September 11, 2005

News -- September 11, 2005

Tape Released: American al Qaeda Member Warns of Attacks - "In an apparent Sept. 11 communiqué broadcast on ABC News, an al Qaeda operative threatens new attacks against cities in the US and Australia. "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing." ... American intelligence officials believe the man who appears on the tape to be Adam Gadahn of Orange County, Calif. Last year, Gadahn delivered a similar taped communiqué for al Qaeda. That tape was later deemed authentic. ... "The statement broadcast this morning on Good Morning America should come as no surprise to anyone. The statement was meant to instill fear, and fear is the most important weapon the terrorists possess."" -- Does anyone else see this as too convenient?
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Investigation/story?id=1115448&page=1

People sense president's soulless sensibility - "Something very important is happening here -- something more than simply a hurricane, or the suffering of thousands who were neglected by their government during a time of great need. Most worldly occurrences reflect deeper truths. What is happening is a gigantic reckoning, as Americans are forced to come to terms with how very, very naked is the emperor who we thought had such incredible clothes. We are raised in the United States of America to believe our government is the strongest in the world, that as Americans we are basically protected, and that our country is basically good. It is cognitive dissonance for us to be confronted with evidence to the contrary, and yet such evidence has been piling up fast and furiously during this odd and potentially catastrophic phase of American history. ... The president prides himself on running the government like a well-run business. That, of course, makes him the chief executive. And if the government failed, then he failed. Fool us once, and maybe their tricks were dirty; fool us twice, maybe their public relations was too good; fool us now, and perhaps we just deserve to be fooled. From war to hurricanes, oh, America, the alarm bells of needless human suffering are going off everywhere. A nation that refuses to wake up at this point is in a dangerous slumber. The nightmares are upon us now. They will remain until our eyes are opened and we have awakened to the truth."
http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0509/10/D08-309629.htm

Will Bush Wriggle Out of This One? - "If we aren't alert, Bush will not only wriggle out of political responsibility for diverting funds from New Orleans's flood defenses, eviscerating FEMA, and bungling the response, just as he evaded responsibility after Richard Clarke's testimony that the administration ignored warnings about Al Qaeda's plans for a 9/11 style-attack. Katrina could even be a political windfall, promoting the campaign to cripple government, permanently displacing some reliable Democratic voters from the swing state of Louisiana, causing the faithful to rally 'round their beleaguered president, and knocking even more unpleasant news off the front pages and network TV."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0910-26.htm

Eye of the Political Storm - "Hurricane Katrina claimed her first political casualty Friday. Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, the federal disaster readiness and response agency, was sidelined from the largest disaster relief project in the nation’s history. Brown was recalled to Washington by his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. But a new NEWSWEEK Poll suggests the post-Katrina political storm may just be rising. And her ultimate casualty could be President George W. Bush."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9280375/site/newsweek/site/newsweek/

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan - "The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053_pf.html

So you think we have an energy problem? No, we have a political problem. - "Here is the information. Please verify for yourself. 1. Some folks at Shell Oil Co. wrote "Fuel Economy of the Gasoline Engine" (ISBN 0-470-99132-1); it was published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, in 1977. On page 42 Shell Oil quotes the President of General Motors, he, in 1929, predicted 80 MPG by 1939. Between pages 221 and 223 Shell writes of their achievements: 49.73 MPG around 1939; 149.95 MPG with a 1947 Studebaker in 1949; 244.35 MPG with a 1959 Fiat 600 in 1968; 376.59 MPG with a 1959 Opel in 1973."
http://byronw.www1host.com/

Court Says Bush can Indefinitely Detain People Without Criminal Charges During Wartime... - "A federal appeals court yesterday backed the president's power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil without any criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/10/court-says-bush-can-indef_n_7134.html

Changed Your Mind About War? Maybe You Can Return it at Wal-Mart Customer Service - "Recently on National Public Radio, a woman explained why she had changed her mind about the war in Iraq. She said, "It's no longer worthwhile" as if talking about hanging her laundry, as if it were something she'd purchased at Wal-Mart and decided to return. It occurred to me she had exposed in that single word the cavalier violence not only of the war itself but the violence of the American mind: We can kill at whim. We can waltz into other countries with our guns loaded when we feel like it. We can skip off to Granada or Panama and bomb away as easily as hanging our clothes on the line or throwing them in the dryer, whichever is more "worthwhile.""
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0910-29.htm

Pet rescuers race against time - "On the flooded streets of New Orleans you can hear the dogs barking for miles. They are trapped -- in houses, on roofs, tied to porches. They are frightened and hungry. For the pets left behind after Hurricane Katrina, relief is on the way, but it's a race against time."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/08/pet.rescue/index.html

Yahoo Gives Up Reporter's E-Mail - "Yahoo earlier defended its move, saying it was obliged to comply with Chinese laws and regulations. The demand for the information was a "legal order" and Yahoo gets such requests from law enforcement agencies all the time, and not just in China, Yang told the forum."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,68830,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

New microchip design could be the key to expanding mobile phone memory - "Mobile phones could one day have the memory capacity of a desktop computer thanks to a microchip that mimics the functioning of the brain, scientists report today (9 September) in the journal Science."
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/P6807.htm




Quote of the Day
"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time."
~ Steven Wright

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