Mexico attorney general gets microchip implant
Mexico's attorney general said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted.
Attorney General Rafael Macedo said a number of his staff had also been fitted with chips which will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerized database for crime investigators that went live on Monday. "It's an area of high security, it's necessary that we have access to this, through a chip, which what's more is unremovable," Macedo told reporters.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/mexican_attgn.htm

A tiny chip takes on a big job
Mexico's chief crime buster is walking around these days with a chip on his shoulder. Actually, it's in his shoulder.
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said this week that he and an undisclosed number of officials on his staff had chips the size of rice grains implanted in their arms to give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerized database for crime investigators that went live Monday.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S2C2154D8

Chip Implanted in Mexico Judicial Workers
Security has reached the subcutaneous level for Mexico's attorney general and at least 160 people in his office - they have been implanted with microchips that get them access to secure areas of their headquarters. It's a pioneering application of a technology that is widely used in animals but not in humans.
Mexico's top federal prosecutors and investigators began receiving chip implants in their arms in November in order to get access to restricted areas inside the attorney general's headquarters, said Antonio Aceves, general director of Solusat, the company that distributes the microchips in Mexico.
http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/judicial_employees_implanted.htm

Kidnap-wary Mexicans get chipped
Mexico's attorney general has taken the unusual step of having an "anti-kidnap" chip stuck in his arm and then making the fact public - thereby ensuring that anyone lifting señor Rafael Macedo de la Concha will be certain to remove said limb at their earliest convenience.
Mexico is suffering a kidnapping epidemic, with up to 3,000 people abducted every year. Thousands of the country's citizens recently took to the streets to demand action.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/14/mexicans_get_chipped/

Mexican crime-fighters get microchips to foil kidnaps
Crime fighters have had microchips inserted under their skin so they can be traced if they fall prey to Mexico's growing band of kidnappers. The technology also gives them access to a new crime database.
Rafael Macedo, the Attorney General, said the technology, which has been used to help owners locate and identify stray family pets, will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerised database for crime investigators that went live on Monday. Mexican federal authorities are fighting widespread police corruption that regularly compromises high-level criminal investigations. The chips, which are made by the Florida-based VeriChip Corporation, act as mini transponders, opening access to secure areas and files within prosecutors' offices in Mexico City.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=541863

Tennessee May Use GPS on Parolees
Seven contractors have expressed interest in the state's $2.5 million pilot project that would use a global positioning system, or GPS, to keep track of violent sex offenders that have been paroled.
The tracking technology was first used in Florida in late 1990s to keep track of released felons, and some cities and counties in other states utilize GPS for similar uses.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I2B2254D8

Accusations of Voter Intimidation in Fla.
State investigators looking into possible ballot fraud in the city's disputed mayoral race have been accused of intimidating elderly black voters.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents revealed their sidearms while contacting people whose absentee ballots are under question, Voter Protection Coalition spokeswoman Alma Gonzalez said Friday.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A2D2424D8

With the potential to use RFID chips in passports and other government identification, as well as consumer products such as clothing, the misuse of RFID tracking raises "seriously Orwellian concerns," she said.
A U.S. law enforcing privacy rules for RFID (radio frequency identification) isn't needed because companies experimenting with the technology are committed to protecting privacy, two such corporations told a U.S. House subcommittee Wednesday.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. continues to move forward with plans for case- and pallet-level tagging of products with RFID chips, but most item-level tagging, where individual products are identified with RFID chips, is about 10 years away, Linda Dillman, executive vice president and chief information officer of Wal-Mart, told the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. But others in the hearing noted Wal-Mart conducted product tests on lipstick in an Oklahoma store in early 2003. Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, questioned if consumers were adequately warned of the lipstick tests.

Justice Dept. Issues Report on Patriot Act Use
"The Justice Department unveiled Tuesday extensive new details of its use of the USA Patriot Act in a bid to shore up support for the embattled anti-terrorism law, asserting that it has helped thwart al Qaeda plots and led to scores of criminal convictions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks," the Washington Post reports.
"According to a 29-page report to Congress released by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, Justice Department terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against 310 people and have yielded 179 convictions or guilty pleas. The report says the Patriot Act was central to those cases." Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice and author of "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism," says, "The Patriot Act was designed to reduce privacy and increase security. It has succeeded in at least reducing privacy."
http://www.cato.org/dispatch/07-14-04d.html

SF police officer accused of using surveillance system to ogle women
San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong says officer William Rossi is accused of using the security system to quote "focus on women's breasts and buttocks."
A police officer assigned to San Francisco International Airport faces departmental charges he used surveillance cameras to ogle women passengers.
Rossi, a 25-year department veteran, could face suspension or firing.
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2052825

Officer accused of gawking at women
Internal charges say he used surveillance equipment at airport
A San Francisco police officer faces internal charges that he abandoned his traffic control duties at the airport so he could fiddle with surveillance cameras and ogle women as they walked through the terminal.
Officer William Rossi, a 25-year veteran assigned to the traffic company at San Francisco International Airport, is accused in departmental charges of using the closed-circuit surveillance system at Terminal One substation three different times Feb. 29 to "focus on women's breasts and buttocks.''
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/17/BAGP27N6M51.DTL

Frustrated Man Exposes Self During Airport Screening
Daryl Miller didn't make it through airport security because he couldn't keep his pants on. Airport police said a security screener was waving a metal-detecting wand over Miller's pants area on Friday when Miller pulled his shorts down to his ankles. He wasn't wearing any underwear.
Miller then said, "There, how do you like your job," thus ending the screening, according to the police report. He was charged with indecent exposure and released on $300 bail.
http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/frustrated_by_screener.htm

Indep. Police Stage Roadblock To Check Driver's Licenses
ACLU Questions Legality Of Stopping Drivers
Police in Independence conducted a driver checkpoint on Thursday, but it wasn't to look for drunken drivers. For about an hour Thursday afternoon, officers stopped vehicles to make sure drivers had valid licenses. But some are questioning the legality of holding such a checkpoint. Independence police have arrested more than 1,300 drivers this year for driving without a valid license, KMBC's Jim Flink reported. On Thursday, police stopped about 300 drivers on a busy street.
Independence Officer Tom Gentry said drivers without licenses pose a safety concern. "It's a public safety issue. On public highways, you don't want illegal drivers out there who might pose a grave danger," he said. But Gentry added there are other reasons for wanting to make the stops.
http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/checkpoint_cl.htm

Upholding a lower-court decision that the provider did not violate the Wiretap Act, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a precedent for e-mail service providers to legally read e-mail that passes through their network.
http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/email_snooping.htm

Acquitted Saudi Man Remains in Idaho Jail
Weeks After Being Acquitted, Saudi Man Still in Idaho Jail As Immigration Wheels Slowly Grind
Five weeks after his acquittal on terrorism support charges, and more than two weeks after his deportation was supposedly set, a Saudi graduate student remains in county jail.
"That's dismaying," Sami Omar Al-Hussayen's defense attorney, David Nevin, said Friday. "From Sami's standpoint, you're sitting in a little cell without any windows, you get out for a brief period once a day, and you've been acquitted. ... He just wants to go home."
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040717_212.html

U.S. wants some Canadians to give them the finger
If you need a visa to get into the U.S., get your fingers ready for the camera. Starting on December 31, 2004, some land ports of entry to the U.S. will be using a security system called “U.S.-Visit” that takes a digital photo of travellers' fingers before allowing them beyond the border.
According to Mike Milne, a Press Officer for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the system was passed by U.S. congress and has been in the works since 1996 in U.S. airports and seaports. After September 11, it was modified as a counter-terrorism effort and it is now being rolled out to the 50 busiest land borders. Eventually, all land ports will be using it.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040714.wfscan0714/BNStory/National/

Biometrics Beyond Terrorism
Since Sept. 11, 2001, biometrics technology has taken center stage in the global effort to secure borders and catch terrorists. Government projects are finally getting the green light, and that means that measures like fingerprint scans, hand geometry and retina scans will soon become part of our everyday reality.

As a result--and in spite of plenty of privacy concerns--the consumer market will soon see a flood of biometric applications. "The big programs are getting funded and moving forward, and that's noteworthy because if everyone is getting face-scanned and fingerprinted at the airport, people are going to become more comfortable with the technology," says Raj Nanavati, a partner with the International Biometrics Group, a New York-based research outfit. "That's going to make it much easier for the business sector to use biometrics."
http://www.forbes.com/home/infoimaging/2004/07/08/cx_pp_0708biometrics_ii.html

Make a Killing From Antiterrorism
With their eyes on a potential prize of another $33 billion in federal funding, Weaver and manufacturers of everything from video cameras to radiation detectors are busy pitching their products to the nation's antiterrorism infrastructure, a market that barely existed during the Clinton era. In many cases, technology developed by the military is making its way to local police and fire departments.
Getting a piece of the pie may not be simple, however. At the first-ever Homeland Security Conference, salesmen are facing both competition and the challenge of convincing government agencies to spend money that's plentiful but hard to get at the same time.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,64215,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

None of Your Business!
You may not have heard of the American Community Survey, but you will. The national census, which historically is taken every ten years, has expanded to quench the federal bureaucracy’s ever-growing thirst to govern every aspect of American life. The new survey, unlike the traditional census, is taken each and every year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. And it’s not brief. It contains 24 pages of intrusive questions concerning matters that simply are none of the government’s business, including your job, your income, your physical and emotional heath, your family status, your dwelling, and your intimate personal habits.
The questions are both ludicrous and insulting. The survey asks, for instance, how many bathrooms you have in your house, how many miles you drive to work, how many days you were sick last year, and whether you have trouble getting up stairs. It goes on and on, mixing inane questions with highly detailed inquiries about your financial affairs. One can only imagine the countless malevolent ways our federal bureaucrats could use this information. At the very least the survey will be used to dole out pork, which is reason enough to oppose it.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul192.html

Broadcasters May Have to Keep Recordings
Federal regulators may require broadcasters to keep a recording of their programs for up to three months to aid in investigations of indecency complaints. The FCC stepped up enforcement of indecency standards after Janet Jackson's breast-baring performance during the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
The rules the Federal Communications Commission proposed Wednesday would apply to television stations and AM/FM radio stations. Broadcasters would have to keep a recording of all material aired from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when children are most apt to be watching or listening. According to the proposal, the recordings would be retained for 60 or 90 days "to increase the effectiveness of the commission's process for enforcing restrictions on obscene, indecent, and profane broadcast programming."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A2E2124D8

Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi takes questions from reporters at a press conference in the capital Baghdad July 15, 2004. Allawi announced the formation of a domestic spy agency in a bid to uncover insurgents carrying out daily attacks on U.S.-led troops and Iraqi forces. (Bob Strong/Reuters)

Iraq PM Announces Formation of Spy Agency
For many Iraqis a new spy agency may have overtones of the Mukhabarat, Saddam Hussein's feared and powerful domestic intelligence agency which for decades kept tight tabs on the nation, but Allawi said it was for the good of the country.
Iraq's interim prime minister announced the formation of a domestic spy agency Thursday in a bid to uncover insurgents carrying out daily attacks on U.S.-led troops and Iraqi forces
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I292224D8

Tony Bliar

British intelligence lambasted over Iraq but Blair not to blame
An official British inquiry lambasted the state of pre-war intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction but said Prime Minister Tony Blair had not deliberately misled the nation into going to war.
Blair immediately accepted responsibility for any mistakes but insisted the US-led war to remove Iraqi president Saddam Hussein last year had been justified.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/95749/1/.html

South Korean translator Kim Sun-il, 33, was working for a company supplying the U.S. military when he was beheaded by his captors in June.

Bottom Dollar
In Search for Cheap Labor, ‘Third Country’ Subcontractors in Iraq Uncounted, at Risk
The latest kidnappings of contract workers in Iraq — a Filipino truck driver and two Bulgarians — along with the beheading of a South Korean last month raise the question: What are Filipinos, Bulgarians and Koreans doing in Iraq?
Tens of thousands of "third-country" workers are helping to secure, police and rebuild Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and years of economic sanctions. Some 4,000 workers are from the Philippines alone, working on U.S. bases across the country.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/World/Business/contractors_040713-1.html

Cowardice Case Against Soldier Dropped
The military has decided not to pursue charges against a U.S. soldier accused of cowardice after he sought help for panic attacks.
After Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany asked for counseling while in Iraq, his commanders sent him home to Fort Carson to face a court-martial on a cowardice charge, which can be punishable by death.
The Army later replaced it with the lesser dereliction-of-duty charge, which could have put Pogany behind bars for six months.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1F2424D8

President Bush (news - web sites) meets with Mongolian President Natsagiyn Bagabandi in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, July 15, 2004, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Bush Meets Mongolia's President
President Bush met Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi in the Oval Office on Thursday and thanked him for sending peacekeepers to Iraq and helping rebuild Afghanistan
"The United States and Mongolia agreed to continue working to advance Mongolia's contribution to international peacekeeping efforts," said a joint statement by the two nations.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I272124D8

Russia To Send Troops To Iraq?
40,000 troops and an agreement 'in principle' say sources
Russia, reports Stratfor, is seriously considering sending up to 40,000 troops to Iraq. If so, this has the potential to seriously affect the ongoing situation in Iraq and the campaign at home
Moscow and Washington are quietly negotiating a request by the Bush administration to send Russian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan this fall, Russian government sources tell Stratfor. The talks are intense, our contacts close to the U.S. State Department say, and the timing is not insignificant. A Russian troop lift to either country before the U.S. presidential election would give U.S. President George W. Bush a powerful boost in the campaign.
http://scoop.agonist.org/story/2004/7/16/1870/82806

Russia warns Nato on Baltic military patrols
Russia warned Nato yesterday against deploying forces in the former Soviet bloc and said that the Baltic states' failure to respect the rights of ethnic Russians represented a "threat" to the country.
Russia has long felt threatened by the encroachment of Nato on its borders, and Sergei Ivanov, the Defence Minister, said: "What alarms us most, from the point of view of our own security, is the Nato deployment of means and forces on the territory of its new members."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=540656

Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar said Pakistan remained 'committed to fulfill its obligations in implementing sanctions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban'(AFP/File)

UN commends Pakistan's role in terror fight
The United Nations' team monitoring Al-Qaeda and the Taliban commended Pakistan's role in global fight against terrorism, the foreign ministry said.
A five-member team, which has been visiting Pakistan since Wednesday, held talks with senior foreign ministry officials, and Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar said Pakistan remained "committed to fulfill its obligations in implementing sanctions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L203354D8

'Secret film shows Iraq prisoners sodomised'
Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.
Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union. He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
http://www.infowars.com/print/iraq/sodomized.htm

Bremer May Testify on Iraq Prisoner Abuse
More cases of possible mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners have come to Congress' attention and need investigation by the Pentagon, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., also said that L. Paul Bremer, the former head of the American-led occupation in Iraq, may testify about prison abuse at a congressional hearing next week
http://makeashorterlink.com/?M2A2424D8

'Casualties' will undergo a decontamination process

'Largest' simulated terror attack
'Casualties' will undergo a decontamination process
One of the largest ever simulated terrorist attacks involving civilians in the UK is being staged in the West Midlands.
Emergency planners want to test how well more than 2,000 fire, ambulance and police officers will respond to Sunday's staged poison gas attack. Around 400 volunteers from the Army and Red Cross will be "contaminated" at a major public venue. But the Fire Brigades Union said its members are taking part under duress. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/3898509.stm

Living in Constant Fear and Constant Hope - Psyops –USA
For the better part of four years the United States of America has been conditioned to expect fear. Not just any small fear, but fear of total devastation and destruction. This “fear” has become contagious as it spreads throughout the planet.
If one were to look at the history of humankind, they will realize that terrorism, war and murder has been a constant. Much worse events have taken place than the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 yet did NOT start World War Three, nor suppress collective human rights.
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/8186/

CIA Official: Iraq War Helping al-Qaida
A CIA official who claims in a book that the West is losing the war on terror said in an interview Tuesday night that the war in Iraq was actually helping al-Qaida.
"Iraq was a gift of epic proportions to Osama bin Laden and those who think like him," the man said, his face hidden during the interview on the British Broadcasting Corp. "Newsnight" show.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H423214D8

FBI Warns al-Qaida May Recruit Non-Arabs
Al-Qaida may be recruiting non-Arabs less likely to attract the notice of security personnel to carry out attacks inside the United States, the FBI warned on Friday. The terror network especially seeks operatives who have U.S. citizenship or legal residency status, the FBI's counterterrorism division said in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
"Finding operatives with U.S. status would greatly facilitate al-Qaida's ability to carry out an attack within the United States," said the bulletin, obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?U133514D8

The biggest crime in American history and planes are grounded. Yet the House of Saud gets safe passage home
The ties between the Bush family and the Saudi royals are revealed in a hard-hitting new book by Craig Unger, a key source for Michael Moore's film 'Fahrenheit 9/11'. It was the second Wednesday of September 2001. Terrorist attacks had grounded all commercial and private aviation throughout the entire United States for the first time in history.

Former vice-president Al Gore was stranded in Austria because his flight to the United States was cancelled. Former president Bill Clinton was stuck in Australia. Major League Baseball games were postponed. American skies were nearly as empty as they had been when the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk. America was paralysed by terror, and for 48 hours, virtually no one could fly. No one, that is, except for the Saudis. [In Washington] Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, was orchestrating the exodus of more than 140 Saudis scattered throughout the country. They included members of two families: One was the royal House of Saud, the family that ruled the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and which, thanks to the country's vast oil reserves, was without question the richest family in the world. The other family was the Sauds' close friends and allies, the Bin Ladens, who in addition to owning a multibillion-dollar construction conglomerate had spawned the notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=542117

Pete Townshend (front) - He'll be giving the film a miss then

PETE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!
THE WHO's PETE TOWNSHEND has hit out at film-maker MICHAEL MOORE, calling him a "bully".
Moore, who has just released his new documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11', wanted to use Townshend's song 'Won't Get Fooled Again' for the release. However, the guitarist refused and now claims that Moore accused him of being in support of the war. In a posting on his official website petetownshend.com, Townshend said: "I have nothing against Michael Moore personally... but I greatly resent being bullied and slurred by him in interviews just because he didn't get what he wanted from me." He continued: "It seems to me that this aspect off his nature is not unlike that of the powerful and wilful man at the centre of his new documentary.
http://www.nme.com/news/109183.htm

Moore accused The Who star Townshend of being pro-war

Townshend brands Moore 'a bully'
Moore accused The Who star Townshend of being pro-war
The Who's guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has accused film-maker Michael Moore of being a "bully" in a letter posted on his website. Moore had wanted to use Townshend's song Won't Get Fooled Again on the soundtrack to his anti-Iraq war film Fahrenheit 9/11. After Townshend refused, the guitarist, 59, claims Moore accused him of being in favour of the war. Townshend said he resented the comments made by the documentary maker.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3893265.stm

Feds knew about 9-11 bribery conspiracy before attacks
Homeland Security whistleblower Mary Schneider is naming names, revealing that former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and numerous U.S. senators and congressmen knew before the September 11 attacks that U.S. immigration officials were bribed by an illegal Moroccan Muslim allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden’s half-brother. This according to Schneider, who was told about the illegal alien's ties to terrorism by outside informant Bonnie Sharrit.
Khalil bin Laden was allowed to leave the country after 9-11 via a documented 140-person multi-flight Saudi airlift through the auspices of the White House who declined to hold Khalid as a material witness despite his suspicious connections to the Tri-Border frontier region of Brazil--known for evidence of terrorism--but also Khalil's inquiries to informant Bonnie Sharrit about bringing in Arabs from Saudi Arabia and Brazil to attend a Florida flight school.
http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=68

The new acting CIA (news - web sites) Director John McLaughlin speaks to the CIA's workforce at headquarters in Langley, Va., Friday, July 16, 2004, and promised the agency's senior leadership would absorb the criticism following a brutal report on the flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq (news - web sites) invasion. (AP Photo/CIA)

Kerry Vows to Double Ranks of Spies, Create Czar
Democratic White House challenger John Kerry on Friday urged President Bush to take full responsibility for flawed U.S. intelligence on Iraq, proposed to create a spy czar and vowed to double the number of clandestine agents.
He also recommended that domestic intelligence remain under the purview of the FBI, rejecting a separate agency like Britain's MI5, an idea that had been supported by his vice presidential running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. He also would "double or more than double" clandestine personnel, but declined to supply numbers because the information was classified. In addition, he would reorganize the intelligence services around specific threats like terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and hostile countries. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5695000

Kerry Pledges to Double Intelligence Spending
Citing U.S. intelligence failures on terrorism and Iraq, Sen. John F. Kerry pledged today to more than double spending on spy operations as he outlined plans to revamp the nation's gathering of intelligence.
The Democratic presidential hopeful gave few details of the changes, but he stressed his pledge to create a new Cabinet post to oversee the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
His proposal to name a national intelligence czar has won support from a number of blue-ribbon panels, including the joint congressional committee that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. But The Times reported Sunday that President Bush was likely to oppose such a proposal and instead endorse a more limited centralizing authority within the nation's 15 spy agencies, according to a senior Republican strategist familiar with White House planning.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C263324D8

Kerry Backs Much of Pre-Emption Doctrine
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Friday he would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists if he had adequate intelligence of a threat.
Kerry offered some support for one of the most controversial aspects of President Bush's national security policy, even as he criticized the president for not reforming intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "Am I prepared as president to go get them before they get us if we locate them and have the sufficient intelligence? You bet I am," he said at a news conference at his Washington headquarters.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D573134D8

US Troops Will Stay In The Balkans If Kerry Wins Election
US will stay in Balkan if Democrats win in US
Balkan's countries have made substantial progress, but still they are not in front of the NATO doors, Rubin said. Rubin criticizes the administration of the incumbent US President George Bush, because it has allowed the European countries, which were not effective in crisis management, to solve the situation in Balkan.
US will continue its presence in Balkan if the candidate of the Democratic Party, John Kerry, wins the presidential election, the former Spokesman of the State Department, James Rubin, said in an interview for the national radio "Voice of America".
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=3435

HOUSE MEMBERS WILL DISCUSS REQUEST TO UNITED NATIONS TO MONITOR ELECTION
The request by several Members of Congress to the United Nations to send observers to monitor the upcoming Presidential election has sparked interest around the globe. At this juncture a dozen House Members have signed the letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Thursday morning those Members who have signed the U.N. letter will hold a news conference on Capitol Hill to discuss the ramifications of their request.
”We are hoping that our action will alleviate the nation from the suffering it took in 2000 when things went awry at the ballot box,” said Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who is spearheading the effort. “We are hoping our action will restore confidence in the electoral process. We are hoping that every registered person gets to vote and that that vote is counted.”
http://www.infowars.com/print/nwo/monitor_election.htm

The white-haired old woman waved a hand over the hedge. "Just up there is Harrowdown Hill, where David Kelly committed suicide - allegedly," she says. Like a number of other locals, she speaks darkly about insufficient blood and of how men in strange cars had been seen around the village that day.
A year ago today, David Kelly took his final walk. He now rests near the family home, but fellow villagers feel no closure.Up the road in the next village of Longworth, in the grounds of the parish church of St Mary, lies David Kelly's grave. Beside it an elderly couple are tending the grave of a 90-year-man who died five months after Britain's leading expert on chemical and biological weapons. "The deep sense of anger at the time - that David's death had been caused by Blair and his cronies - has been increased by the Butler report," says Steve Ward at the Hind's Head. "It turns out that the facts were exactly as David said: the dossier had been hardened up for political reasons; all the caveats had been removed by the Government; the 45-minute warning should not have been in. Which is all exactly what David was saying. He has been totally exonerated. The guy lost his life for stating the truth."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=541873

The Damning Evidence
Revealed: Government witnesses knew September dossier was unsafe - but did not tell Hutton
Crucial doubts about Iraq's ability to produce chemical weapons were withheld from two inquiries which examined the Government's case for war. Lord Hutton's investigation into the death of David Kelly and Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, which monitors the intelligence services, were not told that information which helped Tony Blair claim that Saddam Hussein posed a "serious and current" threat had already been discredited and withdrawn by MI6.
The disclosure put new pressure on John Scarlett, the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), who is being urged to resign from his new post as head of MI6 following the criticism of the pre-war intelligence in the Butler report published on Wednesday.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541514

TV watching leads to adult health risks
Children and adolescents who watch television for at least two hours a day increase risk of poor health as adults, researchers from New Zealand said.
A team from the University of Otago conducted the first longitudinal study of television's effects on health from childhood into adulthood. They followed 1,000 children born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973 and found extensive TV viewing increased the future risk of obesity, smoking, high cholesterol and poor cardiovascular fitness by the time the group reached age 26.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=1ef746fdf504c35d

Zahra Kazemi

But Iranian authorities already cleared him of wrongdoing and are instead trying an intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi for the death.
Saturday's court proceedings were attended by ambassadors from Canada and the Netherlands, which is the current president of the European Union. The case has strained relations between Canada and Iran. Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison last year during a student-led protest. Authorities initially said she died from a stroke, but a later investigation found she died from a blow to the head.
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=5F92E779-2427-43E7-808C85B69C40D5D9

US bank helped Pinochet hide millions of dollars: US Senate report
A respected American bank discretely helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide millions of dollars over an eight-year period, even after he was arrested in London in 1998 and a court froze his assets, a US Senate report said.
Executives of Washington-based Riggs Bank approached Pinochet in Chile in 1994 and invited him to open an account, said Senator Carl Levin, delivering the conclusions of the document in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Levin, calling the 88-year-old Pinochet a "notorious military leader accused of involvement with death squads, corruption, arms sales and drug trafficking," said the former general agreed to open the account.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G583124D8

A respected American bank discretely helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites), seen here in 1996, to hide millions of dollars over an eight-year period, even after he was arrested in London in 1998 and a court froze his assets, a US Senate report said.(AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)

US bank helped dictator hide millions
A respected American bank discretely helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide millions of dollars over an eight-year period, even after he was arrested in London in 1998 and a court froze his assets, a US Senate report said today.
Executives of Washington-based Riggs Bank approached Pinochet in Chile in 1994 and invited him to open an account, said Senator Carl Levin, delivering the conclusions of the document in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Levin, calling the 88-year-old Pinochet a "notorious military leader accused of involvement with death squads, corruption, arms sales and drug trafficking," said the former general agreed to open the account.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694539404.html

'World's most important bank' sold after months of scandal
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world" was the boast of Riggs Bank, pillar of an old-line Washington establishment and banker of choice to the dozens of foreign embassies at the court of the global superpower.
Yesterday, 168 years of independence came to an undignified end as Riggs was sold off to a financial group based in Pittsburgh. The sale capped the worst two months in the bank's long history, marked by a record fine for money laundering offences, accusations that it hid money for the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and a growing scandal at its embassy banking division, featuring Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=541867

DISCOVERY CHANNEL TO AIR FIRST EVER DOCUMENTARY ON KAL 007
Devvy Kidd, one of NWVs feature writers has written extensively about the downing of Korean Air Lines KAL 007 on Setptember 1, 1983. The Discovery Channel, to date the first and only cable or non cablet network is going to air a documentary on KAL 007 as part of its Unsolved History Series.
63 Americans were aboard that ill fated flight and are believed to be alive and being held by the Russians. This documentary includes interviews with General Kornukov, Pilot Gennady Osipovich, Commentator James Oberg, ICAO investigators, and Bert and Exie Schlossberg.
http://www.newswithviews.com/news_worthy/news_worthy64.htm

Can Bush's golden girls be America's sweethearts?
The First Daughters are on the campaign trail. Yet despite a glossy media makeover, Jenna and Barbara's wild ways could prove an electoral liability for their father. Given their past antics, there must be at least a twinge of concern in the White House that Barbara and Jenna could yet have the capacity to embarrass their father.

Only last weekend, The New York Times carried a long feature written by a former hostess at a Manhattan hotspot in which she recalls seeing an inebriated Barbara, allegedly the better-behaved of the two, bent over outside the back door almost vomiting on the pavement.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=541864

Bush Extends Debate on Values to Children
Bush highlighted his proposals to spend $23 million for drug testing in schools and $25 million to encourage schools to develop curricula promoting good character.
President Bush is extending the political debate over values by citing evidence that strong families and communities are developing responsibility and character in the nation's children.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q293534D8

Killer Superbugs Soar In Hospitals
Killer superbugs are now out of control with 5,000 people a year dying from viruses picked up in hospitals says a damning report. Health chiefs have been slammed for allowing patients to be treated in filthy hospitals where the number of patients contracting infections is soaring.
The numbers of blood infections from Staphylococcus aureus has gone up almost 8% from 17,933 in 2001-02 to 19,311 in 2003-04 - of these 40% were a strain of the deadly MRSA. Britain has the highest infection rate in Europe for MRSA which is resistant to most antibiotics. The report says our hospitals are dirtier than those in countries such as Romania.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040714/140/exz0i.html

Official: China Aims to Balance Gender
China hopes to achieve a normal balance of newborn boys and girls within six years by banning the use of abortions to select an infant's sex and by making welfare payments to couples without sons, a family planning official said Thursday.
Government figures show 117 boys are born in China for every 100 girls — a gap blamed largely on a policy limiting most couples to one child. In a society that values sons, many parents abort baby girls, hoping to try again for a boy.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z182234D8

'Red Tour' of Mao's Hometown
To lure the young to the hometown of late Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong, China has launched a discounted "Red Tour" in true capitalist fashion. The idea is to lure 1 million students, who will enjoy price concessions, from all over the country to Shaoshan during their summer vacation, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"Students will enjoy preferential prices when they visit some memorial sites such as the old residence of Mao," Xinhua said.

German 'Big Brother' socialite admits fraud that led to her husband's murder
A German society hostess and former Big Brother contestant who once boasted that she was a "woman of luxury" yesterday admitted setting up a bizarre insurance fraud that led to her elderly husband being beaten to death by a gang of Eastern European car thieves.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=540657

Schwarzenegger to Take a Licking
Austrian fans of their famous compatriot Arnold Schwarzenegger will be able to lick the back of the California Governor when his image appears on a special edition of postage stamps at the end of this month.
The former bodybuilder and film star chose the portrait of himself that will be used on one-euro stamps to be issued in Austria on his 57th birthday, July 30, a postal service spokesman said on Friday.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I6C3164D8

Anger of a quiet German village where neo-Nazis plan an SS-style baby farm
A normally tranquil west German village has been traumatised by a notorious neo-Nazi lawyer's plans to turn its 19th-century manor house and adjoining estate into an Aryan-style baby farm designed to further the Nordic race.
The dubious project has been launched by Jürgen Rieger, a wealthy 57-year-old Hamburg lawyer and specialist in defending members of the German far right. He has convictions for incitement to racial hatred. The former member of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party has appeared at far-right rallies in Britain and praised the British fascist Oswald Mosley. He is also a fervent advocate of "racial purity". In a book on the subject, he wrote of the "disastrous effects of bastardising races" and promised, "the white giants are coming".
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=541481

Public to be consulted on 'designer baby' ethics
People are being asked to voice their opinion on "designer babies" and other developments involving the genetic testing of human embryos in a nationwide poll of views. A consultation document published yesterday by the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) asks the public to raise its concerns when it comes to selecting a baby's sex or improving its genetic make-up.
The organisation wants to gather opinions before it formulates its own advice to ministers at the end of next year on how to respond to new developments in genetics and reproduction.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=541872

'Brain fingerprinting' proves Death Row convict's innocence
A convicted murderer facing a death sentence in America hopes that a new forensic science technique called "brain fingerprinting" which tracks human memories will rescue him from the executioner.
Jimmy Ray Slaughter was convicted in Oklahoma of the 1991 murders of his ex-girlfriend and their baby daughter, and sentenced to die by lethal injection. He always said he was innocent but his appeals procedure against the death sentence was running out when his lawyer heard about the technique. The tests showed that Slaughter did not commit the murders and an appeals court is expected to make a decision soon on whether to set him free.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=542119

Prince warns of science 'risks'
The Prince of Wales has warned of the possible risks of nanotechnology and called for the cutting edge science to be used "wisely and appropriately". In the Independent on Sunday he quotes a retired university professor saying it would be "surprising" if it did not "offer similar upsets" to thalidomide.
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials one-millionth the size of a pinhead. Prince Charles' concerns about nanotechnology sparked a row last year. Although his comments have been broadly welcomed by scientists, many feel his reference to thalidomide was "inappropriate and irrelevant".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3883749.stm

Hawking Rethinks Black Hole Theory
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is revising his 30-year-old theory concerning black holes, saying that perhaps some information can escape from black holes after all. The about-face may resolve a longstanding debate with physicists who argue that Hawking's theory violated the laws of quantum physics.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2E3224D8

Soylent Green....Milk and coffee produced from.....blood?!
Scientists from the Russian city of Voronezh managed to produce milk and coffee from.blood.
Scientists from a technological academy located in the Russian city of Voronezh developed a revolutionary technique of producing an entire array of food products such as milk, yogurt, chocolate and coffee from blood, reported the academy's administration to "Interfax".
http://www.infowars.com/print/science/milk_from_blood.htm

Intel: Moore's Law Here to Stay
In 1965, Intel’s Gordon Moore said the number of transistors could be doubled every 2 years, with an update in 1975 to address scaling issues.
At opening day of this year’s Semicon West, 26-year Intel veteran Paolo Gargini, Intel Fellow and director of technology strategy as well as chairman of the ITRS said there is still plenty of steam left in Moore’s Law.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P2F3514D8

"...we'll be so well-programmed..."
Though bioethicists have their doubts, Justice de Thézier and his fellow transhumanists want to build a supertechnological you. "The stated goal is to create humans that have superintelligence, superemotions, that you won't have to worry about wars and conflict because we'll be so well-programmed. That has an ultra-humanist base but I think it fails to understand the complexities and values of what we are."
Transhumanists believe that amazing technological advances will hit us quite suddenly, possibly in a magical moment called "singularity," when an advanced artificial intelligence unit will offer a host of technological advances all at once, at which point "the progress curve becomes nearly vertical," says Thézier. Some improvements have already arrived, such as the improved method of cryogenic freezing called vitrefication, which he enthusiastically reports "turns a body into something like glass, thereby leaving tissues undamaged." Perhaps the most heralded upcoming innovation is also the most controversial: germline engineering, which would see a defective or undesirable gene removed from one's genetic structure, ensuring that the trait would not be passed on. It's rife with controversy, but these guys are all for it.
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2004/070104/news3.html

Max More: Transhumanist Mainman
Max More In Conversation With R.U. Sirius
Max More coined the term “transhumanism.” Admittedly, that’s a small leap from the previously extant word “Transhuman” but it still says something about who More is. He organized what was probably the first transhumanist group, the Extropy Institute, in 1991 and laid out some essential principles for the movement.
Since that time, the Extropians have been argued over, laughed at, and – more recently – noted for their prescience – as even Presidential advisers start to contemplate the awesome potentials for life enhancement and extension in the bio-nano age.
You can find other aspects of the superhumanizing and self-overcoming aspects of extropic thinking in my early fascination with self-improvement psychology (for example, Maxwell Maltz’ Psychocybernetics around 1977) and with my exploration of the occult and claims of psychic powers. Occultism held my attention starting at about 10 years of age. I learned Transcendental Meditation from my Latin teacher, Mr. Mohan, in 1976 (when I was 12), and went on the try out all kinds of things from the Rosicrucians to study of the Kabbalah.
http://www.life-enhancement.com/NeoFiles/default.asp?ID=39

Anthropomorphic androids are everywhere, performing tasks their human creators can't or won't do in the futuristic sci-fi film I, Robot. Will such personal robots become reality? (Digital Domain)

Is I, Robot Our Future?
The Fact and Fantasy of 'Droid Development
Robotics Society head Dave Calkins believes that with the rapid advancements in processing power and other computer-related technology 2035 is a fair date to expect to run into Sonny on the street, but Pirjanian and even Nikgohar, who is readying a personal-assistant robot for commercial release later this year, see Sonny as overly optimistic for 2035.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/ZDM/robotics_commentary_pcmag_040716.html

Chuck Thorpe, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh

Creator of the web turns knight
Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor of the world wide web, has received his knighthood from the Queen. The "father of the web", who already has an OBE, went to Buckingham Palace to get his reward for "services to the global development of the internet".
In 1991, the knight of the web came up with a system to organise, link and browse pages on the net. Famously modest, he said he had just been "in the right place at the right time" and did not want his photo taken. During the hour-long ceremony held in the Ballroom at the Palace, the Queen knighted Sir Tim using the sword that belonged to her father, King George VI.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3899723.stm

Oracle Considers Ramping Up R&D in China
Oracle Corp. is looking to increase its research capacity in China, its fastest-growing market, and hopes to plug the software developed here into its global network, an executive said on Friday.
California-based Oracle, the world's second most valuable software company after Microsoft Corp., runs two research facilities in China, one in the capital and another in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D413534D8

Top 100 AIDS Science Inconsistencies
The mounting inconsistencies in Aids are clear grounds for a major overhaul of the Aids paradigm. We expose the misrepresentation, fraud, pseudo-science and unsubstantiated hype in Aids treatment today.

All the inconsistencies below are substantiated by independent research. The persistence of the HIV=AIDS=Death dogma is truly astonishing, in the face of so many specific scientific flaws.
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/Top100AidsInconsistencies.htm

Poll: Public Support Slips for Iraq War
A majority of Americans now say the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, according to a new poll.
The CBS-New York Times poll, released Friday, found that just over half, 51 percent, said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, while 45 percent said going to war was the right decision. Last month, people were evenly split on that question.
Sentiment on that question has slipped steadily since December, when the decision to go to war was supported by more than 2-to-1.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H204124D8

Majority of Britons would not trust Blair in another war: poll
Almost six out of 10 Britons would not trust Prime Minister Tony Blair to lead the country into another war following intelligence failures over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, a poll showed. The opinion poll for the Sunday Times newspaper found that 57 percent of people would not trust Blair were he to take Britain into another conflict, with a mere 31 percent saying they would.
The figures are a damning indictment of how far public belief in the prime minister has plummeted in the wake of last year's US-led war in Iraq, which Blair strongly backed despite widespread domestic opposition.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X514614D8

The Right Not to Vote
Poll: Americans Oppose a Law That Would Make Voting Compulsory
Regardless of the closeness of the last presidential go-round, the freedom to stay home on Election Day is one right most Americans don't want to surrender.
Just as they did 40 years ago, most Americans by far reject the idea of requiring all citizens to vote, according to a new ABC News poll. Sampling, data collection and tabulation for this poll were done by TNS. The poll found that 72 percent of respondents oppose a law that would require all eligible citizens to vote in national elections and levy a small fine on non-voters who do not have a good excuse for skipping the polls. Just 21 percent said that enacting a law that makes voting compulsory would be a good idea. The results are almost identical to those found in Gallup polls in 1965, when 69 percent opposed such a law. Opinions haven't changed, even though voter turnout has slipped from about 63 percent of eligible voters in 1964 to 55 percent in 2000.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/Polls/No_vote_poll_040611.html

Guns Worn In Open Legal, But Alarm Va.
'Exercising Right' Called 'Unreasonable' by Some
On July 2, Fairfax County police received a 911 call from a Champps restaurant in Reston. Six men are seated at a table, the caller said. They're all armed. Dispatchers quickly sent four officers to the scene. The officers were "extremely polite" and were hoping that some of the men were in law enforcement, said Sgt. Richard Perez, a spokesman for the police department. None was. The men told the officers "they were just exercising their rights as citizens of the commonwealth," Perez said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50416-2004Jul14?language=printer