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4/24/2004



Scienctist Found Dead Outside Biochemical Firm in Fremont :.

Another one!

A research scientist found dead Friday morning in front of the biochemical firm he worked for apparently died after inhaling a combination of potassium cyanide and acid, police said.

An employee arriving at Ciphergen Biosystems Inc., 6611 Dumbarton Circle, about 6:20 a.m. found the 29-year-old man, whom he worked with, lying on the sidewalk in front of the west entrance, and immediately called authorities, Sgt. Jeff Swadener said.

Early indications are that he died after inhaling fumes he created by mixing an acid with powder potassium cyanide, said Detective Bill Veteran. There were no signs of foul play, he said. Fire officials said cyanide attacks the central nervous system.

It is unknown how long the man was lying in front of the firm, but company records show he last entered the building about 11 p.m. Thursday, said Geoff LaTendresse, a Fremont Fire Department division chief.

Officials at the scene said they found a suicide note inside the building but didn't know why the man, whose identity has not been released pending notification of next of kin, decided to mix the two agents.

The chemicals used in the apparent suicide are used in small amounts in some research projects the firm does, said Jim Shunk, a human resources director for the company. He was unsure of the chemicals' availability or how much was kept at the site.

Ciphergen is a biotechnology company that studies proteins and produces protein chips for cancer research.


Related: Microbiology: The Most Dangerous Area of Inquiry in the World





Israeli Forces Caught Using Boy as Shield :.

Better give Israel another billion dollars:

A photograph of a Palestinian boy tied to an Israeli police jeep has been handed to justice officials charged with investigating complaints over the use of "human shields" against demonstrators.

The boy, 13-year-old Mohammed Bedwan, and three adult protesters were tied to border police vehicles last week during one of what have become almost daily demonstrations against the routing of the Israeli government's barrier through Palestinian land.

The photograph, taken by human rights activists in the village of Biddo, north-west of Jerusalem, shows Mohammed tied by an arm to a mesh on the jeep windscreen - a mesh intended to protect the vehicle and its driver against stones and rocks. Police said last night that the Justice Ministry's police complaints unit was investigating the case.





Chuck-A-Rama :.

Now that I've had several beers, I think that it's perfectly appropriate to post this. All I have to say is, "God Bless America."

A couple on a low-carb diet were kicked out of a buffet restaurant after the manager said they'd eaten too much roast beef.

Sui Amaama, who along with his wife have been on the Atkins Diet for two weeks, was asked to leave after he went up to the buffet at the Chuck-A-Rama in suburban Taylorsville for his 12th slice of roast beef.

"It's so embarrassing actually," said Isabelle Leota, Amaama's wife. "We went in to have dinner, we were under the impression Chuck-A-Rama was an all-you-can-eat establishment."

Not so, said Jack Johanson, the restaurant chain's district manager.

"We've never claimed to be an all-you-can-eat establishment," said Johanson. "Our understanding is a buffet is just a style of eating."

The general manager who was carving the meat Tuesday became concerned about having enough for other patrons and asked Amaama to stop, Johanson said.

Offended, the couple asked for a refund. The manager refused and called police when they would not leave.

The couple said they have eaten at Chuck-A-Rama's $8.99 buffet at least twice a week, but did not plan to return.





Sharon: 'We may kill Arafat' :.

For fuck's sake, this would about do it. The End:

Ariel Sharon issued an ominous warning last night that Yasser Arafat could be the next Palestinian leader to be in Israel's line of fire, when he reneged on a promise not to harm his old adversary.

In dramatic remarks certain to aggravate regional hysteria over Israel's targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders, the Israeli prime minister said he had told President George Bush that he was no longer prepared to exempt Mr Arafat from physical harm.


4/23/2004



Diebold May Face Criminal Charges :.

After harshly chastising Diebold Election Systems for what it considered deceptive business practices, a California voting systems panel voted unanimously Thursday to recommend that the secretary of state decertify an electronic touch-screen voting machine manufactured by the company, making it likely that four California counties that recently purchased the machines will have to find other voting solutions for the November presidential election.

The panel also voted to send the findings of its recent Diebold investigation to the state's attorney general for possible criminal and civil charges against the firm for violating state election laws.





Rise of the Machines: Remotec ANDROS

Sarah Connor?I was perusing terminator robot technology, as I like to do to relax on occasion, and I came across the SWAT Options page for the Remotec ANDROS series of robots. These were my personal favorites:

Shotgun Mount Assembly (fits Benelli shotgun)
The Shotgun Mount Assembly attaches to the side of the manipulator and includes a remote firing control. It is designed for a 12 gauge, semi-automatic weapon including, but not limited to; Remington, Browning and Benelli systems. The shotgun mount assembly can be fitted with laser sight.

SL-6 Mount
The SL-6 is connected to the weapons quick disconnect mount on the manipulator. The SL-6 can fire a variety of non-lethal rounds including, but not limited to, rubber balls, gas cartridges of various irritants and bean bag ammunition. The SL-8 can also be attached to this mount.

Streetsweeper Mount
The street sweeper is connected to the weapons quick disconnect mount on the manipulator. The street sweeper (STRIKER) is a 12-gauge, 12 shot and rotating drum magazine allowing use of all types of lethal and non-lethal rounds.

Gas Dispenser Mount
The gas dispenser can be connected to the weapons quick disconnect mount on the manipulator. The mount holds a gas cylinder with a modified valve to electrically control the release of gas. The cylinder can be filled with CS, CN or NS agents.


Information on Remotec:

REMOTEC is the current world leader in providing mobile robot systems for use in hazardous-duty operations. REMOTEC robots are in use worldwide by military organizations, law enforcement agencies, nuclear facilities and research laboratories. With over 700 robots in operation, the robotic technology developed by REMOTEC is becoming the standard for hazardous-duty robots. Established in 1980 initially as a remote systems engineering firm, REMOTEC has since redirected its mission to the design, manufacture and marketing of mobile robot systems that are capable of replacing human workers in all types of hazardous environments.

REMOTEC is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman and reports directly to Northrop Grumman Land Combat Systems within the Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ESSS), in Baltimore, Maryland.





Cryptogon Organic Garden: First Results

I believe that striving for self sufficiency is the ultimate revolutionary act. With present society hopelessly broken and near collapse, I advocate, for myself, and everyone else, an immediate withdrawal---to the extent possible---from this system in order to focus on core necessities of human survival, happiness and creativity.

I thought about the characteristics of a sane society, and one of the first things that came to mind was food. Clean, locally produced, nutrient rich food. In other words, the society should produce food that bares no resemblance to the toxic, bland tasting, industrially pHarmed and manufactured garbage most people presently consume.

Since my model "society" will most likely start out as just me, and maybe a couple of other daring souls, I decided that I had to learn how to grow my own food. As with most of the other daunting tasks I've faced in my life, I started out by reading. Over a period of a few months, I read several books on organic agriculture and self sufficiency. I created a compost pile and prepared a raised garden bed. I sowed my seeds according to standard crop rotation protocols, and before I knew it, seedlings were coming up.

Almost at random, I had picked the Mesclun Salad Mix from Seeds of Change, as my main "green" salad mix. The seed mix contains a number of unusual greens and lettuces. I was amazed by how easy these vegetables were to grow. They germinated in about two days and grew very fast.

I harvested the first batch of my Mesclun greens today.


The taste shocked me. I've never eaten vegetables that tasted like this before. It was a totally different experience. The leaves were juicy, they tasted sweet, spicy and very complex. This is the first time I have ever eaten vegetables that were this fresh. They were, quite literally, alive.

At this point I had what can only be described as a religious experience. I flashed back on my memories of reading my books, designing my garden in my head and on paper, building my compost pile, turning in the bags of chicken manure with my pitchfork and making sure everything was working properly. Watering my pile... Taking its temperature (yep, I bought a compost thermometer). I thought about assembling the pine boards into a raised bed and filling it with my compost... Etc. Etc. It dawned on me: I'm eating food that I grew myself without any pesticides or synthetic fertilizer. I realized that I learned none of these critical skills at any point during my formal education. I laughed and said out loud, "What an incredible fraud."

As someone who was raised to believe in the Machine, as someone who has served the Machine and as someone who finally understands the Myth of the Machine, tending my garden (and eating these little green leaves) is probably one of the most significant activities I have ever undertaken in my life.

Related: A Shovel, a Wheelbarrow and a Pile of Dead Leaves

Related: A Shovel, a Cell Phone and an Epiphany in the Dirt





Photos of Military Coffins :.



Related: War President Mosaic

Full res image here.






BushDraft.com :.

BushDraft.com was started to link all the news stories on Bush's plans for a draft, and provide a place where people can find non-biased reports and articles about the draft.





Hydrogenics 10 Kilowatt Fuel Cell Available Now :.

Hydrogenics HyPM 10 fuel cell power module establishes the benchmark in commercialized multi-kilowatt fuel cell power modules. HyPM 10 has been recognized as a superior packaged fuel cell power solution by world leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators and is well-suited for today's early adopting markets over a wide range of applications.

See also: Hydrogenics HyLYZER Electrolyzer Modules





Solar Hydrogen Eco House :.

Hydrogen should not be thought of as a fuel, but rather as a battery. As long as we "charge" the battery (i.e. obtain hydrogen) using clean power sources such as solar and wind, hydrogen makes sense. Politicians, however, want to use nuclear power to isolate hydrogen. That's a very stupid idea.

AquaFuel
makes more sense for near term automobile applications than hydrogen. This gas is much easier to store than hydrogen. In addition, more usable "fuel" is produced per watt of power input when compared to hydrogen production with electrolysis. I'm not sure if AquaFuel can be used in fuel cells. My guess is that it would work, but that's just a guess.

Check out the way things could be using technology available now:

The eco-house relies on a photovoltaic (PV) hydrogen production and storage system to power household appliances and a fuel cell that can convert the chemical energy into electricity.

The system uses solar power to convert ionised water into hydrogen through the process of electrolysis. Forty-two multi-crystal PV panels which can produce a total peak power of 5kWp are mounted on the rooftop. When sunlight hits the PV panels, the solar energy is converted into electricity, which is then used to run an electrolyser unit inside the house.

The electrolyser has a capacity of 0.54cu.m per hour of hydrogen production, and is used to transform electrical energy from the PV panels into chemical energy in the form of hydrogen.

It then electrolyses purified water supplied by a water purification system, producing hydrogen and oxygen which are then vented into the atmosphere. A hydrogen gas purifier then purifies the hydrogen before storing it in a 1,500-litre vertical-standing storage tank outside the house. This hydrogen is then used to run a fuel cell, cooking stove, and boiler for the absorption air-conditioning system.





Gap, Wild Planet to Team Up on Spy Shorts :.

In the book 1984 by George Orwell, The Spies is an organization that is comprised of children who have been indoctrinated to serve Big Brother, spy on their parents and finger potential thought criminals for arrest.

Right now, a nightmarish system of control is under construction, and your children are going to grow into adults who have been hardwired to accept it:

Wild Planet Toys, a toymaker known for its adventure and surveillance products, said on Thursday it is teaming up with Gap Inc.'s GapKids unit on a line of cargo shorts with spy tools.

Spy Gear Cargo Shorts will be sold for $29.50 at GapKids stores and come with a "micro listener" device with a sound dish, earbud and microphone or "night spyer" with a telescopic lens and focusing red beam.

A voice scrambler and motion alarm will be sold separately at GapKids stores. The items will be available April 23 in all GapKids stores in the United States, Canada, the UK, Japan and France.


Research Credit: AL


4/22/2004



Saddam Hussein, the U.N. and Corporations Use Oil-for-Food Program as Slush Fund :.

And who is going to head the investigation into one of the greatest financial scandals of all time? FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE BANK CHAIRMAN PAUL VOLKER:

Bowing to intense public and political pressure the UN Security Council has decided, by a unanimous vote, to authorize an independent inquiry into allegations of corruption and fraud surrounding the UN's oil-for-food program.

A multibillion dollar financial scandal is alleged. For months, rumours of corruption and secret payoffs have swirled around the oil-for-food program which the UN ran in Iraq from 1996 to 2003.

The $67 billion humanitarian aid project was shut down last year when the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.

Saddam Hussein, senior UN staff members and companies from Security Council member-countries are accused of conspiring together to skim billions from the program.

Russia and France wanted a discreet internal probe, thinking it was better to keep the corruption charges in-house at the UN rather than have outside investigators poking into the alleged links between Saddam, top UN staffers and Russian and French companies.

Resolution 1538, as it is officially known, may come to be remembered as the official lifting of the lid on a financial scandal that could ultimately dwarf even the worst excesses of Wall Street.

The UN oil-for-food program in Iraq was supposed to be a humanitarian effort. Profits from Iraqi oil sales were to be used exclusively to buy food and medicine for the people of Iraq.

But it seems billions of dollars may have gone missing.

The probe will be led by Paul Volker, a former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.





Eyewitness to Flight 93 Shootdown on Howard Stern :.

Howard Stern Show | April 21 2004

A caller to the Howard Stern Show related the story of how he saw Flight 93 in flames while it was in the air and two other aircraft circling it.

Please understand that we do not advocate the usual content of Stern's show, but this is interesting nonetheless.





About 9% of Michigan Families Going Hungry :.

"Food insecurity" is rising in the state, a nationwide report released today shows.

About 9 percent of Michigan families -- or 359,444 households -- often don't know where their next meal is coming from, according to the study.

About a third of them occasionally go hungry, said the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, D.C.

Driving the "food insecurity" numbers -- a term coined by the federal government to measure hunger -- is Michigan's stubborn unemployment rate, the anti-hunger research and policy group said.





Global Warming Floods Threaten Four Million Britons :.

Risks of flooding are growing to "unacceptable levels" because of climate change with up to 4 million Britons facing the prospect of their homes being inundated, according to a report to be published today by the government.

The report by the Office of Science and Technology gives the most chilling picture yet of how global warming will affect the lives of millions of Britons over the next half century.

Compiled by 60 experts under the leadership of the government's chief scientist Sir David King, it shows that many towns in Britain are threatened by rising sea levels, river flooding and the overwhelming of Victorian drains by flash floods.

The report, Future Flooding, looks forward to 2080 but says that the threat is already growing and most of the worst of its predictions will have happened by 2050.


4/21/2004



Vermont Nuclear Plant Missing Fuel Rods :.

Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search onsite for the nuclear material, officials said Wednesday.

The fuel rod was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for refueling and maintenance. Remote-control cameras will be used to search a spent fuel pool on the property, officials said.

"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.





A Cryptogon Reader Contributed $10

I've decided that cash contributions to Cryptogon warrant mentioning as news. These are such rare and wonderful events, I want to share them with all of you. Doing this will also serve to remind the 99% of you, who are useless takers, that someone out there did their part to support Cryptogon and the alternative perspectives, original analysis and general weirdness that I uncover and present here EVERYDAY FOR FREE.

UPDATE: Another Cryptogon Reader Just Contributed An Additional $10!

Shock and awe!





National Lab Does Research on Cleaning Up Diesel Engines, Makes No Mention of Clean Diesel Fuels :.

This is the email I sent:

To: media@anl.gov
Subject: If you really wanted cleaner diesel...

I find it astonishing that an article about work being done to clean up diesel engines makes no mention of biodiesel or vegetable oil. Can anyone in your organization explain to me (and my readers) why this is the case? Why not utilize clean, renewable, non petroleum based solutions?

Please see:

http://www.biodiesel.org/

FYI: This matter is mentioned on my site: http://www.cryptogon.com/2004_04_18_blogarchive.html#108259519004755530

Thank you,
Kevin


From the Argonne National Laboratory article:

In the first use ever of a new three-dimensional technique to study diesel engine emissions, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory developed information that could lead to improved exhaust-cleaning devices, ways for industry to meet environmental regulations, and new insights on the impact to public health from diesel engine emissions.

Hmmm, well, this guy, and thousands of others like him, seem to have found the answer to clean running diesel engines. Why, then, is the U.S. Department of Energy wasting our tax money on tail chasing exercises?





Italy Seizes 8,000 Kalashnikovs Headed to U.S. :.

I think a better headline might be: Italian Customs Stumbles Upon CIA Cut Out Operation's Gun Buy. I'd love to know the name of the company in Georgia that's behind this one:

Italian customs has seized more than 8,000 Kalashnikovs and other weapons on a ship headed to the United States, officials said Tuesday.

The arms, worth about six million euros, were discovered aboard a ship arriving from Romania that pulled into the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro on its way to the United States, Italy's customs said in a statement.

According to travel documents, the arms are the property of a large U.S. company headquartered in the U.S. state of Georgia.

"We know that the destination was North America, but we don't effectively know if that's where the arms were going," a customs official told RAI state television.

The arms were found inside three different containers during a routine customs check earlier this week. They were confiscated due to discrepancies in the customs forms but the news was only made public Tuesday.

The customs office said the weapons had been described as "common guns" instead of assault rifles and longer-range combat arms in the travel documentation.


Interesting note: There is no way these guns alone are worth six million euros. Impossible. This would indicate that each weapon cost 750 euros or about US$888. Why purchase Romanian AKs when, for the same money, one could buy rifles from Heckler & Koch, Fabrique Nationale, Sig, etc.? The answer might be that absolutely anything is possible in Romania, with a relatively small amount of bribe money. All countries are banana republics; all countries are corrupt. What varies, from one place to the next, is the cost of doing business.

Something very strange is happening here, and my guess is that this one will go the way of the WalMart truck loaded with $30 million worth of cocaine.


4/20/2004



Compulsory Military Camp for Russian Schoolboys :.

Chechnya is the itch that Putin just can't scratch. This is the logical result. And who knows... As the U.S. continues to encircle Russia, well, you get the picture:

Up to 30,000 schoolboys from Moscow were yesterday sent to boot camp as part of a Kremlin initiative designed to increase patriotic fervour among teenagers.

The army camp is seen as the final stage in the training of 15- and 16-year-olds, who now have to study basic army skills. They will spend 40 hours in military training over five days. Those who object to the military elements are offered alternative work such as cleaning floors.

Colonel Yevgeny Burdinsky, head of army recruitment, told Interfax: "The main aim is to give youngsters the chance to appreciate themselves, and to evaluate their military knowledge they have acquired during their primary military training and their physical and moral readiness for future military duty."





Simon Wiesenthal Center: Websites that Question Official 9/11 Story Are "Hate Sites" :.

It's almost sad, watching fascist, hypocrite, Zionist pigs rotting in their own filth.

How many of the groups who operate ANY of the websites in this bullshit report have robotic gun turrets on a criminal, Apartheid-style partition wall or use military bulldozers to kill American peace activists? Well, the answer is none. If the Simon Wiesenthal Center was anything other than a complete fraud, it would cite the Israeli and United States governments (the U.S. is Israel's primary supporter) as terrorist organizations:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has been tracking hate Web sites for nine years, describes in the report released Monday more than 200 of about 4,000 online hate sites it monitors.

The group said it has seen a surge this year in the number of sites that promote terrorist recruitment, urging young people to join "holy wars" and become suicide bombers.

The report includes sites that deny the Holocaust, theorize September 11 conspiracies and glorify al Qaeda. The more common hate sites feature racism, anti-Semitism and gay bashing.


Related: American State Terrorism





RFID in Dental Work!? :.

I shit you not, this is on CNN:

Privacy advocates are alarmed by a new technology that might be able to monitor even the tiniest aspects of our lives. It comes in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips.

---SNIP---

But regardless of protests, the chips are coming.

Wal-Mart has mandated that its 100 top suppliers incorporate the chips on cartons and pallets by January 2005.

The U.S. military is also going to RFID chips for its complex supply chain.

The chips could even be used in dental work to uniquely identify the various pieces of hardware in your mouth.


Research Credit: AL





Serious Flaw in TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) :.

This is a very arcane and technical issue and I wouldn't expect most people to pay any attention to it. What I would like folks to realize is that Microsoft is going to make the case for a DRM/"trusted" TCP/IP (if you don't know, TCP/IP is the mechanism by which information is exchanged on most networks, including the Internet) that will require a "trusted" operating system. Obviously, this operating system will be Microsoft's Longhorn. You DO NOT want TCP/IP going down the DRM road to oblivion. Hear me: This would be bad. Here are my stories on Digital Rights Management if you don't know what any of this means.

This story should be viewed in terms of making sure that governments and corporations do not make overtures to scrap open standards for national security reasons. While I believe that this is inevitable, at least you will be aware of what's happening when "it" comes down:

The fact that TCP sessions can be reset by sending suitable RST and SYN packets is a design feature of TCP according to RFC 793, but a reset attack is only possible at all because the source IP address and TCP port can be forged or "spoofed".

Although denial of service using crafted TCP packets is a well known weakness of TCP, until recently it was believed that a successful denial of service attack was not achievable in practice. The reason for this is that the receiving TCP implementation checks the sequence number of the RST or SYN packet, which is a 32 bit number, giving a probability of 1/2^32 of guessing the sequence number correctly (assuming a random distribution).

The discoverer of the practicability of the RST attack was Paul A. Watson, who describes his research in his paper "Slipping In The Window: TCP Reset Attacks", presented at the CanSecWest 2004 conference. He noticed that the probability of guessing an acceptable sequence number is much higher than 1/2^32 because the receiving TCP implementation will accept any sequence number in a certain range (or "window") of the expected sequence number. The window makes TCP reset attacks practicable.


More: Mainstream Article on this Flaw





A Clear and Present Danger to the World :.

HE is the most dangerous man in the world.

A warmonger. A crackpot fundamentalist. A fanatic and a fool who has only the barest grasp of the killing power of the forces under his command.

His name is George W Bush and his main battle plan is to set the world on fire.

September 11 was a crime against humanity but from Afghanistan to Iraq, and now in Israel, Bush has blazed a purposeless trail of destruction and multiplied the dangers of terrorism a thousand-fold.

The War Against Terror has turned into a war of terror in Iraq as American troops butcher their way through the civilian population in pursuit of an enemy that grows stronger daily with each dead Iraqi civilian.

And in Israel Bush has overnight primed the entire region for a new cycle of slaughter by backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illegal land-grab of Palestinian territory and offering the Arabs nothing in return only despair.





2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island: A National Special Security Event :.

"Free Trade" policies are so popular that the participants have to meet in secret, on a closed island that is protected by a naval armada:

The Coast Guard proposes to establish temporary security zones and a temporary regulated navigation area, from June 5, 2004, through June 11, 2004, for the G-8 Summit to be held in Sea Island, Georgia. These proposed rules are required to provide for the security of the public, the G-8 Summit and its participants, and the safety of the waterways due to the potential for hostile and violent acts from demonstrators protesting the G-8. The proposed temporary security zones would prohibit the entry of all vessels into all waters of the Savannah River from Port Wentworth south to the boundary of the proposed temporary regulated navigation area that is located in the vicinity of the south east tip of Elba Island at the western portion of the Lower Flats Range. The proposed temporary regulated navigation area would control the movement of all vessels operating on the Intracoastal Waterway in the vicinity of Fields Cut and south through Elba Island Cut to St. Augustine Creek.





Greenspan: Grab Your Ankles :.

Those of you with adjustable rate mortgages are about to find out what being bent over a barrel feels like.

The only reason that millions of Americans were able to get home loans is because they were able to INITIALLY make payments on their adjustable rate loans.

Initially.

That's right. They COULD NOT get qualified for fixed rate loans because the household income was not sufficient to pay the higher monthly obligation. So, with people barely able to make the payments on the ARM at the bottom of the interest rate scale, and with more jobs leaving the U.S. everyday, an interesting question arises: What happens when rates rise as companies continue fire employees en masse?

Well, you don't need to be a genius to do the math.





Senator Chuck Hagel: U.S. May Need Military Draft to Boost Iraq Force :.

Well, I hate to say I (and a handful of other researchers) told you so... And to all the people in the U.S. military who told me that a draft was, "impossible," "not necessary," and "BULLLLLLLLLLSHIT," take a look at what was discussed in the U.S. Senate today. They are starting the perception management campaign of breaking the news of a military draft to the general public:


A senior Republican lawmaker said Tuesday that deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft.

"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.

"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.


Picture Credit: TK





U.S. Marines Engaged in 'Silent War' Near Syrian Border :.

The United States has been fighting what officials term a silent war with Syria which killed at least five soldiers over the weekend.

U.S. officials said U.S. Marines have deployed along the Syrian border to stop the flow of insurgents and equipment to Iraq. They said Marines have engaged with both Sunni insurgents as well as some Syrian security personnel along the border in clashes that have intensified over the last few weeks.


4/19/2004



Turning Kids Into Slaves: Students Clock-In at School Using Smart Cards :.

THE dreary ritual of taking the class register will be consigned to the education history books by a Scottish school later this year.

St Thomas of Aquin's High School in Edinburgh will become the first in the country to replace the age-old Biro ticks on graph paper with a sophisticated new clocking-in system based on ID swipe cards.

Education chiefs say the system will allow them to monitor truancy rates much more effectively, as well as freeing up precious time for teachers. If it proves successful, pupils across Scotland will be clocking-in to lessons within a few years.





Shell Oil: Lies, Cover-Ups, Fat Cats and an Oil Giant in Crisis :.

Shell was embroiled yesterday in Britain's biggest corporate scandal for almost 20 years after it admitted a three-year plan to deceive its shareholders.

The City reacted with astonishment after the crisis-stricken multinational released details from an internal report that exposed how the company had deliberately overstated its oil and gas reserves for several years.

Judy Boynton, the finance chief, became the third boardroom casualty of the furore that followed the shock 20 per cent downgrade in reserves three months ago. The Shell affair, the most damaging scandal in the UK since the Guinness debacle 18 years ago, has already led to the departure of the chairman, Sir Philip Watts, and the head of exploration and production, Walter van de Vijver.

The pair were savaged in the damning, independent report commissioned by Shell for appearing to know that reserves failed to meet market rules as far back as 2001. The report listed a bewildering array of e-mails sent between increasingly desperate executives. In one, Mr van de Vijver told Sir Philip last November: "I am sick and tired about lying about the extent of our reserves issues and the downward revisions that need to be done because of far too aggressive/optimistic bookings.''

A month later, Mr van de Vijver, responding to an internal report that suggested Shell's position on the reserves was a violation of US securities law, wrote: "This is absolute dynamite, not at all what I expected and needs to be destroyed."





Madrid Policeman's Body Burned :.

WTF?

The body of a Spanish police officer who was killed in a raid on suspected Islamic terrorists was removed from its tomb Sunday night, dragged across a cemetery, doused with gasoline and burned, a Spanish police official told CNN.

Police do not know who committed the crime, and an investigation is under way.

Francisco Javier Torronteras, a special operations police officer, died April 3 during a police raid in a Madrid suburb where police believed suspects behind the March 11 Madrid train bombings were hiding.





Rise of the Machines: Robot Plane Passes Bombing Test :.

Under human supervision but without human piloting, a prototype of the Boeing Co.'s X-45 took off from the desert base, opened its bomb bay doors, dropped a 250-pound (114-kilogram) Small Smart Bomb and then landed.

The inert bomb struck within inches of the truck it was supposed to hit, Boeing said, adding that had the bomb contained explosives, the target would have been destroyed.





GM, Ford to Spend $720 Million on New Transmission System: Improves Fuel Economy by About 4% :.

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars ($1 billion by the time the first car ships) in order to realize a 4% increase in fuel economy... Gee, that's, uhh... great.

Keep in mind that a group of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute managed to double the efficiency of solar cells with a grant of only $700,000! Are you clear on that!? They increased the efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity by 100%---over previous photovoltaic technology---at a cost of only $700,000. Put that in your SUV and smoke it:

Tom Stephens, GM's vice president of powertrains, said developing a six-speed automatic transmission jointly will save the two companies millions of dollars. By the time the transmissions make it to market in 2008, the total cost of the investments made by the two companies will total over $1 billion.





Haircut

I walked into a local Great Clips store, greeted the girl behind the counter and said I needed a haircut.

"Sure, can I get your phone number?" she asked.

"Why do you need my phone number?" I asked.

"Oh this system makes us ask for it. That's how we identify you."

You can imagine where this was going... I briefly thought about how Alex Jones screams at idiots with his bullhorn, "You are living in a controlled society! You are being lied to!" But my goal, this day, was to get a haircut, not to unplug this woman from the Matrix, or get the cops called on me.

"I don't want to give you my phone number. I just want a haircut."

"Oh, that's ok. Just give me your name and address."

I thought she was joking. I laughed. But she wasn't joking. She was smiling in a way that people who have to deal with the general public force themselves to smile... like she was thinking, "I'm ready to type your info into the computer now. Let's get on with it."

"I'm not giving you my name. I'm not giving you my phone number. And I'm sure as hell not giving you my address. I want a haircut and I don't see why my personal information needs to be added to a database for that. Does that make sense?"

She broke down, "I hate this stupid thing. Lots of customers complain about it. Hold on."

She walked away and got a manager. The manager came over an typed something into the computer. She said, "I'm sorry about this."

I said, "Oh, we're all going to be sorry if we don't put an end to this nonsense."

And somehow, the girl was able to buzz my head with a #2 razor without my information being added to the company's database.





'Paper or Plastic' is Now 'Computer or Cashier' :.

These criminal corporations have convinced the troglodytes to work for free as they shop for their poisonous, polluted, crappy "food."

Rather than a backward shopper, Ms. Michelangelo considers herself a progressive one. She uses new technology - a mobile computer and bar-code scanner - that she plucks from a rack and attaches to her shopping cart. It allows her to find, ring up, and bag her groceries as she navigates the aisles. For Michelangelo, the lines, clerks, and "Have a nice day," once intrinsic to grocery shopping, have gone the way of the family tab at the five-and-dime.

"We come here just for the Shopping Buddy," her teenage daughter Melanie says, referring to the portable computer, which greets the Michelangelos by name after it reads their loyalty card. "We've kind of personified him. We call him Buddy."

To remain competitive, supermarkets are revving their technological engines. Eventually, say industry experts, shoppers won't need wallets or scanners.

With Pay by Touch systems and microchips embedded in each product, shopping will be as simple as grab, bag, and get out. Sensors will ring up goods within seconds, and a fingerprint-reading device will enable shoppers to access their accounts without using plastic.

"It's a little unnerving, it's like Big Brother," Melanie says. "But you don't have to pay attention to it."





WalMartification of Europe :.

The discount chain already is having a Wal-Mart-type effect on the German economy. The main association of German retailers issued a report on Mar. 8 blaming Aldi and other "hard discounters" for running 35,000 small shops out of business last year. On the same day, Bavarian dairy farmers picketed Aldi stores, which they blame for a ruinous 15% plunge in milk prices since 2001. Aldi must take care not to let such criticism tarnish its reputation among German consumers.





Dirty Bomb Plot on Sears Tower :.

A plot by terrorists to use dirty bombs laced with the deadly chemical osmium tetroxide to attack U.S. targets including the Sears Tower in Chicago was uncovered by British intelligence and law enforcement authorities, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

British police and military bomb experts passed on information to their U.S. counterparts.





April 19, 2004

Today is the day.

I monitor lunatic fringe sources of information on a daily basis. You guys don't hear about most of what's happening in these circles from me because I think it's mostly garbage and not worth repeating. However, the lunatic fringe has been abuzz with all of the weird coincidences surrounding 9/11-related sequences and apparent connections with events. While I'm more entertained by this than concerned, there is a part of me that asks, "What if there is something to this?"

Granted, this area of inquiry is similar to those depicted in the films, A Beautiful Mind and Pi. I want to mention this information just in case something does happen. If there is an "event," you will know that it is a false flag operation, a PSYOP and part of some macro scale occult ritual involving the most powerful people on this planet.

A quick summary:

The number of days between the 9/11/01 attacks in the U.S. and the 3/11/2004 attacks in Spain = 911.

The number of hours between 3/11/2004 and 4/19/04 = 911.

The number of years between the 4/19/1995 Oklahoma City Bombing and 4/19/2004 = 9.

The number of years between the 4/19/1993 Waco disaster and 4/19/2004 = 11.

The Sears Tower Connection

Several sources believe that the Sears Tower in Chicago might be the target. Here's why:

Lloyd Goldman, Joseph Cayre and Jeffrey Feil bought the World Trade Center assets weeks before 9/11/01.

Lloyd Goldman, Joseph Cayre and Jeffrey Feil bought the Sears Tower assets weeks before 4/19/2004.

Number of floors in the WTC buildings = 110 (11 numerologically).

Number of floors in the Sears Tower = 110 (11 numerologically).

Sears Tower value before 9/11/01: $911 million.

You get the idea. This line of analysis, if one can call it that (I'm sure shrinks have a different term for this), goes forever. It's like the practice of lunatics finding the occurrance of 666 in everything. Here are some of my sources if you want to know more about this:

http://www.stevequayle.com/

http://www.breakfornews.com/sears.htm

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread40528/pg1

More: SITREP Early Morning April 19, 2004

Not much is particularly strange right now. I'm straining to see any signal in the noise. Here's what's catching my attention right now:

Japanese Banks Sell Off, Gold Gaps Up

Tokyo shares fell on Monday on a bad loan report that spooked investors and profit-taking in recent high-fliers, while the dollar eased as tepid U.S. data soothed fears that a rate rise could come sooner than expected.

Gold rose sharply on the weak dollar and [safe-haven buying on worries that Israel's killing of a Hamas leader on Saturday could trigger a wave of violence in the Middle East].
Maybe it's not just related to Israel's murder of Rantisi...

ABC News Reporting Possible Imminent Terrorist Threat

U.S. intelligence officials have uncovered evidence of a potential terrorist attack, ABCNEWS has learned.

Like many such tips, it is vague, but the government is disturbed enough that it held a rare conference call with local police to warn them.

The intelligence, received a week ago but secret until now, is from known Muslim extremists who suggested an attack � possibly in the U.S. � was imminent, and that operatives were already "in place," sources tell ABCNEWS.


Rice: U.S. Bracing for Terror Before Election

The United States is bracing for possible terrorist attacks before the November presidential election, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

The opportunity for terrorists to try to influence the election, as was the case last month in Spain, appears to be an opportunity that would "be too good to pass up for them," Rice said.

"I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain," Rice told "Fox News Sunday."


Attacks 'Being Planned Against London'

Various groups sympathetic to al-Qaeda are preparing large-scale attacks against London, the leader of an Islamic group suspected of having ties to the extremist network said in remarks published in Portugal.

Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, the head of the London-based group al-Muhajiroun, added in an interview with the Portuguese daily Publico on Sunday that last month's deadly Madrid train bombings were carried out by a group of independent actors who back Osama bin Laden's organisation.

"There are many youths who dream of joining al-Qaeda, but worse than that, there are many 'freelancers' who are willing to launch operations similar to those by al-Qaeda," he said. "The attack in Madrid was carried out by one of those groups."

"Here in London there is a very well-organised group, which calls itself al-Qaeda-Europe," he added. "I know they are on the verge of launching a big operation."


Expect a Hot One for Today's Boston Marathon

Note: 108th Boston Marathon (108 = 9 numerologically)

David Rosenberger rolled his eyes and shook his head in resignation while discussing the weather forecast for today's 108th Boston Marathon.

Temperatures for the race are expected to reach the mid-80s, according to the National Weather Service. The average high for April 19 is 57.


That's all for now. I'd appreciate a wake-up call from one of you who know my number if something weird happens.





Shell's Chief Financial Officer Resigns :.

The Royal Dutch-Shell Group confirmed on Monday its chief financial officer, Judith Boynton, has resigned, the second executive who stepped down due to a controversy over the energy giant's oil and gas reserves estimates.

The company said it has reviewed 90 percent of its reserves anda total of 4.85 billion barrels were hitherto downgraded.







NORAD had Drills of Jets as Weapons :.

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.

In a third scenario, 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. It said the scenarios outlined were regional drills, not regularly scheduled continent-wide exercises.

"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."

A White House spokesman said Sunday that the Bush administration was not aware of the NORAD exercises. But the exercises using real aircraft show that at least one part of the government thought the possibility of such attacks, though unlikely, merited scrutiny.


4/18/2004



Bruce Schneier on National ID Cards :.

In case you've never heard of Bruce Schneier, he's a VERY big deal in computer security and encryption circles:

The potential privacy encroachments of an ID card system are far from minor. And the interruptions and delays caused by incessant ID checks could easily proliferate into a persistent traffic jam in office lobbies and airports and hospital waiting rooms and shopping malls.

But my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler.

It won't work. It won't make us more secure.

In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure.





U.S. Using Mercenaries for Air Mobile Combat Operations in Iraq






Terminator Industrial Complex: Rise of the Machines :.

This "rise of the machines" is at the heart of the Bush administration�s recent military budget. Sandwiched into outlays for aircraft, artillery, and conventional weapons, are monies for unmanned combat aircraft, robot tanks, submarines, and a supersonic bomber capable of delivering six tons of bombs and missiles to anyplace on the globe in two hours.





United Airlines Flight 175's Long Range Approach to World Trade Center: Speed Estimate 575 MPH! :.

Just look at the way that thing bears down on the target. Look at the speed. It seems more like a cruise missile (under computer control) than an aircraft. I honestly have to wonder if humans were flying those planes. On this video, you can clearly see Flight 175 bank to the left just before impact. Try to imagine performing that maneuver, at that speed, having not flown the aircraft before?! Come on.





Why did Ashcroft Stop Flying Commercial Only Weeks Before 9-11? :.

The U.S. military's stray aircraft intercept procedures were changed in June, 2001, a month before Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial aircraft:

Like most of the Bush cabinet, Attorney General John Ashcroft took commercial jets when he traveled. But on July 24, 2001, he changed that practice and began flying in chartered government jets. Asked by CBS News at the time about the change, the Justice Department cited a "threat assessment" by the FBI and said Ashcroft had been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.





U.K. Government Wants Cameras in Every Residential Neighborhood :.

Drivers are facing an explosion of speed cameras in London, a leaked Labour document reveals today.

Secret plans would see hundreds of cameras fitted in quiet streets around the capital.

They would replace speed humps, which are seen as an inconvenience for law-abiding motorists, and would be used to enforce a new lower speed limit of 20mph for all London residential zones. Extra cameras could also be installed along main roads.





National Radio Host Michael Savage Calls for Newspaper Editors to be Arrested for Sedition :.

Oily beatnik Neo-Con radio host Michael Savage, who has previously and repeatedly called for anyone who criticizes the government to be put in concentration camps, has now advocated the arrest of US newspaper editors.

In a poll on his website, Savage (real name 'Wiener') displays a photo of an Iraqi holding up a US soldiers' boots which was published in the New York Times. Savage asks the question, 'Do you think the publisher of the NY Times should be arrested for sedition for showing enemy propaganda?'

It is the job of a publisher/journalist/photographer to print and disseminate the truth, however horrible it may be. Savage implies that the publisher should only print what is favorable to the government. This is propaganda.





Chipped in Spain :.

I have been hearing about the "chip" for over 15 years. Even so, I still find it hard to believe that this nightmarish system of surveillance and control is going become a reality in my lifetime. But it's happening!

Of course, getting chipped is the cool thing to do now. It won't be long before imbecile celebrities are talking about how great and convenient it is:

Being recognized has never been easier for VIP patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain.

Like a scene out of a science-fiction movie, all it takes is a syringe-injected microchip implant for the beautiful men and women of the nightclub scene to breeze past a "reader" that recognizes their identity, credit balance and even automatically opens doors to exclusive areas of the club for them.

They can buy drinks and food with a wave of their hand and don't need to worry about losing a credit card or wallet.

"By simply passing by our reader, the Baja Beach Club will know who you are and what your credit balance is," Conrad K. Chase explains. Chase is director of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona.

"From the moment of their implantation they will also have free entry and access to the VIP area," he said.





Expert Kept From Speaking at Antidepressant Hearing :.

Fascist Drug Administration at it again. Oh yeah, eat your pills! They're good and good for you:

Top Food and Drug Administration officials admitted yesterday that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature.





'Behavior Pattern Recognition' Program Under Way at Logan :.

Face crimes:

When someone at an airport is sweating, is it because he's running late or trying to hide something? Could hand signals between people in a terminal be part of an inside joke or a terror plot?

A pilot program using "behavior pattern recognition" is under way at Boston's Logan International Airport, from where two of the planes used by the September 11 hijackers took off. Air marshals, passenger screeners and state police stationed there have undergone special training in things to look for that could indicate a terrorist plot.

Israeli officials have employed a version of the technique for years to protect air travelers against terrorists.

At Logan, uniformed and undercover security officials watch people as they move through terminals. They look for odd or suspicious behavior: heavy clothes on a hot day, loiterers without luggage, anyone observing security methods.

At the security checkpoints, screening supervisors have a score sheet with a list of behaviors on it. If a passenger hits a certain number, a law enforcement officer will be notified to question the person.





Growing Worry in D.C. -- What if U.S. Fails in Iraq? :.

Uh, it's more like, what now!? Not what if? Irrational optimism works for these maniacs much of the time, but not this time. Not in Iraq:

President Bush warned the nation Tuesday night of the "unthinkable" consequences of failure in Iraq. But amid escalating violence and a crackdown by U.S. forces, Washington analysts expressed rising concern about the chances of success.

"I think we run a serious risk of disaster in Iraq if what we find on June 30 is a turnover of sovereignty to some kind of governing body that lacks legitimacy," said Bathsheba Crocker, co-director of the post-conflict reconstruction project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I don't yet know what the plan is for avoiding that kind of disaster. ... We need a Plan B, and I'm not sure we yet have a Plan B."





Department of Homeland Security Wants System to Help Identify Suspicious Activity :.

This thing better be able to catch all of the potential terrorists who like to go down on their girlfriends! A camera above every bed! That's what we need. And no fair doing nasty things under the sheets, out of view of the Homeland Security cams. Well, let's just start with face crimes:

The Homeland Security Department has invited proposals for new software that would take a Candid Camera-like approach to identifying criminal or terrorist activity.

The department's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to spend $5 million on two projects for automated scene understanding.

Scene understanding technology detects telltale signs of crime or terrorism, thereby reducing the burden on personnel assigned to monitor closed-circuit television cameras and other sensors in such places as airports, seaports, transportation hubs and border crossing points.





Woman Faces Five Years in Jail for Receiving Oral Sex from Her Boyfriend :.

A Newport News woman charged with a felony for receiving oral sex in a car is challenging a state law that prohibits certain types of sex between consenting adults.

A police officer says he found the 21-year-old woman in a parked car receiving oral sex from a man about 3 a.m. Jan. 29. Both were charged with a felony under the statute for crimes against nature.





Proposed Surveillance System Runs Automated Background Checks as Vehicles Enter Town :.

Cameras would record drivers' faces and license plates, and software could use the tag numbers to automatically check -- in just a few seconds -- whether a motorist is wanted by authorities or driving a stolen car, Police Chief Clay Walker said.




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:. Reading

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Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.