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11/30/2002
Facecrime :.Frequent Cryptogon contributor, TR, reminds us to re-read 1984, by George Orwell, just in case it has been a while. TR also sent along an interesting piece on a real world implementation of facecrime technology:  Teradata, Schrader's organization, is also heavily involved in creating integrated government databases. Now your facecrimes can be linked in with all the other information the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Information Awareness Office keep on you. If you look displeased during certain government announcements (capture of a terrorist, for example), that information will be recorded and integrated into a government database. Your facecrime will be part of your Homeland Security profile.
posted by Kevin at 2:24 PM
11/29/2002
Regimented Work :.If we're living in an advanced society, how come we work more than 40 hours a week when most so-called primitive societies have work days of between 2 and 5 hours?!
How come we have resigned ourselves to the 9-to-5 clockwork grind and the hierarchy of work when less than two hundred years ago our ancestors fought tooth and nail against the introduction of factory work and wage slavery?!
This article makes the case that regimented work :
* is not natural or necessary
* means that our society is really the primitive slave society
* was resisted by ordinary people who rightly saw it as the theft of their freedom and humanity
* can be replaced by voluntary cooperatives and similar structures
* can be largely superceded by a merging of work and play in to "creative activity for its own sake"Research Credit: JH
posted by Kevin at 1:15 PM
Eugene, Oregon Doesn't Want the Patriot Act :.I can't wait until I move there. Do I have any readers from Eugene? The Eugene City Council passed a resolution Monday night opposing the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the legislation shortly after September 11th in hopes of cracking down on terrorism.
Eugene Councilors agreed to pass a resolution after listening to dozens speak out on the controversial anti-terrorism law during a public forum at the Eugene City Hall. Alexander Gonzales said, "If we grow up thinking that it's ok to profile, it's ok to subject people to searches, then what is ok?" Dawn Peebles said, "Now, ordinary citizens are fearful that the government can come into their homes without honoring the Bill of Rights."
Almost 2000 people had signed a petition asking the Eugene City Council to pass the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee's Proposed Resolution.
posted by Kevin at 1:14 PM
Cops, Cops and More Cops :.Arguing that this city faces a far more perilous world than once imagined, New York's police commissioner wants to toss aside a decades-old federal court decree governing the limits on police spying and surveillance of its own citizenry.
City officials argue that officers need more elbow room to photograph, tape and infiltrate political and social organizations to uproot terror networks. But civil libertarians warn of a return to the unsavory days of old, when New York's police department acquired a reputation for police "black bag" break-ins and spying on political dissidents.
posted by Kevin at 1:12 PM
11/28/2002
Cannon Fodder: U.S. Military Personnel :.This article is longer than most I've posted on this site, but I strongly encourage all of you to read it. Unfortunately, this type of reporting isn't available from mainstream U.S. sources, and when you read it, you'll see why: Wilson, who four years ago was in superb health and in charge of one of the most potent weapons in the US armoury, can barely drive a car. She has lost a third of her body weight and suffers such agonising cramps every day that she is forced to curl up in a foetal position for hours at a time. She has stiff joints, chronic fatigue, anaemia, difficulty with simple sums, memory loss, blackouts, permanent abdominal pain and, according to her medical report, �loss of cognitive function�.
posted by Kevin at 7:52 AM
Millions About to Get Smallpox Vaccine :.Up to 10 million US health workers, police officers and firefighters are to be vaccinated against smallpox, according to a Bush administration official.
Half a million health workers will be vaccinated in the next few weeks against the possibility of a bioterror attack, according to the report.
President Bush is expected to announce shortly the plan to carry out a rolling smallpox vaccination programme, CNN television news reported yesterday.
The department of health and human services has asked all 50 states to submit a mass vaccination plan by December 1, for use in an actual smallpox attack.
Although there is no evidence of any plans for a smallpox attack, the first stage of the mass vaccination is said to be planned to start within a few weeks, targeting 500,000 health workers.
posted by Kevin at 7:50 AM
Bush Administration Orders Vaccine Records Sealed :.Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.
Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.
Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers.
The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.
posted by Kevin at 7:04 AM
Wanted Man to Find the Truth? :.Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. From investigatee to investigator: In late 2001, the Brazilian government canceled an invitation for Kissinger to speak in Sao Paulo because it could no longer guarantee his immunity. Earlier this year, a London court agreed to hear an application for Kissinger's imprisonment on war crimes charges while he was briefly in the United Kingdom. It is known that there are many countries to which he cannot travel at all, and it is also known that he takes legal advice before traveling anywhere. Does the Bush administration feel proud of appointing a man who is wanted in so many places, and wanted furthermore for his association with terrorism and crimes against humanity? Or does it hope to limit the scope of the inquiry to those areas where Kissinger has clients?
posted by Kevin at 6:15 AM
11/27/2002
THE END: War Criminal, Henry Kissinger, to Head Independent 9/11 Investigation :.Put a fork in it, ladies and gentlemen, it's done: WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks Wednesday and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel.
"Dr. Kissinger will bring broad experience, clear thinking and careful judgment to this important task," Bush said at a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. "Mr. secretary, thank you for returning to the service of your nation."From the jacket of The Trial of Henry Kissinger:  His own lonely impunity is rank; it smells to heaven. If it is allowed to persist then we shall shamefully vindicate the ancient philosopher Anacharsis, who maintained that laws were like cobwebs; strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong. In the name of innumerable victims known and unknown, it is time for justice to take a hand.
With the detention of Augusto Pinochet, and intense international pressure for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the possibility of international law acting against tyrants around the world is emerging as a reality. Yet, as Christopher Hitchens demonstrates in this compact, incendiary book, the West need not look far to find suitable candidates for the dock. The United States is home to an individual whose record of war crimes bears comparison with the worst dictators of recent history. Please stand, ex-Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger.
Hitchens. . . .investigates Kissinger's involvement in the war in Indochina, mass murder in Bangladesh, planned assassinations in Santiago, Nicosia and Washington DC, and genocide in East Timor. Drawing on first-hand testimony, previously unpublished documentation, and broad sweeps through material released under the Freedom of Information Act, he mounts a devastating indictment of a man whose ambition and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter.
posted by Kevin at 7:08 AM
Is China Going to Attack Taiwan? :.Military analysts say China could be waiting for the United States to commit much of its remaining military forces to an attack against Iraq before launching an invasion against Taiwan.
"Should the Iraqi war turn sour � if, for instance, Saddam pulls his most loyal troops into Iraq's cities to force a drawn-out, street-to-street fight � the U.S. might be forced to pour additional troops into the battle," said Bryan Preston, a writer and television producer, in the Aug. 20 issue of The National Review Online. "For China, our difficulty would be a golden opportunity to take on Taiwan, provided it could be sure the Bush administration's nuclear threat was a bluff," he said. "What would China do?"
Tom Knowlton, a military analyst writing for Internet-based publication Defense Watch, which is published by Soldiers For The Truth, a group founded by decorated veteran, author and columnist David Hackworth � also says there is at least substantial anecdotal evidence China may be planning such a move � enough that it should give U.S. military planners and the Bush administration pause.
posted by Kevin at 5:33 AM
11/26/2002
Stunning: Students Experience Bioterror Vaccination "Exercise" :.Uh, why are the assault rifles necessary? Hmmm... Officers with assault rifles and paramedics armed with hypodermic needles invaded Mesa's Westwood High School on Thursday.
The men and women in uniform were part of a daylong drill at the school to see how ready health, emergency and military systems are to deal with a bioterror attack.
But the mock attack also helped provide a day of distraction for Westwood students. Some got breaks from class to participate in the drills. Others stared at the onslaught of TV satellite trucks and emergency vehicles surrounding the gym. Several football players on the way to practice were particularly enthralled with the officers' combat weapons. [Ya, let's see how enthralled they'll be if they refuse to take the needle during the real deal.] The bioterrorism training began at 9 a.m. as paramedics and public health nurses began dishing out tetanus shots to students. Slightly more than 3,000 students from Mesa's six high schools, including 500 at Westwood, received the free shots.
posted by Kevin at 3:33 AM
The Incredible Irony of the U.S. Devolution into Tyranny :.To read it in British media is one thing, but to read it in Russian media, now that is really a slapdown. This article is excellent: We've said it before, and we'll keep on saying it: A country whose leader has the power to imprison any citizen, on his order alone, and hold them indefinitely, in military custody, without access to the courts, without a lawyer, without any charges, their fate determined solely by the leader's arbitrary whim -- that country is a tyranny, not a democracy, not a republic, not a union of free citizens.
Now, it may be that it is still a tyranny in utero, a rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem -- or in this case, Washington -- to be born, and not yet the full-blown monster, fangs bared and back plated with bristling armored scales. But the tyranny has been conceived, it's taken root in the womb, gained definite form and is clawing, tearing its way toward the light.
President George W. Bush openly claims that he now holds this power of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. His minions defend it with earnest arguments. They have already begun acting on its dictatorial tenets. If this claim is not rejected by the other two branches of government -- an unlikely event, with both branches now held by Bush partisans -- then the fundamental liberty of every American citizen will have been stripped away finally and completely. Henceforth, liberty is not the inalienable right of the citizen, but a privilege granted -- or not -- by an autocratic government.
What we are witnessing is the mutation of a democratic republic into a military autocracy: Bush bases his claim of arbitrary power on the president's constitutional role as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Although there is nothing in the constitution that warrants the extension of military command to cover arbitrary rule over the entire citizenry, and certainly nothing that countenances the abrogation of basic rights and liberties on the unchallengeable say-so of an all-powerful leader, the "commander-in-chief" argument nevertheless serves a useful purpose for the autocrat, creating the illusion of a limited and temporary suspension of liberties -- a drastic but necessary "wartime" measure.
But Bush and his officials have already warned us that this "wartime emergency" might never end.
posted by Kevin at 3:30 AM
Bush Aide: Inspections Or Not, We'll Attack Iraq :.George Bush's top security adviser last night admitted the US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons.
Dr Richard Perle stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine.
Evidence from ONE witness on Saddam Hussein's weapons programme will be enough to trigger a fresh military onslaught, he told an all- party meeting on global security.
Former defence minister and Labour backbencher Peter Kilfoyle said: "America is duping the world into believing it supports these inspections. President Bush intends to go to war even if inspectors find nothing.Research Credit: pr0spero
posted by Kevin at 3:27 AM
Really Big Brother :.This is one of dozens of similar articles from all over the place: Consider this an alarm bell. The Defense Department is embarking on a project so invasive of Americans' privacy that it will leave little to the government's imagination. It is designing a domestic computer surveillance system that would give U.S. intelligence agents access to huge databases of personal information on every American, from credit card purchases to medical records. The idea is to scrutinize unrelated information and transactions in an effort to uncover terrorist activity before an attack occurs. But there is no proof that such a system will make us safer. We only know it will lay waste to our privacy.
posted by Kevin at 3:25 AM
"I Say if the Boobs Bleep, Wand 'Em" :.For the most part Americans are nice, cooperative people who don't want to cause trouble. They want to get along and be helpful. So we trip all over ourselves to avoid saying the obvious -- that we're being spied on, Stalinized and slowly robbed of everything that's worth defending -- and trust that America will be more or less the same when we wake up tomorrow.
But tomorrow is yesterday and already America is not the same. Incrementally, we have grown accustomed to invasions of privacy that we wouldn't have tolerated before Sept. 11, 2001. Until then, we knew what the limits of government should be. We knew, for example, that when security inspectors at the New Orleans airport started running their hands over blond women's breasts to make sure their bra underwires weren't really explosive devices that someone was stepping over the line.
posted by Kevin at 3:24 AM
Victory: Standing Up to Jingoism at Work :.People write to me all the time expressing feelings of hopelessness, fear and futility. The problems we face are so great, what can we do, etc.? I've said it many times before: JUST DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, SINCE MOST PEOPLE DO NOTHING. If everyone just did SOMETHING, the planet would be a different place. Example: A Cryptogon reader was facing constant pro-war propaganda at work from a person who has a relative in the U.S. Army. Clearly, nobody should have to put up with this type of nonsense at work. She took action, and put an end to inappropriate jingoism in her immediate surroundings. What have you done lately to make a difference? Send it in!
posted by Kevin at 3:07 AM
Switch: I Finally Bought an Apple Macintosh Titanium Powerbook :.Dear Apple Computer,
Hi. My name is Kevin, and I'm a political dissident.
In my opinion, the new 1Ghz Powerbook is an excellent way to make the End Days more enjoyable. All of the stuff that can be a pain in the hole (or next to impossible) under Linux works just great- right out of the box. Pop in a DVD, burn stuff to DVD-R, rip a CD, burn one, plug in your digital camera, or digital video camera. It all just works. It's fast. OSX is rock solid stable.
But wait, there's more: Open up the terminal and it's Unix underneath. TR, seen here in his natural environment, helped me get up and running with The Fink and the beautiful OroborOSX window manager. (TR pulled off a bootstrap fink install for OSX 10.2 because there's no binary installer for 10.2 yet. *Everyone bow*) With fink, you can run hundreds of Debian apps inside windows you'll swear are a part of Aqua. (If anyone up at 1 Infinite Loop can tell us how to get .bashrc to source in bash when a new terminal spawns, please write me. Once we're in the terminal, bash is up, but we're having to do a . .bashrc, manually, and then the colored text environment variable activates. I figured it out. .term files.) So, far, I'm extremely happy with the machine. Well done, Apple.
-Kevin FSeriously, if you're a normal person, ignore the above paragraphs and just go try the new Powerbook. Yes! It's excellent for both freaks and normals! Hint: If you get "sticker shock" from the price, do a careful analysis of exactly what you're getting. Consider the fact that you'll be running an incredibly stable and secure operating system. Consider the software bundle. Consider the hardware quality. Consider the fact that Windows notebooks with similar features weigh three to four pounds more! And battery life is top notch at just over 4 hours (so far, in my experience). Anyway, if you're in the market for a really nice system, consider an Apple. You may like what you see. I sure did.
posted by Kevin at 2:56 AM
11/21/2002
U.S. Marines Engage in Domestic Law Enforcement Activities :.I was so shocked when I read this, I made a PDF of the actual CNN page because this is so far out I just don't think it will stay up for long: About 40 miles north of Conway, sheriff's deputies, state police and U.S. Marines are searching an 850-square-mile area along U.S. Highway 17 for any sign of the missing woman.For those of you who don't know, the use of regular U.S. Military personnel for law enforcement purposes is, basically, not allowed. See the following, from the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878: 10 U.S.C. (United States Code) 375
Sec. 375. Restriction on direct participation by military personnel:
The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to ensure that any activity (including the provision of any equipment or facility or the assignment or detail of any personnel) under this chapter does not include or permit direct participation by a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity unless participation in such activity by such member is otherwise authorized by law.I'm not a lawyer, but it appears that the last sentence is key. Which law has been passed that authorizes the use of regular U.S. Marines in a domestic law enforcement capacity?
posted by Kevin at 2:06 PM
Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases :.Can you guys even believe this stuff? A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.
"The bottom line is this is an important research project to determine the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.
Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.
posted by Kevin at 1:31 PM
Tinkering with the Power of Creation :. Bill Joy is a smart man. His essay, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" sent shockwaves through technical and scientific communities because he said that the real threat to life on this planet was posed, not so much by nuclear weapons, but by robotics, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Joy is the Chief Scientist at Sun Microsystems: Part of the answer certainly lies in our attitude toward the new - in our bias toward instant familiarity and unquestioning acceptance. Accustomed to living with almost routine scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology - pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before. Specifically, robots, engineered organisms, and nanobots share a dangerous amplifying factor: They can self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once - but one bot can become many, and quickly get out of control.Bill Joy wrote those words in April of 2000. Today, scientists are about to create a synthetic organism that is capable of self-replication. Keep Joy's words in mind as you read the following: J. Craig Venter, the gene scientist with a history of pulling off unlikely successes, and Hamilton O. Smith, a Nobel laureate, are behind the plan. Their intent is to create a single-celled, partially man-made organism with the minimum number of genes necessary to sustain life. If the experiment works, the microscopic man-made cell will begin feeding and dividing to create a population of cells unlike any previously known to exist.
To ensure safety, Smith and Venter said the cell will be deliberately hobbled to render it incapable of infecting people; it also will be strictly confined, and designed to die if it does manage to escape into the environment.
More worrisome than the risk of escape, they acknowledged, is that the project could lay the scientific groundwork for a new generation of biological weapons, a risk that may force them to be selective about publishing technical details. But they said the project could also help advance the nation's ability to detect and counter existing biological weapons.
posted by Kevin at 5:54 AM
11/20/2002
Benjamin Franklin Saw This Nightmare ComingTR sent in the following. There's nothing new under the sun, folks: I've been reading the Anti-Federalist papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates and they are a MIND BLOWER. These people were escaping from a horrifying tyranny and they were deathly afraid of establishing another one. They knew that if money and power were mixed, disaster would soon follow. This article, written by Benjamin Franklin, is as American as apple pie, yet it is diametrically opposed to the modern day United States.
Benjamin Franklin, excerpt from Anti-Federalist #5, June 2, 1787:
Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men, a post of honor that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it.
And of what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable pre-eminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate; the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your Government and be your rulers.
Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is a scarce king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servant: for ever. It will be said, that we don't propose to establish Kings. I know it. But there is a natural inclination in mankind to Kingly Government. It sometimes relieves them from Aristocratic domination. They had rather have one tyrant than five hundred. It gives more of the appearance of equality among Citizens, and that they like. I am apprehensive therefore, perhaps too apprehensive, that the Government of these States, may in future times, end in a Monarchy.
posted by Kevin at 5:13 AM
Smallpox: Pay-Day for Vaccine Companies :.The people in the White House either perpetrated 9/11 or, at a minimum, allowed it to happen. Now they want to stick you with needles full of poison, to supposedly protect you against an organism that probably originated in a U.S. weapons lab? And enrich their fascist buddies in the pharmaceutical companies while they're at it?! And nobody can sue after the smoke clears? If you take this vaccine, you ought to have your head examined! End of story: The Bush administration, voicing increased fears over the threat of a biological attack, has quietly moved one step closer to a voluntary national smallpox vaccination program by offering full legal protection to manufacturers and medical personnel who administer the vaccine.
A provision belatedly tucked into the homeland security bill, which is now pending before the Senate, eliminates the single remaining major obstacle in a yearlong push to improve the nation's readiness to deal with one of the deadliest viruses in history.
If a smallpox attack is launched, federal health officials aim to vaccinate all 280 million Americans within a week. That effort would take at least 1.5 million volunteers, many of them doctors and nurses employed by private hospitals, clinics or state health departments. A growing chorus of medical professionals warned they would not give the vaccine without guarantees they would not be held liable for the serious, sometimes fatal, complications that can occur.Update: Flu Shot Paralyzes Man :.Two weeks after his flu shot, Mr. Claman awoke with a pounding headache and a strange feeling in his feet. The doctor was reassuring, telling the 47-year-old businessman that the symptoms were probably related to stress.
His condition deteriorated, so he made his way to a hospital emergency room. His body was gradually going numb.
Doctors immediately recognized the tell-tale signs of Guillain Barr� syndrome, a baffling, potentially fatal condition that resembles polio.
By afternoon, Mr. Claman was completely paralyzed. He was placed in intensive care and put on a respirator.
posted by Kevin at 5:12 AM
Australia Moves to Implement Warrantless Searches :.It's coming down all over the world: Police will have the power to search without a warrant and without reasonable suspicion under proposed new terrorism laws released by the NSW Premier Bob Carr today.
"Police only exercise these powers in the wake of a credible threat or a terrorist strike and even then they would need to be renewed - in the case of a terrorist strike after 48 hours," said Premier Bob Carr at Parliament House today.
"The increased police powers mainly involve the power to search. I would argue they are entirely reasonable given the kind of threat that post-Bali we face."Research Credit: AM
posted by Kevin at 5:01 AM
Meet Your New Big Brother :.I'm not going to go too heavily into this right now. We've seen this coming for months, and will no doubt never hear the end of it. The fact that an agency like this was even contemplated in the U.S. should have been enough to indicate that we were in deep trouble. Now that it's a reality, well, just put another check in the "U.S. Is Doomed" column: Capping months of debate, the Senate on Tuesday approved 90 to 9 a bill that would create a Department of Homeland Security -- a massive reorganization of the federal government sparked by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
President Bush praised the Senate in a statement issued shortly after the vote and said he looked "forward to signing this important legislation."
"This landmark legislation, the most extensive reorganization of the federal government since the 1940s, will help our nation meet the emerging threats of terrorism in the 21st century," Bush said.
posted by Kevin at 4:59 AM
You Better Be Sitting Down For This One :.Just when you thought you wouldn't be able to stand to look at one more SUV with waving American flags and stickers made by slave labor in China, you better not let those imbeciles in your neighborhood hear about this: And, yes, believe it or not, this is a real sign.
posted by Kevin at 3:10 AM
11/18/2002
Secret Court OKs Broad Wiretap Powers :.In a victory for the Bush administration, a secretive appeals court Monday ruled the U.S. government has the right to use expanded powers to wiretap terrorism suspects under a law adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The ruling was a blow to civil libertarians who say the expanded powers, which allow greater leeway in conducting electronic surveillance and in using information obtained from the wiretaps and searches, jeopardize constitutional rights.
In a 56-page ruling overturning a May opinion by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the three-judge appeals court panel said the Patriot Act gave the government the right to expanded powers.
Sweeping anti-terror legislation, called the USA Patriot Act and signed into law in October last year after the hijacked plane attacks, makes it easier for investigators and prosecutors to share information obtained by surveillance and searches.
posted by Kevin at 6:53 PM
Checkpoints Here, Checkpoints There, Checkpoints Everywhere :.A driver�s license checkpoint at the busy tri-city exchange between Eustis, Mount Dora, and Umatilla yielded nearly 1,000 vehicles.
Eustis Police Det. Elena Breedlove, who orchestrated the checkpoint, called the four-hour Friday night operation a success.
Breedlove said the area needed the proactive measure to remind citizens that Florida statutes require motorists to have in their possession a valid driver�s license. �It helps promote safety in the neighborhood,� she said. The check point stopped traffic in all four directions of the intersection of County Roads 44 and 452, near the Lake County Fairgrounds.
posted by Kevin at 6:51 PM
Terrorist Flight School and Narcotics Trafficking :.The FBI knew terrorists were training at flight schools in Florida. Why didn't they move in? The call from CIA HQ probably sounded something like this: "U.S. Intelligence assets are operating out of those facilities. The activities are sanctioned by CIA and related to U.S. National Security." In other words: Move along gentlemen, there's nothing to see here: Mounting evidence in the investigation into the terror flight schools in Venice FL is raising questions of whether an officially-sanctioned drug trafficking operation there discouraged the FBI from taking action against the terrorists that might have averted the World Trade Center disaster.
The dark specter of the drug trade is throwing an increasingly long shadow across the terrorist conspiracy's activities in Venice, where Mohamed Atta and his close associates, many of whom were German, frequently used cocaine. According to a credible eyewitness, when their supplies ran low they would procure more from a flight school at the Venice Airport.
posted by Kevin at 7:10 AM
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Chips Everywhere Soon :.Asset tracking, or tracking your ass, these nanoscale ID chips need no power, cost next to nothing and can be placed on just about anything: Alien Technology Corporation is working with the Auto-ID Center and leading technology partners to deploy electronic product code (ePC) tags inexpensive enough to let virtually every product communicate, both locally and globally, throughout its life cycle.
By incorporating ePC tags into your supply chain, warehouse operations, and retail stores, you can cut operating costs and eliminate stock-outs while reducing inventory and billing errors.
Using the Auto-ID Center's open protocol, Alien delivers high performance at the lowest possible cost. The blue-chip membership of the Auto-ID Center, including leading global retailers and consumer goods companies, ensure that the protocol will see broad application and will be supported by major software and technology companies.
Even the simplest ePC tag is a powerful tool, with a user-programmable 64-bit code representing standard barcode data plus individual unit identification. Built on proven UHF technology, Alien's low-cost ePC tags and readers provide the range, speed, and robustness required for logistics and asset tracking.
posted by Kevin at 7:05 AM
London Lock-Down :.The U.S. is following Britain's lead when it comes to using technology for political control. Whether Americans like it or not, we can look at present day Britain and see where the U.S. will be within a couple of years, probably sooner. I'd have fewer reservations about visiting Beijing than I would about visiting London: The Mayor of London is demanding that the drivers waive certain rights under the Data Protection Act to obtain a discount on the �5 daily charge. Motoring groups said that the monitoring scheme �smacks of Big Brother�.
More than 83,000 people living inside the congestion charging zone and 218,000 disabled-badge holders in London are being told that they must agree to have their movements monitored. Transport for London, the mayor�s transport authority, plans to use a network of more than 200 cameras to identify any �suspicious movements� by those who may have fraudulently obtained a discount. Each vehicle will have its numberplate read by a camera three or more times while it is inside the eight-square-mile zone, which comes into force on February 17 next year. A central computer will check the numberplates against a list of those who have paid or who are exempt. Anyone not on the list will be sent an �80 penalty notice.
posted by Kevin at 6:54 AM
U.K.: Pedophiles may get Chipped :.Pedophiles today, soccer moms tomorrow: ELECTRONIC tracking devices could be implanted into convicted paedophiles under plans being considered by the government.
Microchips would be surgically fitted beneath the skin under local anaesthetic, enabling officials to follow abusers� movements and monitor their heart rate and blood pressure.
The tagging technology is similar to that used to locate stolen cars. It works by using satellites or a mobile phone network to pinpoint the person on an electronic map via a signal from the implant.
posted by Kevin at 6:50 AM
Socialist France? :.In the U.S., wealthy people have been barricading themselves behind gates and armed guards for decades. After all, fear of poor people (and being poor) is part of the American way. But in France?! Yep, apparently, socialist France is changing. Increasingly, people with a few Francs to rub together are choosing to live in walled and gate guarded private communities: French society is changing, with a growing rift between underprivileged masses surviving on welfare (supplementary benefit, job creation schemes) and a prosperous, highly qualified minority. The proliferation of gated communities in France is an illustration of this. French towns have traditionally been the scene of social interaction, with different classes and communities co-existing. But segregation is increasingly common. France's gated communities are pursuing an urban ideal, similar to those in the US, in which people choose to live with others as fortunate as themselves. Toulouse's engineers, scientists, barristers, architects and journalists are opting out of urban life to be among equals and leave public spaces to the poor that they fear.Research Credit: JH
posted by Kevin at 6:34 AM
11/15/2002
Atomic Weapons Pre-Positioned on U.S. Soil :.Update: This article was retracted by Asia Times. I'm leaving it up, however, just because it was interesting. Here's what Asia Times said about the article: THE BIG HOAX: WE FELL FOR IT
Asia Times Online uploaded an article in this space entitled Apocalypse Now, or Alottanukes soon. The article has been withdrawn as it was based on the transcript of an interview that now appears to have been a hoax. We sincerely apologize to readers who were alarmed by the contents of the article. We thank those readers who pointed us to this page in antivirus.about.com, which, we would add, does not appear in a Google search for the name "Usuquf" or "Asuquf". We'd also like to point out that we added a caveat at the top of the article that "the identity of the man [al-Usuquf] has not been confirmed, nor has his membership within al-Qaeda". Well, if any of this is true, it's Miller Time. Put this one at the front of your "Stuff of Nightmares" folder. I wouldn't have posted this at all if the source was some freak backwater site like my mine. But this was on the front page of Asia Times, a major Asian news site. All I can say is that I hope I'm lucky enough to be within the primary blast radius of one of these eggs, because things will definitely suck further out:
The means? "Atomic bombs." Al-Usuquf's most startling revelation is that the bombs "won't be
launched, they are already there".
"Seven nuclear heads have already been positioned on American soil, before September 11, and they are ready to be detonated. Before September 11, American security was a fiasco, and even later, if we needed, we could position the bombs there. They arrived through seaports, as normal cargo. A nuclear head is not bigger than a fridge, so it can easily be camouflaged as one. Thousands of containers arrive at a seaport every day, and even with very efficient security, it's impossible to check and examine each one of them."
Al-Usuquf says that the bombs were bought on the black market: five from the former USSR and two from Pakistan. The five Russian heads "are from T-3 missiles, also known as RD-107, and their power is around 100 kilotons each, that is five times the Hiroshima bomb. The Pakistani ones are less powerful, something around 10 kilotons each."
Each of the Russian bombs would have cost around $200 million. Al-Qaeda was able to raise the money "because we have many sponsors. Many countries sponsor us, and also some very rich people." And not all of these are Arab countries. "Some European countries as well are also interested in the fall of the US." As to the "rich people", they are "people who are also tired of seeing the US bleeding the rest of the world."
Research Credit: pr0spero
posted by Kevin at 8:51 PM
11/14/2002
Merry Christmas: Prepare for War :."We're going to war, and there's not a damn thing the inspectors can do to stop it, and that's a shame. Inspections worked once and they can work again," Ritter said Wednesday night during a speech at the California Institute for Technology.
The wording of the U.N. resolution will allow the United States to attack by mid-December, said Ritter, who was chief weapons inspector for the U.N. Special Commission in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.
posted by Kevin at 2:55 PM
Interesting Hits TodayUpdate: Thu Nov 14 02 at 04:40:53 PM 192.5.18.32 ws18-32.darpa.mil Now we're talkin'! Greetings, gentlemen. Thu Nov 14 02 at 01:44:11 PM 208.244.233.99 extcachen.lucasfilm.com May the Force be with me. Couple from here, actually. Thu Nov 14 02 at 01:26:19 PM 198.26.74.100 WCS2-PENT.NIPR.MIL Internet gateway for classified military networks. Couple from here, too. Thu Nov 14 02 at 12:27:25 PM 164.214.4.61 relay5.nima.mil Watch us watch you. Imaging spooks. Thu Nov 14 02 at 08:43:34 AM 204.128.192.51 proxy2.disney.com It's for the children.
posted by Kevin at 2:05 PM
Soldiers on the Streets :."If local law enforcement is totally overwhelmed, would not the military be perhaps the best to help for that interim period until the local law enforcement can reconstitute itself?'' Warner said in an interview Tuesday.Research Credit: BW
posted by Kevin at 2:38 AM
Information Awareness Office Goes Mainstream :.Drudge gets about 5 million hits per day. You Are a SuspectEvery purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend � all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you � passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance � and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen. Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 2:36 AM
11/13/2002
Note to Cryptogon ReadersToday's update is large, but the articles are very important. Please try to find time to read these articles (not necessarily my comments). They're excellent. I can barely keep up with all the stories that are coming out now. Information directly related to the dire political and economic situation on this planet is coming from all sides; established media, freak media, individuals, Left, Right, Center and Fringe. There is a flood of information. The pace is accelerating. Can you feel it? Something big is going to happen. I don't know when exactly, but the Them need to hit the reset switch again because too much damaging information is beginning to creep into more established media. There must be a crisis because too many people are starting to "get" it. Perhaps the war with Iraq (weeks away) will suffice, but I don't think so. The dissenting voices, and there are many on all continents, need to be drowned out by a din of well groomed imbecile-experts calling for more Machiavellian solutions. Only the diabolical theater provided by images of dead women and children, and their sobbing friends and relatives, re-run endlessly on global TV networks, will shock the public into believing the government shills. So, keep your eyes open and use your skills of discernment when presented with the next crisis. I wasn't planning to continue with this, but I need to comment on what I'm hearing on the radio: I'm listening to Michael Levine and Gary Null talking with each other on KPFK, 90.7fm in Los Angeles. Mike Levine just said words to the effect: "Gary, you know that you and I are on the federal take-down list, right?" Gary Null responded, "I'm fully aware of that." This is interesting because I feel that there is a slight chance that I will be taken down at some point. But you know what? I'm sure Mike Levine and Gary Null would agree with me when I say: There's nothing to be afraid of. Think about it in terms of the universe. Who cares? So, if you just do what you know is right, who cares what the Them do to you?! People write in, thanking me for what I'm doing, but expressing concern for my safety. They say they're afraid to undertake similar activism. Think about it this way. If you aren't an eye-witness to a crime and you're not in a position to blow any current or future operations, chances are, you will be left alone. (Don't get me wrong, people get disappeared and suicided all the time.) The only thing I hope, if they do indeed take a bunch of us down, is that they put us all in the same pen, cage or camp. I wouldn't mind hanging out with Noam Chomsky, Mike Ruppert, Gary Webb and some of these other guys for a while....Even if we're surrounded by razor wire, numb nuts with guns and barking attack dogs. If the chance to hang out with aging dissidents in a concentration camp doesn't float your boat, just think about what Obe-Wan Kenobe said to Darth Vader! "You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."And what did the old man do after he said that to the Dark Lord? He switched off his light saber.
posted by Kevin at 5:03 AM
Random Traffic Stops Begin in Michigan :.People, it is GAME OVER! Ever read these words? The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
---The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment IVGrab your ankles, folks, here it comes: Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.
Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions.
The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar. Note: If you mention the U.S. Constitution at a checkpoint, law enforcement officials have been told to report you to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. FBI Memo 1. FBI Memo 2.
posted by Kevin at 4:58 AM
The Horror of Russia's Atrocities in Chechnya :. Putin apparently lost it when a reporter began to question Russia's policies in Chechnya. What is happening in Chechnya, and why did Putin get so upset? I wasn't going to post this Newsweek story on Chechnya because I thought it was too shocking, even for my site. I was basically traumatized from reading this. I have a formal education in international security studies. I have, on my own, studied most regional and sub-regional conflicts that have occurred over the past 50 years. I thought I'd heard it all when I read about Pol Pot in Cambodia. I thought I'd heard it all when I read about the Contras in Nicaragua. Timor. Yugoslavia. Etc. Having said all of that, I have never encountered anything that approaches what is happening, right now, in Chechnya. The situation in Chechnya more closely resembles a tribal blood feud than any kind of conventional war. Oh ya: Bush considers Putin an ally in the "War on Terror." WARNING: Do not read unless you are prepared to handle unimaginable descriptions of violence, torture, murder, rape and destruction. We heard shots and the screams of 15-year-old Aminat, the sister of Ahmed and Aslanbek. 'Let her be!' screamed one of the brothers. 'Kill us instead!' Then we heard more shots. Through the window we saw a half-dressed OMON commander lying on top of Aminat. She was covered in blood from the bullet wounds. Another soldier shouted, 'Hurry up, Kolya, while she's still warm'."
Sometimes those who survive wish they were dead, as in Zernovodsk this summer, when townspeople say they were chased onto a field and made to watch women being raped. When their men tried to defend them, 68 of them were handcuffed to an armored truck and raped, too. After this episode, 45 of them joined the guerrillas in the mountains. One older man, Nurdi Dayeyev, who was nearly blind, had nails driven through his hands and feet because it was suspected that he was in contact with the fighters. When relatives later retrieved his remains, he was missing a hand.Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:55 AM
MI6 Halted Bid to Arrest bin Laden :.With each passing day, it's becoming increasingly clear that U.S. and British spooks are allowing all of this nonsense to come down for political reasons: British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.
The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya's fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is connected to one of bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, will be embarrassing to the Government, which described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler as 'pure fantasy'.
The allegations have emerged in the book Forbidden Truth , published in America by two French intelligence experts who reveal that the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998.
According to journalist Guillaume Dasqui� and Jean-Charles Brisard, an adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya and played down the threat. Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
posted by Kevin at 4:52 AM
King George's Dilemma :.This is the best essay I have seen on current U.S. exigencies. The piece is excellent because it includes the historical context for the situation in which we find ourselves. Please read, absorb and distribute it widely. We now face an economic elite not of greed, but one with an invincible resolve "to take it all"- "it" meaning wealth. Like the gangster Willie Sutton robbing banks because "that is where the money is," elites themselves loot into bankruptcy even the corporations they own. Their opulence seems, to them, meager even as a typical CEO among Fortune's 500 receives in half a day what his hourly employee earns for an entire year, a pay differential over ten times the amount of twenty-five years ago.
Among the most posh of the reigning corporate legion are the top 100 where yearly compensation accelerated from $1.3 million three decades ago to today's $37.5 million, rising from 39 times to 1,000 times above the average pay. The wealthiest one percent, who held 22 percent of the nation's wealth in 1975, now possesses 42 percent. Combining last year's federal tax reduction with the proposed removal of estate taxes ingeniously results in a "fair-share" 40 percent of the benefits going to the same most affluent one percent. It is just another reallocation, from the public treasury to the private domain, of riches flowing unto the tiny few already bloating with magnificent fortunes.
Unwavering and shameless to "get it all," a revitalized generation of robber barons knows no bounds. "The ability to magnetize shareholder ignorance," Warren Buffet of CEO fame admits, "has probably never been exceeded."
Yet, this take-it-all effort is not just about wealth. The elite needs enormous power, i.e. the capacity to transfer any source of wealth from one to another - namely, from all of us and into the private accounts of the economic elite. Such clout must be sufficient not just to seize wealth wherever it exists as a "pot of gold," but to preserve and confiscate the world's prevailing and basic source of energy as its very own wealth- oil.
posted by Kevin at 4:50 AM
White House 'Bonesman' Leads Nation Into the Dark :."My senior year (at Yale University) I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society," President Bush wrote in his autobiography, "so secret, I can't say anything more."
He doesn't have to. He's practically turning the government into a secret society - an old-boy, throwback establishment that even holds its secret spy-court proceedings in an elaborately locked, windowless room that sounds similar to the Bones' elaborately locked, practically windowless "tomb," or campus clubhouse.
Bush, a loyal and particularly active member of Skull and Bones, a mysterious, historically misogynist Yale-based secret society, seems to have done almost all he can to promote a level of secrecy in government not seen since the Nixon administration.
posted by Kevin at 4:47 AM
11/12/2002
A New Age of Empire :.If this Crusade doesn't touch off World War III, I will be shocked and amazed. The difference between the most recent time the West tried this and today is that there were no force multipliers, asymmetric methods and wildcards available to the previously conquered peoples. Today, Western societies can be brought down by things that fit in the trunks of cars. Think about it as Bush and Blair head down this road to ruin. The enemies of the West (hundreds of millions) will only have to get lucky once with, say, a nuclear weapon. The imperial powers of old never had to worry about such things. We are in very new and dangerous territory: British Member of Parliament George Galloway says that a plan for the division of the Middle East is circulating in the corridors of power on both sides of the Atlantic. In a recent interview, Galloway asserted that ministers and eminent figures in the British government are deliberating the partition of the Middle East, harking back to the colonial map-making in the first quarter of the 20th century that established the modern nation-states of the region. An Anglo-American war against Iraq, he tells me, could be the opening salvo in the break up of the region. Galloway, who met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad this August, states that the war aims of the US and Britain go well beyond replacing the Iraqi leader. "They include a recasting of the entire Middle East, the better to ensure the hegemony of the big powers over the natural resources of the Middle East and the safety and security of the vanguard of imperialist interests in the area - the state of Israel. And part of that is actually redrawing boundaries."Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:23 AM
For Richer :. (Very long article) Yesterday I laughed at the New York Times. But, hey, even that rag gets it semi-correct once in a while. I agree with a lot of what's in this piece, but it doesn't go far enough and I think Mr. Krugman is dreaming if he thinks more taxes are the answer, and that the 50s and 60s are something to shoot for economically. Raise taxes, and then what, Mr. Krugman, funnel it all back to the usual suspects via government programs? Don't empower the monster with more tax revenue. Make it illegal for a CEO to make more than 100X the lowest paid employee. Don't tax them and empower the useless government. The only thing I want the government to do is prevent the accumulation of destabilizing amounts of wealth. Force a more equitable distribution, and LET US FIGURE OUT THE REST. This is not rocket science that requires a new government agency. It boils down to this: Less money at the top, more money at the bottom, smaller government. The normal "liberal" view is tax more, make government bigger, get people dependent on government programs and funnel funds back to the people and corporations causing the problems in the first place. No. Sorry, man. I want to be paid more for the work I do and I want to be left alone by the government. Got it? Well let me wave my magic wand: *poof* Wait. It didn't work. Dammit, I think my wand is made by Microsoft. Kevin Phillips concludes his book ''Wealth and Democracy'' with a grim warning: ''Either democracy must be renewed, with politics brought back to life, or wealth is likely to cement a new and less democratic regime -- plutocracy by some other name.'' It's a pretty extreme line, but we live in extreme times. Even if the forms of democracy remain, they may become meaningless. It's all too easy to see how we may become a country in which the big rewards are reserved for people with the right connections; in which ordinary people see little hope of advancement; in which political involvement seems pointless, because in the end the interests of the elite always get served.Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 4:08 AM
Trust Voting Machines? :.Count me as one of those experts who says they can't be trusted. The problem is that these machines have no audit trail. They have no paper trail. I am a software engineer whose minor in college was accounting. If I created a system for accounting for money that had no paper trail for auditors to follow, the IRS would put me into jail. Yet for some reason it's okay if we create a system for accounting for votes that has no paper trail? Since when did our right to vote become less important than the almighty dollar?
There's no replacement for paper. Even electronic cash registers and ATM machines produce paper -- they have a paper tape in them that records every transaction, so that if the electronic gadgetry goes down, the paper tape can be examined. Electronic accounting entries can be gimmicked in the computer databases, or just plain dumped into /dev/null. It's hard to gimmick up an entire roll of cash register tape -- and if the IRS audits you, the cash register tape is likely to be the first thing they want to see. See also: International Banking Software and Services Company "Counts" Your VotesResearch Credit: JM
posted by Kevin at 4:04 AM
11/11/2002
Information Awareness Office Raising Surveillance Bigtop :.This is old news to my readers. I think the most newsworthy aspect of this is that the NY Times finally decided to cover it. Check out my IAO coverage from, uh, months ago. Good job, NY Times! Better late than never, eh? Don't mind my incoherent laughter and bird flipping, etc. at THE "newspaper of record" in the U.S.: The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe � including the United States.
As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.
Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States.
Admiral Poindexter, who has described the plan in public documents and speeches but declined to be interviewed, has said that the government needs to "break down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government databases, allowing teams of intelligence agency analysts to hunt for hidden patterns of activity with powerful computers.
"We must become much more efficient and more clever in the ways we find new sources of data, mine information from the new and old, generate information, make it available for analysis, convert it to knowledge, and create actionable options," he said in a speech in California earlier this year.Research Credit: Multiple Readers
posted by Kevin at 4:20 AM
Beware of Imbeciles Impersonating SaintsIt's fitting that in the End Days (completely non-religious reference, by the way) George Bush would be depicted as a saint. Forget the stunning propaganda potential of this image. My hat is off to this photographer. He took full advantage of the circumstances, premeditated the outcome he wanted, lined it up, set the focus and waited for the right gestures. Nailed it. Absolutely. Notice the depth of field on the halo/Seal of the President, you don't want that too sharp. This shot is one in a million. A bunch of guys could try to get something close to this, but getting Numb Nuts to look more like a saint than a real saint again, man, don't hold your breath. I think this is a more accurate representation, but that's just my opinion. President George W. Bush answers a question during his press conference in Washington November 7, 2002. Bush, who has vowed to disarm Iraq by force if necessary, said he would deal differently with the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program. (Win McNamee/Reuters Thu Nov 7, 5:18 PM ET)Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 3:57 AM
11/7/2002
World Braces for 'Triumphant' Bush :.The world now faces President George W. Bush triumphant after the midterm elections. His Republican Party is in command of both Houses of Congress, and Bush can claim a potent new mandate for an assertive foreign policy whose unilateralist "America First" implications have disconcerted friends and foes alike."We are dealing with a power that has no limit in its dealing with foreign issues," said Mohammed Shaker, head of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations, whose wariness of a Bush administration unrestrained by any other branch of government was widely shared beyond U.S. shores.
Diplomats in Washington Wednesday, while noting that the executive branch was always in charge of foreign policy, suggested that the Republican majorities in Congress would give the Bush administration even more self-assurance in foreign policy, and adding weight to its more hawkish voices and weakening the doves.
posted by Kevin at 1:23 AM
U.S. in Denial as Poverty Rises :.New Haven is a metaphor for the America which on Tuesday elects its Senate and House of Representatives. It is the country's fourth poorest city, where the ghetto laps at the walls of a university worth $11 billion (�7bn) in tax-exempt endowments, educating America's next generation of rulers. A sign at the freeway turn-off advertises New Haven as the birthplace of President George Bush.
It is a city with the same infant mortality rate as Malaysia and a terrifying rate of deaths from Aids - one day care centre alone commemorated the loss of 600 clients at a memorial service on Wednesday. But it is located in America' richest state, Connecticut, which has, proportionally, more millionaires than any other.
posted by Kevin at 1:22 AM
11/6/2002
International Banking Software and Services Company "Counts" Your VotesI don't vote for Republicans. I don't vote for Democrats. I only vote for third party candidates. So, I know I'm throwing my vote away. I read Votescam back in 1993, so I basically stopped believing in the electoral process in this county long ago. I just show up because it's nice to pretend that there's some form of representative process in this country. TR and I were sitting here, casually discussing how simple a matter it would be for a few bozos to completely manipulate the voting and vote tabulation process using closed-source computer systems. You know, eliminate any possibility of a recount or investigation. No paper trail. Then we started looking into some of the electronic systems in use. HAHAHA! This stuff is off the rails. Why is a British company (De La Rue, parent of Sequoia Voting Systems) involved with U.S. elections? Take a wild guess at what De La Rue does! This company is a MAJOR vendor of goods and services to governments, international bankers, central banks, and THE Central Bank, the Bank of International Settlements! They manufacture tamper proof I.D. cards, passports and maybe even the cash in your pocket. I find it very interesting that a company with so many connections to elite government and banking circles, a company with access to the most personal information for hundreds of millions of people, would also be involved in producing closed-source, unauditable voting systems for U.S. elections. If this is some sort of nightmare, I've had enough, I want to wake up. From the De La Rue ABOUT page: De La Rue is the world 's largest commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as travellers cheques and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people across 31 countries, the company is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment and software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide helping them to reduce the cost of handling cash. We are also pioneering new technologies including tailored solutions to protect the world 's brands through to government identity solutions in secure passports, identity cards and driver 's licences.Does anyone out there find it interesting that a gas pipeline expert and 15 year employee of British Petroleum was appointed to the De La Rue Board of Directors in September 2001? To the Board of Directors of the same company that is making voting machines for U.S. elections? Yes, as I type this, the Oil Junta in the White House is reveling in their massive (!and historically unusual!) mid term election gains! Philip Nolan
Non-Executive Director
Philip Nolan BSc PhD MBA, 48, was appointed to the Board on 1 September 2001. He is Chief Executive Officer of Eircom, the Irish telecoms operator and was appointed in January 2002. Formerly, he was Chief Executive of Lattice Group plc. Lattice Group is one of three successor companies of British Gas, specialising in the provision, management and servicing of infrastructure networks. The company comprises Britain's gas pipeline business, Transco, as well as telecommunications and other businesses. Dr Nolan joined the then British Gas in 1996, becoming Managing Director of Transco in June 1997. He was appointed to the BG Board in July 1998. He spent 15 years with BP and in 1995 was seconded from BP to the role of Managing Director, Interconnector (UK) Ltd, the consortium formed to construct and operate the pipeline which links the gas network of the UK to that of mainland Europe.From Elections In America - Assume Crooks Are In Control : Sequoia is another voting systems company that sends a cold chill down my spine. "Mob ties, bribery, felony convictions, and threats of coercion are visible in the public record of the election services company," according to investigative journalist and filmmaker Daniel Hopsicker, and reported in Spotlight.com. Hopsicker says that Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, a 65-year-old senior executive with Sequoia, and the firm's Louisiana representative, recently pled guilty to passing out as much as $10 million dollars in bribes over the course of almost an entire decade." According to American Law Education Rights & Taxation (ALERT), Ricci is the president of Sequoia International, which also manufactures casino slot machines.Enough for now. My head hurts.
posted by Kevin at 5:25 AM
11/5/2002
U.S. and U.K. Lashed to the Mast of the Same Sinking Ship :.The Oil Ship: As available reserves decline, the world's oil-hungry nations are tussling to grab as much as they can for themselves. Almost everywhere on earth the United States is winning. It is positioning itself to become the gatekeeper to the world's remaining oil and gas. If it succeeds, it will both secure its own future supplies and massively enhance its hegemonic power.
The world's oil reserves, the depletion analysis centre claims, appear to be declining almost as swiftly as the North sea's. Conventional oil supplies will peak within five or 10 years, and decline by around 2 million barrels per day every year from then on. New kinds of fossil fuel have only a limited potential to ameliorate the coming crisis. In the Middle East, the only nation which could significantly increase its output is Iraq.Viable alternatives to fossil fuels have existed for years. The reason these technologies aren't used has nothing at all to do with their viability. This isn't about oil, or the lack of oil. This is about political power. The oil paradigm imprisons countries, and Elites like it that way. The U.S., by securing control of the remaining deposits of oil, is desperately trying to maintain a world order that is already dead. For U.S. strategists, the logic is that the U.S. can use oil as a choke point for development, or, at the whim of the U.S., non-development in any part of the world. What would happen to Elite power and influence in the world if every individual had a free and endless supply of clean energy? Countries, and the people within them, would do whatever they wanted, outside of the influence of the U.S. and its handmaidens. Rather than openly developing and implementing new technologies, Elites in many parts of the world would rather have the U.S. attempt to maintain the fossil fuels based status quo. Let's transition from The-Way-Things-Are to The-Way-Things-Could-Be: Wind alone could easily handle the energy demands. (If you think I'm kidding, read up on wind.) Then you have technologies like Bearden's Motionless Electromagnetic Generator (MEG), and any number of other alternatives. This stuff rattles the apple cart. It upsets the entire world order. Global Elites won't allow this stuff to take over until they can figure out a way to lock it up and control it. Well, unless people like you get off your asses and do something about it. If you have an engineering background, replicate the MEG, join the MEG builders group, talk to Naudin in France, talk to Bearden himself (these guys will write back!). People all over the pace are getting results. I don't know enough about electronics to build one of these things on my own, but surely some of you do. Go for it! TR sent in some great Michio Kaku information that directly relates to the state in which we find ourselves. We are merely children, dabbling with the power of creation. Most species don't make it much further along in their development than where we are right now. Take a look out your window, take a good long look! That's about as far as most planetary civilizations probably get. Michio Kaku, for those of you who don't know, is one of the world's most brilliant physicists. TR writes: I was reading a very interesting interview by Michio Kaku. In it he was saying that we are a Type 0 civilization that is still burning dead plants for power. We are now in the transition to a Type 1 civilization, which will control the planet. He goes on to say, "Perhaps and just perhaps, there were 10,000 Type-0 civilizations in our galaxy, but they all self-destructed because a transition from Type-0 to Type-1 is the most dangerous of all transitions. It is the greatest paradigm shift of all because that means we have the power to self-destruct." That's it. Civilization has been around for 6,000 years but the power to self destruct--only 50. Everyday, it is miracle that we are still around. How many miracle days will we have before the last one? The universe is probably littered with aborted Type 1 civilizations. Kaku says: "The generation now alive � the generation watching this video � that generation is the most important generation that has ever been born � that has ever walked the surface of the Earth because that generation - the generation of today - will determine whether we make the transition from Type-0 to Type-1� to a planetary civilization� to an age of Aquarius. Or whether we pollute our atmosphere with carbon dioxide� whether we irradiate ourselves with the power of uranium. When we go into outer space one day, and we see other civilizations in space. Perhaps we will see dead civilizations. Perhaps we will see atmospheres irradiated with the power of uranium. Perhaps atmospheres too hot to sustain life. Perhaps we�ll see planets that tried to make the transition from Type-1 to Type�2 but never made it. Here we have a warning and that warning is: unless we can control the sectarianism, the nationalism, the fundamentalism, the hatreds and anger that came with our rise from the swamp� unless we can control these passions, we may never make it to the age of Aquarius."This next part really blew my mind: And if we are just a Type-0 civilization, this means we are children� children. We are not even Type-1 yet! We do not even register on the charts. Some people say, �Well why don�t they visit us, these aliens?� Well when you walk down the street and you see an anthill, do you go down to the ants and say, �I bring you trinkets, I bring you beads, I bring you knowledge, I bring you the power of dna, the power of nuclear weapons?� Or do you just step on a few of them?
We have to be humble.
If there�s a Type-3 civilization in our galaxy and there could be � Carl Sagan believed that yes, there is probably a Type-3 civilization someplace in our galaxy - would we even be smart enough to know that there is a Type-3? I mean think about it. If there�s a ten lane super-highway being built right next to an anthill, are the ants smart enough to even understand what a ten lane super-highway is? Or to understand the gibberish these humans are saying? Or why these humans would build such a ten lane super-highway? Or even that humans exist at all? I mean think about it. We physicists do. And some of us come to the conclusion that maybe we are not even smart enough to know how stupid we are. Maybe we are not even smart enough to know that there is a Type-3 civilization just on the other side of that hill in the galaxy. We�re not smart enough to realize that they talk to each other. They have a flourishing civilization with ten lane hyper-highways everywhere. And here we are stuck on this mud ball called the third planet of the Sun, in the Orion arm of a minor galaxy, in the backwash of the Virgo super-cluster, thinking that we are Nature�s greatest creation� that we are God�s gift to humanity� that our science is the greatest of all science and our art is the greatest of all art, when in fact there is a whole universe out there�Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 5:50 PM
11/4/2002
Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)
Formal Acknowledgement of Problem-Reaction-Solution Strategy :.This will probably go down as the most incredible article posted on this website. This has got to be the top of the curve in terms of Absurdity-As-Reality. I don't know how we're going to beat this one! The Problem-Reaction-Solution cycle is nothing new to most of my lunatic readers. But just in case you're new, or don't have an extensive collection of freak knowledge, here it is in a nutshell: Once upon a time, there was a guy named Hegel. His Dialectic went on to form the philosophical, theoretical and operational foundations of a system of psychological warfare intended to be used against civilian populations. For governments, the goal was not only to achieve a level of political control routinely enjoyed by totalitarian regimes, but to also create a system that was more resistant to uprisings, insurrections, revolutions, etc. Today, "open societies" are actually distributed totalitarian regimes. (Let that concept sink in for a few moments.) Control is maintained via several, seemingly disparate, components of the society. Government, Industry and Academia present such a robust and convincing illusion of "openness and freedom" than the vast majority of people actually believe that they are free, that their governments are reasonably democratic and that they can make changes to the system if necessary. Of course, none of that is even remotely true. Most people, rather, exist in a form of feedback loop. They are presented with various stimuli that provoke predictable responses, none of which threaten the status quo. The few who are aware of this fraud and speak out against the "core values" of the system are belittled, humiliated and imprisoned. The fewer still in a capacity to actually threaten "normal operations" are routinely murdered for stepping out of line. Also commonly referred to as the Problem-Reaction-Solution cycle, the Hegelian Dialectic allows those in control to not only remain in control, but undertake policies that, "Push the envelope" of what is acceptable. One can come up with examples all day long, but let's take a look at the current King Daddy of them all: The U.S. wants to steal oil from Central Asia and the Middle East. Present a problem: 9/11. Present a reaction: War. The solution emerges: U.S. invades Central Asia and steals oil. Iraq is next. This is the ultimate How-To-Get-There-From-Here tool in the hands of policy makers. Well, the nuts running this nuthouse have now gone public with the name of a group tasked with carrying out the type of operations I just described above: Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG): According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization--the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)"--will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.
In other words--and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan--the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people--your family, your friends, your lovers, you--in order to further their geopolitical ambitions.Interesting Note: Does this story contain elements of weirdness similar to the establishment of the Information Awareness Office, with its almost unbelievable symbol, the all seeing eye, freaky uses of Latin, etc.? Note the acronym for Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group: P2OG. Any takers on a possible connection to the infamous P2 (Propaganda Due) Lodge of Italy? Related: Original L.A. Times articleResearch Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 4:20 AM
U.S. Using the Same Scam Invented by the Brits (Again) :.Is anyone keeping a tally sheet of my analytical hits? HAHAHA! Recall this article I wrote from a couple of days ago: Over the past few decades, Britain, one of the world's most powerful states, used roughly 300 armed Irish people (IRA, et al.) as an excuse to turn the entire place into a large penal colony. Now the U.S. is doing the same thing.And now this from the Telegraph U.K.: America is contemplating a radical overall of the FBI and the creation of a domestic spying organization modeled on Britain's MI5, according to US intelligence sources.
Tom Ridge, President George W Bush's director of homeland security, will hold talks in London next week focusing on the British experience of combating the IRA over more than three decades.I think I should stand on a street corner with a sign that says: Will Predict Global Political Events For Food.
posted by Kevin at 4:18 AM
11/1/2002
Universities Encourage Suicidal Economic Mythologies :.The greatest trick corporations ever pulled was corrupting education. Colleges and universities are now little more than corporate trade schools and training camps. For people who were born and bred corporate, the "Top" schools now serve to put the finishing touches on the managers, analysts and experts who will faithfully serve the private tyrannies of Corporate America. Most of these professionally educated imbeciles are ignorant of the basic philosophical, political and historical truths that would provide the intellectual context necessary to question the world around them. Instead, education is now about learning how to become a corporate hack and obedient foot soldier. Intellectual prowess is now associated with earning potential. In a world where the only rule is win, you don't have time to just learn for the sake of learning. You don't have time to enjoy your life. That nonsense is for losers. I was deeply offended and shocked by the presumptuous tone of this article. Students have four years to experience college and the rest of their lives to work for corporations, or go from one failed startup to another. But since the corporate mentality knows no concept of "enough," they have to go after their future slaves/employees at the very moment these young minds should be learning about the basic knowledge and intellectual skills that would allow them to become conscious and informed individuals. When people grow up having had the freedom to pursue their interests without fear of failure or criticism, they wind up wanting to build, invent and create, just for the sake of it. They want to communicate and help other people, just for the sake of it. That is the natural state of things. But because these tendencies are incompatible with corporate interests, which instead emphasize sacrifice and punishment for the express purpose of benefiting stock holders, corporations needed to take over the educational process from early on in the child's development. Individualism had to be stomped out. Adherence to rules, schedules and "process management" now constitute "learning" in America. While parents were increasingly busy chasing their tails at work, they allowed their children to be raised by filthy pap on TV and schools drunk with government and corporate grant money. It makes sense that corporations would want these young adults to top off their education in a manufactured reality. When these people graduate, they will be delivered, lock, stock and barrel to the plantation. Life on the plantation will conveniently resemble their college experience. They will be ready, willing and able to do the slave master's bidding. Some may find the comparison to actual slavery odious, but I see more similarities than differences. Under the current system, you're FREE to pick your slave master, but, after that, the parallels to the Good Ole' Days are much more evident. After you subtract the costs of food, housing, healthcare, etc. what are you left with? Nah much, Massa. And what is left probably gets spent on buying some other Slave Owner's goods. Ahhh, it's so good being free. For 100 promising undergraduate students intent on creating successful companies, the school customized two floors in one of its ritziest dorms with a grand cherry-wood conference table and leather chairs, wireless connectivity, whiteboards, and a phone system designed to simultaneously ring home and cellular phones so calls are never missed.
The goal is "to try to create within the state of Maryland a culture for entrepreneurship that is comparable to that in Silicon Valley," said William W. Destler, the U-Md. provost who suggested the residential program to College Park alumnus and tech entrepreneur Brian L. Hinman. "I came up with this because these start-up firms are sort of famous for being live-in experiences. They are sort of 24-hour-a-day enterprises while they are getting going, and I thought it would be kind of interesting to see that in a dormitory setting."
The school's Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEO) program is designed to mirror the all-consuming environs of a start-up firm.TR Adds: According to the article, students can now learn the first-hand techniques on how to run a successful business, such as: creating snow-job Powerpoint presentations; stealing public grant money for private profit; and commercializing technology developed at public expense. Yes, they'll learn how to create artificial wants, get people dependent upon them, then yank the supply, jack up the prices, and call the police to enforce their newly created markets. They'll learn these strategies in specially created CEO dorms, fitted with leather seats and oak desks to reinforce the culture of an exclusionary class of manipulators and scammers. After being submersed in this PHB boot camp, they'll have developed all the essential traits necessary to succeed in the cut-throat world of business that they will help perpetuate: a narcissistic over confidence in their own abilities to funnel money and power to the top of the grand pyramid scam--all the while knowing that they are intrinsically better than everyone else and basically the world owes them. Thus is created the modern day PHB. Capitalism Uber Alles.
posted by Kevin at 2:44 AM
U.S. Using the Same Scam Invented by the Brits :.Over the past few decades, Britain, one of the world's most powerful states, used roughly 300 armed Irish people (IRA, et al.) as an excuse to turn the entire place into a large penal colony. Now the U.S. is doing the same thing. Because of the actions of a handful of people (many of which have previous U.S. Intelligence connections), all of us are going to be subjected to this biometric nonsense in the future. .Mil and .gov are actively collecting biometric data on people they're calling terrorists. In order for that data to be useful, they're going to have to set up biometric screening equipment that ALL OF US will be required to pass through. I don't know about you, but I feel safer already! HA! The United States is compiling digital dossiers of the irises, fingerprints, faces and voices of terrorism suspects and using the information to track their movements and screen foreigners trying to enter the country.
Since January, military and intelligence operatives have collected the identifying data on prisoners in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There are also plans to extend the collection process to Iraq in the event of a U.S. invasion.
With this project, the U.S. government has taken biometrics � the measuring of human features � well beyond its most common use to date: verifying people's identities before giving them access to computers or secure areas.
"We're trying to collect every biometric on every bad guy that we can," said Lt. Col. Kathy De Bolt, deputy director of the Army battle lab at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where the biometric tools being used were developed.
"Any place we go into � Iraq or wherever � we're going to start building a dossier on people of interest to intelligence. Even if they get released, we have face and voice clips. When they come into one of our checkpoints, we can say, `You're this bad guy from here.'"
posted by Kevin at 1:19 AM
French Woman Arrested for Sane Response in U.S. Airport :.Think about what an airport represents! It is an international traveler's first and last impression of a foreign country during a trip. I've traveled around Europe a bit. In all cases, I was treated with respect and dignity in airports. I came away from my experiences in Ireland, France and Spain with good memories and a desire to return. I just can't imagine what international travelers must think of America after being subjected to the types of interrogation now common in U.S. airports. It's just sad because people will think that most Americans are brutish and ignorant. Citizens of the WORLD! Hear me: NOT ALL AMERICANS ARE LIKE THIS! U.S. airports are not fit for use by civilized people. Things are ugly here and getting worse; for reasons that have nothing to do with "terrorism." And to Madame Eliane Yvonne Marcele Aguillaume, I'm sorry. I truly wish my country could have treated you with the same level of courtesy that I received when I visited France. I think we should all take our clothes off at the security gates: A Frenchwoman accused of undressing during an airport security screening could face up to three years in prison if convicted under a law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Eliane Yvonne Marcele Aguillaume, 56, of Paris, burst into tears Tuesday when a judge explained the possible penalties through an interpreter.
Judge Robert J. Tornatta found probable cause for charges of disorderly conduct at an airport, a felony, and resisting law enforcement and public indecency, both misdemeanors. Aguillaume was scheduled to be formally charged Friday.Related: Canada Issues Travel Advisory :.TORONTO �� The Canadian government issued a travel advisory this week with a twist: It suggests citizens born in Iraq, Syria and other countries targeted by U.S. anti-terrorism policies consider avoiding travel to the United States.
The advisory issued Monday focuses on a U.S. regulation adopted a year after the Sept. 11 attacks that permits American authorities to closely monitor travelers born in certain countries suspected of terrorism links.
posted by Kevin at 1:10 AM
Corporate Ads on Cop Cars :.I covered this disgusting story before, but it's back. Turns out, cities all over the country want to prostitute themselves for free cop cars. To cash-strapped cities across the nation, the offer seems too good to pass up. New police cars for $1 each in exchange for allowing NASCAR-style advertisements all over the cruisers.
posted by Kevin at 1:07 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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