From msnbc.com's Tom Curry: "We agreed it's 78... The number was 78.... There's no question about the number... the number is 78. It was agreed upon last night." So said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday afternoon at a press conference describing an agreement that he said he, President Obama, and House Speaker John Boehner had reached on Thursday night to cut spending for the remainder of this fiscal year.
Reid calls it a $78 billion cut.
But why do news stories use the figure $38 billion as the amount that the negotiators have agreed to cut?
The different numbers are simply the result of two different ways of measuring.
Puppet Masters
March 30, 2011
Barely acknowledged by the Western media, a planned attack on Libya using nuclear weapons, had been contemplated by the Clinton Administration in 1996, at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The Department of Defense had developed a new generation of bunker buster tactical nuclear weapons for use in the Middle East and Central Asia:
"Military officials and leaders of America's nuclear weapon laboratories [had] urged the US to develop a new generation of precision low-yield nuclear weapons... which could be used in conventional conflicts with third-world nations." (Federation of American Scientists, 2001, emphasis added)The B61-11 earth-penetrating weapon with a nuclear warhead had not been tested. It was part of the B61 series, coupled with a so-called "low yield" nuclear warhead. According to US military sources: "If used in North Korea, the radioactive fallout [of the B61-11] could drift over nearby countries such as Japan." (B61-11 Earth-Penetrating Weapon, Globalsecurity.org).
The B61-11 earth-penetrating version of the B61 was configured initially to have a "low" 10 kiloton yield, 66.6 percent of a Hiroshima bomb, for post-Cold War battlefield operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
© Islamic Republic News Agency
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
"The main goal of the leaders of the U.S. in Bahrain and Libya is saving the Zionist regime, even if thousands of people are killed," Ahmadinejad told a gathering of people in Kermanshah on Thursday.
"They are trying to incite Iran-Arab conflict and Shia-Sunni war in the region only to save the Zionist regime," he said.
Ahmadinejad also warned about the hegemonistic powers' plot aimed at settling the Palestine issue in favor of the Zionists.
Ahmadinejad again said the West is trying to break up Jordan in order to establish the Palestinian state.
"Because the defeated Zionist regime does not accept to retreat from the occupied territories and the Palestinians need territory to establish their government, hegemons plan to separate some parts of Jordan and give them to Palestinians so that they can establish their own government there," he said.
© REUTERS
UN air strikes are seen behind a tree in Abidjan.
UN air strikes are seen behind a tree in Abidjan.
After a brief honeymoon following the successful mission to protect Kosovo in 1999, it seemed the Blairite era of "liberal interventionism" had been buried along with tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
The chaos after the steamrollering of the UN Security Council by Tony Blair and George W. Bush in 2002-03 seemed likely to usher in a new period of isolationism.
Barack Obama swept to power in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, while David Cameron entered Downing Street last year insisting that the West "can't drop democracy from 40,000ft".
Yet the past three weeks have found the council - this time with a less noisy Anglo-American wing - willing to pass stunningly powerful resolutions allowing missile strikes against murderous leaders.
Comment: It's rather simple really: psychopaths rule our world.
© PA Wire
Kieran Doherty, who was murdered by British intelligence agents in Co. Derry last year.
Kieran Doherty, who was murdered by British intelligence agents in Co. Derry last year.
That is despite the British government's security adviser deciding MI5 had no connection to the Derry death of Kieran Doherty (31). No inappropriate or improper action took place, Lord Carlile added.
Mr Doherty's body was discovered on the outskirts of the city close to the Border in February 2010. He had been shot dead. The Real IRA said he had been killed because of links to the drugs trade.
Mr Doherty's uncle Vincent Coyle said: "There is a case now for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to carry out an investigation into this."
He added: "The security services seem to be left doing their own thing. The old Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch took huge pay offs on the Monday and were back as MI5 officers on the Tuesday."
Lord Carlile spent four months investigating the family's claims MI5 were involved in the killing and met relatives. He sent a letter to SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan.
The device exploded under the vehicle outside his home in Highfield Close, off the Gortin Road in Omagh, Co Tyrone, just before 4pm today.
It is understood the 25-year-old was a new recruit to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and was a Catholic.
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward said: "This evil and cowardly attack will sicken everyone across Northern Ireland.
© Peter Morrison/AP
A forensics team examines the scene where significant arms were found in Coalisland, east Tyrone, during the investigation into the murder of Ronan Kerr.
A forensics team examines the scene where significant arms were found in Coalisland, east Tyrone, during the investigation into the murder of Ronan Kerr.
Dissident republicans who prepared a 500lb (227kg) van bomb risked causing an Omagh-style massacre, politicians in Northern Ireland have said.
Detectives believe the bomb, found at an underpass near the border on the main Belfast to Dublin road, may have been destined for a town centre attack.
29 people were killed and 220 were injured in a bomb attack in the centre of Omagh in August 1998.
While it is believed the presence of a police checkpoint forced the latest bombers to abandon the vehicle, hundreds of motorists drove past the device unaware of the danger after traffic cones and warning signs had been removed, and even driven over, by others on the road.
The blue Ford transit van, stolen in Maynooth outside Dublin in January and carrying false Donegal registration plates, was found near Newry and contained a wheelie bin packed with 500lbs of homemade explosives.
© Sott.net
The main goal for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is to propagate atomic energy. This is stated clearly in paragraph 2 of the IAEA statute:
"The Agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world."Moreover, many UN agencies are subordinate to the IAEA. This particularly applies to the World Health Organization (WHO). On the strength of an agreement signed on 28 May 1959 (WHA 12-40), the IAEA can veto any research carried by WHO which would be in opposition to implementation of paragraph 2 of the IAEA statute. One statement in this agreement reads:
"It is recognized by the World Health Organization that the International Atomic Energy Agency has the primary responsibility for encouraging, assisting and coordinating research on, and development and practical application of, atomic energy for peaceful uses throughout the world without prejudice to the right of the World Health Organization to concern itself with promoting, developing, assisting, and coordinating international health work, including research, in all its aspects."So it's easy to assess the relative value of reports about the effects of nuclear disasters published by the pro-nuclear institutions, including the famous 2005 report on Chernobyl (a favorite reference for pro-atomic lobbyists). In short, in the interest of "encouraging, assisting and coordinating research on, and development and practical application of, atomic energy" such reports are very probably biased and tend to downplay the extent of the radiation danger to people.
Ali Abdullah Saleh accuses Gulf states who have been meeting to discuss his fate of trying to mastermind 'coup'
Hopes for a peaceful resolution to political turmoil were fading on Friday as President Ali Abdullah Saleh backed away from a plan being drawn up by Gulf states to broker an end to his 33-year rule.
Speaking at a rally of his supporters, Saleh lashed out at the Gulf states who have been meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss his fate. He accused them of trying to mastermind a "coup" against his country's democracy and of "blatant interference in Yemeni affairs".
Violent demonstrations continued, with three protesters killed in the city of Taiz, the commercial capital. Protesters carrying the bodies of five people killed earlier in the week to a graveyard came under fire from soldiers from the Republican Guard, an elite force headed by the president's son.
Plain-clothed men were seen crouching on nearby rooftops firing rifles and lobbing tear-gas canisters down on the protesters.
© AFP/Getty Images
A Yemeni anti-government protester takes part in a demonstration in the commercial capital Taiz.
A Yemeni anti-government protester takes part in a demonstration in the commercial capital Taiz.
Speaking at a rally of his supporters, Saleh lashed out at the Gulf states who have been meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss his fate. He accused them of trying to mastermind a "coup" against his country's democracy and of "blatant interference in Yemeni affairs".
Violent demonstrations continued, with three protesters killed in the city of Taiz, the commercial capital. Protesters carrying the bodies of five people killed earlier in the week to a graveyard came under fire from soldiers from the Republican Guard, an elite force headed by the president's son.
Plain-clothed men were seen crouching on nearby rooftops firing rifles and lobbing tear-gas canisters down on the protesters.
© The Associated Press
John Boehner, left, and Barack Obama each announced a shutdown had been avoided.
John Boehner, left, and Barack Obama each announced a shutdown had been avoided.
The deal - which was only sealed after Boehner presented the outline to a closed door Republican Conference - averts what would have been an unprecedented wartime shutdown of the government that had become a growing embarrassment for himself and President Barack Obama.
Down to the end, Boehner was still pressing for a lower top line when Obama called him in the early evening. Both men later cast the agreement as the best available, but the grueling, often distrustful process testified to how tough this legislative year will be and the immense pressure on the speaker from the right.
The administration largely succeeded in blocking the most controversial policy riders impacting the environment and abortion-rights. But the cut is one of the single largest in history, and a preview of what lies ahead when Republicans move their 2012 budget plan next week and fight with Obama over raising the debt ceiling in May and June.
"Like any worthwhile compromise, both sides had to make tough decisions and give ground on issues that were important to them," Obama said. "And I certainly did that."
Comment: The question to ask is qui bono?
British intelligence is notorious for creating terror scares, real and imaginary, in Ireland:
Patsies Framed For Omagh Bombing Appeal, Evidence Suggests British Intelligence False Flag Operation