Politics

Female Soldiers More Likely to Be Raped than Killed in Action, Says Rep.

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DOD Official Set to Testify Today at Hearing, Despite Not Showing Up in July


“You serve your country and then destroy your life because the guy in the next bunk or the next foxhole becomes a sexual predator,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) of the females who have been sexually assaulted or raped while serving the country.

A House subcommittee is set to shed new light on the problem of sexual assault in the military today, when it will hear testimony on sexual assault numbers, prevention and response as part of its ongoing investigation into the issue.

“A woman who signs up to protect her country is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), who introduced a bill this summer to increase and encourage the investigation of prosecution of sexual assault and rape cases in the military and is attending today’s hearing.

It will be the second such hearing this summer but is highly anticipated because Dr. Kaye Whitley, the director of the defense department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, will testify. Whitley was a no-show at the session July 31, even though the committee had subpoenaed her to attend.

Read moreFemale Soldiers More Likely to Be Raped than Killed in Action, Says Rep.

Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan

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WASHINGTON – President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.

Read moreBush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan

No victory in Iraq says Petraeus

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General David Petraeus doubts he will declare victory in Iraq

The outgoing commander of US troops in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has said that he will never declare victory there.

In a BBC interview, Gen Petraeus said that recent security gains were “not irreversible” and that the US still faced a “long struggle”.

Related article: Pentagon admits Afghan strategy not succeeding

When asked if US troops could withdraw from Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, he said that would be “doable”.

In his next job leading the US Central Command, Gen Petraeus will also oversee operations in Afghanistan.

This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade… it’s not war with a simple slogan
Gen David Petraeus
Profile: Gen Petraeus

He said “the trends in Afghanistan have not gone in the right direction… and that had to be addressed”.

Read moreNo victory in Iraq says Petraeus

Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

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This article is a must read.

Related video:
Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs (Dr. Rima Laibow, M.D.)

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By: Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D.

(NaturalNews) Codeath (sorry, I meant Codex) Alimentarius, latin for Food Code, is a very misunderstood organization that most people (including nearly all U.S. congressmen) have never heard of, never mind understand the true reality of this extremely powerful trade organization. From the official Codex website (www.codexalimentarius.net) the altruistic purpose of this commission is in “protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations”. Codex is a joint venture regulated by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Read moreCodex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

Freddie, Fannie Scam Hidden in Broad Daylight

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Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — When the history is written on the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it will go down in the annals of corporate scandals as one of the greatest accounting scams committed in broad daylight.

All anyone had to do to know the government-guaranteed mortgage financiers were insolvent was read their financial statements. You didn’t need a trained professional eye to discern this open secret, only a skeptical one.

Just last month, Fannie and Freddie said their regulatory capital was $47 billion and $37.1 billion, respectively, as of June 30. The Treasury Department now says it may have to inject as much as $200 billion of capital into the two companies. Nothing much changed at the companies in that span. They just couldn’t get the government to keep up the ruse any longer.

Read moreFreddie, Fannie Scam Hidden in Broad Daylight

42 Percent Of State Public Schools Below Standards

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Forty-two percent of Connecticut public schools failed to meet performance standards required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to figures released by the state Department of Education today.

That list includes about 100 more schools than last year, reflecting heightened standards for schools.

Read more42 Percent Of State Public Schools Below Standards

School Shooting Drill Terrifies Unknowing Teachers

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This is absolute madness. They have intentionally traumatized innocent children and teachers.
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WCAU-TV
updated 2:15 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2008

About 50 teachers at a New Jersey school experienced a terrifying moment when a shooting rampage turned out to be a drill, but the teachers didn’t know it.

It happened Aug. 28 at the Phillipsburg New Jersey Early Learning Center.

A man burst into the library and started shooting. But the gun didn’t have any bullets, just blanks.

Teachers took cover under child-sized tables, crying and trembling.

“People are crying. The girl next to me is trembling and shaking. You heard people crying. You heard other people praying. It was pretty dramatic,” one teacher said.

The school district put the drill in place to test staff readiness.

The Phillipsburg School Board heard from angry teachers and parents Monday night.

The board is reviewing the drill.

Source: MSNBC

Rep. Dana Rohrbacher: “The Russians are right! We’re wrong! Georgia started it, the Russians ended it.”

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“The Russians are right! We’re wrong! Georgia started it, the Russians ended it,” Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, a California Republican, told Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried, who testified on administration policy to both the Senate panel and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
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U.S. examines rebuilding Georgia’s military

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The United States said on Tuesday it would examine how to help rebuild Georgia’s military after Tbilisi’s devastating war with Russia, risking renewed Russian wrath over military aid to the small U.S. ally.

But some lawmakers berated the Bush administration for its pro-Georgia policy, saying the Russian-Georgian war had highlighted U.S. weakness and harmed ties with Moscow — and they questioned the cost of the U.S. committment to Tbilisi.

Read moreRep. Dana Rohrbacher: “The Russians are right! We’re wrong! Georgia started it, the Russians ended it.”

Pentagon admits Afghan strategy not succeeding

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military conceded it was not winning the fight against an increasingly deadly insurgency in Afghanistan and said on Wednesday it would revise its strategy to combat militant safe havens in Pakistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee success in Afghanistan would require more civilian effort beyond the military fight.

“Frankly, we’re running out of time,” Mullen said.

“I’m not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can,” he said, offering a sober assessment nearly seven years since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Read morePentagon admits Afghan strategy not succeeding

Farmers See ‘Mark of the Beast’ in RFID Livestock Tags

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A group of community farmers, some of them Amish, are challenging rules requiring the tagging of livestock with RFID chips, saying the devices are a “mark of the beast.”

Michigan and federal authorities say the radio frequency identification devices (RFID) will help monitor the travels of bovine and other livestock diseases.

Related articles:
– Mandatory Microchipping In Adopted Pets
– CASPIAN RELEASES MICROCHIP CANCER REPORT

Read moreFarmers See ‘Mark of the Beast’ in RFID Livestock Tags

Park attendants ordered to interrogate adults spotted without children

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Telford Town Park in Shropshire, where council workers have been told to confront lone adults in the park to check if they are paedophiles

Park wardens have been ordered to stop and interrogate anyone who is not accompanied by children.

The visitors who are quizzed have to explain their presence and risk being thrown out or reported to police if their answers are not satisfactory.

The policy has been introduced at Telford Town Park in Shropshire. The council which manages the 420-acre area says it is a ‘commonsense approach’ aimed at safeguarding children.

But park users accused it of ‘authoritarian madness’ and said the ruling risked panicking parents about the dangers faced from potential paedophiles.

Read morePark attendants ordered to interrogate adults spotted without children

Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney’s Papers Be Made Public

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Vice President Cheney has said he does not have to make his papers public after leaving office because he is not part of the executive branch. A lawsuit to be filed today says they are covered under the 1978 Presidential Records Act. (By Alberto Pellaschiar — Associated Press)

Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.

In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney’s records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

The group expects to file the lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It will name Cheney, the executive offices of the president and vice president, and the National Archives and chief archivist Allen Weinstein as defendants.

Read moreLawsuit to Ask That Cheney’s Papers Be Made Public

Pravda: Shocking Menace of Satellite Surveillance (Part II)

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There are various other satellite powers, such as manipulating electronic instruments and appliances like alarms, electronic watches and clocks, a television, radio, smoke detector and the electrical system of an automobile. For example, the digital alarm on a watch, tiny though it is, can be set off by a satellite from hundreds of miles up in space. And the light bulb of a lamp can be burned out with the burst of a laser from a satellite. In addition, street lights and porch lights can be turned on and off at will by someone at the controls of a satellite, the means being an electromagnetic beam which reverses the light’s polarity. Or a lamp can be made to burn out in a burst of blue light when the switch is flicked. As with other satellite powers, it makes no difference if the light is under a roof or a ton of concrete–it can still be manipulated by a satellite laser. Types of satellite lasers include the free-electron laser, the x-ray laser, the neutral-particle-beam laser, the chemical-oxygen-iodine laser and the mid-infra-red advanced chemical laser.

Read morePravda: Shocking Menace of Satellite Surveillance (Part II)

Pravda: Shocking Menace of Satellite Surveillance (Part I)

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Unknown to most of the world, satellites can perform astonishing and often menacing feats. This should come as no surprise when one reflects on the massive effort poured into satellite technology since the Soviet satellite Sputnik, launched in 1957, caused panic in the U.S. A spy satellite can monitor a person’s every movement, even when the “target” is indoors or deep in the interior of a building or traveling rapidly down the highway in a car, in any kind of weather (cloudy, rainy, stormy). There is no place to hide on the face of the earth. It takes just three satellites to blanket the world with detection capacity. Besides tracking a person’s every action and relaying the data to a computer screen on earth, amazing powers of satellites include reading a person’s mind, monitoring conversations, manipulating electronic instruments and physically assaulting someone with a laser beam. Remote reading of someone’s mind through satellite technology is quite bizarre, yet it is being done; it is a reality at present, not a chimera from a futuristic dystopia! To those who might disbelieve my description of satellite surveillance, I’d simply cite a tried-and-true Roman proverb: Time reveals all things (tempus omnia revelat).

Read morePravda: Shocking Menace of Satellite Surveillance (Part I)

Why Government Bailout Of Fannie And Freddie Will Fail

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With yesterday’s announcement of the most massive federal bailout of all time, it’s now official: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage lenders on Earth, are bankrupt.

Some Washington bigwigs and bureaucrats will inevitably try to spin it. They’ll avoid the “b” word with vengeance. They’ll push the “c” word (conservatorship) with passion. And in the newspeak of 21st century bailouts, they’ll tell you “it all depends on what the definition of solvency is.”

The truth: Without their accounting smoke and mirrors, Fannie and Freddie have no capital. The government is seizing control of their operations. Their chief executives are getting fired. Common shareholders will be virtually wiped out. Preferred shareholders will get pennies. If that’s not wholesale bankruptcy, what is?

Read moreWhy Government Bailout Of Fannie And Freddie Will Fail

China frets at US risk after Fannie/Freddie bailout

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BEIJING, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is good news in the short term for China, the biggest holder of the giant mortgage lenders’ debt, but Beijing’s huge U.S. exposure still poses a serious risk, a prominent government researcher said on Monday.

China owned $376 billion of debt issued by U.S. government agencies, principally Fannie and Freddie, as of mid-2007.
The seizure of the two firms, prompted by worries over their shrinking capital, was the latest in a series of emergency steps taken by U.S. authorities to quell a year-long credit crisis that has helped push many economies toward recession. [ID:nN07479172]

“China has bought a lot of asset-backed securities, and there might be short-term improvement in price,” said He Fan, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

But, taking a longer view, he said the bailout posed a problem: if the Treasury issues new debt to fund the rescue, should China be a buyer or not?

“For China, whether or not you buy the new treasuries, there will be losses: if you buy them, you’re getting deeper in the hole; if you don’t buy, your existing holdings will lose value,” He said.

Read moreChina frets at US risk after Fannie/Freddie bailout

Mandatory Microchipping In Adopted Pets

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HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBS) – Starting Monday, every dog and cat adopted from the largest animal shelter on Long Island will come with a microchip embedded in its skin. It’s a quick procedure that can help reunite families with their lost pets.

Related article: CASPIAN RELEASES MICROCHIP CANCER REPORT

Steven Reichert’s dog Sandy became the first to have the chip embedded at the Hempstead Town Animal Shelter.

“My dog is only 40 pounds. She didn’t even flinch, she didn’t even feel it,” Reichert told CBS 2.

Read moreMandatory Microchipping In Adopted Pets

Pakistan threatens to retaliate against US

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A spokesman for Pakistan’s army, Major Murad Khan, has slammed Washington for killing Pakistani civilians, warning of retaliatory action.

“Border violations by US-led forces in Afghanistan, which have killed scores of Pakistani civilians, would no longer be tolerated, and we have informed them that we reserve the right to self defense and that we will retaliate if the US continues cross-border attacks,” Khan said in an exclusive interview with Press TV.

His warning came after US forces launched cross-border attacks in tribal areas in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, killing at least 20 civilians and wounding 25 others on Monday.

Read morePakistan threatens to retaliate against US

Russia confirms sending warships to the Atlantic, Caribbean

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MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian naval task force from the Northern Fleet will go on a tour of duty in the Atlantic Ocean and participate in joint naval drills with the Venezuelan navy in November, a Navy spokesman said on Monday. (Russian Navy modernized – Image gallery)

“In line with the 2008 training program and in order to expand military cooperation with foreign navies Russia will send in November a naval task force from the Northern Fleet, comprising nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy and support ships, to the Atlantic Ocean,” Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

During the tour of duty, the Russian warships will participate in joint naval exercises with the Venezuelan navy.

Related article: Russia to send naval squadron, planes to Venezuela

Read moreRussia confirms sending warships to the Atlantic, Caribbean

French revolt over Edvige: Nicolas Sarkozy’s Big Brother spy computer

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Edvige, which is also a woman’s name, has been dubbed Sarkozy’s “Big Sister” in France

President Nicolas Sarkozy faced an embarrassing split in his Cabinet today over a computer system that a new French internal intelligence service will use to spy on the private lives of millions of law-abiding citizens.

Hervé Morin, the Defence Minister, broke government ranks to side with a growing revolt against Edvige, an acronym for a police database that will store personal details including opinions, the social circle and even sexual preferences of more or less anyone who interests the State.

Edvige, which is also a woman’s name, was created by decree in July to store data on anyone aged 13 or above who is “likely to breach public order”.

“Sarkozy’s Big Sister”, as it has been dubbed, will also track anyone active in politics or trade unions and in a significant role in business, the media, entertainment or social or religious institutions. Listed people will have limited rights to consult their files.

Read moreFrench revolt over Edvige: Nicolas Sarkozy’s Big Brother spy computer

Harrowing video film backs Afghan villagers’ claims of carnage caused by US troops

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As the doctor walks between rows of bodies, people lift funeral shrouds to reveal the faces of children and babies, some with severe head injuries.

Women are heard wailing in the background. “Oh God, this is just a child,” shouts one villager. Another cries: “My mother, my mother.”

The grainy video eight-minute footage, seen exclusively by The Times, is the most compelling evidence to emerge of what may be the biggest loss of civilian life during the Afghanistan war.

These are the images that have forced the Pentagon into a rare U-turn. Until yesterday the US military had insisted that only seven civilians were killed in Nawabad on the night of August 21.

Read moreHarrowing video film backs Afghan villagers’ claims of carnage caused by US troops

US waves goodbye to prosperity and democracy

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THE events of the weekend begin the greatest intervention in the US economy by the Federal Government since the Great Depression, with the Bear Stearns rescue but a splutter on this road we must now travel.

If you were wondering what all the flag-waving at the Republican convention has been about, it is now clear. Americans are waving goodbye to the prosperity the nation has enjoyed since the Great Depression and a final goodbye to democracy. But while preparation for the most important decision made in the nation’s post-depression financial history towered above the conventions, I don’t think the fate of Freddie and Fannie and the remaining government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) was mentioned during either convention.

Related article: Jim Rogers: US Is More Communist than China

And the politicians. President Bush has long authorised the Treasury to open its purse strings and, naturally, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he did not expect the line of endless taxpayer credit to be used. This is like signing an authority to go to war and saying we don’t expect to go to war. Once the authority is given, it will happen. It was always laughable to expect otherwise. Paulson “briefed” John McCain and Barack Obama on the “plan”. The fact is that while America, and the world, wait to see who will govern, Mr Paulson has decided to take matters out of the politicians’ hands.

They willingly agreed. The ultimate political power, to spend taxpayers’ money, has been tossed away. Obviously the economy is too important to be left to the politicians. Instead it is to be put into “conservatorship”. It has come to this.

Read moreUS waves goodbye to prosperity and democracy