Confronting Queen Hillary Clinton

wearechange.org
Tuesday June 19, 2007


Gotta love how Ron Paul handles the same question. Ron Paul 2008!

World Threat Level Inches Up

Dennis Behreandt
JBS
Tuesday June 19, 2007

According to Yahoo News, the U.S. military is ready to face expanded and more dangerous threats, especially from communist China.

Follow this link to the original source: "US military prepared for 'worst' with China: official"

COMMENTARY:
According to the report, "China's secretive transformation of its military power leaves the United States preparing for the worst eventualities, including over Taiwan, a Pentagon official said." The official, Richard Lawless, undersecretary for Asia-Pacific affairs told the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. was interested in dialogue with China about its military expansion, but that such dialogue did not appear to be imminent. "I think if we had a true dialogue of depth ... we might be able to constrain and put some of those issues of (Chinese) intent to bed," Lawless said. "Not being able to, we must plan and prepare for the worst."

Lawless' comments echoed concerns highlighted in the 2007 Defense Department annual report to Congress on the "Military Power of the People's Republic of China." "The outside world has limited knowledge of the motivations, decision-making, and key capabilities supporting China's military modernization," the DoD report noted, while also pointing out that "China's actions in certain areas increasingly appear inconsistent with its declaratory policies."

Meanwhile, in Eurasia, Russia has raised the specter of nuclear war. Reacting to the U.S. proposal to place anti-missile installations in Eastern Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned: "If the U.S. nuclear potential extends across the European territory and threatens Russia, we will be obliged to take countermeasures." More ominously, he continued, "Of course, we'll have to select new targets in Europe."

The official line is that the proposed anti-missile system is intended to counter missile threats from rogue states like Iran, but nearly everyone discounts that explanation. More than likely, the real reason for putting the system in Eastern Europe is, in fact, to counter new Russian ballistic missile capabilities.

As part of his response to the U.S. plan, Putin warned that Russia would deploy a new generation of nuclear missile that could not be stopped by an anti-missile defense system. That missile features a multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle (MIRV) system that sends individual warheads from a single ICBM toward multiple targets. Such systems are very difficult to intercept and Russian military leaders touted the new missile as unstoppable. "These systems can beat any operational and future missile defenses," claimed Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.

The new Russian missile is possibly the real reason for the placement of U.S. anti-missile technology in Eastern Europe. To mount a defense against such a MIRVed ICBM system, anti-missile weaponry would need to be situated relatively close to the launch site in order to target the MIRVed ICBM in its boost phase. Can the U.S. system do that? Officially, the answer is "no." But when Russia suggested installation of the system in Turkey or Iraq using a Russian radar facility in Azerbaijan, the U.S. refused. Instead, according to the Defense Department, installation will continue as planned in Eastern Europe.

Barclays could drop eagle logo because of 'Nazi connotations'

UK Daily Mail
Tuesday June 19, 2007

The eagle logo used by Barclays is under threat today amid fears that its Nazi connotations could offend customers of its Dutch takeover target.

The banking giant has informally agreed to ground the eagle after nearly 300 years if its £45 billion offer for ABN Amro succeeds, the Times newspaper said.

The company, which declined to comment on the report, is understood to have made the move because of the use of the eagle by Germany's Nazi regime, which occupied the Netherlands during the Second World War.

A source close to the bank said in the Times: "It is rather a Teutonic-looking eagle and has unfortunate connotations."

Barclays' logo bears a similarity to the Nazi version of Germany's eagle emblem and ABN AMRO is concerned how it would be received in the Netherlands, which was occupied during World War Two.

Barclays' link to the eagle dates back to 1728 when two of its founders moved to new premises in London, where there was the sign of the Black Spread Eagle. The sign has evolved over years and was softened by brand consultants in a 1999 makeover.

The German eagle is an old national symbol used by kings and emperors of the region and was part of the Imperial arms adopted when Germany was unified in 1871. During the Nazi era the national swastika symbol was held by an eagle.

Barclays could adopt ABN's shield logo for a combined group, the source said. It would keep its eagle if the ABN bid fails.

Barclays will keep its name but move headquarters to Amsterdam under its proposed 66 billion euro takeover of ABN, which the Dutch bank's board has agreed to.

Royal Bank of Scotland is leading a rival consortium that is seeking to gatecrash the takeover and has made a higher conditional bid for ABN which would break it up between three banks.

US destroying Iraq with impunity

Press Esc
Tuesday June 19, 2007

The United States and its allies are killing Iraqi civilians, stealing Iraq's oil and destroying the nation's heritage with total impunity, according to a report released jointly today by 30 NGOs which concluded that The US Coalition is the principal cause of Iraq’s current ills.

The 117-page War and Occupation in Iraq reveals that the US has established broad legal immunity in Iraq for its military forces, for private security personnel, for foreign military and civilian contractors, and even for the oil companies doing business with Iraq and that no matter what crimes the Coalition commits, Iraqis now or in the future face legal barriers if they seek accountability.

US Presidential Executive Order 13303, Order 17 of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and other official dicta, shield foreign military personnel from arrest, detention, prosecution or punishment. While the US and its allies have applied limited legal reckoning in a few flagrant cases that became known to the public, punishment has been light and those with command responsibility have remained beyond the law, the report finds.

"There is an increasing air war that results in heavy casualties as well as the daily killing of civilians at checkpoints, during house searches, by snipers, and by ground bombardment," James Paul, executive director of the co-publisher Global Policy Forum, said. "Nearly a million Iraqis have died due to the effects of the occupation and 4 million have fled from their homes. A dozen cities have been destroyed by U.S. attacks."

"Under the control or influence of US authorities, public funds in Iraq have been drained by massive corruption and stolen oil, leaving the country unable to provide basic services and incapable of rebuilding," he added. "The US government has repeatedly violated many international laws, but top officials reject any accountability."

The study documents how the US and its allies ignored the warnings of organizations and scholars concerning the protection of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including museums, libraries, archaeological sites and other precious repositories.

It also highlights the US Coalition forces' use of indiscriminate and especially injurious weapons that are banned by international convention or widely considered unacceptable and inhuman, including a napalm-type incendiary weapon as well as white phosphorous munitions, the latter against ground targets in densely populated areas.

More than thirty thousand detainees lack fundamental rights and they are kept in deplorable physical conditions, many for long periods. US commanders have turned over thousands of detainees to Iraqi authorities whose prisons seriously violate human rights standards, according to the report.

The authors describe how US Coalition forces have attacked and destroyed a number of important Iraqi cities, on grounds that they were “insurgent strongholds.”

A more serious allegation made by the NGOs is that US and its allies regularly kill Iraqi civilians at checkpoints and during military operations, on the basis of the merest suspicion.

The report also draw attention to the plight of Iraqi refugees and internally displaces persons, and the high levels of mortality recorded in the country due to deteriorating health services.

The study provides evidence on how, under the control or influence of US authorities, public funds in Iraq have been drained by massive corruption and stolen oil, leaving the country unable to provide basic services and incapable of rebuilding.

"Those that understate the violence of the occupation make U.S. forces look like the solution, when in fact they are a large part of the problem," Celine Nahory, Security Council Program Coordinator at Global Policy Forum and a co-author of the report, said. "Even polls by the US and UK governments show a large majority of Iraqis want a speedy withdrawal of occupation forces."

The report recommends the speedy withdrawal of the US Coalition forces as the only solution to the Iraqi crisis. It also calls for the Security Council to end the Coalition mandate at the earliest opportunity and plan for a stable transition in Iraq, respecting international law and introduce a A UN peacekeeping force, clearly distinct from the Coalition, to assist with the transition, by monitoring the ceasefire, strengthening local police forces and the judicial system, and organizing fully-credible elections.

The Blotter - Investigator: 'High-Value Targets' Imprisoned by High-Level 'Cover-up'

The Blotter ABC News - Investigator: 'High-Value Targets' Imprisoned by High-Level 'Cover-up'

Investigator: 'High-Value Targets' Imprisoned by High-Level 'Cover-up'

June 08, 2007 6:09 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Investigator_hi_mn The CIA's secret prisons for the U.S. "high-value detainee" program existed because of the "secrecy, cover-up and dishonesty" of high-level European officials, Swiss Sen. Dick Marty said today.

"We have sufficient grounds to declare that the highest state authorities were aware of the CIA's illegal activities on their territories," Marty, who led the Council of Europe's investigation into the CIA's rendition program, said in the 72-page report .

Thirty current and former CIA and European intelligence officers provided overwhelming proof that the Szymany airport in Poland and the Air Force Base at Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield in Romania served as the two locations for the CIA secret prisons, according to the report.

The investigators found that the CIA planes out of Afghanistan would file phony flight plans as if they were heading to Glasgow, Scotland. But over Poland, the planes would veer off, something the investigators discovered by matching the tail numbers of the CIA planes with local flight records.

As first reported by ABC News in December 2005, "high-value detainees," including al Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who investigators say was one of the most prominent inmates at the Szymany facility, were held in these secret facilities and subjected to the harshest interrogation techniques in the CIA's arsenal, the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" authorized for use by about 14 CIA officers.

"It is an amazing amount of human rights abuses that have been taken place with the knowledge of huge numbers of people for long years," said Veronica Szente Goldstone of Human Rights Watch, "and the truth has to come out."

Today's report came on the same day that President Bush met with Poland's new president, Lech Kaczynzki. Neither man mentioned the report, and Polish officials dismissed it as pure political fiction.

The spokesman for Romania's Defense Ministry flatly denied the report's findings. "This is nonsense," Lt. Col. Liviu Flutur said. "We have no knowledge of this."

The report also concluded the U.S. put heavy pressure on both Poland and Romania, who "were economically vulnerable" and dependent on American support "for their strategic development," to house the secret CIA prisons.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited the Romanian air base where the prison had been set up in 2004. The report also says there was a quid pro quo: the U.S. promised to help Romania get into NATO as part of a secret agreement.

Like Poland and Romania, the CIA dismissed the report finding the spy agency committed "a whole series of illegal acts," but stopped short of specifically denying the report's central allegations.

"The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed and of benefit to many people -- including Europeans -- in disrupting plots and saving lives," the CIA spokesperson said in a statement to the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The prisons were closed one-and-a-half years ago when the existence of the operations became known. Most of their inmates are now imprisoned at Guantanamo Base, Cuba.

User Comments:

These people are trying to kill Americans and Europeans alike. I couldn't care less that they have been "mistreated".

Posted by: Chris | Jun 8, 2007 7:34:52 PM

There is nothing wrong with secret prisons, Stalin had them, Hitler had them, why can the United States have them.

Posted by: Dan | Jun 8, 2007 7:56:15 PM

Papers show Isaac Newton's religious side - CNN.com

Papers show Isaac Newton's religious side - CNN.com

Papers show Isaac Newton's religious side
Story Highlights
• Rarely seen Isaac Newton papers go on display in Jerusalem
• Newton calculated the end of the world -- no earlier than 2060
• He also detailed the precise dimensions of the ancient temple in Jerusalem
• Curator: The Newton papers "show a scientist guided by religious fervor"

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Three-century-old manuscripts by Isaac Newton calculating the exact date of the apocalypse, detailing the precise dimensions of the ancient temple in Jerusalem and interpreting passages of the Bible -- exhibited this week for the first time -- lay bare the little-known religious intensity of a man many consider history's greatest scientist.

Newton, who died 280 years ago, is known for laying much of the groundwork for modern physics, astronomy, math and optics. But in a new Jerusalem exhibit, he appears as a scholar of deep faith who also found time to write on Jewish law -- even penning a few phrases in careful Hebrew letters -- and combing the Old Testament's Book of Daniel for clues about the world's end.

The documents, purchased by a Jewish scholar at a Sotheby's auction in London in 1936, have been kept in safes at Israel's national library in Jerusalem since 1969. Available for decades only to a small number of scholars, they have never before been shown to the public.

In one manuscript from the early 1700s, Newton used the cryptic Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the apocalypse, reaching the conclusion that the world would end no earlier than 2060.

"It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner," Newton wrote. However, he added, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."

In another document, Newton interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ends. The end of days will see "the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom," he posited.

The exhibit also includes treatises on daily practice in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In one document, Newton discussed the exact dimensions of the temple -- its plans mirrored the arrangement of the cosmos, he believed -- and sketched it. Another paper contains words in Hebrew, including a sentence taken from the Jewish prayerbook.

Yemima Ben-Menahem, one of the exhibit's curators, said the papers show Newton's conviction that important knowledge was hiding in ancient texts.

"He believed there was wisdom in the world that got lost. He thought it was coded, and that by studying things like the dimensions of the temple, he could decode it," she said.

The Newton papers, Ben-Menahem said, also complicate the idea that science is diametrically opposed to religion. "These documents show a scientist guided by religious fervor, by a desire to see God's actions in the world," she said.

More prosaic documents on display show Newton keeping track of his income and expenses while a scholar at Cambridge and later, as master of the Royal Mint, negotiating with a group of miners from Devon and Cornwall about the price of the tin they supplied to Queen Anne.

The archives of Hebrew University in Jerusalem include a 1940 letter from Albert Einstein to Abraham Shalom Yahuda, the collector who purchased the papers a year earlier.

Newton's religious writings, Einstein wrote, provide "a variety of sketches and ongoing changes that give us a most interesting look into the mental laboratory of this unique thinker."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/18/newton.papers.ap/index.html

ABC Covers Ed and Elaine Brown's Press Conference

Video Coverage from the event.
vid1
vid2
vid3

RUSSELL GOLDMAN
ABC
Monday June 18, 2007

Comment: Local news channel WMUR has a report on the conference. As we expected they jumped on the fact that Ed Brown initially waited for the Alex Jones show to comeback from break before beginning the conference, stating "Ed Brown held a phone conversation simultaneously". A portion of the Conference can be viewed at this local ABC website. We will post a youtube of the full conference as soon as it becomes available.

Calling the federal agents surrounding his fortified compound "guns for hire," a New Hampshire man convicted of tax evasion vowed today that he and his wife would fight U.S. marshals to the death if they tried to capture them.

"Do not under any circumstances make any attempt on this land. We will not accept any tomfoolery by any criminal element, be it federal, state or local," said Ed Brown in a press conference from the stoop of his concrete-clad home in Plainfield, N.H. "We either walk out of here free or we die."

Brown and his wife, Elaine, were sentenced in absentia in April to serve 63 months in prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in income tax.

The couple, however, insists that there is no law that requires citizens to pay income tax.

"There is no law. We looked and looked," Brown told the press.

Brown and his supporters, including Randy Weaver, leader of the 1992 standoff with ATF agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, told the press that the government has unlawfully tricked people into believing they have to pay income tax, knowing full well that such a law would be unconstitutional.

"We will defend it to the death. This is 1776 all over again. You cannot tax someone's labor because that is slavery," Brown said.

Carrying a pistol in his waistband, Brown also insisted that he could not receive a fair trial in a federal court because "the court system falls under freemasonry."

"There [are] no longer any lawful courts. The Freemasons have taken over our nation. … [Freemasons want] to take over our nation and all nations on the planet," Brown said.

Weaver, whose son was killed by federal agents and who later received a $100,000 settlement from the government, said he was there to support the Browns.

"I'd rather die on my feet right here than die on my knees under this de facto government," he said. "Bring it on."

Despite months of surveillance and reports of agents hiding in the woods of the couple's 110-acre compound, U.S. marshals said this morning that the Brown's Plainfield, N.H., home was not surrounded by their officers.

U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier made an effort to starkly contrast the actions of the Marshals with those of the ATF agents who besieged Ruby Ridge in 1992. In addition to Weaver's son, one federal agent was killed in that incident.

"There is no standoff and the house is not surrounded." Monier told ABC News.com. "We have no intention of assaulting the house or engaging in a violent confrontation."

Monier said he believed Weaver would attend the press conference the Browns are hosting this afternoon. He said Weaver and others -- some of whom are believed to have brought the couple weapons -- have been freely allowed to enter Brown's property.

"There is no reason to block Weaver. People are free to exercise their First Amendment rights," Monier said. "We are not setting up roadblocks or surrounding the house."

In April, Ed and Elaine Brown were sentenced in absentia to 63 months in prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes.

Since failing to appear in court the couple has remained within the concrete-fortified walls of their rural New Hampshire home.

Monier said the Marshals have been communicating with the couple in an effort to get them to turn themselves over the federal authorities without having to resort to the use of force.

"We know they have weapons and we do not want to see this escalate," he said.

Last week agents cut off the home's telephone, Internet and power access. Monier said the couple most likely had generators -- possibly solar or wind powered -- but that eventually the Browns would become uncomfortable enough in their isolation that they would be forced to surrender.

"They probably have generators but those will soon need fuel and need people to fix them. We want to continue to encourage them, and make it uncomfortable enough for them that they'll give up."

Brown said he and his wife had enough supplies to wait out the government no matter how long it lasted. He said the couple did not use air conditioning and could chop down trees from firewood.

Last week, Danny Riley a friend of the Browns was arrested near their home by federal agents while walking the couple's dog.

The Marshals claim they were engaged in routine surveillance of the property, but the Browns believe Riley thwarted a potential raid.

Air raid kills 7 Afghan children - Focus on Afghanistan - MSNBC.com

Air raid kills 7 Afghan children - Focus on Afghanistan - MSNBC.com

More than 100 die in Afghan battle
U.S.-led airstrike kills 7 Afghan children; attacks follow Kabul suicide blast
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:47 p.m. ET June 18, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - More than 100 people, including militants, civilians and police, have died in three days of fierce clashes between NATO forces and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Monday.

Some preliminary estimates of the death toll exceeded 200 people, but precise numbers were not immediately available because of the continued fighting in Uruzgan province.

In eastern Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition jets bombed a compound suspected of housing al-Qaida militants, killing seven boys and several insurgents, officials said.

A senior Afghan Defense Ministry official has said that civilian deaths are the main concern of Afghans, and President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for foreign troops to do more to prevent civilian casualties.

Mullah Ahmidullah Khan, the head of Uruzgan’s provincial council, said the clashes in the Chora district had killed 60 civilians, 70 suspected Taliban militants and 16 Afghan police.

An official close to the Uruzgan governor, who asked not to be identified when talking about preliminary estimates, said 70 to 75 civilians had been killed or wounded, while more than 100 Taliban and more than 35 police had been killed.

Lt. Col. Maria Carl, a spokeswoman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said there is “definitely a large engagement that has been going on there” for the last three days. She could not confirm casualty figures.

Dutch soldier killed in skirmish
Netherlands defense chief Gen. Dick Berlijn told reporters in the Netherlands that a Dutch soldier was killed in a battle that started over the weekend with Taliban fighters near Chora.

Dutch troops had been providing backup to local forces in and around Chora since Saturday, when several hundred Taliban fighters began launching attacks, particularly targeting police posts, he said.

“The town is considered of strategic importance by the Taliban,” Berlijn said.

Dr. Hajed Noor, a doctor at Uruzgan’s main hospital in the provincial capital, Tirin Kot, said 34 people wounded in the battles had been brought to the hospital, including nine women and seven children. He said his patients reported that many other wounded people were still in Chora district and could not make it to the hospital because of the fighting.

‘Eight bombs fell in my village’
Speaking by phone from a hospital bed, Janu Akha, 62, said his village, Qala-i-Raghm had been hit on Saturday.

“Eight bombs fell in my village,” Akha said. “On Sunday my relatives buried 18 members of my family, including women and children. More than 15 other members of my family are wounded, 10 of whom are women,” he said.

Another doctor, Mohammad Fahim, said: “Most of the people who were killed are still there (in Chora). They are not bringing the bodies here, so that is why we do not know how many have been killed.”

On Sunday in Paktika province, in an operation backed by Afghan troops, the warplanes targeted a compound that also contained a mosque and a madrassa, or Islamic school, resulting in the death of seven boys, ages 10 to 16.

Paktika Gov. Akram Akhpelwak said there normally is strong coordination between the government and the coalition and NATO, but that he was not made aware of the missile strike on the madrassa beforehand.

Local authorities are working with NATO and coalition troops “to have better coordination and to not have these misunderstandings, but today we had a misunderstanding and the people will be unhappy,” Akhpelwak told The Associated Press by telephone. “We will go to the area and discuss the issue with the people and apologize to the people.”

Coalition troops had “surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building,” said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. He accused the militants of not letting the children leave the compound that was targeted.

“If we knew that there were children inside the building, there was no way that that airstrike would have occurred,” said Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, another coalition spokesman.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it has sent a team with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to investigate.

Kabul suspect held
In the capital, police said they have arrested a suspect in connection with the deadly bus bombing that killed at least 35 people, most of them police trainers.

The explosion was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country.

The suspect, whose name and nationality were not disclosed, had pictures of the slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah in his phone, as well as text messages from a foreign country, Paktiawal said.

Sunday’s enormous blast, which raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or army soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The bomb sheared off the bus’ metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.

Condemning the Kabul attack, Karzai said the “enemies of Afghanistan” were trying to stop the development of Afghan security forces, a key component in the U.S.-NATO strategy of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government one day, allowing Western forces to leave.

A self-described Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a Taliban suicide bomber named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman caused the blast. Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter from an undisclosed location. His claim could not be verified.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19281543/