http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadlin...nited-stat.html
12/31/2008
If you think next year is going to be bad, just wait until the summer of 2010. A Russian scholar predicts that's when the United States becomes the Untied States, disintegrating into six pieces that will then align with other global powers.
The Wall Street Journal carries the tale of dire prognostication by Igor Panarin, who has been predicting the U.S. demise for a decade.
What will bring about the U.S. disintegration? Mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation. That will ignite a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Panarin foresees the breakup in late June or early July 2010.
According to the story's accompanying map, he believes that Alaska will revert to Russian control; "Atlantic America" would join the European Union; "The Central North-American Republic" would become part of Canada; "The Texas Republic" reverts to Mexico; "The California Republic" falls under Chinese control or influence; and Hawaii goes either to China or Japan.
The Journal writes:
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario — for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Splenda Linked to Weight Gain
http://www.newsmax.com/health/Splenda_weight_gain_link/2008/11/04/147452.html
By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard
The sugar replacement Splenda has been linked to weight gain by a study conducted by North Carolina’s Duke University. In addition to weight gain, Splenda, which is used by millions of dieters and also in numerous diet versions of popular products, has also been alleged to hamper the effect of some medications.
Splenda (generic name: sucralose) is made from sugar, giving it a more “natural” appeal to consumers. However, the controversial new study, which was partially funded by the Sugar Association, showed that rats fed varying doses of Splenda over a three-month period gained more weight than a control group which was not given Splenda. Further, the researchers noted “significant reductions” in beneficial bacteria in the rats’ digestive tracts, as well as additional changes in the gut which could likely interfere with the absorption of some medicines.
A spokesman for McNeil Nutritionals, the company that markets Splenda, said, “Splenda is suitable for everyone—it’s undergone a thorough safety evaluation as required by regulatory agencies around the world. They all agree sucralose is safe.” Splenda, which is 600 times sweeter than sugar and twice as sweet as saccharin, has a 62 percent share of the low-calorie sweetener market in the U.S. and abroad.
By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard
The sugar replacement Splenda has been linked to weight gain by a study conducted by North Carolina’s Duke University. In addition to weight gain, Splenda, which is used by millions of dieters and also in numerous diet versions of popular products, has also been alleged to hamper the effect of some medications.
Splenda (generic name: sucralose) is made from sugar, giving it a more “natural” appeal to consumers. However, the controversial new study, which was partially funded by the Sugar Association, showed that rats fed varying doses of Splenda over a three-month period gained more weight than a control group which was not given Splenda. Further, the researchers noted “significant reductions” in beneficial bacteria in the rats’ digestive tracts, as well as additional changes in the gut which could likely interfere with the absorption of some medicines.
A spokesman for McNeil Nutritionals, the company that markets Splenda, said, “Splenda is suitable for everyone—it’s undergone a thorough safety evaluation as required by regulatory agencies around the world. They all agree sucralose is safe.” Splenda, which is 600 times sweeter than sugar and twice as sweet as saccharin, has a 62 percent share of the low-calorie sweetener market in the U.S. and abroad.
RNC mulls accusing Bush of 'socialism'
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/RNC_mulls_accusing_Bush_of_socialism_1230.html
The divisions taking hold among Republicans are becoming more severe as the party prepares to accuse its outgoing president of embracing "socialism."
The slur that conservatives were so fond of lobbing at Barack Obama during the presidential campaign is now being directed toward President Bush and GOP lawmakers who supported federal bailouts of the banking and auto industries.
At its meeting next month, the Republican National Committee is set to vote on a resolution formally opposing the bailouts, accusing Bush of helping nationalize the banks and taking "another dangerous step closer toward socialism," the Washington Times reports Tuesday.
"We can't be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms," Solomon Yue, an Oregon member and co-sponsor of the resolution told the Times.
The resolution reads, in part:
"WHEREAS, the Bank Bailout Bill effectively nationalized the Nation's banking system, giving the United States non-voting warrants from participating financial institutions, and moving our free market based economy another dangerous step closer toward socialism; and WHEREAS, what was needed, and is still needed, to fix the banking industry is not a bailout, but rather a commitment to fiscal responsibility."
Republican leaders in both the House and Senate supported the Wall Street bailout, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain infamously "suspended" his campaign to return to Washington and whip up support for the bill. A Republican-led filibuster blocked the auto industry bailout in the Senate, but Bush decided to use some of the previously approved $700 billion to grant loans to the car companies.
During the campaign, accusations that Obama was a closet socialist proliferated on talk radio, conservative blogs and in McCain/Palin campaign speeches.
For the record, "The resolution also opposes President-elect Obama's proposed public works program and supports conservative alternatives," another co-sponsor told the Times.
The divisions taking hold among Republicans are becoming more severe as the party prepares to accuse its outgoing president of embracing "socialism."
The slur that conservatives were so fond of lobbing at Barack Obama during the presidential campaign is now being directed toward President Bush and GOP lawmakers who supported federal bailouts of the banking and auto industries.
At its meeting next month, the Republican National Committee is set to vote on a resolution formally opposing the bailouts, accusing Bush of helping nationalize the banks and taking "another dangerous step closer toward socialism," the Washington Times reports Tuesday.
"We can't be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms," Solomon Yue, an Oregon member and co-sponsor of the resolution told the Times.
The resolution reads, in part:
"WHEREAS, the Bank Bailout Bill effectively nationalized the Nation's banking system, giving the United States non-voting warrants from participating financial institutions, and moving our free market based economy another dangerous step closer toward socialism; and WHEREAS, what was needed, and is still needed, to fix the banking industry is not a bailout, but rather a commitment to fiscal responsibility."
Republican leaders in both the House and Senate supported the Wall Street bailout, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain infamously "suspended" his campaign to return to Washington and whip up support for the bill. A Republican-led filibuster blocked the auto industry bailout in the Senate, but Bush decided to use some of the previously approved $700 billion to grant loans to the car companies.
During the campaign, accusations that Obama was a closet socialist proliferated on talk radio, conservative blogs and in McCain/Palin campaign speeches.
For the record, "The resolution also opposes President-elect Obama's proposed public works program and supports conservative alternatives," another co-sponsor told the Times.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Kucinich: UN should investigate Israeli Gaza strikes
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_UN_should_investigate_Israeli_Gaza_1229.html
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called for an independent investigation to be led by the United Nations into the recent eruption of violence between Israel and Hamas along the Gaza strip that has killed scores of innocent civilians.
Monday brought a third day of Israeli bombing Gaza in what the state is calling its "all-out" war on Hamas. So far, 345 people have been killed by the bombs. At least 57 of the dead are civilians, including 21 children, according to the UN.
Kucinich said he wrote to UN General Secretary Ban ki-Moon urging an "independent inquiry of Israel's war against Gaza." The Democratic lawmaker said Israel's attacks are an example of "collective punishment," which violates the Geneva Conventions.
"The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better," Kucinich said in a news release Monday. "The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel's right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation."
Kucinich compared the latest bombing campaign to Isreal's earlier strikes at southern Lebanon targeted at Hezbollah. Then too, he said, civilians were killed, infrastructure was destroyed and lawlessness took hold in the country.
"All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable," he said. "It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions."
President Bush, on the other hand, has signaled a continuation of his firm support for Israel.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Congressional leaders likewise signaled support for Israel.
“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Monday. “Hamas’ failure to stop these attacks only exacerbates the humanitarian situation for the residents of Gaza and undermines efforts to attain peace and security in the region.”
President-elect Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, has tread lightly regarding the conflict. His transition team will only say that he continues to "monitor global events" noting, "There is one president at a time."
Israel has declared some areas around Gaza "closed military zones" and is beginning to amass tanks there saying it is prepared to continue operations as long as necessary.
"The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said on Monday in televised comments.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called for an independent investigation to be led by the United Nations into the recent eruption of violence between Israel and Hamas along the Gaza strip that has killed scores of innocent civilians.
Monday brought a third day of Israeli bombing Gaza in what the state is calling its "all-out" war on Hamas. So far, 345 people have been killed by the bombs. At least 57 of the dead are civilians, including 21 children, according to the UN.
Kucinich said he wrote to UN General Secretary Ban ki-Moon urging an "independent inquiry of Israel's war against Gaza." The Democratic lawmaker said Israel's attacks are an example of "collective punishment," which violates the Geneva Conventions.
"The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better," Kucinich said in a news release Monday. "The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel's right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation."
Kucinich compared the latest bombing campaign to Isreal's earlier strikes at southern Lebanon targeted at Hezbollah. Then too, he said, civilians were killed, infrastructure was destroyed and lawlessness took hold in the country.
"All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable," he said. "It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions."
President Bush, on the other hand, has signaled a continuation of his firm support for Israel.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Congressional leaders likewise signaled support for Israel.
“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Monday. “Hamas’ failure to stop these attacks only exacerbates the humanitarian situation for the residents of Gaza and undermines efforts to attain peace and security in the region.”
President-elect Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, has tread lightly regarding the conflict. His transition team will only say that he continues to "monitor global events" noting, "There is one president at a time."
Israel has declared some areas around Gaza "closed military zones" and is beginning to amass tanks there saying it is prepared to continue operations as long as necessary.
"The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas," Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said on Monday in televised comments.
Report: Military may have to quell domestic violence from economic collapse
Deepening economic strife in the US could lead to civil unrest and violence that would require military intervention, warns a new report from the US Army War College.
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," writes Nathan Freier, a 20-year Army veteran and visiting professor at the college.
A copy of the 44-page report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," can be downloaded here. Freier notes that his report expresses only his own views and does not represent US policy, but it's certain that his recommendations have come before at least some Defense Department officials.
The author warns potential causes for such civil unrest could include another terrorist attack, "unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters." The situation could deteriorate to the point where military intervention was required, he argues.
"Under these conditions and at their most violent extreme," he concludes, "civilian authorities, on advice of the defense establishment, would need to rapidly determine the parameters defining the legitimate use of military force inside the United States."
While the scenario presented is "likely not an immediate prospect," Freier concedes, it deserves consideration. Prior to 9/11, no one in the defense establishment would have envisioned a plot to topple skyscrapers with airliners, and the military should not be caught so off-guard again, he says.
To the extent events like this involve organized violence against local, state, and national authorities and exceed the capacity of the former two to restore public order and protect vulnerable populations, DoD would be required to fill the gap," he writes. "This is largely uncharted strategic territory."
Freier's report has merited some concern as it comes alongside revelations that the Defense Department has assigned a full-time Army unit to be on-call for domestic deployment.
An article in Monday's El Paso Times notes that military and police officials in Texas are unaware of team-up efforts such as those suggested in the report.
Arizona authorities told the Phoenix Business Journal they are similarly unaware of any new plans, although the Phoenix Police Department made clear its officers "always train to prepare for any civil unrest issue."
The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military's role in domestic law enforcement, but it does not completely preclude involvement in cases of emergency or when emergency law is declared. As of now, though, such scenarios seem unlikely.
The bulk of Freier's report recommends refocusing Defense Department strategy toward thinking outside the box, in general, and the unlikely possibility of domestic deployments is just one longshot example he uses to illustrate a worst case scenario.
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," writes Nathan Freier, a 20-year Army veteran and visiting professor at the college.
A copy of the 44-page report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," can be downloaded here. Freier notes that his report expresses only his own views and does not represent US policy, but it's certain that his recommendations have come before at least some Defense Department officials.
The author warns potential causes for such civil unrest could include another terrorist attack, "unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters." The situation could deteriorate to the point where military intervention was required, he argues.
"Under these conditions and at their most violent extreme," he concludes, "civilian authorities, on advice of the defense establishment, would need to rapidly determine the parameters defining the legitimate use of military force inside the United States."
While the scenario presented is "likely not an immediate prospect," Freier concedes, it deserves consideration. Prior to 9/11, no one in the defense establishment would have envisioned a plot to topple skyscrapers with airliners, and the military should not be caught so off-guard again, he says.
To the extent events like this involve organized violence against local, state, and national authorities and exceed the capacity of the former two to restore public order and protect vulnerable populations, DoD would be required to fill the gap," he writes. "This is largely uncharted strategic territory."
Freier's report has merited some concern as it comes alongside revelations that the Defense Department has assigned a full-time Army unit to be on-call for domestic deployment.
An article in Monday's El Paso Times notes that military and police officials in Texas are unaware of team-up efforts such as those suggested in the report.
Arizona authorities told the Phoenix Business Journal they are similarly unaware of any new plans, although the Phoenix Police Department made clear its officers "always train to prepare for any civil unrest issue."
The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military's role in domestic law enforcement, but it does not completely preclude involvement in cases of emergency or when emergency law is declared. As of now, though, such scenarios seem unlikely.
The bulk of Freier's report recommends refocusing Defense Department strategy toward thinking outside the box, in general, and the unlikely possibility of domestic deployments is just one longshot example he uses to illustrate a worst case scenario.
Acupuncture/Chiropractic Healthcare: Aspartame... What you don’t know can hurt you
Did you know that aspartame was discovered way back in 1965? The chemist at the time was developing the drug for another use and after licking his finger found that aspartame was indeed sweet. Aspartame can be recognized by many different names such as Nutrasweet, Equal, Splenda, and Sweet and Low. Aspartame is hidden in many products such as children’s vitamins, diet soda, light yogurt, baked goods, puddings and gum.
The ingredients in aspartame include aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methyl alcohol. Do you remember from High School science that methyl alcohol is poisonous to the body. When methyl alcohol breaks down in high temperatures it turns into formaldehyde and DKP (diketopiprazine). These are two highly toxic chemicals which adversely affect the Nervous System. Aspartame, Nutra-Sweet, Equal, Splenda and Sweet and Low have a shelf life of 262 days stored at a temperature of 77 degrees.
The symptoms caused by aspartame are similar to Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. An increase in brain tumors is also linked to the use of artificial sweeteners.
I find it very interesting that the FDA get more complaints about aspartame than anything else, yet this chemical is still on the market.
Using aspartame can result in these symptoms: headaches, depression, slurred speech, loss of memory, fibromyalgia, loss of sensation and shooting pains down the, loss of equilibrium, vertigo, anxiety attacks, chronic fatigue, vision loss, eye floaters, renal detachment, heart palpitations and seizures.
The most recent research indicates that Nutra-Sweet (aspartame) results in miscarriage and infertility. The fetal tissue cannot tolerate methanol or the phenylalanine. Aspartame is a well known neurotoxin and causes birth defects. The placenta concentrates phenylalanine and this results in mental retardation.
Further research on test animals has resulted in a dramatic increase in brain and breast tumors. If your diet soda reaches a temperature above 86 degrees, the aspartame will break down and get toxic. Think of how many people leave those cases of diet pop in their garages during the summer so they never run out!! After the aspartame reaches a temperature above 86 degrees the wood alcohol in aspartame converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid. Blindness, Lupus, and Alzheimer’s can be directly linked to aspartame.
If you are addicted to this chemical I would highly recommend that you go to the Internet and research all the findings on diet foods and drinks. It will shock you that this chemical is still being marketed to the unaware American public.
Beware of all the chemicals that are added to our food supply and try to avoid as many as possible. Aspartame is like playing with a loaded gun.
Thank you for your continued support for our annual “Giving Tree” for Illiff Head Start. The children are going to love all the special gifts from you. We are in a very blessed community. May God bless America and all of our troops! Yours in good health!
The ingredients in aspartame include aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methyl alcohol. Do you remember from High School science that methyl alcohol is poisonous to the body. When methyl alcohol breaks down in high temperatures it turns into formaldehyde and DKP (diketopiprazine). These are two highly toxic chemicals which adversely affect the Nervous System. Aspartame, Nutra-Sweet, Equal, Splenda and Sweet and Low have a shelf life of 262 days stored at a temperature of 77 degrees.
The symptoms caused by aspartame are similar to Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. An increase in brain tumors is also linked to the use of artificial sweeteners.
I find it very interesting that the FDA get more complaints about aspartame than anything else, yet this chemical is still on the market.
Using aspartame can result in these symptoms: headaches, depression, slurred speech, loss of memory, fibromyalgia, loss of sensation and shooting pains down the, loss of equilibrium, vertigo, anxiety attacks, chronic fatigue, vision loss, eye floaters, renal detachment, heart palpitations and seizures.
The most recent research indicates that Nutra-Sweet (aspartame) results in miscarriage and infertility. The fetal tissue cannot tolerate methanol or the phenylalanine. Aspartame is a well known neurotoxin and causes birth defects. The placenta concentrates phenylalanine and this results in mental retardation.
Further research on test animals has resulted in a dramatic increase in brain and breast tumors. If your diet soda reaches a temperature above 86 degrees, the aspartame will break down and get toxic. Think of how many people leave those cases of diet pop in their garages during the summer so they never run out!! After the aspartame reaches a temperature above 86 degrees the wood alcohol in aspartame converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid. Blindness, Lupus, and Alzheimer’s can be directly linked to aspartame.
If you are addicted to this chemical I would highly recommend that you go to the Internet and research all the findings on diet foods and drinks. It will shock you that this chemical is still being marketed to the unaware American public.
Beware of all the chemicals that are added to our food supply and try to avoid as many as possible. Aspartame is like playing with a loaded gun.
Thank you for your continued support for our annual “Giving Tree” for Illiff Head Start. The children are going to love all the special gifts from you. We are in a very blessed community. May God bless America and all of our troops! Yours in good health!
CBS newsman's $70m lawsuit likely to deal Bush legacy a new blow
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/200...bs-lawsuit-bush
Christopher Goodwin in Los Angeles
The Observer, Sunday 28 December 2008
As George W Bush prepares to leave the White House, at least one unpleasant episode from his unpopular presidency is threatening to follow him into retirement.
A $70m lawsuit filed by Dan Rather, the veteran former newsreader for CBS Evening News, against his old network is reopening the debate over alleged favourable treatment that Bush received when he served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. Bush had hoped that this controversy had been dealt with once and for all during the 2004 election.
Eight weeks before the 2004 presidential poll, Rather broadcast a story based on newly discovered documents which appeared to show that Bush, whose service in the Texas Air National Guard ensured that he did not have to fight in Vietnam, had barely turned up even for basic duty. After an outcry from the White House and conservative bloggers who claimed that the report had been based on falsified documents, CBS retracted the story, saying that the documents' authenticity could not be verified. Rather, who had been with CBS for decades and was one of the most familiar faces in American journalism, was fired by the network the day after the 2004 election.
He claims breach of contract against CBS. He has already spent $2m on his case, which is likely to go to court early next year. Rather contends not only that his report was true - "What the documents stated has never been denied, by the president or anyone around him," he says - but that CBS succumbed to political pressure from conservatives to get the report discredited and to have him fired. He also claims that a panel set up by CBS to investigate the story was packed with conservatives in an effort to placate the White House. Part of the reason for that, he suggests, was that Viacom, a sister company of CBS, knew that it would have important broadcasting regulatory issues to deal with during Bush's second term.
Among those CBS considered for the panel to investigate Rather's report were far-right broadcasters Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
"CBS broke with long-standing tradition at CBS News and elsewhere of standing up to political pressure," says Rather. "And, there's no joy in saying it, they caved ... in an effort to placate their regulators in Washington."
Rather's lawsuit makes other serious allegations about CBS succumbing to political pressure in an attempt to suppress important news stories. In particular, he says that his bosses at CBS tried to stop him reporting evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. According to Rather's lawsuit, "for weeks they refused to grant permission to air the story" and "continued to raise the goalposts, insisting on additional substantiation". Rather also claims that General Richard Meyers, then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military official in the US, called him at home and asked him not to broadcast the story, saying that it would "endanger national security".
Rather says that CBS only agreed to allow him to broadcast the story when it found out that Seymour Hersh would be writing about it in the New Yorker magazine. Even then, Rather claims, CBS tried to bury it. "CBS imposed the unusual restrictions that the story would be aired only once, that it would not be preceded by on-air promotion, and that it would not be referenced on the CBS Evening News," he says.
The charges outlined in Rather's lawsuit will cast a further shadow over the Bush legacy. He recently expressed regret for the "failed intelligence" which led to the invasion of Iraq and has received heavy criticism over the scale and depth of the economic downturn in the United States.
Christopher Goodwin in Los Angeles
The Observer, Sunday 28 December 2008
As George W Bush prepares to leave the White House, at least one unpleasant episode from his unpopular presidency is threatening to follow him into retirement.
A $70m lawsuit filed by Dan Rather, the veteran former newsreader for CBS Evening News, against his old network is reopening the debate over alleged favourable treatment that Bush received when he served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. Bush had hoped that this controversy had been dealt with once and for all during the 2004 election.
Eight weeks before the 2004 presidential poll, Rather broadcast a story based on newly discovered documents which appeared to show that Bush, whose service in the Texas Air National Guard ensured that he did not have to fight in Vietnam, had barely turned up even for basic duty. After an outcry from the White House and conservative bloggers who claimed that the report had been based on falsified documents, CBS retracted the story, saying that the documents' authenticity could not be verified. Rather, who had been with CBS for decades and was one of the most familiar faces in American journalism, was fired by the network the day after the 2004 election.
He claims breach of contract against CBS. He has already spent $2m on his case, which is likely to go to court early next year. Rather contends not only that his report was true - "What the documents stated has never been denied, by the president or anyone around him," he says - but that CBS succumbed to political pressure from conservatives to get the report discredited and to have him fired. He also claims that a panel set up by CBS to investigate the story was packed with conservatives in an effort to placate the White House. Part of the reason for that, he suggests, was that Viacom, a sister company of CBS, knew that it would have important broadcasting regulatory issues to deal with during Bush's second term.
Among those CBS considered for the panel to investigate Rather's report were far-right broadcasters Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
"CBS broke with long-standing tradition at CBS News and elsewhere of standing up to political pressure," says Rather. "And, there's no joy in saying it, they caved ... in an effort to placate their regulators in Washington."
Rather's lawsuit makes other serious allegations about CBS succumbing to political pressure in an attempt to suppress important news stories. In particular, he says that his bosses at CBS tried to stop him reporting evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. According to Rather's lawsuit, "for weeks they refused to grant permission to air the story" and "continued to raise the goalposts, insisting on additional substantiation". Rather also claims that General Richard Meyers, then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military official in the US, called him at home and asked him not to broadcast the story, saying that it would "endanger national security".
Rather says that CBS only agreed to allow him to broadcast the story when it found out that Seymour Hersh would be writing about it in the New Yorker magazine. Even then, Rather claims, CBS tried to bury it. "CBS imposed the unusual restrictions that the story would be aired only once, that it would not be preceded by on-air promotion, and that it would not be referenced on the CBS Evening News," he says.
The charges outlined in Rather's lawsuit will cast a further shadow over the Bush legacy. He recently expressed regret for the "failed intelligence" which led to the invasion of Iraq and has received heavy criticism over the scale and depth of the economic downturn in the United States.
Study: DoD May Act On US Civil Unrest
http://www.military.com/news/articl...l=1186032310810
December 29, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development," which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released.
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.
The report also suggests the new (Barack Obama) administration could face a "strategic shock" within the first eight months in office.
Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said the Army post is not involved in any recent talks about a potential military response to civil unrest.
The report become a hot Internet item after Phoenix police told the Phoenix Business Journal they're prepared to deal with such an event, and the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Khan, said social unrest could spread to advanced countries if the global economic crisis worsens.
Javier Sambrano, spokes-man for the El Paso Police Department, said city police have trained for years so they can address any contingency, but not with the military.
"The police (department) trains on an ongoing basis as part of its Mobile Field Force Training," Sambrano said. "As a result, the police will be able to respond to emergency situations, such as looting or a big civil unrest. The police (department) does not train with Soldiers."
Earlier this year, Pentagon officials said as many as 20,000 Soldiers under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be trained within the next three years to work with civilian law enforcement in homeland security.
Joint Task Force-North, a joint command at Biggs Army Airfield, which conducts surveillance and intelligence along the border, comes under NORTHCOM. No one was available at JTF-North to comment on the Army War College's report. NORTHCOM was created after the 9-11 attacks to coordinate homeland security efforts.
Soldiers under the former Joint Task Force-6 (now JTF-North) supported the Border Patrol in El Paso with its drug-interdiction operations.
In case civilian authorities request help or become overwhelmed, El Paso has several National Guard and military reserve units that can be called on. In 1992, National Guard and active Marine and Army units were deployed to help police control riots and looting in Los Angeles.
Charles Boehmer, political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, was skeptical about the Army War College report.
"The military was not called out during the Great Depression, and I don't think our economic problems are as bad as they were then," he said. "The military always has contingency plans. It's a think tank's job to come up with scenarios, but that doesn't mean it represents an active interest on the part of the (Pentagon)."
December 29, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development," which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released.
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.
The report also suggests the new (Barack Obama) administration could face a "strategic shock" within the first eight months in office.
Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said the Army post is not involved in any recent talks about a potential military response to civil unrest.
The report become a hot Internet item after Phoenix police told the Phoenix Business Journal they're prepared to deal with such an event, and the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Khan, said social unrest could spread to advanced countries if the global economic crisis worsens.
Javier Sambrano, spokes-man for the El Paso Police Department, said city police have trained for years so they can address any contingency, but not with the military.
"The police (department) trains on an ongoing basis as part of its Mobile Field Force Training," Sambrano said. "As a result, the police will be able to respond to emergency situations, such as looting or a big civil unrest. The police (department) does not train with Soldiers."
Earlier this year, Pentagon officials said as many as 20,000 Soldiers under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be trained within the next three years to work with civilian law enforcement in homeland security.
Joint Task Force-North, a joint command at Biggs Army Airfield, which conducts surveillance and intelligence along the border, comes under NORTHCOM. No one was available at JTF-North to comment on the Army War College's report. NORTHCOM was created after the 9-11 attacks to coordinate homeland security efforts.
Soldiers under the former Joint Task Force-6 (now JTF-North) supported the Border Patrol in El Paso with its drug-interdiction operations.
In case civilian authorities request help or become overwhelmed, El Paso has several National Guard and military reserve units that can be called on. In 1992, National Guard and active Marine and Army units were deployed to help police control riots and looting in Los Angeles.
Charles Boehmer, political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, was skeptical about the Army War College report.
"The military was not called out during the Great Depression, and I don't think our economic problems are as bad as they were then," he said. "The military always has contingency plans. It's a think tank's job to come up with scenarios, but that doesn't mean it represents an active interest on the part of the (Pentagon)."
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Sunday, December 28, 2008
D.C. cops caught stealing from Toys for Tots on Christmas eve
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/D.C._cops_caught_stealing_from_Toys_1227.html
This year, the Grinch is wearing blue instead of green.
On Christmas day, four Washington, D.C. police officers were caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots, a charity organization that collects toys for poor children. The United States Marines led the group's toy collection drive.
Yvonne Smith, the Washington, D.C. police department's outreach coordinator, pleaded with the media for less focus on the crooked officers.
This "starts off Christmas on a sour note, puts distance between the community and the police, and worst of all, tarnishes the image of the Department during a time when we are trying to build strong relationships to foster trust that ultimately helps us solve crimes," she wrote in an e-mail to D.C.-area media.
Smith added that officers with her department had never done anything like this before -- both distributing, and stealing, the charitable toys.
“Please don’t let the Christmas story of the day be about an investigation of officers who make up .001 percent of the department,” she concluded. “Many many many more members made outstanding contributions during this holiday season to make a difference in the lives of families who are struggling.”
"Anytime we are involved in programs that have potential for abuse we ask for the assistance of our Internal Affairs to maintain the integrity of our department and our members," said Police Chief Cathy Lanier. "In this case, I am sad to say that monitoring has uncovered some questionable behavior of a few of our members."
No arrests have been made, but D.C. police say the officers have been placed on paid suspension pending the investigation's conclusion. Chief Lainer has vowed to see the officers "prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
This year, the Grinch is wearing blue instead of green.
On Christmas day, four Washington, D.C. police officers were caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots, a charity organization that collects toys for poor children. The United States Marines led the group's toy collection drive.
Yvonne Smith, the Washington, D.C. police department's outreach coordinator, pleaded with the media for less focus on the crooked officers.
This "starts off Christmas on a sour note, puts distance between the community and the police, and worst of all, tarnishes the image of the Department during a time when we are trying to build strong relationships to foster trust that ultimately helps us solve crimes," she wrote in an e-mail to D.C.-area media.
Smith added that officers with her department had never done anything like this before -- both distributing, and stealing, the charitable toys.
“Please don’t let the Christmas story of the day be about an investigation of officers who make up .001 percent of the department,” she concluded. “Many many many more members made outstanding contributions during this holiday season to make a difference in the lives of families who are struggling.”
"Anytime we are involved in programs that have potential for abuse we ask for the assistance of our Internal Affairs to maintain the integrity of our department and our members," said Police Chief Cathy Lanier. "In this case, I am sad to say that monitoring has uncovered some questionable behavior of a few of our members."
No arrests have been made, but D.C. police say the officers have been placed on paid suspension pending the investigation's conclusion. Chief Lainer has vowed to see the officers "prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Wall St. faces record losses in last week of 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street_week_ahead
NEW YORK – Investors are preparing to close out the last three trading days of 2008 with Wall Street's worst performance since Herbert Hoover was president.
The ongoing recession and global economic shock pummeled stocks this year, with the Dow Jones industrial average slumping 36.2 percent. That's the biggest drop since 1931 when the Great Depression sent stocks reeling 40.6 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index is set to record the biggest drop since its creation in 1957. The index of America's biggest companies is down 40.9 percent for the year.
With these statistics ready to play out this week, it is little wonder why investors are all too happy to close the books on 2008. Analysts are already looking toward January as a crucial period for the market as it tries to recover some of the $7.3 trillion wiped from the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, the broadest measure of U.S. stocks.
"It is hard to gauge a recovery because there's so many things out there that are interactive with each other," said Scott Fullman, director of derivatives investment strategy for WJB Capital Group in New York. "Nothing is in a vacuum. Anybody who is managing money has to be on the cautious side for at least the first six months of 2009."
He said many analysts are jumping past this week and focusing on next month, especially with Barack Obama set to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20. There is hope that the new administration will deliver another stimulus package, which along with December's interest rate cuts, might help quell the financial crisis.
Trading is expected to remain volatile with many market participants on the sidelines during the holiday-shortened week, but that doesn't mean investors won't be kept busy. With no Santa Claus rally last week, economic data slated for the coming days could sway the market's mood going into 2009.
Investors will be awaiting details about how retailers fared in the post-Christmas sales period, especially since consumer spending drives more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The main question is if bargain prices at the malls will be enough to rescue retailers from a bleak holiday shopping season.
Meanwhile, another gauge of how Americans feel about spending money will be released on Tuesday. The Conference Board will issue its December index of consumer confidence, which is expected to rise to a reading of 45.2 for this month, up slightly from 44.9 in November.
The Labor Department will report on weekly jobless claims Wednesday, after a 26-year high of 586,000 initial filings in the week ended Dec. 20.
But the most anticipated economic data will be delivered Friday when investors get a fresh reading on the manufacturing sector. The Institute for Supply Management releases its December survey of purchasing managers.
The index is expected to show a reading of 35.5, down from November's 36.2, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters. A reading above 50 points to expansion, while a reading below 50 shows a contraction.
There is little in the way of corporate news slated. Though, the final week of the year — when volume is slow and many money managers are on vacation — is often a time when companies slip through lower quarterly forecasts.
Investors were still waiting word if GMAC Financial Services, the financing arm of General Motors Corp., will be eligible for a government bailout. GMAC received the Federal Reserve's approval to become a bank holding company last week, but that was contingent on putting into place a complicated debt-for-equity exchange by 11:59 p.m. EST Friday.
That deadline passed with no word from the company. Analysts have speculated that if GMAC doesn't obtain financial help it would have to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down, which would be a serious blow to parent GM's own chances for survival.
Both General Motors and Chrysler LLC on Monday will receive the first part of the $13.4 billion in emergency loans from the government. Each will receive about $4 billion, then receive the second payment of $5.4 billion on Jan. 16. GM gets a third installment of $4 billion on Feb. 17.
Ford Motor Co. did not participate in the government rescue plan.
IndyMac Bank, one of the most high-profile financial institutions to fail because of the financial crisis, might be close to getting a new owner. The buyers include private equity firms J.C. Flowers & Co. and Dune Capital Management, according to The New York Times, which cited unidentified people close to the matter.
The proposed sale could be announced by Monday morning, the report said.
Meanwhile, Kuwait's government on Sunday scrapped a $17.4 billion joint venture with U.S. petrochemical giant Dow Chemical Co. after criticism from lawmakers that could have led to a political crisis in this small oil-rich state.
The Cabinet, in a statement carried by the state-owned Kuwait News Agency, said the venture, was "very risky" in light of the global financial crisis and low oil prices. Dow Chemical said it was "extremely disappointed" with the Kuwaiti government's decision and was evaluating its options under the joint-venture agreement.
NEW YORK – Investors are preparing to close out the last three trading days of 2008 with Wall Street's worst performance since Herbert Hoover was president.
The ongoing recession and global economic shock pummeled stocks this year, with the Dow Jones industrial average slumping 36.2 percent. That's the biggest drop since 1931 when the Great Depression sent stocks reeling 40.6 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index is set to record the biggest drop since its creation in 1957. The index of America's biggest companies is down 40.9 percent for the year.
With these statistics ready to play out this week, it is little wonder why investors are all too happy to close the books on 2008. Analysts are already looking toward January as a crucial period for the market as it tries to recover some of the $7.3 trillion wiped from the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, the broadest measure of U.S. stocks.
"It is hard to gauge a recovery because there's so many things out there that are interactive with each other," said Scott Fullman, director of derivatives investment strategy for WJB Capital Group in New York. "Nothing is in a vacuum. Anybody who is managing money has to be on the cautious side for at least the first six months of 2009."
He said many analysts are jumping past this week and focusing on next month, especially with Barack Obama set to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20. There is hope that the new administration will deliver another stimulus package, which along with December's interest rate cuts, might help quell the financial crisis.
Trading is expected to remain volatile with many market participants on the sidelines during the holiday-shortened week, but that doesn't mean investors won't be kept busy. With no Santa Claus rally last week, economic data slated for the coming days could sway the market's mood going into 2009.
Investors will be awaiting details about how retailers fared in the post-Christmas sales period, especially since consumer spending drives more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The main question is if bargain prices at the malls will be enough to rescue retailers from a bleak holiday shopping season.
Meanwhile, another gauge of how Americans feel about spending money will be released on Tuesday. The Conference Board will issue its December index of consumer confidence, which is expected to rise to a reading of 45.2 for this month, up slightly from 44.9 in November.
The Labor Department will report on weekly jobless claims Wednesday, after a 26-year high of 586,000 initial filings in the week ended Dec. 20.
But the most anticipated economic data will be delivered Friday when investors get a fresh reading on the manufacturing sector. The Institute for Supply Management releases its December survey of purchasing managers.
The index is expected to show a reading of 35.5, down from November's 36.2, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters. A reading above 50 points to expansion, while a reading below 50 shows a contraction.
There is little in the way of corporate news slated. Though, the final week of the year — when volume is slow and many money managers are on vacation — is often a time when companies slip through lower quarterly forecasts.
Investors were still waiting word if GMAC Financial Services, the financing arm of General Motors Corp., will be eligible for a government bailout. GMAC received the Federal Reserve's approval to become a bank holding company last week, but that was contingent on putting into place a complicated debt-for-equity exchange by 11:59 p.m. EST Friday.
That deadline passed with no word from the company. Analysts have speculated that if GMAC doesn't obtain financial help it would have to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down, which would be a serious blow to parent GM's own chances for survival.
Both General Motors and Chrysler LLC on Monday will receive the first part of the $13.4 billion in emergency loans from the government. Each will receive about $4 billion, then receive the second payment of $5.4 billion on Jan. 16. GM gets a third installment of $4 billion on Feb. 17.
Ford Motor Co. did not participate in the government rescue plan.
IndyMac Bank, one of the most high-profile financial institutions to fail because of the financial crisis, might be close to getting a new owner. The buyers include private equity firms J.C. Flowers & Co. and Dune Capital Management, according to The New York Times, which cited unidentified people close to the matter.
The proposed sale could be announced by Monday morning, the report said.
Meanwhile, Kuwait's government on Sunday scrapped a $17.4 billion joint venture with U.S. petrochemical giant Dow Chemical Co. after criticism from lawmakers that could have led to a political crisis in this small oil-rich state.
The Cabinet, in a statement carried by the state-owned Kuwait News Agency, said the venture, was "very risky" in light of the global financial crisis and low oil prices. Dow Chemical said it was "extremely disappointed" with the Kuwaiti government's decision and was evaluating its options under the joint-venture agreement.
Lovers of war history battle Wal-Mart's proposed new store
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Lovers_of_war_history_battle_WalMarts_1227.html
At the site where Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant clashed for the first time, a new battle is brewing between a corporate titan and lovers of U.S. history.
After Wal-Mart proposed a new supercenter store near the Civil War's Wilderness Battlefield, located in Virgina's Orange County, history lovers lashed out against the idea.
The land Wal-Mart chose for the store has no historical significance, according to a study commissioned by the company, and would not be built on the actual battlefield area.
But history buffs argue that building a Wal-Mart will cause a flurry of new construction and development that would stain the pristine landscape that has remained relatively unchanged since the infamous battle in 1864 and mar the memory of the 24,000 soldiers who died in it.
"National parks are fragile entities. Putting development right up next to a park is a recipe for disaster," said Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The resistance to Wal-Mart sent a letter to the corporation signed by 253 historians asking the Arkansas-based corporation to "respect our great nation's history and move your store farther away from this historic site and National Park."
Opponents of the new Wal-Mart include Emmy-winning documentarian Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors David M. McCullough and James McPherson.
Although a spokesman for Wal-mart said the company was willing to work with those resistant to the new store, he also said the deal for its location near Wilderness Battlefied is already final.
"This is the site we're going forward with," said spokesman Keith Morris. "The land is already zoned for commercial use and targeted for development by Orange County, he said. "There is a void here in this immediate area, especially in retail growth."
The building would cover 138,000 square feet and its grounds would occupy nearly 50 acres.
At the site where Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant clashed for the first time, a new battle is brewing between a corporate titan and lovers of U.S. history.
After Wal-Mart proposed a new supercenter store near the Civil War's Wilderness Battlefield, located in Virgina's Orange County, history lovers lashed out against the idea.
The land Wal-Mart chose for the store has no historical significance, according to a study commissioned by the company, and would not be built on the actual battlefield area.
But history buffs argue that building a Wal-Mart will cause a flurry of new construction and development that would stain the pristine landscape that has remained relatively unchanged since the infamous battle in 1864 and mar the memory of the 24,000 soldiers who died in it.
"National parks are fragile entities. Putting development right up next to a park is a recipe for disaster," said Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The resistance to Wal-Mart sent a letter to the corporation signed by 253 historians asking the Arkansas-based corporation to "respect our great nation's history and move your store farther away from this historic site and National Park."
Opponents of the new Wal-Mart include Emmy-winning documentarian Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors David M. McCullough and James McPherson.
Although a spokesman for Wal-mart said the company was willing to work with those resistant to the new store, he also said the deal for its location near Wilderness Battlefied is already final.
"This is the site we're going forward with," said spokesman Keith Morris. "The land is already zoned for commercial use and targeted for development by Orange County, he said. "There is a void here in this immediate area, especially in retail growth."
The building would cover 138,000 square feet and its grounds would occupy nearly 50 acres.
Activists hold anti-Taser vigil after year of deaths
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Activ...ear_1227.htm l
Andrew McLemore
Published: Saturday December 27, 2008
In Santa Rosa, Calif., residents are not happy with their local law enforcement.
After two men died by police wielding Tasers in the last two months and four more in the past year, a number of Sonoma County groups rallied about 40 people to protest the electro-shock weapon.
"Although it might seem like a lesser evil, they have been misusing it to such a degree that it has become lethal in this county," said Maggie Coshnear, a member of the county's October 22nd Coalition.
Sherry Heyberger, a 40-year-old hairdresser, stood on a curb during the rally holding a sign that read "Tasers are Torture."
Nathan Vaughn, the most recent victim of Taser use, was hit three times by a Taser less than two minutes after a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy entered his home.
Vaughn, 39, was assaulting his father and his mother had called police for help, but less than an hour after the deputy arrived, Vaughn was dead.
"He shouldn't have died the way he did," Heyberger said. "He's been in and out of jail, yeah, but does that call for someone being Tasered three times?"
Tasers have grown increasingly controversial as stories like Vaughn's continue to surface across the country.
In Houston, Texas, a naked man disturbing the neighborhood died after police shocked him with a Taser four times.
A recent report found that 400 people in the US and Canada have died from Taser shocks since 2001. Since the report was issued, Canada has begun removing the weapon from its police forces.
Andrew McLemore
Published: Saturday December 27, 2008
In Santa Rosa, Calif., residents are not happy with their local law enforcement.
After two men died by police wielding Tasers in the last two months and four more in the past year, a number of Sonoma County groups rallied about 40 people to protest the electro-shock weapon.
"Although it might seem like a lesser evil, they have been misusing it to such a degree that it has become lethal in this county," said Maggie Coshnear, a member of the county's October 22nd Coalition.
Sherry Heyberger, a 40-year-old hairdresser, stood on a curb during the rally holding a sign that read "Tasers are Torture."
Nathan Vaughn, the most recent victim of Taser use, was hit three times by a Taser less than two minutes after a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy entered his home.
Vaughn, 39, was assaulting his father and his mother had called police for help, but less than an hour after the deputy arrived, Vaughn was dead.
"He shouldn't have died the way he did," Heyberger said. "He's been in and out of jail, yeah, but does that call for someone being Tasered three times?"
Tasers have grown increasingly controversial as stories like Vaughn's continue to surface across the country.
In Houston, Texas, a naked man disturbing the neighborhood died after police shocked him with a Taser four times.
A recent report found that 400 people in the US and Canada have died from Taser shocks since 2001. Since the report was issued, Canada has begun removing the weapon from its police forces.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Christmas massacre left '16 orphans' says family lawyer
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Christmas_massacre_left_16_orphans__12272008.html
Sixteen children were left orphaned in the Christmas Eve massacre carried out by a gunman dressed as Santa Claus who slaughtered his ex-wife and her family, it was reported Saturday.
Authorities have yet to formally identify the nine people killed by Bruce Pardo, 45, who opened fire at the home of his former in-laws on Wednesday before setting fire to the house and later taking his own life.
But the devastating impact upon the family of his ex-wife -- identified in media reports as Sylvia Ortega -- has slowly begun to emerge as grief-stricken friends and associates speak out in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Pardo's rampage is reported to have claimed the lives of his ex-wife, her parents, her two brothers and their partners, and another relative Alice Ortiz and her teenage son.
Sylvia Ortega's three children were at the party but survived, Scott Nord, the family's lawyer, told NBC4 television. "The entire family was wiped out," Nord said. "There's basically like 16 orphans."
Three people injured in the assault but are expected to survive. They include an eight-year-old girl who was shot in the face after excitedly opening the door of the home to Pardo because she wanted to see Father Christmas, police told reporters Friday.
No additional victims are expected to be discovered in the charred wreckage of the Ortega's home, which is to bulldozed, police said.
Family lawyer Nord meanwhile told NBC4 that contrary to reports, Pardo's recent divorce from Ortega -- cited as a possible trigger for the attack -- had not been especially acrimonious.
He said there were "no theatrics in the courtroom, no theatrics in the hallway," Nord said. "Everybody was very civil to each other."
"There was no history of domestic violence in this case or none that my client had ever told me about," he said, admitting he was at a loss to explain what may have pushed Pardo over the edge.
"I can't even give you a rationale," Nord said. "I've never seen anything like this happen. I've never even heard of anything like this happening."
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Pardo's marriage had been strained after Ortega discovered he had a brain-damaged son from a previous relationship that he had kept secret.
According to the Times, citing a source close to the police investigation, Ortega was appalled that Pardo had abandoned his child yet continued to claim him as a tax write-off.
Police revealed Friday that Pardo had planned to flee to Canada following his attack, but killed himself after being seriously injured as he set fire to his former in-laws' home with a home-made flamethrower that melted his Santa Claus costume to parts of his body.
Pardo shot himself after driving to his brother's home. Covina police said 17,000 dollars was found taped to his body along with a plane ticket to Canada departing early Thursday.
He had also booby-trapped his car, which burst into flames as bomb disposal experts moved in, police revealed.
Sixteen children were left orphaned in the Christmas Eve massacre carried out by a gunman dressed as Santa Claus who slaughtered his ex-wife and her family, it was reported Saturday.
Authorities have yet to formally identify the nine people killed by Bruce Pardo, 45, who opened fire at the home of his former in-laws on Wednesday before setting fire to the house and later taking his own life.
But the devastating impact upon the family of his ex-wife -- identified in media reports as Sylvia Ortega -- has slowly begun to emerge as grief-stricken friends and associates speak out in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Pardo's rampage is reported to have claimed the lives of his ex-wife, her parents, her two brothers and their partners, and another relative Alice Ortiz and her teenage son.
Sylvia Ortega's three children were at the party but survived, Scott Nord, the family's lawyer, told NBC4 television. "The entire family was wiped out," Nord said. "There's basically like 16 orphans."
Three people injured in the assault but are expected to survive. They include an eight-year-old girl who was shot in the face after excitedly opening the door of the home to Pardo because she wanted to see Father Christmas, police told reporters Friday.
No additional victims are expected to be discovered in the charred wreckage of the Ortega's home, which is to bulldozed, police said.
Family lawyer Nord meanwhile told NBC4 that contrary to reports, Pardo's recent divorce from Ortega -- cited as a possible trigger for the attack -- had not been especially acrimonious.
He said there were "no theatrics in the courtroom, no theatrics in the hallway," Nord said. "Everybody was very civil to each other."
"There was no history of domestic violence in this case or none that my client had ever told me about," he said, admitting he was at a loss to explain what may have pushed Pardo over the edge.
"I can't even give you a rationale," Nord said. "I've never seen anything like this happen. I've never even heard of anything like this happening."
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Pardo's marriage had been strained after Ortega discovered he had a brain-damaged son from a previous relationship that he had kept secret.
According to the Times, citing a source close to the police investigation, Ortega was appalled that Pardo had abandoned his child yet continued to claim him as a tax write-off.
Police revealed Friday that Pardo had planned to flee to Canada following his attack, but killed himself after being seriously injured as he set fire to his former in-laws' home with a home-made flamethrower that melted his Santa Claus costume to parts of his body.
Pardo shot himself after driving to his brother's home. Covina police said 17,000 dollars was found taped to his body along with a plane ticket to Canada departing early Thursday.
He had also booby-trapped his car, which burst into flames as bomb disposal experts moved in, police revealed.
Trooper Says Election Delayed Alaska Drug Case
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...id=sec-politics
Associated Press
Friday, December 26, 2008; Page A04
WASILLA, Alaska -- The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages discussing drug transactions less than a month after the young woman's mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate, according to court documents filed this week.
An affidavit from an Alaska state trooper, filed Monday, states that Sherry L. Johnston referred in her messages to two police informants to "coffee" as a code for the drug OxyContin.
Johnston, 42, was arrested on felony drug charges last week after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home. She allegedly sold OxyContin tablets to the informants on three occasions this fall, the affidavit states. Police said two of the meetings were recorded by a hidden camera and a microphone.
Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, 18. Sarah Palin announced in September that her daughter Bristol, also 18, was pregnant and that Johnston was the father. Their child was due to be born Dec. 18, her grandfather Chuck Heath told the Anchorage Daily News recently.
Authorities say the case against Sherry Johnston began in the second week of September, when drug investigators intercepted a package containing 179 OxyContin pills. That led to the arrest of the suspects, who agreed to be informants.
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According to the affidavit, Johnston sent a text message to one informant Oct. 1, writing: "Hey, my phones are tapped and reporters and god knows who else is always following me and the family so no privacy. I will let u no when I can go for cof."
The trooper's affidavit indicates that Sarah Palin's candidacy factored into the investigation, with state officials delaying execution of a search warrant until this month, when Johnston was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."
Associated Press
Friday, December 26, 2008; Page A04
WASILLA, Alaska -- The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages discussing drug transactions less than a month after the young woman's mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate, according to court documents filed this week.
An affidavit from an Alaska state trooper, filed Monday, states that Sherry L. Johnston referred in her messages to two police informants to "coffee" as a code for the drug OxyContin.
Johnston, 42, was arrested on felony drug charges last week after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home. She allegedly sold OxyContin tablets to the informants on three occasions this fall, the affidavit states. Police said two of the meetings were recorded by a hidden camera and a microphone.
Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, 18. Sarah Palin announced in September that her daughter Bristol, also 18, was pregnant and that Johnston was the father. Their child was due to be born Dec. 18, her grandfather Chuck Heath told the Anchorage Daily News recently.
Authorities say the case against Sherry Johnston began in the second week of September, when drug investigators intercepted a package containing 179 OxyContin pills. That led to the arrest of the suspects, who agreed to be informants.
ad_icon
According to the affidavit, Johnston sent a text message to one informant Oct. 1, writing: "Hey, my phones are tapped and reporters and god knows who else is always following me and the family so no privacy. I will let u no when I can go for cof."
The trooper's affidavit indicates that Sarah Palin's candidacy factored into the investigation, with state officials delaying execution of a search warrant until this month, when Johnston was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."
Friday, December 26, 2008
Foreign Office warns holidaymakers against extramarital sex in Muslim countries
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/dec/26/travel-euro-foreign-office
Holidaymakers to the United Arab Emirates have been told not to have sex outside marriage or kiss in public in strong government warnings over how to behave in Muslim countries.
The advice, which goes further than the traditional admonition for women to dress modestly, follows allegations of drunken sex romps. The Foreign Office is worried that increasing numbers of tourists will get into trouble abroad as they the travel to less traditional holiday destinations and fall foul of local laws and customs.
The number of Britons going to Egypt this year increased by 38% and to Turkey by 32% and similar rises are expected in 2009 as more Britons look outside the eurozone to make their holiday money go further. Warnings about modesty are also given to those planning to visit the Kenya coast and rural areas of Malaysia .
Travellers to several countries are warned about their strong anti-drug laws as well as no-tolerance attitudes towards excessive drinking. The government says embassies regularly deal with Britons who have failed to take enough money, telling holidaymakers to ensure they have back-up emergency funds and sufficient insurance.
The Foreign Office already supports 75,000 Britons in difficulties abroad each year, from visiting those in hospital or arrested to rescuing them from forced marriage, in addition to dealing with 3 million consular inquiries. Julian Braithwaite, director of consular services, said: " If people don't research their destinations before they go , it could do more than spoil their holiday. What's normal in reports in Spain or Greece are not necessarily acceptable in Turkey or Egypt."
The warning come in the 2009 Travel Trends Report, written with travel association Abta, which tries to be positive about holidays next year. "Many experts believe travel lags about six months behind the rest of the economy. Holidays are one of the last things consumers will cut when it comes to discretionary spend but no one in the travel industry is under any illusion that 2009 is going to be anything other than challenging."
The report, an addition to the Foreign Office's Know Before You Go campaign, carries results of a poll 0f more than 2,100 adults commissioned from YouGov, which suggests about one in five fears they or their partner will lose their jobs before their next holiday and a similar proportion feel going abroad is a luxury they might not be able to afford next year. Nearly one in eight are not planning a holiday at all, and one in nine will only holiday in the UK. More than half all those questioned in November thought the pound was going to get even weaker — a belief that has already been confirmed.
Although European favourites such as France and Spain will continue to be most popular with tourists even in a recession and with the strong euro, Mexico, Croatia, Israel, the Caribbean , Australia and Poland are expected to be other holiday hotspots. Iceland is seen as increasingly attractive following its own financial crisis. with a beer now the equivalent of about £2.50 instead of £7 and the cost of a meal out tumbling to a third of what it was.
The report is upbeat about the US remaining popular, with a combination of the Obama Effect and the US's own dire economic straits could mean it remains a significant destination. The plummeting pound is bound to have "a slight impact" on demand, it concedes , but adds that the last time there had been a two-dollar exchange rate was 1981, and that prices and the cost of living in the US is beginning to fall too. An Obama boom may also help Kenya's tourist numbers, because of the next US president's family connections.
Around 50,000 couples are thought to have got married abroad this year, and the exotic locations, warmer climate and economy (nuptials abroad cost an average £6,000 instead of the £15-20,000 in Britain), are likely to see this figure rise. Another rising trend will be "posh camping" in teepees or semi-permanent structures with built-in bathrooms.
Holidaymakers to the United Arab Emirates have been told not to have sex outside marriage or kiss in public in strong government warnings over how to behave in Muslim countries.
The advice, which goes further than the traditional admonition for women to dress modestly, follows allegations of drunken sex romps. The Foreign Office is worried that increasing numbers of tourists will get into trouble abroad as they the travel to less traditional holiday destinations and fall foul of local laws and customs.
The number of Britons going to Egypt this year increased by 38% and to Turkey by 32% and similar rises are expected in 2009 as more Britons look outside the eurozone to make their holiday money go further. Warnings about modesty are also given to those planning to visit the Kenya coast and rural areas of Malaysia .
Travellers to several countries are warned about their strong anti-drug laws as well as no-tolerance attitudes towards excessive drinking. The government says embassies regularly deal with Britons who have failed to take enough money, telling holidaymakers to ensure they have back-up emergency funds and sufficient insurance.
The Foreign Office already supports 75,000 Britons in difficulties abroad each year, from visiting those in hospital or arrested to rescuing them from forced marriage, in addition to dealing with 3 million consular inquiries. Julian Braithwaite, director of consular services, said: " If people don't research their destinations before they go , it could do more than spoil their holiday. What's normal in reports in Spain or Greece are not necessarily acceptable in Turkey or Egypt."
The warning come in the 2009 Travel Trends Report, written with travel association Abta, which tries to be positive about holidays next year. "Many experts believe travel lags about six months behind the rest of the economy. Holidays are one of the last things consumers will cut when it comes to discretionary spend but no one in the travel industry is under any illusion that 2009 is going to be anything other than challenging."
The report, an addition to the Foreign Office's Know Before You Go campaign, carries results of a poll 0f more than 2,100 adults commissioned from YouGov, which suggests about one in five fears they or their partner will lose their jobs before their next holiday and a similar proportion feel going abroad is a luxury they might not be able to afford next year. Nearly one in eight are not planning a holiday at all, and one in nine will only holiday in the UK. More than half all those questioned in November thought the pound was going to get even weaker — a belief that has already been confirmed.
Although European favourites such as France and Spain will continue to be most popular with tourists even in a recession and with the strong euro, Mexico, Croatia, Israel, the Caribbean , Australia and Poland are expected to be other holiday hotspots. Iceland is seen as increasingly attractive following its own financial crisis. with a beer now the equivalent of about £2.50 instead of £7 and the cost of a meal out tumbling to a third of what it was.
The report is upbeat about the US remaining popular, with a combination of the Obama Effect and the US's own dire economic straits could mean it remains a significant destination. The plummeting pound is bound to have "a slight impact" on demand, it concedes , but adds that the last time there had been a two-dollar exchange rate was 1981, and that prices and the cost of living in the US is beginning to fall too. An Obama boom may also help Kenya's tourist numbers, because of the next US president's family connections.
Around 50,000 couples are thought to have got married abroad this year, and the exotic locations, warmer climate and economy (nuptials abroad cost an average £6,000 instead of the £15-20,000 in Britain), are likely to see this figure rise. Another rising trend will be "posh camping" in teepees or semi-permanent structures with built-in bathrooms.
Naked man dies after 4 taser shocks
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Naked_man_dies_after_4_taser_1226.html
A naked man wandering around an apartment complex near Houston, Texas died after police shocked him with a taser four times.
Texas' KPRC reports, "A naked man who banged on doors and cars at a north Harris County apartment complex died after he was shocked by a Taser gun, deputies told KPRC Local 2. An autopsy will determine the cause of the man's death."
The article continues, "The deputies involved have been put on administrative duty pending the outcome of investigations by the internal affairs and homicide divisions."
The Houston Chronicle provides the police account of what transpired: "The resident 'did not know who he was,' said Lt. John Legg of the Sheriff's Office. The first deputy arrived within minutes. 'He was immediately confronted by the suspect, who ran toward his patrol car, opened the front passenger door and climbed in,' Legg said."
The Houston Chronicle story continues, "The deputy ordered the man out, but the man ignored his commands, yelling and flailing his arms, Legg said. 'He was incoherent,' the lieutenant said. 'The deputy said his eyes appeared glassed over.' The deputy's Taser had little, if any, effect, officials said. After the man got out of the patrol car and pulled out the stun gun's prongs, the deputy fired it again while struggling with the man, officials said. Another deputy arrived and ordered the naked man to back away, then used his Taser, investigators said."
Earlier this year, members of the NYPD's Emergency Unit tasered an emotionally disturbed man who was waving a fluorescent light while standing naked on a a building ledge, who then fell over ten feet to his death. The tasering "violated departmental guideline," but no charges were brought against the officers involved. Not long after, the NYPD lieutenant who ordered the tasering committed suicide.
"Torturing and killing the mentally ill with tasers is becoming commonplace," Hullabaloo's Digby blogs,"There must be a better way."
Tasers have have killed more than 400 people in the United States and Canada since 2001, according to a recent study.
"Taser International, based in Arizona, dismissed the study as flawed," Nick Juliano recently reported for Raw Story. "The company maintains that its weapons are safe."
A naked man wandering around an apartment complex near Houston, Texas died after police shocked him with a taser four times.
Texas' KPRC reports, "A naked man who banged on doors and cars at a north Harris County apartment complex died after he was shocked by a Taser gun, deputies told KPRC Local 2. An autopsy will determine the cause of the man's death."
The article continues, "The deputies involved have been put on administrative duty pending the outcome of investigations by the internal affairs and homicide divisions."
The Houston Chronicle provides the police account of what transpired: "The resident 'did not know who he was,' said Lt. John Legg of the Sheriff's Office. The first deputy arrived within minutes. 'He was immediately confronted by the suspect, who ran toward his patrol car, opened the front passenger door and climbed in,' Legg said."
The Houston Chronicle story continues, "The deputy ordered the man out, but the man ignored his commands, yelling and flailing his arms, Legg said. 'He was incoherent,' the lieutenant said. 'The deputy said his eyes appeared glassed over.' The deputy's Taser had little, if any, effect, officials said. After the man got out of the patrol car and pulled out the stun gun's prongs, the deputy fired it again while struggling with the man, officials said. Another deputy arrived and ordered the naked man to back away, then used his Taser, investigators said."
Earlier this year, members of the NYPD's Emergency Unit tasered an emotionally disturbed man who was waving a fluorescent light while standing naked on a a building ledge, who then fell over ten feet to his death. The tasering "violated departmental guideline," but no charges were brought against the officers involved. Not long after, the NYPD lieutenant who ordered the tasering committed suicide.
"Torturing and killing the mentally ill with tasers is becoming commonplace," Hullabaloo's Digby blogs,"There must be a better way."
Tasers have have killed more than 400 people in the United States and Canada since 2001, according to a recent study.
"Taser International, based in Arizona, dismissed the study as flawed," Nick Juliano recently reported for Raw Story. "The company maintains that its weapons are safe."
SPLENDA IS A SEIZURE TRIGGERING DRUG, ADMITTED BY THE MANUFACTURER
http://www.mpwhi.com/splenda_is_a_seizure_triggering_drug.htm
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
Posted: 06 November 2008
James Bowen, M.D. stated that if you go from aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful/Canderel/E951/Benevia, etc.) to Splenda you can maintain the reactions from aspartame and pick up those from Splenda. This is because aspartame is a chemical hypersensitization agent and triggers polychemical sensitivity syndrome. We know that aspartame is a seizure triggering drug mentioned 5 times on the FDA Report of 92 symptoms. We have received continued reactions from victims using Splenda from cardiac symptoms and other horrors to rashes. Now we know that Splenda too is a seizure triggering drug, as well as a chlorocarbon poison. http://www.wnho.net/splenda_chlorocarbon.htm In the case of aspartame it is actually being added to anti-seizure medication like Ketocal and others. The FDA knows it and does nothing.
We have an affidavit from Marianne Lamar who actually spoke with the manufacturer who admitted that Splenda causes seizures and migraines. This means they knew it before they put it on the market and that its illegal like aspartame. Additives must be inert or non-reactive. Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King's College London). It was discovered by Leslie Hough and a young Indian chemist, Shashikant Phadnis. The duo were trying to make an insecticide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose
Marianne's husband had an aspartame brain tumor, glioblastoma. When he found out about aspartame and quit he started using Splenda and had a grand mal seizure. Here is the affidavit from Marianne Lamar, having spoken to the manufacturer who admitted Splenda triggers seizures. Tom Lamar is now deceased.
FACT: My Beloved Husband Tom
1. FACT: Diabetic type 2 (for years).
2. FACT: Diet drink and food (aspartame laced).
3. FACT: GBM stage 4 brain tumor (given 5 to 6 months to live).
4. FACT: Off aspartame from day of surgery (drink and food).
5. FACT: Given Splenda (after being assured by Splenda it was safe).
6. FACT: Seizures followed.
7. FACT: Called Splenda to report.
8. FACT: Splenda requested medical records and confirmed it was Splenda causing (seizures).
9. FACT: Neurologist told me to take him off Splenda quick (he knew about the problem).
10. FACT: Taken off Splenda - seizures stopped.
11. FACT: Called Splenda, told YES it causes seizures but not enough people reporting it (making connection).
12. FACT: Called Splenda again, told they were aware of seizures and migraines.
13. FACT: Nothing being done.
I swear all above is true and happened to my husband and me.
Sincerely,
Marianne Lamar
806 Board Walk Ct
Loganville, Georgia 30052
Signed by Dustin Boyette, Notary Public, Walton County, Georgia
Received 9/27/2008
_______________________End of affidavit
There is a safe sweetener, Just Like Sugar, made from chicory and orange peel, Vitamin C and Calcium. Chicory has been used for 70 years to improve the health of diabetics. Can be gotten at places like Whole Foods or http://www.justlikesugarinc.com
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
Posted: 06 November 2008
James Bowen, M.D. stated that if you go from aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful/Canderel/E951/Benevia, etc.) to Splenda you can maintain the reactions from aspartame and pick up those from Splenda. This is because aspartame is a chemical hypersensitization agent and triggers polychemical sensitivity syndrome. We know that aspartame is a seizure triggering drug mentioned 5 times on the FDA Report of 92 symptoms. We have received continued reactions from victims using Splenda from cardiac symptoms and other horrors to rashes. Now we know that Splenda too is a seizure triggering drug, as well as a chlorocarbon poison. http://www.wnho.net/splenda_chlorocarbon.htm In the case of aspartame it is actually being added to anti-seizure medication like Ketocal and others. The FDA knows it and does nothing.
We have an affidavit from Marianne Lamar who actually spoke with the manufacturer who admitted that Splenda causes seizures and migraines. This means they knew it before they put it on the market and that its illegal like aspartame. Additives must be inert or non-reactive. Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King's College London). It was discovered by Leslie Hough and a young Indian chemist, Shashikant Phadnis. The duo were trying to make an insecticide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose
Marianne's husband had an aspartame brain tumor, glioblastoma. When he found out about aspartame and quit he started using Splenda and had a grand mal seizure. Here is the affidavit from Marianne Lamar, having spoken to the manufacturer who admitted Splenda triggers seizures. Tom Lamar is now deceased.
FACT: My Beloved Husband Tom
1. FACT: Diabetic type 2 (for years).
2. FACT: Diet drink and food (aspartame laced).
3. FACT: GBM stage 4 brain tumor (given 5 to 6 months to live).
4. FACT: Off aspartame from day of surgery (drink and food).
5. FACT: Given Splenda (after being assured by Splenda it was safe).
6. FACT: Seizures followed.
7. FACT: Called Splenda to report.
8. FACT: Splenda requested medical records and confirmed it was Splenda causing (seizures).
9. FACT: Neurologist told me to take him off Splenda quick (he knew about the problem).
10. FACT: Taken off Splenda - seizures stopped.
11. FACT: Called Splenda, told YES it causes seizures but not enough people reporting it (making connection).
12. FACT: Called Splenda again, told they were aware of seizures and migraines.
13. FACT: Nothing being done.
I swear all above is true and happened to my husband and me.
Sincerely,
Marianne Lamar
806 Board Walk Ct
Loganville, Georgia 30052
Signed by Dustin Boyette, Notary Public, Walton County, Georgia
Received 9/27/2008
_______________________End of affidavit
There is a safe sweetener, Just Like Sugar, made from chicory and orange peel, Vitamin C and Calcium. Chicory has been used for 70 years to improve the health of diabetics. Can be gotten at places like Whole Foods or http://www.justlikesugarinc.com
The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html
By Bill Sanda, BS, MBA
For many years, Dr. Meira Fields and her coworkers at the US Department of Agriculture investigated the harmful effects of dietary sugar on rats. They discovered that when male rats are fed a diet deficient in copper, with sucrose as the carbohydrate, they develop severe pathologies of vital organs. Liver, heart and testes exhibit extreme swelling, while the pancreas atrophies, invariably leading to death of the rats before maturity.
Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. Dr. Fields repeated her experiments to determine whether it was the glucose or fructose moiety that caused the harmful effects. Starch breaks down into glucose when digested. On a copper-deficient diet, the male rats showed some signs of copper deficiency, but not the gross abnormalities of vital organs that occur in rats on the sucrose diet. When the rats were fed fructose, the fatal organ abnormalities occured.
Lysl oxidase is a copper-dependent enzyme that participates in the formation of collagen and elastin. Fructose seems to interfere with copper metabolism to such an extent that collagen and elastin cannot form in growing animals--hence the hypertrophy of the heart and liver in young males. The females did not develop these abnormalities, but they resorbed their litters.1
These experiements should give us pause when we consider the great increase in the use of high fructose corn syrup during the past 30 years, particularly in soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages aimed at growing children, children increasingly likely to be copper deficient as modern parents no longer serve liver to their families. (Liver is by far the best source of copper in human diets.)
"The bodies of the children I see today are mush," observed a concerned chiropractor recently. The culprit is the modern diet, high in fructose and low in copper-containing foods, resulting in inadequate formation of elastin and collagen--the sinews that hold the body together.
BINGEING ON FRUCTOSE
Until the 1970s most of the sugar we ate came from sucrose derived from sugar beets or sugar cane. Then sugar from corn--corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, dextrine and especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)--began to gain popularity as a sweetener because it was much less expensive to produce. High fructose corn syrup can be manipulated to contain equal amounts of fructose and glucose, or up to 80 percent fructose and 20 percent glucose.2 Thus, with almost twice the fructose, HFCS delivers a double danger compared to sugar.
(With regards to fruit, the ratio is usually 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, but most commercial fruit juices have HFCS added. Fruit contains fiber which slows down the metabolism of fructose and other sugars, but the fructose in HFCS is absorbed very quickly.)
In 1980 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose, providing 19 percent of total caloric energy.3 Today approximately 25 percent of our average caloric intake comes from sugars, with the larger fraction as fructose.4
High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods. It is cheap to produce, sweet and easy to store. It’s used in everything from bread to pasta sauces to bacon to beer as well as in "health products" like protein bars and "natural" sodas.
FRUCTOSE FOR DIABETICS?
In the past, fructose was considered beneficial to diabetics because it is absorbed only 40 percent as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar.5 However, research on other hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver.6 The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics.
Pure fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use.7 While naturally occurring sugars, as well as sucrose, contain fructose bound to other sugars, high fructose corn syrup contains a good deal of "free" or unbound fructose. Research indicates that this free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium, copper and chromium. Among other consequences, HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It has been found to inhibit the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.8
Studies on the Maillard reaction indicate that fructose may contribute to diabetic complications more readily than glucose. The Maillard reaction is a browning reaction that occurs when compounds are exposed to various sugars. Fructose browns food seven times faster than glucose, resulting in a decrease in protein quality and a toxicity of protein in the body.9 This is due to the loss of amino acid residues and decreased protein digestibility. Maillard products can inhibit the uptake and metabolism of free amino acids and other nutrients such as zinc, and some advanced Maillard products have mutagenic and/or carcinogenic properties. The Maillard reactions between proteins and fructose, glucose, and other sugars may play a role in aging and in some clinical complications of diabetes.10
Fructose reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the hallmark of type-2 diabetes. This is the first step for glucose to enter a cell and be metabolized. As a result, the body needs to pump out more insulin to handle the same amount of glucose.21
OTHER EFFECTS
Nancy Appleton, PhD, clinical nutritionist, has compiled a list of the harmful effects of fructose in her books Lick the Sugar Habit, Healthy Bones, Heal Yourself With Natural Foods, The Curse Of Louis Pasteur and Lick the Sugar Habit Sugar Counter. She points out that consumption of fructose causes a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid; after ingestion of glucose, no significant change occurs. An increase in uric acid can be an indicator of heart disease.12 Furthermore, fructose ingestion in humans results in increases in blood lactic acid, especially in patients with preexisting acidotic conditions such as diabetes, postoperative stress or uremia. Extreme elevations cause metabolic acidosis and can result in death.13
Fructose is absorbed primarily in the jejunum before metabolism in the liver. Fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver at a greater rate than is glucose.14 When consumed in excess of dietary glucose, the liver cannot convert all of the excess fructose in the system and it may be malabsorbed. The portion that escapes conversion may be thrown out in the urine. Diarrhea can be a consequence.19 A study of 25 patients with functional bowel disease showed that pronounced gastrointestinal distress may be provoked by malabsorption of small amounts of fructose.26
Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on "the pill."17
In studies with rats, fructose consistently produces higher kidney calcium concentrations than glucose. Fructose generally induces greater urinary concentrations of phosphorus and magnesium and lowered urinary pH compared with glucose.18
In humans, fructose feeding leads to mineral losses, especially higher fecal excretions of iron and magnesium, than did subjects fed sucrose. Iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc balances tended to be more negative during the fructose-feeding period as compared to balances during the sucrose-feeding period.19
There is significant evidence that high sucrose diets may alter intracellular metabolism, which in turn facilitates accelerated aging through oxidative damage. Scientists found that the rats given fructose had more undesirable cross-linking changes in the collagen of their skin than in the other groups. These changes are also thought to be markers for aging. The scientists say that it is the fructose molecule in the sucrose, not the glucose, that plays the larger part.20
Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter. Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly. As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, it must rob ATP energy stores from the liver.21
Not only does fructose have more damaging effects in the presence of copper deficiency, fructose also inhibits copper metabolism--another example of the sweeteners double-whammy effect. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.22
Although these studies were not designed to test the effects of fructose on weight gain, the observation of increased body weight associated with fructose ingestion is of interest. One explanation for this observation could be that fructose ingestion did not increase the production of two hormones, insulin and leptin, that have key roles in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.23
HYPERSENSIVITY
The magnitude of the deleterious effects of fructose varies depending on such factors as age, sex, baseline glucose, insulin, triglyceride concentrations, the presence of insulin resistance, and the amount of dietary fructose consumed.24 Some people are more sensitive to fructose. They include hypertensive, hyperinsulinemic, hypertriglyceridemic, non-insulin dependent diabetic people, people with functional bowel disease and postmenopausal women.25
Everyone should avoid over-exposure to fructose, but especially those listed above. One or two pieces of fruit per day is fine, but commercial fruit juices and any products containing high fructose corn syrup aremore dangerous than sugar and should be removed from the diet.
By Bill Sanda, BS, MBA
For many years, Dr. Meira Fields and her coworkers at the US Department of Agriculture investigated the harmful effects of dietary sugar on rats. They discovered that when male rats are fed a diet deficient in copper, with sucrose as the carbohydrate, they develop severe pathologies of vital organs. Liver, heart and testes exhibit extreme swelling, while the pancreas atrophies, invariably leading to death of the rats before maturity.
Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. Dr. Fields repeated her experiments to determine whether it was the glucose or fructose moiety that caused the harmful effects. Starch breaks down into glucose when digested. On a copper-deficient diet, the male rats showed some signs of copper deficiency, but not the gross abnormalities of vital organs that occur in rats on the sucrose diet. When the rats were fed fructose, the fatal organ abnormalities occured.
Lysl oxidase is a copper-dependent enzyme that participates in the formation of collagen and elastin. Fructose seems to interfere with copper metabolism to such an extent that collagen and elastin cannot form in growing animals--hence the hypertrophy of the heart and liver in young males. The females did not develop these abnormalities, but they resorbed their litters.1
These experiements should give us pause when we consider the great increase in the use of high fructose corn syrup during the past 30 years, particularly in soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages aimed at growing children, children increasingly likely to be copper deficient as modern parents no longer serve liver to their families. (Liver is by far the best source of copper in human diets.)
"The bodies of the children I see today are mush," observed a concerned chiropractor recently. The culprit is the modern diet, high in fructose and low in copper-containing foods, resulting in inadequate formation of elastin and collagen--the sinews that hold the body together.
BINGEING ON FRUCTOSE
Until the 1970s most of the sugar we ate came from sucrose derived from sugar beets or sugar cane. Then sugar from corn--corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, dextrine and especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)--began to gain popularity as a sweetener because it was much less expensive to produce. High fructose corn syrup can be manipulated to contain equal amounts of fructose and glucose, or up to 80 percent fructose and 20 percent glucose.2 Thus, with almost twice the fructose, HFCS delivers a double danger compared to sugar.
(With regards to fruit, the ratio is usually 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, but most commercial fruit juices have HFCS added. Fruit contains fiber which slows down the metabolism of fructose and other sugars, but the fructose in HFCS is absorbed very quickly.)
In 1980 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose, providing 19 percent of total caloric energy.3 Today approximately 25 percent of our average caloric intake comes from sugars, with the larger fraction as fructose.4
High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods. It is cheap to produce, sweet and easy to store. It’s used in everything from bread to pasta sauces to bacon to beer as well as in "health products" like protein bars and "natural" sodas.
FRUCTOSE FOR DIABETICS?
In the past, fructose was considered beneficial to diabetics because it is absorbed only 40 percent as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar.5 However, research on other hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver.6 The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics.
Pure fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use.7 While naturally occurring sugars, as well as sucrose, contain fructose bound to other sugars, high fructose corn syrup contains a good deal of "free" or unbound fructose. Research indicates that this free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium, copper and chromium. Among other consequences, HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It has been found to inhibit the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.8
Studies on the Maillard reaction indicate that fructose may contribute to diabetic complications more readily than glucose. The Maillard reaction is a browning reaction that occurs when compounds are exposed to various sugars. Fructose browns food seven times faster than glucose, resulting in a decrease in protein quality and a toxicity of protein in the body.9 This is due to the loss of amino acid residues and decreased protein digestibility. Maillard products can inhibit the uptake and metabolism of free amino acids and other nutrients such as zinc, and some advanced Maillard products have mutagenic and/or carcinogenic properties. The Maillard reactions between proteins and fructose, glucose, and other sugars may play a role in aging and in some clinical complications of diabetes.10
Fructose reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the hallmark of type-2 diabetes. This is the first step for glucose to enter a cell and be metabolized. As a result, the body needs to pump out more insulin to handle the same amount of glucose.21
OTHER EFFECTS
Nancy Appleton, PhD, clinical nutritionist, has compiled a list of the harmful effects of fructose in her books Lick the Sugar Habit, Healthy Bones, Heal Yourself With Natural Foods, The Curse Of Louis Pasteur and Lick the Sugar Habit Sugar Counter. She points out that consumption of fructose causes a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid; after ingestion of glucose, no significant change occurs. An increase in uric acid can be an indicator of heart disease.12 Furthermore, fructose ingestion in humans results in increases in blood lactic acid, especially in patients with preexisting acidotic conditions such as diabetes, postoperative stress or uremia. Extreme elevations cause metabolic acidosis and can result in death.13
Fructose is absorbed primarily in the jejunum before metabolism in the liver. Fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver at a greater rate than is glucose.14 When consumed in excess of dietary glucose, the liver cannot convert all of the excess fructose in the system and it may be malabsorbed. The portion that escapes conversion may be thrown out in the urine. Diarrhea can be a consequence.19 A study of 25 patients with functional bowel disease showed that pronounced gastrointestinal distress may be provoked by malabsorption of small amounts of fructose.26
Fructose interacts with oral contraceptives and elevates insulin levels in women on "the pill."17
In studies with rats, fructose consistently produces higher kidney calcium concentrations than glucose. Fructose generally induces greater urinary concentrations of phosphorus and magnesium and lowered urinary pH compared with glucose.18
In humans, fructose feeding leads to mineral losses, especially higher fecal excretions of iron and magnesium, than did subjects fed sucrose. Iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc balances tended to be more negative during the fructose-feeding period as compared to balances during the sucrose-feeding period.19
There is significant evidence that high sucrose diets may alter intracellular metabolism, which in turn facilitates accelerated aging through oxidative damage. Scientists found that the rats given fructose had more undesirable cross-linking changes in the collagen of their skin than in the other groups. These changes are also thought to be markers for aging. The scientists say that it is the fructose molecule in the sucrose, not the glucose, that plays the larger part.20
Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter. Fructose raises serum triglycerides significantly. As a left-handed sugar, fructose digestion is very low. For complete internal conversion of fructose into glucose and acetates, it must rob ATP energy stores from the liver.21
Not only does fructose have more damaging effects in the presence of copper deficiency, fructose also inhibits copper metabolism--another example of the sweeteners double-whammy effect. A deficiency in copper leads to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.22
Although these studies were not designed to test the effects of fructose on weight gain, the observation of increased body weight associated with fructose ingestion is of interest. One explanation for this observation could be that fructose ingestion did not increase the production of two hormones, insulin and leptin, that have key roles in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.23
HYPERSENSIVITY
The magnitude of the deleterious effects of fructose varies depending on such factors as age, sex, baseline glucose, insulin, triglyceride concentrations, the presence of insulin resistance, and the amount of dietary fructose consumed.24 Some people are more sensitive to fructose. They include hypertensive, hyperinsulinemic, hypertriglyceridemic, non-insulin dependent diabetic people, people with functional bowel disease and postmenopausal women.25
Everyone should avoid over-exposure to fructose, but especially those listed above. One or two pieces of fruit per day is fine, but commercial fruit juices and any products containing high fructose corn syrup aremore dangerous than sugar and should be removed from the diet.
Holiday Sales in U.S. Fell as Much as 4%, SpendingPulse Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8wiuPS_mbs8&refer=home
Dec. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retail sales fell as much as 4 percent this holiday season as consumers limited purchases to necessities and cut back on clothing, electronics and jewelry, according to SpendingPulse.
Spending figures are the lowest since MasterCard Advisors started tracking data in 2002 to provide the SpendingPulse service, said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis. He estimates sales, excluding autos and gasoline, fell 2 percent to 4 percent from Nov. 1 through yesterday.
Consumers facing a recession, tightening credit and the highest unemployment rate in 15 years shortened their gift lists and spent less. Retailers including Macy’s Inc. and AnnTaylor Stores Corp. responded by increasing markdowns, which stand to hurt profit margins in what may be the weakest holiday season in four decades.
“Overall this has been one of the most challenging holiday seasons on record,” McNamara said today in an interview.
The SpendingPulse figures follow forecasts of falling sales from other industry groups. Sales at stores open at least a year may drop as much as 2 percent in November and December, the International Council of Shopping Centers said on Dec. 23, more than the previously projected 1 percent decline.
Apparel, Luxury
From Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, women’s clothing sales dropped 23 percent and men’s fell 14 percent, according to SpendingPulse.
Combined electronics and appliance sales tumbled 27 percent, with purchases over $1,000 suffering the most, according to SpendingPulse data. Luxury sales, including jewelry, plunged 35 percent, the data showed.
Purchases over the Internet fared better, with a 2.3 percent decline. E-commerce may have been helped by inclement weather at the end of the holiday shopping season, McNamara said. Historically Web sales have posted 15 percent to 20 percent year- over-year sales gains.
The SpendingPulse data service calculates its sales estimates based on MasterCard Inc. network transactions and adjusts for cash, checks and other payment forms. MasterCard is the world’s second-biggest credit-card company.
Deeper Recession
The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter at a 0.5 percent annual pace, the worst since 2001, according to the Commerce Department. Consumer spending fell the most in almost three decades and forecasters project an even deeper slump in the final three months of this year. Jobless claims rose yesterday to a 26-year high.
Retail sales declined 5.3 percent Dec. 19 to 21 because of inclement weather and a slowing U.S. economy, Chicago-based research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. said yesterday in a statement.
“It’s a terribly challenging environment for retailers,” Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, a Washington-based trade group, said in a Dec. 24 Bloomberg Television interview. “The week after Christmas is going to be more crucial for retailers than ever. The Friday after Christmas, with the discounts we’re hearing about, is going to be like another Black Friday.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Retailing Index has shed 34 percent this year, with only two of its 27 companies gaining.
The index doesn’t include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, which rose 15 cents to $55.44 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Wal-Mart shares have gained 17 percent this year.
The U.S. stock market was closed today for the Christmas holiday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Burke in New York at hburke2@bloomberg.net.
Dec. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retail sales fell as much as 4 percent this holiday season as consumers limited purchases to necessities and cut back on clothing, electronics and jewelry, according to SpendingPulse.
Spending figures are the lowest since MasterCard Advisors started tracking data in 2002 to provide the SpendingPulse service, said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis. He estimates sales, excluding autos and gasoline, fell 2 percent to 4 percent from Nov. 1 through yesterday.
Consumers facing a recession, tightening credit and the highest unemployment rate in 15 years shortened their gift lists and spent less. Retailers including Macy’s Inc. and AnnTaylor Stores Corp. responded by increasing markdowns, which stand to hurt profit margins in what may be the weakest holiday season in four decades.
“Overall this has been one of the most challenging holiday seasons on record,” McNamara said today in an interview.
The SpendingPulse figures follow forecasts of falling sales from other industry groups. Sales at stores open at least a year may drop as much as 2 percent in November and December, the International Council of Shopping Centers said on Dec. 23, more than the previously projected 1 percent decline.
Apparel, Luxury
From Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, women’s clothing sales dropped 23 percent and men’s fell 14 percent, according to SpendingPulse.
Combined electronics and appliance sales tumbled 27 percent, with purchases over $1,000 suffering the most, according to SpendingPulse data. Luxury sales, including jewelry, plunged 35 percent, the data showed.
Purchases over the Internet fared better, with a 2.3 percent decline. E-commerce may have been helped by inclement weather at the end of the holiday shopping season, McNamara said. Historically Web sales have posted 15 percent to 20 percent year- over-year sales gains.
The SpendingPulse data service calculates its sales estimates based on MasterCard Inc. network transactions and adjusts for cash, checks and other payment forms. MasterCard is the world’s second-biggest credit-card company.
Deeper Recession
The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter at a 0.5 percent annual pace, the worst since 2001, according to the Commerce Department. Consumer spending fell the most in almost three decades and forecasters project an even deeper slump in the final three months of this year. Jobless claims rose yesterday to a 26-year high.
Retail sales declined 5.3 percent Dec. 19 to 21 because of inclement weather and a slowing U.S. economy, Chicago-based research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. said yesterday in a statement.
“It’s a terribly challenging environment for retailers,” Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, a Washington-based trade group, said in a Dec. 24 Bloomberg Television interview. “The week after Christmas is going to be more crucial for retailers than ever. The Friday after Christmas, with the discounts we’re hearing about, is going to be like another Black Friday.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Retailing Index has shed 34 percent this year, with only two of its 27 companies gaining.
The index doesn’t include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, which rose 15 cents to $55.44 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Wal-Mart shares have gained 17 percent this year.
The U.S. stock market was closed today for the Christmas holiday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Burke in New York at hburke2@bloomberg.net.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
NY Times doesn't report RNC donation until after Bush reverses pardon
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NY_Times_doesnt_report_RNC_donation_1225.html
The motto of The New York Times, of course, is "all the news that's fit to print." However, two days before Christmas some readers were upset because the paper wouldn't update their blog with what they considered significant news.
As RAW STORY reported on Tuesday, one of 19 pardons by President Bush went to the son of a New York real estate developer, who defrauded the Housing and Urban Development Department government for millions of dollars and pled guilty to inflating the incomes of at least 100 families to make them eligible for federal loans in the lead-up to the worst housing crisis the United States has ever had.
What's more, Toussie's father gave $28,500 to the Republican National Committee this year, according to a RAW STORY analysis of federal campaign finance records available at the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets.
While Ben Smith at Politico and other online outlets immediately pounced on Toussie, who was pardoned despite escaping restitution for millions since financial records were lost in the WTC attacks, the major media and wire services instead chose to focus on Bush's pardon of a soldier who illegally helped supply Israel with aircraft in 1948.
The Times' City Room blog covered Toussie's pardon on Tuesday, noting that he had "pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining federally insured mortgages and to defrauding Suffolk County by selling it overpriced land," yet, "[d]espite his convictions, Mr. Toussie and his father had become one of the largest landowners on Long Island by 2007, by buying surplus land at auction."
About one hour after the post was published, a commenter using the handle Vidiot pointed out the donation, and provided a link to it. Forty minutes later, another commenter chided the paper, "It’s a little disturbing to see the Times out-reported in its own comments section. Hint: when doing a piece about some obscure criminal pardoned by Bush, best to check their political donations….what do they teach in J-school these days?"
Perhaps Christmas slowed down the Times' investigative reporters, although it's three New York City competitors - Newsday, The New York Post, and The Daily News - all found time to report the donation.
On Christmas Eve, the White House announced that the pardon had been canceled.
"Based on information that has subsequently come to light, the President has directed the Pardon Attorney not to execute and deliver a Grant of Clemency to Mr. Toussie," the statement read. "The Pardon Attorney has not provided a recommendation on Mr. Toussie’s case because it was filed less than five years from completion of his sentence. The President believes that the Pardon Attorney should have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made."
The new "information" included the donation, which even White House press secretary Dane Perino admitted "might create an appearance of impropriety."
Patrick LaForge, City Room editor responded to the J-school insult in the Times' comments section, "Thanks for your comment. The Washington bureau is preparing an article for the print edition about today’s pardons; this was just a quick blog post to break the news of the local one. Just about everything in the comments can be found through links in the article. Readers can draw their own conclusions about the relevance of the donation. In any event, we don’t have a problem with our readers adding relevant details to our breaking news reports. That’s the way of the Web."
Evidently, the Washington bureau didn't see the relevance of the donation, since two related pardon stories failed to make note of it or even Toussie, at all.
It wasn't until after the pardon was rescinded before the City Room blog and the Times' print edition reported on the RNC donation.
On Tuesday, commenter Dan Marbury responded to the City Room editor by making "two points."
"The Times family of blogs is not just any blog, it’s the Times," Marbury wrote. "Standards should apply. If the story is incomplete without mentioning the donation (and it IS incomplete), than so is the blog post. The 'Web' is no excuse for half-journalism."
Marbury added, "There are some handy links in there, yes, but I don’t see anything to the donation itself, which I think any objective person would agree is very, very pertinent."
"We think most readers understand there are trade-offs when it comes to reporting breaking news within minutes of an event," LaForge fired back. "It’s not reasonable to expect a breaking news post to be as comprehensive as one that is the result of hours of reporting and editing. 'Half-journalism' is an odd turn of phrase. All journalism is incremental."
LaForge continued, "This is not a standards issue. Of course our blog reports should and do meet standards: no rumors, no gossip, no unverified information, for example. The donation is an unverified detail, and it would not have served readers to hold back the story for that. Reasonable people might even disagree about its significance, and the importance of this particular pardon to readers beyond this local blog."
With Times print and online ad revenue down and a new survey which suggests that more Americans prefer getting their news over the Internet these days, for the future the Times might want to think about updating their posts in a more timely manner
The motto of The New York Times, of course, is "all the news that's fit to print." However, two days before Christmas some readers were upset because the paper wouldn't update their blog with what they considered significant news.
As RAW STORY reported on Tuesday, one of 19 pardons by President Bush went to the son of a New York real estate developer, who defrauded the Housing and Urban Development Department government for millions of dollars and pled guilty to inflating the incomes of at least 100 families to make them eligible for federal loans in the lead-up to the worst housing crisis the United States has ever had.
What's more, Toussie's father gave $28,500 to the Republican National Committee this year, according to a RAW STORY analysis of federal campaign finance records available at the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets.
While Ben Smith at Politico and other online outlets immediately pounced on Toussie, who was pardoned despite escaping restitution for millions since financial records were lost in the WTC attacks, the major media and wire services instead chose to focus on Bush's pardon of a soldier who illegally helped supply Israel with aircraft in 1948.
The Times' City Room blog covered Toussie's pardon on Tuesday, noting that he had "pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining federally insured mortgages and to defrauding Suffolk County by selling it overpriced land," yet, "[d]espite his convictions, Mr. Toussie and his father had become one of the largest landowners on Long Island by 2007, by buying surplus land at auction."
About one hour after the post was published, a commenter using the handle Vidiot pointed out the donation, and provided a link to it. Forty minutes later, another commenter chided the paper, "It’s a little disturbing to see the Times out-reported in its own comments section. Hint: when doing a piece about some obscure criminal pardoned by Bush, best to check their political donations….what do they teach in J-school these days?"
Perhaps Christmas slowed down the Times' investigative reporters, although it's three New York City competitors - Newsday, The New York Post, and The Daily News - all found time to report the donation.
On Christmas Eve, the White House announced that the pardon had been canceled.
"Based on information that has subsequently come to light, the President has directed the Pardon Attorney not to execute and deliver a Grant of Clemency to Mr. Toussie," the statement read. "The Pardon Attorney has not provided a recommendation on Mr. Toussie’s case because it was filed less than five years from completion of his sentence. The President believes that the Pardon Attorney should have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made."
The new "information" included the donation, which even White House press secretary Dane Perino admitted "might create an appearance of impropriety."
Patrick LaForge, City Room editor responded to the J-school insult in the Times' comments section, "Thanks for your comment. The Washington bureau is preparing an article for the print edition about today’s pardons; this was just a quick blog post to break the news of the local one. Just about everything in the comments can be found through links in the article. Readers can draw their own conclusions about the relevance of the donation. In any event, we don’t have a problem with our readers adding relevant details to our breaking news reports. That’s the way of the Web."
Evidently, the Washington bureau didn't see the relevance of the donation, since two related pardon stories failed to make note of it or even Toussie, at all.
It wasn't until after the pardon was rescinded before the City Room blog and the Times' print edition reported on the RNC donation.
On Tuesday, commenter Dan Marbury responded to the City Room editor by making "two points."
"The Times family of blogs is not just any blog, it’s the Times," Marbury wrote. "Standards should apply. If the story is incomplete without mentioning the donation (and it IS incomplete), than so is the blog post. The 'Web' is no excuse for half-journalism."
Marbury added, "There are some handy links in there, yes, but I don’t see anything to the donation itself, which I think any objective person would agree is very, very pertinent."
"We think most readers understand there are trade-offs when it comes to reporting breaking news within minutes of an event," LaForge fired back. "It’s not reasonable to expect a breaking news post to be as comprehensive as one that is the result of hours of reporting and editing. 'Half-journalism' is an odd turn of phrase. All journalism is incremental."
LaForge continued, "This is not a standards issue. Of course our blog reports should and do meet standards: no rumors, no gossip, no unverified information, for example. The donation is an unverified detail, and it would not have served readers to hold back the story for that. Reasonable people might even disagree about its significance, and the importance of this particular pardon to readers beyond this local blog."
With Times print and online ad revenue down and a new survey which suggests that more Americans prefer getting their news over the Internet these days, for the future the Times might want to think about updating their posts in a more timely manner
General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
George S. Patton, America's greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...s-new-book.html
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 5:09PM GMT 21 Dec 2008
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".
His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling guy."
Mr Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run up to D-Day in 1944. He earned four purple hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre three times over for his efforts.
After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
He was friends with Salvador Dali, who painted a portrait of Bazata as Don Quixote.
He ended his career as an aide to President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission and adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign.
Mr Wilcox also tracked down and interviewed Stephen Skubik, an officer in the Counter-Intelligence Corps of the US Army, who said he learnt that Patton was on Stalin's death list. Skubik repeatedly alerted Donovan, who simply had him sent back to the US.
"You have two strong witnesses here," Mr Wilcox said. "The evidence is that the Russians finished the job."
The scenario sounds far fetched but Mr Wilcox has assembled a compelling case that US officials had something to hide. At least five documents relating to the car accident have been removed from US archives.
The driver of the truck was whisked away to London before he could be questioned and no autopsy was performed on Patton's body.
With the help of a Cadillac expert from Detroit, Mr Wilcox has proved that the car on display in the Patton museum at Fort Knox is not the one Patton was driving.
"That is a cover-up," Mr Wilcox said.
George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore pearl handled revolvers on each hip and was the subject of an Oscar winning film starring George C. Scott, commanded the US 3rd Army, which cut a swathe through France after D-Day.
But his ambition to get to Berlin before Soviet forces was thwarted by supreme allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, who gave Patton's petrol supplies to the more cautious British General Bernard Montgomery.
Patton, who distrusted the Russians, believed Eisenhower wrongly prevented him closing the so-called Falaise Gap in the autumn of 1944, allowing hundreds of thousands of German troops to escape to fight again,. This led to the deaths of thousands of Americans during their winter counter-offensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
In order to placate Stalin, the 3rd Army was also ordered to a halt as it reached the German border and was prevented from seizing either Berlin or Prague, moves that could have prevented Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after the war.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph: "Patton was going to resign from the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts.
"He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.
I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say." Mr Wilcox added: "I think there's enough evidence here that if I were to go to a grand jury I could probably get an indictment, but perhaps not a conviction."
Charles Province, President of the George S. Patton Historical Society, said he hopes the book will lead to definitive proof of the plot being uncovered. He said: "There were a lot of people who were pretty damn glad that Patton died. He was going to really open the door on a lot of things that they screwed up over there."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...s-new-book.html
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 5:09PM GMT 21 Dec 2008
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".
His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling guy."
Mr Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run up to D-Day in 1944. He earned four purple hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre three times over for his efforts.
After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
He was friends with Salvador Dali, who painted a portrait of Bazata as Don Quixote.
He ended his career as an aide to President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission and adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign.
Mr Wilcox also tracked down and interviewed Stephen Skubik, an officer in the Counter-Intelligence Corps of the US Army, who said he learnt that Patton was on Stalin's death list. Skubik repeatedly alerted Donovan, who simply had him sent back to the US.
"You have two strong witnesses here," Mr Wilcox said. "The evidence is that the Russians finished the job."
The scenario sounds far fetched but Mr Wilcox has assembled a compelling case that US officials had something to hide. At least five documents relating to the car accident have been removed from US archives.
The driver of the truck was whisked away to London before he could be questioned and no autopsy was performed on Patton's body.
With the help of a Cadillac expert from Detroit, Mr Wilcox has proved that the car on display in the Patton museum at Fort Knox is not the one Patton was driving.
"That is a cover-up," Mr Wilcox said.
George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore pearl handled revolvers on each hip and was the subject of an Oscar winning film starring George C. Scott, commanded the US 3rd Army, which cut a swathe through France after D-Day.
But his ambition to get to Berlin before Soviet forces was thwarted by supreme allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, who gave Patton's petrol supplies to the more cautious British General Bernard Montgomery.
Patton, who distrusted the Russians, believed Eisenhower wrongly prevented him closing the so-called Falaise Gap in the autumn of 1944, allowing hundreds of thousands of German troops to escape to fight again,. This led to the deaths of thousands of Americans during their winter counter-offensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
In order to placate Stalin, the 3rd Army was also ordered to a halt as it reached the German border and was prevented from seizing either Berlin or Prague, moves that could have prevented Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after the war.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph: "Patton was going to resign from the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts.
"He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.
I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say." Mr Wilcox added: "I think there's enough evidence here that if I were to go to a grand jury I could probably get an indictment, but perhaps not a conviction."
Charles Province, President of the George S. Patton Historical Society, said he hopes the book will lead to definitive proof of the plot being uncovered. He said: "There were a lot of people who were pretty damn glad that Patton died. He was going to really open the door on a lot of things that they screwed up over there."
India Hands Pakistan 'Proof' of Ties to Attack
Letter From Sole Surviving Terror Suspect Claims His Group Was Pakistani
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Internati...=6511157&page=1
By NICK SCHIFRIN and HABIBULLAH KHAN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, DEC. 22, 2008
For the first time, India has turned over to Pakistan what it says is written proof that the sole surviving suspect from the Mumbai terror attacks is a Pakistani citizen.
The attacks killed more than 170 people and paralyzed India's richest city for three days.
A letter written by the sole surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Ameer Qasab, was delivered to the acting high commissioner in New Delhi this evening. According to India's foreign ministry, Qasab "stated that he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan." Pakistan's foreign ministry acknowledged that only Qasab "claims to be a Pakistani."
Pakistan received the letter about the same time that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, arrived in Islamabad. It was his second visit since the Mumbai attacks, part of an effort to defuse tensions between Pakistan and India.
Indian authorities long ago identified Qasab as one of the 10 gunmen who stormed Mumbai Nov. 26. Qasab was captured after he opened fire in the city's main train station, killing dozens.
Pakistani authorities continue to try to distance themselves from the attacks. Late last week, President Asif Ali Zardari rejected media reports that Qasab used to live in the small Punjab city of Faridkot, saying only that "the investigation is ongoing."
But in interviews with Western and Pakistani newspapers, residents of the village have said Qasab's family was quickly moved out of the village after the attacks. And Qasab's father told the Dawn newspaper, "This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal."
Pakistan has increasingly become to doubt Indian intentions in the last few days, leading the military to take steps to defend itself in case of an Indian attack.
Tension between India and Pakistan, a senior Pakistani military official told ABC News, is increasing by the day. On a scale of 1 to10, the tension is at a 7, the official said.
Pakistan has reinforced its positions on the border since the Mumbai attacks, and the official said last night it had reinforced them further by redeploying troops.
There had been some movement of troops from the troubled region of Swat, where the military has fought the Taliban and allied groups, to the eastern border with India, the military acknowledged.
And the military recently canceled the movement of some troops from the Punjab to the North West Frontier province, a Pakistani official said.
The air force is on high alert, and pilots are in their combat gear 24-7, the official said.
This is less about Indian moves, which have not included any serious redeployment of troops, than a lack of trust.
"We can't trust them," one military official said, and so the Pakistani military is taking "no chances."
India and the United States both said Lahskar-e-Taibi, created with the help of Pakistan's intelligence services 20 years ago, was behind the Mumbai attacks.
Both countries have put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on the group, as well as the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the Security Council two weeks ago labeled a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The U.S. pressure on Pakistan spiked over the weekend, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Pakistan's national security adviser, Madmud Ali Durrani.
Rice delivered a message she had been giving publicly: That, unlike after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, Pakistan needed to successfully and permanently evict groups accused of sponsoring terrorism from Pakistani soil.
"Thus far, we've seen some positive steps" by the Pakistanis, Rice told the Council on Foreign Relations last week, "though they're not nearly enough to this point."
Indian diplomats acknowledge that their patience with Pakistan is wearing thin.
"The less action you see in Pakistan, the more denials you see, the more the doubt [of Pakistan's intentions] is just going to continue," one Indian diplomat told ABC News today.
But diplomats acknowledged that India didn't want war and had no intention of escalating tensions to the point of war.
And so they have turned to the international community, especially the United States, to try to convince Pakistan to shut down bank accounts and training facilities apparently being used by groups accused of sponsoring terrorism inside Pakistan.
"This terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is the greatest terrorist danger to peace and security of the entire civilized world," Pranab Mukherjee, India's external affairs minister, told a meeting of Indian diplomats in New Delhi today, according to The Associated Press. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint and are hopeful that the international community will use its influence to urge the Pakistani government to take effective action," he said.
India and the United States both said they are waiting for Pakistan to demonstrate a serious intention to attack the groups.
Pakistan's politicians have mostly declared their intention to crack down on any group once India provides evidence of who was behind the Mumbai attack.
But Indian and American officials express some doubt whether the country's powerful military establishment is willing to follow through once evidence is presented. Retired Pakistani officials acknowledged the military might not agree with the politicians if there is a decision made to once and for all eliminate groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
"What the Americans are asking the government to do, the government doesn't wish to do that," said Hamid Gul, a former director general of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI.
"And then the government passes this along to the army. The army obviously will pass along the orders, but with a degree of reluctance."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Internati...=6511157&page=1
By NICK SCHIFRIN and HABIBULLAH KHAN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, DEC. 22, 2008
For the first time, India has turned over to Pakistan what it says is written proof that the sole surviving suspect from the Mumbai terror attacks is a Pakistani citizen.
The attacks killed more than 170 people and paralyzed India's richest city for three days.
A letter written by the sole surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Ameer Qasab, was delivered to the acting high commissioner in New Delhi this evening. According to India's foreign ministry, Qasab "stated that he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan." Pakistan's foreign ministry acknowledged that only Qasab "claims to be a Pakistani."
Pakistan received the letter about the same time that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, arrived in Islamabad. It was his second visit since the Mumbai attacks, part of an effort to defuse tensions between Pakistan and India.
Indian authorities long ago identified Qasab as one of the 10 gunmen who stormed Mumbai Nov. 26. Qasab was captured after he opened fire in the city's main train station, killing dozens.
Pakistani authorities continue to try to distance themselves from the attacks. Late last week, President Asif Ali Zardari rejected media reports that Qasab used to live in the small Punjab city of Faridkot, saying only that "the investigation is ongoing."
But in interviews with Western and Pakistani newspapers, residents of the village have said Qasab's family was quickly moved out of the village after the attacks. And Qasab's father told the Dawn newspaper, "This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal."
Pakistan has increasingly become to doubt Indian intentions in the last few days, leading the military to take steps to defend itself in case of an Indian attack.
Tension between India and Pakistan, a senior Pakistani military official told ABC News, is increasing by the day. On a scale of 1 to10, the tension is at a 7, the official said.
Pakistan has reinforced its positions on the border since the Mumbai attacks, and the official said last night it had reinforced them further by redeploying troops.
There had been some movement of troops from the troubled region of Swat, where the military has fought the Taliban and allied groups, to the eastern border with India, the military acknowledged.
And the military recently canceled the movement of some troops from the Punjab to the North West Frontier province, a Pakistani official said.
The air force is on high alert, and pilots are in their combat gear 24-7, the official said.
This is less about Indian moves, which have not included any serious redeployment of troops, than a lack of trust.
"We can't trust them," one military official said, and so the Pakistani military is taking "no chances."
India and the United States both said Lahskar-e-Taibi, created with the help of Pakistan's intelligence services 20 years ago, was behind the Mumbai attacks.
Both countries have put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on the group, as well as the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the Security Council two weeks ago labeled a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The U.S. pressure on Pakistan spiked over the weekend, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Pakistan's national security adviser, Madmud Ali Durrani.
Rice delivered a message she had been giving publicly: That, unlike after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, Pakistan needed to successfully and permanently evict groups accused of sponsoring terrorism from Pakistani soil.
"Thus far, we've seen some positive steps" by the Pakistanis, Rice told the Council on Foreign Relations last week, "though they're not nearly enough to this point."
Indian diplomats acknowledge that their patience with Pakistan is wearing thin.
"The less action you see in Pakistan, the more denials you see, the more the doubt [of Pakistan's intentions] is just going to continue," one Indian diplomat told ABC News today.
But diplomats acknowledged that India didn't want war and had no intention of escalating tensions to the point of war.
And so they have turned to the international community, especially the United States, to try to convince Pakistan to shut down bank accounts and training facilities apparently being used by groups accused of sponsoring terrorism inside Pakistan.
"This terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is the greatest terrorist danger to peace and security of the entire civilized world," Pranab Mukherjee, India's external affairs minister, told a meeting of Indian diplomats in New Delhi today, according to The Associated Press. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint and are hopeful that the international community will use its influence to urge the Pakistani government to take effective action," he said.
India and the United States both said they are waiting for Pakistan to demonstrate a serious intention to attack the groups.
Pakistan's politicians have mostly declared their intention to crack down on any group once India provides evidence of who was behind the Mumbai attack.
But Indian and American officials express some doubt whether the country's powerful military establishment is willing to follow through once evidence is presented. Retired Pakistani officials acknowledged the military might not agree with the politicians if there is a decision made to once and for all eliminate groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
"What the Americans are asking the government to do, the government doesn't wish to do that," said Hamid Gul, a former director general of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI.
"And then the government passes this along to the army. The army obviously will pass along the orders, but with a degree of reluctance."
Army Officials Say Many More Active-Duty Troops Are Needed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2402060_pf.html
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 25, 2008; A04
The Army needs to add at least 30,000 active-duty soldiers to its ranks to fulfill its responsibilities around the world without becoming stretched dangerously thin, senior Army officials warn.
"You can't do what we've been tasked to do with the number of people we have," Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford said in an interview last week. "You can see a point where it's going to be very difficult to cope."
Already, the Army lacks a strategic reserve of brigades trained and ready for major combat, officials said, and units being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving new soldiers at the last minute, meaning they have insufficient time to train together before crossing into the war zone.
But the demand for soldiers extends beyond those countries, with the Pentagon creating new missions that require troops trained in cyber-warfare, homeland defense, intelligence-gathering and other areas, Ford said. "We have five to 10 new missions, and we are already stretched now."
The Army is currently on track to grow to 547,000 active-duty soldiers next year, up from 482,000 before the war. But Ford and other Army officials say that, with rising demand for ground troops for Afghanistan and other contingencies, the increase is insufficient.
The service needs 580,000 soldiers "to meet current demand and get the dwell time," Ford said, referring to the amount of time soldiers have at home between deployments to train, rebuild and spend with families. "You can run a machine without oil for so long, and then the machine ceases," he said. "The people are the oil."
Ford's remarks come two years after Donald H. Rumsfeld resigned as defense secretary, removing from the Pentagon a powerful opponent to expanding the Army. Rumsfeld opposed a permanent increase in the size of the Army and instead devoted much of his tenure toward turning it into a more agile force, an agenda that met with objections and dismay from senior Army officers.
The Army is also benefiting from the weakened economy, which has improved the service's ability to recruit and retain soldiers. Despite well-publicized recruiting problems faced by the Pentagon in the early years of the Bush administration, the Army has met its recruiting goals for the last three years, and it continues to see benefits from its $1.35 billion, five-year "Army Strong" advertising campaign launched in 2006.
But President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has signaled that the incoming administration will look to cut the Pentagon budget, of which military personnel costs are a rising share.
Planning is underway at the Pentagon to add at least 20,000 more U.S. troops to the force in Afghanistan, but the Army is facing pressure to supply not only combat brigades but also the thousands of support soldiers required to facilitate operations in Afghanistan's austere terrain.
"Logistics issues in Afghanistan are just stunning," Ford said.
And in Iraq, even as the total number of U.S. troops declines, more support forces are likely to be required, in part to assist the Iraqi military, Army officials say. "As you draw down in Iraq, you're going to need more sustainment and aviation," said Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which has been deployed to Iraq three times.
The demand for soldiers extends beyond the war zones, as commanders in other regions request troops, Ford said. "It's a real challenge. It's not just Centcom that thinks they need more soldiers; Northcom wants more soldiers, Africom wants a dedicated headquarters, Pacom wants more for 8th Army in Korea," Ford said, referring to the U.S. Central Command, Northern Command, African Command and Pacific Command.
The shortage has serious implications for the Army's preparedness for other major contingencies, because constant rotations leave too little time to train for anything but the counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said. The Army last week unveiled a new training doctrine that requires preparation for "full-spectrum" combat, but service officials estimate it will take about three years before combat brigades have enough time at home between tours to carry out that training.
"We need at least 18 to 24 months" at home for training, said Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, the Army's deputy chief for operations. "If we get beyond 18 months, we can start building the full-spectrum capabilities back," he said. "We can start moving towards that within the next three years."
Yet the Army is constrained in its ability to increase time at home, because of a constant need to rotate forces overseas and the Pentagon's limit on the length of deployments for active-duty soldiers, as well as the mobilization time for reserve and National Guard soldiers.
The Army's current growth plan involves adding six active-duty combat brigades over the next three years, which will ease the rotational strain somewhat. At Fort Stewart, Ga., the 3rd Infantry Division, which now has 20,000 soldiers, will add 5,000 soldiers, including a fifth brigade by late next year, according to Brig. Gen. Tom Vandal, the division's deputy commander for support.
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 25, 2008; A04
The Army needs to add at least 30,000 active-duty soldiers to its ranks to fulfill its responsibilities around the world without becoming stretched dangerously thin, senior Army officials warn.
"You can't do what we've been tasked to do with the number of people we have," Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford said in an interview last week. "You can see a point where it's going to be very difficult to cope."
Already, the Army lacks a strategic reserve of brigades trained and ready for major combat, officials said, and units being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving new soldiers at the last minute, meaning they have insufficient time to train together before crossing into the war zone.
But the demand for soldiers extends beyond those countries, with the Pentagon creating new missions that require troops trained in cyber-warfare, homeland defense, intelligence-gathering and other areas, Ford said. "We have five to 10 new missions, and we are already stretched now."
The Army is currently on track to grow to 547,000 active-duty soldiers next year, up from 482,000 before the war. But Ford and other Army officials say that, with rising demand for ground troops for Afghanistan and other contingencies, the increase is insufficient.
The service needs 580,000 soldiers "to meet current demand and get the dwell time," Ford said, referring to the amount of time soldiers have at home between deployments to train, rebuild and spend with families. "You can run a machine without oil for so long, and then the machine ceases," he said. "The people are the oil."
Ford's remarks come two years after Donald H. Rumsfeld resigned as defense secretary, removing from the Pentagon a powerful opponent to expanding the Army. Rumsfeld opposed a permanent increase in the size of the Army and instead devoted much of his tenure toward turning it into a more agile force, an agenda that met with objections and dismay from senior Army officers.
The Army is also benefiting from the weakened economy, which has improved the service's ability to recruit and retain soldiers. Despite well-publicized recruiting problems faced by the Pentagon in the early years of the Bush administration, the Army has met its recruiting goals for the last three years, and it continues to see benefits from its $1.35 billion, five-year "Army Strong" advertising campaign launched in 2006.
But President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has signaled that the incoming administration will look to cut the Pentagon budget, of which military personnel costs are a rising share.
Planning is underway at the Pentagon to add at least 20,000 more U.S. troops to the force in Afghanistan, but the Army is facing pressure to supply not only combat brigades but also the thousands of support soldiers required to facilitate operations in Afghanistan's austere terrain.
"Logistics issues in Afghanistan are just stunning," Ford said.
And in Iraq, even as the total number of U.S. troops declines, more support forces are likely to be required, in part to assist the Iraqi military, Army officials say. "As you draw down in Iraq, you're going to need more sustainment and aviation," said Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which has been deployed to Iraq three times.
The demand for soldiers extends beyond the war zones, as commanders in other regions request troops, Ford said. "It's a real challenge. It's not just Centcom that thinks they need more soldiers; Northcom wants more soldiers, Africom wants a dedicated headquarters, Pacom wants more for 8th Army in Korea," Ford said, referring to the U.S. Central Command, Northern Command, African Command and Pacific Command.
The shortage has serious implications for the Army's preparedness for other major contingencies, because constant rotations leave too little time to train for anything but the counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the officials said. The Army last week unveiled a new training doctrine that requires preparation for "full-spectrum" combat, but service officials estimate it will take about three years before combat brigades have enough time at home between tours to carry out that training.
"We need at least 18 to 24 months" at home for training, said Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, the Army's deputy chief for operations. "If we get beyond 18 months, we can start building the full-spectrum capabilities back," he said. "We can start moving towards that within the next three years."
Yet the Army is constrained in its ability to increase time at home, because of a constant need to rotate forces overseas and the Pentagon's limit on the length of deployments for active-duty soldiers, as well as the mobilization time for reserve and National Guard soldiers.
The Army's current growth plan involves adding six active-duty combat brigades over the next three years, which will ease the rotational strain somewhat. At Fort Stewart, Ga., the 3rd Infantry Division, which now has 20,000 soldiers, will add 5,000 soldiers, including a fifth brigade by late next year, according to Brig. Gen. Tom Vandal, the division's deputy commander for support.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Katrina's Hidden Race War
The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.
It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.
The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.
Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn't even seen the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, he says, the gunmen yelled, "Get him! Get that nigger!"
The attack occurred in Algiers Point. The Point, as locals call it, is a neighborhood within a neighborhood, a small cluster of ornate, immaculately maintained 150-year-old houses within the larger Algiers district. A nationally recognized historic area, Algiers Point is largely white, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black. It's a "white enclave" whose residents have "a kind of siege mentality," says Tulane University historian Lance Hill, noting that some white New Orleanians "think of themselves as an oppressed minority."
A wide street lined with towering trees, Opelousas Avenue marks the dividing line between Algiers Point and greater Algiers, and the difference in wealth between the two areas is immediately noticeable. "On one side of Opelousas it's 'hood, on the other side it's suburbs," says one local. "The two sides are totally opposite, like muddy and clean."
Algiers Point has always been somewhat isolated: it's perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River, linked to the core of the city only by a ferry line and twin gray steel bridges. When the hurricane descended on Louisiana, Algiers Point got off relatively easy. While wide swaths of New Orleans were deluged, the levees ringing Algiers Point withstood the Mississippi's surging currents, preventing flooding; most homes and businesses in the area survived intact. As word spread that the area was dry, desperate people began heading toward the west bank, some walking over bridges, others traveling by boat. The National Guard soon designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site. Rescuers from the Coast Guard and other agencies brought flood victims to the ferry terminal, where soldiers loaded them onto buses headed for Texas.
Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply "didn't belong."
The existence of this little army isn't a secret--in 2005 a few newspaper reporters wrote up the group's activities in glowing terms in articles that showed up on an array of pro-gun blogs; one Cox News story called it "the ultimate neighborhood watch." Herrington, for his part, recounted his ordeal in Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke. But until now no one has ever seriously scrutinized what happened in Algiers Point during those days, and nobody has asked the obvious questions. Were the gunmen, as they claim, just trying to fend off looters? Or does Herrington's experience point to a different, far uglier truth?
Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.
Herrington, Collins and Alexander's experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.
The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs--Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of gang members" were marauding through the Superdome. Now it's clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.
So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins--in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.
Hill, who runs Tulane's Southern Institute for Education and Research and closely follows the city's racial dynamics, isn't surprised the Algiers Point gunmen have eluded arrest. Because of the widespread notion that blacks engaged in looting and thuggery as the disaster unfolded, Hill believes, many white New Orleanians approved of the vigilante activity that occurred in places like Algiers Point. "By and large, I think the white mentality is that these people are exempt--that even if they committed these crimes, they're really exempt from any kind of legal repercussion," Hill tells me. "It's sad to say, but I think that if any of these cases went to trial, and none of them have, I can't see a white person being convicted of any kind of crime against an African-American during that period."
It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.
The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.
Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn't even seen the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, he says, the gunmen yelled, "Get him! Get that nigger!"
The attack occurred in Algiers Point. The Point, as locals call it, is a neighborhood within a neighborhood, a small cluster of ornate, immaculately maintained 150-year-old houses within the larger Algiers district. A nationally recognized historic area, Algiers Point is largely white, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black. It's a "white enclave" whose residents have "a kind of siege mentality," says Tulane University historian Lance Hill, noting that some white New Orleanians "think of themselves as an oppressed minority."
A wide street lined with towering trees, Opelousas Avenue marks the dividing line between Algiers Point and greater Algiers, and the difference in wealth between the two areas is immediately noticeable. "On one side of Opelousas it's 'hood, on the other side it's suburbs," says one local. "The two sides are totally opposite, like muddy and clean."
Algiers Point has always been somewhat isolated: it's perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River, linked to the core of the city only by a ferry line and twin gray steel bridges. When the hurricane descended on Louisiana, Algiers Point got off relatively easy. While wide swaths of New Orleans were deluged, the levees ringing Algiers Point withstood the Mississippi's surging currents, preventing flooding; most homes and businesses in the area survived intact. As word spread that the area was dry, desperate people began heading toward the west bank, some walking over bridges, others traveling by boat. The National Guard soon designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site. Rescuers from the Coast Guard and other agencies brought flood victims to the ferry terminal, where soldiers loaded them onto buses headed for Texas.
Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply "didn't belong."
The existence of this little army isn't a secret--in 2005 a few newspaper reporters wrote up the group's activities in glowing terms in articles that showed up on an array of pro-gun blogs; one Cox News story called it "the ultimate neighborhood watch." Herrington, for his part, recounted his ordeal in Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke. But until now no one has ever seriously scrutinized what happened in Algiers Point during those days, and nobody has asked the obvious questions. Were the gunmen, as they claim, just trying to fend off looters? Or does Herrington's experience point to a different, far uglier truth?
Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.
Herrington, Collins and Alexander's experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.
The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs--Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of gang members" were marauding through the Superdome. Now it's clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.
So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins--in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.
Hill, who runs Tulane's Southern Institute for Education and Research and closely follows the city's racial dynamics, isn't surprised the Algiers Point gunmen have eluded arrest. Because of the widespread notion that blacks engaged in looting and thuggery as the disaster unfolded, Hill believes, many white New Orleanians approved of the vigilante activity that occurred in places like Algiers Point. "By and large, I think the white mentality is that these people are exempt--that even if they committed these crimes, they're really exempt from any kind of legal repercussion," Hill tells me. "It's sad to say, but I think that if any of these cases went to trial, and none of them have, I can't see a white person being convicted of any kind of crime against an African-American during that period."
Monday, December 22, 2008
Watergate and the Future: News for 2009
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Watergate_and_Future_News_for_2009_1222.html
In this guest column, award-winning investigative reporter Russ Baker gives some background on his new book which, in part, explores former President George H.W. Bush's CIA ties and his little known connections to the Watergate scandal.
One of the fastest ways to raise eyebrows in politically savvy company is to suggest that Richard Nixon was not the villain of Watergate. Everyone knows that Nixon himself set loose the Watergate burglars and then oversaw the attempted cover-up that followed. We know this because the most famous journalists of the last fifty years – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein – made their careers on that story. I thought I knew it too.
Then I began the research that led to my new book, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. I had no intention, when I started, of re-opening the Watergate inquiries. But the trail led there, as I sought to answer a question that somehow has escaped careful attention. Why did Richard Nixon repeatedly promote George H.W. Bush (Bush Sr., or Poppy, as he is known) for important political posts despite both his apparent lack of qualifications and Nixon's own privately-expressed doubts about Bush's mettle? Why, even when Nixon became so wary of so many of his appointees that he fired cabinet members en masse, did he continue to be solicitous of Bush Sr.?
Nixon named the obscure Poppy to be UN ambassador in 1970 and then chairman of the national Republican Party in 1972. Even earlier, in 1968, Nixon actually put Bush Sr. on his list of vice presidential running mate prospects – this not long after Poppy was first elected to the House of Representatives. Similarly, Nixon's replacement, Gerald Ford, sent Poppy off as envoy to China and later made him CIA director, though by most accounts he was an odd choice for both of these sensitive jobs.
In short, in the Nixon era, Poppy Bush was the man who always seemed to be around, yet also managed to stay out of the main story. Digging way back, I came upon evidence that Nixon felt beholden to the Bush family and to the interests it represented. The reason: Bush Sr.'s father, Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of George W. Bush, apparently helped launch Nixon's political career in 1946 as a way of destroying his first opponent, liberal congressman Jerry Voorhis, an outspoken critic of the excesses of bankers and financiers. Given the current Wall Street disasters, and the role of Prescott's grandson in enabling them, this revelation has obvious contemporary relevance.
Once I understood this special Nixon-Bush relationship, which is basically missing from all major Nixon biographies, I began to ask what exactly Poppy had been doing during the Watergate years. This led to the discovery that the Watergate break-in was almost certainly just one of a series of illegal acts that were engineered by people around Nixon, but not by Nixon himself. Far from defending Nixon's interests, these people had been privately frustrated with him on a variety of fronts and were now looking to take him down.
Simply put, once Nixon attained the presidency, he struggled for his independence, and began doing things that displeased his former sponsors.
I explored in particular a little-known matter called the Townhouse Affair. It turns out to be an important precursor to Watergate. Townhouse and Watergate both had earmarks of involvement by CIA figures.
And I looked at something that has barely emerged in public, but which was discussed by Nixon and his advisers: his ongoing struggle with the CIA. Combined with other evidence I developed of Poppy Bush's longstanding involvement with the CIA (back to the 1950s), it becomes apparent that there was more to Watergate than Richard Nixon's paranoia. There is not space here for all the particulars I lay out in Family of Secrets. But a few highlights:
* Townhouse appears in retrospect to be an elaborate effort to frame Nixon for financial wrongdoing, by orchestrating a ridiculously shady-looking fundraising operation (and purported political blackmail scheme) headquartered in a basement office in a D.C. townhouse. The people who conjured up and ran Townhouse were tied to Poppy Bush.
* Wealthy independent oilmen who backed Bush felt anger and distrust toward Nixon, who proved to be less than entirely reliable on their key issues, such as a tax giveaway called the Oil Depletion Allowance.
* Many figures in Nixon's White House had CIA ties, and appear to have been keeping an eye on him, even as they worked for him. (The role of the security services raises suggestive questions as a new president prepares to take office – namely, how free is any president to pursue the agenda he promised the voters? The ghosts of the Bushes and what they represent will hang over a new President Obama in ways we have never imagined.)
* Poppy Bush had extensive secret ties to the intelligence apparatus before he became CIA director in 1976. This connection has not previously been reported, and it provides an answer to a question that puzzled observers at the time – namely, what had Poppy Bush ever done to prepare him to lead the nation's premier spy agency?
* After being named Republican national chairman, Poppy Bush used that position to monitor and help shape the unfolding Watergate affair.
* John Dean was much more than a whistleblower. It appears that he was aware of or even a key figure in the White House covert activities that brought Nixon down, yet encouraged Nixon to take the blame for them.
* There is evidence suggesting a connection between Poppy Bush and Dean. Records show that Bush actually called the then-obscure Dean from his UN office in New York during the earliest days of these events. Why would the UN ambassador be speaking to a White House counsel?
* The rookie reporter Bob Woodward began working at the Washington Post, and on Watergate in particular, with job recommendations from high officials in the White House who knew him from his days in Naval intelligence work.
* A handful of famous Watergate tape excerpts were misconstrued – or in some cases, misleadingly edited – by some in academic, media, legislative and judicial arenas to convey a false impression of what Richard Nixon actually knew – and of how culpable he was.
* Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, a key figure in the ousting of Nixon, was a close Texas friend of Poppy Bush – and steered clear of evidence that pointed to Poppy's involvement.
* Even the notion of "Deep Throat," purportedly Woodward's main source (identified as the recently-deceased FBI man W. Mark Felt), may have been part of a CIA-style "psyops" scheme to create the impression of Nixon's culpability. Some key figures claim that there was in fact no "Deep Throat" at all.
* Nixon suspected the CIA of surrounding him and then setting him up. From his own days supervising covert operations as vice president, he recognized that the Watergate burglars and their bosses were seasoned CIA hardliners with ties to the Bay of Pigs invasion and events linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Nixon battled the CIA for files on what he called the "Bay of Pigs thing," but never could get access to them.
In sum, I found that the very people who created Nixon and used him to advance their own political interests ended up destroying him. Nixon's famous paranoia, in other words, had a basis in reality.
All of this, and much more, arose directly from my research, which is carefully documented in Family of Secrets and in more than 1000 source notes.
Copyright © 2008 Russ Baker
####
Russ Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America (Published by Bloomsbury Press; 978-1596915572). For more information on his book and the research behind it, please visit www.familyofsecrets.com. As an award-winning investigative reporter, Baker has a track record for making sense of complex and little understood matters. He has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Esquire. He has also served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. Baker received a 2005 Deadline Club award for his exclusive reporting on George W. Bush's military record. He is the founder of WhoWhatWhy/the Real News Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organization, operating at whowhatwhy.com.
In this guest column, award-winning investigative reporter Russ Baker gives some background on his new book which, in part, explores former President George H.W. Bush's CIA ties and his little known connections to the Watergate scandal.
One of the fastest ways to raise eyebrows in politically savvy company is to suggest that Richard Nixon was not the villain of Watergate. Everyone knows that Nixon himself set loose the Watergate burglars and then oversaw the attempted cover-up that followed. We know this because the most famous journalists of the last fifty years – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein – made their careers on that story. I thought I knew it too.
Then I began the research that led to my new book, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. I had no intention, when I started, of re-opening the Watergate inquiries. But the trail led there, as I sought to answer a question that somehow has escaped careful attention. Why did Richard Nixon repeatedly promote George H.W. Bush (Bush Sr., or Poppy, as he is known) for important political posts despite both his apparent lack of qualifications and Nixon's own privately-expressed doubts about Bush's mettle? Why, even when Nixon became so wary of so many of his appointees that he fired cabinet members en masse, did he continue to be solicitous of Bush Sr.?
Nixon named the obscure Poppy to be UN ambassador in 1970 and then chairman of the national Republican Party in 1972. Even earlier, in 1968, Nixon actually put Bush Sr. on his list of vice presidential running mate prospects – this not long after Poppy was first elected to the House of Representatives. Similarly, Nixon's replacement, Gerald Ford, sent Poppy off as envoy to China and later made him CIA director, though by most accounts he was an odd choice for both of these sensitive jobs.
In short, in the Nixon era, Poppy Bush was the man who always seemed to be around, yet also managed to stay out of the main story. Digging way back, I came upon evidence that Nixon felt beholden to the Bush family and to the interests it represented. The reason: Bush Sr.'s father, Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of George W. Bush, apparently helped launch Nixon's political career in 1946 as a way of destroying his first opponent, liberal congressman Jerry Voorhis, an outspoken critic of the excesses of bankers and financiers. Given the current Wall Street disasters, and the role of Prescott's grandson in enabling them, this revelation has obvious contemporary relevance.
Once I understood this special Nixon-Bush relationship, which is basically missing from all major Nixon biographies, I began to ask what exactly Poppy had been doing during the Watergate years. This led to the discovery that the Watergate break-in was almost certainly just one of a series of illegal acts that were engineered by people around Nixon, but not by Nixon himself. Far from defending Nixon's interests, these people had been privately frustrated with him on a variety of fronts and were now looking to take him down.
Simply put, once Nixon attained the presidency, he struggled for his independence, and began doing things that displeased his former sponsors.
I explored in particular a little-known matter called the Townhouse Affair. It turns out to be an important precursor to Watergate. Townhouse and Watergate both had earmarks of involvement by CIA figures.
And I looked at something that has barely emerged in public, but which was discussed by Nixon and his advisers: his ongoing struggle with the CIA. Combined with other evidence I developed of Poppy Bush's longstanding involvement with the CIA (back to the 1950s), it becomes apparent that there was more to Watergate than Richard Nixon's paranoia. There is not space here for all the particulars I lay out in Family of Secrets. But a few highlights:
* Townhouse appears in retrospect to be an elaborate effort to frame Nixon for financial wrongdoing, by orchestrating a ridiculously shady-looking fundraising operation (and purported political blackmail scheme) headquartered in a basement office in a D.C. townhouse. The people who conjured up and ran Townhouse were tied to Poppy Bush.
* Wealthy independent oilmen who backed Bush felt anger and distrust toward Nixon, who proved to be less than entirely reliable on their key issues, such as a tax giveaway called the Oil Depletion Allowance.
* Many figures in Nixon's White House had CIA ties, and appear to have been keeping an eye on him, even as they worked for him. (The role of the security services raises suggestive questions as a new president prepares to take office – namely, how free is any president to pursue the agenda he promised the voters? The ghosts of the Bushes and what they represent will hang over a new President Obama in ways we have never imagined.)
* Poppy Bush had extensive secret ties to the intelligence apparatus before he became CIA director in 1976. This connection has not previously been reported, and it provides an answer to a question that puzzled observers at the time – namely, what had Poppy Bush ever done to prepare him to lead the nation's premier spy agency?
* After being named Republican national chairman, Poppy Bush used that position to monitor and help shape the unfolding Watergate affair.
* John Dean was much more than a whistleblower. It appears that he was aware of or even a key figure in the White House covert activities that brought Nixon down, yet encouraged Nixon to take the blame for them.
* There is evidence suggesting a connection between Poppy Bush and Dean. Records show that Bush actually called the then-obscure Dean from his UN office in New York during the earliest days of these events. Why would the UN ambassador be speaking to a White House counsel?
* The rookie reporter Bob Woodward began working at the Washington Post, and on Watergate in particular, with job recommendations from high officials in the White House who knew him from his days in Naval intelligence work.
* A handful of famous Watergate tape excerpts were misconstrued – or in some cases, misleadingly edited – by some in academic, media, legislative and judicial arenas to convey a false impression of what Richard Nixon actually knew – and of how culpable he was.
* Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, a key figure in the ousting of Nixon, was a close Texas friend of Poppy Bush – and steered clear of evidence that pointed to Poppy's involvement.
* Even the notion of "Deep Throat," purportedly Woodward's main source (identified as the recently-deceased FBI man W. Mark Felt), may have been part of a CIA-style "psyops" scheme to create the impression of Nixon's culpability. Some key figures claim that there was in fact no "Deep Throat" at all.
* Nixon suspected the CIA of surrounding him and then setting him up. From his own days supervising covert operations as vice president, he recognized that the Watergate burglars and their bosses were seasoned CIA hardliners with ties to the Bay of Pigs invasion and events linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Nixon battled the CIA for files on what he called the "Bay of Pigs thing," but never could get access to them.
In sum, I found that the very people who created Nixon and used him to advance their own political interests ended up destroying him. Nixon's famous paranoia, in other words, had a basis in reality.
All of this, and much more, arose directly from my research, which is carefully documented in Family of Secrets and in more than 1000 source notes.
Copyright © 2008 Russ Baker
####
Russ Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America (Published by Bloomsbury Press; 978-1596915572). For more information on his book and the research behind it, please visit www.familyofsecrets.com. As an award-winning investigative reporter, Baker has a track record for making sense of complex and little understood matters. He has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Esquire. He has also served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. Baker received a 2005 Deadline Club award for his exclusive reporting on George W. Bush's military record. He is the founder of WhoWhatWhy/the Real News Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organization, operating at whowhatwhy.com.
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