"Disasters involve cycles in the human experiential cycle [...] Human cycle mirrors cycle of catastrophe. Earth benefits in form of periodic cleansing. Time to start paying attention to the signs. They are escalating. They can even be 'felt' by you and others, if you pay attention."

Many in the "alternative news press" have yet to fully understand what the real deal is, not even they seem willing to fully accept what the evidence is telling them. Jessica Lynch is to marry. We wonder if she will, or is this just another publicity stunt like the faked story of her "valiant escape from the Iraqi terrorists"?

Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Senate are horrified by the latest anti-Palestinian propaganda conjured up by Israel. The first ever UN resolution introduced by Israel is making the rounds - but its purpose seems to be to root out "anti-semites." Also in U.S. news, Bush is quietly preparing to bring back the draft. It may require another terrorist attack, so there won't be too much outcry about his own draft dodging ways. At the very least, it may require yet another stolen election.

The trial in the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman last year gets under way in the UK. The truth, as in so many other high profile public trials/enquiries, will be the last thing sought. In this case, there may be people in very high places with a vested interest in ensuring that the truth stays buried.

Flash floods have killed approximately 150 people in North Sumatra; a gale storm strikes Quesnel (Canada) taking out power to a thousand homes; scientists meet to ponder whether a caldera in Mammoth Lakes area might blow again and the Sun spews out three more X-class flares. Will Congress cancel the Space Environmental Center which keeps an eye on such events? If they do, why?

Dr. Thomas Butler makes a court appearance - shackled in chains. The world's largest telescope is closer to completion, Hilo scope is refitted with a 16-megapixel infrared camera, gold, glass, nanotech, and lasers might be able to kill tumors, the cruise ship "Aurora" carrying passengers with a flu-like illness has finally been allowed to dock in Gibraltar, much to the dismay of the Spanish, and a timely new book says de Gaulle was a racist.

Helicopter Down

Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA, regularly briefed George H. W. Bush as vice president and, earlier, worked with him closely when he was director of CIA. Mr. McGovern is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is now co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington.

The killing of 18 U.S. troops and the wounding of 21 others in Iraq on Nov. 2 brings to mind the successful attack by Viet Cong guerrillas on U.S. forces in Pleiku, Vietnam on February 7, 1965.

The Johnson administration immediately seized on that attack, in which nine U.S. troops were killed and 128 wounded, to start bombing North Vietnam and to send 3,500 Marines to South Vietnam. Unlike the U.S. advisory forces already in country, the Marines had orders to engage in combat, marking the beginning of the Americanization of the war. By 1968 U.S. forces had grown to over 536,000.

From the outset, my colleagues in CIA were highly skeptical that even with a half-million troops the United States could prevail in Vietnam. They were quick to remind anyone who would listen of the candid observation made by General Philippe LeClerc, dispatched to Vietnam shortly after World War II. The French general reported that, mainly because of the strong commitment of the Vietnamese nationalists/communists and their proven proficiency in guerrilla war, a renewed French campaign would require 500,000 men and that, even then, France could not win.

In 1965, similar warnings were blissfully ignored by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and the civilian whiz kids with whom he had surrounded himself. Then as now, the advice of our professional military was dismissed.

Civilian Whiz Kids vs. Military Professionals

While today's civilian leaders at the Defense Department hobbled through what passed for post-war planning for Iraq early this year, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that post-war Iraq would require "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers." He was immediately ridiculed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz for having exaggerated the requirement. This evokes vivid memories of how McNamara and his civilian whiz kids dismissed our professional military—and at such a high eventual price.

The poet George Santayana warned, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." What is increasingly clear is that neither the present-day Pentagon whiz kids nor their patron, Vice President Dick Cheney, have learned much from history. They encourage President Bush to insist, "We are not leaving;" and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to protest that this war is "winnable." But most of those with a modicum of experience in guerrilla warfare and the Middle East are persuaded that the war is not winnable and that the only thing in doubt is the timing of the U.S. departure. [...]

Comment: What the author above and many others seem unable to grasp is that for a country like the US there are no "mistakes" in war. All wars and their results should be considered from the viewpoint of one basic premise: War is good for those that control the socio-political events on this planet. War is good business! War makes rich and powerful men richer and more powerful!

Let us ask the reader this question: Who put George W Bush in power? It is patently obvious that he did not achieve office through his own efforts, in fact, left to his own devices and without his family connections he might have trouble getting a job at McDonalds. Without doubt there are groups that control those that present the public face of government, and since these people are unknown to the public, they remain unaffected by the scandals that bring down presidents, in fact, it is quite probable that they orchestrate them. For these men then, war is simply a very effective way to further their goals to control everything they possibly can.

President FD Roosevelt said:

"In politics, nothing happens by chance, if it happens, you can bet it was planned that way,"

and lets face it, he was in a position to know. Not many years previous President Woodrow Wilson stated:

"Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." The New Freedom 1913

He too was in a position to know. If we accept then that there does indeed exist certain unknown individuals or groups that operate above and beyond government, and that in politics, nothing happens by chance, is there any major "political" event that we should decide is beyond their control? Consider the World wars of the last century, is it really likely that they were merely the result of chance? Hitler was one man, yet the ultimate responsibilty for involving the entire world in war leading to the death of 65 million human beings is placed at his door alone! The allies were able to fire-bomb Dresden in Germany and in one night kill 100,000 people, yet they apparently could not kill Hitler and thereby end the death and destruction. It is more likely that this was not the result of a lack of ability but rather a lack of desire.

As we dig further into the historical facts it appears that so called "Zionists" played and continue to play a leading role in the manipulations. It was "Zionists" that somehow were able to persuade the US to enter the 1st World War on the side of Britain and France (who were facing defeat by the Germans) in return for the promise of Palestine as the new Jewish "homeland," as defined by the "Balfour declaration". See here for more.

Not long after Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Daily Express of England carried a bold headline; "Judea Declares War on Germany. Jews of All the World Unite in Action." The front page story revealed that Zionists had announced a concerted worldwide effort to isolate Germany and turn other nations against her.

The following year, Zionist political leader Vladimir Jabotinksy wrote:

"The fight against Germany has now been waged for months by every Jewish community, on every continent...We shall start a spiritual and material war of the world against Germany. Our Jewish interests call for the complete destruction of Germany."

A few years later, Lord Beaverbrook, a British newspaper magnate issued this warning about the Zionist influence over the British press. Beaverbrook warned:

"There are 20,000 German Jews who have come here to England. They all work against an agreement with Germany. The Jews have got a big position in the press here. Their political influence is driving us into the direction of war."

Hillary decries brainwash of child 'martyrs'

Senate panel watches video evidence of Palestinian indoctrination

November 4, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
WorldNetDaily.com

A Senate appropriations committee watched excerpts from Palestinian television illustrating the Palestinian Authority's indoctrination and grooming of children to become suicide bombers, prompting calls for a cessation of aid unless the propaganda stops.

Sen. Hillary Clinton said the Palestinian Authority is engaged in "horrific abuse of children," after watching videos provided by Itmar Marcus of Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch.

A video screened by the senators shows ordinary children on state-run Palestinian television expressing support of terrorism and their desire to become "martyrs."

"How can you think about building a better future, no matter what your political views, if you indoctrinate your children to a culture of death?" Clinton told reporters after the hearing Thursday, according to the Jerusalem Post. "We should all agree that children should not be indoctrinated into hatred and violence and then indoctrinated into killing themselves." [...]

Comment: The video can be viewed at the Palestinian Media Watch web site. The following is an excerpt from the page, entitled "Ask for Death":

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"Ask for death" is the message that the Palestinian Authority [PA] has been conveying to its children since the start of violence in October 2000. In June 2002, two articulate 11-year-old girls were interviewed in the studio of official Palestinian Authority TV. Among other topics, they spoke of their personal yearning to achieve death through Shahada – Death for Allah – and of a similar desire they said exists in "every Palestinian child." It is striking that their desire for death was expressed as a personal goal, not related to the conflict with Israel. Having been convinced that dying for Allah is preferable to life, their goal in living is not to experience a good life, but to achieve the proper death – Shahada. [...]

Comment: "Not related to the conflict with Israel"?! How can any Palestinian experience "a good life" when they are being systematically caged, bulldozed, and generally slaughtered by Israel? The suicide bombings allegedly conducted by Palestinians have resulted in almost three times as many Palestinian deaths than Israeli deaths. Who stands to benefit from these alleged suicide bombings? Certainly not the Palestinians. We are apparently meant to think that the Palestinians are crazy loons who feel they must die for their religion and their land. Continuing on, we read:

During the more than two and a half years of armed conflict, the Palestinian Authority [PA] has been making a paramount effort to convince their own children that there is no greater achievement than to die for Allah in battle, known as Shahada. This has been done via the many mediums at its disposal, including children’s TV broadcasting, the educational system, cultural programs, directives from political and religious leaders and even encouragement from within the family. [...]

Comment: How is the idea of dying for Allah in battle any different than the "honor" of an American soldier's death for God and country? Ask an American child if she would die for her country to fight evil terrorists, and she would no doubt say yes. But the American child would not be in exactly the same situation as a Palestinian child. The American girl's family does not need a permit from the Israelis to live in the house they own. The American family does not have to worry that their house will be bulldozed. Given some of the recent news from the US of A, however, that may all be changing soon.

Former Iraq PoW Lynch 'to marry'

US soldier Jessica Lynch, who was rescued by US special forces after being captured in Iraq, is to marry. Private Lynch, 20, will marry Army Sergeant Ruben Contreras next June, his mother told a US newspaper. [...]

Jessica Lynch's dramatic rescue in Iraq - after a local lawyer reportedly tipped off US forces as to her whereabouts - became one of the most celebrated and controversial events of the war.

Praised as a heroine by many, others denounced her rescue as a staged event used by Pentagon officials as a propaganda exercise.

Private Lynch, who is still recuperating from wounds sustained during her ordeal and who reportedly has no memory of the incident, recently signed a $1m book deal to publish an account of her capture.

The book, entitled I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, is out this month and Private Lynch has scheduled a series of interviews with major US networks for its promotion.

Flashback: Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed'

By John Kampfner

Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict.

But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.

Private Lynch, a 19-year-old army clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was captured when her company took a wrong turning just outside Nasiriya and was ambushed.

Nine of her comrades were killed and Private Lynch was taken to the local hospital, which at the time was swarming with Fedayeen. Eight days later US special forces stormed the hospital, capturing the "dramatic" events on a night vision camera.

They were said to have come under fire from inside and outside the building, but they made it to Lynch and whisked her away by helicopter.

There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound

Reports claimed that she had stab and bullet wounds and that she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated.

But Iraqi doctors in Nasiriya say they provided the best treatment they could for the soldier in the midst of war. She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital and one of only two nurses on the floor.

"I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle," said Dr Harith a-Houssona, who looked after her.

Jessica amnesia

"There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only road traffic accident. They want to distort the picture. I don't know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury."

Witnesses told us that the special forces knew that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they swooped on the hospital.

"We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital," said Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital.

"It was like a Hollywood film. They cried 'go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - action movies like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan."

There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Harith had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance.

But as the ambulance, with Private Lynch inside, approached a checkpoint American troops opened fire, forcing it to flee back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch.

General Vincent Brooks

When footage of the rescue was released, General Vincent Brooks, US spokesman in Doha, said: "Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen, loyal to a creed that they know that they'll never leave a fallen comrade."

The American strategy was to ensure the right television footage by using embedded reporters and images from their own cameras, editing the film themselves.

The Pentagon had been influenced by Hollywood producers of reality TV and action movies, notably the man behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer.

Bruckheimer advised the Pentagon on the primetime television series "Profiles from the Front Line", that followed US forces in Afghanistan in 2001. That approached was taken on and developed on the field of battle in Iraq.

But doctors now say she has no recollection of the whole episode and probably never will.

Comment: This is an example of the level that the powers that be will go to to ensure that the public thinks what they want them to think. It is as a result of this type of mind programming, (and make no mistake it IS mind programming) that the American public, and those that support the US, find themselves in a position of complicity in the actions of deceit and genocide perpetrated by successive US administrations and those that control them.

The Political Airbrush

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." ~~ Voltaire

by Bridget Gibson

11/03/03: (ICH) There is a new term that has been coined by the Pentagon: Transfer Tubes. It has been spent quietly into the background of the war on Iraq, a.k.a. "The War on Terrorism," "Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL), "or "The Cakewalk and Flowers Campaign."

The effectiveness of this administration's control on the national media is unprecedented in its scope. In ways, large and small, the view that is seen by most of the American population has been so controlled and sanitized that it is unrecognizable as reality.

In April, we were shown a film of the statue of Saddam being pulled down. The sanitized view was a narrow lens version - a full version would have shown that there were no joyous crowds cheering and no support for the U.S. army tank and troops that produced the "manufactured image" of the moment of triumph.

The national news media has been trying to show the ‘happy happy joy joy' version of events in Iraq. We are told to focus on the "progress" of new currency and landscaping around the square.

Our view is constantly shuttered and there are many things that we are not allowed to see. The propaganda machine is in full swing so as to corrupt the opinion of the American public into supporting our administration's abuse of power.

The corporate media machine willingly shows people eating worms, having casual sex and extols the virtues of discarding and discounting our physical appearance. The only "reality" programs that are allowed are those such as "Survivor," "Joe Millionaire" and "Extreme Makeover." [...]

Soham parents come to see justice done

KAREN McVEIGH

A YEAR and three months after their ten-year-old daughters disappeared from their homes in Soham, Cambridgeshire, the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman arrived at the Old Bailey for the trial of the man accused of killing them.

Hand in hand, they posed briefly for photographs in front of a throng of waiting cameras before making their way inside, followed by family liaison officers from Cambridgeshire Police.

A few metres away, propped against the wall of the building, lay a cluster of bouquets and other tributes - a memorial to their daughters left by strangers.

Two large crosses, one granite, one made from white daisies with pink roses at its centre, lay next to a bunch of red lilies and chrysanthemums, bearing the hand-written message, "From Man United Supporters and Players". A teddy wrapped in a Manchester United scarf had also been left, with the message, "Holly and Jessica, rest in peace".

The two schoolgirls vanished from their homes in Soham on 4 August last year, prompting one of the biggest missing persons investigations ever seen in Britain. The hunt, which turned into a murder investigation when their bodies were discovered in a ditch in remote woodland, in Lakenheath, Suffolk, 13 days later, generated worldwide publicity.

Yesterday, a former school caretaker, Ian Huntley, 29, watched from the dock of Court number one as the men and women who would try him for the murders were chosen from a 100-strong gathering of potential jurors. Huntley has always denied the murders, but, at an earlier hearing, admitted his guilt to one charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

His former fiancée, Maxine Carr, 26, also in the dock yesterday, will stand trial with him. The former classroom assistant at the girls’ primary school has been charged with one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender. She denies all charges.

Comment: There is much more to this case than the press are reporting. Many inconsistencies and questions left unanswered, not least of which involves the fact that the girls bodies were found at the perimiter fence of the US Airforce base of Lakenheath. See here for a more indepth study of the details of the case.

Flashback: Operation Candyman: Investigating child porn

Friday, 13 September, 2002
BBC News

Two Cambridgeshire police officers involved in the Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman murder investigation have been arrested on suspicion of inciting others to distribute indecent photographs of children.

The arrests are part of Operation Ore - the UK wing of a huge American inquiry codenamed Candyman [...]

Flashback: Alleged Pedophiles at Helm of Britain's War Machine, Massive Cover-Up

Mike James
Jan 2003

A child-sex scandal that threatened to destroy Tony Blair's government last week has been mysteriously squashed and wiped off the front pages of British newspapers.

Operation Ore, the United Kingdom's most thorough and comprehensive police investigation of crimes against children, seems to have uncovered more than is politically acceptable at the highest reaches of the British elite.

In the 19th of January edition of The Sunday Herald, Neil Mackay sensationally reported that senior members of Tony Blair's government were being investigated for paedophilia and the "enjoyment" of child-sex pornography:

"The Sunday Herald has also had confirmed by a very senior source in British intelligence that at least one high-profile former Labour Cabinet minister is among Operation Ore suspects. The Sunday Herald has been given the politician's name but, for legal reasons, can not identify the person.

There are still unconfirmed rumours that another senior Labour politician is among the suspects. The intelligence officer said that a 'rolling' Cabinet committee had been set up to work out how to deal with the potentially ruinous fall-out for both Tony Blair and the government if
arrests occur."

Flashback: EU elite are filthy pigs, says Bossi

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Strasbourg
23/10/2003

The European Union's elite are determined to destroy Europe's Christian heritage, Italy's reform minister, Umberto Bossi said yesterday.

He described the elite as "filthy pigs" who wanted to "make paedophilia as easy as possible". [...]

Race to save new victims of child porn

Computer file sharing has sent paedophile demand for real-time images soaring. But, as Audrey Gillan reports, police can often only watch as children grow older and continue to be abused

Tuesday November 4, 2003
The Guardian

Paedophiles are swapping thousands of hardcore images of child sex abuse in a new form of computer child pornography that police believe is feeding a demand for more real-time victims of abuse.
The Guardian has established that the demand for child porn through the use of file-sharing technology - normally associated with swapping music and movies - has grown so rapidly that law enforcement agencies are now employed in a global race to track down the children who are being abused. Some of the children, police believe, are being abused on a daily basis to provide a constant supply of new computerised material.

Senior officers have revealed that the scale of peer-to-peer traffic in illegal images of children now dwarfs almost any other paedophile network they have encountered. The images are generally more extreme and at least 20% of the users are what police class as Category One, meaning that the suspect is "of significant risk to children". [...]

Detectives rely on two methods of tracing location: electronic footprints left by the user while online and forensic analysis of the images to find clues pointing to the country of origin, such as telephone books in the background or the style of furnishings. In some cases, often where the child is being held prisoner and abused in a completely blank room, there are not enough leads for police to chase.

One case being investigated involves a prepubescent girl who is being held prisoner in a room and repeatedly abused. International law enforcement agencies know only that she is in the United States and the FBI is trying to pinpoint her exactlocation. New images of the child are shared through KaZaA and other services but police have been unable to find her.

Gemma Holland, victim identification project manager at the University of Cork's Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe (Copine) which has a database of more than 600,000 child porn images, said: "This is a global problem. The abuse could be in the next village or somewhere near you but the problem is the images are being shown globally. Identifying the kids in these images should be our prime concern and of the greatest importance."

The decentralised nature of the internet and peer-to-peer specifically make it difficult to define numbers of images in circulation or children involved but experts says it is growing daily. Washington's national centre for missing and exploited children, which acts as a clearing house for child porn tip-offs, said that reports of such images in shared files had increased by 400% this year. [...]

Detective Constable Sean Robbie scans through a list of images held in one shared folder to illustrate the point. A scroll through shows the thousands of illicit files that are on offer. Some of the milder titles are "nine-year-old rape", "eight-year dance" and "dad does daughter". All of it is accessible to anyone who requests it, including children. Key in the word Britney or Barbie and the number of images available is astonishing.

We view one of the files involving the American girl - of which there are thousands - and see her dancing provocatively for the camera. This is one of the least extreme of the images available, some of them replications, others new.

Over the last 18 months, Pilsey officers have found a surprising number of magistrates, city workers and police officers and even children with paedophile images on their computer. Two weeks ago, William Legros, now 18 but 16 when he downloaded child sex images, was given a 12-month community rehabilitation or der after being tracked down by Pilsey.

James Taylor, 43, was convicted in Scotland last month after he posted digital camera shots of himself raping a 13-month-old baby. He was detected when Scotland Yard officers passed his details on to local police. Forensic analysis of the images helped establish the baby's location in a house nearby. [...]

US to pour $2 billion into Israeli military

Tuesday 04 November 2003

The US gives Israel more military aid than any other country

The United States will ask Congress to shell out $2.22 billion in military aid to Israel for the fiscal year of 2005.

This is $60 million more than in 2004, according to a US State Department statement on Monday.

The increase is in line with a 1990s agreement which reduces economic assistance to Israel by $120 million a year, while adding $60 million a year to the military component of the package, the largest Washington gives to any country.

The statement said the Bush administration was committed to enhancing Israeli security and “maintaining Israel’s qualitative edge over any combination of adversaries”.

Apart from the annual military and economic assistance, Washington is also guaranteeing international loans by Israel up to an amount of $9 billion over three years.

In policy shift, Israel circulates first resolution ever on Mideast crisis

DAFNA LINZER
06:37 AM EST Nov 04

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israel, which has seen hundreds of UN resolutions passed against its policies over the years, circulated its first resolution ever Monday, saying the outcome will show whether the organization is taking a balanced approach to the Middle East.

The Israeli resolution, a copy of which was given to The Associated Press, calls for the protection of Israeli children victimized by Palestinian terrorism. It closely mirrors a similar draft submitted by Egypt last week highlighting the plight of Palestinian children affected by more than three years of bloody conflict in the region.

Israeli diplomats said they'd be happy if the General Assembly decided to drop the two drafts or adopt them both.

"The test will be if they pass the Palestinian one but not ours," said Deputy Israeli Ambassador Arye Meckel. [...]

Israeli warplanes overfly south Lebanon

NAQURA, Lebanon, Nov 3 (AFP) - Two Israeli warplanes flew low over southern Lebanon on Monday breaking the sound barrier over the town of Naqura where UN peacekeepers on the border with Israel have their base, a correspondent said.

The planes also overflew the coastal towns of Tyre and Sidon, further north, without drawing fire from Hezbollah militiamen posted in south Lebanon, unlike the previous day when the militia opened up with anti-aircraft fire.

Israeli aircraft flew over several regions of Lebanon on Sunday, also breaking the sound barrier.

Arafat, Qureia fail to agree on new cabinet

Nov. 3, 2003. 09:20 PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Talks between the Palestinian prime minister and Yasser Arafat failed today to resolve a dispute over control of security forces, the last hurdle to forming a government that could restart peace talks.

But with a Tuesday deadline approaching, pressure mounted on Arafat to give in to Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.

In violence Monday, a 16-year-old Palestinian blew himself up near Israeli soldiers searching for him in the West Bank village of Azzoun, near Israel. The suicide bomber, Sabih Abu Saud from the city of Nablus, killed himself and slightly injured a soldier.

Abu Saud was the youngest of more than 100 suicide bombers over the past three years. [...]

Intel: Terrorists planning U.S. attacks

Net message calls on Muslims to flee NYC, Washington, L.A.

November 3, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern
WorldNetDaily.com

A message posted on an Internet forum today by an al-Qaida-linked group calls on Muslims to flee New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles ahead of major terror attacks in those cities, intelligence newsletter DEBKAfile reports.

According to DEBKA, the Jeddah-based Al-Islah society posted the message, which reportedly accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies:

"The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows." [...]

There is precedent for terrorists using forums to telegraph their operations.

According to the report, last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an al-Qaida member, saying "whoever understands, understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching toward an operation that will take us to Paradise."

Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up, killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at the Mombasa airport, DEBKA reports.

Amputees returning to duty

Therapy gets troops back to their units

By David Wood
Newhouse News Service
Sunday October 12, 2003

Garth Stewart lost his foot in Iraq, in a mine blast that showered his blood and flesh on his buddy and left Stewart writhing and screaming on the road, smoke rising from his wound.

Andrew McCaffrey's right hand was blown off by a grenade in Afghanistan. A Special Forces medic tackled him and knelt on his stump to stanch the bleeding as they waited for the medevac helicopter.

Scott Barkalow's legs were shattered in Afghanistan when a mine detonated beneath his truck. As he lay shivering in the snow, knowing the pain would come, he looked down to find his right leg missing below his knee.

War maims as well as kills. The war on terrorism is no different. Among the hundreds of shattered young soldiers being carried from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan are dozens whose arms or legs, sometimes both, have been blown off completely, or shredded and then sawed off in surgery.

Until recently, the military worked to ease these soldiers into medical retirement.

But now, many reject retirement and work their way back to active duty. The Army, in what doctors describe as a sea change, is using high-tech artificial limbs and rehabilitation techniques developed in the past few months to help them get there. [...]

Like many amputees, Barkalow carries little evident bitterness. "I lost a leg, but I feel whole," he said. "I understand people get hurt and die in war." Toward God and President Bush, he added, "I don't have a hard thing to say." [...]

Oiling up the draft machine?

The Pentagon is quietly moving to fill draft board vacancies nationwide. While officials say there's no cause to worry, some experts aren't so sure.

By Dave Lindorff
Salon

The community draft boards that became notorious for sending reluctant young men off to Vietnam have languished since the early 1970s, their membership ebbing and their purpose all but lost when the draft was ended. But a few weeks ago, on an obscure federal Web site devoted to the war on terrorism, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to bring the draft boards back to life. [...]

Already, the American public is almost as split today over the war in Iraq as it was about the war in Indochina nearly four decades ago, though not yet as passionately. But a new draft would likely incite even deeper resentment than it did then. In the last war fought by a conscript army, draft deferments for students meant that nobody who was in college had to worry about being called up until after graduation, and until late in that war, it was even possible, by going to grad school (like Vice President Dick Cheney), to avoid getting drafted altogether. In the Vietnam War era, college boys could also duck combat, as George W. Bush did, by joining the National Guard.

But that's all been changed. In a new draft, college students whose lottery number was selected would only be permitted to finish their current semester; seniors could finish their final year. After that, they'd have to answer the call. Meanwhile, National Guardsmen, as we've seen in the current war, are now likely to face overseas combat duty, too.

"If Congress and Bush reinstitute the draft, it would be the '60s all over again," predicts Lebow. "It's hard to imagine Congress passing such a bill, but then, look how many members of Congress just rolled over and played dead on the bill for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan." [...]

Comment: The Draft Dodger just might bring back the draft. He and his handlers will just wait until after he is "reelected":

Diebold Documents Spark International Campaign: Will Your Vote Count?

Swarthmore, Pa. -- When American citizens step into the voting booth tomorrow, will their votes be counted? Today, with Diebold Elections Systems operating electronic voting in 37 states, the answer is a resounding "maybe." As a result of widespread security flaws and the lack of any verifiable check on their systems, Diebold cannot guarantee the accuracy of any election in which their machines are present. [...]

Leading Iraqi Judge Killed, Deputy Says

Tue November 4, 2003 05:11 AM ET

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - A senior judge in the Iraqi city of Najaf has been kidnapped and killed by what his deputy said Tuesday were gunmen carrying out the orders of ousted president Saddam Hussein. [...]

US sifts Saddam spy files: media

WASHINGTON (AFP) Nov 03, 2003

US intelligence experts are examining tonnes of Saddam Hussein's intelligence files hoping to trace the regime's alleged weapons of mass destruction, press reports said Monday.

The documents seized after the fall of Baghdad were a trove comparable to the files of Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, which collapsed in 1989, an anonymous source told The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. [...]

Comment: While Saddam's alleged intelligence files may be a treasure trove, they no doubt pale in comparison to the files of U.S. intelligence services. See our timeline for more information.

Germany hits out at US over Iraq and "NATO-damaging" coalitions

BERLIN (AFP) Nov 03, 2003

German Defence Minister Peter Struck mounted a sharp attack Monday on the United States over its Iraq policy and questioned whether the war against Baghdad complied with international law. [...]

Struck said the coalitions could endanger the military alliance's principle of consensus decision-making. [...]

U.S. warning on Iran nuke stance

From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
Monday, November 3, 2003 Posted: 6:40 PM EST (2340 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department says any decision by Iran to end cooperation on its nuclear program would be "gravely troubling". [...]

Saudis Report Foiling Plot by Terrorists

Putin reaffirms Russia's right to preemptive strikes

AFP
Tuesday November 4, 4:33 PM

President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed his position that Russia can resort to preemptive military strikes because the policy is also practiced by the United States.

"If the principle of preventive use of force continues to develop in international practice, then Russia reserves the right to act in an analogous manner to defend its national interests," Putin said in an interview whose transcript was released Tuesday.

"All nuclear powers are improving their nuclear potential and Russia will do the same," Putin said in an interview with Italian journalists ahead of this week's visit to Rome, according to Interfax.

"But our nuclear policy, as opposed, say, to that of the Soviet Union, is not directed at anyone, it is directed only at strengthening our security," Putin said. [...]

Jailed Russian Quits Oil Giant

By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 4, 2003; Page A19

MOSCOW, Nov. 3 -- The imprisoned Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky stepped down Monday as chief executive of the giant YukosSibneft oil company so that he can concentrate on his legal defense and, according to a source close to the situation, explore a possible election campaign against President Vladimir Putin. [...]

Defector Says North's Kim Wants to Rule All Korea

Tue Nov 4,12:29 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's biggest ambition is to rule over a unified, Communist Korea, the North's highest-ranking defector said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Hwang Jang-yop, speaking through an interpreter, also said that Kim Jong-il was "brilliant" as a dictator but a failure as a leader and has turned his country into a prison.

A former mentor to Kim Jong-il, Hwang told The Washington Times that Kim's "priority in life is to become the supreme ruler of the unified Chosun, or as you call it, Korea." [...]

"Before Kim Jong-il came to power, there was his father, Kim Il Sung. No one starved to death under Kim Il Sung. However after Kim Jong-il came to power, millions of people starved to death. The economy has been destroyed and the whole government and the country became one big prison," Hwang said. [...]

Indonesia Extends Martial Law in Unsettled Province

Powell Urges Nicaragua to Scrap Missiles

By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
November 4, 2003

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - With Central America fast becoming a region of peace, Nicaragua has no further need for almost 2,000 surface-to-air missiles left over from its 1980s civil war and should destroy them, Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

In response, Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos said he would study Powell's suggestion and hoped it could be dealt with as part of a balance of forces reduction in Central America. [...]

Comment: Once again, the U.S. is "suggesting" that another country disarm while America itself increases military spending and capacity.

Sen. Bob Graham won't run for re-election

Monday, November 3, 2003 Posted: 2:22 PM EST (1922 GMT)

(CNN) -- A month after dropping his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida announced Monday that he will retire from politics rather than seek a fourth term in the Senate. [...]

The departure of Graham, one of Florida's most popular politicians, is another blow to Democratic hopes of reclaiming control of the closely divided Senate next year. [...]

Graham, a former two-term governor who has been easily elected to the Senate three times, would have been the Democrats' best chance for keeping the Florida seat. Senate Democratic leaders had met with him several times in recent days, encouraging him to seek re-election. [...]

Trial Begins For ATF Agent Accused Of Confronting Teens

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- A federal agent accused of chasing down a pickup truck full of high school boys and threatening them with a loaded gun is slated to stand trial next week in Warren County.

Jon Petersen, 41, of Indianola, is the former head of the Iowa Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office. He faces a felony and 13 misdemeanors in the September 2002 confrontation [...]

De Gaulle blamed for deaths of Algerians

Tuesday 04 November 2003

Former French president Charles de Gaulle is accused of being a racist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Algerian auxiliaries at the end of the country’s independence war 41 years ago.

This is according to a controversial new book on the conflict, A French Lie by Georges-Marc Benamou, which forms the basis for a lawsuit alleging crimes against humanity.

The lawsuit is to be filed at the Paris courts on Tuesday, targeting one of de Gaulle's last surviving cabinet members - former armed forces minister Pierre Messmer.

Citing government minutes from 1962, the book claims that in his haste to wrap up the Algerian trauma President de Gaulle pulled out white "pied-noir" settlers, but refused any escape route for the estimated 300,000 "harkis" who faced terrible reprisal for having fought on the French side during the war.

"We cannot move out every Muslim who decides he does not agree with his new government," the book quotes de Gaulle as saying in January, two months before signing of the Evian peace accord with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN).

Racist outrage

In April that year the president was quoted as telling the cabinet that the "harki" locals were a "rag-tag who served absolutely no purpose and of whom we must rid ourselves as soon as possible," and he was later recorded as exclaiming, "French - those people? With their turbans and djellabas!"

According to Benamou, de Gaulle was partly motivated by his "19th century prejudices ... a frantic desire to keep France white and break with the less ethnic conception prevailing under the Third Republic," which ended with de Gaulle's accession to power in 1958.

The Evian accord stipulated an amnesty by both sides, but within weeks of the withdrawal of French forces later that year the victorious FLN massacred tens of thousands of harkis.

Estimates of those who died vary between 70,000 and 150,000, while only around 40,000 made it to France.

French police hold Real IRA suspects

Tuesday, 4 November, 2003

French anti-terror police have arrested five people suspected of links with the Real IRA.
The five, all French nationals, are said to be from the Brittany area. Some were detained in Brittany and the rest in Normandy in northern France, during raids early on Tuesday.

They were held after police discovered a cache of weapons and ammunition outside the ferry port of Dieppe. They are suspected of involvement in a support network for the Irish group, police sources have told AFP.

A small group of Breton nationalists has previously been found to be backing Spanish Basque militant group ETA, but it is not known whether the suspects in this case are Breton nationalists.

No proof of French Muslim militants heading for Jihad in Iraq: judge

PARIS, Nov 3, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- France's top anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere on Monday denied American reports that dozens of Islamic militants had left France to join the fight against the US-led occupation in Iraq.
"It has never been established as fact that dozens of French have gone to join the Iraqi theater," said France's top investigative judge on terrorism. "We have none of proofs in this regard."

"It is unquestionable that we have the fears concerning the attractivity of this hot bed (Iraq)," he said, adding that the militants who could be tempted by this new ground of jihad (holy war) were under permanent surveillance.

However, he said such a "potential threat" was taken into consideration by the French anti-terror services. [...]

U.S. developing laser defense against SA-7 attacks

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, November 3, 2003

The United States is developing a laser weapon to defend against terror attacks like the shoulder-fired missile attack on an American helicopter Sunday. [...]

The U.S. Air Force has been briefed on a system that could automatically detect an infrared surface-to-air missile launch and emit a laser beam to destroy the projectile. The system would be based on the Tactical High Energy Laser developed by Israel and the United States in 2001. [...]

Bioterrorism case chills U.S. science community

By Charles Piller
Los Angeles Times

11/03/03: LUBBOCK, Texas — Dr. Thomas Butler entered the courthouse in chains.

That image of the white-haired, 62-year-old scientist has shaken American science to its roots.

Butler — a well-known researcher of bubonic plague — is facing a 69-count federal indictment, including charges that he smuggled plague bacteria and lied to the FBI. He is, by all accounts, no terrorist but a respected scholar who may be the first scientist to face trial on bioterrorism-related charges. [...]

Outcry over 'witch hunt'

A gag order prevents both sides from discussing the case, which has sparked an outcry from the scientific establishment, some of whose members feel they are being threatened by a witch hunt.

"Butler is probably the nation's most eminent expert on the plague," said Peter Agre, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry and former student of Butler's.

"Are students going to want to work on tropical medicine if there's a chance they might lose some samples, then be hauled off in the middle of the night?" [...]

US, Vietnamese scientists hold Agent Orange workshop

HANOI, (AFP) - Scientists and environmental experts from the United States and Vietnam have met in Hanoi for talks on measures to deal with the legacy of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by US forces during the Vietnam War.

Hanoi says the defoliant, which was used by US forces to strip trees and plants of vegetation and deny North Vietnamese troops cover, continues to have devastating health consequences. [...]

Flood flashes through resort, killing 150

By Matthew Moore Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
November 4, 2003

As many as 150 people including at least three foreign tourists have drowned after hundreds of houses built on a riverbank were swept away by a flash flood in North Sumatra.

Local police said the river in Gunung Leuser National Park, a popular tourist resort near Medan, rose 10 metres about 10pm on Sunday, sweeping away all houses and perhaps tens of guesthouses built for visitors who come to see orang-utans there.

Although it had been raining for a week, police said they had never before witnessed such flooding, which washed away houses in Bohorok village, where many people were sleeping.

Wind storm hits Hydro grid hard (Canada)

Monday, Nov 03, 2003

Tuesday started off balmy, with temperatures hovering in the low teens.

Then, just before noon, a strong gale tore the last remaining leaves off the trees, and temperatures dropped drastically within minutes. Falling trees and branches crashed on power lines, ripping them down. Most of Quesnel was left without power. Traffic lights went dead, and schools had to close early.

One day later, 1,000 households in the Quesnel area were still without power, and Thursday morning BC Hydro said the remaining 250 households would have electricity restored by evening that day. In fact, Thursday afternoon at about 3 o'clock, only 50 homes remained without power. [...]

Scientists meet to discuss hazardous Calif. volcano

Monday, November 03, 2003

Two weeks ago, scientists from around the world came together to discuss past and future research on an important, but little known, volcano near the town of Mammoth Lakes, California.

This volcano does not have the classic look of Mt. Fuji or the characteristic shield - shape of Kilauea or Mauna Loa.

Indeed, Long Valley is significant, not for its peak or edifice, but rather for the opposite. Long Valley is a topographic depression that formed during an enormous eruption about 760,000 years ago.

This depression, which geologists refer to as a "caldera," was created when a large chamber of molten rock suddenly erupted onto the surface. The void left by the exiting magma had no strength to hold up the roof rock.

As the eruption progressed, the roof rock foundered relentlessly into the former magma chamber, and a caldera was born.

The scale of this eruption is difficult to comprehend. Based on studies of the ash deposits, which piled to thicknesses well over 330 feet near the caldera and reached as far east as Nebraska, geologists estimate the total amount of magma erupted to have been about 170 cubic miles).

Could it happen again?

Well, that is the question on everyone's mind, and that question is the main reason for the recent conference at Long Valley.

Message to Congress Embedded in Huge Space Storm

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
30 October 2003

If Nature ever wished to send a strong message to Congress, she did so this week.

Just as the most powerful space storm in 30 years is striking Earth, a congressional subcommittee will hear testimony today from scientists who would secure the future of space weather forecasting.

Congress has plans to ax the whole program.

On the chopping block is the Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, Colorado, which predicted the major space storm that arrived Wednesday and continues to pummel the planet. In an unprecedented scenario, a second powerful storm left the Sun Wednesday afternoon and is en route.

The Senate has proposed eliminating the SEC's funding from the 2004 federal budget. Language in the House's bill would reduce the SEC's $8.3 million budget sharply. Either budget change would cripple the ability to forecast storms, expert say. And without the advance warning, satellites in space and power grids on Earth are much more vulnerable to serious damage. [...]

World's Single Largest Telescope Mirror Moves To The LBT

University of Arizona
Monday, November 03, 2003

The world's most powerful optical telescope, which will allow astronomers to see planets around nearby stars in our galaxy, took a giant step closer to completion late last week when the first of its huge 27-foot diameter mirrors inched up a tortuous mountain road to its new home at Arizona's Mount Graham International Observatory.

The 18-ton borosilicate "honeycomb" mirror was escorted up the mountain by a team of scientists, engineers, police, and heavy-haul specialists to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) facility. The mirror and its all-steel transport box, which together weighed 55 tons, were transported over 122 miles of Interstate and state highway, then up the narrow hairpin turns of the 29-mile Swift Trail to the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) high above Safford, Ariz. [...]

Hilo telescope sees ‘big picture’ in skies

By Helen Altonn

The University of Hawaii's 88-inch telescope has become the most powerful in the world for infrared imaging with the addition of a new infrared camera that increases sky coverage 16 times, according to the Institute for Astronomy.

The 16-megapixel infrared camera -- considered gigantic in terms of silicon chips -- "is an incredible step," said Donald Hall, who headed a team at the institute's Hilo facility that developed the technology with the Rockwell Scientific Co. in Camarillo, Calif.

"When I began my career many decades ago," he said, "we had only single detectors, and we had to scan them around the sky one at a time, gradually building up a picture one dot at a time."

Along with a 16-fold increase in sky coverage, the new camera has much higher sensitivity than the 1-megapixel cameras in use on telescopes for the past 10 years, he said. [...]

The first image by the improved telescope was of the galaxy NGC 891 in the constellation Andromeda, about 10 million light-years from Earth.

"The galaxy is just like our own Milky Way but by coincidence is seen almost exactly edge-on," Hall said.

Astronomers Richard Wainscoat and Peter Capak, a graduate student, are analyzing the image for properties of dust and star formation in the galaxy.

"With smaller cameras, galaxies such as NGC 891 had to be imaged in small postage stamp sized pieces that had to be painstakingly pieced together," Wainscoat said. "The new camera produces a better image in a tiny fraction of the time.

"By allowing us to image very large areas of the sky, this camera will allow us to detect some of the most distant galaxies in the universe."

Gold shells can kill inoperable tumours

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
04/11/2003

Tiny golden "nanoshells" offer a new way to kill inoperable tumours without harming surrounding tissue, according to a study published today.

The shells, which consist of glass coated with gold, are called nanoshells because they are a few billionths of a metre (a nanometre) across, and mark another example of the burgeoning field of nanotechnology.

A Texan team, led by Dr Jennifer West at Rice University, claims that the shells could be used to treat tumours which have been hard to target until now.

Most solid tumours are removed by surgery but there are some that are impossible to remove because they are so small, mingled with surrounding tissue or located within a vital organ or tissue.

There are ways to deal with inoperable tumours but they often damage healthy tissue too. Now Dr West's team has found a way to kill these cells by combining two harmless treatments - nanoshells and infrared (heat) laser light which passes harmlessly through normal tissue.

In today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr West says her team designed the nanoshells to absorb this particular frequency of near-infrared light. The nanoshells warmed rapidly so that they could be used selectively to "cook" and kill tumours.

'Flu ship' leaves, border reopens

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish authorities have reopened the tiny border crossing with Gibraltar about 13 hours after closing it for "reasons of public health," a Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN.

The border was shut down following the docking of a cruise ship on which a large number of passengers were reported to be suffering from what is believed to be a flu-like virus.

The ministry said the border was closed at 7 a.m. Monday (0600 GMT) and was reopened at 8:10 p.m. (1910 GMT) in the presence of Spanish Health Minister Anna Pastor after the ship left.

Pastor was present to certify that health concerns had dissipated, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. While the crossing was closed, only humanitarian aid was allowed to pass.

Gibraltar's chief spokesman, Francis Cantos, complained the closing was "completely undemocratic, no matter what kinds of grounds" were used to justify it. [...]

The cruise ship, with some 2,000 British tourists on board, had been trying to find a Mediterranean port since last week but was refused at a number of locations because of the outbreak.

Spain ceded Gibraltar, which has a population of 30,000, to Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht but has been attempting ever since to recover the tiny territory.

Recent negotiations have taken place between Spain and Britain without a seat at the bargaining table for Gibraltar, whose population has repeatedly said it does not want to be under Spanish control.

Mosquito viruses claim 223 Indian lives

04/11/2003

Mosquito-borne viruses dengue fever and encephalitis have killed 223 people in India’s largest state in three months.

Dr Awdhesh Srivastava, head of epidemiology at the Health Directorate in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, said that 926 cases of encephalitis and 384 cases of dengue fever had been reported since August.

“At least 205 people have died of encephalitis while 18 people have died of dengue so far,” he said.

Alarmed at the spread of the viruses carried by mosquitoes, the High Court in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has reprimanded city officials for their slack efforts at maintaining sanitation.

Since September, thousands of people have contracted the disease, which spreads in areas where mosquitoes breed in large numbers, such as stagnant pools of water. The epidemic has spread due to the unusually strong monsoon season, which ended several weeks ago.[...]

'Number of factors' triggered blackout

H. JOSEF HEBERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov. 4, 2003. 01:00 AM

WASHINGTON — A U.S.-Canadian task force has completed its interim report and will cite a number of causes, not a single event, for the power blackout last August, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says.

The findings could come as early as next week. [...]

He made clear, however, that no single smoking gun will be cited as the cause of the Aug. 14 blackout that darkened parts of eight U.S. states and Ontario.

"I think you're going to see there are a number of factors that emerged during this investigation as being ... causes or partial causes," said Abraham. [...]

Comment: In other words, they don't know what caused the blackout.

Halloween Candy Assault

Reported by Anu Prakash
Detriot Now/WXYZ-TV

An Ann Arbor father was arrested after he went on an attack after his son didn't get candy at one house. It happened on Lakehurst Court.

Police say a 5-year-old boy was trick or treating. He went to house where a woman was passing out candy. The little boy went home to his father saying he didn't get candy from the woman. The father then confronted the woman.

Lt. Michael Logghe, of the Ann Arbor police, told Action News, "I'm sure the home owner was taken aback as to why anyone would confront her over whether or not a 5-year-old receive a piece of candy. So I'm sure she was just somewhat in a state of shock as to why the situation was transpiring, so that's why she gave him a piece of candy to appeases him, surely thinking the incident was over."

The father and son left, but soon after, the father returned to the house. He gave a note to the woman that had his name and address on it, and then told the woman to call the police. He then picked up a pumpkin and hurled it through the front window. He also smashed a bird feeder and was about to throw a potted plant when a neighbor yelled at him to stop.

"What's unusual," Lt. Logghe said, "is people in this kind of situation, when they loose their tempter, it is usually an immediate thing. In this particular incident, he confronted the lady, then actually went home, and then came back and that's when the act occurred. So really, he had a lot of time to cool down, yet for whatever reason, he just snapped."

The 43-year-old Ann Arbor man did return home after committing the incident, and that is where Ann Arbor police arrested him on the charge of malicious destruction of property. He is waiting to be arraigned.

New crop circles appear in soybean field near West Union (Ohio, USA)

Another mysterious crop circle has appeared in an Adams County soybean field. The formation was found on St. Rt. 41, south of West Union, across from the entrance to Roy Pence Road. The crop circle, found on the farm of Jack and Sherry Ellis, is believed to have been in the field for three to four weeks, according to Jeff Wilson, an independent crop circle investigator from Dexter, Mich.

The circle is believed to be in the formation of a dream catcher, according to Doug McIlwain, president of the Great Serpent Mound Chapter of the American Society of Dowsers. [...]

Mass starling suicide baffles experts

Ananova

Wildlife experts in the German city of Stuttgart are baffled after a flock of starlings made a mass suicide attempt leaving dozens of birds dead.

Pedestrians watched as hundreds of birds flew over the city before suddenly nose-diving to the ground from a height of 65 feet.

Bird expert Guenther Schleussner, from the Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart, said the scenes were like something from a horror film.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," he added.

Around 100 dead and injured birds covered the busy Steinhalden Street. Residents out for a Sunday stroll reporting a loud "thud" as the flock of kamikaze starlings hit the pavement.

The ornithologist added: "It's unbelievable, I'm stunned. This kind of behaviour in birds is very, very unusual."

Schleussner said the incident could have been down to a sudden squall or simply a "freak accident".

The Curious Tale of Asteroid Hermes

or the next few days backyard astronomers can see for themselves the long lost asteroid Hermes.

Science@NASA -- It's dogma now: an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. But in 1980 when scientists Walter and Luis Alvarez first suggested the idea to a gathering at the American Association for Advancement of Sciences, their listeners were skeptical. Asteroids hitting Earth? Wiping out species? It seemed incredible.

At that very moment, unknown to the audience, an asteroid named Hermes halfway between Mars and Jupiter was beginning a long plunge toward our planet. Six months later it would pass 300,000 miles from Earth's orbit, only a little more than the distance to the Moon. Rhetorically speaking, this would have made a great point in favor of the Alvarezes. Curiously, though, no one noticed the flyby.

1980 wasn't the first time Hermes had sailed by unremarked. Hermes is a good-sized asteroid, easy to see, and a frequent visitor to Earth's neighborhood. Yet astronomers had gotten into the habit of missing it. How this came to be is a curious tale, which begins in Germany just before World War II ...

Dusting Off the Remains of a Hoax

Piltdown Man Comes Out of Storage, but Perpetrator of the Original Fraud Is Still a Mystery

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer

As scientific hoaxes go, few have matched it. Sometime early in the 20th century, someone -- it is still unclear who -- "salted" a gravel pit near the town of Piltdown, England, with what were purported to be the 500,000-year-old fossil remains of a human ancestor -- half human, half ape.

The timing couldn't have been better. Darwin's "Origin of Species" was barely 50 years old, the French and Germans had found Neanderthals, and the race was on to discover the storied "missing link" in the evolution from apes to humans. [...]

And suddenly, there it was. Piltdown man made his appearance in 1912 and held a place of honor in the museum until Nov. 21, 1953, when a new generation of scientists announced that the famous fossil was a fraud. [...]

Doctors find plant growing in boy's nose

Ananova.com
08:15 Tuesday 4th November 2003

Romanian doctors have found a plant growing in a four-year-old boy's nose.

The boy, from a mountain village in Vrancea county, had not complained about the germinating bean and was only in the surgery for a check-up.

Doctor Nicolae Moise, from County Hospital in Focsani, told Evenimentul Zilei newspaper: "As the boy didn't cry or tell his mother anything, it sprung to life and had little leaves when we found it."

The doctors said they had extracted many different things from children's noses and ears but never a living plant before.

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