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4/22/2005

U.S. Northern Command Search on Sean Gorman

A U.S. Northern Command user (host: ncnc.northcom.mil, ip: 164.236.0.10) conducted the following Google search: sean gorman.

Question: What's NCNC? Six nerds, including me, failed to determine the meaning of that acronym after five minutes of searching.

Recent Related: Battlespace America



U.S. Army Search on Ratzinger

The U.S. Army user (host: cacheserver.wbamc.amedd.army.mil, ip: 192.138.52.41) conducted the following MSN search: opus dei ratzinger.



Warning on Spread of State Surveillance :.

Mainstream news:

Governments are building a "global registration and surveillance infrastructure" in the US-led "war on terror", civil liberty groups warned yesterday.

The aim is to monitor the movements and activities of entire populations in what campaigners call "an unprecedented project of social control".

The warning came from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, including the American Civil Liberties Union, and Statewatch, a UK-based bulletin which tracks developments in the EU.

They point to the system whereby all visitors to the US are to be digitally photographed and fingerprinted. The EU has agreed that member states must fingerprint all passport holders by the end of 2007. The information will be held on databases.

National ID cards, they warn, will become a "globally interoperable biometric passport". The setting up of airlines' passenger name records (PNRs) could include more than 60 different kinds of information, including meal choices which could reveal personal, religious or ethnic affiliations.

The US and EU governments are expanding legal powers to eavesdrop and to store the product of intercepted personal communications, the groups warn.

They also point to an agreement between Europol - the EU's incipient police headquarters - and the US giving what they say will be an unlimited number of American agencies access to sensitive information on the race, political opinions, religious beliefs, health and sexual life of individuals.

The groups point to increasingly close cooperation between national police, security, intelligence, and military establishments.



Military Hybrid Project Increases Mileage Nearly 5X :.

We can't begin to image what They have. This probably represents the crumbs from some 20 year old project:

The vehicle is powered by a small, three-cylinder diesel engine and two hybrid motors. It would cost about $20,000 to manufacture and could replace a $65,000 Humvee, Almand said. The vehicles are expected to get about 50 miles per gallon, compared to the Humvee's current 11 mpg. "The more money we can save the better," Almand said.

Like the Toyota Prius, the prototype vehicle minimizes fuel use by running exclusively on the electric motors at low speeds or when idling. The Army designed the vehicle for easy repair by providing unobstructed access to the engine, electric motor and drive train. The batteries are located in the center of the chassis beneath the vehicle for easy access.


4/21/2005

British Nationals Arrested with $3 Trillion in Fake U.S. Federal Reserve Certificates :.

WTF? This isn't bogus currency. This is some kind of massive bond scam. I'm posting the full text because this smells like something that will disappear completely. If you have additional information from outside the usual channels, please let me know.

Here's some chum for Them: securitization of debt, Switzerland, trillion, bank account, 1934 bonds. Come and get it, gentlemen:

$3-trillion fake federal bank notes seized from 2 Britons
By Evelyn Macairan
The Philippine Star 04/22/2005

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced yesterday the arrest of two British nationals who were caught in possession of $3-trillion fake US federal bank notes in an entrapment operation.

Charges of forgery and illegal possession of bank notes were filed against Paul Edward John Flavell and Sam Beany, both residents of the CEO Apartments located on Jupiter street, Makati City.

Manuel Eduarte, head agent of the NBI Anti-Graft Division said charges against the suspects were filed before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office last April 15. The two were granted temporary liberty after they each posted P16,000 bail last Tuesday.

However, NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said he has coordinated with the Bureau of Immigration and requested that the two suspects be included in its watchlist.

Two of their alleged cohorts, also British nationals, have yet to be apprehended by lawmen. They were identified as Zeki Mehmet Bayram and Peter Wittkamp.

The NBI recovered from Flavell and Beany a metal scroll and fake US federal bank reserves totaling $3 trillion, which were contained in an iron chest.

There were 13 boxes in the chest, each containing 50 reserve notes that amounted to $1 billion.

Eduarte said the notes were definite forgeries since the biggest amount the US government came out with was in the denomination of $10,000.

The counterfeit bonds were supposedly manufactured in 1934.

In a report submitted by the NBI-AGD to Wycoco, international courier company DHL Philippines informed their unit last April 14 that suspects Flavell and Beany were about to ship a cargo of fake US federal reserves to Zurich, Switzerland. They paid P53,967.24 as shipment fee.

Eduarte’s agents confirmed that the suspects went to the DHL office located at Pasong Tamo street in Makati City.

The two suspects allegedly paid the shipment fee and were asked to open the iron chest for inspection. Upon seeing that the contents were similar to the items they seized from a previous operation, the NBI agents accosted them.


4/20/2005

Google: My Search History (Beta) :.

Google has been associating searches with browser cookies since the beginning. The innovation here is letting you see the records:
My Search History lets you easily view and manage your search history from any computer. This feature of Google web search enables you to find information you thought you lost. And over time, you'll see an increasing number of relevance indicators in your search results that help you find the information you want.
I wonder if anyone has taken the plane ride based on this alone... Maybe? Not yet?

Give it time.

What do you want to bet that NORTHCOM has point and click access to this?



My Colorgenics Profile :.

All you do is pick the colors in the order of your preference. It's got to be nonsense, right?

Here's what it said about your humble editor... I don't know about the, "stressful, angry and disgruntled" part. Several years ago, those adjectives would have applied. I'm far too numb to experience that stuff now. It's tough, however, to argue with the rest of this:

You are the sort of person that needs a peaceful environment. You seek release from stress and freedom from conflicts and disagreements, of which you seem to have had more than your fair share. But you are taking pains to control the situation by proceeding cautiously and you are right in doing so as you are a very sensitive person.

You are looking for something different. Your imagination has been working overtime and you are seeking adventure - and you'd like to share that adventure, the new experience, with someone like yourself: Imaginative, Enthusiastic and Sensitive.

You wear your heart on your sleeve and since you are an emotional person you are apt to give your all - heart and soul - to all those that show you a little affection; but take care - it would appear that you have been extremely hurt in the past and you keep leaving yourself wide open for punishment.

You are feeling trapped by the situation as it stands at this time and what is more, you feel powerless to remedy it. You are stressful, angry and disgruntled. You feel that everything that you try to do to change the situation is thwarted and your hopes and aspirations all seem to be receding into the ever distant future. You have reached the state where you now doubt whether your dreams will ever be achieved and this is not only causing mental stress but heartache. You need to get away from it all - you need to have time to think, to recuperate, to be able to make your own decisions.

You wish to be left in peace... no more conflict and no more differences of opinion. In fact you just don't want to be involved in arguments of any shape or form. All you want is for 'them' to get on with it - and to leave you alone.



Qatar to Replace Camel Riders with Robots :.

Nowadays, when I read news stories, I have to make sure that my browser hasn't been hijacked. Am I on a real news site, or a spoof news site? Check my math, but the domain on this story seems to be cnn.com:

With the reins in one hand and a whip in the other, the purple-jerseyed rider prodded a camel around the track.

But this jockey wasn't the usual underfed boy. The jockey was a robot.

Under the watchful eyes of his Swiss developer and Qatari owners, the robot -- dubbed Kamel -- rode a racing camel for 1.5 miles, reaching speeds of 25 miles per hour in a non-competitive trial run.

By 2007, rulers of this energy-rich emirate say all camel racers will be mechanical.



Prices Are Surging - And It's Not Just Gasoline :.

Americans got hit with an economic double whammy last month. They had to pay more for gasoline, clothes, airline tickets and a lot of other products. And their wages did not keep up with inflation.

It was the second month in a row that wages, after adjusting for inflation, had fallen.


4/19/2005

Ratzinger and the Catholic Church Child Rapists :.

Bishops are instructed to pursue these cases 'in the most secretive way... restrained by a perpetual silence... and everyone... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office... under the penalty of excommunication'.

Lawyers point to a letter the Vatican sent to bishops in May 2001 clearly stating the 1962 instruction was in force until then. The letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, the most powerful man in Rome beside the Pope and who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the office which ran the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.



Farming for Families and Food, Not Corporate Profits :.

Two contradictory visions of globalization are sweeping around the world: one favors a top-down model of economic development via militaristic, corporate aggression. The other favors grassroots-led, democratic pluralism and seeks to produce diverse local development models suited to the needs of local communities.

Research Credit: BO



White Smoke, Dark Skies :.

It's my observation that the worst abuses in the Church, even its Luciferian excesses, have been perpetrated under the cloak of conservativism. John Paul II and his "enforcer," Cardinal Ratzinger, targetted liberation theology and the progressive strains of Catholicism, while their coddled "conservative" clergy continued, largely unchecked, in the molestation, rape and ritual abuse of young children. While Ratzinger has condemned gay relationships as "deviant and evil," he has been an enabler of sexual abuse, by "accusing the media of exaggerating the extent of paedophilia in the American Church."

That this man is now Pope, and the secret society Opus Dei his legionaires, I wonder whether our already interesting times are about to become unbearably fascinating.



GM Posts $1.1 Billion First Quarter Loss :.

General Motors Corp. reported its deepest quarterly loss in more than a decade - $1.1 billion - as rising health care costs and lackluster response to some new models hammered its North American business. With health costs not getting any cheaper and Asian automakers grabbing more of the market, the outlook for the world's largest automaker remains bleak.



Viacom Executives Paid Tens of Thousands for Staying in Their Homes :.

Incredible!

Les Moonves and Thomas Freston, the co-chief operating officers of media conglomerate Viacom, each saw their roughly $20 million in pay and bonus supplemented by tens of thousands of dollars for staying in their own homes.

The company's proxy statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission discloses that Moonves, who is based in Los Angeles but owns a home in New York, received an additional $105,000 in 2004 as reimbursement for staying in that home rather than a hotel when in New York on business. Viacom is based in New York.

Freston, who is based in New York but owns a home in Los Angeles, got $43,100 for staying in that L.A. home while in that city on business.


Research Credit: SA



Ratzinger Elected Pope :.

On the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Roman Catholic Church has elected a member of the Hitler Youth and the German military during World War II to serve as Pope. Ladies and gentlemen, I think it's safe to assume that we have just lost cabin pressure:

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.

He took the name Benedict XVI, a cardinal announced to crowds in St. Peter's Square after white smoke from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel chimney and the pealing of bells from St. Peter's Basilica announced that a new pope had been chosen.

Roman Catholic cardinals elected Ratzinger on just the second day of secret conclave to find a successor to Pope John Paul II.


4/18/2005

Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20

Longtime reader, MW, throws another $20 into the coffers! He is the most frequent contributor to Cryptogon. Thank you, MW, for your continued and generous support.



Italian 'Farce' as Berlusconi Doesn't Resign :.

Made ya look!

Political confusion deepened in Rome tonight when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi contradicted earlier expectations that he was about to resign and form a new government by saying he had not stepped down.

Berlusconi had been expected to make the move to strengthen his conservative coalition.

After an earlier emergency meeting of coalition leaders in Rome, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini had told reporters that Berlusconi would resign. The offer was expected to come when Berlusconi met President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi this evening.

But after meeting the president, Berlusconi said he had not resigned, news agencies reported.

Asked by reporters if he had handed in his resignation during the talks, Berlusconi responded "No", the ANSA news agency reported.

Berlusconi was quoted as saying he would explain the situation in parliament, but it was unclear when he would do so.



Ratzinger: Front Runner for Pope Was in Hitler Youth :.

I couldn't make it up if I tried:

A LEADING candidate for pope was in the Hitler Youth, it was revealed yesterday.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - who also saw service in the German army - is nicknamed The Panzer Cardinal and God's Rottweiler because of his rigorous defence of the faith.

The 78-year-old German, who led John Paul II's funeral service, joined the young Nazi movement in Bavaria aged 14 shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941. He soon left after enrolling to be a priest.



Tokyo Stocks Drop 3.8% :.

Tokyo's benchmark stock index plunged 3.8 percent Monday morning, its biggest one-day drop in more than 11 months, because of investor concerns about anti-Japanese protests in China and recent declines on Wall Street.



The Greatest Ever Speculative Bubble in Risk :.

This is an exhaustive account of recent bearish economic headlines:

The developing financial crisis took a major leap forward this week, with equity and risk markets in sharp retreat across the globe.



U.S. Military's Elite Hacker Crew :.

.mil hAx0rZ... This is fine and dandy, as long as the OPFOR doesn't pick up shovels and hatchets:

The U.S. military has assembled the world's most formidable hacker posse: a super-secret, multimillion-dollar weapons program that may be ready to launch bloodless cyberwar against enemy networks -- from electric grids to telephone nets.

The group's existence was revealed during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month. Military leaders from U.S. Strategic Command, or Stratcom, disclosed the existence of a unit called the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare, or JFCCNW.

In simple terms and sans any military jargon, the unit could best be described as the world's most formidable hacker posse. Ever.

The JFCCNW is charged with defending all Department of Defense networks. The unit is also responsible for the highly classified, evolving mission of Computer Network Attack, or as some military personnel refer to it, CNA.

But aside from that, little else is known. One expert on cyber warfare said considering the unit is a "joint command," it is most likely made up of personnel from the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI, the four military branches, a smattering of civilians and even military representatives from allied nations.

"They are a difficult nut to crack," said Dan Verton, a former U.S. Marine intelligence officer who is now a journalist for Computer World. "They're very reluctant to talk about operations." Verton is author of the book Black Ice, which investigates the threats cyber terrorism and vandalism could have on military and financial networks.


4/17/2005

Battlespace America :.

In 2002, the Defense Department updated its Unified Command Plan, which made the already blurry lines between civilian and military even less legible. Since then, all over America, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been making information about the public available to a Pentagon power center most people have never heard about: U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Hidden deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, more than 100 intelligence analysts sift through streams of data collected by federal agents and local law enforcers---continually updating a virtual picture of what the command calls the North American "battlespace," which includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as 500 miles out to sea. If they find something amiss, they have resources to deploy in response that no law enforcement agency could dream of. They've got an army, a navy, an air force, the Marines, and the Coast Guard.



Cryptogon Outage Caused by Flux Services

The clueless twits who run Flux Services disabled Cryptogon early Saturday morning. (If you sent email over the past 48 hours, please resend it.) They claimed that their server performance problems were being caused by a process running on my site.

Wait until you hear this one!

Those idiots thought that a mysterious process that creates the static HTML pages on my site was slowing down their server. There's just one problem with that theory...

BLOGGER CREATES THOSE FILES ON THEIR SYSTEM AND THEN FTPS STATIC HTML TO THE BLOG'S SERVER WHEN THE BLOG IS PUBLISHED!

Look at what their braindead donkey wrote to me:
Hello Kevin,

It is clear these are php processes creating the static pages. We have informed you the module creating these is the problem and you have done nothing to resolve the issue and as indicated, your account is suspended as a result.
The module creating the pages??? That would be blogger.com, you imbeciles. I guess they thought I was running blogger.com on my shared hosting package with them...

Anyway, rather than wishing doom and eternal damnation upon Flux Services, pity them for their stupidity. Also, for people who are looking for a review of Flux Services as a webhost: You couldn't make a more disastrous choice for your Internet hosting needs.




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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.