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"The signs of the times herald a new age. It is close at hand. Will it be better, will it be even more dreadful than the present one? The precipice is within inches of the summit. Every one of us contributes in a certain measure to the course events takes. Let us be conscious of our responsibility." T. Illion, In Secret Tibet, p. 189

Yesterday we reported on the book by Christopher Hyatt " The Psychopath's Bible". We were all pretty amazed here at "Signs of the Times Central" that such a book exists and that someone would be promoting the psychopathic way of life as the "measure of all things", but then on the other hand we just have to look at the world around us and those that control it, and our surprise is diminished. We also look at the fact that Mr. Hyatt is a self confessed "Black Magician" and our surprise is diminished even further.

In response to yesterday's article a reader wrote to us with more information about the author, Mr. Hyatt:

He writes:

"I saw in today's "Sign of the Times" mention of a new book, "The Psychopath's Bible" by by Christopher Hyatt. I used to be involved in the Caliphet OTO a few years ago and ran into some people associated with Grady McMurtry, Christopher Hyatt, and Jack Parsons. Christopher Hyatt is a high level initate in the OTO who has written books about, among other things, Enochian magic. What always puzzled me were all the "inside" reports about magicians being driven to psychosis by the practice of Enochian magic. Some of these reports I got first hand. I'll never forget one of these "Enochian magicians" who used to brag about reversing the Enochian calls (ritual pronoucements). I saw him a couple years after his Enochian magic had heavily backfired on him. I was shocked by the bent-over, beaten vissage of the man I once knew. What is more, he appeared to have a "handler" with him! I am still amazed by the sheer amount of "magical" carnage (distruction! of individual psyche) that I saw during my two to three year association with OTO and the ritual magic scene."

"Enochian Magic" indeed. A perfect example of the STS mindset and where it ultimately leads in it's attempts to forcibly extract from "the universe" a version of reality that fits only the necromancer's own twisted narcissistic view.

Genoa officer in 'suspicious' car crash

John Hooper in Rome
Wednesday August 6, 2003
The Guardian

The paramilitary police officer who shot and killed a young protester during the violent clashes at the G8 meeting in Genoa two years ago was in hospital last night suffering from severe multiple injuries, after a road accident which his lawyer described as "very suspicious".

Mario Placanica, 25, was acquitted of murder in May following a lengthy investigation into the incident in Genoa in July 2001. The judge decided he had acted in legitimate self-defence...

The defendant, who suffered frequent bouts of depression, changed his version of events four times and in July 2002 told a television interviewer: "I've been used to cover up the responsibility of others." His remark prompted some in the anti-globalisation movement to speculate that there was more to the apparently straightforward killing than had emerged.

Comment: The truth about the shooting of Carlo Giuliani has, like most other truth in this world, been buried. See here for more details.

New Euro law could make criminals of us all

Rupert Goodwins
ZDNet UK

Welcome, European citizen, to a new world of criminality -- a world where you're the star. The IP Enforcement Directive, a proposed new law from the EU, has been attracting some attention from the usual quarters. In particular, the sainted Ross Anderson of Cambridge University has rolled out a masterly analysis of the threat to many of our accepted civil liberties and commercial freedoms. Yet even a cursory readthrough reveals much to be worried about.  [...]

Britain can sometimes seem like a secret state

BBC

[B]ut you have increasing powers to access official files and information. Our practical guide shows you where to start and what you can do if those bureaucrats won't play fair. [...]

Police Masons Told to Own Up

By Dan McGinn
icnortherireland.co.uk
 
POLICE officers who are Freemasons, members of the Catholic Knights of Columbanus or the Orange Order will have to disclose their involvement to their bosses under new measures announced today. [...]

Officers will also have to declare if they are a member of an organisation which they believe could call into question their impartiality. [...]

No 10 admits attempt to smear Dr Kelly

FRASER NELSON POLITICAL EDITOR

DOWNING Street was yesterday forced to admit that one of its top officials smeared Dr David Kelly, the late government weapons adviser, as a "Walter Mitty character" three days before his funeral.

Tom Kelly, one of two official spokesmen for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has privately admitted that he was the source who cast aspersions on the credibility of Dr Kelly, the weapons expert who is to be buried tomorrow.

His confession humiliated No 10, which had categorically denied any of its staff had attempted to blacken Dr Kelly’s name in a bid to discredit him.

Comment: So first they murder him then they spit on his grave and his family...what a swell bunch 'o guys the "leaders of the free world" are.

Terrorist Attack on the Marriot Hotel Complex in Jakarta

Comment: Freedom Files has pulled together news reports on this terrorist attack with the following headlines:

There were four blasts: Eyewitness 

US Embassy cancelled the booking of Marriott Hotel 4.5 hours before the explosion .

Hotel blast 'caused by suicide bomber' 

Jakarta forensic teams find possible Bali link in Car Bomb ingredients

Fighter Jet Deal Includes Cosmonaut

Reuters
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2003.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A $900 million deal for Malaysia to buy new warplanes from Russia includes a plan to put a Malaysian cosmonaut into space in 2005, Malaysia's defense minister said Tuesday.

Under the agreement -- which was due to be signed by President Vladimir Putin and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday -- Malaysia would pay cash for 18 Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30 fighters to be delivered in batches of six in 2006-07.

Russia would in turn guarantee that about 60 percent of the cost would be offset by other benefits, including training a Malaysian cosmonaut, other technological concessions and signing contracts to buy more than 1 billion ringgit ($270 million) in palm oil, Defense Minister Najib Razak said.

Global warming may be speeding up, fears scientist

Alarm at 'unusual' heatwaves across northern hemisphere

John Vidal, environment editor
Wednesday August 6, 2003
The Guardian

One of Europe's leading scientists yesterday raised the possibility that the extreme heatwave now settled over at least 30 countries in the northern hemisphere could signal that man-made climate change is accelerating.

"The present heatwave across the northern hemisphere is worrying. There is the small probability that man-made climate change is proceeding much faster and stronger than expected," said Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief scientific adviser to the German government and now head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall centre.

Prof Schellnhuber said "the parching heat experienced now" could be consistent "with a worst-case scenario [of global warming] that nobody wants to come true". He warned that several months' research would be needed to analyse data from around the world before scientists could say why the heatwaves are so intense this year.[...]

Comment: The "signs of the times" are all there folks, this is NOT a drill...

Europe bakes as dog days beat records

AFP, Wednesday August 6, 12:52 PM

Europe continued to swelter under a punishing heat wave as Portugal called in NATO to help combat deadly forest fires and France recorded its highest temperatures in more than half a century.

Thermometers in parts of Croatia, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal hit the symbolic 40-degree Celsius mark (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with no sign of relief until at least the start of next week and temperatures feared to soar to 42 Celsius in parts of Portugal. [...]

Heat and fires scorching Europe

Frank Bruni/NYT NYT
Wednesday, August 6, 2003

ROME - Unusually high temperatures and a summer-long dearth of rain have wrought serious damage to crops and weather-related deaths throughout Europe, a continent of increasingly scorched earth. [...]

Here in Italy, where anything beyond a squirt of rain is a memory so distant as to seem like a fantasy, farmers contemplated harvests of grapes, olives, peaches and apricots that might turn out to be 50 percent below usual. [...]

"I haven't seen heat like this in 70 years: my entire life," said Stefano Colvolino, a 70-year-old traffic policeman in Rome. [...]

More die in Europe's heatwave

BBC
Tuesday, 5 August, 2003, 12:10 GMT

Five more people have died in Portugal and Spain as blistering temperatures set records across Europe.

The French summer has been declared the hottest since World War II, Slovenian temperatures are at their highest for a century and in Germany a record night-time high was registered on Monday.

Fires were still burning in Spain on Tuesday, as villagers in some places beat desperately at the flames with branches to halt their advance.

But Portugal remains among the worst affected by forest fires. [...]

In other parts of Europe:

• Five deaths in Germany were blamed on the heat, which topped 40C in some places
• Mines left behind after the Bosnian war stopped firefighters battling a three-day-old blaze near Mostar
• 54 of France's 98 departments have requested state aid for drought-hit farmers
• Power cuts were imposed in Italy amid soaring demand
• Polish firefighers battled 35 forest blazes and said there was serious fire risk in about a quarter of the country's woodlands
• Amsterdam highs edged towards 30C, prompting zoo officials to spray ostriches with cold water and feed iced fruit to chimpanzees [...]

Scotia Sea Earthquake (Magnitude 7.5)

Tuesday 5th August 2003

A major earthquake has occurred in the Scotia Sea 190 km (120 miles) E of Coronation Island, South Orkney Islands. The August 4, 2003, Scotia Sea earthquake occurred on the boundary between the Scotia plate and the Antarctic plate. In the epicentral region, the Scotia Sea plate is moving to the west-northwest with respect to the Antarctic plate. The relative velocity between the two plates is not well determined but is likely to be about 1 cm/y. The overall boundary is a transform-fault boundary, involving predominantly strike-slip faulting, although prior normal-faulting earthquakes have also occurred. No tsunami is expected to be generated from the earthquake.

Comment: Want to hear what an ocean earthquake sounds like? Click here. Requires Quicktime.

Recent World Earthquake Map

Activity at Mt Etna Volcano (Italy)

Tuesday 5th August 2003

Vigorous degassing continues at the Northeast Crater, and some less intense degassing is occurring at the Bocca Nuova. There are no indications of eruptive activity, but the volcano remains restless. There has been seismicity in the eastern sector of Mount Etna in the past ten days, with a burst of four small earthquakes (magnitudes up to 2.6) on 30 July 2003 that affected an area between the villages of Milo and Zafferana on the eastern flank of the volcano. [...]

Another Global Warming Surprise: Grasslands May Become Wetter As Temperatures Rise

Grassland ecosystems could become wetter as a result of global warming, according to a new study by researchers from Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This surprising result, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), contradicts numerous climate models predicting that higher temperatures could dry out natural landscapes, including grasslands. [...]

UC Riverside Study Shows Glaciers Once Existed Near Los Angeles

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (July 29, 2003) -- Small glaciers once existed in southernmost California, near Los Angeles, during the last glacial period (between ~22,000 and 11,000 years ago) and in the early part of the present interglacial (several thousand years ago). [...]

Hurricane Warning

Insurers quietly added deductibles in coastal areas. Better check your policy

By JEAN CHATZKY
Time.com
Monday, Aug. 04, 2003

Had enough of this year's lousy weather? No, you haven't. William Gray, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, is predicting "higher-than-average hurricane activity this year with 14 named storms, eight of which are expected to be hurricanes, three of them intense." So batten down the hatches. And while you're at it, give your homeowner's policy a once-over.

Why? Because if you're hit by one of these windstorms, you could pay much more out of pocket than a standard deductible. In the late 1990s, insurers in 17 coastal states added further deductibles, specifically for hurricanes, to many policies. [...]

A Reader Comments:

I have a couple comments today that I would like to share. First and foremost concerning the weather and the blessing the pope gave to gm food. As I read from some of the C's material the current earth changes and such are the product of differing sources. One being 3rd/4th density consortium activities. More fear factor for the sheep???. Perhaps or a way to get us all addicted to this gm food. More matrix (see above fear factor)? Our weather patterns in my area have made for some great local produce the strawberries were wonderful and the corn is turning out sweet and tender even though in some areas close by its been a bit of a wet summer. There are some things on this earth worth waking up for as bad as it all is...The glass is half full, but sits on the edge of the table.

Secondly; I do get the sense that Dubya does not like Israel. His latest statement concerning sanctions against them in order to get them to tear down their wall is his strongest to date. He has been in the past at best sheepish, always recanting his remarks or not following thru. If he is true to forum and a reaction machine he will follow thru on these latest remarks which may put the final nail in his political term. Although,to date. I will still hold to my thought that he is a 2 term president. My dream told me 8 years of him (scared me to death).

D.Y

Comment: Bush's "support" for Israel is based upon his "Christian" belief that for the End Times to arrive, Israel must exist. Bush believes that Jesus is going to return, at which time, those Jews that do not recognise "Him" as their saviour will de condemned. So Bush's support for Israel is to usher in its ultimate destruction.

Israeli Release of Palestinian Prisoners Backfires

By Jeffrey Heller
Tue Aug 5, 9:49 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's plans to release more than 300 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday in what it said was a gesture to promote peace backfired when Palestinians rejected the measure as a sham.

Instead of boosting confidence in the U.S.-backed peace plan, the release fueled distrust between the two sides and led to the cancellation of talks between Israeli leader Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

The Palestinians want an amnesty for all 6,000 of their jailed compatriots, saying this would show Israel was committed to the road map charting a course toward ending three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state by 2005. [...]

Selection of Palestinian detainees to be released solely reflects Israeli criteria

Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
August 5, 2003
Press Release

There are currently over 5,400 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 3 prisoners who have spent over 26 years in prison, 11 who have spent more than 20 years in prison and 75 who have served over 15 years in prison. There are now approximately 750 Palestinians in administrative detention, who should be immediately released based on the fact that there have been no charges brought against them.

Addameer views the selection of detainees to be released as an empty and insubstantial gesture, rather than the so-called confidence building and good will measures Israel purports to. In its selection process, Israel has further divided the prisoners issue and has reflected only its own conditions for prisoner releases, irrespective of any other criteria. Addameer again calls for the unconditional and immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.

Comment: One of the people released was supposed to be relased today anyway. Administrative detention is a form of arbitrary detention, whereby detainees are held without charge or trial. There are 750 of them, but Israel is not releasing them.Of the 360 Palestinian child detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons, only 13 have been named for release. None of the 75 Palestinian women are being released.

US Mulls Cutting Aid to Israel Over Wall

Nazir Majally
Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 August 2003 — US officials were weighing whether to cut $9 billion in aid to Israel to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt construction of a security wall, The New York Times reported yesterday.

[...] Straining relations with the Palestinians further, Israel extended its two-year-old closure of Orient House, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s headquarters in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, for another six months.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the move violated the peace road map that calls on Israel to reopen Palestinian institutions it has closed in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to establish the capital of a future state.

Farmers face ruin as Israel's fence drives wedge through West Bank

Families are torn apart by Israel's fence

Israel fence revives old controversies

"It means the people can't go from their villages to the major cities except with a military order"- Khalil Tofakji, Palestinian

Israelis arrest Irish peace activist

06/08/2003 - 08:03:30

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has condemned the arrest of an Irish peace activist by the Israeli military.

Terry McNeill and 40 other workers with the International Solidarity Movement were detained yesterday while trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian family's home near the West Bank village of Mas'ha.

The Israeli military wanted to demolish part of the house because it was on the route of a massive wall being built to separate Israel from the West Bank.

Last week, Mr McNeill was also hit by a rubber bullet fired by Israeli soldiers. He and his colleagues are currently being held in Ariel Prison, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at 74

By URI AVNERY
August 5, 2003

Every television viewer recognizes the bridge between the last two buildings left standing among the ruins of the Mukata'ah (compound) in Ramallah.

During one of my last visits, a Palestinian officer pointed to a simple table and chair near one of the windows of this bridge. Through this window a stretch of the Palestinian landscape beyond the town is visible. "Here Abu-Amar likes to sit between meetings and look out," he explained. Abu-Amar is the affectionate name for Yasser Arafat.

21 years ago, when I went to Beirut and met him for the first time, he was one of the most mobile leaders in the world, if not the most mobile of all. Once he told me that during the last five days he had visited seven countries, sleeping on the plane between destinations. At the time, his neck was in a surgical collar.

Now he has been imprisoned in the compound for more than two years. For some of the time, the conditions were worse than in an ordinary prison: he lived in a closed room without fresh air and almost without water, with the sewage blocked. He knew that at any moment Sharon's soldiers could storm in and kill him.

In a few days, he will be 74 years old. He will spend his birthday in his prison.

This is a good opportunity to take stock of the man and his work. [...]

Killing of Hizbullah man could revive undercover war

More bombings, assassinations may be on the way

Nicholas Blanford
Special to The Daily Star

The killing of Ali Hassan Saleh in the heart of Hizbullah's Beirut stronghold could mark the beginning of an undercover war between the party and Israel, marked by bombings and assassinations and heightened tension along the Lebanon-Israel border.

A series of bomb scares in the southern suburbs of Beirut at the beginning of the week led to several buildings being evacuated, underlining the tense security climate in Hizbullah’s key areas.
The US “war on terrorism,” Syria's renewed public defiance of US and Israeli dictats, Hizbullah's warning to kidnap more Israeli soldiers and a more aggressive approach by Mossad provide the broader context for a shadowy conflict between Hizbullah and Israel. [...]

Saleh is the fifth victim of a high-profile assassination in the past 18 months, although not all were necessarily the work of Israel. [...]

Ankara Strengthens Relations With Arab Nations At Expense Of Its Alliance With Israel

Shawkat Abu Fakhr
Al-Hayat 2003/08/5

Damascus and Ankara opened a new page in their bilateral relations, crowning a rapprochement that started over two years ago and witnessed consecutive positive developments. The last of these developments was neutralizing the mines that have existed on the common frontiers since 1952, which helped foster an atmosphere of trust and good neighborly relations, accompanied by the reorganization of priorities along new standards of cooperation.

The cordiality between the two neighbors is gaining ground in the current international context, and the changes at the regional and international level, especially after the occupation of Iraq, the Roadmap, the American threats against Syria, the campaign against Iran and the confusion between terrorism and legitimate resistance. Thus, the last visit of the Syrian Prime Minister Mustafa Miro to Ankara is considered, after having been postponed more than once, as a historical step carrying important dimensions.

Stealing The Internet

With Blessings from the FCC and Congress, the High-tech Industry Wants to Privatize the Internet. What Happens When you Have to Pay to Join the Information Revolution?

by Jeff Chester and Steven Rosenfeld

Ever stop to wonder what is really happening to the Internet these days?

The crackdown by the music industry on illegal downloading tells just part of the story. Even with the dot-com bust, the digital boom is here, as high-speed connections, faster processors and new wireless devices increasingly become part of life. But the thousands of lawsuits are not just about ensuring record companies and artists get the royalties they deserve. They're part of a larger plan to fundamentally change the way the Internet works.

From Congress to Silicon Valley, the nation's largest communication and entertainment conglomerates -- and software firms that want their business -- are seeking to restructure the Internet, to charge people for high-speed uses that are now free and to monitor content in an unprecedented manner. This is not just to see if users are swapping copyrighted CDs or DVDs, but to create digital dossiers for their own marketing purposes.

All told, this is the business plan of America's handful of telecom giants -- the phone, cable, satellite, wireless and entertainment companies that now bring high-speed Internet access to most Americans. Their ability to meter Internet use, monitor Internet content and charge according to those metrics is how they are positioning themselves for the evolving Internet revolution.

Comment: There is a reason for the fact that the government is slowly instituting more and more stringent controls. The question is, how dupable are the American public?

If a government official, an FBI agent, a soldier or a policeman were to suggest that you and your family and the rest of your neigbourhood should come with him to a secure compound for your own safety during a "terror attack" for instance, would you go? Maybe you would. When you get there and see that the "secure compund" is more like a " detention camp", would you question it? Maybe not, it is just a temporary necessity after all, right?... What then if you see armed guards on watchtowers looking down on you and your family? Would this raise any eyebrows?

I could continue, but the point I am trying to make is this: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then for god's sake, however much you hate to admit the fact, however hard it is to do so, just accept the fact that it is probably a duck and take the relevant action, whatever you decide that to be.

It is staring us ALL in the face, there remains little if any doubt, the evidence is overwhelming, and it is not OUR evidence, we do not supply any "proof", the proof is right there looking at you, right there in objective reality. Forget about anyone convincing you that something is true or not, look for yourselves and decide...

Electronic gear to get more scrutiny at airports

By The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday that airline passengers should expect more scrutiny of their electronic gear, including cellphones, cameras and radios, at U.S. airport checkpoints, after developing more-detailed intelligence about the kinds of ordinary items that terrorists might use to conceal explosives or weapons.

The new screening measures are based on analysis of information gained from interrogations of al-Qaida operatives and raids on al-Qaida safe houses.

Examining equipment found in an al-Qaida facility overseas, CIA officers concluded that terrorists had experimented with camera flash attachments in an effort to turn them into stun guns and as housings for explosives, according to an advisory sent to airport screeners and law enforcement.

U.S. Dominance in Space Makes General 'Pity the Enemy'

By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2003 -- Anybody who goes against the massive space capability of the U.S. military "is in for a tough go," Air Force Maj. Gen. Franklin J. "Judd" Blaisdell told reporters during a Pentagon press briefing today.

"Whether it's Iraq or any other enemy of the United States and its allies, I would tell you that we're so dominant in space that I would pity a country that would come up against us," said Blaisdell, the Air Force's director of space operations and integration. "The synergy with air, land and sea forces and our ability to control the battle space and seize the high ground is devastating. [...]

Lack of Intelligence

America's secret spy satellites are costing you billions, but they can't even get off the launch pad

By Douglas Pasternak

The United States has invested $200 billion over the past four decades developing and operating its supersecret spy satellite programs. [...]

[I]ntelligence and national security experts warn that the NRO is now so beset by problems that there is no guarantee America will be able to maintain its huge advantage in space. [...]

Comment: Or so "they" would like us to think. File this propaganda under the burgeoning section of "The U.S. alphabet soup agencies are comprised of incompetent hacks, now go back to sleep."

Smoke and Dust at World Trade Center Is Linked to Smaller Babies

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Scientists say they have measured a slight but significant rise in the percentage of small babies born to women who were around the World Trade Center during or after the terror attack compared with babies of a large sample of pregnant women who were elsewhere at the time. [...]

Uncle Sam shocks some veterans with recall to duty

By TOM DAVIS

Army Capt. Richard Hinman says he's a "draftee" serving in a volunteer army.

Think about it, says Hinman. The West Point graduate, who left the military in 1999, didn't want to go to Iraq and Kuwait. But he got his orders on Feb. 8 and was sent overseas in May.

"I wanted to get out of this kicking-in-doors-with-guns kind of thing," said Hinman, who was looking forward to more time with his two children but is now serving at Camp Doha, Kuwait. "It was a real surprise." [...]

US May Want to Set Up Military Bases in Australia, Prime Minister Says

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
August 05, 2003

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - The Australian government would consider allowing the U.S. to establish American military bases on its soil, if approached by Washington, Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday. [...]

U.S. military abroad: More bases won't curb terrorism

William Pfaff
IHT
 
PARIS A vastly extended deployment of American forces is proposed by Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department. But there is no assurance that new military bases would actually improve the security of the United States, and they might constitute eventual political provocations, targets and potential hostages. [...]

The administration's worldwide military deployments have already encouraged U.S. intervention in conflicts that have only fanciful relationships to any terrorists dangerous to the United States, such as the ancient autonomy struggle of the "Moros" in the southern Philippines.

A professional characteristic both of any bureaucracy, including the military, is to ferociously defend every acquired expansion of its influence or numbers. There is also a neoconservative enthusiasm for more U.S. bases, since America's alleged manifest destiny is benevolent global hegemony. All find agreement in the idea that America should straddle the world - just in case. [...]

The war according to David Hackworth

By Jonathan Franklin

The retired colonel calls Donald Rumsfeld an "asshole" whose bad planning mired U.S. troops in an ugly guerrilla conflict in Iraq. His sources? Defiant soldiers sending dispatches from the front. [...]

Police investigation after soldier found hanged

Police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old soldier who was found hanged at one of Europe's largest military garrisons.

[...]The Army has confirmed that Lance Corporal Derek McGregor, from Blackpool, was found dead at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire on July 7. L/Cpl McGregor's death comes as detectives in Surrey continue to investigate the deaths of four soldiers at Deepcut barracks [...]

Elite soldiers in drug boost tests

By Mark Dunn

THE Australian Defence Force is assessing the use of performance-enhancing chemical compounds to produce fitter fighting men and women.

The ADF revealed that some aircrews have been using hypnotic drugs during extended flight operations to control sleep and alertness. [...]

CHERYL SEAL REPORTS CORRECTION: Bush's Top WMD Inspector David Kay is NOT a scientist of any kind

Baltimore IMC

It is a rare instance when the correction of a major factual error in a story actually helps make the case laid out by said story stronger. But my story questioning the credibility of David Kay got a major boost from the detection of an error. [...]

Man Losses Job for Calling George Bush a shrub.

Colleen Silverthorn The Leader-Post
Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Ted Bowen, the NDP caucus researcher who referred to U.S. president George Bush using the dismissive term "shrub" in an internal government memo, has resigned. According to a source who didn't want to be identified, Bowen was asked to resign last Thursday, one day after the memo became public knowledge and was initially suspended without pay.

Over the weekend, Bowen offered that resignation and the government accepted it effective immediately. Bowen, 60, first joined the caucus office as a researcher 24 years ago under the Allan Blakeney government. Bowen's lengthy career with the party stumbled last week when a memo he wrote to MLAs and party candidates was inadvertently faxed to the media [...]

U.S. Backs Florida's New Counterterrorism Database

'Matrix' Offers Law Agencies Faster Access to Americans' Personal Records

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2003

Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Organizers said the system, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup truck in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event. [...]

Comment: Okay, who would like to hazzard a guess as to why this is happening? What could be the possible reason for the US government to want to enable law enforcement officers to "analyze billions of records about ordinary Americans"? Can you see the duck yet?...

Sherman Austin, webmaster of Raisethefist.com sentenced to one year in federal prison

Sherman Austin, webmaster of RaisetheFist.com, was sentenced today, August 4, 2003, to one year in federal prison, with three years of probation. Judge Wilson shocked the courtroom when he went against the recommendation of not only the prosecution, but the FBI and the Justice Department, who had asked that Austin be sentenced to 4 months in prison, and 4 months in a half-way house, with 3 years of probation. [...]

Comment: The round up begins?...More media reports about RaisetheFist.com can be found here.

Everything Is Political

August 5, 2003 By PAUL KRUGMAN

The agency's analysts find that they are no longer helping to formulate policy; instead, their job is to rationalize decisions that have already been made. And more and more, they find that they are expected to play up evidence, however weak, that seems to support the administration's case, while suppressing evidence that doesn't.

Am I describing the C.I.A.? The E.P.A.? The National Institutes of Health? Actually, I'm talking about the Treasury Department, but the ambiguity is no coincidence. Across the board, the Bush administration has politicized policy analysis. Whether the subject is stem cells or global warming, budget deficits or weapons of mass destruction, government agencies are under intense pressure to say what the White House wants to hear. And the long-term consequences are likely to be dire. [...]

Betting on Bush's next crimes

Analysts often use prices from various markets as indicators of potential events. The use of orange futures contract prices by analysts of the Florida weather is a classic example. The Pentagon briefly attempted to apply this technique to terrorism, assassination, and war [articles] [archive of Pentagon site].

The American Action Market (AAM) refines this approach by trading futures contracts that deal with the two most important questions facing the world today: (1) What will the U.S. government do next? (2) What is informing the U.S. government's current behavior?

Some of the contracts traded on AAM will be based on objective data and observable events, as on a horse track. Read more:

Way beyond a joke

I'm surprised that Africa is so surprised that Darth Vader Jnr has failed to take action against the lethal chaos of Liberia, in spite of the (somewhat ill-considered) pleas of many of the people of that country that he should.

Why should the United States, stretched as it is in Afghanistan and Iraq, invade Liberia?

1) There is no oil in Liberia. 2) The country is full of nothing but niggers. 3) The Firestone Tyre Company is perfectly capable of taking care of its lucrative rubber plantations in that country with its own highly experienced security services anyway. Neither Charles Taylor nor the shady rebels who are trying to unseat him would dare to make an assault on the only significant American investment in the former slave colony.

So there is really no reason for the US to invade Liberia. Not even to save lives — which seems to be the logic that the hard-pressed Liberian on the street is trying to invoke.[...]

Bush authorizes small force for Liberia

Associated Press

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Bush approved the contingent of six to 10 U.S. troops Tuesday morning, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The troops could enter Liberia as early as Wednesday and the team could grow to as large as 20 in coming days.

Nigerian troops began arriving Monday at the vanguard of what will be a 3,250 strong force seeking to end 14 years of carnage and usher warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor into exile.

What Mr. Bush Didn't Say About Africa

[...] "For 250 years the captives endured an assault on their culture and their dignity," the president whined. "The spirit of Africans in America did not break. Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted. Small men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice. A republic founded on equality for all became a prison for millions."

Comment: The above excerpt of Bush's speech, taken from the article, is ironic in that it could easily apply to the history of the United States.

After the winning of the war - United States: wider still and wider

Le Monde diplomatique June 2003
By ERIC HOBSBAWM

For those with a long memory and an understanding of the ambitions and history of previous empires - and their inevitable decline - the present behaviour of the United States is familiar and yet unprecedented. It may lead to the militarisation of the US, the destabilisation of the Middle East and the impoverishment, in every way, of the rest of the world. [...]

Arab League rejects Iraq's ruling council

CAIRO, Egypt—Arab League members decided yesterday not to recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council, saying they will wait until a government is elected.

Arab officials welcomed the council's creation as a first step toward new leadership in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

But yesterday's decision showed that Arab governments are keeping some distance from the body — dismissed by many in Iraq and across the Arab world as a puppet of Iraq's U.S. and British occupiers. The decision means Iraq's seat at the 22-member Arab League will remain empty for the time being.

The Coalition And Its Mismanagement

Randa Takieddine
Al-Hayat 2003/08/6

The news coming from Iraq these days is sad and worrying, as far as the future of the country and its people. A top-level employee at the Iraqi Oil Ministry earns a monthly salary of $250, even though Iraq's oil revenues - when Iraq starts exporting oil again at the pre-war level - are expected to reach between $18 and $20 billion a year, if oil prices remain at their current level.

The Iraqi people suffered from Saddam Hussein's regime and from international sanctions that impoverished the country throughout 12 years. Then, the U.S.-British coalition forces occupied their country, under the pretext of saving them from a criminal dictator who crushed his people. But the U.S. management of Iraq since the occupation gives no indication that it is well aware of its mission or of the country's realities. Rather, it is trying to implement preset plans, despite the many warnings it has been getting to the effect that these plans are not adapted to the country.

Ever since the coalition troops entered Iraq, Baghdad and other cities have been suffering from power cuts. It is difficult to believe that Siemens, a German company, had stocked before the war, in Baghdad's Dora Station, equipment for an electricity station, which the Iraqi authorities had acquired through the UN oil-for-food program at a cost of $40 million. The equipment was there, waiting to be tested and generate electricity. But the American company Bechtel prevented this, claiming that Siemens had to participate in the tender just like all other companies. It is mind boggling that Baghdad is being banned from sufficient electricity, just because of Bechtel's hegemony over other companies that had entered Iraq under a UN agreement.

Many Iraqis close to the so-called coalition administration are talking about the daily mismanagement by the U.S.-British forces. A colleague who returned from Iraq after spending two weeks there, said that one day, he was on his way out of the hotel, and was surprised to find a U.S. checkpoint at the entrance of the hotel, and was preventing people from leaving the hotel. A U.S. soldier, around 18 to 20 years old, stopped the journalist and some colleagues, who were on their way to visit a neighborhood in Baghdad, saying: "I feel like killing somebody today." The journalist went back and asked for permission to leave the hotel, and the soldier replied: "Didn't you hear me? I feel like killing somebody today." The U.S. soldiers are extremely edgy in this strange, hot Arab land, to which they were sent and where each day, one of them is killed.

[...] Despite this, the American company Halliburton, specialized in oil services (which used to be headed by the engineer of the U.S. policy in Iraq, Vice-President Dick Cheney), announced that its revenues doubled this year, after the losses it incurred from the revenues of its contracts in Iraq last year. Halliburton officially announced that it reaped gains of $26 million during the second quarter of this year, after losing $498 million last year, and that its sales rose to $3.6 billion, adding that these revenues, as well as the higher job opportunities resulted from the occupation of Iraq.

American Contractor Killed in Iraq Landmine Blast

By Alastair Macdonald
Tue Aug 5,10:37 PM ET
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters)

An American civilian contractor working with the U.S. military was killed in Iraq on Tuesday when his truck detonated an anti-tank mine in the hostile territory around Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.

Major Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit told Reuters the contractor, who worked for engineering and construction firm Kellogg Brown & Root, was traveling in a military convoy when the land mine exploded. [...]

The company, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Co, has been assisting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on projects including trying to get Iraq's oil export pipeline to Turkey up and running, a key step in the reconstruction of the country. [...]

Results are 'remarkably similar' to using napalm

By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 5, 2003

American jets killed Iraqi troops with firebombs - similar to the controversial napalm used in the Vietnam War - in March and April as Marines battled toward Baghdad.

Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions created massive fireballs...

During the war, Pentagon spokesmen disputed reports that napalm was being used, saying the Pentagon's stockpile had been destroyed two years ago.

Apparently the spokesmen were drawing a distinction between the terms "firebomb" and "napalm." If reporters had asked about firebombs, officials said yesterday they would have confirmed their use. [...]

Comment: What a wonderful bunch of bloodthirsty animals we have for "leaders"

Even with Weapons, Hussein Was No Threat

by Sheldon Richman

The glaring absence of unconventional Iraqi arms should not blind us to the fact that even if Saddam Hussein had amassed chemical, biological, and - yes - even nuclear weapons, he would not have posed a threat to the American people. As offensive tools, those weapons would have been useless.

How could that be? Simply put, with the United States and Israel armed with the most sophisticated weapons imaginable - including nuclear bombs - it is unthinkable that the former Iraqi president would have embarked on the suicidal mission of attacking either nation. From recent history (Libya, Iran) he already knew that to sponsor even a conventional terrorist attack on Americans or Israelis would bring deadly retaliation. This explains why he never supplied Palestinians with any of the unconventional weapons he possessed in the past.

It should be kept in mind that until recently chemical and biological weapons have not been regarded as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). This is a category deliberately broadened for rhetorical purposes — to spook the American people into supporting an offensive war against a government that did not attack them or, indeed, even show signs of wanting to.

Why are chemical and biological weapons not classified as WMDs? Because it is difficult - although not impossible - to use them to kill large numbers of people. Weather and other conditions have to be just right. A shift in wind can send a poisonous cloud back over one's own forces. Killing masses of people is far easier with conventional bombs such as those used by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Serbia.

The power to define is the power to control. Some of the most lethal weapons on earth are held by the U.S. government but are not classified as weapons of mass destruction. Yet if even one vile of old anthrax is found buried deep in the ground in Iraq, it will be proclaimed as proof that Hussein had an arsenal capable of killing multitudes. This would be propaganda, not rational analysis. [...]

Comment: We have all been lied to in the most dispicable way, these men are very obviously following an agenda that is leading the entire planet down the road to mass death and destruction.

Ari & I
White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 12:30 PM
by Russell Mokhiber

Mokhiber: The newspapers in recent days have been filled with articles about lying, cheating, and criminality at high levels. So, you have Martha Stewart charged with insider trading, indicted for obstruction of justice. Sammy Sosa using a corked bat. On the front page of the Post today -

Ari Fleischer: Russell, you are not going to blame President Bush for Sammy Sosa, are you?

Mokhiber: Just asking a question here.

On the front page of the Post today, you have WorldCom execs inflating revenues, and Freddie Mac execs fired for doctoring books, and so forth.

Is the President concerned about a culture of cheating, lying and criminality taking hold in the country? And if he is, what does he plan to do about it?

Ari Fleischer: That's a rather pessimistic statement to make about the American people and the American character. The President wouldn't share that. To the President, what it indicates is a need to have a society of laws, where the laws are vigorously enforced, no matter who violates them. And to have ethics that are followed at home, in the workplace, in corporate boards - that's how the President approaches it. But no, the President would take a different approach to what it means society wide.

Comment: Bush wants strong laws, so his departed press secretary says. But what happened to his crony Ken Lay at Enron? Nothing. No, the strong laws Bush wants are to crack down on the emplyees who were robbed of their pension plans, strong laws to emprison anyone who dares to stand up to the Bush Reich. See the article on this page about the webmaster of an anarchist site who will be doing a year in jail for dissent. Dissent is now called "terrorism". Free speech is the freedom to praise the Exalted Leader.

American culture is sick. It is a culture within which the psycopath rises to the top, to better shape the culture to his desires. It is a feedback loop that becomes a descending spiral, a vortex dragging down everything that is good, until one recognises the presence, the almost ubiquitous presence of the psycopath. Then, individual by individual, you can begin standing up to them, removing them from your lives.

Many people do not understand why, since the beginning of 2002, we have spent so much time studying the psycopath. They believe it is a distraction from the "real" work. We have come to realise that, on the contrary, it is one of the most important aspects of our work. In seeking to scientifically understand the nature of our reality, understanding how it is controlled in so many ways by people who are not like us, who have no empathy, who are just just making "honest mistakes", but who, on the contrary, are actively working to impose their will upon us and will stop at nothing to achieve this, is a fundamental lesson to learn.

News That Isn't News
The New York Times and Michael R. Gordon: Passive Pimping for the White House

By BRUCE JACKSON
August 4, 2003

"Weapons of Mass Confusion," a long article by the New York Times's chief war correspondent, Michael R. Gordon, prominently posted in the Times's electronic edition August 1, has the look and feel of news. It is presented as news in a news part of the site. But it isn't news. It isn't an editorial. It is flackery. It floats, without any attribution at all, an Administration hypothesis about the Administration's failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is Judith Millerism at its worst. [...]

Rumsfeld questions Army's need for more troops

WASHINGTON (AFP) Aug 06, 2003

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sharply questioned Tuesday whether the US Army needs to be larger despite warnings from its top army generals that the 480,000-strong force has been "stretched" by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...]

The studies, he said, are finding that "mass is interesting but not necessarily determinative," given the increased "lethality" demonstrated by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"And they are looking at other ways of achieving the kinds of effects that are desired in those contingency plans, and we find that often it requires fewer people than the existing information," he said. [...]

Comment: Not to worry - once the mini-nukes are ready, there will no longer be a need for more soldiers. The Fourth Reich will simply level entire countries.

Death Count: A Result Of U.S. Foreign Policy From 1945 Through 2003

First Shape Measurement of an Exploding White Dwarf

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with colleagues at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the University of Texas at Austin, have established that the extraordinarily bright and remarkably similar astronomical "standard candles" known as Type Ia supernovae do not explode in a perfectly spherical manner.

NASA lander to target Martian north pole

August 03 NewScientist.com news service

A mission to explore the frozen north pole of Mars as part of the search for past, or even present, microbial life has been selected by NASA for launch in 2007. [...]

"Our mission will verify whether the northern plains are indeed a last viable habitat on Mars," says Peter Smith of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Smith is leading the development of two of the mission's instruments.

Strange Spots on Mars

There is no place like Mars for fueling speculation about geologic features that must have been created by intelligent beings. Now scientists bring us the Fortune Cookie photo.

It's doubtful this new image, released July 25, will rise to the level of controversy that surrounds infamous Martian features like The Face or Inca City. But scientists have suggested an earthly analogue for these red planet spots.

"Some of them are shaped like fortune cookies," said scientists at Malin Space Science Systems, which operates the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.

There's a message in the shapes, the scientists say, though presumably it was not extracted after a meal. Wind blows through this north polar region of Mars from the lower right toward the upper left, crafting dusty dunes with steep slopes that point in the direction the wind blows.

Comment: Ok, so they are either dunes or a fleet of spaceships preparing for invasion...or worse.

Martian Flare Watch

By Thomas A. Dobbins
Sky & Telescope

Will Martian flares like those observed in 2001 appear again in 2003? It appears so! Two transient brightenings have already been reported ( see below ), and amateur and professional astronomers will be watching the red planet closely for more. [...]

Our June 2001 observations support the idea that the flares came from sunlight glinting off patches of frost or ice on the Martian surface. [...]

'Priceless' AIDS research stolen

DURBAN, South Africa, Aug. 5 (UPI)

South African criminals stole a computer from a U.S. scientist holding years of research into an AIDS vaccine.

Professor James Mullins from George Washington University was mugged by seven men outside his Durban hotel where he was due to release his findings at South Africa's first-ever conference on AIDS.

Comment: Sounds like an inside job given the activites of the S. African government. I mean, why release a cure for a disease that is so effectively killing millions, fulfilling so well the goals of Henry Kissinger?

AIDS "like Armageddon," says UN health chief, rapping South Africa

As South Africa defended its policy of denying AIDS drugs to its population at a conference on the disease in Durban, the head of the UN's World Health Organization said the government's strategy was wrong.

In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Lee Jong-wook also compared the worldwide AIDS crisis to "Armageddon", and said a massive increase in efforts to combat it was required, especially for Africa.

"In the African continent it would be wrong to talk about prevention, voluntarily counseling and testing, when people are actually dying. You have to provide treatment as well as prevention," said Lee, who took over as head of the Geneva-based agency last month.

South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, with the UNAIDS agency estimating 360,000 deaths in 2001 -- an average of nearly 1,000 per day.

The government has come under heavy criticism for failing to adopt a national treatment plan for HIV/AIDS sufferers, choosing instead to focus on "nutritious diets" as a way to fight the disease for those infected.

But Lee said this was inadequate to deal with an epidemic he decribed as "a global security issue."

Comment: It certainly involves a "global security issue" for western governments, the only difference being that their global security issue amounts to ensuring that the population continues to be "controlled" through the proliferation of disease and war.

Largest Mass Grave in Bosnia Excavated

By ALEXANDAR S. DRAGICEVIC Associated Press Writer

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)--Forensic experts carefully inspected bones Tuesday at the largest mass grave found in Bosnia to date, preparing to remove the remains of up to 100 victims unearthed so far.

The mass-grave site, the size of a tennis court, was opened last week on Crni Vrh hill, near the border with Serbia and about 50 miles northeast of Sarajevo.

It is believed to contain the remains of Muslims killed during the country's 1992-1995 war.

"The evidence so far tells us that these victims were Bosnian Muslims killed by local Serb troops between April and June 1992,'' said Murat Hurtic, the head of a regional branch of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons. [...]

Vaccine link raised in U.S troops' deaths

By MARK BENJAMIN, UPI Investigations Editor
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI)

The U.S. Army should look at whether the anthrax vaccine is behind the unexplained cluster of pneumonia cases among soldiers in Iraq, according to the co-author of a government-sponsored study that last year found the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia in two soldiers.

Dr. John L. Sever of George Washington University Medical School told United Press International Tuesday that he expects the military to consider the anthrax vaccine, among other possibilities, as it investigates pneumonia among soldiers in and around Iraq, where troops have been widely vaccinated against anthrax.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday it is investigating 100 cases of pneumonia among soldiers in Iraq and southwestern Asia. Two have died. Fifteen have had to be placed on respirators.

Vegas rated nation's 'meanest city' for homeless

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS - It's been called sinful and decadent. Now the city of Las Vegas has been dubbed the meanest in America for homeless people.

A report issued Tuesday by the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless ranked the city at the top of its list of "Meanest Cities" based largely on "dozens of downtown 'sweeps' in which jaywalking, pedestrian obstruction, and other quality-of-life ordinances were used as an excuse to stop people and 'clean up' the area."

Study: Vitamin C May Cut Second-Hand Smoke Damage

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Tue August 5, 2003 05:07 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Vitamin C may help prevent the damage caused by second-hand tobacco smoke, offering a way for people to protect themselves from smokers in their lives, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

A small study of 67 nonsmokers exposed to environmental smoke showed those who took 500 mg of vitamin C daily had lower levels of a compound linked to the damage done by tobacco smoke.

The study did not last long enough to tell whether the vitamin takers were less likely to have cancer or heart disease, but Marion Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study, found the results encouraging. [...]

Comment: The author first insinuates that smokers are very bad people. She then cites a thoroughly inadequate study of 67 people who took some vitamins and had a whopping 12% reduction in F2-isoprostanes, substances related to second-hand smoke that can cause oxidative damage. Ah, American journalism...

UFO Sightings Continue in NY, DC, and Chicago

Unknown dinosaur sub species skeleton is found

Associated Press
12:46 Tuesday 5th August 2003

Paleontologists in the Russian Far East have found three dinosaur skeletons - including one that appears to belong to a previously unknown subspecies. [...]

MICHIGAN CROP CIRCLES: Farmer raises a mystery

Wheat-field wonders draw skeptics and scientist

BY SHAWN WINDSOR
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Crop circles may be Hollywood now, but out here, at the edge of Detroit's suburbia, they represent something more ethereal, and, said Mike Esper, who discovered three crop circles on his Livingston County farm two weeks ago, something more strange.

"It gets weirder by the minute," Esper said.

He discovered the three circles -- 51 feet, 10 feet and 8 feet in diameter -- as he drove his combine around the wheat field. Not wanting to destroy the evidence, he left a 3- to 4-foot perimeter of wheat intact around the largest circle.

He called in a crop circle researcher to take a look at them. The expert, Jeffrey Wilson, who travels the country from Dexter, took measurements and studied the circles for three days last week. Wilson determined they weren't the act of man, that they were not a hoax, that they were the result of some unexplainable natural phenomenon.

Esper promptly e-mailed the local news media.

"I'm amazed by the whole thing," he said. "I wanted to leave it so people could see it." [...]

Comment: Also see Michigan crop circles 'no hoax'. Investigator: Mystery wheat-field formations no act of man.

Did you see UFO in Wroughton?

This is Wiltshire

A RETIRED policeman who now spends his time chasing UFOs is looking for help from Swindonians to complete his research.
John Hanson, 57, retired from the police force in 1995 after nearly 30 years of service.

[...] Mr Hanson, who lives in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, is appealing to the people of Swindon to help him solve a piece in the jigsaw.

The incident happened on the afternoon of November 24 1970 at Ridgeway Comprehensive School in Wroughton.

Mr Hanson - who is a consultant for the Flying Saucer Review - says hundreds of pupils and staff - witnessed a black metallic disc shoot across the sky, apparently chased by RAF fighters.

"This incident forms just a tiny fraction of multi UFO phe- nomenon that I have studied over the past decade. "I am very keen to hear from anyone who was at the school on that day." [...]

Weird Wiltshire

IN the mid-1960s a sleepy Wiltshire town became the unlikely epicentre of a UFO phenomenon.

Warminster, in West Wiltshire, became known globally for what was enigmatically called " The Thing ". The Thing took many forms by those who claimed to have observed it between 1965 and 1977. [...]

Comment: Strangely enough, The Thing was not only sighted but heard.

Lost' Inca city a royal retreat

CLOSER LOOK TOPPLES THEORIES ABOUT PURPOSE OF ANCIENT STRUCTURES

By John Noble Wilford
New York Times

[...] The spectacular site was not, as Bingham supposed, the traditional birthplace of the Inca people or the final stronghold of the Incas in their losing struggle against Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Nor was it a sacred spiritual center occupied by chosen women, the "virgins of the sun,'' and presided over by priests who worshiped the sun god.

Instead, Macchu Picchu was one of many private estates of the emperor and, in particular, the favored country retreat for the royal family and Inca nobility. It was, archaeologists say, the Inca equivalent of Camp David, albeit on a much grander scale.[...]

Police Shoot Unarmed Man

The Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A police officer shot and wounded an unarmed man during a traffic stop, the fifth time in 13 months that an unarmed motorist was shot by Milwaukee police. [...]

Houston lawyer says secret document could shake up church

By Darren Lyn
ABC13 Eyewitness News

(8/04/03 - HOUSTON) —A Houston lawyer has discovered a 40-year-old document supposedly explaining how to deal with sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Some say the document is a cover-up for the church. Houston attorney Daniel Shea says this document could shake the foundation of the Catholic Church. [...]

[T]his could be the beginning of a plethora of criminal suits against the Catholic Church.

Age of consent examined in Channel 4 sex series

By Tom Leonard, Media Editor

Channel 4 is to examine whether the age of consent should be lowered to 14 in a series of programmes devoted to teenage sex, it said yesterday. [...]

Mysterious 'horse ripper' hunted in Germany

Reuters

BERLIN - A mysterious "horse ripper,'' who is suspected of killing some 40 horses in Germany, has slaughtered two more mares, authorities said on Tuesday. [...]

A 'biting account' of R.I. history

BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Staff Writer

[...] Rhode Island is America's vampire capital, the site of the country's most famous sightings and legends. Bell calls it "The Transylvania of America." And although it's been more than a century since the last "vampire" corpse was dug up and burned, Bell is still trying to figure out why one of the area's legacies is blood and pointed teeth. [...]

Pandemonium breaks out in court Man reacts violently to prison sentence; family cheers him on

By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 5, 2003

Usually, when a judge sentences someone to prison for murder, a weary silence falls over the courtroom for a few moments.

But on Monday, Alexis Robledo, 21, responded in a way that hasn't happened in the past 30 years in a Travis County courtroom. One minute Robledo was standing quietly in front of Judge Julie Kocurek with his hands crossed behind his back while she told him that she had sentenced him to 40 years in prison in connection with the murder of Jesse Rangel Jr.

The next minute Robledo, whose ankles were shackled but whose hands were free, turned around, strode across the room and violently flipped over the table where he previously had sat obediently with his lawyer.

Ice and cups went flying. Three deputies immediately tackled Robledo. And 20 to 25 of Robledo's relatives and friends stood up and began cheering him on, screaming and crying.

More deputies rushed in and dragged Robledo out of the room. Other deputies ushered out his angry supporters, including one who had yelled profanities at the judge. [...]

Dad Accused Of Making 8-Year-Old Son Drink Vomit

7:08 p.m. EDT August 5, 2003

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. - A 30-year-old man is under arrest, accused of making his 8-year-old son drink vomit.

Chad McCalop was arrested over the weekend. He punished his oldest son by forcing the boy to exercise for hours, rammed a sock into his mouth and forced the boy to drink his own vomit, police said. [...]

Tennis father accused of drugging son's rivals

17:33 Tuesday 5th August 2003

The father of two young rising French tennis stars has been arrested and accused of drugging the drinks of his son's rivals. [...]

Wedding party arrested

12:45 Tuesday 5th August 2003

An entire wedding party was arrested after an Italian wedding turned into a riot between the bride and bridegroom's Sicilian families.

Police were called out after celebrations at the wedding in San Giorgio, northern Italy, turned ugly when an argument broke out between the two families.

Local media reported that the families had begun arguing and then throwing punches until there was a "riot" after a young boy was teased.

Dozens of people were arrested and taken to a local police station. They were later released without charge.

One wedding guest told local media: "It really was an unforgettable day."

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