Saudis study finds Shi'ite 'state' in Iraq- report - with the aid of Iran

Saudis Report Shi'ite "State" Inside of Iraq


By Sharon Behn
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 18, 2006

Iran has effectively created a Shi'ite "state within a state" in neighboring Iraq, defying both Iraqi Sunnis and neighboring Sunni nations, according to a Saudi security report.
Iranian military forces are providing Shi'ite militias with weapons and training, Iranian charities are pouring funds into schools and hospitals, and Tehran is actively supporting pro-Iranian Iraqi politicians, the report said.
"Where the Americans have failed, the Iranians have stepped in," said the report by the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, a Riyadh-based consultancy commissioned by the Saudi government to provide security and intelligence assessments.
The report, submitted to the Saudi government in March, has not been publicly distributed.
Citing interviews with intelligence and military officials in Iraq and surrounding region, the report states that the Sunni insurgency numbers about 77,000, while the Shi'ite militia forces total about 35,000.
According to the report, Iran also is infiltrating Iraq through its al Quds forces -- the special command division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -- which specialize in intelligence operations in unconventional warfare.
RAND Corp. senior defense analyst Ed O'Connell said the Iranian intelligence was trying to counter Saddam Hussein's former formidable spy network, Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), or the Mukhabarat. Under Saddam's regime, he said, roughly one of every six Iraqi adults was a paid or unpaid informant -- a network that did not disappear with the arrival of the U.S.-led coalition.
"The real story in Iraq is this below-the-surface 'unconventional war' between the old IIS, which could become a more overt Saudi proxy -- and the al Quds special directorate intelligence-counterintelligence," Mr. O'Connell said.
The Saudi security report was directed by Nawaf Obaid -- who recently was fired for writing an article in The Washington Post warning that Saudi Arabia would not stand idly by and allow Iraq's Shi'ites to destroy its Sunni population.
Washington diplomats and analysts say Mr. Obaid's dismissal was more window-dressing than a real punitive action.
The report states that the Iranian levers of influence in Iraq include a broad network of informants, military and logistical support of armed groups, and social welfare campaigns.
It adds that Tehran has "sought to influence Iraq's political process by giving support to new various parties, in particular, to the SCIRI," or Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the leading Shi'ite party.
Analysts say some Saudi citizens are raising funds for Sunni insurgents.
"I have heard them say it is not hard to line up a couple hundred thousand dollars and send it to the insurgents across the border," said Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations.
Despite claims by SCIRI leader that the party's private militia, the Iran-backed Badr Organization, formerly known as the Badr Brigade, has surrendered its weapons, gun-toting Badr members are still visible on the streets of Baghdad.
The Saudi study says the Badr Organization is still about 25,000-strong, and the party has roughly 3 million supporters. Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, is thought to number just under 10,000, while his party has the support of about 1.5 million Shi'ites.
"Each of these groups is beholden in some way to Iran and has ties to its intelligence and security services," the report says.
It adds: "Recent intelligence indicates that IRGC officers are currently operating in Iraq certain Shi'ite militias and actual army and police units."
U.S. officials have acknowledged that Shi'ite militias have infiltrated the police, but stopped short of saying that there is direct Iranian involvement in the security forces.
Mrs. Coleman cautions that the report, while not necessarily inaccurate, is not impartial.
"It is alarmist about the Iranians, and Mr. Obaid comes with a bias. Not that it is wrong, but it is not unbiased," she said.
The Saudi study was the result of five months of cooperation with Iraq and neighboring countries and dozens of interviews with current military and intelligence officials in the region, Mr. Obaid wrote in the preface to the 40-page report.
"Ordinary police and military officers now have a stronger allegiance to the Badr Organization or the Mahdi Army than to their own units," the report says, adding that the Badr Organization is the "key vehicle Iran is using to achieve its military, security and intelligence aims."
The study also provides details on the Sunni insurgency. It cites Iraqi tribal leaders as saying that the insurgency is run mainly by former commanders and high-level military officers of the Ba'athist regime. Only a smaller group is religiously inspired and includes foreign fighters.
Of the 77,000 active members of the insurgency, the "jihadis" number about 17,000, of which some 5,000 are from North Africa, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The remaining 60,000 are members of the former military or Saddam's paramilitary Fedayeen forces. The officer corps of the insurgency has "command and control facilities in Syria as well as bases in strategic locations, where Sunnis constitute the majority of the urban population."
Given the centuries-old tribal, familial and religious ties between Iraq's Sunnis and Saudi Arabia, the assessment concludes that "Saudi Arabia has a special responsibility to ensure the continued welfare and security of Sunnis in Iraq."
Its recommendations to the Saudi government included a comprehensive strategy that would include overt and covert components to deal with the worst-case scenario of full-blown civil war.
It also calls on the government to communicate the assessment to the United States; make it clear to Iran that if its covert activities did not stop the Saudi leadership would counter them; and extend an invitation to the highest Iraqi Shi'ite leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to reassure the Shi'ite community.

Pandemic preparations vary widely by state

AP/CNN

Trailers packed with cots and medical supplies are parked in secret locations around Colorado, ready for doctors to open makeshift hospitals in school gyms if a flu pandemic strikes.

Parts of southeastern Washington are considering drive-thru flu shots during a pandemic -- although a practice run this fall showed they'd better hire traffic cops.

If Alabama closes schools amid a super-flu, students may take classes via public television. In Dallas, city librarians may replace sick 911 operators.

States and communities are getting creative as they struggle to answer the Bush administration's call to prepare for the next influenza pandemic, whether the culprit is the much-feared Asian bird flu or some other super-strain. (See how much anti-flu medication each state is getting. )

The Associated Press took a closer look at those preparations and found wide differences in how far along states are -- and little consensus on the best policies, even among neighboring states, on such basic issues as who decides whether to close schools.

Almost half the states haven't spent any of their own money yet to gird against a super-flu, relying instead on grants from the federal government.

Ethical queries abound about how to ration scarce drugs and vaccine. As Oklahoma epidemiologist Dr. Brett Cauthen puts it, that's "the toughest question out there."
Readiness hard to measure

Some states are debating whether to purchase the recommended anti-flu medications to store for their citizens, or to gamble that they'll receive enough from a federal stockpile.

And while some states proudly list other pandemic supplies they've stockpiled in guarded warehouses -- 4.5 million protective face masks, touts New York -- others, such as West Virginia, still are putting final drafts of their plans to paper.

"How are states doing, and how do we know how states are doing?" asked Dr. Pascale Wortley of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There's a lot of important things that are very hard to measure. It's a real challenge."

Indeed, when the government's first official assessment of state readiness begins in a few weeks, officials expect few states will have tackled some of the toughest issues: How will you keep grocery stores stocked? Will you reserve enough anti-flu drugs for utility workers so the water and electricity stay on? If you close schools, will local businesses let parents stay home with their children, or fire them?

When the feds fly in your state's share of vaccine and medicine, can you store it properly and get it to patients without being mobbed?

"Nothing, we think, is better than having 5,000 communities right now wrestle with this," said Dr. William Raub, emergency planning chief at the Department of Health and Human Services. "What will seem to work happily in one community is probably not going to work in some others."
Report card coming

Super-strains of the easy-to-mutate influenza virus cause worldwide outbreaks every few decades or so, three in the last century. Worst was the 1918 pandemic that killed about 50 million people worldwide, more than 500,000 in the U.S. alone. If a 1918-style pandemic struck today, up to a third of the population could fall ill and 1.9 million Americans could die.

With another pandemic overdue, the CDC began telling states to prepare years ago, plans that have taken on greater urgency with the simmering H5N1 bird flu. In 2004, just 29 states had pandemic plans of some sort. Today, all have at least a draft on paper.

Next spring, federal health officials will have their first report card on the quality of those preparations, based on a questionnaire that Raub hopes to ship to the states by month's end -- questions that will go beyond health care to ask how communities would keep the economy and society in general running.

Raub said he's not playing "gotcha," but that the responses are key to helping less prepared states catch up, and identifying best practices that neighbors can copy.

"I feel pretty confident we will have covered far and away all the important things," he said.

It's an assessment that public health advocates, worried at varying state investments, call long due.

"Where you live shouldn't determine your level of preparedness," said Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health. "This is not a question of letting 51 flowers bloom. The federal government, as the primary payer and the entity that can see the biggest picture, needs to define a minimum standard of protection that every American can expect."
Vaccine dilemmas

Because it will take months to custom-brew a vaccine once a pandemic begins, flu-treating medicines, mostly Tamiflu, form the backbone of the nation's preparations. World flu authorities recommend stockpiling enough for a quarter of the population, or 75 million Americans.

The Bush administration is in the process of buying enough to treat 44 million people, and will hold each state's share in a national stockpile.

States are supposed to buy enough to treat the remaining 31 million people, doses they would store. The federal government negotiated a cheap price and offered to chip in 25 percent of the cost, but told states "we need you to come the rest of the way," Raub said.

Most states say they do plan to buy at least some of those outstanding doses, although at least nine still are awaiting money for the purchases from their state legislatures.

And at least four states don't know if they'll spend their own scarce dollars for the extra purchases, saying the drugs might not work against a super-flu -- or expire before they're needed.

"There's a chance that it might be useful, but there's also a chance that it might not be useful at all," frets Arizona assist health director Will Humble. The state used a $1 million federal grant to purchase enough medicine for 66,000 people; he isn't sure if it will buy more.

Whether they buy their own stocks or not, many states don't yet know how they'll successfully dispense their share of the nationally stockpiled Tamiflu and other supplies once federal workers deliver it. A new requirement heading for the states: Figure out exactly how they'll handle the supplies so they get to doctors or pharmacies for proper dispersal.

"Some of these pallets weigh more than 350 pounds," noted Raub. "We think it (the plan) ought to be something more than 'Stick it in the back of the state police car and drive it somewhere."'
Help for other disasters

What if states do all this planning and the next pandemic never arrives? Much of the work is applicable to other disasters, too, from earthquakes to bioterrorism.

"People forget that you're supposed to be doing all-hazards preparedness," said Washington Secretary of Health Mary C. Selecky.

"We're trying to be prepared for a range of events," agreed Alabama emergency planner Kent Speigner, his voice echoing in a cavernous warehouse where the state stores flu supplies right next to smallpox supplies. "We really don't know what's coming next."

Reid: 'Sure, I'll go along' with short US troop surge in Iraq

During a Sunday morning interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada, Dem) indicated that he would back a short-term surge of more US troops sent to Iraq, as reports indicate that President Bush may be contemplating such a plan.

"If the president calls for adding more troops to Baghdad, adding more troops to Iraq, will you oppose it?" Stephanopoulos asked.

Reid said that he'd "go along" with such a plan if it's "part of a program" to get the United States out "by this time next year."

"If it's for a surge, that is, for two or three months and it's part of a program to get us out of there, as indicated, by this time next year, then, sure, I'll go along with it," Reid said.

"But if it's put 45,000 more troops in there -- you know, we've lost in Nevada about 30 troops killed, scores have been wounded," Reid countered. "We're now approaching 3,000 dead Americans, costing the American people 2.5-3 billion dollars a week. This is a war that we have to change course. The president has to do that."

Stephanopoulos asked Reid how he would know such a surge would be temporary.

"I mean, even if that condition is set, even if the president says we'd like them to come home in two or three months, there's no way you're going to know that they're going to be able to come home, is there?" Stephanopoulos asked Reid.

"If the commanders on the ground said this is just for a short period of time, we'll go along with that," Reid responded. "But if you put more troops in there, keep in mind, I repeat, the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. Those aren't my words. Those are the words of some of the finest patriots we have in this country, Democrats and Republicans, the Iraq Study Group."

Reid's words comes days after another top Democrat, Silvestre Reyes, the incoming House Intelligence chairman, called for an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops "to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq."

raw story

Military Wants To Test Blood Substitute On Civilians

AP
Monday, December 18, 2006

Washington -- The military says it could save lives in war zones like Iraq. But the Navy wants to test a blood substitute on civilian trauma victims without getting informed consent.

Hemopure is derived from cow blood. If the Food and Drug Administration agrees, it would be given to patients between the ages of 18 and 69 who've lost dangerous amounts of blood. They'd get it on the way to the hospital, instead of saline fluids that are normally given in ambulances.

The military says there's an urgent need for a blood substitute. They say more than two-thirds of the American troops who die of trauma in Iraq without reaching a hospital have severe bleeding.

Officials say they can't test the new product on the battlefield because it's too uncontrolled to do research. Three times since June 2005, the FDA has blocked Hemopure trials from starting. Each time, it has cited safety concerns.

US releases anti-insurgency guide

US releases anti-insurgency guide

Read the guide here: Counterinsurgency Guide

The US military has released a new manual on counter-insurgencies - its first guide on the topic for 20 years.
The manual, which draws on lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, underlines the need for troops to do more than fight.

Critics have accused the US military of inflaming insurgencies by failing to gain the trust of local people.

The US military says the 282-page manual, which contains chapters on intelligence and ethics in war, fills "a doctrinal gap".

'Handshake or hand grenade'

The US's first post-9/11 counter-insurgency manual tackles intelligence, developing and carrying out strategies and boosting local security.


It's this part - nation-building, counter-insurgency - which is the hard stuff that we haven't trained for
Col Steve Boylan


The manual says it aims to prepare US soldiers and marines "to be greeted with a hand grenade or a handshake, and to respond appropriately to each".

A spokesman for the US Army's institutes of military education said the manual "codifies a lot of what's happening in the field already".

Col Steve Boylan said it reflected the changing nature of war, which goes beyond traditional fighting into reconstruction and nation-building.

US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced criticism for being heavy-handed and for sometimes failing to discriminate between insurgents and civilians.

"It's this part - nation-building, counter-insurgency - which is the hard stuff that we haven't trained for," Col Boylan said.

The guide, written with input from humanitarian agencies and media organisations, underlines the importance of integrating civilian and military activities.

"Political, social, and economic programmes are usually more valuable than conventional military operations in addressing the root causes of conflict and undermining an insurgency," it reads.




Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6186987.stm

Published: 2006/12/17 02:07:57 GMT

Iran switches to Euro's!

Dollar dropped in Iran asset move

Iran is to shift its foreign currency reserves from dollars to euros and use the euro for oil deals in response to US-led pressure on its economy.
In a widely expected move, Tehran said it would use the euro for all future commercial transactions overseas.

The US, which accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and trying to obtain nuclear weapons, has sought to limit the flow of dollars into Iran.

It wants the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.

Dollar squeeze

Analysts said Tehran had been steadily shifting its foreign-held assets out of dollars since 2003 and that Monday's announcement was unlikely to affect the value of the dollar, which has weakened significantly in recent months.


There will be no reliance on dollars
Gholam-Hussein Elham, Iranian spokesman

An Iranian spokesman said all its foreign exchange transactions would be conducted in euros and its national budget would also be calculated in euros as well as its own currency.

"There will be no reliance on dollars," said Gholam-Hussein Elham.

"This change is already being made in the currency reserves abroad."

The currency move will apply to oil sales although it is expected that Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, will still accept oil payments in dollars.

Nuclear trigger

Washington has sought to exert financial pressure on Iran, which it accuses of flouting international law by trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear research is for purely geared towards civilian uses.

Most international banks have stopped dollar transactions with Iran and some firms have ceased trading with Iran altogether in anticipation of possible future sanctions.

The dollar slipped slightly against the euro in New York trading although analysts said they did not expect the reaction to be too severe.

"It is something they have been saying they are going to do for quite a long time now, so I wouldn't expect any market reaction," said Ian Stannard, an economist with BNP Paribas.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison said Iranian businessmen were complaining about delays in securing letters of credit and saw current conditions as a prelude to the imposition of sanctions.

Tehran has urged Iranian businesses to open letters of credit in euros in the future.





Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6190865.stm

Gingrich defends free speech curbs

union leader

MANCHESTER – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich last night defended his call to limit freedom of speech to combat terrorism, comments that last month provoked strident criticism from liberal groups.

Gingrich said the threat of biological or nuclear attack requires America to consider curbs to speech to fight terrorists, if it is to protect the society that makes the First Amendment possible.

"Our friends at the 'ACLU left,' of course, were staggered at this concept," Gingrich told an audience of Republicans at a Christmas banquet. "How could we talk about anything less than 100 percent free speech? How could we consider in any way thinking about this issue?"

Gingrich cited last month's ejection of six Muslim scholars from a plane in Minneapolis for suspicious behavior, which included reports they prayed before the flight and had sat in the same seats as the Sept. 11 hijackers.

"Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists," Gingrich said. "And the crew of the U.S. airplane should have been invited to the White House and congratulated for being correct in the protection of citizens."

Gingrich spoke to a crowd of about 250 at the Manchester Republican City Committee's Christmas dinner, held at the Executive Court Banquet Facility.

On Nov. 27, he said the First Amendment may require a "different set of rules" for terrorists, comments made while he addressed a free speech award dinner hosted by the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications.

The statements were picked up by Internet bloggers and pundits who charged the former speaker with attacking American values. Liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann assailed Gingrich for having "invoked the bogey man of terror."

In an interview, Gingrich said it is possible to distinguish between terrorists and others when looking to fight threatening expression.

"If you give me any signal in the age of terrorism that you're a terrorist, I'd say the burden of proof was on you," Gingrich said.

Gingrich, who has said he plans to decide whether to run for President in September, struck campaign-esque themes last night.

He urged a departure from heavy partisanship, energy independence for the United States and a search for cures for cancer and a vaccine for Alzheimer's disease.

Gingrich touted science as offering possibilities that Americans never believed were possible.

He noted it took only seven years for the U.S. space program to send a man to the moon, and that iPods, the BlackBerry, cell phones and cell phone cameras are all recent inventions.

A cure for Alzheimer's, "is not a fantasy," Gingrich said. "Imagine it was 1950 and I was talking to you about polio."

Last night's event also saw the feting of two Republicans for their efforts on behalf of the GOP.

Jim Coburn, the unsuccessful candidate for governor, was given the Republican of the Year Award.

David Wihby, a former longtime alderman and the deputy commissioner of the state Department of Labor, received the Ray Wieczorek Award for service to the party.

Hundreds Detained Ahead of Moscow Rally

ap news

Russian authorities pulled hundreds of opposition activists off buses and trains and detained them along with scores of others on Saturday ahead of a rare anti-government rally in Moscow, organizers said.

The police action did not prevent more than 2,000 people from gathering in a central square, where leftist and liberal groups demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin stop what they called Russia's retreat from democracy.

"In 15 months political power will be changed," said Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who is now an opposition leader, referring to the March 2008 presidential election.

"Next year everyone should make a personal decision about what to do with our country _ whether we allow these people to continue their illegal undertakings ... or we finally make our main goal to build a democratic and socially oriented state," Kasyanov told demonstrators.

Garry Kasparov, the former chess grand master who has emerged as one of the Kremlin's most prominent critics, said the mere fact that the rally took place made it a success, given the efforts by authorities to stop it.

"We are protesting and it means that authorities are not as monolithic and powerful" as they believe, he said. "They are afraid that one day we will tell them 'enough.'"

The demonstrators chanted "Freedom" and held banners reading "No to Police State" and "Russia Without Putin."

Since he took office in 2000, Putin has taken steady, gradual steps to centralize power and eliminate democratic checks and balances.

He has created an obedient parliament, abolished direct gubernatorial elections, tightened restrictions on rights groups and presided over the elimination of most opposition voices from the media, especially the television networks.

The demonstration, organized by the Other Russia movement and other opposition groups, had originally planned to march down a main Moscow avenue. City authorities banned the march, allowing only the rally.

Organizers had vowed to conduct the march in defiance of the ban. But Natalya Morar, spokesman for Other Russia said police and defense troops had sealed off Triumfalnaya Square _ the scene of the protest _ and lined the avenue.

An AP photographer saw more than 1,000 law enforcement officers in full riot gear, some with police dogs, cordoning off the Triumfalnaya Square. Moscow residents complained the city was flooded with police and troops.

About 80 protesters, including Ivan Starikov, a senior member of the liberal Union of Right Forces, were detained in Moscow throughout the day, many of them without any explanation, Morar said.

About 320 other opposition activists were detained or taken off trains and buses on their way to Moscow, she said. Some were kept in detention cells, she said, while others were released after the rally was over.

Yevgeny Gildeyev, spokesman for the Moscow police said some 8,500 law enforcement officers were deployed in the city on Saturday. He said he did not know how many opposition activists were detained.

Russia's often fractious opposition has faced increased harassment in recent years, especially after protests led to the toppling of governments in the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine.

Authorities have banned meetings on dubious legal grounds, while party congresses have been broken up or canceled for no reason.

EU driving licence coming in 2013

The European parliament has given final approval to the creation of a European driving licence, which will replace the many national licences used in the EU.



The credit card-style licence, with photograph and possibly a microchip, will start to be introduced in 2013.

The EU hopes it will improve security and prevent people disqualified in one country getting a licence in another.

National governments have a choice of whether to issue the new forgery-proof licences for 10 or 15 years.

Database

Licences for lorry and bus drivers, however, will be valid for only five years.

For motorcyclists, a "step-up" approach will become obligatory in all member states, meaning that new riders will have to build up experience on smaller motorcycles before moving on to larger engines.

To prevent "driving licence tourism" a European licence database will be created.

"The times when people convicted of drink-driving could simply get a new licence in another country will soon be over," said German Socialist MEP Willi Pieczyk.

Some EU countries currently issue driving licences for life. Germany and Austria were reluctant to agree to a licence that had to be regularly renewed, but dropped their objections in March.

The phasing in of the new licence will be completed by 2032.

Microchip

The European Union's 300 million drivers currently use a total of 110 different paper and plastic licences.

Belgian MEP Mathieu Grosch said some licences still in use were so old, they had been issued by states that no longer exist, such as the former East Germany.

Member states will have the option to include a microchip to store information about the driver.

"The common EU driving licence will play a major role in improving security on European roads and in fighting fraud," said Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot.

""Each European driver will carry a driving licence that is clear, modern and recognised in all EU member states."

bbc

Worsening health of terror cleric could spark attacks, FBI warns

WASHINGTON (AP) — The health of terrorist cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik, is deteriorating — leading to fears that his death in prison could trigger an attack on the United States, officials said Thursday.

There is no credible indication that an attack on the U.S. is imminent, said several law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.

In a two-page bulletin, dated Dec. 8, the FBI reported to federal intelligence officials that Rahman was rushed from prison to a Missouri hospital two days earlier for a blood transfusion. There, doctors discovered a tumor on Rahman's liver, according to the bulletin, which was described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official.

But U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Tracy Billingsley said Rahman's condition has stabilized, and he has since been moved back to prison.

"His condition has improved," Billingsley said.

Officials said the bulletin served merely as a reminder that Rahman had called for retaliation by terror sympathizers if he died in prison. It cited a May 1998 press conference where al-Qaeda members distributed his last will and testament, in which Rahman pleaded for followers to "extract the most violent revenge" should he die in U.S. custody.

The FBI did not have immediate comment on Thursday.

Rahman was sentenced to life in prison after his 1995 conviction for his advisory role in a plot to blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations.

His health has deteriorated in recent years, and he was transferred in September 2003 from the federal Supermax prison in Colorado, where the country's most notorious inmates are held, to the U.S. Medical Center for Prisons in Springfield, Mo. Prisons officials have said Rahman has suffered from diabetes, which has threatened the loss of his limbs.

USA today

UK Government Proposals Approve Human/Animal Embryo Hybrids

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - British researchers would be permitted to create human/animal embryo hybrids using test tube technology, under sweeping new proposals to be introduced by government health officials this week, the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.

Known as "chimeras", the embryos would be produced by combining human and animal genetic material within a laboratory setting--the North East England Stem Cell Institute has already requested permission to create an embryo that is part human and part cow.

"The overarching aim is to pursue the common good through a system broadly acceptable to society," British Health Minister Caroline Flint said in a report on the policy changes obtained by the Sunday Telegraph.

Other changes include removing the current requirement that a child's need for a father must be considered when a woman seeks fertility treatment. Single women and lesbian couples would have the same access to fertility treatments as heterosexual couples.

Screening embryos for genetic conditions which have the potential to lead to "serious medical conditions, disabilities or miscarriage" would be allowed, as would screening embryos in order to select a child that would be a tissue match for a sibling suffering from a "life-threatening illness."

However, screening for sex selection would not be permitted under any circumstances.
The new proposals would also forbid the creation of a human embryo by using the genetic material from two women, bypassing the need for a male.

The new measures are intended to upgrade the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act, paralleling advances in science and ensuring the law is "fit for purpose in the early 21st century.

Under the new proposals, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority and the Human Tissue Authority would be replaced with a Regulatory Authority for Tissue and Embryos.

Additional changes would regulate the passage of information between sperm donors and potential children. Sperm donors would be granted "access [to] limited, non-identifying information about children conceived as a result of their donations."

As well, "in some circumstances" donors would have the right to be informed when their identifying details were provided to their children once they reached age 18. Also at age 18, the children would be able to find out if they have siblings from the same donor.

The coming proposals have been anticipated for some time, after urging by prominent leaders in the UK scientific community. A report introduced by members of the British Parliament's Science and Technology Select Committee in 2005 recommended relaxing current research restrictions to permit experimentation on human/animal hybrids, along with other proposals to permit screening of embryos for identifying genetic malformations and sex selection purposes.

The policy changes are expected to be released on Friday. Legislation would follow next year.

More info


UK Parliamentary Report Recommends Animal-Human Hybrids, Sex Selection and More

UK Cloning Doctor Wants to Create Human/Rabbit Hybrid Clones

National Geographic Reports Human/Animal Hybrid Creatures being Created in Labs Around the World

Yea I know... You thought I was making all this crazy human/animal hybrid shit up. I fucking wish!

US Government Biological Weapons Legislator Says 2001 Anthrax Attacks Part Of Government Bio-warfare Program

Expert says FBI covered up the plot to attack Congress which may have been perpetrated by the same people who carried out the 9/11 attacks

article

The real culprits behind the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress were most likely US government scientists at the army's Ft. Detrick, MD., bioterrorism lab according to a former government biological weapons legislator and University of Illinois Professor.

Dr Franics A. Boyle says the FBI covered up these facts and has also quite clearly stated that he doubts the official government story that 19 arabs with boxcutters perpetrated the attacks of 9/11.

Boyle is a leading American professor, practitioner and advocate of international law. He was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. He served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International (1988-1992), and represented Bosnia- Herzegovina at the World Court. Professor Boyle teaches international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign. He holds a Doctor of Law Magna Cum Laude as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from Harvard University.

"I believe the FBI knows exactly who was behind these terrorist anthrax attacks upon the United States Congress in the Fall of 2001, and that the culprits were US government-related scientists involved in a criminal US government bio-warfare program," Boyle says in his new book Biowarfare and Terrorism.



Only a "handful" of scientists had the means to carry out the attack, yet the FBI ordered the destruction of the anthrax culture collection at Ames, IA., from which the Ft. Detrick lab got its pathogens. Boyle states that only top level scientists with access to "moonsuits" that enabled them to safely process and manufacture super-weapons-grade anthrax could have carried out the attacks.

"The trail of genetic evidence would have led directly back to a secret but officially-sponsored US government biowarfare program that was illegal and criminal" , Boyle said. However, impartial scientists were not allowed to perform genetic reconstruction of the anthrax found in letters mailed to Senators Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick Leahy, (D -Vt.) in late 2001.

We have previously exposed how leading members of the Bush administration and White House staff were on the anthrax-treating antibiotic Cipro up to six weeks before the attacks occurred. It is also documented that the anthrax strain used was military grade. This was widely reported in 2002 in publications such as the New Scientist. However, this fact has recently been totally changed with the FBI now suggesting that common anthrax, not military grade anthrax was used.

The whole thing "appears to be a cover-up orchestrated by the FBI." according to Dr Boyle.

Boyle goes on to inquire, "Could the real culprits behind the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, and the immediately following terrorist anthrax attacks upon Congress ultimately prove to be the same people? Could it truly be coincidental that two of the primary intended victims of the terrorist anthrax attacks - Senators Daschle and Leahy - were holding up the speedy passage of the pre-planned USA Patriot Act ... an act which provided the federal government with unprecedented powers in relation to US citizens and institutions?"

Clearly Dr Boyle has a hard time believing what the government says happened on 9/11.

The anthrax attacks cleverly (or coincidentally if you choose to believe) coincided with the terrorist atrocities and sent Congress into shut down for days. Immediately after re-convening the liberty smashing PATRIOT Act was passed without even being read by members.

In addition, the Bush administration moved to begin planning a major $10 billion expansion of the bioweapons labs at Fort Detrick. Residents in the area have fiercely campaigned against the expansion.

In a forward to Boyle's book, Dr. Jonathan King, Professor of Molecular Biology at M.I.T. and a founder of the Council for Responsible Genetics, says the government's "growing bioterror programs represent a significant emerging danger to our own population."



Those who cannot fathom how or why the government could kill almost 3000 citizens, including police and firefighters, on 9/11 need look no further than the anthrax attacks, which provide solid proof that criminal elements within the structure of authority are in operation and don't give a damn about who they kill to achieve their goals of social control.

There are countless examples of the US government having illegally tested and used bio-weapons on its own citizens. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, The Program F fluoride study, Project SHAD which we are now learning used live toxins and chemical poisons on American servicemen on American soil, spraying clouds of bacteria over San Francisco, releasing toxic gases into the New York subway, holding open-air biological and chemical weapons tests in at least four states in the 1960s, the list goes on.

The Pentagon's biowarfare program has long been in operation and US citizens have never been spared from experimentation. To get more of a taste for just how hideous the secret biowarfare program is, click here and go to Rense.com, which has a lengthy (but by no means a comprehensive) list of previous known bio-experiments conducted on the population by the criminal elite.

66% Think U.S. Spies on Its Citizens

52% in Poll Back Hearings on Handling of Domestic Surveillance
WASHINGTON POST

Two-thirds of Americans believe that the FBI and other federal agencies are intruding on privacy rights as part of terrorism investigations, but they remain divided over whether such tactics are justified, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released yesterday.

The poll also showed that 52 percent of respondents favor congressional hearings on how the Bush administration has handled surveillance, detainees and other terrorism-related issues, compared with 45 percent who are opposed. That question was posed to half of the poll's 1,005-person random sample.

Overall, the poll -- which includes questions that have been asked since 2002 and 2003 -- showed a continued skepticism about whether the government is adequately protecting privacy rights as it conducts terrorism-related investigations.

Compared with June 2002, for example, almost twice as many respondents say the need to respect privacy outranks the need to investigate terrorist threats. That shift was first evident in polling conducted in January 2006.

That sentiment is still a minority view, however: Nearly two-thirds rank investigating threats as more important than guarding against intrusions on personal privacy, down from 79 percent in 2002.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who is a professor in Georgetown University's Security Studies Program, said the poll results could spell trouble for the FBI and other government agencies as they continue to seek support for expanded anti-terrorism powers granted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"I don't think you can view these polling results in isolation from an overall phenomenon, which is that people are more skeptical of the government's conduct of the war on terrorism," Hoffman said.

Sixty-six percent of those questioned said that the FBI and other agencies are "intruding on some Americans' privacy rights" in terrorism investigations, up from 58 percent in September 2003. Thirty percent think the government is not intruding on privacy.

Support for intrusive tactics has dropped even more significantly during that time. A bare majority, 51 percent, feel the tactics are justified, down from 63 percent three years ago.

The poll was conducted by telephone from Dec. 7 through Monday, and the results have a three-percentage-point margin of error.

Russia to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran

Moscow plans on delivering fuel in March for Iran's first atomic power plant amid heightened international debate over Tehran's nuclear program, Russian state monopoly Atomstroiexport told Russian news agencies Tuesday.

"We plan to launch preliminary work in January to deliver fuel in March," Sergei Shmatko, head of Atomstroiexport, was quoted by the Ria Novosti agency as saying.

Shmatko said the nuclear fuel would be delivered on schedule to the southern plant of Bushehr, six months before its expected opening in September 2007.

Moscow clinched a deal with Tehran in 1995 to build Bushehr, but the project has faced delays -- partly due to suspicions by Washington that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Under a separate agreement signed last year, Russia would provide nuclear fuel to Iran and ferry back spent fuel to prevent it from being diverted into a weapons program.

Tehran also consented to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Bushehr and the fuel deliveries.

Russia is part of a group of six world powers mulling United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

article

Alleged Liquid Bomb Plot Credibility Crumbles

Court clears Rauf of charges as much vaunted transatlantic airliner attack dissipates into another staged terror alert

article

The alleged ringleader of a much vaunted plot to blow up multiple transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives has been cleared of terrorism charges and of being a member of any terrorist group, rendering August's terror scare another hyped creation of government scare mongering.

In every single major terror bust or terror alert we have proven the evidence to be flawed and the charges to be cooked up nonsense aimed at prolonging the illusion that terror cells are lurking around every corner waiting to cause mayhem. The geopolitical agenda of the U.S., Britain and Israel depends on the proliferation phony terror threats in order to continue the farcical war on terror and take more of our innate freedoms at home to stifle dissent against the plot for worldwide hegemony.

The supposed transatlantic bomb plot has dissipated into another staged terror alert.

The BBC reports,

"A Pakistani judge has ruled there is not enough evidence to try a key suspect in an alleged airline bomb plot on terrorism charges.
He has moved the case of Rashid Rauf, a Briton, from an anti-terrorism court to a regular court, where he faces lesser charges such as forgery."

"The Pakistani authorities described him as a key figure."

"But an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi found no evidence that he had been involved in terrorist activities or that he belonged to a terrorist organisation."

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Since the panic surrounding the ridiculous hoax that led to an outright ban on all liquids in U.S. and British airports, the credibility of the alleged plot itself has crumbled.

In a series of reports following the August 10th scare, we traced the source of the alleged attack plot to Pakistani and British intelligence and were rapidly able to confirm that the story was nothing more than a manufactured ploy to frighten travelers at the height of the holiday season.



It comes as no surprise that the Pakistanis have acquitted Rashid Rauf. His involvement with the Lashkar-e-Toiba group provides a direct lineage back to the Pakistani ISI, which is in turn controlled by the CIA and British intelligence. Rauf likely acted as the willing patsy for the plot to be pinned on while the Blair government waved it in front of Britons as another reason for them to accept the Blairstrip One fascist surveillance state without dissent.

It was revealed that the alleged terrorist cell that planned to blow up ten planes had been completely infiltrated for weeks before the announcement of the foiled plot by British intelligence. From the evidence at hand allied with past history of how MI5 work, which was presented in our article, it can be reasonably claimed that an MI5 mole within the group orchestrated the entire operation.

According to news reports the British government and MI5 wanted to wait at least a week before busting the liquid terror cell that their agents had fully infiltrated, including planting a mole within the bomb squad. From the acknowledged timeline and admission that the real attack was scheduled for August 16th - little else can be deduced but the shocking fact that MI5 wanted the bombings to go forward - arresting the perpetrators only after the attack.

Echoing the activities of the 7/7 bombers, some of the main suspects in the case aside from Rashid Rauf exhibited behavior that in no way suggested they were preparing to launch mid-air suicide attacks on jumbo jets. Far from preparing his last will and testament, psyching himself up for his imminent death or acquiring the necessary materials to conduct the operation, Tayib Rauf was caught on CCTV hours before the launch of the plot doing something far more mundane - he was buying cakes for his father's confectionary business.

Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray slammed the so-called foiled plot story as "propaganda" on behalf of Bush and Blair who yearn for a "new 9/11" to reinvigorate their flagging support base.

"None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time," said Murray.

Unconfirmed sources suggest that insider speculators with informants inside the British intelligence apparatus took advantage of their foreknowledge of the announcement of the foiled terror plot to place put options on airline stocks, reaping the benefits of their subsequent fall. Airline stocks dropped as much as 28 per cent during morning trading following the announcement of the alleged liquid bomb plot.

DeLay: 'Hillary Will Be the Next President'

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said today that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) would be elected president in 2008 and would probably tap Senate colleague Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) as her running mate.

DeLay met with conservative bloggers at a weekly lunch meeting hosted by HUMAN EVENTS and the Heritage Foundation. He is making the rounds in Washington to promote his new blog and activism website, TomDeLay.com .

DeLay said he was motivated to start the blog and create the Grassroots Action and Information Network after observing the success of liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together. He said he hopes to utilize some of the same tools to help Republicans win elections.

It's this liberal coalition, working in concert with the news media, that will propel Clinton to the White House in 2008, DeLay said. “Hillary will be the next president of the United States because they have built a coalition,” he said.

DeLay also implored conservatives to start digging into Obama's past. He said Obama's record in the Illinois Senate was on par with a “Marxist leftist.” Citing defeated U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford of Tennessee, DeLay said Obama was attempting to disguise his liberal views. (Read Amanda Carpenter's report on Obama and his conflicting rhetoric .)

DeLay named Clinton loyalists Harold Ickes, Sidney Blumenthal, James Carville, Paul Begala and Joe Lockhart as the masterminds behind the left-wing coalition. He said that these groups, more than anything else, contributed to the GOP's fall this November. “I have never seen a more powerful coalition,” he said.

One such example of the coalition's power played out precisely as planned in California's 11th District. Republican Rep. Richard Pombo was toppled after facing an onslaught of attacks from the left .

DeLay said his goal in creating the new organization is to turn ideas into action. He said he will reach out to the diverse coalition of conservative groups and bring them together to rival the coalition built by liberals. Prior to the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, DeLay said he employed a similar strategy that the GOP has gradually abandoned.

One day after launching the new website, DeLay said he's had 100 people pay the $52 per year to join the Grassroots Action and Information Network.

Human Events

Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in 'amero'

Think deep recession likely regardless of Fed's actions

Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
The reconstructed M3 data – the broadest measure of money – published on econometrician Gary Kuever's website, NowAndFutures.com , shows M3 increased at a rate of 11 percent in May, compared to 9 percent when the Federal Reserve quit publishing M3 data earlier this year.

Asked why the Fed decided to stop publishing M3 data, Kuever told WND, "The Fed probably wants to hide how much liquidity is being pumped into the market, and I expect the trend to keep pumping liquidity into the market will continue, especially since the economy is slowing down."

Why is this important?

"The trend line in my M3-plus-debt chart is staggering," Kuever said. "There has been a straight, long-term trend line of M3-plus-credit increasing since 2000. Long-term, we are creating inflation and the dollar has lost almost 98 percent of its value in the past 100 years."

Kuever, a retired investor, is concerned that with growing budget and trade deficits "the dollar could collapse."

"Especially if the Fed cannot increase rates, because we have already entered a recession," he said.



Bob Chapman, who issued a reconstructed M3 estimate to the 100,000 subscribers to his newsletter, "The International Forecaster", agrees.

"The world is awash in money and credit," Chapman told WND. "My numbers show M3 increasing at about a 10-percent rate right now."

Chapman believes the U.S. economy entered a recession in February. In his newsletter of Dec. 9 he predicted the Fed would hold interest rates at 5.25 percent.

"The Fed is in a very tough spot here," Chapman wrote, "If they raise rates, the real estate market will collapse, and if they lower rates, the dollar will collapse."

Meeting yesterday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted, as Chapman had predicted, to hold the overnight lending rates between banks steady at 5.25 percent. This was the fourth straight meeting the Fed had voted not to change rates. In its rate announcement, the Fed affirmed the economy had slowed.

Almost immediately after the announcement of the Fed's decision, the dollar weakened to a new 20-month low against the euro, with currency markets reportedly pricing in the expectation the Fed will be forced to lower rates next year to bolster the economy. Following the announcement by the Fed, the U.S. Dollar Index, or USDX, also dropped, with the dollar going below 83.

A dollar collapse is imminent, Chapman declared.

"Technicians studying the USDX think there is a support level for the dollar at 75, but I don't think so."

How low could the dollar go?

"If the dollar breaks through 78.33 on the USDX," Chapman answered, "my guess is the dollar will go through a 35-percent correction, which would put it at 55."

"The key in how low the dollar goes is the interest rates," Chapman told WND. "In January, the Fed is going to have to make a decision which way to go. If Fed rates go up, the dollar will hold in the 78.33 range, but the stock market and the economy will tank. If next year the Fed lowers rates to keep the economy from crashing, the bottom will fall out of the dollar, and I see it going as low as 55. Once the dollar hits bottom, it will take the stock market and the economy right with it anyway. The Fed is in a box they can't get out of."

As WND reported earlier this week, in an unusual move, the Bush administration is sending virtually the entire economic "A-team" to visit China for a "strategic economic dialogue" in Beijing Thursday and Friday. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are leading the delegation, along with five other cabinet-level officials, including Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. Also in the delegation will be Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

But Chapman doubts the trip will help the Fed to engineer a slow dollar slide.

"The Chinese are going to do what the Chinese want to do, not what we want them to do," he said. "I believe the Chinese are going to send Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke home packing, with little or nothing to show for the trip."

How severe will the coming dollar collapse be?

"People in the U.S. are going to be hit hard," Chapman warned. "In the severe recession we are entering now, Bush will argue that we have to form a North American Union to compete with the Euro."

"Creating the amero," Chapman explained, "will be presented to the American public as the administration's solution for dollar recovery. In the process of creating the amero, the Bush administration just abandons the dollar."

article

More Deaths by Government

During the heyday of the Mises Seminar in New York City in the middle of the last century, Ludwig von Mises would each session toss off numerous suggestions for research, for Ph.D. dissertation topics. Murray N. Rothbard was known to engage in this sort of thing as well. Many is the time he would wistfully say something like, "Someone ought to do research on…. Someone ought to write about…"

Unhappily, we no longer have these two giants of liberty and Austrian economics around to guide us. So, we chickens will just have to do these sorts of things for ourselves. It is in this vein that we urge that research improving on that of Rummel, Courtois, and others, be undertaken.

R.J. Rummel and Stephane Courtois , et. al have done yeoman libertarian work in terms of exposing governments as the murderous thuggish entities that they are. Each of them has documented the numbers (in the many millions) of citizens of their own countries killed by the state. This is crucially important in the case against the government. For all the philosophical treatises in the world attesting to the evil of this institution can go only so far. An important supplement to this type of analysis is the actual facts and figures regarding statist depredations. And this Rummel and Courtois have dramatically publicized. We libertarians owe them a great debt of gratitude.

But they have not gone far enough. They have only covered explicit murders, and, not even all of those. This is the third in a series of articles that are critical of Rummel and Courtois for touching, only, the tip of the iceberg in this regard. It is the hope of the present authors that Rummel and Courtois and others like them, perhaps, even, some of the scholars who are regular readers of LRC, will extend this type of research.

The first in the series was written by DiLorenzo . It showed that the U.S. War of Northern Aggression (1861-1865, in case anyone was wondering as to, precisely, which war we are referring) was a case in point, not contemplated in the statistics supplied by Rummel and Courtois. These were uncounted but direct murders, brought to us courtesy of St. Abraham.

The second in this series was Block's demonstration that highway fatalities, too, are properly to be laid at the door of unbridled statism. As there are some 40,000 people who die every year in the U.S. on its socialist traffic arteries, and many, many more around the world who suffer in this way, this too is a significant example of deaths due to government. (This present op-ed is fashioned from letters in response to that one. There are multiple co authors of it since there were many such readers of LRC who added their entries to the list of government killings in replies to Block. Hey, the system works.)

The present article is dedicated to further expanding this critique of Rummel and Courtois. Here, we go beyond the War to Prevent Southern Secession (1861-1865), and roadway fatalities, to consider a whole host of other governmental causes of death of innocent people. They are as follows:

1. Health

Government intervention in the health care market has been particularly pernicious. For example, Dr. Mary Ruwart believes the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments of 1962 "may very well be the deadliest law that Congress ever passed."

The FDA touts these amendments as ensuring "drug efficacy and greater drug safety" since they required drug manufacturers to "prove to FDA the effectiveness of their products before marketing them," but they have caused the approval process to more than double since 1964 from 6.5 years to 14.8 years [ see this ]. Thus, Dr. Ruwart estimates 4.7 million people have died in the last 40 years, while waiting for FDA approval. Chapter 6 of her book Healing Our World , entitled "Protecting Ourselves to Death" provides further examples of how regulation causes needless deaths while saving only a few. Then, minor detail, if addictive drugs, all of them, were legalized, this would save tens of thousands of lives in one fell swoop. Alcohol, nowadays, is still a social problem. But no one gets shot in the street in fights over turf, nor killed from the products of back wood stills, or from bathtub gin.

The FDA is active both in terms of preventing access as well as on the approval side . Then, too, there are other such miscellaneous causes of death by government. For example, asbestos, vaccines, etc. Also, natural health solutions are available for many diseases today but are not accepted by the FDA and in many cases prohibited by them. And this is not to mention the fact that under FDA supervision, an estimated one million Americans were never told they were given Hepatitis C-infected blood.

A recent report , "Death by Medicine" by Gary Null, et al. estimates that between 800,000 and 1 million people die annually as a result of conventional medical treatment or diagnostic procedures. Not all of these iatrogenic deaths can be ascribed directly or indirectly to state intervention. However, the study authors, being themselves part of the medical profession, fail to see that physicians and other individuals and companies in the health care market have actively sought state "protection" in the form of licensing laws, regulatory agencies and other state-imposed controls. Consequently, the authors' implied solution (reviving the Office of Technology Assessment) is yet one more intervention. See also Milton Friedman's splendid chapter 9 of his book Capitalism and Freedom , dealing with restricted entry into medical practice. Ron Hamowy covers this deleterious governmental regulation (a redundancy) from a Canadian perspective.

But this by no means exhausts the depredations. There is also subsidized tobacco, responsible for an estimated 435,000 deaths per year. There is state-funded (Medicaid) abortion ; libertarians need take no position on this contentious issue to oppose government subsidization of this practice. According to one report about state influence on doctors/health-care, physicians are the 3rd leading cause of death in US, responsible for 225,000 deaths per year. Then there are the infamous illegal and or covert medical experiments, such as those perpetrated on black people. Nor should we ignore fumigation , USDA/DHSS dietary guidelines (the " food pyramid ") and accidents, i.e. Chernobyl (ok, it is not our government here, but it is a government). Nor would it do to leave out the statist banning of DDT, which greatly increased malaria deaths.

Of course, there is a silver lining in this cloud, as there is in every such case: this is one way to save Socialist Security (no one lives long enough to collect)! Ahhh! It hurts when we laugh.

For more information on how government negatively impacts health, see here , here , here , here , here and here .

2. Housing

Government housing policies can kill you too. In Toronto, Canada, for example, but everywhere else this pernicious legislation has ever been tried, rent control means that the rent is out of control. Modest apartments are typically in disrepair because the landlord can not charge what he needs to maintain it.

In one case, an apartment almost exploded when the natural gas lines leaked and the furnace exuded enough carbon monoxide to kill an entire building's worth of people, even according to the government's own Fire Department. Why, then, don't people move elsewhere? Where would they go? Thanks to the government, there is hardly any place to stay if you are not a homeowner, since this regulation has taken much of the incentive away from landlords to provide housing.

In several cases, landlords have purposefully attacked tenants because provisions of these enactments typically provide for rent increases when tenants vacate their premises. The "worst get on top" applies not only in government bureaus, but also in the field of rental housing, when control legislation pays a premium to landlords not for satisfying customers, as in the free market, but for evicting them.

Then, there is public housing. True, an awful lot of killings in these death traps are drug related, see above, but socialist housing makes an independent contribution to this end as well. Public housing is for the poor. So, there have to be income cut off points, lest the rich find their way into these vertical slums. If you are middle class you don't qualify. If you are poverty stricken, but work hard, get a raise, prosper, they kick you out because you are now above the income cut off level.

This is like continually skimming the cream off the top. What is left as this process continues? Well, the non cream. Families that are intact, with fathers present, are likely the first to go. This leaves a disproportionate number of female headed households. These women are simply unable to cope with the hordes of teenaged boys, with no adult males around to help enforce civilized behavior. Just as the Lord of the Flies depicted a society run by 12 year old boys, public housing indicates a 16 year old boy's idea of nirvana: rape, drugs, defecating in the hallways, etc. Then, there is the almost palpable hatred of commerce on the part of the architects of public housing. Never a store shall be suffered on its premises. Jane Jacobs has demonstrated that this too contributes to crime, as there are fewer "eyes on the street." Without people coming and going into groceries, to get a bottle of milk or a newspaper, there is less incentive for people to look at of their windows at the doings of their society, such as it is. Not much is doing out there, at least publicly.

Ah socialism! It does so much for the national character, doesn't it?

3. Arbitrary abuse of power

Under this rubric we include BATF, FBI (Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc., etc.,) the alphabet regulatory agencies such as the EPA, FTC, INS, IRS, OSHA, and the SEC. Each of them has contributed their mite to our cause, and sometimes has gone over and above the call of duty in this regard.

There are also the CIA death squads, engaged in regime change, countering drug smuggling and creating general mayhem. According to some reports , they are responsible for some "6-million deaths." Interesting number, that.

Nor can any account that wishes to be exhaustive and inclusive ignore the people murdered while waiting for a gun permit to clear. First, the government taxes people so as to finance police. Then, the latter do not protect them, but rather shoot them down like rabid dogs in the street. When the people attempt to defend themselves, as the second amendment to the constitution provides , they are balked in this manner as well.

This constitutes a terrible public policy in effect in most states of providing violent criminals with a governmental guarantee that law-abiding, honest people are unarmed when away from their home or business. We need more studies comparing victims of violent crimes (homicides) in states with strict "gun control" vs. those with no restrictions (i.e., Vermont) that issue concealed carry permits. The scholar who has done important work in this field is John Lott .

4. Money and finance

Then, too, there are financial policies. The Great Depression led to many undocumented starvation deaths. The World Bank and the IMF have slowed down the rate of economic development of poor backward countries. Tariffs, quotas and other interferences with trade can actually kill people, too.

Foreign aid undercuts those farmers in the recipient country who are trying to sell their goods. Foreign aid to poorer countries often maintains a dictator who in turn kills his people. Both the donors who make these massacres possible, and the recipients who do the "blue collar" work in these cases are, wait for it, governments. Similarly, the U.S. gave Stalin aid, and we all know the result of that sorry episode.

5. Motor Vehicle Bureau

First, who teaches people how to drive? Government, via public schools, that's who. They pick a crony and give him a "contract" to provide Driver's Training courses in their schools. These are nothing but hours wasted "driving" while doing little more than riding in a car. As an example, North Carolina requires "X" number of hours of behind the wheel experience for a student to pass this course. However, in essence, what happens is that a carload of students take turns driving each other home after school. For kids to have actually driven the prescribed number of hours they would have had to do all the driving in every "class" every day for them to achieve this goal.

Second, who certifies that these kids can drive? Government, once again, via its Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). You pull out of the DMV office with a "tester" next to you and pretty much if you manage to get back in one piece, you pass. Many people have been at the DMV for renewal of their "driving privilege" (that is another peeve; if driving is a privilege then you are effectively under house arrest since the state has designed cities to be virtually un-navigable without a car) and seen the "tester" actually give answers to octogenarians so they could "pass" their vision test. Here is some must see television: the South Park episode dedicated to older drivers .

6. Infrastructure

High up on the list in this regard are the levees in New Orleans which collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. These were planned, built and managed by the Army Corp of Engineers, a government entity. Almost 2,000 people lost their lives due to this bit of statist negligence. Then there is FEMA (a local bumper sticker: FEMA Happens!) which aided and abetted in this needless loss of life by refusing to rescue the denizens of New Orleans, and placing barriers against the efforts of private individuals and groups who were valiantly struggled to come to the aid of waterlogged citizens of the Big Uneasy.

Conclusion

This article would have more credibility if all the data were further divided into objective, verifiable deaths and then the more subjective/conjecture oriented. In that way the reader could be presented with hard, undeniable statistics as well as the less definite, which the more pessimistic (or dare we say statists, if there are any who will read it) could dismiss as fantasy. Unhappily, this will have to be left for future researchers. The present essay is but an op-ed piece, meant not to give definitive answers, but, mainly, to spur on further efforts in the direction of gathering and analyzing them.

This article, even all three essays of which this is the third part, should not be taken as a definitive list, or final word, of the way in which government is bad for our health. Rather, it should be seen as barely a first step in the direction of a very worthwhile research program.

lewrockwell.com

Israel Will `Vanish' Just Like Soviet Union, Ahmadinejad Says

By Paul Tighe and Brendan Murray

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Israel will `vanish' just like the Soviet Union collapsed, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a conference in Tehran that questions the Holocaust.

``As the Soviet Union disappeared, the Zionist regime will also vanish and humanity will be liberated,'' the official Islamic Republic News Agency cited Ahmadinejad as telling the conference yesterday.

The president's remarks are ``outrageous,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington, according to a transcript. It is hard to find words for his ``despicable behavior,'' he added.

Ahmadinejad, pronounced ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD, a year ago said that the Holocaust was a myth created by the West. He also said Israel should be ``wiped off the map.'' Iran hosted the two-day conference that ended yesterday in Tehran, giving a forum to Holocaust deniers who dismiss as fiction or exaggeration the killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

The threat from Israel ``has caused the regional countries to divert their resources from development to spending them on purchasing arms which will increase discord among them,'' Ahmadinejad told the meeting, IRNA reported.

``If the Holocaust's truth is ruled out, root causes of problems and crimes in the Middle East will be terminated,'' the president said. Iran supported the creation of a fact-finding mission on the Holocaust, as proposed by the conference, that will put an end to a 60-yearlong dispute on the issue, he said.

Conference Condemned

The Bush administration yesterday condemned the Tehran conference and said the U.S. maintains support for those in Iran who stand against oppression.

``The gathering of Holocaust deniers in Tehran is an affront to the entire civilized world, as well as to the traditional Iranian values of tolerance and mutual respect,'' White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in a statement issued in Washington.

``The Iranian regime perversely seeks to call the historical fact of those atrocities into question and provide a platform for hatred,'' Snow said. ``The United States will continue to support those in Iran and elsewhere who seek to promote human rights and dignity.''

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also condemned the meeting. Iran's denial of the Holocaust ``demonstrates the danger that emanates from such a regime and the dangers for Israel and many other countries if such a state possesses non- conventional weapons,'' Olmert said at a news conference with Merkel in Berlin.

Systematic Killings

Germany's Nazis killed 6 million of Europe's 9 million Jews between 1939 and 1945 in a ``systematic, bureaucratic and state- sponsored campaign,'' according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Proof of the Holocaust has come from survivors of Nazi death camps, camp guards, government documents and testimony in the 1945 Nuremburg war crimes hearings. Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in a 2005 speech called the Holocaust ``the darkest chapter'' in Germany's history.

The U.S. rebuke comes as President George W. Bush is trying to pressure Iran to abandon a nuclear program that his administration says is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran insists its program is only for producing energy.

Nuclear Weapons

Olmert, in an interview with German television two days ago, included Israel on a list of nuclear-armed nations. His comment came after he was asked whether Israel's possession of nuclear weapons weakened the argument from western countries against Iran's nuclear program.

``We never threatened any nation with annihilation,'' Olmert responded. ``Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as France, America, Russia and Israel?''

Olmert yesterday declined to respond directly when asked at a news conference in Berlin if he would confirm whether his country is armed with atomic warheads.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it has such weapons. It hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which 188 countries are signatories.

Ethiopia Convicts Mengistu of Genocide

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An Ethiopian dictator known as "the butcher of Addis Ababa" was convicted Tuesday of genocide in a rare case of an African strongman being held to account by his own country.

Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since 1992, was convicted in absentia after a 12-year trial. He could face the death penalty at his Dec. 28 sentencing, but Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said he won't deport Mengistu if he refrains from making political statements or comments to the media.

The trial focused on Mengistu's alleged involvement in the killing of nearly 2,000 people during a 1977-78 campaign known as the Red Terror that targeted supposed enemies of his Soviet-backed regime.

A panel of judges, sitting before a packed courtroom, convicted him of instigating genocide, committing genocide, illegal imprisonment and abuse of power.

Mengistu ruled from 1974 to 1991 after his military junta ended Emperor Haile Selassie's reign in a bloody coup. Some experts say 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed in a nationwide purge by Mengistu's Marxist regime, though no one knows for sure.

"I am very happy he has been found guilty," said Tadesse Mamo, 32, a businessman in the capital. "He killed so many of our intellectuals and our youth, most notably our emperor."

The emperor's cousin, Mulugeta Aserate, 55, said Mengistu's men came to his family's home in June 1974 and took away his father. He never saw his father again.

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Judgement!