November 2009 – Page 3 – Infinite Unknown

Climategate: Scientists Would Rather Change Facts Than Their Theories

November 24, 2009 by Infinite

Former minister MP Peter Lilley discusses on RT the scandal dubbed Climategate, after the University of East Anglias Climate Research Unit (CRU) servers were hacked into, bringing to public attention many emails and documents from scientists that suggest data on climate change has been manipulated to suit the Global Warming “Theory”.

Added: 23. November 2009

Related information:

Climategate:

– Climategate on Lateline: Private climate documents hacked, published

– Climategate Bombshell: Dr. Tim Ball on the hacked CRU emails

– Climategate: The Day Science Died (TBR)

– Climategate: how the MSM reported the greatest scandal in modern science (Telegraph)

– Climategate: CRU director admits the emails flying all over the internet appear to be genuine (Herald Sun)

– Climategate: The Final Nail in The Coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?! (Telegraph)

Climategate on Lateline: Private climate documents hacked, published

November 24, 2009 by Infinite

Some of the world’s leading climate scientists have been embarrassed by the publication of hundreds of private emails and research documents, which were stolen by computer hackers from a British university.

Climate change skeptics have hailed the material as proof that research data has been skewed and suppressed.

Added: 23. November 2009

Related information:

Climategate:

– Climategate Bombshell: Dr. Tim Ball on the hacked CRU emails

– Climategate: The Day Science Died (TBR)

– Climategate: how the MSM reported the greatest scandal in modern science (Telegraph)

– Climategate: CRU director admits the emails flying all over the internet appear to be genuine (Herald Sun)

– Climategate: The Final Nail in The Coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?! (Telegraph)

US Dollar Slump Persisting as Top Analysts See No Bottom

November 24, 2009 by Infinite

Sheets of one-hundred dollar bills sit in a roll before being sorted at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — The most accurate dollar forecasters predict the world’s reserve currency will continue sliding even when the Federal Reserve begins to raise interest rates, which policy makers say is an “extended period” away.

Standard Chartered Plc, Aletti Gestielle SGR, HSBC Holdings Plc and Scotia Capital Inc. say the dollar will depreciate as much as 6.4 percent versus the euro. About $12 trillion of fiscal and monetary stimulus, the world’s lowest borrowing costs and a record $4 trillion of government bond sales between 2009 and 2010 will weigh on the currency, they said. So will the nation’s 10.2 percent unemployment rate and signs that the economic recovery (Which recovery?) may falter, they said.

“History tells us the dollar shouldn’t start rising on a sustained basis until 12 months after the Fed starts to lift rates,” said Callum Henderson, the Singapore-based global head of foreign-exchange strategy for Standard Chartered.

The best forecaster of the dollar against the euro in the six quarters ended June 30 in Bloomberg’s ranking of 46 firms last month predicts the greenback will weaken 5.3 percent to $1.58 per euro in 2010, from $1.4970 today.

“It’ll take time to drain the oversupply of dollars from the market,” Henderson said. “The dollar will remain weak until the Fed’s rates rise above the competitors’.”

How only 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

November 23, 2009November 23, 2009 by Infinite

Waiting game: Tankers moored off Devon waiting for oil prices to rise even further

Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen.

But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use.

We’ve all noticed it. The filthy black smoke kicked out by funnels on cross-Channel ferries, cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and even tugboats.

It looks foul, and leaves a brown haze across ports and shipping lanes. But what hasn’t been clear until now is that it is also a major killer, probably causing thousands of deaths in Britain alone.

As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.

Because of their colossal engines, each as heavy as a small ship, these super-vessels use as much fuel as small power stations.

But, unlike power stations or cars, they can burn the cheapest, filthiest, high-sulphur fuel: the thick residues left behind in refineries after the lighter liquids have been taken. The stuff nobody on land is allowed to use.

Climategate Bombshell: Dr. Tim Ball on the hacked CRU emails

November 23, 2009 by Infinite

Retired climatologist Dr. Tim Ball joins us to discuss the significance of the recently leaked emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University which expose deceit, duplicity and collusion between climate researchers to maintain the fraud of the manmade global warming theory.

These emails reveal stunning behind-the-scenes details about how this fraud has been developed and perpetuated, and Dr. Ball shares his insights on what they show.

Added: 21. November 2009

Related information:

Climategate:

– Climategate: The Day Science Died (TBR)

– Climategate: how the MSM reported the greatest scandal in modern science (Telegraph)

– Climategate: CRU director admits the emails flying all over the internet appear to be genuine (Herald Sun)

– Climategate: The Final Nail in The Coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?! (Telegraph)

Senior IRGC official: ‘If attacked, Iran will target the very heart of Tel Aviv’

November 23, 2009 by Infinite

One of Iran’s Shahab-3A missiles

A senior IRGC official warns that Iranian missiles will be on their marks to target the very heart of Tel Aviv in the event of a military attack on the Islamic Republic.

“If the enemy tries its luck and fires a missile into Iran, our ballistic missiles would zero in on Tel Aviv before the dust settles on the attack,” said Mojtaba Zolnour, the representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Zolnour, who was speaking in a Saturday interview with the IRNA news agency, said enemy countries should keep in mind that Iran’s military capabilities have made great strides due to the efforts of Iranian experts.

He made the comments shortly after the Iranian Air Force announced that it is preparing for a five-day aerial maneuver named the Sky of Velayat 2.

RBS banksters dumping toxic assets on Ireland

November 23, 2009 by Infinite

Here is what I said in October:

“Fear won! The New World Order won. The people will lose.”

It was an absolute insult that the people had been forced to vote again:

– What part of Ireland’s ‘no’ does the EU not understand? (Guardian)

Aren’t you glad that you’ve got the ‘correct answer this time’ and voted ‘YES’ Ireland?

– Ireland Votes 67% In Favor Of Lisbon Treaty -Final Count (Wall Street Journal)

Now you will pay!

Hester stirs diplomatic row by using EU rules to force Dublin into accepting £7bn bad loans

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND is poised to spark a diplomatic row with Ireland by attempting to dump £7 billion of toxic loans into the Irish “bad bank”.

Stephen Hester, the RBS chief executive, is expected to lodge an application to join Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (Nama) within the next few weeks through its Ulster Bank subsidiary.

Irish officials are said to be furious about the plan, however. The Treasury had previously reached a “gentleman’s agreement” with its Dublin counterpart over their bailout plans.

The Treasury had agreed that no British banks would apply to use the Nama as long as no Irish banks tried to join the parallel UK programme, the Government Asset Protection Scheme (Gaps).

This was agreed to make it easier for taxpayers in both countries to stomach the deal. Under EU rules, Ireland is legally obliged to consider RBS’s application to join the scheme.

The Irish officials had no idea RBS was considering using the Nama scheme until Hester alluded to the possibility in a conference call with analysts two weeks ago. His comments came after the bank confirmed plans to place £282 billion of assets into Gaps — some £40 billion less than originally planned.

US Air Force Zaps Drones in Laser Test

November 23, 2009November 23, 2009 by Infinite

In a recent series of tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif., a trailer-mounted laser was able to knock five unmanned aircraft out of the sky.

The demo, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory, was a test of the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), an experimental system developed by Boeing Directed Energy Systems. According to a company news release, the test showed the ability to take down a hostile unmanned aircraft with a “relatively low laser power” weapon. According to AFRL, MATRIX uses a two and a half kilowatt-class high energy laser.

While ballistic missile defense may get all of the press, some homeland-security experts worry about a more low-tech threat: drone technology. Bill Baker, chief scientist of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate, said in a statement that the shootdowns “validate the use of directed energy to negate potential hostile threats against the homeland.”

It’s not clear, exactly, how the lasers shot down the drones: Whether they disrupted the aircraft controls, or burned a big hole in them. (An AFRL news release said the drones were “acquired, tracked and negated at significant ranges” but offered few additional details.)

VeriChip Corp. Completes Acquisition of Steel Vault Corp. – Corporation to be Named PositiveID

November 23, 2009 by Infinite

VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID.

The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip implant businesses that will only encourage its critics. BNET previously noted that some regard the company as part of a prophecy in the Book of Revelation (because the HealthLink chip carries an RFID number that can be used as both money and proof of ID) or as part of President Obama’s secret Nazi plan to enslave America.

The most obvious criticism to be made of the deal is that it potentially allows PositiveID to link or cross-check patient health records (from the HealthLink chip) to people’s credit scores. One assumes that the company will put up firewalls to prevent that. PositiveID CEO Scott Silverman said:

“PositiveID will be the first company of its kind to combine a successful identity security business with one of the world’s first personal health records through our Health Link business. PositiveID will address some of the most important issues affecting our society today with our identification tools and technologies for consumers and businesses.”

VeriChip TV Ad Confirms Critics’ Worst Fears: They Want Everyone Implanted

November 23, 2009 by Infinite

VeriChip‘s TV ad for its Health Link implantable microchip that connects to your online medical records has spawned a backlash on YouTube. Observers regard it as either part of President Obama‘s secret Nazi plan to enslave us all or a sign of the coming antichrist.

The ad itself comes on like all drug advertising does – healthy, smiling middle-aged people describing the things about life they are thankful for.

But, to give VeriChip’s critics some credit, the ad clearly positions the VeriChip as something for everyone, not merely patients who are so deranged or damaged that having a chip to transmit accurate data might be useful.

It begins:

To think something so slim can connect you.

… Health Link is always with you when every second counts in the emergency room.

… Because Bob has trouble remembering all his medications.

So far so good. But then the ad suggests a much wider application. A young woman says:

… because my car lost control while driving.

And a groovy looking guy in a pork-pie hat adds:

… because I have diabetes but it doesn’t have me.

When you add this to VeriChip’s previous marketing activity – in which they implanted the chips in cuties on Miami’s nightclub scene so they didn’t have to bother showing ID or carrying cash – the impression it gives is that VeriChip does indeed want everyone to be implanted.

Climategate: The Day Science Died

November 22, 2009 by Infinite

As the fallout from CRUHACK grows, the biggest story is not actually whether data was manipulated in individual cases, although in my view that’s bad. And it’s not that global warming scientists were so arrogant in 2004 as to mock the death of an opponent, although that too is bad.

It’s not that some of these scientists were sitting on taxpayer-sourced slush funds worth tens of millions of dollars each, for an industry total of somewhere close to US$100 billion, whilst their supporters raised merry-hell about Exxon sponsoring skeptic research to the tune of a few million, although this too is massively hypocritical.

It’s not that the scientists show signs of being political activists, and even helping promote a global governance agenda.

No, in my view the biggest scandal to erupt from CRUHACK is the death of peer-reviewed climate science.

We now all know – the entire industrialized world – that while global warming scientists and their supporters were publicly ridiculing skeptic’s arguments as “not peer reviewed” because – by implication – the arguments were not good enough, that in fact some of the top scientific advisors to the UN IPCC were conspiring (and that is the right word) to sabotage any attempt by other scientists to publish peer reviewed papers challenging global warming.

We now know the UN IPPC/Global Governance lobby had sufficient political clout to intimidate scientific journals into submission and to run roughshod over the integrity of the peer review process.

Climategate: CRU director admits the emails flying all over the internet appear to be genuine

November 22, 2009 by Infinite

8.15 PM UPDATE: The Hadley University of East Anglia CRU director admits the emails seem to be genuine:

The director of Britain’s leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine’s TGIF Edition tonight …”It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails.”…

TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing “hiding the decline”, and Jones explained what he was trying to say….

So the 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made warming theory – a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern science. I’ve been adding some of the most astonishing in updates below – emails suggesting conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. If it is as it now seems, never again will “peer review” be used to shout down sceptics.

This is clearly not the work of some hacker, but of an insider who’s now blown the whistle.

Not surprising, then, that Steve McIntyre reports:

Earlier today, CRU cancelled all existing passwords. Actions speaking loudly.

But back to the original post – and the most astonishing of the emails so far…

Friday, November 20, 2009

Full article here: Herald Sun

Climategate: The Final Nail in The Coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?!

November 22, 2009November 22, 2009 by Infinite

Related information:
– Study: CO2 levels remained constant since 1850! (University of Bristol)

Update:

– Climategate: The Day Science Died (TBR)

– Climategate: CRU director admits the emails flying all over the internet appear to be genuine (Herald Sun)

If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW. The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) and released 61 megabites of confidential files onto the internet. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)

When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:

Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

One of the alleged emails has a gentle gloat over the death in 2004 of John L Daly (one of the first climate change sceptics, founder of the Still Waiting For Greenhouse site), commenting:

“In an odd way this is cheering news.”

But perhaps the most damaging revelations – the scientific equivalent of the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses scandal – are those concerning the way Warmist scientists may variously have manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause.

Here are a few tasters. (So far, we can only refer to them as alleged emails because – though Hadley CRU’s director Phil Jones has confirmed the break-in to Ian Wishart at the Briefing Room – he has yet to fess up to any specific contents.) But if genuine, they suggest dubious practices such as:

Britain’s New Internet Law: The Digital Economy Bill Is Perfectly Useless, Terrible And Loaded With Penalties

November 22, 2009 by Infinite

The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it’s perfectly useless and terrible. It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the “three-strikes” rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial), as well as a plan to beat the hell out of the video-game industry with a new, even dumber rating system (why is it acceptable for the government to declare that some forms of artwork have to be mandatorily labelled as to their suitability for kids? And why is it only some media? Why not paintings? Why not novels? Why not modern dance or ballet or opera?).

So it’s bad. £50,000 fines if someone in your house is accused of filesharing. A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).

But that’s just for starters. The real meat is in the story we broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as many new penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he’s planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of. And of course, Mandelson’s successor in the next government would also have this power.

What isn’t in there? Anything about stimulating the actual digital economy. Nothing about ensuring that broadband is cheap, fast and neutral. Nothing about getting Britain’s poorest connected to the net. Nothing about ensuring that copyright rules get out of the way of entrepreneurship and the freedom to create new things. Nothing to ensure that schoolkids get the best tools in the world to create with, and can freely use the publicly funded media — BBC, Channel 4, BFI, Arts Council grantees — to make new media and so grow up to turn Britain into a powerhouse of tech-savvy creators.

Lobby organisation The Open Rights Group is urging people to contact their MP to oppose the plans. “This plan won’t stop copyright infringement and with a simple accusation could see you and your family disconnected from the internet – unable to engage in everyday activities like shopping and socialising,” it said.

The government will also introduce age ratings on all boxed video games aimed at children aged 12 or over.

There is, however, little detail in the bill on how the government will stimulate broadband infrastructure.

UK government to introduce the most radical copyright proposal ever, declares war on principles of free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly, the presumption of innocence, and competition

November 22, 2009 by Infinite

Leaked UK government plan to create ‘Pirate Finder General’ with power to appoint militias, create laws

A source close to the British Labour Government has just given me reliable information about the most radical copyright proposal I’ve ever seen.

Secretary of State Peter Mandelson is planning to introduce changes to the Digital Economy Bill now under debate in Parliament. These changes will give the Secretary of State (Mandelson — or his successor in the next government) the power to make “secondary legislation” (legislation that is passed without debate) to amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988).

What that means is that an unelected official would have the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright. Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to “impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement” (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

Mandelson is also gunning for sites like YouSendIt and other services that allow you to easily transfer large files back and forth privately (I use YouSendIt to send podcasts back and forth to my sound-editor during production). Like Viacom, he’s hoping to force them to turn off any feature that allows users to keep their uploads private, since privacy flags can be used to keep infringing files out of sight of copyright enforcers.

This is as bad as I’ve ever seen, folks. It’s a declaration of war by the entertainment industry and their captured regulators against the principles of free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly, the presumption of innocence, and competition.

This proposal creates the office of Pirate-Finder General, with unlimited power to appoint militias who are above the law, who can pry into every corner of your life, who can disconnect you from your family, job, education and government, who can fine you or put you in jail.

Peter Schiff: The Truth Behind China’s Currency Peg

November 21, 2009 by Infinite

Our Financial Dependence on China

By Peter Schiff

During President Obama’s high profile visit to China this week, the most frequently discussed, yet least understood, topic was how currency valuations are affecting the economic relationship between the United States and China. The focal problem is the Chinese government’s policy of fixing the value of the renminbi against the U.S. dollar. While many correctly perceive that this ‘peg’ has contributed greatly to the current global imbalances, few fully comprehend the ramifications should that peg be discarded.

The common understanding is both incomplete and naive. Most analysts simply see the peg as China’s principal weapon in an economic struggle for global ascendancy. The peg, they argue, offers China a competitive advantage by making its products cheaper in U.S. markets, thus allowing Chinese firms to gobble up market share and steal jobs from U.S. manufacturers. The thought is that were China to allow its currency to rise, American manufactures would regain their lost edge, and both manufacturing firms and the jobs formerly associated with them would return. In this narrative, the struggle centers on the United States’ diminishing leverage in persuading the Chinese to lay down their unfair weaponry. It’s a sympathetic picture, but it tells the wrong story.

While the peg certainly is responsible for much of the world’s problems, its abandonment would cause severe hardship in the United States. In fact, for the U.S., de-pegging would cause the economic equivalent of cardiac arrest. Our economy is currently on life support provided by an endless flow of debt financing from China. These purchases are the means by which China maintains the relative value of its currency against the dollar. As the dollar comes under even more downward pressure, China’s purchases must increase to keep the renminbi from rising. By maintaining the peg, China enables our politicians and citizens to continue spending more than they have and avoiding the hard choices necessary to restore our long-term economic health.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, when China drops the peg, the immediate benefits will flow to the Chinese, not to Americans. Yes, prices for Chinese goods will rise in the United States â€” but so will prices for domestic goods. As a corollary, the Chinese will see falling prices across the board. As anyone who has ever been shopping can explain, low prices are a good thing.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy Announces 2009 as ‘First Year of Global Governance’

August 16, 2011November 21, 2009 by Infinite

Herman Van Rompuy is just another Bilderberg puppet!

In case you have missed this:

– Has Anyone Read the Copenhagen Agreement? U.N. plans for a new ‘world government’ are scary (The Wall Street Journal):
“We can only hope that world leaders will do nothing more than enjoy a pleasant bicycle ride around the charming streets of Copenhagen come December. For if they actually manage to wring out an agreement based on the current draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty, the world is in for some nasty surprises. Draft text, you say? If you haven’t heard about it, that’s because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media.”
…
“So far there have been more than a million hits on the YouTube post of his address. It deserves millions more because Lord Monckton warns that the aim of the Copenhagen draft treaty is to set up a transnational “government” on a scale the world has never before seen.”

Now listen to the new EU puppet President …

New EU president confirms New World Order desire

Added: 19. November 2009

ICE probing massive 9% jump in US dollar index futures

November 21, 2009 by Infinite

WTF?!

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The IntercontinentalExchange is probing trades in U.S. dollar index futures that briefly showed a massive 9% jump on Friday morning.

The lead contract surged as high as 82.18, up from a 75.38 close on Thursday. Such a move was improbable given that in spot markets, the dollar’s moves against major currencies such as the euro were limited to about 1%.

The ICE agreed, and according to an exchange official, all trades above 76.50 were being cancelled. The ICE was still investigating the cause of the incident, the official said.

Dollar index futures were still elevated after the incident, up a more modest 0.7% to 75.91.

The move briefly had an impact on other markets, as futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 99 points.

Peru: Gang ‘killed peasant farmers for their fat’

November 21, 2009 by Infinite

Police claim bodies were drained by killers seeking to sell lipids for use in cosmetics

A police officer in Lima shows off bottles of human fat that were allegedly found on gang members who confessed to murdering local peasants to harvest fat (AP)

Police in Peru say they have arrested three members of a gang who murdered a string of peasant farmers, drained the fat from their dead bodies, and then attempted to sell it to European cosmetics manufacturers.

The men have confessed to a total of five killings, but are suspected of dozens more. Police believe they approached their victims on remote roads and lured them to a hut in the jungle with talk of being able to introduce them to a potential employer. Instead, the victims were bludgeoned to death.

Each of their bodies then had its head, arms and legs cut off. Major organs were removed, and discarded, before the torso was suspended from hooks in the ceiling of the hut. Candles were placed beneath, so that melting fat would dribble into pots, pans and other collecting vessels.

“We have broken up a criminal organisation dedicated to trafficking bodily fluids and human fat,” said local police commander Angel Toledo, on Thursday. The large containers of illicit fat were latter decanted into bottles for export, he added.

“Without a doubt [the gang] have committed various crimes like kidnapping and conspiring to commit criminal acts. [They] have spoken about how they committed crimes with the purpose of extracting their fat in rudimentary laboratories to later sell for the price of $15,000 (£9,000) per litre.”

Canada: Bankruptcies Soar 44.8 Per Cent From A Year Earlier

November 21, 2009 by Infinite

Number of Canadians filing for bankruptcy increased 44.8 per cent in September from a year earlier

The number of bankruptcies rose 44.8 per cent in September from a year earlier, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, an agency of Industry Canada.

During the latest month for which data are available, the number of bankruptcies increased 29.1 per cent from the prior month.

The volume of consumer bankruptcies rose 47.4 per cent from a year earlier, while increasing 29 per cent from September over August.

Businesses have fared well, with the volume of bankruptcies falling 0.4 per cent during the past 12 months, although on a month-over-month basis they rose 31.6 per cent.

CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy Outside Vilnius, Lithuania

November 20, 2009 by Infinite

Related information:

– CIA Director Reveals Spec Ops Report: US Needs Hit Squads, ‘Manhunting Agency’

– Italy convicts 23 CIA agents in rendition trial

– Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to Uzbekistan for extreme torture, to be ‘raped with broken bottles,’ ‘boiled alive’ and ‘having their children tortured in front of them’

– US Spy Agencies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Twitter and Even Amazon Book Reviews

The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

Outside Lithuania the CIA used a former barn to interrogate al Qaeda members.

Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time.

“The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.”

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the “black site” in 2004.

Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania’s efforts to join NATO.

“The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period,” said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. “They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters.”

Senate Health Care Bill: 17 Tax Increases = $370.2 Billion

March 18, 2010November 20, 2009 by Infinite

Change you can believe in!

The Joint Committee on Taxation has published a list of the 17 tax increases in the Senate health care bill, which are estimated to raise $370.2 billion in revenues over ten years:

40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,500/$23,000 ($149.1 billion)
Employer W-2 reporting of value of health (negligible revenue effect)
Conform definition of medical expenses ($5.0 billion)
Increase penalty for nonqualified health savings account distributions to 20% ($1.3 billion)
Limit health flexible spending arrangements in cafeteria plans to $2,500 ($14.6 billion)
Require information reporting on payments to corporations ($17.1 billion)
Additional requirements for section 501(c)(3) hospitals (negligible revenue effects)
Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of branded drugs ($22.2 billion)
Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of medical devices ($19.3 billion)
Impose annual fee on health insurance providers ($60.4 billion)
Study and report of effect on veterans health care (no revenue effect)
Eliminate deduction for expenses allocable to Medicare Part D subsidy ($5.4 billion)
Raise 7.5% AGI floor on medical expenses deduction to 10% ($15.2 billion)
$500,000 deduction limitation on taxable year remuneration to health insurance officials ($0.6 billion)
Additional 0.5% hospital insurance tax on wages > $200,000 ($250,000 joint) ($53.8 billion)
Modification of section 833 treatment of certain health organizations ($0.4 billion)
Impose 5% excise tax on cosmetic surgery ($5.8 billion)

Update: See CCH’s Special Report.

By Paul L. Caron
Associate Dean of Faculty
Charles Hartsock Professor of Law
Univ. of Cincinnati College of Law

OECD warning: Britain risks ‘debt spiral’

November 20, 2009 by Infinite

Britain’s banksters and their bonuses have been momentarily saved, but the taxpayer has been looted like there will be no tomorrow.

The UK is broke and the pound sterling will soon go through a real currency crisis, thanks to the spend the UK into oblivion team Brown/Darling and to the printing press King of the Bank of England.

Mission accomplished!

Britain is at growing risk of a “public debt spiral” unless the Government takes “drastic” action to cut the deficit, according to the OECD, world’s leading economic institution.

Britain faces having the biggest deficit in the developed world until 2017.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said that even if Britain reduces its deficit in line with other leading nations, it will still have the rich world’s biggest deficit from now until 2017 and potentially beyond, casting serious doubt on its economic credibility.

The warning coincided with shock public finance statistics showing that public borrowing in October was 88 times what it was in the same month last year, making it likely that the Chancellor will miss his £175bn borrowing forecast this year.

The double blow is acutely embarrassing for Downing Street, coming ahead of next month’s pre-Budget report and only 24 hours after it pledged to create a Bill to halve the deficit within four years and to reduce debt every year for the coming decade.

In fact, the OECD predicted in its annual Economic Outlook, Britain’s deficit was likely to be even higher next year than this year, at 13.3pc, raising the prospect that the Government could break its own law in its very first year.

Britain’s deficit will remain higher than any other major country, including even Iceland and Ireland, unless the Government takes far more drastic action to repair it, said the OECD’s acting chief economist Jørgen Elmeskov.

“Halving the deficit would be a start, but since the UK is starting out from a deficit which is in double figures, one should go further still,” he said. “The concern is that there could be a cost spiral – where debt increases, hitting confidence in the market, which pushes up interest rates, and this leads to even higher deficits.”

The prospect of interest payments on Britain’s rapidly growing debt rising to 12pc of tax revenues has already prompted Standard & Poor’s to issue a warning about the security of the UK’s credit rating.

House Panel Approves Ron Paul’s Amendment to Audit The Federal Reserve

November 20, 2009 by Infinite

Rep. Alan Grayson Passes Bill to Audit the Fed

Added: 19. November 2009

Rep. Alan Grayson argues in support of the Paul-Grayson amendment, which would subject the Federal Reserve to a complete audit.

The amendment later passed the House Financial Services Committee 43-26 as part of the underlying financial reform package.

(Wall Street Journal) WASHINGTON — A key House panel on Thursday approved an amendment offered by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) to give federal watchdogs massive new authority to audit the Federal Reserve.

The approval came as the House Financial Services Committee concluded weeks of debate on a sweeping financial-overhaul bill to create a new council of regulators to wind down large institutions that pose a risk to the economy. A final committee vote on the bill will be postponed until after Thanksgiving.

Mr. Paul’s amendment removes restrictions on the Government Accountability Office’s auditing authority, giving auditors access to every item on the Fed’s balance sheet. He for more than 20 years has championed significantly neutering the Fed.
Journal Community

Ron Paul rebuts criticism of Federal Reserve audit (19 Nov 2009)

November 20, 2009November 20, 2009 by Infinite