All The News
Friday, October 27, 2006
Newsweek: Malcolm Beith: Clean Nukes Go Public
Thorium Power Ltd. says it's nearing its goal—a commercial reactor that doesn't produce bomb fuel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15359295/site/newsweek/
Reuters: Saudi Arabia confirms threat to oil facilities
Western naval forces in the Gulf have been deployed to counter a possible seaborne threat to its Ras Tanura oil terminal...
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-10-27T151907Z_01_L27837086_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-SAUDI-THREAT.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
(LAUGH OR CRY)
MSNBC: AP: Warships deploy around S. Arabia oil facilities
Britain cites al-Qaida threat; U.S. naval forces on heightened alert
The British navy, part of the Italian-led Coalition Task Force 152 that patrols international waters off the Ras Tanura terminal, sent an e-mail warning on Friday asking merchant shippers in the region of Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia to be on alert for suspicious vessels or other activity.
Task Force 152 also contains ships from French, U.S., German and other navies.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, said it was aware of the British warning...
The British official said the coalition ships were confining their patrols to international waters and had not been invited by Saudi Arabia to patrol inside its territorial waters near the terminal.
“The Saudis are very protective of their patch,” the British official in Dubai said, describing the patrols as normal naval operations that had been under way since 2002, albeit on a heightened state for the past month...
On Friday, light sweet crude for December delivery fell 10 cents to $60.26 a barrel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15442751/
Guardian: The secret Whitehall telegram that reveals truth behind controversial Saudi arms deal
· Document shows Riyadh paid £600m extra for jets
· Evidence points to corrupt payments in 1985 contract
David Leigh and Rob Evans
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,,1933764,00.html
Guardian: As violence grows, oil-rich Kirkuk could hold key to Iraq's future
Tribal chiefs call for return of Saddam while Kurds eye a new federal state
Michael Howard in Kirkuk
Accompanied by about 500 clansmen and a gaggle of local journalists, the 35 Sunni sheikhs - from Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Hawija - converged last week on Hindiya, on the scrappy western edges of Kirkuk, to swear their undying opposition to "conspiracies" to partition Iraq and to pledge allegiance to their president, Saddam Hussein...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1932789,00.html
AFP: Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist
An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between
Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC.
Iban al Shakh al Libby told intelligence agents that he was close to Al-Qaeda leaders
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and "understood an awful lot about the inner workings of Al-Qaeda," former FBI agent Jack Clonan told the broadcaster...
"What he claimed most significantly was a connection between ... Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime of
Saddam Hussein. This intelligence report made it all the way to the top, and was used by (former US secretary of state)
Colin Powell as a key piece of justification ... for invading Iraq," he told the broadcaster.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usbritainiraqmilitary
23 Oct: Afterdowningstreet: Greg Mitchell: Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos
NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic."
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14864
President Bush and NATO Secretary General Deliver Remarks in Oval Office
Q Mr. President, with the elections just about 10 days away, polls show that voters are more disenchanted with the Republican-led Congress than at any time since 1994, when the Democrats lost power. What explanation or answer do you have for people who feel that way?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I understand people here in Washington have already determined the outcome of the elections.
***As I said in my press conference the other day, I've seen it before where people start measuring the drapes in their new offices before the vote has been counted -- in other words, they're taking the people's vote for granted.
This election is going to be determined by how our candidates run locally. And I believe if they continue to emphasize the big issues -- keeping taxes low, and protecting the American people -- we'll win. And so we'll see how the outcome comes. I know there's a lot of speculation here in Washington, D.C., and there's a lot of fascination about listening to these pundits and people who are giving their opinions.
All I can tell you is what I see: I see enthusiasm amongst Republicans, I see candidates who are saying, vote for me, I will work to make sure America doesn't get attacked again. And I'm seeing candidates saying, I understand that if we run up your taxes like the Democrats do, it's going to hurt this economy, and so we'll keep your taxes low.
Thank you all very much.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061027.html
Pew: Democrats Hold Double-Digit Lead in Competitive Districts
GOP Troubles Extend into Home Territory
Nationally, the Democrats hold a 49%-38% lead among registered voters, and a nearly identical 50%-39% lead among those voters most likely to cast ballots on Nov. 7.
An oversample of voters in 40 competitive districts identified by a consensus of political analysts shows that voting intentions in the battleground districts are about the same as they are in the "safe" House districts. Among registered voters, the Democrats lead by 11 points in competitive districts (50%-39%) and by the same margin in safe districts (49%-38%). ..
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=293
Bradblog: Bush's U.S. Elections Assistance Commission is Hopelessly Compromised, Misleading America and Utterly Failing in Their Job of Overseeing U.S. Elections
Current Chairman Paul DeGregorio Now Running a Desperate Misinformation Propaganda Campaign Just Days Before Election…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3677
Bradblog: Touch-Screen Votes Reportedly Hopping to Republicans During Early Voting in Texas, Missouri and Arkansas…
[NOTE: Please Bring a Video Camera to the Polls To Document These Things This Year!!!]
Here are three different reports over the last day or two of touch-screen votes flipping from Democrats or Libertarians over to Republicans...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3675
(REPUBLICAN OFFENSIVE AGAIN)BetaNews: Governor Warns of Crisis in Wake of Diebold 'Repair' Revelations
By Scott M. Fulton, III
The revelations yesterday prompted the state's Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich, Jr. -- who is running for re-election there, and is behind in the polls -- to pronounce yesterday that the voting situation is "approaching crisis proportions." There may not be enough absentee ballots, the Governor says, to service a growing number of voters who have become so distrustful of the electronic voting system that they may stay home on November 7...
Ehrlich has reportedly asked the state elections chief, Linda Lamone -- whom he previously indicated he would fire, if he had the power to do so -- to find another supplier to fulfill outstanding absentee ballot requests in five of the state's 24 jurisdictions...
While all this was going on, IDG reporter Robert McMillan reported yesterday that he had discovered a slick, professional-looking Web site purporting to represent a firm called "Election Consultants," which appears to sell services guaranteeing paid clients of desired outcomes in electronically managed elections.
"The future of election management is today's reality," the site proclaims. "Election Consultants has pioneered breakthrough technology that provides unprecedented results in election outcomes. Most notably, our flagship products, SmartVote and VoteCorrect, deliver unparalleled outcome results that are guaranteed." A notice toward the end stipulates results can only be guaranteed where electronic voting machines are used.
Though McMillan spoke to a person who answered the site's toll-free number purporting to represent the company, other sources believe the site -- whose URL is "www.fixavote.com" -- to be either a carefully produced satire, or a promotional effort for some kind of upcoming dramatic production. Whether the premiere date of that production would fall before or after the November elections is unknown.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Governor_Warns_of_Crisis_in_Wake_of_Diebold_Repair_Revelations/1161969961
Delmarvanow: Absentee ballot demand grows
By Joseph Gidjunis
CAMBRIDGE -- In 28 years, Bobbie Hall has never seen such a demand for absentee ballots. As Dorchester Coun-ty's Interim Elections Office director, she said this year's state and local races have already outpaced the greatest demand in any presidential year...
The demand hasn't exceeded the local supply, but other counties have not been so fortunate. Earlier this week, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties had received only 20 percent of the ballots they requested, county elections officials said. Howard County has received only 18 percent, Montgomery County has received 60 percent and Baltimore City has received less than half of the ballots requested.
"We're seeing more interest because of what the news media is doing (to explain absentee voting), and the parties are sending notices out to their voters," Hall said...ETC
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061027/NEWS01/610270302/1002
Bradblog: Clint Curtis Makes the Cover of Bush's 'Hometown' Paper, Says He Plans to File Lawsuit Against Tom Feeney
The Vote-Rigging Whistleblower Turned Congressional Opponent to Alleged Vote-Rigger Creeps Closer and Closer to the Bush's…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3674
Guardian: US warned of ballot box chaos as elections near
· Report says 10 states not ready for electronic vote
· Scientist hacks into new polling machine on TV
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0%2C%2C1932655%2C00.html
Bradblog: NPR Finds a 'Dramatic Shift' to Democrats Among Rural Voters
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3676
OpEdNews: Pull the Plug on E-Voting, Part 2
by Bruce O'Dell
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_o__061026_pull_the_plug_on_e_v.htm
Bradblog: CNN's Lou Dobbs: 'It's a Case of Special Interest Over The National Interest'
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3673
Bradblog: 'Daily Voting News' For October 26, 2006
Lou Dobbs has taped a one-hour "Democracy At Risk" special to be aired at various times on CNN this coming Sunday. Be sure to tune in.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3672
READ ALL: Wonkette: 'Mr. Secretary, What'd You Have Torched At Ft. Meade's 902nd Military Intel Group?'
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/pentagon/mr-secretary-whatd-you-have-torched-at-ft-meades-902nd-military-intel-group-210486.php
NewsChannel5: "Listening devices" found in Memphis homeland security office
MEMPHIS, Tenn. The F-B-I is investigating the discovery of four listening devices found in the Shelby County Homeland Security office.
Officials asked the F-B-I to "sweep" the office after W-H-B-Q T-V reported it had "damaging and embarrassing" audio recordings that were secretly made and given to the station.
Memos obtained by The Commercial Appeal (newspaper) indicate top county officials suspect former interim Homeland Security administrator John Todd, who didn't respond to phone calls from the newspaper.
What's on the tapes isn't generally known, but Todd told federal officials he had evidence of wrongdoing in the office.
County public works director Ted Fox says the F-B-I's check of the office the middle of this month found the consumer-quality listening devices above ceiling tiles.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?s=5598292
PressHerald: Activists fear they've become FBI targets
By GREGORY D. KESICH
The FBI has released more documents connected to Maine peace groups, leading local activists to say they have been targeted for surveillance for opposing the government...ETC
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061026fbi.html
WaPo: In the Libby Case, A Grilling to Remember
Carol D. Leonnig
Fitzgerald's target in the witness box was Elizabeth F. Loftus, a professor of criminology and psychology at the University of California at Irvine. For more than an hour of the pretrial hearing, Loftus calmly explained to Judge Reggie B. Walton her three decades of expertise in human memory and witness testimony. Loftus asserted that, after copious scientific research, she has found that many potential jurors do not understand the limits of memory and that Libby should be allowed to call an expert to make that clear to them.
But when Fitzgerald got his chance to cross-examine Loftus about her findings, he had her stuttering to explain her own writings and backpedaling from her earlier assertions. Citing several of her publications, footnotes and the work of her peers, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that the methodology she had used at times in her long academic career was not that scientific, that her conclusions about memory were conflicting, and that she had exaggerated a figure and a statement from her survey of D.C. jurors that favored the defense...
There were several moments when Loftus was completely caught off guard by Fitzgerald, creating some very awkward silences in the courtroom.
One of those moments came when Loftus insisted that she had never met Fitzgerald. He then reminded her that he had cross-examined her before, when she was an expert defense witness and he was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in New York.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601612_pf.html
AP: Matt Apuzzo: Ex-aide sentenced to 18 months in prison
Safavian wept in court as he asked for leniency, but Friedman said the ex-bureaucrat had become part of Washington's culture of corruption, where congressmen listen to campaign donors and lobbyists while farming out to staff members the job of writing laws...
Friedman said he believed Safavian was a good person and could not understand why he got involved with Abramoff.
"Maybe it's hard to resist. Maybe it's hanging out with the big boys," Friedman said. "I'm not sure."..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061027/ap_on_go_pr_wh/lobbyist_probe_7
Prison Planet: Former Intelligence Agent Says Google In Bed With CIA
Steele also sounds off on 9/11 doubts
Paul Joseph Watson
A former clandestine services officer for the CIA who also maintains close relationships with top Google representatives says that the company is "in bed with" the intelligence agency and the U.S. government. He has also gone public on his deep suspicions about the official explanation behind 9/11.
Robert David Steele appeared on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones radio show and began by voicing his deep doubts about the official 9/11 story...
"The U.S. government did not properly investigate this and there are more rocks to be turned over," said Steele adding, "I'm absolutely certain that WTC 7 was brought down by controlled demolition and that as far as I'm concerned means that this case has not been properly investigated."
"There's no way that building could have come down without controlled demolition."
Steele pointed the finger of suspicion directly at the Vice President saying, "There's no question in my own mind that Dick Cheney is the tar baby in this whole thing."...
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2006/271006googlecia.htm
Wayne Madsen: Legitimate human and civil rights versus a secreted GOP homo-erotic cabal is the real social issue in this election. The GOP is hyping the New Jersey Supreme Court civil union ruling and anti-gay marriage initiatives in a number of states as reasons to boast about their fanciful chances of retaining control of the Congress. Nothing could be further from the truth. This election is about constant GOP lying and hypocrisy on the issues of the rights afforded to U.S. citizens regardless of sexual orientation.
According to senior Democratic sources in the House of Representatives, the Pagegate scandal is merely the "tip of the iceberg" of the predatory nature of a number of GOP congressmen, Bush administration officials, and senior staffers.....
Democratic sources also report that the FBI was brought into the case by the GOP leadership to "silence everyone" about the case. And silence and cover-up is the order of the day....
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
VIEDO: BlogActive: Knock, Knock....Ken, are you in there?
So, I decided it was time to confront Ken directly -- alongside a friend with a video camera doesn't hurt either! A blogACTIVE reader tipped me off that this past Monday that Ken would be the guest of honor at a fundraiser at a residence on Capitol Hill.
http://www.blogactive.com/2006/10/knock-knockken-are-you-in-there.html
DU: Outrageous smear by Drudge against Jim Webb -- DEBUNKED!
First, there is this cultural information from DUer flowomo:
ABSTRACT: Child rearing practices in the the Telugu-speaking people of India include behaviors of touching and kissing the penis. The meaning of these customs is not erotic or sexual, but if engaged in in America would most likely be misconstrued and the parents suspected of child sexual abuse. This example illustrates the importance of transcultural issues in assessing the meaning of genital gestures and practices.
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume3/j3_4_4.htm
And this, also courtesy of flowomo: ..ETC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2491792
tpmmuckraker: Gibbons: The Cover-Up is Worse than the Attempted Rape Allegation
By Justin Rood
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001890.php
tpmmuckraker: Central Figure Emerges in Gibbons "Cover-Up"
By Justin Rood
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001893.php
YouTube: Phone call to NTSB regarding AA77 Flight Data Recorder
Phone call was made 10/26/06 to the NTSB to get answers based on the Flight Data Recorder information/animation they provided of American Airlines Flight 77. AA77 was reported to have struck the Pentagon and is in direct conflict with the official story of striking down light poles on its path to impact. The actual flight path shown in the animation based on the Flight Data Recorder also conflicts with the physical damage on the ground. Here is what the NTSB had to say...
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/October2006/271006NTSB.htm
dpa: 9/11 only "make-believe," Iranian government official says
Tehran- An Iranian government official on Friday accused the US of orchestrating the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying New York's World Trade Center towers were actually blown up by a bomb rather than planes hijacked by terrorists. "What we watched on the TVs regarding the slamming of two planes into the New York Twin Towers, was in fact a make-believe scene," Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad-Hadi Homayoun was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying, in an address to the Iran-Russia Dialogue among Civilizations Conference in Moscow.
"The sky-scrapers were destroyed through bomb explosions and afterwards the massive US media propaganda and the crusade issue began," the minister said, making reference to the controversial remarks by US President George W Bush outlining a "crusade" against terrorism following the September 11 attacks.
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/9_11_only_make_believe_Iranian_gove_10272006.html
MSNBC: Can the ‘20th hijacker’ of Sept. 11 stand trial?
Aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo may prevent his prosecution
PART TWO OF TWO
By Bill Dedman
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15361462/
Reuters: Dan Williams: Don't mention the war: Israel seeks image makeover
After decades of battling to win foreign support for its two-fisted policies against Arab foes,
Israel is trying a new approach with a campaign aimed at creating a less warlike and more welcoming national image.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has argued that the protracted conflict with the Palestinians is sapping Israel's international legitimacy, this week convened diplomats and PR executives to come up with ways of "rebranding" the country.
"When the word 'Israel' is said outside its borders, we want it to invoke not fighting or soldiers, but a place that is desirable to visit and invest in, a place that preserves democratic ideals while struggling to exist," Livni said...
There is also a domestic drive planned, whereby the famously brasher facets of Israeli society would be softened -- at least among Israelis who are regularly in contact with foreigners.
"It could be a matter of simply posting Foreign Ministry greeters at the airport, or passing out advisories to those involved in the tourist trade," Toledano said...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061026/wl_nm/mideast_israel_image_dc
JTA: Putin Offers Olmert No Hope for Restraint Regarding Iran
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/11090/
IRNA: China insists on diplomatic settlement of Iran's nuclear case
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0610265276130028.htm
READ ALL: Forward: Nathan Guttman: Report: FBI In Expanded Aipac Probe
Surveys Shine Critical Light On Jerusalem, Pro-Israel Lobby
An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee...
Washington insiders are downplaying the likelihood that an investigation regarding Harman and Aipac would lead to any formal charges of wrongdoing...
Sources close to the issue, and congressional staffers, have speculated that the Harman issue was raised in an attempt to damage the image of Democratic lawmakers in advance of the upcoming midterm elections. The sources also suggested that the leak might be an attempt to get back at senior Democrats on the intelligence committee for leaking the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which embarrassed the administration...ETC
http://www.forward.com/articles/report-fbi-in-expanded-aipac-probe/
AP: Erica Werner: Harman Intelligence post at risk
As top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jane Harman would seem positioned to take the gavel if her party wins control of the House on Nov. 7.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15857150.htm
Hartford Courant: AP: Lamont Challenges Lieberman To Fourth Debate
The Lieberman camp said Friday it would not participate...
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-27163350.apds.m0489.bc-ct--connoct27,0,5393485.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
Raw Story: Senator Santorum defends 'mushroom cloud' ad
Ron Brynaert
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senator_Santorum_defends_mushroom_cloud_ad_1027.html
MSNBC: Exxon posts second-biggest profit ever
Second-largest quarterly gain ever posted by public company
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15426390/
Reuters: Carol Giacomo: Twelve states to launch new anti-terror initiative
he five major nuclear weapons states and seven other countries will meet in Morocco next week to begin implementing an initiative to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of extremist groups...
Participating states include Britain, China and France -- which like Russia and the United States have nuclear weapons -- plus Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan and Turkey...
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-10-27T210308Z_01_N26263138_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-INITIATIVE.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-Top+NewsNews-4
NYT: Noah Feldman: Nuclear holocaust: A risk too big even for martyrs?
Noah Feldman is a law professor at New York University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel. Arab leaders resented the fact that Israel was the only atomic power in the region, a resentment heightened by America's tacit approval of the situation.
But they were also pretty certain that Israel, which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons, would not drop the bomb except as a very last resort...
But geopolitics is not the only reason Sunni Arab leaders are rattled by the prospect of a nuclear Iran. They also seem to worry that Iran might actually use nuclear weapons if it gets them.
A nuclear attack on Israel would engulf the whole region. But that is not the sole danger: Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere fear that the Iranians might just use a nuclear bomb against them...
Given the increasing instability of the Middle East, nuclear proliferation there is more worrisome than almost anywhere else on earth...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/27/news/bomb.php
(TIME TO DISMANTLE ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS THEN, NOAH?)
VOA: Israel Concerned About Reported Expansion of Iranian Uranium Enrichment
By Robert Berger, Jerusalem
Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisen says such bellicose statements are a cause of deep concern in Jerusalem.
"It's inconceivable that a country that calls for the destruction of another country should also try to achieve nuclear capability," he said. ..
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said repeatedly that Israel cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. That has aroused speculation that Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, as it did in 1981, when the air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor...
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-10-27-voa39.cfm
OpEdNews: Democracy in Name Only
by eileen fleming
Vanunu: "The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_eileen_f_061024_democracy_in_name_on.htm
congress.org: Letter: Why Is No One Talking About The 400-600 Israeli Nukes ?
To: President George Bush
I don't get it. If any Arab nation thinks about even working towards nukes , Israel screams bloody murder and expects us , as in the case of Iran , to go take care of them, or as they threatened , they will. Israel has proven to be the most aggressive and warlike country in the entire Middle East ..having invaded or attacked every single one of its neighbors repeatedly...
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=933296941
Reminder: 27 Sept: DefenseNews: Reuters: BERND DEBUSMANN: Iran Seen Borrowing Nuclear Strategy from Israel
In developing its nuclear program Iran is using strategies that allowed its enemy Israel to assemble the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal without admitting it had one, according to a leading expert on the Israeli program.
"Whether deliberately or inadvertently, there are elements of resemblance between the way Iran is pursuing its nuclear program today and the way Israel was pursuing its own program in the 1960s," Avner Cohen, author of a landmark study entitled "Israel and the Bomb," in a telephone interview.
"This is a great irony of history but Iranian policymakers and nuclear technocrats may be strategically mimicking the Israeli model," said Cohen, senior research scholar at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies.
As Cohen sees it, the elements the Israeli and Iranian nuclear programs have in common are secrecy, concealment, ambiguity, double talk and denial...
Published estimates of the number of Israel nuclear devices range from 75 to 200.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2134724&C=mideast
dpa: No aggression intended, Israel says after German ship incident
Berlin/Tel Aviv - Israel said Thursday that no aggression against German forces was intended during a confrontation between Israeli aircraft and a German naval vessel patrolling off Lebanon.
The Israeli embassy in Berlin released a statement from the defence ministry in Tel Aviv, saying the defence ministers of the two countries had discussed Tuesday's incident...
German Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said six Israeli F- 16s had flown very low over the German vessel and one of them fired two shots into the air.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the helicopter took off without having coordinated this with Israel. As a result, Israel sent fighter jets into the air which forced the helicopter to return to the vessel and land back onto it...
sraeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz telephoned his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung Wednesday night to explain the incident, officials from both sides said, stressing a desire to maintain good cooperation.
Jung is due to pay a visit to Israel next week, but Tuesday's incident is not expected to cast a cloud over the talks, diplomats said...
Israeli jets over the past few days have intensified their activity over Lebanon by flying at low altitude and staging mock raids over areas in south and the capital, Beirut.
Such incidents are not considered serious in Israel, but UNIFIL's command has warned that the overflights over Lebanon endanger the UN mission.
French UNIFIL commander Alain Pellegrini has reportedly asked the United Nations to provide his force with air defence artillery as protection against Israeli warplanes. ..
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1214938.php/No_aggression_intended_Israel_says_after_German_ship_incident
Justin Raimondo: A Jewish Hitler?
The rise of Avigdor Lieberman
With the entry of Avigdor Lieberman into the government as deputy minister for "strategic threats" – essentially in charge of preparing for war with Iran – Israel makes a qualitative step toward a regime that increasingly resembles, in all its essentials, a rogue state, and, I might add, potentially a very dangerous one...
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9923
YNet: Reuters: Israel snubs EU delegation due to far-Right MP
Foreign Ministry says will not welcome delegation of EU parliamentarians due to inclusion of Marine Le Pen of France. FM spokesperson: Le Pen member of racist party that denies Holocaust
A spokesman for the European Parliament said the delegation had postponed the trip...
Jean-Marie Le Pen said Israel's refusal to meet his daughter ran "contrary to diplomatic traditions" and "basic democracy"...
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3320388,00.html
Democracy Now: Breaking the Silence: Fmr. Israeli Soldier Tours U.S. to Expose Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Military
We speak with Yehuda Shaul, a former Israeli soldier, who has just begun a tour of the United States to give an inside look at how the Israeli military treats Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/27/1341203
electbarnhill: UPDATE: H.R. 6166: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commission Act Not Lawfully Passed
President’s Inaction Equals ‘Pocket Veto’
by Pat Shannan
Now to the current specifics..
http://electbarnhill.com/2006/10/24/presidents-inaction-may-equal-pocket-veto/
Raw Story: White House spokesman spars with press regarding Cheney's torture 'admission'
David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
Video clips from MSNBC and FOX News coverage of the press conference:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/White_House_spokesman_spars_with_press_1027.html
Forbes: AP: Jennifer Loven: NATO Secretary-General Meets With Bush
NATO expanded its mission this year from the relatively stable northern and western parts of the country to far more dangerous areas in the south. De Hoop Scheffer has said more troops will be needed.
Bush and de Hoop Scheffer did not discuss NATO troop levels, nor the suspension of two German soldiers in connection with photos of troops posing with human skulls, Snow said.
They did discuss Sudan's violence-plagued Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced in three years of fighting. "There was some conversation of the proper way to provide greater security in Darfur and protect people," Snow said.
The two leaders were meeting ahead of a NATO summit planned for next month in the Latvian capital of Riga, where strengthening relations with democracies such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan is expected to be on the agenda. This move is favored by the United States, Britain and some other members but opposed by France, which objects to the alliance's taking on a global dimension.
De Hoop Scheffer has said the trans-Atlantic security concept must be re-evaluated because of international terrorism. He said NATO has no desire to be the world's policeman but is the right tool for an international security partnership.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/10/27/ap3126841.html
Niger halts plans to deport Arabs
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/07891973-A85A-4192-9B3E-8265D933A0C2.htm
25 Oct: Family of slain Afghan mother plans service in Fremont park
By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
The family of Alia Ansari -- the mother of six who was gunned down in broad daylight last week -- is hosting a public memorial service for her Friday afternoon in Fremont's Central Park, and immediately afterward, her body will be flown to Afghanistan, where she will be buried.
Ansari, 38, was shot in the head last Thursday in an affluent Fremont neighborhood as she walked with her 3-year-old daughter to pick up her older children from Glenmoor Elementary School.
A 27-year-old Fremont man who police say is a ``person of interest'' was questioned in the case and was arrested a few hours afterward on a separate parole violation. He has not been arrested in connection with Ansari's homicide, and will be held at Santa Rita Jail indefinitely. Police are waiting for forensic tests to return to see if they will connect him to the crime. Today, his status had not changed.
Ansari's family has said they believe the shooting was hate crime because she wore a headcovering, referred to as a hijab, or more correctly, a chaadar, which is a loose scarf to cover her head out of modesty...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15846621.htm
AmericasMuslimFamily: In Memory of Alia Ansari
The last of those visits was to the family of Alia Ansari, the Afghani-American mother of six who was gunned down in central Fremont last Thursday as she walked to pick up her children from school...
Alia Ansari migrated from war-torn Afghanistan at the age of 17. ..
http://www.americasmuslimfamily.com/AliaAnsari/alia_ansari.html
WaPo: Reuters: Taliban vow more attacks
By Saeed Ali Achakzai
"We want to inform the foreign forces and their slaves that their defeat is inevitable in Afghanistan," the Islamist group's one-legged military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location...
"The Taliban's mujahideen are ready to fight until death and in the coming days will increase their activities and suicide attacks to such an extent that the infidel forces will not get a chance to rest," Dadullah said...
"The Taliban will not let the killers of Afghan women and children rest in peace and will continue to target them."..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102700149.html
Antiwar: Friday: 22 Iraqis, 1 US GI, 1 UK Soldier Killed; 15 Iraqis Injured
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=9926
Reuters: Security developments in Iraq, 27 Oct 2006
MOSUL - Authorities imposed a vehicle ban in the northern city of Mosul after the bodies of 12 people, including four police officers, were found over the previous 24 hours, police said.
RAMADI - Gunmen attacked three U.S. military positions in the western city of Ramadi with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and machinegun fire, police said. A Reuters reporter said U.S. helicopters flew over Ramadi and U.S. forces had sealed off entrances to the city. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a query on the reports.
MUSSAYAB - A woman was killed when two mortar rounds slammed into the house of a Sunni Arab member of parliament, Abdul Nasir al-Janabi, in the town of Mussayab 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LZEG-6UYRJU?OpenDocument
Iraq's al-Maliki sharply delineates differences with U.S. leadership
By Jay Price
McClatchy Newspapers
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continued his open dispute with American officials Thursday, blaming the United States-led coalition for Iraq's chaos and faulting its military strategy...
According to a partial transcript of the interview distributed by Reuters, al-Maliki said he thought that Iraqi troops, left to their own devices, could re-establish order in Iraq in six months, not the 12 to 18 months that top U.S. commander Gen. William Casey had predicted Tuesday...
In Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi forces set up roadblocks Thursday and launched round-the-clock aerial surveillance of Baghdad as their search for an American soldier who may have been kidnapped entered its third day.
"We're using all assets in our arsenal to find this American soldier, and the government of Iraq is doing everything that it can also at every level," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. "Make no mistake: We will not stop looking for our service member."
The search was so intense, Caldwell said, that military officials think it may have contributed to a sudden drop in the level of violence in the city..
Baghdad residents reported that parts of Sadr City, a slum stronghold of Shiite militias and death squads, were blockaded. For much of the day every entrance but one also was blocked into the central district, where the missing soldiers' family lived...
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15857278.htm
Aljazeera: AP: Three Palestinians killed in West Bank
Medics and relatives said that Saadi Subuh, 23, and Mustafa Abu Zalat, 17, were shot and killed in the refugee camp of Al Faraa on Friday.
The circumstances of shooting were not clear, but Abu Zalat's uncle said his nephew may have been throwing stones at Israeli army jeeps at the time.
In the village of Yamoun, Ahmed Abul Hassan, 28, was shot and killed while he stood on the roof of his home.
Relatives said he had gone up to watch the army raid and was hit by a bullet to the head.
Two of Abul Hassan's brothers were wounded, the family said.
The Israeli army said soldiers fired at two gunmen in Yamoun and hit them.
On Thursday, three Palestinians were killed in the southern Gaza strip during an Israeli incursion into the small town of Abassan.
The killings are part of the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza and West Bank after the abduction of a soldier in a cross-border raid near Gaza on June 25.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3201A2CB-F239-466E-9FBC-3EC93ADCB258.htm
Jerusalem Post: Is Mahmoud Abbas planning a coup?
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1161811212248&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Jim Lobe: 50 Years After Suez, US Hegemony Ebbing Fast
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9925
Thorium Power Ltd. says it's nearing its goal—a commercial reactor that doesn't produce bomb fuel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15359295/site/newsweek/
Reuters: Saudi Arabia confirms threat to oil facilities
Western naval forces in the Gulf have been deployed to counter a possible seaborne threat to its Ras Tanura oil terminal...
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-10-27T151907Z_01_L27837086_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-SAUDI-THREAT.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
(LAUGH OR CRY)
MSNBC: AP: Warships deploy around S. Arabia oil facilities
Britain cites al-Qaida threat; U.S. naval forces on heightened alert
The British navy, part of the Italian-led Coalition Task Force 152 that patrols international waters off the Ras Tanura terminal, sent an e-mail warning on Friday asking merchant shippers in the region of Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia to be on alert for suspicious vessels or other activity.
Task Force 152 also contains ships from French, U.S., German and other navies.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, said it was aware of the British warning...
The British official said the coalition ships were confining their patrols to international waters and had not been invited by Saudi Arabia to patrol inside its territorial waters near the terminal.
“The Saudis are very protective of their patch,” the British official in Dubai said, describing the patrols as normal naval operations that had been under way since 2002, albeit on a heightened state for the past month...
On Friday, light sweet crude for December delivery fell 10 cents to $60.26 a barrel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15442751/
Guardian: The secret Whitehall telegram that reveals truth behind controversial Saudi arms deal
· Document shows Riyadh paid £600m extra for jets
· Evidence points to corrupt payments in 1985 contract
David Leigh and Rob Evans
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,,1933764,00.html
Guardian: As violence grows, oil-rich Kirkuk could hold key to Iraq's future
Tribal chiefs call for return of Saddam while Kurds eye a new federal state
Michael Howard in Kirkuk
Accompanied by about 500 clansmen and a gaggle of local journalists, the 35 Sunni sheikhs - from Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Hawija - converged last week on Hindiya, on the scrappy western edges of Kirkuk, to swear their undying opposition to "conspiracies" to partition Iraq and to pledge allegiance to their president, Saddam Hussein...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1932789,00.html
AFP: Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist
An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between
Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC.
Iban al Shakh al Libby told intelligence agents that he was close to Al-Qaeda leaders
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and "understood an awful lot about the inner workings of Al-Qaeda," former FBI agent Jack Clonan told the broadcaster...
"What he claimed most significantly was a connection between ... Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime of
Saddam Hussein. This intelligence report made it all the way to the top, and was used by (former US secretary of state)
Colin Powell as a key piece of justification ... for invading Iraq," he told the broadcaster.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usbritainiraqmilitary
23 Oct: Afterdowningstreet: Greg Mitchell: Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos
NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic."
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14864
President Bush and NATO Secretary General Deliver Remarks in Oval Office
Q Mr. President, with the elections just about 10 days away, polls show that voters are more disenchanted with the Republican-led Congress than at any time since 1994, when the Democrats lost power. What explanation or answer do you have for people who feel that way?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I understand people here in Washington have already determined the outcome of the elections.
***As I said in my press conference the other day, I've seen it before where people start measuring the drapes in their new offices before the vote has been counted -- in other words, they're taking the people's vote for granted.
This election is going to be determined by how our candidates run locally. And I believe if they continue to emphasize the big issues -- keeping taxes low, and protecting the American people -- we'll win. And so we'll see how the outcome comes. I know there's a lot of speculation here in Washington, D.C., and there's a lot of fascination about listening to these pundits and people who are giving their opinions.
All I can tell you is what I see: I see enthusiasm amongst Republicans, I see candidates who are saying, vote for me, I will work to make sure America doesn't get attacked again. And I'm seeing candidates saying, I understand that if we run up your taxes like the Democrats do, it's going to hurt this economy, and so we'll keep your taxes low.
Thank you all very much.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061027.html
Pew: Democrats Hold Double-Digit Lead in Competitive Districts
GOP Troubles Extend into Home Territory
Nationally, the Democrats hold a 49%-38% lead among registered voters, and a nearly identical 50%-39% lead among those voters most likely to cast ballots on Nov. 7.
An oversample of voters in 40 competitive districts identified by a consensus of political analysts shows that voting intentions in the battleground districts are about the same as they are in the "safe" House districts. Among registered voters, the Democrats lead by 11 points in competitive districts (50%-39%) and by the same margin in safe districts (49%-38%). ..
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=293
Bradblog: Bush's U.S. Elections Assistance Commission is Hopelessly Compromised, Misleading America and Utterly Failing in Their Job of Overseeing U.S. Elections
Current Chairman Paul DeGregorio Now Running a Desperate Misinformation Propaganda Campaign Just Days Before Election…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3677
Bradblog: Touch-Screen Votes Reportedly Hopping to Republicans During Early Voting in Texas, Missouri and Arkansas…
[NOTE: Please Bring a Video Camera to the Polls To Document These Things This Year!!!]
Here are three different reports over the last day or two of touch-screen votes flipping from Democrats or Libertarians over to Republicans...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3675
(REPUBLICAN OFFENSIVE AGAIN)BetaNews: Governor Warns of Crisis in Wake of Diebold 'Repair' Revelations
By Scott M. Fulton, III
The revelations yesterday prompted the state's Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich, Jr. -- who is running for re-election there, and is behind in the polls -- to pronounce yesterday that the voting situation is "approaching crisis proportions." There may not be enough absentee ballots, the Governor says, to service a growing number of voters who have become so distrustful of the electronic voting system that they may stay home on November 7...
Ehrlich has reportedly asked the state elections chief, Linda Lamone -- whom he previously indicated he would fire, if he had the power to do so -- to find another supplier to fulfill outstanding absentee ballot requests in five of the state's 24 jurisdictions...
While all this was going on, IDG reporter Robert McMillan reported yesterday that he had discovered a slick, professional-looking Web site purporting to represent a firm called "Election Consultants," which appears to sell services guaranteeing paid clients of desired outcomes in electronically managed elections.
"The future of election management is today's reality," the site proclaims. "Election Consultants has pioneered breakthrough technology that provides unprecedented results in election outcomes. Most notably, our flagship products, SmartVote and VoteCorrect, deliver unparalleled outcome results that are guaranteed." A notice toward the end stipulates results can only be guaranteed where electronic voting machines are used.
Though McMillan spoke to a person who answered the site's toll-free number purporting to represent the company, other sources believe the site -- whose URL is "www.fixavote.com" -- to be either a carefully produced satire, or a promotional effort for some kind of upcoming dramatic production. Whether the premiere date of that production would fall before or after the November elections is unknown.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Governor_Warns_of_Crisis_in_Wake_of_Diebold_Repair_Revelations/1161969961
Delmarvanow: Absentee ballot demand grows
By Joseph Gidjunis
CAMBRIDGE -- In 28 years, Bobbie Hall has never seen such a demand for absentee ballots. As Dorchester Coun-ty's Interim Elections Office director, she said this year's state and local races have already outpaced the greatest demand in any presidential year...
The demand hasn't exceeded the local supply, but other counties have not been so fortunate. Earlier this week, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties had received only 20 percent of the ballots they requested, county elections officials said. Howard County has received only 18 percent, Montgomery County has received 60 percent and Baltimore City has received less than half of the ballots requested.
"We're seeing more interest because of what the news media is doing (to explain absentee voting), and the parties are sending notices out to their voters," Hall said...ETC
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061027/NEWS01/610270302/1002
Bradblog: Clint Curtis Makes the Cover of Bush's 'Hometown' Paper, Says He Plans to File Lawsuit Against Tom Feeney
The Vote-Rigging Whistleblower Turned Congressional Opponent to Alleged Vote-Rigger Creeps Closer and Closer to the Bush's…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3674
Guardian: US warned of ballot box chaos as elections near
· Report says 10 states not ready for electronic vote
· Scientist hacks into new polling machine on TV
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0%2C%2C1932655%2C00.html
Bradblog: NPR Finds a 'Dramatic Shift' to Democrats Among Rural Voters
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3676
OpEdNews: Pull the Plug on E-Voting, Part 2
by Bruce O'Dell
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_o__061026_pull_the_plug_on_e_v.htm
Bradblog: CNN's Lou Dobbs: 'It's a Case of Special Interest Over The National Interest'
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3673
Bradblog: 'Daily Voting News' For October 26, 2006
Lou Dobbs has taped a one-hour "Democracy At Risk" special to be aired at various times on CNN this coming Sunday. Be sure to tune in.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3672
READ ALL: Wonkette: 'Mr. Secretary, What'd You Have Torched At Ft. Meade's 902nd Military Intel Group?'
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/pentagon/mr-secretary-whatd-you-have-torched-at-ft-meades-902nd-military-intel-group-210486.php
NewsChannel5: "Listening devices" found in Memphis homeland security office
MEMPHIS, Tenn. The F-B-I is investigating the discovery of four listening devices found in the Shelby County Homeland Security office.
Officials asked the F-B-I to "sweep" the office after W-H-B-Q T-V reported it had "damaging and embarrassing" audio recordings that were secretly made and given to the station.
Memos obtained by The Commercial Appeal (newspaper) indicate top county officials suspect former interim Homeland Security administrator John Todd, who didn't respond to phone calls from the newspaper.
What's on the tapes isn't generally known, but Todd told federal officials he had evidence of wrongdoing in the office.
County public works director Ted Fox says the F-B-I's check of the office the middle of this month found the consumer-quality listening devices above ceiling tiles.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?s=5598292
PressHerald: Activists fear they've become FBI targets
By GREGORY D. KESICH
The FBI has released more documents connected to Maine peace groups, leading local activists to say they have been targeted for surveillance for opposing the government...ETC
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061026fbi.html
WaPo: In the Libby Case, A Grilling to Remember
Carol D. Leonnig
Fitzgerald's target in the witness box was Elizabeth F. Loftus, a professor of criminology and psychology at the University of California at Irvine. For more than an hour of the pretrial hearing, Loftus calmly explained to Judge Reggie B. Walton her three decades of expertise in human memory and witness testimony. Loftus asserted that, after copious scientific research, she has found that many potential jurors do not understand the limits of memory and that Libby should be allowed to call an expert to make that clear to them.
But when Fitzgerald got his chance to cross-examine Loftus about her findings, he had her stuttering to explain her own writings and backpedaling from her earlier assertions. Citing several of her publications, footnotes and the work of her peers, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that the methodology she had used at times in her long academic career was not that scientific, that her conclusions about memory were conflicting, and that she had exaggerated a figure and a statement from her survey of D.C. jurors that favored the defense...
There were several moments when Loftus was completely caught off guard by Fitzgerald, creating some very awkward silences in the courtroom.
One of those moments came when Loftus insisted that she had never met Fitzgerald. He then reminded her that he had cross-examined her before, when she was an expert defense witness and he was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in New York.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601612_pf.html
AP: Matt Apuzzo: Ex-aide sentenced to 18 months in prison
Safavian wept in court as he asked for leniency, but Friedman said the ex-bureaucrat had become part of Washington's culture of corruption, where congressmen listen to campaign donors and lobbyists while farming out to staff members the job of writing laws...
Friedman said he believed Safavian was a good person and could not understand why he got involved with Abramoff.
"Maybe it's hard to resist. Maybe it's hanging out with the big boys," Friedman said. "I'm not sure."..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061027/ap_on_go_pr_wh/lobbyist_probe_7
Prison Planet: Former Intelligence Agent Says Google In Bed With CIA
Steele also sounds off on 9/11 doubts
Paul Joseph Watson
A former clandestine services officer for the CIA who also maintains close relationships with top Google representatives says that the company is "in bed with" the intelligence agency and the U.S. government. He has also gone public on his deep suspicions about the official explanation behind 9/11.
Robert David Steele appeared on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones radio show and began by voicing his deep doubts about the official 9/11 story...
"The U.S. government did not properly investigate this and there are more rocks to be turned over," said Steele adding, "I'm absolutely certain that WTC 7 was brought down by controlled demolition and that as far as I'm concerned means that this case has not been properly investigated."
"There's no way that building could have come down without controlled demolition."
Steele pointed the finger of suspicion directly at the Vice President saying, "There's no question in my own mind that Dick Cheney is the tar baby in this whole thing."...
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2006/271006googlecia.htm
Wayne Madsen: Legitimate human and civil rights versus a secreted GOP homo-erotic cabal is the real social issue in this election. The GOP is hyping the New Jersey Supreme Court civil union ruling and anti-gay marriage initiatives in a number of states as reasons to boast about their fanciful chances of retaining control of the Congress. Nothing could be further from the truth. This election is about constant GOP lying and hypocrisy on the issues of the rights afforded to U.S. citizens regardless of sexual orientation.
According to senior Democratic sources in the House of Representatives, the Pagegate scandal is merely the "tip of the iceberg" of the predatory nature of a number of GOP congressmen, Bush administration officials, and senior staffers.....
Democratic sources also report that the FBI was brought into the case by the GOP leadership to "silence everyone" about the case. And silence and cover-up is the order of the day....
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
VIEDO: BlogActive: Knock, Knock....Ken, are you in there?
So, I decided it was time to confront Ken directly -- alongside a friend with a video camera doesn't hurt either! A blogACTIVE reader tipped me off that this past Monday that Ken would be the guest of honor at a fundraiser at a residence on Capitol Hill.
http://www.blogactive.com/2006/10/knock-knockken-are-you-in-there.html
DU: Outrageous smear by Drudge against Jim Webb -- DEBUNKED!
First, there is this cultural information from DUer flowomo:
ABSTRACT: Child rearing practices in the the Telugu-speaking people of India include behaviors of touching and kissing the penis. The meaning of these customs is not erotic or sexual, but if engaged in in America would most likely be misconstrued and the parents suspected of child sexual abuse. This example illustrates the importance of transcultural issues in assessing the meaning of genital gestures and practices.
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume3/j3_4_4.htm
And this, also courtesy of flowomo: ..ETC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2491792
tpmmuckraker: Gibbons: The Cover-Up is Worse than the Attempted Rape Allegation
By Justin Rood
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001890.php
tpmmuckraker: Central Figure Emerges in Gibbons "Cover-Up"
By Justin Rood
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001893.php
YouTube: Phone call to NTSB regarding AA77 Flight Data Recorder
Phone call was made 10/26/06 to the NTSB to get answers based on the Flight Data Recorder information/animation they provided of American Airlines Flight 77. AA77 was reported to have struck the Pentagon and is in direct conflict with the official story of striking down light poles on its path to impact. The actual flight path shown in the animation based on the Flight Data Recorder also conflicts with the physical damage on the ground. Here is what the NTSB had to say...
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/October2006/271006NTSB.htm
dpa: 9/11 only "make-believe," Iranian government official says
Tehran- An Iranian government official on Friday accused the US of orchestrating the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying New York's World Trade Center towers were actually blown up by a bomb rather than planes hijacked by terrorists. "What we watched on the TVs regarding the slamming of two planes into the New York Twin Towers, was in fact a make-believe scene," Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad-Hadi Homayoun was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying, in an address to the Iran-Russia Dialogue among Civilizations Conference in Moscow.
"The sky-scrapers were destroyed through bomb explosions and afterwards the massive US media propaganda and the crusade issue began," the minister said, making reference to the controversial remarks by US President George W Bush outlining a "crusade" against terrorism following the September 11 attacks.
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/9_11_only_make_believe_Iranian_gove_10272006.html
MSNBC: Can the ‘20th hijacker’ of Sept. 11 stand trial?
Aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo may prevent his prosecution
PART TWO OF TWO
By Bill Dedman
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15361462/
Reuters: Dan Williams: Don't mention the war: Israel seeks image makeover
After decades of battling to win foreign support for its two-fisted policies against Arab foes,
Israel is trying a new approach with a campaign aimed at creating a less warlike and more welcoming national image.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has argued that the protracted conflict with the Palestinians is sapping Israel's international legitimacy, this week convened diplomats and PR executives to come up with ways of "rebranding" the country.
"When the word 'Israel' is said outside its borders, we want it to invoke not fighting or soldiers, but a place that is desirable to visit and invest in, a place that preserves democratic ideals while struggling to exist," Livni said...
There is also a domestic drive planned, whereby the famously brasher facets of Israeli society would be softened -- at least among Israelis who are regularly in contact with foreigners.
"It could be a matter of simply posting Foreign Ministry greeters at the airport, or passing out advisories to those involved in the tourist trade," Toledano said...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061026/wl_nm/mideast_israel_image_dc
JTA: Putin Offers Olmert No Hope for Restraint Regarding Iran
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/11090/
IRNA: China insists on diplomatic settlement of Iran's nuclear case
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0610265276130028.htm
READ ALL: Forward: Nathan Guttman: Report: FBI In Expanded Aipac Probe
Surveys Shine Critical Light On Jerusalem, Pro-Israel Lobby
An explosive new report claims that the federal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, has been expanded to include suspicion of meddling in affairs of the House Intelligence Committee...
Washington insiders are downplaying the likelihood that an investigation regarding Harman and Aipac would lead to any formal charges of wrongdoing...
Sources close to the issue, and congressional staffers, have speculated that the Harman issue was raised in an attempt to damage the image of Democratic lawmakers in advance of the upcoming midterm elections. The sources also suggested that the leak might be an attempt to get back at senior Democrats on the intelligence committee for leaking the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which embarrassed the administration...ETC
http://www.forward.com/articles/report-fbi-in-expanded-aipac-probe/
AP: Erica Werner: Harman Intelligence post at risk
As top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jane Harman would seem positioned to take the gavel if her party wins control of the House on Nov. 7.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15857150.htm
Hartford Courant: AP: Lamont Challenges Lieberman To Fourth Debate
The Lieberman camp said Friday it would not participate...
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-27163350.apds.m0489.bc-ct--connoct27,0,5393485.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
Raw Story: Senator Santorum defends 'mushroom cloud' ad
Ron Brynaert
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senator_Santorum_defends_mushroom_cloud_ad_1027.html
MSNBC: Exxon posts second-biggest profit ever
Second-largest quarterly gain ever posted by public company
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15426390/
Reuters: Carol Giacomo: Twelve states to launch new anti-terror initiative
he five major nuclear weapons states and seven other countries will meet in Morocco next week to begin implementing an initiative to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of extremist groups...
Participating states include Britain, China and France -- which like Russia and the United States have nuclear weapons -- plus Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan and Turkey...
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-10-27T210308Z_01_N26263138_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-INITIATIVE.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-Top+NewsNews-4
NYT: Noah Feldman: Nuclear holocaust: A risk too big even for martyrs?
Noah Feldman is a law professor at New York University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel. Arab leaders resented the fact that Israel was the only atomic power in the region, a resentment heightened by America's tacit approval of the situation.
But they were also pretty certain that Israel, which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons, would not drop the bomb except as a very last resort...
But geopolitics is not the only reason Sunni Arab leaders are rattled by the prospect of a nuclear Iran. They also seem to worry that Iran might actually use nuclear weapons if it gets them.
A nuclear attack on Israel would engulf the whole region. But that is not the sole danger: Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere fear that the Iranians might just use a nuclear bomb against them...
Given the increasing instability of the Middle East, nuclear proliferation there is more worrisome than almost anywhere else on earth...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/27/news/bomb.php
(TIME TO DISMANTLE ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS THEN, NOAH?)
VOA: Israel Concerned About Reported Expansion of Iranian Uranium Enrichment
By Robert Berger, Jerusalem
Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisen says such bellicose statements are a cause of deep concern in Jerusalem.
"It's inconceivable that a country that calls for the destruction of another country should also try to achieve nuclear capability," he said. ..
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said repeatedly that Israel cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. That has aroused speculation that Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, as it did in 1981, when the air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor...
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-10-27-voa39.cfm
OpEdNews: Democracy in Name Only
by eileen fleming
Vanunu: "The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_eileen_f_061024_democracy_in_name_on.htm
congress.org: Letter: Why Is No One Talking About The 400-600 Israeli Nukes ?
To: President George Bush
I don't get it. If any Arab nation thinks about even working towards nukes , Israel screams bloody murder and expects us , as in the case of Iran , to go take care of them, or as they threatened , they will. Israel has proven to be the most aggressive and warlike country in the entire Middle East ..having invaded or attacked every single one of its neighbors repeatedly...
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=933296941
Reminder: 27 Sept: DefenseNews: Reuters: BERND DEBUSMANN: Iran Seen Borrowing Nuclear Strategy from Israel
In developing its nuclear program Iran is using strategies that allowed its enemy Israel to assemble the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal without admitting it had one, according to a leading expert on the Israeli program.
"Whether deliberately or inadvertently, there are elements of resemblance between the way Iran is pursuing its nuclear program today and the way Israel was pursuing its own program in the 1960s," Avner Cohen, author of a landmark study entitled "Israel and the Bomb," in a telephone interview.
"This is a great irony of history but Iranian policymakers and nuclear technocrats may be strategically mimicking the Israeli model," said Cohen, senior research scholar at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies.
As Cohen sees it, the elements the Israeli and Iranian nuclear programs have in common are secrecy, concealment, ambiguity, double talk and denial...
Published estimates of the number of Israel nuclear devices range from 75 to 200.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2134724&C=mideast
dpa: No aggression intended, Israel says after German ship incident
Berlin/Tel Aviv - Israel said Thursday that no aggression against German forces was intended during a confrontation between Israeli aircraft and a German naval vessel patrolling off Lebanon.
The Israeli embassy in Berlin released a statement from the defence ministry in Tel Aviv, saying the defence ministers of the two countries had discussed Tuesday's incident...
German Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said six Israeli F- 16s had flown very low over the German vessel and one of them fired two shots into the air.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the helicopter took off without having coordinated this with Israel. As a result, Israel sent fighter jets into the air which forced the helicopter to return to the vessel and land back onto it...
sraeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz telephoned his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung Wednesday night to explain the incident, officials from both sides said, stressing a desire to maintain good cooperation.
Jung is due to pay a visit to Israel next week, but Tuesday's incident is not expected to cast a cloud over the talks, diplomats said...
Israeli jets over the past few days have intensified their activity over Lebanon by flying at low altitude and staging mock raids over areas in south and the capital, Beirut.
Such incidents are not considered serious in Israel, but UNIFIL's command has warned that the overflights over Lebanon endanger the UN mission.
French UNIFIL commander Alain Pellegrini has reportedly asked the United Nations to provide his force with air defence artillery as protection against Israeli warplanes. ..
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1214938.php/No_aggression_intended_Israel_says_after_German_ship_incident
Justin Raimondo: A Jewish Hitler?
The rise of Avigdor Lieberman
With the entry of Avigdor Lieberman into the government as deputy minister for "strategic threats" – essentially in charge of preparing for war with Iran – Israel makes a qualitative step toward a regime that increasingly resembles, in all its essentials, a rogue state, and, I might add, potentially a very dangerous one...
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9923
YNet: Reuters: Israel snubs EU delegation due to far-Right MP
Foreign Ministry says will not welcome delegation of EU parliamentarians due to inclusion of Marine Le Pen of France. FM spokesperson: Le Pen member of racist party that denies Holocaust
A spokesman for the European Parliament said the delegation had postponed the trip...
Jean-Marie Le Pen said Israel's refusal to meet his daughter ran "contrary to diplomatic traditions" and "basic democracy"...
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3320388,00.html
Democracy Now: Breaking the Silence: Fmr. Israeli Soldier Tours U.S. to Expose Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Military
We speak with Yehuda Shaul, a former Israeli soldier, who has just begun a tour of the United States to give an inside look at how the Israeli military treats Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/27/1341203
electbarnhill: UPDATE: H.R. 6166: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commission Act Not Lawfully Passed
President’s Inaction Equals ‘Pocket Veto’
by Pat Shannan
Now to the current specifics..
http://electbarnhill.com/2006/10/24/presidents-inaction-may-equal-pocket-veto/
Raw Story: White House spokesman spars with press regarding Cheney's torture 'admission'
David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
Video clips from MSNBC and FOX News coverage of the press conference:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/White_House_spokesman_spars_with_press_1027.html
Forbes: AP: Jennifer Loven: NATO Secretary-General Meets With Bush
NATO expanded its mission this year from the relatively stable northern and western parts of the country to far more dangerous areas in the south. De Hoop Scheffer has said more troops will be needed.
Bush and de Hoop Scheffer did not discuss NATO troop levels, nor the suspension of two German soldiers in connection with photos of troops posing with human skulls, Snow said.
They did discuss Sudan's violence-plagued Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced in three years of fighting. "There was some conversation of the proper way to provide greater security in Darfur and protect people," Snow said.
The two leaders were meeting ahead of a NATO summit planned for next month in the Latvian capital of Riga, where strengthening relations with democracies such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan is expected to be on the agenda. This move is favored by the United States, Britain and some other members but opposed by France, which objects to the alliance's taking on a global dimension.
De Hoop Scheffer has said the trans-Atlantic security concept must be re-evaluated because of international terrorism. He said NATO has no desire to be the world's policeman but is the right tool for an international security partnership.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/10/27/ap3126841.html
Niger halts plans to deport Arabs
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/07891973-A85A-4192-9B3E-8265D933A0C2.htm
25 Oct: Family of slain Afghan mother plans service in Fremont park
By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News
The family of Alia Ansari -- the mother of six who was gunned down in broad daylight last week -- is hosting a public memorial service for her Friday afternoon in Fremont's Central Park, and immediately afterward, her body will be flown to Afghanistan, where she will be buried.
Ansari, 38, was shot in the head last Thursday in an affluent Fremont neighborhood as she walked with her 3-year-old daughter to pick up her older children from Glenmoor Elementary School.
A 27-year-old Fremont man who police say is a ``person of interest'' was questioned in the case and was arrested a few hours afterward on a separate parole violation. He has not been arrested in connection with Ansari's homicide, and will be held at Santa Rita Jail indefinitely. Police are waiting for forensic tests to return to see if they will connect him to the crime. Today, his status had not changed.
Ansari's family has said they believe the shooting was hate crime because she wore a headcovering, referred to as a hijab, or more correctly, a chaadar, which is a loose scarf to cover her head out of modesty...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15846621.htm
AmericasMuslimFamily: In Memory of Alia Ansari
The last of those visits was to the family of Alia Ansari, the Afghani-American mother of six who was gunned down in central Fremont last Thursday as she walked to pick up her children from school...
Alia Ansari migrated from war-torn Afghanistan at the age of 17. ..
http://www.americasmuslimfamily.com/AliaAnsari/alia_ansari.html
WaPo: Reuters: Taliban vow more attacks
By Saeed Ali Achakzai
"We want to inform the foreign forces and their slaves that their defeat is inevitable in Afghanistan," the Islamist group's one-legged military commander, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location...
"The Taliban's mujahideen are ready to fight until death and in the coming days will increase their activities and suicide attacks to such an extent that the infidel forces will not get a chance to rest," Dadullah said...
"The Taliban will not let the killers of Afghan women and children rest in peace and will continue to target them."..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102700149.html
Antiwar: Friday: 22 Iraqis, 1 US GI, 1 UK Soldier Killed; 15 Iraqis Injured
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=9926
Reuters: Security developments in Iraq, 27 Oct 2006
MOSUL - Authorities imposed a vehicle ban in the northern city of Mosul after the bodies of 12 people, including four police officers, were found over the previous 24 hours, police said.
RAMADI - Gunmen attacked three U.S. military positions in the western city of Ramadi with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and machinegun fire, police said. A Reuters reporter said U.S. helicopters flew over Ramadi and U.S. forces had sealed off entrances to the city. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a query on the reports.
MUSSAYAB - A woman was killed when two mortar rounds slammed into the house of a Sunni Arab member of parliament, Abdul Nasir al-Janabi, in the town of Mussayab 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LZEG-6UYRJU?OpenDocument
Iraq's al-Maliki sharply delineates differences with U.S. leadership
By Jay Price
McClatchy Newspapers
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continued his open dispute with American officials Thursday, blaming the United States-led coalition for Iraq's chaos and faulting its military strategy...
According to a partial transcript of the interview distributed by Reuters, al-Maliki said he thought that Iraqi troops, left to their own devices, could re-establish order in Iraq in six months, not the 12 to 18 months that top U.S. commander Gen. William Casey had predicted Tuesday...
In Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi forces set up roadblocks Thursday and launched round-the-clock aerial surveillance of Baghdad as their search for an American soldier who may have been kidnapped entered its third day.
"We're using all assets in our arsenal to find this American soldier, and the government of Iraq is doing everything that it can also at every level," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. "Make no mistake: We will not stop looking for our service member."
The search was so intense, Caldwell said, that military officials think it may have contributed to a sudden drop in the level of violence in the city..
Baghdad residents reported that parts of Sadr City, a slum stronghold of Shiite militias and death squads, were blockaded. For much of the day every entrance but one also was blocked into the central district, where the missing soldiers' family lived...
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15857278.htm
Aljazeera: AP: Three Palestinians killed in West Bank
Medics and relatives said that Saadi Subuh, 23, and Mustafa Abu Zalat, 17, were shot and killed in the refugee camp of Al Faraa on Friday.
The circumstances of shooting were not clear, but Abu Zalat's uncle said his nephew may have been throwing stones at Israeli army jeeps at the time.
In the village of Yamoun, Ahmed Abul Hassan, 28, was shot and killed while he stood on the roof of his home.
Relatives said he had gone up to watch the army raid and was hit by a bullet to the head.
Two of Abul Hassan's brothers were wounded, the family said.
The Israeli army said soldiers fired at two gunmen in Yamoun and hit them.
On Thursday, three Palestinians were killed in the southern Gaza strip during an Israeli incursion into the small town of Abassan.
The killings are part of the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza and West Bank after the abduction of a soldier in a cross-border raid near Gaza on June 25.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3201A2CB-F239-466E-9FBC-3EC93ADCB258.htm
Jerusalem Post: Is Mahmoud Abbas planning a coup?
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1161811212248&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Jim Lobe: 50 Years After Suez, US Hegemony Ebbing Fast
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9925
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