G.I.’s Say Officers Ordered Killing of Young Iraqi Men - "Four soldiers from an Army combat unit that killed three Iraqi men in a raid in May testified Wednesday that they had received orders from superior officers to kill all the military-age men they encountered."
Guantanamo detainees may remain indefinitely: Gonzalez - ""We can detain any combatants for the duration of the hostilities," said Gonzales, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If we choose to try them, that's great. If we don't choose to try them, we can continue to hold them," he said."
We're All Enemy Combatants Now - "Administration testimony before Senate and House committees reveals the White House’s concern with issues of larger dimension: They are quietly looking for Congress’ seal of approval on a system of expansive military detention for both citizens and non-citizens. Most American residents would be shocked to hear that the military has power to lock them up without an opportunity to prove their innocence before an independent judge. Indeed, a 1971 law, pushed by a former federal judge and survivors of the Japanese internment, actually bars executive detention without any statutory authorization. Yet drafts of the government’s proposed military-commission legislation slyly concede precisely this unchecked lock-up power to the executive branch despite the caution embodied in the 1971 law. The leaked draft—admittedly, one that is likely to reflect the final version only imperfectly—does state that only “enemy combatants” can be hauled before a military commission, which offers less due process than the regular criminal courts or the military’s courts-martial. In other litigation, however, the administration has taken the position that an “enemy combatant” can also be detained until the end of the conflict, even if they are found to be innocent in a military commission. That conflict, moreover, is defined as a war “between the United States and international terrorist organizations,” to use the language of the leaked draft. For all practical purposes, this entails detention without end."
Iran working with N.Korea on missiles: Institute - "North Korea has been working closely with Iran to develop its long-range ballistic missiles, possibly using Chinese technology, and is building large bases to prepare for their deployment, a South Korean state-run think tank said."
9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes - "This report, received from Colin Scoggins at Boston Center, will set off a major escalation in the military response to the attack, resulting in the launch of additional armed fighter jets. But 20 months later, when the military presents to the 9/11 commission what is supposed to be a full accounting of the day, omitted from the official time line is any mention of this reported hijacking and the fevered chase it engenders. ... Cheney echoed, "The significance of saying to a pilot that you are authorized to shoot down a plane full of Americans is, a, you know, it's an order that had never been given before." And it wasn't on 9/11, either. President Bush would finally grant commanders the authority to give that order at 10:18, which—though no one knew it at the time—was 15 minutes after the attack was over. But comments such as those above were repeated by other administration and military figures in the weeks and months following 9/11, forging the notion that only the passengers' counterattack against their hijackers prevented an inevitable shootdown of United 93 (and convincing conspiracy theorists that the government did, indeed, secretly shoot it down). The recordings tell a different story, and not only because United 93 had crashed before anyone in the military chain of command even knew it had been hijacked."
NORAD Tapes Only Intensify Implausibility Of 9/11 Official Story - "How could Cheney know exactly what was heading for Washington and give clear orders for its path to remain clear, while the very people mandated to defend the skies of America scrambled desperately to make sense of the chaos and get fighters in the positions they needed to be? ... These guys are smart? Contrast this statement with those of the flight instructors when describing the skills of the alleged hijackers. ... The NORAD tapes, far from dissolving so-called "conspiracy theories," only serve to support the weight of evidence that points directly towards a deliberate plan on September 11, 2001 to make the air defenses of the United States impotent and to enable the planes to find their targets."
U.S. Prepares for Showdown in Cuba - "The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro's illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would give millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change."
Senate votes to fund the fence - "The Senate did an abrupt about-face yesterday, voting overwhelmingly to begin paying for 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, just three weeks after voting against the same spending."
Mexico vote protests cripple capital - "Street protests led by the leftist candidate in Mexico's presidential election plunged the capital into chaos for a second day, raising fears of a long and increasingly nasty fight over vote fraud claims."
`Hourglass Economy' Divides Americans, Defines U.S. Politics - ""It bothers me,'' former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said in an interview. ``I tell you, I don't know why there hasn't been more discussion and more unhappiness about this because it's become quite distinct. For a long time now, if we believe the statistics, the average working guy does not have an increase in income.''"
And Skeletons Won't Dance - "Since the beginning of the human species and the development of even the most rudimentary brain, blame for humankind’s failures or weaknesses had to be blamed on something or someone external of the self, hence, god. ... Humans are an insecure lot you see, and believe they should not die. Humans, down deep in their egos, can’t imagine that such sophisticated and bright creatures should die and decompose. How can that be? How could such marvelous creatures be no different then a dead squirrel? Religion was born out of insecurity and ignorance of the world around us. Humans must have hope for a hereafter; it’s innate, yet illogical. Most people require a god to explain their existence. It is indeed the silver bullet or explanation for this one-way trip through life. Christians are afraid atheism is the real truth. They hate the non-believers (a form of fear) for this reason. Atheism is the wake-up call they don’t want. Atheism places humankind on the same level as all creatures. When they die, they decompose, there is no rainbow at the bottom of their grave, and skeletons won’t dance their way to the Pearly Gates."
The great man's answer to the question of human survival: Er, I don't know - "In the long term, Prof Hawking says, humans will only survive if they can leave the rock they call home and spread out into space, to transform and occupy planets around our own sun and then around other suns. Failing that, he adds, perhaps our best bet is to use genetic engineering to tinker with the human species and make us less prone to fighting war."
War, violence in Iraq taking toll on United States' wealth - "The Soviet Union crumbled because the Kremlin couldn't afford the arms race with Washington. The Soviets didn't have the American economic engine to sustain the drain on its national economy that its massive standing Red Army and missile production demanded. Is there a lesson in the Soviets' demise that the U.S. needs to heed in the global war on terrorism, given the record national debt and the alarming condition of the nation's military?"
What's the real federal deficit? - "The federal government keeps two sets of books. The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005. The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government's accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included — as the board that sets accounting rules is considering — the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion. Congress has written its own accounting rules — which would be illegal for a corporation to use because they ignore important costs such as the growing expense of retirement benefits for civil servants and military personnel."
Hackers Clone E-Passports - "A German computer security consultant has shown that he can clone the electronic passports that the United States and other countries are beginning to distribute this year."
Prostitution ring run by illegals, for illegals - ""The organization recruits females ... and arranges for them to be smuggled into the United States. The aliens are held in indentured servitude and forced into prostitution," an arrest affidavit said, according to the Austin American-Statesman."
Ohio Man Claims Right To Have Sex With Boys - "A suburban Cleveland man accused of sexually assaulting nine disabled boys told a judge Wednesday that his apartment was a religious sanctuary where smoking marijuana and having sex with children are sacred rituals protected by civil rights laws. The admitted pedophile offered a surprising defense Wednesday to 74 charges of rape, drugs and pandering obscenity to minors. Appearing in an Ohio court for a pretrial hearing, Phillip Distasio, 34, of Rocky River, Ohio, said he was a pedophile. He told the judge, "I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years. The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms.""
The cloud with a dangerous secret - "Atmospheric beauty is becoming more common - and that is bad news for the environment."
Quote of the Day
"Am I evil. Yes, I am. I am man."
~ Tatler/Harris (Am I Evil?)
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