Friday, June 29, 2007

'Al-Qaeda memo to Gordon Brown'

June 30, 2007 06:38am

Article from: Agence France-Pressene news.com

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THE discovery of two bombs in central London raised the spectre of possible al-Qaeda terrorism returning to the British capital, two days after a new government took power and a week before the second anniversary of the city's July 7 2005 suicide bombings, which killed 52.

Professor Anthony Glees of Brunel University, an intelligence expert at Brunel University, said the apparent simultaneous bombing attempt pointed to Al-Qaeda.

"There even more evidence now that this is an al-Qaeda plot. It's an al-Qaeda memo to Gordon Brown,'' he said, referring to the new prime minister who succeeded Tony Blair on Wednesday.

"It's an al-Qaeda memo to the British public, that they are determined to carry on...their attack on ordinary British people,'' he said.

Speaking before the second device was found, Mr Brown said the alert was a fresh warning of the threat faced by London, which next week marks the second anniversary of the July 7 2005 suicide attacks which killed 52 people and the four bombers.

Rajeshree Patel, who was in the Tiger Tiger club when it was evacuated, told BBC television: "I think there would have been a lot of fatalities. There were approximately 500 people inside Tiger Tiger at the time.''

Peter Clarke, the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism chief said police had no warning of an attack and it was unclear if the nightclub was the target but there were similarities with previous plots.

Members of an Islamist-inspired gang were jailed for life earlier this year after plotting to attack a number of high-profile British targets, including London's Ministry of Sound nightclub.

And a Muslim convert was put behind bars for 30 years here last November for plotting devastating attacks in London and New York, including a plan to detonate limousines packed with explosives at key landmarks.

A security source quoted by Britain's Press Association news agency said it was "entirely possible'' the latest incident had overseas links as insurgents in Iraq had used similar methods, but they were keeping an open mind.

The alerts provided a baptism of fire not just for Prime Minister Brown, but also for his Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who was less than 24 hours into the role.

She met Mr Brown in Downing Street and afterwards called for public vigilance.

"We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism,'' she said.

Ms Smith earlier chaired a meeting of the government's emergency contigencies committee, COBRA, and reported to Brown's senior ministers at an extended cabinet meeting.

Police sources said there was as much as 60 litres of petrol on the back seat and in the boot of the first car found.

A hunt was on for the driver with detectives expected to scour footage from closed circuit television cameras in streets surrounding Haymarket, which is busy with revellers into the early hours of the morning.

NYC Would Require Permit For Casual Photography

comment:This is an attack on free speech and free press. Call that scumbag mayor bloomberg at: 212-639-9675, 212-489-6710. Let them know we are going to defend the first amendment.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/06/28/photo_permit/
NEW YORK—A proposed regulation that would require large numbers of casual photographers and film makers to obtain city permits should be abandoned, the New York Civil Liberties Union said in formal comments filed Thursday. The New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcast held a hearing on the new rules.

Until recently, New York City had no written rules governing the issuance of photography and film permits. After the NYCLU filed a federal lawsuit challenging the MOFTB permit practices, including its requirement that all photographers and film makers obtain permits and have proof of $1 million of insurance, the city agreed to adopt written rules and to narrow its permit scheme.

The new proposed rules, which the city quietly published the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, are a considerable improvement over the prior scheme because they generally exempt from the permit requirement those using hand-held cameras, exempt photography or filming at protests and demonstrations, and eliminate onerous insurance requirements.

Nonetheless, the new rules still would require City-issued permits and proof of insurance for any person using only a handheld camera in any public area if in a group of two or more and using the camera for more than thirty minutes. This requirement would sweep into the MOFTB permit scheme large numbers of people, particularly tourists, who congregate in public places throughout New York City — like Times Square, Rockefeller Center, or Ground Zero — and casually photograph or videotape.

“This requirement makes no sense, violates the First Amendment right to photograph in public places, and opens the door to selective and discriminatory enforcement,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman.

“We see absolutely no reason why a family visiting Ground Zero or standing in line outside the Empire State Building for half an hour should be required to obtain a permit from New York City to snap casual photographs or to use a camcorder,” said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, who submitted the NYCLU’s comments.

A second provision to which the NYCLU objects would require small groups using a single tripod for more than ten minutes to obtain a permit.

Click here to read the City’s proposed rules (PDF)
Click here to read the NYCLU comments (PDF) 6-28-07

US-Iran: Taking talks to the next level

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
asiatimes
Iran and the United States are gearing up for a new round of discussions on Iraq and, already, there is a call by a prominent Iranian politician to expand those talks to broader issues such as Afghanistan, Persian Gulf security, and the tensions in the Middle East. If adopted, this would mean the beginning of a qualitatively new type of strategic dialogue.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the brother of Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and head of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, who advises the government on foreign policy, had this to say: "We should not negotiate only about Iraq," citing Iran's national-interest priorities in support of his position.

In a certain sense, the climate is somewhat ready to leapfrog the nascent US-Iran dialogue to a more inclusive, broader purview befitting the description "strategic" given the interconnectedness of various issues.

On the one hand, there is a growing pressure on the administration of US President George W Bush, particularly by Democratic contenders for presidency such as Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, for sustained dialogue with Iran. Richardson in particular has called on the US government to stop "threatening Iran" and to offer more tangible incentives to Tehran to gain a compromise on the nuclear issue.

On the other hand, the momentum for a new round of United Nations sanctions on Iran has been put into slow motion by the positive outcome of last week's meetings between Ali Larijani and the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, and the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, culminating in a new visit to Iran by IAEA inspectors in the coming weeks - to "resolve the ambiguities", to paraphrase Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Consequently, with EU and IAEA officials expressing renewed optimism about peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis, and ElBaradei's scathing criticism of any military option as "madness", the stage is set for a real breakthrough, which may come in the form of an international consortium to produce nuclear fuel on Iran's territory, in other words the idea first proposed by President Mahmud Ahmadinjead at the UN General Assembly in September 2005.
Not only that, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Feisal, has surprised many, particularly in Washington's policy circles, by proposing a joint Iran-Gulf Cooperation Council consortium to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has responded favorably and, irrespective of whether any real movement happens, the mere diplomatic gestures serve the well-being of Iranian-Saudi relations.

However, in the US, the anti-Iran campaign is in full swing, with the likes of former ambassador to the UN John Bolton declaring nuclear diplomacy with Iran a complete failure. He calls for military action and outright regime change. The relatively "dovish" State Department, headed by Condoleezza Rice, is trying to put a premium on the "outsourcing" of the Iran nuclear issue to the EU.

"Iran's agreement with the IAEA is on a constructive path," said Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, chairman of the Majlis, Iran's parliament, dismissing all rumors of Tehran's intention either to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA or exit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ali Larijani, on the other hand, has warned that "sanctions can derail the path of negotiations".

Rightly so, since the targeting of Iran's shipping lanes and curtailing its civil-aircraft landing rights are among the concrete steps that, if implemented, will impact Iran's oil exports and affect Iranian travelers.

Not only that, the hawkish US and European politicians and media pundits are focusing on the EU's US$22 billion export credits to companies dealing with Iran, hoping that sooner or later the EU will adopt this as a "lesser evil" compared with the military option, to quote an alarmist editorial in the Jerusalem Post.

For the moment, the EU's eyes are fixed on the IAEA inspectors' visit to Iran, emboldened by an unexpected call for delay on UN Security Council action against Iran by none other than the hitherto reticent UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, echoing the sentiments of Russia, China and South Africa, which have gone on record asking for more time to the negotiation process above-mentioned.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a meeting with Rice has called for "unity at the council" on Iran, yet Sarkozy cannot even count on the solid support of his mirror-image, Germany's right-wing Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is reportedly also favoring delayed UN action on Iran.
In his rush to ingratiate himself with Washington, Sarkozy risks demolishing France's hard-earned international reputation as an independent global actor, thus making him appear as a Tony Blair substitute. But with the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, already busy cultivating a different, un-Blair-like image for himself, Sarkozy is in dire need of nuancing his campaign promises to bring about a golden new age in US-France relations.

Javad Vaeedi, head of international affairs at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, has stated: "We are prepared to negotiate for the sake of removing the concerns of some countries regarding the possibility of diversion from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran and to propose various guarantees, but at the same time and reciprocally, our concerns should also be addressed."

After all, Iran has a plethora of national-security concerns, such as with respect to the armed opposition Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO), currently under the United States' protective wing in Iraq. Various members of Congress have called on the US government to remove the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations and to use it as a "tool" for espionage inside Iran.

Another Iranian concern is about the fate of its five diplomats in US custody in Iraq, and Washington's stubborn refusal to release them or even to allow a family visit or a visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross, linking the fate of those diplomats directly to the proposed new rounds of US-Iran talks on Iraq's security.

Clearly, the US must do its part to make a strategic dialogue with Iran possible, or risk the recycling of the history of half-steps and self-reversals nullifying any incremental progress. The stakes are too high, given the gravity of Iraq's security crisis and the apparent failure of Bush's "surge" policy, to repeat the errors of the past.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.

(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Cure US inflation falls below 2%

By By Eoin Callan in Washington
Updated: 2:12 p.m. ET June 29, 2007

Core inflation fell below 2 per cent for the first time in three years after a modest increase in prices last month, according to new government figures.

A key index of consumer prices, excluding volatile food and energy, climbed only 0.1 per cent in May, which brought the rate for 12 months to 1.9 per cent. High petrol prices drove the headline rate up 0.5 per cent.

The slowdown in core inflation will be welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which on Thursday left interest rates unchanged and kept a resolute focus on risks of future inflation.

In its statement at its June policy meeting, which kept rates at 5.25 per cent, the Fed dropped its description of core inflation as "somewhat elevated" and acknowledged that "readings on core inflation have improved modestly in recent months".

But it warned that "a sustained moderation in inflation pressures has yet to be convincingly demonstrated."

Gary Bigg, economist at Bank of America, said of the Federal open market committee: "The FOMC should be quite pleased with recent inflation developments."

Ethan Harris, chief economist at Lehman Brothers, said the economy was "evolving as the Fed expected" with inflation easing and growth projections also being reined in.

The report from the commerce department on Friday also showed consumer spending and income lower than expected in May.

Personal income increased 0.4 per cent. Consumption spending increased 0.5 per cent for the second consecutive month.

"The slender gain in income will restrain consumption spending," said Gary Bigg, economist at Bank of America.

"Income and spending gains were weaker than expected, suggesting that spending for the quarter will be soft."

Economists said higher fuel prices explained much of the spending increase.

Nigel Gault, US economist at Global Insight, said: "Although consumer spending rose by what looks like a robust 0.5 per cent in May, more than half of the increase in spending went into gasoline tanks as consumers were hit by higher gasoline prices."

"Spending should improve in the second half of the year, with gasoline prices easing back, but not back to the runaway first-quarter pace, as the downturn in the housing market will weigh on consumers," he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

UPDATE: The imminent death of Castro – An excuse to invade yet another country?

Mike Swenson with contributions from Josh Reeves
Truthorlies.org
Friday June 28, 2007

Note: All references in this article are highlighted in BOLD and are live links stragiht to the sources. All updated contributions made by Josh Reeves are highlighted in blue.

During a question and answer session at the U.S Naval War College in Washington D.C today, President Bush, according to an article in the Washington Post, seems to be openly anticipating the imminent death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

According to the article, “President Bush openly anticipated the death of ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro today, picturing it as an opportunity to bring freedom to the Caribbean island after nearly a half century of iron-fisted rule by the fiery Communist leader.” “"One day, the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away," Bush said. “As the audience laughed and began to applaud, Bush seemed to realize that cheering the death of another head of state, even an enemy, might appear unseemly and quickly quieted the crowd. "No, no, no," he told them.

Bush then went on to say that after Castro’s demise, the United States should open debate as to how aggressively the United States should open up the totalitarianism in Cuba.

It is no secret that the United States has had a “beef” with Castro and the Cuban government for decades. The US government has repeatedly tried to drive Castro from power and take control of the island nation.

Fulgencio Batista came into power, without protest and with the full recognition by Dwight D. Eisenhower, on March 27, 1952.

Castro forcefully overthrew Batista in 1959. Since Batista was loved and sponsored by United States Government, the demonization and, soon after, strict embargo, were placed on Cuba and has stood ever since.

Years later, in 1962, the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed up by Lyman Lemnitzer, called for “false-flag” terror attacks to be committed upon the state of Florida, in order to justify the invasion of Cuba. These plans have become known as “Operation Northwoods”. Fortunately, these plans were never carried out and Lemnitzer was soon fired by President John F. Kennedy.

Even before the notorious plans of Operation Northwoods, the infamous “Bay of Pigs”, ordered by President Kennedy in 1961, was another attempt to overthrow the Castro-controlled government.

Recently released CIA documents, known as “the Family Jewels”, have also revealed numerous assassination attempts on Castro’s life during the 1960’s by such shadowy figures as the Mafia.

Fast-forward to 2003 and the invasion of Iraq, which has been proven to be based on false and misleading intelligence. In fact, according to a set of PNAC (Project for a New American Century) documents, the invasion of Iraq was planned much further in advance of September 11th, 2001 and even Bush’s first term in 2000.

In this invasion of Iraq, which Bush claimed was intended “to free and liberate the oppressed citizens of Iraq by removing its dictator, while bringing peace and democracy to the nation”, the United States effectively removed Saddam Hussein and executed him. As many know by now, the war in Iraq has turned into an utter failure and has brought more tension, instability, and chaos to the region than ever before.

While these aggressive actions towards sovereign nations cannot, for the most part, be fully understood nor condoned by those who wish to instill peace throughout the world, it remains clear that the leaders of the United States will not refrain from carrying out actions that involve invasion or aggressive action. Further, the government and mainstream media, it seems, will continue to condone these actions in the name of “freedom, prosperity, and democracy”.

According to the Washington Post article today, “in March, just before a trip to Latin America, Bush stepped more gingerly around the topic when asked by journalists from the region, but made much the same point about the aftermath. "How long he stays on Earth, that's a decision that will be made by the Almighty," Bush said. "But once that happens, once -- you know, Fidel Castro may live, I don't know, I don't know how long he's going to live -- but, nevertheless, I do believe that the system of government that he's imposed upon the people ought not live if that's what the people decide."

In addition, the death of Castro also represents one of the last obstacles that stands in the way of Bush and his controllers in their final march towards global government. This is of significance because Castro's death would mean that the United States Government could finally place a new puppet dictator in place of Fidel's brother Raul, most likely by force if necessary,who will obviously be a pushover once Castro is dead.

For years Cuba has remained one of the last vestiges of sovereignty that stands between the New World Order's plan for global domination.

In addition, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez would most likely be the next target once Castro's power structure has been eliminated and control of Cuba has been restored to the global elite.

Bush's comments as of late obviously reflect his desire of being the leader who finally brought down Cuba and opened it up to the world, pleasing the polls as well as his capitalist masters who seek to have their one world government control grid in place sooner rather than later.

It is clear that these statements indicate that Bush will continue to push his agendas on any nation that loses their leader, regardless if the United States forces them out or if nature takes its course. Further, these actions will be pushed forward, at the expense of more innocent lives and American taxpayers.

Was London Scare Heralded On Web?

Internet Forum Comment From Night Before: "London Shall Be Bombed"

CBS News
Friday, June 29, 2007

Hours before London explosives technicians dismantled a large car bomb in the heart of the British capital's tourist-rich theater district, a message appeared on one of the most widely used jihadist Internet forums, saying: "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed."

CBS News found the posting, which went on for nearly 300 words, on the "al Hesbah" chat room. It was left by a person who goes by the name abu Osama al-Hazeen, who appears regularly on the forum.

Al Hesbah is frequently used by international Sunni militant groups, including al Qaeda and the Taliban, to post propaganda videos and messages in their fight against the West.

There was no way for CBS News to independently confirm any connection between the posting made Thursday night and the car bomb found Friday.

Al-Hazeen's message begins: "In the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful. Is Britain Longing for al Qaeda's bombings?"

Al-Hazeen decries the recent knighthood of controversial author Salman Rushdie as a blow felt by all British Muslims. "This 'honoring' came at a crucial time, a time when the whole nation is reeling from the crusaders attacks on all Muslim lands," he said, in an apparent reference to the British role in Iraq.

"We say to Britain: The Emir of al Qaeda, Sheikh Osama, has once threatened you, and he carried out his threats. Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed," the message reads.

Speaking at a news conference Friday after the bomb scare in central London, the Metropolitan Police force's Counter-Terrorism Commander Peter Clarke said that officials had "no indication that we were going to be attacked this way".

Prior to the Thursday night posting by al-Hazeen, there had been no specific allusions to threats against London or Britain seen on al Hesbah, or any other major jihadist forums in recent weeks.

Several responses to the posting by other forum members expressed hope that an attack against London would be realized in the near future.

In response, al-Hazeen urges patience, saying, "Victory is very close, but you are just rushing it."

Reached by CBSNews.com Friday, the Metropolitan Police's media office could not confirm whether investigators were aware of the Internet posting on al Hesbah.

Intelligence sources who spoke to CBS News Friday morning seemed to express surprise at the discovery of the device, suggesting there had been "no warning, no intel, no smell" as a prelude to the plot — a vacuum of information which reportedly had Britain's domestic intelligence agency "very, very worried".

The attempted bombing in London's Haymarket area came one week before the second anniversary of the July 7 bombings that killed 52 people on London's transportation network.

Also Friday, a London jury was expected to hand down a verdict in the case against five young men who were charged with trying to blow up city buses and trains in 2005.

The men, all from London, were arrested after police found homemade devices on trains and buses that had failed to detonate properly — sending puffs of smoke from backpacks that frightened commuters, but injured no one.

Early reports from law enforcement officials indicate that the car bomb found Friday morning may also have failed to detonate properly — causing smoke to appear in the passenger area. It was the smoke that prompted people to call explosives officers to the scene.

One explosives expert told the British Broadcasting Corporation that the device — comprised of gas canisters and nails — appeared to be a fairly crude construction, and not the work of anyone with an extensive knowledge of weaponry.

Britain has wrestled since the July 7, 2005, over how to deal with the threat of "homegrown" terrorism. Young men from the country's large Muslim population are easy prey for radical clerics and propaganda campaigns propagated on Internet forums such as al Hesbah.

In addition to messages calling for jihad in Britain, detailed video demonstrations of how to construct bombs using gas canisters are readily available on the forums.

Putin's Arctic invasion: Russia lays claim to the North Pole - and all its gas, oil, and diamonds

dailymail uk
Last updated at 09:24am on 29th June 2007

Comments Comments (6)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic - so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.

His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia's continental shelf.

One newspaper printed a map of the "new addition", a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

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putin

Muscle-flexing: Putin has his sights on Arctic oil and gas

The dramatic move provoked an international outcry. The U.S. and Canada expressed shock and environment campaigners said it would be a disaster.

Observers say the move is typical of Putin's muscle-flexing as he tries to increase Russian power.

Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic - -Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark (which owns Greenland) - are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.

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graphic

Putin claims that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole

Enlarge the image

A UN convention says none can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves.

But Russian scientists have returned from a six-week mission on a nuclear ice-breaker to claim that the 1,220-mile long underwater Lomonosov Ridge is geologically linked to the Siberian continental platform - and similar in structure.

The region is currently administered by the International Seabed Authority but this is now being challenged by Moscow.

Experts estimate the ridge has ten billion tons of gas and oil deposits and significant sources of diamonds, gold, tin, manganese, nickel, lead and platinum.

A Russian attempt to claim Arctic territory was rejected five years ago, but this time Moscow plans to make a far more serious submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. A British diplomatic source warned

that Russia was planning to secure its grip on oil and gas supplies "for decades to come".

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north pole

The Russians have laid controversial claim to the North Pole

He said: "Putin wants a strong Russia, and Western dependence on it for oil and gas supplies is a key part of his strategy. He no longer cares if it upsets the West."

The U.S. state department said the Russian claim was completely unacceptable. "It's an extraordinary idea and I can't believe it will go anywhere," an official said.

A Canadian official called the move a complete surprise.

Green groups warned that the Kremlin claim could devastate one of the world's last unspoilt areas.

John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, said: "We think nations should stop searching for new sources of fossil fuel and focus instead on the alternatives - renewables, energy efficiency and decentralised energy systems.

"Only then will disputes over natural resources become a thing of the past."

Ted Nield, of the Geological Society in London, branded Russia's claim nonsensical.

"The notion that geological structures can somehow dictate ownership is deeply peculiar," he said.

"Anyway, the Lomonosov Ridge is not part of a continental shelf - it is the point at which two ocean floor plates under the Arctic Ocean are spreading apart.

"It extends from Russia across to Canada, which means Canada could use the same argument and say the ridge is part of the Canadian shelf.

"If you take that to its logical conclusion, Canada could claim Russia and the whole of Eurasia as its own."

polar bears

The Russian Bear moves in on the polar bears at the North Pole

Israel model for Iraq, says Bush

US soldiers in Iraq
Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq has run into trouble
bbc
US President George W Bush has appealed for people to give his strategy in Iraq a chance - holding up Israel as a model for defining success there.

He said America would like to see Iraq function as a democracy while dealing with violence - just as Israel does.

Speaking at the US Naval War College, Mr Bush said success in Iraq would not be defined by an end to attacks.

His remarks come as members of his Republican party are increasingly turning against the war in Iraq.

The US president characterised the war in Iraq as primarily against al-Qaeda forces and their use of "headline-grabbing" suicide attacks and car bombings.

The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities
President Bush

He said: "Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy's ability to get a car bombing in the evening news."

The terms of success set out by Mr Bush included "the rise of a government that can protect its people, deliver basic services for all its citizens and function as a democracy even amid violence".

Mr Bush suggested Israel as a standard to work towards.

"In places like Israel, terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks.

"The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that's a good indicator of success that we're looking for in Iraq."

'Well-conceived plan'

In December US President George W Bush announced the deployment of a total of 21,500 extra troops in Iraq.

In early March Defence Secretary Robert Gates approved a request for an extra 2,200 military police to support the security drive in Baghdad.

Mr Bush asked officials and the public for patience to allow his strategy to work, thus giving Iraq's leaders time to achieve political reconciliation.

"It's a well-conceived plan by smart military people. And we owe them the time, and we owe them the support they need to succeed," he said.

School District Demands Biometric Data From Parents: In Return Parents Get Access To Children

Michael Vail
Packet Online
Thursday, June 28, 2007

PLUMSTED - The school district has installed a new security system that will check whether visitors to the schools are registered sex offenders.

Called the Teacher-Parent Authorization Security System (T-PASS) With Sex Offender Lookup - put out by Eyemetric Identity Systems - the new system will track visitors and people checking students out of school, Superintendent Jerry North said Monday.

The system photographs each visitor and scans the name and address of the visitor's driver's license, he said. It then prints a label with the person's photograph and a photograph of the staff member being visited. Then, it creates a centralized database of visitors, he added.
"It allows us to see a snapshot of the visitors in the school at any given moment," he said.
In addition, the system runs the person's name against a database of registered sex offenders, and "if something gets red-flagged, we would just not allow that person into the school," he said, adding that school officials would notify parents if someone attempted to pick up their child.

Another feature of the system is that if a child is picked up before the normal dismissal time, either a text-message or e-mail is sent to the parents, informing them of who has picked up their child, he said.

School officials may not always know the other people besides the parents who are listed on students' emergency cards, and this could help them, he said.
He said it's extremely rare that a sex offender would come to get a child at the school, but "we're always trying to come up with something that allows people to feel that their children are safe when they're here," Mr. North said.

Hopefully, "this is just another way of making them (parents) feel at ease, to make sure their children receive a safe and thorough education," he added.
The new $3,000 security system was installed earlier this month at all of the district's schools and will be ready in time for September, he said.
""The system will work with the other security technology it already has in place, Mr. North said.

In April 2003, the district became the nation's first to employ iris recognition technology for security purposes. Paid for by a $293,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, the iris-reading system mounted 11 cameras at the entrances of the schools. The cameras scan the eyes of visitors and staff to compare against internal records.

While the iris scan just keeps people from getting into the building, the new system will provide another level of security once the visitors are buzzed in, to ensure "they are who they say they are," Mr. North said.

In addition to T-PASS, the school will have new cameras, worth $21,000, installed inside and outside of the district schools, also in time for the next school year, he said.

N.H. Governor Signs Law Banning Real ID

AP
Friday June 28, 2007

CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire on Wednesday rejected the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card, joining five other states in opposing it.

South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act.

"Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors," Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing.

The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards. Critics say it is too intrusive, too costly and likely to be abused by identity thieves

The Real ID Act was passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It requires all states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their record-keeping systems. States must verify identification used to obtain a driver's license, such as birth certificates, Social Security numbers and passports.

Driver's licenses not meeting the standard won't be accepted as identification to board an airplane or enter a federal building.

New Hampshire's law calls the act "repugnant" to the state and federal constitutions. The law prohibits the state from complying with the act, which sets standards for state-issued driver's licenses.

"We are not about to be coerced into an unfunded mandate, especially one we'd have to pay for with our privacy," Lynch said.

In Washington on Wednesday, a group of senators including Republican John Sununu backed an effort to eliminate Real ID from the immigration bill.

"This amendment reinforces what the citizens of New Hampshire have known all along _ Real ID is too intrusive, too expensive and unnecessary," Sununu said. "The federal government should work with the states to improve standards for issuing drivers' licenses, but the ultimate responsibility for issuing and maintaining that ID system should be kept by the states."

Congress set a deadline for states to meet uniform licensing standards by May 2008. President Bush recently bowed to pressure from the nation's governors and Congress and granted states until Dec. 31, 2009, to comply.

Kevin Barrett: Liberal news media continue to block debate about 9/11 truth

The Capital Times
Friday June 28, 2007

Dear Editor: Last year The Capital Times distinguished itself as the first mainstream U.S. daily to publish not one but two hard-hitting 9/11 truth op-ed columns -- both by yours truly.

In one, I asked why the media weren't covering the dozens of former high-level military, intelligence and administration officials who are charging or implying that 9/11 was an inside job. (See http://patriotsquestion911.com.)

Then, instead of covering these generals, colonels, CIA officers, Bush administration officials and other notables, the media decided to cover a part-time university lecturer -- me. I would have thought it more significant that Col. Robert Bowman, a Cal Tech Ph.D., much-decorated fighter pilot and former chief of the Star Wars missile defense program under two presidents, is running for high office on a 9/11 truth platform than that a part-time university lecturer, however charming and articulate, is doing 9/11 activism in his spare time.

Unfortunately, it isn't just the mainstream media that are censoring the questions raised by the 9/11 truth movement. With a few honorable exceptions, the left and alternative media are complicit in the coverup of blatant, in-your-face high treason and mass murder. Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" was present for the demolition of World Trade Center Building 7 (Google the video), yet in almost six years she has not breathed a word about WTC-7, the ultimate smoking gun of 9/11.

Matt Rothschild of The Progressive told me in May 2005, just a month after David Griffin's nationally televised UW-Madison talk, that he had never heard of Building 7. By summer 2006, Rothschild was spouting nonsense in an attempt to debunk 9/11 skeptics, from a knowledge base of near zero.

Allegedly liberal newspapers seem to go out of their way to avoid mentioning the debate on 9/11 that is raging in the U.S. (where a poll showed 36 percent of the population suspects an "inside job") and around the world.

On June 22 the New York Times ran a laudatory article about Rosie O'Donnell's new uncensored video blog -- without even mentioning the elephant in the living room, Rosie's outspoken support for 9/11 truth.

Now that Michael Moore has joined O'Donnell in speaking out for 9/11 truth, and Harper's editor Lewis Lapham has admitted to reading David Griffin's "Debunking 9/11 Debunking," will the media on the left rescind their blackout on our most important national debate since the Civil War?

Kevin Barrett, Madison

Ex-Reagan Associate Deputy Attorney General: Impeach Cheney

Josh Catone
Raw Story

Friday June 28, 2007

Bruce Fein, who served as the Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan, in a scathing editorial today called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III," he writes.

This is not the first time that Fein has taken on the Bush administration. In March 2006, Fein appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on Senate Resolution 398, which called for the censure of George Bush over the warrantless wiretap program.

Fein said in his 2006 testimony that by authorizing the domestic spying program, President Bush sought to "cripple the Constitution’s checks and balances and political accountability."

In October 2006, Fein ripped into Bush for his "alarming usurpations of legislative prerogatives," and into the then-Republican controlled Congress for sitting idly by and "placing party loyalty above institutional loyalty, contrary to the expectations of the Founding Fathers."

With the wiretap program back in the news following this week's congressional subpoenas of the White House and the office of the Vice President, and a subsequent refusal to cooperate, Fein unleashed his highly critical philippic.

Fein details "multiple crimes against the Constitution" committed by Cheney, including the creation of military commissions, the "kidnappings, secret detentions, and torture in Eastern European prisons of suspected international terrorists," the advocation of "signing statements" to ignore pieces of legislation, and the encouragement of the use of torture.

"The vice president has maintained that the entire world is a battlefield," writes Fein, saying the vice president has used the bugaboo of terrorism to justify a shoot first, ask questions later approach to dealing with suspected terrorists, even when that includes American citizens.

Fein also touches on the hot-button warrantless wiretapping program, over which he has butted heads with the administration in the past. He argues that Cheney engineered the program and has "orchestrated the invocation of executive privilege" to conceal information about it from Congress.

In the end, Fein makes the case that "Bush has ceded vast domains of his powers to Vice President Cheney," in violation of the US Constitution.

"President Bush regularly is unable to explain or defend the policies of his own administration, and that is because the heavy intellectual labor has been performed in the office of the vice president," he concludes. "Cheney is impeachable for his overweening power and his sneering contempt of the Constitution and the rule of law."

Nutty or not, here they come

Jordan Gentile
The Other Paper
Friday June 28, 2007

Even at a time when most Americans have turned against the Iraq War and the president’s approval ratings loiter at sub-Jimmy Carter levels, there remains one strain of anti-Bush fervor that mainstream politicians and pundits won’t touch with a 10-foot pole.

This, of course, is the belief that the administration conspired to topple the World Trade Center on 9-11—or at
least cover up the real story behind its
collapse—in order to sell a new war to the public.

Recently, celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell and Charlie Sheen have picked up the mantle of “9-11 Truth,” as the conspiracy theorists call their movement. To no one’s surprise, the actors’ comments were met with ridicule and derision.

Sherry Clark can relate. When the raven-haired, Delaware, Ohio-born mother of two—a self-described Republican “trophy wife” who voted for George W. Bush twice—was converted to the cause last year, she was told by friends and relatives to seek mental help. The Presbyterian church she helped create, she said, suddenly wanted nothing to do with her or her activities. And she’s currently divorcing her husband, to whom she became an embarrassment and social liability.

“It was quite a painful thing to go through,” Clark said. “We’re called conspiracy nuts.”

Despite her travails, Clark persists in trying to persuade those who doubt her. This Saturday at Studio 35, a group she co-founded, Columbus 9/11 Truth, will present the Truth Film Festival—a slate of five muckraking documentaries that attempt to expose various shady dealings within the highest reaches of media and government, including a couple of films that radically question the accepted explanation for 9-11.

Clark pitched the fest to Studio 35 co-owner Eric Brembeck during the theater’s Earth Day celebration in April, and, after some consideration, he gave her the green light.

“Clintonville tends to run a little liberal,” Brembeck said of his theater’s neighborhood. “It just seemed like the right venue, the right fit. Why not?”

Whether the people of Clintonville—liberal though they may be—are open to the suggestion that the U.S. government had a role in, or covered up, the murder of 3,000 American citizens is anyone’s guess.

However, even filmgoers who are skeptical of the festival’s claims might get something out of its programming. Conspiracy-themed pictures, from Three Days of the Condor to JFK, have long held a dark allure for American audiences, and there will certainly be enough material Saturday to sate even the most paranoid movie buffs.

The festival kicks off with America: Freedom to Fascism, an IRS exposé that purports to show how much abuse the U.S. government is willing to heap on its citizens. It is followed by Orwell Rolls in His Grave, a treatise on how the mainstream media whitewashes threats to democracy, and Oil, Smoke and Mirrors, which attempts to explain America’s nefarious intentions in the Middle East—and why, perhaps, the Bush administration might have a motive for revving up the nation’s appetite for war. (Hint: It’s black, wet and increasingly expensive.)

These pictures have been cannily selected to lay the groundwork for the more controversial claims in the festival’s last two entries: 9/11 Press for Truth, which suggests a government cover-up after the World Trade Center disaster, and Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic, which tries to scientifically prove that the buildings could not have been brought down by two jet planes alone.

Of course, there have been many rebuttals to the claims in Improbable Collapse and similar documentaries—most notably from the magazine Popular Mechanics, which reported in 2005 that the buildings’ steel skeletons did not have to reach a 1,500 degrees Celsius “melting” temperature to collapse, as the conspiracy theorists claim. They could have been fatally weakened at a mere 400 degrees Celsius, a temperature easily reached as a result of the jet-fuel fires that raged on 9-11.

Clark, of course, dismisses the article as “that stupid thing in Popular Mechanics.”

“That was yellow journalism,” she said. “The magazine is owned by Hearst, you know.”

The film-festival idea came last January from Jamie Henderson, a 22-year-old Ohio State senior who’d recently joined Clark’s newly hatched group. Henderson’s thinking, as Clark recalls it, was that anybody who hoped to convince the public of a 9-11 conspiracy would have to do it visually, by showing how the buildings came down.

But there was another reason the group deemed the movie concept so attractive: It would place similarly open-minded strangers in
a movie theater
together—and
away from judgmental family members.

“Your friends and family—they don’t want to see you upset,” Clark said, speaking from personal experience. “‘What made you upset? 9-11 Truth? Well, then stay away from that.’”

Luckily for the group’s cinematic ambitions, there were lots of radical 9-11 docs to choose from, most of them already in the public domain. One of them, in fact, was the picture that first inspired Clark to join the movement—back when she was still a Republican trophy wife. It’s an Internet movie called Loose Change, and she says it changed her life.

“I was beside myself—I was determined to prove them wrong,” Clark said, referring to the filmmakers. “But doggone it if they weren’t right.”

Of course, it’s hard to imagine most viewers—regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum—being won over by either Loose Change or the movies scheduled for this weekend. Many, in fact, would find their claims morally reprehensible. Brembeck, however, isn’t worried about a backlash.

“I don’t think I’d show a neo-Nazi film or anything like that,” said the theater owner. “Far right, far left—just total wackos. I’m not into that kind of stuff.”

“But,” he said, “I don’t think this is on that same level.”

Told that many people find 9-11 conspiracy theorists to be exactly the kind of “wackos” he describes, Brembeck replied, “Who calls them that? Fox News?”

For Clark, the Truth Film Festival remains very much about reaching the
people we assume are unreachable—people just like she used to be.

“That’s why I have so much compassion for those who ridicule me,” she said. “I used to
be one of those people—God, this is so embarrassing—who said, ‘Turn the desert into glass.’”

“But,” she said, “the truth was so jarring and so obvious that I had no other choice but to change my mind.

London on terror alert after 'massive' bomb attack on bar

UK Daily Mail
Friday June 28, 2007

The threat of terror returned to London today after a car bomb was found outside a West End nightclub.

The apparent target was Tiger Tiger in Haymarket, where up to 1,700 people were inside on 'ladies night'.

Police were called shortly before 2am this morning and the immediate area was cordoned off while explosives officers made the 'potentially viable device' safe.

One witness described seeing a green gas cylinder in the boot of the car, believed to be a silver Mercedes, which probably contained explosives. The boot was packed with hundreds of nails. There were also two more cylinders on the back seat.

The size of the bomb could have caused major structural damage to the club which is spread over four floors.

One senior anti-terrorist source said: "This was a viable device which could have caused massive damage and killed hundreds if it had worked.

"The consequences would have been terrible. This is the scenario that we have dreaded."

Anti-terrorist officers were this morning carrying out an urgent search for other possible car bombs in the centre of London.

A huge hunt is under way for the driver of the car.

It is not known whether he was a suicide bomber who lost his nerve or if he had planned to walk away and detonate the bomb when the street was crowded with people leaving the club which was due to close at 2am.

Witnesses have told how a silver Mercedes appeared to swerve into some bins beside the road before it stopped and the driver walked away at around 1.30. Security staff became suspicious and looked into the car and then alerted police.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today's incident reminds us that Britain faces "a serious and continuous threat" and the public "need to be alert" at all times.

"I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days," he said.

New Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was called at home and Cobra, the Cabinet's crisis committee, and will chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee this morning. She will then brief Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Cabinet on the bomb.

Intelligence sources in London said they were keeping an open mind on who was responsible for the car bomb.

"All options, including the Irish, are open at this stage," said the source.

But Islamic extremists are a likely suspect, particularly since a nightclub has been targetted.

In April five British Muslim men were jailed for life for plotting a wave of al Qaeda bomb attacks - among their targets was Ministry of Sound nightclub in Southwark.

Commuters faced rush-hour disruption this morning as nearby Piccadilly station was closed. Haymarket is likely to remain closed for most of the day, police said.

Today Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command and MI5 were on full alert. Police are examining CCTV in the West End so they can track the path of the car and the driver's escape.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said: "It does appear to be a very serious incident.

"My first reaction to this is, thank God that we have police and explosives experts who can make these devices safe, and the arrangements they appear to have done, and that nobody has been injured."

Jack Straw, who was appointed Justice Secretary in new PM Gordon Brown's Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, said ministers had been informed of the incident "much earlier this morning".

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was "very saddening" but "these things happen".

Mr Straw insisted it was essential that announcements were made by the police rather than ministers.

He added: "Of course the police will try to ensure there is as little disruption as possible. But everyone understands the key priority is safety."

Security was being raised around London to a level not seen since the 7/7 attacks. The alert comes a week before the second anniversary of the London bombings.

At the Houses of Parliament only full passholders - MPs, officials and lobby journalists - were allowed in and they were subjected to airport-style X-ray machines and body searches.

Anti-terrorist officers have long feared a suicide or car bomb attack on a crowded club or pub in the city.

They have also feared terrorists would mount an attack to coincide with Gordon Brown taking over as Prime Minister.

A bar worker in Lower Regent Street said today: "I have been told there was a Mercedes driving along Haymarket at around 1.30am when the driver swerved and hit some bins outside Tiger Tiger.

"The driver then got out and legged it. The bouncers had a look at the car and they found gas cylinders and nails in the boot. And that's when they called the police."

Cleaner Akram Ahmed, 22, said: "We heard this was a suspicious car with what could be a bomb in it.

"I have been here since 5.30am and I can't get anywhere near work. It's a bit worrying to think that someone would want to blow up a place like Tiger Tiger. It's normally very busy on Thursdays and a lot of people could have been hurt."

Waiter Alfonso Guarez, 32, was trying to get to Coventry Street. He said: "This is crazy. I have been here since 5am this morning and nobody could tell me what's going on.

"We have heard that there seemed to be some kind of explosion and we saw a lot of police coming in and they put up a tent around the club."

Tiger Tiger packed with dancers
Tiger Tiger attracts hundreds of young people every night. Spread over three floors, the 18,000 sq ft venue has capacity for 1,770 people with four bars, a restaurant and large dance floor.
Because of its central location near Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square it is a favourite of City workers and tourists.

It is open until 2am during the week and 3am on Saturday. One online reviewer said it was so busy on a Saturday that 'you could barely move'.

Another described its 'sheer maze effect' and 'very, very crowded dancefloor'.

The club in Haymarket was opened in 1998 by Chorion, the company behind the Trocadero. It was bought by Urbium in 2002, a company which had Tory leader David Cameron on its board of directors. He left in 2005.

Urbium owns 25 bars in London and chairman John Conlan, speaking after the 7/7 attacks, said: "We have been through 9/11 and the IRA's long campaign ... we have to take it on the chin."

British MI5 Had Hand In Previous Car Bombings

British MI5 Had Hand In Previous Car Bombings
Security services played role in similar previous attacks, massive car bomb discovered in London

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, June 29, 2007

Intelligence sources are refusing to rule out an Irish connection to a massive car bomb that was discovered in the heart of London this morning. Though at this early stage the facts are sketchy, any link to the IRA or its offshoots would re-open a can of worms concerning the MI5's role in past terror attacks, and specifically car bombings, over the last few decades in Britain and Northern Ireland.

The timing of the attempted attack coincides with new Prime Minister Gordon Brown taking over from Tony Blair just yesterday.

"The threat of terror returned to London today after a large car bomb was found in the heart of the capital," reports the Daily Mail.

"Bomb squad officers defused the 'massive' device after police investigated reports of a suspicious vehicle in the early hours."

"According to an eyewitness the door staff at the nightclub Tiger, Tiger alerted police after the car, believed to be a silver Mercedes, was driven into bins last night and the driver ran off."

"The witness said the car was being driven 'erratically' before the minor crash. The driver was not stopped."

In any criminal investigation and in particular terrorism inquiry, it is paramount to look at who has the motive and history to carry out such an attack.

It is important to stress that not every terror attack is necessarily part of some elaborate scheme or conspiracy - indeed it is usually small scale incidents such as this that are the work of lone extremists or Islamic fundamentalists who hate the west, of which Britain is inundated with.

But as the facts emerge we would be foolish to overlook the fact that the British security services were intimately involved in numerous terror attacks in Britain over the past few decades, namely car bombings, that were blamed on the IRA or its offshoots. This is particularly relevant considering that officials have refused to rule out an Irish connection in this case.


The sliver car was left outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub on Haymarket. A gas canister can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of this picture.

Every major IRA bombing in England and Northern Ireland has had the fingerprints of the British government and the FRU all over it.

Starting from at least the 1980's, SAS and British military intelligence agents were routinely ordered to embed themselves within violent branches of the IRA and aid terrorists in carrying out attacks. How do we know this happened? Because one of the individuals who was ordered to do so, Kevin Fulton, blew the whistle on the fact that he was told he had the Prime Minister's blessing to aid terrorists in bomb making and political assassinations.

In addition, mirroring the backdrop of the infiltration of the alleged liquid bomb plot, the August 15th 1998 Omagh bombing was allowed to proceed despite the fact that MI5 had fully infiltrated the Real IRA terror cell, knew the date of the bombing, and had tracked the terrorists' vehicle as it was driven to the bomb site. Again, in this case MI5 had one of their own agents within the bomb squad itself. In this instance, the car bombing went forward and 29 people, including two babies and nine children, were ripped apart as they shopped in a quiet market street.

Documents, lodged as part of a court action being taken against the British government by a disgruntled military intelligence agent, also revealed that an FRU (Force Research Unit) major was the officer who was the handler of the British army's most infamous agent inside the IRA -- a man code named Stakeknife.

Stakeknife is one of Belfast's leading Provisionals. His military handlers allowed him to carry out large numbers of terrorist murders in order to protect his cover within the IRA.

The London Observer further revealed some of the methods employed by the FRU in Northern Ireland, including the “human bomb” technique, which involved “forcing civilians to drive vehicles laden with explosives into army checkpoints”.

Former MI5 counter-terrorism officer David Shayler also saw documents indicating that the Israeli's bombed their own embassy in London in 1994 after a car bomb exploded outside the building in Kensington.

He also presented evidence that MI5 had foreknowledge of the 1993 Bishopsgate car bombing that was blamed on the IRA, and could have apprehended the bomb squad but let the attack go ahead.

To forget the proven history of the security service's involvement in car bombings and other terror attacks in Britain and Northern Ireland in light of this latest incident would be very naive, and as more information about the culprits behind this morning's attempted attack is released, that history is likely to become more prescient.