Liberty's last gasp

The Next Top Spy Negroponte's likely replacement makes civil libertarians nervous NEWSWEEK - WEB EXCLUSIVE By Michael Hirsh and Mark Hosenball - January 4, 2007 -- John Michael McConnell, the retired vice admiral slated to become America's new top spy, is known as a consummate team player. "He is disarmingly charming, and professional," says Bill Crowell, who served as his deputy at the National Security Agency during McConnell’s 1992-96 tenure as director. Not surprisingly, McConnell has won many friends and fans during his long career in intelligence. One is Bob Gates, the just-installed secretary of Defense. Another is Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, who was one of McConnell's successors at the NSA. All these old-boy ties offer the promise of greater cooperation between the 16 separate intel agencies—dominated by the ever-rancorous Pentagon and CIA—that McConnell is expected to oversee as director of national intelligence. Still, some of McConnell's longtime associations may cause him headaches during Senate confirmation hearings, especially with the Democrats taking over Congress. One such tie is with another former Navy admiral, John Poindexter, the Iran-contra figure who started the controversial "Total Information Awareness" program at the Pentagon in 2002. The international consultancy that McConnell has worked at for a decade as a senior vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton, won contracts worth $63 million on the TIA "data-mining" program, which was later cancelled after congressional Democrats raised questions about invasion of privacy. McConnell will be named by week's end to replace John Negroponte, who will move on to become Condoleezza Rice's deputy secretary of State, according to a White House official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. While his role in the TIA program is unlikely to derail McConnell's nomination, spokespeople for some leading Democratic senators such as Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden of Oregon say it will be examined carefully. McConnell was a key figure in making Booz Allen, along with Science Applications International Corp., the prime contractor on the project, according to officials in the intelligence community and at Booz Allen who would discuss contracts for data mining only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "I think Poindexter probably respected Mike and probably entrusted the TIA program to him as a result," said a longtime associate of McConnell's who worked at NSA with him. Poindexter, who lives in Rockville, Md., did not answer phone calls. Booz Allen spokesman George Farrar said McConnell was not speaking to the media prior to his nomination. Farrar also had no comment on the TIA program. Intel experts agree that McConnell will need all the good will he can get from the intelligence and defense communities. "It's a good appointment for a bad office," says John Arquilla, who teaches intelligence at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. "The directorate of national intelligence should not exist. It's very redundant." Insiders say Negroponte was frustrated by his lack of budgeting control over Pentagon intelligence, and the resistance of the CIA to his direction since his office was created in 2004 as part of the Bush administration's post-9/11 reforms. To date, the national intelligence director's office has been best known for assembling a large oversight staff and adding to the number of agencies that review intelligence and filter it to policymakers. Also it's unclear to what extent the intel czar's office had been able, during Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon tenure, to assert its authority over the Pentagon's secret intelligence gathering activities. Rumsfeld was replaced by Gates last month after a stormy six-year tenure. Perhaps McConnell's most important backer in the upper reaches of the Bush administration is Vice President Dick Cheney, with whom he worked more than a decade ago when the veep was Defense secretary under the first President Bush. McConnell had been approached at least twice before by the administration to take a top job in the intelligence director's office but turned it down, according to two former government officials. McConnell finally agreed to take the job after a direct, personal approach from Cheney, according to a former government official who talked to McConnell in the last day or two. Another former intelligence official said that before agreeing to come on board McConnell had also visited President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. The White House had no official comment on McConnell prior to the announcement of his appointment. McConnell may need all the friends he can get to fend off criticism of his role in helping the government to mine data on U.S. citizens—the subject of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings set to begin next week. TIA was an effort to gather intel on potential terrorist attacks by vacuuming up huge amounts of data from electronic transactions, including banking, plane reservations and other public and private sources. It was stopped after some in Congress about raised questions about invasions of privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union later called it an "Orwellian program." But the concept of doing broad-based surveillance lives on, as does Booz Allen's contracting role. Last September, the ACLU sharply criticized Booz Allen and the U.S. government for the revolving-door ties that had many former intelligence officials going to work for the contractor. After it was reported in June that the U.S. government was studying records of financial transactions carried out by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, the Bush administration responded that the fairness of the process was being audited by Booz Allen. But both European regulators and the ACLU said Booz Allen was not independent enough to fulfill such duties. "Its relationship with the U.S. government calls its objectivity seriously in to question," an ACLU report said. Booz Allen spokesman Farrar said the firm rejected the criticism. "What clients are buying from us are independence and objectivity," he said. Booz Allen's government contracts have expanded dramatically during McConnell's time there, amounting to $1.59 billion last year in information technology. According to his official Booz Allen biography, "As Senior Vice President, Mike McConnell leads the firm's assignments in Military Intelligence and Information Operations for the Department of Defense, the Unified Combatant Commanders, Military Services, and Defense Agencies.” Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project, says: "Plainly, given the NSA's role in massive spying on Americans, we'll want the Senate to look very carefully at his history.” Schooled at Furman University in South Carolina, where he received a B.A. degree in economics, and at George Washington University, where he got a master's in public administration, McConnell was also a close friend of one of the administration's most widely admired members: former secretary of State Colin Powell, who was often at odds with Cheney. McConnell's relationship with both men dates back to the first gulf war. At the outset of that conflict, according to several current and former government officials, McConnell, who had previously worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency, was named to the post of "J-2"—intelligence chief—of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The chairman was then General Powell. According to a former Pentagon official, McConnell would sometimes appear in public as Powell's spokesman or intelligence adviser during press briefings on the Persian Gulf War. McConnell was "always very professional in what he did," recalled retired Army colonel Larry Wilkerson, who served as a senior aide to Powell both at the Pentagon and when Powell was secretary of State. During the first gulf war, Cheney also worked directly with McConnell, who benefited from a series of rapid promotions that took him from Navy captain to three-star vice admiral within just a couple of years. Cheney and McConnell later "stayed in touch," said a former Pentagon official who also has kept in contact with both men. While serving under the Joint Chiefs during the first gulf war, McConnell also worked closely with Robert Gates, who was then deputy to White House national-security adviser Brent Scowcroft. An acquaintance said that McConnell and Gates are sympatico in a way that McConnell and former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not have been. He'd better hope so. McConnell will need all the help he can get if he's going to get on top of the post-9/11 intelligence problem. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16475979/site/newsweek/ New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, IMs ASSOCIATED PRESS - December 1, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say. The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial. The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation. James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co. (HAL) (HAL), said that large companies are likely to face higher costs from organizing their data to comply with the rules. In addition to e-mail, companies will need to know about things more difficult to track, like digital photos of work sites on employee cell phones and information on removable memory cards, he said. Both federal and state courts have increasingly been requiring the production of relevant electronic documents during discovery, but the new rules codify the practice, legal experts said. The rules also require that lawyers provide information about where their clients' electronic data is stored and how accessible it is much earlier in a lawsuit than was previously the case. There are hundreds of "e-discovery vendors" and these businesses raked in approximately $1.6 billion in 2006, Wright said. That figure could double in 2007, he added. Another expense will likely stem from the additional time lawyers will have to spend reviewing electronic documents before turning them over to the other side. While the amount of data will be narrowed by electronic searches, some high-paid lawyers will still have to sift through casual e-mails about subjects like "office birthday parties in the pantry" in order to find information relevant to a particular case. Martha Dawson, a partner at the Seattle-based law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP who specializes in electronic discovery, said the burden of the new rules won't be that great. Companies will not have to alter how they retain their electronic documents, she said, but will have to do an "inventory of their IT system" in order to know better where the documents are. The new rules also provide better guidance on how electronic evidence is to be handled in federal litigation, including guidelines on how companies can seek exemptions from providing data that isn't "reasonably accessible," she said. This could actually reduce the burden of electronic discovery, she said. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061201/D8LNRQB80.html Google 'will be able to keep tabs on us all' THE GUARDIAN - By Alexi Mostrous and Rob Evans - November 3, 2006 -- The internet will hold so much digital data in five years that it will be possible to find out what an individual was doing at a specific time and place, an expert said yesterday. Nigel Gilbert, a professor heading a Royal Academy of Engineering study into surveillance, said people would be able to sit down and type into Google "what was a particular individual doing at 2.30 yesterday and would get an answer". The answer would come from a range of data, for instance video recordings or databanks which store readings from electronic chips. Such chips embedded in people's clothes could track their movements. He told a privacy conference the internet would be capable of holding huge amounts of data very cheaply and patterns of information could be extracted very quickly. "Everything can be recorded for ever," he said. He was speaking at a conference at which a report commissioned by Richard Thomas, the privacy watchdog, was launched. Mr Thomas has said Britain is "waking up to a surveillance society that is all around us" and that such "pervasive" surveillance is likely to spread. Sir Stephen Lander, the head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and former head of MI5, defended surveillance by the government. "Significant intrusion into the privacy of a small minority is justified to protect the safety and wellbeing of the majority," he said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,1938474,00.html Jacksonville To Increase Spy Cam Presence Video Report http://player.clipsyndicate.com/player/play_clip/71935?cpt=8 Word on the street ... they’re listening THE SUNDAY TIMES of LONDON - By Steven Swinford and Nicola Smith - November 26, 2006 -- BRITAIN -- POLICE and councils are considering monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras, write Steven Swinford and Nicola Smith. The microphones can detect conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before they become violent. The devices are used at 300 sites in Holland and police, councils and transport officials in London have shown an interest in installing them before the 2012 Olympics. The interest in the equipment comes amid growing concern that Britain is becoming a “surveillance society”. It was recently highlighted that there are more than 4.2m CCTV cameras, with the average person being filmed more than 300 times a day. The addition of microphones would take surveillance into uncharted territory. The Association of Chief Police Officers has warned that a full public debate over the microphones’ impact on privacy will be needed before they can be introduced. The equipment can pick up aggressive tones on the basis of 12 factors, including decibel level, pitch and the speed at which words are spoken. Background noise is filtered out, enabling the camera to focus on specific conversations in public places. If the aggressive behaviour continues, police can intervene before an incident escalates. Privacy laws in Holland limit the recording of sound to short bursts. Derek van der Vorst, director of Sound Intelligence, the company that created the technology, said: “It is technically capable of being live 24 hours a day and recording 24 hours a day. It really depends on the privacy laws in a particular country.” Last month Martin Nanninga of VCS Observation, the Dutch company marketing the technology, gave a presentation to officials from Transport for London, the Metropolitan police and the City of London police about the CCTV system. Nanninga is to return next year for further discussions. “There was a lot of interest in our system, especially with security concerns about the Olympic Games in 2012. We told them about both our intelligent control room and the aggression detection system,” Nanninga said. In Holland more than 300 of the cameras have been fitted in Groningen, Utrecht and Rotterdam. Locations include city centres, benefit offices, jails, and even T-Mobile shops. The sensitivity of the microphones is adjusted to suit the situation. Police and local council officials are still assessing their impact on crime, although in an initial six-week trial in Groningen last year the cameras raised 70 genuine alarms, resulting in four arrests. Harry Hoetjer, head of surveillance at Groningen police headquarters, recalled an incident where the camera had homed in on a gang of four men who were about to attack a passer-by. “We would not normally have detected it as there was no camera directly viewing it,” he said. Last Friday a Sunday Times reporter visited the office of Sound Intelligence in Groningen to test the system. The reporter stood in the control centre with a view of an empty room on one of a bank of monitors. Van der Vorst entered the room, out of sight of the camera, and began making aggressive noises. The camera swivelled to film him and an alarm went off in the control room, designed to alert police to a possible incident. “The cameras work on the principle that in an aggressive situation the pitch goes up and the words are spoken faster,” said van der Vorst. “The voice is not the normal flat tone, but vibrates. It is these subtle changes that our audio cameras can pick up on.” Public prosecution services can use them in court as evidence. The Dutch privacy board has already given its approval to the system. According to a spokesman for Richard Thomas, Britain’s information commissioner, sound recorded by the cameras would be treated under British law in the same way as CCTV footage. Under the commissioner’s code of practice, audio can be recorded for the detection, prevention of crime and apprehension and prosecution of offenders. It cannot be used for recording private conversations. Graeme Gerrard, chairman of the chief police officers’ video and CCTV working group, said: “In the UK this is a new step. Clearly there is somebody or something monitoring people speaking in the street, and before we were to engage in that technology there would be a number of legal obstacles. “We would need to have a debate as to whether or not this is something the public think would be a reasonable use of the technology. The other issue is around the capacity of the police service to deal with this.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2471987,00.html Boston: City Hall pushed to buy $1.5m system to track gunshots BOSTON GLOBE - By Suzanne Smalley, Globe Staff - January 6, 2007 -- Boston city councilors, law enforcement officials, and community leaders are pressing City Hall to come up with $1.5 million to buy a promising acoustic gunshot-detection system. The sensor system could blanket a 5.6-square-mile swath of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods -- the source of 80 to 85 percent of calls citywide reporting shots fired -- and give officers a jump on arresting suspects, improve police response time to 911 calls, and possibly reduce firearm violence, proponents say. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said he believes the technology would help prosecutors win more gun cases and would require a "relatively modest investment," given the city's $2 billion annual budget. "Police would be able to get the scene quickly and perhaps apprehend someone fleeing the scene, or identify someone who actually saw something," Conley said in an interview yesterday. "It would also corroborate witness testimony." … Boston Globe Article Catching a Killer, With Help From a Camera ABC NEWS [America] - By Joan Martelli and Joneil Adriano - January 2, 2007 -- It was an early May morning in 2005, and Patricia McDermott had no reason to expect anything but a typical commute to her job as an X-ray technician. Riding the No. 33 bus through the predawn streets of Philadelphia, McDermott got off at her regular stop — the post office on the corner of Ninth and Market streets. She began walking south, toward Pennsylvania Hospital, but she never made it to work. Minutes after she got off the bus, McDermott was discovered lifeless on the street by a passing driver. Police on the scene were stumped at first. Was it a robbery, an accident or a suicide? "There was blood on the sidewalk," said Howard Peterman, one of the first detectives to respond. "We looked around for evidence for weapons. No ballistic evidence. We looked up to see if she had jumped from the building. … [There was] no evidence to show us what had happened." But Peterman noticed something else when he looked up — surveillance cameras mounted all around the post office. Americans have grown accustomed to being filmed as part of their daily routines — cameras are commonplace at ATMs, convenience stores, gas stations and building lobbies. It's not so unusual anymore for those cameras to catch criminals in the act. But as the number of surveillance cameras increases, it seems not even random crimes on deserted streets in the dark of night can escape. The footage from those post office cameras would be crucial to investigators as they pieced together exactly what happened to McDermott. Caught on Tape Federal agents showed Peterman the recordings from that morning. One camera captured McDermott, 48, getting off the bus. A man wearing a light jacket and dark pants got off the same bus, and followed a few steps behind her. Another camera caught them as they rounded the corner. McDermott didn't seem to notice the man following her. Halfway down the block, the man suddenly raised his arm and shot her once in the back of the head. "I've seen shootings incidents on video before," Peterman said, "but the suddenness, and that he did it for no reason at all, was really scary." It was scary for the police, but devastating for the McDermott family. "I feel like my soul was shattered in two," said McDermott's sister Mary Moran, "like a windshield that's together but in pieces." The seemingly senseless, cold-blooded murder of a beloved mother stunned the entire city of Philadelphia…. The cameras above the post office were installed by the Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to beef up security around federal buildings. The cameras, made by Canadian company Extreme CCTV, are very sophisticated. They are not only sensitive to light, but also emit infrared rays that can make night look virtually like day. Still, there were limits to what detectives could glean from the cameras. Though the images were good, the angle wasn't. The cameras are high above the street to catch possible truck bombs, not individual faces. And the killer wore a baseball cap that further obscured his identity. The post office cameras showed police what happened to McDermott, but not who did it, let alone why. Detectives needed more clues. While there were no human witnesses to the killing, there were potentially dozens of mechanical ones. On nearly every block of downtown Philadelphia, a motley assortment of cameras watch over department stores, lobbies, storefronts, office and apartment buildings. So investigators went door to door, collecting tapes. They found key footage from a camera in the parking lot across from the scene of the killing. That camera, unlike the post office cameras, recorded in real time. "It solidified the fact there was no interaction between Patricia McDermott and her killer. There was distance between them, and they had no interaction," Peterman said. That camera also captured the killer running through the parking lot as he left the scene of the crime, giving detectives a clue about the direction of his getaway. Other cameras caught him running down Market Street, and through an office building on Sixth Street. Vanished Into Thin Air? Often, detectives had little more than a blip on the screen to work with, but those fleeting images were enough for them to piece together the shooter's escape route. It was painstaking work that did not go unnoticed by McDermott's family. "I can't even imagine having to sit through and watch all those tapes, and how they tracked him just by the clothes that he had on and went from one spot to another," Moran said. After looking at about 50 different video systems in the neighborhood, police captured the footsteps of the killer on at least a dozen different cameras. They followed him for more than half a mile, to the corner of Sixth and Spruce streets, where the trail grew cold. The killer seemed to have vanished into thin air. Unfortunately, none of the videos showed the killer's face clearly. Detectives turned to their in-house audiovisual unit, the District Attorney's Office, the FBI, even NFL Films, all in a vain attempt to enhance the images. "They did what they could try to zoom in as much as possible. You just lost clarity the more you zoomed in on the lens," Peterman said. There are some high-tech cameras in Philadelphia that can zoom in on faces. There are 10 such cameras in the city, mounted in a handful of high-crime areas as part of a pilot program that is monitored 24 hours a day by the police. Unfortunately for the investigators on the McDermott case, the cameras had not yet come on line. So they hit the airwaves for help. Police released the images of the killer they had on tape, hoping that someone might recognize his clothes or how he walked. The Big Break That effort yielded hundreds of tips, including one that would become the big break in the case. A bus company employee thought the man in the grainy image resembled someone she knew — Juan Covington, who, like McDermott, was a regular rider on the No. 33 bus. Covington, it turned out, had something else in common with McDermott. He too worked at Pennsylvania Hospital, where police found the last piece of the puzzle. One of the hospital's surveillance cameras captured Covington entering the hospital less than half an hour after the murder. "When we looked at the footage, and saw it was the same man wearing the same baseball hat, the same clothing, we knew we had our man," said Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham. "I mean, there he was, the guy. Our killer." Confronted with the video, Covington confessed. In a written statement to police, he said he had to kill McDermott because she was poisoning him with X-rays. "I could feel the radiation when I went into the room," he said. "That's when I came to the conclusion that nobody would believe me about what she was doing to me." It was an explanation that left McDermott's family members scratching their heads. "To me it's a little ridiculous," said Angela Amarhanov, McDermott's daughter. "Honestly, it blows my mind that someone thought that my mom had a mean bone in her body, and that she would be capable of doing evil things." Added Moran: "I hate to say that he's crazy. Because to me he was very calculating, and he had a gun, and he went up and he shot my sister in the head, very cold-bloodedly." A Serial Killer There were still more bombshells to come. Before police closed the case on McDermott's murder, Covington admitted to having still more victims. He was no ordinary killer; he was a serial killer. Two months before McDermott was gunned down, Covington shot and killed Odies Bosket, 36, at the Logan station of the Broad Street Subway line. Bosket, a father of four, was on his way to pick up his 3-year-old daughter from nursery school. In 1998, Covington murdered his cousin, the Rev. Thomas Lee Devlin. Devlin, 49, died in a hail of bullets as he was leading a prayer service in his sister's home. In 2003, Covington jumped out from between two parked cars and shot David Stewart nine times as he walked home. Stewart, 43, miraculously survived. In 2004, Covington also shot William Bryant, 33, as he walked to work. After shooting him several times from behind, Covington stood over the injured Bryant and fired two more shots. Like Stewart, Bryant was shot nine times and also survived. Covington pleaded guilty but mentally ill to all these crimes, receiving a sentence of three life terms in prison and bringing to an end a one-man crime spree that spanned eight years…. For law enforcement, the value of surveillance cameras could not be underscored enough. Said district attorney Abraham: "McDermott's case might never have been solved. Who knows how many more victims there would have been had we not had that image of Covington murdering Ms. McDermott right on our video screens." http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2755037 Media Cranks Up Hard Sell of Biometric and RFID Microchipped Future ANOTHER DAY IN THE EMPIRE - Blog By Kurt Nimmo - December 2, 2006 -- I don’t watch a lot of television. But no sooner did I flip on MSNBC last night a coiffured talking head appeared gabbling about the insecurity of ATM machines. If we are to believe Algorithmic Research, an Israeli company, there is a flaw in the average ATM regarding PINs, account numbers, encryption, and decryption, that is to say there is a window of opportunity to snatch this information—over the internet, of course—by an unscrupulous hacker. Mind you, nobody has actually exploited this alleged flaw and stolen information, MSNBC admits, but it is conceivable, never mind the Secret Service, responsible for this sort of crime, and the American Bankers Association dismiss it as unlikely. It is also conceivable “al-Qaeda” will attack, as we are told on a nearly weekly basis, but the fact they have not over the last five years never seems to get worked into the equation. Not to worry, though. Biometric authentication, according to the MSNBC talking head, will save us. In a day not too far off in the future, fingerprint analysis, iris recognition, voice recognition or combinations of these technologies will come to the rescue. DieBold, the friendly voting machine folks, are working on this for us. Standard Bank in South Africa has fingerprint verification ATMs manufactured by DieBold in use and the company is fast at work figuring out what technology works the best. Once they do, you may see biometric ATMs in your neighborhood. According to Citibank, biometric ATMs “have been tailored to meet the needs of the under-banked, lower income segment” and will feature “voice-enabled navigation facility aimed at illiterate customers,” Moneycontrol reports. “Citibank plans to establish a network of 25 to 35 such ATMs within a year,” for now in Mumbai and Hyderabad. But Citibank it isn’t simply targeting “illiterate customers” in rural areas of India. “The latest—and arguably biggest—player to enter the biopayment game is none other than Citibank Singapore, which has been quietly distributing fingerprint readers to area businesses for the past month,” reports Portalino. “Right now only Clear Platinum card holders have the option of going biometric, and since this group includes heavy representation from the tech-savvy 25 to 34-year-old demographic, it seems that Citibank is taking the right approach to ensure widespread adoption.” Note how forking over your biometric data is characterized as an “option,” a lifestyle choice for the sake of convenience. Surrendering to Big Brother is now cool, as even James Bond, in the remake of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, has himself a microchip—for the sake of safety, of course. In the film, this little device saves Bond’s life. It will save your life, too, as you can now be scanned like a cocker spaniel. Lest we believe America has been left out of the biometric loop, consider the following: “Although biometric payment systems are still pretty rare… recent trials at stores like Albertsons and Cub Foods and even the school lunch line would seem to indicate that more pervasive rollouts are just around the corner.” Increasingly, it would seem that if you want to eat, you will be forced to surrender your biometric data. Acceptance begins at the grade school lunch line. Acceptance, however, does not seem to be much of a problem. “Ever get to the supermarket only to realize you forgot your wallet? For the more than 3.3 million consumers who’ve signed up for biometric technology, that’s no longer a problem,” reports ParadeNet, the internet version of Parade magazine. “Customers at several retailers can now literally pay by touch. By placing their finger on a scanner at the checkout and entering their home phone number, these tech-savvy shoppers can deduct the cost of a carton of milk directly from a bank account or credit card.” Again, it is “tech-savvy” to get plugged into the Big Brother Matrix. In Chicago, climbing aboard the biometric bandwagon, according to TMCnet, will make the Christmas season less stressful. “One of the most frustrating things that occur at holiday time is the over-crowded stores and long wait times in line just to make it out of the store. However, thanks to Pay By Touch’s biometric payment solution, shoppers now have a fast and secure way of moving through those shopping lines…. And for any customer who used or enrolled in their biometric payment system between November 1 and December 31, 2006 Pay By Touch will also enroll them into a drawing to win a year of free groceries.” Free groceries? No doubt this one is designed to lure in the “under-banked, lower income segment” facing a bleak Christmas, as every passing holiday season becomes more and more bleak as the American labor market is slowly but surely walmartized or sent over to the corporate slave plantation in China. “In continuing to spread the holiday cheer, Pay By Touch will also donate $10,000 dollars to The Greater Chicago Food Depository, a non-for-profit food distribution and training center aimed at ending hunger in the community.” No word if they are required to surrender biometrics at the door. Britain, Sweden, Greece, Germany, and other nations are jumping on the biometric bandwagon. It’s all the rave. It’s “tech-savvy” and cool. Even Disneyland wants your fingerprints. Scanning of fingerprints at entrance turnstiles outside of the Magic Kingdom “enhances the experience of the park,” according to Disney IT security. For now, “customers, who still have concerns about using their fingerprints, can choose to continue using a photo ID card as a form of identification,” reports ZDNet. No guarantees down the road, however, as in the near future all turnstiles will have scanners, designed to enhance the Disney experience, of course. Not scanning will de-enhance the experience, as you will likely be relegated to the end of the line. It seems the biometric folks are covering all angles. For instance, if you forget your house keys, no problem. “While locks and alarm systems have been used in the past to help protect the home from unauthorized intruders, now biometric technology is introducing the first consumer available, biometric deadbolt lock for doors that ensures authorized entry and eliminates the need for keys,” explains TMCnet. Of course, this gets the “tech-savvy consumer” prepared for biometric technology everywhere, not only at the airport but the grocery store and bank. Biometric will connect to every possible aspect of life that requires a transaction or security requirement. It’s a small step from a biometric ATM card to a subdermal microchip. James Bond aside, the idea of “getting chipped” like a Hereford heifer is scary to some people. In order to overcome this natural aversion, VeriChip Corporation has introduced the VeriMed RFID microchip “designed to provide immediate access to important health information on patients who arrive at an emergency department unconscious, delirious or unable to communicate,” according to a press released posted on Yahoo Finance. Applied Digital, the parent company of VeriChip, manufactures “unique and often proprietary products [that] provide identification and security systems for people, animals, the food supply, government/military arena, and commercial assets. Included in this diversified product line are RFID applications, end-to-end food safety systems, GPS/Satellite communications, and telecomm and security infrastructure, positioning Applied Digital as the leader in identification technology.” Seems Applied Digital is positioned to cash in on the coming electronic panopticon,”a police state characterized by omniscient surveillance and mechanical law enforcement,” as Charlie Stross characterizes it. Applied Digital, Citibank, Disney, and other corporate behemoths may attempt to sell us on biometric convenience and safety, but the eventual use of these technologies will ultimately fall in the domain of surveillance and control. “Surveillance need not even stop at our skin,” with the collection of fingerprints and iris scans, Stross notes, because “the ability to monitor our speech and track our biological signs (for example: pulse, pupillary dilation, or possibly hormone and neurotransmitter levels) may lead to attempts to monitor thoughts as well as deeds. What starts with attempts to identify paedophile predators before they strike may end with discrimination against people believed to be at risk of ‘addictive behavior’—howsoever that might be defined—or of harboring anti-social attitudes,” for instance disagreeing with the government. “A Panopticon Singularity is the logical outcome if the burgeoning technologies of the singularity are funneled into automating law enforcement. Previous police states were limited by manpower, but the panopticon singularity substitutes technology, and ultimately replaces human conscience with a brilliant but merciless prosthesis.” It will not take another forty years to realize the panopticon singularity—it is right around the corner, beginning with the Real ID Act in 2008, a biometric scheme approved by our wonderful “representatives” that will be implemented and supervised by the Orwellian Ministry of Homeland Security, a massive federal bureaucratic boondoggle created to protect us from non-existent “al-Qaeda” terrorists. It makes perfect sense Real ID was slipped into a $82 billion military spending bill. In Philip K. Dick’s short story, Minority Report, set in 2054, as realized by Steven Spielberg in his 2002 film, everyone is automatically eye-scanned and tracked in public, thus not only allowing the police state to keep tabs on every individual, but also target them for odious marketing efforts. It is a prefect marriage of corporations and the state, both fascist in character, as Mussolini described fascism as corporatism and vice versa. As 2006 winds down, we are enduring increasing efforts to sell us on the Panopticon Singularity, as envisioned by Stross, based on the work of Jeremy Bentham. Our rulers seem to have taken a page from another science fiction story, Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky, depicting the concept of “ubiquitous law enforcement.” James Bond and his microchip may be portrayed on screen as cool and the Jacobs family of Boca Raton, Florida, may be heralded by the corporate media as the “Chipsons” (a lame take on the Jetsons), but the reality of a biometrically scanned and chipped future is almost too hellish to imagine, far worse than anything Steven Spielberg could possibly dream up. But, hey, at least you won’t have to wait in line at Disney World. http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=685 Britain: Every person caught on camera about 300 times each day Police road-test hand-held fingerprint scanner AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - November 22, 2006 -- Police in England and Wales have begun trialling hand-held electronic fingerprint readers on motorists, the latest piece of new high-tech equipment being wielded in the fight against crime. Police say the device could save vast amounts of time and resources by identifying suspects on the spot rather than taking them to a police station -- should their prints be on the national database. The scanner allows officers to search the 6.5 million fingerprints held on record and should produce a result within five minutes. Estimates suggest it could save police more than 2.2 million pounds (4.2 million dollars, 3.3 million euros) per year. The pilot scheme is being tested by traffic police in Luton, northwest of London, and is voluntary because under existing law, members of the public are not obliged to give their fingerprints at the roadside. "This trial represents an important step forward in our commitment to ensuring we have an effective and efficient police service fully equipped for the challenges of modern policing," said police minister Tony McNulty on Wednesday. "The new technology will speed up the time it takes for police to identify individuals at the roadside, enabling them to spend more time on the frontline and reducing any inconvenience for innocent members of the public." Argentine policeman Juan Vucetich is credited with making the first positive criminal fingerprint identification in 1892. The new device is the latest piece of sophisticated technology at the disposal of police officers. The Home Office interior ministry says Britain leads the world in using DNA to identify criminals, with more than 3.4 million profiles on the national DNA database, representing 5.2 percent of the population. The Police National Computer now holds extensive data on criminals, vehicles and property, accessible in seconds at more than 30,000 terminals. And police say they are world leaders in automatic number plate recognition, invented in Britain and used to track the movement of suspects and their vehicles. But a report by the Surveillance Studies Network academic group published earlier this month warned that Britain was becoming a "surveillance society" where security cameras, credit card analysis and travel movements were used to track people's lives minute by minute. There are up to 4.2 million closed-circuit television cameras -- about one for every 14 people or nearly 10 percent of those around the world. Every person is caught on camera about 300 times each day. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/22/061122140639.i4btwcrg.html Big Brother Britain 2006: 'We are waking up to a surveillance society all around us' THE INDEPENDENT - By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent – November 2, 2006 - Britain has sleepwalked into becoming a surveillance society that increasingly intrudes into our private lives and impacts on everyday activities, the head of the information watchdog warns. New technology and "invisible" techniques are being used to gather a growing amount of information about UK citizens. The level of surveillance will grow even further in the next 10 years, which could result in a growing number of people being discriminated against and excluded from society, says a report by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas. Future developments could include microchip implants to identify and track individuals; facial recognition cameras fitted into lampposts; and unmanned surveillance aircraft, predict the report's authors. Mr Thomas,who heads an independent body that promotes public access to official information, calls for a debate on what level of surveillance is acceptable. He said: "Two years ago I warned that we were in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us. "As ever more information is collected, shared and used, it intrudes into our private space and leads to decisions which directly influence people's lives. "Mistakes can also easily be made with serious consequences - false matches and other cases of mistaken identity, inaccurate facts or inferences, suspicions taken as reality, and breaches of security. "I am keen to start a debate about where the lines should be drawn. What is acceptable and what is not?" He was speaking at the launch of a report funded by the Information Commissioner's Office, which analyses current and future levels of surveillance. The study - "A Surveillance Society"- concludes that routine monitoring is increasing in most areas of life. This includes the systematic tracking and recording of travel and use of public services; automated use of CCTV; analysis of buying habits and financial transactions; and the monitoring of telephone calls, e-mail and internet use in the workplace. The major surveillance techniques include: * Video cameras monitoring buildings, shopping streets and residential areas. Automatic systems can now recognise vehicle number plates and faces. * Software that analyses spending habits and the data sold to businesses. When we call service centres or apply for loans, insurance or mortgages, how quickly we are served and what we are offered can depend on what we spend, where we live and who we are. * Electronic tags to monitor offenders on probation. * DNA taken from those arrested by the police and placed on a database. * Information stored about foreign travel. * Smart cards in schools to determine where children are, what they eat or the books they borrow. * Taps on telephones, e-mails and internet use that can screened for key words and phrases by British and US intelligence services. The Government also still plans to introduce a new system of biometric ID cards, including "biometrics" - fingerprints and iris scans - linked to a database of personal information. The group of academics who compiled the report have also predicted future trends in surveillance in the next decade. The include: * Shoppers being scanned as they enter stores. This will be matched with loyalty card data to affect how they are handled, with big spenders given preferential treatment over others. * Cars linked to global satellite navigation systems which will provide the quickest route to avoid congestion and allow police to monitor speed and to track selected cars. * Employees subjected to biometric and psychometric tests plus lifestyle profiles with diagnostic health tests common place. Jobs are refused to those who are seen as a health risk. * Schools using card systems to allow parents to monitor what their children eat, their attendance, academic and drug test results * Facial recognition systems to monitor our movements using tiny cameras in lampposts and walls, and unmanned aircraft above. David Murakami Wood, a co-author of the report carried out by the Surveillance Studies Network said: "The level of surveillance in this country should shock people - it is infiltrating everything we do. The question is whether we want that or not. Most people do not understand how the information is used - for example details obtained from supermarket loyalty cards and credit cards are bought and sold to other companies to provide complex profiles of individual customers. "It is difficult to challenge these organisations, find out what data they have on you, or to change inaccurate information." Keeping up with the Joneses ­ day in the life of one family It is London in 2006. The Jones family are returning from their holiday in Florida. In the US they were photographed and fingerprinted on arrival. At Gatwick they have their hand luggage X-rayed and hand-searched, and they are all questioned. Passports ­ one member of the family has dual nationality with Pakistan ­ are checked. Details of the flight and all other travel information is recorded. The family are seen by airport security cameras and on the courtesy bus, which drops them at the car park, which is also covered by CCTV. As the family drives out of the airport, they switch on a sat-nav system, which guides them home, but also alerts them to speed and traffic-light cameras on the way ­ which record their progress. The son uses his mobile to call a friend ­ this is logged by the telephone company and could be used by police to locate where the phone was at the time. On the way back they stop at an out-of-town mall. CCTV records them in the car park and entering the supermarket. All details of their shopping is recorded when they pay using a loyalty card. This will be used to build up a customer "profile" and can be sold on to others. The money they spend on credit cards is also monitored to check for any unusual spending patterns, which could indicate the card has been stolen. The amounts spent and whether the family keep within agreed credit levels is also monitored and will be used by the bank or building society. Later they go through the congestion charging zone ­ which they pay for via the mobile ­ and all details, including photographs of them entering central London, are recorded. At home in central London they unload under the watch of a neighbour's private CCTV system. Waiting at home is a pile of junk mail. The names and addresses of the family have been obtained from a variety of databanks. The son goes to his room to read a letter telling him his criminal records check is clear and that he has a place on a voluntary scheme. He orders a takeaway ­ his address, card details and previous orders are already held by the pizza chain. Britain under surveillance * The national DNA database holds profiles on about 3.5 million people. * There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain: one for every 14 people. * More than half of the UK population posseses a loyalty card issued by the firm that operates the Nectar scheme. * Since 2002 there have been more than 8 million criminal records checks for jobs, of which around 400,000 contained convictions or police intelligence information. * There are plans to expand capacity to read vehicle number plates from 35 million reads per day to 50 million by 2008. * Some 216 catalogue companies in the UK are signed up to the Abacus data-sharing consortium, with information on 26 million individuals. * The database of fingerprints contains nearly 6 million sets of prints. * An individual can be captured on more than 300 cameras each day. * By the end of 2002 law enforcement bodies had made more than 400,000 requests for data from mobile network operators. * The number of motorists caught by speed cameras rose from 300,000 in 1996 to over 2 million in 2004. * In the year to April 2005 some 631 adults and 5,751 juveniles were electronically tagged. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1948209.ece Global Hawk to Fly 1st Mission Over U.S. ASSOCIATED PRESS - November 19, 2006 -- They've become a fixture in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan, a new breed of unmanned aircraft operated with remote controls by "pilots" sitting in virtual cockpits many miles away. But the Air Force's Global Hawk has never flown a mission over the United States. That is set to change Monday, when the first Global Hawk is scheduled to land at Beale Air Force Base in northern California. "This landmark flight has historic implications since it's the first time a Global Hawk has not only flown from Beale, but anywhere in the United States on an official Air Combat Command mission," base spokesman Capt. Michael Andrews said in a statement. Beale-based pilots are flying the drones daily on combat missions in the Middle East, Andrews said. The planes are operated by four-person crews from virtual cockpits the size of shipping containers. The planes are designed to fly at high altitudes for 40 hour-missions covering as much as 10,000 miles, mostly providing aerial surveillance. The aircraft, which can cost more than $80 million each, can reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and send back high-resolution imagery. The Hawks are among a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that also includes the missile-carrying Predators and five-pound Ravens that are small enough to be carried in soldiers' backpacks. Beale is to have seven Global Hawks by 2009. It is currently the only U.S. base with the drones. Eventually the Air Force's fleet will include 54 of the Global Hawks, but most will be based overseas. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/19/D8LGBFB80.html NYPD Installs "Sky Watch" In Harlem Neighborhood TIME WARNER NY1 NOW CABLE NEWS - November 22, 2006 -- The NYPD has installed a patrol tower in a Harlem neighborhood in an effort to cut crime in the high-risk neighborhood. The two-story booth tower, called Sky Watch, gives the officer sitting inside a better vantage point from which to monitor the area. Officers in the booth have access to a spotlight, sensors, and four cameras. The tower is portable and can be moved to the areas that need it most. Residents in Harlem say they like the idea, though some wonder if the appearance of Sky Watch has anything to do with the two new luxury condos built on a nearby corner. "There was crime around here before and they never had it. Now all these expensive buildings, it's true,” said one area resident. “But actually it's good though, because then I used to see a lot of crowd here and sometimes I was scared to pass here, but guess what, that doesn't happen anymore. It’s a kind of deterrence and it's good." Police say the Harlem tower was placed there to combat a rise in murders. Sky Watch has also been tested in Crown Heights in Brooklyn where it reduced crime. Police are hoping to have three more towers soon. http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=64500 Phoenix Airport to Test X-Ray Screening ASSOCIATED PRESS - December 1, 2006 -- PHOENIX -- Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns. The Transportation Security Administration said it has found a way to refine the machine's images so that the normally graphic pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still being effective in detecting bombs and other threats. The agency is expected to provide more information about the technology later this month but said one machine will be up and running at Sky Harbor's Terminal 4 by Christmas. The security agency's Web site indicates that the technology will be used initially as a secondary screening measure, meaning that only those passengers who first fail the standard screening process will be directed to the X-ray area. ... http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061201/D8LO1JLO2.html ID card to offer digital wallet THE AUSTRALIAN - By Ben Woodhead - November 8, 2006 -- AUSTRALIANS will have the option of storing any personal information they want on the federal Government's proposed human services smartcard under plans detailed by Human Services Minister Joe Hockey today. Mr Hockey said that up to one-third of the storage space on the access card would be available to card holders, who could use it to store information such as medical requirements or shopping lists. "We are creating a customer controlled area in the chip where individuals can store the information they want. In simple terms it makes the access card similar to a mini-iPod, where you can download minimum amounts of information onto the microchip and carry it around in your wallet or purse," Mr Hockey said. "We're using two-thirds of the capacity on the chip. The other one-third is in the hands of the individual." Mr Hockey said in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra that the head of the federal Government's Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, Professor Allan Fels would accept submissions from the public concerning the proposal over the next month. He said that interest in using the card for the provision of services, in addition to welfare transactions, was already high and that the private sector could play a role in storing information that Australians may choose to link to their access card. "This is not the sort of information the government wants to hold," he said in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra. However, Mr Hockey stressed that the organisations such as banks and police forces would not have powers to demand the card as a form of identification. People could, however, use the card to identify themselves, if they chose. "Our proposed legislation will prevent the card being required by a bank or other organisation as the only allowable form of identification. People may, however, choose to use the access card to assist in proof of identity at those locations," said Mr Hockey. The federal Government plans to commence the roll out of more than 16.7 million smartcard human services access cards from early 2008. Mr Hockey said the federal Government would issue around 32,000 cards, between 2008 and 2010. Hardware, software and services for the roll-out will be procured in four tranches. Industry will be briefed on the procurement process by the end of the year. "We will seek tenders to enable us to establish a panel of card suppliers. One of these suppliers will also provide card management software for the more than 16.7 million cards," Mr Hockey said. "A systems integrator will be sought to provide and install hardware and proven software that delivers the card customer system and the card operation system. "The tender process for the systems integrator is also likely to include the supply of several thousand digital cameras, printers and scanners and potentially more than 500 booths for card registration." Other tranches include a request for tender (RFT) for 15,000 smartcard terminals for Commonwealth agencies. A list of accredited transaction services providers will also be established. Mr Hockey said the government would seek off-the-shelf technology for the smartcard infrastructure. Potential services providers flying their flags at the National Press Club included IBM, Telstra and the National Australia Bank. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20722319%5E15306,00.html Senators call for debate on data-mining UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL - November 16, 2006 - WASHINGTON -- Two senators have written to the director of national intelligence asking for assurances and more information about a controversial new data-mining project. "We believe there needs to be a public discussion before the implementation of any government data mining program that would rely on domestic commercial data and other information about Americans," wrote Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in the letter, dated Wednesday. Their letter was prompted by revelations last month about a new computer system called Tangram, capable of data-mining huge amounts of information about everyday events to discern patterns that look like terrorist planning. The technology is reminiscent of the axed Total Information Awareness program. The program is described in some detail in a procurement document posted on the Web by the U.S. Air Force, and officials have said it is being tested without using any data about Americans. The document says the system will build on previous work by U.S. intelligence agencies "developing systems, tools and algorithms to detect international terrorist activities and planned events" which have developed "methods of ... efficiently searching large data stores for evidence of known (terrorist) behaviors." But the senators said that the techniques envisaged had yet to be shown to be effective. "Pattern analysis runs the risk of generating a large number of false positives, meaning that innocent Americans could be come the subject of investigation," they wrote.http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061115-052457-9904r Identity Thief Is Often Found in Family Photo NEW YORK TIMES - By John Leland - November 13, 2006 -- In the five years since his divorce, Eric Wagenhauser had moved on with his life. He had remarried and was sharing custody of the three children from his first marriage. Then, last year, Mr. Wagenhauser discovered a new wrinkle on American divorce: his former wife had used the children’s Social Security numbers to apply for nine credit cards in their names. She obtained two. Mr. Wagenhauser’s ordeal over the next year, which involved police departments in two Texas counties, banks, credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration, is familiar to many identity theft victims — the crime often begins at home. Though most victims never learn who stole their identities, half of those who do say the thief was a family member, a friend, a neighbor or an in-home employee, according to surveys by the Federal Trade Commission and Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research firm. The surveys estimate that 9 million to 10 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Mr. Wagenhauser’s former wife, Ivy Ash, began applying for credit cards in the children’s names soon after the divorce. She ran up about $200 in unpaid bills, he said, which grew to about $1,000 with late fees and interest penalties. She pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent use of a credit card this year and is now in a Texas prison.... Identity theft involving family members takes many forms, said Betsy Broder, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission’s division of privacy and identity protection. A child steals a parent’s identity to buy drugs, one sibling steals another’s identity to try to avoid arrest or debt. Identity theft is often difficult to solve and prosecute, and, in the case of families, victims may be reluctant to report relatives to the police. The fraud went on for five years before Mr. Wagenhauser became aware of what was happening. By then, the mother’s actions had created credit histories for two of the under-age children, which Mr. Wagenhauser worries will cause them future trouble. “When my kids turn 18 and go to college, they’re not going to be able to buy a car or get a student loan because they’ve got bad credit,” Mr. Wagenhauser said. “No one’s going to rent them an apartment. They’re going to be turned down for jobs because there’s so many companies that run credit histories.” “They’re kids,” he added. “They don’t have any idea what’s going on. All the sudden they’re adults, and they’re left holding the baggage.” Suspicious parents can look out for clues that their children’s identities have been compromised, said Jay Foley, a founder and director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that helps victims. “Let’s say Mom and Dad are divorced, and Junior goes to stay with dad,” Mr. Foley said. “When he calls Mom, she sees the kid’s name on the caller ID instead of Dad’s. If that was set up in the kid’s name, what else was set up?” If young children start to receive applications for credit cards in the mail, it is a sign that someone with access to their Social Security numbers has applied for credit in their names, Mr. Foley said.... Identity theft by a family member or someone close to the family is probably underreported and raises thorny questions about trust, responsibility and loyalty, Ms. Broder said. “We see parents taking advantage of their children, and children taking advantage of their older parents,” she said. “We can tell consumers and businesses to be careful about how they safeguard their personal information, but it’s hard to tell people to safeguard their information from the people that they love.” For Brenda Bare, of Snellville, Ga., the identity thief was a trusted friend whom Ms. Bare, 58, had known for 22 years. The friend, a woman, had been living in Ms. Bare’s house. When Ms. Bare returned home in August after being away for a month to care for her mother, she discovered that 10 checks and a recently expired driver’s license were missing. A credit card offer in her name was in the woman’s bedroom with the application form torn off. “I said, ‘You have to leave here tonight,’ ” Ms. Bare recalled. For the next two weeks, Ms. Bare tried to repair the damage. She found helpful a checklist for identity theft victims; versions are available from the Federal Trade Commission and the Identity Theft Resource Center. Ms. Bare discovered that four checks had been cashed, for about $400 in all, and that an application had been made for a credit card, though it had not been approved. Because the crime was committed in her home by someone she trusted, Ms. Bare said she felt vulnerable. “The first two weeks I slept with the front and back porch lights on, and if I would hear a noise, I was awake,” she said. “I have a dog, but my dog knows her. But I’m feeling better about it and going on with my life.” Ms. Bare’s checks had been cashed in another county. She finally tracked down the stores and banks where the checks were cashed, and local police officers issued arrest warrants. But even after her bank cleared her of responsibility for the forged checks, she said, she was still not off the hook. “After the bank reimbursed my money, they went back to the merchant and took the money back from the merchant because the check was no good,” she said. “So the store thinks I wrote a bad check, so they come after me. I had to go prove I didn’t do this. This was a nightmare. My bank was supposed to close my checking account, but when I went back in there it was still open.” Although she canceled her credit cards and registered a fraud alert with credit bureaus, she said she was concerned that there was little preventing the thief from using her information again or selling it to someone else. “There’s still four or five checks that were never retrieved,” Ms. Bare said. “My license was never retrieved. She can sell all this information. The D.A. just said, ‘Oh, she won’t do that again.’ ” Identity theft by family members can put special pressure on the victims when there is a possibility of children, parents or former spouses going to jail or prison. Many victims pay the debts and choose not to involve the police or the courts, said Mari J. Frank, a lawyer who works with people whose identities have been stolen. “It’s such a breach of trust,” Ms. Frank said. “When someone you don’t know steals your identity, it’s very impersonal. They just want money. But when it’s a family member, it’s far more emotionally destructive.” For a Michigan couple, the problem began in August with a notice that a bank had received a credit card application in their name. The couple declined to be identified because they are hoping to resolve the matter privately. The couple immediately suspected their son, who had tried the same thing four years earlier. This time they found that he had obtained two credit cards, run up debts of more than $22,000 and applied for new cards or higher credit limits. “The explanation was that we never helped him when he wanted the money,” the father said. After much soul searching, the parents said, they did not want to see their son put in jail. They negotiated a plan for him to assume the debt on one card and resigned themselves to paying a debt of about $5,000 on the second card rather than reporting the crime to the police. “We’d make an arrangement for him to pay us, but I’m sure he wouldn’t,” the mother said. “He has a unique way of getting around anything. It doesn’t send a very good message, but putting him in jail is not going to help either. There aren’t too many good options out there. If he goes to jail, he’s not going to learn anything except to wisen him up to be street smart. What choices do we have? All our life from now on we have to watch our credit.” She blamed herself for the way her son had turned out. “I don’t know what went wrong, but in the end we have to say it’s our fault, and that is terrible to live with,” she said. “I can’t think of anything worse for a parent.” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/us/13identity.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all Malaysia mulls Internet laws against bloggers AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - December 3, 2006 -- Malaysia may introduce tough Internet laws to control bloggers and prevent them from spreading "disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies" on their websites, a report has said. Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha said moves such as registering bloggers would be difficult, but accused some writers of posting controversial articles to attract readers. "We are talking about creating cyber laws to control those who misuse the Internet," Kong was quoted as saying in the Star newspaper. "We need to have stricter cyber laws to prevent these bloggers from disseminating disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies," he said. Kong cited the posting of a photo on an opposition politician's website last month of a Muslim male and Muslim female lawmaker, reportedly showing the man in a bathrobe with the woman lying on his chest, in what appeared to be a hotel room. The photo sparked a political scandal, since the two were not married, with accusations the pair had committed the Muslim sin of khalwat, or close proximity, when two unmarried people of the opposite sex are alone in each other's company. "We want our bloggers to be responsible, to keep within the rules and not put up seditious articles that can create disharmony and chaos," said Kong. Malaysian news websites and blogs are well known for providing alternate views to mainstream news coverage. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/03/061203071601.m105hesl.html California court: websites not liable for libel in third-party postings ASSOCIATED PRESS/CANADIAN PRESS - November 20, 2006 -- SAN JOSE, Calif. - Websites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday. The ruling in favour of free online expression was a victory for a San Diego woman who was sued by two doctors for posting an allegedly libelous e-mail on two websites. Some of the Internet's biggest names, including Amazon.com, America Online Inc., EBay Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., took the defendant's side out of concern a ruling against her would expose them to liability. In reversing an appellate court's decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity from defamation lawsuits for people who publish information on the Internet that was gathered from another source. "The prospect of blanket immunity for those who intentionally redistribute defamatory statements on the Internet has disturbing implications," Associate Justice Carol Corrigan wrote in the majority opinion. "Nevertheless ... statutory immunity serves to protect online freedom of expression and to encourage self-regulation, as Congress intended." Unless the U.S. Congress revises the existing law, people who claim they were defamed in an Internet posting can only seek damages from the original source of the statement, the court ruled. http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_z112019A.xml.html Reporters Without Borders lists 13 "enemies of the Internet" AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - November 6, 2006 -- The campaigning group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday listed 13 countries it labelled as "enemies of the Internet" ahead of a 24 hour campaign in favour of free access to the web. The 13 countries are: Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. Three countries were removed from RSF's 2005 list -- Libya, the Maldives and Nepal. However the inclusion of Egypt was because "President Hosni Mubarak is displaying an authoritarianism towards the Internet that is particularly worrying," RSF said -- noting the recent imprisonment of three pro-democracy bloggers. From Tuesday at 10H00 GMT RSF is asking the public to register on its Internet site in "defense of on-line free expression and the fate of bloggers in repressive countries." http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/06/061106193551.sp4mpb0o.html Police Decry Web Site on Informants ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Matt Apuzzo - November 30, 2006 -- WASHINGTON -- Police and prosecutors are worried that a Web site claiming to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents will cripple investigations and hang targets on witnesses. The Web site, WhosaRat.com, first caught the attention of authorities after a Massachusetts man put it online and named a few dozen people as turncoats in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a clearinghouse for mug shots, court papers and rumors. Federal prosecutors say the site was set up to encourage violence, and federal judges around the country were recently warned that witnesses in their courtrooms may be profiled online. "My concern is making sure cooperators are adequately protected from retaliation," said Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, who alerted other judges in Washington's federal courthouse. He said he learned about the site from a federal judge in Maine. The Web site is the latest unabashedly public effort to identify witnesses or discourage helping police. "Stop Snitching" T-shirts have been sold in cities around the country and popular hip-hop lyrics disparage or threaten people who help police.... The site offers biographical information about people whom users identify as witnesses or undercover agents. Users can post court documents, comments and pictures. Some of those listed are well known, such as former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, who served 10 months in prison before testifying in a public corruption case. But many never made headlines and were identified as having helped investigators in drug cases. ... http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061201/D8LNOAMG0.html Google to beat TV in race for ad revenues FINACIAL TIMES of LONDON - By Carlos Grande and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London and Richard Waters in San Francisco – November 1, 2006 -- Google is poised to overtake Britain’s main TV channels in the race for advertising revenue, underlining the internet’s challenge to traditional media.The internet search company’s advertising revenue in the UK is expected this year to surpass Channel 4’s anticipated 2006 take of £800m. Within 18 months, it is forecast to overtake ITV1, Britain’s leading commercial TV channel and the country’s biggest single recipient of advertising revenue, according to Mindshare and Initiative, two top media buying groups.Carat, another media buyer, believes the milestone could be passed as early as next year….Media forecasters called Google’s rise “astonishing”. They stressed that their predictions depended on it maintaining its historic rapid growth in a more competitive UK internet market….Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel 4…. described the changes in advertising spend as a “structural change”. “People need to wake up and realise that this is not just a cyclical issue.”Google’s rapid rise contrasts markedly with the struggles of ITV1, which is expected to decline in revenues by 12 per cent this year because of a fall in audience numbers that has encouraged businesses to spend less on advertising on the channel.A Google spokesman said the company’s growth was not a “zero sum game” which had to come at the expense of television.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/91d89384-6978-11db-952e-0000779e2340.html I Feel Lucky: Search Engine + Hypocrite = Google Google no-show for Veterans Day Search engine celebrates Persian New Year, but skips tribute to U.S. soldiers 8 years running WORLDNETDAILY - November 11, 2006 -- WASHINGTON – The dominant search engine in the world marks special occasions including Halloween, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday, the Persian New Year, the birthday of Percival Lowell, the Lunar New Year, the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Louis Braille's birthday – all celebrated already this year with special graphics and colors. But for the 8th year in a row, Google has made no effort to commemorate any holiday honoring U.S. veterans or war dead – no tributes to Veterans Day or Memorial Day. Google's holiday signature is a dressed-up corporate logo for major holidays and lesser-known occasions alike. Besides overlooking Veterans Day and Memorial Day since the company's inception in 1999, it has also ignored Christmas and Easter. Google has been criticized for its one-sided political contributions and content policies: Rejecting an ad for a book critical of Bill and Hillary Clinton while continuing to accept anti-Bush themesRejecting ads critical of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., while continuing to run attack ads against besieged House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.Allowing the communist Chinese government to have the search engine block "objectionable" search terms such as "democracy." In addition, the company came under fire for an editorial decision giving preferential placement to large, elite media outlets such as CNN and the BBC over independent news sources, such as WND, even if they are more recent, pertinent and exhaustive in their coverage. As WND reported, 98 percent of all political donations by Google employees went to support Democrats, and as a matter of fact, Al Gore is now a senior adviser to Google. Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave the maximum legal limit of donations to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry and to primary candidate Howard Dean. Schmidt also contributed the maximum amount to Sen. Clinton. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52914 U.S. fears inside job at airports British bombers had Muslim plant at Heathrow to test security WORLDNETDAILY - October 21, 2006 -- U.S. authorities are stepping up security checks on airport personnel after learning that one of the suspects in the transatlantic sky terror plot helped terrorists case security at London's Heathrow airport as an airport employee. Asmin Amin Tariq, a Muslim convert of Asian descent, was a security guard at Heathrow, where the explosives allegedly were to have been carried onto planes bound for the U.S. After Tariq's arrest, his employer, Jet Airways, suspended him. Jet Airways is the leading private airline in India. He previously worked for G4S, earlier called Securicor, which provided services to British Airways, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways. Investigators say 23-year-old Tariq, who studied biochemistry, allegedly provided information about airport security procedures to bombers in the foiled plot. It's not clear if he also planned to hand off explosives materials to them in the sterile area of the airport, or perhaps plant them on board targeted aircraft. Tariq holds a British passport, investigators say. "This is precisely why you don't want so many Muslims working in airports," says former FAA special agent Steve Elson, who tested airport security as a member of the elite Red Team. For the first time, the Transportation Security Administration is now subjecting U.S. airport workers – including ramp workers, baggage handlers, gate agents, cleaning crews and retail workers – to random security searches before they enter restricted and secure areas in the airports. Until now, only two of the nations 428 commercial airports screened ramp workers for weapons and bombs, according to Charles G. Slepian, a former TWA security analyst who now heads the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center in New York. With the exception of ramp workers at the major Miami and Denver airports, "they don't go through any screening process," Slepian said. The vast majority of ramp workers – along with their lunch pails and backpacks – have not been searched, he stresses. Airlines trust they aren't a threat because they've "passed" a 10-year criminal background check, he says. Trouble is, ramp workers more often than not are issued a Security Identification Display Area pass long before their fingerprints are processed, Slepian points out. That SIDA badge, along with door security access cards or pass codes, allow them to bypass the passenger screening process at the front of the terminal and go through locked doors in the back of the terminal – gaining largely unsupervised access to baggage, cargo and planes. The background checks "can take months and months, so they're walking around with a card" in the meantime, he said. "That's why so many of these airport employees are arrested so long after the fact, and are continuing to be arrested in sweeps by the Justice Department. When the information finally does come back, they see they've got somebody out there (on the ramp) that has a felony and lied on his application, or has a warrant out, or is in the country illegally." Slepian says ramp workers actually warrant more security screening than passengers. And he should know, having coordinated numerous undercover stings on suspected criminals on the TWA ramp at JFK International Airport in New York. "Take a group of ramp workers at random, and take a group of passengers at random, and I bet you're going to find there's more reason to search those workers after you look into their backgrounds than you would if you checked the passengers' backgrounds," he said. "Yet when we talk about searching passengers, we say no exceptions – you can be 90 years old and we are going to check you thoroughly," he added. "When we talk about employees at the airport, however, we call them the 'trusted worker program.' " What's more, many airport workers are foreign nationals from the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. Some even work for security firms that contract with TSA to check tickets and IDs of passengers before they enter official TSA security screening checkpoints. "There is no requirement that you be a U.S. citizen to work in an airport, unless you are a federal screener," Slepian said. Authorities recently cracked down on a number of illegal Arab and African nationals working at Dulles International Airport in Washington, where the plane that crashed into the Pentagon departed. Some had ties to terrorism cases. Before 9/11, more than 80 percent of the checkpoint screeners at Dulles airport were foreign nationals mostly from the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. Many working even the TSA security checkpoints at San Francisco International Airport – even now, under new federal rules – are not U.S. citizens, Slepian contends. Fast-food and other retail workers also are not screened with passengers before entering the sterile area of airports, according to Slepian. That badge you see Burger King and other airport food-court workers wearing is the same SIDA badge worn by ramp workers. And any airport worker with a SIDA badge gets to bypass screening, he says. Though food-service and shop workers enter the airport through security checkpoints at the front of the terminal, they normally avoid screening. Same goes for the belongings they bring with them to work. "The TSA security people just wave them through. They don't go through the actual check," Slepian said. "You won't see them standing in line with you when you're in an airport." Yet they could easily hand off explosives or weapons to passengers once they enter the sterile area. Additionally, food-service and shop workers in airports are not subject to the same 10-year FBI criminal background check as ramp workers. "Food chains are supposed to do a background check that goes back only five years, which is really meaningless," Slepian said. "But there's no 10-year FBI background check." Airline contractors and vendors, including food caterers, also avoid the 10-year FBI check, he notes. What's more, airline cleaning crews are not screened for weapons and bombs like passengers. TSA has asked only that airlines make sure a supervisor does a final walk-through of the plane after crews leave, checking for planted weapons or bombs, Slepian says, adding he doubts any cleaning vendors would know how to identify C-4 plastic explosives if they found them. He says flight attendants also are not trained to sweep the planes for such items and focus instead on restocking pillows and blankets and safety instructions in the cabin. Slepian points out that cleaning crews service planes between flights, not just late at night. And he says there are almost too many places to hide a bomb in the cabin alone to check for them after each cleaning. His solution: Screen all workers and their supplies before they can get near the airplane. Under existing security rules, "they can put a bomb on board the airplane in a seat back, or in the lavatory in the overhead just by popping the tile and putting it in the ceiling, or in any of the storage areas in the airplane, preferably somewhere near the wing or the fuel tanks, and blow up the airplane," he warned. Another ideal place: the empty pouch underneath your seat, where your life vest is supposed to be stored, but usually isn't. Many of the vests have been taken by workers for their kids to use at pools, he said. Al-Qaida terrorist Ramzi Yousef hid a bomb this way aboard a Philippines Airlines flight, killing an unlucky Japanese passenger who sat above it. Occasionally, bomb-sniffing dogs are brought on board planes to search for bombs in the cabin. But such searches are usually done only on high-risk international flights to the Middle East. Food caterers also have unfettered access to planes, allowing yet another means for bombs to get on your flight, Slepian says. "There's still plenty of food that's being offered on airplanes, particularly on international flights," he said. "And now, some carriers are selling food on shorter flights." He says terrorists – who have brought explosives on board more than 100 flights around the world since the 1950s (including the shoe bomb of al-Qaida agent Richard Reid) – have devised what's called the "hamburger bomb," which is Semtex or C-4 in the shape of a burger or chicken patty. "They put it on meals, and at 30,000 feet it blows up the airplane," he said. Short of food, they can sneak explosives on board with the beverage supply, which also is catered. The largest airline food-and-beverage caterer is LSG Sky Chefs, which employs numerous immigrants from the Middle East and in the recent past has employed some suspected al-Qaida terrorists. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52525 Florida Man Develops GPS Shoes WKMG TV-6 CENTRAL FLORIDA / ORLANDO - January 2, 2007 -- MIAMI -- Global Positioning System technology is turning up in more and more devices, like watches and cellphones. But a Miami company has used the technology to develop shoes that can be located anywhere in the world. The shoes' developer Sayo Isaac Daniel said people can forget to carry their phones, but they can't leave the house without their shoes. The design allows wearers to press a hidden button to send a distress signal. The Quantum Satellite Technology shoes are planned to hit stores in March at a price of $325 to $350. … http://www.local6.com/news/10650168/detail.html Homeowners up in arms: U.S. military frequency jams hundreds of garage doors ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Robert Weller - December 3, 2006 -- DENVER -- What do remote-control garage door openers have to do with national security? A lot, it seems. A secretive U.S. air force facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., tested a radio frequency this past week that it would use to communicate with first responders in the event of a homeland security threat. But the frequency also controls an estimated 50 million garage door openers, and hundreds of residents in the surrounding area found their garage doors had suddenly stopped working. "It would have been nice not to have to get out of the car and open the door manually," said Dewey Rinehard, pointing out that the outage happened during the first cold snap of the year when temperatures fell well below freezing. Capt. Tracy Giles of the 21st Space Wing said air force officials were trying to figure out how to resolve the problem of their signal overpowering garage door remotes. "They (military officials) have turned it off to be good neighbours," he said. The signals were coming from Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, home to the North American Aerospace Defence Command, a joint U.S. and Canadian operation set up during the Cold War to monitor Soviet missile and bomber threats. ... http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_K120202AU.xml.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Prince of the power of the air - show

Alert Focus: As in the days of Noah / Signs in the heavens

Genesis 6:4

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

UFO over O'Hare Airport? In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?

Note: The US Government and other governments clearly know something is going on and their denials are only part of planned and implemented official government dis-information campaigns used in the name of national saftey and security. All one needs to do is a little research to find out that much of what is laughed off and denied by the three-legged stool of government, media and academia is really some of their most extreme concerns and priorities. BE/\LERT!

CHICAGO TRIBUNE - By Jon Hilkevitch - January 1, 2007 -- It sounds like a tired joke--but a group of airline employees insist they are in earnest, and they are upset that neither their bosses nor the government will take them seriously. A flying saucerlike object hovered low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies, said some United Airlines employees who observed the phenomenon. Was it an alien spaceship? A weather balloon lost in the airspace over the world's second-busiest airport? A top-secret military craft? Or simply a reflection from lights that played a trick on the eyes? Officials at United professed no knowledge of the Nov. 7 event--which was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers--when the Tribune started asking questions recently. But the Federal Aviation Administration said its air traffic control tower at O'Hare did receive a call from a United supervisor asking if controllers had spotted a mysterious elliptical-shaped craft sitting motionless over Concourse C of the United terminal. No controllers saw the object, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said. The FAA is not conducting a further investigation, Cory said. The theory is the sighting was caused by a "weather phenomenon," she said. Some of the witnesses, interviewed by the Tribune, said they are upset that neither the government nor the airline is probing the incident…. Whatever the object was, it could have interfered with O'Hare's radar and other equipment, and even created a collision risk, they said. The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (the term that extraterrestrial-watchers nowadays prefer over Unidentified Flying Object) was first seen by a United ramp worker who was directing back a United plane at Gate C17, according to an account the worker provided to the National UFO Reporting Center. The sighting occurred during daylight, about 4:30 p.m., just before sunset. All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights. Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds. Witnesses shaken by sighting "I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport," said a United mechanic who was in the cockpit of a Boeing 777 that he was taxiing to a maintenance hangar when he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17. "But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft," the mechanic said. One United employee appeared emotionally shaken by the sighting and "experienced some religious issues" over it, one co-worker said. A United manager said he ran outside his office in Concourse B after hearing the report about the sighting on an internal airline radio frequency. "I stood outside in the gate area not knowing what to think, just trying to figure out what it was," he said. "I knew no one would make a false call like that. But if somebody was bouncing a weather balloon or something else over O'Hare, we had to stop it because it was in very close proximity to our flight operations." Some joke, others research The databases of various UFO-watching groups are full of accounts filed by pilots about sightings of unknown aircraft and anomalies that affected navigational equipment onboard planes. Whether any of the UFO incidents are real or merely the result of individual perceptions, some experts say the events pose a potential safety risk to pilots and their passengers. "There have been documented cases where safety appears to have been implicated, and more and more we are coming to the point of view that we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon," said Richard Haines, science director at the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, a private agency. "We must be proactive before an aircraft goes down," said Haines, a former chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA's Ames Research Center. Haines is investigating the O'Hare incident. He said he has determined that no weather balloons were launched in the vicinity of O'Hare on Nov. 7. "It's absurd that the military would be conducting aerial test flights" near the airport, Haines said. All the witnesses to the O'Hare event, who included at least several pilots, said they are certain based on the disc's appearance and flight characteristics that it was not an airplane, helicopter, weather balloon or any other craft known to man. United denies UFO report They're not sure what was hanging out for several minutes in the restricted airspace, but they are upset that no one in power has taken the matter seriously. A United spokeswoman said there is no record of the UFO report. She said United officials do not recall discussion of any such incident. "There's nothing in the duty manager log, which is used to report unusual incidents," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "I checked around. There's no record of anything." The pilots of the United plane being directed back from Gate C17 also were notified by United personnel of the sighting, and one of the pilots reportedly opened a windscreen in the cockpit to get a better view of the object estimated to be hovering 1,500 feet above the ground. The object was seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the solid overcast skies, which the FAA reported had 1,900-foot cloud ceilings at the time. "It was like somebody punched a hole in the sky," said one United employee. Witnesses said they had a hard time visually tracking the object as it streaked through the dense clouds. It left behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer, the witnesses said, adding that the hole disappeared within a few minutes. The United employees interviewed by the Tribune spoke on condition of anonymity. Some said they were interviewed by United officials and instructed to write reports and draw pictures of what they observed, and that they were advised by United officials to refrain from speaking about what they saw. Federal agency backtracks Like United, the FAA originally told the Tribune that it had no information on the alleged UFO sighting. But the federal agency quickly reversed its position after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request. An internal FAA review of air-traffic communications tapes, a step toward complying with the Tribune request, turned up the call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower, Cory said. … ---------- See this link for full article and Video

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/columnists/chi-0701010141jan01,1,7803436.column?page=2&coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Russian Rocket Comes Down Over Wyoming ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 4, 2007 -- PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- A spent Russian booster rocket re-entered the atmosphere Thursday over Colorado and Wyoming, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flaming objects in the sky at the time the rocket was re-entering, NORAD spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly said…. Stone said he could tell it was fairly large object, but it was too high to make out exactly what it was. Kelly said the agency was unable to confirm a report that a piece of the rocket may have hit the ground near Riverton, Wyo., at about 6 a.m. MST. No damage was reported, and any debris that may have hit the ground was not believed to be hazardous, NORAD said. NORAD identified the rocket as an SL-4 that had been used to launch a French space telescope in December, and Kelly said U.S. spacewatchers knew the rocket was coming down. … http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/04/D8MEOIBO0.html See Video Here, And Here

Mysterious Object Crashes Through Roof ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Chris Newmarker - FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Authorities were trying to identify a mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house in eastern New Jersey. Nobody was injured when the golf-ball sized object, weighing nearly as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft. The rough-surfaced object, with a metallic glint, was displayed Wednesday by police. "There's some great interest in what we have here," said Lt. Robert Brightman. "It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in my career." He said he hoped to have the object identified within 72 hours, but declined to name the other agencies whose help he has enlisted. Approximately 20 to 50 rock-like objects fall every day over the entire planet, said Carlton Pryor, a professor of astronomy at Rutgers University. "It's not all that uncommon to have rocks rain down from heaven," said Pryor, who had not seen the object that struck the Monmouth County home. "These are usually rocky or a mixture of rock and metal." Pryor said laboratory tests would have to be conducted to determine if the object was a meteorite…. The object was heavier than a usual metal object of its size, said Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was detected…. The Federal Aviation Administration, which sent investigators to the town, did not know where the object came from, said spokeswoman Arlene Murray. … http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070104/D8MECKQG1.html

Bright green light across sky surprises many in Singapore CHANNEL NEWSASIA - By Valarie Tan - January 7, 2007 -- SINGAPORE -- A bright light across the sky took many Singaporeans by surprise on Sunday evening. Callers to our hotline said that at about 7.40pm, they saw a bright green light across the evening sky. Some described it as a shooting star; others said it was like a satellite re-entering the earth's atmosphere. They also said it was not very high up in the sky and it had streaked over brightly from east to west…. Viewers called us from all over Singapore – Serangoon North, Sembawang, Woodlands, Selegie Road, Bedok, Bukit Panjang and Marina South. … http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/251141/1/.html

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Israeli general suggests to use Azerbaijan's airbases in strike against Iran

Alert Focus: A Burdensome Stone / A Cup of Trembling / The prince of the kingdom of Persia / The Iron and the Clay Ezekiel 5:5 "Thus says the Lord GOD, `This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. TODAY.az - By Michael Carmichael, Global Research - January 2, 2007 -- AZERBAIJAN -- In a stark statement published on Saturday Brigadier General Oded Tira observed, "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure." Because of the dramatic loss of political power of the Bush-Cheney administration, General Tira urges the Israel Lobby to, "turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran." In another move designed to strengthen Bush politically, General Tira urges the Israel Lobby to exert its influence on European countries so that, "Bush will not be isolated in the international arena again." As if all of that Israel-lobbying in America and Europe were not enough, General Tira proposes an even more aggressive political tactic, "We must clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the US to strike Iran. For our part, we must prepare an independent military strike by coordinating flights in Iraqi airspace with the US. We should also coordinate with Azerbaijan the use of airbases in its territory and also enlist the support of the Azeri minority in Iran. In addition, we must immediately start preparing for an Iranian response to an attack." Based on the urgency of General Tira's extraordinary pleas, it is immediately apparent that he has been shocked by the turn of political events inside America. By this time, he has learned from official US sources that the long-anticipated attack against Iran has been shelved because of tectonic shifts in American politics. Apparently, General Tira did not realize that President Bush has become the most deeply unpopular president in American history and that it was his subservience to the dictates of the Israel Lobby and its demands for wars against Iraq and Iran that led him into the political prison where he now finds himself isolated and impotent. Neither does General Tira realize that the Republican Party is no longer unified in its support of President Bush's deeply unpopular war in Iraq or his plans for expanding the war by a sustained bombing campaign against Iran. Since General Tira did not publish any remarks about the Iraq Study Group headed by former US Secretary of State, James Baker, he may be oblivious to the political facts now in place in 2007 America. Instead of the bipartisan commitment to broaden Bush's unpopular war as General Tira proposes, there is now a broadening bipartisan movement to reign in the US losses in Iraq. No major American politician has voiced any enthusiasm for broadening Bush's war into Iran as General Tira beseeches the US to do. General Tira's outburst suggests that the official channels for news and the analysis of public affairs in Israel are not working as efficiently as they should in the 21st century. Perhaps, someone should provide the General with a subscription to Ha'aretz and the International Herald Tribune for starters. http://www.today.az/news/politics/34565.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go

'Mahdi' by springtime and Nuke question not serious?

Be Alert! News Briefs for January 9, 2007 Alert Focus: A Burdensome Stone / A Cup of Trembling / The prince of the kingdom of Persia Zechariah 1:14-16 So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. "But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster." `Therefore thus says the LORD, "I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it," declares the LORD of hosts, "and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem."' Iran website heralding 'Mahdi' by springtime State media: Shiite messiah to kill archenemy in Jerusalem, may arrive during next equinox WORLDNETDAILY - December 31, 2006 -- An official state media website in Iran has posted a message heralding the coming of the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, noting he could arrive with Jesus by the spring equinox. "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca," the message says. The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program called "The World toward Illumination," that the Mahdi will form an army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem. The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa. Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ... After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina. ... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast ... finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists. The Iranian series also claims the Mahdi will reappear on Earth with Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' ... Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi." As WND reported this month, in a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression." "I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com "My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy?" asked the Iranian leader. "If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?" Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September. He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven. According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention. The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end." Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing. "On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!" Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah. He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance." According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world. Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West. All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments. "People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'" http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53577 Question about Iranian nuke plan not 'serious' WORLDNETDAILY - January 9, 2007 -- A spokesman for President Bush has concluded that a question about a London Times report on Israel's plans to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities is not serious because it is based on "sources." At a press briefing, WND's correspondent at the White House, Les Kinsolving, asked spokesman Tony Snow about the Times report. "The London Times reports in detail how Israel is planning to bomb Iranian nuclear arms facilities, and I wondered...," Kinsolving asked. "Yes, where did they get that detail? What sources did it mention?" Snow replied. "They just said 'sources.' And I just wondered if the White House believes this is accurate, and if so, we will support our allies…?" "I just – come on, give me a serious questions," Snow said. That newspaper report said Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. The report said "several Israeli military sources" provided the information that the attack would be made with two air force squadrons whose pilots have been trained for the mission. It would be the first attack with nuclear weapons since the U.S. dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. "As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished," one of the sources told the newspaper. The Israeli government has warned many times over years it won't allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, where the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared "Israel must be wiped off the map." Kinsolving also asked about the president's opinion of a call by a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military. "John Shalikashvili – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Clinton, has called for our armed forces to accept self-announced homosexuals and lesbians, and I just want to know, does the Commander-in-Chief agree with this or not." "The Commander-in-Chief's position is clear on it," Snow said. As WND has reported, Shalikashvili says he believes the nation has evolved to the point where openly practicing homosexuals in the military would be accepted. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53686 Iran: Hitler was a Jew Advisor to President Ahmadinejad claims Nazi leader was Jew who conspired with USSR and Britain to establish Jewish state [Note: The Iranian leadership needs a serious lesson in history. Not only would they find that their beliefs regarding the Holocaust are completely bogus, but that the current name of their nation (formerly Persia) derives from the German “Aryan” - as in Aryan Nation - and that Hitler actually had much to do with the forming of modern day Iran, not Israel.] YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (YnetNews) – By Dudi Goldman - January 2, 2007 -- Just when you thought the Iranian leadership could stoop no further: MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) reported that a top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in an interview with Iranian website Baztab that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's parents were both Jewish and that Hitler himself was one of the founders of the State of Israel. In the interview, translated by MEMRI, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, a chief aide to Ahmadinejad, told Baztab that Hitler's paternal grandmother was a Jewish prostitute and his father even kept his Jewish name until finally changing it to Hitler when he was 40. Ramin also claimed that the reason Hitler developed such an aversion to Judaism was because his Jewish mother was a promiscuous woman. Hitler therefore, says Ramin, tried to escape his religion. … http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3347309,00.html Iran vows to 'humiliate' U.S. ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 2, 2007 -- TEHRAN, Iran -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned U.N Security Council sanctions imposed against Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again. Speaking in the southwestern provincial capital of Ahvaz, Ahmadinejad said the Security Council's resolution last month was invalid and had left the world body's reputation in tatters. The council voted unanimously to bar all countries from selling materials and technology to Iran that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also froze the assets of 10 Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs. "Let the world know that from the Iranian nation's point of view, this resolution has no validity," Ahmadinejad said. He said the United States was the main power behind the resolution, and warned Washington: "I want you to know that the Iranian nation has humiliated you many times, and it will humiliate you in future." … http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/02/iran.nuclear.ap/index.html Hamas: We'll obtain U.S. money transfer WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - January 8, 2007 -- JERUSALEM -- A portion of $86.4 million in aid the United States pledged last week to bolster security forces affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party will fall into the hands of the Hamas terror group, Hamas officials told WND. Also, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, a terror group allied with Hamas, told WND his organization is planning attacks against Israel using weapons recently transferred to Fatah by the U.S. and Egypt. The Popular Resistance Committees leader said attacks using the foreign weapons are meant "to prove the Zionist-American conspiracy to bolster forces against us won't work." "We will obtain the U.S. weapons," the Committees leader said. According to documents revealed Friday, the Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Abbas, including Force 17, Abbas' security detail, which also serves as de facto police units in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Some members of Force 17 also are openly members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organization, Fatah's declared "military wing." U.S. officials confirmed the financial aid is set to be transferred to Fatah. The multi-million-dollar grant will be used to "assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the Road Map (peace plan) to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza," a U.S. government document said. ... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53672 Rocket-launching terrorists loyal to Abbas WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - January 4, 2007 -- TEL AVIV -- Militants associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party who have been firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into nearby Jewish towns are loyal to Abbas and commit their attacks in accordance with Fatah, the northern Gaza leader of Fatah's declared "military wing" told WND in an interview. Since a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-based terror groups was agreed to in November, more than 60 rockets have been fired by Palestinians in Gaza, seriously injuring two Jewish teenagers and disrupting life in Israeli cities neighboring the Gaza Strip. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which bills itself as the "military wing" of Fatah, has taken responsibility for about one-third of the recent rocket fire. Abbas has claimed Brigades leaders firing rockets from Gaza during the truce are "renegade" members of the group, and that he doesn't have authority over the militants. Miri Eisin, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, this week told the Israel Resource News Agency the Al Aqsa Brigades members firing the projectiles from Gaza are not affiliated with Fatah and don't take orders from Abbas. She said the militants are directed by the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Olmert last month held talks with Abbas and has said he is willing to conclude a peace agreement with the Palestinian leader. But Abu Ahmed, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader in the northern Gaza Strip, told WND his group, including the militants launching rockets, is loyal to Abbas and coordinates "resistance operations" with the Fatah party. "The Al Aqsa Brigades is the military wing of the Fatah and the President Abu Mazen (Abbas) is the chairman of the movement. We are committed to our leadership, to Abu Mazen. All our activity is in accordance with the political line of Fatah, which consists of fighting the occupation until the creation of a Palestinian state. The rocket shooting is part of this vision," Abu Ahmed said. All rockets fired from Gaza have been launched from the northern part of the territory, which falls within Abu Ahmed's jurisdiction in the Brigades. Asked why Abbas distances himself from Al Aqsa's rocket firing, Abu Ahmed told WND, "Listen, we are aware of our president's (Abbas') declarations but we are also aware of the international political system that brings the president to adopt this position." The terror leader said Abbas never asked his group to halt the rocket fire. ... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53627 'Hamas training in Iran, Lebanon' WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - January 2, 2007 -- RAMALLAH -- Hamas members have been flying to Iran and Lebanon for advanced military training with Iranian Revolutionary guard units and Hezbollah militants, according to a senior intelligence official from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The official was confirming reports last week quoting Israeli security sources saying dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Hamas terrorists left Gaza for training in Iran. "We are sure according to information that we have that Hezbollah prepares Hamas for a confrontation with us (Fatah) and with Israel. None of these preparations takes place in Gaza, but they take place in Lebanon, in Iran and in other places where the Iranian and Hezbollah experts train Hamas militants," the senior Palestinian intelligence official told WND. ... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53600 Hezbollah offers pay-per-slay WORLDNETDAILY - December 31, 2006 -- Israeli intelligence sources say Hezbollah is not only funneling Iranian money into Israel, but the group has marketized its terror aid by linking funding to the successful targeting of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel, with the payments linked to the number of Israelis killed or wounded. The Jerusalem Post reported that Hezbollah is paying "thousands of dollars" for each Qassam rocket fired at the western Negev, with most of the money going to Palestinian splinter groups. Sources within Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency, said the cash, originating in Iran, is smuggled into Gaza and paid out on an attack-by -attack basis. "We know that Hezbollah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official told the Post. "Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later." ... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53573 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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Meteorology, meet eschatology

Be Alert! News Briefs for January 8, 2007 Alert Focus: Creation Groans / Pestilence / Birth Pangs Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Psalms 65:7 Who stills the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. A number of theories abound as to the cause of extreme weather pattern variations and phenomena witnessed currently across the globe and in the recent past. Some subscribe to the global warming theory that suggests man has been the main cause of these changes with his industrial machines and abuse of nature. Others suggest a combination of factors including long term natural trends and that man is just attributing to the problem. I believe that what we are seeing is clearly foretold in the Word of God as the whole creation groaning and birth pangs of the planet itself as the return of Christ draws ever more near. Along with this we are seeing hints of more specific events such as signs in the heavens, giant hail and blood red rain (events that all took place in 2006), as if now the creation is doing small test runs before the coming of the Lord's wrath. However, no matter what one believes about these events, one thing is quite clear: The majority of human beings sense that something is very, very wrong with our planet. As you will see in this first article, the secular press mentions "the end of the world" and then uses the phrase "meteorology, meet eschatology. What is most shocking and truly sad is that you will here this kind of talk in the secular media but you still won't hear it in the seeker driven churches. The leadership sees this sort of thing as "negative" and it won't appeal to those who are looking for love and community to "fill those holes in their life". These shepherds have become so stupid (God's word, not mine) that they can't see danger of any sort staring them right in the face. Of course, this is because of their lust for prestige, honor and money that set them in the direction of this numbers game to begin with and the fact that any bible teaching has been replaced with psychology. It is to their judgment that the world is acting with more wisdom then they. What I have all found interesting is the names and slang that the world uses and gives things is sometimes more "spot on" than we realize. For example in the late 1980's the slang word "bad" became popular in the U.S. meaning something that was hip, cool, essentially "good" in the world's eyes. However, in all stark biblical reality, the majority of things people called "bad", really were bad by the Lord's definition because they were prideful, worldly etc... I wonder if the same is true with El Nino? The Peruvian fishermen gave the name El Nino which means "The Child" referring to the Christ child, to the phenomena because they noticed it showed up around Christmas time in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the South American coast. The Bible tells us that the real Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ (not a baby) is the one who "stills the seas" and the nations. It was also through Christ that everything was made, in heaven and earth and through Him all things hold together. The boundaries of the oceans were made by Christ. Considering all the last days prophecies and promises concerning meteorological events that the Bible speaks of I would suggest that this El Nino phenomena that has and continues to wreak so much havoc on the earth has everything to do with the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore it's given name isn't that far off from being accurate to the true source of this occurrence. It is quite ironic that the world had no idea when they named it. BE/\LERT! March in January! Or Is It Mayday? It's Nice Out There, But Global Warming Dampens the Fun THE WASHINGTON POST - By Joel Achenbach - January 7, 2007 -- Never has good weather felt so bad. Never have flowers inspired so much fear. Never has the warm caress of a sunbeam seemed so ominous. The weather is sublime, it's glorious, it's the end of the world. January is the new March. The daffodils are busting out everywhere. It's porch weather. Put on a T-shirt and shorts, fire up the grill, blast "Rastaman Vibration" into the back yard. Everyone out for volleyball! The normal high for this time of year is 43 degrees; yesterday's high at Reagan National was a record-breaking 73. And yet it's all a guilty pleasure. Weather is both a physical and a psychological phenomenon. Meteorology, meet eschatology. We've read the articles, we've seen the Gore movie, we've calculated our carbon footprint, and we're just not intellectually capable anymore of fully enjoying warm winter weather. Just ain't right. Ain't natural. Cherry blossoms during the NFL playoffs? Run for your lives. "Amazing, but it makes me think we might not be here too much longer, because of global warming," said Laura Ingoldsby, a grad student getting ready for a jog on the towpath at Fletcher's Boathouse…. At the U.S. National Arboretum, horticulturist Scott Aker has been keeping an eye on a Magnolia zenii: "The buds are ready to pop." They mow the meadows in winter when the ground freezes solid, but it's still soft out there. Last year's petunias are still going strong in Aker's yard -- and there's no serious winter in sight. Bulletin: A Washington Post editor nearly drove into a black bear Friday night in Prince William County. Official word from the authorities: "Oh yeah, it's so warm, they can't hibernate." Bulletin: British scientists say there is a 60 percent chance that 2007 will be the warmest year on record. Bulletin: Ski resorts are struggling to open in the Alps…. What if those climate models are wrong, because they're insufficiently dire? Everyone's suddenly shifting from models to observations. Look: Big ice shelf breaking off an Arctic island. Look: Greenland melting faster than the Wicked Witch of the West. Listen: Scary quotes from experts. "Is it really a broadly based area that's seeing particular change? The answer is yes," says Ted Scambos, a glaciologist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "From Europe, the East Coast, north to the Arctic and across to Siberia, there's a very large swath of the Northern Hemisphere for the months of September, October and November that [were] exceedingly warm . . . " So it's bad. Except for one thing. What you might call, at the moment, the Denver factor. Denver got four feet of snow in December. The third big storm blew in Friday. Snowdrifts of 10 feet! An automobile-snuffing avalanche in a mountain pass west of town! In Denver, January is still January. Because what we are experiencing and what Denver is experiencing are both part of a thing called weather, not climate. Climate change is real, but it's a background phenomenon, the cicada-song white noise on the horror-movie soundtrack, distinct from the thuds and screams and moans of specific weather events. "It's very dangerous to blame climate for weather," says Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University. But he doesn't let climate change off the hook when discussing our warm winter. "No, we didn't cause it, but we made it more likely," he concludes. It's like rolling loaded dice in a craps game. But Dennis Feltgen, a National Weather Service meteorologist, says climate change isn't the culprit. It's El Nino. Warm water in the tropical Pacific, changed wind patterns, lots of balmy air blowing our way from the southern United States. "We're in an El Nino, which has absolutely nothing to do with global warming," Feltgen says. "It keeps a lot of the cold air locked up in Canada, and makes the West Coast of the United States stormy, which we've seen, and makes the southern one-third of the country wetter than normal." And for some, El Nino is dandy. "Keeps the hurricanes away and the cold winter away. I'm all for it," said Colin Offner, golfing happily at Hains Point. Bulletin: Cooler weather is imminent. The weather will be almost normal, briefly, before all hell breaks loose again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/06/AR2007010601215_pf.html All Time High: 70 Degree Temps Blanket NYC Thousands Flock To Central Park To Enjoy The 28th Straight Day Of Above Normal Temperatures WCBS-TV2 NEW YORK - January 7, 2007 -- ... The National Weather Service reported the temperature in Central Park at 12:51 p.m. was 70 degrees, shattering the previous record of 63 degrees set back in 1950. Temperatures appeared to peak at about 71 degrees, and stayed consistent at 70 until about 4 p.m. when it began to dip back into the upper 60s. By 4:30 it was still 68 degrees out in Central Park. "The stretch of unseasonably warm weather is unprecedented and will be above normal for almost 30 days in a row now. Our normal is 38," CBS 2 Meteorologist John Bolaris said. ... http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_005210450.html Blue Mountain lays off 1,300 TOTONTO STAR - Isabel Teotonio and Nick Kyonka, staff reporters, Roberta Avery - January 7, 2007 -- Ontario's largest ski resort has laid off 1,300 workers after closing down its ski operations in the middle of the winter season for the first time in the resort's 65-year history. "We're trying to make the best of things so that guests who still come to Blue will have a good time, but it's pretty tense," said Kelly O'Neil, a spokeswoman at Blue Mountain Resort, yesterday. Officials said they had no choice after a run of unseasonably warm weather that has some wondering if winter will appear this year at all. In Toronto, yesterday's high hit a record 11C, smashing the previous Jan. 5 high of 10.1C set in 1997. ... http://www.thestar.com/News/article/168483 Half dozen homes destroyed or damaged by possible tornado ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 7, 2007 -- ATLANTA -- A line of severe thunderstorms moved across north Georgia on Sunday night, spawning possible tornadoes, damaging some houses and downing trees and power lines.... Up to 4 inches of rain fell earlier in parts of Alabama, where a flash flood warning was issued for six counties. http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=85674 2 Killed by Reported Tornado in Louisiana ASSOCIATED PRESS - January 5, 2007 -- NEW IBERIA, La. -- Powerful storms killed at least two people, flooded streets and ripped apart homes as they swept from Louisiana through South Carolina on Friday. Much of the worst damage was in Louisiana's Iberia Parish, where what appeared to be a tornado hit the New Iberia area just before 4 p.m. Thursday. ... http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=1023643 Bush Looking at Global Warming Ideas ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Ben Feller - January 4, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Thursday welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to prod the Middle East peace process and said he was open to new ideas to combat global warming. "I believe there is a chance now to put behind us the old stale debates of the past," Bush said at a joint White House news conference with the German leader. It was a reference to past differences between Bush and European allies on the Kyoto accords, an international agreement to reduce pollution that causes global warming. It has not been ratified by the United States. He also praised her for her efforts to put the so-called quartet- the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations - at the center of a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace effort. … http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070105/D8MEPIO01.html Scientists Say 2007 May Be Warmest Yet ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Raphael G. Satter - January 4, 2007 -- LONDON -- A resurgent El Nino and persistently high levels of greenhouse gases are likely to make 2007 the world's hottest year ever recorded, British climate scientists said Thursday. Britain's Meteorological Office said there was a 60 percent probability that 2007 would break the record set by 1998, which was 1.20 degrees over the long-term average. "This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world," the office said. The reason for the forecast is mostly due to El Nino, a cyclical warming trend now under way in the Pacific Ocean. The event occurs irregularly - the last one happened in 2002 - and typically leads to increased temperatures worldwide. … http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070104/D8MEFCCO0.html Warm winter wreaks havoc USA TODAY - By Andrea Stone - January 4, 2007 -- Bill Weigle's tree service in Lyndeborough, N.H., usually delivers five to 10 cords of firewood a day this time of year. He's sold only one in the past two weeks. Business is "dead," Weigle says. "I've never seen it like this … I feel like the Maytag man." This winter's curiously warm weather across the Northeast and much of the Midwest has played havoc with more than seasonal businesses. In Washington, D.C., springlike temperatures have faked out flora, causing dogwoods and daffodils to bloom. "There's been weird weather all across the United States," says Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, which was walloped by two major snowstorms last month. He blames an El Niño warming pattern in the Pacific for dry and warm conditions elsewhere. "Another big player is what we call the 'long-term trend,' " said Heidi Cullen of The Weather Channel. "That's a euphemism for global warming."…. The balmy temperatures have smashed records. International Falls, Minn., which averages a high of 13 degrees this time of year, hit record highs of 41 degrees Wednesday and 37 Thursday. Buffalo has had more than three weeks of above-average temperatures, and all-time highs are likely Saturday in New York City and Richmond, Va. The warm wave has had a silver lining for consumers and taxpayers. Electric heating bills were down 7.35% for Pepco customers in Washington and its Maryland suburbs. In Syracuse, N.Y., acting Public Works Commissioner Jeff Wright says the city could shave as much as $1 million off the annual $3.2 million snow-removal budget. … http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-01-04-warm-weather_x.htm?csp=34 Record snowfall buries Anchorage KTUU NBC 2 ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - by Jason Moore - January 3, 2007 -- Anchorage, Alaska -- It snowed all day in Anchorage Wednesday. A combination of snow, fog and ice contributed to more than 100 cars becoming stuck in ditches and snow berms across the city. The Anchorage Police Department said accidents occurred at a pace of a collision every 10 minutes today. A snow advisory remains in effect and the job of digging out is only beginning…. Today was a record snowfall day for the Anchorage area. The National Weather Service has recorded 9.6 inches at its forecast offices as of 5:15 p.m. However, a lot more snow has fallen in other parts of town. The following amounts have been recorded around Anchorage over the last 24 hours, as of 5:15 p.m. today: O'Malley and Hillside - 22.0 inches Mid-Hillside - 17.0 inches Upper DeArmoun - 17.0 inches Abbott Loop Road - 15.0 inches Glen Alps - 12.0 inches Eagle River - 4.5 inches So far, Anchorage has accumulated 57.60 inches of snow this winter, a new record for snowfall as of Jan. 3. Snow advisories are in effect until 9 p.m., but the Southcentral region should be seeing an end to the snow later tonight. http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=5889112 Big Avalanche Knocks Cars Off Colorado Pass ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Robert Weller - January 6, 2007 -- DENVER -- A huge avalanche knocked two cars off a mountain pass Saturday on the main highway to one of the state's largest ski areas, shortly after crowds headed through on the way to the lifts, authorities said. Eight people were rescued from the buried vehicles and all were taken to area hospitals, said state Patrolman Eric Wynn. Details of their conditions were not available. "Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths," Stacey Stegman of the transportation department said of the massive slide on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass, about 50 miles west of Denver on the way to Winter Park Resort.... The avalanche hit between 10 a.m. and 10:30 and was about 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, Stegman said. The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep because crews trigger them before more snow can accumulate, said Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. ... http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070107/D8MG3KU00.html 3rd Snowstorm Looms for Hard-Hit Plains ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Jon Sarche - January 5, 2007 -- DENVER -- The third snowstorm in as many weeks swept into Colorado on Friday, further hampering efforts to restore power to rural homes and rescue thousands of cattle stranded by last week's blizzard. Several school districts canceled classes Friday because of blowing snow in the region, where the last storm had whipped up 10-foot drifts and shut down highways. In Kansas and Nebraska, about 10,000 homes were still without power after more than a week, and the new storm was headed their way after dumping nearly a foot of snow in the foothills west of Denver. In hard-hit southeastern Colorado, no more than 1 inch of new snow was expected, but the high wind was making road clearing difficult. Agriculture officials, meanwhile, were still trying to figure out how deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed by the blizzard or starved, said Jery Bailey, emergency management director in Haskell County, Kan. … http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070105/D8MF9LH81.html Balmy eastern U.S. could cool off soon: forecasters REUTERS - January 4, 2007 -- NEW YORK -- A stretch of unusual warmth in the central and eastern United States that has slashed fuel demand and left New England ski resorts barren of snow could end by mid-January, forecasters said on Thursday. "It seems like we've had fall forever," said Dale Mohler, senior meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather. "But winter may finally be on the way." Weather watchers said that an arctic air mass is likely to form over western Canada next week and seep into the U.S. Midwest before spreading into the East and Southeast by mid-January, possibly locking in a colder pattern. …http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-05T032626Z_01_N04329483_RTRUKOC_0_US-WEATHER-USA-JANUARY.xml&src=rss&rpc=22 More than 20,000 RI students kept home after illness report ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Justin M. Norton - January 4, 2007 -- CRANSTON, R.I. -- Rhode Island officials canceled school for the rest of the week for more than 20,000 students because of a suspected case of meningitis and the death of a second-grader from encephalitis. Health experts are trying to determine whether the cases are connected…. The case of suspected meningitis was reported late Wednesday in an unidentified student at Hopkins Hill School in Coventry. Health investigators are looking into whether the latest case is related to mycoplasma, an infection blamed for encephalitis that killed a Warwick student and sickened two other children in the last few weeks. Mycoplasma pneumonia, or "walking pneumonia," is common but very rarely progresses to a serious case of meningitis or encephalitis. Meningitis is an inflammation of membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord, and encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain…. The closing of the schools affected students in three communities south of Providence: 11,500 in Warwick; 6,000 in Coventry; and 4,000 in West Warwick. There has been an unusually high incidence of pneumonia in the three communities, Gifford said. … http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2007/01/04/ri_health_officials_close_schools_in_three_towns/ FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Residents of planned union to be 'North Americanists'

Arizona State University teaches how continent to be integrated Alert Focus: The Iron and the Clay / The Mystery of Lawlessness / The Beast / Mammon / The Third Seal Daniel 7:4 "The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. Daniel 7:7 "After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Revelation 13:1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. WORLDNETDAILY - By Bob Unruh - January 5, 2007 -- [Full Article] Arizona State University is teaching that the U.S., Mexico and Canada need to be integrated into a unified superstate, where U.S. citizens of the future will be known as "North Americanists," according to the taxpayer-funded "Building North America" program. The program openly advocates for the integration of economic issues across the continent, and in many places goes further – such as the call for a common North American currency. One teaching module made available online for professors to integrate into their teachings was written by George Haynal, senior fellow at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and implied a joint military is required. Since the security of the continent "is a joint need; it should be supplied as a common enterprise." "Given the nature of the threats against our security in the current environment, the first task is to reinvent 'borders.' We must exercise the responsibility for protecting our society against external threats where we can do so most effectively, not where infrastructures happens to be in place," he added. "Multilateral cooperation is going to be essential among governments." "It is clear, to me at least, that we must … move beyond NAFTA and do so with a purposeful determination," he wrote. Another teaching paper advocates the adoption of a unified North American currency, the "amero," modeled after the euro currency of the European Union. The programming the university is providing for help in teaching the new North American focus is just the latest evidence of the mounting campaign for a de facto North American Union. Although most in the establishment press are not covering the controversy, it has earned the opposition of a number of high-level voices including congressmen like Tom Tancredo, Virgil Goode and Ron Paul, and newsmen like CNN's Lou Dobbs who has described the U.S. governments actions in this effort as "Orwellian." Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, has denounced such integration plans and warns that most members of Congress aren't aware of the situation, and that he is opposing any transnational "superhighway" projects such as the "Trans-Texas Corridor" project in his home state. Why? The ultimate goal, he said, is not simply a superhighway, "but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether." Rep. Goode, R-Va., already has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in further NAFTA advances. But progress already is significant down the road to a joint government, evidenced by confirmation that the U.S. government is planning to provide full Social Security benefits to Mexicans as well as a report by the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, considered by many to be something of a "shadow government," that calls for the transfer of massive amounts of wealth from the U.S. to Mexico and the setup of a "security perimeter" around North America. A Canadian website set up by those who fear the loss of their Canadian national sovereignty already has established a timeline for the program. The Arizona State contribution to the move towards a one-government continent was launched because of "the notion that economic integration in the NAFTA Triad (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) was advancing despite the lack of press and public attention it received …" and a new website would allow "those of us in the Triad" to link up with the growing body of research about "how businesses, governments, and organizations were shaping, and adapting to, the evolution of a shared economic space." "We are now bringing together the fruits of this research endeavor in a new, updated and redesigned 'Building North America' website…" the group said. "We are betting on the continued existence of scholars and policy practitioners who would benefit from a site which would consolidate the research and data we are all generating, and thereby build community among us." A telephone number for the managers of the site was unavailable, and a WND e-mail to the site did not generate a response. But the goal is clear: "The links, documents, and other materials on this site have been selected, organized, and in some cases designed to advance teaching and research on North American regional integration. … At the same time the site also aims to benefit the broader community of North Americanists, within the academy and beyond, by putting at our collective fingertips – or mouse-reach – the kinds of current and historical material that will benefit research into, and understanding of, North American integration – past, present and future." The site cross-references and links to organizations and university centers such as the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., institutional home for Robert Pastor. Pastor has been described as a leading intellectual force in the move to create an EU-style North American Community, and recently told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pastor said that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP – launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas – could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, the amero, that would replace the U.S. dollar. In May 2005, Pastor was co-chairman the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced a report entitled "Toward a North American Community," which he has claimed is the blueprint behind the SSP declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. At American University, Pastor directs the Center for North American Studies where he teaches a course entitled "North America: A Union, A Community, or Just Three Nations?" As WND previously has reported, Pastor is on the board of the North American Forum on Integration, the NAFI, a non-profit organization that annually holds a mock trilateral parliament for 100 selected students drawn from 10 universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Arizona State also lists government agencies in support of the merging of various functions that historically have been handled by each government, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others. The website's archive contains "influential papers and articles which have shaped the debate on 'North America,'" including the 2005 document from the Council on Foreign Relations called "Building a North American Community: Report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America." Also available is a series of "Teaching Modules," where Haynal's instructions are available. "The section leads off with an introductory guide to Building North America Into Your Course, as well as a more structured 'Matrix' offering sample units by theme and subfield … Each of these TMs either has, or will have in the near future, an accompanying Teaching Note with more detailed suggestions for incorporation into a variety of courses." Among the organizations being promoted are the Council of The Americas, the free market thinktank Fraser Institute, North America Works, North American Integration and Development Center, North America's Super Corridor Coalition, North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, the Mexican Embassy, NORAD, North American Development Bank, NAFTA Secretariat, North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, One of the teaching notes lists Earl Fry's work titled: "The Role of Subnational Governments in the governance of North America." Subtitled "Mapping the New North American Reality," that paper argues that provinces in Canada and states in the United States and Mexico are quite efficiently setting up their own integrated North America with or without their "federal" governments' participation. It even warns against renegade states like South Dakota, which has undermined "treaties and agreements signed by national governments" with its requirements for inspections of Canadian cattle, hogs and wheat. The North American Union plans were cited by WorldNetDaily editors as the Number One story on the news site's list of 10 most underreported stories for 2006. The January 2007 edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, which explores this topic in-depth, is titled "PREMEDITATED MERGER: How our leaders are stealthily transforming the U.S.A. into the North American Union." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53633 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Charity or serving wealth?

Be Alert! News Briefs for January 7, 2007 Alert Focus: Mammon Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Proverbs 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice. Charity pledges smash all US records THE FINANCIAL TIMES of LONDON - By Rebecca Knight in Boston - January 1, 2007 -- Warren Buffett’s historic $31bn (€23.5bn) donation to the Gates Foundation made 2006 a banner year for US charitable giving, smashing previous records by a huge margin. According to figures from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the top 15 charitable gifts and pledges in the US weighed in at $35bn. By contrast, the largest 15 gifts of 2005 and 2004 totalled $2bn and $4.4bn respectively, according to the Chronicle, which has compiled an annual list of the largest announced gifts and pledges by individuals since 1997. Mr Buffett accounted for the overwhelming bulk of that sum with his $31bn pledge to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr Buffett’s gift – which will help the foundation pursue its goal of curing the world’s 20 leading fatal diseases – is the biggest charitable donation in history. … http://www.ft.com/cms/s/88da8502-99d0-11db-8b6d-0000779e2340.html Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation By Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writers - January 7, 2007 -- LOS ANGELES TIMES - Ebocha, Nigeria — Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb. An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights." The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works. In Ebocha, where Justice lives, Dr. Elekwachi Okey, a local physician, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer. "We're all smokers here," Okey said, "but not with cigarettes." The oil plants in the region surrounding Ebocha find it cheaper to burn nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas each day and contribute to global warming than to sell it. They deny the flaring causes sickness. Under pressure from activists, however, Nigeria's high court set a deadline to end flaring by May 2007. The gases would be injected back underground, or trucked and piped out for sale. But authorities expect the flares to burn for years beyond the deadline. The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe. Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats. Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting. Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is located, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The rivers, Enyidah said, "became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases." The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children such as Justice Eta more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate him against. Investing for profit AT the end of 2005, the Gates Foundation endowment stood at $35 billion, making it the largest in the world. Then in June 2006, Warren E. Buffett, the world's second-richest man after Bill Gates, pledged to add about $31 billion in installments from his personal fortune. Not counting tens of billions of dollars more that Gates himself has promised, the total is higher than the gross domestic products of 70% of the world's nations. Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest. It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. Monica Harrington, a senior policy officer at the foundation, said the investment managers had one goal: returns "that will allow for the continued funding of foundation programs and grant making." Bill and Melinda Gates require the managers to keep a highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives. By comparing these investments with information from for-profit services that analyze corporate behavior for mutual funds, pension managers, government agencies and other foundations, The Times found that the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices. … [More] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?coll=la-home-headlines FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.