Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution
October 20th, 2007Via: Phoenix New Times:
This newspaper and its editorial staff — both current and former — are the targets of unprecedented grand jury subpoenas dated August 24.
The authorities are also using the grand jury subpoenas in an attempt to research the identity, purchasing habits, and browsing proclivities of our online readership.
It is, we fear, the authorities’ belief that what you are about to read here is against the law to publish. But there are moments when civil disobedience is merely the last option. We pray that our judgment is free of arrogance.
More: Case Dropped
U.S. Armaments Industry Backing Hillary Clinton
October 19th, 2007In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
—From the farewell speech of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
Paying attention to U.S. presidential elections is probably the most egregious waste of time imaginable, and I promise not to do it much, but for those of you who still don’t get it, even now…
Hillary Clinton is Cheney in drag.
Via: Independent:
An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.
…
“The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed,” said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York.
Republican administrations are by tradition much stronger supporters of US armaments programmes and Pentagon spending plans than Democratic governments. Relations between the arms industry and Bill Clinton soured when he slimmed down the military after the end of the Cold War. His wife, however, has been careful not to make the same mistake.
After her election to the Senate, she became the first New York senator on the armed services committee, where she revealed her hawkish tendencies by supporting the invasion of Iraq. Although she now favours a withdrawal of US troops, her position on Iran is among the most warlike of all the candidates – Democrat or Republican.
This week, she said that, if elected president, she would not rule out military strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear weapons facilities. While on the armed services committee, Mrs Clinton has befriended key generals and has won the endorsement of General Wesley Clarke, who ran Nato’s war in Kosovo. A former presidential candidate himself, he is spoken of as a potential vice-presidential running mate.
Mrs Clinton has been a regular visitor to Iraq and Afghanistan and is careful to focus her criticisms of the Iraq war on President Bush, rather than the military. The arms industry has duly taken note.
iRobot Warrior X700
October 19th, 2007Via: Army Times:
iRobot has unveiled a 250-pound, weapons-firing, stair-climbing, ammo-carrying military robot that will one day run a four-minute mile, iRobot developers said.
Early versions of the multimission iRobot Warrior X700, the latest offering from the Burlington, Mass.-based robot makers, are slated to be ready by the second half of next year.
“It is the largest vehicle that can still go into a building. We’re looking at urban warfare and going into lots of different types of buildings with it,†said Helen Greiner, iRobot chairman and co-founder. “We really think of it as a multimission platform. It can be deploying weapons systems. It can be doing re-supply operations, taking ammo or water to troops who are pinned down, perimeter security and building clearing.â€
Configured with tracks similar to its smaller predecessor, the iRobot PackBot, the heavier Warrior can carry a 500-pound payload and use its robotic arm to lift 150 pounds.
“Right now, it can go 10 miles per hour. When we finish the development, it will be able to do a four-minute mile,†said retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Joe Dyer, iRobot’s president of the government and industrial division. “You are starting to see the first robot that can really haul your pack and be not only a partner but be a stronger and faster partner.â€
In addition to being ruggedized for carrying supplies, the Warrior and PackBot are being engineered with advanced software, giving them the ability to perform some battlefield functions autonomously.
“The software says, ‘Hey, robot, get back up yourself.’ If you lose [communications], right now you have to go get the robot,†Dyer said. “A capability they are building into PackBot is if you lose comms, go back to where you could talk last and re-establish comms on your own.â€
At the same time, a key dimension to the Warrior X700 is its ability to protect soldiers by firing weapons such as a machine gun or 40mm explosive round.
“The Warrior has the stability and the engineering to be a weapons platform,†Dyer said.
More: Roomba-Maker Unveils Kill-Bot
Related: MAARS: New Armed Robot Groomed for War
Related: Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14
Council on Foreign Relations: Regional Monetary Integration
October 19th, 2007Regional Monetary Integration by Peter B. Kenen and Ellen Meade
Bonus points for the coincidence value: The biggest front for the elite in the world publishes a book about monetary integration as the U.S. Dollar collapses.
Priceless.
Via: Council on Foreign Relations:
This book surveys the prospects for regional monetary integration in various parts of the world. Beginning with a brief review of the theory of optimal currency areas, it goes on to examine the structure and functioning of the European Monetary Union, then turns to the prospects for monetary integration elsewhere in the world—North America, South America, and East Asia. Such cooperation may take the form of full-fledged monetary unions or looser forms of monetary cooperation. Regional Monetary Integration emphasizes the economic and institutional requirements for successful monetary integration, including the need for a single central bank in the case of a full-fledged monetary union and the corresponding need for multinational institutions to safeguard the bank’s independence and assure its accountability. The book concludes with a chapter on the implications of monetary integration for the United States and the U.S. dollar.
Must Read: Council on Foreign Relations on U.S. Dollar: “An Absurdity… Supported Only by Faith”
Research Credit: JG
LAX Security Screeners Miss 75% of Hidden Bombs
October 19th, 2007HA! Keep that in mind as you place your belt and your shoes in the plastic bin.
Via: USA Today:
Security screeners at two of the nation’s busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.
Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.
OIL $90
October 19th, 2007Via: Bloomberg:
Crude oil breached $90 a barrel in New York for the first time as the dollar traded near a record low against the euro, enhancing the appeal of commodities as an investment.
Investors purchased oil on speculation the Federal Reserve will cut borrowing costs to bolster the U.S. economy when policy makers meet on Oct. 31. Oil futures set records the past four days on concern supplies from northern Iraq may be disrupted if Turkey takes military action against Kurdish rebels.
Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14
October 19th, 2007Via: Wired:
The South African National Defence Force “is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.”
New Treasury Documents Reveal Loans, Swaps of U.S. Gold
October 18th, 2007U.S. gold reserves in play?
I don’t really understand how this would work. The article says that the gold is being sold into the spot market. Doesn’t the gold have to be replaced? How do the parties who borrowed the gold pay it back? They would have to buy it back again, presumably lower, right? If that’s what’s happening here, that seems like a VERY risky bet. What if the criminals who are doing this get squeezed higher? Woops.
Via: Goldseek:
The US Treasury quietly made a subtle change to its weekly reports of the US International Reserve Position, which includes the US Gold Reserve. This change was first made on May 14th. The differences can be seen by comparing the report’s old format release on May 8th to the new format used the following week. Here are the links:
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/2007581342179779.htm http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/20075141738291821.htm
Note the additional description of gold provided in the new reporting format. It says the US Gold Reserve is 261.499 million ounces and importantly, that the gold is now reported “including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped†[emphasis added].
This description provides clear evidence that the US Gold Reserve is in play. Gold has been removed from US Treasury vaults and placed on deposit, presumably in the couple of bullion banks the Treasury has selected to assist with its gold price capping efforts.
Gold placed on deposit gets loaned out by these bullion banks, and then sold into the spot market to try capping the gold price. The same thing happens with swaps, but the vague language in the note to the Treasury reports makes it uncertain whether they are in fact being used at the moment.
It is noteworthy that this change of accounting occurred in May. Could it be that the gold cartel had to dip into the US Gold Reserve to accommodate the big gold buybacks of hedge books that Lihir and others completed at that time?
The timing is also conspicuous because it occurred about the time GLD, the exchange-traded fund, showed a reduction of 23 tonnes of metal. Did GLD need to borrow gold from the US Treasury to replenish its stock? This was also a period when large deliveries and exchange-for-physicals were taking place on the Comex.
More: GATA
Research Credit: Pookie
Homeland Security Seizes Band’s New Album
October 18th, 2007Via: MTV News:
Yes, it seems that recently, Walla’s solo record (which has been scheduled to come out at various points over the past, well, four years) took another step toward oblivion when the master hard drive — containing all song files — was confiscated by Homeland Security at the Canadian border, for reasons not abundantly clear, and sent to the department’s computer-forensics division for further inspection.
If it sounds like a huge joke, Walla ensures you it isn’t.
“It’s a true story. Barsuk [Records, which is putting out the record] had hired a courier — who does international stuff all the time and who they had used before — to bring [the album] back from Canada, where I was working on it. And he got to the border and he had all his paperwork and it was all cool, only they turned him away, and they confiscated the drive and gave it to the computer-forensics division of our Homeland Security-type people,” sighed Walla, who has produced nearly all Death Cab’s output, as well as records by the Decemberists, Hot Hot Heat, Nada Surf, Tegan and Sara and others. “And now I couldn’t even venture a guess as to where it is, or what it’s doing there. I mean, I can’t just call their customer-service center and ask about my drive. There’s nothing I can do. I don’t know if we can hire an attorney … is there a black-hole attorney? You can’t take a black hole to court.”
And though his song files might have disappeared into a web of government bureaucracy, Walla does still have the tapes containing all his songs, which he’s now trying to master and mix on his own in order to have the record out — Lord willin’ — in January.
“Luckily, the tapes are Plan B, so while I’m bummed about the whole thing, it could be a whole lot worse,” he laughed. “I still get to play music. I mean, I’m not at Guantánamo or anything like that. I mean, my drive might be. They could be water-boarding my drive for all I know.”
David Kelly: Secret Knife Evidence Points to Murder
October 18th, 2007Imagine my shock.
In 2004, The Scotsman reported: Kelly ‘Could not Have Died’ from Knife Wound, Paramedics Claim:
Ms Hunt, a paramedic with more than ten year’s experience, said yesterday that shortly after arriving at the scene of Dr Kelly’s death she concluded he had not died by slashing his wrists.
She said: “I just think it is incredibly unlikely that he died from the wrist wound we saw. There just wasn’t a lot of blood. When someone cuts an artery, whether accidentally or intentionally, the blood pumps everywhere.”
She added: “When we arrived on the scene there was no gaping wound, there wasn’t a puddle of blood around. There was a little bit of blood on the nettles to the left of his left arm. But there was no real blood on the body of the shirt.
“If you manage to cut a wrist and catch an artery you would get a spraying of blood, regardless of whether it’s an accident. Because of the nature of an arterial cut, you get a pumping action. I would certainly expect a lot more blood on his clothing, on his shirt.
“If you choose to cut your wrists, you don’t worry about getting blood on your clothes. I didn’t see any blood on his right hand. If he used his right hand to cut his wrist, you would expect some spray,” the paramedic said.
Ms Hunt’s claims were backed yesterday by a number of prominent experts, including Dr Bill McQuillan, a former consultant at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, who for 20 years has dealt with hundreds of wrist accidents.
“I have never seen one death resulting from cutting an ulnar artery,” Dr McQuillan said. “I can’t see how he would lose more than a pint of blood by cutting the ulnar.”
But despite growing doubts about the case, other forensic experts remain “satisfied” with Lord Hutton’s verdict.
And now…
Via: Mirror:
Newly released evidence adds to the theory that MoD scientist Dr David Kelly was murdered and did not commit suicide, an MP has claimed.
Norman Baker revealed that the penknife Dr Kelly apparently used to slash his wrist did not carry his own fingerprints.
Lib Dem Mr Baker said: “The angle you pick up a knife to kill yourself means there would be fingerprints.
“Someone who wanted to kill themselves wouldn’t go to the lengths of wiping the knife clean of fingerprints.
“It is just very suspicious. It is one of the things that makes me think Dr Kelly was murdered. The case should be re-opened.”
UN weapons inspector Dr Kelly, 59, was found dead near his Oxfordshire home in 2003, days after he was named as the source of a BBC story that claimed the Government had “sexed up” a dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
The dossier said Saddam Hussein could launch conventional nuclear or biological weapons within 45 minutes.
Independent doctors have said neither the cut to Dr Kelly’s wrist nor the drugs found in his body were enough to kill him.
And they claimed the official cause of death, a severed ulnar artery in the wrist, was extremely unlikely to be fatal.
