I don't want to say I told you so, but I did. Ok, so maybe I didn't tell YOU, but I've said often enough over the years that one of the benefits to the British state of the occupation of the six counties of Ulster was the opportunities for training their foot soldiers in 'Urban warfare' - training that could later be applied to the 'mainland'.

As part of this training during the last 30 years of the 20th century, British soldiers and the sectarian Northern Ireland police force (the RUC) fired thousands of 'rubber bullets' or 'baton rounds' (as they were later called) at unsuspecting members of the Irish community. At least 18 people were killed by these 'non-lethal' rounds, including 8 children, and hundreds more were left paralyzed, brain damaged and blind.

The first 'baton rounds' were made of teak wood and used in the crown colony of Hong Kong during periods of intense labor strikes and anti-British protests in the 1960′s. These wooden rounds were deemed "too dangerous" for use in Northern Ireland, so hard rubber was used instead, with no less lethality however. A case in point: Emma Groves, an Irish Catholic, was sitting in her home one evening when British soldiers were conducting raids in the area. Emma was apparently playing the song 'Four Green Fields' loudly on her record player when a British soldier fired a rubber bullet through the window from about 10 feet away striking Emma in the face. She was blinded.

Although official regulations stated that rubber bullets should be fired from no less than 20 meters and at the ground in front of the target in order to minimise damage and target the lower body, in practice they were often fired at close range at the upper body, including the head. Between 1970 and 1974, 55,000 of these were fired on the streets of Northern Ireland, virtually all of them at members of the Irish community and with little or no cause. The first fatality was an 11-year-old boy, shot from 5-6 metres. In what would become common practice among soldiers and police, a witness said a large 'D'-style battery had been used instead of the rubber bullet to increase its weight and impact.

from the sorry,-that's-unconstitutional dept

A year ago, we wrote about a legal challenge concerning the constitutionality of a California law that requires police to collect and store DNA of anyone arrested (not convicted). A California state appeals court has now struck down the law, saying that it's a violation of the 4th Amendment. Considering all of the rulings lately that seem to have done away with the 4th Amendment, it's nice to see one going in the other direction, though I'm sure there's still going to be an appeal. And, unfortunately, the article linked above suggests that this ruling will likely get reversed on appeal, noting that a federal appeals court (third circuit) recently ruled on the same issue, and said it's fine to collect DNA from arrestees. Still, while this court ruling is still in effect in CA, we might as well quote the judge:

More than 10 percent of the TSA's identification badges have errors that could compromise airport security, a new audit has found.

Omissions and inaccuracies ranging from birthdates and birthplaces to incorrect assessments of security threats abound in identification badges assigned to the approximately 900,000 people who have unescorted access to secure areas of airports, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

"The safety of airport workers, passengers, and aircraft is at risk due to the vulnerabilities in the airport operator badging process," the report said.

Israel's social protest movement started with a tent on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard and a few voices demanding affordable housing. In less than a month it has grown into a national phenomenon - and perhaps the most serious challenge yet to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Last Saturday, more than 250,000 Israelis took to the street to call for social reform. Tent cities have sprung up across the country, drawing in an ever-expanding cast of protesters - from students to pensioners, and Holocaust survivors to taxi drivers.

Gerard Batten, a British Member of the European Parliament, has called for an army of troops to crush the thugs on the streets of London.

Completely ignoring the fact that police stood by and let the situation get out of control, coupled with that fact agent provocateurs may have been used to turn a non violent protest into pure mayhem, Batten is calling for a full fledged police state and martial law.

As more and more politicians and media pundits call for martial law and blame anti police state laws for these riots, it becomes clear that even if these riots weren't manufactured, they are sure being used to the advantage of the elite.

Here is a document the USDA doesn't want you to see. It's what the agency calls a "technical review" - nothing more than a USDA-contracted researcher's simple, blunt summary of recent academic findings on the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant infections and their link with factory animal farms. The topic is a serious one. A single antibiotic-resistant pathogen, MRSA - just one of many now circulating among Americans - now claims more lives each year than AIDS.

Back in June, the USDA put the review up on its National Agricultural Library website. Soon after, a Dow Jones story quoted a USDA official who declared it to be based on "reputed, scientific, peer-reviewed, and scholarly journals." She added that the report should not be seen as a "representation of the official position of USDA." That's fair enough - the review was designed to sum up the state of science on antibiotic resistance and factory farms, not the USDA's position on the matter.

A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld could be sued for the torture of two US citizens.

The ruling from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals follows a similar decision by a federal judge to allow an army veteran who also alleges being tortured in Iraq to sue Mr Rumsfeld for damages.

Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were working for Iraqi-owned security firm Shield Group Security in 2006 when they tried to alert the FBI to alleged illegal activities by the company.

After this they were detained by the army and claim that they were tortured over several weeks in military camps by sleep deprivation, being exposed to extremes of light and sound and by a process known as "walling," where subjects are blindfolded and slammed into walls on their way to interrogation sessions.

The Libyan government has accused Nato of killing dozens of civilians in an attack on a village in western Libya.

Col Muammar Gaddafi's administration said Nato bombed Majar, south of the city of Zlitan, on Monday to allow rebel fighters to enter the area.

Officials say 85 civilians were killed, but Nato says the target was a military one, with civilian deaths unlikely.

A BBC correspondent says he saw about 30 body bags at a local hospital, but it was unclear how the people died.

Crackdown comes as President Bashar al-Assad rejects Turkish appeals to change tack or face fate of Muammar Gaddafi

Syrian security forces were reported to have launched another wave of violence against pro-democracy protesters on Tuesday as President Bashar al-Assad rejected a Turkish appeal to change tack or meet the fate of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Human rights groups recorded at least 40 civilians dead on the day that Ahmed Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, met the Syrian leader to issue what was billed as a "final warning" to end the five-month crackdown, estimated by the US as having claimed 2,000 victims.

London police said on Tuesday they will consider using baton rounds as calls mounted for them to use stronger measures in riots that have been sweeping the capital for the last three nights.

"That's a tactic that will be used by the Metropolitan police if deemed necessary," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh told reporters.

Officers said they hoped they were wrong as they said they were "preparing for mass disorder again" tonight.

Senior Scotland Yard officers, led by Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin, met a number of departments last night to discuss the use of various tactics.

Asked about other tactics, such as plastic bullets or baton rounds, Mr Kavanagh said: "Through the night the Commissioner did absolutely consider that as one of the tactics available to use, a tactic used if deemed necessary.