Dollar Sinks to New Low

BERLIN (AP) — The dollar fell to a new all-time low Wednesday in late European trading amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates and on a warning from the U.S. treasury secretary that turbulence in financial markets may linger.

The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3901 in late afternoon European trading — topping its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. It almost immediately fell back to $1.3889, compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday.

The sudden surge came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaking to officials from some of the biggest financial firms in the U.S., said that volatility in financial markets will take some time to be resolved, particularly in the area of subprime mortgages.

"We have been experiencing market turbulence and as I have said for awhile, it is going to take some time to work its way out," Paulson said at a meeting at the Treasury Department. "We are going to work our way through this, in some markets more quickly than others."

The euro's strength threatens to make European exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive — although the currency's movements this year have been gradual rather than abrupt.

The strong euro "is weighing on growth," French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said after a Cabinet meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

While the weaker dollar makes U.S. exports more competitive, it diminishes the spending power of American tourists in Europe.

The dollar, which has hovered within a few cents of its record low over recent weeks amid the market turmoil caused by the subprime mortgage crisis, had come under new pressure since the U.S. Labor Department issued unexpectedly poor August jobs data on Friday.

That report strengthened speculation that the Fed will cut interest rates at its Sept. 18 meeting by as much as half a percentage point. A cut from the current rate, 5.25 percent, would be the first reduction in four years.

"Traders continue to second-guess how (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke and his team will act" next week, said James Hughes, a market analyst at CMC Markets.

Lower interest rates, used to jump-start the economy, can weaken a currency by giving investors lower returns on investments denominated in the currency.

Bernanke offered no hints during a speech in Germany on Tuesday.

"The fact no mention of monetary policy was made in yesterday's speech in Berlin has done little to placate the market, and we're also seeing growing speculation that the Fed may elect to cut rates by a half a point as they try to steer the economy away from recession," Hughes said.

The European Central Bank last week put its own two-year run of gradual interest rate rises on hold, but left many economists still expecting a quarter-point increase from the current 4 percent before the end of the year.

The dollar was lower on Wednesday against the British pound, drifting down to $2.0296 from its level of $2.0317 in New York late Tuesday.

The U.S. currency was lower against the Japanese yen, even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign, putting an end to his troubled year-old government. The dollar ambled down to 114.27 yen from 114.30 yen.

At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, American newlyweds Doracy and Russell Harrison said the unfavorable exchange rate had prompted changes in their plans.

"Accommodation is where you really feel it," said Doracy Harrison, 27, of Raleigh, North Carolina, a program manager at an aquatic center.

"We probably wouldn't have come if were weren't staying with friends. We haven't been as gung-ho about eating out and have planned on low-key cafes instead of nicer places we'd usually eat."

U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan

FOX NEWS | September 11, 2007
James Rosen

WASHINGTON � A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime, FOX News confirmed Tuesday.

Germany � a pivotal player among three European nations to rein in Iran's nuclear program over the last two-and-a-half years through a mixture of diplomacy and sanctions supported by the United States � notified its allies last week that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to support the imposition of any further sanctions against Iran that could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council.

The announcement was made at a meeting in Berlin that brought German officials together with Iran desk officers from the five member states of the Security Council. It stunned the room, according to one of several Bush administration and foreign government sources who spoke to FOX News, and left most Bush administration principals concluding that sanctions are dead.

The Germans voiced concern about the damaging effects any further sanctions on Iran would have on the German economy � and also, according to diplomats from other countries, gave the distinct impression that they would privately welcome, while publicly protesting, an American bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Germany's withdrawal from the allied diplomatic offensive is the latest consensus across relevant U.S. agencies and offices, including the State Department, the National Security Council and the offices of the president and vice president. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, the most ardent proponent of a diplomatic resolution to the problem of Iran's nuclear ambitions, has had his chance on the Iranian account and come up empty.

Political and military officers, as well as weapons of mass destruction specialists at the State Department, are now advising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the diplomatic approach favored by Burns has failed and the administration must actively prepare for military intervention of some kind. Among those advising Rice along these lines are John Rood, the assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation; and a number of Mideast experts, including Ambassador James Jeffrey, deputy White House national security adviser under Stephen Hadley and formerly the principal deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.

Consequently, according to a well-placed Bush administration source, "everyone in town" is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections.

The discussions are now focused on two basic options: less invasive scenarios under which the U.S. might blockade Iranian imports of gasoline or exports of oil, actions generally thought to exact too high a cost on the Iranian people but not enough on the regime in Tehran; and full-scale aerial bombardment.

On the latter course, active consideration is being given as to how long it would take to degrade Iranian air defenses before American air superiority could be established and U.S. fighter jets could then begin a systematic attack on Iran's known nuclear targets.

Most relevant parties have concluded such a comprehensive attack plan would require at least a week of sustained bombing runs, and would at best set the Iranian nuclear program back a number of years � but not destroy it forever. Other considerations include the likelihood of Iranian reprisals against Tel Aviv and other Israeli population centers; and the effects on American troops in Iraq. There, officials have concluded that the Iranians are unlikely to do much more damage than they already have been able to inflict through their supply of explosives and training of insurgents in Iraq.

The Bush administration "has just about had it with Iran," said one foreign diplomat. "They tried the diplomatic process. China is now obstructing them at the U.N. Security Council and the Russians are tucking themselves behind them.

"The Germans are wobbling �There are a number of people in the administration who do not want their legacy to be leaving behind an Iran that is nuclear armed, so they are looking at what are the alternatives? They are looking at other options," the diplomat said.

Vice President Cheney and his aides are said to be enjoying a bit of "schadenfreude" at the expense of Burns. A source described Cheney's office as effectively gloating to Burns and Rice, "We told you so. (The Iranians) are not containable diplomatically."

The next shoe to drop will be when Rice and President Bush make a final decision about whether to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and/or its lethal subset, the Quds Force, as a terrorist entity or entities. FOX News reported in June that such a move is under consideration.

Sources say news leaks about the prospective designation greatly worried European governments and private sector firms, which could theoretically face prosecution in American courts if such measures became law and these entities continued to do business with IRGC and its multiple financial subsidiaries.

If the Bush administration moves forward with such a designation, sources said, it would be an indication that Rice agrees that Burns' approach has failed. Designation of such a large Iranian military institution as a terrorist entity would also be seen, sources said, as laying the groundwork for a public justification of American military action.

9/11 Families Slam Government Over Anniversary

Attempt to "force a non-existent connection" via Petraeus Testimony called "abuse" to the memory of loved ones, lack of government accountability and secretive 9/11 reports also criticized

Infowars.net | September 11 , 2007
Steve Watson

The decision to hold Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus' testimony to the Congress on the sixth anniversary of 9/11 has been condemned by families of the victims of the attacks as another crude attempt by government officials to link the event to the war in Iraq despite the fact prior intelligence reports have dismissed any such notion.

Petraeus' testimony, throughout which he has advocated a continuation of the so called surge in Iraq, has been running side by side all day on news networks with the 9/11 memorials and tributes taking place in New York.

The 9/11 family group September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows has released a statement which slams the timing of the hearing:

"The timing of this testimony is another attempt by government officials to force a non-existent connection between the events of 9-11 and this administration's disastrous policy of invasion and war in Iraq. The 9-11 Commission found there was no operational or cooperative relationship between Al Qaida and Iraq. It is widely understood today that this administration's actions in Iraq have in fact created a terrorist sanctuary where none previously existed, at a cost of more American lives than were lost on 9-11, tens of thousands maimed and wounded, and over 100,000 Iraqi dead.

Six years after September 11, 2001, politicians, from the White House to the halls of Congress, continue to abuse the memory of our loved ones who died in that attack by attempting to invoke their and our suffering to further this administration's political goals. As we have stated on previous occasions, we ask any and all politicians and candidates for office to respect the memory of the innocent lives lost on 9-11 by refraining from using the 9-11 sites, memorials, and anniversaries for political ends, either explicitly or as political 'backdrop.'"

Senior officials including Bush, Rumsfeld and particularly Dick Cheney have repeatedly asserted that the U.S. needed to go to war with Iraq because U.S. intelligence had evidence that Saddam Hussein was working with Al Qaeda.

As reported by the NY Times, "The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein" [6/27/03]. Similarly, even the 9/11 commission report undercuts claims before the war that Hussein had links to Al Qaeda.

Even the Pentagon dismissed any link between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

In addition to condemning the use of 9/11 to launch preemptive war, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows has also slammed the use of 9/11 by the Neocon White House to engage in domestic repression of civil rights, stating on their website:

"We have witnessed the use of 9/11 to justify the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of our own soldiers have been killed. Two million refugees in Syria and Jordan languish in poverty and desperation. And we have witnessed as well the suppression of our constitutional rights at home. We have been unable to stop any of it."

The group has also been vocal in calling for an end to secrecy surrounding the events of 9/11 and has dispelled the myth, often leveled at 9/11 truth groups, that the families are insulted by questioning of the official version of events:

"And so we come to the sixth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th. There has been too little introspection concerning those attacks, no accountability from our government, and reports more secretive than revealing about what happened in the immediate aftermath of those attacks. Six years later, we have more questions than answers, more dead to mourn, and a thing with feathers still perches in our souls, yearning for peaceful tomorrows."

We have reported many times previously that some of the largest 9/11 family groups are, like 9/11 truth groups, seriously concerned over the government's account of the events and are themselves vocally active in demanding answers to the many questions that still remain unanswered and uninvestigated six years later.

Fred Thompson Is CFR scum

thanks to
THE TRUTH BE TOLD

Giuliani is no longer a threat.

FRED THOMPSON IS, EXPOSE HIM.




Houston 911 Truth!



/////////////////////////////////

9/11 The Falling Man (full video)

Thanks Andrew The Rock n Roll Psychic



I watched this film this afternoon; have a hanky or two handy if you watch it. I think this film is really excellent and addresses at a very personal level the horror the poor people in the Towers must have felt when they discovered they were stuck with no way out.

Wiretaps on the rise nationally since 9/11

The Arizona Republic | September 4, 2007

Investigators have tapped more phones, listened to more people and recorded more conversations since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks not only in terrorism probes, but in traditional criminal cases, too.

State and federal courts authorized 8,122 wiretaps for domestic criminal investigations in the first five years after Sept. 11, 2001, marking a nearly 25 percent increase over the previous five years. Judges denied wiretap applications only twice.

Those figures do not include the controversial warrantless wiretaps that are backed by the Bush administration as a terrorism-fighting tool. Nor do they include thousands of wiretaps in which a secret court approves warrants in counterterrorism and espionage cases.

The increase in criminal wiretaps, which require warrants, matches a climate since the attacks in which law-enforcement and counterterrorism officials have blurred the lines between combating terrorism and conventional crime.

Homeland Security grants have been used for crime-fighting, states are more involved in counterterrorism and officials have suggested links between narcotics and terrorism, though they have not prosecuted such cases.

The rise in eavesdropping has civil libertarians concerned about an erosion of privacy and civil rights without any clear benefit.

"There is a pattern of a steady expansion of wiretapping without a corresponding growth in effectiveness, sweeping in innocent people along the way," said Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The San Francisco group keeps tabs on how the government uses or could abuse technology.

An Arizona Republic analysis of court data suggests declining effectiveness in criminal wiretaps at a time when the federal government has been strengthening its counterterrorism-wiretap powers and increasingly shrouding new surveillance programs in secrecy.

"The public should take notice because we've given law enforcement all these resources to make us safer," said Mike German, a retired FBI agent who became a counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington headquarters.

"What's happening with law enforcement is, since 9/11, they have been building the infrastructure for wiretaps to be the method of enforcement for the future. If it's not working, we should stop it right now. This is an alarm bell."

Historically effective
Prosecutors say, and statistics show, that wiretaps have been extremely valuable in dismantling crime syndicates. Wires helped weaken the Mafia. More than 47,000 criminals have been convicted in conventional wiretap cases in the past 20 years, according to data reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

In Phoenix, a major bust this month involving a suspected money-laundering operation at a shuttle service to Rocky Point relied on wiretap evidence.

Congress authorized wiretaps in the 1968 crime bill.

In fighting crime, U.S. investigators historically got half of the wiretap approvals, but in recent years state and local agencies got twice as many wiretaps as their federal counterparts.

In Arizona, investigators got 17 wiretaps last year. The 59 Arizona wiretaps since 2002 mark a 28 percent increase over pre-9/11 levels.

Investigators have to get a court order to eavesdrop. State, county or federal prosecutors submit applications to judges.

In those applications, investigators have to swear under oath that other techniques have failed, are likely to fail or are too dangerous.

They have to show probable cause that a specific crime is being committed by specific targets and that the wiretap of a specific phone or device will uncover proof.

For years, investigators listened to suspects on home, office or pay phones. Last year, more than 90 percent of intercepts involved cellphones, up from two-thirds in 2000.

Investigators can only listen to incriminating dialogue. When conversations turn innocent, eavesdroppers are supposed to switch off after a few minutes.

Expensive tool
Court data show one conversation in four yields evidence usable in court, a sign to German and other civil libertarians that investigators are snooping on too many innocent people.

Transcripts show that suspects intersperse conversations with personal exchanges and coded business banter to throw off investigators.

Court statistics suggest investigators have been diligent in ensuring their evidence holds up in court. Since 2001, defense attorneys have filed 294 motions to get eavesdropping evidence thrown out. With 62 motions pending, only six have been granted.

"I think that's a very telling statistic," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Pfiester, who handles wire applications on drug cases in Phoenix. "Prosecutors aren't going to go through the headache of preparing the paperwork if the case isn't going to meet the standards."

The cases are expensive. On average last year, a wiretap cost $53,000 nationally. For wiretaps obtained by the Arizona Attorney General's Office, the average cost was close to $300,000. Those figures don't include the cost of police work and prosecutors' time.

Jane McLaughlin, who oversees wire applications for the attorney general's drug-crimes unit, says that the money pays off. She hasn't lost a wire case in 10 years.

Conviction rate down
The official conviction rate doesn't measure what happens to people who are arrested but never charged.

Nationally, the number of people convicted within three years of a wiretap has fallen 18 percent since Sept. 11, 2001, while the number of people arrested slipped 8 percent, the court data analysis shows.

That three-year window is significant because almost all arrests and five-sixths of the convictions are wrapped up in that time, an analysis of the court data shows.

Typically, wiretap cases involve lengthy investigations. Agents don't make a bust until they are nearly certain they have enough for a conviction. Nationally, half of those arrested in wiretap cases are convicted, court data show.

"It's an effective, effective tool. That's why that statistic about convictions is so surprising," said Paul Charlton, former U.S. attorney for Arizona.

He attributes the drop in conviction rates to a focus on kingpins, meaning less important conspirators who are swept up are often let go.

"If you pick up 30 defendants on a wiretap, if your resources are limited, you may go after the core 10 people," Charlton said.

That's because it's not worth lengthy, expensive surveillance of suspects who play a peripheral role and would only get relatively minor sentences.

That people who are never prosecuted are being listened to by investigators has civil libertarians alarmed.

"Yes, the technique is useful, but it remains highly intrusive, and it requires controls that have been consistently weakened at the judicial and legislative levels and weakened by misleading claims by the government about its effectiveness," said James Dempsey, policy director for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

John F Kennedy's bodyguards being told to stay away from JFK

You Tube
Monday September 10, 2007

This video shows the Secret Service officer ordering JFK's bodyguards away from JFK before entering the Grassy Knoll area where he was shot.

Mos Def says 9/11 an Inside Job on Bill Maher Show

You Tube
Monday September 10, 2007

BILL MAHER SEPTEMBER 7 2007

Mossad Double Agent Is Scriptwriter For Bin Laden Tape

Hardcore Zionist Adam Pearlman, who once condemned Muslims as "bloodthirsty terrorists," behind latest scam

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Monday, September 10, 2007

Adam Pearlman, a hardcore Jewish Zionist who once wrote stinging essays condemning Muslims as "bloodthirsty terrorists," has been identified as the scriptwriter of the latest Osama Bin Laden video.

In a tape set to be released in full tomorrow, Bin Laden, sporting what many have surmised is a fake beard, goes on an inane rant about global warming, mortgages and interest rates as the latest volley of cartoonish propaganda is launched to convince Americans to give up their rights and tax dollars in the name of fighting the war on terror.

In our previous article, we outlined how almost every so-called "Al-Qaeda" tape has been released at the most politically opportune time for the Bush administration and the Neo-Cons.

We also emphasized the conclusions of out previous investigation concerning IntelCenter, the so-called "middleman" behind the As-Sahab terrorist media arm of Al-Qaeda and the public release of the tapes. In reality, all the evidence points to IntelCenter itself directly releasing the tapes in its role as a front for the military-industrial complex.

Now comes the revelation that the Bin Laden rant was in fact written by a probable Mossad agent who once condemned Muslims before his miraculous conversion to Islam.

"A Californian heavy metal fan, who converted to Islam and became the first American to be charged with treason in half a century, has been fingered as the author of Osama bin Laden's latest video lecture - which left the terror chief sounding like an anti-globalisation protester," reports the London Telegraph.

American spy chiefs were quick to name Adam Gadahn, the head of al-Qaeda's English language media operations, as the author of large sections of bin Laden's broadcast.

Who is Adam Gadahn?

The FBI lists Gadahn's aliases as Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, Abu Suhayb, Yihya Majadin Adams, Adam Pearlman, and Yayah.

Adam Pearlman is his real name and his grandfather is none other than the late Carl K. Pearlman; a prominent Jewish urologist in Orange County. Carl was also a member of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League, which was caught spying on Americans for Israel in 1993. Mike Rivero has the scoop at WhatReallyHappened.com.

Israel's Mossad intelligence agency was caught in 2002 creating a phony Al-Qaeda group to justify attacks on Palestinians.

Pearlman, the hardcore Jewish Zionist who trashed Muslims and beat them up, grows a beard and suddenly becomes an "Al-Qaeda spokesman" - nothing suspicious here, move along!

Pearlman has a knack of releasing his tapes at the most politically opportune time for Bush, having first burst onto the scene shortly before the 2004 presidential election and then again right after Katrina when the President's approval rating was tanking fast.

Even more mainstream publications, like the Los Angeles City Beat, have dismissed Pearlman before as nothing more than "cartoonish propaganda."

Pearlman had a hippy upbringing, a brief but intense flirtation with death metal and before a sudden transformation, once referred to Muslims as “bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists.” Pearlman was a hardcore Jewish Zionist and wrote essays and screeds bashing the Muslim faith. He even got into fights at mosques and beat up Muslim worshippers.

Pearlman's personal history and the highly suspicious nature in which he suddenly professed his conversion to Islam in a single Internet posting and later appeared on the scene as a spokesman for "Al-Qaeda" are all the ingredients needed to draw the conclusion that Pearlman is working as a double agent and most likely for Mossad.

The fact that he has now been singled out as the scriptwriter behind the latest video nasty only lends more weight to the conclusion that this represents nothing more than a contrived Neo-Con hoax to reinforce the flagging official version of 9/11 and the legitimacy of the so-called war on terror.

FBI cast wide net in data mining

FBI cast wide net in data mining

Telecom firms asked to provide data on suspects’ ‘community of interest’

The Associated Press

Updated: 11:44 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - FBI demands to telecommunications companies went beyond requesting phone records of customers under suspicion to include analyses of their broader patterns of communication with others as well, newly obtained documents show.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation used national security letters to request information on the wider “community of interest” linked to individuals under suspicion, according to the documents.

The data-mining technique can lay bare phone and e-mail links that tie together otherwise indiscernible networks of individuals. Law enforcement officials value that sort of data as a means of identifying a suspect’s potential conspirators. Privacy advocates say it can ensnare people with no tie to illegal or suspicious activity.

The “community of interest” requests were included in more than 2,500 pages of FBI documents the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog group, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The New York Times first reported on the requests in a story posted to its Web site Saturday.

FBI discontinues practice
The FBI letters use boilerplate language to request companies provide calling records for redacted lists of telephone numbers, citing “exigent circumstances.” An Aug. 9, 2005, letter and others from that year also include the following: “Additionally, please provide a community of interest for the telephone numbers in the attached list.”

Earlier this year, the Justice Department’s inspector general uncovered 700 cases in which FBI agents obtained telephone records through such “exigent letters,” which asserted that grand jury subpoenas had been requested for the data when in fact such subpoenas never had been sought. The FBI eliminated use of the letters earlier this year.

The FBI recently stopped asking for “community of interest” data, amid broader questions about the bureau’s aggressive use of national security letters, government officials told The Times.

A federal judge struck down a key part of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying the FBI must justify to a court the need for secrecy if the orders to hand over phone and e-mail records will last longer than a reasonable and brief period of time.

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

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20665317/

---

MSN Privacy . Legal

© 2007 MSNBC.com

CIA chief defends secret prisons

CIA chief defends secret prisons

Hayden: Fewer than 100 detainees held in secret facilities since 2002

The Associated Press

Updated: 4:07 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - Most of the information in a July intelligence report on the terrorist threat to America came from the U.S. government's much-criticized program of detaining and interrogating prisoners, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said Friday in defending the policy.

The CIA has detained fewer than 100 people at secret facilities abroad since the capture of Abu Zubaydah in 2002, Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, according to an advance copy of his speech.

He staunchly defended the program, saying even fewer prisoners have been rendered to or from foreign governments.

The CIA director said 70 percent of the information contained in the National Intelligence Estimate on the terrorist threat, which was released in July, came from the interrogation of detainees.

Hayden: Rendition claims misleading
Hayden said claims by the European Parliament that at least 1,245 CIA flights transited European airspace or airports are misleading because they implied that most of those flights were rendition flights.

"The actual number of rendition flights ever flown by CIA is a tiny fraction of that. And the suggestion that even a substantial number of those 1,245 flights were carrying detainees is absurd on its face," he said.

Hayden said many flights carried equipment, documents and people, including himself, and had nothing to do with the extraordinary rendition program.

The use of extraordinary rendition for terror suspects — some of whom were later released, apparently because they were innocent — was revealed by news media in 2005.

Extraordinary rendition refers to the interrogation policy involving the secret transfer of prisoners from U.S. control into the hands of foreign governments, some of which have a history of torture. The United States government says it does so only after it is assured that transferred prisoners will not be subjected to torture.

The renditions have been "conducted lawfully, responsibly, and with a clear and simple purpose: to get terrorists off the streets and gain intelligence on those still at large," Hayden said.

Hayden: Leaks harm national security
He said Friday that such leaks to news organizations harm national security.

Hayden said that in one case, news leaks gave a foreign government information that allowed it to prosecute and jail one of the CIA's sources.

"The revelations had an immediate, chilling effect on our ability to collect against a top-priority target," he said.

Hayden said other media reports "cost us several promising counterterrorism and counterproliferation assets" because CIA sources stopped cooperating out of fear they would be exposed.

He said "more than one" foreign government's intelligence services have withheld intelligence that they otherwise would have shared with the U.S. government because they feared it would be leaked.

"That gap in information puts Americans at risk," Hayden said, according to the written remarks.

He said "a lot" of what has been reported about CIA interrogations has been false.

Hayden said that journalists should stick to "exposing al-Qaida and its adherents for what they are."

"Revelations of sources and methods — and an impulse to drag anything CIA does to the darkest corner of the room — can make it very difficult for us to do our vital work," he said.

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

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643790/

Calif. diocese to settle sex claims

Calif. diocese to settle sex claims

San Diego Catholics reach deal to settle 144 clergy abuse claims

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:05 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2007

SAN DIEGO - The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said Friday it has agreed to pay $198.1 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment since the U.S. abuse scandal erupted in 2002.

The agreement caps more than four years of negotiations in state and federal courts.

The diocese this year abruptly filed for bankruptcy protection just hours before trial was scheduled to begin on 42 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. Bankruptcy could shield the diocese’s assets, but a judge recently threatened to throw out the bankruptcy case if church officials didn’t reach an agreement with the plaintiffs.

The San Diego diocese initially offered about $95 million to settle the claims. The victims were seeking about $200 million.

“The diocese has always been committed to resolving this litigation in a way that fairly compensates these victims of abuse and would still preserve the ongoing ministries and programs of the church,” Bishop Robert Brom said in a press release Friday.

“We pray that this settlement will bring some closure and healing to the years of suffering experienced by these victims.”

Relief, anger from plaintiffs
Plaintiffs expressed relief that a settlement was reached — and anger that it took so long.

“We shouldn’t have had to go through all this,” Betty Schneider, 62, of Temecula told reporters in front of the federal courthouse. She said she was molested as a 10-year-old member of her church choir.

“I have grandkids the same age I was, and I hope all this helps kids to be protected better than we were protected,” she said.

Michael Bang of Atlanta said no settlement could be considered fair.

“They knew all along that I’d been molested, so to put me through this is unconscionable,” he said.

Other settlements
In the largest payment yet in the scandal, the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled 508 cases for $660 million in July, two days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in the first of 15 trials involving 172 abuse claimants there.

The Diocese of Orange agreed in 2004 to settle 90 claims for $100 million after a judge promised to set trial dates and begin the discovery process if settlement talks collapsed. Bishop Tod D. Brown later said he couldn’t risk a trial in a state where a jury once awarded $30 million to two people who claimed they were sexually abused by clergy.

The Diocese of San Diego, with nearly 1 million Catholics and holdings throughout San Diego County, is by far the largest and wealthiest of the five U.S. dioceses to have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the shadow of civil claims over sexual abuse.

Dioceses in Spokane, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz., have already emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Davenport, Iowa, diocese, which faces claims from more than 150 people, is still in proceedings.

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

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20644097/

Ron Paul 2008 - Wins another Debate

/>Here's the video proof that they lied about the multiple voting

New Hampshire Debate, FOX NEWS LIED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUxQadgSkoA

Here's the debate clips


From: Blue Sky Sunshine
Date: 06 Sep 2007, 01:52


Thanks~ Pan Man
Date: Sep 6, 2007 1:22 AM


According to the MSNBC polls, Dr. Ron Paul won with 47% in the 5/3/07 debates and with 63% in the 5/15/07 debates. So....how'd he do tonight?
Is 70% good enough to convince you that the guy is worth working for? We can do this, in spite of the NWO goobers and Diebold Premier!

Of equal importance....look who the public considers to be the biggest douchebag! Rudy "Honey, I Blew Up The Towers!" Giuliani! Thank you!






Who stood out from the pack? * 41641 responses




Sam Brownback
0.9%

Jim Gilmore
0.5%

Rudy Giuliani
7.4%

Mike Huckabee
3.1%

Duncan Hunter
1%

John McCain
5.1%

Ron Paul
70%

Mitt Romney
7.5%

Tom Tancredo
2.4%

Tommy Thompson
1.8%

Who showed the most leadership qualities? * 41287 responses

Sam Brownback
0.9%

Jim Gilmore
0.7%

Rudy Giuliani
8.4%

Mike Huckabee
2.4%

Duncan Hunter
1.1%

John McCain
6.8%

Ron Paul
68%

Mitt Romney
8.2%

Tom Tancredo
1.8%

Tommy Thompson
1.7%

Who was the most convincing candidate? * 41098 responses

Sam Brownback
0.9%

Jim Gilmore
0.7%

Rudy Giuliani
7.4%

Mike Huckabee
3%

Duncan Hunter
1%

John McCain
5.4%

Ron Paul
70%

Mitt Romney
7.8%

Tom Tancredo
2%

Tommy Thompson
1.7%

Who had the most rehearsed answers? * 40507 responses

Sam Brownback
2.1%

Jim Gilmore
1%

Rudy Giuliani
40%

Mike Huckabee
2.2%

Duncan Hunter
0.9%

John McCain
19%

Ron Paul
8.1%

Mitt Romney
23%

Tom Tancredo
1.3%

Tommy Thompson
2.8%

Who avoided the questions? * 40211 responses

Sam Brownback
2.7%

Jim Gilmore
1.6%

Rudy Giuliani
46%

Mike Huckabee
1.9%

Duncan Hunter
1.2%

John McCain
15%

Ron Paul
6.2%

Mitt Romney
21%

Tom Tancredo
1.7%

Tommy Thompson
2.8%

Who had the best one-liner? * 39766 responses

Sam Brownback
1.4%

Jim Gilmore
1.2%

Rudy Giuliani
13%

Mike Huckabee
6.3%

Duncan Hunter
1.7%

John McCain
7.3%

Ron Paul
52%

Mitt Romney
5.3%

Tom Tancredo
6.7%

Tommy Thompson
5.1%

Blow me, NWO/PNAC/CFR/SKULLANDBONES/BOHEMIANGROVE/BUSHCO



Ron Paul helps Sean Insanity understand history.

All UK 'must be on DNA database'

All UK 'must be on DNA database'

Lord Justice Sedley is a senior appeal court judge Judge's comments

The whole population and every UK visitor should be added to the national DNA database, a senior judge has said.

Lord Justice Sedley said the Wales and England system, under which 4m people's DNA is held whether guilty or cleared of a crime, was "indefensible".

He added it would be fairer to include "everybody, guilty or innocent", as it was biased against ethnic minorities.

Ministers said DNA helped tackle crime, but there were no plans for a voluntary national or compulsory UK database.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said to expand it would create "huge logistical and bureaucratic issues" and civil liberty concerns.

'Largest in the world'

Shadow home secretary David Davis called for a Parliamentary debate and described the system for adding people to the database as arbitrary and erratic.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, accused the government of a "cloak and dagger strategy" over the database.

"There is no earthly reason why someone who has committed no crime should be on the database in the first place, yet the government is shoving thousands of innocent people's DNA details on to the database every month," he said.

The DNA database - which is 12 years old - grows by 30,000 samples a month taken from suspects or recovered from crime scenes.

There has already been criticism of the database - the largest in the world - because people who are found innocent usually cannot get their details removed.

It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free Sir Stephen Sedley

In one case, Dyfed-Powys Police stored the DNA of pensioner Jeffrey Orchard, from Pembrokeshire, after he was wrongly arrested for criminal damage.

But Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said the database had helped police solve as many as 20,000 crimes a year.

Since 2004, the data of everyone arrested for a recordable offence in England and Wales - all but the most minor offences - has remained on the system regardless of their age, the seriousness of their alleged offence, and whether or not they were prosecuted.

It includes some 24,000 samples from young people between 10 and 17 years old, who were arrested but never convicted.

WHO'S ON THE DATABASE? 5.2% of UK population Nearly 40% of black men 13% of Asian men 9% of white men Source: Home Office and Census

In Scotland, DNA samples taken when people are arrested must be destroyed if the individual is not charged or convicted.

Sir Stephen Sedley, who is one of England's most experienced appeal court judges, said: "Where we are at the moment is indefensible.

"We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven't, it isn't.

"It means where there is ethnic profiling going on disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities get onto the database.

"It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free."

He said he knew of cases where a serious offender, who had escaped conviction, had ultimately been brought to justice by DNA evidence that may have been otherwise destroyed.

ANGRY ABOUT DNA They have said they are keeping the DNA - it annoys me because I had not done anything Jeffrey Orchard

He said he accepted it was an authoritarian measure but the only option was to expand the database to cover the whole population and all those who visited the UK even for a weekend.

"Going forwards has very serious but manageable implications. It means that everybody, guilty or innocent, should expect their DNA to be on file for the absolutely rigorously restricted purpose of crime detection and prevention."

Figures compiled from Home Office statistics and census data show almost two in every five black men have their DNA profile on the database. That compares with 13% of Asian men and 9% of white men.

Keith Jarrett, president of the Black Police Association, said the current system was "untenable" and backed the call for a universal database.

"You can't have a system where so many black youths who have done nothing wrong are perhaps going to the police station for elimination from a crime and find that their DNA is on the database," he said.

But Professor Stephen Bain, a member of the national DNA database strategy board, warned expansion would be expensive and make mistakes more likely.

"The DNA genie can't be put back in the bottle," he said.

"If the information about you is exposed due to illegal or perhaps even legalised use of the database, in a way that is not currently anticipated, then it's a very difficult situation."

'Ripe for abuse'

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said there were no plans to introduce DNA profiling for everyone in the UK, but "no-one ever says never".

"We're broadly sympathetic to the thrust of what he is saying. [The idea] has logic to it, but I think he's underestimating the practical issues, logistics, civil and ethical issues that surround it," he said.

Mr McNulty denied the current database was unfair but accepted there was room for debate on the workings of the present system, including time limits on the storing of information.

He said any imbalance in the number of black and white youths whose DNA was stored reflected disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System rather than an inherent problem with the database.

But Mr McNulty added he was glad a debate had begun and a review of how DNA samples were kept and used would be published next February.

Tony Lake, chief constable of Lincolnshire Police and chairman of the DNA board, said the DNA of people convicted or arrested for violent or sex offences should remain on the database for life, but that need not be the case for minor offences.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, said a database for every man, woman and child in the country was "a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/6979138.stm

Published: 2007/09/05 12:06:38 GMT

© BBC MMVII

US detains 'Iran-linked militant'

US detains 'Iran-linked militant'

US troops have detained an Iraqi man suspected of links with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force in Karbala, the US military has said.

The "highly-sought individual" is suspected of working with the force to transport militants to its training camps in Iran, the military said.

He is also believed to have provided "lethal aid to terrorists" in Baghdad.

US officials have often accused the Quds Force of training and arming Iraqi militia, an allegation Tehran denies.

Two weeks ago, Washington said such efforts to destabilise Iraq might lead it to designate the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) a "terrorist" organisation.

'Proxy war'

The pre-dawn raid in the southern Shia holy city of Karbala was carried out after other detainees led US-led forces to the man's house, the military said in a statement.

Troops confiscated computer equipment, communication devices and other documents which may lead "to information on other IRGC-Quds Force illicit activities intended to disrupt security operations in Iraq", it said.

"The capture of individuals affiliated with the IRGC-Quds Force is an integral part of dismantling terror networks that seek to kill innocent Iraqis and security forces," said Lt-Col Christopher Garver, a US military spokesman.

In other news, a bomb exploded near a military convoy in Baghdad, reportedly killing at least one person.

Also on Wednesday, Iraqi television reported Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was visiting Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf.

The two are expected to discuss "the security situation and services".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/in_depth/6979256.stm

Published: 2007/09/05 09:40:56 GMT

Germany foils 'massive' bomb plot

Germany foils 'massive' bomb plot

Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a "massive" terrorist attack on US facilities in the country, officials have said.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 700kg (1,500lbs) of chemicals for explosives.

She said the accused had sought to target facilities visited by Americans, such as nightclubs, pubs or airports.

Defence minister Franz Josef Jung said the men had posed "an imminent threat".

Media reports said they were planning attacks against a US military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt airport.

Surveillance effort

Ms Harms said the men planned to use vehicles loaded with the explosives to kill or injure large numbers of people.

The arrests had prevented "massive bomb attacks", she added.

The suspects, all thought to be in their twenties, were suspected members of the German cell of a group she named as Islamic Jihad Union.

Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's federal crime office, said the men had a "profound hatred of US citizens".

They had been under surveillance for six months, but the authorities decided to act when it became clear the men were planning to move their huge stores of hydrogen peroxide.

They were arrested on Tuesday afternoon in a raid on an apartment in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Another 40 raids were also carried out on properties across the country.

'Major targets'

Wolfgang Bosbach, an MP with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said the planned attacks "would have had considerable consequences" and might have been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

Frankfurt airport is continental Europe's busiest, and the base at Ramstein in western Germany is a major transport hub for US military operations.

Germany, which has soldiers in Afghanistan but did not send troops to Iraq, has been largely spared terrorist attacks.

However, there have been growing concerns that Islamist militants are operating in the country.

Six years ago, the northern city of Hamburg was thrust into the spotlight after it emerged a cell had used it as a base for planning the 9/11 attacks.

Last summer, two suitcase bombs were planted on commuter trains in several German towns but they failed to explode.

On Monday, two people with suspected links to al-Qaeda were arrested in Denmark on suspicion of planning a bomb attack.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6979295.stm

Published: 2007/09/05 12:20:43 GMT

China denies Pentagon cyber-raid

BBC
Tuesday Sept 4, 2007

China has denied reports that its military hacked into the computer network of the US Department of Defense in Washington.
A Foreign Ministry official said the claims "reflected Cold War mentality".

The Financial Times quoted US officials as saying the Chinese army made the attack, which crashed part of a system for the defence secretary's office.

Last week China dismissed reports that its armed forces had infiltrated German government computer systems.

The reports come as US President George W Bush prepares to meet his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, at the Apec summit in Sydney, Australia.

'Wild accusations'

Chinese Foreign Ministry official Jiang Yu said Beijing "opposed and vigorously attacked" all attacks on the internet including hacking.

"Some people are making wild accusations against China ... These are totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality," she said.

The Financial Times earlier quoted a senior official as saying the Pentagon had pinpointed the origins of the attack and another as saying there was a "high level of confidence" that the People's Liberation Army was responsible.

The Pentagon itself has declined to say who it thinks is behind the attack, which took place in June.

Correspondents say the US and Chinese military regularly probe each other's networks, but the scale of disruption in the recent attack has raised concern.

The Pentagon shut down the network for more than a week while attacks continued, the newspaper said.

It quoted a source with knowledge of the attack as saying the data downloaded by the hacker was probably unclassified.

Ex-president urges Iran to beware of 'US dangers'

AFP
Tuesday September 4, 2007

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday urged Iran to preserve national unity and beware of being provoked in the face of the "dangers" posed by arch enemy the United States.

"They (the United States) made a big issue of the nuclear issue and they are mobilising public opinion, their Greater Middle East plan is still on the table," Rafsanjani told the opening session of Iran's Assembly of Experts.

"Because of the dangers threatening us, we should pay attention to the supreme leader's decree for national unity and Islamic cohesion," Rafsanjani told the body before it elected him its new chairman.

"Now they have started an anti-Shiite wave and we should be careful not to fall into their traps," added Rafsanjani. "We should not let ourselves be provoked and give an excuse for the enemy."

Rafsanjani had been acting head of the Assembly of Experts, which supervises the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following the death in July of its chairman Ayatollah Ali Meshkini.

President from 1989-1997, Rafsanjani has always shown a strong pragmatic streak and his pleas for vigilance contrast with the more confrontational rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The president has repeatedly in recent weeks dismissed the prospect of US military action against Iran over its nuclear programme, saying he was confident this would never happen.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation vehemently denied by the Islamic republic -- and has never ruled out taking military action against it.

Rafsanjani was soundly thrashed by Ahmadinejed in the 2005 presidential elections but made something of a comeback last year by polling the highest number of votes in the Assembly of Experts polls.

Surveillance drone used to spy on concert attendees

Heather Brooke
London Times
Tuesday Sept 4, 2007

Two weekends ago at the V Festival, revellers were surprised to see a remote-controlled surveillance drone flying and filming overhead. Little to nothing was known beforehand about the drone’s use, and news reports after the fact shed little light on why or how its use was approved.

I put in a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered that the drone was part of a sales demo by a company called MW Power at the invitation of Staffordshire Police. What about the legality of the drone, I asked the police? They wondered why I was asking. Was I a competitor? Did I want to sell them a drone? It was unbelievable to the police, I suppose, that a citizen might be concerned about her privacy.

MW Power told me that more than half of Britain’s police forces have asked for a drone demo and many are finalising packages to buy the £30,000 kit – this without any public discussion about whether it is a useful way of combating crime.

Overarching surveillance infringes our privacy. So, for such an infringement to be justified, the police ought to have evidence to show its effectiveness. Instead, the police grab at invasive technologies without regard to the cost in terms of individual privacy or community trust. The police claim that drones will prevent thefts, but they can’t provide any proof. Shouldn’t such proof exist before the police throw taxpayer’s money into the sky?

Cops with helmet cameras, the DNA database, automatic numberplate recognition, CCTV – all these technologies have been slyly introduced: imagined future benefits are played up while the very tangible, immediate costs of lost privacy are airily discounted.

The Crown Prosecution Service, for example, has no figures on the success of CCTV in prosecuting crime. As for prevention, violent crime has doubled in the ten years since CCTV came to blanket the country. And yet Simon Byrne, the Assistant Chief Constable of Merseyside, still says: “People clamour for the feeling of safety which cameras give.”

I don’t. Far better to rely on real eyes in real human heads with real police officers backing them up.

But I’m told by Merseyside Police – the first force to buy a drone – that the flying spy has been “a great success and people feel they’ve reclaimed their parks”.

Has the drone’s footage been used as evidence to prosecute or arrest anyone? No. Not much of a success then.

If police forces were directly accountable to the people they serve, it’s doubtful that we would have agreed to such costly blanket surveillance – whether drones in the sky or cameras on every street corner – without the solid facts to persuade us of its necessity. But when the only person that the police have to please is the Home Secretary, then citizens’ rights are irrelevant.

NEW WORLD ORDER - BUSH'S MARTIAL

In this clip, you will see congressional questioning to answer questions about Bush being able to suspend the constitution.

When the 9/11 truth about the conspiracy comes to light, people like Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld may see the same fate as Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are CIA assets. The network they operate is funded through the ISI by the central intelligence agency. When you have building 7, freefall speed, Silverstein saying "Pull it" and all the vast evidence about September 11th, you come to understand the detail. There were bombs in the WTC, or World Trade Center, and the Pentagon was hit by a missile. Flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania. The 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia which has direct ties right to George Herbert Walker Bush, Bush SR. Prescott Bush funded Hitler and the nazi party. If we don't stop this it will lead to World war 3, or WW3. You will not find any Britney Spears or Anna Smith videos on my channel. Please subscribe to my channel at www.youtube.com/realitynetwork to get REAL news that you may have missed on FOX, NBC, CBS, and CNN. Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, Bill Oreilly, or Sean Hannity will not cover this topic. The Iraq war, Afghanistand, and coming Iran war are all based on the pretext of 9/11, which was a total lie. We are sending our soldiers off to war based on a lie. All this torture and death for a lie. This has to stop.



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If you trust anything the New World Order tools say. Your uninformed or retarded

Martial Law is coming

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Local news piece worshipping Martial Law