Cari amici, now it is up to you to bring some sense back to Italians and make Berlusconi listen to you! Turn off your TVs, go to the Internet for news, not Berlusconi's hysterical media which uses fear tactics worthy of FAUX News. Now they're going to convince you to send more troops to AFGHANISTAN? Will you buy it? I also have a very nice bridge, right nearby, very well known, and you might like to purchase it?
Bush to press Berlusconi on Iran and Afghanistan
Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:35pm EDT
By Matt Spetalnick and Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will urge Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as an old ally on Thursday to take a tougher stand over Iran's nuclear program and expand Italy's military role in Afghanistan
[...] But beyond the smiles and handshakes, Bush will be looking for concrete signs that Berlusconi, whose previous government supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, is bringing Italy's foreign policy back closer in line with Washington's.
[...] Berlusconi's admiration for Bush runs counter to public sentiment in Europe where he is widely reviled for the Iraq war.
While Berlusconi and Pope Benedict prepared to roll out the red carpet for Bush over the next two days, about a thousand leftists and anti-war activists staged a peaceful protest in the centre of Rome after his arrival on Wednesday.
Bush's bid to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program is expected to be high on the agenda with Berlusconi, as it has been since the start of his European trip on Monday.
[...] Italy, one of Iran's top foreign investors, could have an impact should the European Union carry out a threat to impose new measures on Tehran beyond existing U.N. sanctions if it keeps defying demands to stop uranium enrichment.
Washington had urged the centre-left government of Berlusconi's predecessor Romano Prodi to take a harder line with Italian companies doing business in Iran but to little avail.
Signalling a stronger
stance, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a television interview the "path of sanctions should be resumed more firmly than ever" if Tehran rejected a revised incentives package it would soon be offered.
Bush wants a firmer commitment from Berlusconi to the war effort in Afghanistan. He has pressed NATO allies, so far with limited results, to increase troop levels and lift bans on deployment of forces to places where fighting is fiercest.
Italy has about 2,700 troops in Afghanistan, mostly off the front lines.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday he had agreed to a "limited" deployment of Italian troops to combat zones.
[...] Bush's critics say he has been so distracted by Iraq that he has neglected the Afghan war. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was opposed by Germany and France and sowed division in Europe, but bitterness has gradually subsided.[...]
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GCA-iraq/idUSL1157145920080612
June 15, 2008
Tough Times Ahead for Italia
Afghanistan Body Count Rises
Once again the powers that be have another war to supply, more money to be made by shedding the blood of pawns. Not a mention of who the new soldiers are and where they will come from. Oh, right, we're recruiting from places Americans never would imagine, like Uganda. See my post of 4/9/08–Uganda: The New Face of US Military? for details on what we’re doing to entice that country’s young men to sign up. And there are plenty of Third World Countries where people are willing to risk death in war to escape death from famine, or tribal wars or juntas. Aren't you sick of it?
May Combat Deaths In Afghanistan
Outnumber Those In Iraq
AP,
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmt5RrIrR8Kpia74k7R0PNVwVAbQD919ETBO0
via http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=44859&s2=14
BRUSSELS, Belgium — It's a grim gauge of U.S. wars going in opposite directions: American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan in May passed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates used the statistical comparison to dramatize his point to NATO defense ministers that they need to do more to get Afghanistan moving in a better direction. He wants more allied combat troops, more trainers and more public commitment.
[...] But the deterioration in Afghanistan suggests a troubling additional possibility: a widening of the war to Pakistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaida have found haven.
By the Pentagon's count, 15 U.S. and two allied troops were killed in action in Iraq last month, a total of 17. In Afghanistan it was 19, including 14 Americans and five coalition troops. One month does not make a trend, but in this case the statistics are so out of whack with perceptions of the two wars that Gates could use them to drive home his point about Afghanistan.
Even when non-combat deaths are included, the overall May toll was greater in Afghanistan than in Iraq: a total of 22 in Afghanistan, including 17 Americans, compared with 21 in Iraq, including 19 Americans, according to an Associated Press count.
[...] Gates made a point upon taking his Pentagon post in December 2006, amid great and growing U.S. public doubt about Iraq, that he was deeply concerned about backsliding in the less publicized and less unpopular war in Afghanistan. He seems even more troubled now.
And he appears less patient with the allies, aware that much of the European population is unconvinced by the American argument that al-Qaida in Central Asia _ whether it's Afghanistan, Pakistan or the largely ungoverned areas along their mountainous frontier _ poses a
grave danger to Europe as well as to the United States.
Gates said that when it came his turn to talk at Thursday's defense ministers meeting on Afghanistan he tossed aside the remarks his aides had prepared for him and stated his case as sharply and directly as he could.
[...] NATO has no direct combat role in Iraq. In Afghanistan, several allies are taking a fighting role, but most have shied away, preferring to contribute in other ways such as humanitarian assistance.
The relatively low U.S. death toll in Iraq in May continues a trend of declining violence against Americans as well as Iraqi civilians, although the situation there remains fragile. If the trend continues _ which is far from a certainty _ then U.S. officials may decide to withdraw more U.S. troops in the second half of the year and perhaps beyond. That would enable the Pentagon to send more troops to Afghanistan _ for combat and for training Afghan forces.
And that's just what the next president may have to do unless things begin turning around in Afghanistan.
United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday June 13, 2008. NATO nations have agreed to broaden their peacekeeping mission in Kosovo to include training for the newly independent nation's security forces. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
May 31, 2008
GI Bill--Yea! More War Funding--Nay!
Peace Groups Write to Congress
What to do? Get active!
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 68% of people in this country who want to
bring our troops safely home in 2008
(1), we thank you for voting against $163 billion more for
Iraq occupation funding on May 15
(2). Unfortunately the Senate did not follow your lead and
you will have to vote again on Iraq occupation funds in June.
This time your vote may include the popular GI education
"bill" and other domestic funds.
We urge you to stand firm in your opposition and vote against
the Senate bill for the following reasons:
1. The GI bill passed with overwhelming majorities in the
House (3) and Senate (4) and would easily pass as a
standalone bill, which we support. You should demonstrate
your honest support for our troops by fighting to pass the
bill without requiring an additional year of war.
That bill could include all the other domestic funds.
2. By far the best way to show your support for our troops
is to bring them safely home as soon as possible.
We consider it morally disgraceful that necessary
expenditures to meet human needs are being tied to
$165 billion to pay for another year of war. Under the
guise of helping veterans, a 'yes' vote on a bill that
includes funding for Iraq guarantees that hundreds of our
soldiers will die, thousands will endure physical and mental
injury and that the carnage in Iraq will continue.
We recognize that defeating the Senate bill would force
Congress to pass a stop-gap bill to fund short-term
operations in Iraq. We support a narrow bill modeled after
the Lee Amendment that fully funds a safe withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq. This is the position that 68% of people
in the United States support(1).
Sincerely,
Democrats.com
United for Peace and Justice
AfterDowningStreet.org
Code Pink
Gold Star Families for Peace
Progressive Democrats of America
US Labor Against the War
Voters for Peace
(1) 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home
within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone
poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR.
http://www.democrats.com/iraq-poll-2
(2) House Roll Call 328
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xml
(3) House Roll Call 330
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2008&rollnumber=330
(4) Senate Roll Call 137
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110& amp;session=2&vote=00137
MeClellan Must NOT Profit from Murder
Dear MoveOn member,
There are laws to prevent criminals from profiting by selling their stories. But 
after spending years defending the Bush administration and perpetuating the lies that led our country into war, Scott McClellan is poised to make bank—his tell-all book is a bestseller and he may make hundreds of thousands or millions.
Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in Iraq.
Coming clean is admirable. But McClellan shouldn't profit off the role he played in our nation's largest foreign policy blunder.
So we have a proposition for him. Let's call on him to donate all of the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans, like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. If we make enough noise, he'll probably be asked about it on tomorrow's Sunday shows (he's on all three!)—so please sign on and pass this around. Clicking below will add your name:
The petition reads:
People who helped lie this country into an unnecessary war should not be rewarded for it. Scott McClellan should donate all the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans—like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Thanks for all you do.–Nita, Wes, Ilyse, Eli, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
P.S. Our friends at Americans United For Change just put out this new web video about McClellan. Check it out at the link below:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3725&id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=4
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=5
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
May 29, 2008
Support the GI Bill
Wesley Clark, along with Brave New Films and VoteVets has put this issue right where it belongs, front and center. Unfortunately, our mis-leaderer doesn't support the troops. If we don't keep up the pressure, Mr. MIA will crush it. Please take a moment to sign the petition and pass it on.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and we are going to need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override his veto.
Click here to help us build on our momentum. Email your Senators, and tell them to override the President's veto against the New GI Bill now!
Tell Your Senators To Support The GI Bill
Senator Jim Webb's New GI Bill, which would give our returning soldiers the education benefits they need, recently passed in the Senate. But President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and we need a 2/3 majority in the Senate to override his veto.
Join 13,991 other Americans and email your Senators, demanding that they provide our troops with the education they deserve today!
http://ga4.org/campaign/gibill?rk=7pNzN24qxGwwE
May 28, 2008
Blackwater Rapes Self-Determination
That these scum suckers consider themselves Christians is the most amazing thing. Eric Prince wants to ram his "vocational" school down the throat of San Diego, no matter what the residents think, then he'll preach "values." I guess Prince & Co think they are good citizens, too!
On May 20 2008 in response to the City of San Diego denying the Blackwater mercenary company occupancy of their proposed new training center in Otay Mesa, Blackwater told the San Diego City Council "If we do not hear from you by close of business Friday, we will be forced to consider taking other steps to enforce and protect Blackwater’s rights" after stating that it was their right to train people in counter insurgency operations whether the city and the people want them here or not.
Now we know, on May 27 Blackwater filed suit against the City of San Diego.
BLACKWATER WORLDWIDE SUES CITY OF SAN DIEGO
Please go to http://www.prcsd.org/ and Click on the Red Action alert; this will take you to our No Mercenaries page where you can:
1. Read Blackwater's complaint against the City (in the Potrero/San Diego column)
2. Link to Amitra Sharma's story on KPBS Radio (in the Electronic Media column)
3. Link to the e-mail addresses of city officials (in the Potrero/San Diego column)
4. Read about the Grand Jury probe into Blackwater shootings today in Washington, D.C. where at least 3 Iraqis testified about the September 17, 2007 shooting in Bagdad's Nisour Square (Mercenary News c
olumn) The lawsuit demonstrates just what Blackwater is really about--profiting from war, social unrest and suffering at any cost. It is outrageous that Blackwater is using taxpayer dollars--i.e., their ill-gained profits--to force itself on San Diego. Citizens in San Diego and the City are already suffering from hard economic times and suing the city is another theft of taxpayer money. Blackwater also says that denying them their occupancy is a violation of their Constitutional rights and that they are being treated unfairly! Since when does Blackwater play by the rules? Carol Jahnkow, Director, Peace Resource Center of San Diego http://www.prcsd.org/
For the really wonky & lawyers, go here to read the complaint in pdf format: http://www.prcsd.org/mercs.html
May 27, 2008
Iraqi Workers Want Unions
by Hassan Juma'a Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
On May 28, 2008, Chevron and ExxonMobil Corporations will each conduct their annual shareholder meetings. Chevron will convene its meeting at its world headquarters in San Ramon, CA. ExxonMobil will conduct its meeting in Dallas, Texas. Antiwar, environmental and other social justice organizations will conduct protests at each event.
The following statement from the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq to the shareholders of each corporation will be presented at press conferences conducted in conjunction with these protests. The statement was transmitted by Hassan Juma'a Awad, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, to U.S. Labor Against the War for presentation at these events.
To: The Shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporations and All Peace Loving People of the WorldFrom: Hassan Juma'a Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
- We demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from our country, and utterly reject the agreement being negotiated with the USA for long-term bases and a military presence. Iraq must be returned to full sovereignty.
- We demand the passage of a labour law promised by our Constitution, that adheres to ILO principles to protect the rights of workers to organize, bargain and strike, independent of state control and interference and on which Iraqi trade unionists have been fully consulted.
- We demand an end to meddling in our sovereign economic affairs by the International Monetary Fund, the USA and UK, and multinational energy corporations, and recognition that no major economic decisions concerning our services and resources can be made while foreign troops occupy our country.
- We demand that the US government, oil companies and others immediately cease lobbying for the oil law which would fracture the country and hand control over our oil to multinational companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron. We demand that all oil companies be prevented from entering into any long-term agreement concerning oil while Iraq remains occupied. The Iraqi government must tear up the current draft of the oil law, and begin to develop a legitimate oil policy based on full and genuine consultation with the Iraqi people. Only after all occupation forces are gone should a long term plan for the development of our oil resources be adopted.
Obama Supports US Ability to Commit Mass Murder
If history can provide a lesson, it's that Democrats running for office who make bland noises about "researching' nuclear weaponry, the true message is we want the biggest guns, most awesome surveillance and ability to dominate and mold the planet to serve our needs. It'll be another election that requires I hold my nose when I vote.
Obama touts LANL's potential
Democratic presidential nominee also has praise for governor
Steve Terrell The New Mexican, 5/26/2008 - 5/27/08
Los Alamos National Laboratory would remain a weapons-research facility under a Barrack Obama administration, Obama said Monday. But if he's elected, LANL also would be at the forefront of research for technology to aide in nuclear nonproliferation. 
Obama, who was in Las Cruces for a Memorial Day ceremony, was asked in a phone interview whether he would keep LANL as a weapons research facility. "Absolutely," he replied.
"Los Alamos has been one of our premier research facilities, and we need to do more research in this area, in part because we've got to deal with the critical issues of nonproliferation," the Democratic contender said.
Obama said he would put a priority on developing technology to detect "loose," unaccounted-for nuclear material. [sounds good?] He also said there needs to be a technology to ensure nuclear materials designed for civilian purposes in countries that don't currently have nuclear weapons are not turned into bombs."There's a whole host of areas that involve significant research and development, and Los Alamos needs to be at the forefront of that," Obama said. [that's the real deal, with money aplenty for war profiteers]
Democrats in recent years have advocated making nonproliferation research a higher priority.
[...] Obama in the interview had praise for Gov. Bill Richardson, who, several weeks after folding his own presidential campaign, endorsed Obama's White House bid. "I think Bill Richardson's one of the best public servants we have in American life."
[...] So why is Obama — who still faces primary contests with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana — spending Memorial Day in New Mexico? Don't other states have veterans?"Well New Mexico obviously has some just outstanding veterans that I wanted to make sure to honor," Obama said.
[...] Obama lost the state's Democratic caucus to Clinton by a narrow margin. "Oh yeah, it was painful," he said.[...]
Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SantaFeNorthernNM/Obama-touts-LANL-s-potential
Ban Cluster Bombs Now!
From our friends at Avaaz.org, an appeal to pressure all governments to stop producing and using cluster bombs. Please take a moment to view the video and sign their petition. Perhaps now is the time to finally see an end to this abomination. 
Dear Friends:
Final negotiations are underway right now in Dublin, Ireland on a treaty to ban cluster bombs. Arms manufacturers are pushing governments to riddle the treaty with loopholes and delays -- and the final text will be decided in the next 72 hours.
Cluster munitions don't just kill during war. They scatter small, shiny, unexploded "bomblets" on the ground that hold their deadly charge for years. When children pick them up, they are often maimed or killed. Most governments agree that these weapons should be outlawed, but back-room pressure is rising to undercut a strong ban.
If enough of us act before the treaty is signed on Friday, we can drown out the weapons merchants and convince our governments to ban cluster bombs once and for all. Click below to send a message, and then forward this email to friends and family: http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/13.php?cl=91927835
The treaty to ban cluster munitions is the result of an inspiring, years-long campaign by citizens from around the world -- with victims and survivors of cluster bombs leading the way. One spokesman for the effort, Branislav Kapetanovic, lost his hands, legs, and some of his hearing and eyesight in a cluster-bomb explosion in his native Serbia. He is now in Dublin, pushing for the treaty -- but he took a moment to sent this message to the Avaaz community (you can see a video on the the Avaaz site):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/14.php?cl=91927835 http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
And here are some news articles about the state of the negotiations:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2629379720080526 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/26/news/Ireland-Cluster-Bombs.php
BAN CLUSTER BOMBS NOW!
Cluster munitions kill children and other civilians long after wars are over--and this week, we have a chance to ban them. 116 countries are in the final stages of negotiation on a cluster bomb ban -- but some are trying to water down the treaty with loopholes, exceptions, and delays.
Our information is that the delegations obstructing a strong treaty in the last few days include the UK, France, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, so messages to these leaders will be particularly valuable. [my bold] A worldwide outcry for a strong treaty is needed now. The treaty will be signed Thursday--so add your voice by using the tool below to send a message to government leaders:
To see if your country makes, stockpiles, or uses cluster bombs, click here.
Or click here to see a video message from a cluster bomb victim.
Send your message now!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/14.php?cl=91927835
May 23, 2008
FEMA, Continuity of Government and 8 Million Americans on Main Core
How can a democracy thrive with a massive apparatus of spying technology deployed against every act of political expression, private or public?So ends The Last Roundup, Christopher Ketcham's report on massive domestic surveillance, and it is the very question to ask your candidate. Did you know that FEMA was originally devised to provide survival of the federal government, not the people, after a nuclear strike? That’s just one interesting fact among many important items you need to know. I skipped over Mr. Ketcham’s synopsis of the Card/Gonzales Ghoul Trip to John Ashcroft’s hospital bed, presuming most readers know about this infamous night. There’s so much information here it was hard to carve out the essentials, but I hope you will read the entire article. Remember: Just because paranoia is in the mind of the beholder, they probably are out to get us!
The Last Roundup
Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?
By Christopher Ketcham[...] Few Americans—professional journalists included—know anything about so-called Continuity of Government (COG) programs, so it's no surprise that the president's passing reference received almost no attention. COG resides in a nebulous legal realm, encompassing national emergency plans that would trigger the takeover of the country by extra-constitutional forces—and effectively suspend the republic. In short, it's a road map for martial law.
[...] According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and p
ossibly even detention.Of course, federal law is somewhat vague as to what might constitute a "national emergency." Executive orders issued over the past three decades define it as a "natural disaster, military attack, [or] technological or other emergency," while Department of Defense documents include eventualities like "riots, acts of violence, insurrections, unlawful obstructions or assemblages, [and] disorder prejudicial to public law and order." According to one news report, even "national opposition to U.S. military invasion abroad" could be a trigger.
[...] Interestingly, plans drawn up during the Reagan administration suggest this parallel government would be ruling under authority given by law to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, home of the same hapless bunch that recently proved themselves unable to distribute water to desperate hurricane victims. The agency's incompetence in tackling natural disasters is less surprising when one considers that, since its inception in the 1970s, much of its focus has been on planning for the survival of the federal government in the wake of a decapitating nuclear strike.
Under law, during a national emergency, FEMA and its parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security, would be empowered to seize private and public property, all forms of transport, and all food supplies. The agency could dispatch military commanders to run state and local governments, and it could order the arrest of citizens without a warrant, holding them without trial for as long as the acting government deems necessary. From the comfortable perspective of peaceful times, such behavior by the government may seem far-fetched. But it was not so very long ago that FDR ordered 120,000 Japanese Americans—everyone from infants to the elderly—be held in detention camps for the duration of World War II. This is widely regarded as a shameful moment in U.S. history, a lesson learned. But a long trail of federal documents indicates that the possibility of large-scale detention has never quite been abandoned by federal authorities. Around the time of the 1968 race riots, for instance, a paper drawn up at the U.S. Army War College detailed plans for rounding up millions of "militants" and "American negroes," who were to be held at "assembly centers or relocation camps." In the late 1980s, the Austin American-Statesman and other publications reported the existence of 10 detention camp sites on military facilities nationwide, where hundreds of thousands of people could be held in the event of domestic political upheaval. More such facilities were commissioned in 2006, when Kellogg Brown & Root—then a subsidiary of Halliburton—was handed a $385 million contract to establish "temporary detention and processing capabilities" for the Department of Homeland Security. The contract is short on details, stating only that the facilities would be used for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs." Just what those "new programs" might be is not specified.
[...] Another well-informed source—a former military operative regularly briefed by members of the intelligence community—says this particular program has roots going back at least to the 1980s and was set up with help from the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has been told that the program utilizes software that makes predictive judgments of targets' behavior and tracks their circle of associations with "social network analysis" and artificial intelligence modeling tools.
"The more data you have on a particular target, the better [the software] can predict what the target will do, where the target will go, who it will turn to for help," he says. "Main Core is the table of contents for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on specific targets." An intelligence expert who has been briefed by high-level contacts in the Department of Homeland Security confirms that a database of this sort exists, but adds that "it is less a mega-database than a way to search numerous other agency databases at the same time."
[...] The following information seems to be fair game for collection without a warrant: the e-mail addresses you send to and receive from, and the subject lines of those messages; the phone numbers you dial, the numbers that dial in to your line, and the durations of the calls; the Internet sites you visit and the keywords in your Web searches; the destinations of the airline tickets you buy; the amounts and locations of your ATM withdrawals; and the goods and services you purchase on credit cards. All of this information is archived on government supercomputers and, according to sources, also fed into the Main Core database.
Main Core also allegedly draws on four smaller databases that, in turn, cull from federal, state, and local "intelligence" reports; print and broadcast media; financial records; "commercial databases"; and unidentified "private sector entities." Additional information comes from a database known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which generates watch lists from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for use by airlines, law enforcement, and border posts. According to the Washington Post, the Terrorist Identities list has quadrupled in size between 2003 and 2007 to include about 435,000 names. The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center border crossing list, which listed 755,000 persons as of fall 2007, grows by 200,000 names a year. A former NSA officer tells Radar that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, using an electronic-funds transfer surveillance program, also contributes data to Main Core, as does a Pentagon program that was created in 2002 to monitor antiwar protesters and environmental activists such as Greenpeace.
[Following are several paragraphs discussing Oliver North's surveillance program REX 84, "for suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government to FEMA and military commanders, as well as Texas congressman Jack Brooks’ unsuccessful attempt to find out what North was up to during the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings.]
[...] In July 2007 and again last August, Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, sought access to the "classified annexes" of the Bush administration's Continuity of Government program. DeFazio's interest was prompted by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (also known as NSPD-51), issued in May 2007, which reserves for the executive branch the sole authority to decide what constitutes a national emergency and to determine when the emergency is over. DeFazio found this unnerving.
But he and other leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, including Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, were denied a review of the Continuity of Government classified annexes. To this day, their calls for disclosure have been ignored by the White House. In a press release issued last August, DeFazio went public with his concerns that the NSPD-51 Continuity of Government plans are "extra-constitutional or unconstitutional." Around the same time, he told the Oregonian: "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right."
More troubling, in 2002, Congress authorized funding for the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, which, according to Washington Post military intelligence expert William Arkin, "allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control."
[...] Meanwhile, the mystery of James Comey's testimony has disappeared in the morass of election year coverage.
None of the leading presidential candidates have been asked the questions that are so profoundly pertinent to the future of the country: As president, will you continue aggressive domestic surveillance programs in the vein of the Bush administration? Will you release the COG blueprints that Representatives DeFazio and Thompson were not allowed to read? What does it suggest about the state of the nation that the U.S. is now ranked by worldwide civil liberties groups as an "endemic surveillance society," alongside repressive regimes such as China and Russia? How can a democracy thrive with a massive apparatus of spying technology deployed against every act of political expression, private or public? (Radar put these questions to spokespeople for the McCain, Obama, and Clinton campaigns, but at press time had yet to receive any responses.) [...]http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/05/government_surveillance_homeland_security_main_core_01-print.php
Merrill Lynch Gives Larry Another Break
Merrill reopened talks with developer Larry Silverstein to move into Tower 3; Mr. Silverstein received a six-month extension to complete the tower by August 2012.
May 22. 2008 10:57AM By: Theresa Agovino
Merrill Lynch & Co. is
negotiating with developer Larry Silverstein to move into one of the office towers to be built on the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday paved the way for talks to continue when it voted to grant Mr. Silverstein a six-month extension so he can delay completing construction of the building, known as Tower 3, until August 2012. Mr. Silverstein requested the extension so he will have time to redesign the building to accommodate the large trading floor Merrill Lynch requires. Under an agreement Mr. Silverstein reached in 2006 with the site’s landlord, the Port Authority, he is supposed to deliver the completed buildings by February 2012.“While we fully expect to complete World Trade Tower 3 in 2012, the six-month schedule adjustments approved today by the Port Authority clearly makes sense,” said World Trade Center Properties president Jano Lieber in a statement. “This extension gives us the time to design and construct a modified building foundation that could accommodate Merrill’s specialized requirements.”
If Merrill Lynch opts to move to Tower 3 it would be an enormous boost for the site, which has yet to attract many private sector tenants. Merrill Lynch is currently located at the World Financial Center, where its lease expires in 2013. A spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties, which owns the World Financial Center, says it is still negotiating a five-year extension with Merrill.
Last year, Merrill Lynch came very close to signing a deal to move its headquarters to the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown. However, the plan was shelved after its major proponent, former Chief Executive Stanley O’Neal, left the firm amid massive losses stemming from the credit crunch.
No More Death, No More Murder, Don't Defend the Corporatocracy!
Our corporate masters have given us a day off to commemorate the men and women who have sacrificed their lives to protect their greed. But it’s up to us how we will use our “free” time. Here are a few suggestions of something positive to do, beyond the Barbie-Que and drinking to forget the crimes of our inheritance:
Apparently the Senate doesn't think there are enough fallen soldiers to honor this Memorial Day, so they have passed a funding bill to extend the Iraq war and occupation past Memorial Day 2009. And were they even thinking of the potentially thousands of Iraqis who will die? To add to the moral repugnance of the Senate's actions, they have tied important programs including GI and unemployment benefits to the Iraq funding bill. Vets can get college tuition, but they'll need to spend another year in Iraq first. See below for details on the Senate bill and to find out how your senators voted.
Are you as outraged as we are?
But we can't give up the fight just yet. The Senate bill will go back to the House of Representatives for a vote in the beginning of June. Before they vote though, members of Congress will be coming home for their week-long Memorial Day recess. That means they will be at parades, picnics, campaign events and in their offices. They must hear from you -- loud or silent, rude or polite, funny or solemn, in print, on the phone or in person. [my bold] There are many ways to convey one message: Stop funding the war, bring all our troops home now! Use as many of them as you can!
Please check the UFPJ calendar to see if there are any Memorial Day Peace events near you (and make sure your event is listed if you are organizing one).
Click here to find out who your representative is and the locations and phone numbers of their local offices.
Let us know how you contacted your representative -- phone, email, fax, in-person, etc. -- who you reached, what you said, and what the response was.
Additional Resources from UFPJ and UFPJ member groups: 
CodePink Memorial Day Action Guide
"Why We're Against the War," from Iraq Veterans Against the War
Legislative information from UFPJ
Local cost of war info from the National Priorities Project
Talking points for grassroots lobbyists from Peace Action
Open letter to Congress from Military Families Speak Out
"Healing the Wounds of War" from AFSC
Background Details
The Senate voted today, May 22, on three separate amendments:
The first vote produced a surprise outcome. It was an amendment approving billions in funding for a broad array of domestic programs, including increases in GI education funding, extension of unemployment benefits, levee construction in New Orleans, and a plethora of other good works. The amendment passed by a vote of 75-22.
The second vote was on Iraq war policies, including a withdrawal timeline, troop readiness requirements, no permanent bases and no toture. This amendment failed on a vote of 34-63.
The final vote was on $165.4 billion to fund the wars/occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan through next summer. This amendment passed on a vote of 70-26.
The Senate version of the bill (including the war funding and the domestic funding) will go back to the House for a vote after the Memorial Day recess. Last week, the House voted on three amendments similar to the amendments in the Senate. It defeated the war funding amendment and passed only the war policies and domestic programs.
How did your representative vote?
On the Iraq war policies amendment
On the domestic programs amendment
On the $166 billion Iraq war funding amendment
Yours, for peace and justice,UFPJ Legislative Working Group
UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
May 22, 2008
Nazis in the White House
The story about the Buses involvement with the Nazi Party isn't new, but still needs to be spread far and wide. Here is an abridged version of Robert Parry's report on our First Family Nazis:
The Bushes and Hitler's Appeasement 
By Robert Parry May 18, 2008
The irony of George W. Bush going before the Knesset and mocking the late Sen. William Borah for expressing surprise at Adolf Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland is that Bush’s own family played a much bigger role assisting the Nazis.
[...] The archival evidence is now clear that Prescott Bush, the president’s grandfather, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from and collaborated with key financial backers of Nazi Germany.
That business relationship continued after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and even after Germany declared war on the United States following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It stopped only when the U.S. government seized assets of Bush-connected companies in late 1942 under the “Trading with the Enemy Act.”
[...] One can trace the origins of this story back more than a century to the emergence of Samuel Bush, George W. Bush’s great-grandfather, as a key manager for a set of powerful American business families, including the Rockefellers and the Harrimans. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Bush Family Chronicles: The Patriarchs.”]
That chapter took an important turn in 1919 when investment banker George Herbert Walker teamed up with Averell Harriman, scion to a railroad fortune, to found a new investment banking firm, W.A. Harriman Company.
[...] In 1921, Walker’s favorite daughter, Dorothy, married Samuel Bush’s son Prescott, a Yale graduate and a member of the school’s exclusive Skull and Bones society.[...]
Three years later, Dorothy gave birth to George Herbert Walker Bush in Milton, Massachusetts.
Lifted by the financial boom of the 1920s, Prescott and Dorothy Bush were on the rise. By 1926, George Herbert Walker had brought his son-in-law in on a piece of the Harriman action, hiring him as a vice president in the Harriman banking firm.
[...] By the mid-Thirties, Prescott Bush had become a managing partner at the merged firm of Brown Brothers Harriman. The archival records also show that Brown Brothers Harriman served as the U.S. financial service arm for German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, an early funder of the Nazi Party. [my bold]
Thyssen, an admirer of Adolf Hitler since the 1920s, joined the Nazi Party in 1931 when it was still a fringe organization. He helped bail the struggling party out with financial help, even providing its headquarters building in Munich.
Meanwhile, Averell Harriman had launched the Hamburg-Amerika line of steamships to facilitate the bank’s dealings with Germany, and made Prescott Bush a director. The ships delivered fuel, steel, coal, gold and money to Germany as Hitler was consolidating his power and building his war machine.
Other evidence shows that Prescott Bush served as the director of the Union Banking Corp. of New York, which represented Thyssen’s interests in the United States and was owned by a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands.
[...] In 1941, Thyssen had a falling out with Hitler and fled to France where he was captured. Much of Thyssen’s empire went under the direct control of the Nazis, but even that did not shatter the business ties that existed with Prescott Bush and Harriman’s bank.
It wasn’t until August 1942 that newspaper stories disclosed the secretive ties between Union Banking Corp. and Nazi Germany.
After an investigation, the U.S. government seized the property of the Hamburg-Amerika line and moved against affiliates of the Union Banking Corp. In November 1942, the government seized the assets of 
the Silesian-American Corp. [For more details, see an investigative report by the U.K. Guardian, Sept. 25, 2004.]
[...] For most public figures, allegations of trading with the enemy would have been a political kiss of death, but the disclosures barely left a lipstick smudge on Averell Harriman, Prescott Bush and other business associates implicated in the Nazi business dealings.
[...] Indeed, the quick dissipation of the Nazi financial scandal was only a portent of the Bush family’s future. Unlike politicians of lower classes, the Bushes seemed to travel in a bubble impervious to accusations of impropriety, since the Eastern Establishment doesn’t like to think badly of its own. [For details, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]
To this day – as President Bush showed by mocking the long-forgotten Sen. Borah and then wielding the Nazi “appeasement” club against Barack Obama and other Democrats – the assumption remains that the bubble will continue to protect the Bush family name.
However, the evidence from dusty archives suggests that the Bush family went way beyond appeasement of Adolf Hitler to aiding and abetting the Nazis.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/051808.html#When:03:50PM
Lots more can be found by just googling any of the above names. A good place to start is the chapter, Bush Crime Family Tree, on the blog, Project for the Old American Century: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushco/bush_crime_family.htm
May 19, 2008
15 Sobering Statistics
Kiss American Security Goodbye -
15 Numbers That Add Up to an Age of Insecurity
Atlantic Free Press, Monday, 19 May 2008
Now, jump to September 11, 2001 and its
aftermath — and you know the Tai Chi version of history from there. Think of it as a grim cosmic joke — that the 9/11 attacks, as apocalyptic as they looked, were anything but. The true disasters followed and the wounds were largely self-inflicted, as the most militarily powerful nation on the planet used its own force to disable itself.Before that fateful day, the Bush administration had considered terrorism, Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda subjects for suckers and wusses. What they were intent on was pouring money into developing an elaborate boondoggle of a missile defense system against future nuclear attacks by rogue states. Those Cold War high frontiersmen (and women) couldn't get enough of the idea of missiling up. That, after all, was where the money and the fun seemed to be. Nuclear was where the big boys — the nation states — played. "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.…," the CIA told the President that August. Yawn.
After 9/11, of course, George W. Bush and his top advisors almost in
stantly launched their crusade against Islam and then their various wars, all under the rubric of the Global War on Terror. [...] The porous new Department of Homeland Security, the NSA, the FBI, and other acronymic agencies were to lock down, surveil, and listen in on America. All this to prevent "the next 9/11."In the process, they would treat bin Laden's scattered al-Qaeda network as if it were the Nazi or Soviet war machine (even comically dubbing his followers "Islamofascists"). In the blinking of an eye, and in the rubble of two enormous buildings in downtown Manhattan, bin Laden and his cronies had morphed from nobodies into supermen, a veritable Legion of Doom. [my bold]
[...] When, in October 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act, and an Office of Homeland Security (which, in 2002, became a "department") was established, it was welcome to the era of homeland insecurity. From then on, every major building, landmark, amusement park, petting zoo, flea market, popcorn stand, and toll booth anywhere in the country would be touted as a potential target for terrorists and in need of protection. Every police department from Arkansas to Ohio would be in desperate need of anti-terror funding. And why not, when the terrorists loomed so monstrously large, were so apocalyptically capable, and wanted so very badly to destroy our way of life?" [...]
In the administration's imagination (and the American one), they were now capable of anything. From their camps in the backlands of Afghanistan (or was it the suburbs of Hamburg?), as well as in the murky global underworld of the arms black market, al-Qaeda's minions were toiling feverishly to lay their hands on the most fiendish of plagues and pestilences — smallpox, botulism, anthrax, you name it. They were preparing to fill suitcases with nuclear weapons for deposit in downtown Manhattan. They were gathering nuclear refuse for dirty bombs. Nothing was too mad or destructive for them. Every faint but strange odor — the sweet smell of maple syrup floating across a city — was a potential bio-attack. [...]
So, thank you, Osama bin Laden for expediting the Department of Homeland Security, glutting an already bloated Pentagon with even more money, ensuring that all those "expeditionary forces" would sally forth to
cause havoc and not find victory in two hopeless wars, enabling the establishment of a vast offshore prison network (and the torture techniques to go with it), and creating a whole new global "security" industry to "thwart terrorists" that was, by 2006, generating $60 billion a year in business and whose domestic wing was devoted to locking down America.When the history of this era is finally written, based on the Tai Chi Principle, Osama bin Laden and his scattering of followers may be credited for goading the fundamentalist leaders of the United States into using the power in their grasp so — not to put a fine point on it — stupidly and profligately as to send the planet's "sole superpower" into decline. Above all, bin Laden and his crew of fanatics will have ensured one thing: that the real security problems of our age were ignored in Washington until far too late in favor of mad dreams and dark phantoms. In this lies a bleak but epic tale of folly worthy of a great American novelist (wherever she is). [thank you!]
In the meantime, consider the following little list — 15 numbers that offer an indication of just what the Tai Chi Principle meant in action these last years; just where American energies did and did not flow; and, in the end, just how much less safe we are now than we were in January 2001, when George W. Bush entered the Oval Office:
What follows is a list of 15 statistics which will put the last 8 years in a very creepy perspective. Please click below to read the whole article and especially the list of numbers bringing the age of insecurity right to your home screen.
536,000,000,000: the number of dollars the Pentagon is requesting for the 2009 military budget.[...]
1,390,000: the number of subprime foreclosures over the next two years, as estimated by Credit Suisse analysts.[...]
1,000,000: the number of "missions" or "sorties" the U.S. Air Force proudly claims to have flown in the Global War on Terror since 9/11[...]
509,000: the number of names found in 2007 on a "terrorist watch list" compiled by the FBI.[...]
300,000: the number of American troops who now suffer from major depression or post-traumatic stress,[...]
51,000: the number of post-surge Iraqi prisoners held in American and Iraqi jails at the end of 2007. [...]
5,700: the number of [FEMA] trailers in New Orleans [...] still occupied by people who lost their homes in the storm almost three years ago[...]
658: the number of suicide bombings worldwide last year, including 542 in Afghanistan and Iraq, "more than double the number in any of the past 25 years." [...]
511: the number of applicants convicted of felony crimes, including burglary, grand larceny, and aggravated assault, who were accepted into the U.S. Army in 2007, more than double the 249 accepted in 2006[...]
126: the number of dollars it took to buy a barrel of crude oil on the international market this week.[...]
82: the percentage of Americans who think "things in this country… have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track," according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. This is the gloomiest Americans have been about the "direction" of the country in the last 15 years of such polling.
40: the percentage loss ("on a trade-weighted basis") in the value of the dollar since 2001.[...]
37: the number of countries that have experienced food protests or riots in recent months due to soaring food prices, a global crisis of insecurity that caught the Bush administration completely unprepared. In the last year, the price of wheat has risen by 130%, of rice by 74%, of soya by 87%, and of corn by 31%.
0: the number of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda or similar groups inside the United States since September 11, 2001.
So consider "the homeland" secure. Mission accomplished.
And if you doubt that, here's one last figure, representative of the ultimate insecurity that, by conscious omission as well as commission, the Bush administration has left a harried future to deal with: That number is 387: Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii just released new information on carbon dioxide — the major greenhouse gas — in the atmosphere, and it's at a record high of 387 parts per million, "up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years." Its rate of increase is on the rise as well. Behind all these figures lurks a potential world of insecurity with which this country has not yet come to grips.
http://atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3945&Itemid=81
May 10, 2008
What Are They Fighting For?
The ever wonderful Chris Floyd points out the decrepitude of "rules of engagement" during war.
Shoot, Kill, Lie, Repeat: America's New Moral Universe
Written by Chris Floyd Friday, 09 May 2008
Tell me that this doesn't sound like something out of a history of Nazi tactics in World War II:
The rules [of engagement]t explicitly allowed the killing of unarmed Iraqis under certain circumstances...Specifically, the snipers were allowed to shoot unarmed people running away from explosions or firefights....Of course, it's not unusual for innocent people to run from explosions.
Didier, who has since been promoted to captain, said that "if that individual makes contact with you and then breaks contact of their own accord and disarms themselves while they are breaking contact, they are still an engageable target because they are not wounded, nor did they surrender." He explained, "They are only breaking contact so that they can engage coalition forces at a later time." In court, Sgt. Anthony Murphy, one of the snipers who was responsible for a questionable kill, testified that he interpreted this order about breaking contact so they can engage at a later time as: "Engage fleeing local nationals without weapons."
In other words, if an innocent, unarmed Iraqi runs away to seek safety from a suicide bombing, a missile attack or a gunfight — which any human being would instinctively do — then he is fair game to be killed by an American sniper.
The excerpt above comes from a story in Salon.com, "Killing by the Numbers," about an "elite" U.S. sniper squad that murdered a captured, unarmed civilian in cold blo
od. A more detailed excerpt follows below, but I'd like to deal briefly with one ancillary aspect first.
The story expands to talk more generally about the sniper program in Iraq, and is careful — overly careful — to emphasize that the snipers responsible for so many "questionable kills" are operating in very stressful conditions: sleep-deprived, sweltering in deadly heat, surrounded by potential "hostiles," at constant risk of attack. All true, of course, but it prompts this simple question: What the hell are they doing there in the first place? Why are they squatting and sweltering in "hides" in a foreign land, looking to kill people who never attacked the United States?
Yes, it is entirely understandable that a soldier subjected to nerve-wracking, physically tormenting conditions might fail to act with reason, patience, judgement and prudence. But is this supposed to be some kind of excuse for crimes committed within the context of a larger crime: a war of aggression, the military invasion an
d occupation of a foreign country without any provocation? Surely many of the Nazi atrocities were committed by men under unbearable mental and physical strain as well. So what? Were they absolved of their crimes? And more importantly — were their leaders absolved for instigating the larger crime that engendered these atrocities?
For as the story also shows, the "questionable kills" by American snipers derive largely from the murderous "rules of engagement" they are given by their superiors — and by the anxiety of their officers to produce big "kill numbers" to appease the bloodlust — and PR needs — of the thugs in the White House and their "counterinsurgency genius," David Petraeus. [...]
A detailed recount of another two other incidences follow, but I'd rather return to the theme that people suffer in war, all people, soldiers and citizens alike.
[...] It goes without saying that the officers who put these men in this situation — not to mention the civilian "leaders" in Washington who instigated the mass murder in Iraq — suffered not the slightest adverse consequence of this crime, for which they bear the primary responsibility.
[...] When even the scapegoats escape justice, what possible hope can there be that the perpetrators and abettors of the Nazi-like war crime in Iraq will ever pay the price — or even suffer the slightest trouble — for their monstrous outrage?
http://atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3898&Itemid=81
Bravo, Chris, and write on, please!
April 29, 2008
Iraqi Women and Children Suffer Every Day
Imagine watching your child step over blood on the way to school. Wouldn't you be outraged? We must never forget the innocent victims of war and we must commit to protecting them, every day.
Iraqi children silent victims of ongoing violence,
says UN envoy
Voices of Iraq
Baghdad, Apr 25, 2008 (VOI)- Wrapping up a six-day visit to Iraq, the United Nations human rights envoy tasked with protecting the rights of children caught up in armed conflict said that the war-ravaged country's children are silent victims of the continued violence.
"Many of them are no longer go to school, many are recruited for violent activities or detained in custody, they lack access to the most basic services and manifest a wide range of psychological symptoms from the violence in their everyday lives," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI).
She urged religious, political, military and community leaders to encourage children to stay out of the violence and return to their studies.
Gender-based violence is also reported to be on the rise, which Ms. Coomaraswamy said is "intolerable."
Only half of primary school children are attending school, down from 80 per cent in 2005, she noted. Only 40 per cent having access to clean drinking water, with the outbreak of cholera possible.
[my bold]
Since 2004, rising numbers of children have been recruited into militias and insurgent groups, some serving as suicide bombers, while some 1,500 are known to be in detention facilities.
Since humanitarian workers' access to children is impeded in many parts of Iraq, children are deprived of their assistance.
The special representative called on all parties to give free and independent access to aid workers, and urged the Iraqi Government, the United States Government and other countries to allow agencies, such as the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), to be able to reach children in all parts of Iraq without hindrance.
Ms. Coomaraswamy also appealed to the international community to assist neighbouring countries to which Iraqis have fled to ensure that the children are protected and can access basic services, including education and health care.
She called on all sides in the Iraqi conflict to follow international humanitarian standards for the protection of children and to release without delay any children under the age of 18 associated with their forces, and also to adhere to international human rights standards pertaining to juvenile justice provisions.
"Let peace in Iraq begin with the protection of children" the special representative said. [my bold]
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=43405
Amen.
April 28, 2008
HRA Keeps 12 Veterans on ICE
What kind of society treats its warriors like this? Can there be a lower act of disgrace?
CITY DENIES VETS BURIAL RITES, CHARITIES SAY
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
April 28, 2008 -- The city is having trouble providing burials for unclaimed 
veterans because it notoriously shortchanges charitable groups that help bury them, critics charge.
Vincent Reilly, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Inc., said he's done fronting money to bury the indigent because the city's Human Resources Administration frequently rejects reimbursement claims. [my bold]
"We find [the HRA] to be deadbeats," Reilly said.
JoAnn Orr, an HRA director in charge of burial claims, said that the agency helped bury 82 veterans last year and that it has reimbursed other charitable groups.
Still, the HRA reimbursed fewer than half the 1,960 claims made last year.
A dozen unclaimed veterans remain on ice at the city morgue. [my bold]
After The Post recently brought the situation to light, the Mayor's Office on Veteran Affairs met with veterans groups.
Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate, the head of the Veterans Committee, will conduct a hearing today to root out the bureaucratic problem. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04282008/news/regionalnews/city_denies_vets_burial_rites__charities_108482.htm
April 27, 2008
Operation Torch = Brave New Subways
Good old CBS News gives us grinning, cheerful Magee Hickey to happily tell us that EVERYONE seems to like the idea. Oh, really? Or is Magee using her media power to persuade us it's okay, (maybe even terrific!) for cops to roam the subways armed for mass slaughter. The result of this money drain will be more intimidation, harassment and bullying of innocent civilians by the most frightened, paranoid members of the NYPD who will have, just like those pathetic murderers of Sean Bell, itchy trigger fingers. As far as liking the idea, EVERYONE I KNOW knows the terrorists are in the White House, and M4 carbine rifles in our subways won't stop terrorists because the war is on hard working people. Which side are you on?
Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway M4 Carbine Rifles, MP5 Submachine Guns & Bomb Sniffing Dogs Part Of New "Torch Team" Anti-Terror Efforts
NEW YORK (CBS) ― The NYPD is pulling out all the stops to beef up safety of the subways. On Thursday it launched a new anti-terror effort called "Operation Torch," but the cost of the program is raising some eyebrows.
The NYPD's new firepower consists of cops with Mp5 submachine guns, rifles, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Starting Thursday, five or six teams a day will patrol the major transit hubs in the city in the new program, all thanks to a 50 percent increase in a Homeland Securit
y grant.
"Times Square, Grand Central, Penn Station … the locations you would expect, but not only those locations. The assignments will vary and will be following no discernible pattern," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
[...] Similarly equipped NYPD units known as "Hercules" teams have been patrolling the ground on Wall Street, the Empire State Building and other city landmarks.
Everyone seems to like the idea of an added police presence, particularly to fight terrorism on subway platforms, but then when you mention the price tag -- $151 million – then people aren't so sure.
[...] Of the $151 million in the federal grant, $30 million will be used for this underground anti-terrorist program for the next two years.[...]
http://wcbstv.com/local/machine.guns.subway.2.707398.html
April 26, 2008
Gates Applauds Dissent, Wants More Predators
Here's another recent story that might flesh out more on the loose nukes theme. It certainly is rare to hear the Secy of Defense criticizing his own forces AND praising dissent, but these are rare and strange times:
Gates: Air Force Lagging In War Effort Pentagon Chief Says Getting Air Force To Send Aircraft To War Zones "Like Pulling Teeth" 
pril 21, 2008
(CBS/AP) Defense Secretary Robert Gates [...] said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."
[...] He cited the example of drone aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents without risking the life of a pilot. He said the number of such aircraft has grown 25-fold since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield.
[...] Gates said he established last week a Pentagon-wide task force "to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line."
[...] "All this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not," Gates said, referring to so-called unmanned aerial vehicles that are controlled by servicemembers at ground stations.
The military's reliance on unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, [my bold] largely in Iraq, according to Pentagon data. The Air Force has taken pilots out of the air and shifted them to remote flying duty [my bold] to meet part of the demand.
"The secretary of defense is essentially saying, 'tough - we need these Predators over Iraq more than you need to keep training new pilots'," reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
Gates, who served in the Air Force in the 1960s as a young officer before he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, urged the officers in his audience to dedicate themselves to thinking creatively.
[...] "Dissent is a sign of health in an organization, and particularly if it's done in the right way," Gates said. [Who's way? MY way! And my bold]
Gates made no direct mention of a series of mistakes and missteps involving the Air Force in recent months, beginning with an episode last August when a B-52 bomber flew from an Air Force base in North Dakota to another in Louisiana with the crew unaware that it was carrying nuclear weapons.
Last month Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne announced that four Air Force nose cone assemblies designed for use with nuclear missiles [previously described as ballistic missile fuses] were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in 2006. The error was not verified until shortly before Wynne made the announcement, and the matter is under Pentagon investigation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/21/national/main4030601.shtml
C'mon, gang, let's think creatively! Let's listen to Chairman Gates and put the pieces together re loose nukes, ballistic missile fuses, Syria, North Korea, etc. The first to solve the puzzle gets a full year's subscription to DANCE AWAY BLUES!