60% growth in Afghan land used for opium poppy cultivation since 2011,
up to 209,000 hectares. The estimated $3bn value of Afghan heroin and morphine represents
some 15% of Afghan GDP. Academi and its former Blackwater incarnation have an infamous
history in Afghanistan. It once set up shell companies to disguise its business practices, according
to a Senate report, so that its contracts would be unimpeded by company employees killings of
Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
Note: Blackwater, now called Academi, got caught systematically defrauding the US government,
while serving as a "virtual extension of the CIA". The CIA has been linked to the Afghan heroin
trade for decades. In 2000, the Taliban had all but eradicated Afghan opium production. Once
Afghanistan was under US control, opium production surged to record levels.

WHO: Long-cleared Roundup ingredient probably causes cancer

2015-03-29, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/roundup-ingredient-probably-carcinogenic-...
Earlier this month, the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on
Cancer announced findings that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsantos RoundUp
line of pesticides, is probably carcinogenic to humans. The research, published in The
Lancet Oncology, relies on studies conducted on the chemical over the last few decades. Use of
glyphosate which the EPA has deemed safe has soared in the last two decades with the
introduction of crops genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. Glyphosate is also a main
ingredient in a new product called Enlist Duo recently introduced by Dow Chemical. Widespread
use of the chemical has also come under fire because weeds are becoming increasingly resistant
to it. Dow has marketed its new product ... as a new tool for farmers battling herbicide-resistant
weeds. But agriculture experts say farmers should look at other ways to manage weeds, like
cover-cropping, increased rotation and mechanical removal. This week, environmental groups sent

a letter to the EPA renewing their calls for the agency to reconsider its decision to approve Enlist
Duo. The groups also called on the EPA to reexamine its findings that glyphosate is safe.
Monsanto has come out swinging. In a press release, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Robb Fraley
said the company is outraged. Monsanto has demanded a retraction of the report.
Note: The negative health impacts of Monsanto's RoundUp are well known, while the risks and
dangers of genetically engineering crops to tolerate such chemicals are becoming increasingly
clear.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S.

2015-03-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/business/trans-pacific-partnership-seen-as-...
An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations
to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment "expectations"
and hurt their business, according to a classified document. The Trans-Pacific Partnership - a
cornerstone of Mr. Obama's remaining economic agenda - would grant broad powers to
multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord ...
companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government
actions and court rulings ... before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United
Nations. The chapter in the draft of the trade deal, dated Jan. 20, 2015, [was] obtained by The
New York Times in collaboration with the group WikiLeaks. [Its] cover mandates that the chapter
not be declassified until four years after the Trans-Pacific Partnership comes into force or trade
negotiations end, should the agreement fail. Under the terms of ... chapter, foreign investors could
demand cash compensation if member nations "expropriate or nationalize a covered investment
either directly or indirectly." Opponents fear "indirect expropriation" will be interpreted broadly,
especially by deep-pocketed multinational companies opposing regulatory or legal changes that
diminish the value of their investments. In 2013, Eli Lilly took advantage of a similar provision
under Nafta to sue Canada for $500 million, accusing Ottawa of violating its obligations to
foreign investors by allowing its courts to invalidate patents for two of its drugs.
Note: The above article further clarifies why the TPP is a pending disaster. For more, see this
article, or watch the two minute video Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich made to
educate the public about the dangers of the TPP.

GMO Science Deniers: Monsanto and the USDA

2015-03-20, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/gmo-science-deniers-monsanto-an...
For decades, Monsanto and its enablers inside the USDA have denied the central tenets of
evolutionary biology, namely natural selection and adaptation. Since the early 1980s, Monsanto
has endlessly hyped genetically engineered (GE) crops they claim could reduce hunger,

reduce pesticide use, and survive droughts. In reality, no such "miracle" crops exist. No
significantly greater yielding crops, no more effective drought resistance crops. And ... around 85
percent of all genetically engineered crops in the United States and around the world have been
engineered to withstand massive doses of herbicides, mostly Monsanto's Roundup. Each year
115 million more pounds of Roundup are spread on our farmlands because of these altered
crops. Wouldn't that massive increase in Roundup use over that huge a portion of our
cropland cause some weed populations to develop resistance? Of course. As a result, in less
than 20 years, more than half of all U.S. farms have some Roundup resistant "superweeds,"
weeds that now infest 70 million acres of U.S farmland. A science-based, and safer, way forward is
to ... use ecologically based weed control. There are proven organic and agroecological
approaches that emphasize weed management rather than weed eradication, soil building rather
than soil supplementing. Crop rotation and cover crops can return productive yields without ridding
the land of genetic biodiversity, and could reduce herbicide use by 90 percent. So it's long past
due that our government required real and rigorous science when regulating GE crops.
Note: Read more about how GMO technology has backfired, producing new "superweeds" and
"superbugs" that threaten crop production. For more, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
news articles on GMO risks and how these are covered up.

The Skinny on Diet Soda

2015-03-19, Time Magazine
http://time.com/3750550/is-diet-soda-bad-for-you
Diet soda gives you a sugar rush far stronger than the granulated stuff in a sugar bowl ever could
and for no calories. But research is mounting that low-and no-calorie sweeteners may not
be great choices for dieters. A recent study found that over nine years, diet-soda drinkers gained
nearly triple the abdominal fat3 in. (8 cm)as those who didnt drink diet soda. Though scientists
are still puzzling over how this may happen, heres what they think is going on. The most popular
artificial sweetener in diet drinks ... is about 200 times sweeter than sugar without triggering a
feeling of satiety. Bad things can happen when you strip sweetness of its power to satisfy: the link
between eating and the role of calories in your body starts to crumble. It may also mess with your
[digestive] microbes, [and] be bad for your heart. In a study based on dietary questionnaires of
9,500 people, those who said they drank one can of diet soda a day had a 34% higher risk of
metabolic syndrome a cluster of risk factors that can lead to heart disease and Type 2
diabetes than those who didnt drink diet soda. The study stopped short of drawing a causeand-effect link, but the association surprised the authors, who called for more research.
Note: If you can't access this article on the Time website, you can read it here. What this article
fails to mention is the copious amount of research and many researchers who have found that
aspartame, which is the sweetener used in most diet drinks, can be highly hazardous to health.
Read more on this important fact.

US Threatened Germany Over Snowden, Vice Chancellor Says

2015-03-19, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-snowden-v...
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said this week in Homburg that the U.S.
government threatened to cease sharing intelligence with Germany if Berlin offered asylum
to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden or otherwise arranged for him to travel to that
country. "They told us they would stop notifying us of plots and other intelligence matters," Gabriel
said. The vice chancellor delivered a speech in which he praised the journalists who worked on the
Snowden archive, and then lamented the fact that Snowden was forced to seek refuge in "Vladimir
Putin's autocratic Russia" because no other nation was willing and able to protect him from threats
of imprisonment by the U.S. government. [When pressed] as to why the German government
could not and would not offer Snowden asylum - which, under international law, negates the
asylee's status as a fugitive - [the vice chancellor said] that the U.S. government had aggressively
threatened the Germans that if they did so, they would be "cut off" from all intelligence sharing.
That would mean, if the threat were carried out, that the Americans would literally allow the
German population to remain vulnerable to a brewing attack discovered by the Americans by
withholding that information from their government.
Note: While treated as a dangerous criminal by US authorities, Edward Snowden has been called
a hero in the UK's Guardian for exposing government corruption and intelligence agency lies.

The uncounted: why the US can't keep track of people killed by police
2015-03-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/police-killings-government-dat...
A year ago, in a bureaucratic shift that went unremarked in the somnolent days before Michael
Brown was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri, the US government admitted a disturbing failure. The
top crime-data experts in Washington had determined that they could not properly count how many
Americans die each year at the hands of police. For the better part of a decade, a specialized team
of statisticians within the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)... had been collecting data [on] any
death, of anyone, that happened in the presence of a local or state law enforcement officer. In
March of last year, the bureau pulled the plug on the project. As revelations about patterns of
abuse in Ferguson and beyond rattle the US criminal justice system from bottom to top, calls for a
national police-killings database have once again gained urgency. But an awareness of what has
been tried - and failed - remains elusive. A detailed look at what went wrong with the arrest-related
deaths count reveals challenges that run deeper than the unwillingness of local police departments
to file a report. From 2003 to 2009, plus 2011, the FBI counted an average of 383 "justifiable
homicides by law enforcement" each year. The actual number, as estimated by the BJS
study, was closer to 928.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Portland man: I was tortured in UAE for refusing to become an FBI

informant
2015-03-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/16/portland-man-tortured-uae-behe...
When Yonas Fikre stepped off a luxury private jet at Portland airport last month, the only
passenger on a $200,000 flight from Sweden, he braced for the worst. The 36-year-old Eritreanborn American was finally back in Portland at the end of a five-year odyssey that began with a
simple business trip but landed him in an Arab prison where he alleges he was tortured at the
behest of US anti-terrorism officials because he refused to become an informant at his mosque in
Oregon. Fikre is suing the FBI, two of its agents and other American officials for allegedly putting
him on the USs no-fly list a roster of suspected terrorists barred from taking commercial flights
to pressure him to collaborate. When that failed, the lawsuit said, the FBI had him arrested,
interrogated and tortured for 106 days in the United Arab Emirates. As shocking as the
claims are, they are not the first to emanate from worshippers at Fikres mosque in
Portland, where at least nine members have been barred from flying by the US authorities. The
no-fly list gives the FBI an extrajudicial tool to coerce Muslims to become informants, said
Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer who represents other clients on the list. Theres definitely a cluster of
cases like this at the FBIs Portland office. Fikre has not been charged with any terrorism related
crimes or even questioned as a potential threat on his return to the US. He remains on the no-fly
list.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing articles about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

A Police Gadget Tracks Phones? Shhh! Its Secret

2015-03-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/business/a-police-gadget-tracks-phones-shhh...
A powerful new surveillance tool being adopted by police departments across the country
comes with an unusual requirement: To buy it, law enforcement officials must sign a
nondisclosure agreement preventing them from saying almost anything about the
technology. Any disclosure about the technology, which tracks cellphones and is often called
StingRay, could allow criminals and terrorists to circumvent it, the F.B.I. has said in an affidavit. But
the tool is adopted in such secrecy that communities are not always sure what they are buying or
whether the technology could raise serious privacy concerns. What has opponents particularly
concerned about StingRay is that the technology, unlike other phone surveillance methods,
can also scan all the cellphones in the area where it is being used, not just the target phone.
Its scanning the area. What is the government doing with that information? said Linda Lye, a
lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which in 2013 sued the Justice

Department to force it to disclose more about the technology. In November, in a response to the
lawsuit, the government said it had asked the courts to allow the technology to capture content, not
just identify subscriber location.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
the erosion of privacy rights from reliable major media sources.

C.I.A. Cash Ended Up in Coffers of Al Qaeda

2015-03-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/world/asia/cia-funds-found-their-way-into-a...
In the spring of 2010, Afghan officials struck a deal to free an Afghan diplomat held hostage by Al
Qaeda. But the price was steep $5 million. To come up with the money, [senior security officials]
turned to a secret fund that the Central Intelligence Agency bankrolled with monthly cash deliveries
to the presidential palace in Kabul, according to several Afghan officials. The Afghan government,
they said, had already squirreled away about $1 million from that fund. Within weeks, that money
... was handed over to Al Qaeda, replenishing its coffers after a relentless C.I.A. campaign of
drone strikes in Pakistan had decimated the militant networks upper ranks. The C.I.A.s
contribution to Qaedas bottom line, though, was no well-laid trap. It was just another in a
long list of examples of how the United States, largely because of poor oversight and loose
financial controls, has sometimes inadvertently financed the very militants it is fighting.
While refusing to pay ransoms for Americans kidnapped by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or, more
recently, the Islamic State, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the last
decade at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which has been siphoned off to enemy fighters.
The C.I.A., meanwhile, continued dropping off bags of cash ranging each time from a few
hundred thousand dollars to more than $1 million at the presidential palace every month until
last year, when Mr. Karzai stepped down. The money was used to buy the loyalty of warlords,
legislators and other prominent and potentially troublesome Afghans, helping the palace
finance a vast patronage network that secured Mr. Karzais power base.
Note: A 2013 New York Times article called the US the "biggest source of corruption in
Afghanistan" for its CIA bankrolling of Afghan warlords. Meanwhile, over a billion dollars of Iraqi
"reconstruction" cash disappeared and was later tracked to a bunker in Lebanon. For more along
these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war corruption news articles from reliable
major media sources.

The untold story of how the sugar industry shaped key government
research about your teeth
2015-03-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/11/the-sneaky-way-the...

The powerful U.S. sugar industry skewed the government's medical research on dental
care. Sugar industry leaders advocated for policies that did not recommend people eat less sugar.
The government listened, according to a new report published in the journal PLOS Medicine. In the
1960s, amid a national effort to boost cavity prevention, the U.S. government spearheaded a
research program, known as the National Caries Program (NCP), which aimed to eradicate tooth
decay. But instead of turning to an obvious solution having people eat less sugar the
government was swayed by industry interests that pushed alternative methods, such as [using]
vaccines for fighting tooth decay. [The] committee that was set up by the government to set
research priorities for the NCP included many doctors and scientists who were also ... part of
another group called the International Sugar Research Foundation, which was established by the
sugar industry. Rather than recommending that people reduce sugar intake, governmentfunded research focused on interventions that wouldn't advise Americans to lower their
sweets consumption. For instance, the research encouraged the wider use of fluoride. More
recently, the industry attempted to influence the ongoing debate about changes to the Food and
Drug Administration's nutrition facts label. One of the key changes currently being mulled is the
inclusion of an "added sugar" label, which is meant to communicate how much of any given food's
sugar content was added during processing. The industry is vehemently opposed.
Note: "When you take on Big Sugar, you take on a huge political money operation," Rep. Mark
Steven Kirk from Illinois said while fighting Big Sugar back in 2007. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption news articles from reliable major
media sources.

This is your brain on LSD? Scientists want to find out

2015-03-06, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lsd-scientists-crowdfunding-research-on-psychedel...
A group of British scientists started a crowdfunding campaign to raise the remaining 25,000
pounds (about $37,600) needed to complete the first scientific study ever to image the
brains of people "tripping" on the psychedelic drug LSD. Led by neuroscientists at Imperial
College London, the study seeks to use MRI and MEG imaging to show how LSD affects brain
processes. It is part of a research project that the scientists say could revolutionize the
understanding of the human brain. Researchers hope the images will begin to reveal the way the
drug could work to heal many debilitating conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder,
alcohol addiction, depression and anxiety. The public's response to the crowdfunding appeal was
overwhelming. Within the first 24 hours after its request was posted online, the Beckley
Foundation/Imperial College [exceeded] its goal. "We went into it tenuously and have been
delighted by the response," said [Beckley Foundation Psychedelic Research Foundation director
Amanda] Fielding. "It's an incredibly important area. LSD is something that can expand certain
areas of the human personality: openness, spirituality, and creativity. Fielding's team is working
hard to provide substantial scientific research to help eliminate the taboo of LSD and other

hallucinogenic substances and loosen regulations on scientific testing. "There are many millions of
people who have experienced the benefits of psychedelics, and there are millions of people who
are suffering with illnesses that want to see if these drugs can help," said Fielding.
Note: It took just 24 hours for the public to fund this study directly. Are the healing potentials of
mind altering drugs finally starting to receive honest mainstream attention?

U.S. firms stash $2.1T overseas to avoid taxes

2015-03-04, Salt Lake Tribune/Reuters
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2250632-155/us-firms-stash-21t-overseas-to?fullpage=1
Microsoft, Apple, Google and five other tech firms now account for more than a fifth of the
$2.10 trillion in profits that U.S. companies are holding overseas, according to a Bloomberg
News review of the securities filings of 304 corporations. The total amount held outside the U.S. by
the companies was up 8 percent from the previous year. General Electric topped the list for the
fifth straight year. The company now has $119 billion outside the U.S., an increase of 8 percent
from the end of 2013 and a 27 percent gain since 2010. Microsoft has more than tripled its
offshore holdings since 2010. Apple, which counts only part of its non- U.S. holdings as indefinitely
held offshore, increased that portion to $69.7 billion from $12.3 billion in 2010. Cisco now has
$52.7 billion outside the U.S., up 10 percent since 2013. John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive,
said on Bloomberg TV on Feb. 20 that "our tax policy is causing me to make decisions that I don't
think is in the interest of our country, or even in our shareholders, long term." The companies owe
taxes at the full U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent on profits they earn around the world.
They get tax credits for payments to foreign governments and don't have to pay the residual U.S.
tax until they bring the money home. Obama earlier this year proposed applying a 14 percent
mandatory tax on the stockpiled profits and a 19 percent minimum tax on foreign earnings going
forward.
Note: U.S. laws now protect corporations as if they are people, but require human people to pay
more income tax. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news
articles about corporate corruption.

McDonalds to use chicken without human antibiotics

2015-03-04, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/04/mcdonalds/xkNOfhlMQAE65D7KgwYd...
McDonalds said on Wednesday that its 14,000 US restaurants will stop serving chicken
raised with antibiotics "important to human medicine," a significant change in food policy for
the worlds largest fast-food chain. McDonalds said the decision is an attempt to adapt to diners
desire for healthier food.Our customers want food that they feel great about eating all the way
from the farm to the restaurant and these moves take a step toward better delivering on those
expectations, McDonalds US president, Mike Andres, said in a statement. McDonalds said the

new policy will be implemented across its US supply chain within two years. Also, McDonalds
said that this year it will begin offering milk jugs in its Happy Meals that contain milk from
cows that have not been treated with the growth hormone rbST. Public health advocates
cheered the move, and some groups, including Keep Antibiotics Working, said they had been in
close dialogue with McDonalds about the policy change.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Thousands of Vulnerable Children Go Missing from Britain's Protective

Services
2015-03-03, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/13/britains-missing-children-310701.html
Many of the child sex abuse scandals that have shocked Britain in recent years involve
victims who were supposed to be under the protection of the state. Each year the
government loses track of around 2,000 vulnerable children in care, even as reports of human
trafficking inside the country are on the rise. Children ... just go missing, and we dont know whats
happening to them, says John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat in Parliament. Hemming believes
that better tracking of children who leave care might have made a difference in Rotherham and
another abuse case, in Rochdale. In 2012 ... abusers were brought to justice in Rochdale over a
child sex ring that went ignored for years despite victims repeatedly seeking local authorities help.
[This] is all about abuse of power by employees of the state, says Hemming. The fact that it
involves the maltreatment of children for sexual gratification makes this all the worse." Jon Bird,
operations manager at Londons National Association of Adults Abused in Childhood, says nearly
half of the survivors ... of human trafficking were at one time inside the U.K.s care system. The
U.K.s Human Trafficking Centres latest assessment shows a total of 2,744 people, including 602
children, reported as trafficked for exploitation in the U.K. in 2013, up 22 percent from 2012.
Victims were forced to work in brothels, hotels, private homes or on the street as sex
workers, and also forced into domestic servitude or to work on building sites or in farms
and factories. The government-run National Crime Agency declined to discuss potential links
between the child-care system and trafficking.
Note: If you think this is only a problem in the UK, read this disturbing article about the likely
murder of Bill Bowen, a man who was about to complete a documentary exposing blatant, horrible
abuses by the US's Child Protective Services that were covered up at high levels. Watch a
revealing five-minute video presenting solid evidence that Child Protective Services is involved in
organized U.S. child sex trafficking rings. See this webpage for more information. For solid
evidence of a pedophile ring reaching to the highest levels of government, don't miss this powerful
documentary and these sexual abuse new summaries.

Cameron says child sex abuse to be classified 'national threat'

2015-03-03, MSN/Reuters
http://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/cameron-says-child-sex-abuse-to-be-classi...
British Prime Minister David Cameron said tackling child sexual abuse was a national
priority on a par with organised crime on Tuesday, announcing measures to prevent systematic
abuse. Britain has been rocked by a series of child sex abuse revelations, including a case in
Rotherham, northern England, where some 1,400 children, some as young as 11, were abused by
gangs of men. "I've just spent half an hour with some of the survivors of abuse in Rotherham and
these are stories that are going to stay with me forever. They are absolutely horrific," Cameron
said at a meeting of victim groups, police and child protection experts held in his official London
residence. "Young girls [are] being abused over and over again on an industrial scale." Classifying
child sexual abuse as a national threat will create a duty for police forces to collaborate across
regions to safeguard children, Cameron's office said. Cameron also announced other measures to
improve coordination between public bodies and a helpline to encourage whistleblowers. In
addition, Cameron proposed criminal sanctions for senior public workers who fail to protect
children from abuse. Referring to the Rotherham case he said: "This has happened with too
many organisations and too many people walking on by and we have got to really resolve
that this stops here, it doesn't happen again and we recognise abuse for what it is."
Note: If you think this is only a problem in the UK, watch a revealing five-minute video presenting
solid evidence that Child Protective Services is involved in organized U.S. child sex trafficking
rings. See this webpage for more information. For more along these lines, see concise summaries
of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

Body-Camera Maker Has Financial Ties to Police Chiefs

2015-03-03, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/body-camera-maker-financial-ties-police-ch...
Taser International, the stun-gun maker emerging as a leading supplier of body cameras for police,
has cultivated financial ties to police chiefs whose departments have bought the recording devices.
Taser is covering airfare and hotel stays for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences. It
is also hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes just months after their cities signed
contracts with Taser. The relationships raise questions of whether chiefs are acting in the best
interests of the taxpayers in their dealings with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser, whose contracts
for cameras and storage systems for the video can run into the millions of dollars. As the police
chief in Fort Worth, Texas, successfully pushed for the signing of a major contract with Taser
before a company quarterly sales deadline, he wrote a Taser representative in an email,
"Someone should give me a raise." City officials and rival companies are raising concerns about
police chiefs' ties to Taser. Charlie Luke, a Salt Lake City councilman ... said he was surprised
when he learned last year that the city's police department had purchased Taser cameras using
surplus money, bypassing the standard bidding process and City Council approval. The
department declined to say how much it has spent acquiring 295 body cameras. Taser's

competitors ... complain they have been shut out by cities awarding no-bid contracts to
Taser and are being put at a disadvantage by requests for proposals that appear tailored to
Taser's products.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Jehovah's Witnesses' silencing techniques: as terrifying as child abuse

2015-03-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/02/jehovahs-witnesses-silen...
I used to go door-to-door on my own with a big, strong, well liked man in my congregation, named
Jonathan. I was just 9 and 10 when he repeatedly sexually abused me. It is really hard for kids to
speak up when theyre abused. But the Jehovahs Witnesses make it a lot harder. They have a 2
Witness rule, which says that anyone who accuses an adult of abuse must have a second
witness. If there is no second witness, the accuser is punished for a false accusation - usually by
ordering that no Witness may talk with or associate with the false accuser. This is called disfellowshipping. For a kid raised only with other Witnesses, it was horrifying. Even your parents
would have to ignore you. It was more terrifying than Jonathan. It was the elders of my
congregation who had assigned Jonathan to team up with me. Like everyone else in the
congregation, my parents liked Brother Jonathan and trusted him in our family. What my parents
didnt know, was that Jonathan had sexually molested another girl in our congregation. The
elders knew this and had kept it a secret. They were following orders from Watchtower
leaders, based in the world headquarters in New York, who in 1989 had issued a top-secret
instruction to keep known child sex abusers in the congregations a secret. This instruction
became Exhibit 1 at my civil trial. A recent report by the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed
that they have continued to issues directives urging silence around child abuse. Last November,
elders were instructed to avoid taking criminal matters like child abuse to the authorities. Instead,
they were told to handle them internally in confidential committees.
Note: The above Guardian article was written by Candace Conti, the first child sexual abuse victim
to win a jury trial against Watchtower. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

Top US academic: 'Let me be lashed instead of Saudi blogger'

2015-02-28, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11362384/Top...
A group of top American intellectuals have volunteered to "take" the 1,000 lash sentence imposed
by the Saudi government on a prominent liberal blogger. Raif Badawi ... received the sentence for
insulting his country's hardline Islamic clerics. The move, which follows widespread international
outrage at the sentence, is being led by Robert P. George, a leading professor at Princeton

University. Professor George said: "Together with six colleagues on the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom, I sent a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to the US calling on the
Saudi government to stop the horrific torture of Raif Badawi an advocate of religious freedom
and freedom of expression in the Saudi Kingdom. If the Saudi government refuses, we each
asked to take 100 of Mr. Badawi's lashes so that we could suffer with him. The seven of us
include Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, Christians, Jews, and a
Muslim." Mr Badawi, 31, who set up a liberal website to discuss Saudi politics in which he
criticised the countrys hardline religious establishment, has been sentenced to ten years in prison
as well as 1,000 lashes. So harsh is the flogging that it has to be administered in individual
sessions of 50 lashes a time in order to stop the recipient dying or suffering serious injury during
the process. The first bout of 50 lashes was dished out to Mr Badawi on January 9, before
hundreds of spectators in a public square in front of a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The
date for a second set of lashes has so far been postponed as doctors have said that Mr Badawi's
injuries from the first flogging have not yet healed.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Water Fluoridation May Increase Risk of Underactive Thyroid Disorder

2015-02-24, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/water-fluoridation-may-increase-risk-underactive-thyr...
A large study that looked at data from nearly every general medical practice in England
suggests that water fluoridation may increase the risk of developing hypothyroidism, or
underactive thyroid. This condition, in which the thyroid gland doesnt produce enough
hormones, is associated with symptoms such as fatigue, obesity and depression. The study
found that locations with fluoridated water supplies were more than 30 percent more likely to have
high levels of hypothyroidism, compared to areas with low levels of the chemical in the water.
Overall, there were 9 percent more cases of underactive thyroid in fluoridated places. Fluoride is
added to the water of about 10 percent of Englands populationand to the taps of about twothirds of Americansfor the purpose of preventing cavities. Fluoride was used to treat
hyperthyroidism (or an overactive thyroid) in the 1950s. It may put a damper on the glands
activities by suppressing the activity of various enzymes, causing physical damage or interfering
with the absorption and use of iodine, a substance that is critical for thyroid health. In 2006, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency convened a panel that recommended lowering the
maximum allowable level of fluoride in water. Nine years later, the EPA is still considering whether
or not to revise its fluoride standards.
Note: Read lots more excellent information on fluoridation of water in this article on mercola.com.
For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Fluoride in drinking water may trigger depression and weight gain, warn
scientists
2015-02-23, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11430087/Fluoride-in-dri...
Last year Public Health England released a report saying fluoride was a safe and effective
way of improving dental health. But new research from the University of Kent suggests that
there is a spike in the number of cases of underactive thyroid in high fluoride areas such as
the West Midlands and the North East of England. In England, around 10 per cent of the
population (6 million) live in areas with a naturally or artificially fluoridated water supply of 1 mg
fluoride per litre of drinking water. The researchers compared areas to records from 7935 general
practices covering around 95 per cent of the English population in 2012-2013. Rates of high
underactive thyroid were at least 30 per cent more likely in practices located in areas with fluoride
levels in excess of 0.3 mg/l. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in water in varying
amounts, depending on the region and it is also found in certain foods and drinks, including tea
and fish. It helps combat tooth decay by making enamel more resistant to bacteria. But previous
studies have found that it inhibits the production of iodine, which is essential for a healthy thyroid.
The thyroid gland, which is found in the neck, regulates the metabolism as well as many other
systems in the body. An underactive thyroid can lead to depression, weight gain, fatigue and
aching muscles and affects 15 times more women than men, around 15 in 1,000 women.
Note: Read lots more excellent information on fluoridation of water in this article on mercola.com.
For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Replace the Gospel of Money: An Interview With David Korten

2015-02-20, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/together-with-earth/replace-the-gospel-of-m...
David Korten began his professional life as a professor at the Harvard Business School on a
mission to lift struggling people in Third World nations out of poverty by sharing the secrets of U.S.
business success. Yet, after a couple of decades in which he applied his organizational
development strategies in places as far-flung as Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, Korten
underwent a change of heart. In 1995, he wrote the bestseller When Corporations Rule the
World, followed by a series of books that helped birth the movement known as the New
Economy, a call to replace transnational corporate domination with local economies,
control, ownership, and self-reliance. This month, Korten, who is also the co-founder and
board chair of YES!, publishes a new book challenging readers to rethink their relationship
with Earthindeed, with all creation, from the smallest quantum particle to the whole of the
universe. The world needs a new story, he says. Buying into the Sacred Money and Markets
story that money is wealth and the key to happiness locks us into indentured servitude to corporate
rule. Its the traditional development model, or transnational capitalism, that damages Earth as a
living community, including not just humans but all life forms. Control of money is the ultimate

mechanism of social control in a society in which most every person depends on money for the
basic means of living. The only legitimate purpose of the economy is to serve life, is to serve us as
living beings making our living in co-productive partnership with living Earth.
Note: David Korten's new book is titled: Change the Story, Change the Future. Explore a treasure
trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference.

Swiss prosecutors are shocked by HSBC's tax scandal

2015-02-18, Fortune
http://fortune.com/2015/02/18/swiss-prosecutors-are-shocked-shocked-by-hsbcs-...
A scandal implicating HSBC in alleged tax evasion widened further Wednesday, as Swiss
prosecutors raided the Geneva headquarters of its private bank in Switzerland. The raid, in
connection with an investigation into aggravated money-laundering, marks the latest twist in a
saga that dates back 10 years. Materials leaked to the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists ... indicated that HSBC aggressively marketed schemes suitable
for tax evasion to rich clients across the world. The materials come from a stash of files
stolen from HSBC by Herv Falciani, a former employee and whistleblower. Falciani was
indicted in Switzerland in December for industrial espionage and for breaking the law on banking
secrecy. Falcianis files have already led to criminal investigations in France, Belgium and
Argentina. The Swiss authorities action Wednesday, however, is the first to suggest that they
regard tax evasion itself as a bigger crime than exposing it. [HSBC has also recently] been found
guilty of manipulating benchmark interest and foreign exchange rates, [and] desperately needs to
be able to prove that it has not aided or abetted tax evasion or money-laundering since December
2012. That was when it signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. after admitting to
helping Iran get round sanctions and laundering the profits of Mexican drug trafficking gangs. Any
evidence that it has broken that DPA could lead to it losing its all-important license to bank in the
U.S., destroying its status as a global bank overnight.
Note: Read lots more on HSBC's sweetheart deal with U.S. officials in a Rolling Stone article by
Matt Taibbi. US Senator Elizabeth Warren is working hard to bring justice in this case. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about systemic
corruption in government and the financial industry.

Spy agencies could be funding geo-engineering research in pursuit of

weaponising the weather, scientists claims
2015-02-15, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/spy-agencies-could-be-funding-geoen...

A senior American climate scientist has spoken of the fear he experienced when US
intelligence services apparently asked him about the possibility of weaponising the weather
as a major report on geo-engineering is to be published this week. During a debate on the use
of geo-engineering to combat climate change ... Prof Robock said: I got a phone call from two
men who said we work as consultants for the CIA and we'd like to know if some other country was
controlling our climate, would we know about it? I told them, after thinking a little bit, that we
probably would because if you put enough material in the atmosphere to reflect sunlight we would
be able to detect it and see the equipment that was putting it up there. At the same time I thought
they were probably also interested in if we could control somebody else's climate, could they
detect it? Professor Robock, who has investigated the potential risks and benefits of using
stratospheric particles to simulate the climate-changing effects of volcanic eruptions, said he felt
scared when the approach was made. I'd learned of lots of other things the CIA had done that
haven't followed the rules and I thought that wasn't how I wanted my tax money spent. Professor
Robocks concerns come as a major report on geo-engineering is to be published this week by the
US National Academy of Sciences. Among the reports list of sponsors is the US intelligence
community." The professor alleges that ... the US government had a proven history of using the
weather in a hostile way.
Note: The National Academy of Science's two-part report says that geoengineering technologies
"present serious known and possible unknown environmental, social, and political risks, including
the possibility of being deployed unilaterally." With a deeply corrupt scientific establishment being
guided by corrupt intelligence agencies to meddle with the planet's total ecology, and with low
public awareness about the messy history of mysterious atmospheric experiments over cities in
the U.S. and elsewhere, what could possibly go wrong? For solid evidence the military has used
the weather as a weapon, read about HAARP.

Obama aide John Podesta says biggest failure was not securing the
disclosure of UFO files
2015-02-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2015/02/13/obama-aide-john...
Outgoing Obama counselor John Podesta remains a devoted fan of things extraterrestrial.
When Podesta, who was President Bill Clintons chief of staff, returned to White House duty in late
2013, we wrote that his arrival meant the Obama presidential library will be inundated just as
the Clinton library in Little Rock has been with Freedom of Information Act requests, such as
this one: for e-mails to and from John Podesta, containing the words either, X-Files or Area 51.
Karen Tumulty asked him in 2007 about the FOIA jam at the library, and Podesta, through a
spokesman, replied: The truth is out there. And, just to make sure the FOIA requesters dont
forget, Podesta tweeted Thursday: Finally, my biggest failure of 2014: Once again not
securing the #disclosure of the UFO files. #thetruthisstilloutthere.

Note: Read more in this intriguing article and this one. Podesta wrote the introduction to a 2010
book titled, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. Watch Edgar
Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, talk about what really happened at Roswell. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing UFO news articles from reliable
major media sources.

Prince Andrew 'victim' accuses US authorities of covering up video

evidence of her abuse
2015-02-08, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11398807/Prince-Andrew-victim-accuses-...
Virginia Roberts was so badly assaulted during the attacks by friends of billionaire
convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein that she feared for her life, a court in Florida was told.
There were times when I was physically abused to the point that I remember fearfully thinking that
I didnt know whether I was going to survive, Ms Roberts, now 31, alleged. She accused US
authorities of withholding taped evidence showing her engaging in sexual activity against
her will in an affidavit filed on Friday. Based on my knowledge of Epstein and his organisation,
as well as discussions with the FBI, it is my belief that federal prosecutors likely possess
videotapes and photographic images of me as an underage girl having sex with Epstein and some
of his powerful friends, she said. Ms Roberts said she had only recently dared to come forward
because of the physical abuse that I suffered when Epstein forced me to have sex with other
people. By standing up for what is right, Im worried that Epstein, or others named here, will come
after me. Ms Roberts said she believed the video evidence could be being withheld for future use
as blackmail. And she detailed interactions with FBI staff she believed indicated she was the victim
of a cover up orchestrated by friends of Mr Epstein. The new affidavit was submitted under oath
and understood to be part of Ms Roberts attempt to have her case joined to another long-running
law suit against the Brooklyn-born tycoon filed in a Florida federal court.
Note: Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been called "the most dangerous sexual predator America
has ever seen." He got caught orchestrating a massive international child sex trafficking ring. He
then used his connections to cover it up and silence all but a few of his 40+ victims. For more,
watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that child
sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, or read deeply revealing sex
abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.

UFO Files shed light on a bygone era in New England

2015-02-06, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/02/06/air-force-voluminous-ufo-fi...
James Louis Warsher and a friend were driving across the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Harvard
Square when they noticed a dull gray elliptical vessel tinted with muted yellow light descending
from the sky. It was around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 9, 1964, and the two were among 11 Bostonians

who reported UFO sightings that night. Air Force investigators said the object was just an
advertising plane. They confirmed it by cross-checking the aircrafts flight plan. But the Air
Forces official explanation ... couldnt answer one issue: When Warsher and his friend saw
the UFO, it was flying within sight of the same plane the investigators purported it to be.
This story is one of more than 12,000 chronicled by Project Blue Book, the Air Forces UFO
investigation program that ran from 1947 to 1969. The once-classified files ... have become more
accessible to the general public in recent years through Fold3, a commercial database of
government and military documents. Readers can sort the files by date, state, and when they were
added to the website. The collection reveals how the nations military bureaucracy painstakingly
documented what amounted to a cultural phenomenon of the Cold War. Even though the Air Force
deemed only a small portion of the reports unexplainable, UFO researcher Stanton Friedman
believes Project Blue Book barely scratches the surface of American UFO investigations.
Friedman claims the Air Force has gotten away with carefully worded misrepresentation, of its
interest in the aircraft.
Note: Explore Project Blue Book documents at Fold3. The free searchable archive of declassified
Project Blue Book Air Force UFO files that used to be available through The Black Vault was
recently removed under questionable circumstances. For more along these lines, see the
excellent, reliable resources provided in our UFO Information Center.

Claims Against Saudis Cast New Light on Secret Pages of 9/11 Report
2015-02-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/us/claims-against-saudis-cast-new-light-on-...
A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years. Now new claims
by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level
contact with officials of the Saudi government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought
renewed attention to the inquirys withheld findings. Representative Stephen F. Lynch,
Democrat of Massachusetts [has authored] a bipartisan resolution encouraging President Obama
to declassify the section. Mr. Lynch and his allies have been joined by former Senator Bob Graham
of Florida, who as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee was a leader of the inquiry. He
has called for the release of the reports [28 page] Part 4, which dealt with Saudi Arabia, since
President George W. Bush ordered it classified when the rest of the report was released in
December 2002. Mr. Graham has repeatedly said it shows that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the
Sept. 11 attacks. The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong
finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier, Mr. Graham said last month as he pressed
for the pages to be made public. Proponents of releasing Part 4, titled Finding, Discussion and
Narrative Regarding Certain National Security Matters, have suggested that the Bush and Obama
administrations have held it back for fear of alienating an influential military and economic partner
rather than for any national security consideration.

Note: Several prominent current and former US politicians are working to expose the Saudi
government money behind terrorism by declassifying this material. Moussaoui's new claims
suggest that they are on the right track. For more along these lines, read concise summaries of
deeply revealing 9/11 investigation news from reliable major media sources.

Thatcher stopped Peter Hayman being named as paedophile-link civil

servant
2015-02-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/02/thatcher-peter-hayman-named-p...
Margaret Thatcher was adamant officials should not publicly name Sir Peter Hayman, a
senior diplomat connected to a paedophile scandal, even after she had been fully briefed
on his activities. The file [of formerly secret papers], compiled between October 1980 and March
1981, is made up of memos and background notes put together for Thatcher, then prime minister.
In a three-page document from 17 March 1981 ... officials explain why Hayman was not
prosecuted when, three years previously, police discovered he was a member of the Paedophile
Information Exchange group. The memo ends: It is the policy of the law officers that persons who
have been investigated by the police but not prosecuted should not be named in the House [of
Commons]. Thatcher amends this paragraph to cross out in the House, indicating that she did
not believe Hayman should be named anywhere. Thatchers insistence on not naming Hayman
appeared always unlikely to succeed. [Peter Hayman] had come to the attention of police in 1978
when ... Police raided his flat in west London and found 14 years of journal entries detailing his
fantasies, many involving children. The director of public prosecutions decided that Hayman and
his co-correspondents should not be charged. The magazine Private Eye ran a story detailing what
had happened and naming him. The file shows that prior to the Private Eye article, in October
1980, Thatcher and her officials had no idea that police had even investigated Hayman.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major
media sources.

OpenGov co-founder Zac Bookman lets taxpayers see where cash goes
2015-02-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/visionaryoftheyear/article/OpenGov-co-founder-Zac-Bookm...
Sometimes people laugh when Zac Bookman tells them what his company, OpenGov does. Not
out of mockery. Out of disbelief that a website or, really, anything can make it easier to track
how the government spends trillions of dollars of their tax money. Users [of OpenGov] can easily
share what they find with friends or push back on government officials to question their
spending. Still, Bookman hears doubters. Cynicism runs deep, especially when it involves
government becoming more transparent. Bookman ... understands their skepticism. People have

lost faith in government officials to improve their lives. People dont think of (government) as an
industry, but it is, said Bookman, whom Ronnie Lott nominated for the first Chronicle and St.
Marys College Visionary of the Year award. Our software allows you to see where the money
goes. $7 trillion in public dollars ... flows through federal, state and local government
entities, from big cities to mosquito abatement districts. Much of it is hidden in plain sight,
virtually inaccessible to the public because of user-unfriendly tech interfaces. But now more
than 250 government organizations are using [OpenGov], including the city of Los Angeles. There
is a bipartisan appeal to this sort of transparency. Conservatives like it because it helps to highlight
where to cut government fat, while liberals buy into it because this sort of tool can quantify the
value of government services. OpenGov is attempting to ... make this very complex data
usable by people who are not financial experts.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Koch Brothers Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both
Parties Spending
2015-01-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/kochs-plan-to-spend-900-million...
The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch
plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated
outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in
history. The spending goal ... would allow their political organization to operate at the same
financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties. It would require a significant financial
commitment from the Kochs and roughly 300 other donors they have recruited ... to influence
legislation and campaigns across the country, leveraging Republican control of Congress and the
partys dominance of state capitols to push for deregulation, tax cuts and smaller government. The
[increased budget] reflects the rising ambition and expanded reach of the Koch operation. In 2012,
the Kochs network spent just under $400 million, an astonishing sum at the time. The $889
million spending goal for 2016 would put it on track to spend nearly as much as the
campaigns of each partys presidential nominee. The Kochs are longtime opponents of
campaign disclosure laws. Their network is constructed chiefly of nonprofit groups that are
not required to reveal donors.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing elections news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The war on leaks has gone way too far when journalists' emails are
under surveillance
2015-01-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/25/war-on-leaks-gone-way-to...
The outrageous legal attack on WikiLeaks and its staffers ... is an attack on freedom of the
press itself. WikiLeaks has had their Twitter accounts secretly spied on, been forced to forfeit
most of their funding after credit card companies unilaterally cut them off, had the FBI place an
informant inside their news organization, watched their supporters hauled before a grand jury, and
been the victim of the UK spy agency GCHQ hacking of their website and spying on their readers.
Now weve learned that, as The Guardian reported on Sunday, the Justice Department got a
warrant in 2012 to seize the contents plus the metadata on emails received, sent, drafted
and deleted of three WikiLeaks staffers personal Gmail accounts. The tactics used against
WikiLeaks by the Justice Department in their war on leaks [are] also used against mainstream
news organizations. For example, after the Washington Post revealed in 2013 the Justice
Department had gotten a warrant for the personal Gmail account of Fox News reporter James
Rosen in 2010 without his knowledge. Despite the ongoing legal pressure, WikiLeaks has
continued to publish important documents in the public interest.
Note: In recent years, Wikileaks' radical transparency has made draft texts of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership public, and uncovered a secret CIA report that suggests the US governments policy of
assassinating foreign 'terrorists' does more harm than good. So who is the real problem here?

Revealed: how Blair colluded with Gaddafi regime in secret

2015-01-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/23/-sp-blair-gaddafi-letter-than...
Libyan government papers pieced together by [a] team of London lawyers show [that] Tony Blair
wrote to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to thank him for the excellent cooperation between the two
countries counter-terrorism agencies. The letter, written in 2007, followed a period in which the
dictators intelligence officers were permitted to operate in the UK, approaching and intimidating
Libyan refugees. Addressed Dear Muammar and signed Best wishes yours ever, Tony, the
letter was among hundreds of pages of documents recovered from Libyan government offices
following the 2011 revolution. Six Libyan men, the widow of a seventh, and five British citizens of
Libyan and Somali origin are bringing claims against the British government on the basis of the
recovered documents, alleging false imprisonment, blackmail, misfeasance in public office and
conspiracy to assault. The recovered documents show that MI5 and MI6 submitted more than
1,600 questions to be put to two opposition leaders after they had been kidnapped with
British assistance and flown to one of Gaddafis prisons. Both men say they suffered
appalling torture. On Thursday an attempt by government lawyers to have the case struck out
without admitting liability failed when the high court ruled the allegations are of real potential
public concern and should be heard and dealt with by the courts.
Note: British intelligence agencies have been trying to silence the lawyers filing this lawsuit, and
got caught illegally spying on them. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing news articles about corruption in intelligence agencies and government.

Anonymous calls for activists to help expose international paedophile

networks with 'Operation DeathEaters'
2015-01-23, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anonymous-calls-for-activists-...
Hacktivist group Anonymous, which has made public attacks on extremists, corporations
and religious and governmental bodies, is calling for help in its fight against international
paedophile networks, or what it calls the paedosadist industry. In a project named
Operation DeathEaters, Anonymous says it is is planning on collating evidence against
international paedophile rings and their severe abuse of children and find the links between
different operations, and to bring them to justice. Anonymous has issued a video instructing
activists on how they can aid in the operation, which has appeared at a time of serious allegations
of historic child sexual abuse levied against prominent UK figures, including claims that a VIP
Westminster paedophile ring existed in the past. The Westminster paedophile ring is one of many
cases where Operation DeathEaters has actively pursued and sought truth, in order to end the
hideous crimes concealed behind the British elite, Anonymous alleges in a statement. In fear of
these investigations being bungled over time, the operations objectives are clear and simple:
source public information before it disappears, push for independent enquiry, and offer support to
witnesses and the victims where needed. It has outlined its first step in the operation as gathering
meticulously researched and clearly documented examples of high level complicity in the industry,
obstruction of justice and cover ups to show the need for independent inquiries.
Note: Anonymous has been quite active in exposing pedophiles, as can be seen in the Time
magazine article where they revealed information on known offenders to the authorities. For more
along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles
from reliable major media sources.

Company's Struggles Highlight Challenges of Inmate Care

2015-01-19, New York Times/Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/19/us/ap-us-profiting-from-prison-car...
Months after he landed in Florida's Manatee County Jail, Jovon Frazier's pleas for [medical
care] were met mostly with Tylenol. "I need to see a doctor!" he wrote on his eighth request
form. Four months later, after Frazier's 13th request resulted in hospitalization and doctors quickly
diagnosed bone cancer, his arm had to be amputated, according to a lawsuit filed by his
family. But the cancer spread and Frazier died in 2011, months after his release. As an
inmate, his medical care had been managed ... by a private company under contract. Corizon,
whose responsibility for 345,000 inmates at prisons and jails in 27 states makes it the country's
biggest for-profit correctional health provider, is just one of many firms using a similar model to vie
for the billions of dollars states and counties spend on prisoner care. The growth of the for-profit
prison care industry raises questions. Some critics say privatization, itself, is a faulty strategy,
regardless of which company is hired. "The problem is a structure that creates incentives to cut

corners and deny care to powerless people that have no other options," said David Fathi, director
of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. [Corizon] generated $1.4 billion in
revenue in 2013 and is owned by a Chicago private equity management firm.
Note: The above article shows that lawsuits and investigations in Arizona, Florida, Maine,
Minnesota, and New York have all uncovered escalating inmate deaths related to Corizon's forprofit medical services. For more, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
systemic corruption in the prison industry.

APS authored Congressional letter to feds asking to crack down on

solar industry
2015-01-16, ABC's Arizona Affiliate
http://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/aps-authored-congressiona...
Arizonas largest utility company has been at odds with the solar panel industry for years. Now,
APS [Arizona Public Service, the states largest utility] is asking the Federal Trade Commission to
crack down on solar companies. But they didnt ask them directly. Six Arizona Congressmen sent
letters to federal regulators asking them to investigate solar leasing companies. Reporter Evan
Wyloge ... has the original letter and proves its actually APS spearheading the effort. Arizona
Public Service [is] one of the largest campaign donors for the group of lawmakers. The APSauthored, congressmen-signed letter comes as the latest in an ongoing effort to stymie
third-party solar panel companies, whose business has grown tenfold over the past halfdecade, presenting a challenge to the long-term business model of traditional utilities like
APS. The high-profile fight between the traditional utility and newer rooftop solar panel companies
is not unique to Arizona. Similar struggles have emerged in other states. On Nov. 19, Democratic
Reps. Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema asked [regulators] in a joint letter to ... look
into solar panel leasing practices. Then, on Dec. 12, Republican Reps. Trent Franks, Paul Gosar
and Matt Salmon sent a similar letter to the FTC. After both letters were sent, the Arizona
Corporation Commission voted late in 2014 to open a docket on consumer complaints about solar
companies. Initial hearings are expected to begin this spring.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption and energy news articles from reliable major media sources.

Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Is a Pending Disaster

2015-01-06, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore's leading newspaper)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-why-the-transpacific-partnership...
Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point
to the administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the
TPP would be a disaster. If you haven't heard much about the TPP, that's part of the problem. It
would be the largest trade deal in history ... representing 792 million people and accounting

for 40 percent of the world economy -- yet it's been devised in secret. Lobbyists from
America's biggest corporations and Wall Street's biggest banks have been involved but not
the American public. That's a recipe for fatter profits and bigger paychecks at the top, but not a
good deal for most of us, or even for most of the rest of the world. Big corporations and Wall Street
want ... more international protection when it comes to their intellectual property and other assets.
But they want less protection of consumers, workers, small investors, and the environment,
because these interfere with their profits. So they've been seeking trade rules that allow them to
override these protections. Not surprisingly for a deal that's been drafted mostly by corporate and
Wall Street lobbyists, the TPP provides exactly this mix. In other words, the TPP is a Trojan horse
in a global race to the bottom, giving big corporations and Wall Street banks a way to eliminate any
and all laws and regulations that get in the way of their profits.
Note: The above article is written by former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. For more along
these lines, see this summary of an article that appeared in the Guardian newspaper in 2013. You
can also read the TPP's Intellectual property and environment language for yourself.

Heavyweight Response to Local Fracking Bans

2015-01-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/us/heavyweight-response-to-local-fracking-b...
Longmont [Colorado] has become a cautionary tale of what can happen when cities decide to
confront the oil and gas industry. In an aggressive response to a wave of citizen-led drilling bans,
state officials, energy companies and industry groups are taking Longmont and other
municipalities to court, forcing local governments into ... expensive, long-shot efforts to defend the
measures. Two years ago, [Longmont] residents voted to ban hydraulic fracturing from their
grassy open spaces and a snow-fed reservoir. In Colorado, the energy industry, which argues that
cities lack the authority to outlaw fracking, has already won rulings overturning three fracking
prohibitions. Longmont, which sits near the juncture of rolling plains and jagged mountains, has
spent about $136,000 fighting unsuccessfully so far to defend a 2012 measure that outlawed
fracking. In July, a district court judge tossed out the ban, and the city is appealing. A judge
also overturned a fracking ban last year in Fort Collins, Colo., and denied pleas from the city
to keep the ban in place while local officials went to court to defend a five-year fracking
moratorium. In Broadview Heights, Ohio, energy companies are suing the town and residents
are suing the energy companies in return over a bill of rights that outlawed fracking and the
disposal of its byproducts. While the Longmont City Council voted unanimously in August to
defend the fracking ban, other towns have decided it is just too costly a fight.
Note: Fracking can poison drinking water, negatively impact human health, and may cause
earthquakes.

Betting on Default
2015-01-02, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/opinion/betting-on-default.html?_r=0
Imagine a lender demanding that you miss a payment. That is the situation described in a recent
article in The Wall Street Journal. In 2013, GSO Capital Partners ... refused to renew a $122.3
million loan to the Spanish gambling company Codere unless it delayed paying interest on other
existing debt. Why? It turns out that GSO had placed a bet that Coderes existing debt would not
be paid on time. When, lo and behold, the payment was late, GSO collected on its bet. The bet in
this scenario was a credit default swap. Credit default swaps, a type of derivative, can be used to
hedge against losses on bonds that investors own, or to speculate on how the underlying
companies will perform. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law was supposed to curb
speculation in swaps. But ... hedge funds are increasingly using swaps to wager on
whether weak firms will live or die. RadioShack ... is one of several prominent examples. In
December, RadioShacks total debt came to about $1.4 billion, but swaps outstanding on the
performance of the debt totaled $23.5 billion. Similarly, J.C. Penney ... had total debt of some $8.7
billion, but swaps outstanding on the debt totaled $19.3 billion. Last month, Congress repealed an
anti-speculation provision of Dodd-Frank that would have prevented federally insured banks from
conducting several types of swap transactions. In addition, the Federal Reserve recently gave the
banks two extra years to meet [another important] Dodd-Frank provision. Sooner or later, poorly
regulated credit derivatives will again play a role in damaging the economy.
Note: Derivatives trading in the shadow banking system has produced a speculative bubble,
valued at nearly a quadrillion dollars, that has been described as a financial time bomb.

By Editing Plant Genes, Companies Avoid Regulation

2015-01-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/business/energy-environment/a-gray-area-in-...
Its first attempt to develop genetically engineered grass ended disastrously for the Scotts MiracleGro Company. The grass escaped into the wild from test plots in Oregon in 2003. Yet Scotts is
once again developing genetically modified grass that would ... be resistant to damage from the
popular weedkiller Roundup. But this time the grass will not need federal approval before it can be
field-tested and marketed. Scotts and several other companies are developing genetically
modified crops using techniques that either are outside the jurisdiction of the Agriculture
Department or use new methods like genome editing that were not envisioned when
the regulations were created. If you take genetic material from a plant ... theres a bunch of stuff
you can do that at least technically is unregulated, Jim Hagedorn, Scotts chief executive, told
analysts in December 2013. Other companies, including Cellectis, are using new genome-editing
techniques that can change the plants existing DNA rather than insert foreign genes. Cibus, a
privately held San Diego company, is beginning to sell herbicide-resistant canola developed this
way. With our technology, we can develop the same traits but in a way thats not transgenic, said
Peter Beetham, chief executive of Cibus, using a term for a plant containing foreign genes.
Regulators around the world are now grappling with whether these techniques are even
considered genetic engineering and how, if at all, they should be regulated.

Note: Scotts is Monsanto's exclusive agent for consumer RoundUp. They are trying to engineer
plants to be more resistant to RoundUp's toxicity, so that greater quantities of this deadly poison
can be dumped on our lawns and food crops. It remains impossible to contain the spread of
transgenetic material that escaped a Scotts Miracle-Gro Company lab in 2003. For more, see
these concise summaries of deeply revealing GMO news articles.

North Korea/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly U.S. Media Still Regurgitate
Government Claims
2015-01-01, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/01/north-koreasony-story-shows-eag...
The identity of the Sony hackers is still unknown. President Obama, in a December 19 press
conference, announced: We can confirm that North Korea engaged in this attack. He then
vowed: We will respond. We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start
imposing censorship here in the United States. The ... campaign to blame North Korea actually
began two days earlier, when The New York Times [reported] that North Korea was centrally
involved in the hacking of Sony Pictures computers. The same day, The Washington Post ...
devoted most of its discussion to the retaliation available to the U.S. The NYT and Post [did not
note] how sparse and unconvincing was the available evidence against North Korea. The day
before Obamas press conference, long-time expert Marc Rogers detailed his reasons for
viewing the North Korea theory as unlikely; after Obamas definitive accusation, he
comprehensively reviewed the disclosed evidence and was even more assertive: there is
NOTHING here that directly implicates the North Koreans and the evidence is flimsy and
speculative at best. None of this expert skepticism made its way into countless media accounts of
the Sony hack. North Korea was [reported to be] responsible for the hack, because the
government said it was. That kind of reflexive embrace of government claims is ... dangerous
[because such] claims can serve as a pretext for U.S. aggression.
Note: Read the complete article above to see why Glen Greenwald compares this propaganda
campaign with the run-up to the Iraq War and the Gulf of Tonkin fraud. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about mass media deception from
reliable sources.

Was FBI wrong on North Korea?

2014-12-23, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-the-fbi-get-it-wrong-on-north-korea/
Cybersecurity experts are questioning the FBI's claim that North Korea is responsible for
the hack that crippled Sony Pictures. Kurt Stammberger, a senior vice president with
cybersecurity firm Norse, told CBS News his company has data that doubts some of the FBI's
findings. While Norse is not involved in the Sony case, it has done its own investigation. "We are
very confident that this was not an attack master-minded by North Korea and that insiders were

key to the implementation of one of the most devastating attacks in history," said Stammberger. He
says Norse data is pointing towards a woman who calls herself "Lena" and claims to be connected
with the so-called "Guardians of Peace" hacking group. Norse believes it's identified this woman
as someone who worked at Sony in Los Angeles for ten years until leaving the company this past
May. "There are certainly North Korean fingerprints on this but when we run all those leads
to ground they turn out to be decoys or red herrings," said Stammberger. For instance while
the malware used to attack Sony has been used by North Korea before, it is also used by hackers
around the world every day. It's worth noting that the original demand of the hackers was for
money from Sony in exchange for not releasing embarrassing information. There was no mention
of the movie "The Interview." The FBI is still continuing its investigation into the Sony hack.
Note: There appears to be much more to the Sony hacking than meets the eye. Read a wired.com
article showing among other things that both Sony and the FBI deny the North Korea connection.

U.S. Moves to Block Graphic Photos of Detainee Abuse, Again

2014-12-22, Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/us-moves-block-graphic-photos-detainee-abuse-again-29...
There was never going to be a perfect time to release this report, President Barack Obama said
earlier this month after the Senate Intelligence Committee unleashed its long-awaited torture
report. But in the wake of this rare moment of transparency, the administration took the next step
in keeping additional evidence of prisoner abuse concealed. The government is withholding
nearly 2,100 images that show the militarys brutal treatment of detainees at various prisons
in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the previously disclosed pictures from Abu Ghraib are the stuff of
nightmares piles of naked bodies, detainees being led on leashes and U.S. soldiers giving a
thumbs-up as it all happens these photographs are said to be even more disturbing. The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) originally sued for the images release in 2004. Obama ...
blocked the release, [and now] contends that the photographs could further encourage attacks
against the U.S. personnel still in Afghanistan and Iraq and could be used by the recently
galvanized Islamic Statethe terrorist group commonly known as ISIS. Alex Abdo, an ACLU staff
attorney working on the case since 2005, said ... that the government is essentially arguing that
[the images must remain] secret because they powerfully document abuse. If theres
anything the debate over torture is missing, its the sort of evidence that photographs give you
irrefutable evidence of the brutality of the mistreatment, Abdo said.
Note: U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein will review the next round of justifications for keeping
this material classified on January 20. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing war news articles from reliable major media sources.

And the Winner of the War On Terror Financed Dream Home 2014
Giveaway Is

2014-12-21, The Intercept

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/31/winner-war-terror-financed-drea...
The combined cost of the war on terror comes to an estimated $1.6 trillion. A lot of former
senior government officials who played important roles in this debacle have done quite well
for themselves. [Former CIA director George Tenet] missed multiple signs of a major Al Qaeda
attack directed against the United States [prior to 9/11] and approved the Bush administrations
torturing of terror suspects. He got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He [also] received a $4
million advance to write a memoir. Tenet has received millions more in his current role as ... a
board director and advisor to intelligence and military contractors. Louis Freeh, Tenets counterpart
at the FBI during the run-up to 9/11 [also mishandled] significant and urgent intelligence of
serious operational planning for terrorism attacks by Islamic radicals. Freeh resigned from the
FBI two months before 9/11. In 2008, [a businessman named Nasser Kazeminy] was accused of
bribing former Senator Norm Coleman, [and] hired Freeh to conduct a thorough investigation of
the allegations against him in the hopes of clearing his name. In 2011, Freeh issued a public
statement saying that his investigation had completely vindicated both Kazeminy and Coleman.
Freeh also met with the Justice Department which was investigating the bribery charges but
declined to bring a case on Kazeminys behalf. [Today, Freeh has a $3 million] Palm Beach
penthouse. Freehs wife co-owns it with Kazeminy. The quit claim deed giving Freehs wife onehalf ownership of the penthouse was signed nine days after Freehs vindication of
Kazeminy.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
corruption in intelligence agencies and government.

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses

2014-12-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/opinion/prosecute-torturers-and-their-bosse...
President Obama [has thus far] failed to bring to justice anyone responsible for the ... official
government [torture] program conceived and carried out in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. He did allow his Justice Department to investigate the C.I.A.'s destruction of videotapes of
torture sessions and those who may have gone beyond the torture techniques authorized by
President George W. Bush. But the investigation did not lead to any charges being filed. The
American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch are ... calling for appointment of a
special prosecutor to investigate what appears increasingly to be a vast criminal
conspiracy, under color of law, to commit torture and other serious crimes. The question
everyone will want answered, of course, is: Who should be held accountable? Any credible
investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheneys chief of staff, David
Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of
Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many
more names that could be considered. Because of the Senates report, we now know the distance

officials in the executive branch went to rationalize, and conceal, the crimes they wanted to
commit. The question is whether the nation will stand by and allow the perpetrators of torture to
have perpetual immunity for their actions.
Note: Some have called for prosecuting those responsible as violators of international rules
against human experimentation. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing stories about questionable intelligence agency practices and widespread government
corruption.

Fuel Rods Are Removed From Damaged Fukushima Reactor

2014-12-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/fuel-rods-are-removed-from-japan...
The cleanup of Japans devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crossed an important
milestone on Saturday when the plants operator announced it had safely removed the
radioactive fuel from the most vulnerable of the four heavily damaged reactor buildings.
The company, known as Tepco, had put a high priority on removing the No. 4 units some 1,500
fuel rods because they sat in a largely unprotected storage pool on an upper floor of the building,
which had been gutted by a powerful hydrogen explosion. By succeeding in the technically difficult
task of extracting those rods, Tepco eliminated one of the plants most worrisome vulnerabilities. It
took almost four years to reach this goal. The aging Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered a triple
meltdown after a huge earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, knocking out vital
cooling systems. Tepco still faces the far more challenging task of removing the ruined fuel cores
from the three reactors that melted down in the accident. These reactors were so damaged and
their levels of radioactivity remain so high that removing their fuel is expected to take decades.
Some experts have said it may not be possible at all, and have called instead for simply encasing
those reactors in a sarcophagus of thick concrete. The fuel cores from those three reactors, Nos.
1-3, are believed to have melted like wax [into] lumps on the bottom of the reactor vessels.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
the disastrous pitfalls of nuclear power from reliable major media sources.

Child abuse inquiry: Police investigate three alleged murders

2014-12-18, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30534235
Detectives are investigating three alleged murders as part of an inquiry into historical child abuse,
the Met Police has said. No confirmed identities or bodies of victims had been found. Officers
made a public appeal for information relating to Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico, southwest London, amid claims boys were abused there [by] a paedophile ring involving
prominent figures in the 1970s and 1980s. The appeal was made as part of Operation Midland,
which is under the umbrella of Operation Fairbank, and is one of a number of ongoing inquiries

into historical abuse. The paedophile ring is alleged to have included senior military, law
enforcement and political figures. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse said police
were examining whether children were abused at locations across London, in the Home Counties
and at "military establishments". BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said it was the
first time Operation Midland had confirmed ... that the murders involved three children. The claims
also included allegations a child had been run over. [Related inquiries include] Operation
Fernbridge - examining claims [of a] paedophile ring with links to Parliament. Operation Cayacos investigating allegations ... linked to convicted paedophile Peter Righton. The Independent Jersey
Care Inquiry - assessing reports of abuse in the island's children's homes and fostering services
from 1960 to the present day.
Note: Watch powerful evidence in a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these lines,
see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal news articles from reliable major
media sources.

Citing Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State

2014-12-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-...
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos administration announced on Wednesday that it would ban
hydraulic fracturing in New York State because of concerns over health risks. Fracking, as it
is known, was heavily promoted as a source of economic revival. Mr. Cuomo had once been
poised to embrace it. Instead, the move to ban fracking left him acknowledging that, Ive never
had anyone say to me, I believe fracking is great, he said. Not a single person. What I get is, I
have no alternative but fracking.'" The question of whether to allow fracking ... has been one of the
most divisive public policy debates in New York in years. Fracking is occurring in many states.
Environmental advocates, alarmed by the growth of the practice, pointed to New Yorks decision as
the first ban by a state with significant natural-gas resources. The acting state health
commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker ... found significant public health risks associated
with fracking. Holding up copies of scientific studies to animate his arguments, Dr. Zucker listed
concerns about water contamination and air pollution, and said there was insufficient scientific
evidence to affirm the safety of fracking. Dr. Zucker said his review boiled down to a simple
question: Would he want his family to live in a community where fracking was taking place? His
answer was no. The potential risks are too great.
Note: Fracking poisons drinking water, negatively impacts human health, and may cause
earthquakes.

Fueled by Recession, U.S. Wealth Gap Is Widest in Decades, Study

Finds

2014-12-17, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/business/economy/us-wealth-gap-widest-in-at...
A report released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that the wealth gap
between the countrys top 20 percent of earners and the rest of America had stretched to its
widest point in at least three decades. Last year, the median net worth of upper-income families
reached $639,400, nearly seven times as much of those in the middle, and nearly 70 times the
level of those at the bottom. There has been growing attention to the issue of income inequality.
But while income and wealth are related ... the wealth gap zeros in on a different aspect of
financial well-being: how much money and other assets you have accumulated over time. The
Great Recession destroyed a significant amount of middle-income and lower-income families
wealth, and the economic recovery has yet to be felt for them, the report concluded. The median
household net worth last year for those in the middle was $96,500, only slightly above the $94,300
mark it hit in 1983 (after being adjusted for inflation). A poor household actually had a higher
median net worth 30 years ago ($11,400 in 1983) than it counted last year ($9,300). Compare
those results with the top fifth of income earners. In 1983, when the Fed began collecting the data,
that group had a median wealth of $318,000; in 2013 it owned more than twice that.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Where's the outrage? Congress changes savings accounts and

retirement funds, and America sleeps
2014-12-16, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/16/budget-sets-stage-for-next-meltdown
Congress has passed, and President Obama has said he would sign, a budget bill that
allows banks to use your savings when they make giant financial bets called derivatives.
Again. And because those savings are insured by the federal government, you, the taxpayer,
would be on the hook if those bets go south. Again. This isnt arcane financial stuff we can ignore.
These are the exact financial mechanisms that led to the global crisis just six (short!) years
ago. The Dodd-Frank reform law that was passed in the wake of that crisis forbade this from ever
happening. People in the personal finance field love to talk about how if we could just get more
Americans to save, if we could just get more Americans to learn the basics of the stock market, if
we could just convince Americans to forego that latte at Starbucks, if we could just put Americans
on a budget, then things would be OK. But how is any of that supposed to work when banks can
use peoples savings to play the roulette wheel that is the stock market and then when they lose,
they just order another cup of coffee and use the federal budget to make sure that the losses fall
not on them but on the people who just tried to save a little money in the first place? This one is
only on workers if they say nothing and fail to educate themselves on what is being plundered from
their futures. The powers that be are counting on you not to pay attention, or to feel so impotent
that you just give up.

Note: Read how literally hundreds of trillions of dollars are being recklessly gambled by the banks
using our savings and retirement. For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of
deeply revealing articles about widespread corruption in government and banking and finance.

Forbidden Topic in Health Policy Debate: Cost Effectiveness

2014-12-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/upshot/forbidden-topic-in-health-policy-deb...
For the most part, were avoiding [the subject of cost effectiveness] when we talk about health
care. When the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the body specifically set up to do
comparative effectiveness research, was founded, the law explicitly prohibited it from funding any
cost-effectiveness research at all. As it says on its website, We dont consider cost effectiveness
to be an outcome of direct importance to patients. As a physician, a health services researcher
and a patient ... I think understanding how much bang for the buck I, my patients and the public
are getting from our health care spending is of great importance. The United States Preventive
Services Task Force ... was set up by the federal government to rate the effectiveness of
preventive health services on a scale of A to D. When it issues a rating, it almost always
explicitly states that it does not consider the costs of providing a service in its assessment.
And because the Affordable Care Act mandates that all insurance must cover, without any cost
sharing, all services that the task force has rated A or B, that means that we are all paying for
these therapies, even if they are incredibly inefficient. If we are going to mandate that
recommendations and interventions must be covered by health insurance ... it seems logical that
we at least consider their economic value.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health corruption
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Teacher Has Students Write Letters To Their Future Selves, Then Posts
Them 20 Years Later
2014-12-15, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/15/teacher-has-students-write-letter-...
For decades, American high school teacher Bruce Farrer has been asking his students to
write letters to their future selves. 20 years later, he tracks down the students and posts
their letters to them. Speaking in a video for US airline West Jet, Farrer says that the letters have
become more valuable because we now communicate far less by letters than we did 20 years ago.
He created the assignment because he wanted his students to do an exercise "that was different,
that would be interesting and one that they would value". An old pupil of Farrer says when he was
asked to write a 10 page letter to his future self, he thought it was "a lesson just to pass the time,
to keep us busy for a few hours while he did other things". He now understands what a dedicated
teacher Farrer was. Of course, tracking down your students 20 years after teaching them is a
challenging task. Farrer describes it as "a lot of detective work" but he is excited to find out the

different paths his ex-pupils have taken. The video shows the reactions of some of Farrer's old
students upon opening their letters. One describes it as an "emotional roller-coaster" as she reads
about the passing of her grandmother and aunt, experienced through the eyes of her younger self.
Despite the profound effect that receiving the letters has on its recipients, Farrer remains modest
about his diligence and commitment. "I'm just a regular teacher who happened to assign a rather
different assignment", he says.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

With hackers running rampant, why would we poke holes in data

security?
2014-12-14, LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1215-wyden-backdoor-for-cell-phone...
Hardly a week goes by without a new report of some massive data theft that has put financial
information, trade secrets or government records into the hands of computer hackers. The best
defense against these attacks is clear: strong data encryption and more secure technology
systems. U.S. intelligence agencies hold a different view. James Comey, the FBI director, is
lobbying Congress to require that electronics manufacturers create intentional security
holes so-called back doors that would enable the government to [easily] access data
on every American's cellphone and computer. Building a back door into every cellphone, tablet,
or laptop means deliberately creating weaknesses that hackers and foreign governments can
exploit. What these officials are proposing would be bad for personal data security and bad for
business. Built-in back doors have ... disastrous results. The U.S. House of Representatives
recognized how dangerous this idea was and in June approved [an] amendment [to] prohibit the
government from mandating that technology companies build security weaknesses into any of their
products. I introduced legislation in the Senate to accomplish the same goal. Advances in
technology always pose a new challenge to law enforcement agencies. But curtailing innovation on
data security is no solution, and certainly won't restore public trust in tech companies or
government agencies.
Note: Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote the article summarized
above. The NSA routinely creates and exploits security holes in commercial encryption software
and devices to spy on people, and shares the personal data it obtains with the CIA, FBI, IRS, and
others through the DEA's Special Operations Division. What exactly is the FBI director asking
congress for now?

Amid Details on Torture, Data on 26 Who Were Held in Error

2014-12-12, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/us/politics/amid-details-on-torture-data-on...

One quiet consequence of this weeks sensational release of the Senate Intelligence Committees
report on the C.I.A. detention program was a telephone call that a human rights lawyer, Meg
Satterthwaite, placed to a client in Yemen, Mohamed Bashmilah. For eight years since Mr.
Bashmilah, 46, was released from C.I.A. custody, Ms. Satterthwaite ... had been trying
without success to get the United States government to acknowledge that it had held him in
secret prisons for 19 months and to explain why. In the phone call on Wednesday, she told him
that the Senate report listed him as one of 26 prisoners who, based on C.I.A. documents, had
been wrongfully detained. After learning the news, Mr. Bashmilah pressed Ms. Satterthwaite,
who heads the global justice program at New York University Law School, to tell him what might
follow from the Senates recognition. Would there be an apology? Would there be some kind of
compensation? Among the others mistakenly held for periods of months or years, according to the
report, were an intellectually challenged man held by the C.I.A. solely to pressure a family
member to provide information; two people who were former C.I.A. informants; and two brothers
who were falsely linked to Al Qaeda. Ms. Satterthwaite was not able to answer Mr. Bashmilahs
question about an apology or reparation. No apology was forthcoming from the C.I.A., which
declined to comment on specific cases.
Note: An ACLU lawsuit filed on behalf of Mr. Bashmilah and others flown to prisons on C.I.A.
aircraft was dismissed on the grounds that it might expose state secrets. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about questionable intelligence agency
practices from reliable sources.

Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time
2014-12-10, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/full-scale-plastic-worlds-...
More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are
floating in the worlds oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has
found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand
suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them micro plastics
measuring less than 5mm. The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as
food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a
six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look
at plastics of all sizes in the worlds oceans. We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that
ingested fishing lines, said Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western
Australia. But there are also chemical impacts. When plastic gets into the water it acts like a
magnet for oily pollutants. Its hard to visualise the sheer amount, but the weight of it is more
than the entire biomass of humans." The research, the first of its kind to pull together data on
floating plastic from around the world, will be used to chart future trends in the amount of debris in
the oceans. But researchers predict the volume will increase due to rising production of throwaway
plastic, with only 5% of the worlds plastic currently recycled.
Note: Ocean acidification was number one on 2014's top 25 stories subjected to press censorship.

CIA interrogations report sparks prosecution calls

2014-12-10, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30407950
The UN and human rights groups have called for the prosecution of US officials involved in what a
Senate report called the "brutal" CIA interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects. UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson said that senior officials from the
administration of George W Bush who planned and sanctioned crimes must be prosecuted,
as well as CIA and US government officials responsible for torture. "As a matter of
international law, the US is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice," Mr Emmerson said
in a statement made from Geneva. Correspondents say that the chances of prosecuting members
of the Bush administration are unlikely. Several countries suspected to have hosted [CIA torture]
sites reacted strongly to the publication. Poland's former president [Aleksander Kwasniewski] has
publicly acknowledged for the first time [that] his country hosted a secret CIA prison. Lithuanian
Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius called on the US to say whether CIA used his country to
interrogate prisoners. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani called the report "shocking", saying
the actions "violated all accepted norms of human rights in the world".
Note: Read revealing excerpts from this most disturbing report. For more, read how the CIA
teamed up with the UK's MI6 to kidnap people and deliver them to be tortured at a Libyan site in
2004. Could this US program have happened without strong international support?

Senate Report Rejects Claim on Hunt for Bin Laden

2014-12-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/senate-report-raises-doubts-about-cia...
Months before the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency
secretly prepared a public-relations plan that would stress that information gathered from its
disputed interrogation program had played a critical role in the hunt. Starting the day after the raid,
agency officials in classified briefings made that point to Congress. But in page after page of
previously classified evidence, the Senate Intelligence Committee report on C.I.A. torture,
released Tuesday, rejects the notion that torturing detainees contributed to finding Bin
Laden. The crucial breakthrough in the hunt was the identification of ... Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. The
United States had started wiretapping a phone number associated with Mr. Kuwaiti by late 2001. It
was in 2004 that the C.I.A. came to realize that it should focus on finding Mr. Kuwaiti as part of the
hunt for Bin Laden. [A man named] Hassan Ghul, who had been captured in Iraqi Kurdistan ...
provided the most accurate intelligence that the agency produced about Mr. Kuwaitis role and
ties to Bin Laden. Mr. Ghul provided all the important information about [Mr. Kuwaiti] before he was
subjected to any torture techniques. During that [initial] two-day period in January 2004, He
opened up right away and was cooperative from the outset. Nevertheless, the C.I.A. then decided
to torture Mr. Ghul. During and after that treatment, he provided no actionable threat information.

Note: Read revealing excerpts from this most disturbing report.

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General

2014-12-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-allia...
Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other
corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their
political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year. The Times reported previously how
individual attorneys general have shut down investigations, changed policies or agreed to more
corporate-friendly settlement terms [for] campaign benefactors. But the attorneys general are also
working collectively. Out of public view, corporate representatives and attorneys general are
coordinating legal strategy and other efforts to fight federal regulations, according to a review of
thousands of emails and court documents and dozens of interviews. Attorney General Scott Pruitt
of Oklahoma [used his post] to help start what he and allies called the Rule of Law campaign. That
campaign, in which attorneys general band together to operate like a large national law firm, has
been used to back lawsuits and other challenges against the Obama administration on
environmental issues, the Affordable Care Act and securities regulation. The most recent
target is the presidents executive action on immigration. Coordination between the corporations
and teams of attorneys general involved in the Rule of Law effort also involves actual litigation to
try to clear roadblocks to energy projects, documents show.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Eric Garner and the Legal Rules That Enable Police Violence
2014-12-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/opinion/eric-garner-and-the-legal-rules-tha...
Eric Garner was not the first American to be choked by the police, and he will not be the
last, thanks to legal rules that prevent victims of police violence from asking federal courts
to help stop deadly practices. The 1983 case City of Los Angeles v. Lyons vividly illustrates the
problem. That case also involved an African-American man choked by the police without
provocation. Unlike Mr. Garner, Adolph Lyons survived. He then filed a federal lawsuit, asking the
city to compensate him for his injuries. He also asked the court to prevent the Los Angeles Police
Department from using chokeholds in the future. The trial court ordered the L.A.P.D. to stop using
chokeholds. The Supreme Court overturned this order. The court explained that Mr. Lyons would
have needed to prove that he personally was likely to be choked again in order for his lawsuit to be
a vehicle for systemic reform. This is the legal standard when a plaintiff asks a federal court for an
injunction or a forward-looking legal order. When the stakes are this deadly, federal courts
should step in. If police departments still failed to comply, federal judges could impose penalties.

How do we know? Consider school segregation. Local officials had promised change but failed to
ensure it. It took decades of close supervision by federal courts to make a dent in the problem. As
the courts started to leave this field in more recent years, de facto segregation returned.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
civil liberties and government corruption from reliable major media sources.

The remarkable collapse of our trust in government, in one chart

2014-12-04, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/04/the-remarkable-coll...
No one likes -- or trusts -- the government. At this point, that's accepted conventional wisdom. And
most people assume it has always been like that. But that lack of trust hasn't always been a part of
the American experience -- as this awesome chart from our friends at the Pew Research Center
shows. The downward trajectory is stark. The collapse began during the presidency of Lyndon B.
Johnson, which, not coincidentally, overlapped with the Vietnam War. The 1970s -- thanks to
Vietnam and Watergate -- sped up the loss of faith in the government. And, after a quasiresurgence during the 1980s, the trend line for the past few decades is quite clear. With the
exception of relatively brief spikes that overlap with the first Gulf War and the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the number of people who trust the government has been steadily
declining; the last time Pew asked the question, in February, just 24 percent said they trust
the government "always" or "most of the time". Exit polling from the 2014 midterms makes
clear that things haven't improved. That's a tough starting place for any politician. But, if the chart
[linked to] above is any indication, it's the new normal.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
government corruption.

Pledge 1% Program wants to help companies become more charitable

2014-12-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Pledge-1-Program-want-to-help-companie...
A campaign launching Tuesday aims to get growing businesses to do what San Franciscos
Salesforce.com did in its infancy 15 years ago: Promise to donate 1 percent of its equity, 1
percent of its employees time and 1 percent of the firms products to charity. Called the
Pledge 1% Program and led by Salesforce and others it aims to get 500 other corporations
to do the same over the next year. Those who have bought into the idea have seen other benefits.
Its good for business, too, said Bradley Heinz, program manager at Optimizely.org. The San
Francisco company which includes several top execs who used to work at Salesforce is
participating in the program. If a younger company can make philanthropy part of its DNA when it
is smaller, it will become a way of life as it grows. It is somewhat easier to convince a young firm to
volunteer time and offer its product at a deeply discounted rate. San Franciscos income inequality

divide the fastest-growing in the country is inspiring other growing companies to look at what
they can do to help. Employees at Practice Fusion, a cloud medical records company in San
Francisco, decided that they would take $50,000 that would have been used for their holiday gift
and give it to the poor. People were not that into the gifts and schwag, said Practice Fusion CEO
Ryan Howard. They wanted to give back.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse

2014-12-01, Time Magazine
https://time.com/3608071/see-haunting-photos-of-the-sites-of-child-abuse/
In a damning 2009 report, Irelands independently-run Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
which spent nine years investigating thousands of allegations of abuse at religious-run institutions
spoke of a culture of endemic sexual abuse in the countrys Catholic boys schools and of the
deferential and submissive attitude of the Irish state towards the religious orders who ran them.
What emerged from the investigation, and from a separate Dublin-specific inquiry concluded the
same year, was that institutional child abuse was widespread and that it had occurred not
only in schools, but in many places where young people were in the care of religious
orders. The commissions also revealed that very often when children reported the abuse,
they were largely ignored and even punished. The state, too, had willfully turned a blind
eye. The very ordinariness of [the abuse] struck photographer Kim Haughton as profoundly
disturbing. This was molestation that was at once hidden and woven into the fabric of everyday
life. So much of this happened in places like schools and churches, and in homes, she tells
TIME. And so she embarked on In Plain Sight, a project in which the [actual] sites of these abuses
became the subjects of her lens ... places that, when taken at face value, seem unremarkable.
The work, I hope, challenges us to confront these crimes in the context in which they happened,
Haughton adds, everyday life.
Note: Read the complete story to see photos from In Plain Sight. Explore powerful evidence from
a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that child sexual abuse scandals also
reach to the highest levels of government in the US. And read an abundance of major media news
articles showing rampant child sexual abuse at high levels in many prominent organizations.

Ferguson hug between protester and police officer goes viral

2014-11-30, CNN
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-hug-between-protester-and-police-office-g...
In the wake of a grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of
Michael Brown, Americans have grown accustomed to images of police and protesters in
Ferguson, Missouri. One such image is now going viral, but not for the reason one might think. The

photo ... shows 12-year-old Devonte Hart and Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum embraced in a hug
outside of a Ferguson rally on Tuesday. Harts mother ... explained that she and Hart went to
downtown Portland with the intention of spreading love and kindness. Hart brandished a Free
Hugs sign as he stood alone in front of a police barricade. His mother says he started to get
emotional during the rally: He wonders if someday when he no longer wears a Free Hugs sign
around his neck, when hes a full-grown black male, if his life will be in danger for simply being.
Thats when Sgt. Barnum noticed Hart crying and called the boy over to him. Barnum ... asked why
he was crying. Harts mother says his response was about his concerns regarding the level of
police brutality towards young black kids was met with an unexpected: Yes. I know. Im sorry. Im
sorry. Next, Sgt Barnum asked if he could have one of the Free Hugs advertised on his sign.
Barnum [said] its a blessing for me that I didnt miss an opportunity to impact this child. The
image has now been shared widely across social media. Harts mother called the tearful hug one
of the most emotionally charged experiences Ive had as a mother.
Note: Read lots more on this inspiring incident and the challenging background of Devonte Hart.
Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Denmark Aims for 100 Percent Renewable Energy

2014-11-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/science/earth/denmark-aims-for-100-percent-...
Denmark, a tiny country on the northern fringe of Europe, is pursuing the worlds most
ambitious policy against climate change. It aims to end the burning of fossil fuels in any
form by 2050 not just in electricity production, as some other countries hope to do, but
in transportation as well. Lest anyone consider such a sweeping transition to be impossible in
principle, the Danes beg to differ. They essentially invented the modern wind-power industry, and
have pursued it more avidly than any country. They are above 40 percent renewable power on
their electric grid, aiming toward 50 percent by 2020. The political consensus here to keep pushing
is all but unanimous. The trouble, if it can be called that, is that renewable power sources like wind
and solar cost nothing to run, once installed. That is potentially a huge benefit in the long run. But
[it] can render conventional power plants, operating on gas or coal or uranium, uneconomical to
run. Yet those plants are needed to supply backup power for times when the wind is not blowing
and the sun is not shining. So the trick now is to get the market redesign right. If Denmark can
figure out a proper design for the electric market, it has another big task to meet its 2050 goal:
squeezing the fossil fuels out of transportation.
Note: Denmark is consistently setting world records for wind power, which is now cheaper than
fossil fuels there.

The Fed Needs Governors Who Arent Wall Street Insiders

2014-11-19, Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warren-and-joe-manchin-the-fed-needs...
The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors and the New York Fed have been responsible for
supervising Wall Street banks. After the 2008 crisis and the regulatory lapses it revealed,
Congress gave the Fed even more oversight authority. Two recent reports highlight that the
Fed isnt very good at supervising certain banks. In September, Carmen Segarra, a former
bank examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, released secret recordings she had
made of meetings at the New York Fed in 2012. The recordings revealed that New York Fed
employees had identified concerns with a proposed Goldman Sachs deal. The New York Fed
didnt attempt to make Goldman address these concerns. The recordings also showed Ms.
Segarras superiors pressuring her to soften her finding that Goldman did not comply with federal
regulations on conflicts of interest. An October report from the Feds Office of Inspector General
provided additional confirmation that the Fed is failing to oversee the big banks. The report found
that the New York Fed had failed to examine J.P. Morgan Chases Chief Investment Office despite
a recommendation to do so in 2009. The report concluded that the New York Fed needed to
improve its supervision of the biggest, most complex banks. Were all counting on the Fed to
monitor the big banks and stop them from taking on too much risk, but evidence is mounting that
this faith in the Fed is misplaced.
Note: If the above link fails, click here. For more along these lines, see these concise summaries
of deeply revealing articles about widespread corruption in government and banking and finance.
For additional information, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Banking Corruption
Information Center.

American Wins International Children's Peace Prize

2014-11-18, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/american-teen-makes-history-wins-international...
Neha Gupta became the first ever American today to be awarded the Childrens International
Peace Prize in The Hague, Netherlands. The prize is awarded annually to a child, anywhere in the
world, for his or her dedication to childrens rights. Gupta began her astounding work when she
was just a child herself, visiting her parents' native India nine years ago. Carrying out a family
tradition of celebrating birthdays by delivering gifts to orphans, she was struck by the
condition these children were living in. "The place was just really in shambles," Gupta told
Saulny. "I didn't want to accept these things. These are things I wanted to fix." She moved to fix
them quickly, any way that she could. Back home in Pennsylvania, she made a bold move,
deciding to sell all of her toys to raise money for the orphans she had met in India. "We just
put it out on our driveway and people came, bought things and it turned out to be such a
successful event, Gupta said. From that one event we raised $700 and Ive wanted to keep
going. Gupta kept going, selling crafts door to door and collecting corporate donations in her dads
SUV. Nine years later, now an 18-year-old college student, she runs Empower Orphans, a global
charity that has raised $1.3 million. The organization reaches orphans in the U.S. and abroad,
helping to build classrooms, buy books, equip computer labs, pay for health exams, supply water

and buy sewing machines to empower other young women to start their own businesses. Despite
all of her extraordinary successes, Gupta describes herself as just an ordinary teenager who found
her calling early in life. That bit of serendipity has touched the lives of more than 25,000 children
so far.
Note: Don't miss an inspiring video on this beautiful woman and the way she is changing the
world.

On Media Outlets That Continue to Describe Unknown Drone Victims As

Militants
2014-11-18, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/18/media-outlets-continue-describe...
It has been more than two years since The New York Times revealed that Mr. Obama embraced a
disputed method for counting civilian casualties of his drone strikes which in effect counts all
military-age males in a strike zone as combatants ... unless there is explicit intelligence
posthumously proving them innocent. The paper noted that this counting method may partly
explain the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths, and even quoted CIA officials as
deeply troubled by this decision. After the Times article, most large western media outlets
continued to describe completely unknown victims of U.S. drone attacks as militants even
though they (a) had no idea who those victims were or what they had done and (b) were wellaware by that point that the term had been re-defined by the Obama administration. Like the U.S.
drone program itself, this deceitful media practice continues unabated. The U.S. government
itself let alone the media outlets calling them militants often has no idea who has
been killed by drone strikes in Pakistan. The Intercept previously reported that targeting
decisions can even be made on the basis of nothing more than metadata analysis and
tracking of SIM cards in mobile phones. Just last month, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
documented that fewer than 4% of the people killed have been identified by available records as
named members of al Qaeda.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
military corruption and high level manipulation of mass media from reliable sources.

Waste Water from Oil Fracking Injected into Clean Aquifers

2014-11-14, NBC News (San Francisco Affiliate)
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-Fracking-Inject...
State officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion gallons of waste
water into underground aquifers that could have been used for drinking water or irrigation.
Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity, protected by the EPA.
Californias Department of Conservations Chief Deputy Director, Jason Marshall, told NBC Bay
Area, There have been past issues where permits were issued to operators that they shouldnt be

injecting into those zones." In fracking or hydraulic fracturing operations, oil and gas companies
use massive amounts of water to force the release of underground fossil fuels. The practice
produces large amounts of waste water that must then be disposed of. Marshall said that often
times, oil and gas companies simply re-inject that waste water back deep underground where the
oil extraction took place. But other times, Marshall said, the waste water is re-injected into aquifers
closer to the surface. In the States letter to the EPA, officials admit that in at least nine waste
water injection wells, the waste water was injected into non-exempt or clean aquifers. For the
EPA, non-exempt aquifers are underground bodies of water that are containing high quality
water that can be used by humans to drink, water animals or irrigate crops. "It should not have
been permitted, said Marshall.
Note: The complete article summarized above includes maps of the Bakersfield, CA wells
contaminated by these fracking waste injections. For more along these lines, read this Los
Angeles Times article about how fracking poisons drinking water, and see concise summaries of
deeply revealing corporate corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Historical abuse inquiry: Police examine 'possible homicide'

2014-11-14, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30052726
Police are investigating "possible homicide" linked to what has been described as a
paedophile ring involving powerful people in the 1970s and 1980s. The group is alleged to
have included senior figures in public life, the military, politics and law enforcement. A key
witness who has spoken to police has told the BBC that he was abused for nine years as a boy.
The Metropolitan Police said, "At this early stage in this inquiry, with much work still to do, it is not
appropriate to issue appeals or reveal more information." Using the name "Nick", the alleged victim
said he had given three days of video-taped evidence to detectives. His accounts are being
assessed as part of ... a new Scotland Yard investigation. Nick, now in his 40s, says ... the group
was "very organised" and would arrange for chauffeur-driven cars to pick up boys, sometimes from
school, and drive them to "parties" or "sessions" at locations including hotels and private
apartments in London and other cities. "Some of them were quite open about who they were. They
had no fear at all of being caught, it didn't cross their mind." Nick said he had one motivation for
speaking to the BBC - to encourage other alleged victims or those who unwittingly assisted the
abusers to come forward. "People who drove us around could come forward. Staff in some of the
locations could come forward. We weren't smuggled in under a blanket through the back door. It
was done openly and people must have questioned that and they need to come forward."
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. And read an
abundance of major media news articles showing rampant child sexual abuse at high levels in
many prominent organizations.

These 14 Teenage Inventors Built a Glove That Translates Sign

Languageand Other Tech Solutions
2014-11-11, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/these-14-teenage-inventors-made-a-glo...
These 16 individuals under 20 have all invented solutions that have somehow eluded those
who can legally drink. Many of these kids were inspired by simple necessity. Others were driven
by compassion. Some of them were just doing science fair projects. Eesha Khare: This 18-year-old
from Saratoga, California, was still in high school when she invented a battery that can be charged
in 20 seconds. It also lasts 10 times as long as a standard battery. Ryan Patterson: The inability to
communicate with most hearing people makes life difficult for deaf persons. Knowing this,
Colorado-born Ryan invented a glove that translates sign language. Its simply a golf glove that
uses sensors, a radio frequency transmitter, and a microcontroller to interpret hand movements.
He was 17. Why didnt anyone else think of this? Raquel Redshirt: Growing up in New Mexicos
Navajo Nation, Raquel experienced poverty so extreme that her family and neighbors often
couldnt afford electricity, making it near impossible to cook anything. So at 16, she discovered a
way to make solar-powered ovens using the simple materials collected around the area. Working
with old tires, aluminum foil, shredded paper, and dirt, she made these usually expensive ovens for
the people in her community. Have you built any ovens for your neighbors lately?
Note: Why aren't some of these inventions being hailed and promoted widely in the media?
Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Ebola Contracts Worth $2 Billion Could Benefit Drugmakers

2014-11-10, Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-10/ebola-contracts-worth-2-billion-coul...
Drugmakers including Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Emergent
Biosolutions Inc. (EBS) are among companies standing to gain from what may be $2 billion in U.S.
contracts related to Ebola. President Barack Obama asked Congress last week for $6.2 billion
in emergency funding to stop the spread of the virus that has killed more than 4,800 people
in West Africa. The request is heavily focused on health needs as opposed to prior funding
that was largely centered on defense contracts, Brian Friel, a Bloomberg Intelligence contracts
analyst, said. Friel said he expects multiple drugmakers involved in Ebola will share in what
will likely be no-bid contract awards to make everyone happy. His $2 billion estimate is based
on the percentage of its budget the Department of Health and Human Services spent on contracts
last year. Little information is available yet about which companies are getting Ebola-related public
funding. Congress has approved $838 million in Ebola money this year, resulting in $77 million in
contracts so far. Not all awards have been made public. The U.S. has spent more than $400
million as of Oct. 24.

Note: Read this webpage which lays bare the gross profiteering by pharmaceuticals on pandemics
like ebola as reported in the mainstream media.

Navy Plans Electromagnetic War Games Over National Park and Forest
in Washington State
2014-11-10, Truthout
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27339-navy-plans-electromagnetic-war-games...
Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest in Washington State are ... where the US
Navy aims to conduct its Northwest Electromagnetic Radiation Warfare training program. It will fly
... 2,900 training exercises over wilderness, communities and cities across the Olympic
Peninsula for 260 days per year, with exercises lasting up to 16 hours per day. No public
notices for the Navy's plans were published in any media that directly serve the Olympic
Peninsula. But word spread. Public outcry forced the Navy to extend the public comment period
until November 28 and schedule more public meetings. According to the US Navy's Information
Dominance Roadmap 2013-2028, the Navy states it "will require new capabilities to fully employ
integrated information in warfare by expanding the use of advanced electronic warfare." The
purpose of these war games is to train to deny the enemy "all possible frequencies of
electromagnetic radiation (i.e. electromagnetic energy) for use in such applications as
communication systems..." David King, the mayor of Port Townsend, a town on the Northeast
corner of the Olympic Peninsula, has voiced his opposition to the plan, along with numerous other
public officials. Mike Welding, the Naval Air Station at Whidbey Island spokesman, recently
admitted to reporters, "If someone is in the exclusion area for more than 15 minutes, that's a
ballpark estimate for when there would be some concern for potential to injure, to receive
burns."
Note: We don't generally use truth-out.org as a reliable source, but as no major media are
covering this most important development, we're including this article here. To verify this
information, please click on some of the links in the article and see the U.S. Navy's "Information
Dominance Roadmap".

Three Ways Courts Screw the Innocent Into Pleading Guilty

2014-11-07, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/07/how-the-innocent-get-screwed
(senior federal district judge) Jed A. Rakoffs essay in The New York Review of Books ... tries to
explain why innocent people so often plead guilty. At least 20,000 people have pled guilty to
and gone to jail for felonies they did not commit if you very conservatively take
criminologists lowest estimates, and cut them in half. Rakoff identifies three ways the criminal
justice system obstructs its own truth seeking mechanism, a trial by jury: 1. By embracing the
increasingly popular plea bargain. 97 percent of federal trials were resolved last year through
plea bargain. Plea bargains ... are weighted largely in favor of the prosecutor. The notion

that a plea bargain is a contractual mediation between two relatively equal parties, Rakoff
argues, is a total myth. 2. Through mandatory minimum sentences. The combination of
mandatory sentences and prosecutorial discretion forces the defendant [to] run the risk of losing
the case and serve the maximum sentence or take a reduced charge, at a reduced sentence, even
when innocent. 3. Via the unfettered rise of prosecutorial power. Prosecutors have far more power
... than any other party involved in the criminal justice system. The one mechanism that could
check their power is the jury trial, which is becoming virtually extinct in federal court, Rakoff
writes. One possible solution to all these problems aside from repealing mandatory minimum
sentences and generally reducing the severity of sentences is greater judicial oversight.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption and civil liberties news articles from reliable sources.

Dark money looms large in 2014 midterms

2014-11-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/diaz/article/Dark-money-looms-large-in-2014-mid...
The most disturbing trend in the financing of American political campaigns is not the
magnitude of the money being spent. Its that more and more of that money is not going
through the campaigns themselves where donations must be disclosed and limited
but from nonprofit groups that are being set up for the express purpose of frustrating any
attempt to identify their funders. This infusion of dark money all but obliterates the postWatergate notion that Americans have a right to know who is behind ... candidates. In this new
world order, various players are operating under different sets of rules and some seem to be
creating their own, aware that this Supreme Court seems disinclined to stop them. We know, for
example, that billionaire investor Tom Steyer spent $74 million on behalf of Democratic candidates
who were committed to doing something about climate change. There is no exact figure on how
much was spent at the other end of the spectrum by the Koch brothers, the conservative oil barons
who funnel much of their donations through nonprofits that are not required to list their funding
sources under the tax code. A memo by the Koch brothers main political arm, leaked to Politico in
May, forecast a budget of $125 million in this election. Such obfuscation is becoming more
commonplace. The average voter is left without knowing who really is behind these campaigns.
But make no mistake: Our elected officials are well aware of their benefactors and their
expectations.
Note: For more along these lines, see these summaries of deeply revealing election news articles
from reliable sources.

Army Slow to Investigate War Gear Missing in Afghanistan

2014-11-06, Bloomberg
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-11-04/army-slow-to-investigate-war-gear...

The U.S. Army has been slow to investigate hundreds of millions of dollars in missing
weapons systems, vehicles, electronics and communications gear in Afghanistan, according
to the Pentagons inspector general. The Army field support brigade in Afghanistan responsible for
managing gear being shipped out of the country failed to report in a timely manner 15,600 pieces
of unaccounted gear valued at as much as $419.5 million, according to a report labelled For
Official Use Only that reviewed major lost-property reports from fiscal 2013. Some of the missing
gear eventually may turn up as the U.S. completes the bulk of its withdrawal, Army officials said in
a response to the inspector general. Yet with the closing of 309 bases since 2010, only a fraction
of the items from previous reviews of unaccounted property has been recovered, according to the
audit dated Oct. 30. Due to the significant delays in reporting inventory losses the Armys Rock
Island, Illinois-based Sustainment Command, which oversees the effort, does not have accurate
accountability and visibility of its property," said Michael Roark, assistant inspector general for
contract management, who signed the report. There is a risk that missing property will not be
recovered and no one was held financially responsible for the property losses or
accountable for missing reporting deadlines, the report found. The audit disclosed ...
133,557 lost items valued at $238.4 million.
Note: Do you really think this equipment was just lost? Would the military just leave expensive and
sensitive equipment carelessly? Could it be that it is meant to fall into enemy hands in order to
keep the war machine pumping its huge profits into the pockets of certain elite groups? For more
along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing war news articles from reliable
sources.

Naomi Kleins This Changes Everything

2014-11-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/books/review/naomi-klein-this-changes-every...
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate is a book of such ambition and
consequence that it is almost unreviewable. Kleins fans will recognize her method. To call This
Changes Everything environmental is to limit Kleins considerable agenda. There is still time to
avoid catastrophic warming, she contends, but not within the rules of capitalism as they
are currently constructed. Which is surely the best argument there has ever been for
changing those rules. Many share Kleins sentiments. Klein diagnoses impressively what
hasnt worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of
the ... nonbinding agreements that bind us all to more emissions. Klein dismantles the boondoggle
that is cap and trade. She skewers grandiose command-and-control schemes to re-engineer the
planets climate. No point, when a hubristic mind-set has gotten us into this mess, to pile on further
hubris. In democracies driven by lobbyists, donors and plutocrats, the giant polluters are going to
win while the rest of us, in various degrees of passivity and complicity, will watch the planet die.
Any attempt to rise to the climate challenge will be fruitless unless it is understood as part of a
much broader battle of worldviews, Klein writes. This Changes Everything is ... the most
momentous and contentious environmental book since Silent Spring.

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing global warming
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Number of global billionaires has doubled since the financial crisis

2014-10-29, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/number-of-global-billionaire...
The number of billionaires has doubled since the start of the financial crisis, according to a major
new report from anti-poverty campaigners. According to Oxfam, the worlds rich are getting richer,
leaving hundreds of millions of people facing a life trapped in poverty as global inequality spirals
out of control. The report found that the number of billionaires in the world has more than
doubled to 1,646 since the financial crisis of 2009, and Oxfam says is evidence that the
benefits of a return to economic growth are not being shared with the vast majority. The
influential report is supported by Bank of England chief economist Andrew Haldane and Nobel
Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Mark Goldring, Oxfams chief executive, said: Inequality
is one of the defining problems of our age. In a world where hundreds of millions of people are
living without access to clean drinking water and without enough food to feed their families, a small
elite have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes. Earlier this month the OECD
said global inequality was at its worst levels since 1820. Mr Haldane agreed, saying: In
highlighting the problem of inequality Oxfam not only speaks to the interests of the poorest people
but also the wider collective interest: there is rising evidence that extreme inequality harms,
durably and significantly, the stability of the financial system and growth in the economy. It slows
development of the human, social and physical capital necessary for raising living standards and
improving well-being.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing income
inequality news articles.

FBI Says It Faked AP Story to Catch Bomb Suspect

2014-10-28, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/ap-seattle-times-upset-fbi-imperso...
The FBI confirmed Tuesday it faked an Associated Press story to catch a bomb threat suspect in
2007. Police in Lacey, near Olympia, sought the FBI's help as repeated bomb threats prompted a
week of evacuations at Timberline High School in June 2007. The agency obtained a warrant from
a federal magistrate judge to send a "communication" to a social media account ... which
contained a software tool that could verify Internet addresses, (and) turned out to be a link to a
phony AP story about the bomb threats posted on a Web page created by the FBI. The 15-yearold suspect clicked on the link, revealing his computer's location. The FBI did not initially respond
to AP's request earlier Tuesday for further detail about the fake story, beyond saying the ruse was
necessary. AP spokesman Paul Colford said Tuesday the FBI's "ploy violated AP's name and
undermined AP's credibility." "We are extremely concerned and find it unacceptable that the FBI

misappropriated the name of The Associated Press and published a false story attributed to AP."
Kathy Best, editor of The Seattle Times, said in a statement that, "The FBI, in placing the name
of The Associated Press on a phony story sent to a criminal suspect, crossed a line and
undermined the credibility of journalists everywhere including at The Times." The
documents revealing the deception were publicized Monday on Twitter by Christopher Soghoian,
the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

Lobbyists, Bearing Gifts, Pursue Attorneys General

2014-10-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/lobbyists-bearing-gifts-pursue-attorneys...
Attorneys general are now the object of aggressive pursuit by lobbyists and lawyers who use ...
lavish corporate-sponsored conferences and other means to push them to drop investigations,
change policies, negotiate favorable settlements or pressure federal regulators, an investigation by
The New York Times has found. A robust industry of lobbyists and lawyers has blossomed as
attorneys general have joined to conduct multistate investigations. But unlike the lobbying rules
covering other elected officials, there are few revolving-door restrictions or disclosure
requirements governing state attorneys general. The routine lobbying and deal-making
occur largely out of view. The current and increasing level of the lobbying of attorneys general
creates, at the minimum, the appearance of undue influence, said James E. Tierney, a former
attorney general of Maine. It is undermining the credibility of the office of attorney general. Giant
energy producers and service companies ... have retained their own teams of attorney general
specialists, including Andrew P. Miller, a former attorney general of Virginia. An attorney general is
entrusted with the power to decide which lawsuits to file and how to settle them, and they have
great discretion in their work, said Anthony Johnstone, a former assistant attorney general in
Montana. Its vitally important that people can trust that those judgements are not subject to
undue influence because of outside forces. And from what I have seen ... those forces have
intensified.
Note: For more along these lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing government
corruption news articles from reliable sources.

Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required

2014-10-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/us/law-lets-irs-seize-accounts-on-suspicion...
For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only
restaurant. She deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away until last year,
when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking

account. She has not been charged with any crime. The money was seized solely because she
had deposited less than $10,000 at a time. Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers ... the
government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as
an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money
without ever filing a criminal complaint. Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the
I.R.S., said in a written statement ... that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting
requirements, called structuring, is ... a crime. The Institute for Justice, a Washington-based public
interest law firm ... analyzed structuring data from the I.R.S., which made 639 seizures in 2012,
up from 114 in 2005. Only one in five was prosecuted as a criminal structuring case. Law
enforcement agencies get to keep a share of whatever is forfeited. This incentive has led to
the creation of a law enforcement dragnet, with more than 100 multiagency task forces combing
through bank reports, looking for accounts to seize. There are often legitimate business reasons
for keeping deposits below $10,000, said Larry Salzman, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice. For
example, he said, a grocery store owner in Fraser, Mich., had an insurance policy that covered
only up to $10,000 cash.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing civil liberties news
articles.

Senator's "Wastebook" has everything that will fit in a pork barrel

2014-10-22, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/politics/tom-coburn-wastebook
Monkeys taught how to gamble and play video games. People paid to watch grass grow.
Swedish massages given to rabbits. These are just a few examples from the 100 entry-long list
in a book detailing government waste, compiled by retiring GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. In
the 2014 edition of the "Wastebook," Coburn notes that getting rid of the practice of pork barrel
spending is next to impossible. "What I have learned from these experiences is Washington will
never change itself," he said." Some of the worst offenses listed in the book: The $1 billion price
tag the Pentagon paid to destroy $16 billion worth of ammunition, enough to pay a full years' salary
for over 54,000 Army privates. The book cites Pentagon officials who said the surplus ammunition
has become "obsolete, unusable, or their use is banned by international treaty." The Army spent
nearly half a million dollars -- $414,000 -- to develop a video game called "America's Army," a
version of which terrorists have used to train for missions, according to National Security
Agency e-mails sent in 2007 and leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Coburn
notes ... the national debt, which is "quickly approaching $18 trillion."
Note: For more, see the Chicago Tribune's article on "Wastebook".

The bottom 90 percent are poorer today than they were in 1987
2014-10-22, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/22/the-bottom-90-perc...

Once upon a time, the American economy worked. The new, harsh reality is that the bottom 90
percent of households are poorer today than they were in 1987 -- it turns out that everybody but
the richest 10 percent of Americans are worst off. That includes the poor, the entire middle class,
and even what we would consider much of the upper class. In this chart, I've taken each group's
inflation-adjusted net worth from 1945 and indexed that to 100, so we can compare how wealth
has grown for people with lots or little of it. It's been a lost 25 years for the bottom 90 percent,
but a lost 15 for the next 9 percent, too. That's right: altogether, the bottom 99 percent are
worth less today than they were in 1998. But this isn't a story about the top 1 percent
running away from everybody else. It's a story about the top 0.1 scratch that, the top 0.01
percent doing so. Indeed, since 1980, the top 0.01 percent's piece of the wealth pie has
increased by 8.6 percentage points, while the next 0.09 percent's has done so by 5.4. The bottom
99 percent, meanwhile, have seen their wealth share fall an astonishing 18 percentage points.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality
news articles from reliable major media sources. For more on how our financial system produces
inequality, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our Banking Corruption Information
Center.

Komen is supposed to be curing breast cancer. So why is its pink

ribbon on so many carcinogenic products?
2014-10-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/21/komen-is-supposed-...
Breast cancer giant Susan G. Komen has found its strangest bedfellow yet in one of the worlds
largest oilfield services corporations, Baker Hughes. The two have teamed up for a second year to
distribute 1,000 pink drill bits to oil fields worldwide. This is just the latest example of
pinkwashing when a company or organization claims to care about breast cancer by
promoting a pink-ribbon product but at the same time manufactures or sells products that
are linked to the disease. Pinkwashing has become a central component of the breast cancer
industry: a web of relationships and financial arrangements between corporations that cause
cancer, companies making billions off diagnosis and treatment, nonprofits seeking to support
patients or even to cure cancer, and public relations agencies that divert attention from the root
causes of disease. The partnership with fracking company Baker Hughes is among the worst
examples of Komens pinkwashing so far. More than 700 chemicals are used in the process of
drilling and fracking for oil and gas. In a study of about 350 of those chemicals, researchers found
that up to half can cause health problems, including nervous, immune and cardiovascular
symptoms. More than one-third can disrupt the hormone system. And a quarter of the chemicals,
such as benzene and formaldehyde, increase the risk of cancer. Baker Hughes is doing more to
cause breast cancer than to cure it. And Komen, with its poisonous partnerships, is giving Baker
Hughes and many other companies the perfect pink disguise.

Note: For more along these lines, read this Los Angeles Times article about how fracking
introduces carcinogens into drinking water, and see concise summaries of deeply revealing
corporate corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Party

2014-10-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/magazine/how-billionaire-oligarchs-are-beco...
Before 2002, parties could accept unlimited donations from individuals or groups (corporations,
labor unions, etc.). The McCain-Feingold law, as it came to be known, banned soft-money
contributions, and it also prohibited political groups that operate outside the regulated system and
its donation limits from running issue ads that appear to help or hurt a candidate close to an
election. In 2010, the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court effectively blew apart
the McCain-Feingold restrictions on outside groups and their use of corporate and labor
money in elections. That same year, a related ruling from a lower court made it easier for wealthy
individuals to finance those groups. What followed has been the most unbridled spending in
elections since before Watergate. In 2000, outside groups spent $52 million on campaigns,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics. By 2012, that number had increased to $1
billion. The result was a massive power shift. With the advent of Citizens United, any players with
the wherewithal, and there are surprisingly many of them, can start what are in essence their own
political parties, built around pet causes or industries and backing politicians uniquely answerable
to them. No longer do they have to buy into the system. Instead, they buy their own pieces of it
outright. Suddenly, we privatized politics, says Trevor Potter, an election lawyer who helped draft
the McCain-Feingold law.
Note: To understand the decisive role that money plays in elections politics, read this entire,
revealing article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing election
process news articles from reliable major media sources. For more along these lines, see the
excellent, reliable resources provided in our Elections Information Center.

FBI director attacks tech companies for embracing new modes of

encryption
2014-10-16, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/16/fbi-director-attacks-tech-comp...
The director of the FBI savaged tech companies for their recent embrace of end-to-end encryption
and suggested rewriting laws to ensure law enforcement access to customer data in a speech on
Thursday. James Comey said data encryption such as that employed on Apples latest mobile
operating system would deprive police and intelligence companies. Privacy advocates contend
Comey is demagoguing the issue. It took a June supreme court ruling, they point out, for law
enforcement to abandon its contention that it did not require warrants at all to search through
smartphones or tablets, and add that technological vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers

and foreign intelligence agencies as well as the US government. Tech companies contend
that their newfound adoption of encryption is a response to overarching government
surveillance, much of which occurs ... without a warrant, subject to a warrant broad enough to
cover indiscriminate data collection, or under a gag order following a non-judicial subpoena.
Comey did not mention such subpoenas, often in the form of National Security Letters, in his
remarks. Comey acknowledged that the Snowden disclosures caused justifiable surprise among
the public about the breadth of government surveillance, but hoped to mitigate it through greater
transparency and advocacy. Yet the FBI keeps significant aspects of its surveillance reach hidden
even from government oversight bodies. Intelligence officials said in a June letter to a US senator
that the FBI does not tally how often it searches through NSAs vast hoards of international
communications, without warrants, for Americans identifying information. Comey frequently
described himself as being technologically unprepared to offer specific solutions, and said he
meant to begin a conversation, even at the risk of putting American tech companies at a
competitive disadvantage.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources.

Greater Manchester police failed to pursue child abuse gang claims

2014-10-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/14/greater-manchester-police-fail...
Child sex grooming gangs have avoided prosecution due to a failure by one of the
countrys biggest police forces to pursue claims against them. Greater Manchester police
(GMP), the third largest force in England and Wales, has been accused by serving and former
detectives of attempting to cover up failings to tackle gangs of Asian men who were abusing young
girls. Responding to the claims, GMP chief constable Sir Peter Fahy [said] that officers had
developed a mindset that victims in sexual abuse cases were unreliable but, while this had
since changed, it was still present within the courts. The claims against GMP come just months
after a damning report found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in
Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, with blatant collective failings by the council and South
Yorkshire police blamed for the abuse. Another GMP detective, who has remained anonymous ...
revealed there was reluctance by senior officers to investigate sexual abuse claims despite her
warnings the problem was spiralling out of control. In a letter seen by ITV News, one serving
officer claims there has been a cover-up and an internal report commissioned two years
ago has been re-written on nine separate occasions. A statement from the police force said:
Considerable resources are now invested in a number of ongoing investigations and we have
already made clear that further arrests will be made.
Note: Explore powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing
that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government. For more along these
lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about sexual abuse scandals and
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Chat logs reveal FBI informant Sabus role in hacking of Sun newspaper
2014-10-14, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/14/fbi-informants-role-hacking-su...
The FBI is facing questions over its role in a 2011 hacking attack on Rupert Murdochs Sun
newspaper in the UK after the publication of chat logs showed that a man acting as an agency
informant played a substantial role in the operation. The attack was so successful that the
publisher took down the websites of the Sun and the Times while technicians worked out the scale
of the hack. Unsealed documents ... seen by the Guardian, show Hector Xavier Monsegur
known widely online as Sabu and frequently referred to as the leader of Lulzsec played an
active role in the operation. The chat records show Monsegur encouraging others to break further
into News International systems, claiming to have sources at the Sun, and even apparently helping
to break staffs passwords and to source files for stealing. Monsegur was, however, at that time
operating under the direction of the FBI. The close involvement of an FBI asset working
under extraordinarily close supervision in a hacking attack on a media outlet ultimately
owned by a US-listed company is set to raise further questions about the agencys
approach to tackling online crime. The logs also show Sabu on multiple occasions offering
detailed technical help to find additional records on different servers, breaking in to new servers, or
obtaining more files which could easily have included those belonging to journalists at either the
Sun or Times. The Sun, which is challenging the UK government over police accessing the phone
records of one of its reporters, declined to comment on the apparent FBI involvement in attacks on
its servers.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing stories about
questionable intelligence agency practices from reliable sources. For an in-depth look at how these
practices have been shown to interfere with a free press, see these excellent, reliable Mass Media
Resources.

Court Spotlights the FBIs Super-Secret National Security Letters

2014-10-09, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/09/court-spotlight-super-secret-na...
[National security letters], the reach of which was expanded under the Patriot Act in 2001, let the
FBI get business records from telephone, banking, and Internet companies with just a declaration
that the information is relevant to a counterterrorism investigation. The FBI can get such
information with a subpoena or another method with some judicial oversight. Can the government
make demands for data entirely in secret? That was the question yesterday before a federal
appeals court in San Francisco, where government lawyers argued that National Security Letters
FBI requests for information that are so secret they cant be publicly acknowledged by the
recipients were essential to counterterrorism investigations. One of the judges seemed to
question why there was no end-date on the gag orders, and why the burden was on the
recipients of NSLs to challenge them. It leaves it to the poor person who is subject to

those requirements to just constantly petition the government to get rid of it, said the
judge, N. Randy Smith. The FBI sends out thousands of NSLs each year 21,000 in fiscal year
2012. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft filed a brief in support of the NSL challenge,
arguing that they want to publish more detailed aggregate statistics about the volume, scope and
type of NSLs that the government uses to demand information about their users. Twitter also
announced this week that it was suing the U.S. government over restrictions on how it can talk
about surveillance orders. Tech companies can currently make public information about the
number of NSLs or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders they receive in broad ranges,
but Twitter wants to be more specific.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing civil liberties news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Cure for Type 1 diabetes imminent after Harvard stem-cell breakthrough

2014-10-09, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11151909/Cure-for-Type-1-diab...
A cure for diabetes could be imminent after scientists discovered how to make huge quantities of
insulin-producing cells, in a breakthrough hailed as significant as antibiotics. Harvard University
has, for the first time, managed to manufacture the millions of beta cells required for
transplantation. It could mean the end of daily insulin injections for the 400,000 people in
Britain living with Type 1 diabetes. And it marks the culmination of 23-years of research for
Harvard professor Doug Melton who has been trying to find a cure for the disease since his son
Sam was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a baby. We are now just one pre-clinical step away
from the finish line, said Prof Melton. The stem cell-derived beta cells are presently undergoing
trials in animal models, including non-human primates, where they are still producing insulin after
several months, Prof Melton said. The team at Harvard used embryonic stem cells to produce
human insulin-producing cells equivalent in almost every way to normally functioning cells in vast
quantities. A report on the work is published in the journal Cell.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Rotherham child abuse scandal: Missing files 'fuel public suspicion of a

deliberate cover-up, say MPs
2014-10-08, The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/missing-rotherham-abuse-scandal-fi...
Fears of a deliberate cover-up by public officials of the sexual abuse of children in Rotherham
have been fueled by the large number of documents ... which have vanished, an investigation by
MPs has concluded. They urged the Home Office to examine claims that files were stolen from a
locked council office in the South Yorkshire town. At least 1,400 girls as young as 11 were

groomed and abused by gangs in the town over a 16 year period. The committee raised
suspicions that officials colluded to conceal evidence. The MPs heard from a former researcher
who was hired by Rotherham Council. She referred in a report, which was about to be sent to the
Home Office, to the alleged indifference towards, and ignorance of, child sexual exploitation on
the part of senior managers, the committee said. An unknown individual subsequently gained
access to her office and removed all of the data relating to the Home Office work. There
were no signs of a forced entry and the action involved moving through key-coded and
locked security doors. "She was also subjected to personal hostility at the hands of Council
officials and police officers, the committee said. The MPs said: This is not the first case in which it
has been alleged that files of information relating to child sexual exploitation have disappeared.
Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, said: A number of individuals attempted to bring these crimes
to light, only to face obstacles from the council and police."
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandal
news articles from reliable major media sources.

Robert B. Reich: Why we allow Big Pharma to rip us off

2014-10-07, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/sns-201410071030--tms--amvoices...
America spends a fortune on drugs, more per person than any other nation on earth, even though
Americans are no healthier than the citizens of other advanced nations. Of the estimated $2.7
trillion America spends annually on health care, drugs account for 10 percent of the total.
Government pays some of this tab through Medicare, Medicaid and subsidies under the Affordable
Care Act. But we pick up the tab indirectly through our taxes. We pay the rest of it directly, through
higher co-payments, deductibles and premiums. Drug company payments to doctors are a small
part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets ... The drug companies say
they need the additional profits to pay for researching and developing new drugs. But the
government supplies much of the research Big Pharma relies on, through the National
Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, Big Pharma is spending more on advertising and marketing
than on research and development -- often tens of millions to promote a single drug. And it's
spending hundreds of millions more every year on lobbying. Last year alone, the lobbying tab
came to $225 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That's more than the
formidable lobbying expenditures of America's military contractors. In addition, Big Pharma is
spending heavily on political campaigns. In 2012, it shelled out over $36 million, making it the
biggest political contributor of all American industries.
Note: Read how cancer research is crippled by the greed of drug companies in the New York
Times article Profits Over Patients. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing health corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Secretly Buying Access to a Governor

2014-10-07, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/opinion/secretly-buying-access-to-a-governo...
Addicted to each others power and money, the political parties and their corporate donors are
constantly trying to enlarge their relationship out of sight of the American public. An accidental
Internet disclosure last month showed that the stealthy form of political corruption known as dark
money now fully permeates governors offices around the country, allowing corporations to push
past legal barriers and gather enormous influence. This has been going on nationally for several
years ... after wealthy interests claimed that a series of legal decisions allowed them to give
unlimited and undisclosed amounts to social welfare groups that pretended not to engage in
politics. (The tax code prohibits these groups from having politics as a primary purpose.) Now it
turns out that both the Republican and Democratic governors associations have also set up social
welfare groups ... with the purpose of raising secret political money. Thanks to the computer slip ...
we now know some of the people and corporations that secretly contributed. Companies that gave
at the highest level (more than $250,000) included Exxon Mobil, the Corrections Corporation of
America, Pfizer and the Koch companies. In exchange for their private donations, members
of [one key] group were invited to a symposium last year [where] they were allowed to meet
with (and lobby) some of the highest-ranking officials and regulators in states with
Republican governors. Big donors are given the greatest opportunity possible to meet and talk
informally with the Republican governors and their key staff members. The Democratic Governors
Association does exactly the same thing, regularly providing access to top state executives in
exchange for large contributions. Both parties are routinely selling access to the nations
governors and their staffs to those with the most resources.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Key Democrats, Led by Hillary Clinton, Leave No doubt that Endless

War is Official U.S. Doctrine
2014-10-07, The Intercept with Glenn Greenwald
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/07/key-democrats-led-hillary-clint...
Any doubts about whether Endless War ... is official American doctrine should be permanently
erased by this weeks comments from two leading Democrats, both former top national security
officials in the Obama administration. Leon Panetta, the long-time Democratic Party operative who
served as Obamas Defense Secretary and CIA Director, said this week of Obamas new bombing
campaign: I think were looking at kind of a 30-year war. He criticized Obama ... for being
insufficiently militaristic. Then we have Hillary Clinton [who] at an event in Ottawa yesterday ...
proclaimed that the fight against these militants will be a long-term struggle that should entail an
information war as well as an air war. The new war, she said, is essential and the U.S. shies
away from fighting it at our peril. Like Panetta (and most establishment Republicans), Clinton
made clear ... that virtually all of her disagreements with Obamas foreign policy were the
by-product of her view of Obama as insufficiently hawkish, militaristic and confrontational.

Endless War is not dramatic rhetorical license but a precise description of Americas
foreign policy. Its not hard to see why. A state of endless war justifies ever-increasing state
power and secrecy and a further erosion of rights. It also entails a massive transfer of public
wealth to the homeland security and weapons industry (which the US media deceptively calls the
defense sector). The War on Terror ... was designed from the start to be endless. This war ...
thus enables an endless supply of power and profit to flow to those political and economic factions
that control the government regardless of election outcomes.
Note: Read the prophetic writings of one of the most highly decorated US generals ever describing
how he discovered after retirement that war is created by bankers and mega-corporations to funnel
ever more tax-payer money into their coffers. For more along these lines, see the excellent,
reliable resources provided in our War Information Center.

First hint of 'life after death' in biggest ever scientific study

2014-10-07, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11144442/First-hint-of-life-a...
The largest ever medical study into near-death and out-of-body experiences has discovered that
some awareness may continue even after the brain has shut down completely. Scientists at the
University of Southampton have spent four years examining more than 2,000 people who suffered
cardiac arrests at 15 hospitals in the UK, US and Austria. And they found that nearly 40 per cent
of people who survived described some kind of awareness during the time when they were
clinically dead before their hearts were restarted. One man even recalled leaving his body
entirely and watching his resuscitation from the corner of the room. Despite being
unconscious and dead for three minutes, the 57-year-old social worker from Southampton,
recounted the actions of the nursing staff in detail and described the sound of the machines. We
know the brain cant function when the heart has stopped beating, said Dr Sam Parnia, a former
research fellow at Southampton University ... who led the study. But in this case, conscious
awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart
wasnt beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart
has stopped. The man described everything that had happened in the room." Of 2060 cardiac
arrest patients studied, 330 survived and of 140 surveyed, 39 per cent said they had experienced
some kind of awareness while being resuscitated. One in five said they had felt an unusual sense
of peacefulness. Some recalled seeing a bright light. 13 per cent said they had felt separated from
their bodies.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring near-death experience
news articles and explore other fascinating resources on this most vital topic.

Can life in a nursing home be made uplifting and purposeful?

2014-10-04, The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11139446/Can-life-in-a-nursing-home-...

In 1991, in the tiny town of New Berlin, in upstate New York, a young physician named Bill Thomas
... had just taken a new job as medical director of Chase Memorial Nursing Home. More farmer
than doctor, [Thomas] had a Paul Bunyan beard and was more apt to wear overalls beneath his
white coat than a tie. From the first day on the job, he felt the stark contrast between the giddy,
thriving abundance of life that he experienced on his farm and the confined, institutionalised
absence of life that he encountered every time he went to work. So, acting on little more than
instinct, he decided to try to put some life into the nursing home. They moved in ... one
hundred parakeets, four dogs, two cats, plus a colony of rabbits and a flock of laying hens.
[They also planted] hundreds of indoor plants and a thriving vegetable and flower garden,
[and introduced] on-site child care for the staff. Researchers studied the effects of this programme
over two years, comparing a variety of measures for Chases residents with those of residents at
another nursing home nearby. Their study found that the number of prescriptions required per
resident fell to half that of the control nursing home. The total drug costs fell to only 38 per cent
of the comparison facility. Deaths fell 15 per cent. The study couldnt say why. But Thomas
thought he could.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Why war? It's a question Americans should be asking.

2014-10-04, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1005-daddis-utility-of-war-2014100...
As the United States charges once more into war, little debate has centered on the actual utility of
war. Instead, policymakers and pundits have focused their comments on combating the latest
danger to our nation and its interests. In late August, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel claimed
Islamic State was an imminent threat to every interest we have and that the sophisticated group
was beyond anything we've seen. With few dissenting voices, either in Congress or in the
American media, U.S. air forces plunged again into the unstable region of the Middle East. For
well over a decade one might suggest over multiple decades the United States has
been engaged in war, yet so few in the public sphere seem willing to ask, as a Vietnam-era
hit song did: War, what is it good for? It seems plausible to argue that war is a
phenomenon increasingly serving itself rather than any durable political goals. War as a
political tool has more and more demonstrated its inability to deliver. As historian Mary Dudziak
has artfully suggested, Military conflict has been ongoing for decades, yet public policy rests on
the false assumption that it is an aberration. If war provides meaning, why, as Dudziak asks, does
military engagement no longer require the support of the American people but instead their
inattention? If a theory of forward defense, of fighting on someone else's shores rather than our
own, is the rationale for constant war, when will we achieve a sense of national security that no
longer requires constant battle? What if peace never comes? What if war only engenders new
enemies and new threats? War ... has not assuaged our fears of vulnerability. It has not left us with
a more stable international environment. So we come back to that song's question: War, what is it
good for? And we have to at least consider the song's answer: Absolutely nothing.

Note: Kudos to the LA Times for publishing this article, though it fails to mention that war is very
good for lining the pockets of all involved with the huge warm industry. Read the prophetic writings
of one of the most highly decorated US generals ever describing how he discovered after
retirement that war is created by mega-corporations to funnel ever more tax-payer money into their
coffers. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided in our War
Information Center.

Resurrecting a Disgraced Reporter

2014-10-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/movies/kill-the-messenger-recalls-a-reporte...
As part of their insurgency against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, some of the C.I.A.backed contras made money through drug smuggling, transgressions noted in a little-noticed 1988
Senate subcommittee report. Gary Webb, a journalist at The San Jose Mercury News, thought it
was a far-fetched story to begin with, but in 1995 and 1996, he dug in and produced a deeply
reported and deeply flawed three-part series called Dark Alliance. That groundbreaking series
was among the first to blow up on the nascent web, and he was initially celebrated, then
investigated and finally discredited. Pushed out of journalism in disgrace, he committed suicide in
2004. [The movie] Kill the Messenger ... suggests that he told a truth others were unwilling to. Mr.
Webb was not the first journalist to come across [such matters]. In December 1985, The
Associated Press reported that three contra groups had engaged in cocaine trafficking, in part to
help finance their war against Nicaragua. Major news outlets mostly gave the issue a pass. Peter
Landesman, an investigative journalist who wrote the screenplay, was struck by the reflex to go
after Mr. Webb. Planeloads of weapons were sent south from the U.S., and everyone knows that
those planes didnt come back empty, but the C.I.A. made sure that they never knew for sure what
was in those planes, he said. But instead of going after that, they went after Webb." In 1998,
Frederick P. Hitz, the C.I.A. inspector general, testified before the House Intelligence
Committee that after looking into the matter at length, he believed the C.I.A. was a
bystander or worse in the war on drugs. However dark or extensive, the alliance Mr.
Webb wrote about was a real one.
Note: Webb's story was not deeply flawed, as reported in this article. His editor even commented
that four Washington Post writers could not find one significant factual error, but then changed his
mind after CIA leaders threatened the paper. Read a Sacrament Bee newspaper article for more
on Webb and his story. For more along these lines, see the excellent, reliable resources provided
in our Mass Media Information Center.

George Brandis has silently swept away your freedoms

2014-09-29, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia's leading newspaper)
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/george-brandis-has-silently-swept-away-your-fre...

Australia has changed radically since last week though it might not look like it on the surface. Late
Thursday night the Senate passed the National Security Amendment Bill (No.1) 2014 giving
unlimited power to spies and secret police. Now officials can break the law with immunity
from prosecution - and without having to answer to a court. They can act in total secrecy.
They will decide what they do and to whom and when. They do not have to ask permission. They
will choose when to interfere in your life and when they won't. They can dip into your most private
communications and they don't need a warrant to do so. Sometimes they will do it because it is
necessary to fight crime. Sometimes because they enjoy it. If they mess up your life and you tell
anybody, you will get 10 years' jail even if it doesn't harm security. When a Special
Intelligence Operation (SIO) is declared then any participant can break the law on you with no
consequences, according to Schedule 3 section 35k. There are broad limits. They cannot kill or
torture you, or cause significant physical injury. Minor injury or mental torment is fine. Anyone
involved in an SIO will have these powers but who are they? ASIO, with 1778 staff. The
Australian Federal Police, with more than 6900 staff. NSW Police with about 16,370 officers and a
spy database called COPS which has more than 30 million entries on the people of NSW. But not
just them. Anyone involved in an SIO enjoys legal immunity, including affiliates and subcontractors
whoever they are. Many Senators clearly hadn't read the 128 pages of major legal changes in
the NSA Bill. The citizen needs protection from the state built into the laws and that is what they
smashed on Thursday.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

The Fake Terror Threat Used To Justify Bombing Syria

2014-09-28, The Intercept with Glenn Greenwald
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-g...
As the Obama Administration prepared to bomb Syria without congressional or U.N. authorization,
it faced two problems. The first was the difficulty of sustaining public support for a new years-long
war against ISIS, a group that clearly posed no imminent threat to the homeland. A second was
the lack of legal justification for launching a new bombing campaign. The solution to both problems
was found in the wholesale concoction of a brand new terror threat that was branded The
Khorasan Group. After spending weeks depicting ISIS as an unprecedented threat too radical
even for Al Qaeda! administration officials suddenly began spoon-feeding their favorite media
organizations ... tales of a secret group that was even scarier and more threatening than ISIS, one
that posed a direct and immediate threat to the American Homeland. The unveiling of this new
group was performed in a September 13 article by the Associated Press, who cited unnamed U.S.
officials. AP depicted the U.S. officials who were feeding them the narrative as engaging in some
sort of act of brave, unauthorized truth-telling. On the morning of September 18, CBS News
broadcast a segment that is as pure war propaganda as it gets: directly linking the soon-to-arrive
U.S. bombing campaign in Syria to the need to protect Americans from being exploded in civilian
jets by Khorasan. As usual, anonymity was granted to U.S. officials to make these claims. As
usual, there was almost no evidence for any of this. Nonetheless, American media outlets

 eager, as always, to justify American wars spewed all of this with very little
skepticism. Worse, they did it by pretending that the U.S. government was trying not to talk
about all of this too secret! but they, as intrepid, digging journalists, managed to
unearth it from their courageous sources.
Note: Read the entire informative article to see how the media participates in manipulating
unsuspecting citizens into more war. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
media corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

How Former Treasury Officials and the UAE Are Manipulating American
Journalists
2014-09-25, The Intercept with Glenn Greenwald
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/25/uae-qatar-camstoll-group/
Qatar has become a hostile target for two nations with significant influence in the U.S.: Israel and
the United Arab Emirates. Israel is furious over Qatars support for Palestinians ... while the UAE is
upset that Qatar supports the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This animosity has resulted in a new
campaign in the west to demonize the Qataris as the key supporter of terrorism. The Israelis have
chosen the direct approach of publicly accusing their new enemy in Doha of being terrorist
supporters, while the UAE has opted for a more covert strategy: paying millions of dollars to
a U.S. lobbying firm composed of former high-ranking Treasury officials from both parties
to plant anti-Qatar stories with American journalists. That more subtle tactic has been
remarkably successful, and shines important light on how easily political narratives in U.S.
media discourse can be literally purchased. The Camstoll Group [has] key figures [who] are all
former senior Treasury Department officials ... whose responsibilities included managing the U.S.
governments relationships with Persian Gulf regimes and Israel. Most have backgrounds as
neoconservative activists. Camstolls Managing Director, Howard Mendelsohn, was Acting
Assistant Secretary of Treasury, where he also had ample policy responsibilities involving the
Emirates. In other words, a senior Treasury official responsible for U.S. policy toward the Emirates
leaves the U.S. government and forms a new lobbying company, which is then instantly paid
millions of dollars by the very same country for which he was responsible, all to use his influence,
access and contacts for its advantage. The UAE spends more than any other country in the world
to influence U.S. policy and shape domestic debate, and it pays former high-level government
officials who worked with it ... to carry out its agenda within the U.S.

Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire

2014-09-24, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empi...
Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using
to buy up our political system. The Kochs [have] cornered the market on Republican politics and
are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Koch-affiliated organizations raised

some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect
Republicans in this year's midterms. Koch ... is larger than IBM, Honda or Hewlett-Packard and is
America's second-largest private company. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than
$40 billion. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money. The company's
stock response to inquiries from reporters: "We are privately held and don't disclose this
information." The company's troubled legal history including a trail of congressional
investigations ... civil lawsuits and felony convictions ... combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on
the toxic empire. The company has paid out record civil and criminal environmental penalties.
According to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute,
only three companies rank among the top 30 polluters of America's air, water and climate:
ExxonMobil, American Electric Power and Koch Industries. Koch Industries dumps more
pollutants into the nation's waterways than General Electric and International Paper
combined. Koch has profited precisely by dumping billions of pounds of pollutants into our
waters and skies. The Koch brothers get richer as the costs of what Koch destroys are foisted on
the rest of us in the form of ill health, foul water and a climate crisis that threatens life as we
know it on this planet.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Who profits from our new war? Inside NSA and private contractors
secret plans
2014-09-24, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/24/heres_who_profits_from_our_new_war_inside_nsa...
A massive, $7.2 billion Army intelligence contract signed just 10 days ago underscores the central
role to be played by the National Security Agency and its army of private contractors in the
unfolding air war being carried out by the United States and its Gulf States allies against the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. INSCOMs global intelligence support contract will place the
contractors at the center of this fight. Under its terms, 21 companies, led by Booz Allen
Hamilton, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, will compete over the
next five years to provide fully integrated intelligence, security and information
operations in Afghanistan and future contingency operations around the world. INSCOM
announced the global intelligence contract two days after President Obama, in a speech to the
nation, essentially declared war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria and outlined a campaign of airstrikes and
combat actions to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group. The top contractors on the
INSCOM contract are already involved in the war. Lockheed Martin, for example, makes the
Hellfire missiles that are used extensively in U.S. drone strikes. Northrop Grumman makes the
Global Hawk surveillance drone. Both companies have large intelligence units. 70 percent of the
U.S. intelligence budget is spent on private contractors. This spending [is] estimated at around $70
billion a year. [There is a] revolving door between INSCOM and its contractors. The system is

corrupted by the close relationships between the companies and their agencies, said [Tom] Drake,
who as a whistle-blower was nearly sent to prison for exposing the waste, fraud and abuse in a
contracted program at the NSA that ended up losing over $7 billion.
Note: Read a powerful essay written by a top US general showing how he was fooled into
supporting wars that were generated by the powerful global elite who want never-ending war in
order to keep their profits flowing.

U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms

2014-09-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/us-ramping-up-major-renewal-in-nuclear-a...
A sprawling new plant [near Kansas City] in a former soybean field makes the mechanical guts of
Americas atomic warheads. Bigger than the Pentagon, full of futuristic gear and thousands of
workers, the plant, dedicated last month, modernizes the aging weapons that the United States
can fire from missiles, bombers and submarines. It is part of a nationwide wave of atomic
revitalization that includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers. A recent federal
study put the collective price tag, over the next three decades, at up to a trillion dollars.
This expansion comes under a president who campaigned for a nuclear-free world and
made disarmament a main goal of American defense policy. Supporters of arms control, as
well as some of President Obamas closest advisers, say their hopes for the presidents vision
have turned to baffled disappointment as the modernization of nuclear capabilities has become an
end unto itself. A lot of it is hard to explain, said Sam Nunn, the former senator whose writings on
nuclear disarmament deeply influenced Mr. Obama.
Note: Consider the possibility the Obama, shortly after becoming president, may have received a
death threat to his children if he didn't comply with the desires of powerful, greedy forces which
want everlasting war on our planet. The trillion-dollar war industry has no qualms threatening
anyone who gets in the way of their profits. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing war news articles from reliable major media sources and read what a top US general had
to say about how he was manipulated.

Beyond Charity: Turning The Soup Kitchen Upside Down

2014-09-20, NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/09/20/349859645/beyond-charity-turning-...
If you've ever volunteered in a soup kitchen, you know the feeling of having served others. But
what about those on the other side of the food line? Are they getting what they need most? Robert
Egger, the founder of DC Central Kitchen, didn't think so. He set out to train homeless people
on the streets of Washington, D.C. many of whom were drug addicts cycling in and out of
a life of crime how to cook and earn a food handler's license. The goal was to help them
trade addiction and crime for stable employment in restaurants and other food enterprises.

Egger's kitchen got its start turning surplus and donated food into meals that are provided to
homeless shelters and other nonprofits. Later, DC Central Kitchen opened an arm that operates
much like a private company, selling high-quality meals to schools and 60 corner stores in lowincome neighborhoods of the city. Today ... it delivers 5,000 meals each day to local nonprofit
organizations and another 5,000 meals to schools. It operates a culinary job-training program that
trains 80 people each year, and gets many of its supplies from small, local farms. Sixty percent of
its funding is revenue that it earns from sales. "This idea of everyone side by side it's a powerful
image," says Egger. "The president of the United States, someone from the shelter, a kid from
Wilson High School we're Washingtonians, side by side. This is the power of community!"
Note: The DC Kitchen model has been adopted by organizations around the country, and inspired
The Campus Kitchens Project, where students help recover food that might be wasted and
prepare meals for people in need in their communities.

The billionaire, the NSA and the no-fly list: America's 'state secret'
obsession has gone too far
2014-09-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/16/america-state-secret-pri...
In lawsuits challenging NSA mass surveillance, torture and drone strikes on Americans in recent
years, the US government has turned what was once a narrow legal privilege into an immunity
trump card a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for matters of national security. And now, despite
publicly promising to restrict its use, attorney general Eric Holder is trying to expand the power
even further. In [the] New York Times, Matt Apuzzo [reports on a] court case between two private
parties in which the US justice department has invoked the so-called state secrets privilege. A
Greek shipping magnate has accused an advocacy group pushing for sanctions on Iran of lying
about him, but the government argues that the case must be dismissed with hardly an explanation,
citing only a concerned federal agency. Holder refuses to disclose the agency demanding
secrecy, the type of information he wants [to keep] secret, or even the basis for invoking
the state secrets clause (which, by the way, is an invention of the US supreme court from a
1953 case that was later proved to be based on a lie). The Obama justice department has been
using the controversial clause to squash cases of more significant consequence for years. Holder
allegedly created a policy for restricting its use to all but the most critical national-security cases
when he first came into office. But, alas, Holder has since proceeded to shut down the exact types
of cases for which George W Bush was so harshly criticized.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Controversial Drugs Get Another Look

2014-09-14, CNN

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1409/13/hcsg.01.html
Dr Sanjay Gupta: There's a group of outlawed drugs out there that are generating new interest
among a growing number of doctors. Some of these drugs include things like MDMA also known
as ecstasy, also LSD. Psychiatrists have (long) been fascinated by the properties of psychedelics.
The U.S. military's efforts in the 1950s ... tested LSD as a potential weapon. But the interests in
these drugs didn't stay in the lab. They trickled on to the black market and were soon outlawed.
The pattern repeated itself with MDMA. Therapists tried it with patients. Millions tried it on their
own. And in 1985, it was banned under federal law. Over the last decade, a small band of
researchers wrangled permission to try again. This time giving MDMA during therapy sessions with
patients who were suffering post-traumatic stress. DR. MICHAEL MITHOEFER, TESTING MDMA
AS TREATMENT FOR PTSD PATIENTS: It was revisiting the trauma that was painful. The MDMA
seemed to make it possible for them to do it effectively. GUPTA: Dr. Mithoefer has treated nearly
50 patients. He's currently working with veterans. RICK DOBLIN, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHEDELIC STUDIES: People are able to look at traumatic
memories, the fear is reduced, and then they're able to separate out it was happening then
and not now. GUPTA: So, if they're going through counselling, for example, it could make that
counselling more effective, they're not as paralyzed if you will by the memories that are being
brought up? DOBLIN: We're saying that MDMA itself is not the medicine, it's MDMA assisted
psychotherapy.
Note: Watch this CNN news clip and decide for yourself. For more about how the CIA secretly
experimented on people with LSD and other drugs, read this deeply revealing information about a
project called MK ULTRA. For more about the legitimate therapeutic uses of these drugs, and how
investigation into these is suppressed, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing news
articles from reliable sources.

US Senator: 'US Turned Blind Eye to Saudi Role in 9/11, Fuelling Rise of
Isis'
2014-09-14, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-senator-us-turned-blind-eye-saudi-role-9-11-fuell...
The rise of ISIS has been aided by the failure of the US government to investigate the connection
between the Saudi Arabian government and jihadist networks, said former senator Bob Graham.
Senator Graham, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that successive
administrations had failed to examine the connections between the Saudis and Sunni militant
groups. "I believe that the failure to shine a full light on Saudi actions ... has contributed to the
Saudi ability to continue to engage in actions that are damaging to the US and in particular their
support for ISIS," he said. The Saudis have been accused of using Sunni militant groups as
proxies, channeling money to Islamist groups battling the forces of president Bashar alAssad in the Syrian civil war, as Sunni and Shia battle for hegemony in the Middle East. The
Shia Iranians are chief backers of Assad, and Nouri al Maliki's Shia-dominated government which
collapsed following ISIS' onslaught in Iraq, accused the Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS,

and facilitating "genocide". [Graham] said that Saudi Arabia gives support to the "the most
extremist elements among the Sunni". Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was the son of a wealthy
construction magnate, who had close ties to the Saudi royal family. It is alleged that redacted
pages of the [Joint Congressional 9/11 inquiry] report establish links between Saudi
government officials and al-Qaida.
Note: Watch the highly illuminating BBC documentary "Power of Nightmares" that reveals that alQaida, under the control of Osama bin Laden, has never actually existed, but is a US/UKgovernment psychological operation to launch the "Global War on Terror". For more on this, read
Prof. David Ray Griffin's deeply revealing book Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?

Rotherham child sex abuse files 'missing from archive'

2014-09-10, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29144266
Key reports detailing child sexual exploitation have disappeared from the archives, the outgoing
chief executive of Rotherham Council has told MPs. Martin Kimber said he had not seen a full
copy of a 2002 report, had never seen a 2003 report and only saw a 2006 report on [last] Sunday.
A report published earlier this month found at least 1,400 children were abused in the town from
1997 to 2013. The council was heavily criticised by Professor Alexis Jay. In her report, Professor
Jay said: "Further stark evidence came in 2002, 2003 and 2006 with three reports known to the
police and the council, which could not have been clearer in their description of the situation in
Rotherham." Addressing MPs, Mr Kimber said he did not know whether the archives had been
destroyed, but he told the Local Government Committee: "They are not within the council's
archives." Director of children's services Joyce Thacker told MPs the first two reports did
not appear to have been referred to in any existing council minutes. Asked whether there had
been a "deliberate attempt to suppress information", she said she could not answer. Meanwhile,
Rotherham council announced plans to dissolve the cabinet and invest 120,000 in counselling
services for victims of child sexual exploitation. Deputy leader Paul Lakin said the money would
come from cutting two cabinet posts and banning overseas travel by members. The council has
also approved an emergency motion calling for the Police and Crime Commissioner for South
Yorkshire Shaun Wright to resign. Mr Wright ... was cabinet member for children's services in
Rotherham between 2005 and 2010.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

'I Can See, Mommy': Witness The Moment Two Blind Sisters See The
World For First Time
2014-09-08, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/08/blind-sisters-see-first-time-202020_...

Sonia and Anita, two sisters living in rural India, were both born blind. A simple surgery, costing
about $300, could have restored their sight long ago; but their parents, who earn 17 cents an hour
planting and harvesting rice by hand, could barely make ends meet. Thanks to the efforts of
20/20/20, a nonprofit working to restore vision to blind children and adults in some of the
worlds poorest countries, Sonia and Anita were able to undergo that simple surgery on
their eyes. When the bandages came off, they saw the world around them for the very first
time, and it was captured in a video detailing the sisters story. Sonia, 12, is said to have gasped
as she opened her eyes and blinked into the sunlight for the first time. Her 6-year-old sister,
holding her mother close, reportedly declared, I can see, Mommy. According to 20/20/20, the 15minute miracle surgery, which the sisters both underwent, involves a surgeon removing the
defective lens that causes blindness and replacing it with an artificial lens. The procedure could
restore the eyesight of half the blind children and adults in the world, the nonprofit says. The only
problem is, for the poorest people in the world, who live on $1 a day, they could never afford to pay
for a $300 surgery. So they will remain blind for the rest of their lives - unless someone helps
them, 20/20/20 writes on its website.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Doctors Magical Thinking About Conflicts of Interest

2014-09-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/upshot/doctors-magical-thinking-about-confl...
When the Food and Drug Administration creates an advisory committee to help it decide whether
to approve drugs, it often asks academic physicians to serve on the committee as external experts.
This is supposed to help the committee render judgments that are unbiased and scientific. A study
published today brings that assumption into question. [It] reviewed the voting behavior and
financial interests of almost 1,400 F.D.A. advisory committee members. On average, 13 percent of
participants on each committee had some reported financial interest in a drug company whose
product was up for a review. About half of all meetings had at least one participant with such a
financial interest. One quarter included an ownership interest. Over all, committee members had a
52 percent chance of voting in favor of a sponsor of a drug. But members who had financial
interests [had an approval] probability of 63 percent. If members served on advisory boards for
only the company whose product was up for review, then the chance they would vote in favor of it
shot up to 84 percent. Data show[s] that top Medicare prescribers of the expensive drug Acthar
had financial ties to its maker. Financial relationships between doctors and industry are not
uncommon. In 2007, research showed that 94 percent of physicians in the United States
had such relationships. More than 80 percent of doctors had accepted gifts, and 28 percent
had received payments for consulting or research. [One study] followed doctors who went to
two all-expenses-paid symposia on new drugs. Their prescriptions for those drugs nearly tripled
after the meetings. Conflicts of interest are real, and they are still influencing decisions from the
level of the patient all the way up to national health policy.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from
reliable major media sources.

The CIAs Mop-Up Man: L.A. Times Reporter Cleared Stories With
Agency Before Publication
2014-09-04, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/04/former-l-times-reporter-cleared...
A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and
detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to
documents obtained by The Intercept. Email exchanges between CIA public affairs officers and
Ken Dilanian, now an Associated Press intelligence reporter who previously covered the CIA for
the Times, show that Dilanian enjoyed a closely collaborative relationship with the agency,
explicitly promising positive news coverage and sometimes sending the press office entire
story drafts for review prior to publication. In at least one instance, the CIAs reaction
appears to have led to significant changes in the story that was eventually published in the
Times. Dilanians emails were included in hundreds of pages of documents that the CIA turned
over in response to two FOIA requests seeking records on the agencys interactions with reporters.
They include email exchanges with reporters for the Associated Press, Washington Post, New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other outlets. In addition to Dilanians deferential relationship
with the CIAs press handlers, the documents show that the agency regularly invites journalists to
its McLean, Va., headquarters for briefings and other events.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing major media corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

MRAPs And Bayonets: What We Know About The Pentagon's 1033

Program
2014-09-02, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/02/342494225/mraps-and-bayonets-what-we-know-about...
Amid widespread criticism of the deployment of military-grade weapons and vehicles by police
officers in Ferguson, MO ... NPR obtained data from the Pentagon on every military item sent
to local, state and federal agencies through the Pentagon's Law Enforcement Support
Office known as the 1033 program from 2006 through April 23, 2014. We took the raw
data, analyzed it and have organized it. We are making that data set available to the public. The
1033 program is the key source of ... military items being sent to local law enforcement
[such as] mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs. More than 600 of them
have been sent ... mostly within the past year. The Pentagon has also distributed: 79,288 assault
rifles, 205 grenade launchers, 11,959 bayonets, 3,972 combat knives, $124 million worth of nightvision equipment, including night-vision sniper scopes, 479 bomb detonator robots, 50 airplanes,

422 helicopters, [and] more than $3.6 million worth of camouflage gear and other "deception
equipment." The list [also] includes building materials, musical instruments and even toiletries.
Congress authorized the 1033 program in 1989 to equip local, state and federal agencies in the
war on drugs. In 1996, Congress widened the program's scope to include counterterrorism. The
data do not confirm whether either of those public safety goals are, in fact, driving decisions.
Note: For more along these lines, see this Time Magazine article, which references a deeply
revealing ACLU report on the increasing militarization of American police.

Homeland Security was built to fend off terrorists. Why's it so busy

arming cops to fight average Americans?
2014-09-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/homeland-security-depart...
America has raged against the appalling behavior of the local police in Ferguson, Missouri, and for
good reason: automatic rifles pointed at protesters, tank-like armored trucks blocking marches, the
teargassing and arresting of reporters, tactics unfit even for war zones. [But ire] should also be
focused on the federal government agency that has enabled the rise of military police, and so
much more: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The 240,000-employee [agency] has
been the primary arms dealer for out-of-control local cops in Ferguson and beyond, handing out
tens of billions of dollars in grants for military equipment in the last decade with little to no
oversight. Police can act like paramilitary forces to combat the most mundane crimes without much
worry of the consequences. But the problem with DHS is much larger than just combat gear:
Homeland Security is also transferring tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in high-tech spying
technology to local police through a sprawling backroom operation surveilling your neighborhood,
much of which may be unconstitutional. DHS has its own fleet of Predator drones roaming the US
border and far beyond, which it has loaned out to police over 500 times. Homeland Security is
also handing out millions of dollars to local police to accelerate and facilitate the
adoption of smaller drones that police can fly themselves. Cops claim they want these
middleman drones for emergencies, but ... documents show theyll end up using them
for crowd control and intelligence gathering.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing terrorism news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Home Office worker investigating Rotherham child abuse 'had data

stolen'
2014-09-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/01/home-office-rotherham-child-ab...

A Home Office official who investigated the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham accused
the council of being involved in the unauthorised removal of information from her office. Her report
in 2002 suggested there were then more than 270 victims of the scandal, which was finally
exposed last week with revelations that at least 1,400 children were abused from 1997 to 2013.
She [said] that she had sent her report to both the council and the Home Office on a Friday, but
when she returned on Monday she found her office had been raided. "They'd gained access to the
office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets, there was one drawer emptied
and it was emptied of my data. It had to be an employee of the council," she said. The Home
Office researcher, [whose name was not released], also said she had been accused of being
insensitive when she told one official that most of the perpetrators were from Rotherham's
Pakistani community. A female colleague talked to her about the incident. "She said you
must never refer to that again you must never refer to Asian men. And her other response
was to book me on a two-day ethnicity and diversity course to raise my awareness of ethnic
issues." The Home Office researcher said that at one point the council tried to get her sacked and
the report was never published. A draft of the report severely criticised agencies working to tackle
the child exploitation in the area, including "alleged indifference towards, and ignorance of, child
sexual exploitation on the part of senior managers". It said: "Responsibility was continuously
placed on young people's shoulders rather than with the suspected abusers."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Nigeria Launches Electronic ID Cards

2014-08-28, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28970411
Nigeria's president has formally launched a national electronic identity card, which all
Nigerians will have to have by 2019 if they want to vote ... the first biometric card which can
also be used to make electronic payments. MasterCard is providing the prepaid payment element
and it hopes millions of Nigerians without bank accounts will now gain access to financial services.
An attempt to introduce national ID cards in Nigeria 10 years ago failed. Analysts blame corruption
for its failure. MasterCard said combining an identity card with a payment card for those aged 16
and over was a significant move. "It breaks down one of the most significant barriers to financial
inclusion - proof of identity," MasterCard's Daniel Monehin said in a statement. The new cards
show a person's photograph, name, age and unique ID number - and 10 fingerprints and an iris
are scanned during enrolment. These details are intended to ensure that there are no duplicates
on the system. During the pilot phase, which began registering names last October, 13 million
MasterCard-branded ID cards will be issued. There are enrolment centres in all 36 states and
there is no fee to get the card, though people will be charged in the event that it needs to be
replaced. The Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which is behind the
rollout, is trying to integrate several government databases including those for driving
licences, voter registration, health insurance, taxes and pensions.

Note: This identification scheme is underwritten by a major financial services company, and
directly connects a citizen's political identity, financial identity, and biological identity to a
centralized electronic database. To understand some of the dangers of this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing microchip implant news articles from reliable major media sources.

Journal questions validity of autism and vaccine study

2014-08-27, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/27/health/irpt-cdc-autism-vaccine-study/index.html
The debate over a link between autism and vaccines continues. A study published earlier this
month concluded African-American boys are more at risk for autism if they're given the
measles, mumps and rubella vaccine before the age of 2. The study author says
researchers at the [CDC] knew about the link in 2004 -- and covered it up. CDC researchers
are standing by their original findings: that there is no link between autism and vaccination
schedules. The new study was funded by the Focus Autism Foundation, which says it is dedicated
to exposing the causes of autism, "focusing on the role of vaccinations." The study has since been
removed from the public domain pending further investigation, according to Translational
Neurodegeneration. In an online statement, the scientific journal said the paper had been removed
"because of serious concerns about the validity of its conclusions." Brian Hooker, author of the
study and a biochemical engineer, found African-American boys who were given the MMR vaccine
before age 24 months were more likely to be diagnosed with autism. Hooker said he analyzed the
same set of data that was the basis for a 2004 study done by researchers at the [CDC]. Hooker
said he began his research after he was contacted by one of the original study authors, William
Thompson, in November 2013. Thompson is a senior scientist with the CDC, where he has worked
since 1998. Hooker said he believes the increased risk for African-American boys he found was
not identified in the CDC study because, by excluding children without birth certificates, the CDC
study results were skewed.
Note: For more on this study, read this news report. For more on this, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing vaccines news articles from reliable major media sources.

Prescription painkiller deaths fall in medical marijuana states

2014-08-25, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-us-medical-marijuana-deaths-20140825-sto...
Researchers aren't sure why, but in the 23 U.S. states where medical marijuana has been
legalized, deaths from opioid overdoses have decreased by almost 25 percent, according to a new
analysis. "Most of the discussion on medical marijuana has been about its effect on individuals in
terms of reducing pain or other symptoms," said lead author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber. "The unique
contribution of our study is the finding that medical marijuana laws and policies may have a
broader impact on public health." California, Oregon and Washington first legalized medical
marijuana before 1999, with 10 more following suit between then and 2010, the time period of the

analysis. Another 10 states and Washington, D.C. adopted similar laws since 2010. For the study,
Bachhuber, of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of
Pennsylvania, and his colleagues used state-level death certificate data for all 50 states between
1999 and 2010. In states with a medical marijuana law, overdose deaths from opioids like
morphine, oxycodone and heroin decreased by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25
percent by two years and up to 33 percent by years five and six compared to what would
have been expected, according to results in JAMA Internal Medicine. Meanwhile, opioid
overdose deaths across the country increased dramatically, from 4,030 in 1999 to 16,651 in 2010,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Three of every four of those
deaths involved prescription pain medications.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing mind-altering drug news
articles from reliable major media sources.

New Facebook Messenger App Has Some Frightening Terms And

Conditions
2014-08-18, Fox News (Memphis, Tennessee affiliate)
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/story/26248710/new-facebook-messenger-app-has-som...
Could your smartphone be recording video of you without you knowing it? And if so, who is on the
other end watching it? A new Facebook Messenger App could be violating your privacy. If
you download and install the social network's new messenger app to an android device,
you're giving Facebook permission to call or text people from your phone, delete your
personal data even access your camera microphone. Facebook says it only needs that access
to make your messaging experience better, and that these terms have been in place for months.
So why are we telling you about it now? That's because some mobile Facebook users are about to
find out you won't be able to access your messages through the Facebook app anymore. Instead if
you want to read a message from a friend or coworker you'll have to download the messenger app
and consent to any fine print. The messenger app has over 6000 reviews on the iTunes app store.
Most of them are not too positive. The real question is will people still download it? And as for the
people who did download it, it seems a lot are just choosing to disconnect.
Note: Many apps have terms and conditions that people never read before downloading the allow
the app developer to access and even change phone logs, record conversations, and much more.
Learn more in this eye-opening video. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing news articles about the erosion of privacy rights from reliable major media
sources.

Wheres the Justice at Justice?

2014-08-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-wheres-the-just...

Jim Risen is gruff. Attorney General Eric Holder wants to force Risen to testify and reveal the
identity of his confidential source on a story he had in his 2006 book concerning a bungled C.I.A.
operation during the Clinton administration in which agents might have inadvertently helped Iran
develop its nuclear weapon program. The tale made the C.I.A. look silly, which may have been
more of a sore point than a threat to national security. But Bush officials, no doubt still smarting
from Risens revelation of their illegal wiretapping, zeroed in on a disillusioned former C.I.A. agent
named Jeffrey Sterling as the source of the Iran story. The subpoena forcing Risens testimony
expired in 2009, and to the surprise of just about everybody, the constitutional law professors
administration renewed it kicking off its strange and awful aggression against reporters and
whistle-blowers. Why dont they back off Risen? How can [Obama] use the Espionage Act to throw
reporters and whistle-blowers in jail even as he defends the intelligence operatives who tortured
some folks, and coddles his C.I.A. chief, John Brennan, who spied on the Senate and then lied to
the senators he spied on about it? Its hypocritical, Risen said. A lot of people still think
this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They dont want to believe that Obama wants to
crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. Hes the greatest enemy to
press freedom in a generation. Risen points to recent stories about the administration pressing
an unprecedented initiative known as the Insider Threat Program.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government secrecy news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Three-Wheeled Elio Gets Closer to Going on Sale

2014-08-15, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/wheeled-elio-closer-sale-24991923
Your next commuter car could have two seats, three wheels and get 84 miles to the gallon. Elio
Motors wants to revolutionize U.S. roads with its tiny car, which is the same length as a Honda Fit
but half the weight. With a starting price of $6,800, it's also less than half the cost. Phoenix-based
Elio plans to start making the cars next fall at a former General Motors plant in Shreveport,
Louisiana. Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved one. Elio hopes to make 250,000 cars
a year by 2016. Because it has three wheels two in front and one in the rear the Elio is
actually classified as a motorcycle by the U.S. government. But Elio Motors founder Paul Elio says
the vehicle has all the safety features of a car, like anti-lock brakes, front and side air bags and a
steel cage that surrounds the occupants. Drivers won't be required to wear helmets or have
motorcycle licenses. The Elio's two seats sit front and back instead of side by side, so the
driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind. The Elio has a threecylinder, 0.9-liter engine and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. It gets an
estimated 84 mpg on the highway and 49 mpg in city driving. Elio keeps the costs down in
several ways. The car only has one door, on the left side, which shaves a few hundred dollars off
the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It will be offered in just two
configurations with a manual or automatic transmission and it has standard air conditioning,
power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features, such as navigation or blindspot detection, can be ordered.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing alternative automotive
technology news articles from reliable major media sources.

Warrior cops on steroids: How post-9/11 hysteria created a policing

monster
2014-08-15, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/15/warrior_cops_on_steroids_how_post_911_hysteri...
Sometime after 9/11 strange stories began to emerge about small town police agencies all over
the nation receiving grants from the newly formed Department of Homeland Security to buy all
kinds of high-tech equipment to fight terrorism. As Radley Balko thoroughly documented in his
book Rise of the Warrior Cop the military industrial complex has created a new industry: the police
industrial complex. Since 9/11 the United States has been spending vast sums of money
through DHS to outfit the state and local authorities with surveillance and military gear
ostensibly to fight the terrorist threat at home. What we have been seeing in Ferguson,
Missouri, these past few days is largely a result of that program and an entire industry has
grown up around it. In less than a month a group of militarized police equipment vendors across
the nation will be gathering for an annual confab called Urban Shield in Oakland, California. It
features dozens of sponsors, from the Department of Homeland Security and police agencies all
over the country to such vendors as Armored Mobility Inc. The Department of Homeland Security
disburses somewhere in the vicinity of $3 billion a year for this sort of thing. Add in the loot thats
legally appropriated by police agencies in the war on drugs and you have a massive incentive to
turn the streets of Ferguson, Missouri ... into a scene that looks more like the siege of Fallujah.
Weve been spending billions of taxpayer dollars for decades to turn the streets of urban
America into a war zone at the merest hint of dissent. And now its here.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing military corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

GOP suit claims a right to corruption

2014-08-14, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/GOP-suit-claims-a-right-to-corruption-5...
Wall Street is one of the biggest sources of funding for presidential campaigns, and many of the
Republican Party's potential 2016 contenders are governors. And so, last week, the GOP filed a
federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the ... law that bars those governors from raising campaign
money from Wall Street executives who manage their states' pension funds. In this case, New
York's and Tennessee's Republican parties are represented by two former Bush administration
officials, one of whose firms just won the Supreme Court case invalidating campaign contribution
limits on large donors. In their complaint, the parties argue that people managing state pension
money have a First Amendment right to make large donations to state officials who award those
lucrative money management contracts. With the $3 trillion public pension system controlled

by elected officials now generating billions of dollars worth of management fees for Wall
Street, Securities and Exchange Commission regulators originally passed the rule to make
sure retirees' money wasn't being handed out based on politicians' desire to pay back their
campaign donors. The suit comes only a few weeks after the SEC issued its first fines under the
rule - against a firm whose executives made campaign donations to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
Corbett, a Republican, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Democrat. In a statement on that
case, the SEC promised more enforcement of the pay-to-play rule in the future. The GOP lawsuit
aims to stop that promise from becoming a reality.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Embracing flag, Snowden says he hopes to return to U.S.

2014-08-13, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/13/snowden-wired-flag/13995013/
Development of a U.S. counterattack for cyberterrorism that could do more harm than good was
one of the final events that drove Edward Snowden to leak government secrets, the former
National Security Agency contractor tells Wired magazine. Snowden ... said the MonsterMind
program was designed to detect a foreign cyberattack and keep it from entering the country. But it
also would automatically fire back. The problem, he said, is malware can be routed through an
innocent third-party country. "These attacks can be spoofed," he told Wired. MonsterMind for
example ... could accidentally start a war. And it's the ultimate threat to privacy because it requires
the NSA to gain access to virtually all private communications coming in from overseas. "The
argument is that the only way we can identify these malicious traffic flows and respond to them is if
we're analyzing all traffic flows," he said. "And if we're analyzing all traffic flows, that means
we have to be intercepting all traffic flows. That means violating the Fourth Amendment,
seizing private communications without a warrant, without probable cause or even a
suspicion of wrongdoing. For everyone, all the time. You get exposed to a little bit of evil, a
little bit of rule-breaking, a little bit of dishonesty, a little bit of deceptiveness, a little bit of disservice
to the public interest, and you can brush it off, you can come to justify it," Snowden told Wired. "But
if you do that, it creates a slippery slope that just increases over time. And by the time you've been
in 15 years, 20 years, 25 years, you've seen it all and it doesn't shock you. And so you see it as
normal."
Note: Read the cover story from Wired magazine with a deep inside report on Snowden.

Oil a key motive for U.S. air strikes in Iraq

2014-08-12, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Oil-a-key-motive-for-U-S-ai...

This week's U.S. air strikes in northern Iraq are being accompanied with an undertow of "it's all
about oil" talk. Take for example, Columbia School of Journalism Dean Steve Coll's observation in
The New Yorker, that "Obama's defense of Erbil (capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish
region) is effectively the defense of an undeclared Kurdish oil state." It's no secret that Iraqi
Kurdistan has an abundance of oil reserves, nor that U.S. oil companies, like [Chevron] are
busy exploring there. Chevron has three "production sharing contracts" with the Kurdish
government, covering a combined 444,000 acres, north of Irbil, where it's in the early testing and
drilling stage. And it likes what it sees. Asked for an update, a Chevron spokesman said Monday,
"We continue monitoring the situation. We remain in regular contact with the Kurdistan Regional
Government and are dedicated to supporting the (Kurdistan Region of Iraq) in developing its
natural resources." A potentially bigger worry for both Chevron and the Kurds .. could be if Iraq did
stabilize and unite, with Kurdistan under its umbrella. For Chevron ... a new arrangement in Iraq
could entail the renegotiation of contracts it has with the Kurds, which by the way, Baghdad
refused to recognize. Kurdistan's oil pipeline via Turkey continues to pump out oil - 120,000
barrels per day.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing military corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Oil companies fracking into drinking water sources, new research

shows
2014-08-12, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-fracking-groundwater-pavillion-20140811-s...
Energy companies are fracking for oil and gas at far shallower depths than widely believed,
sometimes through underground sources of drinking water, according to research released [on
August 12] by Stanford University scientists. Fracking involves high-pressure injection of millions of
gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals to crack geological formations and tap previously
unreachable oil and gas reserves. Fracking fluids contain a host of chemicals, including known
carcinogens and neurotoxins. Fears about possible water contamination and air pollution have fed
resistance in communities around the country. Fracking into underground drinking water sources is
not prohibited by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which exempted the practice from key provisions of
the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the industry has long held that it does not hydraulically fracture
into underground sources of drinking water because oil and gas deposits sit far deeper than
aquifers. The study, however, found that energy companies used acid stimulation ... and
hydraulic fracturing in the Wind River and Fort Union geological formations that make up
the Pavillion gas field and that contain both natural gas and sources of drinking water.
Thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and millions of gallons of fluids containing numerous
inorganic and organic additives were injected directly into these two formations during
hundreds of stimulation events, concluded Dominic DiGiulio and Robert Jackson of Stanfords
School of Earth Sciences.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

NYT Will Use The Word Torture, Finally

2014-08-07, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/07/nyt-torture_n_5659997.html
The New York Times announced on [August 7] that it will use the word torture to describe the
United States' controversial interrogation tactics on terror suspects. "From now on, The Times
will use the word torture to describe incidents in which we know for sure that
interrogators inflicted pain on a prisoner in an effort to get information," said Times
executive editor Dean Baquet. In the past, the Times had been sharply criticized for not
using the word torture. Instead, [it] had referred to torture as "brutal interrogation," or similar
epithets. The Times is hardly the only major media outlet to avoid using the word "torture." Reuters
referred to the tactics as "brutal interrogation methods" and the AP has called them "enhanced
interrogation techniques." The media have been accused of following along with President Bush's
denial that the U.S. does not use torture. Banquet [says] that "while the methods set off a national
debate, the Justice Department insisted that the techniques did not rise to the legal definition of
'torture.' Baquet said that reporters and editors had debated the issue in wake of the Senate
Intelligence Committee's torture report, which has yet to be released. Last week, President Obama
admitted that the CIA "tortured some folks" in post-9/11 anti-terror efforts.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing media cover-ups news articles
from reliable major media sources.

New leaker disclosing U.S. secrets, government concludes

2014-08-06, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/politics/u-s-new-leaker
The federal government has concluded there's a new leaker exposing national security
documents in the aftermath of surveillance disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden, U.S. officials tell CNN. Proof of the newest leak comes from national security
documents that formed the basis of a news story published [August 5] by the Intercept, the news
site launched by Glenn Greenwald, who also published Snowden's leaks. The Intercept article
focuses on the growth in U.S. government databases of known or suspected terrorist names
during the Obama administration. The article cites documents prepared by the National
Counterterrorism Center dated August 2013, which is after Snowden left the United States to avoid
criminal charges. Government officials have been investigating to find out that identity. In a
February interview with CNN's Reliable Sources, Greenwald said: "I definitely think it's fair
to say that there are people who have been inspired by Edward Snowden's courage and by
the great good and virtue that it has achieved." The biggest database, called the Terrorist
Identities Datamart Environment, now has 1 million names, a U.S. official confirmed to CNN. The

Intercept first reported the new TIDE database numbers, along with details of other databases. As
of November, 2013, there were 700,000 people listed in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB),
or the "Terrorist Watchlist, according to a U.S. official. The Intercept report said, citing the
documents, that 40% on the "Terrorist Watchlist" aren't affiliated with terror groups.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing 'terror' manipulation news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Why do two white Americans get the Ebola serum while hundreds of
Africans die?
2014-08-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/06/why-do-two-white-a...
What should happen if a massive viral outbreak appears out of nowhere and the only possible
treatment is an untested drug? And who should receive it? The two American missionaries who
contracted the almost-always-fatal virus in West Africa were given access to an experimental drug
cocktail called ZMapp. It consists of immune-boosting monoclonal antibodies that were extracted
from mice exposed to bits of Ebola DNA. Now in isolation at an Atlanta hospital, they appear to be
doing well. Its an opportunity the 900 Africans whove died so far never had. The reasons for
different treatment are partly about logistics, partly about economics and, partly about a
lack of any standard policy for giving out untested drugs in emergencies. Before this
outbreak, ZMapp had only been tested on monkeys. But privileged humans were always
going to be the first ones to try it. ZMapp requires a lot of refrigeration and careful handling,
plus close monitoring by experienced doctors and scientistsbetter to try it at a big urban hospital
than in rural West Africa, where no such infrastructure exists. And the two Americans who got it in
Africa had been infected for more than a week, making its efficacy completely unknown.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Ebola virus: British experts urge US and WHO to give Africans cure
2014-08-06, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-outbreak-british-experts...
Three of Britains leading Ebola specialists have said experimental treatments for the deadly Ebola
virus must be offered to the people of West Africa, after two US aid workers were administered
with the cure in Liberia. The two missionaries, Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, are alive and
now being cared for at a specialist isolation unit in Atlanta. Though the pair remain weak and
there is no way of knowing at this stage how much of a help the new drug has actually been
the fact that it was given to the two Americans has resulted in widespread criticism and
recriminations in West Africa. Almost 900 people have died from the Ebola virus across
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the latest outbreak began in February this year.

Some strains can have fatality rates of up to 90 per cent, though that of the current crisis appears
to be around 60 per cent. Now Peter Piot, who discovered Ebola in 1976, David Heymann, the
director of the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security and Jeremy Farrar from the
Wellcome Trust have said there are in fact several drugs and vaccines under study that could be
used to combat the disease. Liberias assistant health minister, Tolbert Nyenswah, said that the
news of Dr Brantly and Ms Writebols treatment had made our job very difficult as dying patients
and their relatives in Africa request the same cure. The US aid workers were given ZMapp, a
drug made from antibodies produced in a lab that has never gone through human trials or been
approved by the USs FDA Food and Drug Administration. Piot, Farrar and Heymann questioned
why Africans were not being given the same chance.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Barack Obamas Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers

2014-08-05, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/08/05/watch-commander
Nearly half of the people on the U.S. governments widely shared database of terrorist suspects
are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents
obtained by The Intercept. Of the 680,000 people caught up in the governments Terrorist
Screening Databasea watchlist of known or suspected terrorists that is shared with
local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governmentsmore than
40 percent are described by the government as having no recognized terrorist group
affiliation. The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that
the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist
screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list
more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000. If everything is terrorism, then nothing is
terrorism, says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he
adds, is revving out of control. The classified documents were prepared by the National
Counterterrorism Center, the lead agency for tracking individuals with suspected links to
international terrorism. Stamped SECRET and NOFORN (indicating they are not to be shared
with foreign governments), they offer the most complete numerical picture of the watchlisting
system to date. The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing
subjects, at a rate of 900 records each day.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing 'terror' manipulation news
articles from reliable major media sources.

NASA approves 'impossible' space engine design that apparently

violates the laws of physics and could revolutionise space travel

2014-08-04, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-approves-impossible-space-engi...
In a quiet announcement that has sent shockwaves through the scientific world, NASA has
cautiously given its seal of approval to a new type of impossible engine that could revolutionize
space travel. In a paper published by the agencys experimental Eagleworks Laboratories, NASA
engineers confirmed that they had produced tiny amounts of thrust from an engine without
propellant an apparent violation of the conservation of momentum; the law of physics that states
that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. NASAs engineers have tested an
engine known as a Cannae Drive, a machine [that] uses electricity to generate
microwaves, bouncing them around inside a specially designed container that theoretically
creates a difference in radiation pressure and so results in directional thrust. In an ordinary
engine the rocket moves forward as fuel is flung backwards - the momentum of the rocket (a
measure of both its mass and velocity combined) is 'conserved' because it is moved from the
rocket to the fuel. However, with the Cannae Drive there is no fuel - the microwaves aren't expelled
from the engine. NASAs scientists tested a version of the drive designed by US scientist Guido
Fetta and found that the propellantless engine was able to produce between 30 and 50
micronewtons of thrust a tiny amount (0.00003 to 0.00005 per cent of the force of an iPhone
pressing down when held in the hand) but still a great deal more than nothing.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing new energy technologies
news articles from reliable major media sources.

U.S. Senate report to suggest harsh CIA interrogations were

unnecessary
2014-08-01, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-cia-tor...
A U.S. Senate committee report will conclude that the CIA's use of harsh interrogation after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks yielded no critical intelligence on terrorist plots that could not
have been obtained through non-coercive methods, U.S. officials familiar with the document
said. [The] report [is] expected to suggest that the "enhanced" techniques were unnecessary and
also to accuse some CIA officers of misleading Congress about the effectiveness of the program.
Officials said the Senate Intelligence Committee was unlikely to release the report to the public
without some additional review. "A preliminary review of the report indicates there have been
significant redactions. We need additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and
determine their justification. Therefore the report will be held until further notice and released when
that process is completed," Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee's chair, said.
Committee investigators also concluded that the agency misled other executive branch
agencies and Congress by claiming that only by using harsh methods did the agency
achieve ... counter-terrorism breakthroughs that otherwise would not have been possible.
The report will criticize some CIA officials by name, the officials said.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

FBI Defends Search for Oklahoma City Bombing Video

2014-07-29, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trial-opening-video-oklahoma-city-bombing-...
The FBI thoroughly searched its archives and found no evidence that more videos of the
Oklahoma City bombing exist, agency employees told a judge [on July 28] in a trial that has
rekindled questions about whether any others were involved in the 1995 attack. Additional
searches for videos that Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue believes are being withheld would
be burdensome and fruitless, FBI attorney Kathryn Wyer argued during the first day of a bench
trial. Trentadue says the agency is refusing to release videos that show a second person was with
Timothy McVeigh when he parked a truck outside the Oklahoma City federal building and
detonated a bomb that killed 168 people. The government says McVeigh was alone. [But] the
30 video recordings the FBI has released don't show the explosion or McVeigh's arrival in a
rental truck. Unsatisfied by the FBI's previous explanations and citing the public
importance of the tapes, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has ordered the agency to
explain why it can't find videos that are mentioned in evidence logs. Trentadue believes the
presence of a second suspect explains why his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, was flown to
Oklahoma several months after the bombing, where he died in a federal holding cell. Kenneth
Trentadue bore a striking resemblance to a police sketch based on witness descriptions of the
enigmatic suspect "John Doe No. 2," who was never identified..
Note: There is strong evidence of a major cover-up in the Oklahoma City bombing. See this Wall
Street Journal article, this Associated Press article, this ABC News article, and this Deseret News
article for examples.

Morrison accused of 'state sanctioned child abuse'

2014-07-29, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/morrison-accused-of-sta...
A group of Catholic and Anglican church leaders have accused the ... government of ''statesanctioned child abuse'' in the immigration detention system, and called for Immigration Minister
Scott Morrison to step down from his position as guardian for all unaccompanied minors. Leaders
from nine Christian denominations, which form the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, [have
released] a report [with] recommendations to the ... government to improve the wellbeing and
treatment of children in onshore and offshore immigration detention centres. The church leaders ...
say the church has learnt a painful lesson from decades of child abuse within their congregations.
Reverend Peter Catt, the Anglican Dean of Brisbane said: ''We have the absolute duty to make
sure the events that came out from the Royal Commission aren't repeated in any setting.
Institutional child abuse occurs in many different settings and it's illegal, it's horrific and

it's unacceptable.'' The recommendations in the report include ending closed detention for
all unaccompanied children; providing institutional child welfare and protection; and
replacing the Immigration Minister as the guardian of about 135 unaccompanied asylum seeker
children who are being held in onshore and offshore centres. There are about 4330 children in
immigration detention - most of them living in the community. ''The Minister forsakes his
guardianship duties when he sends unaccompanied children to the detention camp in Nauru,''
says the report, titled Protecting the Lonely Children. The report said there was clear evidence that
children are experiencing ''terrible physical and mental suffering''.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Corporate Artful Dodgers

2014-07-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/opinion/paul-krugman-tax-avoidance-du-jour-...
On current trends, were heading toward a world in which only the human people pay taxes. Were
not quite there yet: The federal government still gets a tenth of its revenue from corporate profits
taxation. But it used to get a lot more a third of revenue came from profits taxes in the early
1950s, a quarter or more well into the 1960s. Part of the decline since then reflects a fall in the tax
rate, but mainly it reflects ever-more-aggressive corporate tax avoidance avoidance that
politicians have done little to prevent. Which brings us to the tax-avoidance strategy du jour:
inversion. This refers to a legal maneuver in which a company declares that its U.S.
operations are owned by its foreign subsidiary, not the other way around, and uses this role
reversal to shift reported profits out of American jurisdiction to someplace with a lower tax
rate. The most important thing to understand about inversion is that it does not in any meaningful
sense involve American business moving overseas. Consider the case of Walgreen, the giant
drugstore chain that, according to multiple reports, is on the verge of making itself legally Swiss. If
the plan goes through, nothing about the business will change; your local pharmacy wont close
and reopen in Zurich. It will be a purely paper transaction but it will deprive the U.S. government
of several billion dollars in revenue that you, the taxpayer, will have to make up one way or
another.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Before Snowden: The Whistleblowers Who Tried To Lift The Veil

2014-07-22, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/22/333741495/before-snowden-the-whistleblowers-who...

Bill Binney worked at the National Security Agency [for] nearly three decades as one of its leading
crypto-mathematicians. He then became one of its leading whistleblowers. The NSA is overseen
by Congress, the courts and other government departments. It's also supposed to be watched
from the inside by its own workers. But over the past dozen years, whistleblowers like Binney have
had a rough track record. Those who tried unsuccessfully to work within the system say Edward
Snowden the former National Security Agency contractor who shared top-secret documents
with reporters learned from their bitter experience. For Binney, the decision to quit the NSA and
become a whistleblower began a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he
says he discovered the spy agency had begun using software he'd created to scoop up
information on Americans all without a court order. "I had to get out of there, because they
were using the program I built to do domestic spying, and I didn't want any part of it, I didn't
want to be associated with it," he says. "I look at it as basically treason. They were
subverting the Constitution." Binney says he and two other NSA colleagues who also quit tried
sounding the alarm with congressional committees. But because they did not have documents to
prove their charges, nobody believed them. Snowden, he says, did not repeat that mistake. "He
recognized right away, it was very clear to me, that if he wanted anybody to believe him, he'd have
to take a lot of documentation with him which is what he did," Binney says.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing intelligence agency operations
news articles from reliable major media sources.

India six-year-old 'raped in Bangalore school by staff members'

2014-07-17, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-28340617
A six-year-old schoolgirl has allegedly been raped by two staff members at a prominent
school in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, police say. Hundreds of parents have
protested outside the school, pulling down its gates and shouting slogans. Police have
registered a case, but they are yet to make any arrests. India's sluggish judicial system means it
can take years for victims to get justice. New Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised a zero
tolerance approach on crimes against women, but violence and discrimination against women
remain deeply entrenched in society. The girl was allegedly raped by a security guard and a gym
teacher, but as there are multiple guards and gym instructors in the school, police say they are
trying to identify the guilty. As news of the incident became public, hundreds of parents gathered
outside the school, protesting against the alleged insensitivity of the school management. Scrutiny
of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi
bus. The brutal crime led to massive outrage in the country and forced the government to
introduce tougher anti-rape laws, including the death penalty in rare cases. But the law appears to
have failed to act as a deterrent. Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau for 2013 show
one rape was reported every 21 minutes.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Cyril Smith: MP's friend made 'veiled threats' to police

2014-07-16, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-28330779
A high-ranking friend of Cyril Smith tried to warn off police investigating claims that he had been
sexually abusing boys, a report reveals. A senior detective investigating the claims against Smith
said a magistrate made "veiled threats" to officers. The detective's 1970 report to the Chief
Constable of Lancashire said there was "prima facie" evidence of the MP's guilt. The Director of
Public Prosecution later advised against prosecuting. The 14-page report by the detective
superintendent ... said that Smith would have been "at the mercy of a competent counsel",
but also reported that the MP's magistrate "buddy" had warned of "unfortunate
repercussions for the police force and the town of Rochdale" should he be prosecuted.
Smith was interviewed by the detective superintendent, who reported to former chief constable
William Palfrey that "it seems impossible to excuse [Smith's] conduct". "Over a considerable period
of time, while sheltering beneath a veneer of responsibility, he has used his unique position to
indulge in a series of indecent episodes with young boys towards whom he had a special
responsibility," he wrote. He said Smith was "most unimpressive during my interview with him".
The officer said: "He had difficulty in articulating and even the stock replies he proffered could only
be obtained after repeated promptings from his solicitor. "Were he ever to be placed in the witness
box, he would be at the mercy of any competent counsel. Prima facie, he appears guilty of
numerous offences of indecent assault." The officer reported that he interviewed the magistrate
who told him in his "personal opinion" he "sincerely hoped that this matter is not prosecuted before
the court".
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse news articles
from reliable major media sources.

BRICS nations to create $100bn development bank

2014-07-15, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28317555
The leaders of the five BRICS countries have signed a deal to create a new $100bn development
bank and emergency reserve fund. The BRICS group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa. The capital for the bank will be split equally among the five participating
countries. The bank will have a headquarters in Shanghai, China and the first president for the
bank will come from India. Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, announced the creation of the bank
at a BRICS summit meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil on [July 15]. Despite their political and
economic differences, the one thing these countries do agree upon is that rich countries
have too much power in institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Rousseff's comments
made that feeling crystal clear - the BRICS countries, she said, have the power to introduce
positive changes - ones that they think are more equal and fair. At first, the bank will start off
with $50bn in initial capital. The emergency reserve fund - which was announced as a

"Contingency Reserve Arrangement" - will also have $100bn, and will help developing nations
avoid "short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation, strengthen the global
financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements". The creation of the
BRICS bank will almost surely create competition for both the World Bank and other similar
regional funds.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Scott Volkers: Swimming coach accused of child abuse 'too good to

sack'
2014-07-10, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/scott-volkers-swimming-coach-accused-of-child-abuse...
When Australia's Susie O'Neill claimed the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she
dedicated her victory to Scott Volkers, the swimming coach who had taken over her training two
years earlier. By this time, three women who had been Volkers' students were losing belief in
themselves and the swimming community. Julie Gilbert, Kylie Rogers and Simone Boyce took the
stand at the royal commission into child abuse in Sydney this week to describe their mental
breakdowns, eating disorders, anxiety and isolation from a swimming hierarchy that refused to
believe them or failed to explore the possibility that Volkers molested them as girls aged 12 to 18
in the 1980s. Volkers remained on the payroll of elite Australian swimming institutions until 2010,
when he was finally forced to move to Brazil, where he still works as a leading coach. Was it
Australia's win-at-all-costs swimming culture that kept him in the presence of young
athletes? An exasperated Andrew Boe, the lawyer representing Gilbert, Rogers and Boyce,
pointed out: "This is not an examination of whether he was a good swimming coach or
not." Nor is it an examination of the guilt or innocence of Volkers against whom charges
concerning these three alleged victims were dropped in 2002 or other swimming coaches. It is
an inquiry into the institutional responses to abuse. Swimming Australia's association with Volkers
[ended] in 2005, when the coach's fourth accuser came forward with claims that Volkers had
groped her breasts and attempted to stimulate her vagina in the late 1990s, when she was 15. The
allegations were very similar to the earlier cases.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn't
compete
2014-07-07, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/07/solar-has-won-even-if-co...

Last week ... the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland fell into negative territory in the
middle of the day. For several days the price, normally around $40-$50 a megawatt hour, hovered
in and around zero. Prices were deflated throughout the week, largely because of the influence of
one of the newest, biggest power stations in the state rooftop solar. Negative pricing moves, as
they are known, are not uncommon. But they are only supposed to happen at night, when most of
the population is mostly asleep, [and] demand is down That's not supposed to happen at
lunchtime. Daytime prices are supposed to reflect higher demand, when people are awake, office
buildings are in use, factories are in production. That's when fossil fuel generators would normally
be making most of their money. The influx of rooftop solar has turned this model on its head.
The impact has been so profound, and wholesale prices pushed down so low, that few coal
generators in Australia made a profit last year. Hardly any are making a profit this year.
State-owned generators like Stanwell are specifically blaming rooftop solar. The problem for
Australian consumers [comes] in the cost of delivery of [electricity] through the transmission and
distribution networks, and from retail costs and taxes. This is the cost which is driving households
to take up rooftop solar, in such proportions that the level of rooftop solar is forecast ... to rise
sixfold over the next decade. Households are tipped to spend up to $30bn on rooftop modules. It
is not clear how centralised, fossil-fuel generation can adapt. In an energy democracy, even
free coal has no value.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Child abuse 'may well have been' covered up - Norman Tebbit

2014-07-06, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-28182373
A former cabinet minister has said there "may well have been" a political cover-up of child sex
abuse in the 1980s. Lord Tebbit told the Andrew Marr Show the culture at the time was to protect
"the establishment" rather than delving "too far" into such claims. His comments come after it
emerged that the Home Office could not locate 114 potentially relevant files. Current MP Keith Vaz
said files had been lost "on an industrial scale". The government has rejected calls for an overarching public inquiry into the various allegations of child abuse from that era. Lord Tebbit, who
served in various ministerial roles under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, said at the time
people had an "almost unconscious" tendency to protect "the system". "And if a few things
had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to
delve too far into them," he said. "That view was wrong." Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who
chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said there had been a "veil of secrecy over the
establishment" for far too long. The Home Office's 2013 review found 527 potentially relevant files
which it had kept, but a further 114 were missing, destroyed or "not found". Mr Vaz, chair of the
Home Affairs Committee, said this represented loss of files "on an industrial scale" and it was "a
huge surprise" that so much potential evidence had gone missing.

Note: The truth is gradually coming out. To learn how child sex abuse rings lead to the highest
levels of government, watch this highly revealing Discovery Channel documentary.

Stressed at work? Meditating really does work - and you'll see a

difference in just three days, say researchers
2014-07-04, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2681138/Stressed-work-Meditati...
Meditating can have an almost instant effect on reducing stress, researchers have found.
They say three consecutive days of 25 minute sessions can have a dramatic effect.
Researchers studied 'mindful[ness] meditation' - a technique developed in the 1970s. Inspired by
ancient Buddhist meditation, mindfulness courses were developed in the late 1970s by US doctors
to combat stress. The guiding principle is to live more in the moment, spending less time going
over past stresses and worrying about future problems. Techniques include moving the focus of
attention around the body and observing sensations that arise the so-called body scan. A
secular practice, it is said to help people recognise and overcome negative thoughts while noticing
small pleasures. 'More and more people report using meditation practices for stress reduction, but
we know very little about how much you need to do for stress reduction and health benefits,' said
lead author J. David Creswell. For the study, Creswell and his research team had 66 healthy
individuals aged 18-30 years old participate in a three-day experiment. Some participants went
through a brief mindfulness meditation training program; for 25 minutes for three consecutive days,
the individuals were given breathing exercises to help them monitor their breath and pay attention
to their present moment experiences. The participants who received the brief mindfulness
meditation training reported reduced stress perceptions to ... speech and math tasks,
indicating that the mindfulness meditation fostered psychological stress resilience.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

MP burgled after handing paedophile dossier to Leon Brittan

2014-07-02, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10942103/MP-burgled-after-handin...
The home of an MP who compiled a dossier alleging paedophile activity within Westminster was
burgled twice in suspicious circumstances around the time he took it to the authorities, his son has
said. Barry Dickens said nothing was taken in what appeared to be two "very professional"
intrusions into his father Geoffrey's home in 1983, leading to suspicions they may have
been related to his attempt to expose alleged abuse. He said he did not know what had
happened to an apparent second copy of the dossier after the Home Office admitted one
which it received for investigation at the time appeared to have been destroyed. "My parents had
two burglaries at the time close to it without anything being taken, which seemed a very
professional job the way they were carried out," Mr Dickens whose father died in 1995 [said].

He said the dossier contained concerns and worries expressed to the MP about the behaviour of
''those with a high profile, in an office or high status'' and questioned its subsequent
disappearance. He said his father had been motivated to take on the cause of vulnerable young
people by his own difficult childhood in a succession of foster homes and that he would be pleased
that the case had become public now. Backing a public inquiry, [he] added: "A lot of people came
forward with facts. I think it does need doing and finishing."
Note: See powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government

Rolf Harris child sex abuse education video surfaces after entertainer
found guilty in London court
2014-07-01, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/world/rolf-harris-child-sex-abuse-education-video-surfa...
Rolf Harris, then a trusted and beloved entertainer, strolls into [the] shot flanked by four youngsters
[in] what is now an unsettling 20-minute long anti-child-abuse video that prosecutors planned to
play for the jury at Harris indecent assault trial. Overnight, Harris was declared guilty of all 12
charges of indecent assault against four girls, from 1968 to 1986. The video, called 'Kids Can
Say No', was developed in the mid-1980s, when he was indecently assaulting young women
and girls - including one as young as seven or eight. Harris had commissioned and fronted
the child protection video, with endorsement from the National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, after being inspired by similar programs in Australia. In the period when the
video began to be widely shown in schools, youth clubs and health institutes in the United
Kingdom, the court found he was also having sexual encounters with his daughters best friend. In
1986, he had sexually abused an eight-year-old girl at a community centre near her home when
Harris performed Two Little Boys for the children.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Guiding Rage Into Power

2014-06-30, Daily Good
http://www.dailygood.org/story/770/guiding-rage-into-power-janis-daddona
Us versus them is not a paradigm that Jacques Verduin buys into. As the founder and director of
the prison program Insight-Out, he believes that prison serves a purpose for people who cannot
contain themselves when they act dangerously, but he has also learned that none of us is much
different from the incarcerated. Thankfully Jacques has shown that the empowerment and
transformation of prisoners is a big part of what prison reform looks like, and San Quentin State
Prison has become a successful social experiment that is one of the best-kept secrets around. His
programs, the Insight Prison Project and Insight-Out, are teaching prisoners to transform rage and

pain into a positive force in the prison community as well as their own neighborhoods. In a yearlong program participants make bonds with each other that transcend age [and] racial, economic,
and gang differences. It takes time, but as group members get comfortable with the concept, they
practice sitting in the fire. As Jacques explains, By sitting with their own primary pain
the pain that initiated them into a suppression of their feelingsand their secondary pain
the pain associated with hurting othersthey find strength in the midst of their
overwhelming emotions. They need a support system to share their struggle of living up to these
expectations. Shame runs deep in all of us. We all need a support system to help us connect with
our wounded but more authentic self. Rather than fix ourselves, which assumes something is
wrong with us, lets accept and talk about our warts. By being vulnerable we take the power out of
shame. Thats where authenticity lies.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Covering New War, in Shadow of Old One

2014-06-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/public-editor/covering-new-war-in-shadow-of...
The lead-up to the war in Iraq in 2003 was not The Timess finest hour. Some of the news
reporting was flawed, driven by outside agendas and lacking in needed skepticism. Many Op-Ed
columns promoted the idea of a war that turned out to be both unfounded and disastrous. Readers
have not forgotten. In recent weeks, with Iraq in chaos, military intervention there again has been
under consideration, and readers are on high alert. Given The Timess troubled history when it
comes to this subject, readers have good reason to be wary about what appears in the
paper about military intervention in Iraq. Many readers have complained ... that The Times
is amplifying the voices of hawkish neoconservatives and serving as a megaphone for
anonymously sourced administration leaks, while failing to give voice to those who oppose
intervention. The readers have a point worth considering. On the Op-Ed pages and in the news
columns, there have been very few outside voices of those who opposed the war last time, or
those who reject the use of force now. But the neoconservatives and interventionists are certainly
being heard. A recent profile of the historian Robert Kagan, a leading proponent of the invasion of
Iraq in 2003 who is once more in the news, was one focus of sharp reader criticism. The coverage
has not featured the kind of in-depth attention that readers want as a counterbalance to pieces like
the one on Mr. Kagan.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing media corruption news articles
from reliable major media sources.

Insights challenging science's unshakable 'truths'

2014-06-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/29/five-insights-challenging-scie...

We have come to think that if something is "in our genes", it is our inevitable destiny. However, this
is a gross oversimplification. We have each inherited a particular set of genes, but the outcome of
that inheritance is not fixed. Our environment, diet and circumstance flood our bodies with
molecules that switch the genes on or off. The result can make a huge difference to our destiny
and that of our descendants. One example of these "epigenetic" changes occurs when a bundle of
carbon and hydrogen atoms known as a methyl group attaches itself to the DNA and changes the
way its instructions are carried out. Methyl groups often come from what we eat. Lack of food
seems to have an epigenetic effect, too. A study of Dutch women starved by the Nazis during the
second world war ... found elevated levels of schizophrenia, breast cancer and heart disease. The
data suggest that the alterations to which genes are turned on or off survive at least two
generations: the one that suffered in the womb during the famine, and their children. They may go
much further. A 2011 study published by researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California,
demonstrated epigenetic mutations that lasted for at least 30 generations in plants. What you eat,
what your mother ate, the age when your grandfather started smoking, the amount of
pollution in your neighbourhood these factors have all been linked to epigenetic changes
that get passed down through the generations. Armed with this new insight, we can take far
more control of our health and the health of future generations.
Note: For a truly engaging and revolutionary book on this topic, read The Biology of Belief by
Bruce Lipton, a top researcher in the field of cell biology. For more on this, see concise summaries
of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

Five insights challenging science's unshakable 'truths'

2014-06-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/29/five-insights-challenging-scie...
1. Lifestyle can change genes. We have each inherited a particular set of genes, but the
outcome of that inheritance is not fixed. Our environment, diet and circumstance flood our bodies
with molecules that switch the genes on or off. The result can make a huge difference. What you
eat, what your mother ate, the age when your grandfather started smoking, the amount of pollution
in your neighbourhood these factors have all been linked to epigenetic changes that get passed
down through the generations. 2. The mind can affect the body. What used to be dismissed by
science as superstition or old wives' tales ... has a palpable effect on our bodies. 3. Quantum
effects exist in biology. Plants, for instance, use quantum theory to harvest energy from the sun
[by] using "superposition". This trick effectively searches all possible [solar energy delivery] paths
[through the organism] simultaneously, and finds the quickest and thus most energy-efficient route.
That means the energy reaches the plant's storage centre before it dissipates. There are also hints
that smell is a quantum sense. The fact that these things happen in the warm, wet world of
biological material suggests that we are missing a trick. 4. The universe is a computer (and we
are the programmers). The universe ... behaves exactly like a computer [and] we, by our
conscious and unconscious actions, are playing the role of that computer's programmers. 5.

Human beings are nothing special. Researchers know of only a handful of genes unique to
humans; it's thought that, when the count is finished and the numbers are totted up, fewer than 20
of our 20,000 genes will be exclusively human.
Note: Read the complete article for more on these and other interesting scientific breakthroughs.
For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles that push the
boundaries of our understanding of reality.

Former Downing Street adviser charged over child abuse images

2014-06-28, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-downing-street-adviser-char...
A former Downing Street adviser has been charged with making and possessing indecent images
of children. Patrick Rock ... was involved in Government policy on filtering online child
abuse images. The 63-year-old has had a glittering career as a Conservative Party adviser
spanning 30 years. On Friday, he was charged with three offences of making indecent
images of children and one offence of possession of 59 indecent images of children. [He]
resigned shortly before his arrest in February. Mr Rock has been an influential figure behind the
scenes in the Conservative Party for decades and unsuccessfully stood as an MP three times. He
met David Cameron when they were fellow advisers to the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard,
in the 1990s and the Prime Minister brought him into the Downing Street policy unit in 2011. Judith
Reed, a senior lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service's organised crime division, said: We
have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a
prosecution is in the public interest. Mr Rock has been bailed to appear at Westminster
Magistrates' Court on 3 July.
Note: Why is it mentioned so casually that this man was involved in setting policy on child abuse
images? For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Red Cross: How we spent Sandy money is a trade secret

2014-06-28, Salon/ProPublica
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/28/red_cross_how_we_spent_sandy_money_is_a_trade...
Just how badly does the American Red Cross want to keep secret how it raised and spent over
$300 million after Hurricane Sandy? The charity has hired [law firm Gibson Dunn] to fight a public
request [ProPublica] filed with New York state, arguing that information about its Sandy activities is
a trade secret. The Red Cross trade secret argument has persuaded the state to redact some
material, though its not clear yet how much since the documents havent yet been released. The
Red Cross releases few details about how it spends money after big disasters. That makes
it difficult to figure out whether donor dollars are well spent. An attorney from [Gibson Dunn]
appealed to the attorney general to block disclosure of some of the Sandy information, citing the

state Freedom of Information Laws trade secret exemption. Doug White, a nonprofit expert who
directs the fundraising management program at Columbia University, said that its possible for
nonprofits to have trade interests the logo of a university, for example but its not clear what a
trade secret would be in the case of the Red Cross. He called the lawyers letter an apparent
delaying tactic. Ben Smilowitz of the Disaster Accountability Project, a watchdog group, said,
Invoking a trade secret exemption is not something you would expect from an
organization that purports to be transparent and accountable.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing corporate corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Vatican ex-ambassador convicted of sex abuse

2014-06-27, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jozef-wesolowski-vatican-ex-ambassador-convicted-...
The Vatican's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted by a church
tribunal of sex abuse and has been defrocked, the first such sentence handed down against a top
papal representative. The Vatican said [on June 27] that Monsignor Jozef Wesolowski was found
guilty by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in recent days, and sentenced to
the harshest penalty possible against a cleric: laicization, meaning he can no longer perform
priestly duties or present himself as a priest. He also faces other charges by the criminal tribunal of
Vatican City, since as a papal diplomat he is a citizen of the tiny city state. The Holy See recalled
the Polish-born Wesolowski on Aug. 21, 2013, and relieved him of his job after the archbishop of
Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, told Pope Francis about rumors that
Wesolowski had sexually abused teenage boys in the Dominican Republic. Wesolowski is the
highest-ranking Vatican official to be investigated for alleged sex abuse, and his case
raised questions about whether the Vatican, by removing him from Dominican jurisdiction,
was protecting him and placing its own investigations ahead of that of authorities in the
Caribbean nation. The case is particularly problematic for the Vatican since Wesolowski was a
representative of the pope, accused of grave crimes that the Holy See has previously sought to
distance itself from by blaming the worldwide sex abuse scandal on wayward priests and their
bishops who failed to discipline them, not Vatican officials.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sex abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Worker-Owned Co-ops Get $1 Million in NYC Spending

2014-06-27, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/worker-owned-co-ops-get-one-million-do...

New York Citys budget for the 2015 fiscal year includes a new item that supporters of a
fairer economy will want to celebrate: $1.2 million set aside for the development of workerowned cooperative businesses. The spending is a small fraction of the $75 billion budget, which
the City Council approved on June 26. But, according to a statement by U.S. Federation of Worker
Cooperatives, it's the largest investment in the sector ever made by a city government in the
United States. Cooperative businesses are both owned and operated by employees. They focus
on maximizing value for all their members as well as creating fair and quality jobs. This is a great
step forward for worker cooperatives, Melissa Hoover, executive director of the U.S. Federation of
Worker Cooperatives, said in a press release. According to Hoover the co-op funding received
widespread support from city council members, which shows that they understand cooperatives
can be a viable tool for economic development that creates real opportunity." Heres how the citys
newly adopted budget describes the program: "Funding will support the creation of 234 jobs in
worker cooperative businesses by coordinating education and training resources and by providing
technical, legal and financial assistance. The initiative will fund a comprehensive citywide effort to
reach 920 cooperative entrepreneurs, provide for the start-up of 28 new worker cooperative small
businesses and assists another 20 existing cooperatives."
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

The Pentagon's slush fund is arming a War Zone on Main Street

2014-06-26, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/26/pentagon-war-zone-main-s...
A few years ago, the police chief in Keene, New Hampshire (population: 23,000) announced plans
to patrol the [town's] "Pumpkin Festival and other dangerous situations" with a 19,000-pound
armored vehicle called the BearCat (price tag: $285,933, courtesy of a federal Homeland Security
grant). "The police are already pretty brutal," said one resident. "The last thing they need is
this big piece of military equipment to make them think they're soldiers." What many other
communities across America have learned since is that we're living in what the writer Radley Balko
calls the age of the "warrior cop". And when warrior cops want a straight-outta-Baghdad toy, it's
increasingly and unnecessarily simple for them to use a federally enabled slush-fund to wreak
havoc particularly against minorities. "Before another small town's police force gets a $700,000
gift from the Defense Department that it can't maintain or manage," Rep Hank Johnson of Georgia
[said] this week, "we need to press pause and revisit the merits of a militarized America." The
ACLU released a devastating report this week examining more than 800 incidents of SWAT team
deployments conducted by 20 law enforcement agencies between 2010 and 2013. It's a small
sample of the estimated 45,000 deployments that occur in the US each year. According to the
ACLU study, 79% of the incidents surveyed involved a SWAT team searching a person's
home, and more than 62% of the cases involved searches for drugs. That's not what SWAT
teams were made for.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Massachusetts SWAT teams claim theyre private corporations, immune

from open records laws
2014-06-26, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/26/massachusetts-swat...
As part of the American Civil Liberties Unions recent report on police militarization, the
Massachusetts chapter of the organization sent open records requests to SWAT teams across that
state. A number of SWAT teams in [Massachusetts] are operated by what are called law
enforcement councils, or LECs. LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic
area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member
police departments. Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3)
organizations. And its here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are
claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that theyre private corporations, not government
agencies. And therefore, they say theyre immune from open records requests. Lets be clear.
These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect
paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill. They
operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because
theyve incorporated, theyre immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The states
residents arent permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what theyre used
for, what sort of training they get or who theyre primarily used against. From the ACLU of
Massachusettss report on police militarization in that state: "Due to the weakness of
Massachusetts public records law and the culture of secrecy that has infected local police
departments and Law Enforcement Councils, procuring empirical records from police departments
and regional SWAT teams in Massachusetts about police militarization was universally difficult
and, in most instances, impossible."
Note: The author of this article, Radley Balko, is the author of the book Rise of the Warrior Cop:
The Militarization of America's Police Forces. For more on this topic, see concise summaries of
deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Supreme Court says police must get warrants for most cellphone
searches
2014-06-25, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/supreme-court-police-must-get-warrants...
The Supreme Court unequivocally ruled [on June 25] that privacy rights are not sacrificed to 21stcentury technology, saying unanimously that police generally must obtain a warrant before
searching the cellphone of someone they arrest. While the specific protection may not affect the

average American, the court made a bold statement that the same concern about
government prying that animated the nations birth applies to the abundance of digital
information about an individual in the modern world. Modern cellphones hold for many
Americans the privacies of life, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for a court united behind
the opinions expansive language. The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry
such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the
protection for which the Founders fought. Roberts said that in most cases when police seize a
cellphone from a suspect, the answer is simple: Get a warrant. The ruling has no impact on
National Security Agency data-collection programs revealed in the past year or law enforcement
use of aggregated digital information. But lawyers involved in those issues said the emphatic
declarations signaled the justices interest in the dangers of government overreach. Stephen
Vladeck, a law professor at American University, said the decision is more than simply a warning
to government officials employing high-tech forms of government surveillance. This is a cruise
missile across the bow of lawyers defending warrantless search programs, Vladeck said.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing privacy news articles from
reliable major media sources.

New ACLU report takes a snapshot of police militarization in the United

States
2014-06-24, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/24/new-aclu-report-ta...
The American Civil Liberties Union has released the results of its year-long study of police
militarization. The study looked at 800 deployments of SWAT teams among 20 local, state and
federal police agencies in 2011-2012. Among the notable findings: 62 percent of the SWAT raids
surveyed were to conduct searches for drugs. Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were for hostage,
barricade, or active shooter scenarios. In at least 36 percent of the SWAT raids studied, no
contraband of any kind was found. This figure could be as high as 65 percent. SWAT tactics are
disproportionately used on people of color. 65 percent of SWAT deployments resulted in some sort
of forced entry into a private home. In over half those raids, the police failed to find any sort of
weapon, the presence of which was cited as the reason for the violent tactics. SWAT teams today
are overwhelmingly used to investigate people who are still only suspected of committing
nonviolent consensual crimes. And because these raids often involve forced entry into
homes, often at night, theyre actually creating violence and confrontation where there was
none before. In short, we have police departments that are increasingly using violent,
confrontational tactics to break into private homes for increasingly low-level crimes, and they seem
to believe that the public has no right to know the specifics of when, how and why those tactics are
being used.
Note: For more along these lines, see this deeply revealing NPR report about The Pentagon's
massive Program 1033 to widely distribute military hardware to domestic police forces.

"Welcome to Hell": The Border Patrol's Repeated Abuse of Children

2014-06-24, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-lyall/welcome-to-hell-the-borde_b_5527967...
Detainees wrested from sleep every 30 minutes, the lights in their frigid cells never turned off. One
detainee told by officials, don't lie or you'll be raped. Another detainee sexually abused by guards.
Detainees forced to stand in stress positions. Others denied adequate food, water, and medical
treatment and held in dehumanizing conditions. "Welcome to hell," one guard told a detainee, a
good metaphor for what occurs across these sites of torment. These incidents don't come from
military prisons in Iraq or Afghanistan or CIA black sites. This has been happening for
years along the Southwest border in U.S. government facilities run by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) and its Border Patrol. The victims: children, some as young as
infants. Government agencies have known about these abuses for a long time, but [have] failed to
take action. One in four detained children reported physical abuse at the hands of CBP, including
sexual assaults and beatings. More than half reported verbal abuse, including racist and sexist
insults and even death threats, as well as the denial of urgent medical care. Seven out of ten
interviewed reported detentions lasting longer than the 72-hour period mandated by law. Three out
of ten children reported that their belongings were confiscated and never returned. Many others
reported being shackled during transport, the metal restraints excruciatingly digging into their
wrists and ankles. Eighty percent reported CBP personnel denied them adequate food and water.
The tolerance of child abuse by federal authorities violates our laws and our values -- it is both
inhumane and immoral. Now is the time to put an end to it.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandals news
articles from reliable major media sources.

High Court: Whistleblowers' Testimony Is Protected

2014-06-19, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/high-court-whistleblower-testimony-p...
The First Amendment protects public employees from job retaliation when they are called to testify
in court about official corruption, the Supreme Court ruled [on June 19]. The unanimous decision
cheered whistleblower advocates, who said it could encourage more government workers to
cooperate with prosecutors in public fraud cases without fear of losing their livelihoods. The
justices decided in favor of Edward Lane, a former Alabama community college official who says
he was fired after testifying at the criminal fraud trial of a state lawmaker. Lower courts had ruled
against Lane, finding that he was testifying as a college employee, not as a citizen. Writing for the
court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Lane's testimony was constitutionally protected because he
was speaking as a citizen on a matter of public concern, even if it covered facts he learned at
work. In past cases, the court has said that public employees generally do not have free-speech
rights when they discuss matters learned at their jobs. "This ruling gives a green light to all
public employees who have information concerning official corruption and fraud and want
to expose these crimes," said Stephen Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower

Center. He predicted the decision [will] have a "wide impact" on investigations of securities,
banking and tax fraud. Lane was director of a college youth program at Central Alabama
Community College in 2006 when he discovered that a state lawmaker, Sue Schmitz, was on the
payroll but not showing up for work. Lane fired Schmitz despite warnings that doing so could
jeopardize his own job.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing civil liberties news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex

CIA spy
2014-06-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/19/open-source-...
Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps
intelligence activity, is a man on a mission. But it's a mission that frightens the US intelligence
establishment to its core. Last month, Steele presented a startling paper at the Libtech conference
in New York, sponsored by the Internet Society and Reclaim. Drawing on principles set out in his
latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth and Trust, he told the
audience that all the major preconditions for revolution ... were now present in the United States
and Britain. His interdisciplinary 'whole systems' approach dramatically connects up the increasing
corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability of the intelligence system and its political and financial
masters with escalating inequalities and environmental crises. But he also offers a comprehensive
vision of hope that activist networks like Reclaim are implementing today. Today's capitalism, he
argues, is inherently predatory and destructive: "Over the course of the last centuries, the
commons was fenced, and everything from agriculture to water was commoditised without regard
to the true cost in non-renewable resources. Human beings, who had spent centuries evolving
away from slavery, were re-commoditised by the Industrial Era." Open source everything, in this
context, offers us the chance to build on what we've learned through industrialisation, to
learn from our mistakes, and catalyse the re-opening of the commons, in the process
breaking the grip of defunct power structures and enabling the possibility of prosperity for
all.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

WikiLeaks publishes 'secret draft' of world trade agreement

2014-06-19, CBC News (Canada's Public Broadcasting Network)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/wikileaks-publishes-secret-draft-of-world-trade-...

WikiLeaks has published what it calls "the secret draft text for the Trade in Services Agreement
(TISA) Financial Services Annex," apparently covering 50 countries and most of the world's trade
in services. "The draft Financial Services Annex sets rules which would assist the
expansion of financial multinationals mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris
and Frankfurt into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers," the website says in a
statement. The draft deal is seen as a way to prevent more regulation of financial services,
despite calls for tighter regulatory measures that followed the 2007-08 world financial crisis. That
market meltdown set the world's biggest banks up against critics who said governments needed to
rein them in. The last round of TISA talks took place April 28 to May 2 in Geneva. WikiLeaks also
[stated] that the U.S. is "particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow" and that this would
include personal and financial data. During his teleconference, [Assange] urged U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder to end a four-year-long grand jury investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks.
"National security reporters are required by their profession to have intimate interactions in order to
assess and verify and investigate the nature of the material that they are dealing with," he said.
"So I call on Eric Holder today to immediately drop the ongoing national security investigation
against WikiLeaks or resign."
Note: Why is this important release getting so little news coverage? For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media
sources.

Elon Musk Takes on Carbon With Solar, Battery Bets

2014-06-17, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/elon-musk-takes-carbon-solar-battery...
The energy world is not keeping up with Elon Musk, so he's trying to take matters into his own
hands. Musk, chairman of the solar installer SolarCity, announced [on June 17] that the company
would acquire a solar panel maker and build factories "an order of magnitude" bigger than the
plants that currently churn out panels. Musk is also a founder and the CEO of the electric vehicle
maker Tesla Motors, which is planning what it calls a "gigafactory" to supply batteries for its cars.
In both cases, Musk's goal is to make sure that the components critical to his vision of the future
electric cars and solar energy are available and cheap enough to beat fossil fuels. Musk's
future customer could ignore traditional energy companies completely. They'd have
SolarCity panels on their roof that would generate enough power [to] charge up a Tesla
[car] in the garage. A Tesla battery could then power the home at night with stored solar
power. Musk has made a career of thinking far into the future. He is also the CEO of SpaceX, the
rocket company with an ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. SolarCity says it
won't try to turn out more of the garden-variety panels now clogging the market. Instead, it wants
to make panels that are more efficient, and make them at a low cost in huge factories in order to
reduce the overall cost of solar electricity. Just as he drew customers to electric vehicles by
making sleek, fast sports cars, Musk wants to attract homeowners to solar with pretty panels. "We
want to have a cool-looking aesthetically pleasing solar system on your roof," he said.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing new energy development
news articles from reliable major media sources. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of
incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

The Koch Cycle of Endless Cash

2014-06-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/opinion/the-koch-cycle-of-endless-cash.html
Its not enough, apparently, that some of the wealthiest Americans spend millions to elect their
candidates to Congress. Now they are using their fortunes to lobby Congress against any limits on
their ability to buy elections. Koch Companies Public Sector, part of the industrial group owned by
a well-known pair of conservative brothers, has hired a big-name firm to lobby Congress on
campaign-finance issues, according to a registration form filed a few weeks ago. The form doesnt
say what those issues are, but there are several bills in the House that would reduce the role of
anonymous big money in campaigns, and restrict the kinds of super PACs and nonprofit groups
that the Koch brothers and others have inflated with cash. Clearly, its vital to the Kochs and others
like them to prevent such limits from being enacted; their network raised $400 million in 2012, and
it has been extremely active again this year. To that end, they have done something ordinary
citizens cannot do: They hired the lobbying firm of a well-known former senator, Don Nickles,
Republican of Oklahoma, to press their interests. Mr. Nickles started his firm a few months after
leaving the Senate in 2005, and he takes in up to $8 million a year from big firms like Exxon Mobil,
General Motors and Walmart. This is a perfect illustration of the cumulative power of cash in
todays Washington. Members of Congress get elected with substantial help from check
writers like the Kochs and others. Once there, they do the bidding of former members paid
by the Kochs to preserve their business interests and fight off campaign-finance reforms.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing elections news articles from
reliable major media sources.

Silicon Valley embraces open source as a moneymaker

2014-06-14, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Silicon-Valley-embraces-open-source-as-a-5...
Open source is going commercial. Once an esoteric philosophy that called for people around the
world to collectively create and give away software, Silicon Valley is increasingly embracing the
open source ethos as a way to make money. To expand the small market for electric cars, Tesla
Motors CEO Elon Musk this week said he would share the company's technology with competitors.
He follows industry leaders like Google, which has long allowed outside companies to customize
its mobile operating system at no charge. Even Facebook is extolling the virtues of open source,
which enables outside programmers to spot security flaws and helps preserve a spirit of
innovation. As defined by the Open Source Initiative, the phrase ... means people not only can
access and modify software code but redistribute it for free. The valley is starting to sense that

enforcing patents doesn't always make sense. "Patents are so incompatible with the open source
software philosophy," said Daniel Nazer, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
That's Musk's mantra. The Tesla CEO didn't decide to give away his company's technology
because he is a nice guy. Instead, Musk realized that electric cars won't gain mass acceptance if
he is the only one making them. "Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of
sustainable transport," Musk said this week. "If we clear a path to the creation of
compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property land mines behind us to
inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal."
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Tesla: 'All our patents belong to you'

2014-06-13, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/tesla-all-our-patent...
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has confirmed that it will be opening up its patents to other
manufacturers in order to boost the adoption and technological development of electric cars.
Teslas billionaire founder Elon Musk said that the decision had been made in the spirit of
the open source movement and for the advancement of electric vehicle technology. If
we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual
property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that
goal, wrote Musk in a blog post announcing the move. Tesla's first electric car has been launched
this month in the UK. The Tesla Model S, a luxury saloon car priced between 50,000 and
100,000, has a range of 300 miles and will be supported by a fledgling network of Tesla's
'supercharger' stations. Musk notes that there is a global fleet of some 2 billion cars with 100
million new vehicles added to this every year, and that if electric cars are to help address the
carbon crisis they must be produced in far greater volumes than they are currently. In comparison
Tesla only sold 22,500 Model S cars in 2013 and even the best-selling all-electric vehicle (the
Nissan Leaf) has only sold 100,00 units. Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla
electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the
worlds factories every day, wrote Musk. We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric
cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

This CEO is out for blood

2014-06-12, Fortune
http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-blood-holmes/

Elizabeth Holmes founded her revolutionary blood diagnostics company, Theranos, when she was
19. Its now worth more than $9 billion, and poised to change health care. In the fall of 2003,
Elizabeth Holmes, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford, plopped herself down in the office of her
chemical engineering professor, Channing Robertson, and said, Lets start a company. As a
freshman, Holmes had taken Robertsons seminar on advanced drug-delivery devicesthings like
patches, pills, and even a contact-lens-like film that secreted glaucoma medicationbut now she
had invented one the likes of which Robertson had never conceived. It was a wearable patch that,
in addition to administering a drug, would monitor variables in the patients blood to see if the
therapy was having the desired effect, and adjust the dosage accordingly. With Robertsons
blessing, Holmes started her company and, a semester later, dropped out to pursue it full-time.
Now shes 30, and her private, Palo Alto-based corporation, called Theranosthe name is an
amalgam of the words therapy and diagnosishas 500 employees. Theranos today is a
potentially highly disruptive upstart in Americas $73 billion diagnostic-lab industry. It
currently offers more than 200and is ramping up to offer more than 1,000of the most
commonly ordered blood diagnostic tests, all without the need for a syringe. Theranoss
tests can be performed on just a few drops of blood, or about 1/100th to 1/1,000th of the amount
that would ordinarily be requiredan extraordinary potential boon to frequently tested hospital
patients or cancer victims, the elderly, infants, [and] children.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

800 dead babies are probably just the beginning

2014-06-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/06/800-dead-babies-ar...
The discovery of a grave containing the remains of as many as 800 babies at a former home for
unmarried mothers in Ireland is yet another problem for the Irish Catholic Church. The mother and
baby home at Tuam in County Galway was run by the nuns of the Sisters of Bon Secours and
operated between 1925 and 1961. It took in thousands of women who had committed the mortal
sin of unwed pregnancy, delivered their babies and was charged with caring for them. But
unsanitary conditions, poor food and a lack of medical care led to shockingly high rates of infant
mortality. Babies bodies were deposited in a former sewage tank. Sadly, the mass grave at Tuam
is probably not unique. Tuam was only one of a dozen mother and baby homes in Ireland in the
years after the Second World War, all of which treated their inmates in a similar fashion. During 10
years of research into the Catholic Churchs treatment of fallen women [a] book, Philomena: A
Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search, later turned into a feature film starring Dame Judi
Dench [revealed] that the girls were refused medical attention, including painkillers,
during even the most difficult births; the nuns told them the pain was the penance they
must pay for their sin. Philomena and thousands like her were forced to look after their
babies for up to four years, bonding with them before they were taken away to be adopted.
Many went to families in the United States in return for substantial donations; lack of proper
vetting meant some were handed over to abusive parents.

Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on child abuse
scandals from reliable major media sources.

Ex-deputy details culture of abuse in L.A. County jail

2014-06-04, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-deputy-trial-20140604-story.html
The deputy described beating inmates unprovoked, slapping them, shooting them with a
Taser gun and aggressively searching them to pick a fight something he learned "on the
job." He would huddle with other jail guards to get their stories straight and write up reports
with bogus scenarios justifying the brutality. If the inmate had no visible injuries, he wouldn't
report the use of force, period. He did all this with impunity, former Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Deputy Gilbert Michel testified ..., knowing that even if inmates reported the abuse it "wouldn't go
anywhere." If they were to put it in writing and drop it in a complaint box, it was his fellow deputies
who opened that box too. Michel, 40, took the stand at the obstruction of justice trial of six sheriff's
officials accused of impeding a federal civil rights investigation into allegations of excessive force
at L.A. County jails. Michel, the first sheriff's deputy to be charged in the wide-reaching, ongoing
investigation, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2012 to a count of
bribery and agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Michel ... described a culture among
deputies guarding the high-security floors of the jails that led to excessive force and frequent
coverups. He matter-of-factly recounted incidents in which he said he and at least five other
sheriff's employees brutalized inmates on the third, or "3000," floor of Men's Central Jail, then
falsified reports to legitimize their actions.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing prison corruption news articles
from reliable major media sources.

The Other Cannabis War?: The Battle Over Hemp

2014-06-03, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-other-cannabis-war-20140603
Buried in Februarys $956 billion farm bill is an amendment ... that legally distinguishes industrial
hemp from marijuana, after decades of conflation [of the two]. It defines hemp as an agricultural
crop rather than a drug and effectively frees American farmers to grow it for the first time in
almost 60 years. For 20 years, legislators, farmers, hippies, activists, agency heads and
agronomists have worked to recast hemp as a game-changer, an American cash crop that could
jump-start the country's next economic revival. Colorado, Vermont and Kentucky wasted no time
launching their industrial hemp research and the pilot programs provided for in the farm bill. In an
obscure notice dated April 16th, the USDA alerted state and county officials that farmers in states
that [approved] hemp production (15 so far) could now include hemp acreage in their crop reports.
The floodgates have opened. The current American hemp market is estimated at nearly half a
billion dollars, with hemps oil, seed and fiber used in food, carbon-negative building materials, and

automobile composites that are already inside millions of cars. Hemp cultivation is ... as old as
the country itself. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it, hemp was once legal
tender, and several drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
During WWII, American farmers were paid to grow it, cultivating more than 150 million
pounds of industrial hemp to support the American war effort.
Note: Hemp is derived from the cannabis sativa plant, which also produces marijuana. For news
on mind altering substances, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity needs better diagnosis standards

2014-06-03, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity-needs-bett...
Why are Americans spending billions on gluten-free products? Is it just a fad or does it make
a difference? Perhaps the latter. Several of my patients avoid gluten without any apparent need to
do so, and they are convinced their health has improved. One told me that her abdominal bloating,
gas and pain have improved. Another says her skin cleared up, and she no longer retains water.
Another claims that her "brain fog" is gone, and still another believes that her chronic neck pain
due to muscle tension has improved significantly. What are they self-treating? None of them has
celiac disease [or] a wheat allergy. They suffer from a syndrome that has yet to be clearly defined.
The term "non-celiac gluten sensitivity" (NCGS) appears to be gaining traction. NCGS is what we
call a "clinical diagnosis," a syndrome defined by symptoms alone, not by tissue biopsy or blood
test. What are the symptoms of NCGS? Abdominal pain, eczema and/or rash, headache, "foggy
mind," fatigue, diarrhea, depression, extremity numbness and joint pain. There is nothing unique
about these symptoms, which occur in many other conditions. Though the small intestine of
those with NCGS looks normal, symptoms appear to go away when gluten is removed from
the diet and reappear when gluten is reintroduced. Ultimately, a powerful medical group, such
as the American Gastroenterological Association, needs to issue criteria by which someone can be
said to have gluten sensitivity.
Note: Some speculate that modern wheat strains, GMOs, and processing methods are behind the
increase in gluten sensitivity. For more on this, see this merocla.com article and this article on the
history of wheat.

N.S.A. Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images

2014-06-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/nsa-collecting-millions-of-faces-from-we...
The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from
communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated
facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents. The spy agencys reliance on

facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has
turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social
media, videoconferences and other communications. Agency officials believe that technological
advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world.
The agencys ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not
previously been disclosed. The agency intercepts millions of images per day including about
55,000 facial recognition quality images which translate into tremendous untapped potential,
according to 2011 documents obtained from the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. It
is not clear how many people around the world, and how many Americans, might have been
caught up in the effort. Neither federal privacy laws nor the nations surveillance laws provide
specific protections for facial images. Civil-liberties advocates and other critics are
concerned that the power of the improving technology, used by government and industry,
could erode privacy. Facial recognition can be very invasive, said Alessandro Acquisti, a
researcher on facial recognition technology at Carnegie Mellon University.
Note: For another New York Times article showing how the NSA is using mobile phone apps to
"snatch data revealing the players location, age, sex and other personal information," see this
article.

Was the Iranian threat fabricated by Israel and the U.S.?

2014-05-31, Haaretz (One of Israel's leading newspapers)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.596104
A new book by Gareth Porter, an American historian and researcher specializing in U.S. national
security, shows how the actual state of the Iranian nuclear program does not match the Iranian
threat narrative. Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Nuclear Scare ... is a highly detailed
and well-documented book for all interested in understanding how we arrived at the Iranian nuclear
crisis, and the attack scenarios and invented facts and intelligence reports. The story begins with
U.S. support for the Iraqis during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. The critical point [came] with the
collapse of the Soviet empire. According to Porter, that event and the end of the Cold War pulled
out the rug from under the CIAs raison dtre. The solution the Americans found to continue
providing the [CIA] with a tremendous budget was the invention of a new threat the
merging of weapons of mass destruction (an ambiguous term in itself) and terror. Iran ...
provided the threat that saved the CIA. Running through Porters book is the wellsubstantiated claim that U.S. and Israeli policies on Iran derived from their political and
organizational interests, and not necessarily from careful factual analysis of the Iranian nuclear
program, which was subject to IAEA monitoring, or of the intentions of the Iranian leadership.
According to Porter, no systematic analysis was made of the goals of the Iranian nuclear program,
and neither U.S. nor Israeli policy makers devoted any thought to why all of Irans official
declarations on the subject were in line with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

World's Richest People Meet, Muse On How To Spread The Wealth

2014-05-27, NPR blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/05/27/316317191/worlds-richest-people...
Talk of economic mobility and the wealth gap is hardly new. From the Occupy movement to
President Obama's re-election campaign, income inequality has been in the spotlight for years.
Even so, the "inclusive capitalism" conference in London ... broke new ground. Not because of the
conversation, but because of the people having it. The 250 people from around the world
invited to attend this one-day conference do not represent "the 99 percent," or even the 1
percent. It's more like a tiny fraction of the 1 percent. "We have $30 trillion of assets under
management in the room," says conference organizer Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who
runs E. L. Rothschild, a major investment firm she and her husband, of the storied Rothschild
banking family. That amount $30 trillion is roughly one-third of the total investable wealth in
the world. "If this bulk of capital decides that they are going to invest in companies that aren't only
thinking about the short-term profit," says Rothschild, "then we will see corporate behavior
change." The titans of commerce and finance didn't necessarily fly to this meeting in London out of
a sense of ethics or moral duty, though that may be a motivation for some. For many, says
Rothschild, it's a sense of self-preservation. Capitalism appears to be under siege. "It's true that
the business of business is not to solve society's problems," she says. "But it is really dangerous
for business when business is viewed as one of society's problems. And that is where we are
today."
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing income inequality news
articles from reliable major media sources.

Angry mothers meet U.S. EPA over concerns with Roundup herbicide
2014-05-27, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-05-27/news/sns-rt-us-monsanto-roundup...
A group of mothers, scientists and environmentalists met with U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency regulators on [May 27] over concerns that residues of Roundup, the world's most popular
herbicide, had been found in breast milk. The meeting ... followed a five-day phone call blitz of EPA
offices by a group called Moms Across America demanding that the EPA pay attention to their
demands for a recall of Roundup. "This is a poison and it's in our food. And now they've found it in
breast milk," said Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America. "Numerous studies show
serious harm to mammals. We want this toxic treadmill of chemical cocktails in our food to stop."
Roundup is an herbicide developed and sold by Monsanto Co. since the 1970s, and used in
agriculture and home lawns and gardens. The chief ingredient, glyphosate, is under a standard
registration review by the EPA. The agency has set a deadline of 2015 for determining if

glyphosate use should continue as is, be limited or halted. Environmentalists, consumer groups
and plant scientists from several countries have said in recent years that heavy use of
glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals. They say some tests have
raised alarms about glyphosate levels found in urine samples and breast milk. In 2011, U.S.
government scientists said they detected significant levels of glyphosate in air and water samples.
Glyphosate is sprayed on most of the corn and soybean crops in the United States, as well as over
sugar beets, canola and other crops.
Note: For further studies showing the grave dangers of Roundup and Glyphosate, see this article.

Final Word on U.S. Law Isnt: Supreme Court Keeps Editing

2014-05-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us/final-word-on-us-law-isnt-supreme-court-...
The Supreme Court has been quietly revising its decisions years after they were issued, altering
the law of the land without public notice. The revisions include truly substantive changes in factual
statements and legal reasoning, said Richard J. Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard and the
author of a new study examining the phenomenon. The courts secretive editing process has led
judges and law professors astray, causing them to rely on passages that were later scrubbed from
the official record. The widening public access to online versions of the courts decisions, some of
which do not reflect the final wording, has made the longstanding problem more pronounced.
Unannounced changes have not reversed decisions outright, but they have withdrawn
conclusions on significant points of law. The larger point, said Jeffrey L. Fisher, a law professor
at Stanford, is that Supreme Court decisions are parsed by judges and scholars with exceptional
care. In Supreme Court opinions, every word matters, he said. When theyre changing
the wording of opinions, theyre basically rewriting the law. The court does warn readers that
early versions of its decisions, available at the courthouse and on the courts website, are works in
progress. A small-print notice says that this opinion is subject to formal revision before
publication, and it asks readers to notify the court of any typographical or other formal errors. But
... the court almost never notes when a change has been made, much less specifies what it was.
And many changes do not seem merely typographical or formal.
Note: Read about a new app which tracks these changes. For more on this, see concise
summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media
sources.

Despite Obama's new rules, no end in sight for drone war

2014-05-23, MSN/Reuters
http://news.msn.com/in-depth/despite-obamas-new-rules-no-end-in-sight-for-dro...

A year after Obama laid out new conditions for drone attacks around the world, U.S. forces are
failing to comply fully with the rules he set for them: to strike only when there is an imminent threat
to Americans and when there is virtually no danger of taking innocent lives. Although Obama
promised greater transparency in his speech at the National Defense University, U.S. lawmakers
are increasingly critical of the secrecy surrounding the operations. There are growing concerns in
Washington that the net effect of the targeted-killing program may be counterproductive. [Obama]
is showing no sign of relinquishing what has become his counterterrorism weapon of choice since
he took office in 2009. Drones are spreading to new areas ... in far-flung places like Somalia and in
Nigeria. "Here we are, a year later, asking 'what has really changed?'" said University of Notre
Dame law professor Mary Ellen O'Connell, a leading expert on extrajudicial killings who has
testified before U.S. congressional committees. "The drones are still flying and the president
still sees the attractiveness of this cold and antiseptic means of killing." Obama's vision of
shifting control of the drone program from the shadowy paramilitary arm of the Central Intelligence
Agency to the more publicly accountable Pentagon is moving at what one national security source
described as a "glacial pace." The Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command is widely
believed to have been behind the December 12 drone strike in a remote part of Yemen that hit a
convoy later identified as a wedding procession, killing 15 people.
Note: For more on the expansion of drones in skies worldwide, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

EnerVault unveils 'flow battery' for solar energy storage

2014-05-22, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/EnerVault-unveils-flow-battery-for-sol...
In an almond orchard outside Turlock in the Central Valley, two large tanks hold water, minerals and more importantly, energy. The tanks ... are part of a "flow battery" that stores energy from
nearby solar panels. It's the largest battery of its kind in the world. And it could play a role in
California's push to develop bigger and better ways to store large quantities of energy. This
particular flow battery ... was built by EnerVault of Sunnyvale, part of the Bay Area's fast growing
energy-storage industry. Like most of its competitors, EnerVault is young, founded in 2008, with
about $30 million in venture funding to date. Some companies try to perfect the lithium-ion
batteries found in laptops and electric cars. Others, including EnerVault and Primus Power of
Hayward, specialize in flow batteries, which store energy in tanks of electrolytes. The fluid is then
pumped through the battery's cells when power is needed. In contrast, the batteries found at a
grocery store contain the electrolyte, cathode and anode all in one package. "Flow batteries are
batteries turned inside out," said Jim Pape, EnerVault's chief executive officer. His company's
flow batteries use iron and chromium, blended into the water inside its tanks. Both
materials are safe to handle. Iron and chromium also have the benefit of being cheap.
"That's our special sauce," Pape said. "Iron and chromium are very, very abundant, and
abundance equals low cost."

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on exciting new energy developments, click here. For a
treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Forget roofs, are solar roads the next big thing?

2014-05-20, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/05/20/forget-roofs-ar...
While the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that installing solar panels on every home in America
would produce 3.75 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, ... photovoltaics still account for no
more than 1.13 percent of Americas power production. [What] can municipalities do? Its not like
they can pave the streets with solar panels. Thats where the husband and wife team of Scott and
Julie Brusaw would beg to differ. Since the mid-2000's, Scott, an electrical engineer, and Julie, a
psychotherapist, have been developing special solar cells encased in rugged, hexagonal-shaped
glass. Lay enough of these mechanical cobblestones together and youve built yourself a kind of
hybrid driveway/solar array. For the Brusaws, the prototype, while impressive, makes up but a tiny
chunk of a much more ambitious vision. According to their calculations, covering the nations
nearly 28,000 square miles worth of roads, highways and parking spaces with these special panels
would produce three times the nations total energy consumption. [In their vision], the panels
would serve as the foundation for a do-it-all smart roadway system thats capable of not
only harvesting energy, but also making roads safer by using heat to remove surface ice
and lighting up dark pathways with embedded LEDs. The Solar Roadway project, which the
Brusaws proposed, was promising enough that, in 2009, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration
awarded them a series of contracts to further their concept.
Note: To watch the fun video about these solar roads, click here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Data Pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone
Call in the Bahamas
2014-05-19, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/05/19/data-pirates-caribbean-...
The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of
virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas. According to
documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a topsecret system code-named SOMALGET that was implemented without the knowledge or
consent of the Bahamian government. SOMALGET is part of a broader NSA program called
MYSTIC, which ... is being used to secretly monitor the telecommunications systems of the
Bahamas and several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya. But while
MYSTIC scrapes mobile networks for so-called metadata information that reveals the
time, source, and destination of calls SOMALGET is a cutting-edge tool that enables the
NSA to vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation in an entire country.

The program raises profound questions about the nature and extent of American surveillance
abroad. The U.S. intelligence community routinely justifies its massive spying efforts by citing the
threats to national security posed by global terrorism and unpredictable rival nations like Russia
and Iran. But the NSA documents indicate that SOMALGET has been deployed in the Bahamas to
locate international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers traditional lawenforcement concerns, but a far cry from derailing terror plots or intercepting weapons of mass
destruction.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Colorado River reaches gulf

2014-05-16, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/colorado-river-reac...
She wasnt necessarily popping champagne Thursday, but conservationist Jennifer Pitt was
certainly celebrating the arrival of water from the Colorado River into the Sea of Cortez. It was a
monumental moment for conservationists, who said that water hasnt flowed regularly from the
Colorado River to the sea in more than 50 years. It temporarily reached the sea twice in the 1980s
and last in 1993. The pulse flow meeting the sea marks completion of a journey that the
Colorado River has not made in a long time, and I take it as a sign of hope not only for our
efforts to restore the Colorado River Delta, but also rivers and watersheds everywhere in
the world where climate change promises an uncertain future, said Pitt, director of the
Environmental Defense Funds Colorado River Project. The water ... traveled nearly 100 miles
from a previously barren delta at the Morelos Dam just south of where California, Arizona and
Mexico meet. It was a result of a bi-national agreement that came together after years of
negotiations. Enough water to supply over 200,000 homes for a year was released on March 23 in
an effort to revive trees, wildlife and aquatic life that have perished since the delta dried up
decades ago. Conservationists say it will be years before they see the environmental effects of the
water streaming through, but residents in the town of San Luis Rio Colorado in the Mexican state
of Sonora have been frolicking in the water and gathering at the river ever since the flow started.

Air Force prepares to dismantle HAARP ahead of summer shutdown

2014-05-14, Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, Alaska)
http://www.adn.com/2014/05/14/3470442/air-force-prepares-to-dismantle.html#st...
The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress [on May 14] that it intends to dismantle the
$300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer. The
shutdown of HAARP ... will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air
Force said in a letter to Congress. David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for
science, technology and engineering, said this is "not an area that we have any need for in the
future" and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. "We're

moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to
do," he said. "To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work
has been completed." Comments of that sort have given rise to endless conspiracy theories,
portraying HAARP as a superweapon capable of mind control or weather control, with
enough juice to trigger hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. Scientists say all of that is
nonsense, and that the degree of ionosphere control possible through HAARP is akin to controlling
the Pacific Ocean by tossing a rock into it. Built at a cost of more than $290 million, the site
has 180 antennas on 30 acres that are used to direct energy into the ionosphere, which is 55
miles to 370 miles above the Earth, and monitor changes in the flow of charged particles. Stevens
was the godfather of HAARP, which he helped start two decades ago with annual earmarks
slipped into the defense budget.
Note: Why does this article contradict an article in the same newspaper nearly a year earlier
stating that the HAARP facility had already closed? And why would the military spend nearly $300
million on a project just to study the atmosphere? Don't miss our excellent webpage on HAARP at
this link, which presents powerful, reliable evidence that HAARP is used for weather control and
much more.

Tennessee promises free college to all high school grads

2014-05-13, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-promises-free-college-to-all-high-schoo...
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a law [on May 13] promising free community college tuition to
every high school graduate in the state. "Most of our students live below the poverty line," he
says. "Many of them don't have parents directly involved in their lives, many of them live
with guardians, many of them live in state foster homes and some are homeless." The
Tennessee Promise would use $34 million a year from lottery funds to cover tuition for a
two-year degree at a community college. Nazje Mansfield ... plans to enroll and become a
teacher. Her mother works the night shift at Walmart. "I thought I was just going to have to take out
a million loans and be paying them till I'm dead," Nazje says. Thirty cities have similar programs,
but Tennessee is unique because its offer has fewer restrictions. A third of Tennesseans have a
college degree, and Gov. Haslam wants to raise that to 55 percent. Asked whether he thinks some
may call the initiative an entitlement program, Haslam says, "We have a lot of entitlement
programs in this country, and we've seen how much they cost us on the back end when people
don't have the education they need. I say let's make this investment on the front end. I think it'll be
better for the individual and better for our state in the long term." Workers with a two-year degree
earn about $57,000, while those with only a high school diploma make $35,000. The Tennessee
Promise goes into effect next year.
Note: Many European countries and Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey all offer free higher education.
We spend trillions on defense. What would happen if we made higher education free everywhere?
Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Dr. Andres Carrasco, 67, neuroscientist fought Monsanto over Roundup

2014-05-13, Chicago Sun-Times/Associated Press
http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/27372174-418/dr-andres-carrasco-67-ne...
Dr. Andres Carrasco, an Argentine neuroscientist who challenged pesticide regulators to reexamine one of the worlds most widely used weed killers, has died. He was 67. Dr. Carrasco, a
molecular biologist at the University of Buenos Aires and past-president of Argentinas CONICET
science council, was a widely published expert in embryonic development. His 2010 study on
glyphosate [became] a major public relations challenge for the ... Monsanto Company. Glyphosate
is the key ingredient in Monsantos Roundup brand of pesticides, which have combined with
genetically modified Roundup-Ready plants to dramatically increase the spread of industrial
agriculture around the world. [The technology's] spread has increasingly exposed people to
glyphosate and other chemicals. Dr. Carrasco, principal investigator at his universitys Cellular
Biology and Neuroscience Institute, told The Associated Press in a 2013 interview that he had
heard reports of increasing birth defects in farming communities after genetically modified crops
were approved for use in Argentina, and so decided to test the impact of glyphosate on frog and
chicken embryos in his laboratory. His teams study, published in the peer-reviewed Chemical
Research in Toxicology journal, found that injecting very low doses of glyphosate into
embryos can change levels of retinoic acid, causing the same sort of spinal defects that
doctors are increasingly registering in communities where farm chemicals are ubiquitous.
If its possible to reproduce this in a laboratory, surely what is happening in the field is
much worse, Dr. Carrasco told the AP.
Note: For further studies showing the grave dangers of Roundup and Glyphosate, see this article.

Glenn Greenwald: from Martin Luther King to Anonymous, the state

targets dissenters not just "bad guys"
2014-05-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/13/glenn-greenwald-anonymous-mass-s...
The opportunity those in power have to characterise political opponents as "national security
threats" or even "terrorists" has repeatedly proven irresistible. In the past decade, the government
... has formally so designated environmental activists, broad swaths of anti-government rightwing
groups, anti-war activists, and associations organised around Palestinian rights. One document
from the Snowden files, dated 3 October 2012, chillingly underscores the point. It revealed that the
agency has been monitoring the online activities of individuals it believes express "radical" ideas
and who have a "radicalising" influence on others. Among the information collected about the
individuals, at least one of whom is a "US person", are details of their online sex activities and
"online promiscuity." The agency discusses ways to exploit this information to destroy their
reputations and credibility. The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals
being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and
activism Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists,

environmentalists. The NSA's treatment of Anonymous ... is especially troubling and extreme.
Gabriella Coleman, a specialist on Anonymous at McGill University, said that [Anonymous] "is not
a defined" entity but rather "an idea that mobilises activists to take collective action and voice
political discontent. It is a broad-based global social movement with no centralised or official
organised leadership structure. Some have rallied around the name to engage in digital civil
disobedience, but nothing remotely resembling terrorism."
Note: This excerpt is from the new book No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald. For more on
government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

FBI: 100s have contacted us about pedophile case

2014-05-13, Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Associated Press
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/FBI-100s-have-contacted-us-about-...
Hundreds of people have contacted the FBI about a teacher suspected of drugging and molesting
boys during a four-decade career at international schools on four continents, greatly expanding the
potential number of suspected victims. The FBI said last month that William Vahey had molested
at least 90 boys, whose photos were found on a memory drive stolen by his maid. Vahey killed
himself at age 64 after evidence of molestation was found. He was one of the most beloved
teachers in the world of international schools that serve the children of diplomats, well-off
Americans and local elites. The discovery of his molestation has set off a crisis in the
community of international schools, where parents are being told their children may have been
victims, and administrators are scurrying to close loopholes exposed by Vahey's abuses. There
were decades of missed opportunities to expose Vahey, starting with an early California sex-abuse
conviction that didn't prevent him taking a series of jobs exposing him to children. Vahey began his
international teaching career at the American School in Tehran, the first in a series of stays around
the Middle East and Europe. He taught history, social studies and related subjects in Lebanon,
Spain, Iran, Greece, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, almost always to middle school students. In
addition to teaching, he coached basketball and led school trips to Bahrain, Turkey and Africa.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

United States Of Secrets

2014-05-12, KPBS.org
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/may/12/frontline-united-states-secrets/

When NSA contractor Edward Snowden downloaded tens of thousands of top-secret documents
from a highly secure government network, it led to the largest leak of classified information in
history and sparked a fierce debate over privacy, technology and democracy in the post-9/11
world. Now, in "United States Of Secrets," FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to reveal the
dramatic inside story of how the U.S. government came to monitor and collect the communications
of millions of people around the worldincluding ordinary Americansand the lengths they went
to trying to hide the massive surveillance program from the public. This is as close to the complete
picture as anyone has yet put together and its bigger and more pervasive than we thought,
says veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk. In part one ... Kirk [pieces] together the secret
history of the unprecedented surveillance program that began in the wake of September 11 and
continues today even after the revelations of its existence by Edward Snowden. Then, in part
two, premiering Tuesday, May 20 ..., veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith continues the
story, exploring the secret relationship between Silicon Valley and the National Security Agency,
and investigating how the government and tech companies have worked together to gather and
warehouse your data. Through in-depth interviews with more than 60 whistleblowers,
elected officials, journalists, intelligence insiders and cabinet officials, we have woven
together the secret narrative that reveals the scale and scope of the governments spying
program, says Kirk.
Note: Don't miss this engaging program, available at this link. For more on government
surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Glenn Greenwald: the explosive day we revealed Edward Snowden's

identity to the world
2014-05-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/11/glenn-greenwald-nsa-whistleblowe...
On Sunday 9 June 2013, the Guardian published the story that revealed [Edward] Snowden to the
world. The article told Snowden's story, conveyed his motives, and proclaimed that "Snowden will
go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel
Ellsberg and Bradley [now Chelsea] Manning." We quoted [a note from Snowden that said:] "I
understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions but I will be satisfied if the federation of
secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are
revealed even for an instant." The reaction to the article and the video was more intense than
anything I had experienced as a writer. Ellsberg himself, writing the following day in the
Guardian, proclaimed that "there has not been in American history a more important leak
than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material and that definitely includes the Pentagon
Papers 40 years ago". Several hundred thousand people posted the link to their Facebook
accounts in the first several days alone. Almost three million people watched the interview on
YouTube. Many more saw it on the Guardian's website. The overwhelming response was shock
and inspiration at Snowden's courage.

Note: Don't miss the full, exciting story of how Snowden originally came to leak his stunning
information at the link above. This excerpt is from the new book No Place to Hide by Glenn
Greenwald. For more on government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Germany Taps Universities in Its Push for Green Energy

2014-05-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/world/europe/germany-taps-universities-in-i...
Germany has set an ambitious goal: to run its economy almost entirely on renewable energy by
2050. The energy push, known as the Energiewende, or energy transformation, is often compared
in scope to the countrys postwar reconstruction. It will require wide-ranging changes in German
society not just in energy supply but in architecture and agriculture, urban planning, and
economic markets. Treading onto this unknown territory, Germany has called on its universities to
help make the transformation work. While Germany is supporting university research into solar
power and other clean energy, perhaps the biggest innovation in higher education is how the
Energiewende has triggered the creation of new interdisciplinary approaches, pushing institutions
to develop new courses, degrees and departments. Green technology is not necessarily where the
breakthroughs need to happen, said Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn, head of the renewable energy
department at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technologys School of Energy. In terms of the
transformation, Germanys biggest challenges today, he said, are socioeconomic in nature: public
awareness, cost and community involvement. Germany has already made enormous strides in
clean energy generation. In roughly a decade, it has expanded its green power supply to
account for a quarter of its electricity which is twice the United States share of
renewables. On especially sunny and windy days, when wind farms and solar parks churn out
power at peak volume, more than two-thirds of the countrys electricity needs are covered by
renewables.
Note: For more on promising alternative energy developments, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use,

research finds
2014-05-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/09/honeybees-dying-insecticid...
The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use,
according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two
neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied
dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear. "We demonstrated that
neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering 'colony collapse disorder' [CCD] in
honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said Chensheng Lu, an expert on

environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health [who led the study]. The loss
of honeybees in many countries in the last decade has caused widespread concern because about
three-quarters of the world's food crops require pollination. The decline has been linked to loss of
habitat, disease and pesticide use. In December 2013, the European Union banned the use of
three neonicotinoids for two years. In the new Harvard study, published in the Bulletin of
Insectology, the scientists studied the health of 18 bee colonies in three locations in central
Massachusetts from October 2012 till April 2013. At each location, two colonies were treated with
realistic doses of imidacloprid, two with clothianidin, and two were untreated control hives. "Bees
from six of the 12 neonicotinoid-treated colonies had abandoned their hives and were
eventually dead with symptoms resembling CCD," the team wrote. "However, we observed
a complete opposite phenomenon in the control colonies."
Note: For more on mass deaths of many species of animal, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Vermont governor signs GMO food labeling into law

2014-05-08, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/health/vermont-gmo-labeling
Vermont's governor on [May 8] signed a bill into law that will require the labeling of genetically
modified foods -- hailing it as the first such law in the nation. Under the new law, food offered for
retail sale that is entirely or partially produced with genetic engineering must be labeled as such by
July 2016. "Vermonters take our food and how it is produced seriously, and we believe we
have a right to know what's in the food we buy," said Gov. Peter Shumlin. "More than 60
countries have already restricted or labeled these foods, and now one state -- Vermont -will also ensure that we know what's in the food we buy and serve our families." In the
absence of federal action, other states have introduced similar legislation or ballot initiatives,
according to the non-profit Center for Food Safety. Maine and Connecticut passed laws requiring
labeling, but they won't go into effect until other states pass GMO-labeling laws. Vermont is the first
to pass a "no strings attached" bill, the watchdog group said. Supporters of the law expect it will be
challenged in court. "I can make no predictions or promises about how the courts will ultimately
rule but I can promise that my office will mount a vigorous and zealous defense of the law that has
so much support from Vermont consumers," said Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service approved a non-GMO label for
meat and liquid egg products in June, the first time the department has approved such a label from
a third party. GMO foods were approved for human consumption in 1995.
Note: For more on the major risks from GMO foods, see the deeply revealing summary available
here. For many major media articles laying bare the serious risks and dangers of GMOs in our
food, click here.

Why both sides of the political aisle are turning against Wall Street

2014-05-07, Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2014/0507/Why-both-sides-of-th...
More Americans than ever believe the economy is rigged in favor of Wall Street and big business
and their enablers in Washington. Were five years into a so-called recovery thats been a bonanza
for the rich but a bust for the middle class. The game is rigged and the American people know
that. They get it right down to their toes, says Senator Elizabeth Warren. Which is fueling a new
populism on both the left and the right. While still far apart, neo-populists on both sides are
bending toward one another and against the establishment. And its not only the rhetoric thats
converging. Populists on the right and left are also coming together around six principles: 1. Cut
the biggest Wall Street banks down to a size where theyre no longer too big to fail. 2. Resurrect
the Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking and thereby preventing
companies from gambling with their depositors money. 3. End corporate welfare including
subsidies to big oil, big agribusiness, big pharma, Wall Street, and the Ex-Im Bank. 5. Scale back
American interventions overseas. 6. Oppose trade agreements crafted by big corporations. Two
decades ago Democrats and Republicans enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Since then populists in both parties have mounted increasing opposition to such agreements. Left
and right-wing populists remain deeply divided over the role of government. Even so, the
major fault line in American politics seems to be shifting, from Democrat versus
Republican, to populist versus establishment those who think the game is rigged versus
those who do the rigging.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Do Not Take Daily Aspirin if You Havent Had a Heart Attack, Says FDA
2014-05-06, Time Magazine
http://time.com/89681/do-not-take-daily-aspirin-if-you-havent-had-a-heart-att...
If you've never had a heart attack, the FDA says you can put down the aspirin bottle. Taking a daily
aspirin is not necessary for people with no history of heart problems, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration says. In a newly released consumer update bound to cause a stir for the 40 million
Americans who take aspirin every day, the FDA says it has combed the evidence and concluded
that people who have not had heart problems, even if they have a family history of it, will not
benefit from taking a daily aspirin. The announcement comes after the FDA denied Bayers
request to change its aspirin labels to say aspirin can aid in the prevention of heart attacks in
people without a history of heart disease. On its website, the FDA has written, FDA has
concluded that the data do not support the use of aspirin as a preventive medication by
people who have not had a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular problems, a use that is
called primary prevention. In such people, the benefit has not been established but risks
such as dangerous bleeding into the brain or stomach are still present. Dr. Robert
Temple, deputy director for clinical science at the FDA, said in the recommendation that since the
1990s there has been clinical data showing that people who have undergone a heart attack, stroke

or any blood vessel disease in the heart can benefit from taking a daily low dose of aspirin and can
lower the risk of having another adverse heart event. This is what the FDA refers to as secondary
prevention.
Note: Read a mercola.com article on this for more.

California tax plan could rein in CEO pay

2014-05-02, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/California-tax-plan-could-rein-in...
Until the 1980s, corporate CEOs in America were paid, on average, 30 times what their typical
worker was paid. Since then, CEO pay has skyrocketed to 280 times the pay of a typical worker; in
big companies, to 354 times. Meanwhile, over the same 30-year span, the median American
worker has seen no pay increase at all, adjusted for inflation. Even though the pay of male workers
continues to outpace that of females, the typical male worker between the ages of 25 and 44
peaked in 1973 and his pay has been dropping ever since. Wages of the median male worker
across all age brackets have dropped 10 percent, after inflation, since 2000. CEOs and other top
executives use their fortunes to fuel speculative booms followed by busts. CEOs and top
corporate executives in Europe, Canada and Japan don't get paid vast multiples of what
their employees earn. At the same time, their workers are starting to command better pay
than the typical American. The median wage in Canada is already higher than the median
wage in the United States. There's no easy answer for reversing this trend, but ... a bill
introduced in the California Legislature ... creates the right incentives. The proposed legislation
sets corporate taxes according to the ratio of CEO pay to the pay of the company's typical worker.
Corporations with low pay ratios get a tax break. Those with high ratios get a tax increase. For the
last 30 years, almost all the incentives for companies have been to lower the pay of their workers
while increasing the pay of their CEOs and other top executives. It's about time some incentives
were applied in the other direction.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

The staggering cost of silence: child abuse victims and stolen

innocence
2014-04-29, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/04/29/staggering-cost-silence-child-abuse...
The CDC estimates that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.
Worldwide 550 million children are survivors of child abuse according to the Center for Advanced
Studies in Child Welfare. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that there
are currently 617,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, and typically 100,000 of those
are unaccounted for. Other pedophiles are not on records or in databases. Research has shown

that an average victim of child sex abuse has to tell at least seven adults before being
believed. According to the Journal for the American Medical Association only 1 in 20 cases
of child abuse are reported. It is critically important that every parent and adult responsible for
the care of a child educate and empower themselves with the knowledge to stop predators. If we
work together we can stop the stolen innocence of our children and that of others by spending a
few hours educating ourselves. There is no greater tragedy than to live a life plagued by the
shattered hopes and dreams of a vandalized childhood. To learn more about the education and
prevention of child abuse go to the following websites: Joyful Heart Foundation, Childhelp, Stop
Abusing Your Children and Arrow Child and Family Ministries.
Note: For more on what is being done to fight against the sexual abuse of children, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The Koch Attack on Solar Energy

2014-04-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-ene...
At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new
tax they can support. Naturally its a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels. For
the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight
incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They
particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they
dont need back to electric utilities. So theyve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on
this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.
Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American
Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican
statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the
Kochs. [The] group is trying to repeal or freeze Ohios requirement that 12.5 percent of the states
electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. Twenty-nine states have
established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states
can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back. The
coal producers motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their
businesses.
Note: For more on the growth of the solar energy industry, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Things To Think About While Shopping For Dinner

2014-04-25, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bethhoffman/2014/04/25/things-to-think-about-whil...

Of all our daily human activities, what we eat has perhaps the largest direct impact on the
environment. Agriculture uses an estimated 70 percent of global freshwater to grow our food, and
in the U.S., 22 percent of all our energy use is gobbled up by the food system. [In addition], the
agriculture sector produces about a fifth of the worlds greenhouse gases. A common myth is that
the food system uses so much fossil fuel because we ship food around the globe. [But] our
addiction to convenience foods uses far more. From the making of fertilizer [to] running your
refrigerator, the food system uses an enormous amount of energy. Not only are most of those fast
and packaged foods higher in sugar and lower on nutrients. They are also wasting valuable energy
resources. Conventional food uses far more energy than organic [food does]. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, in 2007, U.S. agriculture used more than a billion pounds of
pesticides. The USDA also reports farmers used 22 million tons of synthetic fertilizer in
2011. The amount of energy used to create synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (more than 13 million
tons) could heat 5.5 million homes for a year. Junk food wastes money and precious resources.
In 2013, Americans drank close to 39 gallons of soda per person (at a cost of about $150 per
person), and in 2011, roughly 25 percent of the calories we consumed came from snack foods.
And yet we willingly pay 1000 times more for that can of soda then what it actually costs. It turns
out, it is not organic food that is the rip off.

The American Middle Class Is No Longer the Worlds Richest

2014-04-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-long...
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction. While the
wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows
that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have
received considerably larger raises over the last three decades. After-tax middle-class
incomes in Canada substantially behind in 2000 now appear to be higher than in the United
States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans. The numbers ... suggest that
most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality. The
struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class. A family
at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than
a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the
reverse was true. The findings are striking because the most commonly cited economic statistics
such as per capita gross domestic product continue to show that the United States has
maintained its lead as the worlds richest large country. But those numbers are averages, which do
not capture the distribution of income. With a big share of recent income gains in this country
flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not
keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

The brain injury that made me a math genius

2014-04-20, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/20/the_brain_injury_that_made_me_a_math_genius/
If you could see the world through my eyes, you would know how perfect it is, how much order
runs through it, and how much structure is hidden in its tiniest parts. The universe itself and
everything we can touch and all that we are is made of the most beautiful geometric patterns
imaginable. I know because theyre right in front of me. Because of a traumatic brain injury, the
result of a brutal physical attack, Ive been able to see these patterns for over a decade. This
change in my perception was really a change in my brain function, the result of the injury and the
extraordinary and mostly positive way my brain healed. All of a sudden, the patterns were just .
. . there, and I realize now that my injury was a rare gift. Im lucky to have survived, but for
me, the real miraclewhat really saved mewas being introduced to and almost
overwhelmed by the mathematical grace of the universe. Doctors tell me that nothing in my
brain was newly created or added when I was injured. Rather, innate but dormant skills were
released. This theory comes from psychiatrist Darold Treffert, who is considered the worlds
leading authority on savants and acquired savants. He ... suggested that all of us have
extraordinary skills just beneath the surface, much as birds innately know how to fly in a Vformation and fish know how to swim in a school. Why the brain suppresses these remarkable
abilities is still a mystery, but sometimes, when the brain is diseased or damaged, it relents and
unleashes the inner genius. This isnt just my story. Its the story of the potential secreted away in
all of us.
Note: Excerpted from Struck By Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel by
Jason Padgett and Maureen Seaberg. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire
you to make a difference, click here.

Koch brothers, big utilities attack solar, green energy policies

2014-04-19, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-solar-kochs-20140420,0,7412286.story#axzz...
The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation's largest power
companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy.
The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with
the battle rapidly spreading to other states. Alarmed environmentalists and their allies in the solar
industry have fought back, battling the other side to a draw so far. Both sides say the fight is
growing more intense as new states, including Ohio, South Carolina and Washington, enter the
fray. At the nub of the dispute are two policies found in dozens of states. One requires utilities to
get a certain share of power from renewable sources. The other, known as net metering,
guarantees homeowners or businesses with solar panels on their roofs the right to sell any excess
electricity back into the power grid at attractive rates. Net metering forms the linchpin of the solarenergy business model. Without it, firms say, solar power would be prohibitively expensive. The
American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a membership group for conservative

state lawmakers, recently drafted model legislation that targeted net metering. The group
also helped launch efforts by conservative lawmakers in more than half a dozen states to
repeal green energy mandates. The group's campaign in [Kansas] compared the green energy
mandate to Obamacare, featuring ominous images of Kathleen Sebelius, the outgoing secretary of
Health and Human Services, who was Kansas' governor when the state adopted the requirement.
Note: For more on the growth of the solar energy industry, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Gag Order From Israeli Court Raises Questions

2014-04-18, New York Times
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/gag-order-from-israeli-court...
The [New York] Times published an article [on April 17] about an Arab citizen of Israel a 23-yearold journalist and Palestinian rights advocate who was detained by Israeli authorities last
weekend. The man, Majd Kayyal, was not allowed a lawyer until Wednesday night, and he was
interrogated for five days on suspicion that he was being recruited by a hostile organization after
he visited Lebanon. He was released on Thursday but ordered to be kept under house arrest. The
Times article mentions a court-imposed gag order that was lifted on [April 17]. What it
doesnt mention is that The Times, too, is subject to such gag orders. According to its
bureau chief in Jerusalem, Jodi Rudoren, that is true. The Times is indeed, bound by gag
orders, Ms. Rudoren said. She said that the situation is analogous to abiding by traffic rules or
any other laws of the land, and that two of her predecessors in the bureau chief position affirmed
to her this week that The Times has been subject to gag orders in the past. The Timess
newsroom lawyer, David McCraw, [said] that he was consulted by Times journalists this week as
they considered publishing an article about Mr. Kayyals arrest. Although the situation is somewhat
murky, he said, the general understanding among legal counsel in other countries is that local law
would apply to foreign media. Ive never seen us actually challenge it, Mr. McCraw said.
Meanwhile, an online publication called The Electronic Intifada published a number of articles
about Mr. Kayyals detention over the past several days. The author of those articles, Ali
Abunimah, said in an email that readers have a right to know when [the New York Times] is
complying with government-imposed censorship.
Note: For more on mainstream media cover-ups, see the deeply revealing reports available here.

Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

2014-04-17, BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite. So concludes a recent study by Princeton
University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page. Multivariate
analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have

substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based
interest groups have little or no independent influence. In English: the wealthy few move policy,
while the average American has little power. The two professors came to this conclusion after
reviewing answers to 1,779 survey questions asked between 1981 and 2002 on public policy
issues. They broke the responses down by income level, and then determined how often certain
income levels and organised interest groups saw their policy preferences enacted. "A proposed
policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favour) is
adopted only about 18% of the time," they write, "while a proposed change with high support (fourout-of-five in favour) is adopted about 45% of the time." When a majority of citizens disagrees
with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover,
because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly
large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it. They
conclude: "We believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a
small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are
seriously threatened."
Note: For more on the antidemocratic impacts of income inequality, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

9/11 conspiracy theorist and investigative journalist 'commits suicide'

2014-04-15, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2605429/9-11-conspiracy-theorist-inve...
9/11 [activist] and investigative journalist Michael Ruppert has reportedly committed suicide. The
63-year-old former narcotics investigator with the LAPD shot himself after his radio show,
according to an announcement by author Carolyn Baker who was a guest on his final broadcast on
[April 13]. Mr Ruppert was famous for his litany of conspiracy theories which encompassed the CIA
to drugs, international politics, the oil industry, Wall Street and 9/11. On her Facebook page, Ms
Baker wrote: 'This was not a ''fake'' suicide. It was very well planned by Mike who gave us few
clues but elaborate instructions for how to proceed without him.' After leaving the LAPD, Mr
Ruppert started a website From The Wilderness which claimed to expose government corruption.
It included his claims that he had seen drug-dealing at the CIA. Mr Ruppert gained notoriety by
confronting then-CIA Director John Deutch during a meeting in 1995 and telling him that he
had seen CIA officers involved in drug-dealing. He later claimed on his website that the CIA
and American government was involved in 9/11. In 2004, he published Crossing the Rubicon:
The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. The book alleged that former VP
Dick Cheney had conspired with Wall Street and other government officials over the September 11
World Trade Center attacks. In 2009, he starred in a documentary called Collapse where he spoke
about his theories involving the demise of mankind following the economic and energy crises.
Note: Mike Ruppert was a great hero who courageously reported reliable information the
mainstream media would not touch. For a five-minute video of his public testimony on CIA drug
running, click here. For a 10-minute video showing his great despair about the condition of the

world, click here. Thank you, Mike, for opening the eyes of so many to the deeper realities in our
world. Another courageous hero of the 9/11 movement, John Judge, also died, from complications
of a stroke, on April 15. For more on his great work, click here. For a great 8-minute video of his
revealing powerful information you may not know, click here.

Stories about NSA surveillance, Snowden leaks win Pulitzers for two
news groups
2014-04-14, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/us/pulitzer-prizes-journalism
Two news organizations' stories about National Security Agency surveillance, based upon
documents leaked by Edward Snowden, have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service,
often described as the highest prize in American journalism. The Washington Post and ... The
Guardian each received the prize on [April 14]. The recognition of the NSA reporting was most
significant because of the questions raised by Snowden's leaks and the reaction to them.
Snowden, who has been living in Russia while seeking asylum from U.S. prosecution, said in a
statement that the Pulitzer board's recognition of the coverage was "vindication for everyone who
believes that the public has a role in government." "We owe it to the efforts of the brave
reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation,
including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism
laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now
recognizes was work of vital public importance." While Snowden provided a trove of
documents, reporters including Glenn Greenwald, working for the Guardian; Barton Gellman,
working for The Post; and Laura Poitras, who worked with both, pored over the raw information,
decided with their editors what parts were ethical to publish, and turned the information into stories
that stunned readers around the world.
Note: For more on the historic Snowden revelations, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Netherlands face prison undercrowding crisis

2014-04-11, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/netherlands-face-prison-undercrowding-crisis/
The Dutch government is facing an unusual crisis: Prison undercrowding. There are now more
guards and other prison staff than there are prisoners in the Netherlands for the first time,
according to data released by the Justice Ministry. In 2008, there were around 15,000 inmates, in a
country of 17 million. As of March of this year, there were just 9,710 inmates remaining,
compared with 9,914 guards. And the number of inmates included 650 Belgian criminals the
Netherlands is housing as part of a temporary deal. In the U.S., the figure is more like one
guard or staff member per five prisoners. The overall U.S. incarceration rate is more than 10
times higher. Justice Ministry spokesman Jochgem van Opstal said "we're studying what the

reason for the decline is." The ministry is already in the process of closing prisons and cutting
3,500 staff. Last week, labor union Abvakabo FNV slammed the cuts, saying they were leading to
"staffing shortages." "At this moment you can't say there is any safety in Dutch prisons," union
leader Corrie van Brenk said in an interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS. "It's an explosive
situation." The government has rejected the criticism, saying violent incidents at prisons have been
declining. One change politicians are considering is ending a practice of granting probation to
criminals once they have served two-thirds of their sentences.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Data uncover nations top Medicare billers

2014-04-06, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/data-uncover-nations-top-medic...
The Medicare program is the source of a small fortune for many U.S. doctors, according to a trove
of government records that reveal unprecedented details about physician billing practices
nationwide. The government insurance program for older people paid nearly 4,000 physicians in
excess of $1 million each in 2012, according to the new data. The release of the information gives
the public access for the first time to the billing practices of individual doctors nationwide.
Consumer groups and news outlets have pressured Medicare to release the data for years. The
American Medical Association and other physician groups have resisted the data release, arguing
that the information violates doctor privacy and that the public may misconstrue details about
individual doctors. Among the highest billers were: a cardiologist in Ocala, Fla., who took in $18.1
million, mainly putting in stents; a New Jersey pathologist who received $12.6 million performing
tissue exams and other tests; and a Michigan vascular surgeon who got $10.1 million. In some
instances, the extremely high billing totals could signal fraudulent doctor behavior, as government
inspectors have previously found. Indeed, three of the top 10 earners already had drawn
scrutiny from the federal government, and one of them is awaiting trial on federal fraud
charges. The greatest tallies also may signal that the Medicare payments for some
procedures are too high for the amount of work involved or that perverse incentives lead
doctors to overuse a procedure. The specialties most common at the top ranks of the Medicare
payments were ophthalmologists, oncologists and pathologists.
Note: For more on medical corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

The Cuban Twitter Scam Is a Drop in the Internet Propaganda Bucket

2014-04-04, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/04/04/cuban-twitter-scam-social-media...

This week, the Associated Press exposed a secret program run by the U.S. Agency for
International Development to create a Twitter-like Cuban communications network run through
secret shell companies in order to create the false appearance of being a privately owned
operation. Unbeknownst to the services Cuban users was the fact that American contractors
were gathering their private data in the hope that it might be used for political purposes
specifically, to manipulate those users in order to foment dissent in Cuba and subvert its
government. This sort of operation is frequently discussed at western intelligence agencies, which
have plotted ways to covertly use social media for propaganda, deception, mass messaging,
and pushing stories. One previously undisclosed top-secret documentprepared by GCHQ for
the 2010 annual SIGDEV gathering of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance comprising the UK,
Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.explicitly discusses ways to exploit Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, and other social media as secret platforms for propaganda. Those
programs, carried out in secrecy and with little accountability ... threaten the integrity of the
internet itself, as state-disseminated propaganda masquerades as free online speech and
organizing. There is thus little or no ability for an internet user to know when they are being
covertly propagandized by their government, which is precisely what makes it so appealing to
intelligence agencies, so powerful, and so dangerous.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Slouching toward oligarchy

2014-04-02, Baltimore Sun
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-04-02/news/bal-slouching-toward-oligarc...
America is not yet an oligarchy, but that's where Charles and David Koch and a few other
billionaires are taking us. Around a quarter century ago, as income and wealth began
concentrating at the top, the Republican and Democratic parties started to morph into mechanisms
for extracting money, mostly from wealthy people. Finally, after the Supreme Court's Citizens
United decision in 2010, billionaires began creating their own political mechanisms, separate from
the political parties. They now give big money directly to political candidates of their choice, and
mount their own media campaigns to sway public opinion toward their own views. So far in the
2014 election cycle, Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers' political front group, has aired
more than 17,000 broadcast TV commercials, compared with only 2,100 aired by Republican Party
groups. Americans for Prosperity has also been outspending top Democratic super PACs in nearly
all of the Senate races Republicans are targeting this year. In seven of the nine races, the
difference in total spending is at least 2-to-1, and Democratic super PACs have had virtually no air
presence in five of the nine states. Four of the top five contributors to 2014 super PACs are now
giving money to political operations they themselves created, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. Billionaires squaring off against each other isn't remotely a democracy.
When billionaires supplant political parties, candidates are beholden directly to the
billionaires. And if and when those candidates win election, the billionaires will be
completely in charge.

Note: For more on the systemic control of money in US elections, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

10 things wrong with what kids learn in school

2014-04-02, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/02/10-things-wron...
Mainstream media, cued by corporate press releases, routinely claim that Americas
schools are markedly inferior to schools in other developed nations. The claim is part of an
organized, long-running, generously funded campaign to undermine confidence in public
schools to prove the need to privatize them. Educators have been handicapped for more
than a century by a curriculum adopted to serve a too-narrow purposeadmission to collegeand
failure to address that curriculums problems has made the institution vulnerable to destructive
corporate and political manipulation. Below are brief descriptions of some of the more obvious of
those problems. 1. The standard core curriculum is stuck in the past. Adopted in the late 19th
Century, the curriculum now shaping Americas schools reflects the big idea of that earlier era
the factory system, standardization of parts, mass production, centralized decision making, and
passive worker compliance. None of those fit the present era. 2. The standard core curriculum is
so inefficient it leaves little or no time for apprenticeships, internships, co-op programs, projects,
and other ways of learning by doing (which is how most of us learned most of what we know). 3.
The standard core curriculum gives thought processes other than recall short shrift, or no attention
at all. The ability to remember is, of course, important, but the main educational challenge
making better sense of real-world experiencerequires the ability not merely to recall but to infer,
generalize, hypothesize, relate, synthesize, value, and so on. 4. The standard core curriculum
ignores vast and important fields of knowledge.

The heir, the judge and the homeless mom: America's prison bias for
the 1%
2014-04-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/02/dupont-heir-homeless-mom...
In 2009, when Robert H Richard IV, an unemployed heir to the DuPont family fortune, pled guilty to
fourth-degree rape of his three-year-old daughter, a judge spared him a justifiable sentence
indeed, only put Richard on probation because she figured this 1-percenter would "not fare well"
in a prison setting. Richards ex-wife filed a new lawsuit accusing him of also sexually abusing their
son. Since then, the original verdict has been fueling some angry speculation ... that the
defendant's wealth and status may have played a role in his lenient sentencing. Inequality defines
our criminal justice system just as it defines our society. It always has and it always will until we do
something about it. America incarcerates more people than any other country on the planet, with
over 2m currently in prison and more than 7m under some form of correctional supervision. More
than 60% are racial and ethnic minorities, and the vast majority are poor. There is an abundance

of evidence ... that both conscious and unconscious bias permeate every aspect of the
criminal justice system, from arrests to sentencing and beyond. Unsurprisingly, this bias
works in favor of wealthy (and white) defendants, while poor minorities routinely suffer. In
August of last year the Sentencing Project, a non-profit devoted to criminal justice reform, released
a comprehensive report on bias in the system. This is the sentence you need to remember: "The
United States in effect operates two distinct criminal justice systems: one for wealthy people and
another for poor people and minorities."
Note: For more on systemic injustice within the US prison/industrial complex, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Italy's bishops pass Vatican-backed rule that child molestation does not
have to be reported
2014-03-28, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italys-bishops-pass-vaticanbac...
Italy's bishops have adopted a policy, with backing from the Vatican, that states they are not
obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested. The Italian Bishops'
Conference said the guidelines ... reflected suggestions from the Vatican's office that handles sex
abuse investigations. Victims have denounced how bishops systematically covered up abuse
by moving priests while keeping prosecutors in the dark. Only in 2010 did the Vatican
instruct bishops to report abuse to police but only where required by law. [The] guidelines
cite a 1985 treaty between the Vatican and Italy stipulating that clergy aren't obliged to tell
magistrates about information obtained through their religious ministry. The guidelines remind
bishops, however, they have a ''moral duty to contribute to the common good. The ruling comes
less than a week after Pope Francis appointed a former child victim as one of the first members of
a new commission to help the Catholic Church put an end to clerical sexual abuse. A UN report
published in March blasted what it called the Vatican's code of silence" around abusive priests. UN
children's rights experts estimate "tens of thousands of children worldwide" have been
sexually abused by predatory clerics as a result of moving, rather than reporting,
paedophiles.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

10 ways to keep your diet GMO-free

2014-03-25, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/health/upwave-gmo-free-diet/index.html
Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically
Engineered Foods and founding executive director of The Institute for Responsible Technology, a
leading source of GMO-health-risk information, says several animal studies indicate serious health

risks associated with genetically modified food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated
aging, faulty insulin regulation and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. In
fact, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has asked physicians to advise all
patients to avoid genetically modified foods altogether. Ready to go GMO free? Here are 10
ways to shop smarter: 1. Go organic. The USDA National Organic Standards prohibit GMOs,
so shopping organic is a great way to avoid them. 2. Load up on fruits and veggies. Most fresh
produce is non-GMO, says Smith, but zucchini, yellow summer squash, edamame, sweet corn and
papaya from Hawaii or China are considered high risk and are best avoided. Only buy those highrisk fruits and vegetables if they are labeled "organic" or "non-GMO," he advises. 3. Look for the
non-GMO-verified seal. Since GMOs require no labeling, this seal is one of the best ways to tell
when foods are free of genetic modification. 4. Join the Tipping Point Campaign. This network of
local activists is working to educate communities on the dangers of GMOs. 5. Beware of additives.
The five most common GMOs -- corn, canola, soy, cotton and sugar beets -- often end up as
additives (in the form of corn syrup, oil, sugar, flavoring agents or thickeners) in packaged foods.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The 67 People As Wealthy As The World's Poorest 3.5 Billion

2014-03-25, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2014/03/25/the-67-people-as-wealth...
Oxfam International, a poverty fighting organization, made news at the World Economic Forum in
Davos earlier this year with its report that the worlds 85 richest people own assets with the same
value as those owned by the poorer half of the worlds population, or 3.5 billion people (including
children). Both groups have $US 1.7 trillion. Thats $20 billion on average if you are in the first
group, and $486 if you are in the second group. By the time Forbes published its 2014 Billionaires
List in early March, it took only 67 of the richest peoples wealth to match the poorer half of the
world. Each of the 67 is on average worth the same as 52 million people from the bottom of the
worlds wealth pyramid. Bill Gates, the worlds richest man, with a net worth of $76 billion, is
worth the same as 156 million people from the bottom. Who are the 67? The biggest group
28 billionaires, or 42% of themis from the United States. No other country comes close.
Germany and Russia have the second-highest number, with six each. The rest are sprinkled
among 13 countries in Western Europe, APAC and the Americas. That the biggest group of the
super rich comes from the U.S. should not be a surprise, as the country holds almost a
third of the worlds wealth (30%), significantly more than any other country, according to the
Global Wealth Databook, from Credit Suisse Research Institute.
Note: For more on income and wealth inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Sharyl Attkisson paints CBS News as a bunch of cowards

2014-03-21, Washington Post blog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/03/21/sharyl-attkisso...
The renowned correspondent [Sharyl Attkisson] recently bolted CBS News after prolonged turmoil
and tensions over her work and how it fit with a mainstream broadcast network. Attkisson pushed
super-hard on stories that painted the Obama administration in a bad light, including coverage of
the Fast & Furious gun-interdiction program and Benghazi. She also covered aviation, Obamacare
and other [issues]. She worked at the network for two decades. In a chat today with Attkisson,
[radio host Chris Stigall on Philadelphia station WPHT] wisely picked up on the question of air
time. He asked whether CBS News had instructed Attkisson to knock it off with her anti-Obama
stories and denied her exposure for such fare. The response from Attkisson was ... damning:
"With various stories, you do get the idea at some point that they want you to stop,
especially if you start to dig down right into something very, very important, and its not just
with political stories its with stories that go after other interests, corporations, different
things. There seems to come a point when you get close, they seem to not be interested in
the stories anymore sometimes and some people ... or some managers act as though, yes,
youre a problem if you keep pursuing the questions." She had blockbuster scoops perhaps
many of them that her bosses all but killed. "Why be at a place where ... youve never been
better positioned to break original investigative stories but have nothing that you can do with them
once you do so. Thats sort of the position I felt I was in.
Note: For more on stories by Ms. Attkisson suppressed by her bosses, click here. To visit the
website managed by her, click here.

Chemist says omitting MSG cured daughter's autism

2014-03-19, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Chemist-says-omitting-MSG-cured-daughter...
Katherine Reid, a Bay Area biochemist with a daughter who was autistic, believes she may have
found an antidote to the neurodevelopment disorder - and it's as simple as changing a person's
diet. It has become increasingly popular for parents of children with autism or attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder to turn to gluten- and casein-free, or dairy-free, diets in hopes that it
will make a difference. But Reid's diet is different. She thinks what it comes down to, at least for
some people with autism, is permanently eliminating just a single chemical compound known as
monosodium glutamate, or MSG - an ingredient many people associate with Chinese food.
Actually, Reid said, the chemical is in nearly every processed food imaginable, but it only
appears on food labels as MSG about 1 percent of the time. Instead, MSG is sometimes
labeled as flavor or flavoring, soy protein, barley malt, pectin, corn starch or yeast extract,
Reid said. "We're getting an abundance of MSG," she said. "It's in 95 percent of processed food.
And we don't need it in our diet - ever." While there is no science to back up many of her claims,
Reid said the most convincing evidence to her is the results she saw in her daughter. At age 7,
Brooke is completely cured, Reid said. [This] persuaded her to quit her high-paying job and help

other parents with what she learned, establishing the Fremont nonprofit foundation Unblind My
Mind. "Out of the 75 cases of diagnosed autism I've worked on, 74 drastically improved
within five weeks," she said.
Note: For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

California drought: Solar desalination plant shows promise

2014-03-18, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-Solar-desalination-p...
Quietly whirring away in a dusty field in the Central Valley is a shiny solar energy machine that
may someday solve many of California's water problems. It's called the WaterFX solar thermal
desalination plant, and it has been turning salty, contaminated irrigation runoff into ultra-pure liquid
for nearly a year for the Panoche Water and Drainage District. It's the only solar-driven
desalination plant of its kind in the country. Right now its efforts produce just 14,000 gallons a day.
But within a year, WaterFX intends to begin expanding that one small startup plant into a sprawling
collection of 36 machines that together can pump out 2 million gallons of purified water daily.
Within about five years, WaterFX company co-founder Aaron Mandell hopes to be processing 10
times that amount throughout the San Joaquin Valley. And here's the part that gets the farmers
who buy his water most excited: His solar desalination plant produces water that costs about
a quarter of what more conventionally desalinated water costs: $450 an acre-foot versus
$2,000 an acre-foot. That brings Mandell's water cost close to what farmers are paying, in
wet years, for water from the Panoche and other valley districts - about $300 an acre-foot.
And that makes it a more economically attractive option than any of the 17 conventional
desalination plants planned throughout California. If Mandell can pull it off, the tiny farming town
where he is starting his enterprise could be known as ground zero for one of the most
revolutionary water innovations in the state's history.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Wave of Sexual Abuse Allegations for Private Boys Schools in Britain

2014-03-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/world/europe/wave-of-sexual-abuse-allegatio...
Prompted by publicity surrounding recent child abuse scandals involving well-known
figures, dozens of British men are breaking decades of silence about molestation they say
they suffered as boys at expensive private schools, forcing the schools to confront
allegations that in the past might have been hushed up, ignored or treated derisively. In one
instance involving Aldwickbury School, which educates boys ages 4 to 13, a former student, who
requested anonymity because of the intimate details of the case, said he suffered profound

feelings of confusion and guilt after being abused by a teacher in the 1970s. He said the teacher
molested him regularly during English lessons over a period of two years. The former Aldwickbury
student is one of dozens of people who have come forward. Last month, a former headmaster of
Caldicott, a school in Buckinghamshire attended by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, was
jailed for past child abuse offenses. The former headmaster, Roland Peter Wright, now 83, was
convicted of abusing students 8 to 13 from 1959 to 1970. Other schools facing compensation
claims include Ashdown House, which has educated, among others, the queens nephew,
Viscount Linley. Most of these claims are directed at Britains preparatory schools, which typically
admit children 4 to 13, with students living at the school starting at 7 or 8. The very nature of
boarding schools closed environments in which teachers can wield enormous power can
make them attractive to child abusers.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Catholics, Anglicans, and Muslims join to fight world slavery

2014-03-17, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0317/Catholics-Anglican...
Christians and Muslims have joined to try to help free millions of men, women and children held in
modern-day slavery, forced to work as maids, prostitutes, child soldiers and manual laborers. The
Global Freedom Network, launched [on March 17] at the Vatican, aims to eradicate slavery by
encouraging governments, businesses, educational and faith institutions to rid their supply chains
of slave labor. The initiative is the brainchild of billionaire Australian mining magnate Andrew
Forrest, who founded the Walk Free Foundation in 2012 to mobilize a grass-roots movement to
end slavery. Forrest, ranked 270th on Forbes' list of the world's richest people, used personal
contacts to bring the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church, 85-million strong Anglican Communion,
and al-Azhar university in Cairo, the world's foremost seat of Sunni learning, on board with the
initiative. Representatives from all three gathered ... at the Vatican to sign an agreement to launch
the project, which will be based at the Vatican and have a chief executive responsible for
implementing a five-year business plan. Objectives include getting the G20 to condemn
modern-day slavery, persuading 50 major corporations to commit to slavery-proofing their
supply chains, and convincing 160 governments to endorse a seven-year, $100 million
fundraising effort to implement anti-slavery programs globally.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

NSA posed as Facebook to infect computers with malware, report says

2014-03-12, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-nsa-posing-facebook-malwa...

The National Security Agency has reportedly used automated systems to infect user computers
with malware since 2010. At times the agency pretended to be Facebook to install its malware.
The NSA has been using a program codenamed TURBINE to contaminate computers and
networks with malware "implants" capable of spying on users, according to the Intercept, which
cited documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Between 85,000 and 100,000 of
these implants have been deployed worldwide thus far. To infect computers with malware,
the NSA has relied on various tactics, including posing as Facebook. The federal agency
performed what is known as a "man-on-the-side" attack in which it tricked users computers into
thinking that they were accessing real Facebook servers. Once the user had been fooled, the NSA
hacked into the user's computer and extracted data from their hard drive. Facebook said it had no
knowledge of the NSA"s TURBINE program. However, [Facebook] said it is no longer possible for
the NSA or hackers to attack users that way, but Facebook warned that other websites and social
networks may still be vulnerable to those types of attacks. "This method of network level disruption
does not work for traffic carried over HTTPS, which Facebook finished integrating by default last
year," Facebook told the National Journal.
Note: For more on NSA surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Farm-to-Table Living Takes Root

2014-03-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/dining/farm-to-table-living-takes-root.html
In ... this bedroom community outside Phoenix, amid precision-cut lawns and Craftsman-style
homes, lambs caper in common green areas, chickens scratch in a citrus grove and residents
roam rows of heirloom vegetables to see what might be good for dinner. The neighborhood is
called Agritopia, and its one of a growing number of so-called agrihoods, residential
developments where a working farm is the central feature, in the same way that other
communities may cluster around a golf course, pool or fitness center. The real estate bust in 2008
halted new construction, but with the recovery, developers are again breaking ground on farmfocused tracts. At least a dozen projects across the country are thriving, enlisting thousands of
home buyers who crave access to open space, verdant fields and fresh food. I hear from
developers all the time about this, said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow for sustainable development
at the Urban Land Institute. Sixteen of Agritopias 160 acres are certified organic farmland,
with row crops (artichokes to zucchini), fruit trees (citrus, nectarine, peach, apple, olive and
date) and livestock (chickens and sheep). Fences gripped by grapevines and blackberry
bushes separate the farm from the communitys 452 single-family homes, each with a wide front
porch and sidewalks close enough to encourage conversation. The hub of neighborhood life is a
small square overlooking the farm, with a coffeehouse, farm-to-table restaurant and honor-system
farm stand. The square is also where residents line up on Wednesday evenings to claim their
bulging boxes of just-harvested produce, eggs and honey.

Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Louisiana's longest-serving death row prisoner walks free after 30 years

2014-03-11, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/us/louisiana-glenn-ford-freed
There are many ways to measure 30 years, but for Glenn Ford, the yardstick is simple. "My sons -when I left -- was babies. Now they grown men with babies," he said, speaking as a free man for
the first time in nearly three decades. Ford, Louisiana's longest-serving death row prisoner, walked
free [on March 11] after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
According to the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana, a judge ordered that Ford be freed
... after prosecutors petitioned the court to release him. New information corroborated what
Ford had said all along: that he was not present at nor involved in the November 5, 1983,
slaying of Isadore Rozeman, the project said. "We are very pleased to see Glenn Ford finally
exonerated, and we are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so
decisively to set Mr. Ford free," said Gary Clements and Aaron Novod, Ford's attorneys. They
have argued his trial was compromised by the unconstitutional suppression of evidence and by
inexperienced counsel. Ford had been on death row since 1984, making him one of the longestserving death row prisoners in the United States. "After 30 years, Louisiana's longest-serving
death row prisoner will get his freedom soon," Amnesty International USA senior campaigner
Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris said in a statement shortly before his release. "Glenn Ford is living
proof of just how flawed our justice system truly is. We are moved that Mr. Ford, an AfricanAmerican man convicted by an all-white jury, will be able to leave death row a survivor."
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Vermont Votes for Public Banking

2014-03-09, The Nation Magazine
http://www.thenation.com/blog/178759/vermont-votes-public-banking#
This year, [Vermonters for a New Economy] urged citizens to petition to place the public-banking
question on the agendas of town meetings across the statedistributing information outlining a
proposal to turn the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) into a state bank. Last
week, at least twenty Vermont town meetings took up the issue and voted yes. In many cases,
the votes were overwhelming. Vermont is not the only state where public banking proposals are in
play. But the town meeting endorsements are likely to provide a boost for a legislative proposal to
provide the VEDA with the powers of a bank. The bill would create a 10 Percent for Vermont
program that would deposit 10 percent of Vermonts unrestricted revenues in the VEDA bank and
allow VEDA to leverage this money, in the same way that private banks do now, to fundunfunded
capital needs. The legislation would also develop programs, often in conjunction with community

banks, to create loans which would help create economic opportunities for Vermonters. Among
the most outspoken advocates for the public-banking initiative is Vermont State Senator Anthony
Pollina, a veteran Vermont Progressive Party activist and former gubernatorial candidate, who
argues that it doesnt make any sense for us to be sending Vermonts hard-earned tax
dollars to some bank on Wall Street which couldnt care less about Vermont or Vermonters
when we could keep that money here in the state of Vermont where we would have control
over it and therefore more of it would be invested here in the state.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Behind Clash Between C.I.A. and Congress, a Secret Report on

Interrogations
2014-03-08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/us/politics/behind-clash-between-cia-and-co...
It was early December when the Central Intelligence Agency began to suspect it had suffered what
it regarded as an embarrassing computer breach. Investigators for the Senate Intelligence
Committee, working in the basement of a C.I.A. facility in Northern Virginia, had obtained an
internal agency review summarizing thousands of documents related to the agencys detention
and interrogation program. Parts of the C.I.A. report cast a particularly harsh light on the program,
the same program the agency was in the midst of defending in a prolonged dispute with the
intelligence committee. What the C.I.A. did next opened a new and even more rancorous chapter
in the struggle over how the history of the interrogation program will be written. Agency officials
began scouring the digital logs of the computer network used by the Senate staff members to try to
learn how and where they got the report. Their search not only raised constitutional questions
about the propriety of an intelligence agency investigating its congressional overseers, but
has also resulted in two parallel inquiries by the Justice Department one into the C.I.A.
and one into the committee. Each side accuses the other of spying on it, with the Justice
Department now playing the uneasy role of arbitrator in the bitter dispute. Its always been a dicey
proposition to be investigating Congress, said W. George Jameson, a C.I.A. lawyer for decades.
You dont do it lightly.
Note: For more on the out-of-control activities of intelligence agencies, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Renting Judges for Secret Rulings

2014-03-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/opinion/renting-judges-for-secret-rulings.html

Should wealthy litigants be able to rent state judges and courthouses to decide cases in private
and keep the results secret? The answer should be an easy no, but if the judges of Delawares
Chancery Court persuade the United States Supreme Court to take their case and reverse lower
federal court rulings outlawing that practice, corporations will, in Delaware, be able to do just that.
The state has long been a magnet for corporate litigation because of its welcoming tax structures
and the courts business expertise. Yet the State Legislature became concerned that Delaware
was losing its pre-eminence in corporate litigation to a growing market in private dispute
resolution. To compete, Delaware passed a law in 2009 offering new privileges to well-heeled
businesses. If litigants had at least $1 million at stake and were willing to pay $12,000 in
filing fees and $6,000 a day thereafter, they could use Delawares chancery judges and
courtrooms for what was called an arbitration that produced enforceable legal judgments.
Instead of open proceedings, filings would not be docketed, the courtroom would be closed to the
public and the outcome would be secret. The Delaware Supreme Court could review judgments,
but that court has not indicated whether appeals would also be confidential. A group called the
Coalition for Open Government, including news and civic organizations, objected that Delawares
legislation was unconstitutional. In 2012, a federal judge agreed that the law violated the publics
right of access to civil proceedings under the First Amendment.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Inmates at Parramatta Girls Home subjected to 'state-sanctioned rape'

2014-02-26, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/national/inmates-at-parramatta-girls-home-subjected-to-...
Girls as young as 18 months who came into contact with the [New South Wales, Australia] child
welfare authorities from the 1930s onwards were routinely tested for venereal disease and
evidence of sexual activity. If they were found, on the basis of a spurious vaginal examination, to
have been sexually active, from the age of 10 upwards they could be sent to the Parramatta Girls
Home where they were exposed to ''state-sanctioned rape'' perpetrated by doctors, supervising
staff and other inmates. The notorious detention centre for girls, which shut down after public
outcry in 1974, is the focus of hearings for the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to
Child Sexual Abuse. Harrowing testimony is expected as 10 women, who were among the
thousands detained in the home or at the associated Institution for Girls at Hay during the period of
1950-1974, take the stand to tell their stories. In the 2005 book Orphans of the Living by Joanna
Penglase, a NSW departmental field officer told Dr Penglase how girls picked up on vague
grounds of being ''exposed to moral danger'' were subjected to vaginal examinations. Despite
having no scientific basis, this test could be used to assign a girl to the Parramatta home, wrote Dr
Penglase, who called it state-sanctioned rape. ''Regardless of whether she claimed she had
been abused by a parent or foster carer or [someone else], she was seen to be guilty,'' said
Bonney Djuric, who was sent to the Parramatta home in 1970 and founded a support network for

former inmates, Parragirls, in 2006. ''For many girls having this examination was essentially
their first sexual experience, if you can call it that,'' Ms Djuric said. ''Being raped by having
a metal object inserted is something you never forget.''
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Who Tried to Silence Drone Victim Kareem Khan?

2014-02-25, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/25/tried-silence-drone-victim-kare...
In the early morning hours of February 5, a group of armed men some dressed in Pakistani
police uniforms appeared at Kareem Khans home, awoke him and his family at gunpoint, and
took him away in an unmarked vehicle. Khan was hooded, shackled around the wrists and ankles,
and driven for hours, eventually arriving at a building where he was thrown into a windowless
holding cell. There he stayed for more than a week, during which he was subjected to sensory
deprivation and physical abuse. Khan says he was repeatedly beaten on the soles of his feet and
threatened with death by his captors. He was kept hooded and shackled for most of the day, and
fed only dry bread and water. Khan has no doubts about why he was targeted. He is the first
person to attempt a legal challenge to the CIA drone program in Pakistan, after his son and brother
were killed in a drone strike near his home in North Waziristan on December 31st 2009. His
abduction and detention occurred just over a week before Khan was to travel with [his
Pakistani lawyer, Shahzad] Akbar and Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer with the UK-based legal
charity Reprieve, to speak with European parliamentarians about the CIA drone program.
Among the topics of discussion were the extralegal nature of the program, as well as covert
intelligence sharing by European spy agencies. While in captivity, Khan was interrogated by men
who refused to identify themselves, and who questioned him repeatedly about his plans to speak
with the media and about the cases of others who had been killed by drones. Since the start of the
War on Terror it has been estimated by local human rights groups that as many as 8,000
Pakistani citizens have been disappeared by local intelligence agencies, often at the behest of
their American counterparts.
Note: The Intercept is the new media source being funded by Pierre Omidyar and featuring Glenn
Greenwald and other top reporters known for their independence. For more on the atrocities
committed by the US and UK in the illegal "global war on terror", see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Judge Tosses Muslim Spying Suit Against NYPD, Says Any Damage
Was Caused by Reporters Who Exposed It
2014-02-21, The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/21/judge-tosses-muslim-spying-suit...

A federal judge in Newark has thrown out a lawsuit against the New York Police Department
for spying on New Jersey Muslims, saying if anyone was at fault, it was the Associated
Press for telling people about it. In his ruling ... U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini
simultaneously demonstrated the willingness of the judiciary to give law enforcement alarming
latitude in the name of fighting terror, greenlighted the targeting of Muslims based solely on their
religious beliefs, and blamed the media for upsetting people by telling them what their government
was doing. The NYPDs clandestine spying on daily life in Muslim communities in the region
with no probable cause, and nothing to show for it was exposed in a Pulitzer-Prize winning
series of stories by the AP. The stories described infiltration and surveillance of at least 20
mosques, 14 restaurants, 11 retail stores, two grade schools, and two Muslim student associations
in New Jersey alone. In a cursory, 10-page ruling issued before even hearing oral arguments,
Martini essentially said that what the targets didnt know didnt hurt them: "None of the Plaintiffs
injuries arose until after the Associated Press released unredacted, confidential NYPD documents
and articles expressing its own interpretation of those documents. Nowhere in the Complaint do
Plaintiffs allege that they suffered harm prior to the unauthorized release of the documents by the
Associated Press. This confirms that Plaintiffs alleged injuries flow from the Associated Presss
unauthorized disclosure of the documents. The harms are not fairly traceable to any act of
surveillance."
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed

a Wall Street Secret Society
2014-02-17, New York Magazine
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-s...
Recently, our nations financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are
comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are
saying that theyre sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross,
proclaimed that the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons. Ross's statement seemed
particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain
why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons the annual black-tie induction ceremony of
a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi. It was January 2012, and Ross, ... the leader
(or Grand Swipe) of the fraternity, was preparing to invite 21 new members neophytes, as
the group called them to join its exclusive ranks. Id heard whisperings about the existence of
Kappa Beta Phi. It was a secret fraternity, founded at the beginning of the Great Depression, that
functioned as a sort of one-percenters Friars Club. Each year, the groups dinner features comedy
skits, musical acts in drag, and off-color jokes, and its groups privacy mantra is What happens at
the St. Regis stays at the St. Regis. For eight decades, it worked. No outsider in living memory
had witnessed the entire proceedings firsthand. The first and most obvious conclusion was that
the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced

themselves from reality. No self-aware and socially conscious Wall Street executive would
have agreed to be part of a group whose tacit mission is to make light of the financial
sectors foibles. Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people in the form
of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment crisis.
Note: This article is adapted from Kevin Rooses new book Young Money. For more on secret
societies, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Three Years Later, A Harrowing Visit To Fukushima

2014-02-15, NPR Blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/15/277385083/three-years-later-a-h...
At a motel in the town of Hirono, just outside a restricted zone in Fukushima Prefecture, [the]
residents were all men, all apparently working on the cleanup of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear
plant, where three reactors melted down and a fourth caught on fire after a quake and tsunami in
2011. The plant's operator is mostly using subcontractors to supply labor, which drives down the
pay and tends to leave the poorest workers living in crowded dormitories. Workers and labor
activists say that Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, is subcontracting the work out
to avoid taking direct responsibility financial and otherwise for the dangers the
workers face each day at the plant. Recent days and weeks have brought embarrassing news
for Tepco, including that levels of radioactive strontium in wells in the plant were reported months
late, and were 10 times lower than the actual amount. TEPCO says it was a measurement error.
Some critics say that TEPCO can't be trusted and that the world's largest nuclear accident is still
waiting to happen at Fukushima, such as an accidental nuclear reaction that releases large
amounts of harmful radiation into the air. TEPCO dismisses predictions like this as alarmist.
Japanese themselves are highly divided on the issue, just as they are about whether or not their
country should continue to rely on nuclear power, which previously supplied up to a third of their
electricity. One thing that seems certain is that the work of cleaning up and shutting down the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will go on for a long time. TEPCO predicts it could last 30 or 40
years. Others say that estimate is blindly optimistic.
Note: Why is this critical news getting so little coverage? For more on deception and corruption
around nuclear power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail

2014-02-14, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20...
The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays. The U.S. Justice Department granted a
total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism moneylaundering case ever. They issued a fine $1.9 billion, or about five weeks' profit but they didn't

extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying
abuses. For at least half a decade, the storied British colonial banking power helped to wash
hundreds of millions of dollars for drug mobs, including Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, suspected in
tens of thousands of murders just in the past 10 years. The bank also ... aided countless common
tax cheats in hiding their cash. That nobody from the bank went to jail or paid a dollar in individual
fines is nothing new in this era of financial crisis. What is different about this settlement is that
the Justice Department, for the first time, admitted why it decided to go soft on this
particular kind of criminal. It was worried that anything more than a wrist slap for HSBC
might undermine the world economy. "Had the U.S. authorities decided to press criminal
charges," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a press conference to announce the
settlement, "HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking license in the U.S., the future of the
institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been
destabilized."
Note: For more on the collusion of government with the biggest, most corrupt banks, see the
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Finland No. 1, US sinks to 46th in global press freedom rankings

2014-02-12, Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/finland--1--us-sinks-to-46th-in-global-press-freedom-ra...
The United States did not live up to the promise of the First Amendment last year, far from it,
sinking to 46th in global press freedom rankings, a respected international nonprofit group said.
The U.S. plummeted 13 slots to 46th overall amid increased efforts to track down whistle-blowers
and the sources of leaks, Reporters Without Borders warned in an annual report. The trial and
conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden
were warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information
that would clearly be in the public interest, the organization said. The group ... also cited the
Department of Justices seizure of Associated Press telephone records and a courts pressure on
New York Times reporter James Risen to testify against a CIA staffer accused of leaking classified
information. The whistle-blower is clearly the enemy in the U.S., Delphine Halgand, who heads
the RSF outpost in Washington, told Yahoo News. Eight whistle-blowers have been charged
under the Obama administration, the highest number of any administration, of all other
administrations combined. Overall, RSF said in its report, countries that pride themselves on
being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it. Freedom
of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national
security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism
often suffers as a result, the group said.
Note: As if to underscore the sad state of US press freedom, we couldn't find any major media
who reported this sad news, other than a Washington Post blog at this link, which simply
downplays the news and tries to explain it away. To read how the media censors some of the
biggest stories never reported, click here.

The NSAs Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

2014-02-10, The Intercept (With Glenn Greenwald)
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/
The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather
than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes
an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people. According to
a former drone operator for the militarys Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also
worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis
and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a targets identity with operatives or
informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and
location of the mobile phone. The former JSOC drone operator ... states that innocent people have
absolutely been killed as a result. Some top Taliban leaders, knowing of the NSAs targeting
method, have purposely and randomly distributed SIM cards among their units in order to elude
their trackers. As a result, even when the agency correctly identifies and targets a SIM card
belonging to a terror suspect, the phone may actually be carried by someone else, who is then
killed in a strike. The Obama administration has repeatedly insisted that its operations kill terrorists
with the utmost precision. Within the NSA ... a motto quickly caught on at Geo Cell: We Track Em,
You Whack Em. In December 2009, utilizing the NSAs metadata collection programs, the
Obama administration dramatically escalated U.S. drone and cruise missile strikes in Yemen. The
first strike in the country known to be authorized by Obama targeted an alleged Al Qaeda camp in
the southern village of al-Majala. The strike, which included the use of cluster bombs, resulted in
the deaths of 14 women and 21 children.
Note: For an in-depth interview on this important topic, click here. Would anyone in a developed
country tolerate their citizens being killed by the drones of a foreign government? Note also that
The Intercept is the new media source being funded by Pierre Omidyar and featuring Glenn
Greenwald and other top reporters known for the their independence.

Meet the College Student Who's Turning Campus Leftovers Into Meals
for Thousands of Hungry Neighbors
2014-02-07, People Magazine
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20783867,00.html
How much food could be rescued if college dining halls saved their leftovers? Turns out more than
200,000 pounds in three years according to the Food Recovery Network, which has mobilized
college students across the nation to feed hungry people in the most commonsense way possible.
At the University of Marylands 251 North dining hall, ... the dining hall staff began placing
stainless-steel trays filled with unused food on an island countertop near the end of a spacious
industrial kitchen. One by one, steaming trays were stacked on top of the other as several college
students snapped on latex gloves and discussed their game plan. Their objective was simple,
really: to intercept the food before its thrown away and deliver it to hungry people in need. The

ever-expanding Food Recovery Network ... was founded on Marylands campus in September
2011 by Ben Simon, the nonprofits executive director. Food is thrown out at 75 percent of
college campuses across the United States. Thats roughly 22 million meals per year,
trashed. Overall, Americans waste 36 million tons of food annually. But since the founding of
the Food Recovery Network at the University of Maryland ... in January 2012, the organization has
expanded to 49 campuses nationwide.
Note: For an inspiring, four-minute video on this, click here. For the Food Recovery Network
website, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference, click here.

Kick out those who sexually abuse children, U.N. panel tells Vatican
2014-02-05, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/world/europe/un-vatican-report
In an unprecedented report, a United Nations committee slammed the Vatican's handling of child
sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and accused the church of protecting itself rather than the
victims. The Vatican should establish an "independent mechanism for monitoring children's rights"
to investigate complaints and work with law enforcement, according to the report, which was
released [on February 5]. It calls for the church to immediately remove all known or suspected
abusers from its ranks. The report follows a hearing last month where Vatican officials were grilled
over the church's handling of child abuse allegations. The Vatican, as a country, is a signatory of
the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child, and it was the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the
Child that published the report. Clerics have been involved in the sexual abuse of "tens of
thousands" of children, the report says, and the United Nations is concerned about how the
Vatican has handled the allegations. "The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has
not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary
measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and protect children, and has adopted
policies and practices which has led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of
the perpetrators," the report states. The report accuses the Vatican of transferring child sexual
abusers from one parish to another in an attempt to cover up crimes, placing children at high risk
for abuse.
Note: For more on the Catholic Church's failure to control sexual abuse of children by priests, see
the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

New York regulator demands bank documents as investigation widens

2014-02-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/05/new-york-regulator-banks-trad...

New York states top financial regulator has demanded documents from more than a dozen banks
including Barclays, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs and RBS as a probe widened into trading practices
in the $5.3tn-a-day global foreign exchange markets. Benjamin Lawsky, New York's financial
services superintendent, made the move following the banks decision to fire or suspend at least
20 traders following reports that employees at some firms had shared information about their
currency positions with counterparts at other companies. Lawskys move marks the latest
escalation in a global investigation by regulators into the manipulation of benchmark rates.
The currency probe comes as regulators are still investigating the manipulation of the Libor
lending rate by traders at some of the worlds biggest banks. The Wall Street Journal reported
that Goldman Sachs Steven Cho, formerly global head of spot and forward foreign exchange
trading for major currencies, was retiring from the bank. His departure came a day after Citigroup
announced that Anil Prasad, its global head of foreign exchange, was leaving the company. It is
not know if his retirement is in any way linked to any investigation. Prasads exit comes a month
after Rohan Ramchandani, formerly Citis head of European spot foreign exchange trading, was
fired. Ramchandani had been a member of the Bank of Englands foreign exchange joint standing
committee.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Elizabeth Warren blasts profits on student loans

2014-02-01, Boston Globe/ Associated Press
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/02/01/warren-blasts-profits-stude...
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said ... she is shocked that the federal government is earning an
estimated $66 billion in profits from student loans originated between 2007 and 2012. [She] was
reacting to a Government Accountability Office report [issued on January 31]. A previous
Congressional Budget Office report estimated that the government will pocket an additional $185
billion in profits on new student loans made over the next 10 years. This is obscene. The
government should not be making $66 billion in profits off the backs of our students, Warren said
in a statement. This report reinforces what we already knew instead of investing in our
children and their futures, the government is squeezing profits out of our young people and
adding to the mountain of debt they will spend their lives struggling to repay. Warren and
eight other U.S. senators committed to wring government profits out of student loans and address
[the] $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt they say is crushing families and putting a strain
on the economy. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend the profits dont exist, or use
accounting tricks to make them disappear, Warren said. Its time to end the practice of profiting
from young people who are trying to get an education and refinance existing loans. Warren has
[introduced a bill] that tries to pressure colleges to keep costs down for students and ensure they
get a meaningful diploma when they graduate.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The anti-fracking activist barred from 312.5 sq miles of Pennsylvania

2014-01-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/vera-scroggins-fracking-ac...
Vera Scroggins, an outspoken opponent of fracking, is legally barred from the new county
hospital. Also off-limits, unless Scroggins wants to risk fines and arrest, are the Chinese
restaurant where she takes her grandchildren, the supermarkets and drug stores where she
shops, the animal shelter where she adopted her Yorkshire terrier, bowling alley, recycling centre,
golf club, and lake shore. In total, 312.5 sq miles are no-go areas for Scroggins under a sweeping
court order granted by a local judge that bars her from any properties owned or leased by one of
the biggest drillers in the Pennsylvania natural gas rush, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation. The ban
represents one of the most extreme measures taken by the oil and gas industry to date against
protesters like Scroggins, who has operated peacefully and within the law including taking Yoko
Ono to frack sites in her bid to elevate public concerns about fracking. It was always going to be an
unequal fight when Scroggins, now 63, made it her self-appointed mission five years ago to stop
fracking in this, the richest part of the Marcellus Shale. The judge [granted] Cabot a temporary
injunction barring Scroggins from all property owned or leased by the company. In court filings,
Cabot said it holds leases on 200,000 acres of land, equivalent to 312.5 sq miles. That amounts
to nearly 40% of the largely rural county in north-eastern Pennsylvania where Scroggins
lives and where Cabot does most of its drilling.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Money made at others expense

2014-01-28, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-money-made-at-others-e...
The paths that many of todays wealthiest Americans have taken on their road to riches
have not bettered most peoples lives. Many have actually hurt most peoples lives. Their
riches have come at most other peoples expense. Since the recession officially ended in June
2009, for instance, the wages for all private-sector jobs have fallen, on average, by 0.5 percent.
The wages for jobs in financial services, however, have risen by 5.5 percent. Inasmuch as the
recession was brought about by the financial services industry, its understandable that this
disparity would strike most people as unjust. Or consider the mechanisms by which some CEOs
earn huge salaries. Last week, the board of directors of JPMorgan Chase voted to raise chief
executive Jamie Dimons annual pay to $20 million up from $11.5 million despite the fact that
the bank paid the federal government around $20 billion last year to settle charges stemming from
its multiple misdeeds. Laying off workers and depressing their pay has become the key factor in
boosting corporate profits in recent years. With profits at a record high as a share of the
nations gross domestic product and wages at a record low, its entirely proper that
Americans question the legitimacy of the 1 percents wealth.

Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Australian panel told of sexual abuse of boys at Salvation Army homes

2014-01-28, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/28/world/asia/australia-salvation-army-abuse-hearing
An Australian commission is hearing allegations of the physical and sexual abuse of boys in the
care of the Salvation Army over several decades. The shocking treatment at some of the
organization's boys homes included rape, beatings, locking boys in cages and, in one case, forcing
a boy to eat his own vomit, the commission was told. The public hearings, taking place in Sydney,
are part of a wide-ranging investigation into how Australian institutions responded to cases of child
sexual abuse. The current phase is focusing on the Salvation Army's response to abuse that took
place in four of its boys homes in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in the 1960s
and '70s. The four homes at the heart of the hearings were identified by the Royal Commission
into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse as those where the most complaints of abuse
were made to The Salvation Army. The homes ... were all closed by 1980. Allegations of
widespread sexual assault carried out by Salvation Army officers and some of the boys under their
supervision were also outlined. At the Bexley home, members of the public also abused boys,
[said Simeon Beckett, the counsel assisting the commission], possibly with the knowledge
of Salvation Army staff members. "These persons had access to the boys' dormitories at
night and would access the dormitories and sexually assault the boys," he said.
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For more articles on sexual abuse, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

School ditches rules and loses bullies

2014-01-26, TVNZ (New Zealand's national broadcasting company)
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/school-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies-5807957
Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school.
Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and
playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don't cause bedlam, the principal
says. The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while
concentration levels in class are increasing. Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime
rules as part of a successful university experiment. "We want kids to be safe and to look after
them, but we end up wrapping them in cotton wool when in fact they should be able to fall over."
Letting children test themselves on a scooter during playtime could make them more aware of the
dangers when getting behind the wheel of a car in high school, he said. "When you look at our
playground it looks chaotic. From an adult's perspective, it looks like kids might get hurt, but they

don't." Swanson School signed up to the study by AUT and Otago University just over two years
ago, with the aim of encouraging active play. However, the school took the experiment a step
further by abandoning the rules completely, much to the horror of some teachers at the
time. When the university study wrapped up at the end of last year the school and
researchers were amazed by the results. Mudslides, skateboarding, bullrush and tree
climbing kept the children so occupied the school no longer needed a timeout area or as
many teachers on patrol. "The kids were motivated, busy and engaged. In my experience, the
time children get into trouble is when they are not busy, motivated and engaged. It's during that
time they bully other kids, graffiti or wreck things around the school."
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Vatican Monsignor Arrested for Money Laundering

2014-01-21, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/italy-police-arrest-vatican-monsignor-...
A Vatican monsignor already on trial for allegedly plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million)
from Switzerland to Italy was arrested ... for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder
money. Financial police in the southern Italian city of Salerno said Monsignor Nunzio Scarano,
dubbed "Monsignor 500" for his purported favored banknotes, had transferred millions of
euros in fictitious donations from offshore companies through his accounts at the Vatican's
Institute for Religious Works. Acting on evidence provided by the Vatican bank, police said they
seized 6.5 million euros in real estate and assets in Italian bank accounts Tuesday, including
Scarano's luxurious Salerno apartment, filled with gilt-framed oil paintings, ceramic vases and
other fancy antiques. Police said in all, 52 people were under investigation. The money involved in
both the Swiss smuggling case and the Salerno money-laundering case originated with one of
Italy's most important shipping families, the d'Amicos. Financial police said more than 5 million
euros had been made available to Scarano by the D'Amicos via offshore companies. Scarano
allegedly withdrew 555,248 euros from his Vatican account in cash in 2009 and brought it into Italy.
Since he couldn't deposit it in an Italian bank without drawing suspicion, he selected 50 friends to
accept 10,000 euros apiece in cash in exchange for a check or wire transfer in that same amount.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Explosive growth for state's surviving solar firms

2014-01-19, San Francisco Chronicle SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Explosive-growth-for-state-s-surviving-sol...

Many California and Bay Area [solar] companies are in a period of explosive growth. Companies
such as SolarCity, Sungevity, SunPower and Sunrun are installing panels at a heady pace, and
adding jobs along the way. Their expansion has been fueled by ... a worldwide plunge in the price
of solar cells. Companies that design and install solar systems for homes, businesses or utilities
have seen their sales rise. "They're not just survivors - they're strong survivors," said
Lyndon Rive, chief executive officer of SolarCity in San Mateo. "And it's not just us. It's the
industry. ... The notion that it's a failure is so outrageous." The number of solar installations
- both large and small-scale - is booming. In 2013, the United States added enough new
photovoltaic panels to generate a maximum of 4.2 gigawatts of electricity, roughly the output of
four nuclear reactors. Over the past five years, the number of residential installations has grown at
an average annual rate of 70 percent, according to the NPD Solarbuzz market information firm.
"The demand today is coming from the fact that someone can put solar on their house and save
money," said Paul Nahi, CEO of Enphase Energy, a Petaluma company that makes microinverters
for solar arrays. "It is true that they may also be saving the planet. But that's not their main
consideration." The drop in prices isn't their only reason for growth. Companies including SolarCity,
SunEdison and Sunrun began offering solar leases or power purchase agreements to
homeowners and businesses. Rather than buy the panels, customers could just buy the energy.
That financial innovation revolutionized the industry.
Note: For more on exciting new developments in alternative energy technologies, click here. For a
treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

UN panel confronts Vatican on child sex abuse by clergy

2014-01-16, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25748952
The Vatican has been confronted publicly for the first time over the sexual abuse of children by
clergy, at a UN hearing in Geneva. Officials faced a barrage of hard questions covering why
they would not release data and what they were doing to prevent future abuse. Last month,
the Vatican refused a request from the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for
data on abuse, on the grounds that it only released such information if requested to do so
by another country as part of legal proceedings. Victims say they hope the hearing, which is
being broadcast live, will prompt the Church to end its "secrecy". Pope Francis announced last
month that a Vatican committee would be set up to fight sexual abuse of children in the Church.
The Holy See is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a legally binding
instrument which commits it to protecting and nurturing the most vulnerable in society. It ratified the
convention in 1990 but after an implementation report in 1994 it did not submit any progress
reports until 2012, following revelations of child sex abuse in Europe and beyond. The Vatican was
asked why it continued to describe abuse as an offence against morals rather than a crime against
children. While Thursday's questions were numerous and far-ranging, some observers vented
frustration at the lack of specific answers.

Note: For more on sexual abuse of children, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Philippines web abuse ring smashed in UK-led operation

2014-01-15, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25749326
A paedophile ring that streamed live child abuse from the Philippines over the internet has been
broken up after an operation by UK police and their counterparts in Australia and the US. 17
Britons have been arrested in Operation Endeavour, which spanned 14 countries. Three other
inquiries into men who pay to see abuse via webcams are under way, with 139 Britons among 733
suspects. The NCA say it is an "emerging threat", particularly in developing countries. It said:
"Extreme poverty, the increasing availability of high-speed internet and the existence of a
vast and comparatively wealthy overseas customer base has led to organised crime groups
exploiting children for financial gain." The man whose arrest sparked the entire investigation
was already a convicted paedophile. Five of the 17 UK suspects arrested have been convicted;
one will face no further action, and two are dead. Nine more are still being investigated. Operation
Endeavour has also resulted in 29 arrests in other countries, including 11 people suspected of
facilitating the abuse in the Philippines. Suspects have been identified in Australia, the US, France,
Germany, Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Taiwan, Denmark and
Switzerland. In the Philippines, some 15 children aged six to 15 were rescued after being identified
as victims. Payments by customers totalling more than 37,500 were uncovered by the
investigation, with relatives getting paid for abuse of the children in some instances.
Note: For a Discovery Channel documentary revealing a widespread pedophile ring which leads to
the highest levels of government, click here. For more on sexual abuse of children, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

2014-01-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-conn...
The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around
the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can
also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by
gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret
technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not
connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American
officials. The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert
channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted
surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station
that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target. In most cases, the radio

frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user.

Among the most frequent targets of the N.S.A. and its Pentagon partner, United States Cyber
Command, have been units of the Chinese Army, which the United States has accused of
launching regular digital probes and attacks on American industrial and military targets, usually to
steal secrets or intellectual property. But the program, code-named Quantum, has also been
successful in inserting software into Russian military networks and systems used by the Mexican
police and drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime partners
against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.
Note: For more on government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The Great Redistribution a windfall for rich

2014-01-10, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/The-Great-Redistribution-a-windfa...
2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history - a redistribution upward,
from average working people to the owners of America. The stock market ended 2013 at an alltime high, giving stockholders their biggest annual gain in almost two decades. Most Americans
didn't share in those gains, however, because most people haven't been able to save enough to
invest in the stock market. More than two-thirds of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck.
Even if you include the value of individual retirement accounts, most shares of stock are owned by
the very wealthy. The richest 1 percent of Americans owns 35 percent of the value of Americanowned shares. The richest 10 percent owns more than 80 percent. So in the bull market of 2013,
America's rich hit the jackpot. Stock prices track corporate profits. And 2013 was a banner year for
profits. Where did those profits come from? Here's where redistribution comes in. American
corporations didn't make most of their money from increased sales (although their foreign
sales did increase). They made their big bucks mostly by reducing their costs - especially
their biggest single cost: wages. They push wages down because most workers no longer
have any bargaining power when it comes to determining pay. The continuing high rate of
unemployment - including a record number of long-term jobless and a large number who have
given up looking for work altogether - has allowed employers to set the terms.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

'Transparent' detention at Guantanamo? Not anymore

2014-01-09, MSN
http://news.msn.com/in-depth/transparent-detention-at-guantanamo-not-anymore

After a tumultuous year at the war-on-terror detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the
U.S. military's motto is "Safe, Humane, Legal, Transparent," operations are cloaked in secrecy.
The prison approaches the start of its 13th year next week with a new reclusive regime that
no longer discloses what was once routinely released information. The daily tally of hunger
striking detainees the protest that engulfed more than 100 prisoners at its peak this
summer stopped in December. Guards and other prison camp troops are under orders to
withhold their names when talking to reporters. On the witness stand in the war court recently,
a lawyer in the uniform of an Air Force officer gave sworn testimony under a curious, unexplained
fake name "Major Krueger." Guantanamo is remote, and what is happening there in this new
era has mostly gone unnoticed. The government controls access to everything pertaining to
Guantanamo. Journalists have to get the military's permission to go there, navigate censorship of
their pictures, wait 40 seconds to hear what happens in court and then wait weeks to see court
filings. The current crackdown on information can range from the mildly curious to the outright
comedic. At times it seems to signify a gratuitous use of power by troops on rotation with sudden
power to [wield] a censor's scissors. At times, it suggests a government bureaucracy whose
default is knee-jerk secrecy.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The WikiLeaks Mole

2014-01-06, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-wikileaks-mole-20140106
Sigurdur "Siggi" Thordarson, [is a] cherubic, blond 21-year-old who has been called everything in
the [Icelandic] press from "attention seeker" to "traitor" to "psychopath". Four years ago, just as
WikiLeaks was winning international notoriety, the then-17-year-old hacking prodigy became
Assange's youngest and most trusted sidekick. But as Assange became more embattled and
besieged, the protg turned on his mentor in the most shocking of ways: becoming the
first FBI informant inside the group. His tale reveals not only the paranoia and strife within
WikiLeaks, but just how far the feds were willing to go to get Assange. The revelation of
Siggi's role as an FBI snitch has polarized WikiLeaks insiders. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn
Hrafnsson [dismissed] Siggi as "a pathological liar." While other WikiLeaks insiders also question
Siggi's credibility, they insist that his story can't be discounted, and there's more to it than the
organization is letting on. The truth, it seems, may be held in the leaks. Siggi has provided Rolling
Stone with more than a terabyte of secret files he claims to have taken from WikiLeaks before he
left in November 2011 and gave to the FBI: thousands of pages of chat logs, videos, tapped phone
calls, government documents and more than a few bombshells from the organization's most
heated years. Whatever their origins, the SiggiLeaks are a deep and revealing portal into one of
the most guarded and influential organizations of the 21st century and the extreme measures its
embattled leader is willing to take.

Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

50 years later, war on poverty is a mixed bag

2014-01-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/business/50-years-later-war-on-poverty-is-a...
To many Americans, the war on poverty declared 50 years ago by President Lyndon B. Johnson
has largely failed. The poverty rate has fallen only to 15 percent from 19 percent in two
generations, and 46 million Americans live in households where the government considers their
income scarcely adequate. Half a century after Mr. Johnsons now-famed State of the Union
address, the debate over the governments role in creating opportunity and ending deprivation has
flared anew, with inequality as acute as it was in the Roaring Twenties and the ranks of the poor
and near-poor at record highs. High rates of poverty ... have remained a remarkably persistent
feature of American society. About four in 10 black children live in poverty; for Hispanic children,
that figure is about three in 10. According to one recent study, as of mid-2011, in any given
month, 1.7 million households were living on cash income of less than $2 a person a day,
with the prevalence of the kind of deep poverty commonly associated with developing
nations increasing since the mid-1990s. The 1996 Clinton-era welfare overhaul drastically cut
the cash assistance available to needy families, often ones headed by single mothers. Over the
last 30 years, growth has generally failed to translate into income gains for workers even as the
American labor force has become better educated and more skilled.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Even After Volcker, Banks Aren't Safe Enough

2013-12-30, Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2160950,00.html
Despite the hoopla over the approval of the Volcker rule, which restricts banks from making certain
types of speculative investments, our financial system isn't much safer than it was before 2008. A
major reason for the continued complexity and risk in the financial system is lobbying power. The
Volcker rule as it stands now has been turned into Swiss cheese by bank lobbyists, who
represent the second biggest corporate special-interest bloc after the health care complex,
spending nearly half a billion dollars a year on lobbying, according to the nonprofit,
nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. So while the rule limits federally insured banks from
trading for its own sake, they are still allowed to hedge their portfolios, which opens up a lot of gray
territory for trading. Certainly having more lenders rather than fewer would help other kinds of
businesses, and having trading walled off from lending would encourage that. The fact that the
five largest U.S. financial holding companies control 55% of industry assets--compared
with 20% in 1990--keeps competition low and credit constrained. In the next two to five years,

there will likely be another crisis or trading loss of the kind that reignites the debate over closing
trading loopholes and creating a truly safer financial system. Right now, banks complain about
rules that would require them to hold a mere 5% of their assets in high-quality, low-risk capital
(known as Tier 1 capital), despite the fact that in any other industry, doing business with less than
50% of your own cash would be considered extreme.
Note: For more on government collusion with the biggest banks, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

2013: Fewest Police Deaths by Firearms Since 1887

2013-12-30, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/2013-fewest-police-deaths-firearms-1887-21...
The number of law-enforcement officers killed by firearms in 2013 fell to levels not seen
since the 19th century, according to a [new] report. The annual report from the nonprofit National
Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also found that deaths in the line of duty generally fell by
8 percent and were the fewest since 1959. According to the report, 111 federal, state, local, tribal
and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide this past year, compared to 121 in
2012. Forty-six officers were killed in traffic related accidents, and 33 were killed by firearms. The
number of firearms deaths fell 33 percent in 2013 and was the lowest since 1887. The report
credits an increased culture of safety among law-enforcement agencies, including
increased use of bulletproof vests, that followed a spike in law-enforcement deaths in 2011.
Since 2011, officer fatalities across all categories have decreased by 34 percent, and firearms
deaths have dropped by 54 percent. Fourteen officers died from heart attacks that occurred while
performing their duties.
Note: Violent crime rates have dropped dramatically in the last 20 years, which is one of the least
reported good news stories. For more on this, click here. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really
goes on
2013-12-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-us-military
Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and
Reaper program aka drones I wish I could ask them a few questions. I'd start with: "How many
women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" Few of these politicians who
so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the
other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand. What the public needs to understand is that
the video provided by a drone is not usually clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon,
even on a crystal-clear day. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if

someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if
it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV
analysts. We always wonder if ... we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a
bad image or angle. I know the feeling you experience when you see someone die.
Horrifying barely covers it. When you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a
small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering.
UAV troops are victim to not only the haunting memories of this work that they carry with them, but
also the guilt of always being a little unsure of how accurate their confirmations of weapons or
identification of hostile individuals were. The UAVs in the Middle East are used as a weapon, not
as protection, and as long as our public remains ignorant to this, this serious threat to the sanctity
of human life at home and abroad will continue.
Note: For more on war crimes committed by the US and UK in the illegal "global war on terror",
see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Why teenagers aren't drinking and smoking like they used to

2013-12-26, The Week Magazine
https://theweek.com/article/index/254568/why-teenagers-arent-drinking-and-smo...
Teenage alcohol and tobacco use is at a historic low, according to a recent survey by the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The study, which surveyed teenagers from 1975 to 2012,
revealed that young people are drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes less frequently
than previous generations. The survey also showed that teens are less likely to experiment
with unpredictable synthetic drugs ... but use cannabis more frequently. In the past year,
high school students who reported smoking cigarettes in the previous 30 days declined from 10.6
percent to 9.6 percent a statistically significant reduction. Teenage smoking peaked between
1996-1997 and the numbers have been steadily declining since, according to the survey. The use
of synthetic marijuana (known as K-2 or Spice) and "bath salts" also sharply decreased among
teens in the past year. Marijuana use, however, has been on the rise in recent years. The
percentage of eighth grade students who have used marijuana in the previous 12 months rose
from 11.4 to 12.7 and 10th grade students saw an increase from 28 to 29.8 percent. The survey
seems to suggest that the increase is driven by students' perceived lack of risk in using marijuana.
Most other individual illicit drugs did not see significant change. Alcohol use also saw a dramatic
decline, particularly among younger teens. Alcohol use and binge drinking among the grades
surveyed is at the lowest it has been since the 1990s.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Alan Turing, code-breaker castrated for homosexuality, receives royal

pardon

2013-12-24, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/24/world/europe/alan-turing-royal-pardon
Alan Turing, a British code-breaker during World War II who was later subjected to chemical
castration for homosexual activity, has received a royal pardon nearly 60 years after he committed
suicide. Turing was best known for developing the Bombe, a code-breaking machine that
deciphered messages encoded by German machines. His work is considered by many to have
saved thousands of lives and helped change the course of the war. "Dr. Turing deserves to be
remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to
science," British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said. "A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute
to an exceptional man." Turing's castration in 1952 -- after he was convicted of homosexual
activity, which was illegal at the time -- is "a sentence we would now consider unjust and
discriminatory and which has now been repealed," Grayling said. Two years after the castration,
which Turing chose to avoid a custodial sentence, he ended his life at the age of 41 by eating an
apple laced with cyanide. Supporters have long campaigned for Turing to receive greater
recognition for his work and official acknowledgment that his punishment was wrong. An
online petition in 2009 that drew tens of thousands of signatures succeeded in getting an
apology from then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Turing's treatment by the justice
system in the 1950s. Brown described the Turing sentence as "appalling." The German
messages that Turing cracked at the British government's code-breaking headquarters in Bletchley
Park provided the Allies with crucial information. Turing was considered a mathematical genius.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

GCHQ and NSA targeted charities, Germans, Israeli PM and EU chief

2013-12-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/20/gchq-targeted-aid-agencies-ger...
British and American intelligence agencies had a comprehensive list of surveillance targets that
included the EU's competition commissioner, German government buildings in Berlin and
overseas, and the heads of institutions that provide humanitarian and financial help to Africa, topsecret documents reveal. The papers show GCHQ [and the NSA were] targeting organisations
such as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity Unicef and
Mdecins du Monde, a French organisation that provides doctors and medical volunteers to
conflict zones. The head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) also
appears in the documents, along with text messages he sent to colleagues. One GCHQ document,
drafted in January 2009, makes clear that the agencies were targeting an email address listed as
belonging to another important American ally the "Israeli prime minister". Ehud Olmert was in
office at the time. Three further Israeli targets appeared on GCHQ documents, including another
email address understood to have been used to send messages between the then Israeli defence
minister, Ehud Barak, and his chief of staff, Yoni Koren. The names and details are the latest
revelations to come from documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. They

provoked a furious reaction. The disclosures reflect the breadth of targets sought by the
agencies, which goes far beyond the desire to intercept the communications of potential
terrorists and criminals, or diplomats and officials from hostile countries.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Mysterious ingredients vanish from food labels

2013-12-18, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/12/18/food-labels-get-closer-look-in...
Take another look at that food label. An ingredient or two may have vanished. As Americans pay
closer attention to what they eat, food and beverage companies are learning that unfamiliar
ingredients can invite criticism from online petitions and bloggers. The risk of damaging publicity
has proven serious enough that some manufacturers have reformulated top-selling products to
remove mysterious, unpronounceable components that could draw suspicion. Earlier this year,
for example, PepsiCo Inc. said it would stop using brominated vegetable oil in Gatorade
and find a another way to evenly distribute color in the sports drink. Last year, Starbucks
said it would stop using a red dye made of crushed bugs based on comments it received
through a variety of means, including an online petition, and switch to a tomato-based
extract. Kraft Foods plans to replace artificial dyes with colors derived from natural spices in select
varieties of its macaroni and cheese, a nod to the feedback its hearing from parents. Ali Dibadj, a
Bernstein analyst who covers the packaged food and beverage industry, says the changes reflect
a shift from democratization to activism by consumers. It used to be that people would just
decide not to buy the product. Now theyre actually agitating for change, Dibadj said. Theres a
bullhorn which is the Internet so you can get a lot of people involved very quickly. In the
past, a customer complaint about an ingredient may have been addressed with a boilerplate letter
from corporate headquarters. But now people can go online to share their concerns with
thousands of like-minded individuals.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

NSAs indiscriminate spying collapsing, Snowden says in open letter

2013-12-17, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nsas-indiscriminate-spying-collapsing-sno...
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy open letter to the people of
Brazil that he has been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of
documents and that the NSAs culture of indiscriminate global espionage is collapsing. In the
letter, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against U.S. spying. He
wrote that he would be willing to help the South American nation investigate NSA spying on its soil

but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum, because the U.S.
government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak. The documents revealed that Brazil
is the top NSA target in Latin America, in spying that has included the monitoring of Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseffs cellphone and hacking into the internal network of the state-run oil
company Petrobras. In his letter, Snowden dismissed U.S. explanations to the Brazilian
government and others that the bulk metadata gathered on billions of e-mails and calls was more
data collection than surveillance. There is a huge difference between legal programs,
legitimate spying ... and these programs of dragnet mass surveillance that put entire
populations under an all-seeing eye and save copies forever, he wrote. These programs
were never about terrorism: theyre about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic
manipulation. Theyre about power. Brazilian senators have asked for Snowdens help during
hearings about the NSAs targeting of Brazil, an important transit hub for transatlantic fiber-optic
cables that are hacked.
Note: To read Snowden's full, inspiring letter, click here.

The Soviet Union Spent $1 Billion On Mind-Control Experiments During

The Cold War As Part Of Arms Race With The US: Report
2013-12-16, International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/soviet-union-spent-1-billion-mind-control-experiments-...
The battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, for technological and
scientific one-upmanship, included a costly effort that involved the two superpowers' attempts to
develop mind-control weapons, according to a new study. A blog post at the Physics arXiv Blog,
citing a new paper by researcher Serge Kernbach, said that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union
experimented with parapsychology, mind control and remote influence. And, while some of the
work conducted by the U.S. on these topics is now public, much less is known about the Soviet
body of knowledge, which reportedly cost about a billion dollars to gather. The Soviets had a
similar program. This included experiments in parapsychology, which the Soviets called
psychotronics, the blogpost said. The work built on a long-standing idea in Soviet
science that the human brain could receive and transmit a certain kind of high frequency
electromagnetic radiation and that this could influence other objects too. Kernbach
provided an overview of the Soviet Unions efforts in unconventional research between 1917 and
2003, [based] on publications in Russian technical journals and recently declassified documents.
The U.S. developed a 20-year CIA program, called Project MKULTRA, which began in the early
1950s to study ways of manipulating peoples minds and altering their brain functions. The Soviets
too focused on a similar program and developed a device called a "cerpan" that could generate
and store high-frequency electromagnetic radiation produced by the human brain in hopes of
influencing other objects.
Note: For an excellent two-page summary of reliable information on secret government mind
control programs, click here. For more on mind control research and operations by the CIA, see
the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Environmental groups sue over Navy sonar plans

2013-12-16, Fox News/Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/16/environmental-groups-sue-navy-over-sonar...
Environmental organizations filed a lawsuit [on December 16] against the National Marine
Fisheries Service to demand it force the Navy to consider alternatives to its five-year plan that will
intensify its sonar use off Southern California and Hawaii. Earthjustice, representing several
groups, filed the lawsuit ... only hours after the federal agency announced it had decided to grant
the Navy permits to move ahead with its plans for training and testing in the Pacific.
Environmentalists [favor] creating zones that would be off-limits to biologically sensitive areas [and]
want the Navy to avoid training in certain spots seasonally when they are rich in marine life. "The
science is clear: sonar and live-fire training in the ocean harms marine mammals," said Marsha
Green of Ocean Mammal Institute. "There are safer ways to conduct Navy exercises that include
time and place restrictions to avoid areas known to be vital for marine mammals' feeding, breeding
and resting." Reported mass strandings of beaked whales have increased around the world
since the military started using sonar more than half a century ago. The sounds can scare
animals into shallow waters where they can become disoriented and wash ashore. Aside from
beachings, biologists are concerned about prolonged stress from changes in diving,
feeding and communication habits. Two recent studies off the Southern California coast found
certain endangered blue whales and beaked whales stopped feeding and fled from recordings of
noise similar to military sonar. Beaked whales are highly sensitive to sound and account for the
majority of strandings near military exercises.
Note: Consider that naval sonar doesn't "scare" marine mammals, but rather drives them insane
with the intensity of noise. Imagine a huge siren right next to your ears. You would certainly flee to
try to get away. This is likely what is causing many of the whale and dolphin strandings. Studies
have found stranded animals to have perforated ear drums, as you can read in this NBC News
article. How much sound does it take to perforate an ear drum? For more on threats to marine
mammals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

NSA review to leave spying programs largely unchanged, reports say

2013-12-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/nsa-review-to-leave-spying-progr...
A participant in a White House-sponsored review of surveillance activities described as shameful
an apparent decision to leave most of the National Security Agencys controversial bulk spying
intact. Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Institute, said [on December 13] that ...
The review group was searching for ways to make the most modest pivot necessary to continue
business as usual. Should the review groups report resemble descriptions that leaked ... the
report does nothing to alter the lack of trust the global populace has for what the US is
doing, and nothing to restore our reputation as an ethical internet steward, said Meinrath,
who met with the advisory panel and White House officials twice to discuss the bulk surveillance

programs that have sparked international outrage. Leaks about the review groups expected
recommendations to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal strengthened Meinrath and
other participants long-standing suspicions that much of the NSAs sweeping spy powers would
survive. The Times quoted an anonymous official familiar with the group saying its report says we
cant dismantle these programs, but we need to change the way almost all of them operate.
According to the leaks, the review group will recommend that bulk collection of every
Americans phone call data continue, possibly by the phone companies instead of the NSA,
with tighter restrictions than the reasonable, articulable suspicion standard for searching through
them that the NSA currently employs.
Note: For more on massive government intrusions of citizens' privacy, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

California study: Half of all police officers don't wear seat belts
2013-12-12, Denver Post/Associated Press
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_24706310/california-study-half-all-p...
If you've ever been pulled over by a police officer for not wearing a seat belt, there's a decent
chance the officer also wasn't buckled up either. While 86 percent of Americans wear seat belts,
an upcoming study that will be published by California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards
and Training estimates that roughly half of law enforcement officers don't wear them. With trafficrelated fatalities the leading cause of death of officers on duty, departments nationwide are
buckling down to get officers to buckle up. In 14 of the past 15 years, it wasn't a shooting but a
traffic incident that was the leading cause of officer deaths, according to the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration. Of the 733 law enforcement officers killed in a vehicle accident
from 1980 through 2008, 42 percent weren't wearing seat belts. "This is such low-hanging fruit.
This fruit is on the ground almost," said Police Commission president Steve Soboroff.

Small-house movement: Living in 120 square feet

2013-12-12, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Small-house-movement-Living-in-120-s...
Jay Shafer sweats the small stuff. Hopping into a waist-high metal bathtub smaller than a shower
stall, Shafer swung a faucet over his head to demonstrate how one bathes in the combination
tub/shower/sink. Gesturing at the composting toilet a foot away, he added: "This bathroom is the
part of this house I'm proudest of. It was inspired by the Japanese model of being very
compact and very efficient. The whole room is 11 square feet, smaller than a standard
closet." Thinking small, targeting simplicity and paying meticulous attention to detail exemplify
Shafer's craft: designing tiny houses. The Sonoma County resident is considered a father of the
tiny house movement, a burgeoning trend to live more efficiently in less space. "Jay articulated
and popularized a philosophy of live small, live debt free, and have more time and freedom
to pursue your life's passions," said Ryan Mitchell, editor of TheTinyLife.com, a website

dedicated to living in small-scale structures. "He backed it up with some really attractive designs."
From a 119-square-foot house in Graton, Shafer, 49, writes books about small dwellings; whips up
blueprints for Craftsman-style houses ranging from 98 to 288 square feet; plans weekend
workshops for DIYers; and sketches out his latest brainstorm: an entire village with dozens of tiny
dwellings, each less than 400 square feet, plus a larger common house and other shared
amenities, to be erected in Sonoma County. In fact, the county is a hotbed of the small-house
movement, with an annual exhibit at the Sonoma County Fair, several small-house companies and
at least 100 tiny dwellings.
Note: For more on tiny houses, click here and here. For a treasure trove of great news articles
which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Archbishop admits 'spectacular bungling' of child abuse case

2013-12-11, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/national/archbishop-admits-spectacular-bungling-of-chil...
The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane [Australia] has admitted to spectacular bungling and drastic
failure in dealing with a child sex abuse victim and flagged his willingness to revisit cases where
victims needs have not been met. Archbishop Mark Coleridge said it was wrong that insurers and
lawyers had determined how much victims were paid out. His archdiocese had $52 million from
which he was prepared to draw for victim payouts. In the end, I [as archbishop] decide whether a
sum conforms to the criteria of justice and compassion. In the strongest statements yet by a
senior Australian Catholic Church official about the churchs mishandling of sex abuse
claims, Archbishop Coleridge said a tsunami of child sexual abuse allegations had
caught bishops and other officials like rabbits in a headlight. The failures of the Towards
Healing protocol, in use since 1997, meant other ways of dealing with victim complaints needed to
be explored if we are serious about coming to the aid of victims, the archbishop told the Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He said powerful cultural factors
had converged to create a perfect storm around child sex abuse in the church. One factor was
the absurd lack of training in the past for would-be priests about human and sexual relationships:
We have reaped the harvest of horror of that. The Brisbane archdiocese has had 99 cases of
child sex abuse and nine current matters, with $2.5 million in payments made to victims.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals involving respected institutions, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Trans-Pacific Partnership: a guide to the most contentious issues

2013-12-10, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/trans-pacific-partnership-a-guid...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement is being negotiated in Singapore this
week between Australia, New Zealand, the US, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, Brunei,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. The countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of
US$28,136bn on 2012 figures, which represents almost 40% of the worlds GDP. There have been
many contentious issues around the TPP: critics are particularly concerned about the secrecy
around the agreement given it has the capacity to change many local laws and regulations.
The majority of public criticism has centred on arguments relating to intellectual property
and the cost of medicines, though many have concerns about environmental issues
including climate change, investment, e-commerce and labour laws. The US has been rigid in
its demands for stronger intellectual property protection to champion the rights of its global giants
such as IT companies and its film and music industries. The US position on [the] investor-state
dispute settlement provision ... grants foreign companies the right to sue [a] government under
international law. All countries accepted there needed to be agreement on privacy obligations with
regard to information-sharing, apart from the US, which reserved its position on privacy. The US
position has left people wondering whether the TPP will undermine privacy, particularly in the wake
of the NSA revelations from the Snowden documents. There appear to be deep divisions on
environment and climate change, with the US and Australia opposing any extension of the text on
climate matters.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

What Would You Do? Interracial Couple Faces Criticism

2013-12-10, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/video/interracial-couple-faces-criticism...
It was a simple idea, an interracial couple ridiculed at a barber shop ... in the heart of Harlem. It
resonated throughout the internet with millions of hits and comments like, "there may be hope for
us yet" and "everyone should watch this!" Rachel is an actor playing a hairdresser who has her
eye on a new customer. Gabriel [also an actor] has a girlfriend and when she shows up, it's a rude
awakening for Rachel. "Wait, what? You're with a white girl?" If you saw this woman berating an
interracial couple, what would you do? [Unsuspecting customer] Denise is so upset there is
nothing holding her back. "She's ignorant. I'm letting you know, black girl to another black girl. You
sound stupid. As much criticism we went through as a people you're going to do it to the next
person. Who gives you that right?" But nothing prepared us for this last woman. Marcia, an HR
executive and diversity trainer cannot believe what she's hearing. She tries to get to the bottom of
Rachel's intolerance. "Where is your caring and loving heart. If she was laying in the street
bleeding would you help her? Let's try to rise together. She wants Rachel to apologize. "Yes, you
should, while it's still on your spirit so you can sleep better tonight. Come on. Go up to her. ...
That's what works for us. HUGS, Helping Us Grow Spiritually." Why did [Marcia] get involved?
"Sometimes you have to step up so that you don't fall back. It hurt me because that's not what I'm
about." So many people stepped forward against hatred and bigotry, a sermon at the barber
shop now ringing through the streets of harlem and beyond.

Note: Don't miss the great video of this awesomely inspiring episode of "What Would You Do?"
which restores hope in human nature. You can find it at the link above. For a treasure trove of
great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Obama First President to Mention Area 51'

2013-12-09, ABC News blog
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/12/obama-first-president-to-mention...
In an affair usually noted for its glitz and glamour, President Obama made news at the 2013
Kennedy Center Honors as the first president to utter the words Area 51. A beloved subject of
conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, the government testing site, officially known as the
Nevada Test and Training Range, and Groom Lake, came up during Sunday nights gala when the
president was honoring actress Shirley MacLaine. Now, when you first become president, one
of the questions that people ask you is, whats really going on in Area 51? Obama said to
the audience. When I wanted to know, Id call Shirley MacLaine. I think I just became the
first president to ever publicly mention Area 51. Area 51 was only officially acknowledged this
past August in declassified CIA documents that were released following a Freedom of Information
Act request submitted [to] the National Security Archive. [The] documents revealed that Area 51
was merely a testing site for government aerial surveillance programs such as U-2 and Oxcart.
The Academy award-winning actress has been plenty vocal in the past about her beliefs in alien
encounters. MacLaine has talked about her personal alien encounters in her 2007 book Sage-ing
While Age-ing and during a 2011 interview on Oprah in which she shared stories of witnessing
UFOs from her New Mexico home. Ive seen a mother ship here, and Ive seen them at my
ranch, MacLaine said. One famous day, a friend of mine was sitting in my hot tub out there, and
three UFOs came over and hovered over the hot tub for about 10 minutes.
Note: For a report with more info on CBS news, click here. For a highly intriguing video related to
Area 51 featuring David Adair, click here. For more on UFOs, see our deeply revealing UFO
Information Center available here.

Feds: 18 LA sheriff's deputies face charges

2013-12-09, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/18-la-sheriffs-deputies-face-us-charges/
Federal officials on [December 9] unsealed five criminal cases filed against 18 current and former
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies as part of an FBI investigation into allegations of civil rights
abuses and corruption in the nation's largest jail system. Four grand jury indictments and a
criminal complaint allege unjustified beatings of jail inmates and visitors at downtown Los
Angeles jail facilities, unjustified detentions and a conspiracy to obstruct a federal
investigation into misconduct at the Men's Central Jail. The FBI has been investigating
allegations of excessive force and other misconduct at the county's jails since at least 2011. [An]
official said the arrests were related to the abuse of individuals in the jail system and also

allegations that sheriff's officials moved an FBI informant in the jails possibly to thwart their probe.
Among those charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the 18-page indictment are two
lieutenants, one of whom oversaw the department's safe jails program and another who
investigated allegations of local crimes committed by sheriff's personnel, two sergeants and three
deputies. All seven are accused of trying to prevent the FBI from contacting or interviewing an
inmate who was helping federal agents in a corruption and civil rights probe. In an attempt to find
out more information about the investigation, one lieutenant and the two sergeants sought a court
order to compel the FBI to provide documents, prosecutors said. When a state judge denied the
proposed order, the two sergeants allegedly attempted to intimidate one of the lead FBI agents
outside her house and falsely told her they were going to seek a warrant for her arrest, the
indictment said.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Law enforcement using methods from NSA playbook

2013-12-08, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/cellphone-data-spying-ns...
The National Security Agency isn't the only government entity secretly collecting data from
people's cellphones. Local police are increasingly scooping it up, too. Armed with new
technologies, including mobile devices that tap into cellphone data in real time, dozens of
local and state police agencies are capturing information about thousands of cellphone
users at a time, whether they are targets of an investigation or not. The records, from more
than 125 police agencies in 33 states, reveal [that] about one in four law-enforcement agencies
have used a tactic known as a "tower dump," which gives police data about the identity, activity
and location of any phone that connects to the targeted cellphone towers over a set span of time,
usually an hour or two. A typical dump covers multiple towers, and wireless providers, and can net
information from thousands of phones. At least 25 police departments own a Stingray, a suitcasesize device that costs as much as $400,000 and acts as a fake cell tower. The system, typically
installed in a vehicle so it can be moved into any neighborhood, tricks all nearby phones into
connecting to it and feeding data to police. In some states, the devices are available to any local
police department via state surveillance units. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties
Union and Electronic Privacy Information Center say the swelling ability by even small-town police
departments to easily and quickly obtain large amounts of cellphone data raises questions about
the erosion of people's privacy as well as their Fourth Amendment protections against
unreasonable search and seizure.
Note: For more on massive government intrusions of citizens' privacy, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Pope Setting Up Commission on the Sexual Abuse of Children by

Priests
2013-12-06, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world/europe/pope-setting-up-commission-on-...
In his first concrete step to address the clerical sexual-abuse problem in the Roman Catholic
Church, Pope Francis will establish a commission to advise him on protecting children from
pedophile priests and on how to counsel victims, the Vatican said. The announcement was a
forthright acknowledgment by the Vatican of the enduring problem of abusive priests, and
fit with Francis pattern of willingness to set a new tone in the governance of the church
nine months into his tenure. Whether the new commission portends a significant change in how
the Vatican deals with abusive priests and their protectors remains to be seen, experts on the
church said. Yet the timing of the announcement, two days after a United Nations panel criticized
the Vatican over its handling of abuse cases, suggested that the pope and his closest advisers
wanted to at least be seen as tackling the issue with greater firmness. Soon after he became pope,
Francis directed the Vatican last April to act decisively on abuse cases and punish pedophile
priests, in a meeting with subordinates at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the
churchs enforcement arm. The announcement elicited a mixed reaction, reflecting some
skepticism, particularly among victims and their advocates, over whether a new commission would
be more than cosmetic. The commission will have a broad mandate including the development of
norms, procedures and strategies for the protection of children and the prevention of abuse of
minors, the Vatican said in a statement.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Poverty wages in the land of plenty

2013-12-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/05/campaign-to-raise-minimu...
The holiday season is upon us. Sadly, the big retailers are Scrooges when it comes to paying their
workers. Undergirding the sale prices is an army of workers earning the minimum wage or a
fraction above it, living check to check on their meager pay and benefits. The dark secret that the
retail giants like Walmart don't want you to know is that many of these workers subsist
below the poverty line, and rely on programs like food stamps and Medicaid just to get by.
This holiday season, though, low-wage workers from Walmart to fast-food restaurants are
standing up and fighting back. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer, with 2.2 million
employees, 1.3 million of whom are in the US. It reported close to $120bn in gross profit for 2012.
Just six members of the Walton family, whose patriarch, Sam Walton, founded the retail giant,
have amassed an estimated combined fortune of between $115bn to $144bn. These six
individuals have more wealth than the combined financial assets of the poorest 40% of the
US population. Walmart workers have been organizing under the banner of OUR Walmart, a
worker initiative supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Workers have
taken courageous stands, protesting their employer and engaging in short-term strikes. Walmart

has retaliated, firing many who participated. Parallel to the Walmart campaign is a drive for higher
wages in the fast-food industry. In more than 100 cities, workers are organizing protests and
strikes ... and winning.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean

energy
2013-12-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assaul...
An alliance of corporations and conservative activists is mobilising to penalise
homeowners who install their own solar panels casting them as "freeriders" in a
sweeping new offensive against renewable energy. Over the coming year, the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will promote legislation with goals ranging from penalising
individual homeowners and weakening state clean energy regulations, to blocking the
Environmental Protection Agency, [the government's] main channel for climate action. Details of
ALEC's strategy to block clean energy development at every stage from the individual rooftop to
the White House are revealed as the group gathers for its policy summit in Washington this
week. About 800 state legislators and business leaders are due to attend the three-day event,
which begins ... with appearances by the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson and the Republican
budget guru and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan. Other ALEC speakers will be a leading figure
behind the recent government shutdown, US senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and the governors of
Indiana and Wyoming. For 2014, ALEC plans to promote a suite of model bills and resolutions
aimed at blocking Barack Obama from cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and state governments
from promoting the expansion of wind and solar power through regulations known as Renewable
Portfolio Standards. ALEC [wants] to lower the rate electricity companies pay homeowners
for direct power generation and maybe even charge homeowners for feeding power into
the grid.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Allocating Liability for Child Pornography, in Full or Fractional Shares

2013-12-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/us/evaluating-the-liability-of-viewers-of-c...
The notices arrive almost every day. They tell a young woman named Amy, as she is called in
court papers, that someone has been charged with possessing child pornography. She was the
child. It is hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment, anywhere, someone is
looking at pictures of me as a little girl being abused by my uncle and is getting some kind of sick

enjoyment from it, Amy, then 19, wrote in a 2008 victim impact statement. Its like I am being
abused over and over and over again. Next month, the Supreme Court will consider what the men
who took pleasure from viewing Amys abuse must pay her. Images of Amy being sexually
assaulted by her uncle are among the most widely viewed child pornography in the world.
They have figured in some 3,200 criminal cases since 1998. Amy is notified through a Justice
Department program that tells crime victims about developments in criminal cases involving them.
She has the notifications sent to her lawyer. There have been about 1,800 so far. Her lawyer often
files a request for restitution, as a 1994 law allows her to do. Every viewing of child pornography,
Congress found, represents a renewed violation of the privacy of the victims and repetition of their
abuse. Amys losses are in most ways beyond measure, but some of them can be
calculated in dollars. She has found it hard to hold down a job. She needs a lifetime of
therapy. She has legal bills. Her lawyers say it adds up to about $3.4 million. The question for
the justices is how to allocate that sum among the participants in the sordid marketplace for
pictures of her.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Are Prisons Bleeding Us Dry?

2013-12-01, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/01/are-prisons-bleeding-us-dry....
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to introduce a mandatory prison sentence for anyone
caught with an illegal firearm. But reams of data shows that incarceration creates more crime. One
in 100 adults in the U.S. lives behind bars. One in nine African-American men are imprisoned.
This countrys addiction to incarceration has not made us safer, but has instead imposed
upon us an untenable, senseless tax while unfairly targeting poor communities of color and
perpetuating crime and violence in our neighborhoods. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle
and activists on the left and the right are taking action to roll back imprisonment rates. Chicagos
communities have been ravaged by mass imprisonment. The U.S. currently has the dubious
distinction of having the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. And communities
on Chicagos West and South sides have incarceration rates that are doubleand sometimes
triplethe national average. This is not because more crime occurs in these neighborhoods. A
National Institute of Health study that focused on the effects of mass incarceration on Chicagos
neighborhoods found that communities marked by poverty and racial segregation experience
incarceration rates that are more than three times higher communities with similar crime rates.
Note: For more on the devastating impacts on society of the government-prison-industrial
complex, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Stories of life, death and faith: 'To Heaven and Back' - Mary Neal
2013-11-29, CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/29/us/to-heaven-and-back
It was January 14, 1999, and Mary Neal ... crested at the top of the first big drop in the river. She
looked down into what she later described as a bottomless pit. Then she went over. The front end
of her boat got pinned in the rocks, submerging her in the water. Pinned in the boat and out of air,
Neal started to give up. "I really gave it all over to God, and I really said, 'Your will be done,'" she
said. [She] was sucked out of the bottom of the boat by the current -- with her legs bending back
over her knees. "I could feel the bones breaking. I could feel the ligaments and the tissue tearing. I
felt my spirit peeling away from my body, sort of like peeling two pieces of tape," Neal recounted.
As one of her friends grabbed her wrist to try to pull her out of the water, Neal realized she was
outside her body watching the rescue effort. "I could see them pull my body to the shore. I could
see them start CPR," she said. "I had no pulse, and I wasn't breathing. One fellow was yelling at
me to come back. ...My body was purple and bloated. My pupils were fixed and dilated." She
watched people work on her, but she felt none of it. "When I saw my body, I actually thought 'Well,
I guess I am dead. I guess I really did die,'" Neal said. As she watched, she said she was met by
"these people or these spirits" who started to guide her toward a brightly lit path toward
what appeared to be a domed structure. "It was exploding, not just with light and brilliance
and color but with love," she said. There, she spoke with the spirits. They told her it was
not her time to die, that she still had a job to finish, Neal said. Then she was back in her body,
breathing again. Those involved estimate that Neal had been without oxygen for 30 minutes.
Note: Don't miss the highly inspiring four-minute interview with Mary Neal at the link above.
Another CNN interview of seven minutes is available here. For more, click here. For a treasure
trove of great news articles on near-death experiences, click here.

Canada allowed widespread NSA surveillance at 2010 G20 summit

2013-11-28, NBC News/Reuters
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/53688035#.UpkAXo2f8h0
Canada allowed the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct widespread surveillance
during the 2010 Group of 20 summit in Toronto, according to a media report that cited documents
from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp ...
cited briefing notes it said showed the United States turned its Ottawa embassy into a security
command post during a six-day spying operation by the top-secret U.S. agency as President
Barack Obama and other world leaders met that June. One of the bylines on the CBC report was
Glenn Greenwald, the U.S. journalist who has worked with Snowden on several other NSA stories.
CBC ... quoted an NSA briefing note describing the operation as "closely coordinated with
the Canadian partner". The Canadian equivalent of the NSA is the Communications Security
Establishment Canada, or CSEC. CBC said the documents did not reveal the targets of the
NSA operation, but described part of the U.S. eavesdropping agency's mandate at the
Toronto summit as "providing support to policymakers". CSEC, which has a very low public
profile, employs about 2,000 people. It is part of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing

network that also includes the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Last month,
Brazil angrily demanded an explanation for media reports which said CSEC agents had targeted
its mines and energy industry.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency activities, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Peaceable Kingdom's games emphasize cooperation

2013-11-27, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Peaceable-Kingdom-s-games-emphasize-co...
"Feed the Woozle" and "Hoot Owl Hoot!" are the top-selling titles from Berkeley's Peaceable
Kingdom, which is making a name for itself with games for toddlers and families that emphasize
cooperation over competition. The small, family-owned business tries to promote the value and fun
of everyone working together. Its line of games is staunchly nondigital, encouraging face-to-face
interactions instead of "screen time." "Cooperative games are a microcosm of how children can
play differently," said company president Donna Jaffe. Child-development experts say the
community-focused games can play a valuable role, teaching shared decision-making and
problem-solving. "They have a lot of merit for classroom and family use," said Berkeley's Stevanne
Auerbach, who reviews playthings at www.drtoy.com. "Kids can cut out the one-upmanship and
learn to develop strategies and friendly connections. Many parents want their children to
have the experience of playing games without feeling as if they have to win or lose." "Their
games are in my therapy bag all the time," said Sherry Artemenko, a Connecticut speech
pathologist who reviews games at www.playonwords.com. "Kids learn to help each other and work
as a team. There's a lot of learning involved: You talk to each other, take different actions. There
are visual skills as well as math and language." With slightly more than $5 million in sales,
Peaceable Kingdom is minute compared with giants like Hasbro and Mattel. It has eschewed
mass-market retailers like Target and Toys R Us, instead sticking to smaller local toy stores and
some chains like Barnes & Noble and Pottery Barn.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The Charity Swindle

2013-11-26, New York Times
"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/opinion/the-charity-swindle.html
By all outward indications, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was a leader in the charitable
community. Founded in 2002 to provide support to Navy veterans in need, the charity recorded
astonishing financial success. In its first eight years, it raised around $100 million in charitable
contributions, almost all of it through a direct marketing campaign. The organization, headed by
Jack L. Nimitz, boasted of 41 state chapters and some 66,000 members. [But] virtually everything

about the association turned out to be false: no state chapters, no members, no leader with the
name redolent of naval history. Instead, there was one guy: a man calling himself Bobby
Thompson. But the money raised was real enough, generated by a series of for-profit
telemarketers. The victims, by and large, were unsuspecting small-money donors who received
urgent solicitations asking for support for needy naval veterans. Most of the money raised
stayed with the fund-raisers, though plenty apparently dripped through to Mr. Thompson
and a succession of Republican lawmakers who received generous contributions from the
associations political arm. But little ever made it to the intended beneficiaries. From June
2010, Mr. Thompson was on the run, the search for him hamstrung by the fact that no one had any
real idea of who he was. Finally, on April 30, 2012, federal marshals tracked him down in Portland,
Ore., finding him with a card to a storage unit containing $981,650 in cash and almost two dozen
fake identity cards. Authorities have identified him as John Donald Cody, a former Army
intelligence officer and Harvard Law graduate.
Note: As we enter the annual giving season, donors should look to sources like the GiveWell
website to find organizations with a track record of effectiveness. Seeking them out instead of
donating to charities that are first to call or that sound familiar or that weve heard are good is
the only way to ensure that money reaches those in need. For more on corporate corruption, see
the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Whooping Cough Study May Offer Clue on Surge

2013-11-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/health/study-finds-vaccinated-baboons-can-s...
Baboons vaccinated against whooping cough could still carry the illness in their throats and spread
it, research ... has found. The surprising new finding has not been replicated in people, but
scientists say it may provide an important clue to a puzzling spike in the incidence of whooping
cough across the country, which reached a 50-year high last year. The whooping cough vaccines
now in use were introduced in the 1990s after an older version, which offered longer-lasting
protection, was found to have side effects. But over the years, scientists have determined that the
new vaccines began to lose effectiveness after about five years, a significant problem that many
researchers believe has contributed to the significant rise in whooping cough cases. The new
study, published ... in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers another
explanation. Using baboons, the researchers found that recently vaccinated animals continued to
carry the infection in their throats. Even though those baboons did not get sick from it, they spread
the infection to others that were not vaccinated. When youre newly vaccinated you are an
asymptomatic carrier, which is good for you, but not for the population, said Tod J. Merkel, the
lead author of the study, who is a researcher in the Office of Vaccines Research and Review in the
Food and Drug Administration. The current whooping cough vaccines were developed after a
surge in concerns from parents that their children were getting fevers and having seizures
after receiving the old vaccine. Those worries added fuel to general skepticism about
vaccines that had led some parents to choose not to have their children vaccinated.

Note: For more on the dangers of vaccines, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

The Popes bold new vision

2013-11-26, CNN blog
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/26/the-popes-bold-new-vision/
Pope Francis on [November 26] issued a bold new document in Vatican parlance an apostolic
exhortation called Evangelii Gaudium or The Joy of the Gospel. In this document, he sets out
an exciting new vision of how to be a church. It is to be a joyful community of believers completely
unafraid of the modern world, completely unafraid of change and completely unafraid of
challenges. The exhortation [expresses] an overriding concern for the poor in the world. Francis
champions an idea that has lately been out of favor: the churchs preferential option for the poor.
Gods heart has a special place for the poor, the Pope says. But it is not enough simply to say
that God loves the poor in a special way and leave it at that. We must be also vigilant in our care
and advocacy for them. Everyone must do this, says the Pope. None of us can think we are
exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice. And in case anyone misses the point,
after a critique of the idolatry of money and an economy of exclusion, the Pope says: The
Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind
all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous
solidarity and a return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favors
human beings. This does not mean simply caring for the poor, it means addressing the
structures that keep them poor: The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be
delayed.
Note: For how you can help to end poverty through microlending, click here. For a treasure trove
of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Report Due on Sandy Hook Shooting Investigation

2013-11-24, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/secrecy-shrouds-sandy-hook-shooting-invest...
Investigators planned to release a long-awaited report [on] the Newtown school shooting that could
provide some of the first official answers to questions about the history of the gunman and the
police response to one of the worst school shootings in history. The summary report by the lead
investigator, State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, comes nearly a year after the massacre of 20
children and six women inside Sandy Hook Elementary School. The report ... will not include the
full evidence file of Connecticut State Police, which is believed to total thousands of pages.
The decision to continue withholding the bulk of the evidence is stirring new criticism of
the secrecy surrounding the investigation. Dan Klau, a Hartford attorney who specializes in
First Amendment law, said the decision to release a summary report before the full evidence
file is a reversal of standard practice and one of the most unusual elements of the

investigation. Sedensky has gone to court to fight release of the 911 tapes from the school and
resisted calls from Connecticut's governor to divulge more information sooner. The withholding of
911 recordings, which are routinely released in other cases, has been the subject of a legal battle
between The Associated Press and Sedensky before the state's Freedom of Information
Commission, which ruled in favor of the AP, and now Connecticut's court system. If the recordings
are released, the AP would review the content and determine what, if any, of it would meet the
news cooperative's standards for publication.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to 'unmask' Britons'

personal data
2013-11-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-deal-surveillance-p...
The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been
analysed and stored by America's National Security Agency under a secret deal that was
approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward
Snowden. In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been caught up in US mass
surveillance programs, an NSA memo describes how in 2007 an agreement was reached that
allowed the agency to "unmask" and hold on to personal data about Britons that had previously
been off limits. The memo ... says the material is being put in databases where it can be made
available to other members of the US intelligence and military community. Until now, it had been
generally understood that the citizens of each country were protected from surveillance by any of
the others. But the Snowden material reveals that: In 2007, the rules were changed to allow the
NSA to analyse and retain any British citizens' mobile phone and fax numbers, emails and IP
addresses swept up by its dragnet. These communications were "incidentally collected" by the
NSA, meaning the individuals were not the initial targets of surveillance operations and therefore
were not suspected of wrongdoing. The NSA has been using the UK data to conduct socalled "pattern of life" or "contact-chaining" analyses, under which the agency can look up
to three "hops" away from a target of interest examining the communications of a friend
of a friend of a friend. Three hops for a typical Facebook user could pull the data of more
than 5 million people into the dragnet.
Note: For more on government threats to privacy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

Rivers' garbageman named CNN Hero of the Year

2013-11-19, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/19/world/hero-of-the-year/index.html

Chad Pregracke, an Illinois man who has dedicated his life to cleaning the Mississippi River and
other U.S. waterways, is the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year. Pregracke organizes community
cleanups across the country through his nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters. About 70,000
volunteers have pitched in, helping Pregracke collect more than 7 million pounds of trash
in the past 15 years. "The garbage got into the water one piece at a time," Pregracke said
earlier this year. "And that's the only way it's going to come out." "I'll just keep on cleaning
up America's rivers and loving every minute of it," said Pregracke when he accepted the
award. During the show, Pregracke pledged to spread some of his Hero of the Year money to the
rest of the top 10 Heroes: "I've met so many great people today, the other Heroes, and I'm really
moved by all their stories and all the things they do around the world. ... I'm going to give 10 grand
to each of them, because they're awesome." Pregracke, 38, grew up in East Moline, Illinois, where
the Mississippi River was in his backyard. As a teenager, he worked as a commercial shell diver
and began to notice the heaps of debris in the fabled waterway, which supplies drinking water to
18 million people in more than 50 U.S. cities. "I saw thousands of barrels, thousands of tires, cars,
trucks and tops of school buses. ... I got sick of seeing it and just wanted to do something about it,"
said Pregracke. For nine months out of the year, Pregracke lives on a barge with members of his
12-person crew. They go around the country with a fleet of boats, and they try to make cleanup fun
for the volunteers who show up in each city.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

FISA court order that allowed NSA surveillance is revealed for first time
2013-11-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/19/court-order-that-allowed-nsa-sur...
A secret court order that authorised a massive trawl by the National Security Agency of Americans'
email and internet data was published for the first time on [November 18], among a trove of
documents that also revealed a judge's concern that the NSA "continuously" and "systematically"
violated the limits placed on the program. Another later court order found that what it called
"systemic overcollection" had taken place. In a heavily redacted opinion Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the
former presiding judge of the FISA court, placed legal weight on the methods of surveillance
employed by the NSA, which had never before collected the internet data of an enormous volume
of communications. The methods, known as pen registers and trap-and-trace devices, record the
incoming and outgoing routing information of communications. Kollar-Kotelly ruled that
acquiring the metadata, and not the content, of email and internet usage in bulk was
harmonious with the purpose of Congress and prior court rulings even though no
surveillance statute ever authorized it and top officials at the Justice Department and the
FBI threatened to resign in 2004 over what they considered its dubious legality. The type of
data collected under the program included information on the "to", "from" and "bcc" lines of an
email rather than the content. Metadata, wrote Kollar-Kotelly, enjoyed no protection under the
fourth amendment to the US constitution, a precedent established by the Supreme Court in 1979
in a single case on which the NSA relies currently.

Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Leaked treaty is a Hollywood wish list. Could it derail Obamas trade

agenda?
2013-11-12, Washington Post Blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/13/leaked-treaty-is...
Officially, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade treaty that will ease the flow of goods and
services among the United States ... and other nations along the Pacific Rim. But it has
attracted criticism for its secrecy, and for the inclusion of controversial provisions related to
copyright, patent, and trademark protections. Wikileaks released an August draft of the "intellectual
property" chapter of the treaty. The United States has been using the treaty as a vehicle to
pressure its negotiating partners to make their laws more favorable to the interests of U.S.
filmmakers, drug companies, and other large holders of copyright and patent rights. Several
proposed items are drawn from Hollywood's wish list. The United States has also pushed for a
wide variety of provisions that would benefit the U.S. pharmaceutical and medical device
industries. The Obama administration wants to require the extension of patent protection to
plants, animals, and medical procedures. It wants to require countries to offer longer terms of
patent protection to compensate for delays in the patent application process. The United States
also wants to bar the manufacturers of generic drugs from relying on safety and efficacy
information that was previously submitted by a brand-name drug maker a step that would make
it harder for generic manufacturers to enter the pharmaceutical market and could raise drug prices.
Note: Why was this vitally important, yet little-reported news relegated to a blog? Read an
October, 2014 update on the secret trade deal in The Guardian (One of the UK's leading
newspapers). The Environment Chapter of the TPP has also been leaked. For more along these
lines, see these concise summaries of deeply revealing articles about government secrecy.

Occupy Wall Street activists buy $15m of Americans' personal debt

2013-11-12, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/12/occupy-wall-street-activists-15m...
A group of Occupy Wall Street activists has bought almost $15m of Americans' personal debt over
the last year as part of the Rolling Jubilee project to help people pay off their outstanding credit.
Rolling Jubilee, set up by Occupy's Strike Debt group following the street protests that swept the
world in 2011, launched on 15 November 2012. The group purchases personal debt cheaply from
banks before "abolishing" it, freeing individuals from their bills. By purchasing the debt at
knockdown prices the group has managed to free $14,734,569.87 of personal debt, mainly
medical debt, spending only $400,000. "We thought that the ratio would be about 20 to 1," said
Andrew Ross, a member of Strike Debt and professor of social and cultural analysis at New York
University. "In fact we've been able to buy debt a lot more cheaply than that." The Rolling Jubilee

project was mostly conceived as a "public education project", Ross said. "Our purpose in doing
this, aside from helping some people along the way there's certainly many, many people who are
very thankful that their debts are abolished our primary purpose was to spread information about
the workings of this secondary debt market." The group has ... acquired the $14.7m in three
separate purchases, most recently purchasing the value of $13.5m on medical debt owed by 2,693
people across 45 states and Puerto Rico, Rolling Jubilee said in a press release. No one should
have to go into debt or bankruptcy because they get sick, said Laura Hanna, an organiser
with the group. Hanna said 62% of all personal bankruptcies have medical debt as a
contributing factor.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The Top 5 John F. Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy Theories

2013-11-11, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/top-john-kennedy-assassination-conspiracy-theories/s...
The fifty years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy have done little to quell the public's
interest or skepticism about who killed the president. In 1978 ... the House of Representatives
Select Committee on Assassinations found that in addition to Oswald, there likely was a
second gunman who fired at the president's motorcade. The commission concluded that
the gunmen were part of a "conspiracy," without determining exactly who was behind it,
opening the door to five decades and a cottage industry of theories. According to a 2003 ABC
News Poll, 70 percent of Americans believe Kennedy's death was "the result of a plot, not the act
of a lone killer." Fifty-one percent believe Oswald did not act alone, and 7 percent believe Oswald
was not involved at all in the assassination. In the years since Kennedy's death more than 2,000
books have been written about the assassination, many of which espouse one or more conspiracy
theories. In nearly every theory that involves American conspirators, be they wealthy industrialists
or tough-as-nails mafiosi, one group is routinely represented the CIA. One theory suggests that
Oswald was a CIA operative and agents tampered with his FBI file before and after the
investigation to make it appear he was a communist and lone wolf. [Another theory claims
President Lyndon] Johnson was aided in the plot by another man who would become president,
George H.W. Bush, a burgeoning CIA official who happened to be in Dallas on the day of the
assassination.
Note: On the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination see our powerful JFK assassination
information center and the best videos and news articles on the topic. For an astonishing History
Channel Video in which the attorney for Lyndon Johnson states he has no doubt Johnson was
involved in the assassination, click here.

Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer

2013-11-11, Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884
I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for
executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment
known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main
Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall
Street bailout of all time. Where are we today? The Fed keeps buying roughly $85 billion in bonds
a month, chronically delaying so much as a minor QE taper. Over five years, its bond purchases
have come to more than $4 trillion. Amazingly, in a supposedly free-market nation, QE has
become the largest financial-markets intervention by any government in world history. And the
impact? Even by the Fed's sunniest calculations, aggressive QE over five years has generated
only a few percentage points of U.S. growth. By contrast, experts outside the Fed, such as
Mohammed El Erian at the Pimco investment firm, suggest that the Fed may have created
and spent over $4 trillion for a total return of as little as 0.25% of GDP (i.e., a mere $40
billion bump in U.S. economic output). Both of those estimates indicate that QE isn't really
working. Unless you're Wall Street. Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed
subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009. The biggest
ones have only become more of a cartel: 0.2% of them now control more than 70% of the U.S.
bank assets. As for the rest of America, good luck.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

CIA made doctors torture suspected terrorists after 9/11, taskforce finds
2013-11-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/cia-doctors-torture-suspected-te...
Doctors and psychologists working for the US military violated the ethical codes of their profession
under instruction from the defence department and the CIA to become involved in the torture and
degrading treatment of suspected terrorists, an investigation has concluded. The report of the
Taskforce on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centres
concludes that after 9/11, health professionals working with the military and intelligence
services "designed and participated in cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and
torture of detainees". The report lays blame primarily on the defence department (DoD) and
the CIA, which required their healthcare staff to put aside any scruples in the interests of
intelligence gathering and security practices that caused severe harm to detainees, from
waterboarding to sleep deprivation and force-feeding. The two-year review by the 19-member
taskforce, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror,
supported by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society Foundations,
says that the DoD termed those involved in interrogation "safety officers" rather than doctors.
Doctors and nurses were required to participate in the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike,
against the rules of the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association. Doctors

and psychologists working for the DoD were required to breach patient confidentiality and share
what they knew of the prisoner's physical and psychological condition with interrogators, and were
used as interrogators themselves.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

The Case for Labeling GMOs

2013-11-04, US News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/11/04/dear-washington-voters-gene...
The public has the right to know whats in our food. Over 70 percent of processed foods have
genetically modified ingredients. GM crops are modified to contain novel patented bacterial and
viral DNA never before seen in foods. Not surprisingly, most polls show around 90 percent of the
public wants to know which foods are genetically modified. They want the same right to choose as
consumers in the 64 countries around the world that mandate some form of labeling of GM foods.
Washington state is currently ground zero, with a GM labeling initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Chemical and food corporations have raised over $20 million to defeat the measure. They are
willing to spend whatever it takes. Last year, the opposition spent over $45 million to narrowly
defeat a similar initiative in California. Why are agrichemical companies willing to spend such huge
sums to defeat labeling? These companies GM foods would not be able to compete in an
informed marketplace against non-GM foods. The fact is that, after spending 30 years
genetically modifying crops, these companies have failed to come up with a single trait that
would attract consumers. GM foods do not have improved nutrition, fewer calories, better
taste or lower costs. In other words, they have no market advantage at all. A rational
consumer, when faced with a non-genetically engineered bag of corn chips versus a labeled
genetically engineered bag would have no incentive to buy the engineered brand. Labeling would
expose these companies complete failure to provide a single benefit to Americas consumers. The
only thing these foods offer is potential risk.
Note: For more on the risks from GMO foods, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

California's addiction to Indian casinos

2013-11-04, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/California-s-addiction-to-In...
In just over a decade, Indian casinos have shot from backcountry slot machine emporiums to
enormous gambling meccas, an escalation completely at odds with original promises. The latest
proof of this failed pledge is an $800 million operation in Rohnert Park due to open [on November
5]. The Graton Resort & Casino will be a major economic force in Sonoma County, employing
some 2,000 employees and promising $20 million in annual local payments. Instead of smoke-

filled gambling halls, it will offer high-end restaurants, ornate chandeliers and skylights in a main
building surrounded by nearly 6,000 parking slots. But the huge operation is a reminder of how
far things have strayed from the promises made to California voters in 2000. A state ballot
measure argued that impoverished tribes living in remote corners of California had few if
any alternatives for economic development. Now gambling is Vegas-scale, and casino
tribes are vying against each other for prime spots. The Rohnert Park casino will jump in front
of another operation 30 miles to the north in Geyserville, and that worried tribe has bought land in
Petaluma for a possible operation that will be closer to Bay Area gamblers. One tribe's win is
another's loss. California taxpayers have a stake too. Sold on an ever-increasing slice of revenues,
a string of state governors have approved more than 60 casinos. Gov. Jerry Brown, who approved
the Graton operation, signed two other casino deals in the Central Valley sought by tribes who
wanted more lucrative spots.
Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Gene genie
2013-11-01, The Intelligent Optimist Magazine
http://theoptimist.com/gene-genie/#!t6R4o
Angelina Jolie won plaudits around the world when she announced in May that shed had a preemptive double mastectomy once doctors told her she had a whopping 87 percent risk of
developing breast cancer and a 50 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer. Jolie, who
regularly leverages her fame for public good, said she chose to share her story in the hope that
other women who may be living under the shadow of cancer will be able to get gene-tested and
know about their strong options in the event theyve been dealt some unlucky genetic cards.
While Jolies decision to tell the truth about her situation was brave and extraordinarily well
intentioned, how much of the truth was she told about her condition? Is her genetic history indeed
an automatic death sentence? Heres what doctors may not have told her. Most breast cancer
develops in women without a family history of the disease. The vast majority of women who get
cancer (eight out of every nine) dont have a family history of the diseaseand even with a family
history, most women will never develop cancer. Four out of five women who have a mother and a
sister with breast cancer will never develop the disease, and 12 out of 13 will not die from it. The
danger increases with the number of close relatives who have the disease, but the risk may
prove to be far less than that described to Jolie. For women who have one close relative
with breast cancer, the lifetime risk is 8 percent, which increases to just 13.3 percent for
those like Angelina Jolie, with two close relatives who had the disease. There is no solid
evidence that just-in-case double mastectomies increase survival.
Note: For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

On leaving the Guardian - By Glenn Greenwald

2013-10-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/31/glenn-greenwald-leaving-...
Reporting the NSA story hasn't been easy, but it's always been fulfilling. It's what journalism at its
crux is about, and we must protect that. I'm leaving the Guardian in order to work with Pierre
Omidyar, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill and soon-to-be-identified others on building a new media
organization. Leaving the Guardian was not an easy choice, but this was a dream opportunity that
was impossible to decline. The new site will be up and running reasonably soon. I'll also
periodically post on my personal blog here with an active comment section, as well as on our
pre-launch temporary blog. Reporting the NSA story has never been easy, but it's always been
invigorating and fulfilling. It's exactly why one goes into journalism and, in my view, is what
journalism at its crux is about. I really urge everyone to take note of, and stand against, [the]
sustained and unprecedented attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process in
the US. That same menacing climate is now manifest in the UK as well. There are extremist
though influential factions in both countries which want to criminalize not only
whistleblowing but the act of journalism itself. I'm not leaving because of those threats if
anything, they make me want to stay and continue to publish here but I do believe it's urgent that
everyone who believes in basic press freedoms unite against this. Allowing journalism to be
criminalized is in nobody's interest other than the states which are trying to achieve that.
Note: For confirmation of Glenn Greenwald's warnings of immediate government threats to press
freedom in the UK, click here.

Rabobank Fined $1.1 Billion Over Libor, Euribor Manipulation

2013-10-29, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-29/rabobank-fined-1-dot-1-billion-ov...
Rabobank Groep, the co-operative formed in 1898 to lend to Dutch farmers, was fined 774 million
euros ($1.1 billion) and the chairman resigned as the scandal over the rigging of benchmark
interest rates ensnared a fifth firm. The Utrecht, Netherlands-based lender entered into an
agreement with the Justice Department to accept responsibility for manipulation of Libor and
Euribor to avoid prosecution. The fines are the largest-ever against the bank and second-largest
over manipulation of the London interbank offered rate. Global investigations into banks attempts
to manipulate the benchmarks for profit have led to fines and settlements for Barclays, Royal Bank
of Scotland, UBS and ICAP. Rabobank derivatives and money-market traders influenced the
lenders submissions to benefit their positions linked to Libor and conspired with
employees of other banks to rig rates from May 2005 to January 2011. More than 500
attempts were made by Rabobank to manipulate Libor, according to the regulator. Thirty
current and former employees of the Dutch lender were involved, Rabobank executive board
member Sipko Schat said today. Five of them were fired, he said, while 14 are still working for the
bank. The lender is also clawing back 4.2 million euros in bonuses, Rabobank said in a statement.

The manipulation directly affected the rates referenced by financial products held by and on
behalf of companies and investors around the world, Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge
of the FBIs Washington field office, said in a statement.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Gang Rape in India, Routine and Invisible

2013-10-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/world/asia/gang-rape-in-india-routine-and-i...
The trial in [a] Mumbai gang-rape case has opened ... without the crush of reporters who
documented every twist in a similar case in New Delhi in which a woman died after being gangraped on a private bus. The Mumbai case provides an unusual glimpse into a group of bored
young men who had committed the same crime often enough to develop a routine. The police say
the men had committed at least five rapes in the same spot. Their casual confidence reinforces
the notion that rape has been a largely invisible crime here, where convictions are
infrequent and victims silently go away. Not until their arrest, at a moment when sexual
violence has grabbed headlines and risen to the top of the states agenda, did the
seriousness of the crime sink in. It was exactly like watching a kid in school who has been
caught doing something, said [the victim's coworker], who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
protect the identity of the victim, who cannot be identified according to Indian law. Its like a bunch
of kids who found a dog and tied a bunch of firecrackers to its tail, just to see what would happen.
Only in this case it was far more egregious. It was malevolent, what happened. None of the men
worked regularly. There were jobs chicken-plucking at a neighborhood stand a hot, stinking
eight-hour shift that paid 250 rupees, or $4. The men told their families they wanted something
better, something indoors, but that thing never seemed to come. They passed time playing cards
and drinking.
Note: For more on sex crimes, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and

the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser review
2013-10-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/25/command-control-eric-schlosser-r...
On 11 March 1958, in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, a man called Walter Gregg was building shelves
in his shed with his son, when a Mark 6 atom bomb landed in his yard. Mrs Gregg was inside [the
house], sewing. The little Gregg girls were playing outside. The fissile core of the bomb had been
removed for safer transit, but the explosives that powered it nonetheless blew the Gregg house to
bits, killing half a dozen of the Gregg chickens. In military talk this sort of thing is known as a

"broken arrow", an accident involving nuclear weapons that falls short of causing risk of war, and
Schlosser's book is about the several dozens of these that have happened counting only those
of US origin since the atomic bomb was invented in 1945. The next-up sort of accident is called a
Nucflash. So far, it hasn't happened, but Schlosser considers this due as much to luck as anything
else. [The book] aims to "pierce a false sense of comfort", ... the popular assumption that ...
the threat of nuclear escalation has gone away for good. It hasn't, is Schlosser's miserable
message. "They are out there, soulless and mechanical, sustained by our denial and they
work." In this book, he's interested in how "the effort to control nuclear weapons to ensure that
one doesn't go off by accident" is undermined, over and over again, by demands from the military
for bombs they can trust to explode.
Note: Watch a 16-minute interview with Erik Schlosser showing how close we have come to
accidental nuclear explosions. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
nuclear risk news articles from reliable major media sources.

Grand jury prepared child abuse indictment against JonBenet Ramsey's

parents, newly released documents show
2013-10-25, NBC News
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/25/21146207-grand-jury-prepared-child...
A Colorado court [has] released a long-sealed 1999 grand jury indictment of JonBenet Ramsey's
parents for child abuse resulting in death, but it gave no specifics and did not accuse them of
killing her. Prosecutors declined to act on the indictment and charge John or Patsy Ramsey at the
time, and years later they publicly exonerated the couple and suggested an unknown intruder was
the culprit. Yet the Boulder Police Department which put the Ramseys under an "umbrella of
suspicion" soon after the 6-year-old beauty queen's slaying in 1996 portrayed the belated
document release as a vindication of their investigation. "The grand jury of 12 objective jurors
ultimately agreed with investigators that probable cause existed for the filing of charges,"
the department said in a statement. The Ramseys' lawyer, L. Lin Wood, however, called the
unsealing of just four pages of the grand jury record a "miscarriage of justice" and noted
that the panel did not have the benefit of DNA evidence that cleared the couple years later.
JonBenet was found strangled in the basement of her home on Dec. 26, 1996 the start of a
murder mystery that would fascinate the nation for months and spawn books, TV movies and
countless theories about who killed her. A grand jury spent more than a year combing through a
mountain of evidence before preparing charges. But they were never made public after the
Boulder district attorney announced there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone.
Note: Why were these documents kept secret for so many years? Could there be more to this
case than meets the eye? For more on abuse of children, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Finally, a Guilty Verdict for Wall Street

2013-10-24, US News & World Report

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2013/10/24/bank-of-america-t...
"The Hustle." That's the name of a program run by Countrywide, the slimy subprime lender
purchased by Bank of America in 2008. Under the program, Countrywide brokers were paid
bonuses to originate loans, firing them off to borrowers with less than stellar credit in an attempt to
gin up quick profits. The loans were then sold to government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, where they often went sour. This sounds like a fairly typical tale from the
financial crisis: Most of the nation's largest banks have, in one way or another, been accused of
formulating sloppy loans and dumping them off on the taxpayer or of selling toxic mortgage
securities to unwitting customers. But there's a new twist to the old story: Yesterday, a jury found
Bank of America guilty of fraud, the first time that a major U.S. bank has been held responsible by
a U.S. court for actions tied to the financial crisis. The jury also held a former Countrywide
manager liable for fraud. That we're still wondering whether the banks will face any
consequences for their actions more than five years after the financial crisis began in
earnest is a pretty damning indictment of the Obama administration's approach to the
matter. Can lawmakers summon the will to actually take on Wall Street or are a few good
headlines from DOJ all we can hope for? The Dodd-Frank financial reform law was a good
opening effort and, despite its imperfections, will make some difference in reining Wall Street. But
there is still a lot that the law either left unaddressed or up to the interpretation of regulators who
are bombarded by missives from Wall Street lobbyists.
Note: For more on the collusion of big banks and banking regulators, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Human rights groups accuse US of war crimes

2013-10-22, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/human-rights-groups-accuse-us-war-crimes
The United States is facing increasingly harsh criticism over its use of lethal drone strikes to target
suspected terrorists. American drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen may amount to war crimes,
according to a pair of reports released by international human rights groups. Examining nine drone
strikes in Pakistan, the Amnesty International report concludes that the attacks killed large
numbers of innocent civilians, and accuses the U.S. of targeting rescuers who arrive in the
aftermath of the strikes to aid the wounded. A report from Human Rights Watch states that the
majority of people killed by six drone strikes in Yemen were civilians (57 out of the 82 killed). The
groups findings that the United States has killed more civilians than it has admitted are
bolstered by a UN report ... that stated U.S. drone strikes had killed as many as 400 civilians
in Pakistan and almost 60 in Yemen. These reports clash with the U.S. governments own
assessment of the strikes. Officials have maintained that civilian casualties from drone strikes
are minimal, even in the face of multiple third-party evaluations that state otherwise. Both groups

are demanding that the Obama administration investigate allegations of civilian deaths, release
more information about the legal basis for drone strikes on suspected terrorists, provide restitution
to those unjustly harmed and reveal the identities of those who lost their lives in the attacks.
Note: If a single civilian in the US were killed by a foreign drone, the entire nation would be up in
arms. Do we have a double standard here? For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply
revealing war atrocities news articles from reliable major media sources.

US drone strikes could be classed as war crimes, says Amnesty

International
2013-10-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/22/amnesty-us-officials-war-crimes-...
US officials responsible for the secret CIA drone campaign [in] Pakistan may have committed war
crimes and should stand trial, a report by a leading human rights group warns. Amnesty
International has highlighted the case of a grandmother who was killed while she was picking
vegetables and other incidents which could have broken international laws designed to protect
civilians. The report is issued in conjunction with an investigation by Human Rights Watch detailing
missile attacks in Yemen which the group believes could contravene the laws of armed conflict,
international human rights law and Barack Obama's own guidelines on drones. Getting to the
bottom of individual strikes is exceptionally difficult in the restive areas bordering Afghanistan,
where thousands of militants have settled. People are often terrified of speaking out, fearing
retribution from both militants and the state, which is widely suspected of colluding with the CIA-led
campaign. But Amnesty mounted a major effort to investigate nine of the many attacks to have
struck the region over the last 18 months, including one that killed 18 labourers in North Waziristan
as they waited to eat dinner in an area of heavy Taliban influence in July 2012. All those
interviewed by Amnesty strongly denied any of the men had been involved in militancy.
"Amnesty International has serious concerns that this attack violated the prohibition of the
arbitrary deprivation of life and may constitute war crimes or extrajudicial executions," the
report said. It called for those responsible to stand trial.
Note: If just one citizen were killed in the U.S. or Europe by a foreign drone, there would be an
absolute uproar. Why the double standard? For more on the use of drones to kill abroad and spy at
home, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia

2013-10-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/snowden-says-he-took-no-secret-files-...
Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, said in an extensive interview
this month that he did not take any secret N.S.A. documents with him to Russia when he fled there
in June, assuring that Russian intelligence officials could not get access to them. He also asserted

that he was able to protect the documents from Chinas spies because he was familiar with that
nations intelligence abilities, saying that as an N.S.A. contractor he had targeted Chinese
operations and had taught a course on Chinese cybercounterintelligence. Theres a zero percent
chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents, he said. Mr. Snowden added that
inside the spy agency theres a lot of dissent. But he said that people were kept in line
through fear and a false image of patriotism, which he described as obedience to
authority. He said he believed that if he tried to question the N.S.A.s surveillance
operations as an insider, his efforts would have been buried forever, and he would have
been discredited and ruined. Mr. Snowden said he finally decided to act when he discovered a
copy of a classified 2009 inspector generals report on the N.S.A.s warrantless wiretapping
program during the Bush administration. After reading about the program, which skirted the
existing surveillance laws, he concluded that it had been illegal, he said. If the highest officials in
government can break the law without fearing punishment or even any repercussions at all, he
said, secret powers become tremendously dangerous.
Note: For more on the hidden realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Hackers Target Town After Dropped Sexual-Assault Case

2013-10-14, Time Magazine
http://nation.time.com/2013/10/14/hackers-target-town-after-dropped-sexual-as...
The international band of Internet activists known as Anonymous has chosen the rural Missouri
town of Maryville as the target of its latest campaign, after the Kansas City Star published a
powerful examination of a possible rape case that went unprosecuted by local authorities. Known
for successful hacks of organizations ranging from the Church of Scientology to PayPal to
the government of Brazil, Anonymous released a statement: If Maryville wont defend
these young girls, if the police are too cowardly or corrupt to do their jobs, if justice system
has abandoned them, then we will have to stand for them." [Matthew] Barnett was a 17-yearold senior on the Maryville High School football team. Daisy, a freshman cheerleader, was
delighted by the senior boys attentions, and ignored her older brothers advice to steer clear of
him, [the Star] reported. Barnett, the grandson of former state representative Rex Barnett, later
admitted to police that he knew the girl was drinking at his house and that he had sex with her
while she was drunk. He loaded the girl, in tears, into his car and left her unconscious on her front
porch in subfreezing cold. Much of the town turned on the Coleman family, Daisys mother Melinda
was fired from her job, and after the Colemans left town their house burned down under
suspicious circumstances. Melinda Coleman is not the only one wondering whether the
prominence of Barnetts family had something to do with the decision not to prosecute.
Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Report: Obama Brings Chilling Effect on Journalism

2013-10-10, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/report-obama-brings-chilling-effect-journa...
The U.S. government's aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are
having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers, according to a report
released [on] U.S. press freedoms under the Obama administration. The Committee to Protect
Journalists conducted its first examination of U.S. press freedoms amid the Obama
administration's unprecedented number of prosecutions of government sources and seizures of
journalists' records. Usually the group focuses on advocating for press freedoms abroad. Leonard
Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Washington Post, wrote the 30-page analysis entitled
"The Obama Administration and the Press." The report notes President Barack Obama came into
office pledging an open, transparent government after criticizing the Bush administration's secrecy,
"but he has fallen short of his promise." "In the Obama administration's Washington,
government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press," wrote Downie, now a
journalism professor at Arizona State University. Downie interviewed numerous reporters and
editors, including a top editor at The Associated Press, following revelations this year that the
government secretly seized records for telephone lines and switchboards used by more than 100
AP journalists. Downie also interviewed journalists whose sources have been prosecuted on felony
charges. Those suspected of discussing classified information are increasingly subject to
investigation, lie-detector tests, scrutiny of telephone and email records and now
surveillance by co-workers under a new "Insider Threat Program" that has been
implemented in every agency.
Note: For more on government secrecy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Malala Yousafzai wows 'The Daily Show'

2013-10-10, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/10/malala-jon-stewart-daily-...
Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai ... is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her courage in the
face of death threats in her home country of Pakistan over her advocacy of education for girls. On
Thursday, she won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Malala
was shot in the head and neck one year ago on her school bus by a gunman who was sent by the
Taliban, the Muslim clerical group that believes in adherence to a strict version of Islamic law.
Where it can, the Taliban has imposed rules forbidding girls from going to school, listening to music
or taking most jobs. Malala, who lives in England now, told Stewart that she was stunned when
she was told as a 14-year-old girl that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her for her
activism and for her blog on the BBC, in which she wrote about how hard it was to live under strict
Muslim rule as a girl. "I just could not believe it, I said no, it's not true," she said, saying she
thought the Taliban would instead come after her father, who operates a school and opened up his
classes to girls. "We thought the Taliban were not that much cruel that they would kill a child." After

she was shot, she was allowed to go to Britain for brain surgery. She now lives outside London
with her family. Though the Taliban has threatened her life again, she says striking back at
them would not help. "If you hit a Talib, then there would be no difference between you and
the Talib," she said. "You must not treat others with cruelty. You must fight others
through peace and through dialogue and through education."
Note: You can watch portions of this inspiring show at the link above and at this link. For a
treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Turning Education Upside Down

2013-10-09, New York Times Blog
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com//2013/10/09/turning-education-upside-down/
Three years ago, Clintondale High School, just north of Detroit, became a flipped school
one where students watch teachers lectures at home and do what wed otherwise call
homework in class. Teachers record video lessons, which students watch on their
smartphones, home computers or at lunch in the schools tech lab. In class, they do projects,
exercises or lab experiments in small groups while the teacher circulates. In the fall of 2011,
Clintondale flipped completely every grade, every class. On average we approximated a 30
percent failure rate, said Green. With flipping, it dropped to under 10 percent. Graduation rates
rose dramatically, and are now over 90 percent. College attendance went from 63 percent in
2010 to 80 percent in 2012. Flipping also changes the distribution of teacher time. In a traditional
class, the teacher engages with the students who ask questions but its those who dont ask
who tend to need the most attention. The biggest effect of flipping classrooms is on the students at
the bottom. Its tough to fail a flipped class, because youre doing the stuff in here, said Rob
Dameron, the head of the English department. I used to have about a 30 percent failure rate in
English. Now, out of 130 kids, I have three who are failing mostly due to attendance problems.
Flipped classrooms require more creativity and energy from the teacher. Lots of teachers who
arent really good teachers are resistant to this they like to build time into the day when kids are
working to do their taxes or catch up on email..
Note: Watch a great five-minute video on this phenomenon. Explore a treasure trove of concise
summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even

started
2013-10-09, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/09/oops-azerbaijan-...
Azerbaijan's big presidential election ... was anticipated to be neither free nor fair. President Ilham
Aliyev, who took over from his father 10 years ago, has stepped up intimidation of activists and
journalists. Rights groups are complaining about free speech restrictions and one-sided state

media coverage. The BBC's headline for its story on the election reads "The Pre-Determined
President." So expectations were pretty low. [But] it was a bit awkward when Azerbaijan's
election authorities released vote results a full day before voting had even started. The
vote counts ... were pushed out on an official smartphone app run by the Central Election
Commission. It showed Aliyev as "winning" with 72.76 percent of the vote. That's on track
with his official vote counts in previous elections: 76.84 percent of the vote in 2003 and 87 percent
in 2008. In second place was opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli with 7.4 percent of the vote. The
data were quickly recalled. The official story is that the app's developer had mistakenly sent out the
2008 election results as part of a test. But that's a bit flimsy, given that the released totals show the
candidates from this week, not from 2008. As of this writing, Azerbaijan's election authorities say
they've counted 80 percent of the ballots, with Aliyev winning just under 85 percent of the vote so
far. He's been officially reelected.
Note: And for any who think elections manipulation only happens in smaller, corrupt countries, see
undeniable evidence of major manipulation of elections in the U.S. and elsewhere at this link. For
more on electoral corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Public Banks Are Key

2013-10-01, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/10/01/should-states-operate-public-...
Banking is heavily subsidized and is monopolized by Wall Street, which has effectively bought
Congress. Banks have been bailed out by the government, when [they] would have gone bankrupt.
The Federal Reserve blatantly manipulates interest rates in a way that serves Wall Street, lending
trillions at near-zero interest and pushing rates so artificially low that local governments have lost
billions in interest-rate swaps. State and municipal governments already have public lending
programs. They exist because private banks are not lending in some sectors that need financing.
Globally, public banks lend countercyclically, providing credit when and where other banks
wont. Germany and Taiwan, which have strong public banking sectors, are among the most
competitive banking markets in the world. In North Dakota, the only state with its own mini-Fed,
the state-owned Bank of North Dakota routes its public lending programs through community
banks. Its deposit base is almost entirely composed of the revenue of the state and state agencies.
The North Dakota Bankers Association endorses the Bank of North Dakota, which has a mandate
to support the local economy. North Dakota has more banks per capita than any other state,
because they have not been forced to sell to their Wall Street competitors. Public banking is
not a radical idea but has been practiced in the U.S. with excellent results for decades, and
around the world for centuries.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Nixon and Kissingers Forgotten Shame

2013-09-30, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/opinion/nixon-and-kissingers-forgotten-sham...
Some of Bangladeshs current problems stem from its traumatic birth in 1971 when President
Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger, his national security adviser, vigorously supported the
killers and tormentors of a generation of Bangladeshis. On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army
launched a devastating crackdown on the rebellious Bengalis in [East Pakistan, now Bangladesh].
Midway through the bloodshed, both the C.I.A. and the State Department conservatively estimated
that about 200,000 people had died (the Bangladeshi government figure is much higher, at three
million). As many as 10 million Bengali refugees fled across the border into India, where they died
in droves in wretched refugee camps. Nixon and Kissinger stood stoutly behind Pakistans
generals, supporting the murderous regime at many of the most crucial moments. Nixon and
Kissinger barely tried to exert leverage over Pakistans military government. They did not offer
warnings or impose conditions that might have dissuaded the Pakistani junta from atrocities. Nor
did they threaten the loss of American military or economic support after the slaughter began.
They were unmoved by the suffering of Bengalis, despite detailed reporting about the killing from
Archer K. Blood, the brave United States consul general in East Pakistan. After Mr. Bloods
consulate sent an extraordinary cable formally dissenting from American policy, decrying
what it called genocide, Nixon and Kissinger ousted Mr. Blood from his post in East
Pakistan. Kissinger privately scorned Mr. Blood as this maniac.

N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens

2013-09-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/nsa-examines-social-networks-of-us-citiz...
Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to
create sophisticated graphs of some Americans social connections that can identify their
associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal
information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials. The spy
agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine
Americans networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted
restrictions on the practice, according to documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former
N.S.A. contractor. The agency was authorized to conduct large-scale graph analysis on very large
sets of communications metadata without having to check foreignness of every e-mail address,
phone number or other identifier, the document said. The agency can augment the
communications data with material from public, commercial and other sources, including bank
codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and
GPS location information, as well as property records and unspecified tax data, according to the
documents. They do not indicate any restrictions on the use of such enrichment data, and
several former senior Obama administration officials said the agency drew on it for both Americans

and foreigners. Almost everything about the agencys operations is hidden, and the decision to
revise the limits concerning Americans was made in secret, without review by the nations
intelligence court or any public debate.
Note: For an excellent 15-minute BBC Newsnight interview with Glenn Greenwald defending
Edward Snowden's release of secret documents, click here. For more on government surveillance,
see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The Science Of Conquering Your Fears -- And Living A More

Courageous Life
2013-09-15, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/15/conquering-fear_n_3909020.html
Aristotle believed courage to be the most important quality in a man. Courage is the first of human
virtues because it makes all others possible," he wrote. Recent research has begun to move
toward an understanding of what courage is and how we might be able to cultivate the ability to
face our fear and make decisions with greater fortitude. Neuroscientists recently determined just
how courage works in the brain, finding that a region called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex
(sgACC) is the driving force behind courageous acts -- a conclusion which could one day prove
useful in treating anxiety disorders. So how can we train our minds to act more courageously in
everyday life? Other recent research on courage [has] shown that's it's not just about facing fear,
but also about coping with risk and uncertainty (as Ernest Hemingway put it, courage is "grace
under pressure.") And, it seems, we can make ourselves more courageous with practice and effort.
Six tried-and-true ways to loosen the grip of fear on your life -- and become more
courageous than you ever imagined: Be vulnerable. Acknowledge your fears. Expose
yourself to what you fear. Think positive. Manage stress [with exercise and meditation].
Practice courageous acts.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Fukushima 'not under control' warns TEPCO official

2013-09-13, Fox News/Agence France Presse
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/13/fukushima-not-under-control-warns-tep...
The Japanese government and TEPCO were scrambling to reassure people [on Sep. 13] that they
have a lid on Fukushima after a senior utility executive said the nuclear plant was "not under
control". The remarks by Kazuhiko Yamashita, who holds the executive-level title of "fellow" at
Tokyo Electric Power, seem to flatly contradict assurances Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave
Olympic chiefs a week earlier. In a meeting with members of the opposition Democratic Party
of Japan, Yamashita was asked whether he agreed that "the situation is under control" as
Abe had declared at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires. He

responded by saying, "I think the current situation is that it is not under control," according
to major media, including national broadcaster NHK. News of his comment prompted a rush by the
government and TEPCO to elaborate on Yamashita's remark, saying he was talking specifically
about the plant's waste water problem, and not the facility's situation in general. TEPCO has
poured thousands of tonnes of water on the Fukushima reactors to tame meltdowns sparked by
the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The utility says they are now stable but need to be kept
cool to prevent them running out of control again. Much of that now-contaminated water is being
stored in temporary tanks at the plant, and TEPCO has so far revealed no clear plan for it. The
problem has been worsened by leaks in some of those tanks that are believed to have seeped into
groundwater, which runs out to sea.
Note: For an excellent ABC News article titled "A Never-Ending Disaster at Fukushima," click here.
For more on the grave environmental impacts of nuclear power, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Sept. 11 Truthers Mark Anniversary

2013-09-11, Time Magazine
http://nation.time.com/2013/09/11/sept-11-truthers-mark-anniversary/
As the world marks the twelfth year since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, a campaign
called the ReThink911 Coalition is drawing attention to one of the lesser-known events of that day
the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7. Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, 7 World Trade Center
was a 47-story building just north of the Twin Towers. At 5:21 pm, nearly seven hours after the
North Tower came down, 7 World Trade Center crumbled quickly to the ground. In 2006, Richard
Gage, a San Francisco-based architect, founded Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which
doubts Building 7 collapsed because of fire. Gage and other architects and engineers argue that 7
World Trade Center came down in a free fall, which could only have been caused by a deliberate
demolition explosion. More than 2,000 architects and engineers have signed a petition calling for a
new investigation into the buildings collapse. [Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth] makes
up large part of the ReThink911 coalition, which spent $44,000 to put [a 54-foot] billboard in
Times Square at the heart of midtown Manhattan this week. The group says it raised
$225,000 from more than 2,000 donors, the majority of whom gave contributions of less
than $100. Theyre using the money to put up signs and billboards in seven American cities. They
will be advertising in Vancouver, Toronto, London and Sydney too.
Note: For more on the reasons to believe the official account of 9/11 is false, see the many
questions raised by highly respected professors and former government officials available here
and here.

From Inequality for All, a challenge for America

2013-09-10, Washington Post
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-10/opinions/41917153_1_income-ineq...

Chilling. Thats how one reviewer describes the experience of watching Harvey Weinsteins latest
film. Its about income inequality. As Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich intones in the film, Of
all developed nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income, and were
surging towards even greater inequality. Inequality for All, directed by Jacob Kornbluth and set to
be released nationwide on Sept. 27, comes at a critical moment for America. Sept. 15 marks the
five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers fueled by a toxic combination of
deregulation, subprime lending and credit-default swaps that precipitated the 2008 global
economic crisis and laid bare the rot at the heart of our economic system. It was largely this orgy
of greed that led the first Occupy Wall Street protesters to Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, two years
ago next week. Inequality for All throws into sharp relief the numbers and stories we hear.
Combining footage from Reichs electrifying Berkeley lectures with interviews, news clips and rich
graphics, the film weaves a compelling narrative about how and why, since the late 1970s, income
inequality has risen to crisis levels. The facts are breathtaking. In 1978, according to Reich, a
typical male worker made $48,302, while the typical top 1 percenter earned $393,682,
more than eight times as much. In 2010, even as overall gross domestic product and
productivity increased, the average male workers wage fell to $33,751. Meanwhile, the
average top 1 percent earner was making more than $1.1 million 32 times the average
earner.
Note: For more on income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

New Yorkers 'pay it forward' after 9/11

2013-09-10, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/10/us/cnnheroes-parness-sandy/index.html
Some New Yorkers mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks by going to a memorial
service or observing a moment of silence. For the past 10 years, Jeff Parness has been helping
others. Every September, Parness brings hundreds of volunteers from New York to help another
disaster-stricken community in the United States. "It was our way of saying, you know, New
Yorkers will never forget what people from around the country and the world did for us in
our time of need after 9/11," said Parness. "So that's how the mission started. It was just to pay
forward the kindness that we experienced." Over the past decade, Parness' nonprofit, New York
Says Thank You, has assisted victims of wildfires in San Diego, tornadoes in the Midwest and
Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Many of those who receive help are so inspired that they travel
across the country the next year -- often at their own expense -- to volunteer with Parness' group
and help someone else. The result is a unique disaster-response organization. "All of our
volunteers are survivors. They survived, whether it was 9/11 or Katrina or tornadoes. So
they all share that common bond," said Parness, who quit his job as a venture capitalist to work
on his nonprofit full-time. This year, Parness' mission has come full circle. Last weekend, more
than 300 volunteers -- at least half of whom were from outside the New York area -- helped rebuild
13 homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy in October. For Parness, a native New Yorker, the work
carried extra significance.

Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Vietnam, 9/11, and Now Syria: Going to War on False Pretexts?

2013-09-10, MarketWatch (a Wall Street Journal website)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vietnam-911-and-now-syria-going-to-war-on-fa...
As the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, 12 former CIA, FBI, NSA, and US military
officials -- including Time Magazine's 2002 person of the year, Colleen Rowley, and former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern, who provided the daily brief for three presidents -- say in an open letter to
President Obama that the charge that President Assad used chemical weapons on August 21st is
based on false intelligence. If this charge is false, and leads to war in Syria, it would not be the first
time US leaders have misled their public into going to war. Robert McNamara, Secretary of
Defense during the Vietnam War, admitted in 2003 that America went to war in Vietnam on the
false intelligence that North Vietnam had attacked a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. The 9/11
Consensus Panel was formed to deal with another notorious fraudulent pretext for war, the
attacks of September 11, 2001, that triggered the "war on terror" and the ongoing military
actions in the Middle East. [The] Panel was formed in 2011 to show the public [that] 9/11
was a false flag operation. [It] has thus far produced 37 Consensus Points refuting the
official story, five of which are released today. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology's report on the collapse of World Trade Center 7 failed [to] produce a [video] simulation
replicating the instant straight-down collapse of this 47-story steel-framed skyscraper. The official
accounts of telephone calls from the airliners, and the surveillance camera images of the hijackers,
do not withstand close scrutiny. Other [new Points concern] seismic evidence of explosions below
the towers, and molten metal running below the debris for weeks afterwards.
Note: For lots more reliable information suggesting a major cover-up around the events of 9/11,
click here and here.

The Rich Get Richer Through the Recovery

2013-09-10, New York Times
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/the-rich-get-richer-through-the-...
The top 10 percent of earners took more than half of the countrys total income in 2012, the
highest level recorded since the government began collecting the relevant data a century ago,
according to an updated study by the prominent economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.
The top 1 percent took more than one-fifth of the income earned by Americans, one of the
highest levels on record since 1913. The figures underscore that even after the recession the
country remains in a new Gilded Age, with income as concentrated as it was in the years that
preceded the Depression of the 1930s, if not more so. High stock prices, rising home values and
surging corporate profits have buoyed [the] incomes of the most affluent Americans, with the
incomes of the rest still weighed down by high unemployment and stagnant wages for many blue-

and white-collar workers. These results suggest the Great Recession has only depressed
top income shares temporarily and will not undo any of the dramatic increase in top income
shares that has taken place since the 1970s, Mr. Saez, an economist at the University of
California, Berkeley, wrote. The income share of the top 1 percent of earners in 2012 [jumped] to
about 22.5 percent in 2012 from 19.7 percent in 2011. The economy remains depressed for most
wage-earning families. With sustained, relatively high rates of unemployment, businesses are
under no pressure to raise their employees incomes because both workers and employers know
that many people without jobs would be willing to work for less. The share of Americans working or
looking for work is at its lowest in 35 years.
Note: To read the UC Berkeley report on extreme income disparities, click here. For more on
income inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Food best source of vitamins, study finds

2013-09-10, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Food-best-source-of-vitamins-study-finds...
About half of all Americans take a daily multivitamin as a way to improve their health and cut their
risk of diseases. But experts now say that - in almost all cases - the best way to get a full
dose of vitamins is from nutritious foods rather than from pills. There is a lot of scientific
evidence showing diets rich in produce, nuts, whole grains and fish promote health and decrease
risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, according to a new "Vitamins and Minerals"
report from Harvard Medical School. On the other hand, studies involving vitamin supplements and there have been many - show mixed results. In fact, after reviewing a large body of research
in 2006, the National Institutes of Health decided not to definitively rule for or against multivitamins'
ability to prevent diseases. So what are the quickest ways to boost the vitamin content in your
meals? The report identifies about three dozen foods that have the most nutrients per calorie,
including avocados, berries, cantaloupe, dark leafy greens, eggs, yogurt, lentils, beans, almonds,
fish, chicken and turkey. And although most people think of citrus as the best source of vitamin C,
a red pepper has twice as much as an orange. Similarly, potatoes and white beans have more
potassium than bananas. The final advice from Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the report's editor:
"Spend your time and money improving your diet, which is far more likely to pay off in the
long run than popping a pill."
Note: The Harvard report can be found here: http://hvrd.me/9Uixox. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

A war the Pentagon doesnt want

2013-09-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/us-military-planners-dont-support-war-...

Written by Robert H. Scales, a retired Army general and former commandant of the U.S. Army War
College. The tapes tell the tale. Go back and look at images of our nations most senior soldier,
Gen. Martin Dempsey, and his body language during [the] Senate Foreign Relations Committee
hearings on Syria. Its pretty obvious that Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
doesnt want this war. Dempseys unspoken words reflect the opinions of most serving
military leaders. They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama
administrations attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense. None of the White
House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates
every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly
defined and obtainable objective. Prospective U.S. action in Syria is not about threats to American
security. They are outraged by the fact that what may happen is an act of war and a willingness to
risk American lives to make up for a slip of the tongue about red lines. These acts would be for
retribution and to restore the reputation of a president. Our serving professionals make the point
that killing more Syrians wont deter Iranian resolve to confront us. The Iranians have already
gotten the message. Our people lament our loneliness. Our senior soldiers take pride in their past
commitments to fight alongside allies and within coalitions that shared our strategic goals. This
war, however, will be ours alone.
Note: For a two-minute video of four-star general Wesley Clark declaring that Syria was in the
crosshairs of the US as early as 2001, click here. For more on why the U.S.'s proposed war of
aggression against Syria must be stopped, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

FSA 'endangering public health' by ignoring concerns over GM food

2013-09-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/05/gm-food-cancers-fsa
The French researcher who caused a scientific storm when he claimed to show that some GM
food led to tumours and cancers in rats has accused the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) of
"recklessly endangering public health" by not demanding long-term testing of the foods. In a series
of parliamentary and public meetings held this week in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, Prof GillesEric Sralini has challenged UK politicians and safety authorities to review the way safety is
assessed. Sralini, a molecular biologist at Caen University, said: "Our research found severe
toxicity from GM maize and [Monsanto pesticide] Roundup. The British Food Standards
Agency has uncritically accepted the European Food Safety Authority's dismissal of the
study, even though many of EFSA's experts have been exposed as having conflicts of
interest with the GM industry. At the very least, the British government should demand long-term
mandatory safety testing on all GM foods before they are released onto the market," he said. "The
British scientific authorities are deliberately misleading their government and are recklessly
endangering public health in ignoring the findings of our research." Sralini's study found that rats
developed much higher levels of cancers and died earlier than controls when fed a diet of
Monsanto's Roundup-tolerant GM maize NK603 for two years, or were exposed to Roundup over
the same period. The usual industry tests last for 90 days.

Note: For more on the risks from GMO foods, see the highly informative summary available here.

GoldieBlox Helping to Build a Generation of Female Engineers

2013-09-04, ABC News blog
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/09/goldieblox-helping-to-build-a-g...
Debbie Sterling is on a mission to build up girls by breaking down a few barriers. Fed up with the
lack of women in her engineering field (the latest studies from the National Science Foundation
show that 11 percent of engineers of women), Sterling, a graduate of Stanford University, came
up with an idea after coming across research that kids toys could have a huge impact on their
career choices. She set her sights on building a construction toy for girls after visiting a toy store. I
was so disappointed that there werent things that would inspire girls to [use] their brains, Sterling,
30, said. "I wanted to put something in there that girls can see that they too could find a
passion in engineering and that they too could find these subjects fun. And so the idea for
GoldieBlox, toys that encourage girls to not just play with dollhouses but build them, was
born. In creating the GoldieBlox character, I wanted to make a character that girls could relate to,
Sterling said. Shes feminine and she loves building. To fund the dream, to the tune of $150,000,
Sterling made a plea, complete with a video, on Kickstarter. The money started flooding in. We
reached our goal in four days, she said, and ended up almost doubling it by the end. GoldieBlox
is now sold in about 500 independent stores in the United States and Canada, and even at Toys R
Us. Sterling said her toys had been consistently in the Top 20 best-selling toys on Amazon. "I
firmly believe that in my own lifetime Im going to see a huge shift, Sterling said. Im going to see
an enormous shift of more girls entering these fields, inventing amazing things, with men.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Remaking the basic bargain

2013-09-03, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-201309031400--tms--amvoicesctnav-b20130903-...
Back in 1914, Henry Ford announced he was paying workers on his Model T assembly line $5 a
day -- three times what the typical factory employee earned at the time. The Wall Street Journal
termed his action "an economic crime." But Ford knew it was a cunning business move. The
higher wage turned Ford's auto workers into customers who could afford to buy Model Ts. In two
years, Ford's profits more than doubled. Yet in the years leading up to the Great Crash of 1929
[the] wages of most American workers stagnated even as the economy surged. Gains went mainly
into corporate profits and into the pockets of the very rich. American families maintained their
standard of living by going deeper into debt, and the rich gambled with their gigantic winnings. In
1929, the debt bubble popped. The same thing happened in the years leading up to the crash of
2008. The lesson should be obvious. When the economy becomes too lopsided -disproportionately benefiting corporate owners and top executives rather than average

workers -- it tips over. It's still lopsided. We're slowly emerging from the depths of the worst
downturn since the Great Depression, but nothing fundamentally has changed. Corporate
profits are up largely because payrolls are down. Even Ford Motor Company is now paying its
new hires half what it paid new employees a few years ago. All over the American economy,
employee pay is now down to the smallest share of the economy since the government began
collecting wage and salary data 60 years ago. And corporate profits constitute the largest share of
the economy since then.
Note: The author of this analysis, Robert Reich, is former U.S. Secretary of Labor, a professor of
public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and the author of Aftershock: The Next
Economy and America's Future. He blogs at http://www.robertreich.org. For more on income
inequality, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The hidden truth about exercise

2013-09-02, Sydney Morning Herald/New York Times
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/the-hidden-truth-about-exercise-20130830...
We all know exercise promotes health, reducing most peoples risk of developing diabetes and
becoming obese. Now light has been shed on how it does this at a cellular level. It seems exercise
may be able to drastically alter how genes operate, studies show. Genes are not static. They turn
on or off depending on the biochemical signals they receive from elsewhere in the body. One
powerful means of affecting gene activity involves a process called methylation, in which methyl
groups, a cluster of carbon and hydrogen atoms, attach to the outside of a gene and make it easier
or harder for that gene to receive and respond to messages from the body. What is particularly
fascinating about the methylation process is that it seems to be driven largely by lifestyle. Diet, for
instance, notably affects the methylation of genes. But the role of physical activity in this has been
poorly understood. Researchers ... began by recruiting dozens of sedentary but generally healthy
adult men. Using new molecular techniques, researchers mapped the methylation patterns on the
DNA within [their] cells. Then, under the guidance of a trainer, the volunteers began attending
hour-long spin or aerobics classes about twice a week for six months. By the end of that time, the
men had ... altered the methylation pattern of many of the genes in their fat cells. More than
17,900 individual sites on 7663 separate genes in the fat cells now displayed changed
methylation patterns. Other studies have found that exercise has an equally profound effect
on DNA methylation within human muscle cells.
Note: For more on health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Mexico's war on drugs is one big lie

2013-08-31, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/01/mexico-drugs-anabel-hernandez-na...

During January 2011, Anabel Hernndez's extended family held a party at a favourite cafe in the
north of Mexico City. As one of the country's leading journalists ... Hernndez had to leave early,
as so often, "to finish an article". After she left ... gunmen burst in. But this was no robbery it was
"pure intimidation, aimed at my family, and at me." Hernndez's offence was to write a book about
the drug cartels that have wrought carnage across Mexico, taking some 80,000 lives. Narcoland:
The Mexican Drug Lords and their Godfathers [is] about the mafia state; how the old Guadalajara
cartel of the 1980s was protected by the Mexican government just as its heir, Guzmn's Sinaloa
syndicate, is now. The threats began when Hernndez's book was published in Mexico in 2010.
Veteran reporter Mike O'Connor works full-time on behalf of Mexico's menaced reporters, based in
Mexico City for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "The silencing of the press and killing of
journalists is integral to the reality, the big story, of what is happening here," explains O'Connor.
"The cartels are taking territory. For the cartels to take territory, three things have to
happen. One is to control the institutions with guns basically, the police. The second is to
control political power. And, for the first two to be effective, you have to control the press."
Hernndez is "very pleased my book is being published in English, so it can be read in London
and New York. I want it published ... where HSBC took Chapo Guzmn's money."
Note: Read more in this revealing article, or find out about the sweetheart deal the U.S. gave to
the HSBC executives that were caught knowingly laundering millions of dollars for Mexican drug
cartels.

Physician Who Told of Handling Roswell Debris Dies

2013-08-28, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/physician-told-handling-roswell-debris-die...
Dr. Jesse Marcel Jr., who said he handled debris from the 1947 crash of an unidentified flying
object near Roswell, N.M., has died at the age of 76. Over the past 35 years, Marcel appeared on
TV shows, documentaries and radio shows; was interviewed for magazine articles and books, and
traveled the world lecturing about his experiences in Roswell. "He was credible. He wasn't lying.
He never embellished only told what he saw," his wife Linda said. Marcel's father was an Air
Force intelligence officer and reportedly the first military officer to investigate the wreckage in early
July 1947. Marcel said he was 10 when his father brought home some of the debris, woke him up
in the middle of the night and said the boy needed to look at it because it was something he would
never see again. His father maintained the debris "was not of this Earth," Linda Marcel said. After
an initial report that a flying saucer had been recovered on a ranch near Roswell, the military
issued a statement saying the debris was from a weather balloon. "They were told to keep it quiet
and they did for years and years and years," Linda Marcel said. Interest in the case was revived,
however, when physicist and UFO researcher Stanton Friedman spoke with Jesse Marcel Sr. in
the late 1970s. Friedman wrote the foreword to Marcel Jr.'s 2007 book The Roswell Legacy, and
described him as a courageous man who "set a standard for honesty and decency and
telling the truth. His legacy is that he had the courage to speak out when he didn't have to
about handling wreckage that his Dad brought home," Friedman said Tuesday. "He could
have kept his mouth shut. A lot of people did."

Note: For more reliable, verifiable information on the UFO cover-up, see our deeply revealing UFO
Information Center.

Radioactive groundwater at Fukushima nears Pacific

2013-08-23, Associated Press
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/radioactive-ground-water-under-fukushima-nears...
Deep beneath Fukushima's crippled nuclear power station, a massive underground reservoir of
contaminated water that began spilling from the plant's reactors after the 2011 earthquake
and tsunami has been creeping slowly toward the Pacific. Now, 2 1/2 years later, experts
fear it is about to reach the ocean and greatly worsen what is fast becoming a new crisis at
Fukushima: the inability to contain vast quantities of radioactive water. The looming crisis is
potentially far greater than the discovery earlier this week of a leak from a tank that stores
contaminated water used to cool the reactor cores. That 300-ton (80,000-gallon) leak is the fifth
and most serious from a tank since the March 2011 disaster. But experts believe the underground
seepage from the reactor and turbine building area is much bigger and possibly more radioactive,
confronting the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., with an invisible, chronic problem and
few viable solutions. Many also believe it is another example of how TEPCO has repeatedly failed
to acknowledge problems that it could almost certainly have foreseen and taken action to
mitigate before they got out of control. To keep the melted nuclear fuel from overheating, TEPCO
has rigged a makeshift system of pipes and hoses to funnel water into the broken reactors. The
radioactive water is then treated and stored in the aboveground tanks that have now developed
leaks. But far more leaks into the reactor basements during the cooling process then through
cracks into the surrounding earth and groundwater.
Note: For more on the water-storage-tank leaks at Fukushima from the New York Times, click
here. For more on the environmental devastation caused by nuclear power, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked
files
2013-08-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/20/nsa-snowden-files-drives-destroy...
Guardian editors on [August 20] revealed why and how the newspaper destroyed computer
hard drives containing copies of some of the secret files leaked by Edward Snowden. The
decision was taken after a threat of legal action by the government that could have stopped
reporting on the extent of American and British government surveillance revealed by the
documents. It resulted in one of the stranger episodes in the history of digital-age journalism. On
Saturday 20 July, in a deserted basement of the Guardian's King's Cross offices, a senior editor
and a Guardian computer expert used angle grinders and other tools to pulverise the hard drives
and memory chips on which the encrypted files had been stored. As they worked they were

watched by technicians from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) who took notes
and photographs, but who left empty-handed. The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, had
earlier informed government officials that other copies of the files existed outside the country and
that the Guardian was neither the sole recipient nor steward of the files leaked by Snowden, a
former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor. But the government insisted that the material
be either destroyed or surrendered. The British government has attempted to step up its pressure
on journalists, with the detention in Heathrow on Sunday of David Miranda, the partner of Glenn
Greenwald, who has led the Guardian's US reporting on the files.
Note: For more on government attacks on civil liberties, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

5 companies that make money by keeping Americans scared

2013-08-19, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/19/5_companies_that_make_money_by_keeping_americ...
Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has invaded Americas
television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowdens leaks and the continuing terrorist
threat to America. But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardians Glenn Greenwald pointed
out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent
war footing against Islamist militants. And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff
Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans. Post-9/11 America has
witnessed a boom in private firms dedicated to the hyped-up threat of terrorism. The drive to
privatize Americas national security apparatus accelerated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks,
and its gotten to the point where 70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on
private contractors, as author Tim Shorrock reported [in Spies for Hire: the Secret World of
Intelligence Outsourcing]. The private intelligence contractors have profited to the tune of at least
$6 billion a year. In 2010, the Washington Post revealed that there are 1,931 private firms across
the country dedicated to fighting terrorism. What it all adds up to is a massive industry profiting off
government-induced fear of terrorism, even though Americans are more likely to be killed by a car
crash or their own furniture than a terror attack. Here are five private companies cashing in on
keeping you afraid. 1. The Chertoff Group 2. Booz Allen Hamilton 3. Science Applications
International Corp. 4. Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies 5. Security Solutions
International.
Note: For more on government and corporate corruption in pushing the terror hoax, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Glenn Greenwald's partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours

2013-08-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/18/glenn-greenwald-guardian-partner...

The partner of the Guardian journalist [Glenn Greenwald], who has written a series of stories
revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency, was held for almost
nine hours ... by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home
to Rio de Janeiro. David Miranda ... was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by
officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism
Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows
officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals. The 28-year-old was held for nine hours,
the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual.
According to official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 over 97% last less than an
hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours. Miranda was
released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop,
camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles. "This is a profound attack on press freedoms
and the news gathering process," Greenwald said. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours
while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly
intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the
NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere. But
the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite
the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."
Note: For more on government attacks on civil liberties, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Moment of Truthiness
2013-08-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/opinion/krugman-moment-of-truthiness.html
Has our political system been so degraded by misinformation and disinformation that it can no
longer function? In a well-known paper with a discouraging title, It Feels Like Were Thinking, the
political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels reported on a 1996 survey that asked
voters whether the budget deficit had increased or decreased under President Clinton. In fact, the
deficit was down sharply, but a plurality of voters and a majority of Republicans believed that
it had gone up. I wondered on my blog what a similar survey would show today, with the deficit
falling even faster than it did in the 1990s. Hal Varian, the chief economist of Google, offered to run
a Google Consumer Survey ... on the question. So we asked whether the deficit has gone up or
down since January 2010. And the results were even worse than in 1996: A majority of those who
replied said the deficit has gone up, with more than 40 percent saying that it has gone up a lot.
Only 12 percent answered correctly that it has gone down a lot. Am I saying that voters are
stupid? Not at all. The problem is that much of what they hear is misleading if not outright
false. The outright falsehoods, you wont be surprised to learn, tend to be politically
motivated. Its a discouraging picture. We have an ill-informed or misinformed electorate,
politicians who gleefully add to the misinformation and watchdogs who are afraid to bark.

Note: For more on mass media corruption and government corruption, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here and here.

NSA revelations of privacy breaches 'the tip of the iceberg' Senate duo
2013-08-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/16/nsa-revelations-privacy-breaches...
Two US senators on the intelligence committee said [that] thousands of annual violations by the
National Security Agency on its own restrictions were "the tip of the iceberg." "The executive
branch has now confirmed that the rules, regulations and court-imposed standards for
protecting the privacy of Americans' have been violated thousands of times each year," said
senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, two leading critics of bulk surveillance, who responded [to] a
Washington Post story based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. "We
have previously said that the violations of these laws and rules were more serious than had
been acknowledged, and we believe Americans should know that this confirmation is just
the tip of a larger iceberg." On July 31, Wyden, backed by Udall, vaguely warned other senators
in a floor speech that the NSA and the director of national intelligence were substantively
misleading legislators by describing improperly collected data as a matter of innocent and anodyne
human or technical errors. In keeping with their typically cautious pattern when discussing
classified information, Wyden and Udall did not provide details about their claimed "iceberg" of
surveillance malfeasance. But they hinted that the public still lacks an adequate understanding of
the NSA's powers to collect data on Americans under its controversial interpretation of the Patriot
Act. "We believe the public deserves to know more about the violations of the secret court orders
that have authorized the bulk collection of Americans' phone and email records under the Patriot
Act," [they] said.
Note: For more on massive surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid

2013-08-15, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/texas-swat-team-conducts-_n_3764951....
A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action ... that included
aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search. Members of the local police raiding party
had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm.
Farm owners and residents who live on the property [said] that the real reason for the law
enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. Local authorities had cited the
Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including "grass that was too tall, bushes
growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly
stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean
premises." The raid on the Garden of Eden farm appears to be the latest example of police

departments using SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics to enforce less serious crimes. In
recent years, SWAT teams have been called out to perform regulatory alcohol inspections at a bar
in Manassas Park, Va.; to raid bars for suspected underage drinking in New Haven, Conn.; to
perform license inspections at barbershops in Orlando, Fla.; and to raid a gay bar in Atlanta where
police suspected customers and employees were having public sex. A federal investigation later
found that Atlanta police had made up the allegations of public sex. Other raids have been
conducted on food co-ops and Amish farms suspected of selling unpasteurized milk
products. The federal government has for years been conducting raids on medical
marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized them.
Note: The author of this report, Radley Balko, is a senior writer and investigative reporter for The
Huffington Post. He is also the author of the new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization
of America's Police Forces. For an ABC News report on this disturbing raid, click here.

Documentary looks at possible problems with smart grids

2013-08-12, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/08/12/crowd-sourced-documentary...
Josh del Sol got curious in the summer of 2011 after a friend linked a serious illness to the recent
installation of a "smart meter." Del Sol subsequently learned that electrical utilities across North
America had been quietly installing "smart grids" that ... monitor Internet-connected meters
and appliances in homes and businesses. Now, del Sol is on the verge of premiering a featurelength documentary ... titled Take Back Your Power, disclosing questionable industry practices in
support of implementing networked control systems for power plants. The film links billing
mistakes, invasive monitoring, even human illnesses to the rising use of smart grids in the
U.S. and Europe. "Take Back Your Power delivers an ominous, powerful message about the
energy industry's shift to closely watching how customers use energy in their home in an invasive,
controversial manner," says Lee Waterworth, president of Yekra, a video-on-demand company. Del
Sol says access to industry sources was tough. "We had a difficult time getting anyone in the
industry to talk to us on camera once they found out that we were wanting to get to the bottom of
some of these concerns," he says. The filmmaker was surprised by the contrast between the views
of industry officials and those of ordinary citizens trying to get to the bottom of safety, privacy and
health concerns. Del Sol hopes the documentary helps to prompt the electricity industry "to provide
more transparency, accountability and clarity on the issues we explore in the film."
Note: You can find this documentary on the Internet. For more, read how solar providers are using
"smart" systems to help their customers save money while traditional utilities use these systems
only to cut their own costs. Meanwhile, concerns about the health impacts of wireless tech and the
ongoing erosion of privacy rights continue to grow.

CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as Reporter Michael Hastings Next

Target

2013-08-12, San Diego 6-TV

http://www.sandiego6.com/story/cia-director-brennan-confirmed-as-reporter-mic...
This week Elise Jordan, wife of famed journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died under
suspicious circumstances, corroborated this reporter's sources that CIA Director John Brennan
was Hastings next expos project. Last month a source provided San Diego 6 News with an
alarming email hacked from super-secret CIA contractor Stratfors President Fred Burton.
The email was posted on WikiLeaks and alleged that then Obama counter-terrorism czar
Brennan was in charge of the government's continued crackdown or witch-hunt on
investigative journalists. The release of a new surveillance video from a nearby Italian restaurant
by Michael Krikorian, an author, freelance blogger who also writes for LA Weekly, reveals a lot of
information about Hastings final seconds. A University professor told San Diego 6 News that
calculating the speed of Hastings car follows a simple mathematic equation. By using the video
and the distance traveled (195 feet) as well as the seconds that lapsed prior to the explosion the
car was traveling roughly 35 mph. That revelation is important because Jose, an employee [at] a
nearby business and a witness to the accident told KTLA ... the car was traveling at a high rate of
speed and he saw sparks coming from the car and saw it explode before hitting the tree. The preexplosion could possibly explain the flash of light on the video that preceded the appearance of the
car in the video. The pre-explosion and slower speed could also explain the minimal damage to
the palm tree. It also provides an explanation for the location of the engine and drive train at more
than 100 feet from the tree impact area.
Note: Michael Hastings' wife Elise Jordan, in the interview at the first link in the text above, said
that his research into CIA Director Brennan will be published soon in Rolling Stone. For further
analysis of these revelations, click here. For more on the realities of intelligence agency
operations, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

The Trouble with Beekeeping in the Anthropocene

2013-08-09, TIME Magazine
http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthrop...
Honeybees are very useful to human beings, and species that are very useful to usthink
domesticated animals and petstend to do OK in the increasingly human-dominated world we call
the Anthropocene. But other wild species arent so luckyand that includes the thousands of
species of wild bees and other non-domesticated pollinators. Bumblebees have experienced
recent and rapid population loss in the U.S., punctuated by a mass pesticide poisoning in Oregon
this past June that led to the deaths of some 50,000 bumblebees. A 2006 report by the National
Academies of Science concluded that the populations of many other wild pollinatorsespecially
wild beeswas trending demonstrably downward. The threats are much the same ones faced by
managed honeybees: pesticides, lack of wild forage, parasites and disease. The difference is that
there are thousands of human beings who make it their business to care for and prop up
the populations of honeybees. No one is doing the same thing for wild bees. You dont
hear about the decline of hundreds of species of wild bees, says Jennifer Sass, a senior

scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Thats meant almost literallywe dont
hear them anymore. The plight of the bees illustrates our outsized influence on the this planet as
we reshape itconsciously and notto meet our immediate needs. But just because we have this
power doesnt mean we fully understand it, or our impact on our own world. We are a species that
increasingly has omnipotence without omniscience. Thats a dangerous combination for the
animals and plants that share this planet with us. And eventually, it will be dangerous for us, too.
Note: For more on mysterious mass deaths of animals, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Toxic Fukushima fallout threatens fishermen's livelihoods

2013-08-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/fukushima-fallout-threatens-fish...
Despite his age, 63-year-old Kazuo Niitsuma believes there are many more years of fishing ahead
of him. The sea is in his family's blood, he says. His octogenarian father began working on boats
when he was 12, and only retired three years ago. But ... Niitsuma knows he may never again get
the chance to board his boat and head out into the Pacific in search of sole, whitebait, flounder and
greenling. The greatest threat to Niitsuma's livelihood, and that of other fishermen in Hisanohama
... lies just up the coast at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The environment ministry
recently announcement that 300 tonnes of contaminated groundwater from Fukushima
Daiichi is still seeping over or around barriers into the Pacific every day, more than two years
after it was struck by a tsunami in March 2011. Government officials said they suspected the leaks
had started soon after the accident. The admission by the ministry, confirmed by Tokyo
Electric Power (Tepco), which runs the plant, is likely to keep Hisanohama's 40 fishing
boats in port for the foreseeable future. Tepco's failure to handle the contaminated water and
accusations that it tried to cover up the leaks is a serious setback to attempts to clean up
Fukushima Daiichi, 18 months after the government declared it had reached a "safe" state known
as cold shutdown. "I haven't been able to fish since the tsunami," Niitsuma said. "People want to
be reassured that they are buying fish that is safe to eat, and we can't give them that guarantee at
the moment."
Note: Declaring the situation an "emergency", the Japanese government has stepped in to take
over control of the response from Tepco. For more on this, click here. For a National Geographic
article on what you need to know about the radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean by the
Fukushima disaster, click here. It reports that scientists have estimated that contaminated
seawater could reach the West Coast of the United States in five years or less. For more on the
environmental devastation of nuclear power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

US directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

2013-08-05, CNBC/Reuters

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100938530
A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence
intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across
the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Documents reviewed by
Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations
truly beginnot only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges. The
undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail
to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say
violates a defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an
investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory
evidenceinformation that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses. "I have never
heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served
as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds
more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting
domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program
targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers. "It is one thing to create special rules for national
security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up
investigations."
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Researchers developing communication app for children with autism

2013-08-01, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/researchers-developing-communication-app-for-chil...
University of Kansas researchers have received a $1.2 million grant to test whether an iPad
voice output application can help children with autism. Similar apps have previously been
developed for adults with autism. In June 2012, 60 Minutes interviewed a 27-year-old man with
autism who uses the keypad on the iPad to type out letters, words and phrases. A robotic voice
then reads the words on the screen, giving a voice to an intelligent young man who previously
struggled to communicate. Other researchers have developed apps to test vocabulary and
math skills of autistic children. They are finding that the apps reveal a greater level of
intelligence than previously expected in many of the children. Lead researcher Kathy
Thiemann-Bourque says many young children with autism have complex communication needs
but do not develop functional speech. In previous research, she has examined both peer training
and direct teaching strategies to increase social communication between children with autism and
their classmates without disabilities.
Note: For an amazing eight-minute clip showing how a non-verbal autistic woman uses her
computer to eloquently invite people into her world, click here. The amazing writing starts at 3:15.
For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

The Stench of the Potomac

2013-08-01, New York Magazine
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/this-town-washington-lobbyists-2013-8/
The tale of how the Obama economic team was recruited en masse from Robert Rubin acolytes
who either facilitated Wall Streets pre-crash recklessness while in the Clinton administration or
cashed in on it later (or, like Rubin, did both) never loses its power to shock. Michael Froman,
Rubins chief of staff as Clinton Treasury secretary, not only served as the Obama transition teams
personnel director but moonlighted as a Citigroup managing director while doing so. Obama
essentially entrusted the repairing of the china shop to the bulls whod helped ransack it, [Jeff]
Connaughton writes [in The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins]. [In This Town Mark] Leibovich
updates the story of the tacky prehistory of the Obama White House with its aftermaththe steady
parade of Obama alumni who traded change we can believe in for cash on the barrelhead as soon
as they left public service. The starry list includes, among many others, Peter Orszag (director of
the White Houses Office of Management and Budget, now at Citi), Jake Siewert (the Treasury
Department counselor turned chief flack for Goldman Sachs), and David Plouffe (the campaign
manager and senior presidential adviser who did consulting for Boeing and General Electric).
When I am president, Obama had said in 2008, I will start by closing the revolving door
in the White House thats allowed people to use their administration job as a stepping-stone
to further their lobbying careers. Puzzling over how so many colleagues have strayed from this
credo, the former press secretary Robert Gibbs has theorized that either somehow we have all
changed or, alternatively, maybe Washington changed us.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Glenn Greenwald: Low-Level NSA Analysts Have Powerful and Invasive

Search Tool
2013-07-28, ABC News blog
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/glenn-greenwald-low-level-nsa-an...
Glenn Greenwald the reporter who broke the story about the National Security Agencys
surveillance programs claimed that those NSA programs allowed even low-level analysts to
search the private emails and phone calls of Americans. The NSA has trillions of telephone calls
and emails in their databases that theyve collected over the last several years, Greenwald told
ABC News George Stephanopoulos. All an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP
address, and [the program] searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the
emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search
terms that youve entered. Greenwald explained that ... these programs still allow analysts to
search through data with little court approval or supervision. Greenwald said "these systems
allow analysts to listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing
histories, Microsoft Word documents. And its all done with no need to go to a court, with
no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst, he added. Greenwald

said the existence of these analyst search programs are in line with the claims of Edward
Snowden, who first leaked details of the NSAs surveillance programs last month. Its an incredibly
powerful and invasive tool, exactly of the type that Mr. Snowden described, Greenwald said. NSA
officials are going to be testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, and I defy them to deny that
these programs work exactly as I just said, Greenwald said.
Note: For more on government privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources available here.

U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA

officer says
2013-07-27, Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/27/3525414/us-allowed-italian-kidnap-prose...
A former CIA officer has broken the U.S. silence around the 2003 abduction of a radical
Islamist cleric in Italy, charging that the agency inflated the threat the preacher posed and
that the United States then allowed Italy to prosecute her and other Americans to shield
President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials from responsibility for approving the
operation. Confirming for the first time that she worked undercover for the CIA in Milan when the
operation took place, Sabrina De Sousa provided new details about the extraordinary rendition
that led to the only criminal prosecution stemming from the secret Bush administration rendition
and detention program launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The cleric, Osama Mustapha
Hassan Nasr, was snatched from a Milan street by a team of CIA operatives and flown to Egypt,
where he was held for the better part of four years without charges and allegedly tortured. An
Egyptian court in 2007 ruled that his imprisonment was unfounded and ordered him released.
Among the allegations made by De Sousa in a series of interviews with McClatchy: The former
CIA station chief in Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, whom she called the mastermind of the operation,
exaggerated Nasr's terrorist threat to win approval for the rendition and misled his superiors [to
believe] that Italian military intelligence had agreed to the operation. Senior CIA officials,
including then-CIA Director George Tenet, approved the operation even though Nasr wasnt
wanted in Egypt and wasnt on the U.S. list of top al Qaida terrorists. Condoleezza Rice, then the
White House national security adviser, ... agreed to it and recommended that Bush approve the
abduction.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Halliburton pleads guilty to destroying evidence in BP oil spill

2013-07-25, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-halliburton-guilty-plea...

Oil-field services giant Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection
with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Justice Department announced. Halliburton has been
charged with one count of destruction of evidence in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. Under a
plea agreement that is subject to court approval, Halliburton agreed to pay the maximumavailable statutory fine, to be subject to three years of probation and to continue its
cooperation in the governments ongoing criminal investigation, the Justice Department
said. The April 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig was the largest
offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, killing 11 workers and spewing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into
the gulf. The Macondo well was owned by a consortium of energy companies, led by BP.
Transocean owned the drilling rig that BP was leasing for the venture. Halliburton was contracted
by BP to do the cement work on the well. The plea agreement was the third that the Justice
Department has obtained in the criminal investigation of the disaster. Transocean agreed to pay
$400 million as part of its criminal plea, and BP, $4 billion. A civil suit against the three companies
brought by the Justice Department and others is continuing. The Halliburton plea involves the
destruction of results of internal tests the company conducted after the drilling rig sank. The
Justice Department said, In agreeing to plead guilty, Halliburton has accepted criminal
responsibility for destroying the aforementioned evidence.
Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

America's real subversives: FBI spying then, NSA surveillance now

2013-07-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/25/america-subversives-fbi-...
As the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington approaches ... where Martin Luther
King Jr gave his famous "I have a dream" speech, it is important to recall the extent to which King
was targeted by the government. The FBI operation against King is one of the most shameful
episodes in the long history of our government's persecution of dissenters. In a heavily redacted,
classified FBI memo dated 4 January 1956 just a little more than a month after Rosa Parks was
arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger stated that an agent "had
been assigned ... to find out all he could about Reverend Martin L King, colored minister in
Montgomery and leader in the bus boycott to uncover all the derogatory information he could
about King." [FBI] director, J Edgar Hoover ... was deploying the vast resources he
controlled against any and all perceived critics of the United States. The far-reaching
clandestine surveillance, infiltration and disruption operation Hoover ran was dubbed
"COINTELPRO", for counterintelligence program. The FBI's COINTELPRO activities ... were
thoroughly investigated in 1975 by the Church Committee, [which] reported that the FBI
"conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of first
amendment rights of speech and association." Among COINTELPRO's perverse activities was an
FBI effort to threaten Martin Luther King Jr with exposure of an alleged extramarital affair, including

the suggestion, made by the FBI to King, that he avoid embarrassment by killing himself. Deeply
concerned about the crackdown on dissent happening under Obama, scholar Cornel West ...
wondered if [King] "would not be invited to the very march in his name."
Note: This article fails to mention a key fact. At a 1999 court trial held in Memphis, the family of
Rev. King accused elements of the U.S. government of complicity in King's death. After one month
of hearings from 70 witnesses, a jury composed of six white and six black jurors took only one
hour to find the U.S. government, the state of Tennessee, the city of Memphis, the Memphis police,
and several individuals guilty of murdering King. Yet the mainstream media completely boycotted
this trial. Thankfully, CBC (Canada's PBS) gave it some coverage. To see a six-minute CBC clip of
this highly revealing trial, click here.

Richie Parker, Star NASCAR Engineer At Hendrick Motorsports, Doesn't

Have Arms
2013-07-23, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/richie-parker-nascar-engineer-withou...
The fact that Richie Parker can ride a bike doesn't sound impressive -- until you see him do it.
Same goes for the car repairs he makes using power tools. Parker was born without arms, a
disability he's overcome time and time again, ultimately leading him to his job engineering chassis
and body components for Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR's most winning organization. "Based on
his resume, I knew he could do the things that I needed him to do, it was more a question of how,
Rex Stump, engineering manager at Hendrick, said of Parker. Just like every other hurdle in his
life, Parker found a way, placing the keyboard and mouse on the floor, then operating both
with his feet to build custom high-performance automotive parts. His story has also
inspired countless others, not the least of [whom] is Magic Johnson. After watching [an]
ESPN segment [on Parker], the retired NBA star tweeted, "Richie Parker's story proves that you
can do anything you set your mind to. We should all stop complaining and giving excuses." Or, as
Parker says, "I don't know there's a lot in life ... that I'd say I can't do. Just things I haven't done
yet."
Note: Don't miss the most awesome video of Richie at the link above. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

A Black Box for Car Crashes

2013-07-22, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/black-boxes-in-cars-a-question-of-...
[There is] a growing debate over a little-known but increasingly important piece of equipment
buried deep inside a car: the event data recorder, more commonly known as the black box. About
96 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States have the boxes, and in September
2014, if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, all will have them. Data

stored in the devices is increasingly being used to identify safety problems in cars and as evidence
in traffic accidents and criminal cases. And the trove of data inside the boxes has raised privacy
concerns, including questions about who owns the information, and what it can be used for, even
as critics have raised questions about its reliability. To consumer advocates, the data is only the
latest example of governments and companies having too much access to private information.
Once gathered, they say, the data can be used against car owners, to find fault in accidents or in
criminal investigations. These cars are equipped with computers that collect massive
amounts of data, said Khaliah Barnes of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a
Washington-based consumer group. Without protections, it can lead to all kinds of abuse.
In [14] states, lawyers may subpoena the data for criminal investigations and civil lawsuits, making
the information accessible to third parties, including law enforcement or insurance companies that
could cancel a drivers policy or raise a drivers premium based on the recorders data.
Note: For more on government and corporate privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

ACLU warns of mass tracking through license plate scanners

2013-07-18, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57594179/aclu-warns-of-mass-tracking-thro...
The American Civil Liberties Union is warning that law enforcement officials are using license
plate scanners to amass massive and unregulated databases that can be used to track lawabiding citizens as their go about their daily lives. In a new report, "You Are Being Tracked:
How License Plate Readers Are Being Used to Record Americans' Movements," the ACLU
discusses the data culled from license plate scanners - cameras mounted on patrol cars,
overpasses and elsewhere to record your license plate number and location at a given time. There
are tens of thousands such cameras now in operation, according to the group, with the data in
some cases being stored indefinitely. The ACLU report is the result of an analysis of 26,000 pages
of documents from police departments around the country, obtained through nearly 600 [FOIA]
requests. It finds that while some jurisdictions keep the information gleaned from the scanners for
a short time ... many hold onto the data for years. The organization complains that there are
"virtually no rules in place" to keep officials from tracking "everybody all the time." The
ACLU also warns that the data is being fed into larger databases, with the private National Vehicle
Location Service now holding more than 800 million license plate records. The group's database is
used by more than 2,200 law enforcement customers. The [ACLU] report warns that the data can
be used in an official capacity to spy on protesters or target communities based on their religious
beliefs, or unofficially by a police officer who wants to keep an eye on a romantic rival.
Note: For more on privacy, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Blood money: UKs 12.3bn arms sales to repressive states

2013-07-17, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blood-money-uks-123bn-arms-sale...
The [UK] Government has issued more than 3,000 export licences for military and
intelligence equipment worth a total of 12.3bn to countries which are on its own official list
for human rights abuses. The existence of one licence to Israel and the Occupied
Territories [is] worth 7.7bn. The scale and detail of the deals emerged after a forensic
investigation by a committee of MPs, who also discovered that strategically controlled items have
been sent to Iran, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, Belarus and Zimbabwe all of which feature
prominently on the Foreign Offices list of states with worrying civil rights records. There are even
three existing contracts for Syria, notwithstanding the fact that the UK is sending equipment to
rebels fighting the Assad regime and is considering arming them. There are also 57 for Argentina,
which is not on the list, but which remains in confrontation with Britain over the Falklands. The
Government had stated that it would not issue export licences for goods which might be used to
facilitate internal repression or might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts. However,
the report by the Committees on Arms Export Controls found there were 62 licences for selling to
Iran, ... overwhelmingly cryptographic equipment. This also features heavily in the 271 licences for
Russia, along with biotechnology equipment, sniper rifles, laser weapons systems, weapon sights
and unmanned air vehicles (drones).
Note: For more on war profiteering, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

Backlash over Jenny McCarthy's 'View' on vaccines

2013-07-16, CNN
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/16/backlash-over-jenny-mccarthys-view-on...
ABC has chosen comedic actress Jenny McCarthy to join its powerhouse morning program "The
View." The actress, and former Playboy Playmate, is compelling, but she is also an outspoken and,
many doctors and scientists say, irresponsible voice on the topic of vaccines. McCarthy believes
immunizations led to developmental problems in her son Evan. "Without a doubt in my mind, I
believe that vaccines triggered Evan's autism," McCarthy told CNN in 2008. "I think they
need to wake up and stop hurting our kids." McCarthy is a force to be reckoned with. She has
written three books about "healing" autism through the environmental changes she says cured her
son. McCarthy is also president of Generation Rescue, a national organization that provides
support for the autism community. "When you do raise concern about an environmental trigger
there is another side that wants to label you, especially us, as an anti-vaccine movement which is
absolutely not true," McCarthy says in a video on the group's website. McCarthy maintains she is
not anti-vaccine, telling CNN in 2008, "I'm not saying don't vaccinate our kids! I don't
understand why it's so freaking hard to comprehend? We. Need. Safe. Shots!" As for her
new position on "The View," McCarthy released a statement saying in part, "I look forward to
making hot topics a little bit hotter."

Note: Don't miss a great three-minute video of McCarthy on CNN talking about her experience
with vaccines and autism. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing vaccines
news articles from reliable major media sources.

FBI bars Fla. from releasing Todashev autopsy

2013-07-16, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07/16/fbi-bars-florida-from-releasing-a...
A Florida medical examiners office said [on July 16] that the FBI has ordered the office not to
release its autopsy report of a Chechen man fatally shot by a Boston FBI agent in May. The
medical examiners office said it completed the autopsy report on Ibragim Todashev, a friend of [a]
suspected Boston Marathon bomber, on July 8 and that the report was ready for release. The
agent shot and killed Todashev on May 22 in his Orlando apartment during an interrogation related
to the Boston Marathon bombings. Critics have called for an independent inquiry, questioning the
blanket of secrecy surrounding the case. The FBI and the Massachusetts State Police sought out
Todashev after the Marathon bombings, but have refused to release details of the shooting. Media
reports have provided conflicting accounts: Some said Todashev attacked the agent with a blade
during an interrogation, while others said Todashev was unarmed. Another said he lunged at the
agent with a metal pole or a broomstick. The agent shot Todashev multiple times, according to
family members who released photos of Todashevs dead body as part of their call for an
inquiry into his death. Family members and advocacy groups have questioned the media
accounts, pointing out that Todashev had repeatedly cooperated with the FBI. The Council
on American-Islamic Relations and the ACLU have called for independent inquiries into the
shooting. According to CAIR in Florida, which is conducting its own investigation into Todashevs
slaying, Todashev had spoken to the FBI at least three times at their offices after the Marathon
bombings.
Note: What are they hiding here?

Japanese Nuclear Plant May Have Been Leaking for Two Years
2013-07-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/world/asia/japanese-nuclear-plant-may-have-...
The stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima has probably been leaking contaminated water into
the ocean for two years, ever since an earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant, Japans
chief nuclear regulator said on [July 10]. In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the
head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, also said that neither his staff nor the plants operator
knew exactly where the leaks were coming from, or how to stop them. The operator, Tokyo Electric
Power, has reported spikes in the amounts of radioactive cesium, tritium and strontium detected in
groundwater at the plant, adding urgency to the task of sealing any leaks. Radioactive cesium and
strontium, especially, are known to raise risks of cancer in humans. Mr. Tanakas comments bring
into sharp relief the precariousness of the cleanup at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,

where core meltdowns occurred at three of the six reactors. A critical problem has been the
groundwater that has been pouring into the basements of the damaged reactor buildings and
becoming contaminated. Workers have been pumping the water out to be stored in dozens of
tanks at the plant, but have not stopped the inflow. Until recently, Tokyo Electric ... flatly denied
that any of that water was leaking into the ocean, even though various independent studies
of radiation levels in the nearby ocean have suggested otherwise. Mr. Tanaka said that the
evidence was overwhelming. Weve seen for a fact that levels of radioactivity in the seawater
remain high, and contamination continues I dont think anyone can deny that, he said.
Note: For more on dangers from the nuclear power industry, see the deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources available here.

Lawmakers say FBI thwarts inquiry into Boston bombings

2013-07-10, Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/07/10/house-chairman-says-fbi-s...
Members of a congressional committee [on July 10] accused the FBI of stalling an inquiry into the
Boston Marathon bombings, saying the bureau had no grounds for withholding what it knew about
Tamerlan Tsarnaev prior to the attacks. The information requested by this committee belongs to
the American people, said Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the
House Homeland Security Committee. It does not belong solely to the FBI. The frustrations, aired
publicly after FBI officials rebuffed an invitation to appear before the committee, stemmed from the
FBIs unwillingness to detail how it handled a security review of Tsarnaev nearly two years before
the Marathon bombings. The FBI continues to refuse this committees appropriate requests
for information and documents crucial to our investigation into what happened in Boston,
McCaul declared as he opened a committee hearing. Tsarnaev died after a firefight with police in
Watertown within hours of being identified as a suspect. Members were particularly frustrated by a
July 3 letter to the committee from the FBI. The letter, reviewed by the Globe, said the bureau
would not be responding to all the committees requests for information. The fact that the FBI is
not sharing information with this committee with jurisdiction over homeland security I think
is just totally unacceptable, said Representative Peter King, a New York Republican.
Note: For more strangeness around the Boston bombing with a key witness being deported, click
here. For more on the realities of intelligence agency manipulations, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Rare Film Shows FDR in Concealed Wheelchair

2013-07-10, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ind-prof-finds-film-fdrs-secret-disability...

A professor at an Indiana college says he has found film footage showing President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt being pushed in his wheelchair, depicting a secret that was hidden from the
public until after his death. Ray Begovich, a journalism professor at Franklin College south of
Indianapolis, said ... he found the eight-second clip while conducting unrelated research in the
National Archives in College Park, Md. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39 and was
unable to walk without leg braces or assistance. During his four terms as president, Roosevelt
often used a wheelchair in private, but not for public appearances. News photographers
cooperated in concealing Roosevelt's disability, and those who did not found their camera
views blocked by Secret Service agents. "This raw film clip may be the first motion picture
images of the president in his wheelchair, and it was never meant to be shown to the
world," Begovich said. The film shows Roosevelt visiting the U.S.S. Baltimore at Pearl Harbor in
July 1944. Roosevelt's disability was virtually a state secret during his presidency, which spanned
the Great Depression and most of World War II.
Note: To watch this historic video, click here. Isn't it amazing that Roosevelt was U.S. president for
12 years, yet thanks to collusion of the press, his use of a wheelchair and disability was kept a
secret from the public the entire time? Politicians know that public perception makes all the
difference, so that perception management and manipulation has become a huge industry. For
excellent information and resources along these lines, see this link.

Congress divided on using aid to pressure Egypt

2013-07-09, NBC News/Associated Press
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52427281/ns/politics/#.UeA0-KzfKSo
While the Obama administration throws its support behind Egypt's military, some members of
Congress are looking at withholding some or all of America's annual $1.5 billion aid package if a
civilian government isn't quickly restored. The administration insisted ... that it won't withhold funds
from Egypt's army after its second takeover of a civilian government in the past 29 months. Most
of the money goes to the military under an arrangement U.S. leaders have honored since
Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Despite rocky relations since the ouster of longtime
autocrat and longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, the U.S. has continued to
financially support the institution it sees as Egypt's guarantor of stability. Some in Congress
say the latest military action should change the calculation because it unseated a democratically
elected president. Under current law, however, it's President Barack Obama and his administration
who decide whether Morsi's overthrow was a coup, which would trigger automatic suspension of
most American support. Four-fifths of the money goes to the military and supports operations that
include isolating extremist groups and helping secure Israel's borders.
Note: Why are we giving $1.5 billion to Egypt every year? And why does Israel receive about $3
billion a year from the US when the population of the country is only 8 million? If you do the math,
the US is providing the equivalent of nearly $4,000 in aid per year to every man, woman and
child in Israel, with 3/4 of that to buy US military hardware. It's almost as if the military-

industrial establishment wants these countries to go to war. For lots more reliable information on
how the military/industrial complex manipulates world politics to support the war machine, click
here and here.

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim: 'They said poverty would always be
with us. Well, maybe not'
2013-07-07, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/world-bank-chief-jim-yong-k...
Jim Yong Kim [is] the first man from outside the discipline of economics to take the helm at the
World Bank. Having just celebrated his first year in charge, the Korean-American medical expert
has refocused the worlds premier development bank on ending extreme poverty. The World Bank
leader prefers to dwell on the positives. Global poverty, defined by the bank as living on $1.25
or less per day, was halved five years ahead of schedule. The next phase is to lift the
remaining 20 per cent of the worlds population out of extreme poverty by 2030. The efforts
to end poverty have been really significant, says Mr Kim. They said poverty would always be with
us. Well, maybe not. A proportion of people he estimates three per cent will remain below the
poverty line due to natural disasters and their related aftermaths, but otherwise extreme poverty
will be gone from the earth. His appointment to the World Bank last year was not universally
welcomed. Many observers resented his imposition by the United States over popular candidates
from Africa and Latin America, while others worried that he was not an economist. They pointed to
his presence at protests against the World Bank in 1993. Mr Kim now says that it was the lenders
one size fits all approach to economies that he objected to. As well as aiming to end poverty, the
bank has set itself the task of tracking the progress of the bottom 40 per cent in every country as a
means of measuring social mobility and equality.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

South American Leaders Demand Apology in Plane Row

2013-07-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/05/world/americas/ap-lt-nsa-surveilla...
South America's leftist leaders rallied to support Bolivian President Evo Morales after his plane
was rerouted amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board and they
demanded an apology from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The presidents of Argentina,
Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela and Uruguay joined Morales in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba ...
to denounce the treatment of Morales, who warned that he would close the U.S. Embassy in
Bolivia if necessary. Morales again blamed Washington for pressuring European countries to
refuse to allow his plane to fly through their airspace on Tuesday, forcing it to land in Vienna,
Austria, in what he called a violation of international law. He had been returning from a summit in
Russia during which he had suggested he would be willing to consider a request from Snowden for

asylum. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said Friday that his nation
and other European countries were told Snowden was aboard the Bolivian presidential
plane. He did not say who supplied the information and declined to say whether he had
been in contact with the United States. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that he and
other leaders were offering full support to Morales following the rerouting of the plane, calling it an
aggression against the Americas. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro protested alleged
attempts by Spanish officials to search the Bolivian presidential plane and accused the CIA of
encouraging several European countries to deny the presidential plane their airspace.
Note: The subservience of European governments to the US attempt to apprehend Snowden by
forcing Pres. Morales' plane down is logical given the recent revelations that they are also
engaging in total surveillance of their own populations. For information on this click here (France),
here (the UK), and here (Germany).

How cash rules surveillance policy

2013-07-04, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/How-cash-rules-surveillance-policy...
Have you noticed anything missing in the political discourse about the National Security
Administration's unprecedented mass surveillance? There's at least been some conversation
about the intelligence community's potential criminality and constitutional violations. But there have
only been veiled references to how cash undoubtedly tilts the debate against those who challenge
the national security state. Those indirect references have come in stories about Booz Allen
Hamilton, the security contractor that employed Edward Snowden. CNN/Money notes that 99
percent of the firm's multibillion-dollar annual revenues now come from the federal government.
Those revenues are part of a larger and growing economic sector within the military-industrial
complex - a sector that, according to author Tim Shorrock, is "a $56 billion-a-year industry." Yet
few in the Washington press corps mention that politicians' attacks on surveillance critics
may have nothing to do with principle and everything to do with shilling for campaign
donors. For a taste of what that kind of institutionalized corruption looks like, peruse the Influence
Explorer site to see how much Booz Allen Hamilton and its parent company, the Carlyle Group,
spend. As you'll see, from Barack Obama to John McCain, many of the politicians publicly
defending the surveillance state have taken huge sums of money from the firms. Simply put,
there are corporate forces with a vested financial interest in making sure the debate over security
is tilted toward the surveillance state and against critics of that surveillance state.
Note: Tim Shorrock, quoted above, is the author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence
Outsourcing.

A Money-Smuggling Scandal Threatens to Sink the Vatican Bank

2013-07-02, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-02/a-money-smuggling-scandal-thr...

A Vatican cleric, a spy, and a financier are accused of conspiring to smuggle 20 million ($26
million) out of Switzerland aboard a private jet. In fact, its the latest scandal to hit the Vatican
bank, prompting Pope Francis to make sweeping management changes. The Holy See removed
the banks longtime director and deputy director on July 1, three days after Monsignor Nunzio
Scarano and two other men were arrested in connection with the alleged smuggling scheme.
Perhaps the most colorful twist in the saga was the arrest on June 28 of Monsignor Scarano. The
61-year-old cleric, a former banker for Bank of America (BAC) in Italy, joined the priesthood in
1986 and most recently headed a Vatican financial department called APSA. Italian media outlets
have dubbed him Don 500, because of a reported fondness for carrying large banknotes. John
Thavis, a longtime Vatican correspondent for the Catholic News Service, says that while Scarano
didnt work at the Vatican Bank, he had accounts there. His arrest appeared to confirm
suspicions that the bank, which oversees about 7.1 billion in assets, continues to be
used as an offshore haven, Thavis writes. Scarano is accused of conspiring with a
member of Italys secret services and a financial broker to move 20 million from
Switzerland to Italy. The latest scandal indicates that the bank may be irreformable, Vatican
journalist Thavis writes.
Note: Could Pope Francis be serious in his efforts to reform the corrupt Vatican Bank? For more
on financial scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available
here.

Why Our Health Care Lets Prices Run Wild

2013-07-01, Time Magazine
http://swampland.time.com/2013/07/01/why-our-health-care-lets-prices-run-wild/
Of all the oddities of the U.S. health care system, one stands out: we spend far more on
health care per person than other industrialized nations yet have no better health
outcomes. Understanding why isnt easy. A 2012 paper by the Commonwealth Fund found that
among 13 industrialized countries studied, the U.S. has the highest rate of obesity, which is usually
a factor in higher health care costs. Yet, the U.S. ranks far behind many other countries in our
rates of citizens who smoke or are over 55, two other strong indicators of increased spending. So
why is our health care spending more than 17% of our gross domestic product, far more than any
other country? A central reason U.S. health care spending is so high is that hospitals and doctors
charge more for their services and theres little transparency about why. There is no uniformity to
the system, in which public and private insurers have separate, unrelated contracts with
hospitals and doctors. The result is a tangled, confusing and largely secretive collection of
forces driving health care prices higher and higher. This isnt possible in many other countries
either because governments set prices for health care services or broker negotiations between
coalitions of insurers and providers. Known as all-payer rate setting, insurers in these systems
band together to negotiate as groups. In contrast, U.S. insurers closely guard the secrecy of their
contracted prices with health care providers and negotiate individually. This is why a hospital
hosting five patients for knee replacements might get paid five different amounts for the surgeries.

Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

How Chevron turned the tables in Ecuador

2013-06-28, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2013/06/28/how-chevron-turned-the-tables-in-ecu...
Faced with a $19 billion fine for polluting Ecuadors rainforest, Chevron Corp. has done a
remarkable job of turning the tables on its foes. The lawyers who sued Chevron in Ecuador,
winning that eye-popping judgment, have come under non-stop attack from the oil company.
Chevron has hauled them into court in New York, accusing them of fraud and extortion. The
company has gone after Ecuadors judicial system as well, claiming judges there conspired with
the other side. That aggressive strategy has worked wonders, putting Chevrons opponents on the
defensive and convincing many people that the Ecuador suit is a sham. And you can trace much of
that strategy back to a 2008 memo by San Franciscos master of crisis communications, Sam
Singer. In October of 2008, he sent Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson a four-page memo
outlining steps the company could take to change public perceptions of the Ecuador lawsuit.
Singer recommended going on the offensive. The company should portray Ecuadors court
system as corrupt, with collusion between judges and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Pointing
out the leftward tilt of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa wouldnt hurt. And Singer
recommended counter attacks on the plaintiffs and their legal team, particularly lead lawyer
Steven Donziger. Bear in mind that the memo was written more than two years before the
Ecuadoran judge presiding over the lawsuit ruled against Chevron, in February of 2011. Some of
Singers recommendations didnt fly. For example, he suggested portraying Ecuador as the next
major threat to America. But the company took much of his advice to heart.

C.I.A. Report Finds Concerns With Ties to New York Police

2013-06-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/nyregion/cia-sees-concerns-on-ties-to-new-y...
Four Central Intelligence Agency officers were embedded with the New York Police
Department in the decade after Sept. 11, 2001, including one official who helped conduct
surveillance operations in the United States, according to a newly disclosed C.I.A.
inspector generals report. That officer believed there were no limitations on his activities,
the report said, because he was on an unpaid leave of absence, and thus exempt from the
prohibition against domestic spying by members of the C.I.A. Another embedded C.I.A. analyst
who was on its payroll said he was given unfiltered police reports that included information
unrelated to foreign intelligence, the C.I.A. report said. The once-classified review, completed by
the C.I.A. inspector general in December 2011, found that the four agency analysts more than
had previously been known were assigned at various times to provide direct assistance to the
local police. The report also raised a series of concerns about the relationship between the two
organizations. The C.I.A. inspector general, David B. Buckley, found that the collaboration was

fraught with irregular personnel practices, that it lacked formal documentation in some important
instances, and that there was inadequate direction and control by agency supervisors. The
declassification of the executive summary, in response to a Freedom of Information Act suit,
comes ... comes amid lawsuits against the Police Department alleging unconstitutional
surveillance of Muslim communities and mosques in New Jersey and New York.
Note: For more on the realities of intelligence agency operations, see the deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources available here.

Pharmaceutical scandal: The NHS, the drug firms and the price racket
2013-06-20, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10133557/Pharmaceutical-scandal-...
Drug companies face accusations of secretly colluding with pharmacists to overcharge the NHS
millions of pounds, following an undercover investigation by The Telegraph. Pharmaceutical firms
appear to have rigged the market in so-called "specials" prescription drugs that are largely not
covered by national NHS price regulations. The prices of more than 20,000 drugs could have been
artificially inflated, with backhanders paid to chemists who agreed to sell them. Representatives of
some companies agreed to invoice chemists for drugs at up to double their actual cost. Chemists
would then send inflated invoices to the NHS, allowing them to pocket the difference. Tens of
thousands of the "special" drugs are not on the nationally controlled NHS price list and so
costs can be manipulated by drug companies. Sales representatives for drug firms were
secretly recorded by this newspaper offering to provide apparently falsified invoices
allowing chemists to bill the NHS for sums far greater than they would spend. Another firm
offered to pay an annual fee to chemists who agreed to offer its prescription drugs. Hundreds of
millions of pounds of taxpayers money are feared to have been wasted in recent years due to the
practice. The undercover investigation was launched after this newspaper was approached by a
whistle-blower who alleged widespread malpractice. Undercover reporters posed as investors
hoping to set up a chain of chemists.
Note: Watch the incriminating videos of these undercover deals at the link above. For more on
pharmaceutical corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Chipotle labels all GM items on menu

2013-06-20, Chicago Tribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-20/features/chi-gmo-news-chipotle-...
As part of its "Food With Integrity" program, Chipotle this week posted information on its website
identifying which items on its menu contain genetically modified ingredients. The chain posted a
chart noting that 12 out of 25 ingredients, including its rice, barbacoa, chips, chicken, vegetable
fajitas, steak and flour tortillas (except in certain restaurants) use either genetically modified corn

or soybean oil, the vast majority of which is derived from GM soybeans. The chain said that those
ingredients are "currently unavoidable" but that it is "working hard" to eliminate them. This move
comes on the heels of Ben & Jerry's announcement that all of its flavors will be GM
ingredient free by the end of the year and Whole Foods pledge to phase out all foods with
GM ingredients by 2018. Although GM crops ... are considered safe by federal authorities and
are legal to plant and sell, some independent studies have linked them to health and
environmental problems. The announcements happen amid a flurry of state bills to require
mandatory labeling of food with GM ingredients. In more GM news, this afternoon the U.S. Senate
passed a bipartisan amendment to require labeling of GM salmon as part of a 2014 Agriculture
Appropriations bill. Overseas, where the labeling question is largely over, the GM debate rages
over expanding GM crop planting approvals in the European Union. Asked [whether UK Prime
Minister David] Cameron would eat GM foods or allow his children to eat them, the spokesman
steadfastly declined to answer.
Note: Much of Europe labels their food for GMOs, which are even banned in many areas. Read an
MSN article on the banning of GM foods from all restaurants and food in the UK's parliament at
this link. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference,
click here.

FBI uses drones for surveillance in U.S

2013-06-20, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/politics/fbi-drones/index.html
FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged [to the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 19
that] the law enforcement agency uses drone aircraft in the United States for surveillance.
He did not say how many unmanned surveillance vehicles (UAVs) the FBI has or how often
they have been used. But a law enforcement official told CNN the FBI has used them a little more
than a dozen times but did not say when that started. The official said drones are useful in hostage
and barricade situations because they operate more quietly and are less visible than traditional
aircraft such as helicopters. Bureau spokesman Paul Bresson said their use allows "us to learn
critical information that otherwise would be difficult to obtain without introducing serious risk to law
enforcement personnel." Bresson said the aircraft can only be used to perform surveillance on
stationary subjects and the FBI must first get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to
fly in a "very confined geographic area." Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne
Feinstein expressed concern over drone use domestically. "I think the greatest threat to the privacy
of Americans is the drone and the use of the drone, and the very few regulations that are on it
today and the booming industry of commercial drones," the California Democrat said. The FAA
forecasts some 10,000 civilian drones will be in use in the United States within five years,
including those for law enforcement and commercial purposes.
Note: For more on domestic US drone surveillance, click here. For deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of intelligence agencies, click here.

Hastings' death spawns conspiracy theories

2013-06-20, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Hastings-death-spawns-conspiracy-theorie...
During the weeks before he was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, reporter Michael Hastings
was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the
Department of Defense and the FBI. Hastings, 33, was scheduled to meet with a representative of
Kelley next week in Los Angeles to discuss the case, according to a person close to Kelley.
Hastings wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed. The story about Kelley, Broadwell and
the Petraeus affair would have been consistent with topics that Hastings has focused on during his
reporting career, including his 2010 Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top
American commander in Afghanistan, which led to McChrystal's resignation. The story described
the disdain that the general's staff had for President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Since
Hastings' death early Tuesday, wild conspiracy theories have bloomed on the Internet, implying
that he was murdered by powerful forces wanting to silence him. On Wednesday night, the
antisecrecy website WikiLeaks [published] a message on Twitter that Hastings had contacted
a lawyer for the organization hours before his car smashed into a tree on North Highland
Avenue in Los Angeles. The message read: "Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer
Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating
him."
Note: For a more in-depth article in New York Magazine raising serious questions, click here.
Among other key evidence, the article quotes an automotive writer saying that the fire caused by
the crash was virtually impossible. A U.S. News & World Report article also states, "researchers at
the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, proved that computers
could be hacked with either physical access to the car or wirelessly using technology such as
Bluetooth. A hacker could then disable the brakes, stop the engine, or worse." A revealing video
shows the engine was thrown 50 yards from the car.

Silver makes antibiotics thousands of times more effective

2013-06-19, Nature Magazine
http://www.nature.com/news/silver-makes-antibiotics-thousands-of-times-more-e...
Bacteria have a weakness: silver. The precious metal has been used to fight infection for
thousands of years Hippocrates first described its antimicrobial properties in 400 BC but how
it works has been a mystery. Now, a team led by James Collins, a biomedical engineer at Boston
University in Massachusetts, has described how silver can disrupt bacteria, and shown that the
ancient treatment could help to deal with the thoroughly modern scourge of antibiotic resistance.
Collins and his team found that silver in the form of dissolved ions attacks bacterial cells in
two main ways: [silver] makes the cell membrane more permeable, and it interferes with the
cells metabolism, leading to the overproduction of reactive, and often toxic, oxygen
compounds. Both mechanisms could potentially be harnessed to make todays antibiotics
more effective against resistant bacteria, Collins says. Many antibiotics are thought to kill their

targets by producing reactive oxygen compounds, and Collins and his team showed that when
boosted with a small amount of silver these drugs could kill between 10 and 1,000 times as many
bacteria. The increased membrane permeability also allows more antibiotics to enter the bacterial
cells, which may overwhelm the resistance mechanisms that rely on shuttling the drug back out.
That disruption to the cell membrane also increased the effectiveness of vancomycin, a largemolecule antibiotic, on Gram-negative bacteria which have a protective outer coating. Gramnegative bacterial cells can often be impenetrable to antibiotics made of larger molecules.
Note: For more on important health issues, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Wearing a mask at a riot is now a crime

2013-06-19, CBC (Canada's Public Broadcasting System)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/06/19/pol-mask-bill-royal-assent.html
A bill that bans the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum
10-year prison sentence ... became law today. The bill is meant to give police an added tool to
prevent lawful protests from becoming violent riots, and that it will help police identify people who
engage in vandalism or other illegal acts. The bill originally proposed a penalty of up to five years,
but the House of Commons justice committee amended it and doubled the penalty to up to 10
years in prison for committing the offence. The bill didn't have unanimous support, and was
opposed by some who are concerned about its effect on freedom of expression and privacy. Civil
liberties advocates argued the measures could create a chilling effect on free speech and
that peaceful protesters can unintentionally find themselves involved in an unlawful
assembly. They also noted that there are legitimate reasons for wearing masks at protests;
some may be worried about reprisals at work, for example, if sighted at a political protest.
"Any law that infringes upon civil liberties needs to be held to a test of absolute necessity, and I
don't think that test has been met in this instance," said Michael Byers, a political scientist at the
University of British Columbia.
Note: Police seem to be specifically targeting the now popular Guy Falkes masks representing
opposition to oppressive authority. For more on the erosion of civil liberties, see the deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Former TWA Flight 800 Investigators Urge New Look at Crash

2013-06-19, US News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/06/19/former-twa-flight-800-investig...
Former investigators of the 1996 TWA Flight 800 crash are urging the National Transportation
Safety Board to reopen its review of the nearly 17-year-old case. In a new documentary about the
crash that is scheduled to air next month, several former investigators on the case suggest
that missiles brought down the New York-to-Paris plane, killing 230 people when it exploded

near Long Island just minutes after it took off. This new evidence could resurrect conspiracy
theories that began circulating within days of the crash. However, the NTSB concluded after four
years investigating the crash that the plane's center fuel tank exploded "most likely" from a short
circuit, ruling out the possibility of a missile, according to the board's report. But the retired
investigators claim that those findings were "falsified." "Early on in the investigation there
was indication that the evidence was being tampered with," said Hank Hughes, a former
senior accident investigator with NTSB, during a conference call with reporters. Hughes and
others cited possible missing parts of the plane, possible explosive material and other findings that
could corroborate their theory that a missile came from the north. The documentary's co-producer
Tom Stalcup told CNN that the film offers "solid proof that there was an external detonation," and
that a number of people have come forward confirming these claims.
Note: For powerful evidence from an Emmy-award winning journalist that this investigation was
manipulated, click here. To watch the powerful documentary Shadows of Liberty on major media
manipulation, including that of TWA flight 800 (minute 14) at this link.

3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so

2013-06-16, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/16/snowden-whistleblower-...
When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details this month on the
government's collection of Americans' phone and Internet records, one select group of intelligence
veterans breathed a sigh of relief. Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe belong to a
select fraternity: the NSA officials who paved the way. For years, the three whistle-blowers had
told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data
from U.S. citizens. They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and
managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned against Americans.
When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they
complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight
committees and, finally, to the news media. They have been investigated as criminals and
forced to give up careers, reputations and friendships built over a lifetime. Today, they feel
vindicated. They say the documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former NSA
contractor who worked as a systems administrator, proves their claims of sweeping government
surveillance of millions of Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing. They say those revelations
only hint at the programs' reach. On [June 15], USA TODAY brought Drake, Binney and Wiebe
together for the first time since the story broke to discuss the NSA revelations. With their lawyer,
Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, they weighed their implications and
their repercussions.
Note: See the link above for a great interview of these courageous whistleblowers. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the hidden realities of intelligence
agencies, click here

Guatemalan syphilis victims lose hope in legal battle against US

2013-06-14, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/0614/Guatemalan-syphilis-victims...
Thousands of Guatemalans were intentionally infected with [sexually-transmitted diseases] in the
1940s by US public health researchers. An appeal on their case against the US government was
dismissed this week. Thousands of Guatemalans ... were unwittingly subjected to secret human
experiments led by US doctors. Nearly three years after beginning the legal battle in US courts,
attorneys representing an estimated 5,000 Guatemalan victims used as guinea pigs and infected
with sexually transmitted diseases in the 1940s by US public health researchers withdrew their
appeal earlier this week. The alleged victims include soldiers, inmates, sex workers, mental health
patients, and schoolchildren. Dr. John Cutler ... led the experiments in Guatemala from 1946 to
1948. Under a grant by the National Institute of Health, Dr. Cutler and US researchers gave
antibiotic penicillin to test its ability to cure and prevent syphilis. But, his team also
infected test subjects without their consent. Some 1,300 were deliberately infected with
syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. Researchers would expose inmates to
infected prostitutes brought into jails. In other cases, they would first infect patients in mental
hospitals before testing the effects of the medication. The American team studied and performed
experiments on more than 5,000 subjects including orphans as young as 6 years old.
Note: For more on government corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Secret tax-haven names released to public

2013-06-14, CBC (Canada's public broadcasting network)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/06/14/offshore-leak-database-released...
An enormous trove of leaked records about secret companies and accounts is being opened to the
public in hope it will shed light on the murky world of offshore finance. The information, contained
in a new online database released [on June 14], has the names of more than 100,000 offshore
entities mainly companies and trusts set up in locales such as the British Virgin Islands and
Cook Islands and the people associated with them. Media outlets worldwide have been
reporting on the information leak since it came to light in early April, with far-reaching global
repercussions. The online names database was released ... by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists, and contains a basic subset of the 260 gigabytes of leaked tax-haven
files that the Washington-based group obtained and shared with global news organizations. "What
we're doing for the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands, and other offshore havens is
what's routinely done in many countries around the world making the control and
ownership of companies a matter of public record," said Michael Hudson, a senior editor at
the journalism consortium. The newly released database shows the names and, where available,
the shareholders and directors of offshore companies, and visually maps out links between them.
[ICIJ] said it hopes people will browse the names and tip off reporters to new revelations about
people and companies doing business offshore.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz launch the B Team challenge

2013-06-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/richard-branson-jochen-z...
In a sign that the corporate sustainability movement may be entering a new dynamic phase, Sir
Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz, former chief executive of Puma and current director of Kering,
today launched a new global collaboration to drive transformational change in the business sector.
The B Team brings together an initial 14 leaders from major corporations around the world,
including Unilever, Natura, Celtel, Tata and Kering, in an attempt to enlarge projects that
demonstrate that long-term business success can be built only by prioritising people and
planet alongside profit. The collective ... has issued a declaration that places much of the
blame for the world's problems directly on the doorstep of companies. Recognising that their
views will be seen by many competitors as an "affront", the declaration states: "Business is now
waking up to the reality that if we carry on using the natural resources of the world unsustainably,
they'll quite simply run out. With a burgeoning population, more people are still living in poverty
than ever before and inequalities are increasing in many parts of the world. Unemployment rates
are at frightening levels. Non-Profits alone cannot solve the tasks at hand, while many
governments are unwilling or unable to act. While there are myriad reasons we've arrived at this
juncture, much of the blame rests with the principles and practices of business as usual." Rather
than go it alone, the B Team is forging partnerships with other organisations such as the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development and Ashoka, a leading light in the social enterprise
movement.
Note: For more on the inspiring B Team, see the great three-minute video here and click here. For
a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

This is how to deal with armed forces' brutality

2013-06-09, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/09/armed-forces-brutality-i...
Baha Mousa was tortured to death in September 2003 while in the custody of the British armed
forces in Iraq. The subsequent inquiry led to a report, published in September 2011, that leaves no
doubt about the ... brutal illegality of the UK's current approach to the detention and interrogation
of suspected insurgents. The training of interrogators used in Iraq involved blatant illegality: forced
nakedness, screaming foul abuse into detainees' faces, sensory deprivation and [other forms of
torture]. The list of unlawful killings is endless. And there are hundreds of Iraqis' cases before
British courts in which allegations are made of egregious acts of torture and cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment. A high court judgment in late May ... involves more than 1,000 Iraqi
cases of unlawful killings and acts of torture. It establishes that whenever UK personnel

abroad have authority and control over others and commit what might be acts of unlawful killing
and torture there must be an "inquisitorial process" in public into each case. There must also be
public scrutiny of the systemic issues arising from these cases. Take, for example, the case of
Huda, an eight-year-old girl in a yellow dress playing with her friends one sunlit morning in
Basra. A British rifleman in a tank, apparently perceiving her to be a threat to force security,
shot her dead without warning at close range. Before this new judgment, the Ministry of
Defence successfully shut the door on any accountability. Under the new system, the commanding
officer would have to suspend the soldier and send in the military police to forensically examine the
scene, interview witnesses and family, and send the results of a full investigation back to London
to be examined independently and publicly.
Note: For more on atrocities committed by the US and UK military forces in their wars of
aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources available here.

What if laws applied to everyone?

2013-06-06, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/06/06/what-if-laws-applied-to-everyone/
What if government officials have written laws that apply only to us and not to them? What if we
gave them the power to protect our freedoms and our safety and they used that power to trick and
trap some of us? What if government officials broke the laws we hired them to enforce? What if
they prosecuted others for breaking the same laws they broke? What if the government enacted a
law making it a crime to provide material assistance to terrorist organizations? What if the
government looked at that law and claimed it applied to a dentist or a shopkeeper who sold
services or goods to a terrorist organization, and not just to financiers and bomb makers? What if
the Supreme Court ruled that the law is so broad that it covers backslapping, advocacy and free
speech? What if the law is so broad that it punishes ideas and the free expression of those ideas,
even if no one is harmed thereby? What if FBI agents pretended to be members of these terrorist
organizations and set out to find people in America who were willing to join? What if the FBI
arrested the people it found and encouraged just as they were about to leave the U.S. and then
charged them with providing material assistance to terrorist organizations? What if the president
boasted that in his mind these duped dopes were really terrorists and their arrests kept us all
safer? What if offensive wars are illegal and morally wrong? What if killing is evil when not
done in self-defense? What if those who kill not in self-defense are prosecuted and
punished, except when they do so in large numbers and to the sounds of trumpets blaring?
What do we do about a government that breaks the laws we have hired it to enforce?
Note: Andrew P. Napolitano, author of this opinion, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News
Channel. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution. His latest is
Theodore and Woodrow: How Two American Presidents Destroyed Constitutional Freedom.

Widespread sex abuse reported at juvenile centers

2013-06-06, NBC News/Associated Press
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52120286/ns/politics#.UbNIvNjfKSo
The government says 1 in 10 youths at juvenile detention facilities around the country reported
having been sexually victimized by staff or by other youths. The study by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics found that ... more than 1,300 youths [reported] victimization by adult staff. According to
the bureau, about 2.5 percent of juveniles, or 450, reported a sexual incident involving another
youth last year, and 7.7 percent, or 1,390, reported an incident involving facility staff. The survey
mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act defines sexual victimization as any unwanted sexual
activity between youth and all sexual activity between youth and adult staff. One in five victims of
staff sexual misconduct reported experiencing physical force or threats. One in five said they were
given drugs or alcohol to engage in sexual contact. "It's deeply troubling that staff the very
people charged with helping these young people turn their lives around are the primary
perpetrators of sexual abuse," said Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention
International, an advocacy group. "Today's report illustrates the fundamental failure of many
juvenile detention facilities to keep their youth safe, and to demand that staff uphold the most
basic standards of professional behavior." There was marked improvement in the figures between
2008-09 and 2012. The rate of sexual victimization dropped from 12.6 percent to 9.9 percent in
that period.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Bilderberg 2013: welcome to 1984

2013-06-05, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/05/bilderberg-2013-goldman-sachs-wat...
The auditorium grew hushed as a senior Watford borough councillor took to his feet. Now it was
the turn of the people of Watford to speak. What would they make of this international three-day
policy summit, with its heavyweight delegate list bulging with billionaire financiers, party leaders
and media moguls, protected by the biggest security operation Watford has ever seen? At one
point in the meeting, during a tense exchange about contingency plans for dog-walkers, [Chief
Inspector] Rhodes let slip that Operation Discuss (the codename for the Bilderberg security
operation) had been up and running for 18 months. Residents and journalists shared an intake of
breath. "Eighteen months?" The reason for all the secrecy? "Terrorism". After 59 years of
Bilderberg guests scuttling about in the shadows, ducking lenses and dodging the news, that's the
rationale we're given? The same rationale, presumably, is behind the Great Wall of Watford, a
concrete-and-wire security fence encircling the hotel. As ugly as it is unnecessary, it looks like the
kind of thing you throw yourself against in a stalag before being machine-gunned from a
watchtower. Appropriately fascistic, you might say, if you regard fascism as "the merger of
corporate and government power", as Mussolini put it. The same threat of "terrorism" was used to
justify the no-pedestrian, no-stopping zones near the venue. The police laid out their logic: they

had "no specific intelligence" regarding a terror threat. However, in recent incidents, such
as Boston and Woolwich, there had been no intelligence prior to the attack. Therefore the
lack of any threat of a terror attack fitted exactly the profile of a terror attack. The lack of a
threat was a threat. Welcome to 1984.
Note: For a list of this year's Bilderberg participants, which include 90-year-old Henry Kissinger,
click here. For lots more on secret societies from reliable sources, click here.

Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes

2013-06-04, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22751415
For 75 years, Finland's expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It's like a
starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped
Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates. It's a tradition that dates back to
the 1930s and it's designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background
they're from, an equal start in life. The maternity package - a gift from the government - is
available to all expectant mothers. It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing
products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress. With the mattress in the
bottom, the box becomes a baby's first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their
first naps within the safety of the box's four cardboard walls. Mothers have a choice between
taking the box, or a cash grant, currently set at 140 euros, but 95% opt for the box as it's worth
much more. The tradition dates back to 1938. In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and infant
mortality was high - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades
that followed. Mika Gissler, a professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki,
gives several reasons for this - the maternity box and pre-natal care for all women in the 1940s,
followed in the 60s by a national health insurance system and the central hospital network. At 75
years old, the box is now an established part of the Finnish rite of passage towards motherhood,
uniting generations of women. For some families, the contents of the box would be unaffordable if
they were not free of charge.
Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Simple vinegar cancer test could save tens of thousands of lives

2013-06-02, NBC News
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/02/18698271-simple-vinegar-cancer-tes...
A simple vinegar test slashed cervical cancer death rates by one-third in a remarkable study of
150,000 women in the slums of India, where the disease is the top cancer killer of women. Experts
called the outcome "amazing" and said this quick, cheap test could save tens of thousands of lives
each year in developing countries by spotting early signs of cancer, allowing treatment before it's

too late. Usha Devi, one of the women in the study, says it saved her life. "Many women refused to
get screened. Some of them died of cancer later," Devi said. "Now I feel everyone should get
tested. I got my life back because of these tests." Pap smears and tests for HPV, a virus that
causes most cervical cancers, have slashed cases and deaths in the United States. But poor
countries can't afford those screening tools. This study tried a test that costs very little and can be
done by local people with just two weeks of training and no fancy lab equipment. They swab the
cervix with diluted vinegar, which can make abnormal cells briefly change color. This low-tech
visual exam cut the cervical cancer death rate by 31 percent, the study found. It could
prevent 22,000 deaths in India and 72,600 worldwide each year, researchers estimate.
"That's amazing. That's remarkable. It's a very exciting result," said Dr. Ted Trimble of the
National Cancer Institute in the U.S., the main sponsor of the study. India has nearly one-third
of the world's cases of cervical cancer more than 140,000 each year.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

BBC: new child sex abuse allegations emerge against staff other than
Savile
2013-05-30, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/may/30/bbc-staff-child-sex-abuse-allegat...
Twenty BBC employees have faced 36 allegations of sexually abusing children and teenage
victims since the Jimmy Savile scandal rocked the corporation last year. The complaints
about an unknown number of victims under the age of 18 have come to light in the six
months since October, according to a Freedom of Information request to the BBC. The [20] have
worked for the BBC in some capacity over the past five decades. The complaints were among a
total of 152 recent and historic allegations of sexual abuse against 81 BBC employees and
freelancers, including 48 about Savile. Half of the accused are current members of BBC staff or
contributors, the FoI request revealed, and cases against five are being examined by the police. Of
these, three have been suspended pending the outcome of the police investigations. Allegations
about 25 current staff or freelance contributors had been reported to police, with no further action
taken in 20 cases. Some of the allegations are expected to be passed to the Dame Janet Smith
review, the judge-led inquiry into the culture and practices of the BBC in the Savile era. The 152
allegations are understood to be separate to the 37 cases of alleged sexual harassment at the
BBC uncovered by Dinah Rose QC in her review, published on 2 May, that examined the past six
years.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

U.S. races to reassure buyers

2013-05-30, NBC News/Reuters

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52051021#.UaoR09jfKSo
U.S. officials raced to quell global alarm on [May 30] over the first-ever discovery of an unapproved
strain of genetically modified wheat, working to figure out how the rogue grain escaped from a field
trial a decade ago. In the wake of news that a strain developed by biotech giant Monsanto Co had
been found in an Oregon field late last month, major buyer Japan cancelled plans to buy U.S.
wheat while the Europe Union said it would step up testing. Worried U.S. farmers wondered if their
own fields had been contaminated. Even after weeks of investigation, experts are baffled as to
how the seed survived for years after Monsanto had ceased all field tests of the product. It was
found in a field growing a different type of wheat than Monsanto's strain, far from areas used for
field tests, according to an Oregon State University wheat researcher who tested the strain. The
discovery threatens to stoke consumer outcry over the possible risk of crosscontaminating natural products with genetically altered foods, and may embolden critics
who say U.S. regulation of GMO products is lax. It is all the more alarming because the
wheat strain was thought to have been eliminated after test trials ended in 2005, as
Monsanto abandoned efforts to secure regulatory approval due to worldwide opposition. While
there have been more than 20 major violations of U.S. regulations on handling or co-mingling
biotechnology crops, none have ever involved wheat before. Some analysts feared a potentially
damaging blow to the $8 billion wheat export business, recalling the more than yearlong disruption
to corn sales following a similar discovery in 2000.
Note: For a powerful summary of the dangers to health and the environment from genetically
modified foods, click here. For major media news articles revealing the risks and dangers of
GMOs, click here.

Japanese Octogenarian Becomes Oldest Man to Reach Summit of

Mount Everest
2013-05-23, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/International/japanese-octogenarian-oldest-man-reach-su...
Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, 80, reached the top of Mount Everest [on May 23], becoming the
oldest man to scale the world's highest mountain. The climb marks the third time Miura has
summited Everest, a successful feat in itself, but even more remarkable considering his age and
his medical history. Discussing the hurdles of climbing at such an old age, the octogenarian
said, it was to challenge his "ultimate limit." "It is to honor the great Mother Nature," he said
on a statement posted on his website. "Hoping to raise even an inch of human possibility."
Miura didn't attempt his first climb to the top of Everest until 2003, when he was 70 years old. He
made that trek with his son, a former Olympian, and set a world record as the oldest climber to
successfully scale the mountain. Five years later, he returned again -- at 75 years old -- to set
another record. Yuichiro Miura has spent a lifetime defying the odds. In his younger years, he
skied down Mount Everest's South Col, an adventure that was documented in the 1975 Academy
Award winning documentary, "The Man Who Skied Down Everest." Not satisfied, Miura summited

and skied down all seven summits of the world, by his 50s. Miura has already discussed his next
venture -- skiing down the Himalayan mountain of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the
world. He hopes to take on that challenge five years from now when he is 85 years old.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

U.S. acknowledges killing of four U.S. citizens in counterterrorism

operations
2013-05-22, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-acknowledges-killing...
The Obama administration acknowledged [on May 22] that it has killed four Americans in overseas
counterterrorism operations since 2009, the first time it has publicly taken responsibility for the
deaths. Three are known to have died in CIA drone strikes in Yemen in 2011: Anwar al-Awlaki, his
16-year-old son and Samir Khan. The fourth Jude Kennan Mohammad, a Florida native indicted
in North Carolina in 2009 was killed in Pakistan, where the CIA has operated a drone campaign
against terrorism suspects for nearly a decade. His death was previously unreported. In addition to
disclosure of the four killings, Holder wrote that Obama has approved classified briefings for
Congress on an overall policy document, informally called the playbook. The document, more
than a year in the making, codifies the administrations standards and processes for its
unprecedented program of targeted killing and capture of terrorism suspects outside of war zones.
Nearly 400 drone strikes, in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, have been launched by the CIA and
U.S. military forces during Obamas presidency. According to Holders letter, Awlaki was the only
U.S. citizen the administration has specifically targeted and killed. Two weeks after Awlakis
death, his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman who had gone to the Yemeni desert in search of
his father was killed in a drone strike meant for someone else. That strike was similarly
unacknowledged, although a senior administration official privately characterized it as a
mistake.
Note: So an American citizen, Awlaki's son, was killed by a drone by "mistake"? What happened
to the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states no citizen shall "be deprived of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law"? For deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources on the atrocities carried out by the US and UK in their global wars of aggression,
click here.

Mental disorders manual under fire

2013-05-22, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Mental-disorders-manual-under-fire-...

The newest edition of the "bible" of mental disorders ... is attracting criticism from a number of
experts, both for the changes made and for the foundations of the manual. The fifth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders marks the first major revision since 1994
and comes in at almost 1,000 pages. Critics say the manual includes so many disorders and such
broad definitions that it has a name for any behavior outside of a narrow norm. Shawn Rubin, the
chairman of the school of clinical psychology at San Francisco's Saybrook University, said the
manual has led to "the pathologizing of everyday experiences," contributing to
unnecessary diagnoses and use of prescription drugs. "The debate is, do we put more and
more problems to get people to come out of the closet, or are we making it so there are no
normal people left?" said Stephen Hinshaw, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley and a vice
chairman in the department of psychiatry at UCSF. The manual, first published more than 60 years
ago, is used around the world and provides doctors in the field and patients a universal language.
Insurers often provide coverage based on what diagnosis from the DSM clinicians give patients.
Critics say the manual is not grounded in scientific research, instead relying on symptoms to
identify disorders. They argue that a new classification system is needed. From a practical
standpoint, experts say, research is a long way from identifying specific markers for mental illness,
and a system that is more symptom-based is necessary at the clinical level.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Another Chilling Leak Investigation

2013-05-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/another-chilling-leak-investigation...
With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible co-conspirator in a criminal
investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government
secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news. The latest reported
episode involves James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News. In 2009, Mr.
Rosen reported on FoxNews.com that North Korea planned to launch a missile in response to the
condemnation of its nuclear tests by the United Nations Security Council. The Justice Department
... indicted Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department security adviser, on charges of leaking
classified information. Mr. Kim pleaded not guilty. Normally, the inquiry would have ended with
Mr. Kim leak investigations usually focus on the source, not the reporter. But, in this
case, federal prosecutors also asked a federal judge for permission to examine Mr. Rosens
personal e-mails, arguing that there is probable cause to believe Mr. Rosen is an aider
and abettor and/or co-conspirator in the leak. Though Mr. Rosen was not charged, the F.B.I.
request for his e-mail account was granted secretly in late May 2010. The government was
allowed to rummage through Mr. Rosens e-mails for at least 30 days.
Note: For a fascinating and revealing look inside Fox News by an insider, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government threats to civil liberties and
freedom of the press, click here.

After sex assaults inside military, women are victims again of legal
system
2013-05-20, Houston Chronicle (One of Houston's leading newspapers)
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/After-sex-...
[The] military criminal justice system ... frequently grants impunity to [sex] offenders and punishes
victims -- the outcome of a fiercely guarded power of commanders who wield broad discretion over
the handling of sex crimes in their ranks. From the accounts of sexual assault survivors in every
branch of the military, a stark panorama emerges: Many victims were drugged or forced to
drink and were raped, attacked as they slept, beaten unconscious and coerced into sex by
their superiors. They were strongly discouraged from disclosing the crimes, or forced to
report assaults to commanders who are closely connected to the accused. Few suspects
face criminal punishment. Of 3,374 reports of sexual assault last year involving 2,900 accused
offenders, only 302 went to courts-martial and 238 were convicted, the Defense Department says.
Meanwhile, 286 offenders received nonjudicial or administrative punishment or discharges,
allowing them to dodge a criminal mark on their record. In 70 cases, suspects slated for possible
courts-martial were allowed to quit their jobs to avoid charges. Prison sentences are rare. Only 177
perpetrators were sentenced to confinement. But the most jarring statistic: about half of all
convicted sex offenders were not automatically expelled from the armed services. For all the public
outrage sparked by sexual abuses at the Navy Tailhook convention in 1991, the Army's Aberdeen
Proving Ground in 1996 and the Air Force Academy in 2003, the military criminal justice system
has failed to stem an epidemic of sexual assaults, reaching an estimated 26,000 last year.
Note: Read the full, disturbing article at this link. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

Anthrax drug brings $334 million to Pentagon advisor's biotech firm

2013-05-19, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax-resistant-201305...
Over the last decade, former Navy Secretary Richard J. Danzig, a prominent lawyer, presidential
advisor and biowarfare consultant to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, has
urged the government to counter what he called a major threat to national security. Terrorists, he
warned, could easily engineer a devastating killer germ: a form of anthrax resistant to common
antibiotics. U.S. intelligence agencies have never established that any nation or terrorist group has
made such a weapon, and biodefense scientists say doing so would be very difficult. Nevertheless,
Danzig has energetically promoted the threat and prodded the government to stockpile a
new type of drug to defend against it. Danzig did this while serving as a director of a biotech
startup that won $334 million in federal contracts to supply just such a drug, a Los Angeles Times
investigation found. By his own account, Danzig encouraged Human Genome Sciences Inc. to
develop the compound, and from 2001 through 2012 he collected more than $1 million in director's

fees and other compensation from the company, records show. The drug, raxibacumab, or raxi,
was the first product the company was able to sell, and the U.S. government remains the
only customer, at a cost to date of about $5,100 per dose.
Note: This investigative report is well worth reading in its entirety at the above link. At this link you
can find major media articles showing among other revealing facts how Donald Rumsfeld pocketed
$5 million personally from sales of Tamiflu during the Avian flu scare. The word is getting out
thanks to caring people like you.

The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised

as a brave act
2013-05-18, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/the-price-of-pacifism-r...
International Conscientious Objection Day took place this week, on 15 May, and in the UK, a
ceremony was held at the CO Commemorative Stone in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury. The
UK has also recently seen the opening of a new memorial to COs, at The National Memorial
Arboretum in Staffordshire. The earliest recorded incidence of conscientious objection was in
296AD, when a Roman refused to serve as a soldier because of his religious beliefs; he was killed,
but subsequently canonised as Saint Maximilian. The term 'conscientious objector', however, only
gained currency during the First World War, following the implementation of conscription in 1916.
In Britain, over 16,000 men refused to fight. While it is well known that many with strong religious
beliefs objected, interestingly some war-resisters refused on socialist grounds: they would not fight
brother workers, feeling that the average soldier was but a pawn of the ruling classes. Few were
given total exemption. Many were forced to join the army or the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC), to
serve in a supporting role to the armed forces. Many 'conchies' refused either option, and were
sent to prison as a result. The abuses they suffered for their stance make for extremely grim
reading, [as] told by David Boulton, in his book Objection Overruled. But word got out about such
experiences and public feeling did move towards respect. It became recognised that to stand up
and be counted as someone who would not fight required its own, very high, degree of courage.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

New app lets shoppers boycott companies by scanning barcodes

2013-05-15, MSN
http://news.msn.com/science-technology/new-app-lets-shoppers-boycott-companie...
Do you know where your money really goes? A new app aims to help consumers avoid companies
and products they don't even realize they're investing in. People can create campaigns or join
existing boycotts. For example, a campaign identified in the app asks consumers to avoid Koch
Industries. More than 8,000 people have pledged to boycott the company, which is owned by

conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch. Buycott helps consumers do this by untangling a
long trail of associations and relationships among companies. For example, sales of Brawny paper
towels accrue to Koch Industries because Koch's subsidiary, Georgia-Pacific, produces the towels.
Consumers may not be aware of those connections while casually browsing supermarket shelves.
The Buycott app scans barcodes and then traces products to their parent companies. The
app checks that the product doesn't already run afoul of boycott campaigns the user has
joined. If someone joins the Local & Sustainable Food Initiative through Buycott, for example, they
can scan barcodes at the supermarket to make sure their food really is coming from a local source.
The app can even tell you if a certain food product contains GMOs. One campaign pushes
buyers to boycott companies, including Monsanto, that fought against putting GMO labels
on food. The app isn't perfect though. As Buycott admits, "Corporate ownership structure is
always changing and can sometimes be complex." The app allows users to add their own
knowledge of products not yet part of the database, making Buycott more accurate as more people
download and contribute to it.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

BP and Shell raided in European commission price-rigging inquiry

2013-05-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/14/bp-shell-oil-price-rigging
The London offices of BP and Shell have been raided by European regulators investigating
allegations they have "colluded" to rig oil prices for more than a decade. The European
commission said its officers carried out "unannounced inspections" at several oil companies in
London, the Netherlands and Norway to investigate claims they may have "colluded in reporting
distorted prices to a price reporting agency [PRA] to manipulate the published prices for a number
of oil and biofuel products". The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have
been going on since 2002, could have had a "huge impact" on the price of petrol at the pumps
"potentially harming final consumers". Lord Oakeshott, former Liberal Democrat Treasury
spokesman, said the alleged rigging of oil prices was "as serious as rigging Libor" which
led to banks being fined hundreds of millions of pounds. He demanded to know why the UK
authorities had not taken action earlier. "Why have we had to wait for Brussels to find out if
British oil giants are ripping off British consumers?" he said. "The price of energy ripples right
through our economy and really matters to every business and families." The European authorities
declined to name any of the companies raided but BP, Shell, Norway's Statoil and Platts, the
world's leading oil price reporting agency, all confirmed they are being investigated.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

Monsanto and other GM firms are winning in the US and globally

2013-05-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/14/monsanto-gm-crops-worldwide
Food & Water Watch ... spent months looking at the extent to which the US State Department is
working on behalf of the GM seed industry to make sure that biotech crops are served up abroad
whether the world wants them or not. Between 2007 and 2009, annual cables were distributed to
"encourage the use of agricultural biotechnology", directing US embassies to "pursue an active
biotech agenda". There was a comprehensive communications campaign aimed to "promote
understanding and acceptance of the technology" ... in light of the worldwide backlash against GM
crops. The State Department worked to diminish trade barriers to the benefit of seed companies,
and encouraged the embassies to "publicize the benefits of agbiotech as a development tool".
Monsanto was a great beneficiary of the State Department's taxpayer-funded diplomacy: the
company appeared in 6.1% of the biotech cables analyzed between 2005 and 2009 from 21
countries. The cables also show extensive lobbying against in-country efforts to require labeling of
GM foods. The US government is now quietly negotiating major trade deals with Europe and the
countries of the Pacific Rim that would force countries to accept biotech imports, commercialize
biotech crops and prevent the labeling of GM foods. The vast influence that Monsanto and the
biotech seed industry have on our foreign affairs is just one tentacle of a beast comprised
by a handful of huge corporations who wield enormous power over most food policy in the
United States.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Do we need to change the way we are thinking about mental illness?

2013-05-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/12/dsm-5-conspiracy-laughable
13 studies find that more than half of schizophrenics suffered childhood abuse. Another
review of 23 studies shows that schizophrenics are at least three times more likely to have
been abused than non-schizophrenics. It is becoming apparent that abuse is the major
cause of psychoses. It is also all too clear that the medical model is bust. In the press
release accompanying publication of DSM-5 [the American Psychiatric Association's classification
of psychiatric disorders], David Kupfer, who oversaw its creation, states: "We've been telling
patients for several decades that we are waiting for biomarkers. We're still waiting." This is an
astonishing admission that there are no reliable genetic or neurological measurements that
distinguish a person with mental illness. By contrast, there is a huge body of evidence that our
early childhood experiences combined with subsequent exposure to adversity explain a very great
deal.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the devastating
psychological impacts of sexual abuse, click here.

Wisconsin Farmer to Stand Trial for Selling Raw Milk

2013-05-12, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/12/wisconsin-farmer-to-stand-tr...
A Wisconsin dairy farmer is set to go on trial for a strange offense: selling raw milk to a
group of consumers who were members of a private buyers club. So in many parts of
America, its basically legal to grow, sell, and smoke pot. But you can go to jail for selling
people fresh milk? Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger, a 41-year-old father of ten, will
go on trial later this month. Hershberger started a private buyers club for raw milk in 2003 after
some friends from townwho were retired farmerswanted to continue getting this raw milk that
they had for years. By word of mouth ... it grew from there. By the time of his arrest in 2010, over
100 families were members. Technically, these club members were not customers of the farm, but
partners: they legally leased animals from Hershberger, and in return for his family boarding and
caring for their cattle on his 157 acres of farmland, they paid certain agreed-upon fees each time
they came to pick up the products of those cattlenamely, raw milk. So Hershberger felt he didnt
need a license as a retail food establishment, because there was no retail going on; the milk
already belonged to the club members. Hershberger grew up milking cows by hand on a small
Amish dairy farm, and this hold order violated his religious values: though no longer Amish, hes a
non-denominational Christian, and opposes waste.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Report: IRS targeting went beyond Tea Party

2013-05-12, Seattle Times (One of Seattle's leading newspapers)
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2020975214_irsteapartyxml.html
The Internal Revenue Services special scrutiny of small-government groups applying for
tax-exempt status went beyond keyword hunts for organizations with Tea Party or
patriot in their names, to a more overtly ideological search for applicants seeking to
make America a better place to live or criticize how the country is being run, according
to a part of an inspector generals report that was given to Congress. The head of the division on
tax-exempt organizations, Lois Lerner, was briefed on the effort in June 2011, seemingly
contradicting her assertion on Friday that she learned of the effort from the press. But she seemed
to work hard to rein in the focus on conservatives and change it to a look at any political advocacy
group of any stripe seeking tax exemptions. The appendix of the inspector generals report ...
chronicles the extent to which the IRSs exempt organizations division kept redefining what sort of
social welfare groups it should single out for extra attention since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That decision allowed corporations and labor
unions to raise and spend unlimited sums on elections as well as register for tax-exempt status
under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, as long as their primary purpose did not consist of

targeting electoral candidates. On June 29, 2011, according to the documents, IRS staffers held a
briefing with Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where statements
in the case file criticize how the country is being run.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Jacob Barnett, 14-Year-Old With Asperger's Syndrome, May Be Smarter

Than Einstein
2013-05-11, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/jacob-barnett-autistic-14-year-old-n...
When Jacob Barnett was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism. Doctors
told his parents that the boy would likely never talk or read and would probably be forever
unable to independently manage basic daily activities like tying his shoe laces. But they
were sorely, extraordinarily mistaken. Today, Barnett -- now 14 -- is a Master's student, on
his way to earning a PhD in quantum physics. The teen, who boasts an IQ of 170, has already
been tipped to one day win the Nobel Prize. Since enrolling at Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis (IUPUI) at the age of 10, Barnett has flourished -- astounding his
professors, peers and family with his spectacular intelligence. The teen tutors other college
students in subjects like calculus and is a published scientific researcher, with an IQ that is
believed to be higher than that of Albert Einstein. In fact, according to a 2011 TIME report, Barnett,
who frequently tops his college classes, has asserted that he may one day disprove Einstein's
Theory of Relativity. Outside of his rigorous university commitments, Barnett, who has Asperger's
Syndrome, is also an entrepreneur and aspiring author. The teen, who, with his family, runs a
charity called Jacob's Place for kids on the spectrum, has used his story to raise awareness and
dispel myths about autism. In April, [his mother] Kristine Barnett's memoir about her family's
experience with autism, The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius, was released. A movie
deal is said to be in the works.
Note: For the CBS 60 Minutes piece on this child genius, click here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

An End to Medical-Billing Secrecy?

2013-05-08, Time Magazine
http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/an-end-to-medical-billing-secrecy/
Acting on the suggestion of her top data crunchers at the departments Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released an
enormous data file on May 8 that reveals the listor chargemasterprices of all hospitals across
the country for the 100 most common inpatient treatment services in 2011. It then compares those
prices with what Medicare actually paid hospitals for the same treatmentswhich was typically a

fraction of the chargemaster prices. As a result, Americans are a big step closer to being able to
compare what hospitals charge them for goods and services with what they actually cost. There
are two reasons Sebelius release of this newly crunched, massive data file is a great first step
toward a new transparency in health care costs. First, it reveals the vast disparity between what
hospitals charge for pills, procedures and operations and the real cost of those services, as
calculated by Medicare. The second reason the compilation and release of this data is a big deal
is that it demonstrates [that] most hospitals chargemaster prices are wildly inconsistent
and seem to have no rationale. Thus the release of this fire hose of datawhich prints out at
17,511 pagesshould become a tip sheet for reporters in every American city and town, who can
now ask hospitals to explain their pricing. In the through-the-looking-glass world of health care
economics, those who are asked to pay chargemaster rates are often under-insured or lack
insurance altogether. Moreover, insurers typically negotiate discounts off the grossly inflated
chargemaster prices ($77 for a box of gauze pads!), so the chargemaster matters for insured
patients too.
Note: For more on corporate corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

7 Dodgy Food Practices Banned in Europe But Just Fine Here

2013-05-08, Mother Jones Magazine
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/05/7-dodgy-foodag-practices-bann...
Last week, the European Commission voted to place a two-year moratorium on most uses
of neonicotinoid pesticides, on the suspicion that they're contributing to the global crisis in
honeybee health. Might [that] inspire the US Environmental Protection Agency to make a
similar move? The answer is no. The EU move will have no bearing on the EPA's own reviews
of the pesticides, which aren't scheduled for release until 2016 at the earliest. Other food-related
substances and practices that are banned in Europe [are] green-lighted [in the US]. 1. Atrazine: A
"potent endocrine disruptor," Syngenta's popular corn herbicide has been linked to a range of
reproductive problems at extremely low doses in both amphibians and humans, and it commonly
leaches out of farm fields and into people's drinking water. What Europe did: Banned it in 2003. US
status: EPA: "Atrazine will begin registration review, EPA's periodic reevaluation program for
existing pesticides, in mid-2013." 2. Arsenic in chicken, turkey, and pig feed. 3. "Poultry litter" in
cow feed. 4. Chlorine washes for poultry carcasses. 5. Antibiotics as growth promoters on livestock
farms. 6. Ractopomine and other pharmaceutical growth enhancers in animal feed. 7. Gestation
crates.
Note: For each numbered substance or practice, this article indicates the action taken by the EU
and the inaction by the US government. For an article that gives more information on all of this and
two additional banned practices, click here.

How political intelligence can come from Congress itself

2013-05-06, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-political-intelligence-can...
On the same morning a congressional staffer told investors in a private call that odds were
improving for a government decision that would help medical insurers, trading spiked in a major
health-care company. The private call, arranged by a consulting firm called Capitol Street, took
place the morning of March 18. At 11:05 a.m., a certain form of speculative trading in Humana, the
health insurer, jumped. That day, there was nearly 10 times as much volume as any day in the
previous two weeks. There is no evidence that the trades were in response to the Capitol Hill
phone call with a top aide for Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). But the conference call reveals the
extent to which a direct pipeline of valuable political insight exists between Capitol Hill and Wall
Street, one that ordinary Americans and investors do not enjoy. Political intelligence firms
companies that sell their analysis of federal actions to investors have drawn much of the
scrutiny from lawmakers and investigators worried about potential insider trading. Congress itself
has become a source of sophisticated political analysis for investors, for whom every
nugget of exclusive information can translate to millions of dollars in profit. Information in
Washington is both highly valuable and extremely fluid. This has given rise to a booming
business in researchers claiming to offer political intelligence that could give investors an
edge in their trading. Stan Brand, a Washington lawyer specializing in congressional ethics, said
he is hearing increasingly about Hill staffers being called to participate in financial industry and
investor briefings like the one hosted by Capitol Street.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

2013-05-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-...
CNN's Out Front with Erin Burnett [has been] focused on the possible involvement in the Boston
Marathon attack of Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased suspect,
Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on
telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to
determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way. Burnett interviewed Tim
Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover
the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they
could: BURNETT: There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells
them? CLEMENTE: No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security
investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. We certainly can find
that out. BURNETT: So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is
incredible. CLEMENTE: No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we
speak whether we know it or like it or not. On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on
CNN. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that "all digital

communications in the past" are recorded and stored. All digital communications - meaning
telephone calls, emails, online chats and the like - are automatically recorded and stored and
accessible to the government after the fact. To describe that is to define what a ubiquitous,
limitless Surveillance State is.
Note: All of our communications have been monitored by government computers for years. BBC
News reported in this this 1999 article about the Echelon network which monitors all
communications globally. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on
government and corporate threats to privacy, click here.

Solar-powered plane completes first leg of cross-country journey

2013-05-04, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-solar-airplane-phoenix-...
[Solar Impulse HB-SIA, a] solar-powered aircraft making a landmark cross-country flight [piloted by
Bertrand Piccard], successfully completed its first leg [on May 4], and will rest about a week in
[Phoenix] Arizona before taking to the skies again. "It's a little bit like being in a dream," Piccard
told the Associated Press. The aircraft, running off solar cells and electric batteries rather
than fossil fuels, ... travels at a leisurely 43 mph and cruises at a maximum altitude of
28,000 feet. Spokeswoman Alenka Zibetto [said] that the exact length of the stay would depend on
weather. It is proving to be a popular attraction. Online registration for the Sunday slots -- with
space for 150 people per hour -- filled up within a day, Zibetto said. The solar company
SunPower [manufactured] the solar cells lining the 208-foot wingspan of Solar Impulse.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles on exciting new energy technologies, click here.
For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Does antibacterial soap cause more harm than good?

2013-05-02, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57582621/does-antibacterial-soap-cause-mo...
The Food and Drug Administration is finally going to decide whether antibacterial soap actually
works, or if it's causing more harm than good. Government researchers plan to deliver a review
this year on the effectiveness and safety of triclosan, the germ-killing ingredient found in an
estimated 75 percent of antibacterial liquid soaps and body washes sold in the United States. The
chemical has been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, used for cleaning kitchens,
people's bodies and clothing. The chemical is also found in mouthwash, toothpaste and toys, and
depending on what the FDA finds, a $1 billion industry could be affected. The agency's review
comes amid growing pressure from lawmakers, consumer advocates and others who are
concerned about the safety of triclosan. Recent animal studies of triclosan have led scientists to
worry that it could case hormone-related problems in humans including an increase the risk of
infertility and early puberty. The concerns over triclosan offer a sobering glimpse at a little-

known fact: Many chemicals used in everyday household products have never been
formally approved by U.S. health regulators. That's because many germ-killing chemicals were
developed decades ago before there were laws requiring scientific review of cleaning ingredients.
The controversy also highlights how long it can take the federal government to review the safety of
such chemicals. It's not uncommon for the process to drag on for years.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

Lipstick findings not pretty, maybe toxic

2013-05-02, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Lipstick-findings-not-pretty-maybe-...
Lipstick can give your lips color, sheen and texture, but may also put you at risk of ingesting
potentially toxic metals, UC Berkeley researchers say in the latest study to ferret out questionable
compounds in cosmetics. The scientists said [on May 2 that] they found metals in every one
of the 32 lipsticks and lip glosses they tested. Some of those substances, including lead,
cadmium and chromium, are banned from cosmetics in Europe, but not in the United
States. Previous studies had detected traces of lead in lipstick, but the researchers said theirs was
the first to find a variety of other metals that can be toxic in high doses. Manganese, for example,
which was found in varying amounts in the tested products, is linked to neurological defects in
humans who inhale it on a continuous basis. Makeup manufacturers in the United States
sometimes use metals as color additives. The researchers believe that potentially harmful metals
are present in possibly thousands of lip products beyond the 32 they tested. "The fact that virtually
all of them have some metals of some concern leads me to say that it's a concern in general," said
Katharine Hammond, a UC Berkeley environmental health sciences professor and the study's
primary investigator. The report appears in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Consumers should not be burdened with figuring out which products are safe, [Hammond] argued.
Instead, she said, the responsibility belongs to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which
regulates cosmetics.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

The Falling Cost Of Solar Energy Is Surprising Everyone

2013-05-02, Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-the-solar-age-is-dawning-2013-5
Citi has just named solar photovoltaics, which convert solar radiation into electric currents via
semiconductors, to its list of 10 world-disrupting technologies. In a note this week in advance of the
disruption report, Citi's Jason Channell said that in many cases, renewables are already at cost
parity with established forms of electricity sources. The biggest surprise in recent years has
been the speed at which the price of solar panels has reduced, resulting in cost parity
being achieved in certain areas much more quickly than was ever expected; these fast

learning rates are likely to continue, meaning that the technology just keeps getting
cheaper. At peak solar exposure, parts of the southwest U.S. are now already capable of meeting
their electricity needs via solar panels. The rapidly expanding parity provides enormous scope for
growth in the solar industry, driven by standalone economics as opposed to subsidies, which are
becoming ever scarcer in an austerity-driven world. Gas isn't going away, but renewables are
coming on strong.
Note: It's rather strange that most mainstream media have hardly reported on this most awesome
news at all. For another article showing that solar energy cost is already near parity with other
energy sources, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles on exciting new energy
technologies, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make
a difference, click here.

Seattles Free Food Experiment

2013-04-29, National Geographic
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/29/seattles-free-food-experim...
Can food be free, fresh and easily accessible? Thats the bold question that the city of Seattle is
hoping to answer with a new experimental farm not far from the citys downtown that will have
fruits and vegetables for anyone to harvest this fall. On Beacon Hill, just south of central Seattle,
landscape developers and a few affordable-food advocates are building an edible food forest.
Everything grown in the area, from the tree canopies to the roots, will be edible. And itll be open
around the clock to anyone who wants to come and pick some fresh blueberries or pears. In its
first phase, the farm will be 1.5 acres. But if its successful, the public land itll sit oncurrently
owned by Seattle Public Utilitieswill be able to accommodate 5.5 more acres of growth. One
thing thats striking about the idea (other than the idea in itself to have essentially a public farm that
anyone can useor abuse) is how the [crop] selection came together. Many are expected: apples,
berries, row vegetables like lettuce or tomatoes. But others are pretty far out. A large Asian
community in the area suggested things like Asian pears and honeyberries. A European influence
led to the planting of medlar trees. The concept is modeled on permaculture, a design system
and school of thought aimed at returning some land to its own devices. Offering people
free, fresh food is one motivation, but making the land useful and ecologically enriched is
the larger goal.
Note: For an awesome, free online permaculture course, click here. For a treasure trove of great
news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law

2013-04-29, Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-30/ceo-pay-1-795-to-1-multiple-of-worke...

Former fashion jewelry saleswoman Rebecca Gonzales and former Chief Executive Officer Ron
Johnson have one thing in common: J.C. Penney Co. no longer employs either. The similarity ends
there. Johnson, 54, got a compensation package worth 1,795 times the average wage and
benefits of a U.S. department store worker when he was hired in November 2011, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg. Gonzaless hourly wage was $8.30 that year. Across the [S&P] 500
Index of companies, the average multiple of CEO compensation to that of rank-and-file workers is
204, up 20 percent since 2009, the data show. Almost three years after Congress ordered
public companies to reveal actual CEO-to-worker pay ratios under the Dodd-Frank law, the
numbers remain unknown. As the Occupy Wall Street movement and 2012 election made
income inequality a social flashpoint, mandatory disclosure of the ratios remained bottled up
at the Securities and Exchange Commission, which hasnt yet drawn up the rules to
implement it. Some of Americas biggest companies are lobbying against the requirement. Its a
simple piece of information stockholders ought to have, said Phil Angelides, who led the Financial
Crisis Inquiry Commission, which investigated the economic collapse of 2008. The fact that
corporate executives wouldnt want to display the number speaks volumes. The lobbying is part of
a street-by-street, block-by-block fight waged by large corporations and their Wall Street
colleagues to obstruct the Dodd-Frank law, he said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on income inequality, click
here .

Report: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's repeated requests for a lawyer were

ignored
2013-04-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/29/tsarnaev-right-to-counsel...
The initial debate over the treatment of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev focused on whether he should be
advised of his Miranda rights or whether the "public safety exception" justified delaying it. Now, the
Los Angeles Times ... reports something which, if true, would be a much more serious violation of
core rights than delaying Miranda warnings - namely, that ... Tsarnaev had repeatedly asked for a
lawyer, but the FBI simply ignored those requests, instead allowing the interagency High Value
Detainee Interrogation Group to continue to interrogate him alone: "Tsarnaev has not answered
any questions since he was given a lawyer and told he has the right to remain silent by Magistrate
Judge Marianne B. Bowler on Monday, officials said. Until that point, Tsarnaev had been
responding to the interagency High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, including admitting his
role in the bombing, authorities said. A senior congressional aide said Tsarnaev had asked several
times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored since he was being questioned under the public
safety exemption to the Miranda rule." Denying him the right to a lawyer after he repeatedly
requests one is ... as fundamental a violation of crucial guaranteed rights as can be
imagined. To ignore the repeated requests of someone in police custody for a lawyer, for

hours and hours, is just inexcusable and legally baseless. If the LA Times report is true, then it
means that the DOJ did not merely fail to advise him of his right to a lawyer but actively blocked
him from exercising that right.
Note: The government appears to be setting a precedent in seeing how far they can go with taking
away our constitutionally guaranteed rights. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on civil liberties, click here.

Historic vote to ban neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for huge decline in

bees
2013-04-28, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/historic-vote-to-ban-neonicotin...
A landmark step in the campaign to ban a nerve-agent pesticide blamed for causing mass die-offs
in bees could be reached on [April 29] following one of the most intensive environmental lobbying
battles of recent years. Months of furious argument which has pitched green groups, the chemical
industry, farmers, scientists and politicians at bitter odds with each other will be decided in a crucial
EU vote in Brussels. Britains Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, has been criticised for
failing to support a ban on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides which have been linked to a
dramatic decline in the bee population. Last week, designers Katharine Hamnett and Vivienne
Westwood handed a petition with 300,000 signatures to Downing Street demanding the
Government support the initiative. They are backed by Friends of the Earth and the campaign
group Avaaz, which has 2.6 million signatories on its online petition calling for the ban. But Mr
Paterson [has] claimed he is the victim of a cyber-attack from opponents. Opponents of the
moratorium reject the evidence of more than 30 scientific studies in the last three years
showing the harmful impact of neonicotinoids on bees. The chemicals attack insects
nervous systems and are active in all aspects of a plant, meaning they are present in the
pollen and nectar gathered by bees.
Note: As mentioned in this article, the excellent activist organization Avaaz.org played a key role in
this. Check out their great website which has many millions of members at this link.

Supreme Court sides with Monsanto in major patent case

2013-04-26, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/13/monsanto-patent-grain-bi...
The Supreme Court usually isn't friendly toward questionable patents, but it came down
overwhelmingly on the side of agribusiness giant Monsanto [on April 22] in a case that's bound to
resonate throughout the biotechnology industry. The court ruled unanimously that an Indiana
farmer violated Monsanto's patent on genetically modified soybeans when he culled some from a
grain elevator and used them to replant his own crop in future years. "If simple copying were a
protected use, a patent would plummet in value after the first sale of the first item containing the

invention," Justice Elena Kagan ruled in a short 10-page opinion. Who it helps: Inventors and
entrepreneurs who have patents on products that can be self-replicated, from computer software
to cell lines. Who it hurts: Consumers paying high prices. The Center for Food Safety released a
report in February that showed three corporations control much of the global commercial seed
market. It found that from 1995-2011, the average cost to plant 1 acre of soybeans rose 325%.
Center for Food Safety executive director Andrew Kimbrell called the ruling a setback for
farmers. "The court chose to protect Monsanto over farmers," he said. "The court's ruling is
contrary to logic and to agronomics, because it improperly attributes seeds' reproduction
to farmers, rather than nature."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Father of Boston Bombing Suspects Keeps Faith in His Sons

2013-04-20, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324763404578433533790946270.html
The father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said he was present at the family house in
Cambridge, Mass., when the FBI interviewed his older son in 2011. Anzor Tsarnaev, speaking ...
from Makhachkala in Russia's Republic of Dagestan, said Federal Bureau of Investigation agents
came to talk to his older son, Tamerlan, as a "person of interest." "Yes, I was there. Of course I
was there," Mr. Tsarnaev said. "It was in Cambridge. 410 Norfolk Street, Cambridge." He said U.S.
authorities visited the house for what he described as "prevention" activities that involved
Tamerlan. "They said: We know what sites you are on, we know where you are calling, we know
everything about you. Everything," Mr. Tsarnaev recalled. "They said we are checking and
watchingthat's what they said." The father of the pair said he wasn't nervous that the FBI
showed up at his home. "I knew what he was doing, where he was going. I raised my children
right," he said of his sons. He said he is sure Tamerlan and his brother Dzhokhar must have
been framed for the Boston bombing. "This is all lies. These are my children. I know my
children," Mr. Tsarnaev said. He said his own brother, Ruslan, called his sons "losers" in an
American television interview Friday because of a family feud. Asked if it was possible Tamerlan
encountered Muslim fundamentalists while in Dagestan, he said there was no way. "There aren't
even any of those here anymore," Mr. Tsarnaev said.
Note: Another article in the UK's respected Independent states, "the men's mother, Zubeidat
Tsarnaeva said: 'I am 100% sure that this is a set-up.'" Could this have been yet another case of
FBI entrapment like this and this? Or could they even have been programmed to do this using
mind control using techniques described at this link? And for a Washington Times article raising
more questions on the bombing, click here.

Are You Eating 'Superbugs?' Resistant Bacteria Found At Alarming

Rates On Meat In Stores

2013-04-16, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bethhoffman/2013/04/16/are-you-eating-superbugs-r...
Do consumers really need to be concerned about eating meat they buy at the grocery stores? A
new report released today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says, yes. The group
analyzed 2011 data recently released by the U.S. government and found 81 percent of ground
turkey and 55 percent of ground beef sold in supermarkets carried antibiotic-resistant
strands of salmonella and Campylobacter. Together these bacteria cause 3.6 million cases
of food poisoning a year. More than half of all chicken sampled carried antibiotic-resistant
E. coli. Almost 90 percent of all store-bought meat also had signs of normal and resistant
Enterococcus faecium a bacteria that indicates the product came in contact with fecal matter at
some point during or after processing. Even if the idea of a little diarrhea or a urinary tract infection
does not faze you (both of which can be caused by E. coli), the problem is that as strains of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more commonplace in our lives, the less we are able to use
the drugs to treat common human diseases. Many involved in the livestock industry like the
American Meat Institute, the International Egg Commission, and the Animal Health Institute
(whose membership includes Bayer, Merck, and Mars) reject these concerns. They also hold
enormous power over legislators and committee members. In other words, if we continue to buy
these meats, it is likely industry will continue to use antibiotics to raise animals. But by doing so,
we will put our own health, and the health of the global population, at risk.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on important health issues,
click here.

Why this is the worst economic recovery on record

2013-04-15, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2013/0415/Why-this-is-the-wors...
Were now witnessing what happens when all of the economic gains go to the top. Four years into
a so-called recovery and were still below recession levels in every important respect except the
stock market. A measly 88,000 jobs were created in March, and total employment remains some 3
million below its pre-recession level. Labor-force participation is its lowest since 1979. The
underlying problem is the vast middle class is running out of money. They cant borrow
more and shouldnt, given what happened after the last borrowing binge. Real annual
median household income keeps falling. Its down to $45,018, from $51,144 in 2010. All the
gains from the recovery continue to go to the top. Widening inequality is not inevitable. If we
wanted to reverse it and restore middle-class prosperity, we could. We could award tax cuts to
companies that link the pay of their hourly workers to profits and productivity, and that keep the
total pay of their top 5 executives within 20 times the pay of their median worker. And impose
higher taxes on companies that dont. We could raise the minimum wage to half the average wage.
We could increase public investment in education, including early-childhood. We could eliminate
college loans and allow all students to repay the cost of their higher education with a 10 percent

surcharge on the first 10 years of income from full-time employment. And we could pay for all this
by adding additional tax brackets at the top and increasing the top marginal tax rate to what it was
before 1981 at least 70 percent.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collapse of the global
economy assisted by speculation and profiteering by financial corporations, click here.

Hacktivists as Gadflies
2013-04-15, New York Times blog
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/hacktivists-as-gadflies
We have had gadflies among us ever since [Socrates], but one contemporary breed in particular
has come in for a rough time of late: the hacktivist. Hacktivists, roughly speaking, are individuals
who redeploy and repurpose technology for social causes. In this sense they are different from
garden-variety hackers out to enrich only themselves. Barrett Brown, a journalist who had
achieved some level of notoriety as the the former unofficial not-spokesman for Anonymous, the
hacktivist group, now sits in federal custody in Texas. Mr. Brown came under the scrutiny of the
authorities when he began poring over documents that had been released in the hack of two
private security companies, HBGary Federal and Stratfor. Mr. Brown did not take part in the hacks,
but he did become obsessed with the contents that emerged from them in particular the
extracted documents showed that private security contractors were being hired by the
United States government to develop strategies for undermining protesters and journalists,
including Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for Salon. Because Stratfor had not encrypted the credit
card information of its clients, the information in the cache included credit card numbers and
validation numbers. Mr. Brown didnt extract the numbers or highlight them; he merely offered a
link to the database. For this he was charged on 12 counts, all of which pertained to credit
card fraud. The charges against him add up to about 100 years in federal prison.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

'Afterlife' feels 'even more real than real,' researcher says

2013-04-09, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/09/health/belgium-near-death-experiences
If your hospital is in Belgium, Dr. Steven Laureys may pay you a visit, interested to hear what you
remember from your NDE, or near-death experience. Laureys heads the Coma Science Group at
the university hospital in the city of Liege. NDEs feel "even more real than real," Laureys said.
Laureys and his team studied the near-death memories of people who survived -- in particular
those of coma patients -- with the help of a psychological examination. The Memory
Characteristics Questionnaire tests for sensory and emotional details of recollections and how
people relive them in space and time. In other words, it gauges how present, intense and real a
memory is. They compared NDEs with other memories of intense real-life events like marriages

and births, but also with memories of dreams and thoughts. Memories of important real-life events
are more intense than those of dreams or thoughts, Laureys said. "If you use this questionnaire ...
if the memory is real, it's richer, and if the memory is recent, it's richer," he said. "To our surprise,
NDEs were much richer than any imagined event or any real event of these coma
survivors," Laureys reported. The memories of these experiences beat all other memories,
hands down, for their vivid sense of reality. "The difference was so vast," he said with a
sense of astonishment. Even if the patient had the experience a long time ago, its memory
was as rich "as though it was yesterday," Laureys said. "Sometimes, it is hard for them (the
patients) to find words to explain it."
Note: For lots more on NDEs, click here. For a treasure trove of great news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference, click here.

UFO film promises proof of pint-size aliens

2013-04-09, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/04/09/ufo-film-promises-proof-pint-size-a...
An upcoming documentary film about UFOs claims it will offer evidence of aliens, including cuttingedge scientific analysis of a recovered body. The film, which premieres April 22, is titled "Sirius"
and showcases the claims of Steven Greer, a prominent UFO researcher who has dedicated years
of his life and a small fortune to proving that the U.S. government is actively covering up hard
evidence of extraterrestrial life. The project has taken several years, and money to fund it was
raised from donors and UFO buffs. In an urgent, breaking news update to the crowdfunding
project, Greer [said]: "There is a chance that we may be able to include in the film Sirius the
scientific testing of a possible Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (EBE) that has been recovered and
is deceased. I have ... personally and professionally examined the being. It is indeed an
actual deceased body, and most certainly is not plastic or man-made. It has a head, 2 arms
and 2 legs and is humanoid. We have seen and examined X-Rays of the being. Its anatomy
however is not homo sapien (modern human) or any known hominid (predecessors to
humans)." Maybe all the questions will be answered when the film premieres, and scientists will
finally have the potentially explosive and world-changing evidence they need to confirm
extraterrestrial life. Or not.
Note: For photos and a more balanced Huffington Post article on this intriguing topic, click here.
For lots more intriguing information on this and a second, similar alien discovery by researcher
David Wilcock, click here.

The Five Most Outrageous Facts About Our Broken Voting System
2013-04-09, Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-five-most-outrageous-facts-abou...

So you think the American electoral system is broken? New research out of MIT lays bare just how
bad it really is. Here are the five most outrageous facts from "Waiting to Vote," a forthcoming paper
by Charles Stewart III for the Journal of Law and Politics, on long lines in the 2012 election. 1.
African-American voters wait in line nearly twice as long as white voters. "Viewed nationally,
African-Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote, compared to 12 minutes for whites."
2. Hispanic voters wait in line one-and-a-half times as long as white voters. "Hispanics waited 19
minutes" again, compared to a 12-minute wait for whites. 3. Democrats wait in line 45 percent
longer than ... Republicans. "Strong Democrats waited an average of 16 minutes, compared
to an average of 11 minutes for strong Republicans." 4. Voting in Florida remains a [disgrace]
even compared to other big states. "Waiting times varied tremendously across the states in
2012, ranging from less than two minutes in Vermont to 39 minutes in Florida. 5. The federal
Election Assistance Commission is on its last legs. It is supposed to have four commissioners. It
currently has four vacancies."It is for answering questions such as this how to shorten lines in
urban areas and a few states where they exist statewide that the Election Assistance
Commission was created. Unfortunately, the EAC has become a 'zombie commission,' without
commissioners and therefore without a clear agenda."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on electoral fraud, click here.

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime

2013-04-07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/taping-of-farm-cruelty-is-becoming-the-c...
On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with
chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets
into the air. And at one of the countrys largest egg suppliers, a video shows hens caged alongside
rotting bird corpses, while workers burn and snap off the beaks of young chicks. Each video ...
drew a swift response: Federal prosecutors in Tennessee charged the horse trainer and other
workers, who have pleaded guilty, with violating the Horse Protection Act. Local authorities in
Wyoming charged nine farm employees with cruelty to animals. And the egg supplier, which
operates in Iowa and other states, lost one of its biggest customers, McDonalds, which said the
video played a part in its decision. But a dozen or so state legislatures have had a different
reaction: They proposed or enacted bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock
farms, or apply for a job at one without disclosing ties to animal rights groups. They have also
drafted measures to require such videos to be given to the authorities almost immediately, which
activists say would thwart any meaningful undercover investigation of large factory farms. Critics
call them Ag-Gag bills. Some of the legislation appears inspired by the American Legislative
Exchange Council, a business advocacy group with hundreds of state representatives from
farm states as members. One of the groups model bills, The Animal and Ecological
Terrorism Act, prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to defame the
facility or its owner. Violators would be placed on a terrorist registry.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts

2013-04-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-ac...
Even people used to the closeness of the US administration and food giants like Monsanto have
been shocked by the latest demonstration of the GM industry's political muscle. Little-noticed in
Europe or outside the US, President Barack Obama last week signed off what has become widely
known as "the Monsanto Protection Act", technically the Farmer Assurance Provision rider in HR
933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2013. According to an array of food
and consumer groups, organic farmers, civil liberty and trade unions and others, this hijacks the
constitution, sets a legal precedent and puts Monsanto and other biotech companies above
the federal courts. It means, they say, that not even the US government can now stop the
sale, planting, harvest or distribution of any GM seed, even if it is linked to illness or
environmental problems. The backlash has been furious. A Food Democracy Now petition has
attracted 250,000 names. The only good news, say the opponents, is that because the "Monsanto
Protection Act" was part of the much wider spending bill, it will formally expire in September. The
bad news however is that the precedent has been set and it is unlikely that the world's largest
seed company and the main driver of the divisive GM technology will ever agree to give up its new
legal protection. The company, in effect, now rules.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the harm caused by
GMOs, click here.

Road to tax havens is paved with potholes

2013-04-02, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Road-to-tax-havens-is-pa...
Our government must act to close the loopholes that allow companies and wealthy individuals to
get out of paying their taxes - in particular, loopholes allowing them to move profits offshore to
avoid taxation. The U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) ... released a study outlining how
in California alone, an estimated $7.1 billion in potential tax revenue for 2011 was lost because
companies and individuals shifted profits to subsidiary shell companies in tax havens. Often
described as "sunny places for shady people," tax havens aren't usually associated with mundane
issues like potholes - or with cuts to programs for seniors; freezes in funding for public education ...
or cancellation of emergency services. Yet the PIRG study, which concludes that the United
States is losing about $150 billion in tax revenue annually, shows once again how tax havens
and shortfalls in government budgets are directly related. Despite the obvious damage to society,
shifting profits offshore is, in most cases, perfectly legal. In fact, tax haven use by big companies

is so common that a 2008 Government Accountability Office Report found 83 of the Fortune
100 companies in the United States had subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. Just because
something is legal does not mean that it is right.
Note: For a powerfully revealing documentary showing how huge corporations park profits
offshore to avoid taxes, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
on corporate corruption, click here.

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

2013-03-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/29/domestic-drones-unique-da...
The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly, both in terms of
numbers and types of usage. As a result, civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU ... have
been devoting increasing efforts to publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory
limits. The belief that weaponized drones won't be used on US soil is patently irrational. Police
departments are already speaking openly about how their drones "could be equipped to carry
nonlethal weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun." The drone industry has already developed
and is now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law
enforcement use. Domestic weaponized drones will be much smaller and cheaper, as well as more
agile - but just as lethal [as the large missile-firing drones used by the US military overseas]. The
nation's leading manufacturer of small "unmanned aircraft systems" (UAS) ... is AeroVironment,
Inc. (AV). AV is now focused on drone products - such as the "Qube" - that are so small that they
can be "transported in the trunk of a police vehicle or carried in a backpack." AV's website ... touts
a February, 2013 Defense News article describing how much the US Army loves [its]
"Switchblade" [drone]. Time Magazine heralded this tiny drone weapon as "one of the best
inventions of 2012", gushing: "the Switchblade drone can be carried into battle in a
backpack. It's a kamikaze: the person controlling it uses a real-time video feed from the
drone to crash it into a precise target. Its tiny warhead detonates on impact."
Note: This important article also discusses drones used by government agencies such as police
for purposes of continuous surveillance. But it misses entirely another major dimension: privately
owned and controlled drones, which are becoming dirt cheap and within the reach of virtually
anyone. Will the new "DroneWorld" in the making combine the worst features of the Police State
with the Wild West?

FBI's 'flying saucers' online memo intrigues public

2013-03-28, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/28/us/fbi-flying-saucers-memo

Out of all the case files made public by the FBI online, the most popular is a memo from 1950 titled
"FLYING SAUCERS," the agency said this week. The mysterious report from Guy Hottel, special
agent in charge in Washington, begins with this: "An investigator for the Air Force stated that three
so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being
circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was
occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall." The name of the source is
blacked out. Over a million people have looked at the sensational memo online. The account goes
on to say that the bodies were "dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was
bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots." Although
the file was first released in the 1970s, it was posted online in 2011 as part of the Vault. The
London tabloid The Sun said the memo appeared to back the claim that extraterrestrials landed in
Roswell, New Mexico. But in a new commentary posted this week, the FBI said that since this
memo was dated three years after the supposed Roswell landing, "there is no reason to believe
the two are connected." The memo is part of a cache of hundreds of pages of accounts under the
heading "Unexplained Phenomenon," describing claims of UFO sightings, spacecraft debris and
alien landings.
Note: For a copy of this declassified document, click here. For more on UFOs, see our deeply
revealing UFO Information Center available here.

The corporate predator state

2013-03-26, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-corporate-pr...
Bipartisan agreement in Washington usually means citizens should hold on to their wallets or get
ready for another threat to peace. Beneath all the partisan bickering, bipartisan majorities are
solid for a trade policy run by and for multinationals, a health-care system serving
insurance and drug companies, an energy policy for Big Oil and King Coal, and finance
favoring banks that are too big to fail. Economist James Galbraith calls this the predator
state, one in which large corporate interests rig the rules to protect their subsidies, tax dodges
and monopolies. This isnt the free market; its a rigged market. Wall Street is a classic example.
The attorney general announces that some banks are too big to prosecute. Despite what the FBI
called an epidemic of fraud, not one head of a big bank has gone to jail or paid a major personal
fine. Bloomberg News estimated that the subsidy they are provided by being too big to fail adds up
to an estimated $83 billion a year. Corporate welfare is, of course, offensive to progressives. But
true conservatives are or should be offended by corporate welfare as well. Conservative
economists Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales argue that it is time to save capitalism from the
capitalists, urging conservatives to support strong measures to break up monopolies, cartels and
the predatory use of political power to distort competition. Here is where left and right meet, not in
a bipartisan big-money fix, but in an odd bedfellows campaign to clean out Washington. For that to
happen, small businesses and community banks will have to develop an independent voice in our
politics.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between the
US government and corrupt financial corporations, click here.

Top Pentagon thinker bemoans civilian subjugation to the military.

2013-03-26, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/blogs/war-and-peace/2013/03/26/top-pentagon-...
Blistering charges of misplaced power and a morally bankrupt culture in the nations militaryindustrial complex are rarely leveled by one of the defense establishments own. But that is
exactly what ... Gregory D. Foster, a former Army officer and West Point graduate who now
teaches national security studies at the National Defense University in Washington [did] when he
went after the top brass, political leaders, and defense company executives [at a recent defense
budget conference]. He accused them of allowing the nearly sacrosanct principle of civilian
control of the militaryan early building block of American democracyto be turned on its
head. How? By virtually never questioning the key assumptions of military planning and
allowing a largely unchecked, destructive and highly militarized foreign policy to pose as a
properly subordinated military industrial complex. [Foster said] This is what I call civilian
subjugation to the military. We face it in this administration, we faced it in the Clinton
administration...we faced it in the Bush administration. It all makes for a national security
establishment, in Fosters view, that perpetuates an approach to the world that is overly
confrontational, lacks critical thinking about long term objectives, and even undercuts the strategic
aims of democracy. For example, he said the accepted orthodoxy of never-ending global threats
and the necessity to confront them militarily makes it nearly impossible to fashion a national
security strategy that puts real security, crisis prevention, and the preservation of civil society
ahead of institutional bias and private profit.
Note: For a penetrating analysis by a great general of the real purposes served by continuous war,
click here.

Hot Money Blues

2013-03-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/opinion/krugman-hot-money-blues.html
Whatever the final outcome in the Cyprus crisis ... the island nation will have to maintain fairly
draconian controls on the movement of capital in and out of the country. It will mark the end of an
era for Cyprus, which has in effect spent the past decade advertising itself as a place where
wealthy individuals who want to avoid taxes and scrutiny can safely park their money, no questions
asked. But it may also mark at least the beginning of the end for something much bigger: the era
when unrestricted movement of capital was taken as a desirable norm around the world. [With] the
rise of free-market ideology, the assumption [is] that if financial markets want to move money
across borders, there must be a good reason, and bureaucrats shouldnt stand in their way. But
the truth, hard as it may be for ideologues to accept, is that unrestricted movement of

capital is looking more and more like a failed experiment. Its hard to imagine now, but for
more than three decades after World War II financial crises of the kind weve lately become
so familiar with hardly ever happened. Since 1980, however, the roster has been impressive:
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile in 1982. Sweden and Finland in 1991. Mexico again in 1995.
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea in 1998. Argentina again in 2002. And, of course, the
more recent run of disasters: Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cyprus. The best
predictor of crisis is large inflows of foreign money: in all but a couple of the cases ... the
foundation for crisis was laid by a rush of foreign investors into a country, followed by a sudden
rush out.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between the
US government and corrupt financial corporations, click here.

FOIA Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch Reveal 200 Claims Filed

With HHS for HPV Vaccine Injuries and Deaths, 49 Compensated
2013-03-20, MarketWatch (a Wall Street Journal Website)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/foia-documents-obtained-by-judicial-watch-re...
Documents reveal that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid
out nearly $6 million in claims to victims of HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine, including
families of two dead. Judicial Watch announced today that it has received documents from the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing that its VICP has awarded $5,877,710
dollars to 49 victims in claims made against the highly controversial HPV vaccines. To date 200
claims have been filed with VICP, with barely half adjudicated. The documents came in response
to a February 28, 2013, Judicial Watch lawsuit against HHS to force the department to comply with
a November 1, 2012, Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. From its
inception, the use of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases has
been hotly disputed. According to the Annals of Medicine: "At present there are no significant data
showing that either Gardasil or Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) can prevent any type of cervical cancer
since the testing period employed was too short to evaluate long-term benefits of HPV
vaccination." "This new information from the government shows that the serious safety
concerns about the use of Gardasil have been well-founded," said Judicial Watch President
Tom Fitton. "Public health officials should stop pushing Gardasil on children."
Note: For lots more on the risks and dangers of this vaccine being promoted by big pharma, click
here.

UN: Pakistan 'does not sanction' US drone strikes

2013-03-15, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21803391

The head of a UN team investigating US drone strikes in Pakistan has said that Islamabad does
not consent to them and sees them as a territorial violation. American officials say privately that
co-operation with Pakistan has not ended altogether - despite a cooling of relations - and key
Pakistani military officers and civilian politicians continue to support the strikes. It is estimated that
between 2004 and 2013, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan killed up to 3,460 people. About 890 of
them were civilians and the vast majority of strikes were carried out under the President Barack
Obama's administration. "The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear," Mr Emmerson
said on Friday. "It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it
considers this to be a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity." The drone
campaign "involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent",
he said. Furthermore Pakistan believes that drone strikes are radicalising a new generation
of militants, he said, when it was capable of fighting Islamist extremists in the country by itself.
The UN special rapporteur said that as a matter of international law, drone strikes were only lawful
if they took place at the express request of the country concerned.
Note: Why are these drone strikes allowed to continue when Pakistan clear opposes them and
when there is not doubt many civilians are killed? For deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources on government corruption, click here.

Japans Energy Board Meets After Dropping Anti-Nuclear Members

2013-03-14, Washington Post/Bloomberg
http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-MJN96O6JIJXS01-037KLNTCSC52QTP...
Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party has removed most anti-nuclear researchers from a
revamped post-Fukushima energy policy advisory board to the government. After a landslide
victory in a December election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the previous administrations
policy to abandon atomic power needs to be reviewed. Six of eight members that voted for phasing
out nuclear power on the board advising the previous government have been dropped from the
LDP panel. Another ten members were reappointed, including Akio Mimura, an adviser for Nippon
Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., as chairman. He headed an energy advisory board under a
previous LDP government that promoted nuclear power. Its wrong to let the same man who
led discussions on pre-Fukushima energy policy be in charge, said Tetsunari Iida, the
executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. Iida was one of those
dropped from the advisory board. In September, the government led by the Democratic Party of
Japan approved phasing out nuclear power by the end of the 2030s. Around 160,000 people were
evacuated because of radiation fallout. Three options were considered for the countrys future
energy supply: Zero nuclear, 15 percent nuclear, and 20 percent to 25 percent. A government poll
in August found 47 percent of citizens favored zero, with the remainder split on the other choices.
The LDP wants to avoid the zero nuclear scenario at all costs and is looking for a point of
compromise between 15 percent and 20 percent nuclear, said Hiroshi Takahashi, a research
fellow at Fujitsu Research Institute.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the grave dangers posed
by nuclear power, click here.

British Oversight Unit Says Police Failed to Pursue Sex Accusations

Against Savile
2013-03-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/europe/british-report-says-police-fai...
Police failures over five decades allowed Jimmy Savile, one of Britains best-known television
personalities, to escape investigation for a lifetime of sex offenses dating back to the early 1960s.
[A] report detailed poor police procedures, missed opportunities and an unwillingness to pursue
accusations against one of the countrys biggest celebrities, whose renown also inhibited victims
from coming forward. According to Tuesdays report by Her Majestys Inspectorate of
Constabulary, which reviews police forces and policing in England and Wales and answers to
Parliament, the police were first alerted to accusations of sex crimes by Mr. Savile in
Cheshire in 1963. On that occasion, a male reported to a local police officer that Mr. Savile
had raped him the day before, but was told to forget about it and move on, and no
official crime report was made or investigation undertaken, the inspectorates report said.
During Mr. Saviles lifetime, the inspectorate found, the police recorded five accusations of criminal
conduct and two further pieces of intelligence about his behavior; the earliest of these formal
entries in the records dated from 1964. We have not found evidence to suggest that any
investigation was carried out as a result of that intelligence, the document said. Since Mr. Saviles
death in 2011, more than 600 people have come forward with information about him, including 450
who have made specific accusations.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Fukushima And The Navy: Sailors Sue Japan Nuclear Plant Owner,
Saying Disaster Made Them Sick
2013-03-11, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/fukushima-navy-health-problems_n_285...
Within weeks of setting off a geiger counter and scrubbing three layers of skin off his hands and
arms, former Navy quartermaster Maurice Enis recalled being pressured to sign away U.S.
government liability for any future health problems. Enis and about 5,000 fellow sailors aboard the
USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had finally left Japan, after 80-some days aiding victims of
the March 11, 2011, Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and were about to take a longawaited port call in Thailand. But first, they were told they needed to fill out some
paperwork. "They had us [to] sign off that we were medically fine, had no sickness, and that
we couldn't sue the U.S. government," Enis [says], recalling widespread anger among the

sailors who ... felt they had little choice. [On] the [second] anniversary of the Fukushima disaster,
Enis joined a lawsuit with more than 100 other service members who participated in the rescue
mission and who have since developed medical issues they contend are related to radioactive
fallout from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Rather than targeting the U.S.
government, the federal lawsuit names plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. the defendant.
TEPCO, as the company is known, provided false information to U.S. officials about the extent of
spreading radiation from its stricken reactors, according to Roger Witherspoon on his blog Energy
Matters.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing nuclear power news articles
from reliable major media sources.

Above the law

2013-03-11, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-above-the-law/20...
The government of the United States, wrote Chief Justice John Marshall in his famous decision in
Marbury v. Madison, has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. This
principle grounded in the Constitution, enforced by an independent judiciary is central to the
American creed. Citizens have rights, and fundamental to these is due process of the law. Yet last
week Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking for the administration with an alarmingly casual
nonchalance, traduced the whole notion of a nation of laws. First, the attorney general responded
to Sen. Rand Pauls inquiry as to whether the president claimed the power to authorize a lethal
force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil and without trial. Holder wrote
that, speaking hypothetically, it is possible to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which that
power might become necessary and appropriate. In response to the growing furor, Holder sent
Paul another letter, stating clearly that the president has no authority to use a weaponized drone
against an American in the United States who is not engaged in combat. But that, of course, only
underscores the issue. The country is waging a war on terrorism that admits no boundary
and no end. Now Holder is saying that the president has the authority to kill Americans in
the United States if they are engaged in combat. No hearing, no review, no due process of
law.
Note: For a disturbing report on the massive expansion of drones over US skies, click here.

Realities Behind Prosecuting Big Banks

2013-03-11, New York Times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/big-banks-go-wrong-but-pay-a-little-pr...
Are banks too big to jail? If there was any doubt about the answer to that question, Eric H. Holder
Jr., the nations attorney general, last week blurted out what weve all known to be true but few
inside the Obama administration have said aloud: Yes, they are. I am concerned that the size of

some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them
when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute if we do bring a criminal charge it will
have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy, Mr. Holder
told the Senate Judiciary Committee. I think that is a function of the fact that some of these
institutions have become too large. Mr. Holder continued, acknowledging that the size of banks
has an inhibiting influence. To put this in the proper perspective, Mr. Holder said, for the first
time, that he has not pursued prosecutions of big banks out of fear that an indictment could
jeopardize the financial system. Does this mean that our banks are still too big to fail?
Should we prosecute corporations? Should the size of an institution or its systemic
importance influence the decision of prosecutors? It has been almost five years since the
financial crisis, but the big banks are still too big to fail, [Senator Elizabeth] Warren, a Democrat,
said in a statement. Attorney General Holders testimony that the biggest banks are too-big-to-jail
shows once again that it is past time to end too-big-to-fail.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the collusion between
government and finance, click here.

Living With Less. A Lot Less.

2013-03-10, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less....
I live in a 420-square-foot studio. I sleep in a bed that folds down from the wall. I have six dress
shirts. I have 10 shallow bowls that I use for salads and main dishes. When people come over for
dinner, I pull out my extendable dining room table. I dont have a single CD or DVD and I have 10
percent of the books I once did. I have come a long way from the life I had in the late 90s, when ...
I had a giant house crammed with stuff electronics and cars and appliances and gadgets.
Somehow this stuff ended up running my life, or a lot of it; the things I consumed ended up
consuming me. We live in a world of surfeit stuff. There isnt any indication that any of
these things makes anyone any happier; in fact it seems the reverse may be true. In a study
published last year titled Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century, researchers at U.C.L.A.
observed 32 middle-class Los Angeles families and found that all of the mothers stress hormones
spiked during the time they spent dealing with their belongings. Our fondness for stuff affects
almost every aspect of our lives. Housing size, for example, has ballooned in the last 60 years.
The average size of a new American home in 1950 was 983 square feet; by 2011, the average
new home was 2,480 square feet. And those figures dont provide a full picture. In 1950, an
average of 3.37 people lived in each American home; in 2011, that number had shrunk to 2.6
people. This means that we take up more than three times the amount of space per capita than we
did 60 years ago. Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isnt stuff at all, and that
relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Zach Sobiech, 17, Inspires Millions in Cancer Fight With Farewell Song
2013-03-07, People Magazine
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20679770,00.html
After doctors told cancer patient Zach Sobiech, 17, he only had a year to live, the Minnesota high
school senior turned to music and inspired millions. His emotional farewell song, "Clouds" was
posted on YouTube ... and went viral with over [nine] million views and climbing, [and] created
interest from music industry insiders. "I didn't make 'Clouds' to get famous," says Zach, who now
has a songwriting contract from BMI, performed two concerts and just completed a new album
titled Fix Me Up with his duo group A Firm Handshake, with singer and best friend Sammy Brown.
"It's pretty crazy now but it's worth it." Back in 2009, then-14-year-old Zach, the third of four
children, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a kind of bone cancer. Despite countless surgeries
and rounds of radiation, the cancer continued to spread. Last May, doctors gave a grim prognosis:
Zach had up to a year to live. "We're approaching that year mark," says Zach, whose high school
class graduates in June. "It's scary to think about, but the key is to not feel bad for yourself." Zach
is using his remaining time and newfound fame to raise awareness and money for kids
suffering from his rare form of cancer, teaming with the Children's Cancer Research Fund
to launch the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund. He's already raised almost $80,000 to help
fund research into a cure. "My [type of] cancer hardly gets any funding," says Zach. "Our goal is
to give other kids with osteosarcoma a chance." Though Zach has good days and bad, his mother
says he's doing his best to live each day to its fullest.
Note: For a most beautiful and touching 22 minute video showing how Zach Sobiech faced his
impending death by living life to its absolute fullest, click here. For a treasure trove of great news
articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Rand Paul filibusters vote on CIA director nominee John Brennan over
drones
2013-03-06, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57572883/rand-paul-filibusters-vote-on-ci...
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to be director of the CIA,
delivering a protracted speech on the Senate floor in protest of the Obama administration's
controversial drone program, of which Brennan has been a key architect. Paul, speaking during
the debate surrounding Brennan's nomination on the Senate floor, said he would "speak until I can
no longer speak" in order to get his point across. "I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is
sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are
precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being
charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court," he said. Yesterday,
Attorney General Eric Holder clarified to Paul in a letter that the U.S. drone policy does
authorize the use of military force on against Americans on U.S. soil in cases of
"extraordinary circumstance." Paul, a longstanding opponent of the administration's
controversial targeted killing policy, expressed his outrage in a statement following his receipt of

the letter and continued that tirade on the floor today. "That Americans could be killed in a cafe in
San Francisco or in a restaurant in Houston or at their home in bowling green, Kentucky, is an
abomination," Paul said. "I object to people becoming so fearful they gradually give up their rights."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the loss of civil liberties in
the US, click here.

Argentina opens trial over Operation Condor, the 1970s plan to

eliminate leftists
2013-03-05, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/argentina-opens-trial-over-o...
Argentina began a long-awaited human rights trial [on March 5] focused on Operation Condor, the
1970s conspiracy launched by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to enlist South Americas
dictators in a combined effort to leave no refuge for their leftist critics. The 25 defendants include
former Argentine junta leaders Rafael Videla, 87, and Reynaldo Bignone, 85, both already serving
life sentences for multiple human rights violations during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. This time, the
charges include criminal association, kidnapping and torture. Also on trial is a former Uruguayan
army colonel, Manuel Cordero, who allegedly tortured prisoners inside Automotores Orletti, the
Buenos Aires repair shop where many captured leftists were taken to be interrogated under orders
from their home countries. More than 400 witnesses are expected to be called in the two-year trial,
which involves 106 victims from at least four countries who were killed in Argentina. A key piece
of evidence is a declassified FBI agents cable, sent in 1976, that described in detail the
conspiracy to share intelligence and eliminate leftists across South America. The actual
conspiracy went further than that: the U.S. government later determined that Chilean
agents involved in Condor killed the countrys former ambassador Orlando Letelier and his
U.S. aide Ronni Moffitt in Washington, D.C., in September 1976. Operation Condor grew to include
the military governments of six countries: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on US intelligence
operations, click here.

Its time to tax financial transactions

2013-03-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-its-time-to-tax-...
On Friday at midnight, the sequester kicked in, triggering $85 billion in deep, dumb budget cuts
that sent nonessential personnel such as air traffic controllers packing. Not to worry, though:
Wall Streets day was pretty much like any other. Billions of dollars in profits were made off of
trillions of dollars in financial transactions. And the vast majority of those transactions were
conducted tax-free. We dont need a team of policymakers to tell us this isnt good policy, or that it
needs changing. Policymakers propose exactly that: a change. Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), along with Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.), unveiled a bill that would
place a light tax on all financial transactions three pennies on every $100 traded. Its so small,
Wall Street could easily afford it and the average E-Trade investor would barely notice it. This
insignificant tax raises a significant amount of revenue $352 billion over the next 10 years, or
enough to refund about one-third of what the sequester will slash from the federal budget. The
high-frequency traders that now dominate our markets would be hardest-hit by the tax.
Analysts fear that such mass trading strategies could lead to disaster if markets behave
unexpectedly. The new tax would discourage these kinds of trades, which would be a good
thing. Europe, at least, seems to agree. Eleven nations, led by the conservative German
government, are on track to start collecting the tax by January 2014. Expected revenues: $50
billion per year.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking

2013-03-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/sunday-review/the-holocaust-just-got-more-s...
Researchers have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe,
spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitlers reign
of brutality from 1933 to 1945. The documented camps include not only killing centers but
also thousands of forced labor camps, where prisoners manufactured war supplies; prisoner-ofwar camps; sites euphemistically named care centers, where pregnant women were forced to
have abortions or their babies were killed after birth; and brothels, where women were coerced into
having sex with German military personnel. Auschwitz and a handful of other concentration camps
have come to symbolize the Nazi killing machine in the public consciousness. Likewise, the Nazi
system for imprisoning Jewish families in hometown ghettos has become associated with a single
site the Warsaw Ghetto, famous for the 1943 uprising. But these sites, infamous though they
are, represent only a minuscule fraction of the entire German network, the new research makes
painfully clear. The maps the researchers have created to identify the camps and ghettos turn wide
sections of wartime Europe into black clusters of death, torture and slavery centered in
Germany and Poland, but reaching in all directions. The lead editors on the project, Geoffrey
Megargee and Martin Dean, estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were
imprisoned in the sites that they have identified as part of a multivolume encyclopedia.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on crimes committed in wars
of aggression, click here.

Bradley Manning: the face of heroism

2013-02-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/28/bradley-manning-heroism-p...

If Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then he is a consummate hero, and deserves
a medal and our collective gratitude, not decades in prison. At his court-martial proceeding [today]
in Fort Meade, Manning ... pleaded guilty to having been the source of the most significant leaks to
WikiLeaks. He also pleaded not guilty to 12 of the 22 counts, including the most serious - the
capital offense of "aiding and abetting the enemy", which could send him to prison for life - on the
ground that nothing he did was intended to nor did it result in harm to US national security. The US
government will now almost certainly proceed with its attempt to prosecute him on those remaining
counts. Spencer Ackerman was there and reported: "Manning's motivation in leaking, he said,
was to 'spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and foreign policy in general', he
said, and 'cause society to reevaluate the need and even desire to engage in counterterrorism and
counterinsurgency operations that ignore their effect on people who live in that environment every
day.' Manning is absolutely right when he said today that the documents he leaked "are some of
the most significant documents of our time". They revealed a multitude of previously secret
crimes and acts of deceit and corruption by the world's most powerful factions. Journalists
and even some government officials have repeatedly concluded that any actual national security
harm from his leaks is minimal if it exists at all. To this day, the documents Manning just admitted
having leaked play a prominent role in the ability of journalists around the world to inform their
readers about vital events.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on crimes committed in wars
of aggression, click here.

How the Bush administration sold the war and we bought it

2013-02-27, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/27/bush-administration-sold-...
It has been 10 long years since "Shock and Awe" the opening bombardment of Baghdad lit up
the skies above the Tigris. Have we learned the lessons of that disastrous period? And what were
those lessons? For nearly a year prior to the invasion, President Bush and his administration
peppered the airwaves with serious accusations against Saddam Hussein. The intelligence
supporting the claims was either not believed, or was highly disputed, by the experts. As a covert
CIA operations officer working frantically in the months before the war to find and verify hard
intelligence about Iraq's presumed WMD program, Valerie [Plame] was keenly interested in
watching Secretary of State Colin Powell address the United Nations on 6 February 2003. As [she]
watched the speech unfold on TV from CIA headquarters that morning, she experienced what can
only be described as "cognitive dissonance". It became clear, as Powell laid out the case for war ...
that his robust claims about the state of Iraqi WMD simply did not match the intelligence which she
had worked on daily for months. Powell's claim from a discredited defector code-named
"Curveball" on Iraq's biological weapons capability was particularly alarming. Valerie knew that
"Curveball" had been deemed a "fabricator" by the agency, meaning that none of his
intelligence could be believed. The implications suddenly become obvious: we were

watching a kabuki play and the outcome was predetermined. The Bush administration was
determined to go to war, however bad the intelligence, and not even Secretary of State
Powell was going to stand in the way.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on crimes committed in wars
of aggression, click here.

Attacked at 19 by an Air Force Trainer, and Speaking Out

2013-02-27, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/us/former-air-force-recruit-speaks-out-abou...
After her Air Force training instructor raped Virginia Messick, a young recruit, he told her it was fun
and they should do it again, she remembers. Then he threw her clothes at her and ordered her to
take a shower. Ms. Messick was unable to move, cry or scream. She was a 19-year-old from rural
Florida, in her fifth week of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, and she had just been
assaulted by the man the Air Force had entrusted with her life. After the April 2011 attack, Ms.
Messick completed basic training, following orders from the instructor for nearly a month more.
Afraid of the consequences, she did not tell anyone what he had done. How am I supposed
to go about reporting something, asked Ms. Messick, when the person Im supposed to
report to is the person who raped me? Now, after leaving the Air Force, Ms. Messick is the first
victim of a still-unfolding sexual assault scandal at Lackland to speak publicly about what she has
endured. Since accounts of sexual violence at the base began to surface in late 2011, it has
emerged as the largest such episode in Air Force history. Ms. Messick, now 21, is one of 62
trainees identified as victims of assault or other improper conduct by 32 training instructors
between 2009 and 2012 at Lackland, a sprawling base outside San Antonio that serves as the Air
Forces basic training center for enlisted personnel. So far, seven Air Force instructors have
been court-martialed, including Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, now serving a 20-year sentence for crimes
involving 10 women, including Ms. Messick.
Note: To read a Reuters news report on the pervasive "invisible war" of rape in the U.S. military,
click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click
here.

At the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a Steady Drip of Toxic Trouble

2013-02-24, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/24/at-the-hanford-nuclear-reser...
This month, the Department of Energy announced that a tank at the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation in Washington state is leaking up to 300 gallons of radioactive waste a year.
Nuclear sludge left over from Cold War plutonium production is drip-drip-dripping into
American soil, infiltrating the groundwater, slowly making its way into our rivers. The leak is
just another in a long line of mild disasters at Americas most contaminated nuclear-waste site, a

radioactive drop in the already-polluted Columbia River. Hanford is the worst kind of mess: the kind
that humanity is capable of making, but not capable of cleaning up. It was the home of the worlds
first full-scale plutonium reactor and the epicenter of American nuclear production during the Cold
War. Now the 586-square-mile campus is the subject of the largest environmental cleanup
operation the United States government has ever undertaken. There are other sites in America
with long nuclear historiesplaces like Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Yucca Mountain. But none have
become sprawling disasters with quite as much panache as Hanford. The human and
environmental consequences of Hanford have spread beyond those borders, across Washington
and Oregon. A decade ago a rash of radioactive tumbleweeds blew across the nearby plains. In
the early 1960s, an irradiated whale was killed off the Oregon coast, having apparently been
contaminated by nuclear waste flowing down the Columbia River.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on environmental and health
devastation caused by the nuclear weapons and energy industry, click here.

Obama officials refuse to say if assassination power extends to US soil

2013-02-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/22/obama-brennan-paul-assass...
The Justice Department "white paper" purporting to authorize Obama's power to extrajudicially
execute US citizens was leaked three weeks ago. Since then, the administration - including the
president himself and his nominee to lead the CIA, John Brennan - has been repeatedly asked
whether this authority extends to US soil, i.e., whether the president has the right to execute US
citizens on US soil without charges. In each instance, they have refused to answer. Brennan has
been asked the question several times as part of his confirmation process. Each time, he simply
pretends that the question has not been asked, opting instead to address a completely different
issue. It's really worth pausing to remind ourselves of how truly radical and just plainly
unbelievable this all is. What's more extraordinary: that the US Senate is repeatedly asking
the Obama White House whether the president has the power to secretly order US citizens
on US soil executed without charges or due process, or whether the president and his
administration refuse to answer? That this is the "controversy" surrounding the confirmation of
the CIA director - and it's a very muted controversy at that - shows just how extreme the
degradation of US political culture is.
Note: For a revealing 27-minute documentary on drones which operate in swarms and pose
serious ethical questions in both peace and war, click here.

Monsanto, the court and the seeds of dissent

2013-02-19, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kimbrell-monsanto-suprem...

Should anyone, or any corporation, control a product of life? The journey of a 75-year-old Indiana
farmer to the [Supreme Court] began rather uneventfully. Vernon Hugh Bowman purchased an
undifferentiated mix of soybean seeds from a grain elevator, planted the seeds and then saved
seed from the resulting harvest to replant another crop. Finding that Bowman's crops were largely
the progeny of its genetically engineered proprietary soybean seed, Monsanto sued the farmer for
patent infringement. The case [Bowman vs. Monsanto Co.] is a remarkable reflection on recent
fundamental changes in farming. In the 200-plus years since the founding of this country, and for
millenniums before that, seeds have been part of the public domain available for farmers to
exchange, save, modify through plant breeding and replant. Through this process, farmers
developed a diverse array of plants that could thrive in various geographies, soils, climates
and ecosystems. But today this history of seeds is seemingly forgotten in light of a patent
system that, since the mid-1980s, has allowed corporations to own products of life.
Although Monsanto and other agrochemical companies assert that they need the current patent
system to invent better seeds, the counterargument is that splicing an already existing gene or
other DNA into a plant and thereby transferring a new trait to that plant is not a novel invention. A
soybean, for example, has more than 46,000 genes. Properties of these genes are the product of
centuries of plant breeding and should not, many argue, become the product of a corporation.
Instead, these genes should remain in the public domain.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the destructive impacts of
genetically modified organisms (GMOs), click here.

Jessica Cox: Pilot born without arms on flying with her feet
2013-02-17, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21377627
Jessica Cox was born without arms as a result of a rare birth defect. That has not stopped
her from living her life to the fullest. In fact, Ms Cox has experienced and achieved more
than most people do in a lifetime. She can drive a car, fly a plane and play piano - all with her
feet. In 2012 she married Patrick, her former Taekwondo instructor (she has two black belts). They
live in Tucson, Arizona. Ms Cox, 30, travels around the world as a motivational speaker, using her
own life as an example of what one can achieve if one wants it enough. This month she visits
Ethiopia to help promote disability rights.
Note: Don't miss the inspiring video on the BBC webpage. And for another incredibly inspiring
man born without arms or feet, learn about Nick Vujicic at this link.

India's rice revolution

2013-02-16, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-r...

Sumant Kumar was overjoyed when he harvested his rice last year. Every stalk he cut on his
paddy field near the bank of the Sakri river seemed to weigh heavier than usual, every grain of rice
was bigger and when his crop was weighed on the old village scales, even Kumar was shocked. A
shy young farmer in Nalanda district of India's poorest state Bihar, [Kumar] had using only
farmyard manure and without any herbicides grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on
one hectare of land. This was a world record and with rice the staple food of more than half
the world's population of seven billion, big news. It beat not just the 19.4 tonnes achieved by
the "father of rice", the Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, but the World Bank-funded
scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, and anything achieved by
the biggest European and American seed and GM companies. And it was not just Sumant Kumar.
Krishna, Nitish, Sanjay and Bijay, his friends and rivals in Darveshpura, all recorded over 17
tonnes, and many others in the villages around claimed to have more than doubled their usual
yields. But the Bihar state agricultural universities didn't believe them at first, while India's leading
rice scientists muttered about freak results. The Nalanda farmers were accused of cheating. Only
when the state's head of agriculture, a rice farmer himself, came to the village with his own men
and personally verified Sumant's crop, was the record confirmed.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

The One Billion Rising on the Streets of Delhi

2013-02-15, New York Times
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/the-one-billion-rising-on-the-stree...
On Valentines Day in Delhi, the pink band was ubiquitous, tied around arms, on wrists and
foreheads, around necks and backpacks. Printed on it were the words Enough! No More Violence
Against Women. 'On Thursday evening, as many set out for the customary Valentines Day dinner
in the nations capital, several hundred men, women and children gathered at Parliament Street for
an unorthodox celebration: a movement using music and dance to oppose violence against
women. We dont want violence; we want love, said Kamla Bhasin, the movements South Asia
coordinator, to a cheering crowd of about 500 people. We want a just love, a love based on
equality. In nearly 200 countries around the world, people took to the streets Thursday with a
carnival spirit as part of One Billion Rising, a campaign initiated by Eve Ensler, the author of The
Vagina Monologues, to highlight violence against women. In India, the message mirrored
widespread public sentiment that has swelled after the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old
physiotherapy student in Delhi in December, bringing womens rights and safety to the
center stage of civic and political discourse. The campaign Thursday was a continuation of that
fight. In recent months, young Indians have poured out in angry protests, condemning a police
force that often exists for the preservation of power rather than the protection of people, and a
political class that has routinely displayed apathy.
Note: For a powerful three-minute video on women breaking free, click here. To join the "One
Billion Rising" movement, see their inspiring website here.

Pope will have security, immunity by remaining in the Vatican

2013-02-15, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-pope-resignation-immunity-idUSBR...
Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and
privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with
sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say. "His continued
presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his
immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking
on condition of anonymity. Vatican police, who already know the pope and his habits, will be able
to guarantee his privacy and security and not have to entrust it to a foreign police force, which
would be necessary if he moved to another country. The pope's potential exposure to legal claims
over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals [is a key factor here]. In 2010, for example,
Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal
in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the
deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year. Benedict is currently not named
specifically in any other case. The Vatican does not expect any more but is not ruling out the
possibility. "(If he lived anywhere else) then we might have those crazies who are filing
lawsuits, or some magistrate might arrest him like other (former) heads of state have been
for alleged acts while he was head of state," one source said.
Note: To learn how child sex-abuse rings lead to top levels of leadership around the world, watch
the powerful Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link.

RI Records Show Inner Workings of Legion of Christ

2013-02-15, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ri-ruling-means-release-legion-christ-docs...
Documents detailing the dubious fundraising practices of a disgraced Roman Catholic religious
order called the Legion of Christ were released to the public [on Feb. 15], showing how the
organization took control of an elderly woman's finances and persuaded her to bequeath it $60
million. They shed light on the inner workings of a secretive congregation placed under Vatican
receivership after the Holy See determined that its founder was a spiritual fraud who sexually
abused his seminarians and fathered three children with two women. A Rhode Island Superior
Court judge said last year that the documents raised a red flag because a steadfastly spiritual
elderly woman transferred millions to "clandestinely dubious religious leaders." Pope Benedict XVI
took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that its founder, the late Rev.
Marcial Maciel, had lived a double life. The pope ordered a wholesale reform of the order and
named a papal delegate to oversee it. The Legion scandal is significant because it shows how
the Holy See willfully ignored credible allegations of abuse against Maciel for decades, all
while holding him up as a model of sainthood for the faithful because he brought in money
and vocations to the priesthood. The scandal, which has tarnished the legacy of Pope John

Paul II, is the most egregious example of how the Vatican ignored decades of reports about
sexually abusive priests because church leaders put the interests of the institution above those of
the victims.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sex abuse scandals, click
here.

Ensler's Billion Rising Movement Spans The Globe

2013-02-14, NPR/Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=172025304
Organizers say [there are] thousands of events taking place in 205 countries [on Valentine's Day]
as part of One Billion Rising, an international call led by Eve Ensler's V-Day organization to end
violence against women and girls. Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, announced the
campaign last year, urging women and men around the world to walk out of work or school on Feb.
14, 2013, and dance to raise awareness of the troubling U.N. statistic that one in three women
worldwide will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. "It's happening, and what we're seeing is
really huge uprisings," Ensler said ... in a telephone interview from Congo. "It's amazing
because it goes from huge events like in Collins Square in London to six girls in a living
room in Iran. That's what's so beautiful about it, like the whole world's doing it in the way
they can do it." "The UN has officially endorsed it, and I think unprecedentedly they, at 12:30
today, stopped their work and had a rising at the UN," Ensler said. "The pressure of One Billion
Rising is forcing these people to have to say they're going to do something about it," she said.
Scheduled stateside events included flash mobs in San Francisco, a Zumba dance party with Jane
Fonda in Los Angeles, a special program at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom featuring Rosario
Dawson and Glenn Close, and a rally led by Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice A. King on
the sunny streets of Atlanta. The outpouring of participation surpassed even Ensler's hopeful
dreams.
Note: For a powerful three-minute video on women breaking free, click here. To join the "One
Billion Rising" movement, see their inspiring website here.

Senator Elizabeth Warren grills regulators, ending quiet first month in

office
2013-02-14, Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2013/02/14/senator-elizabeth-warr...
After campaigning last year as an outspoken consumer advocate and Wall Street critic, Senator
Elizabeth Warren was surprisingly quiet during her first month on Capitol Hill. But that changed on
[Feb. 14] at the Massachusetts senior senators first hearing, when she rebuked federal regulators
for settling civil cases with big banks instead of taking them to trial. Looking at the seven regulators
arrayed before the Senate Banking Committee, and noting that she had often sat at the same

witness table before becoming a senator, she used her new power to question why the federal
government has not been more aggressive. The question I really want to ask is about how tough
you are about how much leverage you really have, Warren said. Tell me a little bit about the
last few times youve taken the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street all the way to trial.
None of the witnesses representing the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission and others offered a response. Warren seized the hearing to
chide regulators for not taking legal stands against Wall Street, saying that the threat of trial
is an important tool in keeping big banks in line, despite the vast resources required to do
so. If a party is unwilling to go to trial either because theyre too timid or they lack
resources the consequence is they have a lot less leverage, Warren said. If [banks] can
break the law and drag in billions in profits and then turn around and settle paying out of those
profits, they dont have that much incentive to follow the law.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the corrupt regulation of
financial activities, click here.

Bhutan set to plough lone furrow as world's first wholly organic country
2013-02-11, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/feb/11/bhu...
Bhutan plans to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic,
banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for
fertilisers. But rather than accept that this will mean farmers of the small Himalayan kingdom of
around 1.2m people ... will be able to grow less food, the government expects them to be able to
grow more and to export increasing amounts of high quality niche foods to neighbouring India,
China and other countries. The decision to go organic was both practical and philosophical, said
[Pema Gyamtsho, Bhutan's minister of agriculture and forests]. "Ours is a mountainous terrain.
When we use chemicals they don't stay where we use them, they impact the water and plants. We
say that we need to consider all the environment. Most of our farm practices are traditional
farming, so we are largely organic anyway. But we are Buddhists, too, and we believe in
living in harmony with nature. Animals have the right to live, we like to to see plants happy
and insects happy," he said. Gyamtsho, like most members of the cabinet, is a farmer himself,
coming from Bumthang in central Bhutan but studying western farming methods in New Zealand
and Switzerland. "Going organic will take time," he said. "We have set no deadline. We cannot do
it tomorrow. Instead we will achieve it region by region and crop by crop." Gyamtsho [says]
Bhutan's future depends largely on how it responds to interlinked development challenges like
climate change, and food and energy security.
Note: Bhutan is also the country which has pioneered Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a more
appropriate measure of economic growth than GNP. For more on this, click here. For a treasure
trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

U.S. hemp crop zero despite strong sales

2013-02-08, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/U-S-hemp-crop-zero-despite-strong-sale...
$452 million: That's the value of retail products containing imported hemp that were sold in the
United States in 2011. While a cousin of marijuana, the plant can't get you high. Instead, it can be
used to make clothes, horse bedding, auto parts, soap and even concrete. But thanks to it being
classified like all cannabis plants as a Schedule I substance - the same as heroin - the U.S.
hemp crop is precisely zero. If you want to grow hemp and avoid a jail sentence, you need a
permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Note: Many have suspected that hemp was outlawed along with marijuana to block competition
with lumber and other industries. To see a 1938 Popular Mechanics article touting hemp as the
"new billion dollar crop," click here.

Saudi Arabias Child-Rape Case: Female Activists Fight to Prevent

Abuse
2013-02-08, The Daily Beast/Newsweek
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/08/saudi-arabia-s-child-rape-ca...
The torture and murder of 5-year-old Lama Al Ghamdi could hardly have been more horrific. But
the fact that this story of one little girls death and one fathers monstrosity went public is also a
sign of just how hard women in Saudi Arabia are working to fight the cruel misogyny embedded in
the kingdoms version of Islamic law. Fayhan Al Ghamdi ... was arrested last year and charged
with murder. He told authorities that he had suspected his 5-year old daughter was not a
virgin. He had even taken her to a doctor to check. But apparently that had not satisfied him. He
admitted hed used a cane and electrical cables on the child. Saudi law claims to follow a clear
path (sharia) laid out in the Quran, but in practice its based on a maze of sayings and traditions
(hadith) with as many baffling contradictions as the codes used by lawyers anywhere. According to
one reading, a father cannot be held fully accountable for the death of his children; their loss is a
punishment for him. So the question arose in the proceedings whether Al Ghamdi could simply pay
the mother blood money for the loss of her daughter and walk free. The mother has said she will
not accept payment. Before the middle of the last decade, domestic violence and child abuse in
Saudi Arabia were treated mainly as family affairs. Nobody wanted to talk about them, and if
police did bother to investigate suspected crimes, which was rare, they found proof very
hard to come by.
Note: As a strong ally of the U.S., the monarchy of Saudi Arabia is very rarely criticized by
politicians or the media for it's highly oppressive government and practices. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on child abuse, click here.

Euro MPs back large-scale fishing reform to save stocks

2013-02-06, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21352617
The European Parliament has voted for sweeping reforms of the controversial EU Common
Fisheries Policy [CFP]. The package includes measures to protect endangered stocks and end
discards - the practice of throwing unwanted dead fish into the sea. Wasteful discards are
reckoned to account for a quarter of total catches under the current quota system. With an
estimated 75% of Europes stocks overfished, there has been enormous public and media
pressure over this latest attempt to shake up the CFP. The BBC's environment analyst
Roger Harrabin says the vote is something of a victory for citizen power, following
organised lobbying of MEPs by ordinary people, as well as by high-profile celebrity chefs
and environmentalists. The reform package was presented to the full parliament in Strasbourg
by the German Social Democrat MEP Ulrike Rodust. She said the reforms will bring an end to the
December ritual of fisheries ministers negotiating until 4am, neglecting scientific advice and setting
too high fishing quotas. As of 2015, the principle of maximum sustainable yield shall apply, which
means that each year we do not harvest more fish than a stock can reproduce. Our objective is
that depleted fish stocks recover by 2020. Not only nature will benefit, but also fishermen: bigger
stocks produce higher yields. MEPs have made some tough choices. For instance, they had an
option to vote for maximum sustainable yield - that is taking as much fish as the sea can reproduce
annually. They demanded instead that fisheries should be allowed to grow, rather than to stay at
their current depleted level.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

More mammograms mean more problems for older women, study finds
2013-02-06, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-too-many-mammograms-older-w...
The American Cancer Society advises all women over 40 to get a mammogram once a year to
screen for signs of breast cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a panel of experts that
advises the federal government on health matters, says most women need to get mammograms
only once every two years, and only when theyre between the ages of 50 and 74. Whos right? A
new study comes down on the side of the task force. Researchers examined records of about
140,000 women ages 66 to 89 who had mammograms between 1999 and 2006. Some of the
women had mammograms every year, and some of them had them every other year. It turned out
that having annual mammograms did not reduce womens risk of being diagnosed with an
aggressive breast cancer, as might have been expected. When all the numbers were crunched,
the proportion [of women] with adverse tumor characteristics was similar among annual and
biennial screeners, the researchers wrote in a study published [in] the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute. But they did find harm. The more times that women were screened, the greater
their odds of getting a false positive reading on a mammogram. For example, among women

between the ages of 66 and 74 who already had health problems, 48% of those who had
annual mammograms had at least one false-positive reading during a 10-year period. But
among those who were screened every other year, only 29% had a false-positive result.
Note: You can read a summary of the study online here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on health issues, click here.

US newspapers accused of complicity as drone report reopens security

debate
2013-02-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/feb/06/us-newspapers-accused-complicity-...
[The] New York Times and Washington Post ... are facing accusations of complicity after it
emerged that they bowed to pressure from the Obama administration not to disclose the existence
of a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia despite knowing about it for a year. Amid renewed scrutiny
over the Obama administration's secrecy over its targeted killing programme, media analysts and
national security experts said the revelation that some newspapers had co-operated over the
drone base had reopened the debate over the balance between freedom of information and
national security. One expert described the initial decision not to publish the base's location as
"shameful and craven". Dr Jack Lule, a professor of journalism and communication at Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania, said that the national security implications did not merit holding on to
the story. "The decision not to publish is a shameful one. The national security standard has
to be very high, perhaps imminent danger," he said. The Obama administration has resisted
any effort to open up its targeted killing programme to public scrutiny. The White House legal
advice on the assassinations program, including the killing of a US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, has
been withheld from the public and Congress, despite repeated requests to make it public. Lule said
that in not publishing the location of the base when it had the information, the newspaper had
failed in its responsibility to the public. "It happened at the top ranks of the media, too. They
should have been leading the pack in calling for less secrecy. For them to give up that post
is terrible."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on major media coverups,
click here.

Los Angeles Archdiocese Is Accused of Failing to Release All Abuse

Records
2013-02-05, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/los-angeles-archdiocese-is-accused-of-fa...
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files [on Jan.
31] on priests accused of sexually abusing children, saying that it was finally abiding by a
settlement it signed with victims six years ago to make the painful history public. But it now

appears that the files the church released with much fanfare are incomplete and many are
unaccounted for, according to the abuse victims lawyers. In addition, on many documents the
names of church supervisors informed of abuse allegations were redacted by the archdiocese, in
apparent violation of a judges order. Abuse victims had insisted that the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles release the records as part of a settlement in 2007, which provided $660 million to more
than 500 victims. We know we have not gotten a complete disclosure, said Jeff Anderson,
who is among the lawyers representing the victims. Its more deception, deceit and
secrecy. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought for six years all the way to the State
Supreme Court to block the release of the documents. Early in January, Judge Emilie H. Elias
overturned a previous decision, and ordered the archdiocese to lift the redactions of the names of
certain kinds of officials: archbishops and bishops, vicars for clergy members and directors of
treatment facilities, as well as pastors, church agents or employees who had supervisory
responsibility over an accused priest and were made aware of complaints or suspicions about him.
But on many pages it appears that the names of supervisors, like pastors in parishes or the
supervisors of religious orders, are missing.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Former sex trafficking victim shines light on dark underworld of Super

Bowl
2013-02-01, Times-Picayune (New Orleans' leading newspaper)
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/02/former_sex_trafficking_victim.html
Amid the parties and fun of Super Bowl 2013, authorities say, there is a dark underworld of girls
and women being forced into the sex trade. Sitting in the festive lobby of a New Orleans hotel,
festooned with San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens decorations, Clemmie Greenlee, a
former victim of sex trafficking from Nashville, recalled being brought to cities around the South to
prostitute for those attending such large-scale events. For Greenlee's pimps, the influx of people
provided a massive money-making opportunity. "When they come to these kinds of events, the first
thing you're told is how many you're gonna perform a day," she said. "You've got to go through 25
men a day, or you're going through 50 of them. When they give you that number, you better make
that number." Having been abducted and gang-raped by her captors at age 12, Greenlee said, she
was one of about eight girls controlled by a ring of pimps, men who injected them with heroin and,
at times, kept them handcuffed to beds. For trying to run away, she was once stabbed in the back.
Now 53, Greenlee works at Eden House in Uptown New Orleans, the first shelter for sex-trafficking
victims in Louisiana; the center opened in October 2012. "If you don't make that number [of sex
customers], you're going to dearly, dearly, severely pay for it," Greenlee said. "[The victims]
are terrified. We already know what power they have shown us. So either you come back to
them, or you find out two days later they either got your grandmother or they just broke
your little baby's arm.

Note: For more on the tragic impacts suffered by victims of sexual abuse, see the deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Catholic cardinal stripped of duties as LA diocese child abuse files

released
2013-02-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/01/cardinal-duties-child-abuse-files
The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has removed a top clergyman linked to efforts to conceal
abuse as it released thousands on files of priests accused of molesting children. Archbishop Jose
Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and
administrative duties. "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described
in these files is terribly sad and evil," Gomez said in a statement released by the US's
largest Catholic archdiocese. "There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these
children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," he said.
Mahony's former top aide, Thomas Curry, also stepped down as bishop of Santa Barbara. The
12,000 pages of files were made public more than a week after church records relating to 14
priests were unsealed as part of a separate civil suit, showing that church officials plotted to
conceal the abuse from law enforcement agencies as late as 1987. The documents showed that
Mahony, 76, and Curry, 70, both worked to send priests accused of abuse out of the state to
shield them from scrutiny. A spokesman for a victims' support group said that the removal of
Mahony and Curry was long overdue and a small step after the church spent years fighting to
protect them. "Hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture," said David Clohessy, the
director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals,
click here.

Saudi Arabia focuses on renewable energy

2013-02-01, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Saudi-Arabia-focuses-on-renewable-energ...
While the United States still searches for a coherent national energy policy, countries you wouldn't
expect are at the forefront of a green transformation. China has concrete plans to shift to
renewables on a national scale and is manufacturing solar panels so cheaply it's hard for
American companies to compete. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer - led by
octogenarians rarely associated with swift societal change - is moving at lightning speed to
transform its electricity grid from near zero to 100 percent renewable sources. It's not that the
Saudis suddenly have become environmentalists. In September, Citigroup issued a chilling, though
not surprising, warning that Saudi Arabia could run out of crude for export by 2030. Even before
Citigroup published its analysis, the Saudi government announced that it would spend more than
$100 billion to develop 41 gigawatts of solar energy, enough to power one-third of the sun-

drenched country, by 2032. In October, Saudi Arabia's 68-year-old Prince Turki Al Faisal told an
economic forum in Brazil he would like to see the kingdom go entirely renewable within his lifetime.
Saudi Arabia demonstrated its seriousness just a few weeks later by bringing senior executives
from 20 U.S. clean-energy companies to Riyadh to explore partnerships. SunPower Corp., a San
Jose manufacturer of solar systems already working with the Saudis, was one of the delegation's
leaders. In other words: American companies are helping transform Saudi Arabia into a
clean-energy haven so that the world's biggest oil producer can keep sending dirty and
expensive crude back to gas-guzzling Americans.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on energy developments,
click here.

Biotech Firms, Billions at Risk, Lobby States to Limit Generics

2013-01-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/business/battle-in-states-on-generic-copies...
In statehouses around the country, some of the nations biggest biotechnology companies are
lobbying intensively to limit generic competition to their blockbuster drugs, potentially cutting into
the billions of dollars in savings on drug costs contemplated in the federal health care overhaul
law. The complex drugs, made in living cells instead of chemical factories, account for roughly onequarter of the nations $320 billion in spending on drugs, according to IMS Health. And that
percentage is growing. They include some of the worlds best-selling drugs, like the rheumatoid
arthritis and psoriasis drugs Humira and Enbrel and the cancer treatments Herceptin, Avastin and
Rituxan. The drugs now cost patients or their insurers tens or even hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year. Two companies, Amgen and Genentech, are proposing bills that would
restrict the ability of pharmacists to substitute generic versions of biological drugs for
brand name products. Bills have been introduced in at least eight states since the new
legislative sessions began this month. Others are pending. The companies and other
proponents say such measures are needed to protect patient safety because the generic versions
of biological drugs are not identical to the originals. For that reason, they are usually called
biosimilars rather than generics. Generic drug companies and insurers are taking their own steps
to oppose or amend the state bills, which they characterize as pre-emptive moves to deter the use
of biosimilars, even before any get to market.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on pharmaceutical industry
corruption, click here.

Obama's non-closing of GITMO

2013-01-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/29/obama-guantanamo-pentagon...

The New York Times ... reported yesterday that the State Department "reassigned Daniel Fried,
the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him". That
move obviously confirms what has long been assumed: that the camp will remain open indefinitely.
Dozens of the current camp detainees have long been cleared by Pentagon reviews for release including Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 36-year-old Yemeni who died at the camp in September
after almost 11 years in a cage despite never having been charged with a crime. Like so many of
his fellow detainees, his efforts to secure his release were vigorously (and successfully) thwarted
by the Obama administration. What [makes] Guantnamo such a travesty of justice [is] not its
geographic locale in the Caribbean Sea, but rather its system of indefinite detention: that people
[are] put in cages, often for life, without any charges or due process. Obama's plan was to
preserve and continue that core injustice - indefinite detention - but simply moved onto US
soil. Put simply, Obama's plan was never to close Gitmo as much as it was to re-locate it to
Illinois: to what the ACLU dubbed "Gitmo North". That's why ACLU Executive Director Anthony
Romero said of Obama's 2009 "close-Gitmo" plan that it "is hardly a meaningful step forward" and
that "while the Obama administration inherited the Guantnamo debacle, this current move is its
own affirmative adoption of those policies." That's because, he said, "the administration plans to
continue its predecessor's policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees,
with only a change of location."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government attacks on
civil liberties, click here.

Pentagon's new massive expansion of 'cyber-security' unit is about

everything except defense
2013-01-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/28/pentagon-cyber-security-e...
Cyber-threats are the new pretext to justify expansion of power and profit for the public-private
National Security State. The Washington Post [reports] "a major expansion of [the Pentagon's]
cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold." Specifically,
... "the expansion would increase the Defense Department's Cyber Command by more than 4,000
people, up from the current 900." The Post describes this expansion as "part of an effort to turn an
organization that has focused largely on defensive measures into the equivalent of an Internet-era
fighting force." This Cyber Command Unit operates under the command of Gen. Keith Alexander,
who also happens to be the head of the National Security Agency, the highly secretive government
network that spies on the communications of foreign nationals - and American citizens. These
activities pose a wide array of serious threats to internet freedom, privacy, and international law
that, as usual, will be conducted with full-scale secrecy and with little to no oversight and
accountability. And, as always, there is a small army of private-sector corporations who will benefit
most from this expansion. The fear-mongering rhetoric from government officials has
relentlessly intensified, all devoted to scaring citizens into believing that the US is at
serious risk of cataclysmic cyber-attacks from "aggressors". This all culminated when

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, last October, warned of what he called a "cyber-Pearl
Harbor". This "would cause physical destruction and the loss of life, an attack that would paralyze
and shock the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability."
Note: Defense Secretary Panetta's warning of a 'cyber-Pearl Harbor' will surely serve as a
reminder for many of the Project for the New American Century's call for a 'new Pearl Harbor' just
a few months before 9/11. Is it likely that he was unaware of the baggage such language carries at
present? For more on WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin's epochal book The New
Pearl Harbor, click here.

iDoctor: Could a Smartphone Be the Future of Medicine

2013-01-25, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp/50582822#50582822
One of the worlds top physicians, Dr. Eric Topol, has a prescription that could improve your
familys health and make medical care cheaper the smartphone. Topol has long been one of the
worlds foremost cardiologists. He has now become the foremost expert in the exploding field of
wireless medicine, and this explosion, he says, is about to make our health care better and
cheaper. He shows how simply his modified iphone produces a cardiogram for a patient. The
device was approved by the FDA in December and is now sold to physicians for $199. Topol tells
his patient he just saved a $100 technicians fee. [Topol:] These days im actually prescribing a lot
more apps than I am medications. You can take the phone and make it a lab on a chip -- you
can do blood tests, saliva tests, urine tests, all kinds of things. Actually I think it helps
make the whole interaction much more intimate, because now Im sharing the results in
realtime. Theres so much technology now that we could by using digital [infra]structure that
exists today -- make the office visit an enjoyable thing. [Topol] had a reputation for brashness. He
questioned the safety of the hugely profitable pain killer Vioxx and eventually forced it off the
market.
Note: To see the full text of this inspiring video, click here.

President of perpetual war

2013-01-24, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/President-of-perpetual-war-4221915.php
Four years into his presidency, President Obama's political formula should be obvious. He gives
fabulous speeches teeming with popular liberal ideas, often refuses to take the actions necessary
to realize those ideas and then banks on most voters, activists, reporters and pundits never
bothering to notice - or care about - his sleight of hand. Never was this formula more apparent than
when the president discussed military conflicts during his second inaugural address. Declaring that
"a decade of war is now ending," he insisted that he "still believe(s) that enduring security and
lasting peace do not require perpetual war." Few seemed to notice that the words came from the

same president who is manufacturing a state of "perpetual war." Obama, let's remember, is the
president who escalated the Afghanistan War and whose spokesman recently reiterated that U.S.
troops are not necessarily leaving that country anytime soon. He is the president who has initiated
undeclared wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Just days before Obama's inaugural
address declaring an end to war, the Washington Post reported that the administration's new
manual establishing "clear rules" for counterterrorism operations specifically creates a
"carve-out (that) would allow the CIA to continue" the president's intensifying drone war.
That's the "perpetual war," you'll recall, in which Obama asserts the extra-constitutional
right to compile a "kill list" and then order bombing raids of civilian areas in hopes of killing
alleged militants - including U.S. citizens.
Note: Could it be that the military-industrial complex has significantly more power than the
president? For powerful evidence of this from a high-ranking US general, click here.

11 EU nations to plan tax on financial transactions

2013-01-22, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-11-eu-tax-financial-trans...
Pressing ahead where others have balked, 11 European countries received the green light ... to
plan a financial transaction tax that could generate billions of dollars in revenue for cash-strapped
governments. Led by Germany and France, the European Unions two heavyweights, the nations
will now work out how to introduce a levy on the buying and selling of stocks and bonds and on the
use of complex financial instruments known as derivatives. Advocates say such a tax is not only
necessary to help discourage risky transactions like those that precipitated the 2008 global
financial meltdown but also a fair way to make financial institutions pay to help clean up the
leftover mess. The U.S., at the urging of Wall Street, has opposed a financial transaction
tax; so has Britain, which is home to Europes largest financial trading hub. Hesitation in
London as well as some other European capitals stalled a proposal, made in September 2011, to
charge a unified financial transaction tax across the 27-nation EU. The 11 countries, all of which
share the euro as their currency, decided to forge ahead on their own, deepening integration
among a subset of EU members that together account for more than half of the regions economic
output. EU-wide, officials had estimated that a levy of just 0.1% on trades of stocks and bonds and
0.01% on derivatives could bring in $75 billion a year.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the profiteering of an
unregulated financial industry, click here.

How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's

millions
2013-01-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mu...

Office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial
property empire owned by the Vatican. Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the
church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over
by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929. The surprising
aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the
Mussolini millions. The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John
Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy
was now financially secure. It would never be poor again." The Mussolini investments in Britain are
currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal
official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a
special unit inside the Vatican ... which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".
According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's
financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed 680m (570m). While
secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in
wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its
holdings in Britain.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on secrecy, click here.

Peer-to-Peer Lending: No Longer Just a Curiosity

2013-01-20, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-20/peer-to-peer-lending-no-longe...
Peer-to-peer lending most immediately brings to mind the largely feel-good act of extending smalltime money to small businesses and individuals with quirky projectsa curiosity at best and no
threat to the lending hegemony of big banks. Whats less appreciated is how successful peer-topeer lending platforms such as Prosper and Lending Club have been in connecting wholesale
numbers of individual lenders and borrowers. Renaud Laplanche is the founder and chief
executive officer of Lending Club, which has been at least doubling its loan originations
every year since it started in June 2007 at the onset of the financial crisis. He says he came
up with the idea when he realized he was paying 18 percent on his credit-card debt while
the issuing bank was paying out 2 percent to depositors. Lending Club mitigates riskits
default rate has remained in the low single digits throughout the financial crisisby serving prime
and superprime borrowers and turning down 90 percent of loan applications. Prosper, perhaps
Lending Clubs main rival, has similarly posted nice risk-adjusted returns across its loan portfolio.
Its management and board are studded with venture capitalists and Wall Street names. The value
proposition to borrowers, obviously, is access not just to capital that the banks arent willing to lend
them, but capital at a lower cost should they make the grade.

'Quadruple helix' DNA seen in human cells

2013-01-20, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21091066
Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for
the first time. The famous "molecule of life", which carries our genetic code, is more familiar to us
as a double helix. But researchers tell the journal Nature Chemistry that the "quadruple
helix" is also present in our cells, and in ways that might possibly relate to cancer. They
suggest that control of the structures could provide novel ways to fight the disease. "The
existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain
dysfunctional state," said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge's department of
chemistry. Balasubramanian's group has been pursuing a four-stranded version of the molecule
that scientists have produced in the test tube now for a number of years. The new research is said
to be the first to firmly pinpoint the quadruple helix in human cells.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on promising new cancer
treatments, any of which have been suppressed, click here.

New UN treaty on mercury requires countries to phase down dental

amalgam
2013-01-19, Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/un-treaty-mercury-requires-countries-phase-down-dental-...
While no phase-out date was set, just-completed negotiations by the Intergovernmental
Negotiation Committee ... have resulted in many important provisions to reduce and
eliminate mercury release and exposure, including binding requirements for countries to
phase down dental amalgam. "This is the beginning of the end of dental amalgam globally," said
Michael T. Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project, a US-based NGO, and co-coordinator of
the Zero Mercury Working Group. "We applaud the leadership role the US played in jump-starting
support for a phase-down ... along with the concrete steps of the Nordic countries, Switzerland and
Japan took in phasing out dental amalgam." "Countries that have phased out amalgam recognize
that mercury-free dental fillings are readily available, affordable and effective," said Charles G.
Brown, [of the] World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, a global coalition of NGOs, dentists and
consumers from over 25 countries. "This pushes the reset button on dentistry. Now the rest of the
world can benefit from the experience of those countries."

The FBI and protesters, then and now

2013-01-18, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/The-FBI-and-protesters-then-a...
Recently released FBI files about the Occupy movement do not reveal the kind of dirty tricks J.
Edgar Hoover's bureau used against demonstrators in the Bay Area during the '60s, but they
present some striking parallels to those dark days and have rightly raised concern among civil
libertarians. The records ... show that over the decades the machinery of surveillance remains

much the same, even as expanded intelligence powers and technological advances magnify
potential abuse. As in the '60s, the FBI reports use sweeping language like "potential
terrorist threat" to characterize nonviolent dissent. As then, the bureau exchanges
information with a vast network of federal agencies, state and local police, campus cops
and corporate security. And once again the FBI is invoking great secrecy. Such activity,
Congress found in the '70s, contributed to massive intelligence abuses. The FBI released 99
heavily redacted pages and withheld 288 more in response to a Freedom of Information Act
request from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a public-interest legal organization in
Washington, D.C. Even while noting Occupy organizers do "not condone the use of violence," the
records show that FBI field offices across the nation collected information on the premise [that] the
protests posed a potential "terrorist" or "criminal" threat. The bureau shared information on Occupy
with police on joint terrorism task forces, which have raised concerns about skirting local
surveillance restrictions, and with fusion centers, regional intelligence hubs recently criticized by
Congress as violating civil liberties.
Note: The writer of this article, Seth Rosenfeld, is the author of Subversives: The FBI's War on
Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources on the games intelligence agencies play, click here.

MoveOn founder, Tea Party figure meet

2013-01-17, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/MoveOn-founder-Tea-Party-f...
It was a mind-blowing political tableau: a co-founder of liberal bulwark MoveOn sitting in her
Berkeley living room, laughing, sharing homemade blueberry scones and occasionally
agreeing with a national Tea Party figure. MoveOn's Joan Blades ... and Mark Meckler, ...
have been talking online and over the phone for a few years now. Quietly, until now.
"Transpartisanship" is the genteel word for what they're doing. Blades has been involved in
similar types of projects for about a decade, but this is a fairly new school of political thought,
which posits that people can come together to find some common ground without abandoning their
core beliefs. The occasion was the latest installment of Living Room Conversations, Blades' latest
national transpartisan project that she co-founded with former GOP operative Amanda Kathryn
Roman [of] New Jersey. It involves one or two co-hosts pulling together an intimate gathering of
folks who might believe they agree on little politically - until they sit down together to listen to one
another's perspective. Civilly. Eventually, they find places they agree. That's what happened
between Blades and Meckler, and it should give hope to a nation locked in scrums over guns and
immigration and taxes. The day's assigned topic was "crony capitalism." It was conservative
commentator Ralph Benko who introduced Meckler and Blades online. As Meckler recalled Benko
saying, "If MoveOn and the Tea Party ever agree on anything, all politicians should watch out."
Note: What would happen if we focus less on what separates us and more on what brings us
together?

Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills

2013-01-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/14/secret-papers-royals-veto-bills
The extent of the Queen and Prince Charles's secretive power of veto over new laws has
been exposed after Downing Street lost its battle to keep information about its application
secret. Whitehall papers prepared by Cabinet Office lawyers show that overall at least 39 bills
have been subject to the most senior royals' little-known power to consent to or block new laws.
The internal Whitehall pamphlet was only released following a court order and shows ministers
and civil servants are obliged to consult the Queen and Prince Charles [to a greater extent] than
was previously understood. The new laws that were required to receive the seal of approval from
the Queen or Prince Charles cover issues from higher education and paternity pay to identity cards
and child maintenance. In one instance the Queen completely vetoed ... a private member's bill
that sought to transfer the power to authorise military strikes against Iraq from the monarch to
parliament. "This is opening the eyes of those who believe the Queen only has a ceremonial
role," said Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about
government corruption from reliable major media sources.

Saudi Arabias King Allows Women to Join National Advisory Council

2013-01-11, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/world/middleeast/saudi-arabias-king-lets-wo...
Women are not allowed to drive and cannot yet vote in Saudi Arabia, but on [January 11] they
were given a voice in an advisory council that debates the kingdoms legislation. The Saudi king,
Abdullah, issued a decree that for the first time gave women seats on the Shura council, an
assembly whose members are appointed to discuss laws and other issues and advise the king, but
that has no legislative power. The decree ... gave women 30 of the 150 seats on the council with
all the duties of their male counterparts. The decision was met with a mixture of optimism that
the country was inching forward with reforms and skepticism from activists who are
pushing for greater freedom for women in the conservative kingdom, one of the worlds few
remaining absolute monarchies. In a decree in 2011, King Abdullah granted women the right to
vote and run in municipal elections scheduled for 2015, the biggest change in a decade for women
in the puritanical kingdom. He also promised to name women to the Shura council at that time. But
Saudi women still cannot make ordinary decisions, like marrying or traveling abroad, without
written permission from a legal male guardian, effectively treating her as a minor all her life, [a
womens rights activist from Saudi Arabia, Manal al-Sharif,] wrote in a separate statement on the
Web site of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. Women also continued to be
arrested for driving. In one case in 2011, a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes for violating the
ban. The king later revoked the sentence.

Note: Why is there so little national or international pressure on Saudi Arabia to promote gender
equality, or democracy for that matter? Could it be that their huge wealth buys sways the political
will of nations around the world? How sad.

The four business gangs that run the US

2012-12-31, Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-four-business-gangs-that-run-the-us-201212...
If you've ever suspected politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, ... Jeffrey
Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia University, agrees with you - at least in
respect of the United States. In his book, The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue
and Prosperity, he says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop. ''Corporate wealth
translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the
revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates
into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between
government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth,'' he says. Sachs
says four key sectors of US business exemplify this feedback loop and the takeover of political
power in America by the ''corporatocracy''. First is the well-known military-industrial complex.
Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex, which has steered the financial system towards
control by a few politically powerful Wall Street firms, notably Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase,
Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and a handful of other financial firms. Third is the Big Oil-transportmilitary complex, which has put the US on the trajectory of heavy oil-imports dependence and a
deepening military trap in the Middle East, he says. Fourth is the healthcare industry, America's
largest industry, absorbing no less than 17 per cent of US gross domestic product.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate and
government corruption, click here and here.

Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India - it is endemic

everywhere
2012-12-30, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sexual-violence-is-not-a-cultural...
The death of a woman popularly named Damini lightning in Hindi has provoked thousands to
take to Indias streets, furious at endemic and unchecked violence against women. Some have
been met with police batons, tear gas and water cannon. But, in the West, Daminis death has
triggered a different response: a sense that this is an Indian-specific problem. The crime has
highlighted the prevalence of sex attacks in India, says the Daily Telegraph; India tries to move
beyond its rape culture, says Reuters. Its comforting to think that this is someone elses
problem. It is an assumption that is as wrong as it is dangerous. Rape and sexual violence
against women are endemic everywhere. Shocked by what happened in India? Take a look
at France. In 1999, two then-teenagers named only as Nina and Stephanie were raped almost

every day for six months. Young men would queue up to rape them, patiently waiting for their
friends to finish in secluded basements. After a three-week trial this year, 10 of the 14 accused left
the courtroom as free men; the other four were granted lenient sentences of one year at most.
Shocked? According to the [UK] Governments Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls,
80,000 women are raped a year, and 400,000 women are sexually assaulted [in the UK]. It is a
pandemic of violence against women that given its scale is not discussed nearly enough.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

A Mondavi branches out to water witching

2012-12-30, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A-Mondavi-branches-out-to-water-witching-4...
Marc Mondavi is standing in the middle of his vineyard, talking to two copper rods. "Find water," he
tells them as he walks slowly down a row of vines holding the rods pointed in front of him. As if
possessed, the rods start moving until they cross over one another. "Here," he says. "Here's where
the water is." Yeah, right. Isn't the whole ... thing a little undignified for a descendant of California
wine royalty - not to mention the vice president of Charles Krug Winery? Try telling that to grape
growers in Northern California, who repeatedly call on Mondavi to seek out water for their
industrial-size wells. "I don't know how he does it, and I'm not going to learn," said John
Franzia, whose Bronco Wine Co. in Ceres (Stanislaus County) grows 40,000 acres of
grapes. "But I'm a believer because I have water." Franzia has 300 wells on his various
properties, and Mondavi told him where to drill a number of them. Rombauer Vineyards, maker of
a famous Chardonnay, uses him. Patriarch Koerner Rombauer even had rods custom-created for
Mondavi. When Carmen Policy, former president and CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, bought
property in Yountville contingent on finding water, Mondavi was called in. He found a gusher. He's
a bona fide water witch - someone who can find groundwater without the use of science. It's also
known as water dowsing, divining or doodlebugging. Oftentimes dowsers use forked willow, peach
or witch hazel branches as divining rods. It is speculated that there are thousands of dowsers
operating in the United States.
Note: For a rich collection of fascinating news articles which question the nature of reality, click
here.

F.B.I. Counterterrorism Agents Monitored Occupy Movement

2012-12-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/nyregion/occupy-movement-was-investigated-b...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation used counterterrorism agents to investigate the Occupy Wall
Street movement, including its communications and planning, according to newly disclosed agency
records. The F.B.I. records show that as early as September 2011, an agent from a
counterterrorism task force in New York notified officials of two landmarks in Lower Manhattan

Federal Hall and the Museum of American Finance that their building was identified as a point
of interest for the Occupy Wall Street. In the following months, F.B.I. personnel around the country
were routinely involved in exchanging information about the movement with businesses, local lawenforcement agencies and universities. An October 2011 memo from the bureaus
Jacksonville, Fla., field office was titled Domain Program Management Domestic Terrorist.
The memo said agents discussed past and upcoming meetings of the movement, and its
spread. It said agents should contact Occupy Wall Street activists to ascertain whether
people who attended their events had violent tendencies. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,
the F.B.I. has come under criticism for deploying counterterrorism agents to conduct surveillance
and gather intelligence on organizations active in environmental, animal-cruelty and poverty
issues. The records were obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a civil-rights
organization in Washington, through a Freedom of Information request to the F.B.I.
Note: For analysis of these amazing documents revealing the use of joint government and
corporate counterterrorism structures against peaceful protestors of financial corruption, click here
and here. For a Democracy Now! video segment on this, click here.

Laws of Physics Cant Trump the Bonds of Love

2012-12-24, New York Times
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com//2012/12/24/laws-of-physics-cant-trump-the-bond...
Jeffrey Wright is well known around his high school in Louisville, Ky., for his antics as a physics
teacher. But it is a simple lecture one without props or fireballs that leaves the greatest
impression on his students each year. The talk is about Mr. Wrights son and the meaning of life,
love and family. Each year, Mr. Wright gives a lecture on his experiences as a parent of a
child with special needs. His son, Adam, now 12, has a rare disorder called Joubert syndrome,
in which the part of the brain related to balance and movement fails to develop properly. Visually
impaired and unable to control his movements, Adam breathes rapidly and doesnt speak. Mr.
Wright ... recalls the day Adam was born, and the sadness he felt when he learned of his
condition. The whole thing about where the universe came from? I didnt care. I started asking
myself, what was the point of it? All that changed one day when Mr. Wright ... realized that his son
could see and play that the little boy had an inner life. He and his wife, Nancy, began teaching
Adam simple sign language. One day, his son signed I love you. There is something a lot
greater than energy. Theres something a lot greater than entropy. Whats the greatest
thing? Love, his students whisper. Thats what makes the why we exist, Mr. Wright
tells the spellbound students.
Note: Watch this beautiful, 12-minute video on Mr. Wright's Law of Love. Explore a treasure trove
of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a
difference.

FBI Lab's woes cast a growing shadow

2012-12-23, The Independent/Washington Post

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fbi-labs-woes-cast-a-growing...
Thousands of criminal cases at the state and local level may have relied on exaggerated testimony
or false forensic evidence to convict defendants of murder, rape and other felonies. The forensic
experts in these cases were trained by the same elite FBI team whose members gave misleading
court testimony about hair matches and later taught the local examiners to follow the same
suspect practices, according to interviews and documents. In July, the Justice Department
announced a nationwide review of all cases handled by the FBI Laboratory's hair and fibers unit
before 2000 at least 21,000 cases to determine whether improper lab reports or testimony
might have contributed to wrongful convictions. But about three dozen FBI agents trained 600
to 1,000 state and local examiners to apply the same standards that have proved
problematic. None of the local cases is included in the federal review. As a result, legal
experts say, although the federal inquiry is laudable, the number of flawed cases at the state and
local levels could be even higher, and those are going uncorrected. The FBI review was prompted
by a series of articles in The Washington Post about errors at the bureau's renowned crime lab
involving microscopic hair comparisons. The articles highlighted the cases of two District of
Columbia men who each spent more than 20 years in prison based on false hair matches by FBI
experts. Since The Post's articles, the men have been declared innocent by D.C. Superior Court
judges.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

The Unequal State of America: Why America is more unequal than most
2012-12-20, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50256668#.UNc3IqwkSSo
Some rich countries are more unequal than others - and the United States more so than
most. America has a higher degree of income inequality than almost any other developed
country. Only three of the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development rank higher - Chile, Mexico and Turkey. So why is the U.S. so much more
unequal than its peers? The U.S. Congressional Research Service cited several potential reasons
in a report earlier this year. One is that most other rich countries spend a bigger share of their
national output on social programs, which tend to lessen income inequality. In Germany, public
social spending accounted for 27.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, compared with 19.2
percent in the United States. A second factor is tax systems. A 2012 study by economists at the
OECD found that, in general, the more a country spends on social programs, and the more
progressive its tax-and-transfer system is, the more it can reduce income inequality. The U.S. is
less effective at reducing inequality through taxes and benefits than the OECD average. Attitudes
toward the poor may make a difference, some researchers say. A 2008 OECD study found that
respondents in the United States and Korea were far more likely to say poor people were poor

because they are lazy than did respondents in Nordic and Continental European countries. Recent
studies ... have shown that Americans are now less likely to move into a class above their parents
than are people in other rich countries.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on income inequality, click
here.

Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate

reactions?
2012-12-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/19/newtown-drones-children-d...
Numerous commentators have lamented the vastly different reactions in the US to the heinous
shooting of children in Newtown, Connecticut ... compared to the continuous killing of (far more)
children and innocent adults by the US government in Pakistan and Yemen, among other places. It
is well worth asking what accounts for this radically different reaction to the killing of children and
other innocents. There are ... two key issues highlighted by the intense grief for the Newtown
victims compared to the utter indifference to the victims of Obama's militarism. The first is that it
underscores how potent and effective the last decade's anti-Muslim dehumanization campaign has
been. Every war - particularly protracted ones like the "War on Terror" - demands sustained
dehumanization campaigns against the targets of the violence. Few populations will
tolerate continuous killings if they have to confront the humanity of those who are being
killed. That's what dehumanization is: their humanity is disappeared so that we don't have to face
it. [The] other issue highlighted by this disparate reaction: the question of agency and culpability.
It's easy to express rage over the Newtown shooting because so few of us bear any responsibility
for it. Exactly the opposite is true for the violence that continuously kills children and other innocent
people in the Muslim world. US citizens pay for it, enable it, and now under Obama, most at the
very least acquiesce to it if not support it. It's always much more difficult to acknowledge the
deaths that we play a role in causing than it is to protest those to which we believe we have no
connection.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on war crimes committed in
the US wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click here. For a key article raising
serious questions about the official story of the Newtown shooting, click here.

The Peoples Bailout Was Just the Beginning: Whats Next for Strike
Debt?
2012-12-13, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/peoples-bailout-just-the-beginning-wha...

Syracuse University art professor Thomas Gokey earned his Master of Fine Arts degree five years
ago, but remains chained to his alma mater by $49,983 of debt. Soon after he graduated, the grim
prospect of indefinite payments inspired its own art piece. Gokey put his debt up for sale in
reconstituted squares of shredded money from the Federal Reserve. This year, together with the
activist group Strike Debt, he helped organize a bold "People's Bailout" called the Rolling Jubilee,
which has raised over $465,000. Bringing that money to the marketplace where collections
companies buy and sell debt for pennies on the dollar, Strike Debt intends to purchase about $9
million of Americans' medical and educational debtand then cancel it. Strike Debt, which grew
out of Occupy Wall Street, wants to foment conversation about the debt we rack up in pursuit of
basic needs, and the industries that profit from that debt. Gokey is currently on a year-long unpaid
leave from teaching to help organize the Rolling Jubilee and upcoming Strike Debt projects.
Thomas Gokey: Since I'm an educator, I'm thinking about the ways in which my students and I
seem to be getting taken advantage of. We look at how much it's costing each one of my
students to take one of my classes, and how much I'm getting paid to teach the class. And
we look at each other and think, why don't we just go hold our classes at the public library?
Somebody's obviously making money off both of us, so can't we cut out that middleman
and focus on education?
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on income inequality, click
here.

CIA 'tortured and sodomised' terror suspect, human rights court rules
2012-12-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/13/cia-tortured-sodomised-terror-suspect
CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as
Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic
judgment released on [December 13]. In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty
of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin
allegedly linked to terrorist organisations. Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and
handed over to a CIA "rendition team" at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan. It is the
first time the court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture. "The grand
chamber of the European court of human rights unanimously found that Mr el-Masri was subjected
to forced disappearance, unlawful detention, extraordinary rendition outside any judicial process,
and inhuman and degrading treatment," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open
Society Justice Initiative. He described the judgment as "an authoritative condemnation of some of
the most objectionable tactics employed in the post-9/11 war on terror". Jamil Dakwar, of the
American Civil Liberties Union, described the ruling as "a huge victory for justice and the rule of
law". The Strasbourg court said it found Masri's account of what happened to him "to be
established beyond reasonable doubt".
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on illegal acts by US
intelligence agencies, click here.

Report finds harsh CIA interrogations ineffective

2012-12-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/report-finds-harsh-cia-...
The Senate intelligence committee approved a long-awaited report ... concluding that harsh
interrogation measures used by the CIA did not produce significant intelligence
breakthroughs. The 6,000-page document ... is the most detailed independent examination to
date of the agencys efforts to break dozens of detainees through physical and psychological
duress. Officials familiar with the report said it makes a detailed case that subjecting prisoners to
enhanced interrogation techniques did not help the CIA find Osama bin Laden and often [was]
counterproductive in the broader campaign against al-Qaeda. It could be months, if not years,
before the public gets even a partial glimpse of the report or its 20 findings and
conclusions. When that is completed, the committee will need to vote again on whether to
release even a portion of the report, a move likely to face opposition from the CIA, which has
fought to keep details of the interrogation program classified. Earlier this year, the Justice
Department closed investigations of alleged abuses, eliminating the prospect that CIA operatives
who had gone beyond the approved methods would face criminal charges. Civil liberties groups
praised the report.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on illegal activities of
intelligence agencies, click here.

The Economics of Being a U.S. Ambassador

2012-12-13, Bloomberg Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/the-economics-of-being-a-u-do...
To land a high-profile ambassadorship, it helps to have raised a ton of money for a successful
presidential candidate and know how to throw a good party. Thats one reason why President
Obama is considering Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour as the next U.S. ambassador to the
Court of St. Jamess in the U.K. Wintour raised more than $500,000 for Obama and inspired the
Runway to Win fashion line that brought in upwards of $40 million for his campaign. But thats
just the price of admission. The funds embassies receive from the U.S. Department of State
dont begin to cover the high costs of the frequent parties and dinners ambassadors are
expected to host. Some wind up paying more than $1 million a year out of their own
pockets, according to one of the presidents top donors who requested anonymity. This is why the
high-profile postings to places like France and Italy typically go to wealthy donors, rather than
career diplomats. The current ambassador to the U.K., Louis Susman, a former Chicago
investment banker, holds three to four social events a week, says an embassy spokeswoman, who
declined to give a cost estimate for these soirees. In exchange, appointees get perksbeginning
with the sought-after title of ambassador. In some Western European countries, they live in

sprawling estates such as Londons Winfield House. Its 12-and-a-half acres of private gardens are
exceeded only by those of Buckingham Palace. The ambassador to Italy can avail himself of a
three-story, 5,000-bottle wine cellar at the Villa Taverna in Rome.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Sibel Edmonds' "Classified Woman"

2012-12-12, The New American
http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/books/item/13807-sibel-edmonds-classifi...
Imagine that you have a Top Secret clearance and are privy to some of our countrys most
sensitive national security information. In that capacity, you discover that some of the highest
elected and appointed political leaders in the land are engaged in espionage and treason,
accepting bribes and selling weapons and information (including nuclear weapons secrets) to
foreign powers, including our enemies. Moreover, you learn that some of your co-workers are in
league with these conspirators, covering up the evidence trail and misdirecting those tasked with
preventing such security breaches. In her book Classified Woman: A Memoir, Edmonds recounts
the incredible story of her efforts, for more than a decade, to warn her adopted country of imminent
perils, only to be slapped down, harassed, smeared, and threatened. To prevent her explosive
testimony from seeing the light of day, President George W. Bush and Attorney General John
Ashcroft invoked the rarely used (until recently) state secrets privilege to gag not only
Edmonds, but also committees of Congress that were investigating her case, as well as the
Department of Justices Office of Inspector General and the FBIs own Office of
Professional Review. The preposterousness of the governments position is palpable. This is an
effort not to protect legitimate state secrets, but to protect criminality that has prospered in secrecy
for far too long. Sibel Edmonds is decidedly non-partisan in her scorn; she shows equal disdain for
Republicans and Democrats who sell out their country and betray their oaths of office. She names
names.
Note: For other major media articles showing how Ms. Edmonds has been targeted and suffered
for courageously speaking her truth, click here. This is the first major website to publish a review of
this most amazing book by a true hero. Though we don't support all of the objectives of the John
Birch Society, which publishes this website, we strongly support any efforts to reveal the truth
through people like Sibel Edmonds. The book has a very rare five-star rating on Amazon.com. To
get a copy, click here.

Medical marijuana helps stem 6-year-old's seizures

2012-12-10, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/10/health/medical-marijuana-child/

Before he started taking a liquid, nonpsychoactive form of marijuana, Jayden couldn't walk,
eat solid food or take a bath. He has Dravet's syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of
childhood epilepsy. It has triggered seizures so frequent that 44 times he has been rushed to the
hospital in an ambulance. Jayden's doctors prescribed 22 anti-seizure pills a day, which controlled
the seizures but left him immobilized due to the side effects. "He's in pain and suffering and
crying," said Jayden's father, Jason David. "You can't help him no matter what. What are you
supposed to do?" Last year, he had enough. David turned to ... medical marijuana. For the first
time since Jayden was 4 months old, the boy went through an entire day without a seizure.
Jayden [now] plays at a park, climbing up and down the steps of the jungle gym. He swims
at his local pool. His father has begun to wean him off the powerful pharmaceutical pills, which he
believes have kept his son from developing properly. The liquid, nonpsychoactive form of
marijuana that Jayden takes ensures the boy doesn't get "high." Harborside Health Center, a
medical marijuana clinic in Oakland, California, helped create the original tincture Jayden took.
The center still analyzes and tests the marijuana before David administers it to his son. "Parents
don't want to bring their children to something controversial like cannabis," says Harborside's
executive director, Steven DeAngelo. "The only thing separating them from help are outdated rules
that need to be changed." Those rules are at the federal level, where marijuana remains illegal.
Note: Watch a very touching video on Jayden and his miracle recovery.

HSBC to Pay $1.92 Billion to Settle Charges of Money Laundering

2012-12-10, New York Times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/hsbc-said-to-near-1-9-billion-settleme...
State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case
over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the worlds largest banks and
ultimately destabilize the global financial system. Instead, HSBC announced ... that it had
agreed to a record $1.92 billion settlement with authorities. The bank, which is based in Britain,
faces accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations like Iran and enabled Mexican
drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries. The case, officials say, will
claim violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and Trading with the Enemy Act. While the settlement
with HSBC is a major victory for the government, the case raises questions about whether certain
financial institutions, having grown so large and interconnected, are too big to indict. Four years
after the failure of Lehman Brothers nearly toppled the financial system, regulators are still wary
that a single institution could undermine the recovery of the industry and the economy. But the
threat of criminal prosecution acts as a powerful deterrent. If authorities signal such actions are
remote for big banks, the threat could lose its sting.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government collusion
with financial corruption, click here.

Dmitry Medvedev muses on aliens

2012-12-08, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/9731278/Dmitry-Medve...
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's prime minister, gave the nation his views on more than he intended on
Friday. Mr Medvedev let his guard down after an interview with five Russian television stations
when he failed to realise the cameras were still rolling. [One] of the journalists asked whether the
president is handed secret files on aliens when receiving the briefcase needed to activate Russia's
nuclear arsenal. "Along with the briefcase with nuclear codes, the president of the country is
given a special 'top secret' folder. This folder in its entirety contains information about
aliens who visited our planet," Mr Medvedev answered playfully. "Along with this, you are
given a report of the absolutely secret special service that exercises control over aliens on
the territory of our country ... More detailed information on this topic you can get from a wellknown movie called 'Men In Black' ... I will not tell you how many of them are among us because it
may cause panic," he says. None of the television stations that interviewed Mr Medvedev
broadcast the off-air comments, but they were delivered to Reuters as a pool signal and some
were shown on YouTube. Even during the interview itself, Mr Medvedev answered some unusual
questions. Asked whether he believed the world would end on Dec. 21 under a New Age
prophecy, he said no.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on UFOs, click here.

Berkeley center funds gratitude research

2012-12-04, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Berkeley-center-funds-gratitude-research...
At UC Berkeley ... a group of researchers thinks about gratitude year-round. Formed in 2001, the
Greater Good Science Center is dedicated to unpacking the neuroscience and sociology behind
traits such as altruism, compassion and empathy. The goal is not only to understand how gratitude
works, but also to build a healthier, kinder society, said Dacher Keltner, the center's faculty director
and a UC Berkeley psychology professor. "The U.S. underperforms in terms of the well-being
of children, the well-being of adults and the physical health of children and adults," he said.
"We also have one of the most individualistic, self-focused societies in human history. And
I put those two facts together." Thanks to a $3.1 million grant recently awarded by the center, 14
researchers nationwide are studying various aspects of gratitude, from its role in initiating
friendships to its effects on children's socializing. The grant is part of a three-year project,
Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude, in collaboration with UC Davis. And last month,
the center launched Thnx4.org, an online journal where visitors explain what they're thankful for
and researchers analyze their responses to understand gratitude's influence.
Note: For deeply inspiring reports from major media sources, click here.

U.N. to Israel: Open nuclear program to inspection

2012-12-04, CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57556949/u.n-to-israel-open-nuclear-progr...
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution [on December 3] calling on
Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing a high-level conference to
ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East that was just canceled. All Arab nations and Iran had
planned to attend the conference in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the United States
announced on Nov. 23 that it wouldn't take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran's
defiant stance on nonproliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for
the cancellation was Israel's refusal to attend. The resolution, approved by a vote of 174-6 with
6 abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty "without further
delay" and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy
Agency. Those voting "no" were Israel, the U.S., Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.
Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear bombs, though it is widely believed to have
a nuclear arsenal. It has refused to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, along with
three nuclear weapon states India, Pakistan and North Korea. The region's Muslim nations
argue that Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal presents the greatest threat to peace in the region.

United States of ALEC

2012-12-03, Truthout
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13108-united-states-of-alec
BILL MOYERS: ALEC [The American Legislative Exchange Council] is a nationwide consortium of
elected state legislators working side by side with some of America's most powerful corporations.
They have an agenda you should know about, a mission to remake America, changing the country
by changing its laws, one state at a time. ALEC creates what it calls "model legislation," procorporate laws its members push in statehouses across the nation. ALEC says close to a
thousand bills, based at least in part on its models, are introduced each year. And an average of
200 pass. This has been going on for decades. Lisa Graves, a former Justice Department attorney,
runs the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit investigative reporting group in Madison,
Wisconsin. In 2011 by way of an ALEC insider, Graves got her hands on a virtual library of internal
ALEC documents. She was amazed by its contents. LISA GRAVES: Bills to change the law to
make it harder for American citizens to vote, those were ALEC bills. Bills to dramatically
change the rights of Americans who were killed or injured by corporations, those were
ALEC bills. Bills to make it harder for unions to do their work were ALEC bills. Bills to
basically block climate change agreements, those were ALEC bills. BILL MOYERS: She and
her team ... found hundreds of corporations [involved], from Coca-Cola and Koch Industries to
Exxon Mobil, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart. There were more than ... 850 boilerplate laws that ALEC
legislators could introduce as their own in any state in the union.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Folks Who Are Fighting Hunger at Home

2012-12-02, Parade Magazine
http://www.parade.com/news/2012/12/02-three-people-fight-feed-america.html?in...
When Joshua Williams was 5 years old, his grandmother gave him $20 to spend on whatever he
wanted. "My mom and I were in the car on the way to church, and I was thinking about all the fun
things I could buy," he says. But then, while waiting at a red light, he looked out the window and
saw a homeless man begging for money. Joshua leaned forward and said he wanted to give the
man the $20 so he could get a meal. "I suggested that we go buy the man some food," says his
mom, Claudia McLean. "But Joshua pointed out, 'What if he doesn't like what we get him?' From
that moment on, he was pestering me about how we could help more people." Soon, the family
began cooking meals every Saturday to distribute to the homeless. Still, says Joshua, 11, "we only
had so much food, and I knew people were still hungry." In 2007, Joshua and his mom
established Joshua's Heart Foundation, which has since given away 400,000 pounds of
food through a variety of initiatives. But the foundation's backpack program, which
discreetly issues food-filled packs to needy schoolchildren before weekends, is closest to
the seventh grader's heart. "When kids don't have to worry whether they'll have dinner that night,
they can concentrate better, do better in school," he says. The program benefits 50 kids in two
Miami-area schools, but Joshua hopes to expand it via corporate donations (Walmart has given
$20,000). The foundation now has 700 volunteers, plus a Junior Advisory Board over which he
presides. "When I look at the faces of the people we're helping and see how happy they are, that's
my favorite moment," he says.
Note: For an inspiring article on how Howard Buffett (son of billionaire Warren Buffett) is doing
incredible work to end hunger worldwide, click here. For deeply inspiring reports from major media
sources, click here

DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas

2012-12-01, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dia-to-send-hundreds-mo...
The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to
assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said. The project is aimed
at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency ... into a spy service focused on emerging threats
and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units. When the expansion is
complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 collectors in positions around the world,
an unprecedented total. They will be trained by the CIA and often work with the U.S. Joint Special
Operations Command, but they will get their spying assignments from the Department of Defense.
Among the Pentagons top intelligence priorities, officials said, are Islamist militant groups in
Africa, weapons transfers by North Korea and Iran, and military modernization underway in China.
The Pentagons plan to create what it calls the Defense Clandestine Service, or DCS, reflects the
militarys latest and largest foray into secret intelligence work. The DIA overhaul combined with
the growth of the CIA since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will create a spy network of

unprecedented size. The expansion of the agencys clandestine role is likely to heighten
concerns that it will be accompanied by an escalation in lethal strikes and other operations
outside public view. Because of differences in legal authorities, the military isnt subject to
the same congressional notification requirements as the CIA.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on secret operations by the
DIA and CIA in the "global war on terror", click here.

Denmark Moves To Cool Its Red-Hot Solar Energy Market

2012-11-30, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2012/11/30/denmark-moves-to-cool-its...
Denmark's energy minister introduced legislation earlier this month that would ... trim generous
subsidies that [along] with the falling price of [solar] panels had triggered [rapid] growth in the
number of residential solar energy systems added to the grid this year. Homeowners have
installed so many rooftop photovoltaic (PV) arrays in 2012 that Denmark exceeded its 2020
solar energy target (200 MW) eight years early. Unlike the solar energy booms in Germany,
Spain, the Czech Republic, and Italy, where governments used feed-in tariffs to stimulate domestic
PV markets, Denmarks solar surge has been powered by net-metering rules. Under a feed-in tariff
scheme, homeowners, businesses, or other PV system owners are paid above-market rate for
electricity sold to the grid over a long-term contract, usually 20 years; in net-metering jurisdictions
like Denmark or California, PV system owners receive credit for surplus electricity sent to the grid.
In Denmark, home to some of the highest electricity rates in Europe, the existing netmetering rules offer a generous return. The new rules introduced by Danish Climate and
Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard on November 20 reduce the incentives offered to solar system
owners and make PV arrays larger than 6 kilowatts eligible for subsidies. Under a national energy
plan approved by the Danish Parliament in March, renewables will account for 35% of the
electricity fed to the Danish grid by 2020 and 100% by 2050.
Note: Isn't that a strange title for the article? Why not something like "Denmark Achieves Solar
Energy Goal 8 Years Early"? And with the questionable future of fossil fuels, why aren't more
countries embracing policies like that of Denmark?

AP's dangerous Iran hoax demands an accounting and explanation

2012-11-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/29/ap-iran-nuclear-program-g...
Evidence proves that the graph trumpeted by [the Associated Press] as evidence of Iran's nuclear
weapons program is an obvious sham. Although it was intuitively obvious that the graph trumpeted
by AP as scary and incriminating of Iran's nuclear program was actually a farce, there is now new,
overwhelming, very compelling scientific evidence that is the case. Whether as victim or
recklessly culpable participant, AP helped perpetrate a dangerous hoax, and owes an

explanation and accounting for what took place, including identifying the "officials from a
country critical of Iran's atomic program" who made false claims about what this is. At the
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), Yousaf Butt and Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress [wrote]: "Graphs such
as the one published by the Associated Press can be found in nuclear science textbooks and on
the Internet." So what AP presented to the world as some sort of highly complex, specialized
document was, in fact, nothing more than a completely common graph easily found in all sorts of
public venues. Butt and Dalnoki-Veress document that the graph "does nothing more than indicate
either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax". That's because, they explain, "the diagram
features quite a massive error, which is unlikely to have been made by research scientists working
at a national level". This error is patently obvious to anyone versed in nuclear physics. Yet AP eager to believe, or at least lead others to believe, that it had some incriminating evidence - either
failed or refused to understand its significance.
Note: You can find the graph in question and other graphs for comparison at the link above. For a
top US general's essay laying bare the desire for continued war at the expense of the public, click
here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on media corruption, click
here.

Two Years of Cablegate as Bradley Manning Testifies for the First Time
2012-11-29, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julian-assange/wikileaks-bradley-manning-testif...
November 29th ... marks the two-year anniversary of the first front pages around the world from
Cablegate, an archive of 251,287 U.S. State Department diplomatic cables. In collaboration with a
network of more than 100 press outlets [Wikileaks] revealed the full spectrum of techniques used
by the United States to exert itself around the world. The young intelligence analyst Bradley
Manning was detained as an alleged source. Manning has been detained without trial for 921
days. This is the longest pre-trial detention of a U.S. military soldier since at least the
Vietnam War. U.S. military law says the maximum is 120 days. The material that Bradley
Manning is alleged to have leaked has highlighted astonishing examples of U.S. subversion
of the democratic process around the world, systematic evasion of accountability for atrocities
and killings, and many other abuses. WikiLeaks released European Commission documents
showing that Senator Lieberman and Congressman Peter T. King directly influenced decisions by
PayPal, Visa and MasterCard to block donations to WikiLeaks. Since the release of the diplomatic
cables, WikiLeaks has continued its operations despite the financial blockade. The information
we've disclosed frustrates the controlled political discourse that is trumpeted by establishment
media and Western governments to shape public perception. We will continue our fight against the
financial blockade, and we will continue to publish. The Pentagon's threats against us do the
United States a disservice and will not be heeded.
Note: We don't usually use Huffington Post as a source, but as no other major media carried this
important and revealing article written by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, we are including it
here.

CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientists 1953 Fatal Fall

2012-11-29, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg News
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/CIA-Accused-of-Coverup-in-Mi...
Central Intelligence Agency employees murdered military scientist Frank Olson in 1953 after he
raised concerns about testing chemical and biological weapons on human subjects without their
consent, according to a lawsuit brought by his two sons. Eric and Nils Olson, in a complaint filed
against the U.S. yesterday in Washington, said the agency has covered up the cause of their
fathers death for 59 years. Frank Olson, who the CIA admitted was given LSD a few days
before his death, didnt jump from a 13th floor window of the Statler Hotel in New York City,
but rather was pushed, they claim. The circumstances surrounding the death mirrored
those detailed in an assassination manual that, upon information and belief, the CIA had
drafted that same year, Scott Gilbert, a lawyer for the Olsons, wrote in the complaint. Olsons
family has tried to piece together how Frank Olson died and the circumstances surrounding his
death ever since a 1975 government report on CIA activities in the U.S. said that he committed
suicide after being given LSD without his knowledge. Preston Golson, a CIA spokesman, said ...
that the agencys covert behavioral research program known as MK-ULTRA was investigated in
1975 by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee, and in 1977 by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific
Research. Olsons sons said in the suit they have asked repeatedly to be told the truth about
their fathers death. Each time, the government has responded with falsehoods, they said.
Note: For lots more on the CIA's Operation MK Ultra, click here. For more on Frank Olson and
secret government mind control programs, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on the games intelligence agencies play, click here.

NYPD Officer's Kindness Sparks Online Sensation

2012-11-29, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nypd-officers-kindness-sparks-online-sensa...
A tourist's snapshot of a New York City police officer giving new boots to a barefoot homeless man
in Times Square has created an online sensation. Jennifer Foster, of Florence, Ariz., was visiting
New York with her boyfriend on Nov. 14, when she came across the shoeless man asking for
change in Times Square. As she was about to approach him, she said the officer identified as
Larry DePrimo came up to the man with a pair of all-weather boots and thermal socks on the
frigid night. She recorded his generosity on her cellphone. DePrimo ... remembered the night
clearly, that even with two pairs of socks on, his feet were freezing. The homeless man "didn't
even have a pair of socks on and I could only imagine how cold that pavement was," the 25-yearold said. The photo shows the officer kneeling beside the man with the boots at his feet. "I have
these size 12 boots for you, they are all-weather. Let's put them on and take care of you," Foster
quoted DePrimo as saying to the man. She wrote: "The officer squatted down on the ground
and proceeded to put socks and the new boots on this man. The officer expected NOTHING

in return and did not know I was watching." DePrimo said buying the boots "was something
I had to do." He tried to persuade the man to get something to eat, but he declined and left.
"When I brought out the shoes, it was just a smile from ear to ear," he said. "It was a great moment
for both of us."
Note: You can see the inspiring photo at the link above. For lots of deeply inspiring stories from
major media sources, click here.

Report: Probe into Afghan bank scandal plagued by political

interference
2012-11-28, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/report-afghan-probe-into-ban...
A scathing new report released [on November 28] details how high-level political interference and
institutional failures thwarted efforts to probe the 2010 collapse of Afghanistans largest bank,
recover hundreds of millions of dollars from fraudulent loans and prosecute the influential Afghans
who profited from a massive scheme to use depositors money as a private piggy bank. Without
naming names, an independent anti-corruption committee of Afghan and international experts
painted a damning portrait of foot-dragging, incompetence and blatant political manipulation
involving virtually every agency that was supposed to either investigate why the Kabul Bank failed
or take legal action against those responsible for looting it of more than $900 million. Kabul Bank
was nothing but a fraud perpetrated against depositors, and ultimately all Afghans, the
report says. Both the flagrant crimes and the repeated failures to pursue them, it said,
reflect an array of larger, worrisome problems that permeate Afghan society and
institutions, including incapacity, nepotism, entitlement and political interference. Over
and over, the report says, supposedly independent bodies such as the attorney generals office
deferred to higher political wishes. Earlier this year, about 20 bank associates were indicted on
charges including money laundering and using false documents or fictitious account names. The
report quotes sources as saying that a high-level committee, meaning a group of powerful
officials, decided which former bank associates would be charged with a crime and that
prosecutors were told to construct indictments to conform to the decisions.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on financial corruption, click
here.

Rules on drone use overdue

2012-11-26, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/Rules-on-drone-use-overdue-4...
This country's secret, worldwide war waged by drones may at long last be restrained by
rules. But the writing of these guidelines will be overseen by President Obama, who has
secretly handpicked human targets for years with few restraints. Drones barely rated a

mention in the presidential campaign. But as the election drew close, nervous White House aides
reportedly began debating written limitations on the use of the pilotless aircraft, which remain an
off-the-books weapon. The idea, strange as it sounds, was to give the next president explicit
guidance on how to use the lethal planes, which have figured in 300 strikes and killed an estimated
2,500 people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. White House officials, according to a New York
Times report, wanted a rulebook in case GOP candidate Mitt Romney won. With Obama's reelection, the urgency behind such drafting has tapered off. Obama has directed drones at human
targets from a "kill list" given him by military and intelligence officials. There is no outside vetting,
legal review or congressional consensus on the president's personal strike force. This is a nation
of laws, due process and an expressed commitment to human rights. The White House owes the
nation a clear explanation of the scope and limits of this use of deadly force.
Note: If any other nation were using drones to kill terrorists in the U.S. or Europe, there would be a
huge public uproar. Why do people care so little about these indiscriminate killings elsewhere? For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on drone killings and other war crimes
committed by the US in its wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click here.

Election Spurred a Move to Codify U.S. Drone Policy

2012-11-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/world/white-house-presses-for-drone-rule-bo...
[There have been] more than 300 drone strikes and some 2,500 people killed by the Central
Intelligence Agency and the military since Mr. Obama first took office. Mr. Obama and his
advisers are still debating whether remote-control killing should be a measure of last resort against
imminent threats to the United States, or a more flexible tool, available to help allied governments
attack their enemies or to prevent militants from controlling territory. Though publicly the
administration presents a united front on the use of drones, behind the scenes there is
longstanding tension. The administration is still pushing to make the rules formal and resolve
internal uncertainty and disagreement about exactly when lethal action is justified. The Defense
Department and the C.I.A. continue to press for greater latitude to carry out strikes. The
administrations legal reasoning has not persuaded many other countries that the strikes
are acceptable under international law. For years before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United
States routinely condemned targeted killings of suspected terrorists by Israel, and most countries
still object to such measures. Partly because United Nations officials know that the United States is
setting a legal and ethical precedent for other countries developing armed drones, the U.N. plans
to open a unit in Geneva early next year to investigate American drone strikes.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on atrocities carried out by
the US in its illegal wars of aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, click here.

Prosecution of Anonymous activists highlights war for Internet control

2012-11-23, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/23/anonymous-trial-wikileaks...
WikiLeaks ... has never been charged by any government with any crime, let alone convicted of
one. Despite that crucial fact, WikiLeaks has been crippled by a staggering array of extra-judicial
punishment imposed either directly by the US and allied governments or with their clear
acquiescence. In 2008, the Pentagon prepared a secret report ... that decreed WikiLeaks to be a
"threat to the US Army" and an enemy of the US. That report plotted tactics that "would damage
and potentially destroy" its ability to function. That is exactly what came to pass. In December
2010, after WikiLeaks began publishing US diplomatic cables, it was hit with cyber-attacks so
massive that the group was "forced to change its web address after the company providing its
domain name cut off service". Master Card and Visa both announced they would refuse to process
payments to the group, as did America's largest financial institution, Bank of America. Acting in the
name of Anonymous, a handful of activists targeted those companies with simple "denial of
service" attacks, ones that impeded the operations of those corporate websites for a few hours. In
stark contrast to the far more significant attacks aimed at WikiLeaks, these attacks,
designed to protest the treatment of WikiLeaks, spawned a global manhunt by western
nations and, ultimately, the arrest of dozens of mostly young alleged hackers, four of whom
are now on trial in London. Last year, the FBI arrested 16 people in the US in connection with
similar attacks on Master Card, Visa and Amazon, and charged them with crimes that carry 10year prison terms.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Chocolate consumption and Nobel Prizes: A bizarre juxtaposition if

there ever was one
2012-11-20, Scientific American Blog
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2012/11/20/choco...
What makes a Nobel Prize winner? There's several suggested factors: Perseverance? Good
luck? Good mentors and students? Heres one possible factor that I would have never imagined in
my wildest dreams; chocolate consumption. Chocolate consumption tracks well with the
number of Nobel Laureates produced by a country. At least that's what a paper published in
the New England Journal of Medicine - one of the worlds premier journals of medical research claims. The paper starts by assuming ... that winning a Nobel Prize must somehow be related to
cognitive ability. It then goes on to describe a link between flavanols - organic molecules found
among other foods in chocolate, green tea and red wine - and cognitive ability. From this idea the
author basically jumps to the dubious and frankly bizarre question of whether chocolate
consumption could possibly account for Nobel Prize winning ability. The hypothesis is testable, so
the author decides to simply plot the number of Nobel prize winners per 10 million people in
different countries counted from 1900-2011 vs the chocolate consumption in those countries. A plot
of chocolate consumption vs number of Nobel Prizes reveals a strong correlation of 0.79. The
most likely explanation for that correlation is that it's caused by a third factor.

Note: Check out the fascinating chart mentioned above. Explore a treasure trove of concise
summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Phone hacking scandal: Ex-confidants of U.K. PM charged with illegal

payments to government officials
2012-11-20, Toronto Star (One of Toronto's leading newspapers)
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1290225--phone-hacking-scandal-ex-c...
Two former confidants of Britains prime minister have been charged with conspiring to pay public
officials in exchange for stories and information the latest development in the countrys
establishment-shaking scandal over media malfeasance. Britains Crown Prosecution Services
[said] that former tabloid editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks were among five people
being charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. Prosecutors said that
Brooks, a neighbour, close friend, and political ally of Prime Minister David Cameron,
conspired with journalist John Kay to funnel as much as 100,000 ($160,000) to Ministry of
Defence employee Bettina Jordan Barber in return for seven years of stories that were
published in Murdochs The Sun newspaper. The allegations cover 2004 to 2011, when Brooks
was editor of The Sun and then in charge of News International, the parent company of Rupert
Murdochs media empire. The prosecutors alleged that Coulson, who until last year served as
Camerons top press aide, conspired in 2005 with former royal reporter Clive Goodman to pay
officials for access to a royal phone directory known as the Green Book. The confidential
directory includes home and office numbers for senior royals including two of Queen Elizabeths
children, Prince Edward and Princess Anne, as well as the landline, office and mobile numbers of
the royal household staff, the Telegraph reported.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on media corruption, click
here.

SEC Rocked By Lurid Sex-and-Corruption Lawsuit

2012-11-19, Rolling Stone blog
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/sec-rocked-by-lurid-sex-a...
Move over, adulterous generals. It might be time to make way for a new sexual rats' nest at
America's top financial police agency, the SEC. In a salacious 77-page complaint ... David Weber,
the former chief investigator for the SEC Inspector General's office, accuses the SEC of retaliating
against Weber for coming forward as a whistleblower. According to this lawsuit, Weber was made
a target of [retaliation] after he came forward with concerns that his bosses may have been
spending more time copulating than they were investigating the SEC. Weber claims that in recent
years, while the SEC Inspector General's office has been attempting to investigate the agency's
seemingly-negligent responses in such matters as the Bernie Madoff case and the less-well-known
(but nearly as disturbing) Stanford Financial Ponzi scandal, two of the IG office's senior officials
former Inspector General David Kotz and his successor, Noelle Maloney were sleeping

together. Weber also claims that Kotz was also having an affair with a lawyer representing a
key group of Stanford victims, a Dr. Gaytri Kachroo. Weber claims that Maloney last year
refused to meet with Kachroo as part of the Stanford investigation. By then, Kotz had stepped
down as SEC IG and Maloney had replaced him as Acting IG. Weber was fired on October 31st.
Apparently he has decided not to take the firing quietly. "When David Weber began to uncover the
depth of dysfunction at the SEC, they fired him," his attorney Cary Hansel said. "He has no
intention of being silenced by threats and false allegations."
Note: We don't normally use Rolling Stone as a source, but this important story has not been
covered elsewhere in the major media.

Patriot Coal to Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining

2012-11-16, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/patriot-coal-stop-mountaintop-removal-mini...
Bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp. agreed [on November 15] to become the first U.S. coal operator to
phase out and eventually stop all large-scale mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia,
under an agreement reached with three environmental groups that sued over pollution from
several West Virginia operations. St. Louis-based Patriot said the proposed agreement allows it to
postpone as much as $27 million in expenses into 2014 and beyond, improving its liquidity and the
likelihood it can successfully emerge from Chapter 11 protection as a viable business.
Mountaintop removal is a highly efficient but particularly destructive form of strip mining
unique to West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies blast apart
mountain ridge tops to expose multiple coal seams. The resulting rock and debris is
dumped in streams, creating so-called valley fills. Patriot is one of the largest mountaintop
removal operators in the region. Presented to U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers in
Huntington for consideration, the agreement came out of water pollution lawsuits filed by the Sierra
Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. Michael
Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, called the agreement a historic moment in the fight
against what he called an "abhorrent" form of mining. "Patriot Coal may be the first company to
cease mountaintop removal mining, but because of the tireless efforts of committed volunteers and
community organizations, it certainly won't be the last," he said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on energy issues, click here.

DIY Africa: Empowering a new Sierra Leone

2012-11-14, CNN blog
http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/14/diy-africa-empowering-a-new-sierra-...
When Kelvin Doe, a then-13-year-old from Sierra Leone, saw that off-the-shelf batteries were too
expensive for the inventions he was working on, he made his own at home. Kelvin did not have the
privilege to do his project in a school environment. Rather, he was compelled to act by necessity

and for the joy of solving practical problems. Kelvin combined acid, soda, and metal, dumped
those ingredients in a tin cup, waited for the mixture to dry and wrapped tape around the cup to
make his first battery. He hasnt purchased a battery since. Next up: A generator. Kelvin made one
of those by hacking an old rusty voltage stabilizer he found in a dustbin. In addition to providing
electricity to his home, where neighbors come to charge their mobile phone batteries, the
generator powers Kelvins homemade FM radio station, fully equipped with a custom music mixer,
recycled CD player and antenna that allow his whole neighborhood to tune in. Now 16, Kelvin has
expanded operations: he employs his friends as reporters and station managers, tasking them to
interview spectators at local soccer games and keep the calendar of requests for his DJ services
at parties and events. The average age of his crew is 12. Kelvin ... was at the 2012 World Maker
Faire held in New York at the end of September. He was invited to participate in a Meet the
Young Makers panel with four other amazing young makers from America. He is the
youngest person in history to be invited to the Visiting Practitioners Program at MIT, and
he presented his inventions to undergraduate students at Harvard College and MIT.
Note: For a popular video on this amazing, young genius from Africa, click here.

Congress approves federal whistleblower protections

2012-11-14, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/congress-approves-federal-whistleblower-p...
Congress has finally approved legislation to strengthen protections for federal whistleblowers. The
legislation is designed to protect employees who expose government wrongdoing against
retaliation by supervisors. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which will enforce the
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), praised the Senates action. In a statement,
OSC said the legislation will: *Overturn court decisions that narrowed protections for government
whistleblowers. *Give whistleblower protections to employees who are not currently covered,
including Transportation Security Administration officers. *Restore the Office of Special Counsels
ability to seek disciplinary actions against supervisors who retaliate. *Hold agencies accountable
for retaliatory investigations. Whistleblower advocates hailed congressional approval of the
legislation. The WPEA closes many loopholes and upgrades protections for federal workers
who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse and illegality, said Angela Canterbury, director
of public policy for the Project On Government Oversight. With the Senates action, free speech
rights for government employees never have been stronger, said Tom Devine, legal director
of the Government Accountability Project. But Devine added that the legislation is not all that
advocates wanted. It would be dishonest to say our work is done, however, or to deny that
government whistleblower rights are still second class compared to those in the private sector, he
said.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Sense of entitlement behind military ethics scandals?

2012-11-14, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/13/generals-behavior-milita...
Three of the military's most senior leaders are embroiled in ethics scandals. The latest, Marine
Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, is under investigation for more than 20,000
pages of material including e-mails sent to Jill Kelley, the woman involved in the scandal that
forced David Petraeus to resign as CIA director. Allen succeeded Petraeus in Kabul. An
Associated Press report ... called the e-mails "flirtatious." Experts speculate that these lapses
stem from the sense of entitlement in the upper reaches that exists not just in the armed
services. "It's an old narrative that those at the top often become poisoned by their power,"
said Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Two
other members of the top brass face ethics probes of their own. Adm. James Stavridis, head of
European Command, was criticized last week in an Pentagon inspector general report that cited
his use of military aircraft for personal business, including a trip to a Burgundy wine-tasting society.
Earlier this year, Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward, then head of U.S. Africa Command, was
hammered by another inspector general report for lavish travel and improper use of military
transportation and staff. The report said Ward and his wife had staff pick up their laundry and do
their shopping. [Allen] had been scheduled for a Senate confirmation hearing this week for his new
post: succeeding Stavridis as chief of European Command. That hearing has been postponed.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on military corruption, click
here.

San Francisco area drivers 1st with algae biofuel

2012-11-14, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/San-Francisco-area-drivers-1st-wit...
Drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area have become the first motorists in the nation to fill
up their gas tanks with an algae-based biofuel. Biodiesel B20 is made from 20 percent algae
and 80 percent petroleum, and can be used by any vehicle that runs on diesel. Advocates
say it is the first in a wave of clean fuel to hit the marketplace. "We are putting a stake in the
ground," said Matt Horton, chief executive officer of Propel Fuels, as he prepared to fill the first
tank with the algae-based product at a Valero station in Redwood City. The fuel's algae was grown
by South San Francisco-based Solazyme Inc. and already has been used in trials by the military
and industrial companies. It was sold for about $4.25 a gallon at the Redwood City station, about
the same as the average price for diesel fuel in California. Horton said most diesel vehicles could
run on 100 percent algae fuel, but doing so would result in higher costs for consumers. He added
that many automakers oppose allowing a mix higher than 20 percent.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on new energy
developments, click here.

Voting machine changes Obama to Romney

2012-11-07, Sydney Morning Herald/Agence France Presse
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/voting-machine-changes-obama-to-romne...
Computer problems, as well as human ones, have drawn complaints across the US as millions of
Americans go to the polls. One Pennsylvania voter highlighted a problem with voting machines on
YouTube, complete with video, in which a touchscreen changed his choice from President Barack
Obama to Republican Mitt Romney. "I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted,"
the man wrote. "I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama
again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney." This was not the first allegation of foulups with electronic machines. In Ohio, some Republicans claimed machines were changing
Romney votes to Obama, while Democrats accused Republican state officials of installing
untested "experimental" software at the last minute. In Florida, The Tampa Bay Times reported that
hundreds of voters received automated "robo-calls" telling them the election was on Wednesday.
An official told the paper a glitch in the phone system allowed the calls to go through early on
Tuesday, telling voters the election was "tomorrow". A similar glitch was reported in the US capital
Washington. The Arizona Republic reported that robo-calls directed voters to the wrong polling
stations, and that Democrats claimed it was an intentional effort by Republicans to misdirect
people amid a tight Senate race.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on elections corruption, click
here.

Afghan corruption, and how the U.S. facilitates it

2012-11-05, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/afghan-corruption-and-h...
When it comes to corruption in Afghanistan, the time may be now for the United States to look in
the mirror and see what lessons can be learned from contracting out parts of that war. On Sept.
30, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told CBSs 60 Minutes that the corruption wracking his
government and its people has been at a level not ever before seen in Afghanistan. In the
1980s, when the Soviets ran the country, the government was not even 5 percent as
corrupt, Karzai said. The Soviets didnt give contracts to the relatives, brothers and the
kin of the influential and high ups, he said. The Americans did, and they continue to do,
but we get blamed for it. The record shows Karzai has a point with which others agree. It is
time that we as Americans in government, in the media, and as analysts and academics took
a hard look at the causes of corruption in Afghanistan. The fact is that we are at least as much to
blame for what has happened as the Afghans, and we have been grindingly slow to either admit
our efforts or correct them. That was written in September 2010 by Anthony H. Cordesman ... in a
Center for Strategic and International Studies report, "How America Corrupted Afghanistan." He
particularly criticized the military contracting process, saying, The bulk of the money actually spent
inside Afghanistan went through poorly supervised military contracts and through aid projects

where the emphasis was speed, projected starts, and measuring progress in terms of spending
rather than results. U.S. and foreign contractors poured money into a limited number of Afghan
powerbrokers who set up companies that were corrupt and did not perform."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

California political watchdog names secret $11 million campaign

contributors, claims they were 'money laundering'
2012-11-05, San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley's leading newspaper)
http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_21932215/fppc-releases-names-donors-w...
Ending some but not all of the mystery behind an anonymous $11 million donation, an Arizona
group revealed under court order ... that the money it pumped into California's ballot wars was
funneled through two groups -- one tied to David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who
have played a huge role in spreading anonymous political cash around the country. The two
conservative groups, Americans for Job Security and the Center to Protect Patient Rights,
are part of a tangled web of so-called dark donors who operate largely out of public view,
shielded by their status as nonprofit advocacy groups that are supposedly not involved
primarily in politics. While the groups have been identified, however, individual donors who have
bankrolled them remain a mystery. "This isn't going to stop here," said Ann Ravel, chairwoman of
the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state's political watchdog. "They admitted to money
laundering." The FPPC determined that the Arizona group, Americans for Responsible Leadership,
had violated California campaign law. Money laundering -- sending money through multiple
sources to conceal the original donor -- is a misdemeanor. But a conspiracy to commit money
laundering is a felony. The donation, the largest anonymous contribution to a ballot measure
campaign in California history, was made to the Small Business Action Committee, a conservative
PAC running a campaign for Proposition 32, the measure that would curb labor's ability to collect
political cash, and against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on elections corruption, click
here.

Dark Money: The Rise of Outside Spending in 2012

2012-11-01, Time Magazine
http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/01/dark-money/
The moneymen behind the outfit spending the most on the Medicare attack ads ... will not show
their faces. The money is being spent through a Washington-based group, Americans for Tax
Reform (ATR), that calls itself a social welfare nonprofit, so it does not need to reveal its donors
to the public. This sort of thing has been happening a lot this year in House and Senate races
around the country. Candidates have found their modest war chests, filled with checks for $2,500

or less, swamped by outside groups, which have no limits on the donations they can collect. In all,
more than $800 million was spent through mid-October on election ads by outside groups,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that total, nearly 1 in 4 dollars is so-called dark
money, meaning the identities of the donors remain a secret. Voters watching TV, listening to the
radio or receiving direct-mail appeals know only the names of the front organizations that bought
the ads. In the past two years, American politics has been transformed by a surge in spending.
One fact tells the story: explicit political-ad spending by outside groups in 2012 is on track to
double the combined total spent by outside groups in each of the four elections since 2002. Ads
purchased with untraceable money tend to be among the most vicious. Nearly 9 in 10 darkmoney spots are negative, and an analysis by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found
that 26% of the ads are deceptive. Almost all of it 83%, according to one review has
been directed against Democrats.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the corruption of the US
electoral system, click here.

When corporations bankroll politics, we all pay the price

2012-10-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/29/capitalism-bankrolls-poli...
It's a revolting spectacle: the two presidential candidates engaged in a frantic and demeaning
scramble for money. By 6 November, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will each have raised more
than $1bn. Other groups have already spent a further billion. Every election costs more than the
one before; every election, as a result, drags the United States deeper into cronyism and
corruption. Is it conceivable, for instance, that Romney, whose top five donors are all Wall Street
banks, would put the financial sector back in its cage? Or that Obama, who has received $700,000
from both Microsoft and Google, would challenge their monopolistic powers? Or, in the Senate,
that the leading climate change denier James Inhofe, whose biggest donors are fossil fuel
companies, could change his views, even when confronted by an overwhelming weight of
evidence? The US feeding frenzy shows how the safeguards and structures of a nominal
democracy can remain in place while the system they define mutates into plutocracy. Despite
perpetual attempts to reform it, US campaign finance is now more corrupt and corrupting
than it has been for decades. It is hard to see how it can be redeemed. If the corporate
cronies and billionaires' bootlickers who currently hold office were to vote to change the
system, they'd commit political suicide. We should see this system as a ghastly warning of
what happens if a nation fails to purge the big money from politics.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the corruption of the US
electoral system, click here.

Sugar Ray Leonard: I was child sex abuse victim

2012-10-29, Chicago Tribune/Reuters

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/chi-sugar-ray-leonard-child-sex...
Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard recounted his own sexual abuse by coaches he trusted, telling
a Penn State audience [that] he hoped to encourage other victims to report abuse to police.
Leonard spoke at a sold-out conference on child sex abuse hosted by Penn State weeks after
former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, 68, was sentenced to prison for 30 to 60 years for
sexually assaulting 10 boys he befriended through his charity for at-risk youth. Leonard, 56, who
retired after winning world boxing titles in five different weight classes, said as a youth he was
sexually assaulted by men he trusted as his boxing coaches. The former champion said he used
drugs and alcohol to numb his shame of being a victim of child sexual abuse. Now
Leonard said he wants to step into the spotlight as a leader in the fight against child sex
abuse in the hopes it will help other victims find the courage to report crimes to police.
Since Sandusky's sentencing, The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN, says the
volume of calls to its sexual assault hotline has increased 47 percent.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.

Was there a paedophile ring in No 10?

2012-10-25, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/was-there-a-paedophile-ring-in-no-...
A powerful paedophile network may have operated in Britain protected by its connections
to Parliament and Downing Street, a senior Labour politician suggested. Tom Watson, the
deputy chairman of the Labour Party, called on the Metropolitan Police to reopen a closed
criminal inquiry into paedophilia. Mr Watson referred to the case of Peter Righton, who was
convicted in 1992 of importing and possessing illegal homosexual pornographic material. Righton,
a former consultant to the National Childrens Bureau and lecturer at the National Institute for
Social Work in London, admitted two illegal importation charges and one charge of possessing
obscene material. He was fined 900. Mr Watson said the evidence file used to convict Righton if
it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. He told a hushed
Commons: One of its members boasts of a link to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister, who
says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up,
but if the files still exist, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, reexamine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to
Parliament and No 10. The Independent understands that Mr Watsons comments were [aimed] at
a living person associated with Margaret Thatchers administration. They are thought to involve the
activities of the Paedophile Information Exchange, a pro-paedophile group in existence between
1974 and 1984, which believed there should be no age of consent.
Note: To learn about a widespread pedophile ring which reaches to the top levels of government,
watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of Silence" at this link. For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to
kill lists
2012-10-23, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/plan-for-hunting-terror...
Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint
for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the disposition matrix. The matrix
contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being
marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S.
officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the
disposition of suspects beyond the reach of American drones. The government expects to
continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years. Among senior Obama administration
officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another
decade. That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was
once known as the global war on terrorism. Targeting lists that were regarded as finite
emergency measures after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now fixtures of the national
security apparatus. The rosters expand and contract with the pace of drone strikes but
never go to zero. Obama has institutionalized the highly classified practice of targeted killing,
transforming ad-hoc elements into a counterterrorism infrastructure capable of sustaining a
seemingly permanent war. Privately, officials acknowledge that the development of the matrix is
part of a series of moves, in Washington and overseas, to embed counterterrorism tools into U.S.
policy for the long haul.
Note: Through the drone program, the U.S. has license to kill in foreign countries without those
being killed given any sort of trial or rights. Is it any wonder some countries are highly critical of this
program? For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the secret and illegal
operations of the "global war on terror," click here.

Jimmy Savile treated school like 'paedophile sweetshop'

2012-10-17, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9614091/Jimmy-Savil...
At least five former pupils have told how the DJ abused them during visits to Duncroft Approved
School when it was under direct Home Office control. They claim that the Jim'll Fix star was given
his own flat in the building in Staines, Surrey, by the headmistress. The institution for emotionally
disturbed girls was under the direct supervision of the Home Office until April 1973. It was visited
regularly by government inspectors. A former pupil, Toni Townsend, one of three girls
photographed with the star in 1972, told the newspaper: "Jimmy treated Duncroft like a paedophile
sweet shop. He used to take his pick of the mix. He would wander around the school in a vest and
tracksuit bottoms. He stayed in a flat on the top floor. He was the only man allowed to stay
overnight. Who knows what horrors happened up there. The girls at Duncroft had been sent
there by the courts for prostitution, drugs and because they tried to kill themselves. Who
would have believed us against Saint Jimmy?" In 2007, Surrey Police investigated Savile over

allegations that he had abused pupils at the school but the Crown Prosecution Service ruled there
was insufficient evidence. His former assistant Janet Cope told how Savile had an explosive
temper that terrified everyone from hospital staff to fund-raisers. Miss Cope ... conceded that even
she may have been duped. "Sadly, the evidence against Jim does seem a bit overwhelming and,
really, I'm at a loss for words," she said. "He thought he was untouchable because he was hand in
glove with the hospitals, royalty and the Prime Minister."
Note: If you are ready to see how investigations into a massive child sex abuse ring have led to
the highest levels of government, watch the suppressed Discovery Channel documentary
"Conspiracy of Silence," available here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on sexual abuse, click here.

An Excerpt: 'Plutocrats'
2012-10-15, NPR
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/162800856/plutocrats-the-rise-of-the-new-glob...
Branko Milanovic is an economist at the World Bank. He first became interested in income
inequality studying for his PhD in the 1980s in his native Yugoslavia, where he discovered it was
officially viewed as a "sensitive" subject which meant one the ruling regime didn't want its
scholars to look at too closely. But when Milanovic moved to Washington, he discovered a curious
thing. Americans were happy to celebrate their super-rich and, at least sometimes, worry about
their poor. But putting those two conversations together and talking about economic inequality was
pretty much taboo. "I was once told by the head of a prestigious think tank in Washington,
D.C., that the think tank's board was very unlikely to fund any work that had income or
wealth inequality in its title," Milanovic ... explained in a recent book. "Yes, they would
finance anything to do with poverty alleviation, but inequality was an altogether different
matter." "Why?" he asked. "Because 'my' concern with the poverty of some people actually
projects me in a very nice, warm glow: I am ready to use my money to help them. Charity is a good
thing; a lot of egos are boosted by it and many ethical points earned even when only tiny amounts
are given to the poor. But inequality is different: Every mention of it raises in fact the issue of the
appropriateness or legitimacy of my income." When the discussion shifts from celebratory to
analytical, the super-elite get nervous.
Note: Excerpted from Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone
Else by Chrystia Freeland. For revealing major media articles showing the stark gap between the
uber-rich and the rest of us, click here.

Iraq records huge rise in birth defects

2012-10-14, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-...

It played unwilling host to one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war. Fallujah's ... residents
changed the name of their "City of Mosques" to "the polluted city" after the United States launched
two massive military campaigns eight years ago. A new study reports a "staggering rise" in birth
defects among Iraqi children conceived in the aftermath of the war. High rates of miscarriage, toxic
levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects ranging from
congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs have been recorded. There is
"compelling evidence" to link the increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military
assaults, says Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an
environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. US marines first
bombarded Fallujah in April 2004. Seven months later, the marines stormed the city for a second
time, using some of the heaviest US air strikes deployed in Iraq. American forces later admitted
that they had used white phosphorus shells, although they never admitted to using depleted
uranium, which has been linked to high rates of cancer and birth defects. The new findings,
published in the [Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology], will bolster claims that
US and Nato munitions used in the conflict led to a widespread health crisis in Iraq. The latest
study found that in Fallujah, more than half of all babies surveyed were born with a birth
defect between 2007 and 2010. Before the siege, this figure was more like one in 10. Prior to
the turn of the millennium, fewer than 2 per cent of babies were born with a defect.
Note: Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after British troops invaded,
according to the report at the link above. For a five-minute BBC clip showing how the damage
inflicted on Iraqi babies is being covered up at the highest levels, click here. For more on this, click
here.

Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

2012-10-11, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cross-closet-straight-christian-lives-year-gay-m...
In his Nashville Christian church, Timothy Kurek was taught the lesson of God's wrath in the
Biblical story of "Sodom and Gomorrah," and he believed that homosexuality was a sin. But about
four years ago, when a lesbian he knew from karaoke night confided to him that her parents had
disowned her when she came out, Kurek felt that he failed her. He wondered what it felt like to be
gay and so alone. So even though Kurek identifies as straight, he embarked on what one religious
writer called "spiritual espionage." He would live like a gay man for a year. Now 26 and no longer
homophobic, Kurek writes about his journey -- one that included hanging out in gay bars and
facing the disappointment of his family and rejection of his friends -- in his memoir, The Cross in
the Closet. Only three people knew the truth, and he needed them to carry out his audacious
project: his closest friend, an aunt and Shawn, a gay friend whom Kurek also met at karaoke night.
Kind-hearted Shawn, whom Kurek described as "a big black burly teddy bear," became his
"pretend boyfriend." But most of all, Shawn was the "first gay person that I let into my heart," said
Kurek. "He was totally there for me through emotional turmoil ... I trusted him." Rev. Connie
Waters, a protestant minister and LGBT ally from Memphis ... said she was "proud" of him. "The

transformation in him was life-changing," she said. "It's what you hope for -- the goal of the
Christian walk of faith. It's enough for me that he transformed, but if others learn from him,
what an extra blessing that is."
Note: For more on this amazing story, click here.

Intelligence Effort Named Citizens, Not Terrorists

2012-10-03, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/intelligence-effort-named-citizens...
A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly
collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on
terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone's
ability to control. What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same
room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining
software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used
for commuting, investigators found. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington:
National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and
manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. When fusion centers did address
terrorism, they sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties. The centers have
made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both
sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights. One fusion center cited in
the Senate investigation wrote a report about a Muslim community group's list of book
recommendations. Others discussed American citizens speaking at mosques or talking to Muslim
groups about parenting. No evidence of criminal activity was contained in those reports. The
government did not circulate them, but it kept them on government computers. The federal
government is prohibited from storing information about First Amendment activities not related to
crimes.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Energy firm uses 'land grabs' to secure fracking rights from reluctant
landowners
2012-10-02, NBC News
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14183177-energy-firm-uses-lan...
Ranjana Bhandari and her husband knew the natural gas beneath their ranch-style home in
Arlington, Texas, could be worth a lot - especially when they got offer after offer from Chesapeake
Energy Corp. Their repeated refusals didn't stop Chesapeake, the second-largest natural gas
producer in the United States. This June, after petitioning a Texas state agency for an exception to
a 93-year-old statute, the company effectively secured the ability to drain the gas from beneath the
Bhandari property anyway -- without having to pay the couple a penny. In fact, since January

2005, the Texas agency has rejected just five of Chesapeake's 1,628 requests for such
exceptions. Chesapeake's use of the Texas law is among the latest examples of how the
company executes what it calls a "land grab" -- an aggressive leasing strategy intended to
lock up prospective drilling sites and lock out competitors. Chesapeake has become the
principal player in the largest land boom in America since the California Gold Rush of the late
1840s and 50s, amassing drilling rights on more land than almost any U.S. energy company. After
years of leasing tracts from New York to Wyoming, the company now controls the right to drill for
oil and gas on about 15 million acres -- roughly the size of West Virginia.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

GM cow designed to produce milk without an allergy-causing protein

2012-10-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/01/gm-cow-milk-alllergy-protein
A genetically modified cow whose milk lacks a substance that causes allergic reactions in people
has been created by scientists in New Zealand. In their first year of life, two or three in every
hundred infants are allergic to a whey protein in milk called BLG. The researchers engineered the
cow, called Daisy, to produce milk that doesn't contain the protein. While the genetic alteration
slashed levels of BLG protein in the cow's milk to undetectable levels, it more than doubled the
concentrations of other milk proteins called caseins. The cow was created with the same cloning
procedure that led to Dolly the sheep in 1996. Most of the differences between cow and human
milk do not cause problems for people who consume it, but BLG or beta-lactoglobulin protein,
which is found in milk from cows and other ruminants, is a major cause of allergic reactions. To
make Daisy, scientists took a cow skin cell and genetically modified it to produce molecules that
block the manufacture of BLG protein. The nucleus of this cell was then transferred into a cow egg
that had its own nucleus removed. The reconstituted egg was grown in the lab until it formed what
is called a blastocyst, a ball of around 100 cells, and then transplanted into the womb of a foster
cow. The cloning technique is not efficient. Of around 100 blastocysts the scientists implanted into
cows, more than half of the pregnancies failed early on, and only one live calf, Daisy, was
born. One question the New Zealand team is working on now is why Daisy was born
without a tail. The cloning process is most likely to blame for the birth defect.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on genetically modified
organisms (GMOs), click here.

US calls Assange 'enemy of state'

2012-09-27, Sydney Morning Herald (One of Australia's leading newspapers)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-calls-assange-enemy-of-state-...

The US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency. Declassified
US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws,
reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at
risk of being charged with "communicating with the enemy", a military crime that carries a
maximum sentence of death. The documents, some originally classified "Secret/NoForn" - not
releasable to non-US nationals - record a probe by the air force's Office of Special Investigations
into a cyber systems analyst based in Britain who allegedly expressed support for WikiLeaks and
attended pro-Assange demonstrations in London. The suspected offence was "communicating
with the enemy, 104-D", an article in the US Uniform Code of Military Justice that prohibits military
personnel from "communicating, corresponding or holding intercourse with the enemy". US VicePresident Joe Biden labelled Mr Assange a "high-tech terrorist" in December 2010 and US
congressional leaders have called for him to be charged with espionage. Sarah Palin and Mike
Huckabee - both once involved in presidential campaigns - have both urged that Mr Assange be
"hunted down". Mr Assange's US attorney, Michael Ratner, said the designation of WikiLeaks
as an "enemy" had serious implications for the WikiLeaks publisher if he were to be
extradited to the US, including possible military detention.
Note: So revealing top secrets can cause you to be labelled an enemy of the state. Write you
political and media representatives to protest this stance. For analysis of this story, click here. For
deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on military corruption, click here.

Can LSD cure depression?

2012-09-25, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9565026/Can-LSD-cure-depression.html
Until recently, prescribing Ecstasy, mescaline or magic mushrooms has been a guaranteed way for
a psychiatrist to lose his research funding, his job or even his liberty. But now, scientists are
beginning to suspect that such illegal drugs may be the key to treating a range of intractable
illnesses, from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression. These chemicals [include] the
psychedelic drugs psilocybin, derived from magic mushrooms, and LSD, as well as Ecstasy. A
series of studies performed in Britain and the US is beginning to tease out their potential benefits.
People become very emotionally tender on Ecstasy, which makes you more responsive to
psychotherapy, explains Dr Robin Carhart-Harris. [In] volunteers given the ... drug, the area of
their brain involved in positive memories became more active, while another processing negative
memories was damped down. We think this would make it easier for patients to revisit a traumatic
memory and overwrite or control it, says Carhart-Harris. Earlier studies have made surprising
discoveries about what psilocybin, a class-A drug in Britain, was doing in the brain. These in turn
could lead to new treatments for depression and agonising cluster headaches. This may all sound
radical, or even dangerous yet half a century ago, research into the effects of psychedelic
drugs was widespread and respectable. More than 1,000 papers were published looking at
ways that psychiatrists could help patients with hallucinogenic chemicals.

Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on mind-altering drugs, click
here.

Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize many civilians, U.S. study says
2012-09-25, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/world/asia/pakistan-us-drone-strikes/index.html
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed far more people than the United States has
acknowledged, have traumatized innocent residents and largely been ineffective, according to a
new study released [on September 25]. The study by Stanford Law School and New York
University's School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of "highlevel" targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low -- about 2%. In contrast to
more conservative U.S. statements, the Stanford/NYU report -- titled "Living Under Drones" -offers starker figures published by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an independent
organization based at City University in London. Based on interviews with witnesses, victims and
experts, the report accuses the CIA of "double-striking" a target, moments after the initial
hit, thereby killing first responders. It also highlights harm "beyond death and physical
injury," publishing accounts of psychological trauma experienced by people living in
Pakistan's tribal northwest region, who it says hear drones hover 24 hours a day. "Before
this we were all very happy," the report quotes an anonymous resident as saying. "But after these
drones attacks a lot of people are victims and have lost members of their family. A lot of them, they
have mental illnesses." People have to live with the fear that a strike could come down on them at
any moment of the day or night, leaving behind dead whose "bodies are shattered to pieces," and
survivors who must be desperately sped to a hospital.
Note: Visit the Living Under Drones website here. For a Democracy Now! report on the results of
this study click here. For more analysis click here and here.

Russia Suspends Import, Use Of Genetically Modified Corn

2012-09-25, Fox News
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/09/25/russia-suspends-import-use-genetic...
Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said ... it has suspended the import and
use of genetically modified corn made by Monsanto Co. following a study's allegations that the
crop causes cancer. Rospotrebnadzor said the country's Institute of Nutrition has been asked to
assess the validity of the study, while the European Commission's Directorate General for Health &
Consumers has also been contacted to explain the European Union's position. The study,
conducted by the University of Caen in France, [found] that rats fed over a two-year period with
the U.S. chemical company's genetically modified NK603 corn, developed more tumors and
other severe diseases than a test group fed with regular corn. The study also [found] that
rats fed with NK603 and exposed to Monsanto's Roundup weed killer suffered from more
pathologies than the test group. Last week Monsanto said it did not think the French study

would affect its license to export the NK603 to Europe but would wait to hear from the European
Food Safety Authority, or EFSA, which has been asked by the European Commission to also look
into the research.
Note: For a powerful summary of the risks to health from GMO foods, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on GMOs, click here. For a powerful 13minute video revealing the disturbing results of the above-mentioned scientific study showing how
GM corn greatly increased cancer incidence in rats, click here.

Researcher to discuss military testing in St. Louis in the 1950s

2012-09-23, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis' leading newspaper)
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/researcher-to-discuss-military-testi...
At 11:05 on a February night in 1953, a worker employed by the U.S. Army opened a valve on a
motorized blower and for five minutes dispersed a mysterious fluffy powder into downtown St.
Louis. So began military-sponsored tests in St. Louis that remained secret for four decades and, to
this day, raise questions about what the government was up to in the Cold War operation. St. Louis
was among several cities where the aerosol testing took place in the 1950s and 1960s with zinc
cadmium sulfide, a chemical powder mixed with fluorescent particles so that dispersal patterns
could be traced. In 1953 alone, the military conducted 16 tests involving 35 separate releases of
zinc cadmium sulfide in St. Louis, many in an area described at the time as "a densely populated
slum district." The Army conceded later that the tests were part of a biological weapons program
and that St. Louis was chosen because it roughly matched the population and terrain of Russian
cities that the United States might attack. Relying heavily on documents obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act, [Prof. Lisa] Martino-Taylor identifies connections between
participants in the St. Louis testing and scientists who took part in wartime efforts to build
the atomic bomb. Noting postwar efforts to test radioactive materials on Americans, she
raises suspicions that the St. Louis testing involved not just materials called harmless by
the Army but possibly radioactive isotopes. Martino-Taylor found in her research that the
aerosol particles were milled so as to be easily absorbed into lungs.
Note: For a follow-up news video on this, click here. Many other examples of secret spraying and
other tests using unknowing humans as guinea pigs with links for verification are listed at this link.
For reliable evidence of chemtrails endangering public health, click here. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on secret military and intelligence agency
experimentation on unwitting civilians, click here.

Self-described 'child prostitute' connects Jerry Sandusky to Poly Prep

sex abuse scandal and coach Phil Foglietta
2012-09-19, New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/self-described-child-prostitute-conn...

A Philadelphia man who claims to have been paid to have sex with former Poly Prep football coach
Phil Foglietta in 1979 as part of an alleged pedophile ring that included Jerry Sandusky sent an
email to several Poly Prep officials on Monday ... detailing the explosive allegation. Greg
Bucceroni, 48, also sent the email to Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney who
represents 12 men who sued the school, alleging Poly Prep officials knew that Foglietta was a
sexual predator but covered it up for decades in order to protect the elite institution's reputation
and fund-raising efforts. Bucceroni says he was a teenager when he said he met Foglietta at a
Second Mile fund-raiser near State College, Pa. The Second Mile organization, which helped atrisk youths, was founded in 1977 by Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach who was
convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse of minors in June. Sandusky, who is scheduled to be
sentenced next month, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. In the email to Poly Prep,
Bucceroni said he was "a child prostitute" and was associated with a pedophile ring that
included Sandusky, Foglietta, now-deceased Philadelphia businessman Ed Savitz and
former Wharton School of Business professor Lawrence Scott Ward, who is serving a
lengthy prison sentence for trafficking in child porn and smuggling photos and videos of
himself having sex with a teenage Brazilian boy.
Note: We don't generally use the New York Daily News as a source, yet as this one is backed by a
Washington Post report and others, we are including it here. For a suppressed Discovery Channel
documentary providing powerful evidence of a child abuse ring that goes to the highest level in
government, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on
institutional sexual abuse, click here.

G.M.O.s: Lets Label Em

2012-09-15, New York Times blog
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/g-m-o-s-lets-label-em
It's not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone wants to see the labeling of genetically
engineered materials contained in their food products. And on Nov. 6, in what's unquestionably
among the most important non-national votes this year, Californians will have the opportunity to
make that happen [by voting] on Proposition 37. It would require "labeling on raw or processed
food offered for sale to consumers if made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in
specified ways." And it would prohibit marketing "such food, or other processed food, as natural.' "
Polls show Prop 37 to be overwhelmingly popular: roughly 65 percent for to 20 percent against,
with 15 percent undecided. Nationally, on the broader issue of labeling, in answer to the question
of whether the Food and Drug Administration should require that "foods which have been
genetically engineered or containing genetically engineered ingredients be labeled to indicate
that," a whopping 91 percent of voters say yes and 5 percent say no. This is as nonpartisan as
an issue gets, and the polls haven't changed much in the last couple of years. Unsurprisingly,
Big Food in general - and particularly companies like Monsanto that produce genetically
engineered seeds ... have already thrown tens of millions of dollars into defeating Prop 37.
In general, as California goes, so goes the nation.

Note: With such a strong mandate, why do no U.S. states have GMO labeling laws? Will the many
millions of dollars pumped into the Prop 37 campaign by Monsanto and others sway the voters?
We will find out soon. For a powerful summary of the health risks from GMO foods, click here.

The Face of Indefinite Detention

2012-09-14, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/opinion/life-and-death-at-guantanamo-bay.html
Before he died on Sept. 8, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif had spent close to 4,000 days and nights in
the American prison at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba. He was found unconscious, alone in his cell,
thousands of miles from home and family in Yemen. Like so many men still imprisoned at
Guantnamo, Mr. Latif was fleeing American bombing - not fighting - when he was apprehended
by the Pakistani police near the Afghan border and turned over to the United States military. He
was never charged with a crime. The United States government claims the legal authority to
hold men like Mr. Latif until the "war on terror" ends, which is to say, forever. Setting aside
this troubling legal proposition, his death and the despair he endured in the years
preceding it remind us of the toll Guantnamo takes on human beings. Adnan Latif is the
human face of indefinite detention. [In 2010] a United States District Court judge hearing Mr.
Latifs habeas corpus petition ordered him released, ruling that the accusations against him were
"unconvincing" and that his detention was "not lawful." By that time, Mr. Latif had been cleared for
release from Guantnamo on three separate occasions, including in 2009 by the Obama
administrations multiagency Guantnamo Review Task Force. Nevertheless, the Department of
Justice appealed the district courts decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit - which has ruled in the governments favor in nearly every habeas corpus
appeal it has heard.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Why didn't CNN's international arm air its own documentary on

Bahrain's Arab Spring repression?
2012-09-04, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/04/cnn-international-documentary-ba...
In late March 2011, as the Arab Spring was spreading, CNN sent a four-person crew to Bahrain to
produce a one-hour documentary on the use of internet technologies and social media by
democracy activists in the region. Featuring on-air investigative correspondent Amber Lyon, the
CNN team had a very eventful eight-day stay. The documentary [was] titled "iRevolution: Online
Warriors of the Arab Spring". The portion Lyon and her team produced on Bahrain ended up as a
13-minute segment in the documentary. That segment, which as of now is available on YouTube,
is a hard-hitting and unflinching piece of reporting that depicts the regime in a very negative light.
In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of
government forces, while family members recounted their relatives' abrupt disappearances. On 19

June 2011 at 8pm, CNN's domestic outlet in the US aired "iRevolution" for the first and only time.
The program received prestigious journalism awards. [But] CNN International never broadcast the
documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees
inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for
the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi. It is CNN International that
is, by far, the most-watched English-speaking news outlet in the Middle East. By refusing to
broadcast "iRevolution", the network's executives ensured it was never seen on television
by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.
Note: For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing media corruption news articles
from reliable major media sources.

U.S. lays out examples of 'gross negligence' by BP

2012-09-04, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48904731#.UEttgKDAHLQ
The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up its rhetoric against BP [formerly British Petroleum] for
the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, describing in new court papers examples of what it
calls "gross negligence and willful misconduct." The court filing is the sharpest position yet taken
by the U.S. government as it seeks to hold the British oil giant largely responsible for the largest oil
spill in U.S. history. Gross negligence is a central issue to the case, slated to go to trial in New
Orleans in January 2013. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple the civil damages
owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $21 billion. The U.S. government and BP are engaged
in talks to settle civil and potential criminal liability, though neither side will comment on the status
of negotiations. Specifically, errors made by BP and Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the
Deepwater Horizon platform, in deciphering a key pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear
indication of gross negligence, the Justice Department said. "That such a simple, yet
fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so
many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," the government said in its
39-page filing.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

Farm Use of Antibiotics Defies Scrutiny

2012-09-04, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/health/use-of-antibiotics-in-animals-raised...
Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States goes to chickens, pigs, cows and other
animals that people eat, yet producers of meat and poultry are not required to report how they use
the drugs - which ones, on what types of animal, and in what quantities. This dearth of information
makes it difficult to document the precise relationship between routine antibiotic use in animals and

antibiotic-resistant infections in people, scientists say. Advocates contend that there is already
overwhelming epidemiological evidence linking the two, something that even the Food and Drug
Administration has acknowledged, and that further study, while useful for science, is not essential
for decision making. "At some point the available science can be used in making policy decisions,"
said Gail Hansen, an epidemiologist who works for Pew Charitable Trusts, which advocates
against overuse of antibiotics. But scientists say the blank spots in data collection are a
serious handicap in taking on powerful producers of poultry and meat who claim the link
does not exist. "Its like facing off against a major public health crisis with one hand tied
behind our backs," said Keeve Nachman, an environmental health scientist at the Johns Hopkins
Center for a Livable Future, which does research on food systems. "The single biggest problem
we face in infectious disease today is the rapid growth of resistance to antibiotics," said
Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. "Human
use contributes to that, but use in animals clearly has a part too."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

The mind business

2012-08-24, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d9cb7940-ebea-11e1-985a-00144feab49a.html
For seven years now, a growing number of General Mills workers have been practising meditation,
yoga and so-called mindfulness in the workplace. And what began as a side project by one
executive has transformed the culture of a Fortune 200 multinational. Its about training our minds
to be more focused, to see with clarity, to have spaciousness for creativity and to feel connected,
says Janice Marturano, General Mills deputy general counsel, who founded the programme. That
compassion to ourselves, to everyone around us our colleagues, customers thats what the
training of mindfulness is really about. The General Mills initiative is at the vanguard of a
movement that is quietly reshaping certain corners of the corporate world. With meditation, yoga
and mindfulness, the foundational tenets of Buddhism, Hinduism and other pan-Asian
philosophies have infiltrated the upper echelons of some of the biggest companies on earth.
William George, a current Goldman Sachs board member and a former chief executive of the
healthcare giant Medtronic, ... is one of the main advocates for bringing meditation into corporate
life. The main business case for meditation is that if youre fully present on the job, you will be
more effective as a leader, you will make better decisions and you will work better with other
people, he [says]. Though the combination of mysticism and capitalism may seem
incongruous, this interplay has found fertile ground at some of the best-known companies
in the US and Europe. It is happening at Target, Google and First Direct, among others.
Today, in organisations large and small, eastern wisdom is changing western business.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Proposition 37 in California: A high-stakes food fight

2012-08-24, San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley's leading newspaper)
http://www.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_21391702/proposition-37-california-hi...
If Proposition 37 passes, California would become the first state in the nation to require new labels
on a host of food products commonly found on grocery store shelves. Many other nations,
including Japan, China and a host of European countries, already label genetically
engineered food. In the United States, however, products that contain genetically engineered
ingredients are generally not labeled. Proponents ... have raised $2.8 million. A company owned
by Joseph Mercola, a controversial holistic health activist from Illinois with more than 100,000
Twitter followers, has kicked in $800,000. Opponents have raised nine times as much. Almost all
of the nearly $25 million has come from a variety of chemical, seed and processed-food
companies. Monsanto, a leading producer of genetically engineered seeds, donated $4.2 million,
the largest donation. The labeling initiative largely covers processed foods. Milk, cheese and other
dairy products made from cows that are injected with the bovine growth hormone or eat genetically
engineered feed like alfalfa would be exempt, but meat or dairy products from animals that are
genetically engineered would be labeled. In 2000, 25 percent of the corn planted in the United
States was genetically engineered, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By
2012, that figure had soared to 88 percent. The group California Right to Know, which is leading
the pro-labeling campaign, is counting on a vast social media network and volunteers to get its
message out. Stacy Malkan, a spokeswoman for the yes campaign, said [this] "is a people's
movement against out-of-state corporations."
Note: A graph in this article shows that 94% of the funds raised against Proposition 37 came from
outside of California. And how interesting that Dr. Mercola is called controversial, considering that
he now has nearly 2 million subscribers to his mos excellent email list. For an article titled "The
Top 10 Lies Told by Monsanto on GMO Labeling in California," click here. For a great collection of
past major media articles revealing the serious risks and dangers of genetically modified foods,
click here.

The Program
2012-08-23, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domes...
[William] Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower, ...
described details about Stellar Wind, the N.S.A.s top-secret domestic spying program begun after
9/11, which was so controversial that it nearly caused top Justice Department officials to resign in
protest, in 2004. The decision must have been made in September 2001, Mr. Binney told me
[and] cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Thats when the equipment started coming in. He
resigned over this in 2001 and began speaking out publicly in the last year. [Binney] is among a
group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked
everything their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships to warn Americans
about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying. The N.S.A. has technical abilities that are

nearly impossible to defend against if you are targeted. The 2008 amendments to the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, which oversees the N.S.A. activities, are up for renewal in December.
Two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon
and Mark Udall of Colorado ... have been warning about secret interpretations of laws and
backdoor loopholes that allow the government to collect our private communications. Thirteen
senators have signed a letter expressing concern about a loophole in the law that permits the
collection of United States data. The A.C.L.U. and other groups have also challenged the
constitutionality of the law, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Oct. 29.
Note: The video about this on the NY Times webpage at the link above is quite revealing. One
potent comment of this 32-year NSA veteran in the video is "They wanted to highly classify the
extreme impeachable crimes they were committing." For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on government and corporate surveillance, click here.

Oceana targets fishy labeling practices

2012-08-23, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oceana-targets-fishy-labeling-practices...
Oceana, a group dedicated to preserving the ocean ecosystem, is testing fish nationwide to find
out whether seafood fraud is as widespread as some people think it is. It is now possible to
determine exactly what species is being served at the local fish shack, thanks to recent advances
in genetic sequencing. Oceana has thus far found seafood mislabeling everywhere it has done
testing, including Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Monterey. The DNA-testing campaign, in which
dozens of volunteers are provided testing kits with instructions and monitoring sheets, created an
uproar when the early results came out. In South Florida ... results showed that 31 percent of the
fish tested at restaurants and markets was mislabeled. In Los Angeles, 55 percent, and in
Boston, 48 percent of the fish sold was not what it was touted to be. In Los Angeles ... eight
out of nine sushi samples labeled as "white tuna," or shiro maguro, were actually escolar, which
[has been called] the "ex-lax fish" for its purgative effect on the digestive system. Escolar is not
among the 14 species that can legally be labeled as tuna. Oceana found that 87 percent of the
sushi venues tested misrepresented the fish being served. The results follow several Consumer
Reports studies that had similar results, including a 2006 report that found that 56 percent of
the salmon marketed in the United States as wild was actually farmed. Thirty-one percent of
grocery stores misidentified fish. In many cases, there is no way for the consumer to know
whether the fish is what the restaurant, fish market or grocery store claims it is.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corporate corruption,
click here.

The bizarre, unhealthy, blinding media contempt for Julian Assange

2012-08-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
"http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/julian-assange-media-con...

Is it not remarkable that one of the very few individuals over the past decade to risk his welfare,
liberty and even life to meaningfully challenge the secrecy regime on which the American national
security state (and those of its obedient allies) depends just so happens to have become long
before he sought asylum from Ecuador the most intensely and personally despised figure among
the American and British media class and the British "liberal" intelligentsia? In 2008 two years
before the release of the "collateral murder" video, the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and the
diplomatic cables the Pentagon prepared a secret report which proclaimed WikiLeaks to be an
enemy of the state and plotted ways to destroy its credibility and reputation. But in a stroke of
amazing luck, Pentagon operatives never needed to do any of that, because the
establishment media in the US and Britain harbor at least as much intense personal
loathing for the group's founder as the US government does, and eagerly took the lead in
targeting him. Many people like to posit the US national security state and western media outlets
as adversarial forces, but here as is so often the case they have so harmoniously joined in
common cause. Whatever else is true, establishment media outlets show unlimited personal
animus toward the person who, as a panel of judges put it when they awarded him the the 2011
Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism, "has given the public more scoops than most journalists can
imagine."
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government secrecy,
click here.

Why was a Navy adviser stripped of her career?

2012-08-21, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/sunk/2012/08/21/96209788-ceb...
It was 2007, and [Gwenyth] Todd, then 42, was a top political adviser to the U.S. Navys 5th Fleet.
Previous 5th Fleet commanders had resisted various ploys by Bush administration hawks to
threaten the Tehran regime. But in spring 2007, a new commander arrived with an ambitious
program to show the Iranians who was boss in the Persian Gulf. Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff ...
was itching to push the Iranians, Todd and other present and former Navy officials say. Cosgriffs
idea, presented in a series of staff meetings, was to sail three big decks, as aircraft carriers are
known, through the Strait of Hormuz to put a virtual armada, unannounced, on Irans doorstep.
No advance notice, even to Saudi Arabia and other gulf allies. Not only that, they said, Cosgriff
ordered his staff to keep the State Department in the dark, too. To Todd, it was like something
straight out of Seven Days in May, the 1964 political thriller about a right-wing U.S. military coup.
Todd feared that the Iranians would respond, possibly by launching fast-attack missile boats into
the gulf or unleashing Hezbollah on Israel. Then anything could happen: a collision, a jittery
exchange of gunfire bad enough on its own, but also an incident that Washington hawks
could seize on to justify an all-out response on Iran. Preposterous? It had happened before,
off North Vietnam in 1964. In the Tonkin Gulf incident, a Navy captain claimed a communist
attack on his ship. President Lyndon Johnson swiftly ordered the bombing of North Vietnam,
touching off a wider war that turned the country upside down and left more than 58,000 U.S.
servicemen dead.

Note: Todd eventually was stripped of her career under most unusual circumstances. This entire
article is most intriguing and informative about the inner workings of the military. For more on this,
click here.

Prop. 37: Consumers need to know

2012-08-21, San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Prop-37-Consumers-need-to-kno...
Voters will decide on an issue this November that affects us all: our right to know what's in our
food. Millions of Californians are saying: We want to know, and we have the right to know, if our
food has been genetically engineered. Parents, farmers, health care professionals,
environmentalists, politicians and labor groups want to know, too. Proposition 37 requires
companies to add a few words to labels if their food has been genetically modified. Also called
GMOs, these modified plant and animal products have been altered in a lab to combine DNA from
one species with another to create combinations that don't occur in nature. An example is
Monsanto's genetically modified sweet corn, which has been engineered to contain an insecticide,
Bt toxin, within the corn itself. Voters and consumers also have environmental concerns. GMO
crops have led to an overall increase in pesticide use, the emergence of superweeds and
superbugs, and the unintentional contamination of non-GMO crops with GMO-crop pollens. Here
in California, out-of-state pesticide and food companies have contributed $25 million to
blanket the airwaves with deceptive commercials trying to persuade us that labeling is too
costly, scary or confusing. We've heard it all before. They used the same tactics to claim
hardship if they were forced to tell consumers about calories, fat content or other information we
use every day to choose our food. We're not buying these scare stories. It's a simple label. We
have a right to know what's in our food. This is how our country is supposed to work - we are free
to make informed choices. Proposition 37 will help us exercise that freedom about what we eat.
We urge you to vote yes on Prop. 37.
Note: For a great collection of past major media articles revealing the serious risks and dangers of
genetically modified foods, click here.

Former Marine Detained After Alleged Facebook Threats

2012-08-21, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/former-marine-detained-after-all...
A 26 year old former Marine has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after being
detained for alleged threats he made on Facebook. Brandon Raub, who lives in Chesterfield,
Virginia, was detained [on August 16] after being questioned by law enforcement about his
postings. Sharpen up my axe; Im here to sever heads, Raub posted to Facebook on August 13,
2012. The post appears to be a lyric from the band Swollen Members and its song Bring Me
Down. The case has pitted First Amendment freedoms against potential security concerns. Raub,
who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was questioned by the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and

Chesterfield County Police ... and was then taken into custody by the Chesterfield County Police
Department. At a court hearing on [August 20] Raub was ordered to be detained for mental
evaluation for 30 days. Court records on Raub only showed traffic violations. A Facebook group
supporting Raub already has over 5,800 supporters. For government officials to not only
arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights
but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his
will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon. This should
be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here, said John Whitehead, president of
The Rutherford Institute, which is serving as counsel for Raub.
Note: Thanks to public outcry, this man was later released. For more on this, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Ag Giants Spend Big to Defeat Labeling Initiative

2012-08-15, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ag-giants-spend-big-defeat-labeling-initia...
The nation's largest agribusiness and biotech companies are pouring millions of dollars into
California to stop the first-ever initiative to require special labels on foods made with genetically
modified ingredients, a sign of their determination to keep the measure from sparking a nationwide
movement. So far, farming giants such as Monsanto, Dupont Pioneer and Cargill have contributed
nearly $25 million to defeat the proposal, with much of that cash coming in the past few days.
Monsanto, the largest contributor, gave $4.2 million this week. It's nearly 10 times the amount
raised by backers of the ballot measure who say California's health-conscious shoppers want
more information about the food they eat. With nearly three months to go before the November
election, the measure's opponents appear to be following the previous blueprint developed
by major industries to defeat ballot initiatives in the nation's largest consumer market:
Raise large sums of money to swamp the airwaves with negative advertising. The food
initiative, known as Proposition 37, ... would require most processed foods to bear a label by 2014
letting shoppers know if the items contain ingredients derived from plants with DNA altered with
genes from other plants, animals, viruses or bacteria. "It's an epic food fight between the pesticide
companies and consumers who want to know what's in their food," said Stacy Malkan, media
director for the California Right to Know campaign.
Note: For a powerful essay showing the grave risks and dangers of GMOs, click here. For deeply
revealing reports from reliable major media sources on genetically modified foods, click here.

Washington's Wall Street Sugar Daddies

2012-08-14, Yes! Magazine
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/washingtons-wall-street-sugar-daddies

How much is democracy worth to you? If youre like most people, its priceless. But for the hedge
funds and insurance companies on Wall Street, it does have a price tag: approximately $4.2 billion.
Thats how much the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (F.I.R.E.) sector has invested in political
influence through campaign contributions and lobbying since 2006. That comes to $1,331 a minute
spent on political power. The new report is called Meet the F.I.R.E. Sector: How Wall Street Is
Burning Democracy. It was developed by Elect Democracy, a nonpartisan effort ... to expose and
challenge the impact of corporate money in U.S. politics. The report ... analyzes exactly how
Wall Street has secured ... industry-loyal voting practices in Congress: by shoveling
stacks of campaign cash in the direction of Congressional hopefuls from both major
political parties. That money lets these industries get what they want in Washington. The
F.I.R.E. sector contributed $879 million to members of Congress since 2006, and took
positions on 383 bills during the 112th Congress. For instance, they supported Free Trade
Agreements with Korea, Panama, and Colombia in 2007, and backed the bailout in 2008. Bills they
opposed include the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, the
Limited Homeowner and Investor Loss in Foreclosure Act of 2010, and the Stop Student Loan
Interest Rate Hike Act of 2011. At every turn, the F.I.R.E. sector demands special treatment for
Wall Street while consumers, homeowners, and students get stuck with the bills.
Note: Though not a major media source, Yes! Magazine is one of the very few media working
towards positive, sustainable solutions to the problems of our world. For deeply revealing reports
from reliable major media sources on the corrupt relationship between government and the
financial sector, click here.

Trapwire surveillance system exposed in document leak

2012-08-13, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/13/trapwire-surveillance-system-expo...
[Trapwire is] a CCTV surveillance system that recognises people from their face or walk and
analyses whether they might be about to commit a terrorist or criminal act. According to
documents released online by WikiLeaks [it] is being used in a number of countries to try to
monitor people and threats. Founded by former CIA agents, Trapwire uses data from a network of
CCTV systems and numberplate readers to figure out the threat level in huge numbers of
locations. The documents outlining Trapwire's existence and its deployment in the US were
apparently obtained in a hack of computer systems belonging to the intelligence company Stratfor
at the end of last year. Documents from the US department of homeland security show that it paid
$832,000 to deploy Trapwire in Washington DC and Seattle. Stratfor describes Trapwire as "a
unique, predictive software system designed to detect patterns of pre-attack surveillance
and logistical planning". It serves "a wide range of law enforcement personnel and public
and private security officials domestically and internationally", Stratfor says. Some have
expressed doubts that Trapwire could really forecast [future] acts based on data from cameras.
The claims might seem overblown, but then the idea that the US could have an international
monitoring system seemed absurd until the discovery of the Echelon system, used by the US to
eavesdrop on electronic communications internationally.

Note: For more on the growing use of this secret technology, click here. For deeply revealing
reports from reliable major media sources on privacy, click here.

Scott Neeson left Hollywood to save children rooting in Cambodia's

garbage dumps
2012-08-10, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2012/0810/Scott-Neeson-lef...
Scott Neeson's final epiphany came one day in June 2004. The high-powered Hollywood
executive stood, ankle deep in trash, at the sprawling landfill of Stung Meanchey, a poor
shantytown in Cambodia's capital. Neeson, a former head of 20th Century Fox International, [now]
cares for more than 1,000 Cambodian children and their families. Doing the right thing meant
turning his back on a successful career in the movie business, with his $1 million salary. Instead,
he would dedicate himself full time to a new mission: to save hundreds of the poorest children in
one of the world's poorest countries. Much to everyone's surprise, within months the Australian
native, who as president of 20th Century Fox International had overseen the global success of
block-busters like "Titanic," "Braveheart," and "Die Another Day," quit Hollywood. He sold his
mansion in Los Angeles and held a garage sale for "all the useless stuff I owned." He sold off his
Porsche and yacht, too. His sole focus would now be his charity, the Cambodian Children's Fund.
"The perks in Hollywood were good limos, private jets, gorgeous girlfriends, going to the
Academy Awards," says Neeson. "You've got to take the ego out of it," he says. "One
person's self-indulgence versus the needs of hundreds of children, that's the moral
equation." On the walls of his office, next to movie posters signed by Hollywood stars, are beforeand-after pictures of Cambodian children. Each pair tells a Cinderella story: A little ragamuffin,
standing or squatting in rubbish, transforms in a later shot into a beaming, healthy child in a crisp
school uniform.
Note: For deeply inspiring reports from major media sources, click here.

Nuclear waste issues freeze permits for U.S. power plants

2012-08-09, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/news/economy/nuclear-plants-waste/index.htm
The U.S. government said it will stop issuing permits for new nuclear power plants and license
extensions for existing facilities until it resolves issues around storing radioactive waste. The
government's main watchdog, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, believes that current
storage plans are safe and achievable. But a federal court said that the NRC didn't detail
what the environmental consequences would be if the agency is wrong. There are 14
reactors awaiting license renewals at the NRC, and an additional 16 reactors awaiting permits for
new construction. Nuclear waste disposal has been a daunting political question that is still
unanswered after decades of study. Nuclear watchdog groups -- which don't agree with the NRC's
assertion that the waste is currently safely stored -- are hoping the new review will provide an

opportunity to push for stricter standards at nuclear power plants. There are currently 104
operating nuclear reactors at 64 plants across the country. Half are over 30 years old. '"The court
is ordering them to do this analysis that should have been done a long time ago," said
Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In particular, UCS and
others want less of the waste to be stored in pools of water, which they believe are vulnerable to
sudden draining and possible meltdown.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on corruption in the nuclear
power industry, click here.

Boy Scout files reveal repeat child abuse by sexual predators

2012-08-05, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boyscouts-20120805-m,0,5822319.story
For nearly a century, the Boy Scouts of America has relied on a confidential blacklist known as the
"perversion files" as a crucial line of defense against sexual predators. That barrier, however, has
been breached repeatedly. A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files dating from
1970 to 1991 found more than 125 cases across the country in which men allegedly
continued to molest Scouts after the organization was first presented with detailed
allegations of abusive behavior. Predators slipped back into the program by falsifying personal
information or skirting the registration process. Others were able to jump from troop to troop
around the country thanks to clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts' failure to check the
blacklist. In some cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, letting
offenders stay in the organization until new allegations surfaced. In others, officials documented
abuse but merely suspended the accused leader or allowed him to continue working with boys
while on "probation." In at least 50 cases, the Boy Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to
discover later that they had reentered the program and were accused of molesting again.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on institutional sexual abuse
scandals, click here.

The Obama administration has torpedoed the arms trade treaty

2012-08-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/obama-administration-arms...
In late June, activists gathered in New York's Times Square to make the ... point that, unbelievably,
"there are more rules governing your ability to trade a banana from one country to the next
than governing your ability to trade an AK-47 or a military helicopter". So said Amnesty
International USA's Suzanne Nossel ... just before the start of the UN conference on the Arms
Trade Treaty (ATT), which ran from 2 July to 27 July. Thanks to a last-minute declaration by the
United States that it "needed more time" to review the short, 11-page treaty text, the conference
ended last week in failure. There isn't much that could be considered controversial in the treaty.

Signatory governments agree not to export weapons to countries that are under an arms embargo,
or to export weapons that would facilitate "the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity,
war crimes" or other violations of international humanitarian law. Exports of arms are banned if
they will facilitate "gender-based violence or violence against children" or be used for
"transnational organised crime". Why does the US need more time than the more than 90 other
countries that had sufficient time to read and approve the text? The answer lies in the power
of the gun lobby [and] the arms industry. The US is the world's largest weapons producer, exporter
and importer. Protesters outside the UN during the ATT conference erected a mock graveyard,
with each headstone reading: "2,000 people killed by arms every day." That's more than one
person killed every minute.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government corruption,
click here.

Activists subpoenaed to grand jury meeting in Seattle

2012-08-01, Seattle Times blog
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012/08/activists-subpoened-to-thursday-g...
Two Portland residents say they will appear before a federal grand jury in Seattle Thursday in an
investigation of anarchist activity, according to a statement they released on [August 1]. Grand jury
subpoenas have also been served to activists in Olympia and Seattle ... according to the Seattle
Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which identifies itself as an association of progressive
lawyers. The guild urged the U.S. Attorneys Office to drop the subpoenas [because] they
were being used as a pretext for harassing political activists. It concerns us any time
there are law-enforcement raids that target political literature, first amendment-protected
materials, [guild spokesman Neil] Fox said. Two weeks before a heavily armed, July 25 FBI raid
that Dennison Williams and Leah-Lynn Plante said took place at their Portland home, the Seattle
Police Department SWAT team seized evidence connected to the May Day investigation from a
Judkins Park apartment of Occupy Seattle members. In both cases, those searched told media
that law-enforcement charged into their homes [with a battering-ram] early in the morning
and used a stun grenade, a non-lethal object that creates a disorienting loud bang and bright
light. Williams told The Oregonian that the FBI took his laptop computer, cell phone, two thumb
drives, multiple pieces of black clothing, and a T-shirt that read on the front Multi Death
Corporations.
Note: Amazingly, the FBI raids on political activists in Seattle and Portland have gone completely
unreported by the mass media. For analysis of the FBI's attacks on dissenters, click here, here
and here. For a Democracy Now! video report, click here. For deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources on civil liberties, click here.

Mexico Files Drug Charges Against 3 Generals

2012-08-01, ABC News/Associated Press

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-lodges-drug-charges-gene...
Mexican prosecutors formally filed drug charges ... against four high-ranking army officers,
including three generals and a lieutenant colonel. They are the highest-ranking Mexican
army officials arrested in at least 15 years, and allegedly provided protection for the
Beltran-Leyva drug cartel. The Attorney General's Office said charges of "organized crime to
further drug trafficking" were lodged against retired generals Tomas Angeles Dauahare and
Ricardo Escorcia, as well as active service Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez. Retired Lt. Col. Silvio
Hernandez Soto faces the same charge. The previous highest-ranking army official arrested was
Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, then head of Mexico's anti-drug agency, who was arrested in 1997
and later convicted of aiding deceased drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes. More than 47,000
people have been killed in drug violence ... according to government figures.
Note: For reliable information in the involvement of rogue elements of the US government in the
illegal drug trade, click here.

Bhutan Bets Organic Agriculture Is The Road To Happiness

2012-07-31, NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/07/31/157645902/bhutan-bets-organic-agr...
The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan drew international attention a few years back for saying
gross national happiness should trump gross domestic product when measuring a nation's
progress. But Bhutan, which has only 700,000 people most of whom are farmers has another
shot at international fame if it can make good on a recent pledge to become the first country in the
world to convert to a 100 percent organic agricultural system. [In June] at the Rio+20
Conference on Sustainable Development, Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley said his government
is developing a National Organic Policy because the country's farmers are increasingly
convinced that "by working in harmony with nature, they can help sustain the flow of
nature's bounties." Andre Leu, an Australian adviser to the Bhutanese government and the
president of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, says it's very doable.
"I don't think it's going to be that difficult given that the majority of the agricultural land is already
organic by default," Leu [said]. The Ministry of Agriculture says the organic program, launched in
2007, is not just about protecting the environment. It will also train farmers in new methods that will
help them grow more food and move the country closer to self-sufficiency. The ministry is now
training extension workers in organic methods and giving farmers who go organic priority for
government assistance.
Note: For deeply inspiring reports from reliable sources, click here.

'Doomed from the beginning': $200M wasted on Iraqi police training,

report says
2012-07-30, NBC News

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/30/13029275-doomed-from-the-beginn...
U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train
Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted. The Police Development
Program -- which was drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world -was envisioned as a five-year, multibillion-dollar push to train security forces after the U.S. military
left last December. But Iraqi political leaders, anxious to keep their distance from the Americans,
were unenthusiastic. A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which was
released [on July 30], found that the American Embassy in Baghdad never got a written
commitment from Iraq to participate. Now, facing what the report called Baghdad's "disinterest" in
the project, the embassy is gutting what was supposed to be the centerpiece of ongoing U.S.
training efforts in Iraq. According to the report, the embassy plans to turn over the $108 million
Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and will stop training at a $98
million site at the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Basra. "A major lesson learned from Iraq is
that host country buy-in to proposed programs is essential to the long-term success of relief and
reconstruction activities. The (Police Development Program) experience powerfully underscores
that point," auditors wrote in a 41-page summary of their inspection. An advance copy was
provided to The Associated Press. "An overarching question is why expensive construction
was initiated at both of these facilities without a formal programmatic agreement in place at
the time construction began," the report stated.
Note: Have you noticed how often and how easily the US government throws around and wastes
hundreds of millions of dollars lately? For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on government corruption, click here.

Photo e-mailed from Mass. man led to vast global child pornography
network
2012-07-29, Boston Globe
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-29/business/32903262_1_milford-man-combat-...
As soon as they saw the terrified boys photo three years ago, federal agents Peter Manning and
Gregory Squire had the same thought: we have to save him. Assigned to the US Immigration and
Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations office in Boston, their job is to track
down child pornographers and victims. That single image of the distraught boy with the toy
bunny became a crucial piece of evidence for Manning and Squire. It had been e-mailed to
them by a Milford man who thought he was sharing it with fellow child-pornography
voyeurs. His miscalculation sparked an investigation that would spread around the world,
thus far leading to 42 arrests and the discovery of 140 children who were violated. The
youngest was 19 days old. Robert Diduca, who sent the first photo which he labeled cookie in
a reference to the boy eventually pleaded guilty to the production, distribution, and possession
of child pornography. In June, the 48-year-old father of three was sentenced in US District Court in
Worcester to 18 years in prison. For Squire and Manning, however, Diducas jail term did not mean
case closed. They remain on the front line of a growing international effort to combat child

pornography, which has exploded in volume because of faster and more potent technology that
makes it easier to create and disseminate the material anonymously. Less than two weeks ago,
their investigation prompted the arrest of a Florida puppeteer who allegedly discussed killing and
eating children.
Note: For a powerfully revealing Discovery Channel documentary on a child sex abuse ring which
leads to the highest levels of government, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable
major media sources on child sexual abuse, click here.

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests

study
2012-07-25, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/25/nypd-occupy-protests-report
The first systematic look at the New York police department's response to Occupy Wall Street
protests paints a damning picture of an out-of-control and aggressive organization that routinely
acted beyond its powers. In a report that followed an eight-month study, researchers at the law
schools of NYU and Fordham accuse the NYPD of deploying unnecessarily aggressive
force, obstructing press freedoms and making arbitrary and baseless arrests. The study ...
found evidence that police made violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments,
obstructed independent legal monitors and was opaque about its policies. The NYPD report
is the first of a series to look at how police authorities in five US cities, including Oakland and
Boston, have treated the Occupy movement since it began in September 2011. The research
concludes that there now is a systematic effort by authorities to suppress protests, even when
these are lawful and pose no threat to the public. Sarah Knuckey, a professor of law at NYU, said:
"All the case studies we collected show the police are violating basic rights consistently, and the
level of impunity is shocking". To be launched over the coming months, the reports are being done
under the Protest and Assembly Rights Project, a national consortium of law school clinics
addressing America's response to Occupy Wall Street.
Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government threats to civil liberties and
other types of government corruption, click here and here.

Prostate cancer surgery won't boost survival in men with early-stage

disease, study finds
2012-07-19, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57475720-10391704/prostate-cancer-surg...
A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds men who opt to surgically remove their
prostate gland - a procedure called a radical prostatectomy - are no less likely to die than men who
choose wait and monitor their symptoms to see if the cancer progresses. The study adds to the
ongoing debate surrounding prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and whether the tests pick up

cancers that may be too slow-growing to ever cause a problem. In May, the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force ... reported in its final recommendation that healthy men of all ages should not
take a PSA test because the potential harms from a positive test outweigh the benefits from
catching the cancer early. The researchers found that out of 364 men who had their prostate
removed, 171 died (47 percent), and 21 of those men (6 percent) died from prostate cancer or
treatment. In comparison, 183 of 367 people who were assigned for watchful waiting died (50
percent), and 31 of the men died from prostate cancer (8 percent). The differences between
groups were not statistically significant, meaning prostate cancer surgery did not significantly
reduce the men's risk of dying from the cancer or any cause, as compared with the observation
approach. Within two years of surgery, the researchers found that 81 percent of the men
who underwent the procedure experienced erectile dysfunction, 17 percent had urinary
incontinence with symptoms such as "dribbling" or having "no control over urine," and 12
percent reported bowel dysfunction.
Note: For revealing reports from reliable major media sources on health issues, click here.

TSA defies the courts

2012-07-18, Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/18/editorial-tsa-defies-courts/
The days of secrecy at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) may be coming to an end.
Its a widely held belief that the agencys hasty embrace of expensive, X-rated x-ray machines has
more to do with closed-door lobbying efforts of manufacturers than a deliberate consideration of
the devices merits. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) [has] pushed for some
transparency by asking the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to compel the agency to hold a
public notice-and-comment period on the use of pornographic scanners, as the law requires. EPIC
has a good case because on July 15, 2011, the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling insisting TSA
promptly come into compliance with Administrative Procedure Act requirements regarding public
hearings. TSA believed it wasnt subject to such rules because the virtual strip-searching of
women, children and the elderly is an essential security operation. The last thing TSA wants
is the public-relations disaster of having to collect and publish the horror tales from
Americans subjected to humiliation from the nude photography and intrusive pat-down
groping sessions. Its time to admit the post-Sept. 11 experiment in having the government take
over airport screening duties has been a colossal flop. TSA has defied the Administrative
Procedures Act, an appellate court, the public will and common decency. Its not enough just to
pull the plug on the scanners; the plug should be pulled on TSA itself.
Note: According to this PBS report, "European Union regulators recently banned any body
scanner that uses X-rays, 'in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens' health and safety.'" It also
states, "The TSA tested the devices behind closed doors, without scrutiny from independent
scientists." For lots more on this topic important to all air travelers, click here.

'Pierre Salinger Syndrome' and the TWA 800 conspiracies

2012-07-17, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/12/twa.conspiracy/index.html
Bolstered by eyewitness accounts and the Internet, the explosion of TWA Flight 800 off the coast
of New York 10 years ago spawned a slew of sinister conspiracy theories, most notably the belief
that a missile from a U.S. Navy ship was responsible. So prevalent were these theories that the
term "Pierre Salinger Syndrome" -- the belief that everything on the Internet is true -- entered the
lexicon. Some witness accounts seemed to support the missile theory. It quickly became a hot
topic on the young but quickly growing Internet. It might have stayed simply an Internet
conspiracy had it not been for Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy's press secretary who
had worked as a network news correspondent for a time. Three months after the TWA
tragedy, while working as a freelance public relations director, he claimed to have verified
the friendly fire cover-up. "It's a document I got about five weeks ago -- came from ... an
intelligence agent of France. He had been given this document from an American Secret Service
agent based in France," Salinger said at the time. "He had been doing an inquiry and had some
contacts with the U.S. Navy." Salinger took to the news airwaves, including CNN, touting his
theory. But as baseless as it sounded, Salinger could not be ignored. His accusations gave
conspiracy theorists a voice of distinction and credibility.
Note: For powerful evidence from an Emmy-award winning journalist that this investigation was
manipulated, click here. To watch the powerful documentary Shadows of Liberty on major media
manipulation, including that of TWA flight 800 (minute 14) at this link.

Unleashing the power of real girls

2012-07-17, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-unleashing-the-p...
A 14-year-old Maine girl named Julia Bluhm [has] mobilized more than 80,000 supporters to lobby
Seventeen [magazine] to commit to [a] modest goal: printing one photo spread per issue without
an unaltered image. Bluhms efforts are part of Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance,
Knowledge or SPARK, a girl-fueled activist movement that is demanding an end to the
sexualization of women and girls in media. In the magazines August issue, Seventeen editor Ann
Shoket responded to the campaign with a carefully worded statement that vowed that the
magazine will never change girls body or face shapes and will publish only images of real girls
and models who are healthy. [This] represents a meaningful victory for young women
seeking reality-based images in a seemingly unwinnable war against big publishing, big
advertising and big fashion. Images of blemish-free cover models displaying skeletal arms,
enhanced chests and disappearing waistlines are a time-honored magazine tradition. The
breakthrough success of Bluhms campaign represents ... the beginning of a new era of female
empowerment. Bluhm started her movement on the online organizing site Change.org, which
allows users to share electronic petitions with their social networks. When petitions like Bluhms
rally significant support, the site offers the additional assistance of its expert organizing staff and

broad activist network. Now, with the momentum of a successful campaign, Bluhm and her peers
have turned their attention to transforming the policies of other magazines, including Teen Vogue
and Cosmo Girl.
Note: For a treasure trove of inspirational reports from major media sources, click here.

Stand-off looms over U.S. plans to cut GMO crop oversight

2012-07-17, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-usa-agriculture-biotechbre86...
Efforts to write benefits for biotech seed companies into U.S. legislation, including the new Farm
Bill, are sparking a backlash from groups that say the multiple measures would severely limit U.S.
oversight of genetically modified crops. From online petitions to face-to-face lobbying on Capitol
Hill, an array of consumer and environmental organizations and individuals are ringing alarm bells
over moves they say will eradicate badly needed safety checks on crops genetically modified to
withstand herbicides, pests and pesticides. The measures could speed the path to market for
big biotech companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical that make billions of dollars from
genetically altered corn, soybeans, cotton and other crops. "They are trying to change the
rules," said George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety, which has lawsuits
pending against government regulators for failing to follow the law in approving certain biotech
crops. "It is to the detriment of good governance, farmers and to the environment." As early
as next week the U.S. House of Representatives could take up one of the more controversial
measures - a provision included in the 2013 Agriculture Appropriations bill known as Section 733
that would allow biotech crops to be planted even if courts rule they were approved illegally.
Opponents call it the "Monsanto Rider" because Monsanto's genetically altered alfalfa and sugar
beets have been subject to court challenges for illegal regulatory approvals.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on the dangers of genetically
modified organisms, click here. Multiple reliable sources show that you may be eating genetically
modified food daily which scientific experiments have repeatedly demonstrated can cause
sickness and even death in lab animals. Click here to verify.

Wall Street sleaze keeps growing

2012-07-14, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/Wall-Street-sleaze-keeps-growing-...
Just when you thought Wall Street couldn't sink any lower - when its excesses are still causing
hardship to millions of Americans and its myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a
miasma of cynicism over the entire economic system - an even deeper level of public-be-damned
greed and corruption is revealed. Libor is the benchmark for trillions of dollars of loans worldwide mortgage loans, small-business loans, personal loans. It's compiled by averaging the rates at
which the major banks say they borrow. So far, the scandal has been limited to Barclays, a big,

London bank that just paid $453 million to U.S. and British bank regulators, whose top executives
have been forced to resign, and whose traders' e-mails give a chilling picture of how easily they
got their colleagues to rig interest rates in order to make big bucks. But Wall Street has almost
surely been involved in the same practice, including the usual suspects - JPMorgan Chase,
Citigroup and Bank of America - because every major bank participates in setting the Libor
rate, and Barclays couldn't have rigged it without their witting involvement. In fact, Barclays'
defense has been that every major bank was fixing Libor in the same way, and for the same
reason. And Barclays is "cooperating" (i.e., providing damning evidence about other big banks)
with the Justice Department and other regulators in order to avoid steeper penalties or criminal
prosecutions, so the fireworks have just begun.
Note: The author of this article, Robert Reich, is former U.S. secretary of labor, professor of public
policy at UC Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future. He
blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Tesla test drive: Smooth, silent, fast

2012-07-14, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-test-drive-Smooth-silent-fast-37...
A word of caution about the Model S, Tesla Motors' new electric sedan: The S stays smooth and
silent, even when it's flying down the highway. Absent gears, engine noise or any vibration
that doesn't originate with a pothole, it's absurdly easy for Model S drivers to shred speed
limits without the slightest clue. Depending on the range of the battery pack and other options,
Model S prices range all the way from $57,400 to $105,400 before state and federal incentives.
The Model S functions much like a typical, automatic transmission sedan. But it's not quite the
same. Put the car in drive and take your foot off the brake pedal, for example, and the S doesn't go
anywhere. It just sits there until you touch the accelerator. Push the accelerator, and the car
responds instantly. There's no sense of an engine laboring to pick up speed. Like other electric
vehicles, the Model S uses regenerative braking. The brakes capture some of the moving car's
kinetic energy, convert it to electricity and use it to recharge the battery while you drive. It's one of
the ways a Model S with the most expensive battery pack option can drive more than 300
miles without plugging in. With the Model S, the regenerative braking starts the moment you
ease off the accelerator pedal. The drop in speed is so pronounced that the car's brake lights will
go on, even before you touch the brake pedal itself. It feels almost like having two separate
braking systems working at the same time.
Note: For lots more inspiring reports from reliable major media sources on new automotive and
alternative energy technologies, click here.

Wells Fargo to pay $175 million to settle lending bias allegations

2012-07-13, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-wells-bias-settlement-201207...

Wells Fargo & Co.'s settlement of allegations that it overcharged minorities for home loans
and wrongly steered them into subprime mortgages requires the bank to pay $125 million in
damages, including about $10 million to African Americans and Latinos in the Los Angeles
area. The settlement ... also requires the San Francisco company, by far the nation's largest home
lender, to provide $50 million in down-payment assistance to residents of areas where the alleged
discrimination had a significant effect. The $175-million total is the second-largest fair-lending
settlement by the civil rights arm of the Justice Department. The largest, reached in December,
requires Bank of America Corp. to pay $335 million to settle claims against Countrywide Financial
Corp., the aggressive Calabasas lender it acquired in 2008. Another former Wells Fargo unit the
now-defunct subprime storefront lender Wells Fargo Financial Inc. was the target of a separate
investigation by the Federal Reserve. Wells Fargo agreed last year to pay $85 million to settle
allegations that Wells Fargo Financial employees improperly pushed borrowers into more
expensive subprime loans and exaggerated income information on mortgage applications. The
agreement covers lending from 2004 through 2009 in the wholesale section of Wells Fargo Home
Mortgage, which made loans of all kinds, including prime and subprime mortgages, through
independent brokers.
Note: For key investigative reports on the criminality and corruption in the financial industry and
biggest banks, click here.

JPMorgans black eye nears $6B as bank says traders may have tried to
conceal losses
2012-07-12, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jpmorgan-ceo-will-try-to-provide-clari...
JPMorgan Chase said Friday that its traders may have tried to conceal the losses from a soured
bet that has embarrassed the bank and cost it almost $6 billion far more than its CEO first
suggested. The bank said an internal investigation had uncovered evidence that led executives to
question the integrity of the values, or marks, that traders assigned to their trades. JPMorgan
also said that it planned to revoke two years worth of pay from some of the senior managers
involved in the bad bet, and that it had closed the division of the bank responsible for the mistake.
This has shaken our company to the core, CEO Jamie Dimon said. The bank said the loss,
which Dimon estimated at $2 billion when he disclosed it in May, had grown to $5.8 billion.
The investigation, which covered more than a million emails and tens of thousands of voice
messages, suggested traders were trying to make losses look smaller, the bank said. The
revelation could expose JPMorgan to civil fraud charges. If regulators decide that employee
deceptions caused JPMorgan to report inaccurate financial details, they could pursue charges
against the employees, the bank or both. JPMorgan could not necessarily hide behind the actions
of its employees. Regulators could decide that its oversight or risk management contributed to the
problematic statements.
Note: Yet will anyone go to jail for these shady activities? For key investigative reports on the
criminality and corruption in the financial industry and biggest banks, click here.

New Homeland Security Laser Scanner Reads People At Molecular

Level
2012-07-11, CBS-DC (Washington DC CBS affiliate)
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/07/11/new-homeland-security-laser-scanner...
The Department of Homeland Security will soon be using a laser at airports that can detect
everything about you from over 160 feet away. This laser-based scanner ... could read everything
from a persons adrenaline levels, to traces of gun powder on a persons clothes, to illegal
substances and it can all be done without a physical search. It also could be used on multiple
people at a time, eliminating random searches at airports. The scanner is called the Picosecond
Programmable Laser. The device works by blasting its target with lasers which vibrate molecules
that are then read by the machine that determine what substances a person has been exposed to.
The inventor of this invasive technology is Genia Photonics. Active since 2009, they hold 30
patents on laser technology designed for scanning. In 2011, they formed a partnership with
In-Q-Tel, a company chartered by the CIA and Congress to build a bridge between the
Agency and a new set of technology innovators. Although the technology could be used by
Big Brother, Genia Photonics states that the device could be far more beneficial being used for
medical purposes to check for cancer in real time, lipids detection, and patient monitoring.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on government threats to
privacy, click here.

An arms treaty on the block

2012-07-11, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/An-arms-treaty-on-the-block-...
One of the world's deadliest businesses - the $55 billion-per-year arms trade - prefers to
operate in the shadows. Bananas, cold pills and truck tires come with more market rules
and international norms. This shameful gap could be filled by a United Nations agreement
nearing completion in New York. The Arms Trade Treaty would require signatory countries to
abide by clear rules on the import, export and transfer of weapons, ranging from small arms to airdefense systems. The aim is to bring a lethal, back-alley game into the open and curb sales to
brushfire wars and terrorist groups. Think of Syria, Sudan and Somalia as prime examples where
outside guns, tanks or helicopters are killing thousands. Governments, militias and guerrilla
movements with the cash can buy virtually anything through brokers with the right connections.
The United States, as the top seller of arms, has a special duty to improve this patchwork system.
The Obama administration has pushed for approval of the treaty, a healthy break from the Bush
White House, which favored a country-by-country approach that achieved little. But don't think this
treaty is a slam-dunk. Gun-rights groups such as the National Rifle Association bristle at any
mention of weapons controls and see the treaty as a threat to domestic gun ownership. It's nothing
of the sort, and State Department negotiators have made Second Amendment guarantees an
absolute "red line" in talks.

Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Is The ADA Intentionally Using State Legislatures To Block Alternative

Nutrition Providers?
2012-07-10, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/07/10/american_dietetic_asso...
In January of this year, health and nutrition blogger Steve Cooksey received a disturbing letter
from the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. The letter contained a 19-page markup of
Cookseys own blog, highlighting in handwritten red pen an extensive series of changes the Board
demanded that Cooksey make. He had to make these changes, the Board censors told him, or he
would face arrest. Specifically, the Board censors said, he had to remove or change all writing they
construed as constituting nutrition advising or nutrition counseling without a license. Forbes was
granted exclusive first-look at a new series of internal documents, freshly leaked by outraged
members within the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics [formerly the American Dietetic
Association, or ADA], the professional association behind the NC State Board of Dietetics/Nutrition
which censored Cooksey. In these newly-available internal documents, [the ADA]: Openly
discusses creating and using state boards of dietetics/nutrition ... for the express purpose
of limiting market competition for its Registered Dietitian members; [and] openly discusses
a nation-wide plan of surveilling and reporting private citizens, and particularly all
competitors on the market for nutrition counseling, for harming the public by providing
nutrition information/advice/counseling without a license.
Note: For lots more from reliable major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Lawmakers got loan deals from Countrywide

2012-07-05, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48081344/ns/business-stocks_and_economy#.T_h445H4KNU
The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation's
foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of
Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled
mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report. The report ... said the discounts
from January 1996 to June 2008 were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but
to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide's business depended largely on Fannie, which ...
was responsible for purchasing a large volume of Countrywide's subprime mortgages. "Documents
and testimony obtained by the committee show the VIP loan program was a tool used by
Countrywide to build goodwill with lawmakers and other individuals positioned to benefit the
company," the report said. "In the years that led up to the 2007 housing market decline,
Countrywide VIPs were positioned to affect dozens of pieces of legislation that would have
reformed Fannie" and its rival Freddie Mac, the committee said. The Justice Department has not
prosecuted any Countrywide official, but the House committee's report said documents and

testimony show that Mozilo and company lobbyists "may have skirted the federal bribery statute by
keeping conversations about discounts and other forms of preferential treatment internal. Rather
than making quid pro quo arrangements with lawmakers and staff, Countrywide used the VIP loan
program to cast a wide net of influence."
Note: For a treasure trove of reliable reports on the criminality and corruption within the financial
and banking industries, click here.

India to give free generic drugs to hundreds of millions

2012-07-05, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/07/05/india-to-give-free-generic-drugs-to-...
India has put in place a $5.4 billion policy to provide free medicine to its people, a decision that
could change the lives of hundreds of millions, but a ban on branded drugs stands to cut Big
Pharma out of the windfall. From city hospitals to tiny rural clinics, India's public doctors will soon
be able to prescribe free generic drugs to all comers, vastly expanding access to medicine in a
country where public spending on health was just $4.50 per person last year. Under the plan,
doctors will be limited to a generics-only drug list and face punishment for prescribing
branded medicines, a major disadvantage for pharmaceutical giants in one of the world's
fastest-growing drug markets. The initiative would overhaul a system where healthcare is
often a luxury and private clinics account for four times as much spending as state hospitals,
despite 40 percent of the people living below the poverty line, or $1.25 a day or less. Within five
years, up to half of India's 1.2 billion people are likely to take advantage of the scheme, the
government says. "The policy of the government is to promote greater and rational use of generic
medicines that are of standard quality," said L.C. Goyal, additional secretary at India's Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare and a key proponent of the policy. "They are much, much cheaper than
the branded ones."

The Bank of England told us to do it, claims Barclays

2012-07-03, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9374289/The-B...
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England encouraged Barclays to try to lower interest rates
after coming under pressure from senior members of the last Labour government, documents have
disclosed. A memo published by Barclays suggested that Paul Tucker gave a hint to Bob
Diamond, the banks chief executive, in 2008 that the rate it was claiming to be paying to borrow
money from other banks could be lowered. His suggestion followed questions from senior figures
within Whitehall about why Barclays was having to pay so much interest on its borrowings, the
memo states. Barclays and other banks have been accused of artificially manipulating the Libor
rate, which is used to set the borrowing costs for millions of consumers, businesses and investors,
by falsely stating how much they were paying to borrow money. The bank claimed yesterday that
one of its most senior executives cut the Libor rate only at the height of the credit crisis after

intervention from the Bank of England. The memo, written on Oct 29, 2008, by Mr Diamond and
circulated to two other senior bank officials, said: Mr Tucker reiterated that he had
received calls from a number of senior figures within Whitehall to question why Barclays
was always toward the top end of the Libor pricing. Government sources suggested that
Baroness Vadera, one of Gordon Browns closest colleagues, was responsible for the contact with
the Bank of England.
Note: For deeply revealing and reliable major media reports on corruption and criminality in the
operations and regulation of the financial sector, click here.

We were wrong on peak oil. There's enough to fry us all

2012-07-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/02/peak-oil-we-we-wrong
For the past 10 years an unlikely coalition of geologists, oil drillers, bankers, military strategists and
environmentalists has been warning that peak oil the decline of global supplies is just around
the corner. We had some strong reasons for doing so: production had slowed, the price had risen
sharply, depletion was widespread and appeared to be escalating. The first of the great resource
crunches seemed about to strike. Some of us made vague predictions, others were more specific.
In all cases we were wrong. Peak oil hasn't happened, and it's unlikely to happen for a very long
time. ["Oil - The Next Revolution"] by the oil executive Leonardo Maugeri, published by Harvard
University, provides compelling evidence that a new oil boom has begun. The constraints on oil
supply over the past 10 years appear to have had more to do with money than geology. The low
prices before 2003 had discouraged investors from developing difficult fields. The high prices of
the past few years have changed that. Maugeri's analysis of projects in 23 countries suggests that
global oil supplies are likely to rise by a net 17m barrels per day (to 110m) by 2020. This, he
says, is "the largest potential addition to the world's oil supply capacity since the 1980s".
The investments required to make this boom happen depend on a long-term price of $70 a
barrel the current cost of Brent crude is $95. Money is now flooding into new oil: a trillion
dollars has been spent in the past two years; a record $600bn is lined up for 2012.

Plum Organics offers healthy food for kids

2012-07-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Plum-Organics-offers-healthy-food-for-...
Some might call Neil Grimmer and his wife Tana Johnson picky eaters. For more than a decade,
Grimmer, a triathlete, didn't eat meat or dairy while Johnson followed a macrobiotic diet, made up
mostly of whole grains and vegetables. So when the couple became parents about nine years ago,
they sought to feed their children healthy foods. Trouble was, they couldn't find snacks that were
healthy, yet easy to pack and appealing to their kids. That's how the Nest Collective, now known
as Plum Organics, was born. [The] startup makes baby food and toddler and kids' snacks
such as pouches of pureed blueberry oats and quinoa for babies and squeezable oatmeal

for older children. Plum Organics is also addressing increasing concerns about childhood
obesity and parents looking for alternative, easy-to-pack snacks. In what turned out to be a
momentous decision, the company moved away from the traditional plastic or glass jar and began
offering baby food in the form of the squeezable pouch already popular with older children. The
company took off from there. The benefit of the pouch is that it allows the food to be cooked more
gently so that the flavors are richer, said Grimmer. The packaging also takes up less space in
landfills and is easier to transport.

Wall Street banks angling for Dodd-Frank loophole

2012-06-30, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/Wall-Street-banks-angling-for-Dod...
Wall Street has already watered down or delayed most of Dodd-Frank [financial reform act].
Now it wants to create a giant loophole, exempting its foreign branches from the law. Yet
the overseas branches of Wall Street banks are where the banks have done some of their
wilder betting. Four years ago, bad bets by American International Group's London office nearly
unraveled the U.S. financial system. When the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main
regulator of derivatives (bets on bets), recently proposed extending Dodd-Frank to the foreign
branches of Wall Street banks, the banks screamed. "If JPMorgan overseas operates under
different rules than our foreign competitors," warned Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of
JPMorgan, Wall Street will lose financial business to the banks of nations with fewer regulations,
allowing "Deutsche Bank to make the better deal." This is the same Jamie Dimon who chose
London as the place to make highly risky derivatives trades that have lost the firm upward of $2
billion so far - and could leave American taxpayers holding the bag if JPMorgan's exposure to
tottering European banks gets much worse. JPMorgan's risky betting in London is added proof that
unless the overseas operations of Wall Street banks are covered by U.S. regulations, giant banks
will hide irresponsible bets overseas. Squadrons of Wall Street lawyers and lobbyists have been
pressing all the agencies charged with implementing Dodd-Frank to go easy on the Street.
Note: The author of this article, Robert Reich, is former U.S. secretary of labor, professor of public
policy at UC Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future. He
blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Big banks craft "living wills" in case they fail

2012-06-27, Chicago Tribune/Reuters
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-27/business/sns-rt-us-banks-bailou...
Five of the biggest banks in the United States are putting finishing touches on plans for
going out of business as part of government-mandated contingency planning that could
push them to untangle their complex operations. The plans, known as living wills, are due to
regulators no later than July 1 under provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law designed to
end too-big-to-fail bailouts by the government. The living wills could be as long as 4,000 pages.

Since the law allows regulators to go so far as to order a bank to divest subsidiaries if it cannot
plan an orderly resolution in bankruptcy, the deadline is pushing even healthy institutions to start a
multi-year process to untangle their complex global operations, according to industry consultants.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among
those submitting the first liquidation scenarios to regulators at the Federal Reserve and the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The liquidation plans are coming amid renewed questions about
the safety of big banks following JPMorgan's stunning announcement last month that a trading
debacle has cost it more than $2 billion.
Note: For other key major media articles showing blatant financial corruption, click here. For more
vitally important information on banking manipulations, explore the excellent, reliable information in
our Banking Corruption Information Center available here.

Obama prepping thousands of lawyers for election

2012-06-26, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/06/26/obama_prepping_thousa...
President Barack Obama's campaign has recruited a legion of lawyers to be on standby for this
year's election as legal disputes surrounding the voting process escalate. Thousands of attorneys
and support staffers have agreed to aid in the effort, providing a mass of legal support that
appears to be unrivaled by Republicans or precedent. Obama's campaign says it is particularly
concerned about the implementation of new voter ID laws across the country, the
possibility of anti-fraud activists challenging legitimate voters and the handling of voter
registrations in the most competitive states. Republicans are building their own legal teams for
the election. They say they're focused on preventing fraud -- making sure people don't vote unless
they're eligible -- rather than turning away qualified voters. Since the disputed 2000 presidential
election, both parties have increasingly concentrated on building legal teams -- including highpriced lawyers who are well-known in political circles -- for the Election Day run-up. The BushGore election demonstrated to both sides the importance of every vote and the fact that the rules
for voting and counting might actually determine the outcome. The Florida count in 2000 was
decided by just 537 votes and ultimately landed in the Supreme Court.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on serious dysfunctions in the US elections
process, click here.

A Cruel and Unusual Record

2012-06-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/americas-shameful-human-rights-reco...
Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American
citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nations violation of human rights
has extended. This development began after [9/11] and has been sanctioned and escalated by

bipartisan executive and legislative actions. While the country has made mistakes in the past, the
widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the
past. With leadership from the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was
adopted in 1948 as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. This was a bold
and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people,
and it established equal rights of all people to life, liberty, security of person, equal protection of the
law and freedom from torture, arbitrary detention or forced exile. It is disturbing that, instead of
strengthening these principles, our governments counterterrorism policies are now clearly violating
at least 10 of the declarations 30 articles, including the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. Recent legislation has made legal the presidents right to
detain a person indefinitely on suspicion of affiliation with terrorist organizations or
associated forces, a broad, vague power that can be abused without meaningful
oversight from the courts or Congress. This law violates the right to freedom of expression and
to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on war crimes committed by US forces in
the "global war on terror," click here.

Rio+20 draft text is 283 paragraphs of fluff

2012-06-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/jun/22/rio-20-earth-...
In 1992, world leaders signed up to something called "sustainability". Few of them were clear
about what it meant. Perhaps as a result, it did not take long for this concept to mutate into
something subtly different: "sustainable development". Then it made a short jump to another term:
"sustainable growth". And now, in the 2012 Rio+20 text that world leaders are about to adopt, it
has subtly mutated once more: into "sustained growth". This term crops up 16 times in the
document, where it is used interchangeably with sustainability and sustainable
development. But if sustainability means anything, it is surely the opposite of sustained
growth. Sustained growth on a finite planet is the essence of unsustainability. As a result,
the draft document, which seems set to become the final document, takes us precisely nowhere:
190 governments have spent 20 years bracing themselves to "acknowledge", "recognise" and
express "deep concern" about the world's environmental crises, but not to do anything about them.
The draft and probably final declaration is 283 paragraphs of fluff. It suggests that the 190
governments due to approve it have, in effect, given up on multilateralism, given up on the world
and given up on us. So what do we do now?

What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

2012-06-20, CBC News (Canada's public broadcasting system)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/06/20/f-trans-pacific-partnership-exp...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may soon be an acronym as recognizable as NAFTA but
this free trade venture could have much more economic strength and impact than its North
American predecessor. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a free trade deal aimed at further
expanding the flow of goods, services and capital across borders. Its four founding members
New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei soon caught the attention of five other nations: the
United States, Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia, who joined in 2008. The nine partners
currently have a combined GDP of more than $17 trillion. Canada and Mexico are now being
considered for membership, subject to the approval of the nine countries already involved. Add to
this the possibility that Japan could join the TPP, despite mounting protests in that country, and the
economic and political traction of the group increases. In fact, the TPP could become the world's
largest free-trade zone. "It's really a trade agreement for the one per cent and their corporate
interests," said Maude Barlow, the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, which
opposed and continues to criticize NAFTA. "This is not going to be a good deal for Canadians."
Note: A later Toronto Star article reveals that the agreements of the TPP are secret.

Why the U.S. Senate Sucks Up to Public Enemy Jamie Dimon

2012-06-20, Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/news/155962/why_the_u.s._senate_sucks_up_to_public_en...
When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank, appeared before the Senate Banking
Committee on June 13, he was wearing cufflinks bearing the presidential seal. Was Dimon trying
to send any particular message by wearing the presidential cufflinks? asked CNBC editor John
Carney. Was he . . . subtly hinting that hes really the guy in charge? The groveling of the
Senators was so obvious that Jon Stewart did a spoof news clip on it. JPMorgan Chase is the
biggest campaign donor to many of the members of the Banking Committee. Financial
analysts Jim Willie and Rob Kirby think it may be something far larger, deeper, and more ominous.
They contend that the $3 billion-plus losses in London hedging transactions that were the
subject of the hearing can be traced, not to European sovereign debt (as alleged), but to the
record-low interest rates maintained on U.S. government bonds. The national debt is growing
at $1.5 trillion per year. Ultra-low interest rates must be maintained to prevent the debt from
overwhelming the government budget. Near-zero rates also need to be maintained because even
a moderate rise would cause multi-trillion dollar derivative losses for the banks, and would remove
the banks chief income stream, the arbitrage afforded by borrowing at 0% and investing at higher
rates. The low rates are maintained by interest rate swaps, called by Willie a derivative tool which
controls the bond market in a devious artificial manner.
Note: We don't usually use alternet.org as a reliable source, but because the major media failed to
ask the hard, very important questions posed in this article, we've included it here. For powerful
reports on financial corruption, click here.

U.N. investigator decries U.S. use of killer drones

2012-06-19, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47870193#.T-S1S1LDuSo
A U.N. investigator has called on the Obama administration to justify its policy of assassinating
rather than capturing al Qaeda or Taliban suspects, increasingly with the use of unmanned drone
aircraft that also take civilian lives. Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions, urged Washington to clarify the basis under international law of
the policy, in a report issued overnight to the United Nations Human Rights Council. The U.S.
military has conducted drone attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, in
addition to conventional raids and air strikes, according to Heyns, a South African jurist
serving in the independent post. Citing figures from the Pakistan Human Rights
Commission, he said U.S. drone strikes killed at least 957 people in Pakistan in 2010 alone.
Thousands have been killed in 300 drone strikes there since 2004, 20 percent of whom are
believed to be civilians." Although figures vary widely with regard to drone attack estimates, all
studies concur on one important point: there has been a dramatic increase in their use over the
past three years," Heyns said. Human rights law requires that every effort be made to arrest a
suspect, in line with the "principles of necessity and proportionality on the use of force", the
investigator said.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the warcrimes committed by the US military, click
here.

Native American tribes owed millions from government, supreme court

rules
2012-06-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jun/18/native-american-supreme-court-victory
Native American tribes are celebrating a major victory in their battle for equal treatment after the
US supreme court ruled that the government could no longer short-change them over contracts for
public services. The suit claimed that the government had over many years withheld millions of
dollars owed to the tribes by imposing a cap on the contracts it had taken out with them. Native
American leaders hailed the ruling as an important victory. Rodger Martinez, president of the
Ramah Navajo Chapter in New Mexico that was a plaintiff in the case, said they had been
saddened that they had to go all the way to the supreme court to find redress. "But we are happy
that they sided with us. This gets us back to the principle that the government must pay us what
we are entitled to," he said. The dispute over money relates to services provided by the tribes
themselves under the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975. Under that law, the tribes would subcontract from the federal government public services such as police, schools, fire prevention,
hospitals, and infrastructure works, as well as environmental works and subsidies to farmers.
Under the arrangement, the federal government would pay the tribes for the services provided, just
as it would any other contractor. But from 1994 the government changed the way it paid for the

services, no longer paying for each contract in full but handing the tribes a collective lump
sum onto which it imposed a ceiling thereby withholding from them a portion of the
moneys owed. The supreme court ruling found this to be unacceptable.
Note: For key reports on government corruption from major media sources, click here.

Suu Kyi says Nobel Peace Prize shattered her isolation, ensured
Burmese would not be forgotten
2012-06-16, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/burmese-opposition-chief-aung-san-...
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared Saturday that the Nobel Peace Prize she
won while under house arrest 21 years ago helped to shatter her sense of isolation and ensured
that the world would demand democracy in her military-controlled homeland. Suu Kyi received two
standing ovations inside Oslos city hall as she gave her long-delayed acceptance speech to the
Norwegian Nobel Committee. The 66-year-old champion of political freedom praised the power of
her 1991 Nobel honor both for saving her from the depths of personal despair and shining an
enduring spotlight on injustices in distant Myanmar. Often during my days of house arrest, it felt as
though I were no longer a part of the real world, she said. What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to
draw me once again into the world of other human beings, outside the isolated area in which I
lived, to restore a sense of reality to me. ... And what was more important, the Nobel Prize had
drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma." Suu
Kyi, who since winning freedom in 2010 has led her National League for Democracy party into
opposition in Myanmars parliament, offered cautious support for the first tentative steps toward
democratic reform in her country. But she said progress depended on continued foreign pressure
on the army-backed government.
Note: It is inspiring to see the positive effect that the Nobel Peace Prize may have on the state of
the world. Unfortunately it does not always do so, as is evident with the prizes given to strategists
of global war such as Henry Kissinger.

The Jamie Dimon Cufflinks Mystery

2012-06-14, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47820947
There's been a lot of speculation about the cufflinks [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon
wore during [his Congressional] testimony. They caught the eye of folks because they
seemed to bear some sort of official government stamp. As it turns out, they were
emblazoned with the seal of the President of the United States. CNN's Lizzie O'Leary first
confirmed the story last night over Twitter. They were, in fact, a gift from a resident of the White
House. But people close to the JPMorgan Chase CEO won't say which president gave them to
him. Dimon's got a bunch of official U.S. government cufflinks. Search for images of him and you'll

see FBI cufflinks, for example. Was Dimon trying to send any particular message by wearing the
presidential cufflinks? Was he, for instance, trying to remind the Democrats he supported Obama?
Or subtly hinting that he's really the guy in charge?
Note: For powerful reports on financial corruption, click here.

Family net worth plummets nearly 40%

2012-06-11, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/11/news/economy/fed-family-net-worth/
The average American family's net worth dropped almost 40% between 2007 and 2010,
according to a triennial study released [on June 11] by the Federal Reserve. The stunning
drop in median net worth -- from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 -- indicates that the
recession wiped away 18 years of savings and investment by families. The results ... highlight
the marked deterioration in household finances brought on by the financial crisis and ensuing
recession. Much of the drop off in net worth -- to levels not seen since 1992 -- was attributable to a
sharp decline in housing values, the Fed said. In 2007, the median homeowner had a net worth of
$246,000. Three years later that number had fallen to $174,500, a loss of more than $70,000 on
average. Making matters worse, income levels also fell during the tumultuous three-year period,
with median pre-tax income falling 7.7% as earnings from capital gains all but disappeared. The
loss of income and net worth appears to have impacted savings rates, as the number of
Americans who said they saved in the prior year fell from 56.4% in 2007 to 52.0% in 2010 -- the
lowest level recorded since the early 1990s. Families in the top 10% of income actually saw their
net worth increase over the period, rising from a median of $1.17 million in 2007 to $1.19 million in
2010. Middle-class families who ranked in the 40th to 60th percentile of income earners reported
that their median net worth fell from $92,300 to $65,900 over the same time period.
Note: What this article fails to emphasize sufficiently is that while most people have lost vast
amounts of wealth, the wealthiest 1% has grown incredibly richer even through the recession. Is
something wrong here? For key reports from reliable sources on wealth inequality, click here.

Prosecutors investigate Vatican Bank mafia link

2012-06-10, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/932328...
Anti-Mafia prosecutors have asked the secretive Vatican Bank to disclose details of an
account held by a priest in connection with a money laundering and fraud investigation.
The official request was made more than a month ago but so far the Vatican Bank, known as the
Institute for Religious Works, has refused to disclose any records of the account held by father
Ninni Treppiedi who is currently suspended from serving as a priest. Investigators want to know
more about vast sums of money that are said to have passed through his account to establish if
they were money laundering operations by [the fugitive] Mafia Godfather, Matteo Messina Denaro.

The reports emerged in the Italian media and came just two weeks after the head of the Vatican
Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was sacked amid claims of power struggles and corruption within the
Holy See which have been linked to the leaking of sensitive documents belonging to Pope
Benedict XVI. It is not the first time that the Vatican Bank has been embroiled in claims of
Mafia money laundering. Thirty years ago this month financier Roberto Calvi was found hanging
under London's Blackfriars Bridge with cash and bricks stuffed into his pockets. Initially City of
London police recorded the death as suicide but Italian authorities believe it was murder after it
emerged Calvi, known as God's Banker because of his links to the Vatican Bank, had been trying
to launder millions of pounds of mob money via its accounts and through his own Banco
Ambrosiano which had collapsed spectacularly.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on institutional secrecy, click
here.

Prep-School Predators: Report Alleges Sex Abuse at Elite New York City
School
2012-06-09, TIME Magazine
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/09/prep-school-predators-report-alleges-sex-...
For decades, a handful of teachers at the Horace Mann school, an elite prep school in the
Bronx [in New York City], sexually abused both their male and female students with various
levels of impunity, according to the expos [in the New York Times Magazine] by screenwriter
Amos Kamil. In the article, Kamil, a Horace Mann alumnus, recalls his friends and classmates
privately confiding in him the abuse that they endured at the hands of their teachers. Very few of
the victims ever reported the abuse, instead resorting to silence, apathy, therapy, alcohol
and even suicide. On the two occasions when complaints were made, the offenders were swiftly
relieved of their duties; but as Kamil alleges, the school took no action to investigate other similar
crimes or to address the mental or other needs of the victims. The case is the latest in a series of
New York-area school sex abuse scandals that have come to light lately. At Poly Prep, a
prestigious Brooklyn private school, a former football coach was accused of preying on boys in his
charge while the school administration turned a blind eye. In April, a former math teacher at
Riverdale County School in the Bronx was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenaged
student. Meanwhile, several New York City public school teachers have been arrested for sexually
assaulting students, sparking a district-wide investigation.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on the prevalence of sexual abuse scandals
in institutional settings, click here. For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel
documentary showing that child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government,
click here.

Champion Gymnast's Hidden Life: Dominique Moceanu on Secret Sister

2012-06-08, ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/US/champion-gymnast-dominque-moceanus-secret-sister/sto...
Dominique Moceanu was the youngest member of the celebrated "Magnificent 7" gymnasts who
won team gold at the 1996 Olympic Games. But behind the broad smile and shining medals she
hid heartache and pain inflicted by some of the people she trusted the most. Moceanu would
ultimately file for emancipation from her parents when she was 17, and got a restraining order
against her father. After an injury quashed her bid for the 2000 Olympics, she went to college and
was married in 2006 to a fellow gymnast named Mike Canales. She became pregnant with her first
child soon after her marriage to Canales. But two weeks before giving birth, Moceanu learned
some shocking news. She received a package containing a letter and photos of a young woman
who looked surprisingly similar to her younger sister Christina. Reading the letter, she learned that
the 20-year-old woman, named Jen Bricker, had been adopted and had recently learned that her
birth name was Moceanu. "It was the biggest bombshell of my life," Dominique Moceanu
remembered. "I had this sister that was born who was given up for adoption, and I never knew it."
When Moceanu reached out to her new sister, Bricker [told her] "Oh by the way. I have no
legs. But people forget that within minutes of meeting me." Five years later, they have met
many times and have developed a friendship and bond that only sisters could have. They're
athletic, do gymnastics -- Bricker even competed in the Junior Olympics -- and have discovered
other striking similarities.
Note: For a touching video on this showing the amazing gymnastic abilities and inspiring can-do
attitude of this woman with no legs, click here.

Are doctors improperly storing vaccines?

2012-06-06, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/government-report-finds-doctors-storing-vaccines...
An investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General
found that many providers of immunizations meant for low-income children don't store the
vaccines at proper temperatures, potentially rendering them ineffective and placing children at risk
for contracting serious diseases. Inspectors visited the offices of 45 providers in five states who
offered free immunizations as part of the government's Vaccines for Children Program.
Nationwide, about 44,000 offices and clinics participate in the program. The investigation
found that 76 percent of the providers stored the vaccines at temperatures that were either
too hot or too cold. They also found that 13 providers stored expired vaccines along with
nonexpired vaccines. "As a result, the 20,252 VFC vaccine doses that we observed during site
visits may not provide children with maximum protection against preventable diseases and may be
vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse," according to the report. "These doses were worth
approximately $800,000."
Note: The videos available on the ABC webpage above are also very revealing about the dangers
of vaccines. For excellent summaries of other revealing media articles raising serious questions
about the risks and dangers of vaccines, click here.

Do Plants Think?
2012-06-05, Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-plants-think-daniel-chamo...
How aware are plants? This is the central question behind a fascinating new book, What a Plant
Knows, by Daniel Chamovitz, director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv
University. Chamovitz unveils the surprising world of plants that see, feel, smelland
remember. Just because we dont see plants moving doesnt mean that theres not a very
rich and dynamic world going on inside the plant. People have to realize that plants are
complex organisms that live rich, sensual lives. Plants had to develop incredibly sensitive and
complex sensory mechanisms that would let them survive in ever changing environments. [A plant]
can mount a defense when under siege, and warn its neighbors of trouble on the way. A plant can
even be said to have a memory. If a maple tree is attacked by bugs, it releases a pheromone into
the air that is picked up by the neighboring trees. This induces the receiving trees to start making
chemicals that will help it fight off the impending bug attack. So on the face of it, this is definitely
communication.
Note: This article only touches the surface of a rich world of research suggesting that plant life is
much more complex and miraculous than we might imagine. For more, explore the landmark book
The Secret Life of Plants or the work of researcher Cleve Backster.

Darkness in the Sunshine State

2012-06-02, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/blow-darkness-in-the-sunshine-state...
Few states in the union have done more in recent years to restrict and suppress voting
particularly by groups who lean Democratic, such as young people, the poor and minorities than
Florida. In May 2011, the states Republican-led Legislature passed and the Republican governor,
Rick Scott, signed a sweeping election law that cut early voting short and imposed onerous
burdens on voter registration groups by requiring them to turn in registration applications within 48
hours of the time they are signed or face fines. The threat of fines has meant that many groups
that traditionally registered voters in the state have abandoned the effort, and it appears to be
contributing to fewer new registrations. According to a March analysis of registration data by The
Times, in the months since its new law took effect in May, 81,471 fewer Floridians have registered
to vote than during the same period before the 2008 presidential election. Recently, the state
announced that it would begin another round of voter purging to ensure that no ineligible voters
were mistakenly on the voter rolls. As the New York University School of Laws Brennan Center for
Justice pointed out last week: In 2000, Floridas efforts to purge persons with criminal
convictions from the rolls led to, by conservative estimates, close to 12,000 eligible voters
being removed from the rolls. As most of us remember, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in
the state of Florida that year, after the recounts and the Supreme Court stepped in, by 537
votes.

Note: For key reports from major media sources on serious problems within the US electoral
process, click here.

Bilderberg 2012: bigger and badder and better than ever

2012-06-01, A Guardian blog
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/jun/01/bilderberg-2012-chan...
Luke Rudkowski is the We Are Changer who [is] here in Chantilly [VA], outside [the Bilderberg
2012 conference], with more recording equipment strapped to him than the average moon lander.
"It's huge," he says, as he records the crowds. And the crowds just keep on growing. "Everyone's
becoming citizen reporters these days", says Rudkowski. The mainstream press dropped the ball
on Bilderberg. So people like Rudkowski have had to step in, pick up the ball, re-edit it, and stick it
online with comments enabled. At Bilderberg 2012, the mainstream press is quite simply being
bypassed. I ask Luke why he's come. "I try not to theorize. I go to the source. I try and find out
exactly what's happening. ... The more questions I raise about Bilderberg, the more
questions I have there's a lot more to the story than what we're being told". Rudkowski's
also here "to open the dialogue", he says. "Conversation and communication can help fix a lot of
the problems we're facing." Another new media luminary working the gates at Bilderberg is Jason
Bermas, of Loose Change. He's just flown in from upstate New York. He has come here with his
$700 camera, "because we have to be here. The media has trillions of dollars to spend, and
they're not here. But we have the technology, and I believe technology is the power that will lighten
the darkness."
Note: For an informative, revealing video on the Bilderberg Group featuring top Guardian journalist
Charlie Skelton, click here.

Christine Lagarde, scourge of tax evaders, pays no tax

2012-05-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/29/christine-lagarde-pays-no-tax
Christine Lagarde, the IMF boss who caused international outrage after she suggested ... that
beleaguered Greeks might do well to pay their taxes, pays no taxes, it has emerged. As an
official of an international institution, her salary of $467,940 (298,675) a year plus $83,760
additional allowance a year is not subject to any taxes. Lagarde, 56, receives a pay and
benefits package worth more than American president Barack Obama earns from the
United States government, and he pays taxes on it. According to Lagarde's contract she is also
entitled to a pay rise on 1 July every year during her five-year contract. For many years critics have
complained that IMF, World Bank, and United Nations employees are able to live large at
international taxpayers' expense. During the 1944 economic conference at Bretton Woods, where
the IMF was created, American and British politicians disagreed over salaries for the bureaucrats.
British delegates, including the economist John Maynard Keynes, considered the American
proposals for salaries to be "monstrous", but lost the argument.

Note: For key reports from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Bradley Manning, America's martyr for open government

2012-05-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/29/bradley-manning-americas-...
Today marks two years of imprisonment of Private Bradley Manning. The US government was
going to use Manning as a warning to anyone else who might feel compelled to report on
war crimes, or any other crimes they witness from within the system. Blow the whistle,
goes the warning, and you will be buried alive by the state, shredded by the same secrecy
machine a whistleblower would try to expose. Because of courage and creativity of activists,
Bradley Manning has not been forgotten, even if that was the aim of authorities, and he never shall
be forgotten. His case has been largely shunned by most of the mainstream media, especially in
the US. This needs to change, because if he is indeed found guilty of being a whistleblower of
such magnitude that it shook the entire secrecy machine of our world out of its comfort zone, his
acts would need to be honored as an inspiration to change the way governments hide the reality of
their actions from the people they are supposed to be serving and informing. Manning should not
be convicted in secret: the media should be given access to the court filings; and the media should
be pushing harder for the first amendment of the US constitution to be honored in the Manning
case.
Note: For key reports on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here.

Solar power generation world record set in Germany

2012-05-28, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/28/solar-power-world-record-ge...
German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity equal to 20
nuclear power stations at full capacity through the midday hours of Friday and Saturday. Norbert
Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry in Muenster, said the 22
gigawatts of solar power fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50% of the nation's
midday electricity needs. "Never before anywhere has a country produced as much
photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch [said]. The record-breaking amount of solar power shows
one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs
on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.
Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in
renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those
sources. Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the
world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun
alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2020. "This shows

Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power," Allnoch
said. "It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and
nuclear plants."
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on developments in alternative energy technologies,
click here.

JPMorgan's top-down role in risky investments

2012-05-20, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/19/BUD41OJUG3.DTL
Congress gets into the JPMorgan Chase affair Tuesday with the first in a series of hearings into
how a federally insured bank incurred [huge] losses on the kind of risky bets some, mistakenly,
thought were a thing of the past. The losses, as suspected, look to be far higher than the $2 billion
initially estimated. As of Friday, the number was $5 billion. What did CEO Jamie Dimon know, and
when did he know it? "Dimon personally approved the concept behind the disastrous trades,"
according to the Wall Street Journal. Reportedly, similar trades, involving credit derivatives, date to
2006, ramping up with ever bigger bets as risk controls were eased in 2011.On the one hand,
JPMorgan and other U.S. corporations are banking record profits and ever-growing piles of
cash - $2 trillion at last count. On the other, U.S. unemployment remains unacceptably high,
people are still losing their homes, small businesses are screaming for credit, local
governments are cutting services left and right, and the nation's infrastructure is
crumbling. Tons of money [are] sloshing around, courtesy of the Federal Reserve, but banks and
corporations ... are hoarding it.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on corruption and criminality in the finance industry, click
here.

US firms put social values before big profits

2012-05-20, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18089604
In the next few weeks, half a dozen US states are expected to pass legislation that will for the first
time protect companies which value their social impact as much as the bottom line. Whether it's
buying locally, protecting the environment or launching community projects, the new
"benefit corporations" have a common mission - to do well by doing good. "It's becoming a
national movement," says Penny Jones-Napier, owner of the Big Bad Woof pet store in Hyattsville,
Maryland, the first business in the US to adopt the new benefit corporation designation. "What
started with small businesses is moving into the mainstream." As a benefit corporation, Big Bad
Woof is protected from legal action if it makes decisions that aren't in the financial interests
of its shareholders. The company can support local suppliers for instance, even though that
might not be the cheapest option and could reduce the profit margin. Seven states, including New

York and California, have already adopted the new business class. These seven states combined
produce a third of America's annual economic output, which makes their support for benefit
corporations significant.
Note: Many are not aware that corporations legally are not allowed to do make socially
responsible choices if those choices don't benefit shareholders. Isn't it time to put more pressure
on companies to make socially responsible choices more important than big profits?

Anti-NATO protest calls for "Robin Hood" tax on financial institutions

2012-05-18, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57436981/anti-nato-protest-calls-for-robi...
Thousands of nurses and other protesters gathered [on May 18] at a downtown Chicago
plaza for a noisy but peaceful demonstration demanding a "Robin Hood" tax on banks'
financial transactions. Members of National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses union,
were joined by members of the Occupy movement, unions and veterans at the rally city officials
have said could attract more than 5,000. The nurses and their supporters dressed in red shirts and
wore green felt Robin Hood caps with red feathers. The rally which originally was scheduled to
coincide with the start of the G-8 economic summit before it was moved from Chicago to Camp
David drew a broad spectrum of causes, from anti-war activists to Occupy protesters.
Meanwhile, lawyers for NATO summit protesters said police on [May 18] released four of nine
activists arrested ... on accusations that they had or planned to make Molotov cocktails. The
lawyers said police, with their guns drawn, raided an apartment building where activists
were staying and arrested nine people. The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said
officers broke down doors in the building in the South Side Bridgeport neighborhood and produced
no warrants. "The nine have absolutely no idea what they're being charged with because they
were not engaged in any criminal activity at all," said guild attorney Sarah Gelsomino. "They're
really very confused and very frightened." The Chicago Police Department refused to comment.
Note: For more on the defense of the victims of the police crackdown on Occupy in Chicago and
elsewhere, click here. For a most excellent two-minute video of former U.S. Labor Secretary
Robert Reich presenting five of the most urgent problems with the economy and an easy solution
all in two minutes, click here. For an enlightening five-minute TED talks video further showing how
the rich getting richer while they pay increasingly less taxes is at the root of most economic woes,
click here.

Video Reveals Torture of Horses Trained to Win Championships

2012-05-16, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/tennessee-walking-horses-abused/story?id=163608...

Large numbers of the famed Tennessee Walking Horses have been tortured and beaten in order to
make them produce the high-stepping gait that wins championships, an ABC News investigation
has found. "All too often, you have to cheat to win in this sport," said Keith Dane of the Humane
Society of the United States. In the most recent example, an undercover video made by an
investigator for the Humane Society documents the cruelty of one of the sport's leading trainers,
Jackie McConnell of Collierville, Tennessee. The tape shows McConnell and his stable hands
beating horses with wooden sticks and using electric cattle prods on them as part of a training
protocol to make them lift their feet in the pronounced gait judges like to see. In another scene,
McConnell oversees his hands as they apply caustic chemicals to the ankles of the horses
and them wrap them with plastic wrap so the chemicals eat into the skin. "That creates
intense pain and then the ankles are wrapped with large metal chains so the horses flinch, or raise
their feet even higher," said Dane. Leaders of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry maintain that
such brutality is rare and that trainers do not have to cheat to win championships, which can add
millions of dollars to the value of horses. But a random inspection by the agents of the
Department of Agriculture at last year's annual championship found that 52 of 52 horses
tested positive for some sort of foreign substance around front hooves, either to cause
pain or to hide it.
Note: The good news is that as a result of this report, Pepsi has dropped its support of the annual
Tennessee Walking Horse championship. For more on this, click here.

The honeymoon effect

2012-05-16, Ode Magazine
http://odewire.com/honeymooneffect
"I want people to understand that we are creating this world. That we are creating our own lives.
That our realities and experiences are not accidents. At the end of a long conversation about cell
membranes, evolution and (sub)consciousness, I ask Bruce Lipton what his most important
message is. Bruce Lipton is a stem-cell biologist who ... performed pioneering research at Stanford
University before writing his bestselling book, The Biology of Belief, in 2005. His message does not
come from quick pop interpretations of quantum mechanics but from work with cell cultures in a
lab. These experiments showed that environments and circumstances, not genetic makeup,
dictate how cells behave. Despite all the pharmaceutical claims of individually based genetic
medicine, genetic determinism may have had its day. Liptons research shows a different
perspective. Identical cells developed in different directions when the environment was changed.
Different information led genes to evolve in different ways. So genes dont control life; they
respond to information. Its the environment, stupid. Liptons discoveries are part of an
emerging new biological paradigm that presents a radically different view of the evolution of life:
epigenetics. The implications are profound. Change your environment, and you can change how
you think. We are not locked into our fate, because we have the freedom to change the way we
respond to the world, he explains.

JPMorgan losses look familiar to Phil Angelides

2012-05-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/14/BUOO1OHO2G.DTL
What strikes Phil Angelides the most about the $2 billion (and counting) loss sustained by
JPMorgan Chase on a big trade gone bad, is how little has changed since the financial
crash of 2008. "The big banks continue to be casinos," said the chairman of the
government-appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which laid out how such trades,
referred to in some quarters as "bets," contributed to the crash that the country is still struggling to
pull itself out of. "It has to be stopped," he said. Trouble is - as Angelides, the former California
state treasurer, and others point out - no one is stopping them. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's CEO,
dismissed initial concerns about the trades last month as a "complete tempest in a teapot." His
main concern, he told analysts, was how the affair "plays right into the hands of a bunch of pundits
out there." Dimon was referring to those who have been pushing for regulations to prevent
federally insured banks like JPMorgan from indulging in such trades in the first place. "They've
been fighting a ferocious rear-guard, no-holds-barred action," said Angelides, referring to the army
of lobbyists hired and millions of dollars spent to beat back the regulations. The Securities and
Exchange Commission is investigating the trades, which involved the use of complex financial
instruments called credit default swaps as a hedge against the value of U.S. bonds.
Note: For a most excellent two-minute video of former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich
presenting five of the most urgent problems with the economy and an easy solution all in two
minutes, click here. For an enlightening five-minute TED talks video further showing how the rich
getting richer while they pay increasingly less taxes is at the root of most economic woes, click
here. For a treasure trove of revealing reports from reliable sources on the criminality and
corruption of major financial corporations and their "regulators" in government, click here.

Before Loss, JPMorgan Was One of Volcker Rule's Fiercest Foes

2012-05-11, New York Times
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/before-big-loss-jpmorgan-was-one-of-vo...
The $2 billion trading loss that JPMorgan Chase disclosed late on Thursday provided ample
ammunition for supporters of the Volcker Rule, which would restrict government-backed banks'
ability to conduct proprietary trading. But it also prompted a fair amount of finger-wagging toward
the company, given JPMorgan's stance as one of the rule's fiercest opponents. JPMorgan has
been among the most outspoken detractors of the proposed financial regulation that is
making its way through Washington. The firm has laid bare its feelings about the Volcker Rule
several times, including in a Feb. 13 comment letter to the Federal Reserve. In that document,
JPMorgan argued that the proposal would restrict its efforts to rein in risk-taking and would harm
the firm's ability to compete against foreign rivals that did not face the same restrictions. In the
letter, JPMorgan specifically mentions its chief investment office, the trading group which caused
the $2 billion trading loss. JPMorgan also happens to run one of the most active and bestfinanced lobbying operations within the commercial banking industry. In the first four months

of 2012, the firm has spent $1.92 million, barely trailing Wells Fargo in terms of banks' lobbying
expenses. Last year, JPMorgan spent $7.62 million; two years ago, it spent $7.41 million, the most
in its industry. And JPMorgan's chief, Jamie Dimon has been among the most frequent visitors to
Washington to press his case.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the corruption of major financial corporations,
click here.

Why was the US military teaching 'total war' on Islam?

2012-05-10, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18030105
America's top military officer [the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey]
has condemned a course taught about Islam at one of America's top military schools as "totally
objectionable". The course taught officers there was no such thing as moderate Islam and
that they should consider the religion their enemy. It advocated "total war" against all the
world's Muslims, including possible nuclear attacks on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina
and the wiping out [of] civilian populations. The Pentagon has confirmed [that] the course
material found on their website is authentic. This is not ... a rather sick academic exercise in
stretching the bounds of what could be thought. It is actually what the officer teaching it believes.
In other words: completely nutty stuff that would disgrace the wilder fringes of the blogosphere.
The voluntary course aimed at senior officers was taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in
Norfolk, Virginia, for a year. It came to light when one of the officers on the course complained last
month. There is now an investigation into how the course was approved and why it was part of the
curriculum. A lieutenant colonel has been suspended from teaching, but for the moment keeps his
job.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the extremism evident in the prosecution of the
"global war on terror," click here.

Highway deaths per mile fall to record low

2012-05-07, Boston Globe/Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/05/07/highway_de...
Highway deaths declined again last year, reaching their lowest rate when compared to miles driven
since such record-keeping began in 1921. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's
early estimate of 2011 traffic fatalities ... said there were 32,310 deaths in motor vehicle
crashes last year, a drop of 1.7 percent from the previous year. That's the lowest number of
deaths in more than 60 years. Safety experts have attributed the historic decline to a variety of
factors, including less driving due to a weak economy, more people wearing seat belts, better
safety equipment in cars and efforts to curb drunken driving. The number of miles driven on
America's roadways declined last year by 35.7 billion miles, or 1.2 percent, the safety

administration said. There were 1.09 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, down slightly from 1.11
deaths in 2010. That's the lowest rate on record, NHTSA says. Overall, traffic fatalities have
plummeted 26 percent since 2005. There were significant regional differences in the fatality
reductions last year, with the sharpest drop -- 7.2 percent -- in the six New England states.

Wind turbine creates water from thin air

2012-04-29, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/29/world/eole-water-turbine/index.html
Wind turbines have long produced renewable energy. A French engineering firm has discovered
another [application] for the towering structures. Eole Water claims to have successfully modified
the traditional wind turbine design to create the WMS1000, an appliance that can manufacture
drinking water from humid air. The technology works by first generating electricity in the traditional
manner of a wind turbine. This power enables the entire water generating system to function. The
next stage sees air sucked in through the nose of the turbine via a device known as an "air
blower". All air trapped during this procedure is then directed through an electric cooling
compressor situated behind the propellers. This contraption extracts humidity from the air, creating
moisture which is condensed and collected. The water gathered at this stage is then transferred
down a series of stainless steel pipes, which have been specially modified to aid the water
production process, to a storage tank in the base of the turbine. Once there, the water is filtered
and purified before it is ready for use and consumption. One turbine can produce up to 1,000
liters of water every day, depending on the level of humidity, temperature and wind speeds,
... enough to provide water for a village or town of 2,000 to 3,000 people.

Charles Taylor Conviction Sends Warning to Tyrants

2012-04-27, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/charles-taylor-conviction-sends...
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II
to be convicted by an international war crimes court, a historic verdict that sends a
message that tyrants worldwide will be tracked down and brought to justice. The warlordturned-president was found guilty ... of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity for arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for "blood diamonds" mined by slave
laborers and smuggled across the border. Judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone said Taylor
played a crucial role in allowing the rebels to continue a bloody rampage during that West African
nation's 11-year civil war, which ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead. Ten years after the
war ended, Sierra Leone is still struggling to rebuild. The rebels gained international notoriety for
hacking off the limbs of their victims and carving their groups' initials into opponents and even
children they kidnapped, drugged and turned into killers. The ruling "permanently locks in and
solidifies the idea that heads of state are now accountable for what they do to their own people,"
said David Crane, the former prosecutor who indicted Taylor in 2003 and is now a professor of

international law at Syracuse University. "This is a bell that has been rung and clearly rings
throughout the world. If you are a head of state and you are killing your own people, you could be
next."

Doctors consider using street drugs to ease suffering of dying patients

2012-04-24, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/24/doctors-consider-using-street-drugs-...
Recent studies at Harvard, U.C.L.A. [and] John Hopkins have now made it plain that doctors
should [soon] be free to offer illicit drugs to patients who are terminally ill, in order to ease their
emotional suffering. At Harvard, Dr. John Halpern ... tested MDMA (the street drug Ecstasy) to
determine if it would ease the anxieties in two patients with terminal cancer. At U.C.L.A. and
Hopkins, Drs. Charles Grob and Roland Griffiths used psilocybin (the active ingredient in
hallucinogenic mushrooms) to help cancer patients past their paralyzing, debilitating fears. The
results are reportedly consistently good. In many cases, patients are able to cope with their
physical pain and psychological turmoil better than before. Some, no doubt, feel the drugs
opened doors of perception previously closed to them, allowing them to make peace with
their lives and the impending end of their lives. Recent data also show that low doses of the
street drug Special K (ketamine), when slowly infused via IV, can instantly [relieve] major
depression ... in many patients. And opiates like oxycodone ... are also extremely useful for those
patients who ... suffer with unwieldy anxiety that cannot be addressed ... in any other way.
Note: For more news articles from reliable sources on mind-altering drugs, click here.

Q&A with Fair Trade USA founder Paul Rice

2012-04-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/14/BUBI1O1SHI.DTL
Paul Rice spent more than a decade in Nicaragua before returning to the United States to start
Fair Trade USA in late 1998. Then known as TransFair, the Oakland nonprofit began to push
businesses to practice fair trade. Today, the group works with more than 800 brands, including
Peet's Coffee & Tea, Numi Tea and Ben & Jerry's, which have adopted fair-trade practices and
carry its fair-trade label on certain products. [Rice:] The way it works is farmers organize
themselves into marketing cooperatives and sell direct. When they sell direct to Starbucks,
Peet's, Ben and Jerry's, or any number of the 800 brands we work with today, they're able to
get a much higher price for their harvest. It's like a farmers' market gone global. Fair Trade
USA plays three critical roles in the fair-trade movement. The first role - and defining function - is to
certify fair-trade products. We certify 90 percent of fair-trade products in the U.S. That label gives
consumers the assurance that the product came from a sustainable farm and farmers received a
fair price for their products. We have auditors around the world that audit and inspect farms. We
also have a supply-chain audit. It tracks the product from the farm to the grocery store shelves. We
also have two other functions, consumer education and farmer support. With consumer education,

our goal is to develop programs that raise awareness among consumers in the U.S. We (also) run
training programs for farmers all over the world, to help them improve the quality of their products,
develop strong business skills and to help them get access to capital.

Power shifts as off-grid options spread worldwide

2012-04-13, San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/12/BU031O2FFD.DTL
An electricity revolution [is] sweeping through power markets and threatening traditional utilities'
dominance of the world's supply. From the poorest parts of Africa and Asia to the most-developed
regions in the United States and Europe, solar units ... and small-scale wind and biomass
generators promise to extend access to power to more people than ever before. In the developing
world, they're slashing costs in the process. Across India and Africa, startups and mobile phone
companies are developing what are called called microgrids, in which stand-alone generators
power clusters of homes and businesses in places where electric utilities have never operated. In
Europe, cooperatives are building their own generators and selling power back to the national or
regional grid. The revolution is just beginning, says Jeremy Rifkin, a professor at the Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of "The Third Industrial Revolution." Disruptive
to the economic status quo, the transformation opens up huge opportunities to consumers
who may find themselves trading power in the future much as they swap information over
the Internet today, he says. "This is power to the people." Within a decade, installing
photovoltaic panels may be cheaper for many families than buying power from national
grids in much of the world, including the United States, Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom,
according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Note: For a treasure trove of major media articles showing dozens of amazing new energy
technologies which could replace our dependence on fossil fuels, click here.

Fukushima radiation found in California kelp

2012-04-08, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/07/BAO51O00HO.DTL
Kelp off California was contaminated with short-lived radioisotopes a month after Japan's
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident, a sign that the spilled radiation reached the state's
coastline. Scientists from CSU Long Beach tested giant kelp collected off Orange County, Santa
Cruz and other locations after the March 2011 accident and detected radioactive iodine, which was
released from the damaged nuclear reactor. The largest concentration was about 250 times
higher than levels found in kelp before the accident. "Basically, we saw it in all the California
kelp blades we sampled," said Steven Manley, a CSU Long Beach biology professor who
specializes in kelp. The radioactivity had no known effects on the giant kelp, or on fish and other
marine life, and it was undetectable a month later. Iodine 131 "has an eight-day half-life, so it's
pretty much all gone," Manley said. "But this shows what happens half a world away does

effect what happens here." Some radioactive material probably accumulated in fish that eat
the kelp. "We just don't know if it was harmful," Manley said. Iodine 131, found in nuclear
fission products, is not naturally occurring and is not naturally found in oceans.
Note: The kelp study can be found at this link. For an abundance of excellent major media articles
revealing the serious risks and dangers of nuclear power, click here.

A chat with Emmanuel Saez: Doing the math for the 99 percent
2012-04-07, UC Berkeley's alumni publication 'The Promise of Berkeley.'
http://promise.berkeley.edu/lib/pdf/2012_spring_promise.pdf
Emmanuel Saez is ... director of Berkeleys Center for Equitable Growth. In 2008, on the cusp of
the Great Recession, Saez co-authored a landmark study that revealed a stark gap between the
earnings of Americas wealthiest households and the remaining 99 percent. Saezs recent work
shows that, while the recession initially reduced the income gap, postrecession gains have mostly
gone to the top 1 percent. The extraordinary increase in income concentration in the United States
from 2002 to 2007 was driven in large part by deregulation of the financial and real estate
industries. The resulting real estate bubble triggered the 2008 recession. Evidence shows that
progressive taxation is the most powerful tool for curbing income concentration. For example, from
the Great Depression into the 1970s, when the U.S. had very high tax rates on top earners, the
income gap was very small, and economic growth was incredibly strong. During the 1990s,
incomes for the top 1% nearly doubled, while paychecks for the bottom 99% went up only
20%. Between 2002 and 2007 2/3 of all income gains went to the top 1%. In 2010, the first
year of economic recovery, the top 1% captured 93% of income gains.
Note: For Prof. Saez's excellent study, "The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States" click
here.

VA offers spectrum of services to vets with PTSD

2012-04-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/06/INA01NTT6G.DTL
About 10 to 15 percent of the more than 1.4 million Americans who have served in Iraq and
Afghanistan are [dealing] with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD results when
a person experiences a traumatic event that involves exposure to personal threat or the death or
extreme suffering of others; an event that creates strong feelings of fear, helplessness or horror.
It's common for one to be greatly troubled by uncontrollable painful memories that cause emotional
distress, ... sleep loss, irritability and inability to have positive emotions. The good news is that
effective treatments for the disorder are available. To date, the [VA] has seen more than 223,600
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with PTSD. What stops vets from going for help?
Going for treatment can feel like an admission of failure or personal weakness. And most people
don't know much about what to expect of mental health treatment. In fact, treatment for stress

disorder is a straightforward process. You learn about the effects of trauma ... and how recovery
takes place. You form friendships with other vets. And you master some practical skills for dealing
with painful memories, anger or physical tension. The earlier we treat combat veterans with
readjustment problems, the better chance we have of stopping PTSD. Going for help is an act of
courage that can cut short distress and restore a sense of personal power, hope and
connection with others. If you are a veteran reading this ... seize the day and go for help. If
you're a family member of a veteran with a problem, talk to him or her about treatment and offer to
help with the process, or to go for counseling yourself to ... learn how you can help your loved one.
Note: For practical information on how to get help with PTSD, click here.

Rothschilds to merge British and French banking operations to secure

control
2012-04-05, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9189053/Roths...
The Rothschild dynasty is to merge its British and French banking operations to secure long-term
control of the business and to boost the firm's financial strength ahead of the introduction of
tougher capital requirements for banks. The 200-year-old banks will be reunited under a single
shareholding that will bring together the fortunes of the French and English sides of the
renowned family as they attempt to safeguard the business against the effects of new
regulation and the fallout from the global financial crisis. Paris Orleans, the Rothschild
Group's Paris-based holding company, will convert into a French limited partnership, securing the
families' control of the bank against potential takeovers. The new partnership will then buy out
minority investors in NM Rothschild & Sons, the UK business, as well as outstanding minority
interests in the French operations. Paris Orleans has a market value of more than 500m (415m)
and is about 30pc owned by outside investors. The Rothschild Group employs 3,000 people in 42
countries and is one of the world's leading independent investment banks, advising some of the
largest international companies on capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions. The bank also
remains a player in the private equity industry and operates several merchant banking operations
that invest directly in business across Europe and the rest of the world.
Note: Why is that these two hugely wealthy families get so little press coverage? Could it be that
their wealth and influence exerts control over the major media? For more on secret societies which
command huge hidden power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources
available here.

Whooping cough vaccine fades in pre-teens

2012-04-04, Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/04/whooping-cough-vaccine-fades-in-pre-...

During a whooping cough outbreak in California in 2010, immunized children between eight and 12
years old were more likely to catch the bacterial disease than kids of other ages, suggesting that
the childhood vaccine wears off as kids get older, according to new research. Whooping cough, or
pertussis, is caused by Bordetella pertussis bacteria. The pertussis vaccine, a five-shot series
referred to as DTaP, is recommended for children at ages two-, four-, six- and 18-months, and at
four to six years old. The CDC recommends that at age 11 or 12 kids get the booster shot called
Tdap. In early 2010, a spike in cases appeared at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael, and it was
soon determined to be an outbreak of whooping cough -- the largest seen in California in more
than 50 years. [Dr. David Witt, senior author of the study,] had expected to see the illnesses center
around unvaccinated kids, knowing they are more vulnerable to the disease. "We started
dissecting the data. What was very surprising was the majority of cases were in fully
vaccinated children. That's what started catching our attention," said Witt. Comparing the
kids who got pertussis to the more than 22,000 kids in the medical center's database who didn't,
Witt's group wrote in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that the vaccine is effective about half
of the time for all kids, and just 24 percent of the time in the eight to 12 year old age group.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the dangers and questionable science surrounding
vaccines, click here.

Indian Man Single-Handedly Plants 1,360 Acre Forest In Assam

2012-04-03, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/indian-man-jadav-molai-pa_n_1399930....
More than 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng began planting seeds along a
barren sandbar near his birthplace in India's Assam region. It was 1979 and floods had washed a
great number of snakes onto the sandbar. When Payeng -- then only 16 -- found them, they had all
died. "The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless
forms," Payeng told the Times Of India. "It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked
them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. It was painful, but I did it.
There was nobody to help me." Now that once-barren sandbar is a sprawling 1,360 acre
forest, home to [many] varieties of trees and an astounding diversity of wildlife -- including
birds, deer, apes, rhino, elephants and even tigers. The forest, aptly called the "Molai
woods" after its creator's nickname, was single-handedly planted and cultivated by one
man -- Payeng, who is now 47. Payeng has dedicated his life to the upkeep and growth of the
forest. Accepting a life of isolation, he started living alone on the sandbar as a teenager -spending his days tending the burgeoning plants. Today, Payeng still lives in the forest. He shares
a small hut with his wife and three children and makes a living selling cow and buffalo milk.
According to the Assistant Conservator of Forests, Gunin Saikia, it is perhaps the worlds biggest
forest in the middle of a river. "[Locals] wanted to cut down the forest, but Payeng dared them to
kill him instead. He treats the trees and animals like his own children. Seeing this, we, too, decided
to pitch in," Saikia said.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Piano inspires 17-year-old to invent land-mine detector

2012-04-03, NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/piano-inspires-17-year-old-invent-land-mine...
17-year-old Marian Bechtel might live in Pennsylvania, where land mines are not a common
occurrence, but she has still managed to invent the prototype for a brand-new minesweeper. The
device, [with a] cost far lower than current technology, uses sound waves to figure out where the
deadly devices are. The combination of sensitive microphones and a seismic vibrator connected to
a standard metal detector was tested, successfully, on mock plastic and metal land mines. It was a
finalist in the recently concluded 2012 Intel Science Talent Search. The project was inspired by
family connections and a lucky flash of inspiration. "My parents are both geologists," she says.
"Years ago they got connected with an international group of scientists working on a project called
RASCAN, developing a holographic radar device for detecting land mines. During the summer
before eighth grade, I met all of these scientists and talked with them about their work and the land
mine issue. I was really touched and inspired by what they had to say, and wanted to get involved
in science and possibly land mine detection. I noticed that when I played certain chords or
notes on the piano, the strings on a nearby banjo would resonate," says Bechtel. "I heard
this, and it was almost like the story of the apple falling on Newtons head -- I thought that
maybe I could use the same principle to find landmines. So, I began doing research and
talking with scientists in humanitarian de-mining and acoustics; three years later I had built a
prototype."
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

Confronting Argentina's people-traffickers

2012-04-02, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17560518
On 3 April [2002] Maria de los Angeles Veron, known as "Marita", went missing. In February
[2012], 13 people accused of kidnapping Ms Veron and selling her to traffickers who forced her
into prostitution went on trial in a court in Tucuman province, in the north west of Argentina. This
case has become over the years a symbol of the fight against human trafficking in Argentina and
most of South America. Especially because of what Mrs Trimarco has done over the last decade.
In the search for her daughter she infiltrated herself into human trafficking gangs
pretending to be interested in "buying" women. The information gathered by these actions led
to police raids which rescued dozens of women who were being sexually exploited. Mrs Trimarco
later launched the Fundacion Maria de los Angeles, named after her missing daughter. Since 2007
it has helped rescue hundreds of victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. She and her

husband Daniel, who died in 2010, asked at hospitals, and spoke to police and neighbours about
Marita. No-one knew her whereabouts. After several days there was a breakthrough. Someone
had seen her being pushed inside a vehicle by three men. And weeks later a prostitute confirmed
their worst fears. They were told that their daughter had been "sold" to traffickers. Mrs Trimarco
says the authorities in the province at the time, as well as former members of the police and
the judiciary, were in collusion with the traffickers, which is why it was so difficult to find
her daughter.
Note: Months after the above article was published, there were riots after the accused were set
free. Ms. Trimarco said that "while she cannot prove it, she is sure that judicial corruption
influenced the verdicts." For powerful information from a Discovery Channel documentary showing
that this kind of corruption is also occurring at the highest levels in the US, click here.

US anti-terrorism law curbs free speech and activist work, court told
2012-03-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/29/journalists-us-anti-terrorism-law...
A group [of] political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American
law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them
without trial as accused supporters of terrorism. The seven figures, who include ex-New York
Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks
campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law dubbed the NDAA or
Homeland Battlefield Bill would cripple free speech around the world. They said that various
provisions written into the National Defense Authorization Bill, which was signed by
President Barack Obama at the end of 2011, effectively broadened the definition of
"supporter of terrorism" to include peaceful activists, authors, academics and even
journalists interviewing members of radical groups. Controversy centres on the loose
definition of key words in the bill, in particular who might be "associated forces" of the law's named
terrorist groups al-Qaida and the Taliban and what "substantial support" to those groups might get
defined as. Whereas White House officials have denied the wording extends any sort of blanket
coverage to civilians, rather than active enemy combatants, or actions involved in free speech,
some civil rights experts have said the lack of precise definition leaves it open to massive potential
abuse.
Note: For discussion of the extreme crackdown by police, based on "anti-terrorism" legislation,
against Occupy movement protestors, click here.

U.S. Relaxes Limits on Use of Data in Terror Analysis

2012-03-23, New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/politics/us-moves-to-relax-some-restric...

The Obama administration is moving to relax restrictions on how counterterrorism analysts may
retrieve, store and search information about Americans gathered by government agencies for
purposes other than national security threats. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. [has] signed new
guidelines for the National Counterterrorism Center. The guidelines will lengthen to five years
from 180 days the amount of time the center can retain private information about
Americans when there is no suspicion that they are tied to terrorism, intelligence officials
said. The guidelines are also expected to result in the center making more copies of entire
databases and data mining them. They also set off civil-liberties concerns among privacy
advocates who invoked the Total Information Awareness program. That program, proposed early
in the George W. Bush administration and partially shut down by Congress after an outcry,
proposed fusing vast archives of electronic records like travel records, credit card transactions,
phone calls and more. Were all in the dark, and for all we know it could be a rerun of Total
Information Awareness, which would have allowed the government to make a computerized
database of everything on everybody, said Kate Martin, the director of the Center for National
Security Studies, who criticized the administration for not making the draft guidelines public for
scrutiny ahead of time.
Note: For excellent and insightful analyses of the disturbing growth of government surveillance
and secrecy described in this NYT report, click here and here and here and here.

Scientists Warn of Ethical Battle Concerning Military Mind Control

2012-03-20, U.S. News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/03/20/scientists-warn-of-ethical-bat...
Advances in neuroscience are closer than ever to becoming a reality, but scientists are warning
the military - along with their peers - that with great power comes great responsibility. A future of
brain-controlled tanks, automated attack drones and mind-reading interrogation techniques may
arrive sooner than later, but advances in neuroscience that will usher in a new era of combat come
with tough ethical implications for both the military and scientists responsible for the technology,
according to one of the country's leading bioethicists. "Nobody knows where that technology is
going" ... says Jonathan Moreno, author of Mind Wars: Brain Science and the Military in the 21st
Century. "The goals of national security and the goals of science may conflict." Moreno says there
is a fine line between using neuroscience devices to allow an injured person to regain baseline
functions and enhancing someone's body to perform better than their natural body ever could. The
Brookings Institution's Peter Singer writes in his book, Wired for War ... that "the Pentagon's realworld record with things like the aboveground testing of atomic bombs, Agent Orange, and
Gulf War syndrome certainly doesn't inspire the greatest confidence." The staggering
possibilities are further along than many think. There is already development on automated drones
that are programmed to make their own decisions about who to kill. Other ideas that are closerthan-you-think to becoming a military reality: Tanks controlled from half a world away, memory
erasures that could prevent PTSD, and "brain fingerprinting" that could be used to extract secrets
from enemies. Should soldiers have the right to refuse "experimental" brain implants?

Note: For key major media articles revealing the disturbing power of these exotic weapons, click
here. For an abundance of powerful, reliable information on mind control, see our information
center at this link. For highly revealing major media articles on secret government mind control
programs, click here.

Safety worries shut down San Onofre nuclear plant

2012-03-16, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/15/MNDR1NLDQ5.DTL
A nuclear reactor on the Southern California coast will remain shut down indefinitely while
a team of federal inspectors determines why several relatively new tubes became so frail
that tests found they could rupture and release radioactive water, a federal official said [on
March 15]. The Unit 3 reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located about 45
miles north of San Diego, was shut down as a precaution on Jan. 31 after a water leak from
another tube in a massive steam generator. Since then, investigators have been looking into
excessive wear found on steam generator tubes in the seaside plant and its twin, Unit 2, which has
been offline for maintenance and refueling. The two huge steam generators at Unit 2, each
containing 9,700 tubes, were replaced in fall 2009, and a year later in Unit 3 as part of a $670
million overhaul. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission dispatched a special, five-member team to
Unit 3 ... after pressure tests showed three of the metal-alloy tubes had become so degraded that
they could rupture under some circumstances. Such ruptures can require a plant to shut down, if
spewing water reaches 150 gallons a day. According to the NRC, the tubes have an important
safety role because they represent one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and nonradioactive sides of the plant. If a tube breaks, radioactivity from the system that pumps water
through the reactor could escape into the atmosphere.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the dangers of nuclear power, click here.

Congolese ex-warlord convicted of using children as soldiers

2012-03-14, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-court-lubanga-20120315,0,...
The International Criminal Court in The Hague on [March 14] found former Congolese warlord
Thomas Lubanga guilty of using children as soldiers, the first verdict in the panel's 10-year history.
He could face life imprisonment. After a three-year trial, the court convicted Lubanga of recruiting
boys and girls younger than 15 as soldiers during a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo
in 2002 and 2003. Although his militia was accused of massacres, rapes, torture and ethnic killings
by human rights activists and witnesses, the court charged him only with the recruitment and use
of children to fight. Amnesty International expressed disappointment that the court failed to
prosecute other crimes that Lubanga was alleged to have committed and called on the ICC to
widen its future prosecutions. It also called on the court to ensure trials proceeded more swiftly.
The verdict was seen as a major breakthrough in forcing warlords and politicians to be held

accountable for atrocities and crimes against humanity, sending a message that international
justice eventually would catch up with them. The evidence said girls forcibly recruited by the
warlord were used as sex slaves, and videos aired in court showed Lubanga surrounded by child
combatants. Tens of thousands of children continue to be used in wars across the
continent, according to human rights agencies. Other African leaders or warlords indicted by
the court include Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army, whose activities in Uganda were
highlighted in a video watched by about 70 million people last week.

Classified documents contradict FBI on post-9/11 probe of Saudis, exsenator says

2012-03-13, MSNBC
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/13/10656262-classified-documen...
Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired Congress Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, has seen two classified FBI documents that he says are at odds with the bureaus public
statements that there was no connection between the hijackers and Saudis then living in Sarasota,
Fla. There are significant inconsistencies between the public statements of the FBI in September
and what I read in the classified documents, Graham said. One document adds to the
evidence that the investigation was not the robust inquiry claimed by the FBI, Graham
said. An important investigative lead was not pursued and unsubstantiated statements
were accepted as truth. Congresss bipartisan inquiry released its public report in July 2003.
The final 28 pages, regarding possible foreign support for the terrorists, were censored in their
entirety -- on President George W. Bushs instructions. Graham said the two classified FBI
documents that he saw, dated 2002 and 2003, were prepared by an agent who participated in the
Sarasota investigation. He said the agent suggested that another federal agency be asked to join
the investigation, but that the idea was rejected. Graham attempted in recent weeks to contact
the agent, he said, only to find the man had been instructed by FBI headquarters not to talk.
Note: Much evidence exists implicating not only Saudi Arabia, but also Pakistan, Israel and the UK
in the 9/11 attacks. Could the purpose behind these high-profile claims from former US senators
be to deflect attention from the key perpetrators, rogue elements within the US government? As
WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin has exhaustively demonstrated, almost all of
the evidence for Muslim hijackers vanishes on close examination. For more serious questions on
9/11, click here.

UN torture chief: Manning endured cruel treatment

2012-03-13, MSNBC
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10657259-un-torture-chief-mannin...
Army Pfc. Bradley Mannings 11 months in solitary confinement was cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment, the UN chief on torture said Monday, though he stopped short of calling it
torture. Manning, 25, faces 22 counts, including aiding the enemy after he allegedly released

classified documents to WikiLeaks. He was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day
following his arrest in May 2010 in Iraq, and continuing through his transfer to the Marine Corps
Base in Quantico, Va. The confinement, lasting about 11 months, ended upon his transfer to Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., on April 20, 2011. When Juan Mendez, special rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, asked Department of Defense officials why
Manning was held in such a condition, he was told it was due to the gravity of the crime and for
prevention of harm though they did not specify what that meant, citing privacy concerns. He
hasn't been convicted of any crime yet so subjecting him to a very long period of solitary
confinement on the basis that he might be found guilty of a crime seems to me to be both a
violation of his presumption of innocence but also a violation of his right not to be treated
cruelly or inhumanely, Mendez told msnbc.com. The explanations for Mannings solitary
confinement were insufficient, according to Mendez. That's why I reached the conclusion that
the United States government was responsible for having inflicted on him cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment, he said.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the use of torture and government restrictions
of basic civil liberties, click here.

Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims Group

2012-03-13, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/catholic-church-pressures-victims-networ...
Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests,
lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases
have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could
include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors
and journalists. The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is
neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the litigation. But the group has been subpoenaed five times in
recent months in Kansas City and St. Louis, and its national director, David Clohessy, was
questioned by a battery of lawyers for more than six hours this year. A judge in Kansas City ruled
that the network must comply because it almost certainly had information relevant to the case.
The network and its allies say the legal action is part of a campaign by the church to cripple an
organization that has been the most visible defender of victims, and a relentless adversary, for
more than two decades. If there is one group that the higher-ups, the bishops, would like to
see silenced, said Marci A. Hamilton, a law professor at Yeshiva University and an
advocate for victims of clergy sex crimes, it definitely would be SNAP. And thats what
theyre going after. Theyre trying to find a way to silence SNAP.
Note: For an excellent NY Times editorial on this, click here. To sign a petition calling for the
Catholic Church to stop its persecution of SNAP, click here.

Fugitives from justice: Roman Catholic priests

2012-03-11, Chicago Tribune

http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/fugitives/priests.html
Few clergy who fled the U.S. after being accused of sexual abuse of minors have been returned to
face the charges. Since 1985, at least 32 Roman Catholic priests have left the United States
for foreign countries while facing criminal charges or a police investigation over allegations
that they sexually assaulted or abused minors, according to federal warrants, news reports and
law enforcement sources. Only five have been returned to the U.S. to face trial; some died abroad.
The number of fugitive priests grows by more than two dozen if it includes those who left the
country while facing internal church probes or civil allegations of child sex misconduct, instead of a
criminal investigation, and those who were transferred to foreign countries by church authorities
before or after allegations surfaced. Many have maintained their innocence. Authorities also have
pursued religious leaders from other faith traditions who fled the U.S. amid abuse allegations.
Note: This extensive, multi-part report includes detailed stories on individual priests who have fled
justice, and photos of many such fugitives, as well as other types of fugitive criminals. For key
reports from reliable sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

DOJ Director on Violence Against Women in the United States

2012-03-08, Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2012/03/08/doj-director-on-violence-a...
In one of the most in-depth discussions to date on violence against women in the United States,
and to coincide with International Womens Day, I interviewed Susan B. Carbon, Director of the
United States Department of Justices Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Rahim Kanani:
How would you characterize the landscape of justice today with respect to victims of domestic
violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking here in the United States? Susan Carbon:
Although violent crime has decreased nationwide, the crimes of domestic violence, dating
violence, sexual assault, and stalking still devastate the lives of too many women, men, youth, and
children. One in every four women and one in every seven men have experienced severe
physical violence by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. One in five women
... have been raped in their lifetimes, and nearly 1.3 million women in the U.S. are raped
every year. The statistics are sobering even more so with our understanding that these types of
crimes are often the most underreported. Many victims suffer in silence without confiding in family
and friends, much less reaching out for help from hospitals, rape crisis centers, shelters, or even
the police. Congress recognized the severity of these serious crimes and our need for a national
strategy with the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994. As a result ... we
have witnessed a paradigm shift in how the issue of violence against women is addressed in the
United States, and countless lives have been positively impacted.

U.S. adds Vatican to money-laundering concern list

2012-03-08, Toronto Sun

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/08/us-adds-vatican-to-money-laundering-conc...
The Vatican has for the first time appeared on the U.S. State Departments list of moneylaundering centres. It was added to the list because it was considered vulnerable to moneylaundering. To be considered a jurisdiction of concern merely indicates that there is a vulnerability
to a financial system by money launderers. With the large volumes of international currency that
goes through the Holy See, it is a system that makes it vulnerable as a potential money-laundering
center, Susan Pittman of the State Departments Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement, told Reuters. The Vatican Bank, founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII, has been in the
spotlight since September 2010 when Italian investigators froze 23 million euros ($33 million) in
funds in Italian banks after opening an investigation into possible money-laundering. The bank said
it did nothing wrong and was just transferring funds between its own accounts. The money was
released in June 2011 but the investigation is continuing. Two months ago, Italian newspapers
published leaked internal letters which appeared to show a conflict among top Vatican officials
about just how transparent the bank should be about dealings that took place before it enacted its
new laws. The Vatican Bank was formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR)
and was entangled in the collapse 30 years ago of Banco Ambrosiano, with its lurid
allegations about money-laundering, freemasons, mafiosi and the mysterious death of
Ambrosiano chairman Roberto Calvi - Gods banker.
Note: For more on the Vatican money-laundering scandal, click here. For speculation on the role
of secret societies in all of this, click here.

Wall Street speculation blamed for gas price spike

2012-03-08, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/07/BUQ81NHHPQ.DTL
Public anger over high gasoline prices is turning to a familiar target - Wall Street. The role of
speculative investors in this year's price spike has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks,
nowhere more so than in Washington. Nearly 70 members of Congress wrote a stern letter
Monday to a federal commission that regulates the country's main market for crude oil, demanding
that the commission crack down on speculation. President Obama, his energy policies under
attack from Republicans, ordered a fresh look at speculation's role in the market on Tuesday. "This
is just another example, in my view, of Wall Street playing the casino," said Rep. Jackie Speier, DHillsborough, who signed the letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "Everyone
should be outraged that every time they're filling up their tank, they're paying a premium
because of speculation." How big is that premium? One of the trading commission's five
members estimated last month that speculative investors were adding 56 cents to the price
of each gallon of gas. As a result, Honda Civic drivers pay an additional $7.39 per fill-up, said
Commissioner Bart Chilton. Owners of the Ford F150 pickup pay an extra $14.56. Speculative
investors include hedge funds and investment banks that buy contracts for the future delivery of oil
but never intend to take possession of the fuel itself. They buy and sell strictly as a financial
investment, and their presence in the market has swelled.

Note: For lots more reliable information from the major media on energy manipulations, click here.

Excesses cross party lines

2012-03-07, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/06/EDLG1NGNRF.DTL
Attorney General Eric Holder thinks it's legal to kill American terrorism suspects overseas without
any judicial review or public notice. It's an astonishing claim to make and a shameful stand for the
Obama administration, which came to office pledging to curb such constitutionally shaky excesses.
In a speech, Holder essentially offer the "trust us" argument in defense of targeted killings. The
guidelines are murky: The military will compile a list of dangerous terrorists including U.S. citizens,
hunt them down, and if the host country can't or won't catch the suspect, then the United States
will. The example at issue is last year's drone attack that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexicoborn al Qaeda leader. Under Holder's ground rules there is no outside review, court deliberation or
explanation of how a suspect makes the kill list. For those critics concerned about oversight or
legal caution, he offered this observation: " 'Due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the
same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process,
not judicial process." Holder didn't cite an in-house legal opinion used to justify the policy, which
he's refused to release and is the subject of a civil liberties lawsuit. Obama still hasn't closed the
Guantanamo Bay gulag as promised. Now he's shielding targeted killings from genuine
review. This presidential subversion of rule of law was unacceptable under George W.
Bush, and it is unacceptable under Barack Obama.
Note: Attorney General Holder's claim that US citizens can be killed by the government without
judicial process clearly violates the U.S. Bill of Rights. In addition to the Fifth Amendment that
states that no person shall be held to answer for a crime "without due process of law," the Sixth
Amendment states that "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial."

A Machine That Sniffs Out Cancer

2012-03-01, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/a-machine-that-sniffs-out-cancer
A few years ago researchers in California received widespread attention for showing that dogs can
smell cancer on a humans breath. With 99 percent accuracy the canines could detect if a person
had lung or breast cancer, beating the best figures from standard laboratory tests. Subsequent
studies confirmed the results. Technology startups have hustled to build digital devices that can
mimic the dogs olfactory sense and reduce the need for biopsies and CAT scans. Metabolomx, a
12-person outfit in Mountain View, Calif., [is] bringing a cancer-sniffing device to market. The
machine analyzes the breath and its volatile organic compounds, or VOCsaerosolized molecules
that, among other things, determine how something smells. Tumors produce their own VOCs,
which pass into the bloodstream. The lungs create a bridge between the bloodstream and airways,
so the breath exhaled by a patient will carry the VOC signatures of a tumor if one is present. It

may seem surprising, but its actually very straightforward, says Paul Rhodes, the co-founder and
chief executive officer at Metabolomx. Dr. Peter Mazzone, a lung cancer expert at the Cleveland
Clinic, recently published results from a trial he ran with an early version of the Metabolomx
machine. He studied 229 people and found that the machine could detect lung cancer more
than 80 percent of the time. Just as intriguing, the machine outdid the dogs by
distinguishing between different forms of lung cancer with about 85 percent accuracy,
giving the doctor insight into whether a patient had an aggressive case.
Note: A machine has 80% accuracy in detecting this lethal disease, while sniffing dogs have 99%
accuracy. Which would you rather have? For lots more from reliable sources on promising
potential cancer-cure breakthroughs, click here.

Vets feel abandoned after secret drug experiments

2012-03-01, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/01/health/human-test-subjects/index.html
The moment 18-year-old Army Pvt. Tim Josephs arrived at Edgewood Arsenal in 1968, he knew
there was something different about the place. "It just did not look like a military base, more like a
hospital," recalled Josephs, a Pittsburgh native. Josephs had volunteered for a two-month
assignment at Edgewood, in Maryland, lured by three-day weekends closer to home. "It was like a
plum assignment," Josephs said. "The idea was they would test new Army field jackets, clothing,
weapons and things of that nature, but no mention of drugs or chemicals." But when he went to fill
out paperwork the morning after his arrival, the base personnel were wearing white lab coats, and
Josephs said he had second thoughts. An officer took him aside. "He said, 'You
volunteered for this. You're going to do it. If you don't, you're going to jail. You're going to
Vietnam either way -- before or after,'" Josephs said recently. From 1955 to 1975, military
researchers at Edgewood were using not only animals but human subjects to test a
witches' brew of drugs and chemicals. They ranged from potentially lethal nerve gases like VX
and sarin to incapacitating agents like BZ. The military also tested tear gas, barbiturates,
tranquilizers, narcotics and hallucinogens like LSD. Josephs, 63, believes the chemical agents he
received during his two-month stint at Edgewood [harmed] him, triggering health problems that
continue to plague him four decades later.
Note: For a comprehensive list of example of humans being used as guinea pigs by the military
and government over the past century with links for verification, click here.

Portions of 9/11 victims remains taken to landfill, report says

2012-02-28, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/portions-of-911-victims...

Some human remains recovered from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and in
Shanksville, Pa., were incinerated and dumped in a landfill, the Defense Department said ... in the
latest revelation about mishandled body parts at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary. A new
Pentagon review of the troubled mortuary disclosed several other problems including fresh
allegations of fraud and misplaced remains over the past decade. The report said that the Sept.
11 remains in question could not be tested or identified, apparently because they were too small
or charred to allow for DNA analysis. The remains were cremated and then mixed with biomedical
waste at the Dover mortuary, where they were given to a contractor who incinerated them and
dumped the residue in a landfill. The report cites Army and Air Force memos from July and
August 2002 directing that an unspecified number of remains from the Attack on the
Pentagon be incinerated. The report indicates that unidentified remains from the hijacking
of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, were disposed of in a similar
manner. But the Pennsylvania coroner who oversaw the handling of remains from that attack said
no body parts from Shanksville were ever sent to Dover or taken to a landfill. Wallace Miller, the
Somerset, Pa., county coroner, said in news reports on Tuesday that all unidentified remains from
Shanksville were buried in three caskets on Sept. 12 at a memorial site for Flight 93 as part of the
10th anniversary of the hijacking.
Note: Why would the Pentagon order the remains incinerated? Could it be they don't want an
forensic investigation of the remains as they are not what is claimed? For more on the 9/11 coverup, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.

Can three minutes of exercise a week help make you fit?

2012-02-27, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17177251
A few relatively short bursts of intense exercise, amounting to only a few minutes a week, can
deliver many of the health and fitness benefits of hours of conventional exercise, according to new
research. This apparently outrageous claim is supported by many years of research done in a
number of different countries. [Welcome to] the world of High Intensity Training (HIT). By
doing just three minutes of HIT a week for four weeks, [you can] expect to see significant
changes in a number of important health indices. But how much benefit you get ... may well
depend on your genes. The fact is that people respond to exercise in very different ways. In one
international study 1,000 people were asked to exercise four hours a week for 20 weeks. The
results were striking. Although 15% of people made huge strides ... 20% showed no real
improvement at all. The exercise they were doing was not making them any aerobically fitter. [HIT
is] actually very simple. You get on an exercise bike, warm up by doing gentle cycling for a couple
of minutes, then go flat out for 20 seconds. A couple of minutes to catch your breath, then another
20 seconds at full throttle. Another couple of minutes gentle cycling, then a final 20 seconds going
hell for leather. And that's it. Active exercise ... seems to be needed to break down the body's
stores of glucose, deposited in your muscles as a substance called glycogen. Smash up these

glycogen stores and you create room for more glucose to be sucked out of the blood and stored.
Like any new exercise regime if you have a pre-existing medical condition you should consult your
doctor before trying it.
Note: For lots more on this, see the excellent article on mercola.com at this link. And for two
amazing one-minute videos of a highly inspiring gymnast who is 86-years-old doing her routines,
click here.

Cheat, lie, break the law? Chances are, youre rich

2012-02-27, Globe and Mail (One of Canada's leading newspapers)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/cheat-lie-break-the-law-cha...
The wealthy really are different from everyone else: Theyre more likely to cheat, lie, and break the
law. At least thats the unflattering conclusion of a team of professors from the University of
Torontos Rotman School of Management and the University of California, Berkeley, who ran a
battery of tests involving more than 1,000 people, seeking to answer the question of whether being
rich or poor influenced ethical behaviour. In results from seven separate studies, they found a
consistent tendency among those they termed upper-class to be more likely to break the
law while driving, take valued goods from others, lie in negotiations, cheat to increase their
chances of winning a prize and endorse unethical behaviour at work. The reason for the
ethical difference was simple. Wealthier people are more likely to have an attitude that greed is
good. At first glance, it might seem more likely that poorer people would be more tempted to cheat
or break the law, in order to improve their lot in life. But a growing body of research is coming to
the opposite conclusion that its people at the top of the income scale for whom honesty, integrity,
and generosity seem to be a challenge. In the United States, for instance, despite the perception
that the rich are great philanthropists, data show that upper-class households donate a smaller
proportion of their incomes to charity than do lower-class families. Other research has found that
those who are well off have a reduced concern for others.

Brother, Can You Spare $6 Trillion?

2012-02-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/world/europe/italy-arrests-8-in-fake-us-tre...
The Italian police ... arrested eight people on charges related to the seizure of $6 trillion in fake
United States Treasury bonds, in a mysterious scheme that stretched from Hong Kong to
Switzerland to the southern Italian region of Basilicata. The value of the seized bonds is in the
neighborhood of half of the United States entire public debt of $15.36 trillion, but only the
uninitiated would have accepted them as real securities. Rather than counterfeit, they were
what officials call fictitious, printed in 6,000 units of $1 billion each, a denomination that does not
exist and the equivalent of $3 bills. The United States Embassy in Rome said its experts had
examined the bonds, which bore the date 1934, and determined that they were fictitious and
apparently part of a scheme intended to defraud Swiss banks. According to the Federal Reserve,

such fictitious instrument fraud is increasingly common, and unwitting investors have been
cheated of nearly $10 billion in recent years. In a common ploy, criminals present fictitious
financial instruments such as Federal Reserve notes, standby letters of credit, prime bank
guarantees or prime bank notes in order to fraudulently collateralize loans, the Federal Reserve
says on its Web site. In 2009, Italian police seized phony United States Treasury bonds with a face
value of $250 billion.
Note: There is a major problem with the claim that these are fake. If you were a counterfeiter and
wanted to fake bonds, you would have to be out of your mind to fake them in denominations of $1
billion. As reported here, no one would ever dream of cashing them. For excellent research by
David Wilcock suggesting that the bonds are real, and that this may be part of a huge, hidden
manipulation, click here.

London-based oil executive linked to 9/11 hijackers

2012-02-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/september-11-attacks/9089896/London...
A Saudi Arabian accused of associating with several of the September 11 hijackers and who
disappeared from his home in the United States a few weeks before the attacks on the World
Trade Centre and the Pentagon, is in London working for his countrys state oil company.
Abdulaziz al-Hijji ... flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. Security records of cars passing
through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr al-Hijjis home,
4224 Escondito Circle, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of
the 19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the
World Trade Centre in 2001. The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United
Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines
Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house. All three men had
trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from Sarasota. Mr al-Hijji is resident in London,
working for the European subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabias state oil company. Described
as a career counsellor, he is based in the offices of Aramco Overseas Company UK Limited and
lives in an expensive flat in central London.
Note: The US media has failed to report on this major news, with the exception of a small
newspaper in Sarasota, FL, where the hijackers had been training. For two revealing articles in
that paper, click here and here.

Drones Set Sights on U.S. Skies

2012-02-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/technology/drones-with-an-eye-on-the-public...

A new federal law, signed by the president on [February 14], compels the Federal Aviation
Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors. Local police and
emergency services will also be freer to send up their own drones. But while businesses, and
drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating the opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial
vehicles, the law raises new worries about how much detail the drones will capture about lives
down below and what will be done with that information. Some questions likely to come up: Can
a drone flying over a house pick up heat from a lamp used to grow marijuana inside, or take
pictures from outside someones third-floor fire escape? Can images taken from a drone be sold to
a third party, and how long can they be kept? The American Civil Liberties Union and other
advocacy groups are calling for new protections against what the A.C.L.U. has said could be
routine aerial surveillance of American life. The new law, part of a broader financing bill for
the F.A.A., came after intense lobbying by drone makers and potential customers. These
manufacturers have been awaiting lucrative new opportunities at home. The market for
drones is valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade, according to
industry figures. Drones can cost millions of dollars for the most sophisticated varieties to as little
as $300 for one that can be piloted from an iPhone.
Note: For more information on the use of drones by police in the US, click here. For more on the
threats to civil liberties created by this new law, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on
surveillance in the US, click here.

Homeowners deserve protections afforded businesses

2012-02-17, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/16/EDKF1N8M4N.DTL
[A] report from San Francisco auditors [shows] that 84 percent of foreclosures examined contained
at least one violation of the law by the foreclosing party. The report is only the latest in a series of
incidents involving bad actors in the foreclosure crisis. In fact, problems have been so rampant that
banks now require many buyers of foreclosed homes to sign contracts absolving the bank of
liability should irregularities appear with the original foreclosure. In light of these negligent
practices, the $26 billion settlement last week between the U.S. Department of Justice, state
attorneys general and the major banks raises as many questions as answers. For instance: If a
house is illegally foreclosed upon and subsequently sold by the bank, who owns the home? The
new buyer or the original owner? Untangling this mess might require new consumer protections,
not just a payout from the banks accused of wrongdoing. The best way to prevent foreclosure
problems, however, has always been to prevent foreclosures in the first place. Offering families
facing foreclosure the same bankruptcy protections enjoyed by business speculators is one place
to start. As it stands today, a single family that buys a home in a housing development is
treated differently in bankruptcy court than a businessman who bought 10 units in the
same project. If and when the housing bubble bursts, the underwater speculator is able to
seek bankruptcy relief on all 10 units, while the owner of the single home is left out in the
cold.

Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the impacts of the financial crisis on homeowners,
click here.

The Biggest Public Food Forest in the Country

2012-02-16, Seattle Weekly blog
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2012/02/beacon_hill_will_soon_boas...
Seven sloping acres at the southwest edge of Jefferson Park [are] being transformed into an
edible landscape and community park that will be known [as] the Beacon Food Forest, the largest
of its kind in the nation. One full acre will be devoted to large chestnuts and walnuts in the
overstory. There'll be full-sized fruit trees in the understory, and berry shrubs, climbing
vines, herbaceous plants, and vegetables closer to the ground. The entire project will be
built around the concept of permaculture -- an ecological design system, philosophy, and
set of ethics and principles used to create perennial, self-sustaining landscapes. Friends of
the Food Forest undertook heroic outreach efforts to secure neighborhood support. The team
mailed over 6,000 postcards in five different languages, tabled at events and fairs, and posted
fliers. And Seattle residents responded. The first meeting, especially, drew permaculturalists and
other intrigued parties from all around the city. More than 70 people, mostly from Beacon Hill,
attended the second meeting in mid-July, where proposed designs were laid out on giant sheets
paper with markers strewn about so the community could scribble their ideas and feedback directly
onto the plans.

Eight arrests as Murdoch 'throws staff to the wolves'

2012-02-12, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/eight-arrests-as-murdoch-throws-st...
Police swooped on eight individuals between 6am and 8am yesterday, arresting the five Sun
journalists, two Ministry of Defence staff and a police officer. The arrests came hard on the heels of
five related arrests two weeks ago when four senior Sun journalists and a police officer were
questioned in connection with bribery allegations. The latest astonishing development ... prompted
fury among the newspaper's staff, amid allegations that those arrested had been "thrown to the
wolves" in an effort to bolster the embattled News Corp empire, and, particularly, to rekindle its
hopes of taking over BSkyB. The police were acting on information provided by News
International, owner of The Sun and Times newspapers. The investigation broke new ground
yesterday: for the first time, the arrests broadened beyond payments to police, with a
female member of the MoD and a member of the armed forces also held while their homes
were searched. The journalists arrested were Geoff Webster, The Sun's deputy editor; John Kay,
a former chief reporter who joined the title in 1974; Nick Parker, chief foreign correspondent; John
Edwards, picture editor; and John Sturgis, a reporter.

Note: The fact that the The Sun's deputy editor and chief foreign correspondent were arrested
along with a female member of the MoD and a member of the armed forces is astounding. Could
the predictions of David Wilcock of mass arrests of key people involved in major corruption be
coming true? Wilcock has written a thoroughly researched and amazingly deep and penetrating
paper on all that is going on at this link.

2 nuclear reactors approved for Georgia

2012-02-10, San Francisco Chronicle/New York Times
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/09/MNOF1N5D1R.DTL
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 ... to grant a license to build two reactors at a
nuclear plant in Georgia. It was the first time the commission decided to grant a license for a
new reactor since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. The
sole vote against approval was cast by the commission's chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko. He said
the construction and operating license would not assure that all of the safety improvements
mandated by the agency in response to Japan's Fukushima disaster would be accomplished
before the reactors begin operating in 2016 and 2017. The plant, which already has two
reactors dating from the 1980s, will be the largest nuclear complex in the United States. The
reactors were supposed to be the first in a wave of new projects after the Bush administration set
aside $17.5 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear projects. But the nuclear rebirth has been so
puny that much of that money is still available. The Energy Department has promised an $8.3
billion loan guarantee for the two reactors.
Note: Why is this happening less than a year after the Fukushima disaster which left huge areas of
land uninhabitable to this day?

EU agrees rules to tame derivatives market

2012-02-09, Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/eu-derivatives-idUSL5E8D969P20120209
European Union diplomats and the European Parliament agreed ... to overhaul regulation of the
roughly $700 trillion derivatives market, a move that will make it easier to control one of the most
opaque areas of finance. Under new EU laws, banks, hedge funds and other buyers and sellers of
derivatives will be encouraged to move away from the unregulated 'over-the-counter' market,
which accounts for almost 95 percent of all trades. In the past, it has been common for multimillion-euro contracts to be recorded by no more than a fax, with only the parties involved
aware of the details. This will change under the new law, which would standardise most
trading so it happens on open exchanges. Settlement of such deals will be cleared
centrally, making them easier to monitor. Those that do not shift to exchanges or a central
counterparty such as LCH Clearnet in London, which acts as an intermediary between buyer and
seller, will face higher capital charges to reflect the extra risk. Crucially, the new rules mean that all
deals must be recorded, whether conducted on or off an exchange. Supervisors hope that will

make it easier to monitor the market and intervene, if necessary, to avoid a repeat of the chaos
surrounding the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, where it proved difficult to assess exposure to
derivatives. By forcing increased transparency, the rules are likely to challenge the half a dozen or
so large banks that dominate the market now.
Note: For key reports on the grave risks posed by the unregulated derivatives market, click here.

Study: Child abuse bigger threat than SIDS

2012-02-06, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46281207/ns/health-childrens_health
Nearly 4,600 U.S. children were hospitalized with broken bones, traumatic brain injury and other
serious damage caused by physical abuse in 2006, according to a new report. Babies younger
than one were the most common victims, with 58 cases per 100,000 infants. That makes serious
abuse a bigger threat to infant safety than SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, researchers
say in the report. "There is a national campaign to prevent SIDS," said Dr. John Leventhal of
Yale University, who led the new study. "We need a national campaign related to child
abuse where every parent is reminded that kids can get injured." Based on data from the
2006 Kids' Inpatient Database, the last such numbers available, Leventhal's team found that six
out of every 100,000 children under 18 were hospitalized with injuries ranging from burns to
wounds to brain injuries and bone fractures. The children spent an average of one week in the
hospital; 300 of them died. The rate of abuse was highest among children under one, particularly if
they were covered by Medicaid, the government's health insurance for the poor. One out of every
752 of those infants landed in the hospital due to maltreatment. "Medicaid is just a marker of
poverty, and poverty leads to stress," said Leventhal, who is the medical director of the Yale-New
Haven Children's Hospital Child Abuse Program.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on sexual abuse of children, click here.

The Kids Are More Than All Right

2012-02-02, New York Times blog
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/the-kids-are-more-than-all-right/
Every few years, parents find new reasons to worry about their teenagers. And while there is no
question that some kids continue to experiment with sex and substance abuse, the latest data
point to something perhaps more surprising: the current generation is, well, a bit boring when it
comes to bad behavior. While marijuana use has recently had an uptick, teenagers are smoking
far less pot than their parents did at the same age. In 1980, about 60 percent of high-school
seniors had tried marijuana and 9 percent smoked it daily. Among seniors today, according to the
University of Michigans Monitoring the Future survey, which has tracked teenage risk behaviors
since 1975, 45.5 percent have tried the drug and 6.6 percent are smoking it frequently. Adolescent
use of alcohol, tobacco and most illegal drugs is also far lower than it was 30 years ago. Todays

teenagers are also far less likely to have sex or get pregnant compared with their parents
generation. In 1988, half of boys 15 to 17 had experienced sex; by 2010 that number fell to just 28
percent. The percentage of teenage girls having sex dropped to 27 percent from 37.2 percent,
according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What
about TV shows like Teen Mom and Gossip Girl that suggest adolescence is dominated
by sex and booze? There is a lot more media hype around the kids who are raising hell,
says Dr. John Santelli, president-elect for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
There are a lot of kids who are pretty responsible.
Note: For a treasure trove of great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click
here.

550 sexual abuse claims filed against Milwaukee Archdiocese

2012-02-02, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46236534/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
About 550 people are asking for restitution for alleged sexual abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese
of Milwaukee more than in any of the other U.S. dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy
protection, according to a lawyer involved in the Milwaukee case. The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed
for bankruptcy protection last year, saying pending sex-abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it
couldn't afford. The archdiocese has paid more than $30 million in settlements and other court
costs related to allegations of clergy abuse and more than a dozen suits against it have been
halted because of the bankruptcy proceedings. One priest alone is accused of abusing some 200
boys at a suburban school for deaf students from 1950 to 1974. A victims' advocacy group
called the number of filings "extraordinarily tragic," but said that represented only a small
portion of people abused by clergy. "It just shows how devastating these crimes have been
on this community but it's obviously far from over," said Peter Isely, the Midwest director for
the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The other seven Catholic dioceses in the U.S.
that have filed for bankruptcy since the clergy abuse scandal erupted in 2002 in Boston are in
Davenport, Iowa; Fairbanks, Alaska; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; Spokane, Wash.; Tucson, Ariz.;
and Wilmington, Del. Two other religious orders have also filed for bankruptcy.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on sexual abuse scandals, click here.

Top five regrets of the dying

2012-02-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying
A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common
regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I
hadn't worked so hard'. Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in
palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying

epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her
observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Ware writes of the phenomenal
clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their
wisdom. "When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she
says, "common themes surfaced again and again." Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as
witnessed by Ware: 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life
others expected of me. 2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. "All of the men I nursed deeply
regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence." 3. I wish I'd had
the courage to express my feelings. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish
that I had let myself be happier.
Note: For inspiring articles from major media sources on at-death and near-death experiences,
click here.

US elections: no matter who you vote for, money always wins

2012-01-29, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/29/us-politics-vo...
The truly decisive element [in Republican presidential debates] has been ... money. Lots of it. This
is not new. But since a 2010 supreme court ruling allowing unlimited campaign contributions by
corporations and unions, it has become particularly acute. Moreover, the contributors can remain
anonymous. The organisations that are taking advantage of this new law are known as Super
Pacs. In 2008 election spending doubled compared with 2004. This year industry analysts believe
the money spent just on television ads is set to leap by almost 80% compared with four years ago.
Money in American politics was already an elephant in the room. Now the supreme court has
given it a laxative, taken away the shovel, and asked us to ignore both the sight and the stench.
This is not a partisan point. Almost two-thirds of Americans believe the government should
limit individual contributions with a majority among Republicans, Democrats and
independents. The trend towards oligarchy in the polity is already clear. There are 250
millionaires in Congress. As a whole, the polity's median net worth is $891,506, nine times the
typical US household. The influence of money at this level corrupts an entire political culture and in
no small part explains the depth of cynicism, alienation and mistrust Americans now have for their
politicians.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the control of the US electoral system by corporate
money, click here.

UK police arrest Murdoch tabloid staff

2012-01-28, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174085/ns/world_news-europe/t/uk-police-arrest-...

British police arrested four current and former staff of Rupert Murdoch's best-selling Sun tabloid
plus a policeman ... as part of an investigation into suspected payments by journalists to officers.
Police also searched the paper's London offices at publisher News International, News Corp.'s
British arm, in a corruption probe linked to a continuing investigation into phone hacking at its now
closed News of the World weekly tabloid. The arrests included The Sun's crime editor Mike
Sullivan, its head of news Chris Pharo, and former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan Also
arrested was the paper's former managing editor Graham Dudman, now a columnist and
media writer. Thirteen people have now been arrested over allegations that journalists paid police
in return for information. Last week, News International settled a string of legal claims after it
admitted that people working for the tabloid had hacked in to the private phones of celebrities and
others to find stories. The phone hacking scandal drew attention to the level of political influence
held by editors and executives at News International, and other newspapers in Britain. It
embarrassed British politicians for their close ties with newspaper executives and also the police,
who repeatedly failed to investigate allegations of illegal phone hacking.
Note: If researcher David Wilcock is right, this may be the beginning of mass arrests of key people
involved in major corruption in our world. For lots more, see David's very well researched article at
this link.

Lancet Editor Richard Horton Tweets Dark View of Contemporary

Medicine
2012-01-27, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2012/01/27/lancet-editor-richard-hort...
One brief message at a time, Lancet editor Richard Horton is tweeting his dark view of the
contemporary medical establishment. If you have any interest at all in peeking behind the
curtain to see what really goes on behind the scenes of top medical organizations then you
need to follow Richard Hortons Twitter feed. In sudden bursts of candor, humor, and cynicism,
Horton has been tweeting thoughts that dont often see the light of day. Heres his unvarnished
opinion of the World Health Organization, for instance: "WHO is no longer a science-based
organisation. WHO believes that scientists within the agency should be anonymous bureaucrats."
The thread of tweets that prompted this post [is] about an ongoing editorial battle with authors and
another highly respected journal. The significance of these remarks is considerable. As Horton
remarks at the end, the episode appears to lend evidence to the manipulation of journals by
industry: "The mother of all authorship disputes has broken out. When papers get salami sliced
and divided between NEJM and us, it gets complicated. And sometimes nasty. And today, even
threatening. From Principal Investigator: Approval [of the drug in question] has already occurred in
the US, yet private insurers are slow to place it on their formulary. A major publication is typically
how this occurs in the US, and it is important to be in a journal typically recognised by US-based
companies. This publication is critical to (company A's) ability to market their product. Lancet ...
will aid (company Y) quite nicely.

Note: The Lancet is considered by many to be the most prestigious medical journal in the world. If
the editor-in-chief of the Lancet readily admits to for-profit collusion between medical journals,
insurers and big pharma, who can we trust for accurate health information? To learn more, read a
powerfully revealing essay by former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine
Marcia Angell on how the drug companies blatantly manipulate science for profit.

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War

2012-01-23, Newsweek Magazine
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/george-soros-on-the-coming-u...
I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as Ive experienced in
my career, [George] Soros tells Newsweek. We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable
in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in
the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The
best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the
financial system. Soros draws on his past to argue that the global economic crisis is as
significant, and unpredictable, as the end of Communism. To Soros, the spectacular
debunking of the credo of efficient markets the notion that markets are rational and can
regulate themselves to avert disaster is comparable to the collapse of Marxism as a
political system. Understanding, he says, is key. Unrestrained competition can drive people into
actions that they would otherwise regret. The tragedy of our current situation is the unintended
consequence of imperfect understanding. A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A
lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to. Still, Soros believes
the West is struggling to cope with the consequences of evil in the financial world just as former
Eastern bloc countries struggled with it politically. Is he really saying that the financial whizzes
behind our economic meltdown were not just wrong, but evil? Thats correct.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on the criminal practices of the biggest banks and
financial firms and the collusion of government agencies, see our "Banking Bailout" newsarticles.

If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA
2012-01-23, Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-j...
When sites like Wikipedia and Reddit banded together for a major blackout January 18th, the
impact was felt all the way to Washington D.C. The blackout had lawmakers running from the
controversial anti-piracy legislation, SOPA and PIPA, which critics said threatened freedom of
speech online. Unfortunately for free-speech advocates, these pieces of legislation are not the only
laws which threaten an open internet. Few people have heard of ACTA, or the AntiCounterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement appear quite similar
to and more expansive than anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans
virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United

States, Switzerland and Japan. Many of these countries have already signed or ratified it, and
the cogs are still turning, with the final real fight playing out in the EU parliament. The treaty has
been secretly negotiated behind the scenes between governments with little or no public input. The
Bush administration started the process, but the Obama administration has aggressively pursued
it. Indeed, we signed ACTA in 2011. According to critics, ACTA bypasses the sovereign laws of
participating nations, forcing ISPs across the globe to act as internet police. Worse, it appears to
go much further than the internet, cracking down on generic drugs and making food patents even
more radical than they are by enforcing a global standard on seed patents that threatens local
farmers and food independence across the developed world.
Note: For lots more on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here.

We must stop this corporate takeover of American democracy

2012-01-20, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/20/us-constitutio...
The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their allpervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want
it all. Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution. In its now
infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be
treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending
money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate
checkbook in any amount and at any time to run ads explicitly for or against specific
candidates. What's next a corporate right to vote? When the supreme court says ... that
corporations are people, that writing checks from the company's bank account is constitutionallyprotected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable
restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger. Corporations
are not people with constitutional rights equal to flesh-and-blood human beings. Corporations are
subject to regulation by the people.
Note: For key reports on the overpowering influence of corporate money on the US political
system, click here and here.

'SOPA Blackout' is Web's political coming of age

2012-01-19, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/18/MNQO1MR5DR.DTL
In an unprecedented display of Internet force, thousands of websites went dark or censored
themselves [on January 18] to protest twin antipiracy measures pending in Congress. The blackout
represented a culmination of months of intensifying outcry over the bills, echoed and amplified by
social media, blogs and tech publications, that drew more and more popular sites into the official
day of protest, including Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Wired, Reddit, Boing Boing, Reporters

Without Borders, Pressthink, Greenpeace and McSweeney's. Their actions and the frenzy of
media coverage in the buildup raised mainstream awareness of what, until recent days, had
been a wonky set of proposals only lightly covered outside tech circles. Congressional
phone lines were reportedly flooded Wednesday in what could begin the final unraveling of
the already troubled measures. The stated goal of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its
Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), is to confront the sale and distribution of pirated
movies, drugs, music and consumer goods by rogue overseas sites. But in doing so, critics say the
bills threaten crucial legal protections that foster online innovation [and undermine] due process
and free speech. Some observers said the day of protest may come to represent a fundamental
shift in the legislative landscape, a flexing of a newfound and untraditional source of political power
in the Internet sector.
Note: For lots more on government and corporate threats to civil liberties, click here.

J&J Said to Agree to Pay $1 Billion in Risperdal Marketing Probe

2012-01-18, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-18/j-j-said-to-agree-to-pay-1-billio...
Johnson & Johnson will pay more than $1 billion to the U.S. and most states to resolve a civil
investigation into marketing of the antipsychotic Risperdal. Negotiations over a possible criminal
plea are still under way. The U.S. government has been investigating Risperdal sales practices
since 2004, including allegations the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses. J&J, the
worlds largest health products company ... disclosed in August that it reached an agreement to
settle a misdemeanor criminal charge related to Risperdal marketing. The company is discussing
paying about $400 million more to settle that portion of the investigation. Risperdal, once J&Js
best-selling drug, generated worldwide sales of $24.2 billion from 2003 to 2010, reaching $4.5
billion in 2007. After that, J&J lost patent protection and sales declined. The settlement represents
... about 5.6 percent of the drugs cumulative sales since 2003. The Food and Drug
Administration approved Risperdal in 1993 for psychotic disorders including
schizophrenia. That market is limited, and J&Js Janssen unit sought to sell Risperdal for
bipolar disorder, dementia, mood and anxiety disorders and other unapproved uses.
Note: For highly-illuminating reports from reliable sources on the corruption in the pharmaceutical
industry, click here.

An end to GM crop development for Europe

2012-01-16, Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6e074ee4-403e-11e1-82f6-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jkDc...
BASF, the German chemical giant, is to pull out of genetically modified [GM] plant development in
Europe and relocate it to the US, where political and consumer resistance to GM crops is not so
entrenched. The headquarters of BASF Plant Science will move from Limburgerhof in south-west

Germany to Raleigh, North Carolina, and two smaller sites in Germany and Sweden will close. The
company will transfer some GM crop development to the US but stop work on crops targeted at
the European market four varieties of potato and one of wheat. The decision ... signals the end
of GM crop development for European farmers. Bayer, BASFs German competitor, is
working on GM cotton and rice in Ghent, Belgium but not for European markets. This is
another nail in the coffin for genetically modified foods in Europe, said Adrian Bebb of
Friends of the Earth. BASF battled for some 13 years before the European Union approved in
2010 cultivation of its Amflora potato, which was intended to provide high-quality starch for
industrial customers. However, German test sites had to be put under constant guard and activists
still succeeded in destroying potato fields.
Note: The European public is well aware of the serious threats of GM food, yet the U.S. public,
thanks to a controlled media, knows very little about this. For an excellent overview of the threats
to health from genetically-modified foods, click here. For key articles from major media sources on
these risks, click here.

A medieval oligarchy - America's real occupiers

2012-01-13, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/12/EDUT1MOLI4.DTL
[The US is now] a country whose patrician overlords are regularly conjuring the feudalism of
Europe circa the Middle Ages. Today, our mayors deploy police against homeless people and
protesters; our governors demand crushing budget cuts from the confines of their taxpayer-funded
mansions; our Congress exempts itself from insider-trading laws and requires the government to
offer lawmakers the good health benefits so many Americans have no access to ; and our nation's
capital has become one of the world's wealthiest cities, despite the recession. Taken together, we
see that there really are "Two Americas," as the saying goes - and that's no accident. It's the
result of a permanent elite that is removing itself from the rest of the nation. Nowhere is this
more obvious than in education - a realm in which this elite physically separates itself from
us mere serfs. The Washington Post, for instance, notes that it has become an unquestioned
"tradition among Washington's power elite" - read: elected officials - to send their kids to the ultraexpensive private school Sidwell Friends. At the same time, many of these officials have backed
budget policies that weaken public education. In many cases, these aristocrats aren't even
required to publicly explain themselves. Worse, on the rare occasions that questions are posed,
privacy is the oft-used excuse to not answer. This might be a convincing argument about ordinary
citizens' personal education choices, but it's an insult coming from public officials.
Note: For a treasure trove of reliable reports on social inequality in the US, click here and here.

Homicide Drops off US List of Top Causes of Death

2012-01-11, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/murder-top-death-45-yrs-15339670#.TxMN...

For the first time in almost half a century, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation's top 15
causes of death. The 2010 list, released by the government [on January 11], reflects at least two
major trends: Murders are down, and deaths from certain diseases are on the rise as the
population ages, health authorities said. This is the first time since 1965 that homicide failed to
make the list, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The government has
been keeping a list of the top causes of death since 1949. Homicide has historically ranked fairly
low. It was as high as 10th in 1989 and in 1991 through 1993, when the nation saw a surge in
youth homicides related to the crack epidemic. In the past decade, homicide's highest ranking was
13th. That was in 2001 and was due in part to the 9/11 attacks. Murders have been declining
nationally since 2006, according to FBI statistics. Criminologists have debated the reasons
but believe several factors may be at work. Among them: Abusive relationships don't end in
murder as often as they once did, thanks to increased incarcerations and better, earlier support
for victims. "We've taken the home out of homicide," said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern
University criminologist who studies murder data.
Note: For lots more inspiring, yet little-reported news on the major drop in violent crimes (over
60%) in the last two decades, click here.

North Carolina sterilisation victims win compensation

2012-01-11, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16515827
Victims of a decades-old sterilisation programme in the US state of North Carolina are to receive
$50,000 each in compensation. As many as 7,600 people were sterilised by the state from 1929 to
1974, often without their knowledge. About half a dozen states have apologised for similar
programmes, but North Carolina is the only one to consider financial payment. The figure will have
to be approved as part of the state's next budget. The sterilisation victims were sometimes
mentally disabled or institutionalised people. However, a task force set up by North Carolina
found that starting the 1950s the state increasingly focussed its programme - which the
task force dubbed a "eugenics" programme - on welfare recipients. This led to a "dramatic
rise of sterilisation for African-Americans and women that did not reside in state
institutions". Dr Laura Gerald, the head of the task force, said in a statement that the
compensation served to send the message that "we do not tolerate bureaucracies that trample on
basic human rights". North Carolina has so far verified 72 sterilisation victims, but about 2,000 are
estimated to still be alive.
Note: For a detailed timeline of disturbing experiments where humans were used as guinea pigs
without their knowledge with links to reliable sources for verification, click here.

Montana Supreme Court restores 100-year-old state ban on corporate

political money

2011-12-30, Washington Post/Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/montana-supreme-court-restores-100-yea...
The Montana Supreme Court restored the states century-old ban on direct spending by
corporations on political candidates or committees in a ruling ... that interest groups say bucks a
high-profile U.S. Supreme Court decision granting political speech rights to corporations. The
corporation that brought the case, and is also fighting accusations that it illegally gathers
anonymous donations to fuel political attacks, said the state Supreme Court got it wrong. The
lawsuit was prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision from last year granting
political speech rights to corporations. A lower court then ruled the state ban was unconstitutional
in the wake of the high courts decision. But the Montana Supreme Court on Friday reversed the
lower state courts analysis and application of the Citizen United case. The Montana Supreme
Court said Montana has a compelling interest to uphold its rationally tailored campaign finance
laws that include a combination of restrictions and disclosure requirements. A group seeking to
undo the Citizen United decision lauded the Montana high court, with its co-founder saying it was a
huge victory for democracy. With this ruling, the Montana Supreme Court now sets up
the first test case for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its Citizens United decision, a
decision which poses a direct and serious threat to our democracy, John Bonifaz, of Free
Speech For People, said in a statement.
Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on corporate influence on the electoral
process, click here.

Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing

2011-12-27, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/under-obama-an-emerg...
In the space of three years, the [Obama] administration has built an extensive apparatus for using
drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other
adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on
the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six
countries on two continents. No president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing
of individuals to advance the nations security goals. Lethal operations are increasingly
assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White
House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force. In Yemen,
for instance, the CIA and the militarys Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same
adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their
separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but dont match. CIA and
military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda
operatives. Although human rights advocates and others are increasingly critical of the drone
program, the level of public debate remains muted. [One] reason for the lack of extensive debate is
secrecy. The White House has refused to divulge details about the structure of the drone program
or, with rare exceptions, who has been killed.

Note: Not that the US citizens killed were not given their constitutional rights for a fair trail before
being assassinated. For lots more from major media sources on government secrecy, click here.

Pentagon Finds No Fault in Ties to TV Analysts

2011-12-25, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/us/pentagon-finds-no-fault-in-its-ties-to-t...
A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into
"surrogates" and "message force multipliers" for the Bush administration complied with Defense
Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon's inspector general has concluded after a
two-year investigation. The inquiry was prompted by articles published in the New York Times in
2008 that described how the Pentagon, in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, cultivated close ties
with retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks. In response
to the articles, the Pentagon suspended the program, and members of Congress asked the
Defense Department's inspector general to investigate. The results of the inquiry ... confirm that
the Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld made a concerted effort ... to build and sustain public
support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The inquiry found that from 2002 to 2008,
Rumsfeld's Pentagon organized 147 events for 74 military analysts. The inquiry confirmed
that Rumsfeld's staff frequently provided military analysts with discussion points before
their network appearances.
Note: For lots more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Research on Lethal Bird Flu May Be Censored on Security Concern

2011-12-23, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-23/research-on-lethal-bird-flu-may-b...
Scientists agreed not to publish certain details of research showing how lethal bird flu can be made
contagious after a U.S. biosecurity panel asked that it be kept secret for security reasons. The
study at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam described the genetic changes needed to
make the H5N1 avian influenza strain spread easily among ferrets and potentially people.
The research is under review for publication in the journal Science. It was commissioned by the
U.S. National Institutes of Health, the center said yesterday in a statement on its website.
Knowing the genetic sequence of a deadly, infectious strain may enable the virus to be recreated
through reverse engineering. The censorship was requested by the National Science Advisory
Board for Biosecurity, which was created in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks and advises
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The panel called for certain data to be kept
secret after determining that the risks of publishing it outweigh the benefits, the Erasmus Medical
Center said. The researchers have reservations about this recommendation but will observe it,
the center said in the statement.

Note: For key major media reports revealing manipulation around both the avian and swine flus,
click here. For solid evidence that Lyme disease originated in a secret government germ
laboratory, click here.

Too late to contain killer flu science, say experts

2011-12-22, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/too-late-to-contain-killer-flu-scie...
Attempts to censor details of controversial influenza experiments that created a highly infectious
form of bird-flu virus are unlikely to stop the information from leaking out, according to scientists
familiar with the research. The US Government has asked the editors of two scientific journals to
refrain from publishing key parts of research on the H5N1 strain of bird-flu in order to prevent the
information falling into the hands of terrorists intent on recreating the same flu strain for use as a
bioweapon. However, scientists yesterday condemned the move. Some said that the
decision comes too late because the information has already been shared widely among flu
researchers, while others argued that the move could obstruct attempts to find new
vaccines and drugs against an infectious form of human H5N1 if it appeared naturally.
Professor Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey,
said that the research, which was funded by the US Government, should never have been done
without first assessing the risks and benefits. The work posed risks that outweighed benefits and
that were clearly foreseeable before the work was performed, Professor Ebright said. The work
should have been reviewed at the national or international level before being performed, and
should have been restricted at a national or international level before being performed, he said.
Note: For key major media reports revealing manipulation around both the avian and swine flus,
click here. For solid evidence that Lyme disease originated in a secret government germ
laboratory, click here.

Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No

2011-12-21, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/opinion/jurors-can-say-no.html
If you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, [you should] vote not guilty even if you think the
defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a juror, you have this
power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American
jurors who helped make our laws fairer. [This] information ... about a constitutional doctrine called
jury nullification is absolutely true. But if federal prosecutors in New York get their way, telling the
truth to potential jurors could result in a six-month prison sentence. Earlier this year, prosecutors
charged Julian P. Heicklen, a retired chemistry professor, with jury tampering because he stood
outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan providing information about jury nullification to
passers-by. The prosecutors in this case are wrong. The First Amendment exists to protect speech
like this honest information that the government prefers citizens not know. Laws against jury

tampering are intended to deter people from threatening or intimidating jurors. To contort these
laws to justify punishing Mr. Heicklen, [is] unconstitutional. Jury nullification is not new; its
proponents have included John Hancock and John Adams. The doctrine is premised on the
idea that ordinary citizens, not government officials, should have the final say as to whether
a person should be punished. As Adams put it, it is each jurors duty to vote based on his
or her own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to
the direction of the court.
Note: For more on the important, yet little-known right of jury nullification, click here.

Local police stockpile high-tech, combat-ready gear

2011-12-21, NPR/Center for Investigative Reporting
http://americaswarwithin.org/articles/2011/12/21/local-police-stockpile-high-...
If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D., the local police will be ready. In recent years, they have bought
bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets, like those used by
soldiers in foreign wars. For local siege situations requiring real firepower, police there can use a
new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. Until that day, however, the menacing
truck is mostly used for training runs and appearances at the annual Fargo picnic, where its been
displayed near a childrens bounce house. Fargo, like thousands of other communities in every
state, has been on a gear-buying spree with the aid of more than $34 billion in federal government
grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The federal
grant spending, awarded with little oversight from Washington, has fueled a rapid, broad
transformation of police operations in Fargo and in departments across the country. More
than ever before, police rely on quasi-military tactics and equipment. A review of records
from 41 states obtained through open-government requests, and interviews with more than twodozen current and former police officials and terrorism experts, shows police departments around
the U.S. have transformed into small army-like forces. Many police, including beat cops, now
routinely carry assault rifles.
Note: For lots more on the militarization of US police from reliable sources, click here and here.

Why Is the N.Y.P.D. After Me?

2011-12-18, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/opinion/sunday/young-black-and-frisked-by-t...
When I was 14, my mother told me not to panic if a police officer stopped me. And she cautioned
me to carry ID and never run away from the police or I could be shot. In the nine years since my
mother gave me this advice, I have had numerous occasions to consider her wisdom. One evening
in August of 2006, I was celebrating my 18th birthday with my cousin and a friend. We were ...
enjoying the evening when suddenly, and out of nowhere, squad cars surrounded us. A policeman
yelled from the window, "Get on the ground!" Then I was on the ground - with a gun pointed at me.

In the spring of 2008, N.Y.P.D. officers stopped and frisked me, again. I was stopped again in
September of 2010. It was the same routine: I was stopped, frisked, searched, ID'd and let go. For
a black man in his 20s like me, it's just a fact of life in New York. Here are a few other facts:
last year, the N.Y.P.D. recorded more than 600,000 stops; 84 percent of those stopped were
blacks or Latinos. Police are far more likely to use force when stopping blacks or Latinos
than whites. These stops are part of a larger, more widespread problem - a racially discriminatory
system of stop-and-frisk in the N.Y.P.D. The police use the excuse that they're fighting crime to
continue the practice, but no one has ever actually proved that it reduces crime or makes the city
safer. Those of us who live in the neighborhoods where stop-and-frisks are a basic fact of daily life
don't feel safer as a result.
Note: For key reports on government threats to civil liberties from reliable sources, click here.

Japan declares Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant stable, in cold

shutdown
2011-12-16, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japan-declares-fukushima-dai...
The Japanese government [has] declared that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had reached a
stable state known as cold shutdown. But the formal status change at the plant, experts
cautioned, means only that its problems have become less dire; they have not disappeared. The
plant still leaks radiation into the sea. Its makeshift cooling system is vulnerable to earthquakes.
And the cleanup work remains dangerous, with many flooded and debris-strewn areas of the
reactor buildings difficult even for robots to access. In normal circumstances, a reactor in cold
shutdown mode is entirely stable, its fuel intact, with no chance of a chain reaction. To
achieve its version of a cold shutdown at Fukushima Daiichi, ... Japan had to loosen the
definition. Fukushima now meets the governments requirements because temperatures at the
bottom of the three damaged reactor pressure vessels have dropped below 100 degrees Celsius
(212 degrees Fahrenheit). Airborne leaks into the environment have also been almost halted. The
declaration poses new questions for many of the 80,000 people who fled towns around the plant ...
since the government had made the cold shutdown a precondition for even considering reopening
parts of the no-go zone to residents. Many areas within the no-entry zone a 12-mile radius
around the plant will be uninhabitable for decades, maybe longer.
Note: For further information on the claim of "cold shutdown" at Fukushima, click here and here.

Silicon Valley firms dodging taxes, report says

2011-12-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/14/MN9C1MCI25.DTL

Silicon Valley technology firms that are lobbying Congress to slash taxes on money they bring
home from abroad, arguing that doing so would help them create millions of jobs, already send
more than half that money back to the United States without paying taxes, according to a Senate
investigation. The corporate tax code permits Google, Cisco, Apple, Adobe Systems, Oracle
and other U.S. multinational corporations surveyed to invest nearly $250 billion in the
United States without paying the 35 percent corporate tax rate that applies to repatriated
foreign earnings, according to the report by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations. The corporations, which are not allowed to invest the money in their own
companies, can escape the 35 percent tax if they invest in other domestic assets, such as stocks,
bonds and bank deposits. Silicon Valley's technology giants have banded together with
pharmaceutical companies and other multinationals in the Win America Coalition in an attempt to
get Congress to cut their tax rate from 35 percent to just over 5 percent on overseas earnings they
bring home. The survey data showed that Adobe, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco and Google have
invested 76 to 100 percent of their foreign earnings in U.S. stocks, bonds, bank deposits and other
domestic assets, a greater share than the other companies surveyed.
Note: For lots more on corporate and government corruption, click here and here.

Revealed: huge increase in executive pay for America's top bosses

2011-12-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/14/executive-pay-increase-america...
Chief executive pay has roared back after two years of stagnation and decline. America's top
bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US
CEO pay. The dramatic bounceback comes as the latest government figures show wages for the
majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation. America's highest paid executive took
home more than $145.2m, and as stock prices recovered across the board, the median
value of bosses' profits on stock options rose 70% in 2010, from $950,400 to $1.3m. The
news comes against the backdrop of an Occupy Wall Street movement that has focused
Washington's attention on the pay packages of America's highest paid. The survey, the most
extensive in the US, covered 2,647 companies, and offers a comprehensive assessment of all the
data now available relating to 2010 pay. This year's survey shows CEO pay packages have
boomed: the top 10 earners took home more than $770m between them in 2010. As stock prices
began to recover last year, the increase in CEO pay outstripped the rise in share value. The
Russell 3000 measure of US stock prices was up by 16.93% in 2010, but CEO pay went up by
27.19% overall. For S&P 500 CEOs, the largest companies in the sample, total realised
compensation including perks and pensions and stock awards increased by a median of
36.47%. Total pay at midcap companies, which are slightly smaller than the top firms, rose 40.2%.
Note: For key reports on income inequality from reliable sources, click here.

'James X', blazing indictment of child abuse

2011-12-12, Boston Globe/Associated Press

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2011/12/12/james_x_blazing_ind...
Gerard Mannix Flynn's blazing indictment of the nationwide, decades-long abuse of
institutionalized schoolchildren in Ireland, titled "James X," is remarkable and should not be
missed. He lays bare the soul of a middle-aged adult, James O'Neill, who spent the bulk of his
childhood being abused by every state-sponsored, often Roman Catholic-run institution to which
he was sent, initially at age 6 for not attending school. From there, uncaring judges repeatedly sent
him to increasingly harsh, punitive institutions without caring what happened to him. The shocking
true story ... has the tragically familiar ring of current U.S. headlines about trusted school
authorities charged with sexually abusing boys in their care for decades. The willful blindness of
Irish officials and society at large, unwilling to confront the church that rules their lives, is even
more appalling. With great physical and emotional artistry, Flynn enacts James' attempts to reclaim
his own story by telling it for the first time, hoping to release his own soul with the truth at last.
Many of the nuns, Christian brothers and priests, psychiatrists and jailers who dealt with
him over the years either neglected or abused him harshly, as they did with the other
children. He was tortured physically, sexually and emotionally, even deemed "criminally
insane" at one point, and beaten so badly by one Christian brother that he required surgery.
Note: Hopefully this important play will be made into a movie. For important revelations from
reliable major media news articles on institutional child abuse, click here. For a riveting Discover
Channel documentary exposing a sophisticated child sex abuse ring which leads to he highest
levels of government, click here.

Protests Boost Sales and Fears of Sonic Blaster

2011-12-12, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/protests-boost-sales-fears-sonic-blaster-1...
Rather than batons or rubber bullets, some police departments have started using an intense
beam of sound to manage protesters, but the annoying tone has drawn criticism from some who
say it can cause permanent damage. More U.S. police and emergency-response agencies are
using the so-called Long-Range Acoustic Devices ... for crowd control. The leading
manufacturer, LRAD Corp. of San Diego, said the product was developed as a nonlethal
option for military use. Some people who have been on the receiving end call the devices
"sound cannons." A woman is suing the city of Pittsburgh claiming the piercing tone from a police
blaster during the 2009 G-20 summit permanently damaged her hearing. There were reports that
New York City police used the punishing tone on protesters. The devices were developed for the
U.S. Navy. They have also been used to deter pirates from attacking cruise ships. The products
range from a 15-pound, battery-operated, hand-held unit to a 320-pound device with a range of
nearly 2 miles. Even the smallest unit, the LRAD 100X, emits as much as 137 decibels at 1 meter,
which is louder than a jet takeoff at 100 meters.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on so-called "non-lethal" weapons, click here.

Police employ Predator drone spy planes on home front

2011-12-10, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211,0,...
Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows
on the Brossart family farm in [eastern North Dakota]. He called in reinforcements from the state
Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three
other counties. He also called in a Predator B drone. Sophisticated sensors under the nose helped
pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first
known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped
revolutionize modern warfare. But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two
unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen
surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used
Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said. The drones belong to U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and
southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported
use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public
acknowledgment or debate.
Note: "Looking for six cows," the Sheriff called in "a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad,
ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties. He also called in a Predator B drone."
Does that sound like a reasonable response to the problem of missing cows? Or could there be an
agenda to establish aerial surveillance by drones as the norm in the US?

L.A. calls for end to 'corporate personhood'

2011-12-06, Los Angeles Times blog
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/corporate-personhood-la-constit...
At a packed City Council meeting ... Los Angeles lawmakers Tuesday called for more regulations
on how much corporations can spend on political campaigns. The vote in support of state and
federal legislation that would end so-called "corporate personhood is largely symbolic.
The council resolution includes support for a constitutional amendment that would assert
that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights, and that spending money is not a
form of free speech. City Council President Eric Garcetti, the resolution's sponsor, said such
actions are necessary because big special interest money is behind much of the gridlock in
Washington. He blamed a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. the Federal
Election Commission, which rolled back legal restrictions on corporate spending on the grounds
that political speech by a business entity should receive the same 1st Amendment protections that
people do. It allows corporations and other groups to spend unlimited money on behalf of
candidates. Councilman Richard Alarcon, who also supported the resolution, said corporations are
trying to take over every aspect of our lives. Corporations are at the wheel of America, Alarcon
said. And they are driving us to destruction.

Note: Why was this key decision only reported in a blog and hardly covered by the media
elsewhere? To understand how the media controls public debate, as reported by top journalists,
click here.

New Sex Abuse Suit Claims Sandusky Threatened Boys Family If He

Told
2011-11-30, ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/new-sex-abuse-suit-claims-sandu...
The latest person to accuse former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual abuse also claims
that Sandusky threatened to hurt the boys family if he ever told anyone about the abuse.
Sanduskys newest accuser, who is now 29, had not told anyone about the abuse until he read
about the grand jury presentment charging Sandusky with 40 counts of child molestation over 15
years, his lawyer Jeff Anderson said today. Until that time, he had thought he was the only victim.
Anderson said the boy met Sandusky through the Second Mile foundation when the alleged
victim was 10, and was abused by Sandusky from 1992 to 1994. He said that Sandusky
threatened to harm the boys family if the boy told anyone about the abuse. Sandusky also
paid for sports camps, plied the boy with gifts, and took him on trips, Anderson said. The lawyer
said during a press conference today that they had filed suit against Sandusky, Penn State and the
Second Mile charity seeking reparations for over 100 acts of sexual abuse. Anderson alleged that
Sandusky had abused the boy at Penn State University, at Second Mile events, at his home, at a
Penn State bowl game out of state, and in Philadelphia.
Note: For powerful evidence from a suppressed Discovery Channel documentary showing that
child sexual abuse scandals reach to the highest levels of government, click here.

India Eye Care Center Finds Middle Way To Capitalism

2011-11-29, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/142526263/india-eye-care-center-finds-middle-wa...
[Aravind Eye Care System] began modestly in 1976 with an 11-bed hospital. [It] now has 4,000
beds in seven hospitals, most in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was late founder Dr. G.
Venkataswamy's goal to eliminate needless blindness. About 45 million people in the world are
blind. About 80 percent of them could be cured through surgery. Dr. "V," as he is known, founded
the organization on a deep belief in the spirituality of service. R.D. Thulasiraj, a top Aravind official,
says that early on the organization embraced the simple idea that if it wanted to have a real impact
in reducing blindness, its surgeons needed to work as efficiently as possible. That attention to
process has made Aravind surgeons quite possibly the most productive in the world. In total, the
number of sight-restoring eye surgeries that Aravind Eye Care System conducts each year
is 300,000 and about half, or nearly half, are free. The push for more efficiency forces
down the average cost of a surgery for Aravind. But that doesn't mean quality is sacrificed.
Aravind surgeons have just half the number of complications that the British health system has for

the same procedure. That high quality allows Aravind to attract patients who are willing to pay
market rates. Then it takes the large profit made on those surgeries to fund free and subsidized
surgeries for poor people.
Note: For the inspiring review of an excellent book written on this amazing service to humankind,
click here.

Tech titans lobby Congress for giant tax break

2011-11-25, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/24/MNPO1M2LGM.DTL
Silicon Valley's tech titans are in full holiday mode - tax holiday that is. Google, Apple, Oracle,
Cisco and other multinationals have fielded more than 160 lobbyists and consultants - including,
according to Bloomberg Businessweek, 60 insiders such as Karen Olick, former chief of staff for
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. - to get Congress to give them a giant tax break on their overseas
profits. U.S. multinationals currently have $1.4 trillion parked offshore. Banded together with
pharmaceutical companies and other multinationals in a group called the Win America
coalition, Bay Area technology giants say that slashing their tax rate from 35 percent to
5.25 percent on foreign profits they return or "repatriate" to the United States will create
millions of jobs. Both parties in Congress, desperate to find something they can agree on to
goose the economy, are warming to the idea. But the last time a holiday was tried in 2004, under a
law Boxer sponsored, billions of dollars in tax breaks went to a tiny swath of multinationals
concentrated in the technology and pharmaceutical industries, many studies found. Most of the
money went to dividends, stock buybacks and executive pay, despite express prohibitions. Some
companies, such as Hewlett Packard, cut jobs after repatriating earnings, while boosting executive
pay.
Note: A Forbes magazine article states "most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate
than you do," yet now they want even more tax breaks. And did you know that before 1913, except
for a period during the Civil War, there was no personal income tax on the general public in the
U.S.?

Symbolic Malaysian trial finds Bush, Blair guilty of crimes against

peace over Iraq invasion
2011-11-22, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/symbolic-malaysian-trial-fin...
A tribunal formed by Malaysias former leader has convicted former President George W.
Bush and Britains ex-prime minister Tony Blair at a symbolic trial for crimes against
peace in Iraq. Malaysias outspoken former leader Mahathir Mohamad founded a peace
organization that set up the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal specifically for trying Bush and
Blair. Mahathirs son, Mukhriz Mahathir, said international judges and lawyers convicted the men

Tuesday for crimes against peace over the 2003 Iraq invasion. It plans to hear symbolic war
crimes charges against them later. Malaysian activists say they sent information about the charges
to Bush and Blair but received no response.
Note: This story sadly received very little press in the major media. For an earlier Associated
Press story on the background to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, click here. For more on
the results in Canada's conservative National Post, click here. For a press release from the
Tribunal, click here. To visit the Tribunal website, click here.

The Greater Good Takes Child Vaccination Skepticism to Big Screen

2011-11-21, PBS Blog
http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/2011/11/the-greater-good-child-vaccine-documentary
If youre a parent (or know one) ... you might have already made up your mind about the
connection between vaccination and disease. A new documentary, The Greater Good, adds
perspective to the issue, asking how much of a good thing a person can take until its not all that
good any more. It is an advocacy film, says The Greater Good producer Chris Pilaro. The
filmmakers chose to follow three families whose lives were adversely affected by vaccines
because, as director-producer Kendall Nelson says, Historically, those stories were really not
being told. One thread follows young Jordan King, who before being vaccinated was a normal,
happy toddler. After being vaccinated... he ended up diagnosed with autism. After her youngest
child died after receiving vaccinations, Stephanie Christner, a doctor, dedicated her life to
finding connections between vaccination and disease. The most persuasive story is that of
Gabi Swank, a teenage girl who saw ads on MTV for the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil
and insisted that her mom get her on it. After taking the drug, Gabi experienced a dramatic
decline in her health and her family paid a deep financial and emotional cost. Despite her upbeat
demeanor and refusal to be perceived as a victim, Gabis story is a tragic one. Idaho-based
filmmakers Nelson and Pilaro ... gained the co-operation of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration and proceeded to interview medical experts,
pharmaceutical representatives and lawmakers on opposite sides of the issue. Whats clear after
watching the film is not that vaccinations are necessarily bad, but that every child is different and
each will have a different response to them. But its a hard case to make when your doctor is
following state law.
Note: Did you know the government has never done a study comparing the health of vaccinated
and non-vaccinated children? Watch a video of the CDC's chief of vaccinations making excuses
for why they won't do a study. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing
vaccines news articles from reliable major media sources.

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

2011-11-18, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-tha...

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming
that water can prevent dehydration. EU officials concluded that, following a three-year
investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact. Producers of bottled
water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they
defy the edict. Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common
sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: This is stupidity writ large. The euro is burning,
the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials
worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is
patently true." The Department for Health disputed the wisdom of the new law. A spokesman
said: Of course water hydrates. While we support the EU in preventing false claims about
products, we need to exercise common sense as far as possible." A meeting of 21 scientists in
Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and
not something that drinking water could subsequently control. Rules banning bent bananas and
curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule.

Second experiment confirms faster-than-light particles

2011-11-17, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/second-experiment-confi...
A second experiment at the European facility that reported subatomic particles zooming
faster than the speed of light stunning the world of physics has reached the same
result, scientists said [today]. The positive outcome of the [second] test makes us more
confident in the result, said Fernando Ferroni, president of the Italian Institute for Nuclear
Physics. Ferroni is one of 160 physicists involved in the international collaboration known as
OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion Tracking Apparatus) that performed the experiment.
While the second experiment has made an important test of consistency of its result, Ferroni
[said], more tests are needed. There is still a large crowd of skeptical physicists who suspect that
the original measurement done in September was an error. Should the results stand, they would
upend more than a century of modern physics. In the first round of experiments, a massive
detector buried in a mountain in Gran Sasso, Italy, recorded neutrinos generated at the CERN
[European Council for Nuclear Research] particle accelerator on the French-Swiss border arriving
60 nanoseconds sooner than expected. In recent weeks, the OPERA team tightened the packets
of neutrinos that CERN sent sailing toward Italy. Such tightening removed some uncertainty in the
neutrinos speed. The detector still saw neutrinos moving faster than light.
Note: For an awesome essay exploring both an earlier experiment which clearly showed fasterthan-light effects and its powerful and inspiring implications, click here.

DA Who Never Charged Sandusky Has Been Missing Since 2005

2011-11-10, NBC Philadelphia
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/DA-Who-Never-Charged-Sandusky-Has-B...

It is strange that Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar never prosecuted Jerry
Sandusky on child-rape charges 13 years ago, some speculate, because Gricar was known
for being fiercely independent and hard on crime. But it is even stranger that we cannot ask
Gricar why Sandusky was not put behind bars, because the tough-as-nails district attorney
disappeared in 2005. And though he was declared dead July of this year, his body has never
been found. He disappeared on April 15, 2005 after telling his girlfriend that he was going on a
drive. Ray Gricars car was found the next day in a Lewisburg parking lot and his laptop, sans hard
drive, was found in the Susquehanna River. Ray Gricars friend, Montour County District Attorney
Robert Buehner Jr., told the New York Times that if the ardent district attorney had committed
suicide, he would have wanted his body found. But in the case of possible foul play, no suspects
have emerged from investigations. When it comes to the Sandusky case, friends and former coworkers are all of the opinion that Ray Gricar would never back down from a righteous
prosecution.
Note: Is it just a coincidence that Gricar never charged Sandursky (a rare act of tolerance for
crime on the DA's part) and subsequently disappeared (a very rare occurrence for anyone)?

U.S. drone strikes must stop, says American lawyer

2011-11-08, MSNBC/Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39397361/t/us-drone-strikes-must-stop-says-americ...
Prominent international human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith was impressed by the 16-yearold boy who wanted to draw attention to civilian deaths caused by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.
Tariq Aziz had volunteered to take pictures of people killed by the remotely piloted aircraft to help
Stafford Smith highlight what he calls illegal killings. Three days later, on October 31, he and his
12-year-old cousin were themselves killed by a drone missile strike in the North Waziristan region
on the Afghan border, Stafford Smith said. For the veteran lawyer, the deaths highlighted major
flaws in the CIA-run drone campaign, which U.S. officials say is invaluable in the war on militants.
He considers the drones as "scandalous" as the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia during the
Vietnam War. "What we are seeing in Waziristan is a process that is alienating the
population just as napalm in Vietnam did and it's achieving very little benefit." Stafford
Smith [also] drew parallels between Guantanamo and the drone campaign in Pakistan,
arguing both detentions and strikes were often based on dubious intelligence. He suspects
the death of Aziz was a prime example of that. "We as America offer large bounties to different
informants and these informants would sell their own mothers," said Stafford Smith, 52, a dual
U.S.-British citizen who is the director of Reprieve, an organization that advocates for prisoners'
rights.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the killing of innocent people by US drones,
click here.

Victims speak out about North Carolina sterilization program, which

targeted women, young girls and blacks

2011-11-07, MSNBC
http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8640744-victims-speak-out-ab...
Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor in Winfall,
N.C., in 1967. The state ordered that immediately after giving birth, she should be sterilized.
Doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes. Riddicks records reveal that a five-person state
eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records
label Riddick as feebleminded and promiscuous. They said her schoolwork was poor and that
she does not get along well with others. North Carolina was one of 31 states to have a
government run eugenics program. By the 1960s, tens of thousands of Americans were
sterilized as a result of these programs. Eugenics was a scientific theory that grew in popularity
during the 1920s. Eugenicists believed that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism were traits that
were inherited. To eliminate those society ills and improve societys gene pool, proponents of the
theory argued that those that exhibited the traits should be sterilized. Some of Americas
wealthiest citizens of the time were eugenicists including Dr. Clarence Gamble of the
Procter and Gamble fortune and James Hanes of the hosiery company. Hanes helped found
the Human Betterment League which promoted the cause of eugenicists.
Note: For additional information view the MSNBC video accompanying this report (click here). If
you want to explore even deeper into this disturbing news, click here. The article fails to mention
that the laws for sterilizations like this were not removed from the books until 2003.

Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research

2011-11-03, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/health/research/noted-dutch-psychologist-st...
A well-known psychologist in the Netherlands whose work has been published widely in
professional journals falsified data and made up entire experiments, an investigating
committee has found. Experts say the case exposes deep flaws in the way science is done in a
field, psychology, that has only recently earned a fragile respectability. The psychologist, Diederik
Stapel, of Tilburg University, committed academic fraud in several dozen published papers, many
accepted in respected journals and reported in the news media, according to a report released ...
by the three Dutch institutions where he has worked. The journal Science, which published one of
Dr. Stapels papers in April, posted an editorial expression of concern about the research online.
The scandal, involving about a decade of work, is the latest in a string of embarrassments in a field
that critics and statisticians say badly needs to overhaul how it treats research results. In recent
years, psychologists have reported a raft of findings on race biases, brain imaging and even
extrasensory perception that have not stood up to scrutiny. Outright fraud may be rare, these
experts say, but they contend that Dr. Stapel took advantage of a system that allows
researchers to operate in near secrecy and massage data to find what they want to find,
without much fear of being challenged.

Note: For lots more from major media sources on corruption in scientific research and publication,
click here.

Boulder Votes for Municipal Utility

2011-11-03, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577014231689288216.html
Voters in Boulder, Colo., narrowly backed the creation of a municipal power authority to replace
Xcel Energy Inc., the biggest electricity provider in Colorado. The city can't cut all ties with Xcel
right away. The shift to a municipal utility will take at least three years and could be derailed over
issues such as how much Boulder will pay Xcel for its infrastructure. Supporters of the move argue
that a public utility would allow Boulder, a liberal college town, to embrace renewable energy and
sharply reduce carbon emissions. Xcel relies heavily on coal-fired plants. Xcel spent nearly $1
million to try to defeat the Boulder ballot measures, outspending supporters about 10 to 1. "People
like a David-and-Goliath story, and that's absolutely what this is," said Ken Regelson, who
led a community group supporting a public utility. Nationwide, 16 new public power
authorities have been formed in the last decade, including 13 that have taken over from
private utilities. Nearly all serve communities of less than 10,000, said Ursula Schryver, a vice
president of the American Public Power Association, a trade group. Boulder's population is nearly
100,000. The last large-scale municipalization took place in 1998, on New York's Long Island.
Note: This is significant positive news as the largest city yet in the U.S. has voted to take control of
their energy and make it greener. For a more optimistic and detailed description of this major
victory, click here.

$3 billion settlement expected in GlaxoSmithKline drug-marketing probe

2011-11-03, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/3billion-settlement-expected-i...
The British drugmaker Glaxo-SmithKline has tentatively agreed to pay the U.S. government $3
billion to settle multiple civil and criminal investigations, the largest settlement in the federal
governments recent crackdown on the pharmaceutical industrys marketing practices. If the deal is
finalized, it will mark the latest success in the federal governments push to rein in drug companies
promotional efforts. Of the 165 settlements reached between pharmaceutical companies and
federal and state governments in the past two decades, about three-quarters took place between
2006 and 2010, according to a report by Public Citizen. Before the Glaxo agreement, the largest
federal settlements took place in 2009: Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to settle federal investigations tied to
the promotion of the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra and other drugs, and Eli Lilly & Co. paid $1.4
billion related to the marketing of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Still, consumer advocates said
the penalties are not enough. The size of the penalties, although large, are not as large as
the money [the drug companies] make and so they keep doing it over again, said Sidney

M. Wolfe, director of Public Citizens health research group. The only way this is going to
stop, or get reversed, is to greatly increase the size of the penalties or to start sending
some of the executives to jail.
Note: For insight into corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, click here.

Banking on the people

2011-11-02, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/02/ED3B1LP64K.DTL
Why give our money to Bank of America, only to have it lend us our own money at high interest
rates or with ridiculous fees? We could hold onto our money, save quite a bit in fees, and lend it
back to ourselves and to the businesses and people ... at more affordable rates. In 2008, Ellen
Brown authored The Web of Debt, an analysis of the U.S. banking system that now is even more
pertinent in light of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The thesis is that the power to create
money has been usurped by a private international banking cartel [the Federal Reserve],
which issues our money as debt and lends it back to us at interest. The cartel makes it
appear that governments are creating our money, and governments get blamed when
things go wrong; but they are just pawns of the cartel. We ... can regain our government and
our republic only by reclaiming the power to create our own money. We can use the same credit
system that private banks use, but administer it as a public utility - that is, monitored and overseen
by public servants on the model of libraries and courts. To be a sustainable system, profits need to
be returned to the community rather than siphoned off into private coffers.
Note: Few people realize that money in the U.S. is created by an entity privately owned by the
largest banks the Federal Reserve. For lots more important information on this, click here. For
lots more from major media sources on the collusion between financial interests and government,
click here.

Governments turn to hacking techniques for surveillance of citizens

2011-11-01, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/01/governments-hacking-techniqu...
In a luxury Washington, DC, hotel last month, governments from around the world gathered to
discuss surveillance technology they would rather you did not know about. The annual Intelligence
Support Systems (ISS) World Americas conference is a mecca for representatives from
intelligence agencies and law enforcement. But to the media or members of the public, it is strictly
off limits. Behind the cloak of secrecy at the ISS World conference, tips are shared about the latest
advanced ... methods used to spy on citizens computer hacking, covert bugging and GPS
tracking. The use of such methods is more commonly associated with criminal hacking groups,
who have used spyware and trojan viruses to infect computers and steal bank details or
passwords. But as the internet has grown, intelligence agencies and law enforcement have

adopted similar techniques. "The current method of choice would seem to be spyware, or trojan
horses," said Chris Soghoian, a Washington-based surveillance and privacy expert. "When there
are five or six conferences held in closed locations every year, where telecommunications
companies, surveillance companies and government ministers meet in secret to cut deals,
buy equipment, and discuss the latest methods to intercept their citizens' communications
that I think meets the level of concern," he said. "Decades of history show that surveillance
powers are abused usually for political purposes."
Note: For more on corporate and government threats to privacy and civil liberties, click here and
here.

8 City Officers Charged in Gun Smuggling Case

2011-10-26, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/nyregion/new-york-officers-accused-of-smugg...
[New York police] officers five are still on the force, and three are retired and four other men
were accused of transporting M-16 rifles and handguns, as well as what they believed to be stolen
merchandise across state lines, according to a complaint filed in the case in Federal District Court
in Manhattan. The gun-trafficking accusations strike at the heart of one of the Police
Departments most hard-fought and robust initiatives, and one that has been a central
theme of the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: getting guns off the citys
streets. Mr. Bloomberg is the head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 600 municipal
chief executives from around the nation. [NYPD], the largest municipal police force in the
nation, [is] already besieged by corruption accusations. In recent weeks, testimony at the trial
of a narcotics detective has featured accusations that he and his colleagues in Brooklyn and
Queens planted drugs or lied under oath to meet arrest quotas and earn overtime, leading to the
arrests of eight officers, the dismissal of hundreds of drug cases because of their destroyed
credibility and the payout of more than $1 million in taxpayer money to settle false arrest lawsuits.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Fukushima Fallout Was Almost Twice as Bad as Official Estimates, New

Study Says
2011-10-26, Popular Science magazine
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-10/fukushima-fallout-was-worse-off...
This springs nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant released almost double
the amount of radiation the Japanese government has claimed, according to a new
analysis. The authors say the boiling pools holding spent fuel rods played a role in the
release of some of the contaminants, primarily cesium-137 and that this could have been
mitigated by an earlier response. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Air Research ... say
the amount of cesium-137, a long-lived isotope that persists in the atmosphere, was about twice as

high as the Japanese governments official estimate. The researchers also say about 20 percent of
the total fallout landed over Japan, but the vast majority fell over the Pacific Ocean. (The effects of
this fallout on fisheries and aquatic wildlife are still being determined.) Cesium-137 emissions
peaked three or four days after the quake and tsunami, remaining high until March 19, according
to this new study. Thats the day authorities started spraying water on the spent-fuel pool at reactor
unit 4, the researchers note. This indicates that emissions were not only coming from the
damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent-fuel pool of unit 4 and confirms that the spraying
was an effective countermeasure, they say. This contradicts Japanese government reports
claiming the pools released no radiation.
Note: According to the French nuclear agency, the Institute for Radiological Protection and
Nuclear Safety (IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire), even the higher
estimate of radiation release described in this article is too low. The agency estimates that 20
times more cesium-137 was released than has been admitted by Tepco.

Soda-drinking teens more violent

2011-10-25, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45035676/ns/health-childrens_health
Drinking lots of soda may increase the risk of violent behavior in teens, a new study suggests.
Teens in the study who drank more than five cans of non-diet soda per day were
significantly more likely to report behaving violently towards others, and more likely to
report having carried a gun or knife in the past year, the researchers said. The results held
even after the researchers took into account other factors that have been linked to violent
behavior, including age, alcohol and tobacco use, and the frequency of family dinners. It's possible
that the caffeine and sugar in the soda may directly affect teens' behavior, the researchers said.
However, it's also possible that people who are violent have a penchant for soda. Additional
research is needed to find the exact reason for the link. It's possible that an underlying condition,
such as low blood sugar, may result in both high soda consumption and aggressive behavior, the
researchers said. But even if soda consumption doesn't cause violent behavior, it may be a useful
marker for aggressive, the researchers say.
Note: For an important article showing how violent behavior dramatically decreased at a school
where junk food was replaced by healthy food, click here. For key reports from reliable sources on
important health issues, click here.

Faith in the 99 percent: What drives Occupy Wall Street?

2011-10-20, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/faith-in-the-99-percent-wha...

We are the 99 percent! The chant thunders through the streets, from Wall Street in New York
City, where the Occupy movement began, to K Street in Washington, where high-paid lobbyists
influence government, to streets in cities and small towns all across the nation. In hundreds of
Occupations, ordinary people have been moved to fill parks and streets and squares with signs,
tents, impromptu soup kitchens, intense conversations and lengthy meetings. Whats going on? All
share a common heart, a revulsion against an economy and a politics that increasingly say, You
dont count, except as something to exploit. Your voice is drowned out by money, your labor is
expendable, your needs must be sacrificed to the gods of profit. The Occupy movement
demonstrates a very different model of organizing: emergent, decentralized, without a command
and control structure. At its essence, the message of the Occupations is simply this: Here in the
face of power we will sit and create a new society, in which you do count. Your voice carries
weight, your contributions have value, whoever you may be. We say that love and care are
the true foundations for the society we want to live in. Well stand with the poor and sleep
with the homeless if thats what it takes to get justice. Well build a new world.
Note: Find your nearest occupation at: http://www.occupytogether.org/ . For lots more from major
media sources on the reasons why people worldwide are occupying the financial centers of their
cities, check out our "Banking Bailout" news articles.

U.S. panel, cancer groups discourage annual Pap test

2011-10-19, MSNBC/Reuters News
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44955035/ns/health-cancer/t/us-panel-cancer-group...
Pap smear tests are still the best way to prevent cervical cancer, but women should not seek them
every year, a U.S. government-backed expert panel and major cancer groups said. Instead, every
three years is a reasonable timetable, according to the Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF),
the same group that recently recommended against routine prostate cancer tests for healthy men.
Proposing changes to 2003 recommendations, the task force also said evidence is still insufficient
to weigh harms and benefits of tests screening for human papillomavirus (HPV) -- in contrast with
the views of cancer patient advocates. However, in a rare show of unity, the groups including the
American Cancer Society sided with the panel on the new recommendations and proposed new
screening guidelines themselves for the first time, bluntly recommending against the common
practice of annual Pap tests. Echoing the panels' recommendations, the cancer groups also said
women younger than 21 do not need to get tested. However, despite the task force's skepticism
over the effectiveness of the HPV test in preventing cancer, the cancer society and other
groups called the combination of regular Pap plus HPV testing the "preferred strategy" for
women over 30, if done every three to five years.
Note: For an excellent Dr. Mercola article on the risks involved with both Pap tests and the HPV
vaccine Gardasil, click here.

Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley

2011-10-19, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-19/beltway-earnings-make-u-s-capital...
Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nations
greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest
U.S. metropolitan area, government data show. The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with
Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the
Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was
$50,046. The figures demonstrate how the nations political and financial classes are prospering as
the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest
in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a
Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor. Theres a gap
thats isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country, Zeese said. They just get
more and more out of touch. In recent years Washington has attracted more lobbyists and firms
with an interest in the health-care overhaul and financial regulations signed into law by President
Barack Obama. Wall Street has moved to K Street, said Barbara Lang, president and chief
executive officer of the DC Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Washington street thats home
to prominent lobbying firms.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on corporate and government corruption, click here
and here.

Wall Street Protests Spread Globally as Rome Turns Violent

2011-10-15, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LT1FUB1A1I4H01-651L...
The Occupy Wall Street protest against income disparity spread across Western Europe, Asia, the
U.S. and Canada today. Rome's demonstration turned violent, contrasting with peaceful events
elsewhere. The rallies started last month in New York's financial district, where people have been
staying in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. They widened to 1,500 cities today, including
Sydney and Toronto, the organizers said, in a global day of action against Wall Street greed.
Protesters say they represent the 99 percent, a nod to a study by Nobel Prize-winning economist
Joseph Stiglitz showing the top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of U.S. wealth. In
Berlin, 6,000 took to the streets and 1,500 gathered in Cologne, ZDF television said. In Frankfurt,
5,000 marched by the European Central Bank headquarters. In New York, demonstrators marched
past a JPMorgan Chase & Co. branch urging clients to transfer accounts to a financial institution
that supports the 99 percent. They distributed fliers with a list of community banks and credit
unions. New York police arrested 24 at a Citigroup Inc. bank branch and 6,000 gathered in Times
Square. About 1,000 people gathered in Toronto's financial district carrying signs saying
Nationalize the Banks. Demonstrations turned violent in Italy, where the unemployment rate for
15-to-24-year-olds was 27.6 percent in August.
Note: For lots more on the reasons why people all over the world are occupying their city centers,
check out our "Banking Bailout" news articles.

Movie review: 'Greater Good'

2011-10-14, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/14/entertainment/la-et-capsules-greater-...
How and why potentially and historically life-saving vaccinations, especially those
mandated for children, have become a 21st century medical and political tinderbox is deftly
examined by producers and co-directors Kendall Nelson and Chris Pilaro in their
provocative documentary "The Greater Good." The filmmakers put human faces on this
polarizing issue by focusing largely on three American children devastated, it is believed, by postvaccine side effects. They include Gabi Swank, an inspiring teen who suffered neurological
damage after taking the much-hyped HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer; 12-year-old Jordan
King who, as a toddler, regressed into autism after routine inoculations; and infant Victoria
Christner, who died at 5 months, her parents maintain, of vaccine injuries. An articulate array of
doctors, scientists and public health officials weigh in on both sides of the debate. Some cite that
vaccines, often government mandated, are sound and necessary for "the greater good," while
others demand further research, safety and education to help parents and everyone else to
make more informed choices before rushing to immunize. Either way, the film proves an effective
eye-opener.
Note: You can watch this powerful documentary at this link. For deeply revealing reports from
reliable major media sources on the risks to children from vaccines, click here.

FirstEnergy Falls After Report of Nuclear Reactor Cracks

2011-10-13, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-13/firstenergy-falls-after-report-of...
FirstEnergy Corp. [stock price] fell after a report that engineers discovered cracks in the
concrete shell of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant. Contractors on Oct. 10 discovered a hairline
crack measuring about 30 feet (9.1 meters) long as they sliced a hole into the plants outer shell
in order to install a new reactor vessel head, said Jennifer Young, a FirstEnergy spokeswoman.
The cracked shell is the outermost of several layers of steel and concrete that protect the reactor,
which has been shut down since Oct. 1 in preparation for the repair work. Davis-Besse was
shuttered for more than three months in 2010 after workers discovered cooling water leaking
through cracks in some reactor-head nozzles, steel casings that hold fuel and control rods. Leaks
and reactor corrosion prompted FirstEnergy to close the plant for two years, from 2002 to 2004,
while the company retrained or replaced workers who ignored signs of damage, and eventually
replaced the reactor head. The leaks found last year at the 900-megawatt plant prompted the
Union of Concerned Scientists in April 2010 to demand that the plant remain closed until its
owners established better controls to maintain health and safety standards.

Note: If you want to see how safety around nuclear plants is ignored and threatened all the time by
money interests at all levels, watch the amazingly revealing documentary on Chernobyl at this link.
The most telling piece in this documentary involves the man tasked by Gorbechov to write the
official report of all the problems they faced. When he gave the report to the IAEA in a secret
meeting, he was ridiculed by the other international leaders there, who accused him of spreading
baseless fears. On the second anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, he committed suicide.

Growing Income Gap May Leave U.S. More Vulnerable to Crisis

2011-10-13, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-13/growing-income-gap-may-leave-u-s-...
A widening gap between rich and poor is reshaping the U.S. economy, leaving it more vulnerable
to recurring financial crises and less likely to generate enduring expansions. Left unchecked, the
decades-long trend toward increasing inequality may ... shake social stability, economists and
financial-industry executives say. Income inequality in this country is just getting worse and worse
and worse, James Chanos, president and founder of New York-based Kynikos Associates Ltd.,
told Bloomberg Radio this week. And that is not a recipe for stable economic growth when the rich
are getting richer and everybody else is being left behind. Since 1980, about 5 percent of annual
national income has shifted from the middle class to the nations richest households. That means
the wealthiest 5,934 households last year enjoyed an additional $650 billion -- about $109
million apiece -- beyond what they would have had if the economic pie had been divided as
it was in 1980, according to Census Bureau data. Disputes over what constitutes economic
fairness are moving to center stage amid a near-stagnant U.S. economy saddled with 9.1 percent
unemployment yet boasting record corporate profits.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on income inequality in the US and worldwide,
click here.

CDC official accused of child molestation, bestiality

2011-10-11, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/justice/georiga-cdc-arrest/index.html
An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been arrested and charged
with two counts of child molestation and one count of bestiality, police said. Police arrested Dr.
Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, 44, in DeKalb County, Georgia, on Sunday. Authorities also charged
Lindsey's live-in boyfriend, Thomas Joseph Westerman, 42, with two counts of child molestation.
The two are accused of "immoral and indecent" sexual acts involving a 6-year-old. The bestiality
charge says Lindsey "did unlawfully perform or submit to any sexual act with an animal." The
alleged incidents took place between January 1, 2010, and August 22, 2011. Lindsey is the deputy
director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC, according to
her biography on the agency's website. Prior to her current role, Lindsey was the senior health
scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. That office oversees

the allocation process for $1.5 billion in terrorism preparedness. In her 12 years at the CDC,
Lindsey has received 12 awards for outstanding performance on projects and programs, according
to her bio on Emory University's Biological and Biomedical Sciences website.
Note: Don't miss Dr. Mercola's highly revealing analysis showing that Dr. Lindsey played a primary
role in the bogus swine flu propaganda campaign. Read the article at this link. For how the CDC
came to be infiltrated with such people, read the powerful information available here.

Chocolate curbs stroke in women, study suggests

2011-10-11, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20118507-10391704.html
Chocolate seems to be good for the cardiovascular system - no secret there. Studies have
tied the sweet stuff to lower blood pressure, healthier blood vessels, and reduced risk of
blood clots. And now Swedish researchers have linked chocolate to a reduced risk for
stroke. The scientists found that the women who ate the most chocolate - 66.5 grams a week, or
about 2.4 ounces - were 20 percent less likely to have a stroke than the women who never or
seldom ate chocolate. The study was published in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology. But before you unleash your inner chocoholic, be aware that not
all forms of chocolate are thought to be beneficial. Dark chocolate is best because it contains more
of the antioxidant-rich cocoa and less sugar and fewer calories than milk chocolate.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

Medical group to say men don't need prostate cancer screenings,

source says
2011-10-07, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/health/prostate-screening/index.html
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the group that told women in their 40s that they don't
need mammograms, will recommend that men not get screened for prostate cancer, according to a
source privy to the task force deliberations. A review of studies shows screening with the PSA
blood test results in "small or no reduction" in prostate cancer deaths. The report adds that
PSA testing is "associated with harms related to subsequent evaluation and treatments."
The problem is that many of the cancers that get detected are so small and slow-growing, they'll
never be harmful, and doctors have a difficult time discerning the quick, harmful cancers from the
slow, harmless ones. If you test 100 men over age 50, 17 of them will have prostate cancer, and
only three of those will have a fast-growing cancer and die of the disease, according to Dr.
Kenneth Lin, senior author of the paper. If the 14 men with the slow-growing cancers are treated,
they could be rendered impotent or incontinent from the treatment; or worse, the treatment could
kill them. Some prostate cancer patients were disappointed with the task force's decision. A
spokesman for the Prostate Cancer Foundation called the proposed recommendation "a

tremendous mistake." "You're talking to someone whose life was saved by [the PSA test]," Dan
Zenka said. But Lin says he believes testing does more harm than good. "Maybe you should get
tested if you have this horrible family history where everyone gets prostate cancer before the age
of 50. But for most men, testing is harmful," he said.
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on important health issues, click here.

On targeted assassinations, what about due process?

2011-10-04, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/04/ED7E1LCQ7N.DTL
U.S. officials last week acknowledged that unmanned predator aircraft killed two U.S. citizens,
Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, in Yemen. Yet, U.S. media outlets have chosen to refer to them
as "American born" or "U.S.-born," as in "the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by
U.S. armed drones." No concrete proof of their guilt has been furnished beyond what the
government and multiple media outlets have reported. In the case of the al-Awlaki killing, U.S.
officials said, "Al-Awlaki played a 'significant operational role' in plotting and inspiring attacks on
the United States," as they justified the killing of an American citizen. In the post-9/11 world, such
reporting garners little attention from the public. But those who believe in the rule of law find such
mundane pronouncements frightening. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the
right to a public trial by an impartial jury, regardless of his or her ethnic background or
previous alleged activities. Government-sanctioned assassinations of U.S. citizens without
due process should be discussed rather than blindly accepted as a victory in the war on
terror. The obvious follow-up question is: What about other U.S. citizens? Might they also be
targeted for assassination without due process? The targeted killings of al-Awlaki and Khan should
shock Americans reared on the rule of law, justice, liberty and freedom.
Note: State assassination of a citizen without due process would seem to be the ultimate attack on
civil liberties. For lots more on such threats from reliable sources, click here.

Occupy Wall Street, a primer

2011-10-03, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-wall-street-a-prim...
Occupy Wall Street, the growing, decentralized protest movement thats clashing with police in
New York City, spreading across the country, and grabbing headlines across the world ... is also,
somewhat unusually, a protest movement without clear demands, an identifiable leadership, or an
evident organizational structure. Decisions are made by the NYC General Assembly, which Nathan
Schneider describes as a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system
with roots in anarchist thought, and thus far, the General Assembly has decided against
yoking the movement to a particular set of goals, or even a particular ideology. Which is all
to say that its important to try and understand the movement on its own terms, rather than

the terms most of us are used to. Here are five places to start: - The ... Occupy Wall Street
blog, and in particular, the blogs forums. Here, for instance, is the movements Declaration of the
Occupation of New York City. - Nathan Schneiders Occupy Wall Street FAQ. Id perhaps
recommend this as the single best place to start. - Understanding the theory behind Occupy Wall
Streets approach, by Mike Konczal. Also see his post, 15 definitions of freedom from Occupy
Wall Street.
Note: For lots more on the reasons why people all over the world are occupying their city centers,
check out our "Banking Bailout" news articles.

Pretrial skirmishes give closer look at drug cartels

2011-09-29, Chicago Sun-Times (One of Chicago's leading newspapers)
http://www.suntimes.com/news/escalona/7925888-452/pretrial-skirmishes-give-ch...
The pretrial proceedings of Mexican drug kingpin Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla [provide] a
glimpse into the transnational business of the Mexican drug cartels, which serve a growing
demand for illegal drugs in the U.S. A member of the Sinaloa Cartel, Zambada-Niebla faces
federal charges of trafficking tons of narcotics to Chicago and other cities using trains, ships, jets
and even submarines between 2005 and 2008. Zambada-Niebla, 35, is considered a narco junior,
as the sons of drug kingpins are known in Mexico. They have taken over the control of the cartels
started by their fathers. The narco juniors are known for having attended private schools, being
well-polished and having an appetite for luxury cars, designer clothing and beauty queens. Since
Zambada-Niebla was extraded to Chicago in early 2010, his pretrial proceedings have sparked
controversy on both sides of the border. He first complained about jail conditions. Then he
dropped a diplomatic bomb, contending that he and another member of the Sinaloa cartel
were informants for the Drug Enforcement Administration and had been promised immunity
from prosecution. The federal authorities refuted the claim, but acknowledged that fugitive
Sinaloa Cartel member and lawyer Humberto Loya Castro was indeed a DEA informant. In
Mexico, the drug cartel wars have claimed more than 40,000 lives. The U.S. Justice Department
thinks the Mexican cartels operate in more than 1,000 American cities.
Note: Not mentioned in this article or anywhere we've seen in the media is that US government
prosecutors are invoking a 30-year-old law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act to
assure that classified materials do not become public during the court proceedings. What could
they be hiding? Click here for more. For powerful evidence from top reporters that elements within
government are involved in drug trafficking, click here.

As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe

2011-09-28, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/as-scorn-for-vote-grows-protests-surg...

Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common
grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall
Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional
politicians and the democratic political process they preside over. They are taking to the
streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box. Economics have been one
driving force, with growing income inequality, high unemployment and recession-driven cuts in
social spending breeding widespread malaise. Alienation runs especially deep in Europe, with
boycotts and strikes. The protest movements in democracies are not altogether unlike those that
have rocked authoritarian governments this year, toppling longtime leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and
Libya. Protesters have created their own political space online that is chilly, sometimes openly
hostile, toward traditional institutions of the elite. Youre looking at a generation of 20- and 30year-olds who are used to self-organizing, said Yochai Benkler, a director of the Berkman Center
for Internet and Society at Harvard University. They believe life can be more participatory, more
decentralized, less dependent on the traditional models of organization, either in the state or the
big company. Those were the dominant ways of doing things in the industrial economy, and they
arent anymore.
Note: For key insights from major media sources into the reasons why so many are protesting
worldwide, click here.

'Anyone can make money from a crash,' says market trader

2011-09-26, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15059135
Ministers from the world's richest nations are reportedly on the way to agreeing [to] a deal for
troubled eurozone countries. But one independent market trader - Alessio Rastani - told the BBC
the plan "won't work" and that people should be trying to make money from a market crash. Trader
Alessio Rastani: I'm fairly confident the Euro is going to crash, and it's going to fall pretty hard
because markets are ruled right now by fear. Investors and the big money, the smart money ...
don't buy this rescue plan. They know the stock market is finished. They don't really care. They're
moving their money away to safer assets like treasury bonds, 30-year bonds, and the U.S. dollar.
For most traders, we dont really care that much how they're going to fix the economy. Our
job is to make money from it. And personally, Ive been dreaming of this moment for three years.
I go to bed every night [and] I dream of another recession. When the market crashes if you
have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this. Be prepared, and act now. The
biggest risk people can take right now is not acting. This economic crisis is like a cancer. In less
than 12 months, my prediction is that the savings of millions people is going to vanish, and this is
just the beginning. This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are
going to sort things out. The governments dont rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the
world.

Note: Part of the text above is not listed in the text at the link above, but in the BBC video on that
page. The video is a must watch for one expert's important view on an impending future economic
collapse. For lots more excellent information showing the incredible power of Goldman Sachs and
more on this important topic, click here. For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media
sources on financial corruption, click here.

Americans Express Historic Negativity Toward U.S. Government

2011-09-26, Gallup
http://www.gallup.com/poll/149678/Americans-Express-Historic-Negativity-Towar...
A record-high 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed,
adding to negativity that has been building over the past 10 years. Majorities of Democrats (65%)
and Republicans (92%) are dissatisfied with the nation's governance. The findings are from
Gallup's annual Governance survey, updated Sept. 8-11, 2011. The same poll shows record or
near-record criticism of Congress, elected officials, government handling of domestic problems,
the scope of government power, and government waste of tax dollars. Key Findings: * 82% of
Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. * 69% say they have little or no
confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010. *
57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding
the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010. * 53% have little or no confidence in the men and
women who seek or hold elected office. Americans believe, on average, that the federal
government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar. 49% of Americans believe the federal
government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the
rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.
Note: For many important reports from major media sources on government corruption, click here.

Mayan film documentary claims proof of aliens

2011-09-26, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-mayantre78p4lk-20110926...
A new documentary about Mayan civilization will provide evidence of extraterrestrial contact with
the ancient culture, according to a Mexican government official and the film's producer.
"Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond," currently in production, will claim the Mayans had
contact with extraterrestrials, producer Raul Julia-Levy [said]. "Mexico will release codices,
artifacts and significant documents with evidence of Mayan and extraterrestrial contact, and all of
their information will be corroborated by archaeologists," said Julia-Levy. Luis Augusto Garcia
Rosado, the minister of tourism for the Mexican state of Campeche, said new evidence has
emerged "of contact between the Mayans and extraterrestrials, supported by translations of
certain codices, which the government has kept secure in underground vaults for some
time." He also spoke, in a phone conversation, of "landing pads in the jungle that are 3,000
years old." Raul-Julia claims there is proof that the Mayans had intended to lead the planet for

thousands of years, but were forced to escape after an invasion by "men of dark intentions,"
leaving behind evidence of an advanced race. "The Mexican government is not making this
statement on their own -- everything we say, we're going to back it up," he said.
Note: For powerful testimony from top military and government officials that a major cover-up has
been orchestrated around a possible ET presence on our planet, click here.

'Stingray' Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash

2011-09-22, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904194604576583112723197574.html
For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply "the Hacker." Only after
using a little known cellphone-tracking device a stingray were they able to zero in on a
California home and make the arrest. Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even
when it's not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the
devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, an FBI
official told The Wall Street Journal. A stingray's role in nabbing the alleged "Hacker" Daniel
David Rigmaiden is shaping up as a possible test of the legal standards for using these devices
in investigations. Stingrays are one of several new technologies used by law enforcement to track
people's locations, often without a search warrant. These techniques are driving a constitutional
debate about whether the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and
seizures, but which was written before the digital age, is keeping pace with the times. Mr.
Rigmaiden maintains his innocence and says that using stingrays to locate devices in homes
without a valid warrant "disregards the United States Constitution" and is illegal.
Note: For lots more on threats to civil liberties from reliable sources, click here.

Oxfam warns of spiralling land grab in developing countries

2011-09-22, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/22/oxfam-land-grab-developing-...
The scale of the rush by speculators, pension funds and global agri-businesses to acquire large
areas of developing countries is far greater than previously thought, and is already leading to
conflict, hunger and human rights abuses, says Oxfam. The NGO has identified 227m ha (561m
acre ha) of land an area the size of north-west Europe as having being reportedly sold, leased
or licensed, largely in Africa and mostly to international investors in thousands of secretive deals
since 2001. The new land rush, which was triggered by food riots, a series of harvest failures
following major droughts and the western investors moving out of the US property market in 2008,
is being justified by governments and speculators in the name of growing food for hungry people
and biofuels for environmental benefit. "Many of the deals are in fact 'land grabs' where the
rights and needs of the people previously living on the land are ignored, leaving them
homeless and without land to grow enough food to eat and make a living," said Oxfam chief

executive Dame Barbara Stocking. While some investors might claim to have experience in
agricultural production, many may only be purchasing land speculatively, anticipating price
increases in the coming years. In addition, developing countries are under pressure from the IMF,
the World Bank and other regional banks to put farmland on the international market to increase
economic development and improve the balance of payments.
Note: To read Oxfam's summary and report on land grabs worldwide, click here.

Lloyd's insurer sues Saudi Arabia for 'funding 9/11 attacks'

2011-09-19, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lloyds-insurer-sues-saudi-arab...
A Lloyd's insurance syndicate has begun a landmark legal case against Saudi Arabia, accusing
the kingdom of indirectly funding al-Qa'ida and demanding the repayment of 136m it paid out to
victims of the 9/11 attacks. Outlined in a 156-page document filed in western Pennsylvania, where
United Airlines flight 93 crashed on 9/11, the claim suggests that the nine defendants "knowingly"
provided resources, including funding, to al-Qa'ida in the years before the attack and encouraged
anti-Western sentiment which increased support for the terror group. The case singles out the
activities of a charity, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC),
which was alleged by UN officials to have been used as a cover by several al-Qa'ida
operatives, including two men who acted as directors of the charity. It is alleged that at the
time the SJRC was under the control of Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, half-brother of
King Abdullah and the long-standing Saudi Interior minister. The claim states: "Between 1998 and
2000, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the SJRC, diverted more than $74m to al-Qa'ida
members and loyalists affiliated with SJRC bureaus. Throughout this time, the Committee was
under the supervision and control of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz."
Note: This article singles out the important connection between Al Qaeda and the wars in Kosovo
and Chechnya, where, as in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Osama bin Laden's organization provided
Muslim jihadis to promote US imperial interests. This activity continued into the summer of 2001 in
Macedonia, just a few months before 9/11. Amazingly, the lawsuit described in the article has been
dropped. What pressures could have been brought to bear on Lloyd's to cause it to drop its suit
two weeks after bringing it?

Focus on the good news in the Palestinian-Israeli standoff

2011-09-18, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/18/opinion/bacha-ted-talk
At Just Vision, our mission is to create and distribute media, including documentary films, that tell
the stories of Israelis and Palestinians working nonviolently to resolve the conflict and end the
occupation. We also provide in-depth introductions to these visionaries by publishing new
interviews with them on our website every few days. By providing these resources to millions

worldwide, we ensure that those who promote nonviolence have an effective platform through
which they can share their accomplishments and ideas with their own societies and others around
the globe. Our ... documentary film, "Budrus," tells the story of a Palestinian community organizer
who successfully unites Palestinians of all political factions together with Israeli supporters in an
unarmed movement to save his village from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. The film
shows how, for 10 months, the residents of Budrus and their supporters engaged in unarmed
protest, and how they ultimately triumphed by convincing the Israeli army to shift the course of the
barrier and [save] their village. Since its release, "Budrus" has been seen by hundreds of
thousands around the world. Where we choose to direct our attention matters. And in the
case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this decision can save numerous Israeli and
Palestinian lives and help finally bring an end to the bloodshed. Rather than endlessly
waiting for new leaders to emerge or conditions to change, it's time we realized that the
solutions to the conflict are being played out every day right in front of us. It's up to us to
notice.
Note: Why does the media give so little attention to successful nonviolent movements? Watch the
video at the link above for ideas. Read another inspiring article on this movement and another
here. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will
inspire you to make a difference.

Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate

Internets
2011-09-18, Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/College-20-Fear-of/129049/
Computer networks proved their organizing power during the recent uprisings in the Middle East
[but] those same networks showed their weaknesses as well, such as when the Egyptian
government walled off most of its citizens from the Internet in an attempt to silence protesters. That
has led scholars and activists increasingly to consider the Internet's wiring as a disputed political
frontier. One weekend each month, a small group of computer programmers gathers [in
Washington DC] to build a homemade Internetnamed Project Byzantium - that could go online
if part of the current global Internet becomes blocked by a repressive government. The leader of
the effort ... says he fears that some day repressive measures could be put into place in the United
States. He is not the only one with such apprehensions. Hundreds of like-minded high-tech
activists and entrepreneurs in New York at an unusual conference called the Contact Summit. The
summit's goal is not just to talk about the projects, but also to connect with potential financial
backers, recruit programmers, and brainstorm approaches to building parallel Internets and social
networks. The meeting is a sign of the growing momentum of what is called the "freenetwork movement," whose leaders are pushing to rewire online networks to make it harder
for a government or corporation to exert what some worry is undue control or surveillance.

Note: For a revealing BBC News article showing the Pentagon's desire for "maximum control of
the Internet," click here. Released government documents show the US military's intent to be able
to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors,
and weapons systems." For lots more on threats to civil liberties from reliable sources, click here.

Militias funded by US accused of rights abuses

2011-09-13, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/militias-funded-by-us-accused-of...
Militias in Afghanistan funded by the United States are terrorising the communities they were
supposed to protect, murdering, raping and torturing civilians, including children, extorting illegal
taxes and smuggling contraband, according to a damning new report from Human Rights Watch.
In a 102-page report entitled 'Just Don't Call It a Militia' the group documents how the Afghan
government and the US military have provided guns and money to paramilitary groups without
adequate oversight or accountability. Because of their links to senior Afghan officials, many of
these groups operate with impunity. Under US General David Petraeus, who recently left
Afghanistan to head up the Central Intelligence Agency, Nato aggressively pursued a strategy
of raising militias as a security quick-fix ahead of its departure in 2014. Because US law
makes it illegal to finance groups facing credible allegations of human rights abuses, the
report's findings could, potentially, put at risk a central plank of Nato's exit strategy if US
lawmakers would have it so. The report follows an investigation earlier this year by The
Independent that found US special forces were bankrolling an Afghan mercenary called
Commander Azizullah in Afghanistan's south-eastern Paktika province. Under their patronage
Azizullah had embarked on a spate of rights abuses including murders, rape, theft, torture, the
mutilation of corpses and the desecration of a mosque.
Note: To read the HRW report on US-funded atrocities in Afghanistan, click here.

Travelwise: Bike sharing around the world

2011-09-09, BBC
http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110909-travelwise-bike-sharing-around-the-world
Bike sharing is on the verge of becoming an integral part of public transportation in cities across
the globe. This system of impromptu bike renting is helping urban areas reduce automotive traffic
and pollution while providing locals and tourists with a convenient, cheap and healthy means of
transport. Currently, there are nearly 300 organized bike sharing programs worldwide. That
number is growing and not just in the West. In India, for example, the Ministry of Urban
Development is preparing to launch a 10-city public bike scheme as part of its Mission for
Sustainable Habitat. So how does bike sharing work? In most cities, visitors can purchase shortterm subscriptions at bike stations themselves. Just walk up to a stations electronic kiosk, choose
the duration for which you need access to the service, and swipe your credit card. With more than

50,000 bikes and 2,050 bike stations, the Chinese city of Hangzhou is home to the worlds
largest bike sharing program. Bike sharing is well integrated with other forms of public
transport, with bike stations available near bus and water taxi stops.
Note: For more on this encouraging development, click here.

Newly Published Audio Provides Real-Time View of 9/11 Attacks

2011-09-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/nyregion/newly-published-audio-provides-rea...
[A] chronicle of the civil and military aviation responses to the [9/11] hijackings that originally had
been prepared by investigators for the 9/11 Commission, but never completed or released, [is
about to be published]. Though some of the audio has emerged over the years, mainly through
public hearings and a federal criminal trial, the ... complete document, with recordings, is being
published for the first time by the Rutgers Law Review. Most of the work on the document which
commission staff members called an audio monograph was finished in 2004, not in time to go
through a long legal review before the commission was shut down that August. At hearings in 2003
and 2004, the 9/11 Commission played some of the recordings and said civil and military
controllers improvised responses to attacks they had never trained for. The account published
this week is missing two essential pieces that remain restricted or classified. One is about
30 minutes of the cockpit recording of United Airlines Flight 93. The other still-secret
recording is of a high-level conference call that ... grew, over the course of the morning, to
include ... Mr. Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the vice chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers. The recording was turned over to the National
Security Council. The 9/11 Commission was not permitted to keep a copy of it or of the transcript
... and investigators were closely monitored when they listened to it.
Note: WantToKnow team member David Ray Griffin has analyzed the use made by the 9/11
Commission of the audiotapes described in this article, in "9/11 Live or Fabricated: Do the NORAD
Tapes Verify The 9/11 Commission Report?", concluding that they may well have been faked by
the Pentagon to provide a basis for the Commission's otherwise unsupported claim that the FAA
did not notify NORAD of the hijackings in time for an air-defense response. Prof. Griffin developed
his argument further in Chapter One of his seminal book, Debunking 9/11 Debunking.

Toronto Hearings to examine 'state crime' of 9/11

2011-09-09, Montreal Gazette (Montreal's leading English newspaper)
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Toronto+Hearings+examine+state+cri...
Dubbed the Toronto Hearings, [a] four-day event at Ryerson University which wraps up [on
September 11] will hear from a variety of experts and academics on why the official narrative of
9/11 is flawed. Lance deHaven-Smith, a public policy professor at Florida State University, called
9/11 a "state crime against democracy," suggesting the destruction of the Twin Towers was staged

to advance a war agenda. Speaker David Ray Griffin, who authored the book 9/11 Ten Years
Later: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed, focused on alleged anomalies in the
official report from the 9/11 Commission. The report, which he called a product of "the White
House investigating itself," failed to include relevant information about the alleged hijackers,
including the discovery that some were still alive after the attacks. Kevin Ryan, co-editor of the
Journal of 9/11 Studies, was similarly critical of a report by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology into how and why the Twin Towers collapsed in the fashion they did. "A steel
structure does not collapse suddenly when attacked by fire," Ryan said, noting the
institute's report "distorted many important facts." "We know that the official story does not
fly," [conference organizer Graeme MacQueen said]. "The legitimate mourning is mixed together
with myth and deception."
Note: For more on the historic Toronto Hearings, at which cutting edge research on the most
important questions about 9/11 was presented, click here.

New Investigative Panel Releases 13 Consensus Statements of

Evidence Opposing the Official Account of 9/11
2011-09-09, MarketWatch (Wall Street Journal Digital Network)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-investigative-panel-releases-13-consensu...
For ten years independent scholars and researchers have been investigating the troubling
anomalies of the 9/11 official account. One such scholar, Dr. David Ray Griffin, has written ten
encyclopedic books documenting fundamental problems with the government account. Although
9/11 has been the seminal event of this century, none of the research by Dr. Griffin and other critics
has been reported by the North American media. Today, the formation of the 9/11 Consensus
Panel, involving 22 investigators of the September 11th events, is being announced at
consensus911.org. The 13 Consensus Points issued by the Panel were derived from a
Delphi survey modeled on consensus statements developed by expert panels in medicine
to guide diagnosis and treatment. The 9/11 Consensus Panel, co-founded by Dr. David Ray
Griffin and medical librarian Elizabeth Woodworth ... include[s] two former NASA engineers, six
professors, one physician, two lawyers, four journalists, and three pilots. The Consensus Panel
offers the media and the public the scientifically validated information needed to address this
seminal issue with the confidence that has been lacking.
Note: In addition to WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin, WantToKnow's Tod
Fletcher is a member of the 9/11 Consensus Panel. They are both media contacts at the panel
who can be reached by clicking here.

Even a top cop concedes a right to video arrests - but the street tells a
different story
2011-09-03, Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia's leading newspaper)

http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-03/news/30109223_1_cops-arrest-police-crui...
Tamera Medley begged the police officer to stop slamming her head - over and over - into the
hood of a police cruiser. Thinking they were helping, passers-by Shakir Riley and Melissa Hurling
both turned their cellphone video cameras toward the melee that had erupted on Jefferson Street
in Wynnefield, they said. But then the cops turned on them. Riley had started to walk away when
at least five baton-wielding cops followed him, he said, and they beat him, poured a soda on his
face and stomped on his phone, destroying the video he had just taken. Although it's legal
to record Philadelphia police performing official duties in public, all three were charged
with disorderly conduct and related offenses, and officers destroyed Hurling and Riley's
cellphones, erasing any record of Medley's violent arrest. Echoes of the incident, which was
corroborated by a half-dozen witnesses, have been reverberating nationwide in recent years as
the combination of cellphone video and police officers has simmered into what is an increasingly
explosive formula. The issue is gaining national attention. The American Civil Liberties Union has
civil lawsuits pending in Washington, D.C., Florida, Illinois and Maryland. Last week, a federal
appeals court in Boston ruled that police had violated the First Amendment rights of a lawyer who
was arrested after filming cops arrest a teenager. Suits have been settled in Pennsylvania.
Note: For lots more from major media sources on growing threats to our civil liberties, click here.

35,000 Worldwide Convicted for Terror

2011-09-03, ABC News/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=14441630
At least 35,000 people worldwide have been convicted as terrorists in the decade since the Sept.
11 attacks on the United States. But while some bombed hotels or blew up buses, others were put
behind bars for waving a political sign or blogging about a protest. In the first tally ever done of
global anti-terror arrests and convictions, The Associated Press documented a surge in
prosecutions under new or toughened anti-terror laws, often passed at the urging and with the
funding of the West. Before 9/11, just a few hundred people were convicted of terrorism each
year. The sheer volume of convictions, along with almost 120,000 arrests, shows ... that
dozens of countries are using the fight against terrorism to curb political dissent. The AP
used freedom of information queries, law enforcement data and hundreds of interviews to identify
119,044 anti-terror arrests and 35,117 convictions in 66 countries, accounting for 70 percent of the
world's population. The actual numbers undoubtedly run higher because some countries refused
to provide information. That included 2,934 arrests and 2,568 convictions in the United States,
which led the war on terror eight times more than in the decade before. More than half the
convictions came from two countries accused of using anti-terror laws to crack down on dissent,
Turkey and China. Turkey alone accounted for a third of all convictions, with 12,897.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the hidden realities behind the "Global War on
Terror", click here.

Monsanto Corn Falls to Illinois Bugs as Investigation Widens

2011-09-02, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-02/monsanto-corn-falls-to-illinois-b...
Monsanto Co.s insect-killing corn is toppling over in northwestern Illinois fields, a sign that
rootworms outside of Iowa may have developed resistance to the genetically modified crop.
Michael Gray, an agricultural entomologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana, said hes studying
whether western corn rootworms collected last month in Henry and Whiteside counties are
resistant to an insect-killing protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a natural insecticide
engineered into Monsanto corn. The insects were collected in two fields where corn had toppled
after roots were eaten by rootworms, Gray said today. Planting Bt corn year after year increases
the odds that the bugs will develop resistance to the insecticide, he said. While the symptoms
parallel bug resistance thats been confirmed in Iowa, analysis of the Illinois insects wont be
complete until next year, he said. Whatever is the cause, it is generating a lot of concern.
Note: For more on this, click here.

Britain and European governments helped US commit 'countless

crimes colluding with torture
2011-09-01, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8735518/Britain-an...
Britain and other European governments have helped the US commit countless crimes by
colluding with torture and illegal rendition operations in Americas war on terror, Europes human
rights watchdog has said. Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europes rights commissioner,
accused governments of being deeply complicit in illegal activities carried out by the US over the
last 10 years, since the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. In
attempting to combat crimes attributed to terrorists, countless further crimes have been
committed in the course of the US-led 'global war on terror, he said. Many of those
crimes have been carefully and deliberately covered up. A 2007 Council of Europe (COE)
report by Dick Marty, Swiss MP, accused Britain and 13 other European governments of allowing
the CIA to run secret detention centres, of turning a blind eye to torture and the illegal abductions
of terror suspects. Mr Hammerberg accused Europes governments of blocking investigations into
rendition in line with Washingtons wishes. So far Europe has granted effective impunity to those
who committed crimes in implementing the rendition policy. An urgent rethink is required to prevent
this misjudged and failed counter terrorism approach from having a sad legacy of injustice, said
Mr Hammerberg.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on the hidden realities behind the "Global War on
Terror", click here.

Five survivors found from shocking U.S. human experiments

2011-08-30, CBS News/Associated Press

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/30/scitech/main20099438.shtml
Guatemala has tracked down five survivors from a shocking US government research project on
sexually transmitted diseases that killed scores of its people. On [August 29], a presidential panel
disclosed new details of the medical experiments done in Guatemala in the 1940s, including a
decision to re-infect a dying woman in a syphilis study. The Guatemala experiments are already
considered one of the darker episodes of medical research in U.S. history, but panel
members say the new information indicates that the researchers were unusually unethical,
even when placed into the historical context of a different era. "The researchers put their
own medical advancement first and human decency a far second," said Anita Allen, a
member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. From 1946-48, the U.S.
Public Health Service and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau worked with several Guatemalan
government agencies to do medical research - paid for by the U.S. government - that involved
deliberately exposing people to sexually transmitted diseases. The researchers apparently were
trying to see if penicillin, then relatively new, could prevent infections in the 1,300 people exposed
to syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid. Those infected included soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and
mental patients with syphilis. The commission revealed ... that only about 700 of those infected
received some sort of treatment. Also, 83 people died.
Note: For a long list of verifiable information on experiments where human were used a guinea
pigs, click here.

U.S. scientists knew 1940s Guatemalan STD studies were unethical,

panel finds
2011-08-29, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-scientists-knew-1940...
U.S. government researchers who purposely infected unwitting subjects with sexually transmitted
diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s had obtained consent a few years earlier before conducting
similar experiments in Indiana, investigators reported [August 29]. The stark contrast between
how the U.S. Public Health Service scientists experimented with Americans and
Guatemalans clearly shows that researchers knew their conduct was unethical, according to
members of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. These researchers
knew these were unethical experiments, and they conducted them anyway, said Raju
Kucherlapati of Harvard Medical School, a commission member. At least 5,500 prisoners, mental
patients, soldiers and children were drafted into the experiments, including at least 1,300 who were
exposed to the sexually transmitted diseases syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid, the commission
reported. This is a dark chapter in our history. It is important to shine the light of day on it. We owe
it to the people of Guatemala who were experimented on, and we owe it to ourselves to recognize
what a dark chapter it was, said Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania, the
commissions chairwoman.

Note: For a long list of verifiable information on experiments where human were used a guinea
pigs, click here.

History Channel gets it right

2011-08-26, Sarasota Herald Tribune (Leading newspaper of Sarasota, Florida)
http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/12230/history-channel-gets-it-right/
Thursday nights Secret Access report by The History Channel UFOs On The Record is
the sort of crisp advocacy journalism one might easily envision in PBS Frontline rotation. Devoid
of the tripe that too often characterizes network programming on this issue, UFOs On The
Record is a foundational model for jump-starting a national conversation so desperately
overdue. The 96-minute documentary, built upon Leslie Keans UFOs: Generals, Pilots and
Government Officials Go On the Record, was produced by filmmakers Ricki Stern and
Annie Sudberg. Like Kean, they made no unsubstantiated claims and dispensed with the
uninformed ruminations of so-called UFO skeptics that pass for balance in mainstream formulas.
Instead, they mined official documents and eyewitnesses to build a compelling case for the serious
disconnect between reality and American public policy. For Keans readers, the Secret Access
treatment covered familiar turf: the Phoenix Lights, the Rendlesham Forest incident, the 1989-90
Belgian wave, etc. But watching many of the players in the book like former Federal Aviation
Administration accidents division chief John Callahan, and retired Belgian Gen. Wilfried De
Brouwer as they physically reconstructed complex interactions between UFOs and jet planes
brought the enormity of the transactions to life.
Note: We don't usually use newspapers of smaller cities as a reliable source, but as no other
major media reported on this most powerful documentary on UFOs, we're including this one here.
To watch this astounding documentary free online, click here. For another detailed article on the
program, click here.

Dash for profit in post-war Libya carve-up

2011-08-24, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/dash-for-profit-in-postwar-li...
British businesses are scrambling to return to Libya in anticipation of the end to the country's civil
war, but they are concerned that European and North American rivals are already stealing a march
as a new race to turn a profit out of the war-torn nation begins. Business leaders with previous
experience of making deals in Libya have told The Independent that plans are in hand to send a
trade mission to Benghazi to meet leaders of the Transitional National Council (TNC). After five
months of fighting in the world's 12th-largest oil producer, industry figures are acutely aware that
billions could be made in the coming years from rebuilding Libya. Immediate focus will fall
on the country's oil fields. There is also intense lobbying for the multibillion-pound
reconstruction contracts that are likely to be offered once fighting ends. French and German
officials have already begun trade negotiations with the TNC. In the years preceding February's

revolution, British businesses played a key part in wooing Muammar Gaddafi part of a wider
campaign by Western intelligence agencies to roll back Libya's pariah status in exchange for
investment opportunities. Sir Mark Allen, a veteran Arabist and deputy head of MI6 who led
negotiations with Colonel Gaddafi, was even hired by BP after his retirement to help to secure
drilling rights.
Note: For a powerful summary of the real reason for modern war, profit, by famed US Marine
Corps General Smedley Butler, click here.

Dag Hammarskjld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down

2011-08-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/17/dag-hammarskjold-un-secretary-gen...
New evidence has emerged in one of the most enduring mysteries of United Nations and African
history, suggesting that the plane carrying the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjld was shot
down over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) 50 years ago, and the murder was covered up by
British colonial authorities. A British-run commission of inquiry blamed the crash in 1961 on pilot
error and a later UN investigation largely rubber-stamped its findings. They ignored or downplayed
witness testimony of villagers near the crash site which suggested foul play. The key witnesses
were located and interviewed over the past three years by Gran Bjrkdahl, a Swedish aid worker
based in Africa. The investigation led Bjrkdahl to previously unpublished telegrams ... which
illustrate US and British anger at an abortive UN military operation that the secretary
general ordered on behalf of the Congolese government against a rebellion backed by
western mining companies and mercenaries in the mineral-rich Katanga region.
Hammarskjld was flying to Ndola for peace talks with the Katanga leadership at a meeting that
the British helped arrange. The fiercely independent Swedish diplomat had, by then, enraged
almost all the major powers on the security council with his support for decolonisation, but support
from developing countries meant his re-election as secretary general would have been virtually
guaranteed at the general assembly vote due the following year.
Note: Was Dag Hammarskjld assassinated in a manner similar to that of popular U.S. Senator
Paul Wellstone? For lots more from reliable sources on political assassinations, click here.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich By Warren Buffet

2011-08-15, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to
make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are
investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income
as carried interest, thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures
for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if theyd been long-term

investors. Last year my federal tax bill the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me
and on my behalf was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only
17.4 percent of my taxable income and thats actually a lower percentage than was paid
by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41
percent and averaged 36 percent. If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich
friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your
percentage will surely exceed mine most likely by a lot. My friends and I have been coddled
long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. Its time for our government to get serious about
shared sacrifice.
Note: The author of this article is Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world. Thanks for
the excellent article, Warren.

Being Like Soros in Buying Farm Land Reaps Annual Gains of 16%
2011-08-10, Businessweek/Bloomberg
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LPOB2G0D9L3501-5DC4...
Investors are pouring into farmland in the U.S. and parts of Europe, Latin America and
Africa as global food prices soar. A fund controlled by George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund
manager, owns 23.4 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA. Hedge funds
Ospraie Management LLC and Passport Capital LLC as well as Harvard University's endowment
are also betting on farming. TIAA-CREF, the $466 billion financial services giant, has $2 billion
invested in some 600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) of farmland in Australia, Brazil and North
America and wants to double the size of its investment. The growth in demand for food, spurred by
the rising middle classes in China, India and other emerging markets, shows no signs of abating.
Food prices in June, as measured by a United Nations index of 55 food commodities, were just
slightly below their peak in February. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said in a June
report that it expects food costs to remain high through 2012. So many investors have rushed to
capitalize on food prices in the past three years that they may be creating a farmland
bubble. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which covers Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska
and other agricultural states, said in May that farmland prices had surged 20 percent in the first
quarter compared with a year earlier.
Note: This news is further clear evidence that the rapid increases in food prices is another ploy to
funnel money from the pockets of the public into the uber wealthy.

The great high-speed rail lie

2011-08-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/02/EDTD1KID15.DTL

In 2008, voters approved a $10 billion bond to begin construction of a bullet train from Los Angeles
to San Francisco that would make that trip in less than three hours. So who knew that by 2011 the
general consensus would be that the project is an ill-conceived, mismanaged boondoggle? Former
Amtrak spokesman and Reason Foundation writer Joseph Vranich knew. In 2008, before the state
Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, he called the project "science fiction." He said the
train won't travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours because that
exceeds the speed of all existing high-speed rail. But on French railway schedules, a TGV (Train
Grande Vitesse) takes two hours, 38 minutes to go from Paris to Avignon. That's 430 miles. The
route for the L.A.-to-San Francisco line is 432. So what's going on here? It's simple. Vranich
makes stuff up. The Reason Foundation is funded by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, the
American Petroleum Institute, Delta Airlines, the National Air Transportation Association
and, of course, the Koch Family Foundation. They know what will happen once Americans,
furious about gas prices and the way airlines treat them, experience electrically powered
200-mph trains.
Note: For lots more evidence that progress in the transportation sector is stymied by big money
interests, click here.

Air Force suspends ethics course that used Bible passages to train
missile launch officers
2011-08-02, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/air-force-susp...
The Air Force has suspended a training course for nuclear missile launch officers that used Bible
passages and religious imagery to teach them about the ethics of war. The course had apparently
been taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for more than 20 years, but
officials pulled the plug after an article from the liberal Web site Truthout.org appeared online last
week. The group obtained a PowerPoint presentation used in the course that referenced
religious figures including Abraham, John the Baptist and Saint Augustine. The
presentation also said that there are many examples of believers engaged in wars in the
Old Testament and no pacifistic sentiment in mainstream Jewish history. The reversal
marks a victory for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that provided the
documents to Truthout and that has waged a series of battles, legal and otherwise, to preserve the
separation of church and state in the services. Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the
foundation, said his group was approached late last month by about 30 officers, most of them
Protestant or Roman Catholic, who said they objected to the presentation. He said he saw the
PowerPoint and was astonished by documents that appeared to be using a religious justification
for missile launches.
Note: Why was this important news only reported in a blog and not on the front page of the
newspaper?

Public Displays of Meditation

2011-07-29, Utne Reader Magazine
http://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/public-displays-of-meditation.aspx#axzz2fAO...
It was the om heard round the world. Yesterday in 108 citiesfrom London to Los Angeles, Hong
Kong to Houston, Barcelona to Birmingham, and moreMedMob groups participated in largescale displays of meditation. Playing off of the flash mob concept, in which strangers organize
online, arrange to meet at a specific time and place, and then perform an unexpected public act,
MedMob members delight in presenting meditation in a surprising, inclusive way, says Shambhala
Sun. MedMobs goals: 1. To create an environment for people from all walks of life to come
together in meditation. 2. To expose the world to meditation through public display of
meditation. 3. To come together as a global community to send positive intentions out into
the world. 4. To show that leading by example is the best way to lead. Simple acts can
stimulate major paradigm shifts in thinking. The MedMob movement, which began in Austin early
this year, is for everyone, reports David Telfer McConaghay for elephant journal. Telfer assures us
that passers-by do not need to believe in hippy-dippy feel-goodery to participate in meditation,
whether in a group or alone. The goal is not to attain some state of illusory bliss, then wander
around all day in a disconnected daze with a silly grin, he writes. The goal (if meditation can be
said to have a goal) is to allow the naturally arising chaos and distractions of the mind to settle and
fade so that we can act and make choices with greater intention and clarity.
Note: For more on this inspiring movement, see http://www.medmob.org. For a treasure trove of
great news articles which will inspire you to make a difference, click here.

Murdochs were given secret defence briefings

2011-07-27, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/murdochs-were-given-secret-defe...
The extraordinary access that Cabinet ministers granted Rupert Murdoch and his children was
revealed for the first time yesterday, with more than two dozen private meetings between the
family and senior members of the Government in the 15 months since David Cameron entered
Downing Street. In total, Cabinet ministers have had private meetings with Murdoch
executives more than 60 times and, if social events such as receptions at party conferences
are included, the figure is at least 107. On two occasions, James Murdoch and former News
International chief executive Rebekah Brooks were given confidential defence briefings on
Afghanistan and Britain's strategic defence review by the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox. A
further briefing was held with Ms Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and the Sunday Times editor John
Witherow. The Chancellor, George Osborne, has had 16 separate meetings since May 2010 with
News International editors and executives, including two with the Murdochs within just a month of
taking office. He also invited Elisabeth Murdoch as a guest to his 40th birthday party last month.
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, dined with Rupert Murdoch within days of the Government
coming to power and, after being given quasi-judicial oversight for the Murdochs' 8bn attempted
takeover of BSkyB, had two meetings with James Murdoch in which they discussed the takeover.

Note: For key reports from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click
here and here.

Ethical rules needed to curb 'Frankenstein-like experiments' on animals

2011-07-22, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8652093/Ethical-rules-needed-...
Scientists are in danger of turning animals into monsters unless an ethical watchdog is appointed
to prevent Frankenstein-like experiments, the Academy of Medical Sciences has warned. A new
report into experiments which transplant human cells into animals for medical purposes said
scientists may not be far from giving apes the ability to think and talk like humans.
Concerns about the creation of talking apes should be taken seriously along with "what
one might call the 'Frankenstein fear' that the medical research which creates 'humanised'
animals is going to generate monsters", it was claimed. A regulatory body is needed to closely
monitor any experiments that risk creating animals with human-like consciousness, spawning
hybrid human-animal embryos, or giving animals any appearance or behavioural traits that too
closely resemble humans, the report said. Scientists would, for example, be prevented from
replacing a large number of an ape's brain [cells] with human cells as has already been done in
simpler animals like mice until much more is known about the potential results.
Note: For more on this in another media article, click here.

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

2011-07-18, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named
journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found
dead. Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: "The death is
currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious." There was an
unexplained delay in the arrival of forensics officers at the scene. There was no police presence at
the scene at all for several hours. Hoare was in his mid-40s. He first made his claims in a New
York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. He told the
newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the hacking, but he also actively encouraged his staff
to intercept the calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives. In a subsequent interview with the
BBC he alleged he was personally asked by his editor at the time, Coulson, to tap into phones.
Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at
the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone
signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use
"pinging", which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts
to pinpoint its location.

Note: For lots more from major media sources on corporate and government corruption, click here
and here.

Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard

2011-07-17, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/world/europe/17police.html
For nearly four years they lay piled in a Scotland Yard evidence room, six overstuffed plastic bags
gathering dust and little else. Inside was a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten
notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims
whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World, a now defunct British tabloid
newspaper. Yet from August 2006, when the items were seized, until the autumn of 2010, no one
at the Metropolitan Police Service, commonly referred to as Scotland Yard, bothered to sort
through all the material and catalog every page. During that same time, senior Scotland Yard
officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media
and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid. After the
past week, that assertion has been reduced to tatters, torn apart by a spectacular avalanche
of contradictory evidence. The testimony and evidence that emerged last week, as well as
interviews with current and former officials, indicate that the police agency and News International,
the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdochs News Corporation and the publisher of The News of the
World, became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation.
Members of Parliament said in interviews that they were troubled by a revolving door between
the police and News International.
Note: Media and government corruption could hardly get worse than seen in this case of the
Murdoch phone hacking scandal. Scotland Yard's primary responsibility is to protect the UK public
from criminal activity; instead it enabled the activity to continue and shared high-level information
and personnel with News Corporation. For lots more on media and government corruption click
here and here.

Is the US government at war with whistleblowers?

2011-07-15, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14171312
The Obama administration is facing criticism for prosecutions brought under the US Espionage Act
against government employees accused of leaking sensitive information. Mark Feldstein, professor
of media at the University of Maryland, sees a worrying trend of espionage prosecutions since
President Obama took office. "To everyone's surprise, the Obama administration has
escalated the war against whistleblowers and the attacks on information that journalists
and the public were depending on to get evidence of wrongdoing by powerful institutions
and individuals," Prof Feldstein says. On Friday, Thomas Drake, a former senior official at the
National Security Agency, a highly secretive US spy agency, was sentenced to one year's

probation, after the Department of Justice's case against him collapsed. He had been accused of
passing on information to a journalist about a government computer programme he considered
wasteful. Outside court, Mr Drake said the government's prosecution had been "vindictive and
malicious". According his lawyer Jesselyn Radack, the charge that he passed on secret
information was a ''bald-faced lie''. Critics say the US classification system is often arbitrary, with
documents often stamped ''classified'' when the content is not secret or that sensitive.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on government threats to civil liberties, click here.

CIA defends running vaccine program to find bin Laden

2011-07-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-defends-running-vac...
U.S. officials ... defended a tactic used by the CIA to attempt to verify the whereabouts of Osama
bin Laden the covert creation of a vaccine program in Abbottabad, the town in Pakistan where
he was later killed in a U.S. raid. The vaccine drive was conducted shortly before the raid in early
May ... and was overseen by a Pakistani doctor who traveled to Abbottabad. A senior U.S. official
said the campaign involved actual hepatitis vaccine and should not be construed as a fake
public health effort. The vaccination campaign was part of the hunt for the worlds top
terrorist, and nothing else. The doctor who oversaw the effort has since been arrested by
Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency for cooperating with the CIA. U.S. officials have said
they are seeking to have him released. The senior U.S. official declined to say whether DNA from
bin Ladens relatives was collected as part of the vaccine program. Officials have previously said,
however, that they used DNA analysis to confirm bin Ladens identify after he was killed. In doing
so, they used samples taken from known relatives.
Note: For information about a disturbing Pentagon program using vaccinations to combat religious
fundamentalism, click here.

Study downplaying cellphone risks funded by manufacturers

2011-07-06, Toronto Sun (One of Toronto's two leading newspapers)
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/06/study-downplaying-cellphone-risks-funded...
An international study which debunks research linking cellphones to cancer risks received major
funding from wireless manufacturers. The World Health Organization's International Agency for
Research on Cancer classified [the] radio frequency emitted by wireless devices as possibly
carcinogenic, but a panel of international scientists recently published a study challenging these
findings. But in the study's conflict of interest disclaimer, the panel acknowledged it received
support from the wireless industry to conduct the research. A number of organizations, including
the Mobile Manufacturers' Forum, were cited as sources of funding. Dr. Devra Davis, an American
scientist who runs the non-profit education group [Environmental Health Trust] says the new study
is "misleading" and "wrong." "It is propaganda," said Davis, who also founded the world's first

Center for Environmental Oncology. Davis says cellphone safety is a major public health issue
and governments need to move away from the idea of taking action after there are "enough
sick people or dead bodies." "The fact that we don't have an epidemic right now is of course
what we expect," she said. "It is actually preposterous to imply or they really say that because
don't have any increase now, there's no problem. It's really very sad."
Note: For more on the health threats posed by cell phones, click here.

He won $3.4 million then went back to work as janitor

2011-07-06, MSNBC
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43465344/ns/today-good_news/t/he-won-million-th...
Someone has to turn on the lights in life. Someone has to do the jobs we take for granted. But
youd think Tyrone Curry would kiss his trash sack goodbye. Five years ago, the Evergreen High
School custodian won the Washington State Lotterys Quinto game. I was dumping garbage, he
says. Just like today. This is where I was when I found out I won the jackpot and took off running."
His wife, Michelle had his winning ticket worth ... $3,410,000. To celebrate, Tyrone went
bowling, like hes done every Wednesday night for 25 years. At 4 in the morning, he could be
sleeping instead of raising the American flag outside Evergreen High. But he ducks his head and
smiles. Nah. You need to be doing stuff: Thats my philosophy. Five generations have grown up
around him since he came home from war and started taking care of kids. Budget cuts eliminated
Tyrone's teaching assistant's job 35 years ago, so he stayed on as a janitor. He never went looking
for another classroom because he found a better one and a second job out back. Tyrone isnt
just the Evergreen High School custodian; he also coaches the track team. And thats where
he decided to splurge with his lottery winnings. Im getting excited! he says, watching
runners circling toward him on the schools old cinder track. This summer hes building
them a new one. State-of-the-art. Cost him 40,000 bucks. Im not done, he chuckles.
Note: For a great two-minute video on this inspiring man, click here.

Obama under fire over detention of terror suspect on US navy ship

2011-07-06, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jul/06/obama-detention-terror-suspect-us-n...
The Obama administration approved the secret detention of a Somali terror suspect on board a US
navy ship, where for two months he was subjected to military interrogation in the absence of a
lawyer and without charge. The capture and treatment of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame has
rekindled the debate within the US about the appropriate handling of terror suspects. Civil rights
groups have objected to the secret questioning of Warsame on board a navy vessel, an innovation
that they fear could see a new form of the CIA's widely discredited "black site" detention centres
around the world. The US government is turning to detention at sea as a way of avoiding
legal and political impediments in the treatment of terror suspects, both domestically and

on the international stage. Last week Admiral William McRaven, soon to become head of US
Special Operations Command, told his confirmation hearing that militants captured outside
Afghanistan were often "put on a naval vessel" to be held until they could be sent to a third country
or a case was compiled against them for prosecution in the US courts. Officials told the
Washington Post that Warsame was interrogated on "all but a daily basis" on board the ship. The
right to a lawyer was withheld along with other habeas corpus rights known in the US as Miranda
rights. Civil rights groups have said the secret interrogation was a blatant violation of the
Geneva conventions that prohibit prolonged detention of suspects at sea.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the illegal actions taken by the US government
in its "global war on terror", click here.

Autism triggered by environmental conditions, not just genes, says

studies
2011-07-05, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20076822-10391704.html
What causes autism? Scientists still don't have an answer, but two new studies suggest that
conditions in a mom's womb may trigger the developmental disorder. Heredity is considered a
major factor that triggers autism spectrum disorders, but scientists have long wondered what roles
- if any - environmental factors play. Scientists used California health records to identify 192 pairs
of twins - fraternal or identical - where at least one was affected by autism. Using diagnostic
techniques that included directly observing the children, the scientists found 77 percent of male
identical twins and 50 percent of female identical pairs both had autism. Those findings weren't too
surprising, considering identical twins share the same genes. But what surprised researchers
were the high rates of autism spectrum disorders they found in pairs of fraternal twins: 31
percent rate for males and 36 percent for females. Fraternal twins, from two fertilized eggs,
share no more genetic material than any other siblings. But since they share the same womb,
that could play a role, said Dr. John Constantino, professor of psychiatry at the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who wasn't involved in the new research. Constantino
calls the research a "key finding that puts a spotlight on pregnancy as a time when environmental
factors might exert their effects."
Note: For major media articles presenting evidence of a link between autism and vaccines, click
here.

Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting

2011-06-29, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/06/29/us/politics/politics-us-usa-war.html

When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he
referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America's wars. Staggering as it is, that figure grossly
underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and
ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released on [June 29]. The final
bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the
research project "Costs of War" by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. In
the 10 years since U.S. troops went into Afghanistan ... spending on the conflicts totaled $2.3
trillion to $2.7 trillion. Those numbers will continue to soar when considering often overlooked
costs such as long-term obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012
through 2020. The estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments coming
due. In human terms, 224,000 to 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including
125,000 civilians in Iraq. Many more have died indirectly, from the loss of clean drinking water,
healthcare, and nutrition. An additional 365,000 have been wounded and 7.8 million people -equal to the combined population of Connecticut and Kentucky -- have been displaced. In one
sense, the report measures the cost of 9/11. What followed were three wars in which $50
billion amounts to a rounding error. For every person killed on September 11, another 73
have been killed since.
Note: To watch a video of WantToKnow team member Dr. David Ray Griffin's explanation that the
war in Afghanistan was not justified by the 9/11 attacks, click here. For lots more from reliable
sources on the US/NATO wars of aggression, click here.

NY Fed Won't Say How Much Money Went to Iraq

2011-06-21, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43487056
The New York Fed is refusing to tell investigators how many billions of dollars it shipped to
Iraq during the early days of the US invasion there, the special inspector general for Iraq
reconstruction told CNBC [on June 21]. The Fed's lack of disclosure is making it difficult for
the inspector general to follow the paper trail of billions of dollars that went missing in the
chaotic rush to finance the Iraq occupation, and to determine how much of that money was
stolen. The New York Fed will not reveal details, the inspector general said, because the money
initially came from an account at the Fed that was held on behalf of the people of Iraq and financed
by cash from the Oil-for-Food program. Without authorization from the account holder, the Iraqi
government itself, the inspector general's office was told it can't receive information about the
account. The problem is that critics of the Iraqi government believe highly placed officials there are
among the people who may have made off with the money in the first place. And some think that
will make it highly unlikely the Iraqis will sign off on revealing the total dollar amount. It was one of
the largest shipments of cash in history. And the inspector general says that if the money was
stolen, that would represent the largest heist in history.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

2011-06-21, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43475479/ns/us_news-environment/t/radioactive-tri...
Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often
into groundwater from corroded, buried piping. The number and severity of the leaks has been
escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the
nation. Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65
sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the
AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at
least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water
standard sometimes at hundreds of times the limit. At three sites two in Illinois and one
in Minnesota leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes. At a fourth site, in New
Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay
off the Atlantic Ocean. Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer risk,
according to the National Academy of Sciences. Tritium moves through soil quickly, and when it is
detected it often indicates the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes that are often spilled
at the same time.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and
here.

War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs

2011-06-20, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html
Military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones ... to
the size of insects and birds. The drones in development ... are designed to replicate the flight
mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. Were looking at how you
hide in plain sight, said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a
mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill. An explosion in aerial drones
is transforming the way America fights and thinks about its wars. Predator drones ... are by now a
brand name, known and feared around the world. But far less known is the sheer size, variety and
audaciousness of a rapidly expanding drone universe, along with the dilemmas that come with it.
The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50 a decade ago.
Within the next decade the Air Force anticipates a decrease in manned aircraft but expects its
number of multirole aerial drones like the Reaper the ones that spy as well as strike to
nearly quadruple, to 536. Already the Air Force is training more remote pilots, 350 this year
alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined. Its a growth market, said Ashton B.
Carter, the Pentagons chief weapons buyer. The Pentagon has asked Congress for nearly
$5 billion for drones next year, and by 2030 envisions ever more stuff of science fiction: spy
flies equipped with sensors and microcameras to detect enemies

Note: Ashton B. Carter, CIA director John Deutch, and executive director of the 9/11 Commission
Philip Zelikow co-authored a 1998 article in the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations,
Foreign Affairs, titled "Catastrophic Terrorism". It predicted, years in advance, a massive attack on
the World Trade Center that would result in loss of civil liberties, detention without charge, torture,
and endless wars abroad. The Pentagon's weapons-buying spree, now including billions of dollars
for drones to be used over US soil, and for which Carter is the "chief weapons buyer," would have
been impossible without the 9/11 attacks.

Northwest sees 35% infant mortality spike post-Fukushima

2011-06-17, Q13 FOX-TV (Seattle FOX Network affiliate)
http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-northwest-sees-35-infant-mortality-spike-post...
Physician Janette Sherman, M.D. and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published a report Monday
highlighting a 35% spike in northwest infant mortality after Japan's nuclear meltdown. The report
spotlighted data from the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on infant mortality rates in
eight northwest cities, including Seattle, in the 10 weeks after Fukushima's nuclear meltdown. The
average number of infant deaths for the region moved from an average of 9.25 in the four
weeks before Fukushima' nuclear meltdown, to an average of 12.5 per week in the 10 weeks
after. The change represents a 35% increase in the northwest's infant mortality rates. In
comparison, the average rates for the entire U.S. rose only 2.3%.
Note: For details of this very important analysis of the CDC's data on US infant mortality after the
Fukushima meltdowns, click here and here.

Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic

2011-06-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16cole.html
A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging
personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him. Glenn
L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during
the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked
intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan
professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war. In an interview, Mr. Carle said his
supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted
to get Professor Cole. Since a series of Watergate-era abuses involving spying on White
House political enemies, the C.I.A. and other spy agencies have been prohibited from
collecting intelligence concerning the activities of American citizens inside the United
States. These allegations, if true, raise very troubling questions, said Jeffrey H. Smith, a
former C.I.A. general counsel. The statute makes it very clear: you cant spy on Americans.

Mr. Smith added that a 1981 executive order that prohibits the C.I.A. from spying on Americans
places tight legal restrictions not only on the agencys ability to collect information on United States
citizens, but also on its retention or dissemination of that data.
Note: For important reports from major media sources on a wide array of threats to civil liberties by
out-of-control government agencies and officials, click here.

Bohemian Grove: Where the rich and powerful go to misbehave

2011-06-15, Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/bohemian-grove-where-the-ri...
Every July, some of the richest and most powerful men in the world gather at a 2,700 acre
campground in Monte Rio, Calif., for two weeks of heavy drinking, super-secret talks, druid
worship (the group insists they are simply revering the Redwoods), and other rituals. The people
that gather at Bohemian Grove who have included prominent business leaders, former
U.S. presidents, musicians, and oil barons are told that Weaving Spiders Come Not
Here, meaning business deals are to be left outside. One exception was in 1942, when a
planning for the Manhattan Project took place at the grove, leading to the creation of the
atom bomb. The club is so hush-hush that little can be definitively said about it, but much of what
we know today is from those who have infiltrated the camp, including Texas-based filmmaker Alex
Jones. In 2000, Jones and his cameraman entered the camp with a hidden camera and were able
to film a Bohemian Grove ceremony, Cremation of the Care. During the ceremony, members wear
costumes and cremate a coffin effigy called Care before a 40-foot-owl. The Sonoma County Free
Press, which has published investigative stories on the grove since at least the 1980s, says
activities include plays and comedy shows in which women are portrayed by male actors, and
Lakeside Talks, in which high-ranking officials speak about information not available to the public.
The group calls them public interest talks. Protests take place at the Bohemian Grove nearly ever
year.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on other powerful secret
societies, click here.

Is Gold in Fort Knox Real? Ron Paul Wants to Know

2011-06-14, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43391588
Are the gold bars in Fort Knox really made of the precious metal? Or has the U.S. government
secretly sold off the nation's stockpile and replaced it with metal bars that are only painted gold?
Ron Paul wants to find out. Giving legitimacy to an Internet conspiracy theory that the gold in
Fort Knox is fake, the iconoclast Republican congressman from Texas has asked
adminstration officials to audit the purity of the nation's 700,000 gold bars held in Fort
Knox, according to an internal Treasury document obtained by CNBC. Paul, ... who chairs the

House's subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, had previously called for the U.S. gold
reserve to be counted and for a return to the gold standard. He now appears to be going a step
further. One conspiracy theory says that no one has actually seen the gold since the 1930s. But in
a letter to Paul in September, the Treasury Inspector General said he had "personally observed the
gold reserves located in each of the deep storage compartments." CNBC asked for a tour of Fort
Knox to film the gold. An official at the Mint told us that not he was not aware that any member of
Congress had toured the facility since [1974]. Fort Knox is "a closed facility," the official said. And
so the conspiracy theory continues...
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government secrecy, click here.

Panera Bread CEO Says Pay What You Can

2011-06-14, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/14/idUS130887262020110614
One in six Americans live in "food insecure" homes. This means one in six Americans is seriously
hungry, likely under-nourished or malnourished and doesn't know when he/she will have their next
meal. When Panera Bread Founder and CEO Ronald Shaich learned this, he thought about how
Panera Bread opens two restaurants every week, employs 60,000 people, and he knew Panera's
resources could have impact on America's hunger problem. He personally set out to help, pitched
his board (with a lot of respect and credibility under his belt), created a foundation and the result is
a new kind of chain restaurant: pay-what-you-can Paneras. Panera Cares shops look like any
other Panera Bread, but the prices are just suggestions. If you can pay, you do. If you can't, you
don't. If you can pay more, you're welcome. More than one year into the program, Panera Cares
has restaurants in St. Louis, Detroit and Portland, and the shops will serve between 500,000 to 1
million meals this year. Each restaurant must generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining,
and so far, all of them are. One out of five customers leaves more than the suggested
donation; three in five leave the suggested donation; and one in five customers leaves less
or nothing, usually because they have real need. "People get it, people feel it and people
appreciate it," said Shaich.
Note: It is interesting that no major media reported this inspiring Reuters article. Could it be that
they don't welcome a new paradigm like this?

Rescind President Obama's 'Transparency Award' now

2011-06-14, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/14/rescind-barack...
On 28 March 2011, President Obama was given a "transparency award" from five "open
government" organisations: OMB Watch, the National Security Archive, the Project on Government
Oversight, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and OpenTheGovernment.org.
Ironically and quite likely in response to growing public criticism regarding the Obama

administration's lack of transparency heads of the five organisations gave their award to
Obama in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House. If the ceremony had been open
to the press, it is likely that reporters would have questioned the organisations' proffered
justification for the award, in contrast to the current reality: Ignoring his campaign promise to
protect government whistleblowers, Obama's presidency has amassed the worst record in US
history for persecuting, prosecuting and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
President Obama has initiated a secret assassination programme, has publicly announced that he
has given himself the power to include Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has
attempted to assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Awlaki. President Obama has maintained the
power to secretly kidnap, imprison, rendition, or torture, and he has formalised the power to
lawlessly imprison in an executive order.
Note: For key reports on the lawless war on terrorism carried out by the US government, click
here.

Activists cry foul over FBI probe

2011-06-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011...
FBI agents took box after box of address books, family calendars, artwork and personal letters in
their 10-hour raid in September of the ... house shared by Stephanie Weiner and her husband. The
agents seemed keenly interested in Weiners home-based business, the Revolutionary Lemonade
Stand, which sells silkscreened baby outfits and other clothes with socialist slogans, phrases like
Help Wanted: Revolutionaries. The search was part of a mysterious, ongoing nationwide
terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor
organizers. Investigators, according to search warrants, documents and interviews, are examining
possible material support for Colombian and Palestinian groups designated by the U.S.
government as terrorists. The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign
policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the
government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their
political views. The activists have formed the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, organized
phone banks to flood Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.s office and the White House with protest
calls, solicited letters from labor unions and faith-based groups and sent delegations to Capitol Hill
to gin up support from lawmakers.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government attacks on civil liberties, click here.

Swiss, US in Talks on Tax Probe Settlement

2011-06-10, CNBC/Reuters News
http://classic.cnbc.com/id/43350415

The United States and Switzerland are in advanced talks on a multibillion-dollar deal that would let
several Swiss and European banks join a common settlement and avoid potential U.S. prosecution
for helping wealthy Americans dodge taxes. As part of the agreement under discussion, known as
a global resolution, U.S. government agencies would invite the banks to pay a fine, exit their
undeclared offshore banking businesses for Americans, and turn over client names to the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department. In exchange, the agencies
would drop an ongoing investigation into the banks. It could not immediately be determined
which banks could be invited to participate in the global resolution. The fines involved could
collectively total several billion dollars, they said. Banks that "opt out" of the deal could face
heightened scrutiny from U.S. authorities, including a possible legal summons for client names
from the IRS and tougher scrutiny by the Justice Department. A resolution would signal another
strong blow to the Swiss tradition of client confidentiality, whose laws date to 1934 but whose
tradition goes back centuries.
Note: For lots more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Kelly campaigners to fight on as Government rules out inquest

2011-06-10, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kelly-campaigners-to-fight-on-a...
[Attorney-General Dominic Grieve's] refusal yesterday to request an inquest into the death of Dr
David Kelly was furiously condemned by campaigners, who are now planning [to] seek a judicial
review of Mr Grieve's decision. Dr Stephen Frost, who has led a group of campaigning
doctors, said the decision was "deeply flawed" with "no basis in law". Calling the
continuing "cover-up of the truth" a "national disgrace", he said they were "perplexed and
outraged" and called for Mr Grieve to resign. Dr Kelly's body was found in woods near his
Oxfordshire home in 2003, shortly after he had been revealed as the source of a BBC report
claiming a government dossier [on evidence for Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction"] had been
sexed up. The respected weapons inspector died aged 59, two days after he had faced MPs'
questioning. The campaigning doctors ... pointed out the [Hutton] inquiry spent only half a day of
its 24 days considering the cause of Dr Kelly's death and insisted no "coroner in the land would
have reached a suicide verdict on the evidence". Yesterday Dr Frost added: "This Government
has now revealed itself to be complicit in a determined and concerted cover-up."
Note: For much more on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here.

Love thy neighbor: Son's killer moves next door

2011-06-08, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/love-thy-neighbor-sons-killer-moves-next-door/

In February 1993, Mary's son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot to death. He was 20, and Mary's only
child. The killer was a 16-year-old kid named Oshea Israel. Mary wanted justice. "He was an
animal. He deserved to be caged." And he was. Tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 and a half
years -- Oshea served 17 before being recently released. He now lives back in the old
neighborhood - next door to Mary. How a convicted murder ended-up living a door jamb away from
his victim's mother is a story, not of horrible misfortune, as you might expect - but of remarkable
mercy. A few years ago Mary asked if she could meet Oshea at Minnesota's Stillwater state prison.
As a devout Christian, she felt compelled to see if there was some way, if somehow, she could
forgive her son's killer. Oshea says they met regularly after that. When he got out, she introduced
him to her landlord - who with Mary's blessing, invited Oshea to move into the building. Today they
don't just live close - they are close. Mary was able to forgive. "Unforgiveness is like cancer,"
Mary says. "It will eat you from the inside out. It's not about that other person, me forgiving
him does not diminish what he's done. Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for
me. It's for me." For Oshea, it hasn't been that easy. "I haven't totally forgiven myself yet, I'm
learning to forgive myself." To that end, Oshea is now ... singing the praises of God and
forgiveness at prisons, churches - to large audiences everywhere.
Note: Watch a beautiful, moving video by the founder of StoryCorps, which led to this story.

Make companies' political spending transparent

2011-06-05, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/03/INB11JNOSC.DTL
Lockheed Martin, the nation's largest contractor ... has received more than $19 billion in federal
contracts so far this year. Lockheed has already spent more than $3 million lobbying Congress this
year. Lockheed supports a platoon of Washington lawyers and lobbyists dedicated to getting more
federal contracts. Sixty-four of Lockheed's lobbyists are former congressional staffers, Pentagon
officials and White House aides. Two are former members of Congress. As such, they used to be
on the public payroll, representing us. Lockheed also has been spending more than $3 million a
year on political contributions to friendly members of Congress. Lockheed is hardly alone in using
taxpayer money to get fatter contracts from taxpayers. All of the 10 biggest government
contractors are defense contractors. Every one of them gets most of its revenue from the federal
government. And every one uses a portion of that money to lobby for even more defense
contracts. Next year's expected drawdown of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq is supposed
to save money. But Lockheed and other giant defense contractors have made sure all
anticipated savings will go to new weapons systems. Lockheed recently delivered a budget
bombshell with a proposed tab of more than $1 trillion for a fleet of F-35 joint-strike fighter
jets.
Note: $1 trillion for a fighter jet fleet means that each American will pay over $3,000 for this fleet.
The author of this op-ed, Robert Reich, is former U.S. secretary of labor, professor of public policy
at UC Berkeley and the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future. He blogs
at www.robertreich.org.

Sex and politics - part of our heritage

2011-05-31, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/29/EDB11JM5BO.DTL
Sexual secrets and drive do turn the tide of our public life. Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or
porn impresario Larry Flynt, author of a new book, One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives
of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History. This publicprivate collision turns up as sexual speed traps in the waylaid careers of Schwarzenegger, Newt
Gingrich, John Edwards and fully half of the presidents in our history, according to Flynt's book,
which he co-wrote with Columbia history Professor David Eisenbach. Lying, blackmail and
hypocrisy about secret carnality just add spice to the stew of a particularly American phenomenon
described in Flynt's book. One common trait among the powerful and errant, Flynt [commented],
"was a huge ego." The book presents us as an often prudish culture where mistresses,
illegitimate children and homosexuality in Washington not only dominate the landscape but
hijack it at key moments in our history. "I'm the first person to defend a philandering president"
who's doing a good job for the public, Flynt says. He'd just like people to know a lot more about
sex themselves and care a lot less about how other people practice it. In 2003, Flynt briefly ran for
California governor as "the smut peddler who cares." If he had been elected, at least we would
have known what we were getting.
Note: If you are ready to see just how ugly it gets when sexual slavery reaches to the highest
levels of government, watch the revealing Discovery Channel documentary "Conspiracy of
Silence" at this link.

Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis

2011-05-31, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13598607
A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the
Fukushima power station. The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of
retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60. They say they should be facing
the dangers of radiation, not the young. It was while watching the television news that Yasuteru
Yamada decided it was time for his generation to stand up. No longer could he be just an observer
of the struggle to stabilise the Fukushima nuclear plant. The retired engineer is reporting back for
duty at the age of 72, and he is organising a team of pensioners to go with him. For weeks now Mr
Yamada has been getting back in touch with old friends, sending out e-mails and even messages
on Twitter. Volunteering to take the place of younger workers at the power station is not
brave, Mr Yamada says, but logical. "I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years
left to live," he says. "Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years
or longer to develop. Therefore us older ones have less chance of getting cancer." Mr
Yamada is lobbying the government hard for his volunteers to be allowed into the power station.
The government has expressed gratitude for the offer but is cautious.

Vermont governor signs single-payer health law

2011-05-26, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20066495-503544.html
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin ... signed into law a bill establishing a single-payer health care plan
for the state, making Vermont the first state to do so. Shumlin lauded the legislation as an
"economic and fiscal imperative" -- as well as a moral one. "This law recognizes an economic and
fiscal imperative - that we must control the growth in health care costs that are putting families at
economic risk and making it harder for small employers to do business," he said. "We have a
moral imperative to fix this problem, with 47,000 Vermonters uninsured and another 150,000
underinsured and worried about how to afford keeping their families healthy." Vermont lawmakers
passed the legislation in March by a 92-49 margin. At the time of its passage, Shumlin lauded
the legislature for becoming "the first state in the country to make the first substantive step
to deliver a health care system where health care will be a right and not a privilege." The
legislation, when fully enacted, will guarantee every Vermont resident the right to enroll in a statesponsored insurance plan, Green Mountain Care. The law is set to become operational in 2014.
Note: The huge medical and pharmaceutical industries in the U.S. have a vested interest in
keeping health care private in order to maintain their massive profits. This may be why the
important news above was hardly reported in the media. The rest of the industrialized world
already knows that it is much cheaper for government to provide medical care than for the private
sector. Yet the media, a major source of whose income comes from advertising by these
industries, is quite biased against providing health care for all, unless it is done through a profitable
private system.

Political prisoner: 'I owe Amnesty International my life'

2011-05-26, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13543433
For Maria Gillespie, the memories of what she endured in a prison in Uruguay, when she was only
15 years old, are almost too much to bear. She remembers being hooded, interrogated and
tortured. Eventually every tooth was wrenched out of her mouth. But she also remembers - as
Amnesty International marks its 50th anniversary - how much she owes to the organisation that
helped end the horror and set her free. "I don't think that if I say 'thank you' it will be enough,"
Mrs Gillespie says of the Amnesty activists around the world who campaigned on her
behalf. "I think that I do owe them my life." Amnesty was founded 12 years before she was
jailed. It called for collective action on behalf of those unjustly imprisoned around the world. Maria
Gillespie fell into that category after the military seized power in Uruguay in 1973, ushering in a
period of severe repression. She was ... married to a trade union activist who was wanted by the
authorities, and had fled the country. In his absence ... Maria was arrested. She was accused of
aiding the regime's enemies, and sentenced to 75 years in prison. And so she began her solitary

confinement in a windowless cell lit only by an electric bulb. She was repeatedly taken - with her
head in a hood - for questioning about her husband's associates. But she knew nothing of his
activities. She had no answers for her interrogators.
Note: The brutal repression of political activity in Uruguay described in this article was supervised
by the CIA in its Operation Condor, a campaign of torture and killing across Latin America.

U.S. Faulted on Failing to Catch Credit-Crunch Bandits'

2011-05-23, Bloomberg/Businessweek
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LKQQ2B0D9L3501-7O8F...
In November 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder vowed before television cameras to prosecute
those responsible for the market collapse a year earlier, saying the U.S. would be relentless in
pursuing corporate criminals. In the 18 months since, no senior Wall Street executive has been
criminally charged. Prosecutions of three categories of crime that could be linked to the
causes of the crisis -- corporate, securities and bank fraud -- declined last fiscal year by 39
percent from 2003, the period after the accounting scandals at Enron Corp. and WorldCom
Inc., Justice Department records show. You need a massive prosecutorial effort, said Solomon
Wisenberg, a white-collar defense attorney at Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Washington and a
former federal prosecutor. I don't see evidence that it's happening." The seizing up of credit
markets led to the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and sparked the
worst economic slump in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Much of the blame belongs to
banks that profited from selling products that imploded with the housing market.
Note: For undeniable evidence of fraud at the highest levels of Wall Street, click here.

Obama seeks congressional support for Libya mission

2011-05-21, CNN News
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/20/war.powers/index.html
On deadline day [May 20], President Barack Obama ... sent a letter to Congress expressing
support for a bipartisan resolution favoring military operations in Libya. At issue: The 1973 War
Powers Act, which says if the president does not get congressional authorization 60 days after
military action, the mission must stop within 30 days. The president formally notified Congress
about the mission in Libya with a letter on March 21. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, told CNN
before news of the letter broke that he believed Obama was trying to "bring democracy to Libya
while shredding the Constitution of the United States. He cannot continue what he is doing in Libya
without congressional authorization." To be sure, presidents in both parties often ignored another
part of the War Powers Act -- that the commander-in-chief should get congressional approval
before any military action. But it is virtually unprecedented for a president to continue a

mission beyond 60 days without a resolution from Congress. "Make no mistake: Obama is
breaking new ground, moving decisively beyond his predecessors," Yale law professors
Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway wrote this week in the Washington Post.
Note: For ideas on why Obama has shifted to become as much of a war-monger as his
predecessors, see what a top general has to say at this link.

Louis Theroux goes to the Miami mega-jail

2011-05-19, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13457576
For a bespectacled, peace-loving Englishman, there can be few places less congenial than a berth
on the sixth floor of Miami main jail. The place has to be seen to be believed. Up to 24 inmates are
crowded into a single cell, living behind metal bars on steel bunks, sharing a single shower and
two toilets. Little of the bright Miami sun filters through the grilles on the windows. Visits to the yard
happen twice a week for an hour. The rest of the time, inmates are holed up round the clock,
eating, sleeping, and going slightly crazy. But what is most shocking is the behaviour of the
inmates themselves. For reasons that remain to some extent opaque ... the incarcerated
here have created a brutal gladiatorial code of fighting. They fight for respect, for food and
snacks, or simply to pass the time. With around 7,000 inmates, the Miami jail system is one of
the biggest in America - a so-called "mega-jail". In America, jails are distinct from prisons in that
they hold people who are pre-trial and therefore unconvicted. But the hardened few hundred who
are either charged with particularly serious offences or have a track record of misbehaving behind
bars get sent to the fifth and sixth floors of the main jail - a place with its own myth and lore.
Note: If you want to understand that tragedy of some U.S. jails and why they tend to harden
criminals much more than reform them, read the full article.

Prostitute-filled sex party was reward for German insurance salesmen

2011-05-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/19/sex-party-reward-german-salesmen
A German insurance firm has admitted rewarding its 100 best salesmen with a prostitute-filled "sex
party" in Budapest's most famous thermal baths. Hamburg-Mannheimer International (HMI), now
part of the huge Munich Re insurance conglomerate, rented out the historic Gellert Baths in the
Hungarian capital and turned it into an "open-air brothel", where it let staff run riot. At least 20
prostitutes were hired by HMI top brass for the so-called "incentive trip". According to
those present, the women were colour-coded to indicate which men were allowed to have
sex with them. Those wearing white ribbons were reserved for "the very best salespeople
and executives", said one HMI employee. After an investigation printed in the German
newspaper Handelsblatt, Munich Re has admitted that the party ... did occur. [A] guest said that

beds had been set up around the baths where the salesmen could "do what they wanted". The
women, he claimed, were then given an ink stamp on their forearms to show how popular they had
been: some of the women ended up with more than a dozen stamps, it is alleged.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from reliable sources, click here.

Why Haven't Wall Streeters Gone to Jail?

2011-05-19, Time Magazine blog
http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/05/19/ny-ag-investigation-why-ha...
The New York Attorney General's office has been requesting information from Bank of America,
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on how they created and structured mortgage bonds at the
height of the credit boom. That investigation has reignited questions about why, nearly three years
after the financial crisis, no Wall Streeter has yet to face criminal charges directly related to the
mortgage bonds and other toxic deals that lead to the financial crisis. No one really knows the
answer, but there are a number of theories out there. Here are the best ones: Theory No. 1:
Prosecutors have been told to back off. In mid-April, the New York Times did a large investigative
piece that found a number of instances where prosecutors were told not to pursue Wall Street.
Theory No. 2: Wall Street is innocent. It may seem like the most bizarre answer, but it is getting
some traction. No one is really saying that Wall Street didn't do anything wrong. It's clear that
setting up risky mortgage bonds to sell to investors and then betting against them yourself is
wrong. But is it illegal? It's not quite clear. Theory No. 3: The cases are still in the works. There
seems to be some evidence that prosecutors are starting to be more aggressive in pursuing cases.
It's not clear what part of the mortgage process, or what potential wrong doing, the NY AG
Eric Schneiderman is investigating. The truth is that Wall Streeters rarely go to jail. Yes,
other bubbles and financial crises have resulted in numerous convictions, but generally not
of Wall Streeters.
Note: Remember that Elliot Spitzer probably got taken down for going after Wall Street. Now his
successor, Eric Schneiderman, is doing the same thing. For an excellent article on this brave man,
click here.

Tokyo Electric: reviewing records of how nuclear crisis unfolded

2011-05-16, Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/us-japan-nuclear-idUSTRE74F18020110516
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said it is studying whether the
facility's reactors were damaged in the March 11 earthquake even before the massive tsunami that
followed cut off power and sent the reactors into crisis. Kyodo news agency quoted an unnamed
source at the utility on Sunday as saying that the No. 1 reactor might have suffered structural
damage in the earthquake that caused a release of radiation separate from the tsunami. Tepco has
provided a new analysis of the early hours of the Fukushima crisis. The utility said on Sunday that

a review of data from March 11 suggested that the fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor were
completely exposed to the air and rapidly heating five hours after the quake. By the next
morning - just 16 hours later - the uranium fuel rods in the first reactor had melted down
and dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel. The No. 2 and No. 3 reactors are
expected to have gone through a similar process and like No. 1 are leaking most of the water
being pumped in a bid to keep their cores cool. A massive pond of radioactive water has collected
in the basement of the No. 1 reactor. Experts fear that the contaminated water leaking from the
plant could threaten groundwater and the Pacific.
Note: For lots more on corporate and government corruption from major media sources, click here
and here.

Big Oil's money gusher

2011-05-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/13/INLT1JE8EA.DTL
ExxonMobil's first-quarter earnings of $10.7 billion are up 69 percent from last year. Other oil
companies are also scoring record gains. The five biggest oil companies together report more than
$35 billion in profits. An ExxonMobil vice president asks that we look past the "inevitable
headlines" and remember the company's investments in renewable energy. What investments,
exactly? Last time I looked, ExxonMobil was devoting a smaller percentage of its earnings
to renewables than most other oil companies, including the errant BP. In point of fact, no oil
company is investing much in renewables - precisely because they've got such a money
gusher going from oil. Republicans are defending oil's tax subsidy. They're responding to soaring
gas prices by trying to open more of our oceans to oil drilling. House Republicans recently passed
a bill to accelerate oil lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia. They're
readying measures to open vast new areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans to oil
exploration. The oil companies now are gushing profits as Americans pay more and more at the
pump. This makes no sense. The gusher should be used to shift America away from our costly
dependence on oil.
Note: The author of this opinion, Robert Reich, is former U.S. secretary of labor, professor of
public policy at UC Berkeley and the author of the new book Aftershock: The Next Economy and
America's Future. He blogs at www.robertreich.org.

Unlawful Killings charges about Princess Dianas death cause stir at

Cannes
2011-05-13, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/unlawful-killings-charges-about...

Unlawful Killing, a documentary about the death of Princess Diana that began to stir up
controversy even before it got [to the Cannes Film Festival, was] directed by Keith Allen [and]
earned global [comment] for including a graphic image of the aftermath of the car accident that
took Dianas life in 1997, the details of which have historically been distorted in the interest of
taste. The photo does appear in Unlawful Killing, but only for a moment, and within the legitimate
context of Allens claim that Diana received tardy and inadequate care immediately after the wreck
and that a more timely response would have saved her life. Unlawful Killing, which is part of the
Cannes Marche du Film, or Film Market, and played here ... to a packed house of buyers and
critics, will surely raise hackles for the additional ... accusations Allen levels in the film. These
include allegations ... that Diana was murdered, most likely by a cabal involving the royal
family, the political establishment and the secret services; that she was killed because she
was threatening the British arms industry with her work against land mines; and that the
inquest into the death ... was little more than a coverup in which the media were ...
complicit.
Note: For more on Princess Diana's mysterious death, click here.

The Unwisdom of Elites

2011-05-09, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/opinion/09krugman.html
The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has
mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europes single
currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong? The fact is that what were
experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess ... were, with
few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people in many cases, the
same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the
blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own
catastrophic mistakes. What happened to the budget surplus the federal government had in 2000?
First, there were the Bush tax cuts, which added roughly $2 trillion to the national debt over the last
decade. Second, there were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which added an additional $1.1
trillion or so. And third was the Great Recession, which led both to a collapse in revenue and to a
sharp rise in spending on unemployment insurance and other safety-net programs. So who was
responsible for these budget busters? It wasnt the man in the street. We need to place the
blame where it belongs, to chasten our policy elites. Otherwise, theyll do even more
damage in the years ahead.
Note: For highly revealing major articles exposing secret gatherings of the global elite and their
activities, click here.

Osama bin Laden dead: Blackout during raid on bin Laden compound
2011-05-04, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8493391/Osama-bin-Laden-de...
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the
live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off. A
photograph released by the White House appeared to show President Barack Obama and
his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded. In fact they had little
knowledge of what was happening in the compound. In an interview with PBS, Mr Panetta
said: "Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of
almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. We had some
observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual
conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound." The President only
knew the mission was successful after the Navy Seals commander heard the word Geronimo on
the radio, a code word from commandos reporting that they had killed bin Laden. The absence of
footage of the raid has led to conflicting reports about what happened in the compound.
Note: The White House photo was fake and the original news was quite distorted. Hmmmm. Who
do we trust here? WantToKnow team member David Ray Griffin's book establishing the likelihood
that Osama bin Laden died in December 2001, Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?, is available
here. For a brief summary of reliable information from major media sources raising serious
questions about what happened on 9/11, click here.

Cheerleader who wouldn't root for assailant loses

2011-05-03, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/02/MNSI1JAT0E.DTL
A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the
name of a basketball player - the same athlete she said had raped her four months earlier lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal [on May 2]. A federal appeals court ruled in September that
the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when
called on to cheer the athlete by name. The Supreme Court denied review of the case. The girl,
identified by her initials H.S., was 16 when she said she was raped at a party in her southeast
Texas hometown of Silsbee in October 2008. She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton,
[who] ultimately pleaded guilty in September 2010 to a misdemeanor assault charge. At a
February 2009 basketball game in Huntsville, Texas, H.S. joined in leading cheers for the Silsbee
team, which included Bolton. But when Bolton went to the foul line to shoot a free throw, H.S.
folded her arms and was silent. H.S. said the district superintendent, his assistant and the school
principal told her she had to cheer for Bolton or go home. She refused and was dismissed from the
squad. H.S., joined by her parents, sued school officials and the district. They claimed the school
had punished her for exercising her right of free expression. Federal courts have also ordered
H.S. and her parents to reimburse the district more than $45,000 for the costs of defending
against a frivolous suit.

GM soy: The invisible ingredient 'poisoning' children

2011-05-02, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8391748/GM-soy-The-invisible-ingre...
Investigations have found that every single supermarket in Britain stocks meat and dairy from
animals fed GM [Genetically Modified] soy. Leading brands including Cadbury, Unilever and
Dairycrest, also use products from livestock fed GM. In fact the new technology is so widespread
that it is likely at least one item of food you eat today will have come from an animal fed GM soy,
whether it was the milk on your cereal or the bacon in your sandwich. But what effect is our
growing reliance on soy having on the countries supplying Britain with this invisible ingredient?
Paraguay ... in many ways [is] the perfect place to grow unsustainable soy. Ruled by despotic
dictators for centuries, the country is famous for being a hot bed of drug smugglers [and] Nazi war
criminals. Even now, with a new democratically government in place, corruption is rife and
regulations to protect the people are lax to say the least. In the last year the amount of land
planted with soy has grown to a record 2.6 million hectares, most of which is GM, leading to
claims of deforestation, violent land disputes and the poisoning of local communities.
Already it is estimated that 90 per cent of the Atlantic Rainforest in Paraguay has been lost to
make way for crops, taking with it thousands of unique plants species, hundreds of rare birds and
endangered animals like the jaguar. Its not just animals that suffer. Groups of Guarani people claim
they have been driven from their land by the soy farmers. Campesinos, the small farmers who
have traditionally worked the land, also claim they have been displaced.
Note: Many are not aware that much of the food they eat, especially soy and corn, comes from
geneticaly modified crops which have been shown to pose a major risk to health. For more, click
here and here.

Convicted RFK assassin says girl manipulated him

2011-04-28, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/28/national/main20058498.shtml
Convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan was manipulated by a seductive girl in a mind control plot to
shoot Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his bullets did not kill the presidential candidate, lawyers for
Sirhan said in new legal papers. The documents filed this week in federal court detail extensive
interviews with Sirhan during the past three years, some done while he was under hypnosis. The
papers point to a mysterious girl in a polka-dot dress as the controller who led Sirhan to
fire a gun in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel. But the documents suggest a second
person shot and killed Kennedy while using Sirhan as a diversion. For the first time, Sirhan
said under hypnosis that on a cue from the girl he went into "range mode" believing he was at a
firing range and seeing circles with targets in front of his eyes. "I thought that I was at the range
more than I was actually shooting at any person, let alone Bobby Kennedy," Sirhan was quoted as
saying during interviews with Daniel Brown, a Harvard University professor and expert in trauma
memory and hypnosis. He interviewed Sirhan for 60 hours with and without hypnosis, according to

the legal brief. The story of the girl has been a lingering theme in accounts of the events just after
midnight on June 5, 1968, when Kennedy was gunned down in the hotel pantry after claiming
victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.
Note: For many key reports from major media sources on political assassinations in the US, click
here.

Wikileaks: Many at Guantanamo 'not dangerous'

2011-04-25, BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13184845
Files obtained by the website Wikileaks have revealed that the US believed many of those held at
Guantanamo Bay were innocent or only low-level operatives. The files, published in US and
European newspapers, are assessments of all 780 people ever held at the facility. They show that
about 220 were classed as dangerous terrorists, but 150 were innocent Afghans and Pakistanis.
The Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs) ... give little information on the allegations of harsh
treatment and interrogation techniques at the camp. But the files show that US military analysts
considered only 220 of those ever detained at Guantanamo to be dangerous extremists. Another
380 detainees were deemed to be low-ranking guerrillas. At least 150 people were revealed to be
innocent Afghans or Pakistanis - including drivers, farmers and chefs - rounded up during
intelligence gathering operations in the aftermath of 9/11. The detainees were then held for
years owing to mistaken identity or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong
time, the memos say. In many cases, US commanders concluded there was "no reason
recorded for transfer".
Note: For key reports from reliable sources on the prison at Guantanamo and other black sites
where torture and false allegations are the norm, click here.

Yukoner tackles 9/11 Korean Air 'hijackings' mystery

2011-04-25, MSN Canada/CBC
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/yukoner-tackles-9-11-korean-air-hijackings...
When Max Fraser started collecting footage and stories about how Sept. 11, 2001, played out in
the Yukon capital of Whitehorse, he set out to make a point-of-view documentary about the
terrifying spectre of 2 supposedly hijacked jumbo jets landing in or on Whitehorse. What
Fraser ended up with is the mysterious tale of how Korean Air Flight 085, bound for New York City,
came to land at the then-Whitehorse International Airport at 11:54 a.m. that day, instead of
descending at one of the many better-equipped Alaskan runways it passed on its way. And even
more mysterious is why 2 Korean planes were transmitting a hijack "squawk" (a satellite code that
can be discreetly set by a pilot to alert authorities on the ground of a hostile takeover), even though
all was well on board the flights. In response, American and Canadian fighter jets were deployed to
accompany those planes to the Whitehorse airport. That inspired the local filmmaker to make the

45-minute documentary titled "Never Happen Here the Whitehorse 9/11 Story." It premiered [on
April 24] at the Dawson City Short Film Festival. "Nowhere else in the world on 9/11 was a
community under an evacuation order and nowhere else were emergency authorities told to
prepare for a mass casualty incident involving a hijacked airliner," Fraser said. "What we
experienced, what we went through, is a story that should be told the world over."
Note: For many unanswered questions about the unexplained happenings on 9/11 raised by highly
respected professionals and officials, click here and here.

If Money Doesnt Make You Happy, Consider Time

2011-04-19, Stanford Graduate School of Business
http://www.stanford.edu/group/knowledgebase/cgi-bin/2011/04/19/if-money-doesn...
Our search to understand what makes humans happy (or happier) goes back centuries. New
research takes a fresh look at this topic. Jennifer Aaker and Melanie Rudd at Stanford University,
and Cassie Mogilner at the University of Pennsylvania, published If Money Doesnt Make You
Happy, Consider Time, in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011. They discuss how
happiness is ... a consequence of the choices people make. So what can people do to increase
their happiness? Their answer is surprisingly simple: spend your time wisely. People often make
career choices based on how much money they envision they can make now or in the future.
Surprisingly little thought goes into how they will be using their time whether they can control
their time, who they will spend their time with, and what activities they will spend their time on,
said Aaker. Over the years, there has been relatively little research on the relationship
between the resource of time and happiness. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is another
resource money that has been investigated much more thoroughly as a potential key
to happiness. Yet, very little research corroborates the idea that more money leads to more
happiness. We know that people with meaningful social connections are happier than those
without them, said Mogilner. The more time that individuals spend with their partners, best
friends, and close friends, the happier they are.

The Terminators: drone strikes prompt MoD to ponder ethics of killer

robots
2011-04-17, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/17/terminators-drone-strikes-mod-ethics
The growing use of unmanned aircraft in combat situations raises huge moral and legal issues,
and threatens to make war more likely as armed robots take over from human beings, according to
an internal study by the Ministry of Defence. The report warns of the dangers of an "incremental
and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality", referring to James Cameron's 1984
movie, in which humans are hunted by robotic killing machines. "It is essential that before
unmanned systems become ubiquitous (if it is not already too late) we ensure that ... we
do not risk losing our controlling humanity and make war more likely," warns the report, titled

The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems. MoD officials have never before grappled so
frankly with the ethics of the use of drones. The report was ordered by Britain's defence chiefs,
and coincides with continuing controversy about drones' use in Afghanistan, and growing Pakistani
anger at CIA drone attacks against suspected insurgents on the Afghan borders. It states that "the
recent extensive use of unmanned aircraft over Pakistan and Yemen may already herald a new
era". Referring to descriptions of "killer drones" in Afghanistan, it notes that "feelings are likely to
run high as armed systems acquire more autonomy".
Note: For an analysis of the expansion of the sphere of killing by drones to the new Libyan theater
of operations in the "endless war" triggered by the false-flag of 9/11, click here.

Super-rich have seen their tax liability tumble

2011-04-17, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42633769/ns/business-your_retirement
As millions of procrastinators scramble to meet [the] tax filing deadline, ponder this: The super rich
pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago, and nearly half of U.S. households pay
no income taxes at all. The [IRS] tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross
incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data,
was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26
percent in 1992. The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so
much pay so little in taxes? There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households
will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a
Washington think tank. In all, the tax code is filled with a total of $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions
and exemptions, an average of about $8,000 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the
National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent watchdog within the IRS.
Note: For other revealing media articles showing how the rich keep getting richer, usually at the
expense of the rest of us, click here.

Japanese officials defend delay in revealing severity of radiation

2011-04-12, Seattle Times/New York Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014756803_quake13.html
Japanese officials have been forced to explain why it took them a month to disclose large-scale
releases of radioactive material in mid-March at a crippled nuclear-power plant. The government
announced [on April 12] that it had raised its rating of the severity of the accident at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear complex to 7, the worst on an international scale, from 5. Japan's new assessment
was based largely on computer models showing heavy emissions of radioactive iodine and cesium
March 14-16, soon after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami rendered the plant's emergency
cooling system inoperative. The nearly monthlong delay in acknowledging the extent of these
emissions is a fresh example of confused data and analysis from the Japanese and put authorities

on the defensive about whether they have delayed or blocked the release of information to avoid
alarming the public. Seiji Shiroya, a commissioner of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission, an
independent panel that oversees the country's nuclear industry, ... suggested a public-policy
reason for having kept quiet. "Some foreigners fled the country even when there appeared to
be little risk," he said. "If we immediately decided to label the situation as Level 7, we could
have triggered a panicked reaction." The peak release in emissions of radioactive particles took
place after hydrogen explosions at three Fukujima reactors.
Note: For lots more on corporate and government corruption, click here and here.

Are U.S. government microwave mind-control tests causing TV

presenters' brains to melt down?
2011-04-02, Daily Mail (One of the UK's largest-circulation newspapers)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372538/Are-government-microwave-mind...
A bizarre spate of television presenters dissolving into on-air gibberish has sparked claims that the
U.S. military could be to blame. In four high-profile cases, the latest involving fast-talking Judge
Judy, the presenters have started off speaking properly but have then descended into
undecipherable nonsense - looking confused and unstable. The frequency of the 'attacks' - and the
fact that recorded examples of the mental meltdowns have been popular on websites - has led to
conspiracy theorists pointing the finger at shadowy government experiments. A popular theory
being circulated online blames the U.S. Militarys supposed research into using microwaves
as a mind control weapon. America has never admitted conducting such research but
proponents say the effects - produced by microwave signals stimulating the brain with fake
images and voices - exactly mimic those displayed in the recent on-air breakdowns. Serene
Branson's garbled Grammys report became an internet sensation, while WISCTV's Sarah Carlson
suffered a similar meltdown in January. Judith Sheindlin, the fast-talking judge on Judge Judy, was
taken to hospital ... after she began speaking a nonsensical string of words during a live recording
of her courtroom TV show.
Note: We don't normally use the UK's Daily Mail as a reliable source, but as the video included in
this article clearly demonstrate something highly unusual, we've included it here. Another video of
this highly strange phemomenon is available here. There is a possibility that some kind of HAARP
technologies may be used in doing this. For more, click here. For reliable, verifiable information on
secret government mind control programs, see the powerful two-page summary available here.

25 years on, what Chernobyl tells us about Japan's crisis

2011-04-01, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/25-years-on-what-chernobyl-tel...

Igor Gramotkin is ... the manager of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and has spent
more than two decades at the site of the most devastating nuclear accident in history, trying to stop
further radiation emissions and cleaning the area. Mr Gramotkin admitted that the destroyed
reactor, still full of radioactive waste and nuclear fuel, remains "a threat not only to Ukraine but to
the whole world" until it is encased in a vast steel structure that is being built. In the months after
the accident, a makeshift "sarcophagus" had been constructed to encase the reactor, but it is now
unstable and, despite work to shore it up, experts say a new shelter is desperately needed in case
the old one collapses. At more than 100m tall, the shelter will be the largest moveable structure
ever built. Those building it still have to be extremely careful. Standing in the area immediately
around the plant subjects a person to radiation equivalent to about one old-style chest X-ray per
day. The human costs of the Chernobyl accident are ... horrific by any estimate. [Some]
studies put the figure in the hundreds of thousands. There are incidences of genetic
mutations, children born lacking organs, and dramatically elevated thyroid cancer levels in
local children, who drank milk contaminated with radioactive iodine in the years after the
accident.
Note: For many reports from major media sources on the government and corporate corruption
that allows the nuclear industry to continue, click here and here.

Obama Doctrine Affects More Than Libya

2011-03-30, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/134978269/the-nation-obama-doctrine-effects-mor...
Does Libya set a precedent? If a revolt breaks out again in Iran, and the regime cracks down with
brutal force, will the United States support a Libya-style response? Is there an "Obama Doctrine"
emerging? It looks like it. It appears that Obama is ready to use U.S. military force anytime,
anywhere, for any reason that he without Congressional approval or UN support deems
legitimate. During the course of the "War on Terror," now a decade old, there has been a
constant barrage of efforts to disparage those who called Iraq, or Afghanistan, a "war for
oil." It's not bizarre at all to argue that what animates nearly the entirety of American policy
toward the region from Algeria to Iran is concern about oil and natural gas. That's been the
driving force behind the creation of the Rapid Deployment Force by President Carter, the
establishment of Centcom by President Reagan, the invasion of Kuwait by President Bush I and
America's arming of Saudi Arabia and the other members of the so-called Gulf Cooperation
Council. It's why Obama muses about "maintaining the flow of commerce" by military means.
Which brings us to Iran. If the anti-Ahmadinejad forces rise up again, and perhaps take control of a
city like Shiraz, or if Iranian oil workers strike and take control of a southern oil city such as Ahwaz,
... the regime would crack down brutally. And then what?
Note: For many reports exposing the real reasons behind the "endless war" policy of the
Bush/Cheney and Obama administrations, click here.

Scrimping on regulators puts public safety at risk

2011-03-27, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/26/IN6H1IGT7K.DTL
General Electric marketed the Mark 1 boiling water reactors that were used in Japan's Fukushima
Dai-ichi plant as cheaper to build than other reactors because they used a smaller and less
expensive containment structure. Yet American safety officials have long thought the smaller
design more vulnerable to explosion and rupture in emergencies than competing designs. Here's
the problem: Profit-making corporations have every incentive to underestimate these probabilities
and lowball the likely harms. This is why it's necessary to have such things as government
regulators and why regulators need enough resources to enforce the regulations. And it's why
recent proposals in Congress to cut the budgets of agencies charged with protecting public safety
are so wrong-headed. It's also why regulators have to be independent of the industries they
regulate. When there's a revolving door between regulatory agency and industry, officials are
reluctant to bite the hands that will feed them. Finally, the tendency of corporations to
understate the probabilities of public harms requires that limits be placed on corporate
political power. The public cannot not be adequately protected as long as big corporations
... are allowed to bribe legislators with campaign donations and boondoggles.
Note: The author of this opinion, Robert Reich, is a professor at UC Berkeley and former
Secretary of Labor.

Jesuits to pay $166M to settle sex abuse claims

2011-03-25, CBS News/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jesuits-to-pay-166m-to-settle-sex-abuse-claims/
In one of the largest settlements in the Roman Catholic church's sweeping sex abuse
scandal, an order of priests agreed [to] pay $166.1 million to hundreds of Native Americans
and Alaska Natives who were abused at the order's schools in the northwestern U.S. The
settlement between more than 450 victims and the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus also
calls for a written apology to the victims and disclosure of documents to them, including their
personal medical records. "It's a day of reckoning and justice," said Clarita Vargas, 51, who said
she and her two sisters were abused by the head of St. Mary's Mission and School, a former
Jesuit-run Indian boarding school on the Colville Indian Reservation near Omak, Washington state,
in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The abuse began when they were as young as 6 or 7, she said.
The province ran village and reservation schools in Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Montana
and Alaska. The claims are from victims who were students at schools in all five states. Nearly all
the victims are American Indian or Alaska Native. The province previously settled another 200
claims. Then the organization filed for bankruptcy in 2009, claiming the payments had depleted its
treasury. But victims argued the province remained wealthy because it controls and owns Gonzaga
University, Gonzaga Preparatory School, Seattle University and other schools and properties.
Many of the abuses happened in remote villages and on reservations. The order was
accused of using those areas as dumping grounds for problem priests.

Note: For more on sexual abuse scandals, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major
media sources available here.

Why No Nukes? The Real Cost of U.S. Nuclear Power

2011-03-25, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2059453,00.html
The chaos at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant explosions, fires, ruptures has not shaken
the bipartisan support in partisan Washington for the U.S.'s so-called nuclear renaissance.
Republicans have dismissed Japan's crisis as a once-in-a-lifetime fluke. President Obama has
defended atomic energy as a carbon-free source of power, resisting calls to halt the renaissance
and freeze construction of the U.S.'s first new reactors in over three decades. But there is no
renaissance. Even before the earthquake-tsunami one-two punch, the endlessly hyped U.S.
nuclear revival was stumbling, pummeled by skyrocketing costs, stagnant demand and
skittish investors, not to mention the defeat of restrictions on carbon that could have
mitigated nuclear energy's economic insanity. Obama has offered unprecedented aid to an
industry that already enjoyed cradle-to-grave subsidies, and the antispending GOP has clamored
for even more largesse. But Wall Street hates nukes as much as K Street loves them, which is why
there's no new reactor construction to freeze. Once hailed as "too cheap to meter," nuclear fission
turns out to be an outlandishly expensive method of generating juice for our Xboxes.
Note: For many reports from major media sources on the government and corporate corruption
that allows the nuclear industry to continue, click here and here.

Fed to release bank loan data after Supreme Court rejects appeal
2011-03-21, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg News
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/21/business/la-fi-fed-banks-20110321
The Federal Reserve will disclose details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008, after the
U.S. Supreme Court rejected an industry appeal that aimed to shield the records from public view.
The justices ... left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought
by Bloomberg News' parent company, Bloomberg. The order marks the first time a court has
forced the Fed to reveal the names of banks that borrowed from its oldest lending program,
the 98-year-old discount window. "I can't recall that the Fed was ever sued and forced to
release information" in its 98-year history, said Allan H. Meltzer, the author of three books on
the U.S central bank and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The disclosures,
together with details of six bailout programs released by the central bank in December under a
congressional mandate, would give taxpayers insight into the Fed's unprecedented $3.5 trillion
effort to stem the 2008 financial panic. Under the trial judge's order, the Fed must reveal 231
pages of documents related to borrowers in April and May 2008, along with loan amounts. News
Corp.'s Fox News is pressing a bid for 6,186 pages of similar information on loans made from
August 2007 to November 2008.

Note: For a treasure trove of reports from major media sources on the hidden activities of the Fed
and the biggest Wall Street and international banks, click here.

US Army 'kill team' in Afghanistan posed for photos of murdered

civilians
2011-03-21, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/21/us-army-kill-team-afghanistan-pos...
Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by
the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless
Afghan civilians they killed. Senior officials at Nato's International Security Assistance Force in
Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the
images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US
protests around the world. They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show
the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that
operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year. The case has already created shock
around the world, particularly with the revelations that the men cut "trophies" from the
bodies of the people they killed. An investigation by Der Spiegel has unearthed
approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the men. The US military has strived to keep
the pictures out of the public domain. The lengthy Spiegel article that accompanies the
photographs contains new details about the sadistic behaviour of the men.
Note: For many reports from reliable sources on atrocities and illegal activities by US military
forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, click here.

Nuclear power report: 14 'near misses' at US plants due to 'lax

oversight'
2011-03-18, Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0318/Nuclear-power-report-14-near-misses-at...
Nuclear plants in the United States last year experienced at least 14 "near misses," serious
failures in which safety was jeopardized, at least in part, due to lapses in oversight and
enforcement by US nuclear safety regulators, says a new report. They occurred with alarming
frequency more than once a month which is high for a mature industry, said the study of
nuclear plant safety performance in 2010 by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washingtonbased nuclear watchdog group. The report, the first in what the UCS expects will become an
annual study, details both successes and failures by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
which it calls "the cop on the beat." Charged with overseeing America's fleet of 104 nuclear
reactors, the NRC made some "outstanding catches," but was also inconsistent in its oversight,
seeming at times to nod off when most needed. "The chances of a disaster at a nuclear plant are
low," the report states. "But when the NRC tolerates unresolved safety problems as it did

last year at Peach Bottom, Indian Point, and Vermont Yankee this lax oversight allows that
risk to rise. The more owners sweep safety problems under the rug and the longer safety
problems remain uncorrected, the higher the risk climbs."
Note: For many reports from reliable sources on government corruption, click here.

Revealed: Afghan chief accused of campaign of terror is on US payroll

2011-03-18, The Independent (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/revealed-afghan-chief-accused-of...
An Afghan warlord backed by US special forces faces persistent allegations that he launched a
two-year spate of violence involving burglary, rape and murder of civilians, desecration of mosques
and mutilation of corpses. Yet, despite repeated warnings about the atrocities Commander
Azizullah is alleged to have committed, he has remained on the payroll of the US military as an
"Afghan security guard", a select band of mercenaries. Interviews with religious leaders, tribal
elders, villagers, contractors and Western and Afghan officials all pointed to a reign of terror in
which they believe 31-year-old Azizullah, an ethnic Tajik, targeted Pashtun civilians while fighting
the Taliban. The testimony also tallied with several independent reports documenting the
allegations against Azizullah. The allegations of persistent abuses are embarrassing for Nato, and
not just because of the closeness with an alleged war criminal. They also showcase the biggest
drawbacks of militias, which US commander General David Petraeus wants to expand
aggressively across Afghanistan. He wants to triple the size of "local defence initiatives"
[militias] to 30,000 members nationwide.The consequences are too awful to contemplate:
resurgent warlords, deepening ethnic tensions, widespread bloodletting and the erosion of
what little authority the government in Kabul has left.
Note: For many reports from reliable sources on atrocities and illegal activities by US military
forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, click here.

Diablo Canyon nuclear plant 'near miss' in report

2011-03-18, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/17/BUA01IDTUO.DTL
For 18 months, operators at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant near San Luis Obispo didn't realize
that a system to pump water into one of their reactors during an emergency wasn't working. It had
been accidentally disabled by the plant's own engineers, according to a report ... from the Union
of Concerned Scientists watchdog group, [which] lists 14 recent "near misses" - instances
in which serious problems at a plant required federal regulators to respond. The report
criticizes both plant operators and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for allowing some
known safety issues to fester. The problem at Diablo Canyon ... involved a series of valves that
allow water to pour into one of the plant's two reactors during emergencies, keeping the reactor
from overheating. A pair of remotely operated valves in the emergency cooling system was taking

too long to move from completely closed to completely open. So engineers shortened the distance
between those two positions, according to the report. Unfortunately, two other pairs of valves were
interlocked with the first. They couldn't open at all until the first pair opened all the way. No one
noticed until the valves refused to open during a test in October 2009, 18 months after the
engineers made the changes.
Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government and corporate corruption, click here and
here.

Rep. Paul renews uphill push to abolish Fed

2011-03-17, CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42135875/Rep_Paul_renews_uphill_push_to_abolish_Fed
Representative Ron Paul, a persistent critic of the Federal Reserve, [has] renewed his uphill fight
to abolish the U.S. central bank, warning it is on track to create an inflation that will hit lowerincome Americans especially hard. The Texas lawmaker has long championed dismantling the
Fed, but at a hearing on [March 17] slammed its $600 billion bond buying program, which he said
was creating inflation and undercutting the dollar. This week he introduced legislation abolishing
the Fed. Congress considered curbing Fed regulatory powers in legislation passed last year but
backed away, ultimately delegating more authority to the central bank to police the financial
system. Paul's criticism of the Fed and its bond buying program has struck a chord with
Republicans, particularly Tea Party activists. Other GOP lawmakers have introduced a
measure that would strip the Fed of its full employment mandate and require it to
concentrate exclusively on inflation. Rising energy and commodity prices have stirred inflation
worries around the world and criticism that the Fed's vast expansion of bank reserves to buy
Treasuries has stoked price rises.
Note: To understand why Rep. Paul is questioning the usefulness of the Fed, see reliable
information on Fed manipulations at this link.

Why cops lie

2011-03-15, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/14/EDKL1IAK11.DTL
Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty
little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers
intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes
directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms
everywhere in America. Why do police ... show contempt for the law by systematically perjuring
themselves? The first reason is because they get away with it. They know that in a swearing match
between a drug defendant and a police officer, the judge always rules in favor of the officer.
Another reason is the nature of most drug cases and the likely type of person involved. The

defendant is poor, uneducated, frequently a minority, with a criminal record, and he does have
drugs. But the main reason is that the job of these cops is chasing drugs. Their professional
advancement depends on nabbing dopers. It's reinforced by San Francisco's own sorry history of
infamous undercover narcotics officers promoted to top levels in the department despite contempt
for the law shown by bullying, brutality and perjury in carrying out illegal searches and arrests. So
the modern narcotics officer is just following a well-worn path.
Note: For lots more on government corruption, click here.

Michigan bill would impose "financial martial law"

2011-03-11, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20042299-503544.html
Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would enable the governor to appoint
"emergency managers" -- officials with unilateral power to make sweeping changes to cities facing
financial troubles. Under the legislation ... the governor could declare a "financial
emergency" in towns or school districts. He could then appoint a manager to fire local
elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services - and even
eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input. The measure passed in the
state Senate this week; the House passed its own version earlier. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder
has said he will sign the bill into law. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat who represents Detroit,
said in a statement that in a given city, the governor's new "financial czar" could "force a
municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from
hardworking public sector workers." He said the legislation raises "serious constitutional concerns."
Note: The bill was made law. For more, click here. For a treasure trove of reports from major
media sources exposing the control exerted by financial powers on government officials, click
here.

Ex-Ky. judge gets 26-plus years for vote fraud

2011-03-10, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR20110310026...
A former judge has been sentenced to more than 26 years in federal prison for his role in a
conspiracy to gain power and control politics in an eastern Kentucky county. U.S. District Judge
Danny Reeves said 67-year-old former Clay County Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle headed the
conspiracy and therefore got the longest sentence so far. Maricle and seven others were
convicted in March 2010 of multiple charges, including racketeering, money laundering and
voter fraud. Prosecutors say more than 8,000 people were paid $50 each for their votes in
one election and 150 votes were stolen by changing voting machines.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on electoral fraud, click here.

Clearing the smoke: the science of cannabis

2011-03-03, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/mar/03/1
A new documentary [has been] produced and aired by Montana PBS, a non-profit publiclysupported broadcasting television service in the United States. Their programme, "Clearing the
Smoke", investigates the science of marijuana, [exploring] how cannabis acts on the brain and in
the body in medically beneficial ways to treat nausea, pain, epilepsy and possibly even cancer.
This programme includes extensive interviews with patients, doctors, [and] researchers,
and skeptics detail the promises and the limitations of medicinal cannabis. Marijuana use is
illegal throughout many countries of the world for reasons that are not clear. This video is
important because it mainly investigates the scientific basis underlying the medical benefits of
marijuana use instead of focusing on the social, political and legal hysteria that have been
attached to it. The paper mentioned in this video, Marijuana Reconsidered, was published in book
form and can be purchased from Amazon. The author, Dr Grinspoon, is the world's leading
authority on marijuana. In this book, Dr Grinspoon examines -- and debunks -- many of the
common misconceptions about marijuana.
Note: For an intriguing two-minute video clip of this program showing that cannabis has cured
some forms of cancer in mice, click here. For the full, astonishing PBS documentary, click here.

Can Exercise Keep You Young?

2011-03-02, New York Times blog
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/can-exercise-keep-you-young/?hp
We all know that physical activity is beneficial in countless ways, but even so, Dr. Mark
Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was startled to
discover that exercise kept a strain of mice from becoming gray prematurely. In heartening new
research published last week ... exercise reduced or eliminated almost every detrimental
effect of aging in mice that had been genetically programmed to grow old at an accelerated
pace. The mice that Dr. Tarnopolsky and his colleagues used lacked the primary mitochondrial
repair mechanism, so they developed malfunctioning mitochondria early in their lives, as early as 3
months of age, the human equivalent of age 20. By the time they reached 8 months, or their early
60s in human terms, the animals were extremely frail and decrepit, with spindly muscles, shrunken
brains, enlarged hearts, shriveled gonads and patchy, graying fur. All were dead before reaching a
year of age. Except the mice that exercised. At 8 months, when their sedentary lab mates were
bald, frail and dying, the running rats remained youthful. They had full pelts of dark fur, no salt-andpepper shadings. They also had maintained almost all of their muscle mass and brain volume. At 1
year, none of the exercising mice had died. The researchers were surprised by the magnitude of
the impact that exercise had on the animals aging process. They had not expected that it would
affect every tissue and bodily system studied. Dr. Tarnopolskys students were impressed. I think
they all exercise now, he said.

Note: For a treasure trove of other inspiring articles published in the major media, click here.

Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway

2011-03-01, Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703749504576172942399165436.html
The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20
separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development. These are a
few of the findings in a massive study of overlapping and duplicative programs that cost taxpayers
billions of dollars each year, according to the Government Accountability Office. A report from the
nonpartisan GAO ... compiles a list of redundant and potentially ineffective federal programs. The
GAO examined numerous federal agencies, including the departments of defense,
agriculture and housing and urban development, and pointed to instances where different
arms of the government should be coordinating or consolidating efforts to save taxpayers'
money. The agency found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help
disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help
people understand finances. "Reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could
potentially save billions of tax dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and
effective services," the report said.
Note: For lots more on government corruption, click here.

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.

2011-02-24, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/opinion/25krugman.html
The story of the privatization-obsessed Coalition Provisional Authority [created by Bush in Iraq in
2003] was the centerpiece of Naomi Kleins best-selling book The Shock Doctrine, which argued
that it was part of a broader pattern. From Chile in the 1970s onward, she suggested, right-wing
ideologues have exploited crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with resolving
those crises, and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less
democratic society. Which brings us to Wisconsin 2011, where the shock doctrine is on full display.
In recent weeks, Madison has been the scene of large demonstrations against the governors
budget bill, which would deny collective-bargaining rights to public-sector workers. Gov. Scott
Walker claims that he needs to pass his bill to deal with the states fiscal problems. But his attack
on unions has nothing to do with the budget. Whats happening in Wisconsin is, instead, a
power grab an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight
to the political power of corporations and the wealthy. And the power grab goes beyond unionbusting. The bill in question is 144 pages long, and there are some extraordinary things hidden
deep inside. For example, the bill includes language that would allow officials appointed by the
governor to make sweeping cuts in health coverage for low-income families without having to go
through the normal legislative process. The state of Wisconsin owns a number of plants supplying

heating, cooling, and electricity to state-run facilities. The language in the budget bill would ... let
the governor privatize any or all of these facilities. Not only that, he could sell them, without taking
bids, to anyone he chooses. And note that any such sale would, by definition, be considered to be
in the public interest.
Note: For an abundance of major media articles revealing rampant government corruption, click
here.

Supreme Court shields vaccine makers from lawsuits

2011-02-22, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/sc-dc-0223-court-vaccines-20110223,0,1732649....
The Supreme Court on [February 22] shielded the nation's vaccine makers from being sued by
parents who say their children suffered severe side effects from the drugs. By a 6-2 vote, the court
upheld a federal law that offers compensation to these victims but closes the courthouse door to
lawsuits. Justice Antonin Scalia said the high court majority agreed with Congress that
these side effects were "unavoidable" when a vaccine is given to millions of children. If the
drug makers could be sued and forced to pay huge claims for devastating injuries, the
vaccine industry could be wiped out, he said. The American Academy of Pediatrics applauded
the decision. The ruling was a defeat for the parents of Hannah Bruesewitz, who as a child was
given a standard vaccination for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. She later suffered a series of
seizures and delayed development. Her parents sought compensation for her injuries, but their
claim was turned down. They then sued the drug maker in a Pennsylvania court, contending that
the vaccine was defectively designed. A judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled
they were barred from suing, and the Supreme Court affirmed that judgment.
Note: For powerful evidence that childhood vaccines are much less effective than is generally
believed, click here.

Expert Panel Is Critical of F.B.I. Work in Investigating Anthrax Letters

2011-02-16, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16anthrax.html
A review of the Federal Bureau of Investigations scientific work on the investigation of the anthrax
letters of 2001 concludes that the bureau overstated the strength of genetic analysis linking the
mailed anthrax to a supply kept by Bruce E. Ivins, the Army microbiologist whom the investigators
blamed for the attacks. The review, by a panel convened by the National Academy of
Sciences, says the genetic analysis did not definitively demonstrate that the mailed
anthrax spores were grown from a sample taken from Dr. Ivinss laboratory at Fort Detrick
in Frederick, Md. The academys report faults the F.B.I. as failing to take advantage of scientific
methods developed between the mailings in 2001 and its conclusion after Dr. Ivinss suicide in
2008 that he was the sole perpetrator. The academy panel, which was paid $1.1 million by the

F.B.I. for its review, assessed only the scientific aspects of the investigation and not the traditional
detective work. Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat and physicist who has
followed the case, said he thought the academys review showed that the F.B.I. attached too
much certainty to the scientific parts of the case. I also think it shows the case was closed
prematurely, Mr. Holt said. He said he was reintroducing a bill to create a national commission,
similar to the Sept. 11 panel, to take a more comprehensive look at the anthrax case and its
implications.
Note: The government has seemed eager to pin this on Ivins, when evidence appears to point to
the U.S. military. For more strange evidence on anthrax and dead researchers, click here.

Rich Take From Poor as U.S. Subsidy Law Funds Luxury Hotels
2011-02-12, Businessweek/Bloomberg
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LG994Q07SXKX01-70TC...
The landmark Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago, which has hosted 12 U.S. presidents,
opened in 2008 after a two-year, $116 million renovation. Buffed marble staircases greet guests
spending up to $699 a night for rooms with views of Lake Michigan. What's surprising isn't the
opulent makeover: It's how the project was financed. The work was subsidized by a federal
development program intended to help poor communities. The biggest beneficiary of taxpayer
help for the Blackstone revamp was Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer.
The company got $15.6 million in tax credits from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for helping
to fund the project. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, also took in
money by serving as a lender and the monitor of Blackstone construction financing, city records
show. Since 2003, some of the world's biggest financial companies, including Goldman Sachs
Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase and Prudential, have taken advantage of a federal
subsidy that will cost taxpayers $10.1 billion -- and most of the public has never heard of it.
Investors have used the program, called New Markets Tax Credits, to help build more than
300 upscale projects, including hotels, condominiums, office buildings and a car museum,
on streets far from poverty, according to ... records released through a federal Freedom of
Information Act request. JPMorgan spokesman Tom Kelly .. declines to discuss specifics. We
think these projects help the community, Kelly says.
Note: For other revealing major media articles showing blatant corruption in the government and
corporations, click here and here.

IMF calls for dollar alternative

2011-02-10, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm

The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar
as the world's reserve currency. The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help
stabilize the global financial system. SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF
members. They were created by the IMF in 1969 and can be converted into whatever currency a
borrower requires at exchange rates based on a weighted basket of international currencies. The
IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs While they are not a tangible currency,
some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.
The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy
since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S.
policy. In addition to serving as a reserve currency, the IMF also proposed creating SDRdenominated bonds, which could reduce central banks' dependence on U.S. Treasuries. The
Fund also suggested that certain assets, such as oil and gold, which are traded in U.S.
dollars, could be priced using SDRs. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for
International Economics, said at a conference in Washington that IMF member nations should
agree to create $2 trillion worth of SDRs over the next few years.

Volkswagen XL1 review

2011-02-04, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/volkswagen/8293372/Volk...
Volkswagen's amazing 300mpg-plus XL1 two-seater diesel/electr