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"You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." - Cindy Sheehan

P I C T U R E   O F  T H E  D A Y
©2005 Pierre-Paul Feyte


CNN
Thursday, November 10, 2005
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Al Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is claiming responsibility for three suicide bombings in hotels in Amman, Jordan, according to a posting on a Web site Thursday.

At least 56 people were killed in the attacks Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson and Days Inn hotels. Another 93 people were wounded.

The claim was made on a Web site used by the group. Its authenticity cannot be verified by CNN.


A Jordanian official earlier had said al-Zarqawi was a "prime suspect" in the terror bombings.

Several of those killed in the hotel blasts were Palestinian officials. [...]

Officials from other governments, however, were among the dead. Four Palestinians, including Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh, head of Palestinian military intelligence, died in the blast at the Grand Hyatt, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. Also killed was Col. Abed Allun; Jihad Fattouh, the brother of the Palestinian parliament speaker; and Mosab Khoma, Erakat said. The four were on their way back from Cairo, Egypt, he said, adding that he condemned the attack in the strongest terms possible.
[...]

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Comment: Yet again "al-qaeda" carries out "suicide bombings" that kill their fellow Arabs. Bizzare. Yet again we must rely on the word of officals from the US-friendly Jordanian government and the Israeli government that it was a suicide bombing, when it may well have been a case of a bombs left in the buildings.

Yet again we have to rely on the word of an unconfirmable internet posting that the bombings were carried out by Al-Zarqawi, the long since deceased Mossad boogeyman du jour. Interestingly, Israeli daily Haaretz initially carried a story that Israeli nationals in one of the hotels had been forwarned of the bombings and were evacuated. Now how could it be that a group of Israeli nationals were given "a specific security alert" in advance of the bombings? This claim, however, has now been conveniently withdrawn.


By Middle East correspondent Matt Brown
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Thursday, November 10, 2005. 6:19pm (AEDT)
Jordanian officials say the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, may have been behind three blasts at landmark hotels in the capital Amman.

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Comment: That scoundrel Zarqawi is at it again. Funny thing is, there was an advance warning and the Israelis in the hotel were able to evacuate in time.

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Haaretz
10/11/2005
A number of Israelis staying on Wednesday at the Radisson hotel were evacuated before the bombing by Jordanian security forces, apparently due to a specific security alert. They were escorted back to Israel by security personnel.

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Comment: It appears that Israeli intelligence has a close connection to the demon Zarqawi.

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 09 November 2005
UK Independent
A leading campaign group has demanded an urgent inquiry into a report that US troops indiscriminately used a controversial incendiary weapon during the battle for Fallujah. Photographic evidence gathered from the aftermath of the battle suggests that women and children were killed by horrific burns caused by the white phosphorus shells dropped by US forces.

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Mike Marqusee
Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian
The destruction of Falluja was an act of barbarism that ranks alongside My Lai, Guernica and Halabja

One year ago this week, US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."

The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population". Two-thirds of the city's 300,000 residents fled, many to squatters' camps without basic facilities.

As the siege tightened, the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the media were kept out, while males between the ages of 15 and 55 were kept in. US sources claimed between 600 and 6,000 insurgents were holed up inside the city - which means that the vast majority of the remaining inhabitants were non-combatants.

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Comment: The war criminals responsible for this massacre should be brought to trial, beginning with Criminal-in-Chief, George Dubya.

Italian RAI reported this week that the US was using phosphorus bombs, outlawed in a treaty signed by the US in 1980. Well, we know what Bush thinks of international treaties. Nothing should be permitted to stop the American military-corporate juggernaut from invading and raping the countries of its choice.

lewrockwell.com
It may sound like an exaggeration to say that just about every major claim made about Iraq and Saddam by the U.S. government since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait has been misleading or simply false, and that the mainstream media has bought into these distortions with nary a peep of opposition, but that’s just about the only conclusion one can draw from Wanniski’s case. If you think it’s an open and shut case that Saddam "gassed his own people," not to mention countless other episodes routinely cited to work us into a frenzy for war, you need to read this.

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Comment: Professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and his Ph.D. from Columbia. He is senior fellow in American history at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His books include How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy, and the New York Times (and LRC) bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

Angus Reid Global Scan
November 9, 2005
Many Americans believe the governments of the United States and Britain claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in order to justify military action, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 43 per cent of respondents believe both administrations lied to provide a reason for invading Iraq.

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Broadcast - 11/09/05
We speak with veteran war correspondent Robert Fisk of the London Independent about the U.S. abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and rendition to other countries as well as the role of journalists in a time of war.

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Information Clearing House
January 28, 2004
Updated January 29, 2004
A chronology of how the Bush Administration repeatedly and deliberately refused to listen to intelligence agencies that said its case for war was weak

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Agencies
Wednesday November 9, 2005
The Guardian
US Torture is being investigated by EU Council

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By Alec Russell in Washington
09/11/2005
UK Telegraph
In a critical test of his influence, Mr Cheney is pitting himself against the Senate and leading officials in the departments of State and Defence in his attempt to allow interrogators a free rein in questioning suspects.

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By E&P Staff
Editor & Publisher
Published: November 08, 2005
NEW YORK At today's White House press briefing, Scott McClellan was hit with a number of questions about the "ethics classes" the president's staffers are now attending. But much of the briefing featured efforts by Helen Thomas, at the start, and then other reporters to get McClellan to explain the apparent contradiction between his claims that the U.S. does not torture anyone and Vice President Cheney's request for an exemption in this matter.

Here are the exchanges from the transcript:

Q I'd like you to clear up, once and for all, the ambiguity about torture. Can we get a straight answer? The President says we don't do torture, but Cheney --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's about as straight as it can be.

Q Yes, but Cheney has gone to the Senate and asked for an exemption on --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, he has not. Are you claiming he's asked for an exemption on torture? No, that's --

Q He did not ask for that?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- that is inaccurate.

Q Are you denying everything that came from the Hill, in terms of torture?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, you're mischaracterizing things. And I'm not going to get into discussions we have --

Q Can you give me a straight answer for once?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me give it to you, just like the President has. We do not torture. He does not condone torture and he would never --

Q I'm asking about exemptions.

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me respond. And he would never authorize the use of torture. We have an obligation to do all that we can to protect the American people. We are engaged --

Q That's not the answer I'm asking for --

MR. McCLELLAN: It is an answer -- because the American people want to know that we are doing all within our power to prevent terrorist attacks from happening. There are people in this world who want to spread a hateful ideology that is based on killing innocent men, women and children. We saw what they can do on September 11th --

Q He didn't ask for an exemption --

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and we are going to --

Q -- answer that one question. I'm asking, is the administration asking for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: I am answering your question. The President has made it very clear that we are going to do --

Q You're not answering -- yes or no?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, you don't want the American people to hear what the facts are, Helen, and I'm going to tell them the facts.

Q -- the American people every day. I'm asking you, yes or no, did we ask for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: And let me respond. You've had your opportunity to ask the question. Now I'm going to respond to it.

Q If you could answer in a straight way.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I'm going to answer it, just like the President -- I just did, and the President has answered it numerous times.

Q -- yes or no --

MR. McCLELLAN: Our most important responsibility is to protect the American people. We are engaged in a global war against Islamic radicals who are intent on spreading a hateful ideology, and intent on killing innocent men, women and children.

Q Did we ask for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are going to do what is necessary to protect the American people.

Q Is that the answer?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are also going to do so in a way that adheres to our laws and to our values. We have made that very clear. The President directed everybody within this government that we do not engage in torture. We will not torture. He made that very clear.

Q Are you denying we asked for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, we will continue to work with the Congress on the issue that you brought up. The way you characterize it, that we're asking for exemption from torture, is just flat-out false, because there are laws that are on the books that prohibit the use of torture. And we adhere to those laws.

Q We did ask for an exemption; is that right? I mean, be simple -- this is a very simple question.

MR. McCLELLAN: I just answered your question. The President answered it last week.

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Comment: Well, that's clear.

By MARTIN SCHRAM
Nov 9, 2005
© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue
As Karen Hughes goes about her urgent job of trying to repair America's disastrously debased image throughout the world -- especially the Muslim world -- she is being undercut by what has become her mission's worst nightmare.

Dick Cheney.





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New York Times
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: November 9, 2005
A classified report issued last year by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current and former intelligence officials say.

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November 9, 2005
Wayne Madsen


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By John Hendren and Warren Vieth
Los Angeles Times
November 09, 2005
In a contentious exchange with White House reporters on Tuesday, McClellan said Cheney's lobbying efforts were intended to preserve the ability to question suspected terrorists aggressively, "consistent with our laws and values."

McClellan denied that the CIA exemption sought by the vice president would allow CIA operatives to torture foreign detainees to extract information about suspected terrorist plots.

McClellan declined, however, to specify exactly what practices Cheney was attempting to preserve in his conversations with lawmakers.

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BILL TORPY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/30/05
The president of embattled Taser International came to Atlanta Tuesday in his ongoing effort to win over hearts and minds.

Tom Smith's mission this time was to try to change the mind of Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Charles Steele, Jr., who has called the Taser stun gun a "murder weapon" and is seeking a moratorium on the Taser's use and sales.

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Mathew Kristin Kiel,
August 31, 2005
Signs of the Times
It also seems that tasers remove all empathy from the officers who use them. It may be that most officers have been so thoroughly convinced of the taser's benign nature they simply fail to understand that it can harm anyone, not even a small child. It is nearly certain that they do not consider it a weapon of last or next to the last resort, but of first and only choice in conflicts with even minimally recalcitrant members of the public. They do not hesitate to use tasers immediately and repeatedly. This is insanity. It would be immediately recognized as insane behaviour if the weapon being used so frequently, arbitrarily and dangerously by police officers were a cudgel or a whip, for example. But there is a peculiar and lethal blind spot in the public's attention and consciousness regarding tasers. Yet tasers are frightening technological devices that deliver a massive dose of artificial lightning to the victim's body and brain.

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By Tony Freinberg and Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
The Telegraph
(Filed: 19/09/2004)
Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting.

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Comment: The "acoustic cannon" LRAD device was recently used to fight off pirates that were attacking a cruise ship. Before that, the same technology was deployed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Guess where it will be used next time??

Dave Heller, article originally appeared in Garlic and Grass
Dave has degrees in physics and architecture and is a builder and engaged citizen in Berkeley, California.
None of the many 9-11 researchers can definitively say exactly what happened on that fateful day in September almost 3 years ago. But any sensible person can easily spot dozens of inconsistencies in the official story that is being forced upon us. And the fact is, most of the available 9-11 evidence points to at least some level of government complicity or foreknowledge.

Please, read more for yourself. Don't take my word for it. Most of all, do not buy the double-speak that visible politicians and the media use to discount any question about 9-11. Clearly, there are no "conspiracy theories" surrounding 9-11. The official story itself affirms that there was obviously some kind of conspiracy. It's just a question of which conspiracy occurred. We know it wasn't mere coincidence that several hijackers happened to be on several different airplanes and happened to hijack them at the exact same time and happened to pick the World Trade Center as a target. The real question is, "Who was involved in the conspiracy?"

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Laurence W. Britt
Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2.
[T]here is one archetypal political philosophy that is anathema to almost all of theprinciples [of Humanism]. It is fascism. And fascism’s principles are wafting in the air today, surreptitiously masquerading as something else, challenging everything we stand for. The cliché that people and nations learn from history is not only overused, but also overestimated; often we fail to learn from history, or draw the wrong conclusions. Sadly, historical amnesia is the norm.

Laurence Britt identifies 14 characteristics common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 "identifying characteristics of fascism."

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Comment: For those who keep asking: What can we DO? HERE is a nice tri-fold, double sided, single sheet of paper pamphlet to download. If everyone printed as many as they can afford and began placing them in doctor's offices, laundromats, coffee shops, library books, bookstores, and any other places you can think of, it might be the equivalent of the flap of a butterfly wings that creates a storm.

BBC
Thursday, 10 November 2005, 09:53 GMT
Fingerprints taken from one of the suspected militants killed in Indonesia on Thursday match those of bomb expert Azahari Husin, police have said.

Azahari, a Malaysian, is an explosives expert believed to have built the bombs used in the 2002 Bali attacks.

Earlier, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was "convinced" the dead man was Azahari.

Azahari and two other men were killed after police surrounded their house in East Java.

He was initially thought to have blown himself up, but national police chief General Sutanto told reporters on Thursday that Azahari was either shot during the raid or died when another militant detonated a homemade bomb.

"Thirty wired explosives were found inside the house, which were possibly to be used to conduct bombings," Gen Sutanto said, according to the Detikcom online news service.

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BBC
Thursday, 10 November 2005, 12:29 GMT
Tony Blair has accused some MPs of being out of touch with the public and of failing to face the terror threat.

Mr Blair met his Cabinet after a vote on anti-terror plans brought his first Commons defeat as prime minister.

He told ministers there was a "worrying gap between parts of Parliament and the reality of the terrorist threat and public opinion".

MPs on Wednesday rejected plans to allow police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

The plans were defeated by 31 votes, with 49 Labour MPs rebelling against the government.

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Comment: One would be foolish to think that Blair will allow the defection of 49 Labour backbenchers stop his bringing in tyrannical laws in the fight against "terrorism". British intelligence will just have to stage another "terrorist" attack in London or elsewhere in the UK to convince the population that such measures are necessary.

Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian
Mathieu Kassovitz
La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz's critically acclaimed 1995 film, detailed the aftermath of a riot on an impoverished Paris housing project. Kassovitz put this statement about this week's riots - and the reaction of France's minister of the interior - on his website yesterday

As much as I would like to distance myself from politics, it is difficult to remain distant in the face of the depravations of politicians. And when these depravations draw the hate of all youth, I have to restrain myself from encouraging the rioters.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who has appeared in the media like a starlet from American Idol and who for the past years has been showering us with details of his private life and political ambitions, cannot prevent himself from creating an event every time his ratings go down. This time, Sarkozy [who last week described the rioters as "scum"] has gone against everything the French republic stands for: the liberty, the equality and the fraternity of a people.

The minister of the interior, a future presidential candidate, holds ideas that not only reveal his inexperience of politics and human relations, but which also illuminate the purely demagogical and egocentric aspects of a puny, would-be Napoleon.

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AFP
PARIS, Nov 10
Exactly two weeks into one of the worst crises in the country's modern history, France's government was cautiously hopeful Thursday that the wave of violence that has swept through many of its towns and cities could be past its peak.

A marked downturn in the number of car-burnings overnight Tuesday -- coupled with a carrot-and-stick initiative combining emergency police powers with the promise of more help for the impoverished suburbs -- provided the first hint that calm could be returning.

There was a "significant fall" in the level of violence in French towns and cities overnight, with 482 cars burned and 203 people arrested, national police chief Michel Gaudin said Thursday.

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AFP
WASHINGTON, Nov 9
The riots in France remained on the front page of major US newspapers Wednesday, with some saying that the unrest was a wake-up call for Europe and others warning that extremists are exploiting the violence.

The conservative Washington Times said that while the street riots did not appear to be instigated by overseas terrorists "there are growing fears that Islamic extremists are exploiting the unrest".

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Wayne Madsen Report
November 9, 2005
France imposed a state of emergency as rioting continued for a 13th straight night and spread to more towns, including Calais, the French end of the "Chunnel" rail link to England; St. Raphael; Amiens; Grasses; Bassens; Savigny-sur-Orge, and Arras. Other cases of arson were reported throughout Belgium -- in Ghent, Antwerp, Lokeren -- and in Germany, where Cologne was hit for the first time with car arson.

WMR has emphasized that the arson attacks are well planned, coordinated, and only plaguing the three major NATO countries that opposed the war in Iraq, For that reason, European law enforcement and intelligence agencies should place 24x7 surveillance on Israeli diplomatic and intelligence personnel who may be engaged in "Lavon Affair" and "911" style false flag operations. Such an operation aimed at Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez may have just been uncovered in Trinidad and Tobago.

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By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer
Nov 09 4:57 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to curb some of the police powers it gave the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including imposing new restrictions on the FBI's access to private phone and financial records.

A budding House-Senate deal on the expiring USA Patriot Act includes new limits on federal law enforcement powers and rejects the Bush administration's request to grant the FBI authority to get administrative subpoenas for wiretaps and other covert devices without a judge's approval.

Even with the changes, however, every part of the law set to expire Dec. 31 would be reauthorized and most of those provisions would become permanent.

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Reuters
November 10, 2005
WASHINGTON - Record oil prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a drop in overall exports helped push the U.S. trade deficit to a record $66.1 billion in September, shattering the previous high of $60.4 billion set in February, the government said on Thursday.

The record trade gap was much wider than a mid-point forecast of $61.0 billion made by Wall Street economists.


The Commerce Department said the deficit widened 11.4 percent from August, the largest month-to-month jump since June 2004.

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Comment: Despite the playing down of the effects of Katrina by the Bush administration, it is clear that the hurricane has only accelerated the coming of the economic crash.

By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
November 04, 2005
According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.

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By T.K. Maloy
UPI Deputy Business Editor
Nov 08, 2005
Washington - Online holiday shopping is poised for strong growth this year, among other factors helped along by higher gas prices.

Several retail analyst groups -- Goldman, Sachs & Co., Nielsen/NetRatings and Harris Interactive -- said Monday they would be jointly tracking online sales during the holiday season, adding that predictions were for a solid cyber-selling season.

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Comment: That's good news for online retailers, but bad news for regular stores - and their employees.

By Ernest Partridge
Co-Editor The Crisis Papers
11/09/05 "ICH "
The failure of Bush’s FEMA to deal with the Katrina catastrophe can not be hidden forever from the public. Nor can the loss of manufacturing jobs and their export overseas. Nor can the rising price of gasoline and the obscene profits of the oil companies. Nor can the upward redistribution of national wealth from the producers to the owners of that wealth. Nor can the corruption and the consequent indictments or investigations of the malefactors: DeLay, Safavian, Frist, Libby, Abramoff, and now Tomlinson. Nor can the horrendous tales of torture in Bush’s Gulag. Nor can the shredding of our Constitution and the loss of our “inalienable rights.” Nor can the mounting casualties from the Iraq war, as they return home in caskets (“transfer tubes”) or with broken minds and bodies. And despite the media conspiracy of silence, the evidence of election fraud can not be suppressed. The unthinkable is becoming thinkable.

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By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: November 9, 2005
The New York Times
The New York Times and Judith Miller, a veteran reporter for the paper, reached an agreement today that ends her 28-year career at the newspaper and caps more than two weeks of negotiations.[...]

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Comment: So Judy won a prize for a book on the growing threat of al Qaeda before running off with Chalabi to Iraq to stir up the whole WMD cover story for her buddies in Tel Aviv...er Washington. And then she went on to become the cover girl for the free press by refusing to testify in the Valerie Plame investigation. Yeah, serving as a conduit for phoney intelligence from Israel is so heroic. And now that it is over, the NYT can wash its hands and preserve its aura of being the "paper of record".

Business as usual.

It really is too bad that she wasn't able to "pursue answers" as to the intelligence failures that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. She probably could have found a way to blame it on Osama.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Thursday, November 10, 2005. 12:08pm (AEDT)
Some Riverina residents, in southern New South Wales, feared they had witnessed a plane crash early last night when they saw an apparent meteor shower. [...]

"Oh, there was a big ball of flame falling out of the sky ... it would have been about 6.30pm [AEDT] and would've been north, north-east of where we were. It didn't last very long, you had to be quick to see it," he said.

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Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Richard L. Hill
Fireballs -- large meteors that are a rare treat in fall's typically cloudy weather -- have been spotted streaking across the Oregon sky in the past two weeks.

Dick Pugh, a meteor expert with with the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory at Portland State University, said he received reports from surprised eyewitnesses of fireballs Oct. 30 and Monday evening.

A Beaverton man reported seeing Monday's fireball at 7:16 p.m. It lasted about four seconds and was nearly the diameter of a full moon.

"He said it moved from the northwest to the southwest and ended up looking like a dumbbell," which indicates it probably was breaking up, Pugh said.

The fireballs are part of the annual Taurid meteor shower, which is caused by the Earth passing through debris shed by comet Encke. The tiny dust grains make white-hot streaks of light as they slam into the atmosphere at 65,000 mph.

The normally unremarkable Taurid shower is putting on a good show this year, with Earth apparently going through a debris area with unusually large particles.

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Comment: So if the many fireballs that have been seen across the globle over the past two weeks are just the Taurids with "unusually large particles", then how do we explain the many fireballs sightings and impacts that have been reported over the past several years? When the Taurids and Leonids pass, yet the fireballs keep coming, we wonder what colorful explanation they will come up with to explain away the screamingly obvious.


MSNBC
Nov. 4, 2005
HANOI, Vietnam - One of the many mysteries of bird flu is that it has not infected more people like Ha Thi Quynh.

The woman in her late 30s holds up a plump, live goose by its feet at Hanoi’s largest poultry market. Although blood, feathers and bird droppings cling to her pants and rubber sandals, she doesn’t worry about bird flu.

“I have no problem,” she says. Quynh has driven a motorbike loaded with about 35 chickens and geese on a two-hour trip to the market every day for the past 10 years. “If customers ask me to slaughter the chicken, then I will do it.” Story continues below ? advertisement

Quynh and the others at Long Bien market say they’re living proof bird flu is hard for people to catch. They work without fear or protective gear in a place where fresh blood runs through open gutters and stray feathers glide through the humid air, thick with the stench of death. They say not a single person from the market has ever gotten sick or died from the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Researchers agree. They’re just not sure why these people have stayed healthy. [...]

Why has the disease attacked mostly healthy children and young adults, who may have had a few chickens pecking in their back yards or villages? Is there some sort of immunity acquired by commercial farmers and others who have worked around the poultry for so long, or is it some other reason?

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Comment: The mention of the fact that "bird flu" appears to target the young and healthy reminds us of the effects of another notable pandemic that occurred some 87 years ago.


Spanish Flu - genetically specific?

[...] Not only was the Spanish Flu strikingly virulent, but it displayed an unusual preference in its choice of victims -- tending to select young healthy adults over those with weakened immune systems, as in the very young, the very old, and the infirm. The normal age distribution for flu mortality was completely reversed, and had the effect of gouging from society's infrastructure the bulk of those responsible for its day to day maintenance
Of course, "Spanish Flu" is somewhat of a misnomer because, while the virus did kill up to 8 million people in Spain in May 1918, the virus was actually first detected in the early spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the US.

Most interesting of all is the fact that the U.S. military has "recreated" the Spanish flu in a laboratory:
US Army scientists create "Spanish Flu" virus in laboratory - medical benefit questionable

UPI
11/9/2005 3:55:00 PM -0500
GARCHING, Germany, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have recorded a massive star moving at more than 1.5 million mph.

Since stars are not born with such large velocities, its position suggests it was ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud, perhaps by a massive black hole in the Milky Way's closest neighbor.

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Last Updated Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:34:56 EST
CBC News
Environment Canada is trying to determine whether a tornado was responsible for ripping the roof off an elementary school in Hamilton, Ont., on Wednesday, slightly injuring two students.

The children were among a group practising volleyball in the gym of the Lawfield Public School at about 4 p.m. when a bout of severe weather hit.

"I just heard a big gust of wind and the roof just collapsed," said Matt Theoret, one of the students in the gym. "The windows blew in... We all ran."

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AFP
Thu Nov 10, 2:04 AM ET
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - United Nations officials have warned that widespread rain in Pakistan's quake zone could be disastrous for their struggle to contain an outbreak of acute diarrhoea in squalid tent camps.

There have been at least 200 cases and possibly as many as 750 at one camp for homeless quake survivors in Pakistani Kashmir, amid fears that it could be cholera, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF said.

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SPX
Nov 10, 2005
A University of California, Berkeley seismologist has discovered a way to provide seconds to tens of seconds of advance warning about impending ground shaking from an earthquake.

While a few seconds may not sound like much, it is enough time for school children to dive under their desks, gas and electric companies to shut down or isolate their systems, phone companies to reroute traffic, airports to halt takeoffs and landings, and emergency providers to pinpoint probable trouble areas. Such actions can save lives and money.

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Nov 9, 4:08 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
President George W. Bush met at the White House on Wednesday with the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, ignoring objections from China 10 days before he makes an official visit to Beijing. [...]

The human rights record in China, where everything from critical Internet postings to publishing underground newspapers to religious worship can carry a stiff jail term, is a constant source of friction between Beijing and Washington.

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By CLARK KAUFFMAN
DES MOINES REGISTER STAFF WRITER
November 9, 2005
A security firm fires an Iowa man who says he saw an apparition while on the job

Can a worker be fired from his job because he believes in ghosts?

Yes, according to one Iowa judge — although, the judge says, such beliefs don't constitute worker misconduct, which would disqualify him from receiving unemployment benefits.

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Cambridge Evening News
09 November 2005
BLUE and white circular objects reported in the sky, shooting stars falling to the ground, a silver grey rod flying over a small town - it sounds like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But an exclusive News investigation has discovered normally quiet and unassuming small towns such as Huntingdon, Girton, Ely and St Neots are a hotbed of extra terrestrial activity.

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Comment: Rosamand states:

"And they can be very rare like geological glowing balls of light. All these can be mistaken by people for UFOs. We find that 95 per cent of all reports can be explained."
Ah yes, geological glowing balls of light... Don't forget swamp gas!

SPX
Nov 10, 2005
Winston-Salem NC - At a time when oil prices are reaching record highs and people are bracing for winter heating bills, researchers at Wake Forest University's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials have made significant strides in improving the efficiency of organic or flexible solar cells.

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NEW! 9/11: The Ultimate Truth is Now Available!

On the fourth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Laura Knight-Jadczyk announced the availability of her latest book:

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, dozens of books have sought to explore the truth behind the official version of events that day - yet to date, none of these publications has provided a satisfactory answer as to WHY the attacks occurred and who was ultimately responsible for carrying them out.

Taking a broad, millennia-long perspective, Laura Knight-Jadczyk's 9/11: The Ultimate Truth uncovers the true nature of the ruling elite on our planet and presents new and ground-breaking insights into just how the 9/11 attacks played out.

9/11: The Ultimate Truth makes a strong case for the idea that September 11, 2001 marked the moment when our planet entered the final phase of a diabolical plan that has been many, many years in the making. It is a plan developed and nurtured by successive generations of ruthless individuals who relentlessly exploit the negative aspects of basic human nature to entrap humanity as a whole in endless wars and suffering in order to keep us confused and distracted to the reality of the man behind the curtain.

Drawing on historical and genealogical sources, Knight-Jadczyk eloquently links the 9/11 event to the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also cites the clear evidence that our planet undergoes periodic natural cataclysms, a cycle that has arguably brought humanity to the brink of destruction in the present day.

For its no nonsense style in cutting to the core of the issue and its sheer audacity in refusing to be swayed or distracted by the morass of disinformation that has been employed by the Powers that Be to cover their tracks, 9/11: The Ultimate Truth can rightly claim to be THE definitive book on 9/11 - and what that fateful day's true implications are for the future of mankind.

Published by Red Pill Press

Order the book today at our bookstore.

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