Cellphones and Web Spread Threats, Fear

BAGHDAD — In the aftermath of one of the deadliest spasms of violence, a new level of fear and foreboding has gripped Baghdad, fueled in part by sectarian text messages and Internet sites, deepening tensions in an already divided capital.

In interviews across Baghdad on Saturday, Sunnis and Shiites said they were preparing themselves for upheaval, both violent and psychological. They viewed the bombings that killed more than 200 people Thursday in the heart of Baghdad’s Shiite Muslim community of Sadr City as a trigger for more reprisal killings.

“We feel our world has become narrow, and we are being squeezed,” said Karar al-Zuheari, 31, a Shiite taxi driver. “We have no place to run.” (more…)

Police were studying security camera footage on Saturday after finding radioactive traces at three London locations visited by an ex-KGB spy who accused Vladimir Putin of his murder in a deathbed statement.

As government officials gathered for another emergency meeting, known as COBRA, health officials urged people who had visited any of the places to contact them for advice.

Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday night after a three-week illness that saw his hair fall out, his body waste away and his organs slowly fail. (more…)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer’s war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.

The report by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center follows its investigation of a land mine explosion Friday that wounded two European disposal experts and a Lebanese medic.

The explosion was caused by an Israeli anti-personnel land mine placed in a mine field newly laid during the fighting in July and August, the center in south Lebanon said in a statement. (more…)

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Israel was not in a position to attack Iran with the support of the United States, in an interview published Saturday.
Larijani told journalists in Tehran the United States had weak points in the Middle East and would not dare embark on another military engagement there, according to the the Pakistani website www.paktribune.com.

“We are aware that, having learnt its lesson from recent Lebanon adventure despite possessing over 200 nuclear warheads, Israel is not in a position to attack us,” the site quoted him as saying. “What they are saying is sheer slogan-chanting.” (more…)

RIYADH — Vice President Dick Cheney held three hours of talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Saturday as the Americans step up diplomatic efforts to halt Iraq’s descent into chaos.

Cheney and King Abdullah made no comment after the talks which had been expected to focus on Middle East issues.

With Iraq near all-out civil war, the Bush administration is renewing efforts to break the cycle of violence there by enlisting the help of moderate Arab nations.

The United States wants Saudi Arabia to use its influence with Iraq’s Sunni minority to help stabilize the country. (more…)

More than 100 homes offering smart technology have just been built in South Korea and another 30,000 are planned. Mi Yung Kim and her 10-month-old son Jae Won recently moved into their new smart flat. From the outside, their building looks like just another apartment block, but these new homes in Seoul were built with technology in mind.

The control panel on the wall maps out the apartment so Mi Yung can choose which devices to control.

The air quality here is important to mother and child and so she pops on the air purifying unit, which could be anywhere in the home, because it gets its instructions from the plug socket.

Each flat makes use of the electricity cables to transfer data as well as power. (more…)

A U.N. envoy urged Iraq’s government on Saturday to halt a slide into civil war and stop the “cancer” of sectarianism from destroying the country, warning that the carnage of this week could tear Iraq apart.

The U.N.’s special representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said car bombs on Thursday that killed more than 200 people in a Shi’ite area of Baghdad and “blind acts of revenge” were part of a vicious cycle of sectarian violence “tearing apart the very political and social fabric of Iraq”.

“No country could tolerate such a cancer in its body politic,” Qazi said in a statement.

The Shi’ite-led government has called for calm, desperate to avert the sort of sharp escalation in violence that followed an attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Samarra in February. This time, many fear, such revenge attacks could push Iraq over the edge. (more…)

A classified U.S. government report finds that the Iraq insurgency has enough funds to sustain itself, according to a front page article in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times.

“The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded ,” John F. Burns reports for the Times.

“The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that armed groups responsible for many of the insurgent and terrorist attacks across Iraq are raising between $70 million and $200 million a year from illegal activities,” the article continues. (more…)

Alexander Litvinenko was a man who could be taught little about the seamy side of modern Russia. A KGB agent for 18 years, he occupied a world where intrigue, betrayal and ruthless trickery were the tools of working life.

But even a man whose job was to fight organised crime and counter subversion in the name of the Kremlin would have been surprised at an event as mired in low chicanery, high drama and cold-blooded cunning as his own passing. The spy novel saga of the life and death of the 43-year-old secret agent turned vehement critic of Vladimir Putin entered its most extraordinary phase yesterday when it was revealed that he died from exposure to a radioactive poison.

Last night, the Government was dealing with a public health alert and diplomatic crisis after traces of polonium 210, a by-product of uranium, were found at Mr Litvinenko’s home as well as a sushi restaurant and London hotel he visited on 1 November. (more…)

Santa Barbara Chapter of Veterans for Peace revealed to be a Pentagon surveillance target

New details tonight about a secret Pentagon database used to monitor anti-war protests and activists. Recently-disclosed documents reveal that some of the surveillance targets include an organization with ties to the Central Coast.

Secret Pentagon documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union provide details of how the organization called “Veterans for Peace” was considered a threat.

Every Sunday for the past three years, members of the Santa Barbara Chapter of Veterans for Peace place a cross in the sand near Stearns Wharf for every American soldier killed in Iraq. (more…)

MADRID — Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison’s former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.

Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain’s El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods. (more…)

Apartment bombings, Politkovskaya assassination and 9/11 gargantuan reasons for former KGB thug to have poisoned ex-spy

If Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning is, as we are led to believe by a small cadre of prominent Internet bloggers and their cheerleaders, some kind of elaborate set-up on behalf of Zionists and Neo-Cons to drag Putin’s name through the mud, then why do today’s major Israeli newspapers carry scant mention of the former spy’s death?

Apologists for Putin have attempted to weave a yarn that somehow suggests Litvinenko was knowingly poisoned by Zionist or Neo-Con agents in order to make it appear as if Putin was the culprit. (more…)

You can find the transcript of the show here as well.

Source: 9/11 Blogger