BREAKING: Discover How A Slacker Makes $100,000 A Year!

WEBMASTERS! Get Your Website To The Top Of Google

“Inconsistencies” over Diana driver samples

Monday, January 21st, 2008

The procedures used by French medical experts to collect samples from the body of Princess Diana’s chauffeur suffered “inconsistencies”, the inquest into her death was told on Monday by a leading British toxicologist.

French and British police investigations have both concluded that Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed died in a high-speed Paris car crash because chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk.

But Dodi’s father, luxury storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed, alleges that her son and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip.

He has also questioned the results of the tests taken on Henri Paul’s body after his death.

Professor Robert Forrest, who reviewed all the medical reports into Paul’s death, ran through them again in meticulous detail for lawyers at the inquest.

The court was told that important blood samples from Paul were originally thought to have come from the heart but in fact came from his chest cavity, a much less reliable measure.

Forrest said Dr Gilbert Pepin, responsible for the French toxicology tests, believed they were heart samples.

“I was there when Dr Pepin was told it was not cardiac blood, it was chest cavity blood. I still have a vivid recollection of the way that his face changed when he was told. He looked surprised,” Forrest told the court.

There was also confusion over just how many samples of blood were taken and when exactly they were taken.

“There are unresolved incompatibilities — inconsistencies I should say rather than incompatibilities,” Forrest said.

He told the court: “The interpretation of samples is only as good as the samples themselves,” he told the court.

“It doesn’t matter how sophisticated the analysis is, if you don’t have good material to work with, you have to qualify the interpretation of the data your laboratory generates,” he said.

Reuters

Have Your Say: “Inconsistencies” over Diana driver samples
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Bush and Bin Laden continue to benefit each other

Monday, January 21st, 2008

By Robert Parry

Just as Sylvester and Tweety Bird achieved lasting Hollywood fame from their comical cartoon chases, the less amusing duo of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden continue to benefit each other by reviving their long-distance rivalry, one posturing against the other in a way that helps them both.

In a new video, al-Qaeda leader bin Laden again taunts Bush, the United States – and then the Democrats for not forcing an American withdrawal from Iraq, which should help guarantee that the Democrats won’t dare press for a withdrawal from Iraq.

At a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Sydney, Australia, President Bush then did his part, highlighting bin Laden’s Iraq comments:

“I found it interesting that on the tape Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is part of the war against extremists. If al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it’s because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out.”

Except that U.S. intelligence has long concluded that al-Qaeda really wants the opposite: to bog the United States down in a hopeless, bloody war in Iraq that has been a boon for recruiting young extremists, raising money and protecting al-Qaeda’s leadership holed up in base camps inside Pakistan.

Bin Laden continues to play the role of another cartoon character, Walt Disney’s Brer Rabbit, who escaped one famously tight spot by begging not to be thrown into the briar patch when that was exactly where he wanted to go. [For more details on this Bush-bin Laden symbiosis, see Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.]

Cole attack
At least since the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, al-Qaeda’s strategy has been to draw the United States militarily into the Middle East to weaken the Americans by draining their resources and damaging their army.

However, the Clinton administration couldn’t verify that al-Qaeda was behind the Cole attack until January 2001 and then turned over the evidence to the incoming Bush team, which didn’t act because it had other priorities.

By summer 2001, U.S. intelligence was picking up chatter indicating that al-Qaeda was disappointed by the lack of a response to the Cole provocation but was confident that the next blow would force Washington’s hand.

That next attack on Sept. 11, 2001, did compel an American military reaction, but al-Qaeda may have miscalculated as an effective U.S. counter-attack ousted al-Qaeda’s Taliban allies in Afghanistan and cornered bin Laden and other top leaders at Tora Bora.

At that crucial point, however, Bush failed to dispatch sufficient U.S. troops to seal off bin Laden’s escape routes, allowing many of al-Qaeda’s top leaders to flee into the rugged tribal region of Pakistan.

To al-Qaeda’s relief and amazement, Bush also began diverting key U.S. military resources away from Afghanistan toward Iraq, whose “secular” Sunni leader Saddam Hussein was an enemy of al-Qaeda’s Sunni “fundamentalists”.

Bush’s invasion of Iraq eliminated a key Sunni rival in Hussein. As al-Qaeda gained strength, bin Laden came to see Bush as something of a strategic ally. When Bush found himself in a tight battle with Democratic Sen. John Kerry, bin Laden issued a videotape denouncing Bush on the Friday before Election 2004.

The tape had the predictable effect of giving Bush a last-minute boost in the polls, which CIA analysts concluded was precisely bin Laden’s intent. Bin Laden wanted to keep Bush around as a foil for another four years. [See Neck Deep for details.]

Prolonged war
Also, contrary to Bush’s repeated assertions that al-Qaeda wants U.S. troops to leave Iraq so it can establish a safe haven there, the terrorist group’s internal messages, which have been intercepted by U.S. intelligence, reveal that al-Qaeda fears most the impact of a sudden American withdrawal.

A July 9, 2005, letter attributed to al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri warned that a rapid U.S. pullout could cause al-Qaeda’s new recruits, who traveled to Iraq to wage war on the Americans, to simply give up the fight and go home.

“They must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal,” wrote Zawahiri, who worried that a premature departure of the Americans also might leave the depleted ranks of al-Qaeda foreign fighters at the mercy of angry Iraqis.

Another internal communiqué revealed that al-Qaeda’s real wish was for the United States to stay in Iraq indefinitely, so the terrorist group could continue recruiting and training young people while buying time to overcome the hostility of Iraqis toward outsiders.

In a letter to Zarqawi, dated Dec. 11, 2005, “Atiyah,” another top aide to bin Laden, described the hard work needed to overcome the animosity of Sunni tribal leaders. In that context, Atiyah said the continued American presence was crucial.

“Prolonging the war is in our interest,” Atiyah wrote in a letter captured when Zarqawi was killed in June 2006. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Al-Qaeda’s Fragile Foothold.”]

So, the interests of President Bush and Osama bin Laden continue to dovetail perfectly. The open-ended “war on terror” has allowed Bush to consolidate previously unimaginable powers for a U.S. chief executive.

Now, as Bush faces another Democratic challenge to his plans for continuing the Iraq War, bin Laden shows up again, essentially berating the Democrats for not forcing U.S. troop withdrawals.

“The vast majority of you [Americans] want it [the Iraq War] stopped,” bin Laden said. “Thus you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning.”

That means if the Democrats do renew their efforts toward forcing American troop withdrawals, Bush and his supporters can simply accuse the Democrats of following bin Laden’s orders or playing into bin Laden’s hands.

The reality may be the opposite, but a few Republican floor speeches and a couple of well-placed op-eds should be enough to spook the already nervous Democrats.

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity offered a taste of how the new bin Laden tape will be used against both Democrats and the American Left.

“One of the things that also struck me is the language specifically that he [bin Laden] used,” Hannity said. “He seemed to adopt the very same language that is being used by the hard Left in this country, as he describes what’s going on in Iraq as a ‘civil war’; he actually used the word ‘neocons’; he talked about global warming; he denounces capitalism and corporations.”

In other words, any similarity in language between bin Laden and what many Americans say in common conversations will be used to discredit them. They will become bin Laden’s fellow travelers.

All the better to get Bush and bin Laden what they both really want: a prolonged war in Iraq – and possibly a U.S. attack on the Shia government of Iran.

– Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush , can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there

Have Your Say: Bush and Bin Laden continue to benefit each other
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

VIDEO: US troops encourage kids to smoke

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Video of US troops sharing cigarettes with children.

Have Your Say: VIDEO: US troops encourage kids to smoke
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Man dies after being shot with Taser gun

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Katie Dawson

A man who died after being shot by police with a stun gun had fatally injured himself, detectives said last night. Armed officers were called to an incident in the Goldington area of Bedford at 7pm on Saturday after reports of a dispute between a mother and a son, Bedfordshire Police said. Officers used the Taser gun after the knife-wielding man, who was in his thirties, threatened police outside a terraced house.

The injured man retreated inside the house where he was discovered a short while later with “self-inflicted injuries”, a force spokeswoman said. The injuries from the Taser gun were “minimal”, she added.

He was taken to Bedford Hospital where he died. A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out today, and the incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Police cordoned off the house and the property next door while an officer stood guard. Flowers were laid outside the scene.

Neighbours said they thought the mother lived in the house alone and had more than one son. Amanda Luddington, 42, who lives opposite, said: “She is a very lovely woman. Every time I go into the shop she’s always there and says hello. As far as I know, she lives there on her own. I do not know her son. I am surprised at what has happened.”

Have Your Say: Man dies after being shot with Taser gun
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

UN transformation proposed to create ‘new world order’

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Statements coming from Gordon Brown seem to openly admit what has long been denied. The super imperial world is being constructed behind the curtain W/O our consent. Will you continue to allow it?

Andrew Grice in Delhi

Gordon Brown has begun secret talks with other world leaders on far-reaching reform of the United Nations Security Council as part of a drive to create a “new world order” and “global society”.

The Prime Minister is drawing up plans to expand the number of permanent members in a move that will provoke fears that the veto enjoyed by Britain could be diluted eventually. The United States, France, Russia and China also have a veto but the number of members could be doubled to include India, Germany, Japan, Brazil and one or two African nations.

Mr Brown has discussed a shake-up of a structure created in 1945 to reflect the world’s new challenges and power bases during his four-day trip to China and India. Last night, British sources revealed “intense discussions” on UN reform were under way and Mr Brown raised it whenever he met another world leader.

The Prime Minister believes the UN is punching below its weight. In 2003, it failed to agree on a fresh resolution giving explicit approval for military action in Iraq. George Bush then acted unilaterally, winning the support of Tony Blair.

UN reform is highly sensitive and Britain will not yet publish formal proposals for fear of uniting opponents against them. Mr Brown is trying to build a consensus for change first.

His aides are adamant that the British veto will not be negotiated away. One option is for the nations who join not to have a veto, at least initially. In a speech in Delhi today, the Prime Minister will say: “I support India’s bid for a permanent place – with others – on an expanded UN Security Council.” However, he is not backing Pakistan’s demand for a seat if India wins one.

Mr Brown will unveil a proposal for the UN to spend £100m a year on setting up a “rapid reaction force” to stop “failed states” sliding back into chaos after a peace deal has been reached. Civilians such as police, administrators, judges and lawyers would work alongside military peace-keepers. “There is limited value in military action to end fighting if law and order does not follow,” he will say. “So we must do more to ensure rapid reconstruction on the ground once conflicts are over – and combine traditional humanitarian aid and peace-keeping with stabilisation, recovery and development.”

He will call for the World Bank to lead the fight against climate change as well as poverty in the developing world, and argue that the International Monetary Fund should prevent crises like the credit crunch rather than just resolve them.

Arriving in Delhi yesterday, Mr Brown said he wanted a “partnership of equals” between Britain and India as he called for closer trade links and co-operation against terrorism. He announced £825m of aid over the next three years – £500m of which will be spent on health and education.

Mr Brown is to bring back honorary knighthoods and other awards for cricketers from Commonwealth countries. He said: “Cricket is one of the great things that bind the Commonwealth together. It used to be that great cricketers from the Commonwealth would be recognised by the British nation I would like to see some of the great players in the modern era honoured.”

Read Andrew Grice atindependent.co.uk/todayinpolitics

Security Council membership

The UN Security Council’s membership has remained virtually unchanged since it first met in 1946.

Great Britain, the United States, the then Soviet Union, China and France were designated permanent members of the UN’s most powerful body.

Initially, six other countries were elected to serve two-year spells on the council – in 1946 they were Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, the Netherlands and Poland.

The number of elected members, who are chosen to cover all parts of the globe, was increased to 10 in 1965. They are currently Belgium, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Indonesia, Italy, Libya, Panama, South Africa and Vietnam.

Decisions made by the council require nine “yes” votes out of 15. Each permanent member has a veto over resolutions.

The issue of UN reform has long been on the agenda. One suggestion is that permanent membership could be expanded to 10 with India, Japan, Germany, Brazil and South Africa taking places. Any reform requires 128 nations, two-thirds, to support it in the assembly.

—–

Please spread very widely before it is too late. General Joe

Have Your Say: UN transformation proposed to create ‘new world order’
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

The McDonalds Happy Meal Report Card

Monday, January 21st, 2008

[Seminole County, Florida, is a hotbed of opposition to teaching evolution]

AD AGE - “This is a good day for parents and children in Seminole County and anyone who believes that corporations should not prey on children in schools,” said Dr. Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “We are pleased that McDonald’s is listening to parents all over the country who believe that report cards should not be commercialized.”

The fast-food giant had agreed to sponsor the report-card jackets for the county’s elementary schools to cover a printing fee of $1,600. There are 27,000 children in the school district.

On the jackets, McDonald’s offered a free happy meal to any student with all A’s and B’s, two or fewer absences, or good behavior in a given academic quarter. Susan Pagan, an area parent, notified the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and an all-out public-relations battle ensued by early December. According to the campaign, the school district received more than 2,000 calls of protest. . .

“It was McDonald’s decision to remove our trademarks from report-card jackets in Seminole County, Fla., because we believe the focus should be on the importance of a good education,” said Bill Whitman, a spokesman for McDonald’s USA. “McDonald’s, not the school district, will cover the cost to reprint the report-card jackets.”

CONSUMERIST - The school district that approved McDonald’s-sponsored report cards has a hot new partnership with Bus Radio, a friendly company that advertises to kids as they ride to school. The company serves a sonorous mix of inoffensive music, public service announcements (buckle up, kids!) and a few harmless advertisements (maybe McDonald’s?) to over 1 million children in 23 states. Bus Radio is based in Needham, Massachusetts, but lost its contract with the Needham school district after uppity parents objected to the crass commercialization of something as innocent as a bus ride. Seminole School Board members said the benefits of the radio show seem to outweigh any drawbacks, but they will evaluate Bus Radio’s performance during the test run.

Have Your Say: The McDonalds Happy Meal Report Card
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

The Drugs in Your Toothpaste Can Affect Your Health

Monday, January 21st, 2008

One of the fastest ways to absorb anything into the body is through the mouth. Drugs such as nitroglycerine for heart conditions and natural homeopathic remedies are given under the tongue for fast absorption. Your daily routine of brushing your teeth with your favorite toothpaste may also be delivering a daily dose of antibiotics or other potentially toxic ingredients, without you realizing it.

Most people, even dentists and dental hygienists, don’t realize there is a warning on the back of most toothpastes (including many from health food stores). The warning is mandated by the FDA for active ingredients that are drug based. The most common ones are fluoride, antibiotics and other drugs used to prevent cavities, tartar or teeth sensitivity.

Even children’s toothpaste has a warning to “keep out of reach of children under the age of six. If more than used for brushing is swallowed, contact the poison control center or your physician”. If a child under the age of six swallows half a tube of the sparkly, bright colored toothpaste that tastes like bubble gum and contains fluoride, the result could virtually be deadly.

Besides fluoride and the potential for poisoning your child if large amounts are swallowed, most toothpaste contain saccharin and many other artificial additives. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is another ingredient to stay away from. Studies have reported there’s a potential for flare-ups of canker sores with SLS. Instead of choosing one of these types of commercial toothpastes for your child or you, providing your family with nutritious meals and brushing with “common sense” toothpaste, without potentially toxic ingredients, is much safer.

In recent years we’ve been hearing about the alarming increase of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphlycoccus aureas (MRSA). The CDC and other studies list one cause for the rise of these antibiotic resistant bacteria to the general overuse of antibiotics. This overuse is not always in the form of a pill. You may be absorbing a small amount of an antimicrobial drug through your personal products as well.

Many brands of toothpastes, deodorants, shampoos, and soaps contain antibiotics, antimicrobials and strong disinfecting detergents. Triclosan, acetylpyridium chloride and tea tree oil are commonly used ones. Although natural, tea tree oil is a strong anti-fungal and antibiotic better suited for conditions such as athlete’s foot than in your moisturizer.

Antibiotics should only be prescribed if you have a serious infection. Informed consumers make wise buying decisions that aren’t based on pretty packages. Read, research and choose wisely for you and
your family.

For more information, visit (www.drstay.com) .

About the author

Flora Stay, D.D.S. has been a practicing dentist for over 30 years. She is the author and contributing author to books as well as magazines such as Total Health, Prevention, Men’s Health and others. She is currently an Associate Professor at U.S.C. School of Dentistry Dept. of Diagnostic Sciences. Visit her website for a free e-book “Product Labels: a cautionary tale” at www.cleure.com

Have Your Say: The Drugs in Your Toothpaste Can Affect Your Health
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

A genocide in numbers

Monday, January 21st, 2008

During the period   Sept. 30 ‘00 - Please note that all injuries figures are from PRCS field posts & EMS operations. Misc. injuries are mostly due to bomb fragments and shrapnel.
Total Sept . 1-30 ‘06	33	27	4	2	31	63
Total Oct . 1-31 ‘06	54	41	7	4	16	56
Total Nov. 1-30 ‘06	100	122	9	1	159	292
Total Dec. 1-31 ‘06	15	19	1	0	2	22
Total Jan. 1-31 ‘07	8	24	21	0	0	45
Total Feb. 1-28 ‘07	9	11	43	9	5	68
Total March. 1-31 ‘07	6	10	13	2	1	26
Total April. 1-30 ‘07	14	5	0	0	0	5
Total May. 1-31 ‘07	53	7	0	8	81	96
Total June. 1-30 ‘07	27	27	21	5	6	59
Total July. 1-31 ‘07	28	6	9	2	24	41
Total Aug . 1-31 ‘07	50	70	58	0	0	128
Total Sept . 1-30 ‘07	30	7	5	1	24	37
Total Oct . 1-31 ‘07	37	2	4	0	16	22
Total Nov. 1-30 ‘07	28	15	0	0	41	56
Total Dec. 1-31 ‘07
TOTAL	4,675	8,429	7,013	6,656	9,672	31,815

Palestine Red Crescent Society

Some examples of Palestinian civilians killed by illegal settlers:

Salman Yusef Salman a-Safdi
17 year-old resident of ‘Urif, Nablus district, killed on 26.10.2004 next to Yizhar, Nablus district, by gunfire. Additional information: Killed by a settler after he penetrated his house. He was not armed.

Sa’il Mustafa Ahmad Jabarah
46 year-old resident of Salem, Nablus district, killed on 27.09.2004 next to Salem, Nablus district, by gunfire. Additional information: Killed while driving his taxi, by a settler who wanted him to stop.

Hani Bani Maniya
22 year-old resident of ‘Aqraba, Nablus district, killed on 06.10.2002 in ‘Aqraba, Nablus district, by gunfire. Additional information: Shot and killed by settlers while harvesting his olives

Farid Mussa ‘Issa Nesasreh
28 year-old resident of Beit Furik, Nablus district, killed on 17.10.2000 in Beit Furik, Nablus district, by gunfire. Additional information: Killed by a settler from Itamar while harvesting olives near the settlement.

B’tselem

Some examples of Palestinians killed while waiting to cross checkpoints for medical reasons:

Amir Shaher ‘Abdallah al-Yazji
8 year-old resident of Gaza city, died on 19.11.2007 in Gaza city, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: suffered from meningitis, and died after being refused, for more than a week, entry into Israel.

Mahmoud Kamal Kamel Abu Taha
23 year-old resident of Rafah, died on 28.10.2007 in Erez (Industrial Zone), North Gaza district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: Cancer patient dies after being delayed entry into Israel for 10 days even though he had a permit to pass.

Nimer Muhammad Salim Shuheibar
75 year-old resident of Gaza city, died on 23.10.2007 , North Gaza district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: He arrrived at the Erez checkpoint after having received a permit to enter Israel, but soldiers fired at the ambulance and ordered it to return to the hospital in Gaza. The following day, he returned to the checkpoint and was allowed to pass after waiting for more than two hours, but died when he got to the Israeli side.

Na’el ‘Abd a-Rahman Khamis al-Kurdi
21 year-old resident of Gaza city, died on 16.10.2007 in Gaza city, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: a cancer patient, Israel refused to let him leave the Gaza Strip to obtain medical treatment

‘Aiseh ‘Ali Hassan ‘Absi
21 year-old resident of Qibya, Ramallah and al-Bira district, died on 22.05.2002 , Ramallah and al-Bira district, following a delay in receiving medical care. Additional information: A kidney patient, she was on her way to dialysis treatment. Soldiers at the checkpoint twice refused to let her cross; the second time, they fired a tear-gas canister at the car she was in. She died in the car.

B’tselem

 

Causes of Deaths of Israeli Soldiers
2005

Committed Suicide	30
Illness	14
Accidents	26
Terror Incidents	6

http://philistine.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/a-genocide-in-numbers/

Have Your Say: A genocide in numbers
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

They Can’t Cover Up Iraq’s Death Toll Catastrophe

Monday, January 21st, 2008

John Tirman

The warmongers who got us into Iraq are blaming everyone but themselves for the humanitarian disaster they created.

Now I know what Hillary Clinton meant, first hand, by that “vast right-wing conspiracy.” When the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Sunday Times in London are going after you — along with about 100 right-wing bloggers — rest assured you’ve hit a nerve.

Or is it just Soros Derangement Syndrome at work?

More than two years ago, I commissioned a household survey of Iraq to learn how many people had died in the war. This topic had been virtually ignored by the news media and the U.S. government. It was important to know for at least three reasons. The first was to try to understand the nature of the violence there, which was steadily growing and creating a humanitarian crisis, possibly a regional conflagration. Second, it might tell us something about how and when to exit. Third, we needed to know for the sake of our national soul. What had we wrought?

So I contacted the people who had done a previous, largely ignored survey-top public health professionals at Johns Hopkins University. They had published a survey in October 2004 that showed 98,000 had died in the first 18 months of the war, which was greeted with disbelief and charges of politicizing science, and quickly dismissed.

I said: ‘do a bigger survey to improve the accuracy, and I will make sure it gets the proper attention in the news media.’ They did do a bigger survey, and I managed a public education campaign that permitted the results to be considered more broadly, results that estimated total deaths at 600,000 by violence after 40 months of war. The survey was published in The Lancet, the British medical journal. And get attention it did, roundly disbelieved and scorned by war supporters, but spurring a brief but intense debate about the human cost of the war.

Dozens of statisticians and other professionals scoured the study and its data to see if the methods and implementation were proper; a special committee at the World Health Organization was convened to review it, and the Lancet had also subjected it to rigorous peer review. The survey held up to this scrutiny, with quibbles and some lingering “should have done this” and “might have done that.” But virtually every competent person agreed that the study provided the best estimate we have.

Then, earlier this month, the National Journal, a Capitol Hill “insider” weekly, ran a cover story titled “Data Bomb” by Neil Munro and Carl Cannon. In a note by Munro published by the National Review blog, he asserts:

George Soros funded the survey. The U.S. authors played no role in data-collection, and did not apply standard anti-fraud measures. The chief Iraqi data-collector had earlier produced medical articles to help Saddam’s anti-sanctions campaign in the 1990s, and said Allah guided the prior 2004 Lancet/Johns Hopkins death-survey. Some of the field surveyors were employed by Moqtada Sadr’s Ministry of Health. The Iraqis’ numbers contain evidence of fakery, and the Lancet did not check for fakery.

It’s a neat summary of their allegations, which include dozens of unfounded charges, promiscuous innuendo, misquoting of the principals, and misunderstanding statistics, and relies on two disgruntled critics. It was a hatchet job, pure and simple. Not a sentence of Munro’s summary is truthful, and that goes for much of the NJ article, too, which I have demolished elsewhere (PDF). The principal author, Gilbert Burnham, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues have taken time from their clinics in Afghanistan and Jordan and Africa to answer the charges on the John Hopkins website, too ( with a letter here, and a FAQ here).

But lies have a way of proliferating on the Internet, and so it was with this set of schoolyard bully brickbats. What seemed most to get under the skin of the right-wing media was a small grant for public education funded by the Open Society Institute, a foundation created by George Soros.

The charges of fraud that NJ clumsily made but never came close to proving were of course a tonic to the war supporters who were shamed by the estimate of 600,000 fatalities. There is nothing as devastating to the increasingly discredited case for war as the specter of the U.S. invasion having caused, directly and indirectly, more deaths than were attributed to the bloody reign of Saddam Hussein.

But it was news that “Soros” was a donor, and the wingnuts went berserk. The line that Munro and Cannon took was that “Soros” was somehow behind the survey from the start, which was timed to affect the 2006 elections. It was not only fraud, they contend, but the perversion of science for political ends backed by the disgruntled, Bush-hating billionaire.

It’s classic right-wing defamation, and of course none of it is true. Munro and Cannon were painstakingly walked through the chronology and donors, but deliberately ignored it to fashion their paranoid fairy tale, and the Wall Street Journal et al lapped it up.

We commissioned the survey on October 25, 2005, hoping to get it done as quickly as it could be done professionally, and perhaps have the results out in the spring. Why wait? But Iraq quickly became too violent to permit teams of questioners go out to 1,000 randomly chosen households. So it was not until late spring that they did begin the door-to-door work-still very perilous-and completed the survey in early July. It took another two months to enter the data, have biostatisticians at Johns Hopkins analyze it, and write up the article. The Lancet then took weeks to peer review. It was released when ready. There was no political agenda; there didn’t need to be. The results spoke for themselves.

The Open Society Institute came late to the process, announcing to me that a grant had been made for public education on May 4, 2006. That is six and a half months after the survey process began. We had already paid for the survey out of internal funds. Less than half of the cash needs of the survey, the analysis, and the public education effort was paid for by OSI. (If the real cost of the effort were totaled-to include salaries of Burnham, myself, and many others who were not compensated directly-then the OSI contribution would have offset about 10 percent of the cost.) I doubt very much whether George Soros himself was ever aware of the grant. OSI is a very large, humanitarian foundation, and their $46,000 grant to MIT is small by their standards.

And, needless to say, OSI and “Soros” had no influence over the initiation, conduct, or findings of the survey. Neither Burnham and his colleagues nor the Lancet editors knew OSI was one of the donors. The contract was with MIT.

I carefully told this to Munro on the telephone, and Burnham’s colleague Les Roberts emailed the same information to Cannon last autumn. Munro had asked, among other hostile questions, whether any Muslims or Arabs were supporting the survey, a racism reflected in his remark about Allah above and a charge in the NJ piece that the survey teams lacked American oversight and were thereby suspect. But he was emotionally fixated on Soros, and asked about his role repeatedly. When I tried to offer corroborating evidence for the survey, he screamed at me that none of that mattered. I could see where this was going.

Of course, Munro himself has been a rabid supporter of the war from the start. In the tradition of former NJ editor Michael Kelly, who called opponents of the war traitors, Munro agitated for the “destruction of Iraq” as early as November 2001. He had elsewhere insisted that the peace in Northern Ireland was the result of the British Army’s iron fist. His sentiments were on display through the hatchet job on us, not least in alleging that The Lancet article was a spur to jihadists.

So the headlines-”Soros Underwrites Osama’s Talking Points,” and “$oros Iraq Death Claim was a Sham” are typical. The Soros Derangement Syndrome derives, I suspect, from his special status as a traitor to his class, as the right used to refer to FDR. Someone so intelligent, articulate, actively compassionate, and rich cannot be tolerated.

In an odd twist, a new mortality survey-approvingly mentioned by the NJ piece-appeared earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, it found 151,000 deaths by violence as of June 2006, about the same period as the Lancet article. Newspaper coverage duly noted that their estimate was only one-quarter that of the Lancet. But a little digging would have revealed much more: the total deaths attributable to the war, non-violent as well as violent, was about 400,000 for that period, now 19 months ago. If the same trends continued, that total today would be more than 600,000.

The deaths-by-violence in that latter survey remained the same from year-to-year, however, which is not plausible-all observers agree that violent deaths were rising sharply in 2005 and 2006. The discrepancy is found in how the survey was conducted: interviewers identified themselves as employees of the Ministry of Health, then under the control of Shiite cleric Moktada al Sadr. Those interviewed, therefore, would be wary of saying a brother or son or husband had been killed by violence, fearing retribution. And, indeed, there are non-violent categories in the survey that suggest just such equivocation: “Unintentional injuries” would equal about 40 percent of the death-by-violence toll, for example. Road accidents were ten times their pre-war totals-if someone is run off a highway by a U.S. convoy, is that a “non-violent” death?

The researchers, to their credit, acknowledge that their estimate is likely too low due to several factors. They did not go into dangerous neighborhoods, which made up 11 percent of the sample, and could not accurately estimate the death toll in those, which would of course have been high. Still, the survey is revealing on the non-violent mortality, too: deaths by kidney failure, cancer, diabetes, and others rose by several times, signaling the near-collapse of the health care system.

The MoH survey is the fifth trying to measure mortality during the war, and there is significant congruence among all. (The Lancet estimate is not actually the highest; that belongs to the private British polling firm, Opinion Research Business, which found that as of August 2007, 1.2 million Iraqis were dead due to the war.) But all the surveys point to one thing: a colossal amount of killing and dying has been going on, far more than numbers used in most discussions of the issue in the fleeting instances when concern for Iraqis appears.

And that, of course, should be the real issue here, not whether George Soros is interested in the issue. The NJ calumny and the many gleeful references to it are a sign that the pro-war legions are really at wit’s end. The catastrophe they created and supported must be blamed on others-the conveyors of bad news, the quisling liberals, and the Iraqis themselves.

But the dead in Iraq cannot be silenced as long as we have courageous researchers who will go into the warzone to gather data and tell us the truth. That’s what five surveys-against perilous of odds-have done, and the findings should haunt us every day.

Have Your Say: They Can’t Cover Up Iraq’s Death Toll Catastrophe
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Coffee increases miscarriage risk

Monday, January 21st, 2008

A new study suggests that drinking two cups of coffee each day may significantly increase the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women.

American researchers who studied more than 1,000 pregnant women found those who drank two cups of regular coffee, or five 12-ounce cans of caffeinated soda daily had a two-fold higher risk of miscarriage compared with their counterparts who avoided caffeine altogether.

According to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, women who had a daily caffeine intake of less than 200 milligrams were at a 42 percent increased risk of losing their child.

The scientists said caffeine is an active substance which can go straight to the fetus and result in blood flow reduction.

Doctors suggest pregnant women or those who plan to become pregnant should stop drinking caffeine, at least in the first trimester when most miscarriages occur.

JM/HGH

Have Your Say: Coffee increases miscarriage risk
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Israeli satellite to spy on Iran

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Israel has successfully launched a spy satellite which will be used to gather intelligence on Iran’s activities, a new report says.

The TECSAR satellite is particularly important for Israel since it can be used to ‘keep tabs on Iran’s nuclear program’, the report said citing unnamed Israeli officials.

The officials revealed that the TECSAR satellite operates with an enhanced footage technology, allowing it to transmit images regardless of daytime and weather conditions.

TESCAR is considered the Zionist regime’s most advanced satellite in orbit to date.

Israel has been backing the US efforts to isolate Iran and persuade the international community to intensify sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear standoff with the West.

Despite a report by US spy agencies last fall which conceded that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, Washington and Tel Aviv accuse Tehran of pursuing a nuclear arms program.

Iran says its nuclear activities are within the framework of the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

MD/HGH/RE

Have Your Say: Israeli satellite to spy on Iran
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

CIA admits hackers ‘blacked out’ cities

Monday, January 21st, 2008

The CIA has revealed that cyber terrorists have left several cities outside the USA without power by hacking into power grids, demanding money in return for switching the lights back on. It would appear that the nightmare scenario envisaged in films like Die Hard 4 has now become a reality.

In a statement given to a major US security conference, CIA official Tom Donahue revealed that America’s security agency knew of a number of successful attacks on power grids outside the US that had resulted in blackouts and demands for money.

Lights go out, walls come tumblin’ down

Donahue revealed how in at least one case the attacks had “caused a power outage affecting multiple cities”. The CIA has refused to name the cities or countries affected by the attacks, but confirmed that all the attacks had taken place through the internet.

According to the CIA statement, the hackers’ success in compromising infrastructure security systems may have been aided by insider knowledge, although they have no way of proving this. Although blackmail was certainly one factor no other motives were presented: “We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the internet,” the statement read.

The statement has led to renewed calls for more attention to be focused on the security of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that are used to manage many civic utilities and infrastructure. The vulnerability of SCADA systems has concerned IT security specialists for many years.

Although numerous checks and balances aimed at preventing wholesale meltdown are incorporated into most SCADA systems, the CIA’s evidence suggests that there are still ways to circumnavigate even the tightest security.

tech.co.uk

Have Your Say: CIA admits hackers ‘blacked out’ cities
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

British Media Confirms Fbi Nuke Cover-up

Monday, January 21st, 2008

RAW STORY 

The Sunday Times has obtained a document that confirms that a file, which the FBI denied existed, could contain information about American officials stealing nuclear secrets for Turkish and Israeli spies, who would then sell the secrets to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, 37, approached the Times about “explosive” communications she discovered between high-up American officials and Turkish and Israeli spies. A FOIA request to the FBI, for case number 203A-WF-210023, was answered with a claim that the case number did not exist.

“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002,” says Edmonds.

One high-ranking official, identified by RAW STORY’s Larisa Alexandrovna as Marc Grossman, Ambassador to Turkey from 1994 to 1997. Grossman is said to have warned his cohorts not to do business with Brewster Jennings, a front company set up by the CIA. Brewster Jennings was also the “employer” of CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose cover, with Grossman’s help, was blown in what is widely believed to be a political hit job by the Bush Administration on her husband, Ambassador and Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson.

The entire Sunday Times article can be read HERE. More information is also available at The BRAD BLOG.

Have Your Say: British Media Confirms Fbi Nuke Cover-up
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

The national ID register will leak like an old bucket

Monday, January 21st, 2008

The record of lost data of the past few years should be a warning to us all: our personal details are safe in nobody’s hands

Jackie Ashley
The Guardian

Here’s an easy question. What do the following have in common - people on housing benefit, people getting child benefit, people wanting to be RAF pilots or Royal Marines, people in hospital and people learning to drive? The answer is that they have all had their personal details lost through government incompetence. And here’s another question. With the national database for ID cards looming, just how much do you trust the government to keep your identity details safe?

News flies past our eyes so fast, in a blur of exclamation marks and excitement, it is often hard to keep track, to join the stories together. So it’s useful to go back and remember. In this case, we only need to go back to last year when the child benefit records for a mere 25 million people, including dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank and building society details, were lost by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It happened in October, when a junior official sent the information on two CDs by the private courier TNT to the National Audit Office. They failed to arrive and have still not been found.You might think: well, a one-off, any organisation makes the odd mistake. As it happens, the HMRC had lost details of 15,000 people when they were sent to Standard Life the previous month. Also in September an HMRC laptop was lost with the details of 400 Isa holders on it. Remember that this is not just any government organisation, but the one meant to be trusted, holding the crown jewels of our financial lives. And there were other similar incidents, going back at least to 2005. Indeed, according to parliamentary answers HMRC had in the previous year been responsible for a modest 2,111 data-protection breaches.

Then in December it was revealed that more computer discs had gone missing, this time in transit between local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions, involving the same courier. This time the number of personal details involved was unclear, but it was large. One council, Kirklees, lost CDs with 45,000 names of people claiming housing benefit. At about the same time, nine English NHS trusts admitted losing the records of hundreds of thousands of patients.

Next up, learner drivers. Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, had to admit that the records of 3 million people who had sat driving tests from September 2004 to April 2007 had been lost from a hard disc in Iowa. Like the child benefit discs, the details had not been properly encrypted and, again, a “total error in procedure” was blamed.

This year has begun in the same vein. On Friday, hundreds of documents containing details of benefit claims, photocopies of passports and mortgage payments were found dumped at a roundabout near Exeter airport. And on the same day we learned about the loss of a Ministry of Defence laptop containing passport, national insurance and banking details of 600,000 people who had expressed some interest in joining the Royal Navy, Marines or RAF. There is talk of a court martial and Des Browne will be making a statement in the Commons today. But surely, after one ear-splitting, headline-grabbing warning after another, from different departments, month after month, there might be a bigger lesson here, one that goes beyond tightening this procedure or that, one rather larger in scope than internal inquiries or even prosecutions, can deal with?

Remember that this year the full national identity register, the essential core of a compulsory ID card scheme, will get properly started: from now, anyone aged over 16 applying for a passport has all their details, fingerprints, face or eye scans included, added to the register. Foreigners coming to work here get the first ID cards this year too, and although for the next two years people can opt out of having the cards, from 2010 anyone renewing or getting a passport will be included. The cards, and thus your involvement in the national identity register (which will be stored on three government databases) don’t become compulsory until after the next election - if Labour wins it. And nobody has told us if carrying the things will be compulsory too - though plenty of the arguments in favour of them fall if you don’t have to carry them.

Legally, this is all done and dusted. After five defeats in the Lords the parliamentary process is over, the scheme is taking shape, big IT contracts have been signed and the computer industry have been snarling at the Tories and Lib-Dems for threatening to ditch it. Ministers still think they are on to a winner.

Well, it seems to me that after the events of the past few months, they are wrong and that any voter who notices the news already knows what will happen. We know that millions of sensitive details will be lost. We know that material of huge use to criminals will be sent in the post, stolen, mislaid, dropped in car parks, will fall off the back of lorries and will be sent by accident to radio talkshow hosts. We know this because whatever the system, whatever the rules, from Tyne and Wear to Iowa City, they are operated by humans. And people get bored, tired, drunk, have bad days, think they’re about to be fired, are greedy and, in general, make mistakes.

The government is going to introduce a single system for all our identities. And I promise, you can’t trust it. First, it will leak like a battered old bucket. Oh yes, there will be ministerial statements. Apologies. Inquiries. Expensive new IT consultants will be brought in. Tough and unbreakable procedures will arrive. And still it will leak like a battered old bucket - except that it will be the most expensive battered old bucket in the history of the world, and we will keep pouring in money to the IT industry in the years to come.

Second, it will be riddled with errors. Great-grannies will be jumped on by armed police at Newcastle airport because of an administrative or human error. Identities will be confused. And third, whatever promises there are about keeping some things, health things, or criminal record things, off one database, these walls will be breached. There is always an emergency, a special case, on the way.

This is a fantasy of control. Whatever Des Browne says today, whatever promises he makes, however rare and unusual he says the loss of this laptop was, the truth is in the record. The national identity register will make us less safe, not more so. However late the hour, it should be scrapped.

Have Your Say: The national ID register will leak like an old bucket
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Related News

• DIANA TRUTH WILL DESTROY BRITAIN
• Ex-MI6 Chief to Testify at Diana Inquest
• DIANA KILLED BY FIAT DRIVER SAYS POLICE CHIEF
• Henri Paul’s father raises dramatic new questions over Diana’s death crash
• MoD requests ‘voluntary’ DNA samples

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.