News -- December 5, 2005

Anatomy of a CIA 'rendition' gone wrong - "Unlike the military's prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- where 180 prisoners have been freed after a review of their cases -- there is no tribunal or judge to check the evidence against those picked up by the CIA. The same bureaucracy that decides to capture and transfer a suspect for interrogation-- a process called "rendition" -- is also responsible for policing itself for errors. ... One official said about three dozen names fall in that category; others believe it is fewer. The list includes several people whose identities were offered by al Qaeda figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be an innocent college professor who had given the al Qaeda member a bad grade, one official said."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10316560/from/ET/&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

Torture Makes Justice Impossible - "The disconnect between the allegations aired in news conferences and the charges lodged in court are disturbing. If Padilla was in fact plotting with Al Qaeda to detonate a dirty bomb, shouldn't he be tried for that crime, and punished accordingly? Why proceed instead on a paper-thin set of charges that might lead to his acquittal and release? The answer is, in a word, torture. Administration sources explained to New York Times reporters Douglas Jehl and Eric Lichtblau that the reason they did not charge Padilla with more serious crimes is that the evidence allegedly supporting those charges was extracted from high-level Al Qaeda detainees — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubeida — through questionable means. They are being held in undisclosed locations and reportedly have been interrogated with such tactics as "waterboarding," in which the suspect is made to think he will drown if he doesn't talk. Evidence obtained through waterboarding would never be admissible in a court of law. The Supreme Court has long made clear that evidence obtained through any physical coercion is per se inadmissible. And this is no technicality. Such measures are said to produce inherently unreliable evidence and "shock the conscience." ... But more than four years after President Bush created military tribunals, not a single case has gone to trial. Only a handful of the hundreds of detainees have even been charged. One probable reason for the military's reluctance is the real risk that any trial will turn into a trial of the United States' own interrogation practices. Although the military tribunal rules do not exclude the use of testimony extracted by torture, no trial will ever be viewed as legitimate if it allows such testimony, and defense lawyers are certain to make this a central issue in any proceeding."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1203-27.htm

And May all Your Christmases be White..... - "I stepped out of my hotel, and turned north on Sixteenth Street. Although barely six o’clock, it was already dark in our nation’s capitol. From the moment I first arrived in Washington DC three days ago, I couldn't help but dwell on the extremes in this city, which mirrored so clearly our entire country, the entire world. Five hundred dollar a night hotels with homeless people sleeping in nearby doorways, huddled together in a futile effort to minimize the cold. Cafes serving ten dollar hamburgers and forty dollar steaks while others went without. Huge opulent buildings with row after row of marble columns, bronze and granite statues guarding the entries like erotic nymphs beckoning only those who can afford their charms into their inner sanctum."
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/CommentaryToo/1049.html

Iran only months away from a bomb - "IAEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1132475683499&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Democrats propose Bible course for public schools - "Two Democratic leaders of Alabama's House of Representatives introduced legislation that would authorize local boards of education to offer a course in Bible literacy as an elective in grades 10-12. The bill, expected to pass both legislative chambers without opposition, would make Alabama the first state to offer a Bible curriculum in a public education setting."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47715

Congress to look into 'deeply flawed' BCS system - "Calling the Bowl Championship Series "deeply flawed," the chairman of a congressional committee has called a hearing on the controversial system used to determine college football's national champion." -- Don't our congress men and women have more important issues to deal with than the BCS?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2245440

Where Have All the Bush/Cheney Bumper Stickers Gone? - "At this point, it must be a little embarrassing to have a sticker on your car broadcasting the fact that you voted for those two clowns."
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/2005.11.01_arch.html#1133309899329

Strange Suicide of a Flight 11 Passenger's Wife Raises More Doubt as to What Really Happened on the Four 9/11 Flights - "Not only was this 9/11 suicide shocking and difficult to understand, but the alleged victim's husband, Pendyala Vamsikrishna of India, was never even listed on the original Flight 11 manifest, only appearing later as a passenger on a couple of conflicting unofficial lists. Due to the numerous inconsistencies and irregularities on all four 9/11 flight manifests, critics of the official government story contend many of the passengers probably never existed at all or were concocted as the result of carefully constructed aliases, essentially faking their deaths. Further, critics contend if the passenger lists were suspect then so were the planes, calling the 9/11 jetliners ‘phantom flights,’ paving the way for military drones to be used to attack the WTC and Pentagon."
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/article/1518131/38499.htm

Deadly bacteria spreading through US hospitals - "A lethal bacteria which surfaces in people being treated with antibiotics is spreading in North America and has grown resistant to drugs, according to two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine."
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/7000%2F20051203%2F1200000001.htm&sc=ustop&ewp=ewp_news_1205antibiotics

Tamiflu 'useless'against avian flu - "Doctor who has treated 41 victims of virussays 'we place no importance on this drug'"
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47725

Viral cure could 'immunise' the internet - "A cure for computer viruses that spreads in a viral fashion could immunise the internet, even against pests that travel at lightning speed, a mathematical study reveals. ... They propose developing a network of "honeypot" computers, distributed across the internet and dedicated to the task of combating viruses. To a virus, these machines would seem like ordinary vulnerable computers. But the honeypots would attract a virus, analyse it automatically, and then distribute a countermeasure."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8403

Weather Modification a Long-Established, Though Secretive, Reality - "New legislation not designed to foster pleasant or productive weather, but planned as tool of weaponized weather control, already well tested and in use since 1976. Amateur and hostile weather-makers alike likely to lose their technology to the military."
http://pesn.com/2005/09/06/9600160_Weather_Modification/




Quote of the Day
"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
~ Henry David Thoreau