U.S. Government Wants Three Days to Issue Permission to Fly
October 14th, 2007Most Americans must be thinking something like, “Well, at least they’re not pointing the Active Denial Weapon at me right now. My TV works. Life is great.”
Via: Register:
Under new rules proposed by the Transport Security Administration (TSA) (pdf), all airline passengers would need advance permission before flying into, through, or over the United States regardless of citizenship or the airline’s national origin.
Currently, the Advanced Passenger Information System, operated by the Customs and Border Patrol, requires airlines to forward a list of passenger information no later than 15 minutes before flights from the US take off (international flights bound for the US have until 15 minutes after take-off). Planes are diverted if a passenger on board is on the no-fly list.
The new rules mean this information must be submitted 72 hours before departure. Only those given clearance will get a boarding pass. The TSA estimates that 90 to 93 per cent of all travel reservations are final by then.
The proposed rules require the following information for each passenger: full name, sex, date of birth, and redress number (assigned to passengers who use the Travel Redress Inquiry Program because they have been mistakenly placed on the no-fly list), and known traveller number (once there is a programme in place for registering known travellers whose backgrounds have been checked). Non-travellers entering secure areas, such as parents escorting children, will also need clearance.
The TSA held a public hearing in Washington DC on 20 September, which heard comments from both privacy advocates and airline industry representatives from Qantas, the Regional Airline Association, IATA, and the American Society of Travel Agents. The privacy advocates came from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Identity Project. All were negative.
The proposals should be withdrawn entirely, argued Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad and the leading expert on travel data privacy. “Obscured by the euphemistic language of ‘screening’ is the fact that travellers would be required to get permission before they can travel.”
Research Credit: PD
New Zealand to Ban Construction of Coal and Gas Fired Power Plants for 10 Years
October 14th, 2007Just last night, I watched a large storm go barreling through Doubtless Bay and I thought about how much power was just blowing and surging around out there.
And today…
Via: Bloomberg:
New Zealand electricity producers, including Contact Energy Ltd., will face a 10-year ban on the construction of new gas- or coal-fired generators to help the nation meet its Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets.
The measures may affect NZ$1 billion ($760 million) of investment in two projects planned by Contact and government- owned Genesis Power Ltd. State-owned generators will be barred from building new gas-fired plants, and a decision on whether to extend the ban to Contact and other private generators will be made this year, Energy Minister David Parker said today.
New Zealand already produces about 70 percent of its power from non-polluting wind, hydro-electric and geothermal generators. The government wants to raise that to 90 percent by 2025 and is blocking construction of cheaper gas-fired power stations to speed investment in wind turbines and steamfields.
Related: Remote New Zealand Tidal Power Project
Related: The International Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project
Treasury Claims Power to Seize Gold and Silver — and Everything Else
October 14th, 2007Via: GATA:
Because of recent inquiries to GATA about the possibility of an attempt by the U.S. Government to confiscate privately held gold and silver bullion and coins and shares in companies mining the precious metals, we’re republishing here the correspondence between GATA and the U.S. Treasury Department on the subject in 2005.
The Treasury Department was surprisingly candid in that correspondence, asserting the U.S. Government’s authority, in declared emergencies, to confiscate precious metals and to restrict ownership of mining shares — and to confiscate and restrict every other financial asset as well. So perhaps precious metals investors shouldn’t feel too paranoid.
Confiscation has never seemed to GATA to be a serious or imminent threat. While the U.S. Government in 1933 did demand the exchange of circulating government-issued coins for paper money (proceeding to devalue the paper money after the gold was surrendered), that gold then was a huge part of the country’s money supply, and amid the national economic collapse at that time the government could make a plausible complaint against “hoarding.” There are no such circumstances today, gold no longer being in general circulation as currency. (Yes, we’re working on that.)
But of course lately the arrogance and imperiousness of the U.S. government have far exceeded even the paranoia of precous metals investors. Certainly capital controls may be imposed in the United States in the next currency crisis, and it’s not far from capital controls to even more brutal interventions in the economy.
Research Credit: PD
Do You Want Alternative Energy Related Articles?
October 14th, 2007UPDATE: OKOKOK. I got it. It’s running about 15 yes to 1 no. Fascinating. I don’t know why so many of you YES voters would stay quiet in comments, but anyway, it’s overwhelming.
— End Update —
“Fifteen years ago I thought solar power was impractical because I thought nuclear power was the answer. But I spent some time on an advisory committee on waste disposal to the Atomic Energy Commission. After that, I began to be very, very skeptical because of the hazards. That’s when I began to study solar power. I’m convinced we have the technology to handle it right now. We could make the transition in a matter of decades if we begin now.”
—M. King Hubbert, Leading Edge Magazine, February 1983
A few people have submitted the Windbelt story. Obviously, I’m aware of this, and most other developments along these lines, as I follow energy issues daily. You may have noticed, however, that I’ve stopped covering alternative energy news on Cryptogon. There are two reasons for this:
1) Energy scarcity has nothing to do with technological barriers (I’ve written about this so many times that the subject is almost nauseating to me now);
and
2) Idiotic comments on the issue by full time shills and people who don’t understand the politics wastes everyones’ time.
But, if you want to see alternative energy stories, or not, let me know. It doesn’t take much effort for me to post interesting developments, since I’m doing the reading anyway.
To vote for more alternative energy stories, make the email subject: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY STORIES: YES
To vote for less alternative energy stories, make the email subject: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY STORIES: NO
Before you vote YES, know that comments will be turned off.
I don’t know of any topic that generates more useless comments than altervative energy technologies and I don’t have the time to set the ignorance and lies (by omission and derailment) straight over and over again on these issues. I’ve been content to just leave it. But readers are submitting the stories anyway…
For every clean energy invention, there are lots of people who want to leave comments in blogs (not just on Cryptogon) about why it’s no good for anything and how peak oil will kill us all off, etc. Even mentioning alternatives represents thought crimes for these people. There are lots of ways to lie about energy scarcity. When religious peaknics are pressed into a corner on the absurdity of energy scarcity (Hubbert himself, the god of peak oilers, said solar was the way in 1983, never mind the untapped gigawatts of kinetic energy that are unleashed by the oceans of the world each day), they change the subject to top soil depletion, economic collapse, climate change, etc.—all of which I acknowledge as very real and far more difficult to mitigate than energy scarcity. This is lying by derailing the conversation; changing the subject. The expense of clean energy is the next nonsense argument, with never a breath on what the U.S. spends on military operations around the world per hour, per minute, per second vs. the incredible advancements that resulted from minuscule grants into clean energy research. This is lying by omission. Additionally, the Steorn debacle now comes up in discussions of clean energy inventions. (See here and here.) This is called poisoning the well.
The barriers to clean energy are political in nature, not scientific or technological. And to the people who endlessly mention Hubbert’s Peak, and never mention the man’s ideas for the solution…
How many peak oil sites are there? Hundreds? Thousands? How many of them mention Hubbert’s words above about solar power… Look into it. [just don’t rely on Google] The answer is that NONE of the big peak oil sites mention that passage from M King Hubbert [as of October 14, 2007].
That’s one of the most fascinating aspects of peak oil that I’ve encountered so far.
CORRECTION: Google set me up the bomb somewhat on that one above. Never say never when the statement is based on a belief that Google’s index is accurate. I should know better. It doesn’t index Cryptogon properly anymore. Tim has warned about this as well. I use the built in search function in WordPress to find things on my own site now because Google is disappearing things. But that’s the beauty of the Intertubes; when a correction is necessary, it doesn’t take long for me to hear about it.
Gav wrote in and found these references to Hubbert’s statements on the viability of solar power:
http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2006/05/atomic-wedgie-coming-up.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/3800.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/3845.html
Try searching the phrase: I’m convinced we have the technology to handle it right now.
I don’t know what you see there, but the results I’ve got aren’t accurate. I only see three sites, none of which are the original source of the quote on mkinghubbert.com or the energybulletin.net page.
— End Correction —
So, alternative energy stories on Cryptogon, or not?
It’s up to you.
Related:
Dirt: The Silent Global Crisis
All Electric Vehicles and the Concept of Enough
Clean Energy and Turning What’s Left Into Trash
The United States of Subprime: “I’m Going to Lose My Home Anyway, So Why Pay?”
October 13th, 2007Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Journal’s findings reveal that the subprime aftermath is hurting a far broader array of Americans than many realize, cutting across differences in income, race and geography. From investors hoping to strike it rich by speculating on condominiums to the working poor chasing the homeownership dream, subprime loans burrowed into the heart of the American financial system — and now are bringing deepening woe.
Big Banks Trying to Avoid Global Economic Crash, Planning to Back as Much as $100 Billion in “Shaky” Mortgage Securities and Other Investments
October 13th, 2007How these banks are going to juggle so much filthy, festering, hemorrhaging debt is a mystery to me. Maybe governments will eventually wind up eating it, like with Northern Rock in the UK. Maybe hyperinflation will make paying these debts down much easier. Maybe… Hmm. How much opium is Afghanistan producing???
This is an astonishing article. These firms are admitting that the thing is about to go off the rails. They need to cling together and absorb the fallout from this subprime thing, or the it’s game over.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
In a far-reaching response to the global credit crisis, Citigroup Inc. and other big banks are discussing a plan to pool together and financially back as much as $100 billion in shaky mortgage securities and other investments.
The banks met three weeks ago in Washington at the Treasury Department, which convened the talks and is playing a central advisory role, people familiar with the situation said. The meeting was hosted by Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance, Robert Steel, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. official and the top domestic finance adviser to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The Federal Reserve has been kept informed but has left the active role to the Treasury.
The new fund is designed to stave off what Citigroup and others see as a threat to the financial markets world-wide: the danger that dozens of huge bank-affiliated funds will be forced to unload billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities and other assets, driving down their prices in a fire sale. That could force big write-offs by banks, brokerages and hedge funds that own similar investments and would have to mark them down to the new, lower market prices.
The ultimate fear: If banks need to write down more assets or are forced to take assets onto their books, that could set off a broader credit crunch and hurt the economy. It could make it tough for homeowners and businesses to get loans. Efforts so far by central banks to alleviate the credit crunch that has been roiling markets since the summer haven’t fully calmed investors, leading to the extraordinary move to bring together the banks.
In recent weeks, investors have grown concerned about the size of bank-affiliated funds that have invested huge sums in securities tied to shaky U.S. subprime mortgages and other assets. Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank by market value, has drawn special scrutiny because it is the largest player in this market.
Citigroup has nearly $100 billion in seven affiliated structured investment vehicles, or SIVs. Globally, SIVs had $400 billion in assets as of Aug. 28, according to Moody’s.
Such vehicles are formally independent of the banks that create them. They issue their own short-term debt, usually at relatively low interest rates reflecting their high credit rating. The vehicles use the money to buy higher-yielding longer-term assets such as securities tied to mortgages or receivables from midsize businesses seeking to raise cash.
Many SIVs had trouble rolling over their short-term debt in August because of concerns about the quality of their assets. That contributed to the broader seizing up of credit markets.
The Financial Services Authority, the United Kingdom’s markets regulator, has suggested that U.K. banks consider participating in the plan, a person familiar with the situation said. HSBC Holdings PLC, the largest U.K. bank, has an affiliate SIV called Cullinan Finance Ltd. with $35 billion in senior debt. An HSBC representative wasn’t immediately available to comment.
If the banks agree, the plan could be announced as early as Monday, people familiar with the matter said. Citigroup announces third-quarter earnings Monday. The tentative name for the fund is Master-Liquidity Enhancement Conduit, or M-LEC.
Research Credit: PD
Pope Clement Cleared Templars of All Heresies in Secret Vatican Document
October 13th, 2007What other “misplaced” documents are entombed in that library? And why release this information now? Wow, what a mind boggler…
Lots of people have made careers out of Templar lore, it will be interesting to see what the pros think about this incredible revelation.
This is a worthless, reckless and wildass guess on my part, but I’d say that this represents just a drop in the bucket, and that the Church has probably “misplaced” entire stacks of documents related to the rolling up of the Templars.
While it might seem easy to laugh off the Church as some kind of creaking anachronism, that thing is the longest lived crime syndicate in the world; a cryptocracy that spans millennia. The treachery and atrocities that we commonly ascribe to modern states only seem remarkable until you look at what the Church has been up to since the dawn of dirt. All I’m saying is that we can learn a lot about how fascists behave today by keeping one eye on what most people have forgotten, or never knew, about the Catholic Church.
As just one example, I like John Ralston Saul’s treatment of the Jesuit Order in Voltaire’s Bastards. And, of course, no self respecting tinfoil site could mention the Catholic Church and not mention Vatican Assassins.
So, what do you make of this revelation about the Templars?
Via: Reuters:
The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years.
A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, “‘Processus Contra Templarios — Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'” is a massive work and much more than a book — with a 5,900 euros ($8,333) price tag.
“This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project,” said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican’s Secret Archives.
“Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.
The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and — to tantalize Templar buffs — replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors.
Reuters was given an advance preview of the work, of which only 799 numbered copies have been made.
One parchment measuring about half a meter wide by some two meters long is so detailed that it includes reproductions of stains and imperfections seen on the originals.
Pope Benedict will be given the first set of the work, published by the Vatican Secret Archives in collaboration with Italy’s Scrinium cultural foundation, which acted as curator and will have exclusive world distribution rights.
…
The Templars went into decline after Muslims re-conquered the Holy Land at the end of the 13th century and were accused of heresy by King Philip IV of France, their foremost persecutor. Their alleged offences included denying Christ and secretly worshipping idols.
The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip’s attempts to eliminate them.
Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip’s agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.
The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was “misplaced” in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.
“The parchment was catalogued incorrectly at some point in history. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was incredulous,” she said.
“This was the document that a lot of historians were looking for,” the 37-year-old scholar said.
Philip was heavily indebted to the Templars, who had helped him finance his wars, and getting rid of them was a convenient way of cancelling his debts, some historians say.
Frale said Pope Clement was convinced that while the Templars had committed some grave sins, they were not heretics.
Active Denial Weapon Demonstration Video
October 12th, 2007Freedom you can feel.
Related: Say Hello to the Goodbye Weapon
Qwest Refused to Participate with Some Aspects of NSA Surveillance Program
October 11th, 2007Again, there’s something else that we’re not aware of yet. Something besides the run-of-the-mill surveillance. From the article about Qwest article below:
Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.
The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.
This is almost certainly referring to the same issues about which former NSA officer Russell Tice said:
“In my case, there’s no way the programs I want to talk to Congress about should be public ever, unless maybe in 200 years they want to declassify them. You should never learn about it; no one at the Times should ever learn about these things.”
Full text follows.
Via: Rocky Mountain News:
The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.
The documents indicate what likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio’s so-called “classified information” defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it.
The secret contracts – worth hundreds of millions of dollars – made Nacchio optimistic about Qwest’s future, even as his staff was warning him the company might not make its numbers, Nacchio’s defense attorneys have maintained. But Nacchio didn’t present that argument at trial.
The documents suggest U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham refused to allow Nacchio to present the argument about retaliation. Nottingham also said Nacchio would have to take the stand to raise the classified defense.
Prosecutors have said they were prepared to poke holes in Nacchio’s classified defense.
Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He’s free pending appeal.
The partially redacted documents were filed under seal before, during and after Nacchio’s trial. They were released Wednesday.
Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.
The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.
The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest.
USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA track phone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational activities. Nacchio’s attorney, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn’t think the NSA program had legal standing.
In the documents, Nacchio also asserts Qwest was in line to build a $2 billion private government network called GovNet and do other government business, including a network between the U.S. and South America.
The documents maintain that Nacchio met with top government officials, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in 2000 and early 2001 to discuss how to protect the government’s communications network.
They portray U.S. government officials, even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worried about a “Pearl Harbor” type of attack on the Internet. As early as 1997, a three-star general talked to Nacchio about using Qwest’s new fiber-optic network for government purposes, according to the defense.
One key meeting with a government official was held at Qwest founder Phil Anschutz’s ranch near Greeley, with former Chief Financial Officer Robin Szeliga prevented from attending presumably because she lacked security clearance.
Nacchio was on a Bush-appointed national security telecommunications advisory panel. In March 2001, then-counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke asked the panel if it would be possible to build a private network for the government to protect it from cyberwarfare.
Nacchio piped up: “I already built this network twice” for other government agencies. The defense asserts Nacchio believed Qwest would be asked to build the network and that it could do so in six months.
But the contract didn’t materialize.
Related: NSA, AT&T and the NarusInsight Intercept Suite
Related: Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation
Are There Too Many Dollar Bears?
October 11th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
With the U.S. Dollar Index currently printing all time lows, this Peter Schiff article seems appropriate.
Via: Kitco:
For the dollar to register a significant short-term bottom based on negative sentiment, I feel there would have to be a much greater sense of panic associated with its weakness. However such is clearly not the case. The overwhelming consensus is that a weak dollar is good for America. Ironically there is more worry in Europe over the strong euro than there is in America over the weak dollar. My prediction is that before we get any significant dollar bounce this complacency will need to be replaced by outright fear, and that the dollar needs to fall more sharply as investors actually act on those fears by dumping dollars.
Of course should such a run on the dollar commence, it will not be the orderly decline everyone seems to expect. However, I am still not sure why so many feel a declining dollar is not a problem so long as it does so in an orderly manner. If you’re headed to the poor house what difference does it make how you get there? Whichever road you travel, you’re just as broke when you arrive!
