Monday, October 01, 2007

Chicago police again mired in scandal

MIKE ROBINSON
AP
Monday October 01, 2007

Videotapes of angry officers savagely beating civilians and charges that a murder plot was hatched within an elite special operations unit have Chicago's troubled police department reeling again.

Adding to the department's woes is word from federal prosecutors that they are investigating claims that homicide detectives tortured suspects into confessing to murders that landed them on death row in the 1980s.

Not since club-swinging cops in baby-blue helmets chased demonstrators through clouds of pepper gas at the 1968 Democratic National Convention have Chicago police been so awash in trouble.

The biggest shock came Wednesday when federal prosecutors charged special operations officer Jerome Finnigan with planning the murder of another member of the unit to keep him from talking to the government.

"This kind of stuff on Page One is just horrible," and reinforces a misleading stereotype of police, said Roosevelt University political scientist Paul Green, who taught at the police academy for four years.

"The overwhelming 99.9 percent do their job professionally," he said.

But evidence of deep-rooted problems is piling up.

Finnigan, 44, also is one of six members of the special operations unit, created to crack down on gangs and drugs, who are charged with operating a shakedown operation aimed at civilians. Prosecutors say they have him on tape weighing the possibility of having someone kill a fellow special operations officer to keep him from becoming a witness against him.

Finnigan and his attorney, Michael Ficaro, declined to comment.

In July, three off-duty officers pleaded not guilty to charges that they beat four businessmen in a bar in a videotaped confrontation.

In another videotaped confrontation, off-duty officer Anthony Abbate was seen apparently beating a 115-pound female bartender because she would not serve him another drink. Abbate has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of aggravated battery.

The quagmire is deepened by five federal lawsuits accusing police and city officials of covering up the torture of murder suspects at the Area 2 detective headquarters under violent crimes Lt. Jon Burge in the 1980s. Burge was fired in 1993 after a suspect in the murder of two officers allegedly was abused while in his custody.

A four-year study by two special prosecutors appointed by a Cook County judge, released in July 2006, found that Chicago police beat, kicked and shocked scores of black suspects in the 1970s and 1980s to get confessions. The report said it was impossible to file charges because the incidents were so old that the statute of limitations had long since run out.

On Wednesday, however, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced the federal government was stepping into the torture case, saying it would seek evidence of "perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice by members of the Chicago police department."

"It's political, it's cultural, it's systemic," said attorney G. Flint Taylor, who represents several former death row inmates now suing Burge and city officials.

Attorney Richard Sikes, who represents Burge in the five civil suits, said after Fitzgerald's announcement that allegations against his client "have been fairly investigated by the special prosecutors who found that charges were not appropriate."

The department has been slow to put its best foot forward. Officers in the news affairs office said only department spokeswoman Monique Bond could comment. Bond did not return three calls seeking comment over two days.

Mark Donahue, president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, said most officers are doing a professional job but the department's reputation has been hurt by the misdeeds of a minority.

"I subscribe to the few-bad-apples theory," Donahue said. "It is also due to the attention that the few bad apples are getting from the media."

The City Council recently revamped the Office of Professional Standards, which investigates charges that police officers abused civilians. Instead of reporting to department higher ups, as it did for years, the office now reports directly to Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Craig B. Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor, says such investigations in the past were shoddy and rarely resulted in discipline against the officers.

"If they investigated crimes the way they investigate complaints against police officers they would never close a case," Futterman says.

Oak Park School Bans Hugging

Mike Puccinelli
CBS
Monday October 01, 2007

OAK PARK, Ill. Schools just say no to bullying and fighting, but hugging? CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports that a local middle school wants the embracing to stop.

"Last year we would see maybe as many as 10 students on one side (of the hallway), 10 on the other and then, going in opposite directions, would sort of have a hug line going on and you could see where that would be a problem," said Victoria Sharts, principal of Oak Park's Percy Julian Middle School.

So this year Sharts decided to draw the line on hug lines by banning all hugging among students within the building.

Sharts said, "Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls."

When teachers started enforcing the new policy last month all hallways and classrooms in the 860-student school became hug-free zones.

When our cameras rolling during passing period today there was no hugging to be seen.

Sixth grader Isabella Miller disagrees with the crackdown. "I don't think that that's right"

Her father agrees with her.

"It seems like a crazy idea to me," Mark Miller said.

The principal says the rampant hugging is creating bottle necks in the hallway and making kids late for class. Furthermore she says although hugs are supposed to be handshakes from the heart some times they don't seem so innocent.

"Too long, too close, and usually between boys and girls," Sharts said.

After school, while safely outside the building, the students seemed determined to show what they think of the policy, one hug at a time.

Sharts said the hug ban is just one element of a comprehensive discipline and anti-bullying plan. High-fiving in the hallways is also frowned upon.

EU mulls Internet clampdown to combat 'terrorism'

AFP
Monday October 01, 2007

European Union interior ministers debated Monday proposals to sanction or shut down Internet sites spreading "terrorist propaganda" and bomb-making instructions.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told reporters that he had urged the ministers, during informal talks in Lisbon, Portugal, "to make punishable activities of misuse of the Internet."

"My intention of course is not to limit freedom of expression," he said.

"My intention is ... to introduce sanctions against those who disseminate terrorist propaganda or instruct on websites how to make a bomb. This has nothing to do with freedom of expression.

"If a given website is found instructing people to make a bomb, the only possible result is to disconnect, or to close such a website," he said.

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a report this month that radical Muslims and other extremists had mastered the use of the Internet as a tool for propaganda, organizing and education.

It said websites were being used to stir young Muslims in the West and Middle East to violence and that they amount to a "virtual university of terror," promoting the creation of "terror cells".

Frattini said that existing EU legislation could not deal with what is a growing and ever-evolving phenomenon.

"We have to modernize the legal framework," he said. "The world, unfortunately, is changing and five years ago ... there wasn't a need to consider incitement, and now there is."

Portuguese Interior Minister Rui Pereira, hosting the talks as his country is currently EU president, acknowledged the need for action but said the bloc's 27 member countries had yet to agree on the best approach.

"The Internet cannot be an area where no responsibility is taken," he said. "There has to be limits."

"But apart from that agreement, we still have a lot to do."

The EU's steady crackdown on international crime in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States has raised deep concern about privacy and freedom of expression around the bloc.

Chemtrails UK Government admits deadly spraying

You Tube
Monday October 01, 2007

U.K. government has admitted to spraying British public with deadly toxins. Link to Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4398507,00.html

Dubai firm hopes to close on land deal soon, build complex in Orangeburg County

JIM DuPLESSIS
The State.com
Monday October 01, 2007

A Dubai company expects to complete the purchase of 1,300 acres in Orangeburg County in the next several weeks that it hopes to use for a complex of warehouses that could employ 8,000 or more people, a company adviser said Wednesday.

The complex along I-95 would tie loads of cargo arriving and departing from the ports of Charleston and Savannah with customers across the Southeast. The $600 million project would be built by Jafza International, a subsidiary of Dubai World, which is owned by the royal family of Dubai in the Persian Gulf.

Buying the land could be completed as early as next month, said the adviser, who spoke to The State on condition of not being named. All of it will come from land that had been under option by CaroLinks, a Charleston investment group that had planned to build a logistics complex at the site.

“We’re starting the process of buying CaroLinks’ options and interests, so ultimately we will own the land,” the Jafza adviser said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat who represents most of Orangeburg County, told The Associated Press that based on discussions with local officials, a deal is not done, but “I understand some land closings have taken place in the last couple of days.”

Kara Borie, a spokeswoman for the state Commerce Department, told AP her agency has had talks with Jafza, but referred all comments about any potential investment to the company.

Jafza has said the complex would directly employ 8,000 to 10,000 people after several years, but has not defined how it is counting jobs or how long it would take to reach such a number.

A project that size would dwarf other employers. Orangeburg County’s largest employer is Husqvarna, a 1,900-employee riding lawn mower factory in Orangeburg.

The site is at I-95 and U.S. 301, which allows immediate access to I-95, a major north-south artery, while putting it within a few miles of interstates 26 and 20 to reach destinations farther west.

Orangeburg County has long been trying to entice more industry and distributors. In the past few years, it has concentrated its efforts on improving land at the junctions of I-95, I-26 and U.S. 301 — what it calls its Global Logistics Triangle. Improvements have included the expansion of water and sewer lines to industrial parks there and seeking funding for highway improvements.

Orangeburg County has long had one of the state’s highest jobless rates — 9.1 percent in August — and incomes below average for the state.

Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Economic Development Commission, wants to change that, and said attracting more industry will be the first step. “By building the industrial base, you build payroll.”

That will mean residents earning more and driving less. More than 6,000 residents drive out of the county every day to their jobs, many working in Columbia or Charleston.

“It gives them an ability to be closer to their families,” he said. “If Mom or Dad is 45 minutes away at work, it’s hard for them to deal with their children.”

Many soldiers get boot for 'pre-existing' mental illness

Philip Dine
STL Today
Monday October 01, 2007

WASHINGTON — Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq — as many as 10 a day — are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.

Many soldiers and Marines being discharged on this basis actually suffer from combat-related problems, experts say. But by classifying them as having a condition unrelated to the war, the Defense Department is able to quickly get rid of troops having trouble doing their work while also saving the expense of caring for them.

The result appears to be that many actually suffering from combat-related problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries don't get the help they need.

Working behind the scenes, Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have written and inserted into the defense authorization bill a provision that would make it harder for the Pentagon to discharge thousands of troops. The Post-Dispatch has learned that the measure has been accepted into the Senate defense bill and will probably become part of the Senate-House bill to be voted on this week.

The legislation sets a higher bar for the Pentagon to use the personality-disorder discharge, and also mandates a review of the policies by the Government Accountability Office. Bond said it also would "force the Pentagon to stop using this discharge until we can fix the problem."

Bond said he learned of the practice from returning Iraq veterans. He called it an "abuse" of the system and "inexcusable."

"They've kicked out about 22,000 troops who they say have pre-existing personality disorders. I don't believe that," Bond said in an interview Friday. "And when you kick them out, they don't get the assistance they need, they aren't entitled to DOD or Veterans Administration care for those problems."

Obama said the practice is "deeply disturbing" because "it means that those who have served this country aren't getting the care they need. …"

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician declined Friday to discuss the matter because it was related to current legislation.

Defense Department records show that 22,500 cases of personality-disorder discharges have been processed over the last six years.

Jon Soltz, an Iraq war combat veteran who founded the group VoteVets.org, said untreated psychological problems were contributing to the highest military suicide rate in a quarter-century and to growing homelessness among veterans, he said.

If such widespread mental problems really existed before people joined the military and saw combat, they would have been uncovered when the recruits were enlisting, Soltz said.

STRESS FACTORS

The issue of personality-disorder discharges is a window into the broader problem of psychological damage to Iraq veterans, which experts say has three main causes:

— Multiple and longer deployments.

— The stress of fighting an insurgency with no breaks and everyone always on the front line.

— Better and faster medical care that helps troops survive horrific physical injuries that often leave psychological scars.

"You land in Iraq, and you're on the battlefield, whether you're a quartermaster or a medic or a cook," said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organizations at the University of Maryland. "All you have to do is get on the highway to go somewhere from the airport."

The military and lawmakers are only slowly coming to grips with the consequences, Segal said.

"I think we have failed to recognize the extent of the problem," he said. "We've produced a problem that's going to be plaguing us for generations."

Past wars, through the Persian Gulf war, produced three casualties for every fatality, while now in Iraq "we're up to about 16-to-1," Segal said. Those killed are "really the tip of the iceberg" as far as the toll on soldiers, he added.

One Republican congressional staff member who works on military issues said the rationale behind the Pentagon's practice was: "We didn't break you, you were already broken. You're not our responsibility."

"One soldier I know received a diagnosis for a personality disorder after a 45-minute talk," said the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He'd been in the military 10 years, had made it his career, and then he was told he was being shuffled out in a couple of weeks. We keep getting these stories."

In the House, Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., is leading the effort to get similar legislation approved.

"It defies logic to think that tens of thousands of our servicemen and women slipped through the cracks during the pre-screening process," Hare said. "We have a moral obligation to review the discharge process and ensure we are getting it right."

'NAFTA Superhighway stops here,' says Okla. senator

Trans-Texas Corridor needs to make 'Texas turnaround' at state border


Posted: October 1, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon
"The NAFTA Superhighway stops here, at the border with Oklahoma," Randy Brogdon, a Republican state senator who has championed the fight to keep the Trans-Texas Corridor out of Oklahoma, told a packed 300-person audience at the first public meeting of OK-SAFE in Tulsa on Saturday.

Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise, Inc. is a non-profit, Oklahoma corporation set up to oppose a NAFTA Superhighway and North American Union as threats to the sovereignty of the U.S.

Brogdon objected to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, arguing President Bush had entered the agreement after secret discussions with Mexico's then-president Vicente Fox and Canada's then-prime minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

"President Bush has proven that he is more than willing to over-step his executive authority when it came to trade policy," Brogdon told the group.

"Ariticle 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says, 'Congress shall have the Power to Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,' not the president," Brogdon pointed out. "Yet President Bush has entered into an agreement with Mexico and Canada called SPP that seeks to eliminate our trade and security borders and he has failed to get the explicit approval of Congress."

The SPP website, in a section entitled "Myths vs. Facts," supports Brogdon's argument, openly admitting that SPP is neither a law nor a treaty.

"Texas highways are famous for 'Texas turnaround' U-turns," Brogdon quipped. "Maybe it's time we tell Governor Perry to do a Texas turnaround at the border with Oklahoma."

"We don't need a new superhighway four-football-fields-wide coming through the heart of our state just so Mexican trucks can carry Chinese containers from Mexican ports to Kansas City," he said.

Brogdon objected that the Bush administration's below-the-radar push for a new continental NAFTA Superhighway will risk the supremacy of U.S. laws on U.S. highways.

"Anyone driving on an international highway system running through the United States would be subjected not to U.S. law, but to international law," Brogdon argued. "We would be subject to an international tribunal in case of a dispute, including accidents or other lawsuits."

Brogdon objected to the Department of Transportation's push to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to have free access on U.S. roads for their long-haul rigs.

"The Bush administration is pushing the Trans-Texas Corridor under the cause of better roads and economic development," Brogdon stressed. "I'm sure we all want good roads and bridges, but not at the expense of our nation's sovereignty."

As WND previously reported, Brogdon has opposed legislation that would have pre-authorized the extension north into Oklahoma, as a deceptive piece of legislation (HB 1917) that would have put Oklahoma in a highway "pilot project" that was unlimited in scope and required Oklahoma to waive its 11th Amendment rights.

"The 11th Amendment gives protection to Oklahoma from being sued in federal court by a foreign nation," Brogdon explained. "So for us to be a part of this project we had to waive our 11th Amendment rights. This benign piece of legislation that started out as a simple re-surface project in Southeast Oklahoma was in fact the first step to create the NAFTA Superhighway through Oklahoma."

The bill was strongly supported by the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., a Dallas-based trade organization of which the State of Oklahoma is a member.

Brogdon has championed legislation demanding Oklahoma withdraw from NASCO, saving the state a $25,000 annual membership fee.

"NASCO's mission statement says their goal is 'to create the world's first 'international, intermodal superhighway' system," Brogdon pointed out. "NASCO lobbied the Oklahoma state legislature to pass HB 1917 and they found many of my colleagues sympathetic to their cause. In the state senate, we were able to kill the bill during debate. We won a battle, but the war is not over."

Brogdon predicted that the battle to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor north into Oklahoma would be pressed once again by NASCO in the Oklahoma legislature's next session.

"NASCO will probably work with legislators favorable to their cause to package the next bill with a catchy name," Brogdon warned. "The bill will come down as something like, 'Economic Development and Transportation for the Next Generation and Our Kids.' It will be disguised, but I assure you, the outcome will still be the same. Our sovereignty will be under attack."

Still, Brogdon expressed his confidence in winning the battle against the NAFTA Superhighway in Oklahoma.

"I'm encouraged at what lies ahead for this state and for the nation," Brogdon told the group. "History reveals that Americans always rise to the occasion to protect this country. We are in a battle for this nation's sovereignty. But I see American patriots here today, in this assembled group, men and women still dedicated to the Constitutional cause so eloquently laid out by our founding fathers."

"Ladies and gentlemen, know this – our future will not be determined by the politicians," Brogdon concluded. "Our future lies solely in our hands because 'We the People,' and not some bureaucrats in Washington or a trade group in Dallas, are the government of the United States."

WND reported NASCO changed its name from the original name, North America's Superhighway Coalition.

NASCO also has repeatedly redesigned its webpage so as to de-emphasize the continental nature of the "super corridor" NASCO supports.

CIA is "Terrorist' Agency" says Iran

Short News
Sunday September 30, 2007

Following a vote in the US senate designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a "terrorist organization" (SN Reported) Tehran has responded with a resolution labeling the CIA and the US army as "terrorist organizations".

The Iranian Parliament passed the non binding resolution in what is being seen as a diplomatic tit-for-tat which states "The aggressor US army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists and also nurture terror."

The resolution calls the US Army and CIA terrorists due to the use of nuclear weapons in Japan in World War II, depleted uranium in the Balkans, Afghanistan AND Iraq as well as support for Israeli crimes and the torturing of terror suspects in prison

Source: english.aljazeera.net

Gold hits 28-year peak, platinum near all-time high

Frank Tang and Atul Prakash
Reuters
Monday October 01, 2007

Gold closed higher in New York on Monday despite a strengthening dollar and weaker crude oil, as U.S. stocks rallied while platinum rose to a near-record high on robust investment demand.

"Over last month or so, we've gone through periods when gold and stock prices were moving together. So, it's entirely possible that we are seeing another influence like that. That wouldn't be surprising at all," said Patrick Fearon, precious metals analyst of A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.

Gold fell in early sessions as the dollar rebounded and crude declined. But the metal recovered as the session went on. Most-active December gold on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $4.10 at $754.10.

Spot gold rallied to $747.65 an ounce, its highest level since January 1980, before easing to $746.80/747.60 by 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT), against $742.40/743.20 late in New York on Friday.

The metal has hit new highs four times in less than two weeks.

U.S. stocks jumped, with both the blue-chip benchmark Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI: Quote, Profile, Research) and broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX: Quote, Profile, Research) up 1.5 percent.

Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader of Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago, said gold was undergoing consolidation early on Monday.

"The one potential negative is that there is not a lot of physical, industrial gold moving," McGhee said.

McGhee said investment demand has driven gold's strength.

"If we consolidate here for a bit, the cash (physical) market will catch up," he said.

In other bullion markets, August 2008 futures in Tokyo ended 28 yen per gram higher at 2,786 yen -- its loftiest level since 1985.

"With no signs of the dollar ending its slide against major currencies, bullishness is ample. But this does not exclude the market from a near-term pull back," Pradeep Unni, analyst at Vision Commodity Services in Dubai, said.

John Reade, head of metals strategy at UBS Investment Bank said that speculators on U.S. futures exchanges had heavily added long trading positions and any sign of liquidation from them could easily trigger profit taking in gold.

"Still, while the dollar remains weak and the credit crunch continues, further flows into gold could be seen. We continue to forecast gold at $750/oz in three months," he said in a note.

In news related to the official gold sector, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund's future managing director, said central bankers do not appear to oppose sales of IMF gold. Strauss-Kahn was chosen last week to succeed Rodrigo Rato as IMF chief a month from now.

Gold experts had said that any proposal to sell IMF's gold reserves would need the approval of the United States, which holds more than half of the IMF's voting power and has consistently opposed gold sales.

Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said it planned to sell 61 million ordinary shares in AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research) in a major step to cut its stake in the gold miner.

PLATINUM NEAR RECORD HIGHS

Spot platinum hit an intraday high of $1,391 an ounce and reached closer to last November's record high of $1,395. It was quoted at $1,390.70/1,397.70, versus New York's previous finish of $1,385/1,390.

Dealers noted a lack of physical buying, with Chinese consumers away during the week-long holiday which started on Monday. Investors also digested news that a Japanese automaker had developed a technology to cut platinum use.

Japan's Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said it developed the world's first car catalyst employing technology that slashed platinum and palladium use by up to 90 percent.

Platinum is a soft, ductile metal that is resistant to oxidation and high-temperature corrosion. Automakers have been hit by high metal prices and are looking for ways to reduce material use to save costs.

Silver was essentially flat compared with Friday's close of $13.71/13.76 an ounce in New York, while palladium gained to $354.80/358.80 an ounce, its highest since mid-August, from its prior finish of $343.00/348.00.

(Additional reporting by Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore)

Blackwater guards fired unprovoked Iraq police evidence

AFP
Monday October 01, 2007

Iraqi investigators have evidence that US private guards fired unprovoked on Iraqis in a deadly Baghdad shoot-out, a magazine said Sunday, citing a police report countering claims that they shot in self-defense.

A convoy of the Blackwater private security firm's vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason," Newsweek reported, quoting from the report which it said Iraq's national police have presented to US officials.

Evidence obtained from the police, including witness statements and video footage, contradicts Blackwater's account of the shooting in which 10 Iraqis were killed on September 16, it said in its Monday edition.

The firm insists its guards were shot at first and were threatened by a suspicious vehicle that refused to stop.

But Newsweek quoted officers including the lead Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul, and the commander of the Iraqi National Police, Hussein Al-Awadi, as saying that the contractors fired without provocation.

A police video published online by the magazine showed the scene after the clash on Baghdad's Nisoor square: a smoking car with charred human remains and riddled with bullet holes, and spent gun cartridges scattered on the ground.

Iraqi police investigators also believe Blackwater fired on cars and civilians from helicopters overhead, it said, citing police documents and its own interviews with officers. The video shows a chopper similar to those used by Blackwater hovering near the scene.

Blackwater has denied its guards in the helicopters opened fire.

Newsweek also quoted a local traffic policeman saying that Blackwater shot the driver of a car and continued firing as Iraqi police tried to pull the driver's body out of it.

A policeman who witnessed the shooting told the magazine Blackwater guards also fired larger projectiles at the car. The video obtained by Newsweek showed a large-caliber shell casing and a car with a large hole in its side.

US newspapers citing officials and witnesses reported this week that the contractors fired without provocation and the shooting continued even as one Blackwater employee ordered the others to stop firing.

The firm has 1,000 employees in Iraq guarding US diplomats in the country, which is struggling for stability after the US-led 2003 invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

The United States has sent a team to evaluate security measures for its diplomats and the defense secretary has ordered a team to investigate relations between US forces and private security contractors.

The following video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast on October 1.


Pentagon Issues Blackwater New $92 Million Contract

Think Progress
Monday October 01, 2007

Earlier this month, Blackwater USA was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater’s story that it was “defensive fire.”

Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, “Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future.” The next day, that future was already here. The Pentagon had issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the “aviation unit of parent company Blackwater.” From the release:

Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011.

Government officials have repeatedly ignored Blackwater’s transgressions. Senior Iraqi officials “repeatedly complained to U.S. officials” about Blackwater’s “alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm.”

Next week. Rep. David Price (D-NC) plans to introduce legislationto extend the reach of U.S. civil courts to include security contractors in Iraq.”

Putin Signals Plan to Hold Onto Power

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin said Monday he would lead the dominant party's ticket in December parliamentary elections and suggested he could become prime minister, the strongest indication yet that he will seek to retain power after he steps down as president early next year.

Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in the March presidential election, but has strongly indicated he would seek to keep a hand on Russia's reins.

He agreed to head the United Russia party's candidate list in December, which could open the door for him to become a powerful prime minister — leading in tandem with a weakened president.

Putin called a proposal that he become prime minister "entirely realistic," but added that it was still "too early to think about it."

He said that, first, United Russia would have to win the Dec. 2 elections and a "decent, competent, modern person" must be elected president.

Putin's agreement to top the candidate list of United Russia sent an ecstatic cheer though the crowd at a congress of the party, which contains many top officials and dominates the parliament and politics nationwide. The move will likely ensure that United Russia retains a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, enough to change the constitution.

Leading the party's ticket does not mean Putin will take a seat in parliament; prominent politicians and other figures often are given the top spots to attract votes, but stay out of the legislature after elections. The 450 seats in the Duma will be distributed proportionally among parties that receive at least 7 percent of the votes.

The popular Putin has repeatedly promised to step down at the end of his second term in May, as the constitution requires, but has suggested he would maintain significant influence. He offered some initial hints at his strategy last month when he named Viktor Zubkov — a previously obscure figure known mainly for his loyalty — as prime minister.

With no power base of his own, Zubkov would likely play his preordained part in any Putin plan. If he became presiodent and Putin prime minister, Zubkov could be expected to cede specific powers to Putin or step down to allow him to return to the presidency. If he becomes prime minister, Putin would be first in line to replace the president if he is incapacitated.

Putin has amassed authority as president, but as he prepares to step down he has been setting up a system of check and balances that would weaken his successor by putting him at the mercy of rival centers of power. By leading the United Russia party list, Putin instantaneously creates the strongest such center, with himself as its head.

The move means that Putin's successor "will not be a czar," Kremlin-connected analyst Gleb Pavlovsky said on Ekho Moskvy radio. "There will be a new center of influence outside the Kremlin."

Report: Russia Evacuates Entire Bushehr Staff

Iranian news outlet claims nuclear experts packed their bags Friday, increasing speculation of imminent U.S., Israeli attack

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, October 1, 2007

Iranian and Israeli news outlets are reporting that Russia has evacuated its entire staff of nuclear engineers and experts who were working at the Bushehr nuclear reactor, increasing speculation that the United States is preparing an imminent military attack on Iran.

According to the Khorramshar News Agency, which represents ethnic Arabs in opposition to Ahmadinejad's regime who live near the reactor, the Russians packed their bags and left on Friday.

DEBKAfile offers three different scenarios to explain the sudden withdrawal of the experts.

a) Russian-Iranian negotiations about how work will proceed on Bushehr have again hit a roadblock. This is highly unlikely because Vladimir Putin is set to visit Iran later in the month to sign a set of nuclear accords.

b) The Russians have learned that an Iranian attack against American interests in the Persian Gulf or Israel is imminent. This is extremely doubtful because any preemptive Iranian attack would give Israel and the U.S. the pretext they are desperately searching for to launch a devastating bombing campaign.

c) Moscow or Tehran have been tipped off that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is imminent and the Russians are getting their people out of harm's way. This seems to be the most plausible scenario, especially since reports emerged Friday from numerous "unnamed" worldwide intelligence sources that military action is just around the corner.

With every passing week, war rhetoric and maneuvering escalates as an assault on Iran seems all but inevitable.

This past weekend, Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said there was no alternative to a military option and that plans should be enacted for a "limited strike against their nuclear facilities."

Veteran newsman Seymour Hersh reports that the Bush administration has switched targets from Iran's nuclear facilities to instead target the Revolutionary Guard in a series of planned "surgical" air strikes.

"During a video conference over the summer, Bush allegedly told Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, that he was considering striking Iranian targets across the border and that the British "were on board," reports AFP.

School Guards Break Child's Arm And Arrest Her For Dropping Cake

Pandemic of police and security violence continues unabated

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Fri
day, Sept 28, 2007







UPDATE: High School Secuity Guards Attack Teen With Camera Then Frame Him

School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up.

The incident occurred last week at Knight High School in Palmdale and was caught on a cell phone camera by another pupil who was then also assaulted by the security guards.

Watch video of the incident here and here.

The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process.

Pleajhai also says that the security guard in the picture yelled "hold still nappy-head" at her, which at the time she did not know was a racist comment.

In an even more shocking development the security guards later had the mother of the girl arrested after she sought out an attorney and demanded that the guard be arrested, telling her that if she wanted the guard detained then she herself would also be charged with battery after she allegedly pushed the guard and an assistant principal of the school. She has also been suspended from her job at another school in the county.

The school expelled Pleajhai for five days before then having her arrested for battery and for littering (the dropping of the cake). Then they had the pupil who captured the video arrested along with his sister who was merely present at the scene.

A walkout is planned for this morning by some students, after which the protesters will call for the firing of the main security guard involved.

The incident serves as another unbelievable case in the wave of police brutality sweeping the country. In recent days we have covered multiple incidents of this nature and have compiled them into a page which will no doubt be added to in the months to come.

Commentators have linked the increased cases of brutality with a post 9/11 mentality in America where civil liberties have been totally diminished and the anointed "authorities" simply consider themselves above the law.

Former Reagan government official Paul Craig Roberts, for instance, has succinctly described the mentality as having turned "an epidemic of US police brutality into a pandemic".

The media reports linked above clearly sympathize with the girl and her mother but only because the girl "fully complied with the guards' orders".

What on earth have things come to when children are being physically assaulted and arrested in schools by huge fat thugs 5 times their size for "not complying with orders"?

Police and security officials are being trained that it's OK to beat, torture and taser anyone should they not answer their questions or comply with their every order.

The "security" and well being of citizens is no longer the concern of these moronic hired beefbrains who revel in their false positions of power. Ask yourself, why is the security guy pictured above wearing shades indoors? Because it is part of the gang mentality of these idiots who think its cool to put the fear of life into small kids and then break their bones if they fail to cower like mice when picked upon.


We have been covering the rise of the police state mentality in tandem with the erosion of liberty for some time now. The incident narrated above represents a stark evolution. Watch the following clip from around ten years ago which was featured in Alex Jones' 2004 Film Martial Law: Rise of the Police State, where police assault and break the arms of peaceful protestors.

The difference now is that the police and security guards are breaking the arms of children and tasering students for merely asking questions or for dropping birthday cake.


Greenspan says central banks less able to move long term rates

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The world's major central banks are less likely to influence long-term interest rates, which partly explains the build-up of excess liquidity in debt markets, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Saturday.

"The Fed, ECB, BOE and BOJ - all are losing their ability to influence longer-term rates," Greenspan said.

He was referring to the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Japan.

Greenspan was speaking in Amsterdam at an event hosted by ING as part of a tour to promote his new book, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World".

Greenspan has been criticised for keeping interest rates too low for too long when leading the Federal Reserve until 2004.

Critics said he sowed the seeds of the U.S. housing and global liquidity bubbles, adding that the Federal Reserve failed when it tried to contain inflation and nudge long-term rates higher in 2004.

"In 2004, we failed. Our purpose was to fight inflation and the fact is that we tightened but couldn't move long-term rates up," Greenspan told an audience of ING analysts and clients.

Greenspan's remarks on the U.S. housing market woes seemed slightly stronger than those previously during his book tour.

"It is clear that the decline in housing starts is not over and the decline in housing prices is not over," he said.

Asked about the dollar's recent decline in value against other major currencies, Greenspan offered a long-term perspective on the dollar's strength.

"You'll find that GDP will grow far faster in the developing world over the next 25 years than the developed world," he said.

"If, for example, China continues to make significant advances and the United States is doing very well, the renminbi-dollar exchange rate will go against the dollar."

"The demographics over the long run suggest that the dollar will decline, but that's nothing to do with the quality of the United States, it's just that we're getting more competitors."

Dollar hits lows, tankan gives yen brief support

By Satomi Noguchi

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar hit record lows against the euro and a basket of currencies on Monday, after tame U.S. inflation data bolstered the case for more Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

Investors are now awaiting the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index due later in the session for further clues on the health of the U.S. economy.

Some analysts said the dollar was likely to remain weak regardless of economic data due this week until Friday's U.S. jobs report, which will have a major impact on near-term Fed monetary policy.

The headline figure in the Bank of Japan's September tankan survey came in slightly above the market forecast, keeping alive expectations for a BOJ rate rise in coming months, but the data gave the yen only a brief boost.

"The dollar is likely to stay broadly weak ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report because the market will not be sure of buying the dollar back until the actual result of the jobs data comes," said Etsuko Yamashita, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.

The euro was slightly lower on the day at $1.4263 having pulled back from record highs above $1.4280 hit on electronic trading platform EBS earlier on Monday.

The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value against a basket of six major currencies, rose slightly to 77.760, having trimmed some losses after hitting a record low of 77.657 earlier in the morning.

The dollar extended its losses after falling late last week as the Federal Reserve's favoured inflation gauge showed a muted rise in core consumer prices.

The 1.8 percent year-over-year increase in the core PCE price index brought the reading within the Fed's presumed comfort zone of 1 to 2 percent.

The data supported market expectations for the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates further on top of its hefty 50-basis-point cut to 4.75 percent in September.

Economists expect the ISM manufacturing index for September, due at 1400 GMT, to show a median reading of 52.6, slightly below 52.9 in August.

Traders said there was some wariness over the euro's heady rise since mid-August, with technical indicators such as the relative strength index suggesting the single currency has been overbought.

"No one wants to buy at these levels," said a senior trader for a North American bank, referring to the euro.

But there was no clear-cut reason to turn bearish against the euro at this point, he said.

"It just won't stop. There isn't much reason to sell and it seems like the trend will continue," the trader said, adding that a rally to around $1.46 by year-end was not out of the question.

Yamashita at Sumitomo Mitsui bank said a hawkish policy stance by the European Central Bank after its rate-setting meeting this week could support the euro, though the central bank is seen holding its interest rate steady this time.

Underscoring the dollar's broad weakness, the Australian dollar climbed to an 18-year high at $0.8928

YEN STAYS WEAK

The yen gained briefly after the BOJ tankan but faltered as investors returned to carry trades in which the low-yielding currency is used to fund investments in higher-yielding currency and assets.

While the BOJ tankan headline showed diffusion index (DI) for big manufacturers' sentiment was unchanged from the previous survey at plus 23, it was above the market's median forecast of plus 22.

"Since the DI for big manufacturers did not decline and the capex numbers were strong, it seems to have triggered some yen buying initially," said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist for Nikko Citigroup.

The dollar, which had stood near 114.90 yen just before the tankan, slipped to below 114.80 yen on the data.

But the dollar later recouped its losses to stand at 114.95 yen, up 0.1 percent from late U.S. trading on Friday.

Yamamoto said the tankan probably won't alter the outlook for the Bank of Japan's monetary policy in any drastic way, but added that it may prompt some investors to think that a BOJ rate rise to 0.75 percent by year-end cannot be ruled out.

The tankan showed big firms expect their capital spending to rise by 8.7 percent in the year ending March 31, compared with the market's median forecast for a 7.5 percent rise.

But analysts said the tankan was mixed overall. The DI for big non-manufacturers came in slightly below expectations, as did the DIs for both small manufacturers and non-manufacturers.

New Passport Regulations Start Monday For U.S. Travelers

Will Need Passport To Fly From U.S. to Canada, Mexico, And Caribbean

KGO By Pamela Tom

- Remember to pack your passport today -- even if your travels keep you in North America. The temporary reprieve for travelers to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean expires today.

The last time this was enforced it led to a big backlog in passport applications. The reinstated passport rule applies to people flying to and from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. At San Francisco International Airport it is difficult to say whether they stricter passport rules will cause many problems.

Travelers had been warned since the policy took affect back in January. This summer the government temporarily waved the new passport rule because it was simply taking too long for new applicants to get one. Travelers had to show proof that they had applied for a passport at that time. The state department issued 18 million passports within this last fiscal year -- about 12 million in 2006

"During the summer, when we had a backlog of passport applications, we allowed people to enter and leave with proof that they had applied for their passport. Now it is only taking six weeks to get a passport. Everyone will be required on Monday to have a passport to enter or leave the United States by air," said David Donahue, State Dept. Consular Affairs OFC.

If you think you can avoid getting a passport by avoiding air travel keep in mind that beginning in January 2008 those traveling by car or sea from those same countries will also have to show a passport to enter the United States -- that or a new passport card which is still being developed.

For those who left the country before today's rule takes affect they will be allowed to come back into the United States using their previous documentation.

High School Security Guards Attack Teen With Cell Phone Camera Then Frame Him

Incident provokes national outrage

Prisonplanet.com | September 29, 2007
Steve Watson

High School security guards in Palmdale CA have reacted viciously to an incident that was caught on camera last week, creating false charges against school children to detract from their own excessive actions which have since hit the headlines.

The incident at Knight High School, which received national attention yesterday, blew up after security thugs assaulted a 16 year old school girl and broke her arm after she dropped some cake and did not clean it up to the satisfaction of the guards.

The Guards then viciously assaulted a 16 year old boy who captured video of the incident on his cell phone. After the guards noticed the boy was filming them they forcefully tackled him, pushing his head into the ground and twisting his arm behind his back. The boy's sister attempted to intervene as other students began to film on phones.

After initially letting the boy go, the security guards had him and his sister arrested a day later on assault charges after angry parents hit out and demanded the firing of the guards in question. The school also had the girl who dropped the cake arrested for littering and the girl's mother arrested on a separate fabricated assault charge.

While the mainstream media has played down this terrible incident merely referring to it as a "scuffle", and Knight High School has refused to condemn the actions of the guards, public reaction has been heated.

This incident represents another example of how police and security personnel believe they can simply invent charges against innocent people they clash with. Two weeks ago we featured a story on a motorist who caught a St. George Police Sergeant named Kenline stating that he had the power to invent charges that would put the man behind bars.

Here is a new article on the incident from KNBC.

Security Guards' Confrontation With Students Prompts Protest

KNBC
Saturday September 29, 2007

PALMDALE, Calif. -- Parents and students at Knight High School protested Friday morning because of an incident in which three teenagers and a mother were arrested last Thursday after alercations with security guards, prompting an investigation into the guards' behavior.

The altercations were videotaped by students at a birthday celebration during the school's lunch hour. At some point, birthday cake was tossed around and landed on the floor, sparking a series of events.

A female student who is shown on the video being held down by a guard said she had dropped cake and bent down to clean it up. She said when the security guard told her to clean up part of the mess that had been overlooked, a verbal altercation erupted -- and quickly turned physical.

The security guard grabbed her by the arm as she headed out, the student said. She said the security guard was overzealous in twisting her arms and, despite her pleas, he broke her wrist, which was later put into a cast.

"He grabbed me by my arm and put my arm behind my back and pulled it up until it hurt," said student Pleajhai Mervin. "Then, he slammed me on the table."

The security guard called her a "nappy-head," Mervin said.

Mervin, who was later arrested and expelled from school, said that when the security guard realized the incident was being recorded, he tackled the other student taking the video. That male student was also arrested, and his sister was arrested when she saw him on the ground with the guard and tried to intervene, she said.

The male student has been incarcerated at a juvenile detention center, KNBC reported, because he was already on probation for robbery at the time of the incident.

After Mervin's mother, Latricia Majors, arrived at the school, she was arrested for allegedly battering the principal. Majors spent the evening in jail. Majors later said she hired an attorney from the Cochran firm and planned to sue the school district.

"I want justice for my daughter," Majors said. "The security guards who wronged her, I want them to be held accountable for their actions."

The Antelope Valley Union School District said in a statement: "A recent incident occurred... that has caused serious concern within the district and our community... an event that resulted in a physical confrontation between school staff and students.

"The district has launched an investigation... and an employee of the district has been placed on paid administrative leave."

The district's superintendent told KNBC that physical confrontation is always a last resort to maintain order.

District officials said the 25-year-old security guard has been with the district for two years.

CFR's Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War

Tacit warning to Iranian government suggests staged event may be used to ensure "bombs fall on your head"

Infowars.net | September 27 , 2007
Steve Watson

Council on Foreign Relations member Gary Hart , famed for stating that Americans will die en- mass on home soil this century, and for declaring 48 hours after 9/11 that it should be used "to carry out a new world order", has written a scathing letter to the leaders of Iran clearly warning that the U.S. government has a history of staging provocations in order to initiate conflict with other nations and that Iran could be next.

Hart references the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which led to the Spanish American war, as well as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was ultimately the catalyst for airstrikes on Vietnam.

Why does Hart reference these two cases? Because they are both examples of staged managed events that were used to coerce the American public into supporting war.

The sinking of the Maine was immediately blamed on the Spanish, with the innovator of yellow journalism William Randolph-Hearst enflaming anti-Spanish sentiment in his papers by definitively claiming that it was a Spanish plot. No reliable evidence was ever produced linking Spain to the event and it is now widely believed that the event was at best a mechanical failure or at worst a false flag operation.

Similarly the Gulf of Tonkin incident saw President Johnson accuse North Vietnamese PT boats of attacking strike carries in the gulf, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. Documents and tapes released via the Freedom of Information Act have since shown that Johnson knew that there were no PT boats and no attacks, but still went ahead with lying to the American public on national TV to garner support for escalating the war in Vietnam. Johnson also had the NSA fake intelligence data to make it appear as if the two US ships had been lost.

Hart, one of the instigators of the Homeland Security apparatus that has evolved since 9/11, then goes on to state that American people are reluctant to go to war unless provoked and coldly remarks "For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations."

He then mentions the Iraq war and refers to how the public were duped into accepting the invasion via the spectre of 9/11. Hart writes "even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad."

To those who do not read history Gary Hart's letter makes for a confusing read, but to those who know anything about staged provocations, the intent is clear. Hart is declaring that the elite controlled US government has attacked countries based on false pretenses in the past and will gladly do so again.

Hart's declarations carry the same sentiment as those of fellow globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski earlier this year. The Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the elite policy making group the Trilateral Commission implicitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S.

Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a �defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.�

Texas Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul has also recently warned that a "Gulf of Tonkin like event" may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.

Here is Gary Hart's letter in full:

Unsolicited Advice to the Government of Iran

Presuming that you are not actually ignorant enough to desire war with the United States, you might be well advised to read the history of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 and the history of the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.

Having done so, you will surely recognize that Americans are reluctant to go to war unless attacked. Until Pearl Harbor, we were even reluctant to get involved in World War II. For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations.

Given the unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, you are obviously thinking the rules have changed. Provocation is no longer required to take America to war. But even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad.

Given all this, you would probably be well advised to keep your forces, including clandestine forces, as far away from the Iraqi border as you can. You might even consider bringing in some neighbors to verify that you are not shipping arms next door. Tone down the rhetoric on Zionism. You've established your credentials with those in your world who thrive on that.

If it makes you feel powerful to hurl accusations at the American eagle, have at it. Sticks and stones, etc. But, for the next sixteen months or so, you should not only not take provocative actions, you should not seem to be doing so.

For the vast majority of Americans who seek no wider war, in the Middle East or elsewhere, don't tempt fate. Don't give a certain vice president we know the justification he is seeking to attack your country. That is unless you happen to like having bombs fall on your head.

Neocon 'godfather' Norman Podhoretz tells Bush "bomb Iran"

London Times | September 30, 2007
Sarah Baxter

ONE of the founding fathers of neoconservatism has privately urged President George W Bush to bomb Iran rather than allow it to acquire nuclear weapons.

Norman Podhoretz, an intellectual guru of the neoconservative movement who has joined Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser, held an unpublicised meeting with Bush late last spring at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.

The encounter reveals the enduring influence of the neoconservatives at the highest reaches of the White House, despite some high-profile casualties in the past year.

Karl Rove, who was still serving in the White House as Bush's deputy chief of staff, took notes. But the meeting, which lasted 45 minutes, was not logged on the president's schedule.

�I urged Bush to take action against the Iranian nuclear facilities and explained why I thought there was no alternative,� said Podhoretz, 77, in an interview with The Sunday Times.

�I laid out the worst-case scenario � bombing Iran � versus the worst-case consequences of allowing the Iranians to get the bomb.�

He also told Bush: �You have the awesome responsibility to prevent another holocaust. You're the only one with the guts to do it.� The president looked very solemn, Podhoretz said.

For the most part Bush simply listened, although he and Rove both laughed when Podhoretz mentioned giving �futility its chance�, a phrase used by his fellow neoconservative, Robert Kagan, about the usefulness of pursuing United Nations sanctions against Iran.

�He gave not the slightest indication of whether he agreed with me, but he listened very intently,� Podhoretz said.

He is convinced, however, that �George Bush will not leave office with Iran having acquired a nuclear weapon or having passed the point of no return� � a reference to the Iranians' acquisition of sufficient technical capability to produce a nuclear weapon.

�The president has said several times that he will be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb. He believes that if we wait for threats to fully materialise, we'll have waited too long � something I agree with 100%,� Podhoretz said The question of how to stop Iran has acquired renewed urgency after Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad, the Iranian president, declared at the United Nations last week that the dispute over his country's nuclear programme was now �closed�.

He added that Iran would disregard any sanctions imposed by �arrogant powers� for pursuing peaceful nuclear energy.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said flatly: �Everyone knows that this programme has military aims.� However, his call for stronger sanctions against Iran was ignored in favour of further delays.

The UN security council, facing deadlock with Russia and China, agreed on Friday to give Iran until November to answer questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its nuclear programme.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a controversial opposition group that first revealed the existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, claimed last week that Iran was fooling the IAEA by constructing a secret underground military facility three miles south of Natanz under a granite mountain.

Kayhan, one of the most influential pro-regime newspapers in Iran, hinted in a recent editorial entitled �Why there won't be a war� that there are more nuclear projects than have been disclosed. �Are Iran's nuclear installations confined only to those places which have been declared?� it asked.

�Can America be sure that if it destroys these it will have eradicated the whole of Iran's nuclear programme, or at least set it back for a long time?�

The paper, which is edited by Hossein Shariatmadari, a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and a close adviser of Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei, Iran's spiritual leader, concluded that the �hullaballoo� about American military action was �psychological warfare aimed only at frightening us�.

The editorial touched on several sore points, as US military and intelligence sources admit that not all Iran's suspected nuclear facilities have been identified and others may be buried almost impenetrably deep in mountainous areas of the country.

Admiral William Fallon, US commander in the Middle East, said last week that the �constant drumbeat of war is not helpful�. But he added that the pressure on Iran would continue: �We have a very, very robust capability in the region, especially in comparison to Iran. That is one of the things people might like to keep in mind.�

Podhoretz told Bush that he thought America could strike Iran militarily without nuclear weaponry. �I'm against using nuclear weapons and I don't think they are necessary,� he said. He believes the British response to Iran's seizure of Royal Navy hostages last spring will have convinced Tehran's leaders that they will be able to act with even greater impunity if they became a nuclear power.

Podhoretz has laid out his views in a new book, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. He believes that it has a good deal in common with the cold war, an ideological battle lasting 42 years, which he describes as world war three.

�The key to understanding what is happening is to see it as a successor to the previous totalitarian challenge to our civilisation,� he said.

Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are merely different fronts of the same long war, he believes.

Podhoretz, who described himself as a neoconservative before the term was invented, has seen the movement develop from a small band of �dissident intellectuals� to one of the intellectual forces behind Ronald Reagan and, later, the war in Iraq.

Along the way, key people such as �Scooter� Libby, the senior aide to Dick Cheney, the vice-president, and Paul Wolfo-witz, the former World Bank president, have fallen from grace. �Some of us have been picked off and others have lost heart,� Podhoretz said.

However, neoconservatives are helping to shape the foreign policy of Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner for the White House, who said in London recently that he would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran.

Podhoretz has already explained his theory about Islamofascism to the former New York mayor. �He doesn't call it world war four, but I know he thinks it is,� Podhoretz said.

9/11: Unusual volumes on Put Options just before the attack. Swiss study

9/11 Blogger
Sunday September 30, 2007

September 11, 2001: Unusual volumes on Put Options just before the attack. Swiss study

Says the 11 September 2007 issue of Les Echos, the leading French financial newspaper ]

The paper continues:

Six years after the attacks, a study has been released by two professors of the university of Zurich on the atypical volumes of put options placed before the attacks on World Trade Centre.

The authors, one specialist in derivatives, the other a specialist in econometrics, studied the options to sell (put options), used to speculate on the fall in the price of 20 large American groups.

(Read the full the French article below – Lesage translation)

“Atypical volumes, very rare on certain titles, lead to suspicions of insider trading. " Six years after the attacks of World Trade Center, it is the disconcerting conclusion of a recent study by Marc Chesney and Loriano Mancini, professors at the University of Zurich.

The authors, one a specialist in derivatives, the other a specialist in econometrics, worked on the options to sell, used to speculate on the fall, of 20 great American groups, in particular in aeronautics and finance.

Their analysis relates to the transactions carried out between the 6 and September 10, 2001 compared to the average volumes recorded over long period (ten years for the majority of the companies).

The two specialists, in addition, calculated the probability of several options of the same sector having significant volumes in a few days.

"We tried to see whether the movements recorded on certain titles little before the attacks were common. We show that, for certain companies like American Airlines, United Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citigroup, Marsh & McLehnan, movements are scarce from a statistical point of view, a fortiori in comparison to the volumes observed for other values like Coke or Hewlett-Packard, explains Marc Chesney, a former professor with (the prestigious business school) HEC, author of "Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism" (published by Ellipses Editions).

“For example, 1.535 contracts of options to sell in the term October 2001, with 30 dollars, were exchanged on American Airlines on September 10, against a daily average of approximately 24 contracts over the three previous weeks "the fact that the market is bear at the time" does not explain enough these surprising volumes "

"Enormous" profits:

The authors also studied the profitability of the options to sell, and of purchase, for an investor having bought a product between the 6th and the 10th "For certain titles, the profits were enormous. For example, investors having acquired options to sell of Citigroup with a maturity at October 2001 could potentially have gained more than 15 million dollars ",He said.

The conjunction of the data between volumes and profitability, the two authors conclude "the probability that there were offences of initiates (insider trading) is strong for American Airlines, United Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan.

It is not a legal proof but it is the findings of statistical methods confirming signs of irregularities ".

The study is certainly not the first on possible insider trading in connection to the attacks but it is disconcerting in comparison with the conclusions of the regulatory authorities. As of September 2001, the Securities Exchange Commission and its European counterparts were interested in the atypical stock exchange movements before the attacks.

In an official statement of July 2004, the American regulator stated that it examined more than 9,5 million transactions in the weeks preceding September 11, then delivered its conclusions to the National Commission on the terrorist attacks (The 9/11 Comission).

According to this commission, unusual transactions certainly took place but each had a non-criminal explanation. The authorities evoke, for example, analyst’s investor advice to explain certain rises of volumes.

Same tone from the ex-COB now the AMF (French SEC), which states in its annual report of 2002: "the elements obtained forbid to show any evidence that financial groups related to the instigators of the attacks could have used the Stock Exchange to realise operations"

MARINA ALCARAZ
http://www.lesechos.fr/info/marches/4620847.htm