1000
Iraq General Proposes Troop Reductions; Democrats Call Plan A Political Move
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1535073/20060626/index.jhtml?headlines=true
With election-year issues such as flag burning, gay marriage — and the latest addition to the team, immigration — gaining momentum in advance of this November's midterm congressional elections, Democrats charged Monday that Republicans are planning to steal a page from their playbook and add troop reductions in Iraq to the list. Just days after a pair of Democratic initiatives to begin a troop withdrawal went down in fiery defeat in the Senate (see "Senate Rejects Call For Withdrawal From Iraq; Cheney Slams Democrats"), Democrats were fuming Monday (June 26) over The New York Times reports that General George W. Casey, the top military commander in Iraq, met privately with President Bush on Friday and proposed a gradual drawdown of troops that could begin this fall. Their source of anger was word that the proposal was similar to one of the defeated Democratic plans offered up on Thursday, which Republicans had publicly assailed as an attempt to "cut and run" or set an artificial timetable for withdrawal.
1015
John Robert's lies to mount an attack on The New York Times and their reporting of the Casey Draw Down. The Levin Amendment completely reflects flexibility in troop withdrawals.
Reid: Bush Republicans Stand Alone on Iraq
6/26/2006 3:22:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Jim Manley or Rebecca Kirszner, 202-224-2939, both of the Office of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
WASHINGTON, June 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today delivered the following remarks on the Floor of the U.S. Senate, calling on Bush Republicans to put aside their partisan slogans on Iraq to support a real plan for the future. Democrats, America's generals, and Iraq's government are united behind the need for change in Iraq, and it is time for Bush Republicans to explain why they are standing alone behind a failed policy, said Reid.
The text of Senator Reid's remarks, as prepared, is below.
Mr. President, here is the lead sentence from an article in yesterday's New York Times. It ran under the headline of "U.S. General in Iraq Outlines Troop Cuts." Quote:
"The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say."
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=68270
CNN's focus is to invalidate the truth.
1023
The news secretary
commercials
1027
Gerald Ford namesake of new aircraft carrier in Senate amendment
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060615/UPDATE01/60615006
Kakie UrchThe Desert Sun
June 15, 2006
June 15, 2006
WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday joined Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., in introducing an amendment to name the CVN-78 aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Gerald Ford.
1029
Rebuilding New Orleans
Tent cities are being addressed. These tent cities in New Orleans reflects the Public Housing. There are a lot of problems when a complete city is destroyed and it ain't all traffic lights either. These problems were never solved by FEMA. Tent cities should never have been a necessity. There should be FEMA trailers for all those displaced.
6/22 New Orleans shows a glimmer of hope through Public Housing residents, Common Ground and Music
By Diane Greene Lent
See more photos at dianelent.com. I returned to New Orleans June 2-6, 2006 to photograph the rebuilding. The tent city went up in front of St. Bernard Housing Project. I toured Common Ground sites and heard a lot of great music. I had been previously, in March and things seemed pretty grim, but this time I left with hope. The people are demanding their right of return. The musicians are back and playing all over the place and making it New Orleans.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/71842.shtml
1034
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1037
Pray for CNN. They need the help.
1041
commercials
New Orleans mayor sees rebuilding plan by year-end
Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:37pm ET
By Peter Henderson
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans may take until the end of the year to develop rebuilding plans for all the neighborhoods of the storm-savaged city, Mayor Ray Nagin said on Monday, dismissing criticism that the process is dragging.
Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city last August, soaking tens of thousands of houses in fetid water for weeks. The disaster left residents uncertain where to rebuild, yet also gave the city a chance to reshape itself.
Even 10 months later, many areas of the city are still cleaning up rather than rebuilding, with only isolated signs of construction in hard-hit areas full of empty houses.
Nagin described a neighborhood planning process led by the city council -- a process slowed due to funding problems earlier in the year -- while critics have said the mayor should develop a vision for the entire city that would act as a framework for citizens in different areas.
"At the latest before the end of the year we should have every neighborhood pretty well done. But the key neighborhoods that were most devastated, they are on track, and some of them are 80 percent done with their planning process," he said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-06-27T003737Z_01_N26455767_RTRUKOC_0_US-WEATHER-HURRICANES-REBUILDING.xml&archived=False
The rebuilding of New Orleans regardless of funding will take time especially since there has no focus to the return of the wetlands vigorously.
The descension that accompanies the focuses on invalidating 'the truth' is simply amazing. And they say others have problems, when the propaganda suits them. The decension is a distraction all by itself. It is a hope of 'returning' influence to the Republicans whom are grappling with their lies, cronies and corruption. I can understand why Nagin stated he doesn't know where people are stating he doesn't have a plan. This is in "The Times Picayune." Don't ask me. I don't 'get it.' Are these '100 day plans' as Nagin promised during his re-election bid purely being measured according to 'actual' physical progress? Plans don't necessarily take the same meaning as 'construction.'
Nagin plans to reorganize local government
(page down)
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_06_26.html#155348
By James Varney Staff writer Offering a sneak preview of his second-term administration, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday that he plans to reorganize local government to better respond to the city’s post-Katrina needs. Nagin did not provide concrete details of his plans during a meeting at The Times-Picayune. But he outlined a three-pronged attack that he hopes will help his administration better manage the massive cleanup and redevelopment tasks the city will face in the next four years. The mayor said he plans to combine housing, economic development and planning under one organizational umbrella. In addition, he said he will create an Office of Recovery to tackle tasks related specifically to the disaster, while his Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield focuses on day-to-day governmental tasks.
enough
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Dear Diary
I have lived through a lot in my life. It hasn't been an easy road but I have accepted it as my life. I cherished freedom and justice in a country I never thought would lose it's principles, but, now in the year 2006 out of paranoya, fear and incompetence the very government I felt so protected by has turned against the people of this nation.
Over the last six years there has been a 'sham' for a government. It's agenda is undermining and measured. It misleads only enough to allow fear to overcome objection. The USA today is a retreating nation. A retreating nation from it's values. It's hopes and dreams for the future. It's promise. It's preciousness.
The only real charges that should have been applied to these circumstances was 'trespassing.' There was no other crime committed. There were only 'ideas' of an identity beyond themselves. An idea that would carry them to the supremacy of manhood. The soldier leader that would liberate all of them. A fantasy. Nothing but a fantasy. They never really acted in any real way on those ideas. They were encouraged to continue their fantasy while hanging themselves legally under the gaze and direction of the FBI.
The next day in a news conference, Mueller stated the Miami raid was successful. It has captured in the early stages a "Home Grown al Qaeda Cell." A new terrorist network. He stated they had overwhelming evidence to bring a judge to issue warrants. Once those warrants were issued the metal door locking an entrance to a windowless warehouse was torn down and the men inside, all seven oddly enough were arrested. Seven homeless Black Men were arrested without the potential to cause any harm to anyone except themselves in circumstance they probably still don't understand.
Did Mueller speak to their education? Did he speak to their impoverishment? Did he once consider the consequences of such a fool hearty act against basically helpless men in full view of a nation tired of the intrusion of their lives by this administration and it's ever increasing invasion into homes, morality and choices in life? Did he ever stop one minute to realize what a fool he was being and what a puppet to Gonzalez he had become?
No. Not once. No remorse. No apologies. In true Bush style when the going gets tough the tough get going and he did. Mueller went on tour. Our tax dollars is paying for his 'Tour de Home Grown Terrorist." After his news conference he made a public speech 'showing off' his catch of the day.
He continues his tour. Where? CNN of course. The nation's propaganda network.
I never thought I would see the day an intelligence agency would be used in a propaganda campaign against the electorate of the USA. If Mueller and Gonzalez were sincere in catching very dangerous people within our borders they would not have 'annouced' their methodology to the world. I never thought I'd see the day that basically angry but innocent men would be facing sentences that have the potential of sending them to Gitmo or life in prison or death row. These men may have criminal records. My understanding is that they don't. Who knows what will be trumped up against them.
In a country once admired with values once sought after by people all across this globe, a dark shadow has been cast upon it. It no longer carries a message of hope, tolerance and promise. It carries the message, 'Beware, of the USA." Citizens in this country are no longer safe from their government.
Over the last six years there has been a 'sham' for a government. It's agenda is undermining and measured. It misleads only enough to allow fear to overcome objection. The USA today is a retreating nation. A retreating nation from it's values. It's hopes and dreams for the future. It's promise. It's preciousness.
I probably should have started this 'type' of entry long ago. It would have measured clearly every step by this government to hide their truth, their lack of promise, their insult to the Constitution.
The past few days has proven dramatically the extent to the end of democracy in the USA. The end of freedom. The end of justice.
In a planned assault against the minds of the electorate, a 'staged' take down of a supposed al Qaeda cell in Miami played out on Friday. Robert S. Mueller, III carried out a 'lead up' to the faux raid.
Seven Black Men were living in a warehouse. They were Muslims. These seven men were poor. Unfunded except for the entrapment by the FBI under Mueller's direction and deception. They knew nothing about the 'game' the FBI was running on them. They were unarmed with aboslutely no potential to anyone any harm in anyway.
These seven men have families. They were estranged from society. It's understandable to have a young man without promise, potential for a future to become estranged from society's 'higher' values. Seven Black Men were not able to support a family. They could not contemplate fatherhood in a real way and provide support while living with them. Seven Black Men carried on as if they could defeat the USA from the inside of an abandoned warehouse in Miami, in a neighborhood the police commissioner there characterized as 'a good neighborhood.' He stated unlike inner city neighborhoods it had problems but it was basically a good neighborhood.The only real charges that should have been applied to these circumstances was 'trespassing.' There was no other crime committed. There were only 'ideas' of an identity beyond themselves. An idea that would carry them to the supremacy of manhood. The soldier leader that would liberate all of them. A fantasy. Nothing but a fantasy. They never really acted in any real way on those ideas. They were encouraged to continue their fantasy while hanging themselves legally under the gaze and direction of the FBI.
The lead up to the arrests was most dramatic. CNN had been getting attention grabbing guests that week and the most popular show of any of the CNN lineup, "Larry King Live" featured the entire hour an interview with Robert S. Mueller, III. During that interview and well acted as if reluctant to 'let on' Mueller stated there was an operation in Miami of which the result would be revealed the next day.
Dutifully, CNN knew it's place and began promoting the raid without relent.
The next day in a news conference, Mueller stated the Miami raid was successful. It has captured in the early stages a "Home Grown al Qaeda Cell." A new terrorist network. He stated they had overwhelming evidence to bring a judge to issue warrants. Once those warrants were issued the metal door locking an entrance to a windowless warehouse was torn down and the men inside, all seven oddly enough were arrested. Seven homeless Black Men were arrested without the potential to cause any harm to anyone except themselves in circumstance they probably still don't understand.
Did Mueller speak to their education? Did he speak to their impoverishment? Did he once consider the consequences of such a fool hearty act against basically helpless men in full view of a nation tired of the intrusion of their lives by this administration and it's ever increasing invasion into homes, morality and choices in life? Did he ever stop one minute to realize what a fool he was being and what a puppet to Gonzalez he had become?
No. Not once. No remorse. No apologies. In true Bush style when the going gets tough the tough get going and he did. Mueller went on tour. Our tax dollars is paying for his 'Tour de Home Grown Terrorist." After his news conference he made a public speech 'showing off' his catch of the day.
He continues his tour. Where? CNN of course. The nation's propaganda network.
I never thought I would see the day an intelligence agency would be used in a propaganda campaign against the electorate of the USA. If Mueller and Gonzalez were sincere in catching very dangerous people within our borders they would not have 'annouced' their methodology to the world. I never thought I'd see the day that basically angry but innocent men would be facing sentences that have the potential of sending them to Gitmo or life in prison or death row. These men may have criminal records. My understanding is that they don't. Who knows what will be trumped up against them.
In a country once admired with values once sought after by people all across this globe, a dark shadow has been cast upon it. It no longer carries a message of hope, tolerance and promise. It carries the message, 'Beware, of the USA." Citizens in this country are no longer safe from their government.
lovingly submitted,
elisa
Thursday, June 22, 2006
I don't need lies or liars.
Somehow the automated voice within the introduction to AC 360 is more than appropriate, it relays a real feeling of the puppeteer of the anchor.
I had enough of this program before it got started !
I had enough of this program before it got started !
How quickly the current deaths are forgotten.
1000
Al-Qaeda chief beheaded US soldiers: report
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/alqaeda-chief-beheaded-us-soldiers-report/2006/06/21/1150701561957.html
Iraqi insurgents have boasted that al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq "slaughtered" two missing US soldiers, whose bodies were found yesterday.
The statement from an umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents suggested the soldiers had been beheaded by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.
The bodies showed signs of "barbaric torture" when they were found by US and Iraqi troops, a senior Iraqi general told Reuters. "The two soldiers were found yesterday by a combined US-Iraqi force. We found they had been tortured in a barbaric fashion," Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Private Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, from Madras, Oregon and Private Kristian Menchaca, 23, from Houston, Texas went missing at dusk on Friday after an ambush at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town in an area south of Baghdad some Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death".
The Arabic word used in the insurgents' statement, "nahr", is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.
DEMOCRATS 'think' for a living, Anderson. Something you are not used to !
1010
Web Post Says Russians Slain in Iraq; Workers Abducted, AP Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a_qi3dAOT8Vk&refer=us
June 21 (Bloomberg) -- A group loyal to al-Qaeda in Iraq said it killed four kidnapped Russian diplomats, according to an Internet posting found by the Washington-based Search for International Terrorist Entities Institute.
The claim surfaced on a day in Iraq during which about 85 factory workers were kidnapped by gunmen and Saddam Hussein went on a hunger strike to protest the killing of one of his lawyers, according to the Associated Press.
The workers were abducted as they left work from a factory for metal doors, windows and pipes north of Baghdad, according to AP. About 30 women and children were later freed.
Iraq's new government is trying to clamp down on insurgent and sectarian violence to help forge national unity and economic growth.
1012
"LIE AND DIE"
Yep.
That's Bush. He's hasn't said a word of truth yet. And. He hasn't captured either Osama bin Laden OR the 20th hijacker.
'Al-Qaeda video' of 20th hijacker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5101954.stm
A video said to be from al-Qaeda shows the man it says was the planned "20th hijacker" for the 9/11 US attacks.
The video, released by a US intelligence organisation, is of Saudi man, Fawaz al-Nashimi, who was killed in a shootout in Saudi Arabia in 2004.
The US has not commented and the video claim cannot be independently verified.
The identity of a 20th hijacker has been the subject of great debate, although there is no concrete evidence one was part of the plans for 9/11.
Al Qaeda has their own movie production company? Oh, really? Where exactly is this studio? Kabul?
Al-Qaeda’s al-Sahab Productions Releases New Zawahiri Video in Response to Kabul Riots
By SITE Institute
http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications187506&Category=publications&Subcategory=0
A video of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two leader, was released today. Zawahiri’s statement on the video is a response to the rioting that occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 29, 2006, after three American military vehicles crashed into civilian cars during rush hour. The recording, almost four minutes, was likely recorded on May 30, 2006, as Zawahiri refers to “yesterday’s” events.
Zawahiri calls upon the Muslims in Kabuland elsewhere in Afghanistanto work with al-Qaeda against the Americans. This is the second message released by Zawahiri after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death on June 8, 2006. However, as the video was likely made before Zarqawi’s death, there is no mention of his death.
1018
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1019
NEW AL QAEDA CHIEF: I SLIT THEIR THROATS
Sick claim as bodies of kidnapped troops found
By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
THE new head of al-Qaeda in Iraq personally slit the throats of two US soldiers whose bodies were found near Baghdad, it was claimed last night.
A statement on the internet gloated that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir had "implemented" sentence on the "two captive crusader parasites".
And it is feared al-Qaeda has scored a propaganda coup by carrying out the atrocity despite a huge US-led hunt for privates Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23.
More than 8,000 Iraqi and US troops, backed by fighter and spotter planes, searched for the soldiers who were snatched on Friday from a checkpoint in Yusifiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17264726&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=new-al-qaeda-chief--i-slit-their-throats--name_page.html
1022
more commercials
I GUESS THE BOYS REPEATED THEIR SKILLS . THEY ARE ON A ROLL. I was hoping they could duplicate their victory. I congratulate them. This time it was the Aussies.
US troops kill Zarqawi's 'right-hand man'
The US military says it has killed the "right-hand man" of slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Major General William Caldwell says Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was killed on Friday by US forces in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad.
"We do know that Sheikh Mansur was a key leader in Al Qaeda in Iraq with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials within that organisation," General Caldwell said.
He describes him as Zarqawi's right-hand man and a liaison between Al Qaeda and tribes in the restive area south of Baghdad.
The Mashhadani are a major tribe of Sunni Arabs.
"He was tied to the senior leadership, including having relationships with both Zarqawi and al-Masri," General Caldwell said, referring to Abu Ayub al-Masri, whom the US military claim to be Zarqawi's successor.
"We do think that his death will significantly continue to impact on the ability of this organisation to regenerate and organise itself."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1667855.htm
1024
Campbell sees corruption in IWC practices
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1668876.htm
Federal Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell has labelled some of the practices in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as corrupt.
Senator Campbell is back in Australia after attending the commission's annual meeting, which was this year held on the Caribbean island of St Kitts.
There have been accusations of vote-buying and bullying, after pro-whaling nations led by Japan managed to pass a resolution to end a 20-year ban on commercial whaling by one vote.
Senator Campbell is disappointed with the outcome.
"I think that some of the practices within the IWC over many years could be called corrupt," he said.
"It's been happening in the last couple of years, these sorts of practices have been going on for many years."
Protesters fined
Meanwhile, a magistrate in St Kitts has fined six Greenpeace activists more than $12,000 for charges arising from a protest yesterday.
Five activists, who jumped from high-speed launches and waded through the surf to the beach beside the conference resort, were convicted of illegal entry and fined more than $A2,500 each.
The protesters, four from Brazil and one from Mexico, had boarded the launches from the nearby Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, which had been banned from entering St Kitts' port during IWC talks.
They had planned to plant more than 800 banners in the sand in the shape of whale fins bearing the slogan "R.I.P." in memory of whales killed by Japan in the Southern Ocean during its "research whaling" program this year.
A sixth activist, Greenpeace spokesman Mike Townsley from Britain, was convicted of obstructing a police officer and fined $A500.
Prosecutors said Townsley was charged after telling other protesters not to give their names to a senior police officer.
A second charge of resisting arrest was dropped against him.
All six activists were remanded in custody until the fines were paid.
1029
NASA safety chief won't appeal shuttle launch order
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/nasa-safety-chief-wont-appeal-shuttle-launch-order/2006/06/22/1150845291372.html
NASA's top safety officer says he won't appeal a decision to clear shuttle Discovery for lift-off next week, even though he has nagging concerns about its safety.
On Saturday, following a two-day flight review, NASA safety chief Bryan O'Connor and chief engineer Chris Scolese declined to endorse the space agency's certification that Discovery was ready for launch.
At issue is whether additional modifications to the shuttle's external fuel tank were necessary before flights resume.
NASA redesigned the tank after the 2003 Columbia disaster, and then again after the first-post Columbia mission last July. Both times large pieces of insulating foam fell off the tank.
Columbia was hit and damaged by the falling debris, triggering the ship's break-up as it flew through the atmosphere for landing. Seven astronauts died in that accident.
Discovery escaped impact from the falling foam debris during its launch nearly a year ago, but NASA suspended flights for additional modifications.
Some engineers say the agency has not gone far enough, an opinion clearly shared by O'Connor and Scolese.
But both, speaking in a teleconference with reporters today, ruled out any last-minute appeals aimed at scuttling the planned July 1 launch of Discovery.
1043
Somalis head for Sudan talks to stave off war
1.00pm Thursday June 22, 2006By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU - Sudan's president is to mediate in talks between Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers and Somalia's interim government on Thursday.
The Arab League-sponsored talks are aimed at heading off new war in the Horn of Africa nation.
Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter kicked US-backed warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5 and went on to seize a strategic swathe of Somalia.
The government's call for international peacekeepers and its assertion that Muslim fundamentalists from around the world helped the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) secure its victory in Mogadishu have infuriated the Islamists.
The two sides seemed unlikely even to meet face-to-face.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is to lead the Khartoum talks under the auspices of the Arab League.
President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose weak interim government is based in the provincial town of Baidoa, was on his way to Sudan for the talks. But ICU chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was sending a 10-man delegation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387803
Zimbabwe to compensate foreigners for land
1.25pm Thursday June 22, 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe will pay compensation in foreign currency for land seized from foreigners, but the land owners could still challenge the seizures in court, a cabinet minister has said.
Since 2000, President Robert Mugabe's government has taken over thousands of white-owned commercial farms after backing often violent invasions led by veterans of the country's 1970s struggle against white rule.
The government last August passed laws that nationalised all such farms, barring farmers from challenging the seizure of their property in courts. Many economists and critics say the programme has ruined a once-thriving agricultural sector.
Some of the confiscated land belonged to foreign countries despite being protected under bilateral agreements.
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who heads land reform and resettlement, said those with farms covered by such deals would receive full compensation and have the right to contest the seizures in court.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387852
1046
THIS IS WHAT IS COMING ACROSS THE USA SOUTHERN BORDER.
Policemen beheaded in Mexico border city of Tijuana
2.20pm Thursday June 22, 2006
TIJUANA, Mexico - Three police officers and a fourth man were decapitated in the drug-plagued Mexican city of Tijuana on the US border, their heads and bodies dumped kilometres apart, authorities there have said.
Police found the heads of three municipal policemen and a man identified only as a friend of one of the officers in plastic bags under a Tijuana bridge hours after their corpses turned up in the outlying district of Rosarito, said Jaime Niebla, a senior Tijuana police official. The city is near San Diego.
Rosarito's police chief, Valente Montijo, citing witnesses, said men in federal police uniforms attacked the victims.
The killings were the latest in a spate of police killings along the US border in recent months. Officers often collude with drug traffickers, and shootouts between members of different police forces are common.
Drug violence has been rife along the border since President Vicente Fox declared "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels in January 2005 and sent hundreds of troops and federal police to border cities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387854
US and Colombia crack drug smuggling ring
11.20am Thursday June 22, 2006By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK - US and Colombian authorities have arrested 30 suspected members of one of Colombia's top trafficking rings, a US official said.
The traffickers secreted heroin and cocaine in the soles of sandals, furniture, the lining of golf bags, and used human carriers who swallowed heroin pellets packed in condoms and boarded commercial airlines, the official said.
The arrests "dismantled a drug trafficking organisation that operated from the darkened jungles of Colombia to the bright lights of New York City", US Drug Enforcement Administration special agent John Gilbride told a news conference in New York.
Twenty-one people were arrested in Colombia, including nine suspected leaders of the Jaime Ocampo-Marin operation. US authorities arrested two people in Florida and seven in New York, Gilbride said.
As part of the investigation, anti-drug agents seized more than 113 kg of heroin worth more than US$25 ($40.9) million in raids in the United States and Colombia between mid-2004 and December 2005, Gilbride said.
He described it as "one of the largest amounts of heroin seized in a single drug investigation".
Nine Colombian anti-narcotics police involved in the investigation were killed on May 22, giving authorities an incentive to crack the ring, Gilbride said.
Eight Colombian soldiers have been arrested in connection with the deaths. Colombian investigators say the soldiers were in the pay of right-wing paramilitary militias.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387814
1050
Even mild injuries to brain add up
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-06-brain-damage_x.htm
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
After a land mine exploded under his armored vehicle last October in Barwana, Iraq, Marine Sgt. Devon Bradley remembers a deafening noise and a flash. Then nothing.
Seconds later, when he came to, Bradley grabbed his weapon and went back into the fight. He led his team for the next two months in efforts to clear insurgents from Barwana.
"We're hard dogs, and I kept pushing to be with my Marines," says Bradley, 29, who was on his third combat tour.
But something was wrong. In the weeks that followed the blast, he began forgetting what other Marines had just told him. He struggled to handle more than one task at once. Taste and smell disappeared. Worst of all, so did the name of his soon-to-be-born daughter, Addison. Bradley says he had to dig through letters from home to remember it.
He was eventually flown to a battlefield hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion — his second in the Iraq war and the third of his life. Bradley learned that what he thought was post-nasal drip was actually leaking spinal fluid.
By January, he was back at Camp Pendleton in California. Doctors told him his brain may never fully recover, and his career in the Marine Corps is in doubt
After more than three years of war in Iraq, where bombs are the biggest threat to U.S. troops, military doctors are seeing a growing number of brain injuries among soldiers and Marines caught too close to a blast. The vast majority are mild concussions that cannot be detected even with a CT scan or MRI.
THIS IS FROM January 2004. Once again the troops receive less than adequate protection from the Bush Administration.
Head Injuries Push Improvements In Gear
http://www.operation-helmet.org/head-injury.html
By Sandra JontzStars and StripesEuropean Edition January 30, 2004WASHINGTON — U.S. troops are suffering traumatic brain injuries in greater numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan than in previous wars, prompting studies on better helmets and improved medical treatment and recuperation care.
An area of scientific focus at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, headquartered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is how many traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, are direct results from the shock wave of a blast, and not just from the head impacting with the ground or other head and brain injuries wounds caused by shrapnel, for example, said Laurie Ryan, the center's assistant director for research.
In a preliminary study done among troops treated at Walter Reed, scientists analyzed 155 patients wounded in combat in Iraq to see if any showed signs of combat traumatic brain injury. Of the 155 troops, 96, or 62 percent, showed symptoms of minor to severe brain injuries. Of the 96, 88 likely had sustained an injury as a result of a blast, such as an explosion from a landmine, rocket propelled grenade or improvised explosive device, she said...
Original article
http://www.operation-helmet.org/documents/news-stories/Head-Injuries-Push-Improvements-In-Gear.pdf
1100
Large Incidents along the Southwest USA has increased exponentially since a week ago.
http://firemapper.sc.egov.usda.gov/
There is no sign of relief. The current turbulence is east of most of the fires. Drought.
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem_loop-12.html
The Caribbean Sea was hot today. I can't believe the longevity of the Mid Atlantic vortex.
1108
I don't care to second guess the NECESSARY trials of our soldiers. We cannot allow a military to kill at will. For as much as it hurts to prosecute soldiers there has to be a brevity to their killing, otherwise, an event as the one that killed Pat Tillman will occur over and over again besides the deaths of innocent people. The USA military aren't supposed to be worse than the terrorists. I really think the USA military is out of control It's happening too frequently.
1110
I couldn't agree more. The Bush policy on most issues is inflammatory without resolve.
Bush policy a failure, says diplomat
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bush-policy-a-failure-says-diplomat/2006/06/21/1150845247944.html
WASHINGTON: A former US diplomat who was deeply involved in North Korea policy said the Bush Administration's approach has been a failure that left Pyongyang to pursue its nuclear and missile programs.
In a rare public attack on the Administration by a foreign service officer, the retired head of the State Department's office of Korean affairs, David Straub, also questioned the decision-making on the issue by the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
One fundamental failure of President George Bush's approach was the tendency to raise tensions and make South Korea nervous by stating that "all options" were on the table, a phrase underscoring US intentions to use force against North Korea if necessary, he said.
"Of course all options are on the table. No government ever takes any option off the table, but you don't have to talk about it all the time," Mr Straub said.
1123
The News Secretary finally.
This 'type' of incident of isolation leading to captured soldiers happened before with the squad of which Jessica Lynch was a memeber.
FIRST LYNCH
The truth about Jessica
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,956255,00.html
Her Iraqi guards had long fled, she was being well cared for - and doctors had already tried to free her. John Kampfner discovers the real story behind a modern American war myth Thursday May 15, 2003The Guardian
Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war. An all-American heroine, the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. It couldn't have happened at a more crucial moment, when the talk was of coalition forces bogged down, of a victory too slow in coming.
Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. It provides a remarkable insight into the real influence of Hollywood producers on the Pentagon's media managers, and has produced a template from which America hopes to present its future wars.
...In the early hours of April 2, correspondents in Doha were summoned from their beds to Centcom, the military and media nerve centre for the war. Jim Wilkinson, the White House's top figure there, had stayed up all night. "We had a situation where there was a lot of hot news," he recalls. "The president had been briefed, as had the secretary of defence."
The journalists rushed in, thinking Saddam had been captured. The story they were told instead has entered American folklore. Private Lynch, a 19-year-old clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was a member of the US Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company that took a wrong turning near Nassiriya and was ambushed. Nine of her US comrades were killed. Iraqi soldiers took Lynch to the local hospital, which was swarming with fedayeen, where he was held for eight days. That much is uncontested.
THE INCIDENT THAT KILLED THREE USA SOLDIERS
Left to die in ambush: army asks why
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/left-to-die-in-ambush-army-asks-why/2006/06/21/1150845247938.html
Major-General William Caldwell confirmed the bodies were believed to be the remains of Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Private First Class Thomas Tucker, 25. General Caldwell said an autopsy would determine the cause of death and there would be DNA testing "to confirm that it is in fact them".
A third soldier, identified as Specialist David Babineau, 25, died in a gun battle that preceded the abduction. All three soldiers were guarding a canal bridge near their military camp.
The circumstances of the initial attack remain mysterious. In a country where military vehicles, even the most impervious tanks, rarely leave fortified areas unless in pairs, General Caldwell confirmed the soldiers were alone.
"We know that there was a single vehicle with three American soldiers when they came under attack," he said.
According to Iraqis living in the area, the three soldiers became isolated when their comrades pursued insurgents into the orchards off the roadside. Then, the Iraqis said, seven or eight masked guerillas attacked the three, killing Specialist Babineau and capturing the other two. The Iraqis said they believed insurgents had staged the first attack to divert most of the Americans and isolate the three.
General Caldwell said the two were killed in a violent way and had not died from battle wounds.
The Shura Council of the Mujahideen, an al-Qaeda-linked group, posted a message on a jihadist website taking responsibility for the killings, but offered no proof of involvement.
General Caldwell said US troops found the bodies on Monday night, but did not immediately recover them, fearing the area was booby-trapped.
'Far too few' soldiers sent to Iraq
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/far-too-few-soldiers-sent-to-iraq/2006/06/21/1150845247929.html
THE US deployed a disastrously undersized army to occupy Iraq because the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, wanted to prove a point about military theory, according to a former top Bush Administration official.
The deputy secretary of state in the first four years of the Bush Administration, Richard Armitage, said that the undersized troop commitment was one of four key US strategic errors.
With a debate raging in Washington over whether to withdraw from Iraq, and a vote in the US Senate due today, Mr Armitage said the Administration discarded an invasion plan for Iraq that deployed at least 380,000 troops in favour of a plan with two-thirds that size at 250,000.
The reason was that Mr Rumsfeld wanted to apply a doctrine of "transformation" of the military, a vaunted move away from traditional military practice towards more flexible and high-tech warfare.
This would represent a departure from the principle of overwhelming force known as the Powell doctrine, named after the former secretary of state and general Colin Powell, a rival of Mr Rumsfeld's within the Bush Administration.
"The largest strategic mistake we made is that we had enough soldiers to win the war, but we had far too few to secure the peace," Mr Armitage said in an interview with the Herald.
enough
Al-Qaeda chief beheaded US soldiers: report
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/alqaeda-chief-beheaded-us-soldiers-report/2006/06/21/1150701561957.html
Iraqi insurgents have boasted that al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq "slaughtered" two missing US soldiers, whose bodies were found yesterday.
The statement from an umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents suggested the soldiers had been beheaded by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.
The bodies showed signs of "barbaric torture" when they were found by US and Iraqi troops, a senior Iraqi general told Reuters. "The two soldiers were found yesterday by a combined US-Iraqi force. We found they had been tortured in a barbaric fashion," Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Private Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, from Madras, Oregon and Private Kristian Menchaca, 23, from Houston, Texas went missing at dusk on Friday after an ambush at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town in an area south of Baghdad some Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death".
The Arabic word used in the insurgents' statement, "nahr", is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.
DEMOCRATS 'think' for a living, Anderson. Something you are not used to !
1010
Web Post Says Russians Slain in Iraq; Workers Abducted, AP Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a_qi3dAOT8Vk&refer=us
June 21 (Bloomberg) -- A group loyal to al-Qaeda in Iraq said it killed four kidnapped Russian diplomats, according to an Internet posting found by the Washington-based Search for International Terrorist Entities Institute.
The claim surfaced on a day in Iraq during which about 85 factory workers were kidnapped by gunmen and Saddam Hussein went on a hunger strike to protest the killing of one of his lawyers, according to the Associated Press.
The workers were abducted as they left work from a factory for metal doors, windows and pipes north of Baghdad, according to AP. About 30 women and children were later freed.
Iraq's new government is trying to clamp down on insurgent and sectarian violence to help forge national unity and economic growth.
1012
"LIE AND DIE"
Yep.
That's Bush. He's hasn't said a word of truth yet. And. He hasn't captured either Osama bin Laden OR the 20th hijacker.
'Al-Qaeda video' of 20th hijacker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5101954.stm
A video said to be from al-Qaeda shows the man it says was the planned "20th hijacker" for the 9/11 US attacks.
The video, released by a US intelligence organisation, is of Saudi man, Fawaz al-Nashimi, who was killed in a shootout in Saudi Arabia in 2004.
The US has not commented and the video claim cannot be independently verified.
The identity of a 20th hijacker has been the subject of great debate, although there is no concrete evidence one was part of the plans for 9/11.
Al Qaeda has their own movie production company? Oh, really? Where exactly is this studio? Kabul?
Al-Qaeda’s al-Sahab Productions Releases New Zawahiri Video in Response to Kabul Riots
By SITE Institute
http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications187506&Category=publications&Subcategory=0
A video of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two leader, was released today. Zawahiri’s statement on the video is a response to the rioting that occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 29, 2006, after three American military vehicles crashed into civilian cars during rush hour. The recording, almost four minutes, was likely recorded on May 30, 2006, as Zawahiri refers to “yesterday’s” events.
Zawahiri calls upon the Muslims in Kabuland elsewhere in Afghanistanto work with al-Qaeda against the Americans. This is the second message released by Zawahiri after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death on June 8, 2006. However, as the video was likely made before Zarqawi’s death, there is no mention of his death.
1018
commercials
1019
NEW AL QAEDA CHIEF: I SLIT THEIR THROATS
Sick claim as bodies of kidnapped troops found
By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
THE new head of al-Qaeda in Iraq personally slit the throats of two US soldiers whose bodies were found near Baghdad, it was claimed last night.
A statement on the internet gloated that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir had "implemented" sentence on the "two captive crusader parasites".
And it is feared al-Qaeda has scored a propaganda coup by carrying out the atrocity despite a huge US-led hunt for privates Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23.
More than 8,000 Iraqi and US troops, backed by fighter and spotter planes, searched for the soldiers who were snatched on Friday from a checkpoint in Yusifiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17264726&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=new-al-qaeda-chief--i-slit-their-throats--name_page.html
1022
more commercials
I GUESS THE BOYS REPEATED THEIR SKILLS . THEY ARE ON A ROLL. I was hoping they could duplicate their victory. I congratulate them. This time it was the Aussies.
US troops kill Zarqawi's 'right-hand man'
The US military says it has killed the "right-hand man" of slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Major General William Caldwell says Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was killed on Friday by US forces in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad.
"We do know that Sheikh Mansur was a key leader in Al Qaeda in Iraq with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials within that organisation," General Caldwell said.
He describes him as Zarqawi's right-hand man and a liaison between Al Qaeda and tribes in the restive area south of Baghdad.
The Mashhadani are a major tribe of Sunni Arabs.
"He was tied to the senior leadership, including having relationships with both Zarqawi and al-Masri," General Caldwell said, referring to Abu Ayub al-Masri, whom the US military claim to be Zarqawi's successor.
"We do think that his death will significantly continue to impact on the ability of this organisation to regenerate and organise itself."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1667855.htm
1024
Campbell sees corruption in IWC practices
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1668876.htm
Federal Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell has labelled some of the practices in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as corrupt.
Senator Campbell is back in Australia after attending the commission's annual meeting, which was this year held on the Caribbean island of St Kitts.
There have been accusations of vote-buying and bullying, after pro-whaling nations led by Japan managed to pass a resolution to end a 20-year ban on commercial whaling by one vote.
Senator Campbell is disappointed with the outcome.
"I think that some of the practices within the IWC over many years could be called corrupt," he said.
"It's been happening in the last couple of years, these sorts of practices have been going on for many years."
Protesters fined
Meanwhile, a magistrate in St Kitts has fined six Greenpeace activists more than $12,000 for charges arising from a protest yesterday.
Five activists, who jumped from high-speed launches and waded through the surf to the beach beside the conference resort, were convicted of illegal entry and fined more than $A2,500 each.
The protesters, four from Brazil and one from Mexico, had boarded the launches from the nearby Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, which had been banned from entering St Kitts' port during IWC talks.
They had planned to plant more than 800 banners in the sand in the shape of whale fins bearing the slogan "R.I.P." in memory of whales killed by Japan in the Southern Ocean during its "research whaling" program this year.
A sixth activist, Greenpeace spokesman Mike Townsley from Britain, was convicted of obstructing a police officer and fined $A500.
Prosecutors said Townsley was charged after telling other protesters not to give their names to a senior police officer.
A second charge of resisting arrest was dropped against him.
All six activists were remanded in custody until the fines were paid.
1029
NASA safety chief won't appeal shuttle launch order
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/nasa-safety-chief-wont-appeal-shuttle-launch-order/2006/06/22/1150845291372.html
NASA's top safety officer says he won't appeal a decision to clear shuttle Discovery for lift-off next week, even though he has nagging concerns about its safety.
On Saturday, following a two-day flight review, NASA safety chief Bryan O'Connor and chief engineer Chris Scolese declined to endorse the space agency's certification that Discovery was ready for launch.
At issue is whether additional modifications to the shuttle's external fuel tank were necessary before flights resume.
NASA redesigned the tank after the 2003 Columbia disaster, and then again after the first-post Columbia mission last July. Both times large pieces of insulating foam fell off the tank.
Columbia was hit and damaged by the falling debris, triggering the ship's break-up as it flew through the atmosphere for landing. Seven astronauts died in that accident.
Discovery escaped impact from the falling foam debris during its launch nearly a year ago, but NASA suspended flights for additional modifications.
Some engineers say the agency has not gone far enough, an opinion clearly shared by O'Connor and Scolese.
But both, speaking in a teleconference with reporters today, ruled out any last-minute appeals aimed at scuttling the planned July 1 launch of Discovery.
1043
Somalis head for Sudan talks to stave off war
1.00pm Thursday June 22, 2006By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU - Sudan's president is to mediate in talks between Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers and Somalia's interim government on Thursday.
The Arab League-sponsored talks are aimed at heading off new war in the Horn of Africa nation.
Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter kicked US-backed warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5 and went on to seize a strategic swathe of Somalia.
The government's call for international peacekeepers and its assertion that Muslim fundamentalists from around the world helped the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) secure its victory in Mogadishu have infuriated the Islamists.
The two sides seemed unlikely even to meet face-to-face.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is to lead the Khartoum talks under the auspices of the Arab League.
President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose weak interim government is based in the provincial town of Baidoa, was on his way to Sudan for the talks. But ICU chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was sending a 10-man delegation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387803
Zimbabwe to compensate foreigners for land
1.25pm Thursday June 22, 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe will pay compensation in foreign currency for land seized from foreigners, but the land owners could still challenge the seizures in court, a cabinet minister has said.
Since 2000, President Robert Mugabe's government has taken over thousands of white-owned commercial farms after backing often violent invasions led by veterans of the country's 1970s struggle against white rule.
The government last August passed laws that nationalised all such farms, barring farmers from challenging the seizure of their property in courts. Many economists and critics say the programme has ruined a once-thriving agricultural sector.
Some of the confiscated land belonged to foreign countries despite being protected under bilateral agreements.
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who heads land reform and resettlement, said those with farms covered by such deals would receive full compensation and have the right to contest the seizures in court.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387852
1046
THIS IS WHAT IS COMING ACROSS THE USA SOUTHERN BORDER.
Policemen beheaded in Mexico border city of Tijuana
2.20pm Thursday June 22, 2006
TIJUANA, Mexico - Three police officers and a fourth man were decapitated in the drug-plagued Mexican city of Tijuana on the US border, their heads and bodies dumped kilometres apart, authorities there have said.
Police found the heads of three municipal policemen and a man identified only as a friend of one of the officers in plastic bags under a Tijuana bridge hours after their corpses turned up in the outlying district of Rosarito, said Jaime Niebla, a senior Tijuana police official. The city is near San Diego.
Rosarito's police chief, Valente Montijo, citing witnesses, said men in federal police uniforms attacked the victims.
The killings were the latest in a spate of police killings along the US border in recent months. Officers often collude with drug traffickers, and shootouts between members of different police forces are common.
Drug violence has been rife along the border since President Vicente Fox declared "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels in January 2005 and sent hundreds of troops and federal police to border cities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387854
US and Colombia crack drug smuggling ring
11.20am Thursday June 22, 2006By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK - US and Colombian authorities have arrested 30 suspected members of one of Colombia's top trafficking rings, a US official said.
The traffickers secreted heroin and cocaine in the soles of sandals, furniture, the lining of golf bags, and used human carriers who swallowed heroin pellets packed in condoms and boarded commercial airlines, the official said.
The arrests "dismantled a drug trafficking organisation that operated from the darkened jungles of Colombia to the bright lights of New York City", US Drug Enforcement Administration special agent John Gilbride told a news conference in New York.
Twenty-one people were arrested in Colombia, including nine suspected leaders of the Jaime Ocampo-Marin operation. US authorities arrested two people in Florida and seven in New York, Gilbride said.
As part of the investigation, anti-drug agents seized more than 113 kg of heroin worth more than US$25 ($40.9) million in raids in the United States and Colombia between mid-2004 and December 2005, Gilbride said.
He described it as "one of the largest amounts of heroin seized in a single drug investigation".
Nine Colombian anti-narcotics police involved in the investigation were killed on May 22, giving authorities an incentive to crack the ring, Gilbride said.
Eight Colombian soldiers have been arrested in connection with the deaths. Colombian investigators say the soldiers were in the pay of right-wing paramilitary militias.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387814
1050
Even mild injuries to brain add up
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-06-brain-damage_x.htm
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
After a land mine exploded under his armored vehicle last October in Barwana, Iraq, Marine Sgt. Devon Bradley remembers a deafening noise and a flash. Then nothing.
Seconds later, when he came to, Bradley grabbed his weapon and went back into the fight. He led his team for the next two months in efforts to clear insurgents from Barwana.
"We're hard dogs, and I kept pushing to be with my Marines," says Bradley, 29, who was on his third combat tour.
But something was wrong. In the weeks that followed the blast, he began forgetting what other Marines had just told him. He struggled to handle more than one task at once. Taste and smell disappeared. Worst of all, so did the name of his soon-to-be-born daughter, Addison. Bradley says he had to dig through letters from home to remember it.
He was eventually flown to a battlefield hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion — his second in the Iraq war and the third of his life. Bradley learned that what he thought was post-nasal drip was actually leaking spinal fluid.
By January, he was back at Camp Pendleton in California. Doctors told him his brain may never fully recover, and his career in the Marine Corps is in doubt
After more than three years of war in Iraq, where bombs are the biggest threat to U.S. troops, military doctors are seeing a growing number of brain injuries among soldiers and Marines caught too close to a blast. The vast majority are mild concussions that cannot be detected even with a CT scan or MRI.
The same article was noted by Michael Moore.
Even mild injuries to brain add up
By Gregg Zoroya / USA Today
After a land mine exploded under his armored vehicle last October in Barwana, Iraq, Marine Sgt. Devon Bradley remembers a deafening noise and a flash. Then nothing.
Seconds later, when he came to, Bradley grabbed his weapon and went back into the fight. He led his team for the next two months in efforts to clear insurgents from Barwana.
"We're hard dogs, and I kept pushing to be with my Marines," says Bradley, 29, who was on his third combat tour.
But something was wrong. In the weeks that followed the blast, he began forgetting what other Marines had just told him. He struggled to handle more than one task at once. Taste and smell disappeared. Worst of all, so did the name of his soon-to-be-born daughter, Addison. Bradley says he had to dig through letters from home to remember it.
He was eventually flown to a battlefield hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion — his second in the Iraq war and the third of his life. Bradley learned that what he thought was post-nasal drip was actually leaking spinal fluid.
By January, he was back at Camp Pendleton in California. Doctors told him his brain may never fully recover, and his career in the Marine Corps is in doubt.
After more than three years of war in Iraq, where bombs are the biggest threat to U.S. troops, military doctors are seeing a growing number of brain injuries among soldiers and Marines caught too close to a blast. The vast majority are mild concussions that cannot be detected even with a CT scan or MRI.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7180
THIS IS FROM January 2004. Once again the troops receive less than adequate protection from the Bush Administration.
Head Injuries Push Improvements In Gear
http://www.operation-helmet.org/head-injury.html
By Sandra JontzStars and StripesEuropean Edition January 30, 2004WASHINGTON — U.S. troops are suffering traumatic brain injuries in greater numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan than in previous wars, prompting studies on better helmets and improved medical treatment and recuperation care.
An area of scientific focus at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, headquartered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is how many traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, are direct results from the shock wave of a blast, and not just from the head impacting with the ground or other head and brain injuries wounds caused by shrapnel, for example, said Laurie Ryan, the center's assistant director for research.
In a preliminary study done among troops treated at Walter Reed, scientists analyzed 155 patients wounded in combat in Iraq to see if any showed signs of combat traumatic brain injury. Of the 155 troops, 96, or 62 percent, showed symptoms of minor to severe brain injuries. Of the 96, 88 likely had sustained an injury as a result of a blast, such as an explosion from a landmine, rocket propelled grenade or improvised explosive device, she said...
Original article
http://www.operation-helmet.org/documents/news-stories/Head-Injuries-Push-Improvements-In-Gear.pdf
1100
Large Incidents along the Southwest USA has increased exponentially since a week ago.
http://firemapper.sc.egov.usda.gov/
There is no sign of relief. The current turbulence is east of most of the fires. Drought.
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem_loop-12.html
The Caribbean Sea was hot today. I can't believe the longevity of the Mid Atlantic vortex.
1108
I don't care to second guess the NECESSARY trials of our soldiers. We cannot allow a military to kill at will. For as much as it hurts to prosecute soldiers there has to be a brevity to their killing, otherwise, an event as the one that killed Pat Tillman will occur over and over again besides the deaths of innocent people. The USA military aren't supposed to be worse than the terrorists. I really think the USA military is out of control It's happening too frequently.
1110
I couldn't agree more. The Bush policy on most issues is inflammatory without resolve.
Bush policy a failure, says diplomat
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bush-policy-a-failure-says-diplomat/2006/06/21/1150845247944.html
WASHINGTON: A former US diplomat who was deeply involved in North Korea policy said the Bush Administration's approach has been a failure that left Pyongyang to pursue its nuclear and missile programs.
In a rare public attack on the Administration by a foreign service officer, the retired head of the State Department's office of Korean affairs, David Straub, also questioned the decision-making on the issue by the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
One fundamental failure of President George Bush's approach was the tendency to raise tensions and make South Korea nervous by stating that "all options" were on the table, a phrase underscoring US intentions to use force against North Korea if necessary, he said.
"Of course all options are on the table. No government ever takes any option off the table, but you don't have to talk about it all the time," Mr Straub said.
1123
The News Secretary finally.
This 'type' of incident of isolation leading to captured soldiers happened before with the squad of which Jessica Lynch was a memeber.
FIRST LYNCH
The truth about Jessica
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,956255,00.html
Her Iraqi guards had long fled, she was being well cared for - and doctors had already tried to free her. John Kampfner discovers the real story behind a modern American war myth Thursday May 15, 2003The Guardian
Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war. An all-American heroine, the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. It couldn't have happened at a more crucial moment, when the talk was of coalition forces bogged down, of a victory too slow in coming.
Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. It provides a remarkable insight into the real influence of Hollywood producers on the Pentagon's media managers, and has produced a template from which America hopes to present its future wars.
...In the early hours of April 2, correspondents in Doha were summoned from their beds to Centcom, the military and media nerve centre for the war. Jim Wilkinson, the White House's top figure there, had stayed up all night. "We had a situation where there was a lot of hot news," he recalls. "The president had been briefed, as had the secretary of defence."
The journalists rushed in, thinking Saddam had been captured. The story they were told instead has entered American folklore. Private Lynch, a 19-year-old clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was a member of the US Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company that took a wrong turning near Nassiriya and was ambushed. Nine of her US comrades were killed. Iraqi soldiers took Lynch to the local hospital, which was swarming with fedayeen, where he was held for eight days. That much is uncontested.
THE INCIDENT THAT KILLED THREE USA SOLDIERS
Left to die in ambush: army asks why
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/left-to-die-in-ambush-army-asks-why/2006/06/21/1150845247938.html
Major-General William Caldwell confirmed the bodies were believed to be the remains of Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Private First Class Thomas Tucker, 25. General Caldwell said an autopsy would determine the cause of death and there would be DNA testing "to confirm that it is in fact them".
A third soldier, identified as Specialist David Babineau, 25, died in a gun battle that preceded the abduction. All three soldiers were guarding a canal bridge near their military camp.
The circumstances of the initial attack remain mysterious. In a country where military vehicles, even the most impervious tanks, rarely leave fortified areas unless in pairs, General Caldwell confirmed the soldiers were alone.
"We know that there was a single vehicle with three American soldiers when they came under attack," he said.
According to Iraqis living in the area, the three soldiers became isolated when their comrades pursued insurgents into the orchards off the roadside. Then, the Iraqis said, seven or eight masked guerillas attacked the three, killing Specialist Babineau and capturing the other two. The Iraqis said they believed insurgents had staged the first attack to divert most of the Americans and isolate the three.
General Caldwell said the two were killed in a violent way and had not died from battle wounds.
The Shura Council of the Mujahideen, an al-Qaeda-linked group, posted a message on a jihadist website taking responsibility for the killings, but offered no proof of involvement.
General Caldwell said US troops found the bodies on Monday night, but did not immediately recover them, fearing the area was booby-trapped.
'Far too few' soldiers sent to Iraq
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/far-too-few-soldiers-sent-to-iraq/2006/06/21/1150845247929.html
THE US deployed a disastrously undersized army to occupy Iraq because the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, wanted to prove a point about military theory, according to a former top Bush Administration official.
The deputy secretary of state in the first four years of the Bush Administration, Richard Armitage, said that the undersized troop commitment was one of four key US strategic errors.
With a debate raging in Washington over whether to withdraw from Iraq, and a vote in the US Senate due today, Mr Armitage said the Administration discarded an invasion plan for Iraq that deployed at least 380,000 troops in favour of a plan with two-thirds that size at 250,000.
The reason was that Mr Rumsfeld wanted to apply a doctrine of "transformation" of the military, a vaunted move away from traditional military practice towards more flexible and high-tech warfare.
This would represent a departure from the principle of overwhelming force known as the Powell doctrine, named after the former secretary of state and general Colin Powell, a rival of Mr Rumsfeld's within the Bush Administration.
"The largest strategic mistake we made is that we had enough soldiers to win the war, but we had far too few to secure the peace," Mr Armitage said in an interview with the Herald.
enough
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
When the program goes south, it goes south. Good night and good luck.
Who will get your attention today -- Anderson Cooper and Angelina Jolie, or Pfc Kristian Menchaca and Pfc Thomas Tucker? (click on title for article)
Today's New York Times and Los Angeles Times, plus who knows what other papers, carry half-page ads from CNN promoting Cooper's great get: his TELEVISION EXCLUSIVE interview with "Jolie - just back from Africa - on motherhood and her passionate fight for refugee relief." In politics, and in the entertainment business, these ads are known as "paid media." CNN is spending substantially in order to attract eyeballs to Cooper's show, whose ratings turn out not to be as high as Aaron Brown's, whom he replaced, despite Cooper's appearance in feature stories and on magazine covers ("free media") promoting his new book. Jolie is using her celebrity to get free media for refugees (and herself), just as the UN is using its prestige to get free media by declaring today World Refugee Day. CNN, in turn, is using Jolie's susperstar eye-candy in order to demonstrate to advertisers that it can pull decent enough Nielsens to justify paid media by HeadOn, ditech.com, the Schwarzenegger campaign and anyone else competing for your neurons.
Today's New York Times and Los Angeles Times, plus who knows what other papers, carry half-page ads from CNN promoting Cooper's great get: his TELEVISION EXCLUSIVE interview with "Jolie - just back from Africa - on motherhood and her passionate fight for refugee relief." In politics, and in the entertainment business, these ads are known as "paid media." CNN is spending substantially in order to attract eyeballs to Cooper's show, whose ratings turn out not to be as high as Aaron Brown's, whom he replaced, despite Cooper's appearance in feature stories and on magazine covers ("free media") promoting his new book. Jolie is using her celebrity to get free media for refugees (and herself), just as the UN is using its prestige to get free media by declaring today World Refugee Day. CNN, in turn, is using Jolie's susperstar eye-candy in order to demonstrate to advertisers that it can pull decent enough Nielsens to justify paid media by HeadOn, ditech.com, the Schwarzenegger campaign and anyone else competing for your neurons.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Binary language. Easy to derail a democracy.
1000
I still don't understand the 'military' significance of looking for missing presonnel. These were young soldiers with little high level information. They were on a detail. The reason I state this is that I feel the military is being used for political outcomes. Building sympathy for the continued occupation based on finding lost soldiers.
The outcomes to any kidnapped people in Iraq is grim no matter whom they are. There are an additional five soldiers now dead from 'the search.' The military should explain the military science behind the search that justifies the loss of more soldiers. I really think Bush is behind the push for intensifying the focus on missing soldiers. The focus, if anything will cause greater peril and not less.
Majority Votes to Legalize Whaling
John Roach for National Geographic News
June 19, 2006
A slim majority of nations on the International Whaling Commission voted Sunday in support of legalizing commercial whaling.
The vote—33 for and 32 against, with one abstention—fell short of the three-quarters majority needed to overturn the 20-year ban on commercial whaling.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-whaling-ban.html
1020
The war in Iraq is endless. There is 'winning' if that means dominating the politics. I don't know how Bush defines winning. The violence of the Middle East is turbulent.
1022
CNN is trying to bolster the culture of fear while redefining the war. No one has to answer the war head on. The Iraqi government needs to handle their own affairs. These folks at CNN are confused. This is not our war. It's an Iraqi Civil War. We are not the Middle East Police. Besides Bush today made a threat against Iran. He's a jerk. Anything to escalate and nothing to provide a road to peace.
1023
Global warming affects bird migration
Australia's migratory birds are arriving earlier and leaving later - most likely due to global warming, a new study has found.
Macquarie University PhD students Linda Beaumont and Ian McAllan, together with associate professor Lesley Hughes, have analysed the movements of migratory birds visiting south-eastern Australia since the 1960s.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Global-warming-affects-bird-migration/2006/06/20/1150701529282.html
Anderson why don't you demonstrate what cyanide gas does to a CNN anchor. Oh, here we go. We are all supposed to be paranoid now with cyanide in our water, food, etc. Go to hell, Gupta.
1031
Hurry, buy stocks in Duct Tape, Gupta and Cooper are paranoid !
Duct tape sales rise amid terror fears
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/11/emergency.supplies/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans have apparently heeded the U.S. government's advice to prepare for terror attacks, emptying hardware store shelves of duct tape.
On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison described a list of useful items, stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area reported a surge in sales of plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other emergency items.
These items, Paulison said, can be helpful after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.
1035
We are making progress.
Former 'Belmarsh detainee' with Bin Laden links deported
HMP Belmarsh
A former "Belmarsh detainee" described as a senior member of a terrorist group linked with Osama Bin Laden has been deported from Britain, the Home Office said.
The man, who can only be identified by the initial "I", was returned to Algeria yesterday after voluntarily dropping his appeal against deportation moves by the Government.
http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=57&newsID=7020
1041
No news secretary yet? Why? She rather not be affiliated with a terror program?
Autism groups want mercury banPreservative used in vaccines for children
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS/606180513/1116
A battle pitting many parents of autistic children against the bulk of the state’s medical establishment, with state lawmakers squarely in the middle, could spill onto the House floor this week as debate begins on a bill to ban mercury from children’s vaccines.
The bill itself is a decidedly watered-down version of what supporters originally wanted. That, though, has done little to stave off behind-the-scenes maneuvering by a number of official medical organizations. What spurred the proposed legislation is a rise in autism rates that coincides with an increase in the required number of children’s vaccines. Since 1989 the number of required injections is up from about 8 to 22. In that same time period, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incidences of autism have risen from 2 in 10,000 to 1 in 166.
1047
Japan's Koizumi to announce troop withdrawal from Iraq
The Associated Press (apwire)
Email Article Print Article
Published 2006-06-20 10:54 (KST)
TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced his plan Tuesday to withdraw troops from Iraq at a ruling party meeting, a party official said, moving to end Japan's largest military mission since World War II.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of party protocol, said Koizumi told a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party that he would make a public announcement of the pullout later in the day.''We've finished this chapter,'' Kyodo News agency quoted Koizumi as telling party executives.Japan has about 600 troops in the city of Samawah in southern Iraq. Although the mission is strictly non-combat and humanitarian, the deploymentbroke new ground as a symbol of Tokyo's more assertive military policy of recent years.
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=299948&rel_no=1
1051
Israel's Olmert convenes ex-premiers on Iran
By Dan WilliamsReutersMonday, June 19, 2006; 2:25 PM
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held talks on Monday with three former Israeli premiers about Iran's nuclear program, signaling a drive for consensus on an issue the Jewish state calls a threat to its existence.
Olmert lacks the military pedigree common to most of his predecessors, as does Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, a veteran trade unionist who won the key portfolio under a coalition deal between his Labor Party and the ruling Kadima.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061900632.html
1054
The International Criminal Court: A Justice Network
Luis Moreno-Ocampo Al-Hayat - 12/06/06//
Six children walked down a road in the region of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo. They were on their way to school when a jeep packed with militiamen sped in front of them. Fighters bearing AK-47s ordered the terrified children into the jeep. They were transported to military training camps and forced to learn to fire machine guns. Three weeks later, the children were in the field, killing and being killed.Thomas Lubanga, leader of one of the most dangerous militias in the Congo, allegedly orchestrated crimes like the one described above. In March, the judges of the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant charging Lubanga with conscripting children under fifteen to use in active hostilities. A few days later, Lubanga was transferred from the Congo in a French military aircraft to a prison in The Hague.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/contributors/06-2006/Article-20060612-c8e208f0-c0a8-10ed-0135-e112f538f0cf/story.html
1056
Israel honours memory of anti-Nazi "European Union"
19 Jun 2006 20:28:29 GMT19 Jun 2006 20:28:29 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
Printable view Email this article RSS [-] Text [+]
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN, June 19 (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honour on Monday to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" -- an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two.
This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
To honour them, Israel's ambassador to Germany Shimon Stein presented special Yad Vashem medals to surviving members of the families of "European Union" activists Georg and Anneliese Groscurth, Robert Havemann, Paul Rentsch and Herbert Richter at a ceremony at Stein's official residence in the German capital.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19172990.htm
1100
2 U.S. Gulf Coast refineries hit by storms
Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:20pm ET
HOUSTON, June 19 (Reuters) - At least two U.S. Gulf Coast refineries said on Monday their production was interrupted by heavy rainstorms in Texas and Louisiana.
Refiners were using a Monday afternoon lull in torrential rains on Monday afternoon to get production back on-line before another round drenches the coast Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Texas public safety officials were warning municipal fire and police departments to expect up to 10 inches of rain overnight in saturated areas. At one location along Houston's refinery row, 11 inches of rain had already fallen by Monday afternoon.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. said on Monday afternoon it was restarting process units at its 440,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which malfunctioned due to heavy rains on Monday morning.
http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-06-19T212009Z_01_N19406878_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-STORMS-REFINERIES.XML&rpc=66
1105
Recent Duke Study Links Global Warming, Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels with Poison Ivy PerilsMonday June 12, 10:07 am ET
Prevent Annoying Poison Ivy Itch and Rash with the ONLY FDA-Approved Product -- IvyBlock
LOS ANGELES, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study conducted by Duke University researchers and published in the May 30 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has linked increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with bigger, faster-growing poison ivy. According to researchers, the increased amount of CO2 also increases the virulence of the plant, enabling greater production of urushiol, the oil responsible for causing the uncomfortable itch, rash and irritation associated with poison ivy, oak and sumac. This could be bad news for the millions of Americans who work and play in areas where poison ivy, oak and sumac take hold.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060612/cgm021.html?.v=54
1107
Castro gave Chavez the coordinates for the White House
Hugo Chavez Promises to Visit Iran, North Korea
Reuters
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday that he will visit Iran and North Korea, two nations at odds with Washington over nuclear development, at a time when Chavez is seeking to distance Venezuela from the United States.
Chavez, who has promised a socialist revolution to end poverty in the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, has drawn fire from the State Department for building alliances with U.S. foes like Cuba and Iran.
“We will soon be in North Korea, we will soon be in Tehran, deepening our ... strategic alliances,” Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.
He said the tour will also include stops in China and Russia, where Venezuela will sign military cooperation agreements with the Russian government, following U.S. moves to block Chavez’s arms purchases from other countries.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=17901
1108
Disinformation. That is putting it lightly.
1112
People profited by putting false information about a deadly trend in Earth's troposphere. They go unpunished and able to continue with their point of view.; It's a travesty. See, CNN still persists there is a debate in the face of Katrina and other scientific studies such as the one above. This is recreation for them, while doing so called serious discussions about Africa. Ever stop to ask what caused the drought in Ethiopia, Anderson? Go ahead, sell your soul.
1110
enough
I still don't understand the 'military' significance of looking for missing presonnel. These were young soldiers with little high level information. They were on a detail. The reason I state this is that I feel the military is being used for political outcomes. Building sympathy for the continued occupation based on finding lost soldiers.
The outcomes to any kidnapped people in Iraq is grim no matter whom they are. There are an additional five soldiers now dead from 'the search.' The military should explain the military science behind the search that justifies the loss of more soldiers. I really think Bush is behind the push for intensifying the focus on missing soldiers. The focus, if anything will cause greater peril and not less.
Majority Votes to Legalize Whaling
John Roach for National Geographic News
June 19, 2006
A slim majority of nations on the International Whaling Commission voted Sunday in support of legalizing commercial whaling.
The vote—33 for and 32 against, with one abstention—fell short of the three-quarters majority needed to overturn the 20-year ban on commercial whaling.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-whaling-ban.html
1020
The war in Iraq is endless. There is 'winning' if that means dominating the politics. I don't know how Bush defines winning. The violence of the Middle East is turbulent.
1022
CNN is trying to bolster the culture of fear while redefining the war. No one has to answer the war head on. The Iraqi government needs to handle their own affairs. These folks at CNN are confused. This is not our war. It's an Iraqi Civil War. We are not the Middle East Police. Besides Bush today made a threat against Iran. He's a jerk. Anything to escalate and nothing to provide a road to peace.
1023
Global warming affects bird migration
Australia's migratory birds are arriving earlier and leaving later - most likely due to global warming, a new study has found.
Macquarie University PhD students Linda Beaumont and Ian McAllan, together with associate professor Lesley Hughes, have analysed the movements of migratory birds visiting south-eastern Australia since the 1960s.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Global-warming-affects-bird-migration/2006/06/20/1150701529282.html
Anderson why don't you demonstrate what cyanide gas does to a CNN anchor. Oh, here we go. We are all supposed to be paranoid now with cyanide in our water, food, etc. Go to hell, Gupta.
1031
Hurry, buy stocks in Duct Tape, Gupta and Cooper are paranoid !
Duct tape sales rise amid terror fears
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/11/emergency.supplies/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans have apparently heeded the U.S. government's advice to prepare for terror attacks, emptying hardware store shelves of duct tape.
On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison described a list of useful items, stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area reported a surge in sales of plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other emergency items.
These items, Paulison said, can be helpful after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.
1035
We are making progress.
Former 'Belmarsh detainee' with Bin Laden links deported
HMP Belmarsh
A former "Belmarsh detainee" described as a senior member of a terrorist group linked with Osama Bin Laden has been deported from Britain, the Home Office said.
The man, who can only be identified by the initial "I", was returned to Algeria yesterday after voluntarily dropping his appeal against deportation moves by the Government.
http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=57&newsID=7020
1041
No news secretary yet? Why? She rather not be affiliated with a terror program?
Autism groups want mercury banPreservative used in vaccines for children
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS/606180513/1116
A battle pitting many parents of autistic children against the bulk of the state’s medical establishment, with state lawmakers squarely in the middle, could spill onto the House floor this week as debate begins on a bill to ban mercury from children’s vaccines.
The bill itself is a decidedly watered-down version of what supporters originally wanted. That, though, has done little to stave off behind-the-scenes maneuvering by a number of official medical organizations. What spurred the proposed legislation is a rise in autism rates that coincides with an increase in the required number of children’s vaccines. Since 1989 the number of required injections is up from about 8 to 22. In that same time period, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incidences of autism have risen from 2 in 10,000 to 1 in 166.
1047
Japan's Koizumi to announce troop withdrawal from Iraq
The Associated Press (apwire)
Email Article Print Article
Published 2006-06-20 10:54 (KST)
TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced his plan Tuesday to withdraw troops from Iraq at a ruling party meeting, a party official said, moving to end Japan's largest military mission since World War II.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of party protocol, said Koizumi told a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party that he would make a public announcement of the pullout later in the day.''We've finished this chapter,'' Kyodo News agency quoted Koizumi as telling party executives.Japan has about 600 troops in the city of Samawah in southern Iraq. Although the mission is strictly non-combat and humanitarian, the deploymentbroke new ground as a symbol of Tokyo's more assertive military policy of recent years.
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=299948&rel_no=1
1051
Israel's Olmert convenes ex-premiers on Iran
By Dan WilliamsReutersMonday, June 19, 2006; 2:25 PM
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held talks on Monday with three former Israeli premiers about Iran's nuclear program, signaling a drive for consensus on an issue the Jewish state calls a threat to its existence.
Olmert lacks the military pedigree common to most of his predecessors, as does Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, a veteran trade unionist who won the key portfolio under a coalition deal between his Labor Party and the ruling Kadima.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061900632.html
1054
The International Criminal Court: A Justice Network
Luis Moreno-Ocampo Al-Hayat - 12/06/06//
Six children walked down a road in the region of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo. They were on their way to school when a jeep packed with militiamen sped in front of them. Fighters bearing AK-47s ordered the terrified children into the jeep. They were transported to military training camps and forced to learn to fire machine guns. Three weeks later, the children were in the field, killing and being killed.Thomas Lubanga, leader of one of the most dangerous militias in the Congo, allegedly orchestrated crimes like the one described above. In March, the judges of the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant charging Lubanga with conscripting children under fifteen to use in active hostilities. A few days later, Lubanga was transferred from the Congo in a French military aircraft to a prison in The Hague.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/contributors/06-2006/Article-20060612-c8e208f0-c0a8-10ed-0135-e112f538f0cf/story.html
1056
Israel honours memory of anti-Nazi "European Union"
19 Jun 2006 20:28:29 GMT19 Jun 2006 20:28:29 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
Printable view Email this article RSS [-] Text [+]
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN, June 19 (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honour on Monday to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" -- an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two.
This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
To honour them, Israel's ambassador to Germany Shimon Stein presented special Yad Vashem medals to surviving members of the families of "European Union" activists Georg and Anneliese Groscurth, Robert Havemann, Paul Rentsch and Herbert Richter at a ceremony at Stein's official residence in the German capital.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19172990.htm
1100
2 U.S. Gulf Coast refineries hit by storms
Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:20pm ET
HOUSTON, June 19 (Reuters) - At least two U.S. Gulf Coast refineries said on Monday their production was interrupted by heavy rainstorms in Texas and Louisiana.
Refiners were using a Monday afternoon lull in torrential rains on Monday afternoon to get production back on-line before another round drenches the coast Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Texas public safety officials were warning municipal fire and police departments to expect up to 10 inches of rain overnight in saturated areas. At one location along Houston's refinery row, 11 inches of rain had already fallen by Monday afternoon.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. said on Monday afternoon it was restarting process units at its 440,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which malfunctioned due to heavy rains on Monday morning.
http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-06-19T212009Z_01_N19406878_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-STORMS-REFINERIES.XML&rpc=66
1105
Recent Duke Study Links Global Warming, Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels with Poison Ivy PerilsMonday June 12, 10:07 am ET
Prevent Annoying Poison Ivy Itch and Rash with the ONLY FDA-Approved Product -- IvyBlock
LOS ANGELES, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study conducted by Duke University researchers and published in the May 30 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has linked increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with bigger, faster-growing poison ivy. According to researchers, the increased amount of CO2 also increases the virulence of the plant, enabling greater production of urushiol, the oil responsible for causing the uncomfortable itch, rash and irritation associated with poison ivy, oak and sumac. This could be bad news for the millions of Americans who work and play in areas where poison ivy, oak and sumac take hold.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060612/cgm021.html?.v=54
1107
Castro gave Chavez the coordinates for the White House
Hugo Chavez Promises to Visit Iran, North Korea
Reuters
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday that he will visit Iran and North Korea, two nations at odds with Washington over nuclear development, at a time when Chavez is seeking to distance Venezuela from the United States.
Chavez, who has promised a socialist revolution to end poverty in the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, has drawn fire from the State Department for building alliances with U.S. foes like Cuba and Iran.
“We will soon be in North Korea, we will soon be in Tehran, deepening our ... strategic alliances,” Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast.
He said the tour will also include stops in China and Russia, where Venezuela will sign military cooperation agreements with the Russian government, following U.S. moves to block Chavez’s arms purchases from other countries.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=17901
1108
Disinformation. That is putting it lightly.
1112
People profited by putting false information about a deadly trend in Earth's troposphere. They go unpunished and able to continue with their point of view.; It's a travesty. See, CNN still persists there is a debate in the face of Katrina and other scientific studies such as the one above. This is recreation for them, while doing so called serious discussions about Africa. Ever stop to ask what caused the drought in Ethiopia, Anderson? Go ahead, sell your soul.
1110
enough
Saturday, June 17, 2006
1000
Protestors rally against Bush, Wilson Source: KRQE News 13
Watch Video
ALBUQUERQUE -- While President Bush had plenty of supporters at a campaign reception for Rep. Heather Wilson, there were hundreds of protestors across the street in Civic Plaza.
One Bush defender braved the crowd to support the president’s policies.
While the protestors brought different issues with them, they agreed on wanting Bush and his supporters, including Wilson, out of office.
Some were dressed in pink slips expressing their desire to give Bush and Wilson pink unemployment slips. Others carried black balloons and told KRQE News 13 the country is doomed as long as Bush remains in office.
“Heather has to go,” one protestor said. “She's too embedded with Bush.
“She votes for him down the line all the time. That has to end.”
Albuquerque police along with Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies guarded the front of the Hyatt Regency while Bush and Wilson attended a fundraising reception inside and protestors chanted outside. That didn’t stop the lone Bush supporter from challenging his critics.
“Everybody here is against bush so I just thought I had to say something for him,” Daniel Worley said.
One of the protestors apparently was arrested for not moving back after he was told to by police.
Otherwise the several hundred protestors were peaceful, and no violence was reported.
http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BNews%5D=ID&ID%5BNews%5D=15778
1004
I think the 'dual' identity of Bush Republicans is hideous.
A House Republican whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program.
The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had “serious concerns” about the surveillance program.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/08/bush-on-heather-wilson/
Poll: Madrid, Wilson in Dead Heat
Poll: Madrid, Wilson in Dead HeatNew Mexico's First Congressional District Definitely in Play
2/7/06
ALBUQUERQUE -- A recent poll by D.C.-based Lake Research Partners showed that Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Rep. Heather Wilson are in a statistical dead heat in the race to represent New Mexico's First Congressional District, according to an internal memo released Tuesday.
Specifically, the poll found that of the 400 district voters sampled 43 percent would vote for Madrid, 44 percent would vote for Wilson. Factoring in the margin of error, the two candidates are tied with the election nine months away.
Lake Research Partners' poll also found that Madrid's strong showing so early in the race was based on voters' positive feelings toward her performance as attorney general.
". . . fully 62 percent of voters are positive about the job that Madrid is doing as Attorney General," Lake Research Partners found.
http://www.madridforcongress.com/node/513
1009
Conozca a Patricia Madrid
Patricia Madrid ganó su primera campaña en 1978 cuando llegó a ser la primera mujer elegida como juez de juzgado de distrito en Nuevo México. En 1998, llegó a ser la primera mujer elegida fiscal del estado de Nuevo México y en 2002 continuó en el puesto cuando fue elegida de nuevo en una victoria arrolladora. Hace más de treinta años que está casada con un abogado de Albuquerque, L. Michael Messina, y tiene un hijo, Giancarlo, que se recibió de la Universidad de Nuevo México y ahora trabaja en Washington DC.
http://www.madridforcongress.com/enespanol/conozca
1014
This is from a Middle East newspaper. It's important to realize the 'approach.'
War crimes court finds multiple Darfur massacres
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Wednesday his office had documented massacres with hundreds of victims in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region as well as hundreds of rape cases.
In a report to the UN Security Council, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the office had documented "thousands of alleged direct killings of civilians by parties to the conflict," including "a significant number of large-scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident." Ocampo told the council that his office was investigating allegations that some of the groups implicated in the Darfur crimes "did so with specific genocidal intent."
He said identifying those with the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes in Darfur was a key challenge for his probe but said he would not draw any conclusions pending the completion of a "full and impartial investigation."
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news6.htm
1017
This is a vital aspect to seeking Iran's cooperation. Iran is convinced they are the ONLY Islamic nation capable of standing up to the West. If the West proves there is no reason to stand upto them it gives Iran no reason to resist peace over war.
EU approves mechanism for Palestinian aid
Agencies
Brussels: The European Union on Friday agreed on an aid scheme for Palestinians bypassing the Hamas-led government and said it was close to winning the backing of the United States and other peace brokers.
"The European Council has endorsed our proposal for a temporary international mechanism," European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin told a news briefing in Brussels.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10047570.html
1023
No. This is not from a New York Newspaper. It's from "The Arab News." I thought the Republicans during their rhetoric yesterday stated their debate narcisstically would be all over the Arab newspapers. It would not seem to be the case.
Govt Officials and FBI Agents Go Unpunished for Stealing
Once secret FBI documents obtained by The Associated Press show the FBI investigated how a company, Kieger Enterprises, KEI, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, went unpublished for the Sept. 11, 2001 theft of 45 tons of donated water, clothing, tools and generators. The case was dropped after investigators also found that an FBI agent and other government officials had pilfered artifacts from Ground Zero.
As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark about a major fraud involving their donated goods even as new requests for charity emerged with disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
The government ultimately gave the whistle-blowers $30,000 each after expenses, their share in a civil settlement against KEI. They say the sum was hardly worth their trouble.
Federal prosecutors eventually charged KEI and some executives with fraud, including overbilling the government in several disasters, but excluded the Sept. 11 thefts.
AP reports that KEI worked for the government for years, providing disaster relief services during tornadoes, floods and other catastrophes. It was picked to manage the New York warehouse for the government’s main Sept. 11 relief contractor.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=83918&d=17&m=6&y=2006
It would seem the show that stated the Republicans were so concerned about their 'debate' causing problems doesn't care to follow up on it. Hm.
1030
commercials
Protestors rally against Bush, Wilson Source: KRQE News 13
Watch Video
ALBUQUERQUE -- While President Bush had plenty of supporters at a campaign reception for Rep. Heather Wilson, there were hundreds of protestors across the street in Civic Plaza.
One Bush defender braved the crowd to support the president’s policies.
While the protestors brought different issues with them, they agreed on wanting Bush and his supporters, including Wilson, out of office.
Some were dressed in pink slips expressing their desire to give Bush and Wilson pink unemployment slips. Others carried black balloons and told KRQE News 13 the country is doomed as long as Bush remains in office.
“Heather has to go,” one protestor said. “She's too embedded with Bush.
“She votes for him down the line all the time. That has to end.”
Albuquerque police along with Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies guarded the front of the Hyatt Regency while Bush and Wilson attended a fundraising reception inside and protestors chanted outside. That didn’t stop the lone Bush supporter from challenging his critics.
“Everybody here is against bush so I just thought I had to say something for him,” Daniel Worley said.
One of the protestors apparently was arrested for not moving back after he was told to by police.
Otherwise the several hundred protestors were peaceful, and no violence was reported.
http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BNews%5D=ID&ID%5BNews%5D=15778
1004
I think the 'dual' identity of Bush Republicans is hideous.
A House Republican whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program.
The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had “serious concerns” about the surveillance program.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/08/bush-on-heather-wilson/
Poll: Madrid, Wilson in Dead Heat
Poll: Madrid, Wilson in Dead HeatNew Mexico's First Congressional District Definitely in Play
2/7/06
ALBUQUERQUE -- A recent poll by D.C.-based Lake Research Partners showed that Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Rep. Heather Wilson are in a statistical dead heat in the race to represent New Mexico's First Congressional District, according to an internal memo released Tuesday.
Specifically, the poll found that of the 400 district voters sampled 43 percent would vote for Madrid, 44 percent would vote for Wilson. Factoring in the margin of error, the two candidates are tied with the election nine months away.
Lake Research Partners' poll also found that Madrid's strong showing so early in the race was based on voters' positive feelings toward her performance as attorney general.
". . . fully 62 percent of voters are positive about the job that Madrid is doing as Attorney General," Lake Research Partners found.
http://www.madridforcongress.com/node/513
1009
Conozca a Patricia Madrid
Patricia Madrid ganó su primera campaña en 1978 cuando llegó a ser la primera mujer elegida como juez de juzgado de distrito en Nuevo México. En 1998, llegó a ser la primera mujer elegida fiscal del estado de Nuevo México y en 2002 continuó en el puesto cuando fue elegida de nuevo en una victoria arrolladora. Hace más de treinta años que está casada con un abogado de Albuquerque, L. Michael Messina, y tiene un hijo, Giancarlo, que se recibió de la Universidad de Nuevo México y ahora trabaja en Washington DC.
http://www.madridforcongress.com/enespanol/conozca
1014
This is from a Middle East newspaper. It's important to realize the 'approach.'
War crimes court finds multiple Darfur massacres
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Wednesday his office had documented massacres with hundreds of victims in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region as well as hundreds of rape cases.
In a report to the UN Security Council, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the office had documented "thousands of alleged direct killings of civilians by parties to the conflict," including "a significant number of large-scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident." Ocampo told the council that his office was investigating allegations that some of the groups implicated in the Darfur crimes "did so with specific genocidal intent."
He said identifying those with the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes in Darfur was a key challenge for his probe but said he would not draw any conclusions pending the completion of a "full and impartial investigation."
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news6.htm
1017
This is a vital aspect to seeking Iran's cooperation. Iran is convinced they are the ONLY Islamic nation capable of standing up to the West. If the West proves there is no reason to stand upto them it gives Iran no reason to resist peace over war.
EU approves mechanism for Palestinian aid
Agencies
Brussels: The European Union on Friday agreed on an aid scheme for Palestinians bypassing the Hamas-led government and said it was close to winning the backing of the United States and other peace brokers.
"The European Council has endorsed our proposal for a temporary international mechanism," European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin told a news briefing in Brussels.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10047570.html
1023
No. This is not from a New York Newspaper. It's from "The Arab News." I thought the Republicans during their rhetoric yesterday stated their debate narcisstically would be all over the Arab newspapers. It would not seem to be the case.
Govt Officials and FBI Agents Go Unpunished for Stealing
Once secret FBI documents obtained by The Associated Press show the FBI investigated how a company, Kieger Enterprises, KEI, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, went unpublished for the Sept. 11, 2001 theft of 45 tons of donated water, clothing, tools and generators. The case was dropped after investigators also found that an FBI agent and other government officials had pilfered artifacts from Ground Zero.
As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark about a major fraud involving their donated goods even as new requests for charity emerged with disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
The government ultimately gave the whistle-blowers $30,000 each after expenses, their share in a civil settlement against KEI. They say the sum was hardly worth their trouble.
Federal prosecutors eventually charged KEI and some executives with fraud, including overbilling the government in several disasters, but excluded the Sept. 11 thefts.
AP reports that KEI worked for the government for years, providing disaster relief services during tornadoes, floods and other catastrophes. It was picked to manage the New York warehouse for the government’s main Sept. 11 relief contractor.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=83918&d=17&m=6&y=2006
It would seem the show that stated the Republicans were so concerned about their 'debate' causing problems doesn't care to follow up on it. Hm.
1030
commercials
1034
The Republicans. The Elitiists. The Party of Corruption.
GOP candidate McGavick got millions leaving Safeco
By CURT WOODWARDASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick collected more than $28 million upon leaving his post as an insurance executive earlier this year, financial disclosures showed Friday.
Most of that 2006 compensation from Safeco Insurance Co. was stock and options, his campaign said. McGavick had served as the firm's chief executive since 2001, leaving early this year after a two-month transition period.
Washington state Democrats pounced on the tally, calling it proof their federal complaint about McGavick's "golden parachute" was on the mark.
McGavick's campaign dismissed that allegation as baseless: "They see the race getting close and these are very typical tactics, so we're not surprised," spokeswoman Julie Sund said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_McGavick_Money.html
Hm? Why would a well paid executive leave his employer to enter government?
Global warming could burn insurersActivists call on industry to act
By JOHN IWASAKIP-I REPORTER
The alarm sounded by scientists about global warming has deep implications for the insurance industry and consumers, participants said Thursday at a climate change summit in Seattle.
Businesses and governments can do more to reduce carbon dioxide, promote renewable resources and take other environmentally friendly actions that would benefit the world as well as their bottom line, corporate executives and politicians said.
Dramatic climate changes have the potential to affect nearly all segments of insurance coverage, including agricultural, health, life and business, said Andrew Logan, program manager of CERES, a Boston-based national network of investment funds, environmental organizations and other public interest groups.
Natural and manmade catastrophic events have steadily increased since 1970, with eight of the 10 most expensive disasters in U.S. history occurring in the past four years, he said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/274169_climate16.html?source=mypi
1039
commercials
WHOM are you keeping honest, Anderson? The ACTION in Seattle today was downtown.
Hundreds turn out to call for higher pay
By BRAD WONGP-I REPORTER
Wearing red T-shirts and blowing high-pitched whistles, hundreds of hotel workers rallied on Fifth Avenue in downtown Seattle on Thursday to call for better wages and benefits.
Karen Ducey / P-I
A rally for hotel workers in Seattle on Thursday attracts members of other unions, including Jonetta Green, left, Jackie Keen and DeAnna Botello, all of SEIU 775.
UNITE-HERE Local 8 organized the rally in front of the Westin Hotel, as part of a national "Hotel Workers Rising" campaign.
At least 300 people, including Mayor Greg Nickels, filled the sidewalk and street.
Richard Sawyer, Local 8 secretary treasurer, had pointed comments for the hotel industry, which he said pulls in billions of dollars each year. But, he added, many industry workers do not share in that prosperity.
"It's low pay, hard work and has a high rate of injuries," he said. "A large sector of this industry is below the poverty line."
In the Seattle area, he estimates there are about 10,000 hotel workers -- and many earn only $8.50 an hour. The federal poverty level for a family of four is $18,850.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/274177_hotelrally16.html
1042
Dead whale found in river, 1,000 miles inland
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The carcass of a young beluga whale was found Thursday by canoeists on the Tanana River about 40 miles southwest of Fairbanks -- or nearly 1,000 river miles from the Bering Sea, the closest beluga habitat.
Sylvia Brunner, a marine mammals researcher at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks, identified the decomposing carcass and oversaw its recovery Wednesday.
What the 8-foot-long whale was doing that far inland on a freshwater river, part of a system that drains much of the vast interior of Alaska, remains a mystery. But Link Olson, curator of marine mammals at the museum, said he was confident the animal swam from the ocean.
"What are the alternatives?" he said. Perpetrating a hoax along a remote section of river with a whale carcass was highly unlikely, he said: "If you were ever close to a dead marine mammal, even for a few hours, you would know why no one in their right mind would do that."
It could have died in the river last fall and frozen, Brunner said, or it could have entered the river this spring seeking fish.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/274171_whale16.html
1044
Greater Seattle area, state plans reviewed by feds
By PEGGY ANDERSENASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SEATTLE -- The Department of Homeland Security on Friday rated Washington state and the Greater Seattle area sufficient or partly sufficient in all categories of catastrophic disaster planning except one: evacuation from Seattle.
Evacuation is a good strategy for an impending storm, which can be seen approaching for days, said Barb Graff, Seattle's emergency planning director.
But in this city, a catastrophic disaster would likely involve a major earthquake. "Our challenge would be getting resources to the area after," using a relatively fragile transportation system, Graff said.
Planners around the country were asked about preparedness for a catastrophic, Katrina-level disaster, which in the Northwest would likely be an earthquake far stronger than those that rattled the area in 1949, 1965 and 2001.
"What prompted all this was Katrina, and of course evacuation was a big issue on Katrina and then Rita," said Eric Holdeman, King County's emergency services director, of the Gulf Coast devastation. "They were asking hurricane questions in earthquake territory."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Disaster_Plans_Wash.html
ANDERSON is surprised there is a horse patrol on the USA/Canadian Border. It's not a new concept !
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/news/newsroom_e.htm
1054
Western Water Supple Forecasts
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cbrfc/westernwater/map.php?map=wsup
I don't like the way this looks. Early signs of drought, both short term with cummer coming and a longer term trend.
1056
commercials
1059
Explosion fatalities first of kind for oil companyBy Nikki Davis Maute
Three employees who died in an explosion near Raleigh on Monday were the first fatalities reported by the Columbia oil field services company where the men worked.
“We’ve never had this happen before, and we opened in 1980,” said Horace English, manager of Stringer’s Oilfield Service Inc. “It was just a freak accident. We’ve done that kind of job a million times.”
The three workers were preparing an empty petroleum tank to hold oil from an adjacent well. Two other nearby tanks that were thought to be empty exploded after apparently being ignited by a spark from a welding machine.
Killed in the accident were Nicholas Wayne Pounds, 23, of Foxworth; Kody Scarborough, 18, of Foxworth; and George B. Jefferson, 53, of Columbia.
The surviving crew member, Huey Duncan, 72, of Columbia, was listed in stable condition at Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg on Tuesday.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Web site says that the oil services industry in Mississippi has had eight fatalities in the last 10 years. Stringer’s was not among the companies that had fatalities.
Nationwide during the same time period, OSHA said, 404 fatal accidents were reported.
Several state and federal agencies – including OSHA, the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and the state Fire Marshal’s Office – are investigating the explosion.
John Parker, a board member with the state Oil and Gas Board, expects a report at the board’s June 21 meeting. But federal investigations are expected to take longer.
Clyde Payne, who heads Jackson’s OSHA office, said it could take up to six months to complete the agency’s investigation. OSHA can and does issue civil citations and fines if a company involved in an investigation violates OSHA rules.
In the eight fatal accidents OSHA reported since 1996, six of the companies were cited for OSHA violations.
Mississippi companies listed by OSHA included T.K. Stanley Inc., two deaths; Rapad Oil Field Services, one death; Rapad Drilling & Well Services Inc., one death; D&D Drilling and Exploration Inc., one death; Coastal Petroleum Services Inc., one death; Well Data Services, one death; and Triple S Well Service Inc., one death.
A spokesman for the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said a decision will be made after a preliminary review of the Raleigh explosion to determine if the agency will investigate further
.Among the factors that will determine whether the agency does a full investigation, spokesman Sandy Gilmore said, is whether there are lessons to be learned and if the results could have a relevance to the rest of the industry.
Originally published June 7, 2006
Explosion fatalities first of kind for oil companyBy Nikki Davis Maute
Three employees who died in an explosion near Raleigh on Monday were the first fatalities reported by the Columbia oil field services company where the men worked.
“We’ve never had this happen before, and we opened in 1980,” said Horace English, manager of Stringer’s Oilfield Service Inc. “It was just a freak accident. We’ve done that kind of job a million times.”
The three workers were preparing an empty petroleum tank to hold oil from an adjacent well. Two other nearby tanks that were thought to be empty exploded after apparently being ignited by a spark from a welding machine.
Killed in the accident were Nicholas Wayne Pounds, 23, of Foxworth; Kody Scarborough, 18, of Foxworth; and George B. Jefferson, 53, of Columbia.
The surviving crew member, Huey Duncan, 72, of Columbia, was listed in stable condition at Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg on Tuesday.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Web site says that the oil services industry in Mississippi has had eight fatalities in the last 10 years. Stringer’s was not among the companies that had fatalities.
Nationwide during the same time period, OSHA said, 404 fatal accidents were reported.
Several state and federal agencies – including OSHA, the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and the state Fire Marshal’s Office – are investigating the explosion.
John Parker, a board member with the state Oil and Gas Board, expects a report at the board’s June 21 meeting. But federal investigations are expected to take longer.
Clyde Payne, who heads Jackson’s OSHA office, said it could take up to six months to complete the agency’s investigation. OSHA can and does issue civil citations and fines if a company involved in an investigation violates OSHA rules.
In the eight fatal accidents OSHA reported since 1996, six of the companies were cited for OSHA violations.
Mississippi companies listed by OSHA included T.K. Stanley Inc., two deaths; Rapad Oil Field Services, one death; Rapad Drilling & Well Services Inc., one death; D&D Drilling and Exploration Inc., one death; Coastal Petroleum Services Inc., one death; Well Data Services, one death; and Triple S Well Service Inc., one death.
A spokesman for the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said a decision will be made after a preliminary review of the Raleigh explosion to determine if the agency will investigate further
.Among the factors that will determine whether the agency does a full investigation, spokesman Sandy Gilmore said, is whether there are lessons to be learned and if the results could have a relevance to the rest of the industry.
Originally published June 7, 2006
1105
The Republicans have no RESOLVE to their RESOLVE. There is no remorse about the deaths of soldiers after a huge mistake of the invasion in the first place. The only people whom observed the 2500th death in Iraq were Democrats. The only Federal legislators that spoke out regarding the deaths of our soldiers yesterday were Democrats.
The Bush Economy is based on spending the USA treasury dry.
1111
The Republicans have no RESOLVE to their RESOLVE. There is no remorse about the deaths of soldiers after a huge mistake of the invasion in the first place. The only people whom observed the 2500th death in Iraq were Democrats. The only Federal legislators that spoke out regarding the deaths of our soldiers yesterday were Democrats.
The Bush Economy is based on spending the USA treasury dry.
1111
BP faces criminal inquiry in Alaska
PRUDHOE BAY DISASTER: The probe into the spill of 1.2 million liters of crude oil could lead to company officials facing criminal charges, prison terms and fines
THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Saturday, Jun 10, 2006,Page 10
The reputation of oil giant BP -- and its share price -- took a beating on Thursday when it admitted it was facing a criminal inquiry into a massive oil spill in Alaska.
BP received a subpoena on April 26 from a US federal grand jury in Alaska but only revealed the investigation -- which could lead to prison sentences -- after an internal e-mail was leaked to journalists.
Shares in Britain's biggest company slumped 3 percent in early trading on Thursday on the back of the latest safety problem, which threatens to undermine its carefully crafted image as an environmentally responsible operator.
Revelations about the investigation into the spill of 1.2 million liters of crude into the Prudhoe Bay area follows a fire and 15 deaths at its Texas City refinery and a rig capsizing in the Gulf of Mexico.
There is already another US grand jury investigation into the refinery blast, which injured an estimated 500 staff, and the company has already been fined US$21 million for 300 violations uncovered by the UD Department of Labor.
Environmentalists called the Alaskan spill in March -- the largest ever in the North Slope region -- a "catastrophe."
BP blamed it on internal corrosion creating a 65mm hole.
A BP spokesman said in London on Thursday: "We are fully cooperating with the investigation and we are carrying out our own investigation into what caused the corrosion. We believe that our actions were at all times proper."
Initial news of the subpoena came after Steve Marshall, BP's head of exploration in Alaska, sent an e-mail to staff saying he had been asked for "a variety of documents and data from BP Alaska concerning the transit line and certain other operational areas."
Marshall urged his staff to treat the matter as confidential and added: "I believe that the information we provide will show that the actions of BP Alaska were, at all times, proper."
The pipeline problems were relatively small compared with Alaska's worst oil spill on March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, near Anchorage.
About 2,092km of coastline were contaminated by the spill, killing hundreds of thousands of fish, seabirds, otters, seals and whales.
Exxon has always had a troubled relationship with environmental activists but BP has worked hard to cultivate a different one, emphasizing actions to help tackle climate change and promising to go "beyond petroleum."
Allegations of poor safety or maintenance systems are particularly sensitive issues for oil companies at a time when they are making record profits and facing criticism from politicians.
Problems in Alaska will not help oil companies such as BP in their attempts to fight off the threat of higher taxes in the state.
Nor will it help the oil company, led by the chief executive, Lord Browne, win a contract for a ?20 billion (US$37 billion) planned gas link in Alaska.
Fadel Gheit, an analyst with the New York brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co, said the wave of problems threatened to damage the good standing that BP had developed in the US.
"A company this size with operations all over the world is always vulnerable to things going wrong but a lot seems to have gone wrong in this case and its [good] public image is being eroded," Gheit said.
"BP has sowed seeds of goodwill by bringing in a respected politicians like James Baker at Texas City and has been bombarding the public with green messages through advertising," he said.
"Without this, things could have been much worse but it needs to stop shooting itself in the
foot," he said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2006/06/10/2003312739
PRUDHOE BAY DISASTER: The probe into the spill of 1.2 million liters of crude oil could lead to company officials facing criminal charges, prison terms and fines
THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Saturday, Jun 10, 2006,Page 10
The reputation of oil giant BP -- and its share price -- took a beating on Thursday when it admitted it was facing a criminal inquiry into a massive oil spill in Alaska.
BP received a subpoena on April 26 from a US federal grand jury in Alaska but only revealed the investigation -- which could lead to prison sentences -- after an internal e-mail was leaked to journalists.
Shares in Britain's biggest company slumped 3 percent in early trading on Thursday on the back of the latest safety problem, which threatens to undermine its carefully crafted image as an environmentally responsible operator.
Revelations about the investigation into the spill of 1.2 million liters of crude into the Prudhoe Bay area follows a fire and 15 deaths at its Texas City refinery and a rig capsizing in the Gulf of Mexico.
There is already another US grand jury investigation into the refinery blast, which injured an estimated 500 staff, and the company has already been fined US$21 million for 300 violations uncovered by the UD Department of Labor.
Environmentalists called the Alaskan spill in March -- the largest ever in the North Slope region -- a "catastrophe."
BP blamed it on internal corrosion creating a 65mm hole.
A BP spokesman said in London on Thursday: "We are fully cooperating with the investigation and we are carrying out our own investigation into what caused the corrosion. We believe that our actions were at all times proper."
Initial news of the subpoena came after Steve Marshall, BP's head of exploration in Alaska, sent an e-mail to staff saying he had been asked for "a variety of documents and data from BP Alaska concerning the transit line and certain other operational areas."
Marshall urged his staff to treat the matter as confidential and added: "I believe that the information we provide will show that the actions of BP Alaska were, at all times, proper."
The pipeline problems were relatively small compared with Alaska's worst oil spill on March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, near Anchorage.
About 2,092km of coastline were contaminated by the spill, killing hundreds of thousands of fish, seabirds, otters, seals and whales.
Exxon has always had a troubled relationship with environmental activists but BP has worked hard to cultivate a different one, emphasizing actions to help tackle climate change and promising to go "beyond petroleum."
Allegations of poor safety or maintenance systems are particularly sensitive issues for oil companies at a time when they are making record profits and facing criticism from politicians.
Problems in Alaska will not help oil companies such as BP in their attempts to fight off the threat of higher taxes in the state.
Nor will it help the oil company, led by the chief executive, Lord Browne, win a contract for a ?20 billion (US$37 billion) planned gas link in Alaska.
Fadel Gheit, an analyst with the New York brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co, said the wave of problems threatened to damage the good standing that BP had developed in the US.
"A company this size with operations all over the world is always vulnerable to things going wrong but a lot seems to have gone wrong in this case and its [good] public image is being eroded," Gheit said.
"BP has sowed seeds of goodwill by bringing in a respected politicians like James Baker at Texas City and has been bombarding the public with green messages through advertising," he said.
"Without this, things could have been much worse but it needs to stop shooting itself in the
foot," he said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2006/06/10/2003312739
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