Gen. James Jones, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, was quoted in Bob Woodward’s State of Denial as believing the Iraq war is a “debacle” and that “the Joint Chiefs have been systematically emasculated by Rumsfeld.” Jones is also quoted as cautioning Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace: “You should not be the parrot on the secretary’s shoulder.” (more…)

Surveillance video from 1985 shows American stealing secrets for Israel

NBC News has obtained exclusive surveillance video of American Jonathan Pollard spying for Israel before his 1985 arrest, images likely to hurt the case of those trying to get Pollard pardoned. NBC’s Lisa Myers reports.

WASHINGTON - What you see here is rarely caught on tape — a spy in action.

• Watch the video

“This is Pollard actually in the act of stealing highly classified information,” says formal Naval investigator Ron Olive. “1500 top secret documents in a matter of seconds.” (more…)

ORLANDO, Fla., — Florida’s third party candidate for governor, Max Linn, is recovering in an Orlando hospital after his private plane experienced engine trouble enroute from St. Petersburg to a campaign appearance in St. Augustine. As an experienced pilot, Linn decided to make an emergency landing on Interstate 4 when the engine failed. (more…)

Gerry Studds Served More Than Two Decades In Congress, Was Embroiled In 1970s Page Scandal

BOSTON — Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday at Boston Medical Center, several days after he collapsed while walking his dog, his husband said. He was 69.

Pretty suspicious timing… (more…)

Experts are urging the Bush administration to use patience and caution in its approach to Iran over its nuclear ambitions.  The comments by former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay and others at an event on Capitol Hill Wednesday came as President Bush and other officials reiterated a call for Iran to end its uranium enrichment efforts and reach a peaceful and negotiated solution. (more…)

Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7–a concern aggravated by the president’s news conference this week.

“They aren’t even planning for if they lose,” says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

Gee…I wonder why? Perhaps they should go ask Diebold for comment. (more…)

EL PASO — An international group of U.S. Army troops took an oath to become American citizens just in time for some of them to deploy to Iraq.

Forty soldiers from 20 countries participated in a citizenship ceremony Thursday at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss. U.S. District Judge Philip R. Martinez gave the soldiers the oath of allegiance and signed the court order making them U.S. citizens. (more…)

Acxiom, a data warehouser, had its databases looted at least twice. But judge throws out an ID-theft class action suit.

A federal judge in Arkansas has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Acxiom, which exposed massive amounts of Americans’ personal information in a high-profile Internet security snafu three years ago.

Even though a spammer had downloaded more than one billion records from the company, U.S. District Judge William Wilson ruled that there was no evidence that Acxiom’s purloined database had been used to send junk e-mail or postal mail. (more…)

New Revelations about Ali Mohamed

The following text is an expanded version of Peter Dale Scott’s Talk at Berkeley, September 24, 2006, entitled “9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out.”

I want to talk tonight about using the 9/11 Report as evidence – evidence of what is being suppressed. We can use it in this way because some parts of the Report are accurate and reliable. This base line of reliability helps define other parts of the Report which are misleading, and in a few places I believe dead wrong. These relevant omissions and deceptions should be taken as clues as to what is being suppressed, and where the hidden truth lies. (more…)

Not only has there not been any significant improvement in Palestinian movement in recent months but the number of Israeli checkpoints and other obstacles has actually increased, hindering access to essential services, according to the latest United Nations update published today.

“The closure system is a primary cause of the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned. “It restricts Palestinian access not only to basic services such as health and education, but divides communities from their land and one another, places of work and sites of religious worship.” (more…)

WASHINGTON — Internal military documents released Thursday provided new details about the Defense Department’s collection of information on nationwide demonstrations last year by students, Quakers and others opposed to the Iraq war.

The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, show, for instance, that military officials labeled as “potential terrorist activity” events like a “Stop the War Now” rally in Akron, Ohio, in March 2005.

Spying on Americans is the new “War on Terrorism”. (more…)

The United States has quietly started a campaign projected to cost up to $42 million to bolster Hamas’s political opponents ahead of possible early Palestinian elections, say officials linked to the program.

The plan to promote alternatives to Hamas includes funding to help restructure Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group and provide training and strategic advice to politicians and secular parties opposed to Hamas Islamists.

Hamas was democratically elected, and now the U.S. Government is using your tax dollars to overthrow them and finance candidates that Israel hand picks (i.e. ones that will ensure instability in the region indefinately). You see, Hamas actually stood a chance of uniting the Palestinian people — and we can’t have that! (more…)

Damage limitation in Downing Street, a midnight phone call and a rush to the airwaves, but general does not back down on the essence of his remarks about the aftermath of the Iraq invasion

Is General Sir Richard Dannatt naïve, noble or very calculating? When he put his head above the parapet in an interview with the Daily Mail to argue that the continued presence of British troops in Iraq was stoking bloodshed worldwide, did the new army chief anticipate the political firestorm he would ignite? (more…)

A committed Christian said today she planned to take legal action against her employers British Airways after the airline ruled that displaying her crucifix breached uniform rules

Heathrow check-in worker Nadia Eweida was sent home after refusing to remove the crucifix which breached BA’s dress code. (more…)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Eight Pakistani militants suspected of links to al-Qaida have been arrested in connection with attempted rocket attacks in and near the capital of Islamabad, the interior minister said Friday.

Intelligence agents and police had also recovered weapons, ammunition and explosives in the raids, staged at undisclosed locations in Pakistan, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said. He did not identify the suspects.

The only thing they’re not telling you is that this Al Qaeda/Qaida is run by Mossad. (more…)