5/1/2004
Pictures of British Troops Torturing Iraqi POW :.UPDATE: 5/14/04 This story appears to be fake. Liberation: A HOODED Iraqi captive is beaten by British soldiers before being thrown from a moving truck and left to die.
The prisoner, aged 18-20, begged for mercy as he was battered with rifle butts and batons in the head and groin, was kicked, stamped and urinated on, and had a gun barrel forced into his mouth.
After an EIGHT-HOUR ordeal, he was left barely conscious and close to death. Bleeding and vomiting and with a broken jaw and missing teeth, he was driven from a Basra camp and hurled off the truck. No one knows if he lived or died. Related: Video of U.S. Troops Torturing IraqisRelated: Mercenaries Torturing Iraqis
posted by Kevin at 8:15 PM
U.S. Secret Service Wants User List from blackboxvoting.org :.Under the Patriot Act, "hacking" crimes were turned over to a new division, called the CyberCrimes division, and placed under the auspices of the Secret Service. And let me tell you what they want from me now: They want the logs of my web site with all the forum messages, and the IP addresses. That's right. All of them. A giant fishing expedition for every communication of everyone interested in the voting issue. This has nothing to do with a VoteHere "hack" investigation, and I have refused to turn it over.
So, yesterday, they call me up and tell me they are going to subpeona me and put me in front of a grand jury. Well, let 'em. They still aren't getting the list of members of BlackBoxVoting.org unless they seize my computer -- which my attorney tells me might be what they have in mind.
Also, Agent Mike told me he just "happened" to be on the plane with me a couple weeks ago. What's that supposed to do? Scare me? "You were going to Oakland," he said. Yeah, and Diebold lawyer's memos appeared in the Oakland Tribune, but guess what, Mike: That was the first hop of three on my way to Dallas. I left that morning for a speech at the Dallas Democratic Forum that evening. Never even got off the plane. Better luck next time.Related: Navy Investigators Sniffing Around Cryptome
posted by Kevin at 8:04 PM
California Bans E-Vote Machines :.Not that it matters, but anyway: California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ended five months of speculation and announced Friday that he was decertifying all electronic touch-screen voting machines in the state due to security concerns and lack of voter confidence.
He also said that he was passing along evidence to the state's attorney general to bring criminal and civil charges against voting-machine-maker Diebold Election Systems for fraud.
"We will not tolerate deceitful tactics as engaged in by Diebold and we must send a clear and compelling message to the rest of the industry: Don't try to pull a fast one on the voters of California because there will be consequences if you do," he said.
posted by Kevin at 7:51 PM
Record Income at Chevron-Texaco :.It's all about who dies, and who makes a killing: ChevronTexaco, the second-biggest oil and gas company in the US, on Friday reported record first-quarter net income - $2.56bn, or $2.40 a share, up 33 per cent on the year.
The record figures continue a trend among the company's peers. The industry has profited from high oil and natural gas prices, as well as increased demand and better margins for refined products and chemicals.
posted by Kevin at 6:38 PM
Warren Buffet Adds to Foreign Currency Holdings, Bets on Further Dollar Decline :.A five year old can see the inflation writing on the wall: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he increased his bet against the U.S. dollar on concern that the country's trade deficit will weaken the currency.
"We think that over time that the dollar is likely to decline in value against some of the major currencies," said Buffett, 73, in an interview before Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. In the last few months, Berkshire has added "more than a little bit" to its foreign currency holdings, he said. They were last disclosed at $12 billion as of yearend.
posted by Kevin at 4:02 PM
4/30/2004
Tank: NASDAQ Down 6.3% this Week :.U.S. stocks fell on Friday as worries that the Federal Reserve will start laying the groundwork for higher interest rates when it meets next week offset positive earnings from big companies like Procter & Gamble Co. (PG).
Five sessions of losses left the Nasdaq with its biggest weekly fall for two years.
For the week, the Dow fell 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 fell 2.9 percent and Nasdaq fell 6.3 percent. For the month of April, the Dow fell 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent and Nasdaq fell 3.7 percent.
posted by Kevin at 4:03 PM
Biometric IDs OK With U.K. :.I told you, people will go for it: About 80 percent of 1,000 British adults recently surveyed say they want a biometric identification card, citing concerns about illegal immigration and identity theft.
posted by Kevin at 1:00 PM
U.S. Forces Turn to Saddam General to End Standoff :.HAHAHA! U.S. forces turned to a former general in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard to help end a standoff with guerrillas in Falluja on Friday, but there was no end to violence and another two Marines were killed.
Some of the troops battling Sunni guerrillas and foreign Muslim fighters pulled back and, in a reversal of Washington's refusal to deal with members of Saddam's regime, former general Jasim Mohamed Saleh said he would lead a force to restore order.
"We have now begun forming a new emergency military force," he told Reuters, saying Falluja "rejected" the U.S. presence in the month-long standoff.
posted by Kevin at 12:44 PM
U.S. Hired Mercenaries to Carry Out Torture in Iraq :.Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability.
A military report into the Abu Ghraib case - parts of which were made available to the Guardian - makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.
One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.
Hired guns from a wide array of private security firms are playing a central role in the US-led occupation of Iraq.
The killing of four private contractors in Falluja on March 31 led to the current siege of the city.
But this is the first time the privatisation of interrogation and intelligence-gathering has come to light. The investigation names two US contractors, CACI International Inc and the Titan Corporation, for their involvement in Abu Ghraib.
Titan, based in San Diego, describes itself as a "a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications products, solutions and services for national security". It recently won a big contract for providing translation services to the US army.
CACI, which has headquarters in Virginia, claims on its website to "help America's intelligence community collect, analyse and share global information in the war on terrorism".
Neither responded to calls for comment yesterday.
According to the military report on Abu Ghraib, both played an important role at the prison.
At one point, the investigators say: "A CACI instructor was terminated because he al lowed and/or instructed MPs who were not trained in interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations by setting conditions which were neither authorised [nor] in accordance with applicable regulations/policy."
Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, speaking for central command, told the Guardian: "One contractor was originally included with six soldiers, accused for his treatment of the prisoners, but we had no jurisdiction over him. It was left up to the contractor on how to deal with him."
She did not specify the accusation facing the contractor, but according to several sources with detailed knowledge of the case, he raped an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens.Related: Blackwater Recruits Pinochet Death Squad Members for Iraq Merc Duty
posted by Kevin at 12:31 PM
American Torture of Iraqi Prisoners :.Liberation: VIDEO footage of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners of war horrified America yesterday.
The TV stills showed a hooded captive standing on a box with wires attached to his hands, and naked prisoners stacked in a human pyramid while jeering troopers look on laughing.
Six soldiers now face court martial and jail. One allegedly boasted that the captives "broke within hours". Seven others, including a general, are suspended from duty and may be disciplined.
posted by Kevin at 12:16 PM
4/29/2004
Rise of the Machines, Uh... Robotic Traffic Cones :.Not quite killer robots, but you can get an idea of where this society is headed. More humans get pink slips, but the creators of this technology are so concerned about the safety of the workmen, you don't need to think about that. This is all about saving the workers. HA! Wink, blink, nod. Meanwhile, the next step is to eliminate the human driver from the truck that deploys these things, and so it goes: The markers are delivered to the roadside by a specially equipped truck, from which an operator controls their deployment using a laptop computer. Each fleet of robots is made up of a lead robot or "shepherd", which is equipped with a Global Positioning System satellite navigation receiver, plus a number of less expensive "dumb" units.
The laptop screen displays an image of the road, captured by a camera mounted on top of the truck. Using software developed by Farritor's team, the operator marks on the screen where the barrels should be placed.
posted by Kevin at 1:48 PM
Urban Warfare: Is Iraq a Rehearsal for U.S. Hoods? :.Yep: Today, many of the Marines inside Fallujah are graduates of these Urban Warrior exercises as well as mock combat at "Yodaville," the Urban Training Facility in Yuma, Arizona, while some of the Army units encircling Najaf and the Baghdad slum neighborhood of Sadr City are alumni of the new $34 million MOUT simulator at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
This tactical "Israelization" of U.S. combat doctrine has been accompanied by what might be called a "Sharonization" of the Pentagon's worldview. Military theorists are now deeply involved in imagining how the evolving capacity of high-tech warfare can contain, if not destroy, chronic "terrorist" insurgencies rooted in the desperation of growing mega-slums.Outsourcing is good for you. Don't forget it.
posted by Kevin at 2:39 AM
Is Bush Brain Damaged from Drugs? :.I don't know about how much I believe in the authenticity of this article, but it wouldn't shock me if it was real: "At one point during a staff conference, the President stood up and began to speak in an unknown language. Mr. Rove was able to stop the President and get him to resume his seat. It was reported by [redacted] that for a period of time (about fifteen minutes) after this incident, the President appeared to be 'somewhat confused and very inarticulate.'"
posted by Kevin at 2:33 AM
Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker Over 9/11 :.The Bush administration will today seek to prevent a former FBI translator from providing evidence about 11 September intelligence failures to a group of relatives and survivors who have accused international banks and officials of aiding al-Qa'ida.
Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving there was considerable evidence before September 2001 that al-Qa'ida was planning to strike the US with aircraft. The lawyers made their demand after reading comments Mrs Edmonds had made to The Independent.
But the US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege". Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence "would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States".
Mrs Edmonds, 33, a Turkish-American who had top secret security clearance, claimed this month that while working in the FBI's Washington headquarters, she saw information proving senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes. She has provided sworn testimony to the independent panel appointed by President George Bush to investigate the circumstances surrounding 11 September.
posted by Kevin at 2:23 AM
Pentagon Official Says Nanotechnology a High Priority :.The U.S. military expects advances in nanotechnology to impact every major weapons system and is spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on various research programs, a senior military science adviser said Thursday at a meeting of nanotechnology specialists.
"Nanotechnology is one of the highest priority science and technology programs in the Defense Department," said Clifford Lau, the senior science adviser in the Pentagon's office of basic research. Lau, who also serves as president of the nanotechnology council at the engineering group IEEE, said research is being coordinated across the military branches, and plans are in place to transition the technology from basic research to deployment.
In addition, service branches recently have opened sophisticated facilities for nanotech research, including the Army Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and the Naval Research Laboratory's nanotech institute, a windowless, controlled environment capable of the most advanced research. <--- They think they will be able to contain "it." I hope they're right.
posted by Kevin at 2:20 AM
Britain: Police Will be Able to Order Eye Scans Under ID Card Plan :.Police will have powers to stop and check people against a national biometric database under plans for a compulsory identity card scheme to be unveiled today.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, confirmed that police would be able to compare people against national fingerprint or iris records even if they did not carry the controversial document.
posted by Kevin at 2:11 AM
Britain: GBP2,500 Fine For Refusing ID Card :.People who refuse to register for the government's planned ID card scheme could face a "civil financial penalty" of up to GBP2,500, it has emerged.
David Blunkett said not making registering a criminal issue would avoid "clever people" becoming martyrs.
posted by Kevin at 2:09 AM
Quote from Joseph Schumpteter, Imperialism and Social Classes, 1919Does this sound familiar? "There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome's allies; and if Rome had no allies, the allies would be invented. When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest -- why, then it was the national honor that had been insulted. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbours...The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, it was manifestly Rome's duty to guard against their indubitably aggressive designs."
posted by Kevin at 1:53 AM
4/28/2004
U.S. Intelligence to Track Blogs :.I've got a newsflash for you. I've been tracking U.S. military and intelligence agencies on Cryptogon for nearly two years: Some blogs are whimsical and deal with "soft" subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion.
As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what's reported in some blogs is questionable.
Still, a panel of folks who work in the U.S. intelligence field - some of them spies or former spies - discussed this month at a conference in Washington the idea of tracking blogs.
posted by Kevin at 5:09 AM
CBS News Channel Eyewitness Describes 'Secondary Explosions' in the WTC :.My dad was involved with construction for about 20 years. I watched the events of 9/11 on the TV with him. As each tower came down, he said, "That's a controlled demolition." And I said, "Oh, ok, sure, dad." Uhhh.... Never mind the fact that it's obvious, just from watching the video. Hearing an eyewitness describe "secondary explosions," though, is another matter. All of this, however, is unthinkable. My rational thought processes are telling me this is bullshit, because it has to be; but the little voice in the back of my head is saying, "You know it's true."
posted by Kevin at 5:01 AM
Quiz: Are You the Devil? :.Unchanged since 3000 years, the decisive criterion for being the Evil Umpire isn't horns, hoofs, or a fondness to toast people literally. It is a single question: do you support plunder and murder by your leaders? If you do not, you are the Devil, the Shaitan, the Mara, the Unamerican, the Anti-Aryan, the Anti-Semite, the traitor of your country, the Enemy of the Proletariat - pick the devil figure of your favorite ideology. The fact that this would qualify even Jesus, Buddha, Karl Marx or George Washington for devils of their own beliefs yet it remains unchanged reveals the true priority of the genre. Ideology exists to justify crime.
posted by Kevin at 4:37 AM
Syrian Security Units Clash with "Foreign Special Forces" :.Oh, now who could possibly be tasking "foreign special forces" inside Syria? I don't know about you, but to me, this looks like the shit just hit the fan on a joint Israeli/U.S. operation. On the other hand, it's possible that Israeli troops/spooks wern't involved. Sharon has his hand so far up Bush's ass, it's probably standard operating procedure for U.S. troops to do Israel's dirty work nowadays: A undercover special forces operation being run by "foreign governments" became embroiled in a bloody battle in Damascus, Syria early this evening sources close to the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Aljazeera.com.
Explosions and gunfire were heard in the diplomatic neighborhood as Syrian police and army units fought the "Foreign Special Forces" during which a number of cars were destroyed.
It is widely known coalition special forces based out of Iraq are in operation inside the Syrian side of the Iraqi border to stem the flow of foreign fighters. This incident is the first which has targeted the capital Damascus.
It is understood the "Foreign Special Forces" sustained losses and some have fled into the city.
posted by Kevin at 4:28 AM
Mercenary Killed in Iraq Was Apartheid Assassin :.This is a good start, I'd say. He has surely been on the CIA payroll for decades. Well, not anymore: A security contractor killed in Iraq last week was once one of South Africa's most secret covert agents, his identity guarded so closely that even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did not discover the extent of his involvement in apartheid's silent wars.
Gray Branfield, 55, admitted to being part of a death squad which gunned down Joe Gqabi, the ANC's chief representative and Umkhonto weSizwe operational head in Zimbabwe on July 31 1981. Gqabi was shot 19 times when three assassins ambushed him as he reversed down the driveway of his Harare home.
Author Peter Stiff this week confirmed information that Branfield was an operative identified in his books, The Silent War, Warfare By Other Means and Cry Zimbabwe as "Major Brian". He said Branfield, a former detective inspector in the Rhodesian police force specializing in covert operations against guerrilla organizations, came to South Africa after Zanu-PF came to power in 1980.
In South Africa he joined the SA Defense Force's secret Project Barnacle, a precursor to the notorious Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) death squad.
posted by Kevin at 4:10 AM
Dems Face Oh Shit Moment with Kerry :.The problem with most Democrats is that they still believe they're not Republicans, and vice versa. Choke on it, you hypocrites: With the air gushing out of John Kerry's balloon, it may be only a matter of time until political insiders in Washington face the dread reality that the junior senator from Massachusetts doesn't have what it takes to win and has got to go. As arrogant and out of it as the Democratic political establishment is, even these pols know the party's got to have someone to run against George Bush. They can't exactly expect the president to self-destruct into thin air.
With growing issues over his wealth (which makes fellow plutocrat Bush seem a charity case by comparison), the miasma over his medals and ribbons (or ribbons and medals), his uninspiring record in the Senate (yes war, no war), and wishy-washy efforts to mimic Bill Clinton's triangulation gimmickry (the protractor factor), Kerry sinks day by day. The pros all know that the candidate who starts each morning by having to explain himself is a goner.
posted by Kevin at 4:03 AM
Median Price of a Home in California Increases 22% in March, Sales Up 4% :.HAHAHAHA! It's all fun and games until Greenspan leans left instead of right the next time he farts. Remember how happy everyone was with the NASDAQ in the high 4000s? You guys with the ARMs, make your time: The median price of an existing home in California in March increased 22 percent and sales increased 4 percent compared to the same period a year ago, the California Association of REALTORS(R) (C.A.R.) reported today.
"The median price of a home continued its run of double-digit price increases last month as buyers scrambled to purchase homes amid concerns of rising mortgage interest rates," said C.A.R. President Ann Pettijohn. "This unprecedented demand helped push the median price of a home in many regions in the state to record highs in March. And at $428,280, the median price for the state also hit a record high in March compared to $351,130 just one year ago."
posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM
Thought Criminal: Secret Service Questions Student on Drawings :.Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick.
Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading "End the war -- on terrorism."
The 15-year-old boy's art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service.
"We involve the police anytime we have a concern," Prosser Superintendent Ray Tolcacher told the Tri-City Herald newspaper.
Secret Service agents interviewed the boy last Friday. The student, who was not arrested, has not been identified.
The school district disciplined him, but district officials refused to say what the punishment was. Tolcacher said the boy was not suspended.
The artwork was apparently part of an assignment to keep a notebook of drawings, according to Kevin Cravens, a friend of the boy's family.
posted by Kevin at 3:42 AM
Fed Warns of Dramatic Rise in Oil Futures :.I'm convinced that the impending energy crisis is being manufactured according to some grim plan. There are too many viable energy alternatives for this kind of nonsense to be happening! Current U.S. energy policy is the equivalent of someone driving a car toward a wall at 100 miles per hour and taking their hands off the wheel, just to see what will happen. It doesn't seem to make any sense. There's no reason for this to be happening... Well, unless you plan on locking down society over the next several years. Ahhh, now U.S. energy policy makes plenty of sense: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned on Tuesday that the "dramatic" rise of oil and gas futures was "an economic event that can significantly affect the long-term path of the US economy".
In the latest of a series of cautions from economic policymakers, Mr Greenspan said the rise in six-year oil and gas futures was "almost surely going to affect the growth of oil and gas consumption in the US and the nature of the capital stock investments currently under contemplation".
posted by Kevin at 3:34 AM
U.S. Military Powers Base Primarily with Wind and Solar Power :.I almost fell out of my chair when I read this one. Why is it that the sane course of action is only taken on very rare occasions? I would expect the U.S. military to spend several billion dollars on a pipeline to carry diesel fuel out to this remote island. Maybe air ship it, at great expense. Accomplish the goal in the dumbest, most expensive way possible. It almost frightens me that the military did something that makes sense! For observers of alternative power developments, make a point of reading this story all the way through. No battery banks. This power goes directly to end use applications that are mission critical. Take what they are doing a little further. If they didn't need the desalination, they could use the excess power to make hydrogen for a fuel cell system, which could serve as the "battery" system they didn't want to use. I've re-read this story three times. I'm actually suspicious now. Since when did the U.S. military become concerned with pollution!? Hmmm. After the Pentagon warned Bush that the weather was going to bring down the show!? Forget it. I'm letting this go at this point without further speculation. While I think there's much more to this, I guess, at the same time, I've become so sullen and grim that it's hard to accept good news when it occurs: Three electrical engineers from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are overseeing the installation of wind turbines on a tiny South Atlantic island occupied by the U.S. Air Force. The 900-kilowatt turbines will help the military base reduce its use of diesel generators and lower air pollution.
The combination of the six wind turbines, plus solar cells that were also installed, can supply enough power when the wind is blowing to run the whole base.
The savings on diesel fuel alone will be $400,000 to $750,000 each year.
The two turbines will pay for themselves within eight years and are expected to run for at least 25 years, said Charlie Clinchard, who has overseen their installation from Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.
Part of the challenge Meyers faced was making sure a steady electrical supply is available to power the computers at the base, which track rockets and satellites for NASA and the Air Force as they take off from Florida and later are in orbit.
"We need 100 percent reliability because we've got to have power during a rocket launch, even if the wind isn't blowing," Clinchard said.
The INEEL group has developed a system that senses wind power and then automatically powers the diesel generators up or down to compensate.
A battery system wouldn't have worked as well because it would've been too expensive and hard to maintain, Meyers said.
As a benefit, the system uses extra power to run a desalination plant to provide the base with fresh water.
posted by Kevin at 3:25 AM
Army Asks Ski Resorts to Return Its Howitzers :.There's no draft planned, oh no, not when every spare artillery piece needs to be sent into combat: The U.S. military is demanding the return of five howitzers that two Sierra Nevada ski resorts use to prevent avalanches, saying it needs the guns for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain received the artillery pieces on loan from the Army and began using them last year to fire rounds into mountainsides and knock snow loose.
But the ski resorts received word earlier this month that the Army's Tank Automotive and Armaments Command at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois needs the howitzers back.
"I need to have them back in the troops' hands within 60 to 90 days," said Don Bowen, the Army command's team leader in charge of the howitzers.
"It's a very short timeframe to get them serviceable and back into the theater in southwest Asia. Afghanistan-Iraq is the immediate concern."
posted by Kevin at 3:00 AM
Another Job Being Outsourced: Porn Star :.The big bad empire can't even produce its own blue jeans.... and it's getting to be that way with PORN! Add porn star to the list of U.S. jobs that are going overseas.
American X-rated film directors are heading to Brazil in search of uninhibited women, exotic locations and cheap production costs. The going rate for a Brazilian X-rated actress is about $175 per sex scene, a fraction of what talent in the Los Angeles area costs.Research Credit: BW
posted by Kevin at 2:55 AM
4/27/2004
BREAKING: "The Whole Place Went Dark, the Generator Began Passing Smoke"As you may or may not know, California's electric power infrastructure operates on the verge of collapse during the Summer months. With some record high temperatures shattered by as much as ten degrees yesterday, California is getting an early start on Summer. This morning, a Cryptogon source, who works for a "household name" corporation in the U.S. (financial services sector), shared information about how the air conditioning system in the building shut down. Later this afternoon, the source sent the following: > it happened again this afternoon, the whole place went dark, the generator > began passing smoke. we got the lights back but every network connection was > down for about an hour. human batteries, suddenly unplugged from the > apparatus, bokked around dazed. i put my earplugs in and read more illich: > "both the balance that defines man's need for a hospitable environment and > the balance that defines everyone's need for authentic activity are now > close to the breaking point. and still this danger does not concern most > people." ... "organized self-protection of the addict-consumer only raises > the quality of the dope and the power of the peddler." > > if you haven't read it yet, you really must.
posted by Kevin at 4:42 PM
Cryptogon Special Report: Are U.S. Troops Being Drugged for Urban Combat Operations in Iraq? :.Eyewitness reports from Fallujah indicate that U.S. troops are laughing during combat operations. Laughing when enemy forces are pouring heavy fire on them. Laughing as their buddies fall down dead. From the Mathaba.net article: Mafkarat al-Islam's correspondent in al-Fallujah reports that for more than 10 days the Resistance fighters in the besieged city have been remarking about a phenomenon that they find strange and surprising. Resistance fighters have frequently noticed that many of the American aggressor troops are laughing as they storm into districts in al-Fallujah. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent personally witnessed this clearly when he was close to the events as US aggressors tried to storm an-Nizal neighborhood in the besieged city on Saturday.
The correspondent wrote that he saw two American soldiers laughing, such as to arouse pity for them, despite all the Resistance gunfire being poured at their position and their comrades dying around them. Both of the Americans were later killed in the battle. The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent writes that the Resistance learned later from interrogations of captured American Marines that the US military medical service distributes a type of halucinogenic pill to the troops that prompts laughter and reduces the sense of fear in combat conditions.
The reverse situation has been revealed in the despair and terror exhibited by the US troops when their lines of supply of food and medicine have been cut, a phenomenon that has been witnessed by nearby Resistance fighters.AnalysisIt would be easy for the uninitiated reader to blow this story off as complete and total BS.... As a Cryptogon reader, though, you don't have that luxury. I would say that there is a VERY STRONG possibility that the account given above is accurate. What follows is just a small sample of some of the information that is available on the pharmacological "enhancement" of combat troops. Draw your own conclusions: The Apocalypse in Grozny, ChechnyaThere were persistent reports of Russian soldiers injecting themselves with syringes and taking capsules as they turned Grozny into Hell on Earth. This is a typical account: As for the reports of drug use by the Russian troops, I was told that representatives of the International Red Cross who had been in the village the day before me, gathered up a number of syringes and capsules that were found in the streets and houses where the Interior Ministry troops had been located. Residents told me that they had seen Russian soldiers injecting themselves openly.U.S. Pilots Routinely Take Amphetamines a.k.a. Go-PillsFrom CNN: A lawyer for one of two U.S. pilots who released a bomb over southern Afghanistan in April, accidentally killing four Canadian soldiers, says the Air Force had pressured the pilots to take amphetamines that may have impaired their judgment during the mission.DARPA Trying to Create No Sleep SoldiersFrom ABC News: "Eliminating the need for sleep during an operation ? will create a fundamental change in war fighting and force employment," says a recent statement by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
To strive toward creating the no-sleep soldier, DARPA has funded a multi-tiered program from tinkering with a soldier's brain using magnetic resonance to analyzing the neural circuits of birds that stay awake for days during migration. The hope is to stump the body's need for sleep, at least temporarily.
"This program is really out of the box," says John Carney, director of DARPA's Continuous Assisted Performance program. "We want to look at capabilities in nature and leverage it so we can apply it in ways that no one thought possible."DARPA: Monsters Inc.From the Moscow Times: Pentagon dark lord Donald Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax dollars into the research furnaces of federal laboratories and private universities across the land in the wide-ranging effort to spawn "super soldiers," fired by drugs and electromagnetic "brain zaps" to fight without ceasing for days on end. The work is being directed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- yes, the same outfit now laboring under convicted terrorist-conspirator John Poindexter to build the "Total Information Awareness" network that will allow the government to monitor the electronic records and communications of every citizen.
The DARPA "war fighter enhancement" programs -- an acceleration of bipartisan biotinkering that's been going on for years -- will involve injecting young men and women with hormonal, neurological and genetic concoctions; implanting microchips and electrodes in their bodies to control their internal organs and brain functions; and plying them with drugs that deaden some of their normal human tendencies: the need for sleep, the fear of death, the reluctance to kill their fellow human beings.Preventing Hearing Loss from Combat NoiseFrom Wired: In the armed forces, however, earsplitting sounds are already commonplace. So, starting next month, according to Marine Corps Times, incoming grunts to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego will be given the antioxidant pills as part of a six-week trial.Related Fictionalization in Film: Jacob's LadderOne of the plot components of Jacob's Ladder involves the drugging of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam in order to increase their combat effectiveness. FYI: This is an excellent movie that most people neither liked nor understood. Of course, this is one of my favorite films. If you've never seen it, watch it at least twice. If you have seen it, watch it again and pay very close attention to everything; names of characters, books on shelves, the dialog, etc. WARNING: Not a good date movie; unless you never want to see the girl again, then it's a great date movie.
posted by Kevin at 4:35 AM
Avaliable Now: General Electric 3.6 Megawatt Wind Turbine :.How many of these wind turbines could we (the U.S. taxpayers) buy for two trillion dollars? More than a few. <--- Sarcasm. Hint: Two trillion dollars is the estimate of what the nightmare in Iraq is going to cost the U.S. taxpayer over a decade. The weird thing about wars for oil is that they're not necessary....unless you're part of the cabal that wants to ride that paradigm into the dirt for every last nickel. 3.6 megawatts per unit... Just add wind. Keep that in mind as the corpses continue to pile up: A larger version of our proven 1.5 MW design, the 3.6 MW machine was specifically designed for high-speed wind sites. With a rotor diameter of 104 meters and a swept area of 8,495 square meters, the new wind turbine is ideal for offshore markets worldwide. Active yaw and pitch regulated with power/torque control capability and a double-fed asynchronous generator, it uses a distributed drive train design where all nacelle components are joined on a common structure, providing exceptional durability. The generator and gearbox are supported by elastomeric elements to minimize noise emissions.
posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM
Is Cold Fusion Heating Up? :.Our energy problems could be solved with wind, solar, hydro, ethanol, biodiesel, aquafuel and fuel cell technologies. But never mind all of that. Maybe these crusty, old, drunk professors will get their shit together one of these decades: The evidence for "new physics" has been building for years, says Peter Hagelstein, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, who chaired the tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion in Cambridge last August. Experiments performed under properly controlled conditions reliably produce more heat than standard theory predicts. Nuclear products show up in about the right amounts to account for this excess heat. Patterns have emerged that explain previous anomalies. When Hagelstein saw how pieces of the puzzle were fitting together at the August meeting, he urged the Department of Energy to reconsider a field that had been cast out of orthodox science soon after its birth.
posted by Kevin at 3:28 AM
Synthetic Life: Humans Playing God and Acting Stupid :.In my opinion, if imminent financial chaos/"terrorism" doesn't bring down the show, a genetic engineering mishap will. I make a lot of noise about killer robots on Cryptogon, but, in terms of destructive potential, the antics centered around genetic engineering may just leapfrog robotics and AI. Quacks with PhDs are tinkering with the building blocks of life itself! This is the equivalent of a zoo keeper placing a crate full of hand grenades inside a gorilla cage: Biologists are crafting libraries of interchangeable DNA parts and assembling them inside microbes to create programmable, living machines.
This nascent field has three major goals: One, learn about life by building it, rather than by tearing it apart. Two, make genetic engineering worthy of its name--a discipline that continuously improves by standardizing its previous creations and recombining them to make new and more sophisticated systems. And three, stretch the boundaries of life and of machines until the two overlap to yield truly programmable organisms.Related: SARS Escaped Beijing Lab TwiceWhat if a malevolent micro-cyborg gets loose? I guess we can always call Rick Deckard.
posted by Kevin at 1:17 AM
SARS Escaped Beijing Lab Twice :.The latest outbreak of sever acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China, with eight confirmed or suspected cases so far and hundreds quarantined, involves two researchers who were working with the virus in a Beijing research lab, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (April 26).
posted by Kevin at 12:52 AM
Iraq Photo Album :.WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES.
posted by Kevin at 12:33 AM
Oregon Cops: 71 Year Old Blind Woman Pepper-Sprayed and Shocked with Stun Gun :.The city of Portland has agreed to pay $145,000 to an elderly blind woman after police pepper-sprayed and shocked her with a stun gun.
The altercation began as an attempt to remove shrubs and appliances from 71-year-old Eunice Crowder's yard, and ended with police citing her for harassment and disobeying an order.
This week, the city agreed to settle her excessive force lawsuit out of federal court, a month after a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge dismissed the violations against her.
"This case goes to show that police misconduct and excessive force can happen to anybody outside the mainstream," said Ernest Warren Jr., Crowder's lawyer. "It does not have to be an African American; it can be someone who is elderly and white."
posted by Kevin at 12:20 AM
4/25/2004
Two Cryptogon Readers Contribute $50 and $15Many thanks!
posted by Kevin at 4:59 AM
Cyberkinetics Inc.: Bi-Directional Brain Interfaces :.Cyberkinetics is a leader in the rapidly emerging field of brain computer interfaces. Cyberkinetics' technology allows for the creation of direct, reliable and bi-directional interfaces among the brain, nervous system and a computer. The development of safe, robust implants for recording from, and/ or stimulating, the brain surface will open the potential to study other complex signals from the brain. Cyberkinetics' technology platform, called BrainGate System, may allow breakthrough applications which leverage the translation of thought into direct computer control. Such applications may include novel communications interfaces for people with motor impairment, as well as the monitoring and treatment of certain diseases which manifest themselves in patterns of brain activity, such as epilepsy and depression.
posted by Kevin at 4:40 AM
Arrests Made for Feeding Homeless :.Three more people, at least one of them a USF student, were arrested Sunday by Tampa police for feeding homeless people in a public park.
USF student Jimmy Dunson was arrested at Massey Park in downtown Tampa for the second time on a trespassing charge. Unlike March 28, when he was arrested on the same charges and detained but not taken to jail, Dunson was taken to Orient Road Jail, where he was still being held Sunday night, a police report said.
Others arrested include Chris Ernesto, 40, and Amberly Banks, 22. It could not be determined Sunday if the two are USF students. Banks was released on $500 bond.
posted by Kevin at 4:23 AM
U.S. Government Agencies Banned from Speaking About "Day After Tomorrow" :.WORKERS at US government agencies, including Nasa, have been banned from speaking publicly about a controversial Hollywood film depicting mayhem caused by global warming.
Although the multi-million pound movie � The Day After Tomorrow � is not based on scientific fact, the government has demanded silence over the film amid fears it will ignite anger at the Bush administration�s inattention to climate change.
A month before the release of the movie, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, space agency employees were given a message that �no-one from Nasa is to do interviews or comment on anything to do with� the film.Related: Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
posted by Kevin at 4:14 AM
Britain: ID Card Trials to Start Next Week :.If you take this, you might as well take the chip: The pilot will involve 10,000 volunteers and be run from the Passport Office in London and three other centres around Britain.
The government hopes the pilot scheme will pave the way for compulsory identity cards for everyone within the next decade.
Ministers are due to set out details of plans for a nationwide identity database on Monday.
Biometric options
They will publish draft legislation and Home Secretary David Blunkett says he wants a Bill paving the way for the scheme to be passed before the next general election.
Carrying false identity papers is also to be made a specific offence for the first time under the plans, with offenders facing up to 10 years in jail, say government sources.
The new ID cards will hold biometric details - facial dimensions, an iris scan or fingerprints.
The pilot scheme will try to assess which of the three options works best.
Neil Fisher, from QinetiQ - one of the companies developing the new technology, said the public would want to be able to prove their identity to show they were not a risk.
He told the BBC's 10 O'Clock News: "You will want this to be part of your life.
"You will want, in what's fast becoming a digital society, to be able to authenticate your identity almost for any transaction that you do, be it going to the bank, going to the shops, going to the airport."Related: Revelation 13:16-18Revelation 13
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
posted by Kevin at 4:08 AM
German Intelligence Points to Two Saudi Companies as Having Al Qaeda Links :.Two private Saudi companies linked with suspected Al Qaeda cells here and in Indonesia also have connections to the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency and its longtime chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, according to information assembled by German intelligence analysts.
The Twaik Group and Rawasin Media Productions, both based in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, have served as fronts for the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate, according to an inquiry by Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND.
posted by Kevin at 1:01 AM
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:. Reading
Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell
Readers will come to see
that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest"
- fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors
such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way
into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff
from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to
genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield
monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our
farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate
farms.
Friendly
Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross
This is a relatively
short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise
of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th
century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward;
the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and
military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined
to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly
persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans
through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.
The
Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing Helen
and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land
movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based
on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating,
timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging
philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.
Silent
Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd
In Silent Theft, David Bollier
argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering
privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are
engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we
collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs,
software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative
works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often,
however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps
give away our assets. Amazingly,
the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed
because we have lost our ability to see the commons.
The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics
Guide by John Seymour The
Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that
teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony
with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops
and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and
wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.
When
Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
When Corporations
Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated
the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets
and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It
documents the devastating human and environmental consequences
of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct
values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their
own narrow ends.
The
New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques
for the Home and Market Gardener
This expansion
of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended
for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes
practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables,
with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock,
the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other
topics.
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