Is this a real-life 'light saber?'

Is this a real-life 'light saber?'

By Mimi Hall and Eric Moreno, USA TODAY

The Homeland Security Department is aiming to arm federal agents with a light-saber-type weapon that emits a dazzling strobe capable of subduing criminals, terrorists and even unruly airline passengers.

It's the latest government effort to develop a non-lethal weapon — in this case, a powerful beam of light that temporarily blinds anyone who looks into it.

"The light could be used to make a bad guy turn away or shut his eyes, giving authorities enough time to tackle the suspect and apply the cuffs, all while sparing the lives of passersby, hostages or airline passengers," according to a description of the device from the Homeland Security Department's science and technology division.

Program manager Gerald Kirwin says Homeland Security has invested $1 million for testing of the LED (light-emitting diode) Incapacitator. It is being developed by a Torrance, Calif., company, Intelligent Optical Systems, and it will be tested on volunteers at Pennsylvania State University's Institute of Non-Lethal Defense Technologies this fall.

If all goes well, the Homeland Security Department says it "could be in the hands of thousands of policemen, border agents and National Guardsmen" by 2010. Kirwin says it also would be used by air marshals, border patrol agents, other officers with the Transportation Security Administration and customs officers.

The device works by temporarily blinding and disorienting a person, says Bob Lieberman, president of Intelligent Optical. Once aimed at someone's eyes, a series of light pulses and colors can be triggered and the subject's eyes can't adjust quickly enough to see.

"It's like someone shooting off a flashbulb in your face every few seconds," Lieberman says. "Because of the wavelengths and frequencies we use, there are psychophysical effects — a real disorientation. The reaction can range through vertigo to nausea."

That's why The Register, an irreverent online publication that covers the information technology industry, dubbed it the "puke-ray."

What the flashlight-size device doesn't do, however, is use lasers or permanently blind people, Lieberman says. In 1995, the United States signed on to a United Nations agreement that banned blinding weapons.

"We're taking great care to make sure the intensities we're using fall within eye-safe limit," Lieberman says. "We're doing medically supervised tests."

But some immigration and human rights groups say they're still concerned, particularly with the idea that the devices might be used on illegal immigrants.

"It gives me pause, particularly in regards to Mexico. Mexico is a very important economic partner of ours," says Deborah Notkin, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"I would imagine that Mexico wouldn't be particularly happy with us using a device that would be more appropriate for criminals, not just for people trying to get across the border who are looking for better opportunities."

Peter Herby, head of the mines-arms unit's legal division at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, says he's not familiar with Homeland Security's new weapon. But he says many of the same issues are likely to crop up as with more dangerous, laser-based blinding weapons — called "dazzlers" because they blind people with intense light.

Among the issues: If the devices are mass-produced and fairly inexpensive, they're likely to be sold on the black market.

"Once they're in the hands of bad guys," Herby asks, "are the police going to have to wear protective gear to prevent them(selves) from being dazzled?"

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-07-lightsaber_N.htm

Longtime spy decides to unmask

Longtime spy decides to unmask

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the CIA's top spooks has come out of the shadows.

With little fanfare, Jose Rodriguez, who heads the National Clandestine Service, had his cover lifted about a month ago. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the driving factor was his interest in publicly participating in minority recruitment events. He's also retiring later this year after more than three decades with the agency.

Rodriguez is the most important man in the U.S. spy game whose name you probably never knew. When he was mentioned publicly before now, he was referred to only as "Jose."

Rodriguez became head of the CIA's clandestine service in November 2004. With the creation of the National Clandestine Service the following year as part of an intelligence reorganization, Rodriguez rose to be chief of "human intelligence" operations, overseeing the classic spycraft that takes place at a variety of U.S. spy agencies.

Unlike his recent predecessors, Rodriguez elected to stay undercover as he ordered some of the CIA's most sensitive cloak-and-dagger operations that get little if any public oversight. He believed the head of the clandestine service shouldn't have a high profile.

In national security circles, however, Rodriguez's identity wasn't a well-kept secret. Wikipedia users even created an entry about him last year, although the page contains inaccuracies.

This much is known: Rodriguez, a native of Puerto Rico, spent much of his career in Latin America, including in Mexico.

Some officials, who spoke on condition that they not be identified while discussing Rodriguez's past, have said he got into trouble during the 1990s while trying to help a friend who was arrested for narcotics in the Dominican Republic. The Justice Department looked into Rodriguez's actions, but never brought charges.

Although the incident led to his removal as head of the CIA's Latin America Division, his espionage career continued. He served overseas and took over as head of the CIA's counterterror center less than a year after Sept. 11, 2001.

"Jose built a reputation for leadership in the field and here at headquarters, and he guided some of the agency's greatest counterterror victories," CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a statement.

"He has done much to protect our country by strengthening its Clandestine Service," Hayden added.

Next week, Rodriguez will make his first public appearance when he speaks about diversity at a border security conference in El Paso — the hometown of the gathering's Democratic host, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes.

Rodriguez has not set a firm date for his retirement, and a replacement has not yet been announced.

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-08-spy_N.htm

U.S. to unveil new anti-drug strategy for Afghanistan

Wed Aug 8, 2007 6:50PM EDT

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans on Thursday to unveil a strategy to fight Afghanistan's drug trade by giving provincial governors more money to eradicate poppy crops and pursue economic development, U.S. officials said.

The effort also aims to better coordinate counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency work in Afghanistan, which in the past 18 months has seen its bloodiest fighting since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban movement in 2001.

U.S. officials said the new strategy for Afghanistan, which is the source of about 90 percent of the world's opium, would include a public education campaign against growing opium poppies, the key ingredient for heroin.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition that he not be named because the strategy is not yet public, said the new approach seeks to grapple with the fact that the insurgency and the drug trade are increasingly intertwined.

It also reflects the belief that provincial governors are often better at cracking down on poppy cultivation than the federal government and should be given incentives to do more.

"In provinces where the governor has established effective control, poppy is going down ... Much of the decline in provinces where there is good governance has been through governor-led eradication," the official said.

"The first step is to provide more incentives and support for provinces -- for governors -- that take effective action ... and to give them money to spend on (economic development)."

A congressional aide said the plan would include the implicit threat that governors who did not take on the drug trade would get less money for development.

"They are going to roll out a plan that's heavy on carrots and sticks," said the aide, saying the message boiled down to "you have got to do less opium if you want more projects."

UNREALISTIC GOALS?

A report by the State Department's inspector general last week said U.S. goals for eradicating Afghan opium poppies were unrealistic and that this year's crop may exceed last year's. According to a U.N. estimate, opium production in Afghanistan rose by as much as 50 percent in 2006.

The report found "no realistic possibility of outspending economic incentives in the narcotics industry" and said the $420 million spent by the United States on eradication in Afghanistan last year was dwarfed by the estimated $38 billion "street value" if the poppy crop were converted to heroin.

The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan under strict principles of Islamic law, drastically reduced poppy growing throughout the country before it was ousted in 2001.

But in recent years poppy growth has increased dramatically, especially in southern provinces where the Taliban has encouraged it.

Afghanistan has seen a rise in Taliban suicide bombings, roadside bombs and attacks in recent months. More than 6,500 people have been killed in the past 18 months, the bloodiest period since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001.

One aspect of the new U.S. strategy is to better coordinate counter-narcotics work with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

This could include closer cooperation on intelligence sharing as well as better coordination on efforts to eradicate poppy crops and to interdict drug shipments.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0838601520070808?pageNumber=2

Pakistan 'may declare emergency'

Pakistan 'may declare emergency'

President Musharraf has pulled out of a meeting in Afghanistan

Pakistan's government is considering imposing emergency rule, the country's information minister has said.

Tariq Azeem conceded that the issue was being discussed, as Pakistani TV channels reported that a declaration state of emergency was imminent.

An emergency would limit the role of the courts, restrict civil liberties and curb freedom of expression.

Earlier, Pakistan's president said he would not attend a tribal council in Afghanistan on combating the Taleban.

General Pervez Musharraf pulled out of the three-day council, or jirga, citing commitments in Islamabad.

Gen Musharraf faces a volatile political and security situation after a siege at a radical Islamabad mosque and protests by lawyers angry at the sacking of the country's chief justice.

Opposition to Mr Musharraf's rule has also increased.

"The possibility of the enforcement of emergency, like other possibilities, is under discussion," Information Minster Tariq Azeem said, although he said an emergency might not eventually be declared.

He admitted US threats to launch an operation in the tribal areas and the recent targeting of Chinese nationals had played a role in the issue being discussed.

"In addition, the situation on the borders and the suicide attacks are also a concern," Mr Azeem added.

Hostile judiciary

A meeting of senior government officials headed by President Musharraf was expected to be held on Thursday to decide the issue.

The emergency is a big step and the government should think twice before enforcing it, Benazir Bhutto Opposition leader

Under an emergency, powers to detain citizens would be extended and parliament could extend its tenure by a year.

Observers believe if Gen Musharraf opts for emergency rule it would primarily affect the powers of the increasingly hostile judiciary.

Additionally, it would allow the president to postpone national elections due to be held later in 2007.

This could enable him to continue in his role as chief of Pakistan's powerful military.

Opposition political parties, like Pakistan's largest party, the PPP, want Gen Musharraf to give up the role.

"The emergency is a big step and the government should think twice before enforcing it," says former Prime Minister and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.

"I hope such a drastic step will not take place.

"It will be a retrogressive step taking the country backwards."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6937907.stm

China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
London Telegraph
Wednesday Aug 8, 2007

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

"Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order," he added.

He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.

"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.

"China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar," he told China Daily.

The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".

She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.

Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.

"The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles," he said.

A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.

The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.

Henry Paulson, the US Tresury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and "could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation".

Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.

New EU treaty is old constitution in disguise, warns Hague

KIRSTY WALKER
UK Daily Mail
Wednesday Aug 8, 2007

Gordon Brown faced fresh Tory pressure for a referendum on the new EU treaty yesterday after William Hague described it as 'overwhelmingly' similar to the old constitution.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary published research showing that only ten out of the 250 proposals contained in the document rejected by French and Dutch voters had changed.

He suggested the 'unreadable' treaty had been designed to confuse the public and accused the Prime Minister of trying to push it through on the 'quiet'.

Mr Hague warned that once MPs return from Parliament's summer recess they will have only nine working days to debate the treaty before it is signed off by Mr Brown in October.

His party boosted its campaign for a referendum by publishing a pamphlet entitled The EU Treaty in Plain English.

Mr Hague accused Labour of handing sovereignty to Brussels as the treaty creates a powerful EU president and foreign minister.

He said Britain is losing vetoes in some 60 policy areas including transport, energy and migration and warned that new powers are being handed to the European Commission, Court of Justice and Parliament.

Mr Hague added that a little-noticed 'ratchet clause' in the treaty would allow the EU to abolish vetoes in almost all other areas. Member states would simply have to 'notify' MPs of what was happening.

He said: "There has been limited public debate about this issue and it is important for people to have a clear understanding of it. The plan all along has been to keep the substance and change the presentation.

"The EU treaty is overwhelmingly the same as the EU constitution. It is in large measure and predominantly the same thing with the same effect. I think in a way Gordon Brown wants to get this out of the way with as little public

Attacking the document's complicated language, Mr Hague cited a passage which says: "As far as the content of the amendments to the existing treaties is concerned, the innovations resulting from the 2004 IGC will be integrated into the TEU and the Treaty on the functioning of the Union, as specified in this mandate.

"Modifications to these innovations introduced as a result of the consultations held with member states over the past six months are indicated below."

Mr Hague explained: "That is really taking everything that was agreed in the European constitution and using it as a starting base for the treaty."

In another passage, the treaty says: "Articles 29 to 39 of Title VI of the EU Treaty, which related to judicial cooperation in criminal matters and to police cooperation, shall be replaced by Articles (111-257 to 111-264 and 111-270 to 111-277) of the Treaty on the function of the union."

The Tory pamphlet paraphrases this as: "EU judges will now be able to rule on EU agreements over criminal justice and policing."

In Labour's 2005 general election manifesto, Tony Blair had promised voters a referendum on the EU constitution that was eventually shelved that year.

Mr Brown has refused to hold one on the new treaty after insisting that the Government had protected its four 'red lines' on tax, human and social rights, foreign policy and benefits.

However, Mr Hague pointed to a stream of remarks from prominent EU leaders admitting that the new treaty is the constitution by a different name. Spanish foreign minister-Miguel Angel Moratinos has said that '98 per cent of the content' of the old constitution has survived.

Mr Hague denied that the Tories are returning to an 'old agenda' or playing to the party's disaffected Right-wing by focusing on Europe.

"This cannot be the Conservative Party returning to an old agenda when a referendum was promised in the last Labour manifesto," he said.

He added that an EU treaty referendum would be key to the Conservatives' general election campaign if an early poll was called by Mr Brown.

Investigators Probe Whether Government Lab Deliberately Released Virus

Foot and mouth outbreak another act of biological terrorism against British farming community?

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Investigators are seriously probing whether a British government lab and an American pharmaceutical company colluded to deliberately release the foot and mouth virus in an act of biological terrorism against the farming community.

The source of the recent foot and mouth outbreak is highly suspected to have originated from the government's Pirbright research facility, which is shared by American vaccine maker Merial Animal Health.

Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that the release of the virus came after an "international drill" last month that was held at Pirbright Laboratory, in which live virus was used. Real attacks are always shadowed by drills to provide culpable deniability.

"A PROBE into Britain's new foot and mouth disease outbreak has focused on whether staff at an animal vaccine firm may have spread the virus, possibly deliberately," reports the Herald Sun.

"A preliminary report into the outbreak said yesterday it was a "real possibility'' that human movement spread the disease to two nearby farms, with Merial coming increasingly under suspicion."

The motive of Merial Animal Health Limited is clear - providing they remained undetected as having been the culprits for the outbreak - another mass foot and mouth scare would result in record purchases of their vaccine from panic stricken farmers across the country.

The British government also has a deeply ingrained political agenda to sabotage the stability of a rural power bloc - The Countryside Alliance - that forms its most influential foe and brought half a million people to London in 2002 to protest the government's wide-ranging abuse and abandonment of the middle class.

The Labour government, now led by Blair clone Gordon Brown, has a deep disdain for the farming community and has sought to debase the agricultural industry at every turn in the last ten years, as well as outlawing traditional countryside pursuits such as shooting and hunting.

All 102 of farmer John Gunner's Charolais and Sussex cows were culled after his farm became the second site to register positive for foot-and-mouth disease.

"It was a Leitmotif of the Blair government that it hated the countryside," writes Simon Heffer in today's London Telegraph, "There could be no other explanation for much of its behaviour. John Prescott, when he still held office, saw power as a vehicle for the propagation of class hatred: and, in his profound ignorance, he saw rural England especially as a place populated and exploited solely by his class enemies."

"Just after the last outbreak, when the Government was trying (in another helpful pro-countryside measure) to limit the legal use of shotguns for sporting purposes, an MP asked how many fatalities or woundings had been caused by legally held weapons. The answer was that all, or almost all, such incidents appeared to have been farmers shooting themselves amid the wreckage of their livelihoods."

The latest outbreak has already cost the farming industry tens of millions of pounds, heaped on top of the misery wrought by recent flooding, which many also accuse the government of deliberately botching the recovery efforts.

As we have previously reported, the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, which completely devastated the farming industry nationwide, began after a vial of the virus was "stolen" from the government's Porton Down bio-weapons laboratory.

Coupled with reports of the government making inquiries to timber merchants and sign makers (before closing public footpaths), it is inconceivable that an animal rights activist, as we are led to believe, could have penetrated a level 4 bio-weapons facility that also houses anthrax and ebola and is protected by armed guards of the Ministry of Defence Police and the Military Provost Guard Service. The individual who stole the vial must have had full security clearance to enter the facility. Why would an animal rights activist release a virus that would kill four million animals?

Patricia Doyle, PhD also reported that Foot and Mouth exercises, mirroring the drills in the current case, were being run by the British government immediately before the outbreak was made public.

With all the evidence beginning to strongly suggest a criminal plot was formulated by the American vaccine company, possibly in collusion with the government lab, to engage in a deliberate act of bio-terrorism directed against the farming community, it's probably time for the government to call in their chief whitewasher Lord Stevens or another establishment puppet to sweep the entire mess under the carpet.

Change Confronts Mayor Bloomberg on Subway

Mike Knarr
WeAreChange.org News
Wednesday Aug 8, 2007

Related: Revised Rules Coming on Filmmaking and Photography, After Uproar

Related: Bloomberg Confronted as Camera Ban Set for Enforcement

Related: Protesters Turn Lens on Mayor's Office Over NY Film Ban

Bloomberg Takes the Ride of His Life.

Mayor Bloomberg takes the subway periodically, about once a month according to his staff, so that he can be with the people. Unfortunately he picked the day when WeAreChange.org and Infowars.com reporters were outside City Hall. The ride lasted about 15 minutes and Luke, Tom, Nate and several other concerned citizens used every minute to bring up questions from parking tickets to 9/11.

Luke started in with an attack on the Ground Zero Memorial. Why are you disrespecting the family members by moving the memorial off the grounds of the World Trade Center? Read a great article about this and the massive money spent by Pataki and Bloomberg after 9/11 here by Debra Burlingame. www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008478

Debra Burlingame is the sister of Captain Charles “Chic” Burlingame, III, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He participated in the very pentagon drill which envisioned just such an attack and his daughter Wendy died under mysterious circumstances in a fire later. It’s all just a coincidence.

Luke moved on by adding that 45% of the remains have not been found, why do you want to build on holy ground? By the way family members this year are just asking to go down the ramp but Bloomberg said in an earlier interview ,“It doesn't work. And you know we just have to get used to the fact that there's a lot of construction going on there.” I guess everyone is supposed to move on and stop bugging the government about trivial issues like this. Why are you ignoring the rescue workers who are sick and dieing? How did building 7 come down? The EPAs lies are causing the deaths of thousands of first responders. Still no response from the Mayor.

With the film ban going into effect there was plenty of questions about the constitutionality of it all. Even Keith Olbermann said it was the worst constitutional attack he could think of. Questions came fast and furious like, why do you want to destroy the constitution? You want to run for President, aren't you concerned with destroying the constitution? Nate was right on the mark when he added, "If it's unconstitutional it's null and void, you know we will win in court don't you?" Luke reminded Mayor Bloomberg that he has money invested in a media company and doesn't he see the conflict of interest, "you want to ban filming?"

Other points were made like, your just trying to put fear into us hoping we won't film, we will continue to film even if you declare martial law. Your making criminals out of ordinary citizens by arresting bicycle riders (See the Critical Mass Video by WeAreChange) and now people with cameras. Stop selling out to the corporate banks, sir. There's lots of questions, It's you opportunity as mayor to actually address these questions.

The Mayor’s goons make a big deal about the fact that our reporters do not have official New York City issued press passes. However this does not excuse the Mayor from not answering the questions put forth even if they are from his constituency. However this just shows that the media is controlled and if they were to ask these questions they might fear having their passes revoked.

Tom Foti said it best when he said "Until we get answers, this is how it’s going to be"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7442487916618413779&hl=en
Watch what happens at the end with an NYPD officer. You have to see it to believe it!